FOREST AND STREAni, 
469 
Idenly a big buck sprang from his lair, and away the 
■ hounds went on his hot scent. So furious and fast was 
I their rush that they caught him after a run of three miles 
land pulled him down, one of the hunters, who was riding 
la very fast horse, Coming up and taking him from the 
■ dogs and cutting his throat in the approved style. He 
■ was hung up and the chase was resumed by a return to 
■ the place where the fox had last been seen. There was 
I another failure, for another deer led the dogs astray. 
I The pack of Mr. Holding, being new to the country and 
■ new also to the excitement of deer hunting, which is not 
I enjoyed in this section of North Carolina, fairly went 
Iwild over the great game up before them, and this broke 
■ up the hunt, for of the Holding pack only seven returned, 
■ eight having gone a vast distance after the deer. Meck- 
Ilenburg county adjoins North Carolina. The deer, with 
I seven dogs following him, was last seen crossing the 
■■'Southern Railway near the North Carolina line, and quite 
■near the Roanoke River. Dr. Rogers and Mr. Holding 
■ offered rewards for the return of their lost hounds, and 
l^the Mecklenburg 'sportsmen say the dogs will probably 
I all be recovered unless they attempted to cross the river. 
I The plentifulness of deer in that part of Virginia, in such 
ma well populated country, is certainly very remarkable, 
land impressed the writer when there in September and 
I Qctober. 
Thousands of sportsmen went out on Thanksgiving 
I Day in all parts of this State, it being by long custom the 
I greatest of hunting days. It was windy and not so 
I favorable for game, but the kill of partridges was in spite 
Iqf this quite large. The demand for partridges is grow- 
ling greater all the while, and prices are advancing. While 
la few years ago only 5 cents had to be paid for a bird, now 
■ the standard price seems to be from 12 to 15 cents. The 
■ Audubon Society is very close in its search for persons 
I who trap or net partridges; in fact, is after all violators 
I of the now strict game law, and arrests are made every 
■ day somewhere in the State. 
News comes from Carteret county that Game Warden 
I Willis caught a native in the very act of killing ducks at 
■ night by firelight. The natives who have defied the law 
■ about this matter for years have made threats that they 
I would shoot anybody who attempted to arrest them or in- 
Iterfere with them, and they have always carried ready for 
■ Use cartridges containing the lead balls used as sinkers 
Ion fish-nets. But Willis caught his man, and carried him 
■ before a magistrate, who imposed a heavy fine upon him, 
|?and also taxed him with the costs. The arrests have had 
Is good effect, as it has been said that the Audubon law 
^could not be enforced in that particular community. The 
arrest was made on Core Sound. It is a good season 
for ducks and also for geese, sportsmen report to me. 
The item about bears in the western part of this State 
: in a recent number of Forest and Stream, has attracted 
the attention of some sportsmen north. They had been 
■ told in the article that many bear were killed around Mt. 
Mitchell, but say they could not find that mountain in 
their geographies. It certainly ought to be in every 
geography, as it is considerably the highest peak in the 
' United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The bears 
in that western country are much larger and much finer 
food than those in the coast countries, because they eat 
1 chestnuts and other things which give them a wonder- 
fully fine flavor. 
Really there are so many kinds of sport in North Caro- 
lina that the wonder is that more people from the North 
•; — true sportsmen, that is — do not come here. The way 
<£or them to do is to find out where to go for the particu- 
lar game they are after, pay the Audubon license tax, 
: ;>nake themselves good friends with the farmers, be will- 
ing to pay reasonably for their sport, and they will find 
it smooth sailing. Of course sometimes there are gruff 
farmers, but a pleasant introduction and that sort of thing- 
will go a long way. They must remember that no birds 
can be shipped out of the State, and so be content to 
enjoy good sport and to live on the fat of the land. 
Fred. A. Olds. 
Game in New England. 
Boston, Nov. 26. — Editor Forest and Stream: The bill 
to abolish the open season on deer for a term of three 
; years has been defeated in the Vermont Legislature. I 
have not yet learned what is the fate of the bill which 
makes the season for deer hunting five days instead of 
ten. 
