Oct. 1905.1 ' 
FOREST AND STREAM 
more hits and misses each, all in the usual way, and 
then we came upon a cart standing in a ride, and there- 
from was produced snowy napery, a cold round of beef, 
half a Stilton and some jars and bottles, and the next 
half hour passed pleasantly enough. 
What a jovial, jolly lunch it was! how joke and jest 
flew round, bounding and rebounding from one to the 
other, like tennis balls from a racket! We ate our beef, 
and in sooth mirth furnished the mustard, as we 
lolled about in every attitude of careless abandonment 
amid the feathery bracken, literally suh tegmine fagi. 
And how lovely the woods were, too, with their gold 
and russet leaves rich with the first touch of the Frost 
King’s paint brush! Beech and oak and graceful larch, 
;i opening out vistas and peeps through the varied foliage 
in all directions — now down a long green ride, across 
which one almost expected to see a herd of deer go 
bounding; now through a little forest glade, down into 
a tangled dingle with a sparkling brooklet at the bot- 
tom; now away through a natural tunnel of verdure of 
nature’s own devising, with its peep of blue sky at the 
far end, and alternate slants of sunshine and shade 
breaking through upon the ferns and glorious heather 
beneath. Rarely have I set eye upon a lovelier scene 
than surrounded our merry luncheon party. 
“No Fipps, as yet, Johnson! I expect he’s nailed for 
the day at Snigswig. Fipp and Fippeny is about the 
size of it;” but Johnson shook his head doubtfully. 
Fipps was not a subject to joke on; for Fipps was no 
joke to poor Johnson, who would have been happy to 
homicide Fipps if he could have found any decent ex- 
cuse for it. 
Lunch over, and the ten minutes allowed for re- 
freshment tobacco-wise being consumed, we took in 
fresh cartridges and made tracks. 
“Where next, Johnson?” “Bas’ville Copse, sir. I sent 
Jem on with the net to stop heverythink back as 
we can, ’cause that’s Fipp’s t’other side. Muster F. 
and you’ll take the houtside along ’tween the ride and 
bank, and please don’t go’n send nothin’ you can’t ’elp 
to Fipps, and please don’t ’e set foot on his land. Mus- 
ter F., or he’ll summons ’e for sartin.” 
For some time all went well. There was plenty of 
stuff, etc., of one sort and another, and we bagged a 
fair share, little going Fippsward; but I had the cock 
in my mind, and was looking out sharp for him. Five 
minutes after crossing a gully, we struggled on to a 
bank, where stood some hollies. Tap — tap — rustle. 
“Mark cock!” shrieked Johnson. Bang — bang! “Missed, 
by the Lord!” “Mark cock!” yelled Raymond.^ Then 
I glimpsed him through the tree tops — bang! “Missed 
him, by George!” Another glimpse — bang!” Missed 
him clean, by Jingo! O Lor’! O Lor’! and the first cock 
of the season, and I might have been a par. in the 
papers, too. “Mark cock!” I shouted. Bang!— a soli- 
tary barrel, and outside the covert! What could that 
portend? I rushed to the hedge and looked out, and 
there was an ugly beast, in a brown velveteen shooting 
coat, and drab gaiters to the knee, with a dishevelled, 
ragged, diabolic-looking spaniel at his heels, picking 
up our cock, as I live and sin. 
“Fipps the poacher, by all that’s wonderful!” I ex- 
claimed. 
“Fipps and his dorg, by all that’s damnable!” groaned 
Johnson over my shoulder, paraphrasing Sir Peter 
Teazle in the screen scene. 
“Thank ye, sir,” said Fipps with a grin and mock 
politeness, as he pocketed the coveted prize. “You 
ain’t got no more o’ them as you wants my help with, 
has yer? No; I ’spec’s Fve ’ad the lot now. Mornin’, 
Muster Johnson. Pity’s ye ’adn’t let me know’s you 
was goin’ to shoot to-day, I mout ’a’ helped yet a lot 
more. Howsomever, better late than never, as you 
says.” 
‘You be 
-!” said Johnson, sullenly. 
“Thank ye, but not afore you, sir; not afore you. 
You always was civil, and Fm obligated; but I wouldn’t 
come afore my betters if I knows it.” 
Here Raymond broke in. “You poaching black- 
guard; if you’ll only come this side of the ditch. I’ll 
give you such a jacketing as you haven’t had for one 
while.” 
