)CT. 21 , 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
S31 
After Caribou in Quebec. 
t\iitor Forest and Stream: < 
I Seventy miles below the quaint and beautiful city ot 
; uebec, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence, is 
aie St. Paul. The steamer lands at a long wharf built 
i it into the river, and thence one drives over a hill 
jveral hundred feet high by steep ascent and descent 
I the head of the bay three miles distant and the 
cturesque towti, also called Bale St. Paul. little 
)uses built close to each other and standing direct on 
e street lines with their steep roofs, curving outward 
the eaves, were not more surprising to us than the 
ct that only a French dialect was heard, and that few 
lew English, and they but little. The village is _lo- 
,ted in the midst of a pretty valley perhaps two miles 
ide, flanked on either side by high hills. Our con- 
lyanee was a buckboard similar to those used in Lie 
dirondacks, and we Were soon started with out_ game 
1 the thirty-mile ride along the old Chieoutiffli road 
) the point whence I was to hit the trail. ^ 
ne-mile drive, we reached the village of St. Urbain, 
here we lunched. We were much interested in the 
irrow, well-fenced mile-long farms, giving the effect 
; a plaited landscape, with the little bent roofed houses 
id the ever-present great clay bake ovens near the 
ouses, these ovens sometimes having a rude coveting 
id sometimes having none. We slowly climbed up 
le valley and early in the aftetnooii approached the 
igher Laiirentiail peaks, their summits often bem| Of 
are and rugged granite like our higher Adirondack 
eaks. We walked one steep ascent of two miles to a 
ass between two tremendous mountains, and thence 
mid forests of spruce and flr through a very rough 
ountry to our destination, arriving late in the day, 
ly barometer showed that we were 2,300 feet above 
le St. Lawrence. . , . 
Mrs. W. and the boy were to remain at the httle mn 
1 fish and shoot grouse, while I went on in after 
aribou. As the waters full off too abruptly to. float 
igS, the distance being too great to haul, no logging 
as ever been done in this territory, and there are no 
3ggmig' roads or tote roads. The trails are too lough 
or a horse, and tents, clothing, foodstuffs, everything 
ad to be packed in. Next morning early I was off 
dth three men who packed with tiimplines passed over 
he forehead, as is their custom, and they did wortder- 
u!)y well. Often the mountain tops are treeless but 
itherwise the country is covered with- spruce and fir, 
xcept where it has been burned, over; in such places 
t is either barren or covered with a small growth of 
We pitched camp on the edge of a bafrCn about half 
: mile from a lake about a mile long and from lOO tO 
,00 yards wide. In the meantime I was ertdeavoilrtg to 
;et hold of enough French tO understand the men, and 
-ety furhihately had been thoughtful eilough to put a 
)Ucket dictionary in my kit. It is surprising how a littlC 
ocabulary of nouns and adjectives with a few verbs 
viil enable one to converse, signs and pantomine play- 
ng an important pan, My frequent referpce to the 
1 ctionary, with ’some show of annoyance that I gouIo 
lot recall the correct word, amused my men greatly; 
uid many a hunting experience was told or acted out 
o the enjoyment of. all. , u 11 
On the afternoon of the second day a young uiill 
lariboii with fair antlers came into the head of the lake 
:o feed on the lily-pads. We Could.nut get nearer thmi 
>00 yards, and the guide thought it was even furthei 
ind doubted whether I could be certain of killing the 
'aribou I told him I could kill the animal if he could 
xet him. The shores being very muddy, I feared it 
A'ould be a difficult task to get him out. Resting my 
Mannlicher on the branches of a little spruce, 1 shot 
:he stag through the heart. He reared, went over on 
his side and bis struggles were soon ended. Leing 
between us and the sun, his antlers looked very dark, 
and yet I was surprised, and disappointed to find that 
they were in the velvet. However, we had plenty ot 
fresh meat in camp (I sent some out to Mrs. W. and 
Wendell and my license permitted me to shoot anoper 
caribou,’ which I resolved should be with un beau 
'^visited various lakes and frequently found the 
waters had been raised by beaver, so that no food was 
left for the caribout, much to the guide s disgust. At 
one such lake we saw three beaver, one of which would 
frequently smite the water with his tail, go under a 
moment and then continue swimming toward us, until 
finally he lay upon the water not more than six or eigut 
paces distant and looked at the intruders. He was not 
disturbed by our talking or moving about, but alter i 
had thrown several sLcks at him he at last gave the 
water a particularly vicious slap and went back to his 
house. , ■ £ 1 • V, 
Several days later we were on the summit ot a 'ugh 
mountain whence we could see several lakes and the 
little meadows adjoining them. I discovered three 
caribou on one of these meadows, and we slid down the 
moss-covered mountainside through the forest to the 
edge of the meadow, where I carefully inspected, meas- 
ured and discussed the antlers of the unsuspecting stag 
\Vhile they were not the noble ones I longed for, . 
