FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 20, 1904. 
Farmer, Hunter and Trapper. 
_ Theresa, N. Y. — In a recent communication I men- 
tioned a boyhood companion of mine of whom I proposed 
to have more to say later on. 
Mr. Barney Sheley, an old time hunter and trapper, 
has resided on Red Lake (near where I have passed two 
of the four months of my vacation this season) for nearly 
thirty_ years, during which time he has cleared and is 
now tilling about fifty acres of a farm of more than three 
tim?s that number. For many years before and since 
Mr. Sheley took up the occupation of farming he was a 
hunter and trapper in the northern wilds of Cauadn. Mr. 
Sheiey has captured many beaver, otter, fisher, marten, 
mink, bear, and all other fur-bearing animals of that 
region and mpre deer than I would like to mention in 
this article, which, according to his figures (I don't doubt 
them), are more, I think, than any man should kill in a 
lifetime. But in those days it was business not sentiment 
with Mr. Sheley. 
Although there has been no deer shot in this vicinity 
of late years, Mr. Sheley manages some way to get a deer 
skin nearly every year. Within the past month I have 
seen him "smoke tan" a deer skin, cut and make com- 
plete as good a pair of buckskin mittens as can be bought 
in any store. Mr. Sheley told me that he could make 
four pairs of mittens from one skin, which he and his 
two stalwart sons make good use of during the cold 
winter. Mr. Sheley keeps a flock of about fifty sheep, 
which run in the woods from late in the spring until the 
crojJs and grass are gathered from the fields. He also 
ketps from six to eight Jersey cows ; the milk is in great 
demand by campers on the lake, and Mr. Sheley's estim- 
never had to ask this farmer after that for permission to 
hunt on his land; his trespass notices did not apply to 
me. Cabia Blanco. 
Eastern Long: Island Dttcks^ 
Orient Point, Suffolk County, N. Y. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: You are aware of the fact that Long Island 
gunners were, and are, deeply aggrieved over the passage 
of the_ Brown duck bill last winter. There are so many 
conditions^ which differ so widely in different localities 
that jt is impossible to frame a law which will meet the 
requirernents of every portion of this or any other State. 
In this locality only salt water ducks (with rare ex- 
ceptions) visit our waters. They are coots, old squaws, 
sheldrakes and broadbills, and are known by many as 
"trash ducks." My experience covers fifty years with a 
gun, and I have never had the opportunity to kill a mal- 
lard, canvasback, or redhead, and I have never known of 
a dozen redheads or mallards being killed in this locality 
by all the gunners I have ever met. We have always had 
a few black ducks, and we have them yet, and very few 
of them are killed. It is a rare thing for a man to kill 
fifteen or twenty during a season. It is a rare thing, too, 
for any one man hereabouts to kill 100 ducks in a season, 
and they are nearly all coots and old squaws. We 
shooters of the east end are perfectly willing for our 
brethren of other parts of the State to make whatever 
laws they deem best for the preservation of the various 
kinds of game in their localities. It seems to me that this 
view of the matter is perfectly fair all around. I do not 
wish to see the ducks all slaughtered, either by myself or 
others, and. suggest a reasonable bag limit for ducks, 
The Birds and the Winter. 
OwEGO, N. Y., Feb. 8. — The extreme cold weather of 
the present winter has played havoc with game birds of 
all descriptions in this locality. Quail are dying by the 
flock, and partridges are having a hard time of it, but 
being so much more hardy than the quail are not dying 
in such large numbers. 
A few days ago a farmer from one of the outlying dis- 
tricts reported that he found a flock of twenty-two quail 
under a stump fence on his farm, fifteen of which were 
dead; he took the remaining seven to his house and at- 
tempted to save them, but they were so far gone that all 
died. Another farmer reported that he found a flock of 
twelve quail under a fence by the side of the road, ail 
dead. These are only two of numerous instances where 
whole flocks of quail have been exterminated in this 
county by the extreme severity of the winter. 
Local sportsmen are about to organize a sportsmen's 
club for the purpose of better protection of game and fish' 
and to devise means, in severe seasons like the present, 
of making arrangements with the farmers to feed the 
game birds. 
The Cttvier Club* 
After making 800 arrests and convicting more than 
two-thirds of the persons apprehended, the Cuvier Club 
of Cincinnati, through Alexander Starbuck, president, 
and W. J. Lawler, secretary, has addressed a communica- 
tion to the Legislature in session at Columbus, asking 
for legislation looking to the better protection of fish and 
game and song and game birds. The Cuvier Club is re- 
TRAPPING MUSKRATS ON THE INDIAN RIVER. 
Photos by Harry Hanson. 
able wife also produces from it butter that is much sought 
for by the village folk. 
I send v/ith this a photograph of Mr. Sheley's humble 
but comfortable home; also one showing Mr. Sheley 
trapping muskrats on Indian River the past spring. There 
is no neighbor nearer than a mile up the lake, and during 
the long winters they have but few visitors, who are 
always kindly welcomed J. L. Davison. 
Boys* Guns and Forest Fires. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Edmond Redmond, in the Forest and Stream for 
February 13, makes some sensible remarks about boys 
handling guns. These small caliber rifles and air guns — 
the air guns in particular — seem to be a source of dread 
to some people. The air gun is not at all dangerous, even 
when you are hit with it, which does not often happen. 
I have had a buckshot fired out of one of them hit me 
more than once, when the boy handling it was careless 
with it; and I did not have to hunt up a surgeon on 
account of being hit. The chief of police here was given 
orders last fall to gather in every small gun he found in 
possession of a boy on the street. He found none; they 
all suddenly disappeared off the streets in town. 
