FOREST AND STREAM. 
tJuLY 1^, t0Og. I 
parable to the one it contains. The variety of both birds 
and animals takes a wide range, all the way from the 
pelican to the golden eagle and the parrakeet, and from 
ihe harbor seal to the beaver. One of the cases which 
attracts much attention contains eagles, very hfe-hke m 
pose, and with all the accessories carried out with marked 
faithfulness of detail. Another represents a scene in the 
life of a large family of opossums. This also is in every 
way admirable. Fine examples of the buffalo, the elk 
and the panther tell of the time when all of these ani- 
mals were numerous in North Carolina. The last record 
of the buffalo in the State is about 1780, and the last of 
the elk about 1810, while only a few panthers now re- 
main, these being entirely in the wildest mountain 
regions. . . n • 1 
To return to the lake territory visited by Mr. Brimley 
and Mr. Sherman, it may be said that it forms part of 
the great game preserve. The lands in which the lakes 
are set contain 57,000 acres outside of the lakes them- 
selves, and all is held upon lease, for the hmitmg privi- 
leges, great numbers of deer, ducks, etc., being killed by 
the sportsmen who have the land lease from the owner, 
the Bryan family of Newberne. In one of these lakes 
there are fish, while in the others there do not appear 
to be any, though there is no reason why they should not 
be fully stocked. At one time all this property was owned 
by the State and the lakes were what were known as 
“swamp lands,”' some years ago an effort being made by 
a Raleigh sportsman to buy some of them at a fixed price 
Lake Ellis is the property of James A. Bryan, but the 
other lakes belong to the State, or rather tO' the State 
Board of Education, and under a peculiar provision which 
gives that Board the title to all the swamp lands. Twenty 
years ago Mr. Brvan planted Lake Ellis in rice, but there 
was a failure and the signs of cultivation now show raly 
in the ditches, which are themselves under water, ihe 
water in Lake Ellis appears dark because the bottom is 
of humus. Great Lake is the clearest of all, the bottom 
being of- snowy sand. The fish are in Lake Ellis, though 
every part of the latter can be waded except a few of the 
ditches. These lakes form one of the finest inland hunt- 
ing preserves in the Soul.h Atlantic States, and the bags 
of ducks made there last winter were large enough to 
gratify any sportsman. 
The outlook for game during the coming season in 
North Carolina is very good indeed. June was a favor- 
able month for young partridges, and good broods were 
brought off. The Audubon law is found to be working 
excellently well, and the dis^semination of literature re- 
garding birds has stimulated knowledge on the part of 
farmers. Dogs are among the greatest destroyers not 
only of young partridges but of the eggs of that bird, 
negro families in the country always having at least one 
dog, which lives very largely upon what it can pick up 
anywhere in its region. But the number of country 
negroes is very rapidly diminishing, as they are deserting 
entire neighborhoods in some cases and going to the 
towns, sawmills, elc., and in a very great many cases 
drifting northward, allured by labor agents, so that the 
danger from their dogs to the birds grows less and less. 
At the State poultry farm at Raleigh, which is under 
the management of Mr. J. S. Jeffreys, a pheasant hen 
has brought off a fine brood of her young of her own 
raising. The little birds are so artful m secreting thern- 
selves that not even a trained eye can discover them m 
the grass about their homes, though their mother is not 
particularly timid. Usually, in fact invariably here, the 
eggs of pheasants are hatched- by hens, but in this case 
Madam Pheasant wanted to show that she could look 
after her own affairs, and so far she has been very sue- 
'Gssfuil 
Good news continues to come from the shore bird rook- 
eries on the North Carolina coast, particularly of those 
)f the terns, not far from Beaufort, in which Mr. Gilbert 
Pearson is so much interested. Later in the year Gover- 
lor Glenn and the writer intend to have a look at these 
■ookeries, upon invitation which Mr. Pearson has S'^on, 
md will make the trip in the Audubon patrol boat, which 
s in commission, and which has done good service this 
/ear. Later another of these boats will be built 
Supervising Game Warden John W. Upchurch, of 
Raleigh, who during the past two years has done such 
^xcellent work in the w^ay of bird protection in two-thirds 
M the State, has been laid up with rheumatism for sev- 
;ral weeks and is just now getting on the road again. 
