28 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
tjAN. 9, 1904. 
tor went out northwest from camp to watch, while I went 
a mile west, then turned north and east in the hope that 
I could drive a deer to him, but we both got back to 
camp without sighting game. Spahr staid in camp, and 
after dinner went put to Sayner for our mail. Hedrick 
came in at noon much disgusted. He had gone east to a 
deer runway, and was sitting on the top of a hill when 
a fine large doe stuck her head out from behind the 
snow-ladened brush. He took a careful bead on her head 
and pulled the trigger, but the gun only clicked. He had 
filled the magazine but neglected throwing a cartridge 
into the barrel, and before he could do so the doe had 
whirled about and was out of sight. 
The timber and undergrowth was so ladened with snow 
that while the scenery was fine hunting was not, and we 
ended the week with four deer hung up. On the fifteenth 
Hedrick and I took a walk around the east end of Big 
St. Germain Lake, following the Eagle River road. While 
resting on a log before turning campward, a young man 
driving a pony hitched to a large buck stopped in front 
of us, accompanied by an old woodsman and a youthful 
looking person. We had heard the shooting an hour be- 
fore. The younger looking of the three seemed restless 
and anxious to proceed, seeing which the driver intro- 
duced' the male attired personage as his wife, explaining 
that skirts were an impossibility in the surrounding 
woods, to all of which we were not slow to agree. , 
The following day Hedrick had an experience out of 
the ordinary, and one that reflected no credit on a camp 
of hunters from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, that were lo- 
cated some two miles west from us. He and Spahr 
started out, but separated, and as Hedrick was nearing 
the last cut in the hill west of camp, he saw a large buck 
and a doe in the road ahead of him a distance that proved 
to be 310 steps. He shot the buck through the body, but 
it ran away westward, followed a distance by the doe. He 
trailed some- distance, then went for Spahr, and together 
they followed the trail on west beyond Plumb Creek and 
into a swamp. Before reaching the swamp they heard 
shooting, and after trailing through it ran into the Grand 
Rapids parties. One of the men asked Hedrick if they 
were looking for a wounded buck, and was told of the 
circumstance and their search. He replied that the buck 
was not badly hurt, and that they were shooting rabbits. 
They had shot a rabbit and dragged the carcass in the 
buck's trail, obliterating it, making false trails off in 
various directions, then threw the rabbit down. Two 
days later we were told by a settler that the Grand Rapids 
parties got a buck on Monday. 
The Doctor went out to Sayner to the post-office, and 
I kept house. The boys were tired a plenty that night, 
for they had made a big drive in the forenoon, and 
the tramps just referred to were after dinner, not a 
dinner in any sense, but a midday meal in camp, where 
M^e had in our larder venison, smoked ham, potatoes, 
beans, canned goods, dried peaches, bread, crackers, meal, 
flour, butter, lard, coffee, tea, sugar, .pepper, Sault evapo- 
rated cream, a few eggs, etc., which latter, of course, may 
or may not call for a liberal construction. After supper 
Hedrick was not too tired to make a pot of mush. 
The following day was too cold to hunt with any de- 
gree of comfort; in fact, one's face would freeze in a 
short time if exposed to the cutting wind. Nevertheless 
Hedrick and Spahr hustled out and an hour later Spahr 
came back and called me, stating that three deer had 
passed over the hill just north of camp. I got my shoot- 
ing iron and took up the trail, while Spahr went out the 
wagon road about a mile to watch a crossing. But these 
deer knew their ground and did not approach a crossing, 
neither would they let me aproach them. Their trail 
was as crooked as that of a politician, and as never- 
, ending. At one place they crossed a chopping that had 
been burned, but not until they zigzagged to the right and 
left a num.ber of times, and T was almost in despair 
from the icy wind when I reached a jack pine flat on 
the other side. I stuck to the trail until nearly noon, 
and left it over two miles from camp without seeing a 
taih Just before turning homeward, as I was standing in 
a patch of pine timber between the last chopping and a 
wagon rOad, I heard either a dog or fox bark, and saw 
something make one long jump, as though coming my 
way, but I saw and heard nothing move. But after din- 
ner I had a happier experience. I went over toward Big 
St. Germain Lake, the wind blowing cold from the west. 