Mr. Silsby, of Newbury, for the Fish and Game Com- 
' mittee, has introduced a bill as a substitute for seven- 
teen others that have been presented, entitled, "An Act 
; Relating to Fish and Game Protection." This prohibits 
the taking of fish by grappling; makes the open season 
for brook trout and kindred fish from May 1 to- August 
1 in brooks and streams, to September 1 in ponds and 
lakes, but owners of private ponds may take fish from 
February t to September 1. It changes the open season 
on wall-eyed pike, pike-perch and pickerel, making it 
from May 1 to November 1, except in Lake Champlain. 
j It prohibits all fishing except by angling; limits the catch 
of brook trout to 10 pounds in one day, of lake trout 
and maskinonge to 25 pounds in one day. It prohibits 
catching trout and black bass for purpose of sale, and de- 
fines stocking of waters by owners as "placing therein an- 
nually not less than 1,000 fry or 300 fingerlings for each 
half mile or less of stream and one acre or less of ponds," 
affidavits of such stocking, to be filed with the town clerk. 
It also repeals sections permitting seining under license. 
It was ordered that the bill be printed. It is understood 
that this has the approval of the commissioners. 
A black bear which had been doing much damage to 
crops and live stock in the town of Hardwick, Vt, was 
recently shot and tipped the scales at a little more than 
300 pounds. Just before Thanksgiving Mr. Aaron Crosby, 
of Hanover, N. H, took advantage of the snowfall for a 
hunt on Moose Mountain, and brought back a handsome 
buck. 
Three Boston hunters, members of the Roslindale Club, 
returned from Maine in time to furnish friends with 
venison as an accompaniment of the Thanksgiving turkey. 
They are Win. H. Jenness^ superintendent Roslindaje 
post-office, and Messrs. L. Dimock and H. E. Greenlaw. 
They visited their camp on Uncolcus Stream, Penobscot 
county, ' Maine. They report an abundance of large and 
small game' in thaj; region. They brought out two bucks 
each. The largest was shot by Mr. Jenness, weighing 
300 pounds. Its color was unique, being a yellowish red, 
which the guide said was a novelty in that locality. 
Reports from the Rangeley country are that snow is 
now nearly a foot and a half deep, and conditions for 
tracking arc excellent. Mr. J. R. Mann, of Arlington 
Fleights, and two friends, all members of the Middlesex 
Sportsmen's Club, have just returned with all the deer 
the law allows to be brought out. Many Massachusetts 
towns are represented by devoted nimrods in this section. 
The records for a single day's shipment from Bangor 
were broken on Monday, and this week has eclipsed the 
previous ones of this season. There were 656 deer and 
40 moose shipped this week from Bangor Station. One 
of the finest collections of game ever seen in that city 
was brought by Messrs. E. H. Corliss and E. E. House, 
of Boston. Each had a moose and two deer, and all the 
animals were large. Messrs. C. and J. Swan, of Boston, 
had one moose and two deer. T. Lathrop, of Boston, 
had a moose. There were between 90 and 100 Massa- 
chusetts sportsmen represented among the owners of the 
big game that passed through Bangor during the week, 
and it is more than likely an equal or larger number of 
Maine hunters secured game during that time. It would 
not be a greater hardship for a citizen of the Pine Tree 
State to pay a license of $5 for hunting large game than 
it is for some of the non-residents to pay the required 
$15. Such an arrangement would add from 33 1/3 to 50 
per cent., no doubt, to the fund for protection of game. 
Central. 
Quail in Costa Rican Rice Fields. 
A bright morning in the month of August found us 
ready for an early start after quail in the rice fields, three 
miles out from San Jose, Central America. Ben, an ex- 
cowboy, down here for railroad work, and myself on 
coffee business and hunting. This to be my first expe- 
rience for quail in this new country, and not soon to be 
forgotten. 
We breakfasted, and placing shells and lunch in our 
pockets, we left for the railroad, a short distance across 
the parade ground. Ben pulled out from the engine house 
a four-wheeled arrangement called a bicycle car. It had 
two bicycle seats side by side, handle bars and sprocket, 
chain and cranks, mounted on four wheels to fit the nar- 
row gauge track. Strapping guns on the front handle 
bars, we matched to see who should do the pedaling, 
as the right side only contained the necessary crank and 
chain. Ben lost, and we climbed in. If we had met a 
train it would have been all up with us, for there was no 
brake, and the only way to dismount was to disentangle 
our legs and crawl out behind. Usually there was but 
one train a day and that at three in the afternoon. After 
the first mile it was down grade, and one could see the 
track stretching out far ahead. I forgot to mention, be- 
fore starting Ben had filled his pockets with small 
stones and instructed me to- do. likewise ; why, he would 
not say; but soon I discovered their use, for out of the 
first hut we passed all the dogs of the family rushed, and 
they were not a few, for in that country they harbor dogs 
of all sizes, shapes and colors. Ben was busy keeping 
the machine going, so it fell to me to repulse the enemy, 
Waiting till they were quite close, I fired the missiles, 
and oh, what a ki-yi-ing and yelping, with every dog 
running back. This continued as long as we were among 
the coffee plantations, where these huts lined the road. 
