470 
FOREST AND STREAM 
There really was not a dull moment during the day and 
there was a steady flow of Avit. T'^ this the Attorney- 
General contributed considerably, telling a very good 
story how his power as an orator had conferred upon 
him an Indian name, which was given some years ago 
by the “head man” of the Eastern Band of Cherokees in 
North Carolina, his home being very near their reserva- 
tion. This name, quite a melodious one by the way, is 
“I-sa-toos-ki.” 
The hunt was voted by all the participants to be a suc- 
cess in every way, even if we didn’t catch as many rabbits 
as we usually do, but there really could not have been 
any more fun if we had planned it all beforehand. 
Fred. A. Olds. 
Gen. Joseph F. Armfield, a very ardent sportsrnan, 
whose home is at Statesville, in the Piedmont section, 
tells me he and his friends there are having particularly 
good sport after red foxes. Last year they got loo of 
these and turned them loose in that vicinity. When he 
was asked where they were obtained he said from some 
point near Hamlet, in this State. He says that about a 
dozen runs have been made and some foxes killed, while 
others were not injured by the dogs and saved for future 
sport. Red foxes are scarce in almost every part of 
North Carolina, and in fact the grays have become scarce 
in a number of sections. In the Statesville region it 
seems there have never been any red. These run 
straighten and at the same time further than the gray 
fox, which seems to be a more artful dodger. 
Ex-Congressman Romulus Z. Finney of Wilkes county, 
tells a good story about a recent fox hunt there in which 
he took part. The fox seemed to have mysteriously 
disappeared, and the dogs “treed” at the foot of_ a scraggy 
tree of some height and with a good maiiy limbs, half 
way up which was an old croAv’s nest. Mr. Finney has a 
sharp pair of eyes and as he looked up and was about to 
go away he saw what he felt pretty sure was a tip of the 
tail of a fox projecting over the edge of the nest. Climb- 
ing part way up the tree, with a pole, in hand, one of the 
young men in the party jabbed at the nest and stirred up 
the fox, who was there, sure enough. The fox did not 
offer to jump out or climb high, but cried, Mr. Finney 
says, just like a child; so pitifully, in fact, that the hunt- 
ers went away and. left him where he was, to have an- 
other chance for his'life. The discovery of his trick must 
have unnerved the poor beast and made him lose his 
courage. ■ F. A. O. 
The Renewing of Youth* 
“Chained to business” for five years ; more years than 
five since old “Joe,” after thirteen years of faithful 
service and companionship, had gone hunting by himself 
one snowy day and never come back, and all the years 
since then the old gun has been standing in the corner. 
My old limbs felt unequal to tramping through the 
stubbles and the brush; the neat, up-to-date farming 
had left little cover to protect the birds; and the winters 
had been hard ones; quail were reported as practically 
extinct. No time to spare for shooting, no dog to shoot 
over, no legs left to tramp with and no birds to shoot. 
Truly it was a dismal prospect, but in spite of it all the 
annual attack of “the shooting fever” came on at the 
usual time of year with such violence that something 
had to be done. For two or three weeks an effort was 
made to cure it by remembering and trying to live over 
again the former days afield, but the fever increased 
from day to day. Then it was thought that a change of 
climate might be the thing, and a trip was planned and 
arranged to a section of country where the quail did not 
freeze to death in the winter; but the rest of the party 
could not be ready when the season opened and the 
fever was raging still higher every day and it was . plain 
that the malady must have immediate treatment, so 
Henry was consulted. 
Now to' know who Henry is, the reader should have 
a description of him. He is a little fellow, an old 
bachelor, with gray hair and wrinkled face, so quiet in 
manner and speech that you have to use your eyes to 
learn whether he is there or not, of an affectionate 
disposition, and ready always to let a friend have any- 
thing he has. In the field he is one of the few men 
who really delight more over a good shot made by 
his partner than if he had made tlie shot himself. He 
spends most of his days in the hard work of driving 
iron pipe into the ground for wells, and does but little 
shooting; but in his younger days he did little else, and 
he knows every square foot of ground for miles about 
here. He has a quiet way of talking to the farmer boys 
about quail, so he knows before the season opens just 
about where every covey of quail “uses” for miles 
around. 
Henry was consulted about the matter, and said he 
had a bad, attack of “the fever,” but as everybody said 
there were no quail, and he had no dog, all he expected 
to do was to get out and tramp himself dead tired to get 
the wire edge worn off a little, He said he had five 
or six bunches of quail spotted, and knew exactly where 
they “used,” and about how many birds there were in 
each bunch, and that they were on ground where we 
would be allowed to shoot them; and if we only had a 
dog, we could have some sport after a Aveek or two, 
when he got ahead a little with his well-drhdng. 