“Will ’ee, now! I’ve a darn good mind to take ’ee at 
ye’r word. Howsomever, we’ll talk about that another 
day. Meanwhiles you hain’t got no more o’ them ten- 
pun notes to spare, have you? Don’t want to spekilate 
in buckwheat? No? Well, never mind, then;^^but don t 
let me sp’ile your sport, sir; pray go on;” and he 
turned away, having chaffed us all around, and had all 
the best of it, too, as Raymond was forced to admit. ^ 
Whether it was the excitement or what, I don t 
know; but neither Raymond nor I could shoot a bit 
after that. Several birds and a hare or two went Fipps- 
ward, and every now and then that single barrel spoke 
out like a warning trumpet, and carried dismay beneath 
our waistcoats. We shot quick and fired all our barrels, 
and wasted no end of cartridges. We tried to be de- 
liberate, and shot slow. All wouldn t do; we were 
either behind or before, and rarely between. Fipps 
got a regular bumper, and scored all the honors. Ex- 
asperation could no further go, and Fipps was cursed 
after the fashion employed by the cardinal in the Jack- 
daw of Rheims”; but, like the audience there, he didn t 
seem “a penny the worse.” .c • u .4 « 
The others did pretty well, and we finished off with 
a decent bag enough— twenty-one brace of pheasants, 
a leash of birds, a dozen hares, a score and a half of 
bunnies, half a dozen wood pigeons, and a jay which i 
potted for fly-making requisites. 
Having had a pretty good day, I stood and delivered 
to the tune of half a sov. to our friend Johnson. I had 
a sort of rule in this department: when we kill fifty or 
sixty head, I think 5s- enough for the keeper; when we 
progress toward one hundred head I make it los.; two 
hundred and over, £1, and that I never exceed under 
any circumstances, and I think those who do are very 
foolish for their pains. 
About a month after, Raymond came into my place. 
I hadn’t seen him for some days. He had a green shade 
on and appeared to have been in the wars, which wasn’t 
so remarkable .then as it would be nowadays. 
“Whafs the matter, old man?” 
“'Fhe oddest thing. That fellow Fipps, you know, 
came up lo town the oth^r day. He called at my 
chambers. ‘Look here. Muster Bush,’ said he; 'you 
said t’other day as you’d give me a jacketing. No man 
never said that to me, sir, gentle nor simple, as I didn’t 
give him a chance to do it. Ef ’twas bounce, you’ve 
only to say so, and I begs your pardon for intrudin’ on 
ye. Ef ’tain’t, and ye means it, here I be, and if you 
can jacket me, darned if I don’t let ye the shootin’ if 
ye’ll give me a walk now and then.’ I said nothing. I 
knew I’d a tough customer to deal with, and resolved 
to be cautious, and it was well I did. I got up, and took 
off my coat and waistcoat, and so did he; we shoved 
the table and chairs in a corner, shook hands, and at it 
we went. You know that I’m_ pretty good at it— above 
the average, I may say — but, if I hadn’t been a wee bit 
cleverer and more cautious than he was, he’d have 
thrashed me hollow; but after as hot a twenty-five 
minutes as ever I had in my life, and when I was as 
near pumped as need be, he cied a go — ‘not,’ as he said, 
‘but what he could have stood another round or two, 
but he was satisfied that I was the best man.’ Blessed 
if I was, though; but all’s well that ends well. Then 
we shook hands again, washed ourselves, drank doch- 
an-dhurris, and parted with mutual good will. He lets 
me his shooting for £20 a year, and a walk with us now 
and then, and it’s worth a hundred to us. Rum chap, 
you know, but not half as bad as we thought him. 
Things look so different from different sides of the 
hedge. He told me the story of his row with my land- 
lord, and I confess he hadn’t been quite well treated. 
He shoots with us next Wednesday. Come down and 
meet him.” 
I did; and I often met Fipps afterward. Not half a 
bad fellow either — a right good shot, a capital sports- 
man, and worth twenty keepers. As for the diabolical 
dog. Budge by name, we quite adore him. He’s the 
funniest, cleverest, best-natured dog I ever saw, and 
that’s saying a lot. Raymond lost his pocketbook one 
day in a thick copse, with lots of notes and papers of 
importance in it. We looked for it for hours; then _ we 
thought of Budge, and Budge found it like a detective. 
I beg pardon, I should have said unlike a detective. 