Lhe writer had the pleasure of nominating Mr. Upchurch 
.0 Governor Aycock for this position, and has always felt 
that by this nomination and the Governor s prompt ap- 
pointment a great service was done both for bird lovers 
and to birds, notably partridges and song birds dl over 
Notrh Carolina. ' Fred A. Olds. 
An Arkansas Outing. 
After many hot and weary days in the valley of the 
rkansas River, on a day in July, accompanied by my 
ife and our two children, Harry and Leo, I went to my 
rm in the Ozark Mountains, where the air is .Pure and 
lol the water is cold and sparkling, and fruits of all 
nds are in luxuriant abundance. And how cool and 
liet the evenings were. The house sits up on the hill 
id at the northwest corner of the porch bubbles up one 
: the finest springs in Arkansas. On our first evening 
e sat upon the porch and listened to the whippoorwill. 
: he gave his strange and thrilling_ notes, while away 
■ross the valley on the far mountain top a ow 
ive his weird cry of “Who-who ! Who-are-you? and 
le insects sang and buzzed and the cool breezes of the- 
ountains fanned and lulled us to drowsiness 
What a night’s sleep one gets in such surroundings, and 
aw refreshed we were in the morning. We began to get 
ur fishing tackle in shape for the gamy bass that lurk 
id lie in the crystal pools of White River. There were 
luirrels, too, in the mountains and valleys. We had a 
lie pack of fox hounds, or at least were part owner of 
lem- and the foxes were abundant back a few miles 
•om the railroad. One fine evening, after a ram, I took 
larrv who is an enthusiastic hunter and fisherman, out 
■ith me to have a fox chase. The nine hounds compris- 
ig our pack were in fine shape, and we went some two 
nd one-half miles west of the little town of Brentwood, 
1 a soot were a cyclone had torn the timber down some 
iree years before. When we were just at the edge of 
the wilderness the hounds picked up a trail and worked, 
it for an hour, when they lost it. Going around north the 
dogs became scattered, when Spot, a fine young hound, 
and another named for William J. Bryan, struck a warm 
trail and were soon gone out of hearing into the 
cyclone-torn timber. Riding around a point of the moun- 
tain and out on to a ridge, we could just hear a faint 
sound of these two hounds and two more that had joined 
them. But they were coming our way, and soon all the 
pack were off like the wind to join them. Shortly the 
entire pack were coming up the mountainside in full cry, 
and a great race it was. We were eagerly straining our 
eyes for a glimpse of the fox, when he crossed the open- 
ing like a gray streak, and right behind him, silent as the 
grave and straining every nerve, was Bryan fully 200 
yards ahead of the pack. But almost before we had time 
to turn our horses to follow, the pack swept by. Circling 
a few times around the mountain side the fox started 
again to cross the open space, when Bryan, about midway 
of the small clearing, overtook him and our chase was 
over. He was a fine gray fox, but only lasted one hour, 
after the dogs had him on the run. 
We had many more chases during the two months we 
spent in the mountains. One night we started early in 
order to- reach this place, where the foxes, wild cats and 
other wild animals congregate, and soon had a fox on the 
run ; and in about two hours he went to earth. When 
we reached the place, Jim, one of my dogs, was not there. 
We dug out the fox and then went out on top of the 
mountain, and, stopping our horses, could hear Jim away 
down in the jungle; and by the way he gave tongue we 
knew that he had something up a tree. The other dogs 
all went to him at once, and when we got there we found 
up in the tree the largest bob cat I ever saw. But no 
sooner did he see us than he began to come down, and, 
leaping when twenty feet off the ground, made his escape. 
He was forced to take to another tree in about a rnile 
and tried the same tactics, but the dogs were too- quick 
for him and soon he was a dead cat. 