Soon we were out amid stretches of cleared land, and 
there we beheld in front of us, though distant, the shining 
hazy blue of the Pacific Ocean. Around us were the 
volcanoes and mountains standing out so sharply in the 
wonderful atmosphere found in that high altitude, while 
in the air above hovered numberless vultures, some with 
wings outspread and many sailing up and still higher 
till almost lost to sight. Such mornings as these are 
found in that laud of tropical verdure and ever smiling 
skies. Shortly we were down lower and among the rice 
fields, entering the town of Rio Grande. 
Ben proposed we should make a grand entry, and come 
in dignified fashion to the station, which was also the 
store of the town. Alas for our well formulated plan, 
the fulfilment was not as we expected ! In all single track 
railroads there are sidings at the station, and this was no 
exception, the switch being close to the store. When 
the front wheels of the machine struck the frog of the 
switch and stopped, the rear wheels formed an arc in 
rising, and from their seats shot the two hunters. We 
surprised the natives as well as ourselves by entering 
town in such an ungraceful manner; but they concealed 
their merriment with politeness quite worth imitating. 
After collecting myself and belongings, I looked for Ben, 
and found him sitting between the tracks with one side of 
his face well marred and for a moment dumb. Have you 
ever cowboyed or been in a corral when the broncho goes 
to the bad and tries to burn up the supreme earth? 
Well, Ben found speech, and thankful was I that the gaz- 
ing crowd could not understand English, especially Eng- 
lish used on the Western plains. With the assistance of 
some of the spectators the car was righted, which by 
great luck had only badly twisted seats to repair. It 
was a mystery how the guns ever escaped injury in such 
a tumble. We righted these and delayed long enough to 
buy some kola for lunch. 
Soon we were in the quail country. We go slowly, 
looking each side for Bob White. What is that, a head 
on the track? Carefully we bear down upon it, when up 
the bird rises, going to the right, giving a great shot 
to Ben, who takes advantage of it and brings him down. 
This was the first Costa Rican quail I had seen— a bird 
much smaller than our quail of the north, and darker in 
color, and scientifically known as Colinus leylandi. Once 
again we advance cautiously, hardly going a dozen yards 
before from Ben's side rise four of the birds and sail 
oyer into the lot beyond. 
We lift our car and place it near-by and climb the 
fence, when from all sides the quail appear, and 'the sport 
is fast and furious. What a chance for a' good dog,' and 
what a picture he would make! We work across the lot 
and back on the far side, not trying to pick them out, 
but flushing straight ahead. The tally on our return was 
eight to Ben and five to me, and more to be picked up by 
following the scattered ones, as they lay close and were 
easy to wake up, but we were satisfied, being out for 
sport rather than to make large returns. However, we 
twice repeated the walk through the field, and brought in 
twenty-five fat, fine looking quail. Just think what feed- 
ing they had enjoyed in those rice fields! 
We decided to go on to an old tie camp at the big 
bridge over the Rio Grande River, there to lunch and 
shoot in the fields near-by till time for return train. 
However, before we reached the bridge we encountered 
so many good opportunities for a shot we dismounted and 
entered an open lot. It was a peculiar one, for at the 
far end it was screened off by some bushes and coffee 
trees. Ben took the left side and I followed the right, 
for I saw some birds and was securing them, when, look- 
ing over in Ben's direction, I noticed a bird rise close to 
the fence; his gun was up in an instant, and on its re- 
port the quail crimpled. But the strange attitude and ex- 
pression on Ben's face! What does it mean? Quite 
motionless, and then, as it were, flying toward the fallen 
bird, and yet not stopping to pick it up, dashing through 
the fence made of the bushes before mentioned like one 
possessed. Now, in that southern country there is a tiny 
wasp having a sting fit for an insect a hundred times his 
size; the poison is not dangerous, but very painful, and 
produces a swelling which mars one's beauty for many a 
day, and poor Ben had met such a wasp, hence his hasty 
exit from the shooting ground. 