Those Flobert rifles are not half so dangerous in a 
boy's or anyone else's hands, as are the toy pistols that 
no one seems to notice. A boy when he first gets a gun 
needs to be told how to use it. If we who know how it 
should be handled take the trouble to tell him (I always 
do), in a short time he will get to be careful enough not 
to shoot himself nor anyone else. And, as Mr. Redmond 
says, if a boy is never allowed to have a gun, how is he 
going to learn to use one ? The best shots and the best 
soldiers I ever met in the army were country boys who 
had been carrying a gun of some kind ever since they had 
been old enough to lift one. 
These forest fires, nine times out of ten, can be traced, 
if anyone takes the trouble to trace them, to a spark (a 
single spark often starts one, too), that has been thrown 
out of the funnel of a locomotive. The spark need not 
drop on dry grass or leaves to start a fire. It is a fact 
that I have seen a spark fall on green grass here where 
8. railroad passes through a park, and have seen the fire 
start while I stood looking at it; this in the middle of 
summer when there was no dry grass here. 
Some years ago I saved a farmer's whole crop of hay 
for him by being just where I happened to be when the 
fire started. A spark from an engine set fire to the dry 
stubble in his meadow, and I got the last of the fire: put 
out when it was within ten feet of his hay stacks. The 
quail, and rabbits, with an extension of time for the 
former in this (Suffolk) county. The ducks cannot all 
be killed, nor half of them (which visit us), but if the 
shooting is overdone the birds will vacate this locality 
for some other where they may feed undisturbed, and we, 
of course, must suffer the consequences, and others, per- 
haps, will be the gainers. Uncle Dan. 
New York Sportsmen's Show. 
The tenth annual Sportsmen's Show opened at Madi- 
son Square Garden, this city, on Friday evening. A large 
artificial lake running from one end of the garden to the 
other is utilized for the display of high power launches 
and automobile boats; and there are here, afternoon and 
evening, canoe races, tilting contests, log rolling, and 
other aquatic competitions. The Rocky Mountain guides 
occupy a space at the western end of the lake, and about 
the main floor are camps and guides from Virginia, 
Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Maine, the Adirondacks, the 
Hudson Bay Company's territory, and the Canadian 
Pacific Railway. There are exhibits of live game birds 
and animals, among the exhibitors being the New York 
Zoological Society. A model fish hatchery shows the de- 
velopment of young trout from the egg to the growth of 
three or four weeks. 
Fly-casters enjoy greater opportunities than at any 
other' past show. A special tank has been constructed 
for this feature, and the rules for the competitions, in 
the hands of the fly-casting committee, which have re- 
cently been printed, are such that there will be an added 
degree of interest to this part of the programme. 
In North Dakota. 
Ga^esburg, N. D., Feb. 12. — Herewith I send you my 
subscription to Forest and Stream, as I have done lo! 
these many years, and were I able to afford it, ten tirnes 
the sum would not pay for the pleasure and information 
I have yearly gleaned from your fascinating pages ever 
since the old Rod and Gxjn and Forest and Stream 
joined hands, and the question, "Do quail withhold their 
scent ?" and similar ones were the burning ones of < the 
day. By the way, there are three coveys of quail near this 
town now, last fall being the first time I ever saw any 
here in a residence of over twenty years, I have been 
buying some fur this winter. MirJc and foxes are quite 
plenty. Game birds are coming through well, the numer- 
ous cornfields about being a great help to them. I find 
the community has a rapidly growing sentiment in favor 
of preserving their game, and several farms are posted 
THE HOME. 
garded as one of the most useful of the many philan- 
thropic institutions in Cincinnati, and the determined 
action which it has taken in the matter of protecting fish, 
animals, and birds has been the source of much favorable 
comment. 
Are Frogfs Poultry or Insects? 
A Boston correspondent of the New York Evening 
Post writes : The decision of Secretary Shaw that frogs' 
legs are dressed poultry, upon which you have an editorial 
in the Evening Post of February 9, finds a parallel in the 
following story : 
Two gentlemen, one of whom had with him a dog, 
were once riding together in the compartment of an Eng- 
lish railway carriage. The guard demanded a ticket for 
the dog, asserting that the rules of the railway required 
it. The discussion over the matter having become some- 
what animated, the other passenger produced a turtle 
from his pocket and asked the guard in a tone of sarcasm 
if he would not require a fare to be paid for that animal 
as well. The guard answered that he would inquire and 
report later. 
Soon after he came back to the carriage and delivered 
himself of the following: 
"Cats is dogs, and rabbits is dogs, but 'tortoyses' is 
frogs, and frogs is hinsects, and they rides free." 
Game in South Carolina. 
Georgetown, S. C, Feb. 7. — Game has been in great 
abundance this winter. I have never seen the like of. 
ducks and deer. Mr. Cleveland was in camp for a week 
on General E. P. Alexander's preserves, and had fine 
sport. W. M. H. 
100 $Dort$men'$ finds. 
Some of the Queer Discoveries Made by Those Who Are 
LcK>king for Game or Fish. 
94 
In the year 1809 a Kentucky hunter named Hutchins 
wounded a bear in the forest, and as the bear ran off he 
followed it rapidly. Imagine his surprise when the game 
led him into an immense cavern many miles long and 
grand beyond description. The cavern is now known as 
the Mafflrooth Cave, and is the largest in the world. 
" J "': . _ ,. . '\ "■ CfcAii?rc§ Vandjv^ 