Fipps is devoted, and he’ll just as often walk and beat 
for us as shoot. He likes the fun royally. He had 
some money left him lately, and is in easy case. John- 
son and he' became sworn brothers; never were such 
friends and allies. When the young pheasants are on, 
there is not an ant’s nest far or near that Fipps doesn’t 
know of, and if the birds were his own bairns he couldn’t 
take more interest in them. As for poachers, Fipps 
tackled the worst and biggest one — Bullying Ben, as he 
was called at Snigswig Market — one day, and thrashed 
him within an inch of his life, and promised him some 
more if he ever caught him about our place again. 
Master Rackstraw was looked after by the school 
board, and, as he didn’t like it, he ran away to sea, and 
(as all such characters are) was no doubt wrecked, 
eaten by savages, and made a tract and an awful ex- 
ample of, so there was an end of him. And higgler Joe 
was unfortunate, most unfortunate; he moved to_ Port- 
land, having taken a long contract there, which he 
couldn’t throw up, to break stone or something of that 
sort — Fm afraid the contract doesn’t pay so well as 
higgling and fencing. And all the rest of us are very 
well, thank you. 
Forest Reserves in Idaho. 
An unusually interesting correspondence relating to 
the general forest policy of the Government has just 
been published as Bulletin No. 67, of the Forest Service, 
entitled “Forest Reserves in Idaho.” The major part 
of this correspondence, which deals specifically with 
forest reserve questions in Idaho, consists of letters 
from Senator W. B. Heyburn, of Idaho, to the Presi- 
dent; the replies of the President; letters from Mr. 
Gifford Pinchot, forester of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture; and a letter on the Federal forest reserve 
policy, with special reference to Idaho, by Senator Fred 
Dubois. 
The discussion of the forest reserve situation in 
Idaho, which is very fully developed Jii the Jetters, and 
the thorough explanation of the Federal forest policy 
in general, which has never before been so clearly and 
emphatically defined, lend to this bulletin exceptional 
and more than merely local interest. 
Senator Heyburn, in several of his letters, makes 
warm protest against the proclamation of certain forest 
reserves in Idaho. His colleague. Senator Dubois, on 
the contrary, enthusiastically recommends their estab- 
lishment, and declares that “to-day the forest reserves 
are administered * * * for the sole purpose of con- 
ferring the greatest benefit on the communities in which 
the respective reserves are situated. 
One of the most striking passages of Senator Dubois’ 
letter is that in which he asserts that the Federal ad- 
ministration is now in fullest harmony with the desires 
of disinterested citizens throughout the West. He de- 
clares that he never at any time opposed the policy 
himself, though at first, with colleagues from the Rocky 
Mountain region, he “contended against the methods 
which were used in creating, maintaining and controll- 
ing the reserves.” “During the time when the forest re- 
serves were first created,” he writes, “reserves were 
created without sufficient safeguards to protect stock 
raisers, miners, lumbermen, agriculturists, and people 
of our section generally. The fight of the Western men 
was constant and united. Our demands were set forth 
in numerous speeches, and finally were acceded to. The 
policy which controls the creation of forest reserves to- 
day and their administration is substantially the policy 
which the representatives of the Western States in 
Congress have contended for, and is substantially what 
the West, through its representatives, contended for.” 
The President, in one of his letters, replies vigorously 
to the protests of Senator Heyburn. The following 
sentence occurs: _ ^ . 
“The Government policy in establishing national for- 
est reserves has been in effect for some time; its good 
results are already evident; it is' a policy emphatically 
in the interests of the people as_a whole, and especially 
the people of the West; I believe they cordially ap^ 
prove it; and I do not intend to abandon it,” ■ 
The specific withdrawals in Idaho which Senator 
Heyburn opposed, and which Senator Dubois recom- 
mended, now established as reserves or as additions to 
reserves, are as follows: Henrys Lake,_ Sawtooth, 
Payette, Squaw Creek Division of the Weiser, Cassia, 
and additions to the Yellowstone and the Bitter Root. 
Appended to the correspondence is a report of Special 
Agent Schwartz, of the General Land Office, based on 
“certain examinations of the Shoshone Forest Reserve 
temporary withdrawal, in Idaho.” 
In the discussion of the advisability of withdrawing 
certain lands for forest reserves, it was objected that 
forest reserves discouraged settlement and worked hard- 
ships for those who had acquired claims within the 
areas affected. According to the report of Special 
Agent Schwartz, about 90 per cent, of the claims which 
he examined have never been resided on by their claim- 
ants, as is required by law. It would appear, further^ 
more, that a considerable number of the claimants are 
railroad employees and others whose interests in their 
claims seem very indirect. On the whole, the report 
goes to show that the claims examined are in a large 
number of cases not legitimately held. 