When I reached him, judge of my surprise to see him 
with his penknife picking shot out of the back and neck 
of a peon, whom he had hit with the same shot he was 
using for the quail. Ben's flow of Spanish was great, 
and from what little knowledge I had could gather he 
was informing his victim that it was an "honor to be shot 
by an American," and so successful was he, that when 
offered money the poor fellow would not accept, but 
shook hands and smiled. Yet it was a sad smile, for Ben 
had shot almost too well. 
On the way back my companion indulged in remarks 
which did not indicate he had found very much pleasure 
in quail shooting, and as he had maimed a peon in his 
sport, he declined to look for more birds on this trip. 
We then walked to the river bank and finding a cool spot 
under the bridge, ate our lunch and finally concluded that 
our hunting trip, while varied in its adventures, was 
worth the making, and we were gratified in having made 
the acquaintance of several Costa Rican quail, and for- 
t '.n ate in not carrying empty bags to San Jose. 
Views of a Blunt Old Man. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been a duck shooter going on forty years. I 
hunted ducks before the majority of your readers knew 
how to shoot a gun; and when I was young we did not 
make so much pother about whether it was sportsmanlike 
to shoot them in any one particular way rather than an- 
other. We wanted ducks, and we got them. Like little 
Sally Waters sitting in the sun, weeping and sighing for a 
young man, we looked to the east and we looked to the 
west, and we banged away at the di-ck we loved the best. 
(In parentheses, we generally got him, too.) 
I don't quite know what to make of the implied criti- 
cisms and the insinuations of unfair treatment of duck 
made in recent issues by writers concerning hunters who 
shoot ducks sitting on the ice. I don't know what to 
make of it because we all do it,- and I never yet met a 
duck hunter — I mean while he was hunting — who did not 
do the same thing, and call it all right. Of course a man 
sitting in a snug, warm room and theorizing about ducks 
on the ice and how to do them, might figure it out that 
the_ truly aesthetic way was to shoo them up before he 
unlimbered on them; but the man who is there has no 
such notion, and we who have been there know that 
he hasn't. He just blesses his stars if he can get the 
drop on the birds before they fly; and even then, what 
with his bundlings and numbness and stiffness, the ice 
on his eyelashes making him see double, he thinks him- 
self "some punkins" of a shot if he has a duck to take 
home to the pot. 
This is just what happens. It is the practice, and theory 
be hanged. I will leave it to your practical duck shooters 
to say if I have stated the facts or not. 
And I will leave it to them, too. if it is not the practice 
of duck shooters, shooting ducks on the water, to "give 
'em one settin' and another flying" whenever they can get 
a chance to do so. 
As for the shooting at two sitting black ducks by your 
contributor, Mr. Hardy, I assume that Mr. Hardy wanted 
duck for dinner, and took what fortune sent him — or as 
much of it as he could — as fortune intended he should 
take it, sleeping or not sleeping, at all events sitting, 
just as we all like to pot a duck when we are after meat. 
And there you have the convictions, sentiments, creed 
and rule of conduct, and the actual practice of 
A Blunt Old Man. 
Newfoundland Moose 
St. John's, N. F., Nov. 20. — The game warden at 
Howley writes the Fisheries Department that during the 
past week hundreds of caribou have crossed the railway 
line at that place going south. They evidently remained 
longer north this season than for some years past, very 
little snow having fallen. There was no sign of the 
moose. 
The moose referred to- are some half dozen imported 
early this season. They have been seen several times dur- 
ing the summer in the vicinity of Howley railway station. • 
They were apparently getting on all right. If these in- 
crease and multiply, as it is expected they will, the addi- 
tion to our stock of deer will be great for sportsnieii. 
At present it is against the law to molest them. 
There are several American sportsmen at present on 
West Coast. These will have no trouble getting good 
heads, as the deer are reported very numerous and in 
good coiidition. The^ deer are on their- annual, migration - 
south," add 'are passing Howley station daily ih great 
uumbers. : ' ( - " " ' c 1 . " C. 
All communications for Forest and Stream must be 
directed to Forest and Stream Pub. Co., New York, /•» 
recfipe tyte^iqy,. Wf hqvf ??<? other of^cf, •"" "* 