While going southward I espied a deer over near the 
lake, and. beyond the east end of an extensive tamarack 
swamp. L stood and watched it several minutes, hoping 
it would come my way. Concluding it had no intention 
of so doirig, I crept off to the east into a hollow, then 
up a hill, and worked my way around to the northeast of 
where L had seen the deer. Then I worked my way to- 
ward it, the wind blowing such a fierce cold gale into my 
eyes that they filled constantly with water and blinded 
me. The high flat hill Lwas on was covered with shrubs 
and stumps, and while I was anxious to see the deer, I 
was yet afraid it would see me; so I crawled as carefully 
as I could through the snow to a bunch of leaf-covered 
oak scrub and straightening up found myself looking at 
a fine tall, slender buck. At the crack of my gun he fell, 
got up, fell again, got up, then walked a few steps and 
deliberately laid down with his head toward me. I stood 
watching him for ±)me time, when, to my surprise, a dof- 
ran out_ from the foot of the hill going westward. I 
shot twice at her, but she went on with tail in air, the 
buck lying there now attracted by the smoke and flash 
from my gun. I stood still, expecting the buck to get up 
and go, but he lay there looking up toward me, and then, 
a fawn sprung a surprise by leaving its shelter at the foot 
of the hill and going like a streak off to the north, but 
it fell with a second bullet through the body. Now, here 
wa,s a problem. The buck Jay there looking at me, the 
fawn struggling to get up, and I had one deer in camp. 
I had not violated the law, for neither of these deer was 
killed, and both might get away. The situation was not 
changed ior several seconds, and the chill wind was put- 
ting me in a bad way for shooting, but something must be 
done; so I took another shot at the buck, and like a 
flash he was up and off for the woods. Then going down 
to the fawn I put it oat of its misery and hung it up. 
Curiosity prompted me to look at the bloody bed the buck 
had just left, and follow his trail back to the. woods. I 
saw where he had lain down in the shelter of the timber, 
then got up and walked ofF. Here I left his trailj turned 
to the north around the swamp and reached the open 
ground, then the old railroad just as darkness fell upon 
the scene. The next morning I went back with the boys 
to put them on the trail of the wounded buck, and after 
some snap shooting among the hazel brush the Doctor 
ended the chase with a shot through the shoulders, 
Spahr had an experience out of the ordinary. One 
forenoon he walked to the trunk of a tree that had broken 
down and was standing some fifteen feet above ground 
watching. After a long wait in the biting wind, he saw 
what he thought was a large buck in the edge of a strip 
of timber. He shot, as he thought, at its shoulder, and 
it went down a hill out of sight. He got off his perch 
and went to where the deer had stood, saw blood, and 
picked up a piece of bone from the deer's leg. He trailed 
some distance, then remembering his and Hedrick's ex- 
perience, left that trail and came to camp. We dragged 
that deer to camp from a point two miles from where 
Spahr wounded it, but it was a doe, and its fore leg was 
shot off below the knee. 
The ridicoulous things one docs on these hunting trips, 
I take it, seldom appear in print. For instance, on one 
occasion, instead of facing the wind by making a cir- 
cuitous route to our regular crossing on Lost Creek, I 
went straight for the stream, determined to bridge it if 
I could find no log or other means of spanning the 
twenty-foot current. After tramping the bank some dis- 
tance and finding no means of crossing, I pulled my big 
hunting knife and hacked a road through the thick alders 
to a point where the stream' narrowed, but ran all the 
swifter on that account. Then I sheathed my knife, drew 
my little tomahawk, which weighs only a few ounces, and 
tackled a dead tamarack some six inches in diameter. It 
took a good bit of hacking, but we brought it down, cut 
the top out, then selected another. I knew that I was 
going to cross that stream right there if the tomahawk 
held out; and cross I did, but not until those long poles 
had grained my shoulder and ruffled my temper by en- 
tangling themselves in the brush at the sides of the 
crooked path. But it was all forgotten in a moment, for 
a grouse got up from the opposite bank and sailed off the 
direction I meant to go. 
We finished our hunt on Saturday the 21st, rested on 
following day, pulled into the station Monday afternon 
through a snowstorm, took thr 4:45 train for Chicago, 
and arrived home at 10 P. M., November 24, with two 
deer to the credit of each. 
G. W. Cunningham. 
PoRTiAND, Indiana. 
Adirondack Deer Hunting:. 