thought it better to take what was offered, and the eveiy 
iustified the decision, for we saw no better afterward. 
He was feeding on the marsh grass perhaps 90 yards 
awav and at my first shot staggered a few steps for- 
ward while the cow and calf walked nervously about. 
'I'o inake short work of it, I shot him again, and as he 
began to struggle the cow and calf ran away from him, 
disregarding us; He was soo'n_ down and we found 
that the bullets had struck within a half inch of each 
other His head now hangs in my den 
On another morning with a crystal-like atmosphere 
at about ii o’clock we observed a moose about ^ 
a mile distant in a lake and down wind. He ^yas 
ing in an arm of the lake not over 100 yards wide. We 
proceeded to the opposite shore, forest-covered, and he 
getting our wind became uneasy and decided that the 
danger was on his side and that he better cross oven 
He had rather light antlers of 40 to So-ipch spread and 
as I did not care for such I told the guide I would not 
shoot. The water was deep, and as he swam across, i 
took my camera and went down to the bank. When 
he got within ten yards I stepped out from behind a 
bush, pointed my camera at him and snapped. How he 
did churn the water as he turned about, and how he 
lifted himself out of the water as we shouted and 
laughed at his return, and how noble he looked as he 
stepped out on the other shore and stood looking at 
us a few moments before trotting away into the woods. 
I felt that that day was well spent. _ ,1 
Moose are very scarce in that region, but under the 
lirotection now given will, no doubt, increase rapidly. 
Small game of all kinds is scarce, owing, I think, to 
the great altitude and severe winters. _ I missed the 
porcupine, so common in New Brunswick. I saw but 
two or three red squirrels in all my wanderings, no 
rabbit sign, and but very few grouse. When we got 
meat in camp the whisky-jacks turned up as usual. 
Caribou are fairly plentiful, but large heads here as 
elsewhere are not so numerous. One’s chances of get- 
ting a good head are much improved by waiting until 
the snow comes, when the caribou leave the forests and 
go out upon the barrens and herd together more. Then 
one can go upon the hills, search the country with the 
glass and pick out a desirable head. At any rate one 
sees grand mountains, lovely streams and lakes, and a 
beautiful country clothed with virgin forests. . 
M. F. Westover. 
Non-Resident Laws. 
Stowe, Vt., Qfct. 14.^Editor Forest and Stream: _ I 
have a clipping from some Vermont paper, quoting 
■‘a deer hunter” of Granyille, N. Y,, which appears m 
the New York World and reads as follows: 
"Vermont’s last Legislature passed _a law deinanduig 
that all non-residents should pay a license fee of $i 5 
before they could hunt deer in the State, In my view 
of the case this law is not constitutional, and 1 think it 
would be wise for non-residents to make a test case. 
There are so manj^ of these little oppressive State re- 
strictions imposed iq^on people that it is fully time that 
they were tested and overthrown if not in accordance 
with the United States Constitution, 
‘‘ 7 'he clause which I deem to be violated is Ai tide 
IV Section 2 which reads as follows: ‘fhe citizens of 
each State, shall be entitled to all privileges and im- 
niutlities of citizens in the several States, iheretore is 
not taV levied on a non-resident, not on a resident, a 
plain violation of this provision? Deer hunters, unite 
and test this outrageous law.” 