We spent many pleasant days fishing in the cool waters 
of the west fork of the White River, pursuing the gamy 
small-mouth black bass that abound in that stream. And 
when tired of fishing and following the hounds, _we found 
squirrel hunting as good as any one could wish. The 
crops of nuts and acorns for the past two years have 
filled the mountains around Brentwood and Winslow with 
squirrels, and they furnish sport at all times. There is 
one thing about the squirrels that I observed : For more 
than two months Harry and myself killed from one to 
three or four — never killing any more than could be used 
for food — and of all this number there was not one that 
we could call a fox squirrel. They were all gray squirrels. 
I returned there in October and made three short hunts 
and killed thirteen squirrels, and six of them were very 
large fox squirrels. Where did they come from? 
One other thing I did, I found a bee tree. One evening 
while resting by some water in the woods, 1 noticed some 
bees coming for water and going immediately away as 
soon as they had their fill. 1 soon got the direction they 
took, and going a short distance found them at work, 
going in and out of a hole in the top of a large black oak. 
I cut the tree the next day and got a fine lot of honey. 
Last but not least of my experiences, I ran close on to 
a panther, and was scared out of my wits, as I had neither 
dog nor gun, and it was late at night. I had to go a mile 
to get home, and this through a cornfield. The panther 
kept up the noise but did not come any nearer to me, so 
far as I could tell. It is a great mystery where this 
panther came from. It has been in that vicinity for the 
past six months, and while it can be heard almost every 
night somewhere in the neighborhood, very few people 
have seen it. ‘ j 1 • 
But my story is getting too long. The good the outing 
did my family and myself is almost beyond computation. 
The transposition from the heat and dust of the town to 
the cool shade of the mountains, where the breeze is 
always cool, where the water — as pure as it is possible for 
water to be — bubbles from the earth and goes tumbling 
over the gravel bed of the rivulet on its way to the sea, 
and where orchards are laden with the finest of fruit, 
where everything combines to make glad the heart is, m 
my judgment, a better place to spend the summer than 
in any fashionable summer resort. In the country you 
can take life easy, you can rest from your labors and fill 
your lungs with the pure ozone of the mountain air and 
return home with your vitality increased and your nerves 
strengthened to begin again life’s battles. 
J. E. Loudon. 
Arkansas. 
Cats vs. Birds. 
Boston, Mass., July 8. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Our good friend. Professor Hodge, has created quite a 
commotion in Worcester by killing off some of the_ felines 
that frequent the neighborhood of Clark University, it 
seems ]\^rs. H, B. Green^ of H3.wtliorne street, misse^d 
her pet kitty named Bud, and, calling at Dr. Hodge s 
house, reported the fact to Mrs. Hodge. Afterward she 
went to the University to look for Bud, and later secured 
an interview with the Professor, but was unable to get 
any trace of her pet. So, with a woman’s tenacity of 
purpose, she called on Dr. Hall, the president. Not satis- 
fied with the information she had obtained, Mrs. Green 
took the matter to her lawyer and called up the police 
office, and at last, called on the agent for the prevention 
of crulty to animals, who promised to investigate some 
of the stories he had heard from several persons about 
osing their kitties. ^ 
Professor Hodge advised Mrs. Green to put a _ collar 
>n her cat, if she wanted to keep one, remarkingme 
bought “she had better keep a dog.” It seems since Dr. 
lodge lost a couple of his partridges there has been 
omething like an epidemic among the cats that have b^_n 
neandering about, and the Doctor does not deny his 
mowledge of what has become of some of them. .But 
le claims the right to protect his property against what 
le terms “stray cats.” t- t.-- -a 
On being asked his opinion, Mr. _A. B. F. Kinney said 
he experiment Dr. Hodge is making is of interest not 
>nlv to the whole State, but to the world, and, in his 
>pinion, a “few cats” should not be permitted to frustrate 
lis attempt to raise grouse in captivity. ... 