Gansevoort, N. Y., Jan. 2. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I note that the New York Fish, Game and Forest 
League recommend that "The last fifteen days of the 
open season for shooting deer be cut off." 
It no doubt would be of interest to a large number 
of the readers of Forest and Stream, to know the 
reasons which led this organization of intelligent men 
to recommend this change in the law. 
I confess that I am unable to see any good reason 
for it. This shortening of the open season at the 
wrong end cannot be urged as necessaryto lessen the 
number of deer which would be killed under the exist- 
ing law, as this can be accomplished by gfeater restric- 
tions on the number of deer which a person my legally 
kill, and by adopting the coupon system to make the 
law effective. 
On the other hand it is doubtful if the cutting off 
the last fifteen days of the open season would lessen 
the number of deer which would be killed in the least, 
while it needs no prophet to foretell that it would 
greatly augment the amount of stinking meat which 
has to be"" thrown away each year. 
This curtailing the open season at the wrong end 
should not be urged to prevent deer being killed on 
the early snows of winter, as this is the time of all 
other times when -deer should be killed. They are then 
in the best condition, the sport is at its best, and the 
meat can all be saved and utilized in the best possible 
condition. I believe in preserving deer after they are 
killed as well as before they are killed, and the only 
way I have found to do this satisfactorily is to kill 
them when the weather is cool. 
A law which permits them to be killed when much 
of the meat is sure to spoil is bad enough. What then 
should be said of a law which would make it impossible 
to kill them at any other time? 
Does the New York State Fish, Game and Forest 
League really wish to go on record as favoring such 
a law? Jos. W. Shurter. 
Mr. Peter Flint writes to the Post and Gazette of 
Elizabethtown, N. Y. : 
Is not the recently expresed intention of the Essex 
County Board of Supervisors to favor a deer hounding 
law a step backward in the progres of game preservation 
in the Adirondacks? 
These gentlemen are supposed to represent the citizens 
and taxpayers of the county, and must, therefore, have 
some very strong reasons for such proposed change. 
Their arguments, if made public, would be most 
interesting. 
On the other hand, those residents who are opposed to 
hounding and a return to the former order of things, are 
surely entitled to a hearing. ' 
Hunters, old and young, who for various reasons have 
chafed under the restraint of the law against hounding 
deer, can now come "out of the bresh" and give their 
views and experience to those who have been laboring, 
under the impression that deer in the Adirondacks have 
been rapidly^ increasing lately owing to a more or less 
strict enforcement of the present anti-hounding law. 
All citizens, whether hunters or not, may have views on 
the question, and I believe that everyone would be un- 
willing to ^dvocate any measure that looked unfavorable' 
to an increase in the future number of deer; A system 
enabling the largest nurnber of our brethren to engage 
in deer _ hunting with the. most sucessful results is the 
one that should prevail. ' / • ■ 
The dty 'men owning or leasing farms or c6ttages in 
Essex ccuhty are usually tsm^ j^s^ted in game 
preservation, and their views might also appear along 
with the expressions of those who live in the country^ the 
entire year. 
This is a most vital and important question, relating as 
it does to the future of our section as a hunting ground, 
and the action of the board will not be without effect- on 
the deliberations of similar bodies throughout the State 
of New York upon this point. The hounding of deer 
should not be adopted by mere whim or caprice, but final 
decision should only be made after the people have had a 
fair chance to be heard on both sides. It is always safe 
to trust the American country folks when they know -the 
facts. 
British Columbia Notes. 
Cumberland, Vancouver Island, B. C. — Grouse have 
not been so plentiful this year as usual, owing, it is said, 
to the extremely wet spring last past, in which it is 
thought many broods perished when in the down. The 
season for English pheasants opened October 19, and 
some good bags were made. The Bob Whites released two 
years ago are said to be doing well, and have spread over 
a large area. They will be a welcome addition to our 
game birds should they succeed. 
Decir have been abundant this fall, and have been ex- 
tremely fat. A few wapiti have been killed about the 
headwaters of the Campbell, and from that region to the 
north of the island, a favorite ground being the country 
back of Quatsino Sound, on the northwest end. A num- 
ber of panthers have been killed also during the fall, and 
bears have been fairly numerous. Wolves, however, have 
long since disappeared from this immediate vicinity, 
_ This island has reaped a heavy crop of shooting casual- 
ties this year, two exceptionally sad. The first of these 
was a shocking tragedy at Comox Bay. The father with 
several children was in some maples near the house shoot- 
ing grouse; his little boy was in the brush looking for a 
bird that had dropped, and to avoid pointing the gun in 
that direction as he was reloading, he swung the gun 
muzzle to one side, at the same time closing the breech. 