For the benefit of the gentleman of New York State 
and others who make a plea that the taxing of a non- 
resident to hunt deer in Vermont during the open 
season is unconstitutional, and asking hunters to make 
a test case, I quote from Bulletin No. 19, Biological 
Survey U S. Department of Agriculture, as to the 
Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1886 and another case 
by the United States Circuit Court of the northern 
district of Illinois in 1899. In the forrner case 
vs. Wyckoff, 48 N. J. Law Rep. 90; 2 Atl. 059) Allen 
was arrested and fined $50 for violating the act for the 
protection of game and fish approved April 4, I 87 », 
which imposed greater restrictions and severer penalties 
upon, non-residents of the State than upon residents. 
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of New 
Jersev, which held that the act in question was not in 
violation of the fourteenth amendment of the Lonst^ 
tution of the United States, prohibiting any State from 
making any law which shall abridge the privileges of 
citizens of the United States or deny to any person, the 
equal protection of the laws; and furthermore, that the 
statute was valid in its application to a non-resident 
killing game on the property of persons who have 
formed an association under the laws of the State fo 
the protection of game on, their property. 
In the Illinois case, the validity of the non-resident 
license was directly decided. Frank Eberle, a citiz 
of Iowa, and a. member of the Crystal Lake Club, a ■ 
Illinois corporation authorized to acquire and own real 
estate in . Illinois for Use as a game and fish Preserve, 
was arrested when, hunting on the lands of the club. 
He was charged with hunting_ without a 7 rnm 
tion of the State law requiring a license of ^ 9 ® 
non-residents, passed 111 1899 subsequent to the m 
corporation of the club. At the trial the defendant 
was^adjudged guilty of violation of the statute and was 
sentenced to pay a fine of $25 and costs and stand com- 
mitted until the fine was paid. An unsuccessful apphe 
tioh was made to the United States Circuit Court for 
a writ of habeas corpus. 
In denying the wwit, the court held: 
••The sovereign ownership of wild game is in the otate, 
in trust for the benefit of its citizens; and a statute 
reciiiiring the payment of a license by a non-resident 
.01 the -privilege of hunting, such game within t^he State 
•s a nolice regulation within the power of the Sta^, 
•md not in violation of Article IV., Section 2, of the 
Federal Constitution, or of Section i of the fourteenth 
•iinendment, although such fee is not required of resi- 
dents of the State; nor is the validity of such regu- 
lation as to a particular individual, who is a non- 
leVident of the State, affected by the fact that he is a 
stockholder in a corporation of the State which owns 
lands maintained as a game preserve.” T 1 1 
The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld, 
the public ownership of game and has quoted with ap- 
proval the decision, of the Supreme Court of California 
(ex parte Maire) to the effect that: 
“The wild game within a State belongs to, the peoiffe 
in the collective sovereign capacity. It is not the 
subject of private ownership, except in so far as the 
people may elect to make it so; and they may, if 
see fit, absolutely prohibit the taking of it, or traffic 
and commerce in it, if it be deemed necessary for the 
protection or preservation of the public good. (Geer 
vs. Connecticut, 161 U. S. 529 -)” . , , . 
The sdme court has, moreover, decided, in the case 
of McCready vs. Virginia (94 U. S. 248), that a State 
may pass laws discriminating against non-residents by 
upholding, in 1877, a statute of Virginia (act of 1846) 
which absolutely prohibited non-residents froni planting 
oysters in the waters within the limits of the State. ^ 
If I am not mistaken, forty-one States and lerntones 
exact a license from non-resident sport^en. 
H. G. InoMAS, 
Commissioner of Fisheries and Game, Stowe, Vt. 
The Realms of Sport. 
September strikes a iriumphant note of color that finds 
an echo in the pomp and glory of the. northern forests. 