If he were raising chickens or ducks, he said, and they 
were killed by cats or dogs he would resort to such meaiij 
as he saw fit to exterminate them and protect his projg 
erty. That roaming house cats are among the worst df 
stroyers of bird life is a well known fact, and the matt 
who shoots one of them saves many birds. They oftei 
go on a regular hunt over the farmer’s mowings an 
into his wood lot, and it is pretty sure death for ari; 
young robin, quail or partridge that comes within line c' 
vision. It is a question open to argument on both side! 
whether cats do not kill more birds than foxes da D ■ 
Hodge’s crusade against wandering felines should be proj: 
ductive of good in the preservation of bird life. J 
Central.:; 
A Handy Candlestick. || 
The hunter of experience has learned that an oil lamj! 
or lantern is bulky and nine times out of ten leaks out ar I; 
runs over his duffle. A large number have come do-v\ li 
to the candle, which never leaks and does not take i: f 
much room. It furnishes enough light for one’s tent, ;; ) 
little light is necessary. j- 
The folding candle lantern is very good, but if it shou l> 
break or be lost the birch bark candle-stick is the ne:::-t 
best thing. This candle-stick can be made in five minutf :j) 
It can be made in almost any part of a forest, as bii 
bark can be had at almost any time. The construct! 
is as follows : Cut a stick about one foot long and c 
inch thick. Split one end down two inches and shar^; jj 
a point at the other end, as shown in Fig. i. Then p i 
off a piece of birch bark two inches wide and four incl ;; 
long, as in Fig. 2. Bend the bark to the size of the cani 5 
and slide it in the split stick, and your candle-stick \ 
made. It is then stuck in the ground in any part of t 
tent desired. The longer the stick the higher the Iq 
will be. E. M. Johnson ) 
The Adifondacks. 
Blue Mountain Lake, N. Y., July ^—Editor For ' 
and Stream: As you like news from the Adirondack: } 
will state the latest and most important item : The sj i 
shines! June was a drencher. A hotel man whO' maiA 
observations, says about twelve inches of rain fell £ 
June. Many agree that they never saw this lake so hi 
In consequence the fishing has been only fair. But i 
law of compensation holds ; there are more trout left 
later comers. < 
I like your plan of publishing a series of articles ab. ( 
cheap summer homes. They make for the strengthen^ t 
of the work of our national life, the family. Hotel i £ 
in the cities breaks that up too much. The summer t i 
to the country should set the other way. Push the cbi 
house idea. Permit also a suggestion. Prospective bu: 
ers can save expense for enlargement as needs incre ; 
by erecting higher buildings at first. 
It costs no more to roof two floors than one. 1 
siding costs but little more when the building is m,i 
one and one-half or two stories instead of one, and ; ) 
capacity is doubled. Rooms above can then be finisl t 
as needed. . ;i 
Four new cottages are erected here this season— sc 
quite elaborate. At Eagle Lake, connecting with this] 
new club house, boat house, and many improveme | 
greet the visitor to the golf grounds. Cottagers 
some hotel guests are coming in, and more to follow, j f 
JuvENAt i 
Vcfmont Notes. 
Sheldon, Vt., June 30 - — Editor Forest and Sfrei. t 
Since my last letter to you I have had, through the kr 
ness of one of your old subscribers 3.nd occasions.! co 
spondents, Mr. H. A. Noyes, of Hyde Pr-J^, several! 
lightful outings in the “Digging’s Woods which 
situated east from Hyde Park. We made some ■ 
catches of trout, and saw numerous game signs. We 
saw deer, ruffed grouse, woodcock, etc., and if I 
beaver tracks, we saw such tracks in one locality. 11 
woods are very extensive and contain miles of al 
tangle swamps. The streams are no place for the d 
fisherman to visit. . . 
Do cats possess the sense of direction? K lady m B 
don last winter gave to her son, who resides in Wale 
fifty-five miles distant, her house cat, which was a ho' 
hold pet. Pussy remained for a time quietly at her 
home, until the last of January, when she disappe^ 
and a few weeks later turned up at her old home 1 
in Sheldon. This journey was made during a seasoi. 
extremely cold weather and snow storms. It is need; 
to say that the cat will remain at her old home du( 
the remainder of her days. Stanstea: 