Looking Forward. 
Two Lessons Suitable for a Primer of the Near Future. 
Editor Forest md Stream: 
This is the picture of an ax. We seldom, if ever, see 
a thing of that kind now, but years ago, when the face 
of our country was covered with a heavy growth of 
grand old trees, the ax was a common tool, and the 
settler then used it to cut down the trees and to hew and 
notch the logs for his lonely cabin, and also to clear up 
the land. But now, as the trees are all gone, except per- 
haps a very few small, scrubby, crooked and misshapen 
ones, there is no more use for the ax, so it has been 
thrown aside and is very seldom seen. 
Instead of the ax the settler, to clear up his land at 
the present time, uses a brush hook or a stump-puller. 
This is the picture of a muzzle-loader squirrel rifle. We 
never see any of them now, but it was the only firearm 
that the first settler had. When food becarne scarce in 
his cabin he would take his long trusty rifle and go out 
into the grand old forest or off on the prairie and soon 
bring home all the game that was needed for his family, 
for at that tim.e game was very plenty nearly everywhere 
in our country. 
But the noble old woods are gone and the game is 
gone, too, and the people in lieu of shooting game with 
the muzzle-loading rifles now use breech-loading maga- 
zine rifles to shoot at standing targets, and scatter guns 
of a similar make to shoot at things made of clay and 
thrown by a machine called a trap ; and the gunners of 
the present day sometimes change that kind of sport for 
the very exciting one of shooting at a species of bird 
called the English sparrow. So much for the passing of 
our grand old forests, and of our once more than bounti- 
ful supply of game. A. L. L. 
A Duck Huntef's Lttck. 
“If there is one thing of which I have absolutely no 
knowledge it is hunting and fishing,” remarked John S. 
Inglis. “I never caught a fish or killed a bird in my life, 
and I suppose I never will. I couldn’t tell you the 
difference between a striped bass and a mallard duck, 
unless it came in on a platter. But I have a friend who 
is a sportsman. You never saw such a keen sportsman 
in your life. He has a big room full of guns and fishing 
tackle, and all kinds of sporting paraphernalia. He 
used to worry the life out of me with his persistent 
invitations to go hunting and fishing. Finally I agreed 
to go duck hunting with him. He provided all the 
regalia. Among other things he ordered a lot of shells 
from a downtown gun store, and I was to go up and get 
the shells and pack them in my grip. I got the pack- 
age from the gun store, and we went to Alviso. We 
were proceeding up a slough in a small boat in the cool 
of the early morning when we ran into a million ducks. 
“ ‘Open that package of shells,’ yelled my friend. 
“I opened the package. It contained twenty-five 
pounds of assorted fish hooks. I haven’t been duck 
hunting since.” — San Francisco Chronicle. 
It is not commonly accepted that the wildcat is so 
vicious as to attack human beings, and this section has 
lately furnished the cat that proves the exception to the 
rule. Albert Dennis, a guard at the Yarn Turpentine 
Company’s convict camp, was, Wednesday night, at- 
tacked by a monster cat in Gillette Creek, not more than 
a mile from the camp, and had he not used unusual pres- 
ence of mind, would most likely have been torn in pieces. 
The young man was returning to his quarters at a rather 
late hour from an evening pleasantly spent with his 
parents three miles distant, and upon reaching the swamp 
of the creek, was literally held at bay by the cat, which 
held the. pass to the bridge beyond, and refused to move 
when advanced upon by Mr. Dennis. The young man 
was armed only with a clasp knife and with his weapon 
he waded into the brute, kicking him over first. The cat 
sprang quickly upon him and succeeded in doing the 
young man’s Sunday clothes considerable damage before 
his throat was cut. Mr. Dennis has killed several cats 
in his time, but says this one is the biggest he has ever 
seen. It is said that the female cat is especially vicious 
during the period of nursing, and the one in question 
was seen to be carrying young. — Tampa (Fla.) Tribune. 
All communications for Forest and Stream must he 
directed to Forest and Stream Pub. Co., New York, to 
receive attention. We have no other office. 
THE ONLY MANY-USE OIL 
The perfect lubricant for gun locks, bolt and magazine action, 
r-A dv. 