Alas! the hectic flush that illumines the face of nature 
is but the sad precursor of decay and death ; the frail ana 
evanescent beauties of the autumn woods fade away like 
the figment of a dream before the gloom and Miadow ot 
approaching winter. October, in the bar North, is 
ushered in with freezing gales that mercilessly sweep 
through the aisles of the forest and with shrieks of de- 
moniac glee strip the maples of their scarlet raimen o 
carpet the forest floor with their fading glories. Pres- 
ently flurries of snow' whiten the mountain peaks and 
settle on the ridges; the snow-clad evergreens contrast 
charmingly with the flaming remnants of color that 
bedeck the woodlands ; such effects are often the despa r 
of the artist and a source of ceaseless delight to the re- 
fined sportsman and lover of nature. 
As if at a given signal, the skirmishers of winter swoop 
down from the frozen heights and take popession of 
marsh and upland, sweet wild flowers wilt and die in the 
frosty clearings, the breeze sighs mournfully through the 
leafless branches of the maple, but the oak keeps up a 
brave fight with the destroyer, and grudgingly parts with 
its leafy covering. An icy film forms on the edges of 
the pools overnight. The delicate blue-wing takes the 
hint and fades away from pond and meadow. Ihe quaver- 
ing whistle of the bay birds finds a mournfu echo in the 
sportsman’s heart as he ruefully gazes 
wnsps that stream past unmindful of his call. The squeak 
of the English snipe grows beautifully less as winter 
tightens its grip on the bog. The faithful pointer quar- 
ters his ground industriously, but is seldom rewarded by 
a whiff; he often dr&ws blank and comes to heel despon- 
dent. This delectable lid-bit of the mpdow, along with 
the teal and woodcock, has fled from the frosty advances 
of winter, leaving an aching void as the joys ^'and 
sport go glimmering. The greater yellowleg still d 
the freezing flats anc haunts the ,spring ho es of the bog 
reluctant to depart, but their shrill cry fails to turn the 
^^No^^he’s out for nobler quarry. The brier-scarred 
pointer whimperingly protests as he sees much-loved 
master march forth with his decoys to battle with the 
elements the booming of guns over marsh and bay an- 
nouncing that the flight is on. As the season w^rs on 
apace the survivors learn by bitter 
the points at morning and evening ^ 
from their feeding grounds and anchor far out in the blue 
expanse Here the sailboat lies in wait to round up Ihe 
swLming raft of ducks and steer 1^^^, 
the masked battery. The legions of wi dfovvd that pour 
in from the freezing north close up death s gaps and 
swell the mighty chorus that merges with the voices of 
the wind and waves. The merciless pounding they re- 
ceive all along the line develops a wariness and cunning 
that brings upon the passing flocks the, maledic 19ns of the 
hidden sportsman, as they sweep by in tantalizing arrays 
crauging the distance to a nicety. Occasionally their 
calculations go up in the air, as oblivious of J • J 
or dead and flying like bullets they swing far 
in fancied security, until the roar of the 8-bore splits the 
air and a leaden hail hurtles , through , their ranks, 
doubling up the leaders. Great is the rejoicing, m the 
blind, if they prove to be canvasbacks. This species, un- 
less badly cut up with shot, can elude the best dog that 
swims Enemies crop out in the most unlikely Peaces, 
corn shocks burst out in flame and smoke, batteries deluge 
the demoralized flocks, strewing the bay with the dead 
and cripples, but all devices for their destruction pale 
before the deadly snivel, now tabooed, that to plow 
a bloody furrow through great rafts of wildfowl, this 
diabolical relic of the lawless past did incalculab e mis- 
chief among the choicer ducks, before it was retired by 
the strong arm of the law. Those days of outlawry have 
passed, and along vdth them the wealth, of canvasbacks 
that used to haunt that paradise of the wildfowler, Ch^sar 
oeake Bay. The i6-hore that often is powerful enough to 
stop the fleeing grouse would be accounted a mere p ay- 
thing by the hardv haymen— heavy los and 12s, with 
occasional larger bJrcs, are *o ™an the battem^ 
and blinds, 2 ounces of is or ,3s, backed by heay charges 
of smokeless, often fail to pierce the feathered coats of 
mail, as the coveted quartering shot is not always avail- 
^^When all other legitimate means fail, live decoys 
can often be banked on to lure the feathered prey withm 