Probably from some defect in one of the locks, the sh<-ll 
in the left barrel exploded as he did this, and from behind 
some small bushes, where she had been standing unper- 
ceived and unsuspected, fell one of his little girls dead. 
The charge had struck her in the breast and neck, and 
death was almost instantaneous. But a few weeks had 
elapsed when a man from this town went out with his 
son, and a neighbor, and when about a mile from home 
some grouse got up. The youth, a fine young fellow 
about seventeen, was walking a few steps in advance of 
the grown people, and called their attention to the birds. 
The neighbor raised his gun hurriedly, and as he did so 
the piece discharged, the charge striking the boy in the 
back of the head and killing him instantly. It was the 
boy's first hunt, aiid his father, himself an experienced 
hunter, had long promised him a trip out. It was a sor- 
rowful party who carried the remains home, the father 
hastily summoning help and medical attendance. It need 
scarcely be said the grief of the parents in both these 
cases, as well as the agony of the unfortunate who did 
the shooting in the last, was too' pitiful for words. Be- 
sides these horrors other accidents of a similar nature 
have occurred in other parts of the island and main- 
land, and it is safe to say the death rate from firearms 
while hunting has been far larger this year than ever 
before in the history of the Province, and the press and 
public are agitating the Government to enact some law 
which will tend to lessen the danger tO' innocent persons 
in the forest. Mazama. 
Wisconsin Venison Seizures. 
Milwaukee, Dec. 27. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
About a week ago I seized a box with venison shipped 
from Eagle River, Wis., to Chicago, and reported the 
seizure to the local warden at said place. From inclosed 
clipping you will see that he was successful and found 
the shipper of the venison and got him convicted : 
Eagle River, 'Wis., Dec. 25. — A. Radcliff, of Eagle River, was 
arrested yesterday by Deputy Game "Warden James Oberholtzer 
for shipping venison to Chicago, and which was seized last week 
in Milwaukee at the Northwestern depot by Deputy Warden 
"Valentine Raeth. Radcliflf pleaded guilty before Judge Coleman 
and was fined $25 and costs. Oberholtzer was notified by Deputy- 
Warden Raeth, of Milwaukee of the seizure frorrt Eagle River 
and furnished with evidence. 
On the 22d of December I seized a telescope with veni- 
son shipped as baggage from Crystal Falls, Mich., to 
Milwaukee^ Wis., from the baggage car of the C. M. & 
St. P. R. R. On the meat I found tags with the names of 
two high railroad officials. The venison was sent . them 
for a Christmas dinner; but I sent it to the State School 
for Deaf for their Christmas dinner, according to our 
law, and notified the Michigan warden. The two railroad 
officials had to go to the butcher and buy a roast beef or 
something else as other people do. 
Valentine Raeth. 
Fatalities in Ontario Deer Woods. 
Toronto, Dec. ^i.— ^Editor Forest and Stream: A re- 
cent published report declares that twenty-seven persons 
were killed and fifty wounded in Ontario deer woods in 
1903. This estimate is exaggerated. I only heard of five 
men being killed in the Province, and very few wounded. 
Only two of the five were hunters. Two of those killed 
were working on a road, and one, a farmer, was shot 
while working in his field. I presume the fatalities dur- 
ing the hunting season would be as numerous in On- 
tario as in Wisconsin and Maine if still-hunting pre- 
vailed. • E. TiNSLEY. 
American Connoisseur. 
The American Connoisseur, of which announcement is 
made in our- advertising columns, is a new art magazine 
projected on a more elaborate scale than any publication 
in its field ever undertaken in America. It is to be edited 
by Mr. Charles de Kay, and the list of contributors give.-; 
promise of its unusual worth; The plan of the American 
Connoisseur should appeal strongly to all lovers of -art. 
All' communications for FoJCEST- ANn Stream mUst be 
directed' to Forest and Stream Pub: Cd., 'New^ Ydrk, to 
receive attention. We haive no other aMce. 