Now it began to look as if our “medicine” was going 
to be good, for on the first two days of the open sea- 
son a friend of mine, who has a fairly good dog, went 
with one of his friends for two days and bagged but 
three birds. - They are good shots, but just could not 
find them. So they quit in disgust, and the dog was 
put at the writer’s disposal. After Heni-y had showed 
his quail prospects, he was told about the dog, and in 
two minutes had grown ten years younger. It is doubt- 
ful if he ever hammered pipe so lively as he, did for 
the next week. I, however, could not stand it to see 
so much fine weather and dog going to waste, and one 
glorious Indian summer afternoon found me in Will 
Dormer’s stubble field, the dog wild with delight and 
running at such a rate that he was not doing much 
hunting. Running and lots of it was good enough for 
him. A rabbit was walked up and bowled over, and 
presently another one, a great, big old fellow, that was 
certainly the fastest runner ever; but a few minutes later 
the “for sure” fastest rabbit in the world was up and 
going. He. actually went four jumps after the gun was 
Heed before the shot reached him, and his speed was so 
nearly as fast as the shot that, although he got the center 
of the charge, it barely scraped some of the fur oft 
him and didn’t hurt him at all. Coming back to town, 
the dog found a covey of quail in a little cornfield, and 
after following them up seven shots were had and four 
of the birds went to bag. It wasn’t many birds for the 
number of shots fired, but Avhen it is considered that 
the “man behind the gun” was using a full choke L. C. 
Smith gun and had not shot at a half-dozen quail in the 
last five years, he felt that he had done well. The old 
legs had stood the four hours’ tramp al-1 right, and 
things began to look as if the fever might not be a 
hopeless case. 
A few days later Henry got his pipes into the groun’d, 
and after dinner we started out as gleeful as two six- 
teen-year-old boys, and the dog fairly wild with delight. 
We fully expected to “do business” from the start, but 
a long and careful exploration of the ground where 
the first two coveys were reported to live, did not 
show a feather. The third covey were found in the 
middle of a big cornfield. The dog trailed them so 
slowly and so far that Henry said the birds had plenty 
of time to do their afternoon feeding and get to roost 
before the dog would come up with them; but at last he 
did get them, and with the old roar that always does 
startle the oldest shooter, they boiled up out of the 
corn and most of them flew straight toward the sun. 
There was some shooting, but nothing to put in the bag. 
A part of them were marked at the edge of the corn, 
and we followed them and sure hit them just right, for 
in less than seven minutes seven single birds were 
flushed and all of them killed. We patted ourselves on 
the back and Henry said that he was glad we came and 
that we had had sport enough to pay for a whole after- 
noon of tramping, and the other fellow said he had for- 
gotten all his troubles. Just think of it! A couple of 
old fellows, more than sixty years old, getting as crazy 
over it as a boy over the first rabbit his pup caught. 
They did not find any more birds that day, but they 
came home in mighty high spirits, and planning for an- 
oHier round with the birds. 
Henry said the section boss had several times seen 
a nice bunch along the track about two miles south of 
tOAvn, so next day these two old boys went after them 
and found them without trouble. They didn’t loosen a 
feather when the birds flushed, but they were marked 
down in the woods and along the railroad track. At 
the end of half an hour’s search they had flushed eight 
of them, killing five, each man missing one bird and one 
getting away without being shot at. These went back 
near where they were flushed but were a good deal 
scattered, but persistent hunting by men and dog finally 
flushed them all,r and all of tlrem were killed, making a 
total bag of nine. There Avere not more than three or 
four of them left, and Henry said that was close enough 
to kill them off. So the shooters struck out a mile or 
so to the west where there was some good looking 
ground. Over there they found a covey of rather small 
ones and got one when they flushed, but had bad luck 
with the rest of them, as they only flushed two, missing 
one and failing to get a shot at the other one. Henry 
says he has spotted three more bunches and it won’t 
be long before these two old boys will be after them. 
They go rather sly about it; don’t go parading along 
the street and stopping to tell everybody how many 
they killed. Henry says everybody says there are no 
quail, and it won’t hurt them to keep on thinking so. 
If it had been thirty years ago, these fellows would 
have been out again early the next morning; but as it 
was, they didn’t go again for three days, and meanwhile 
somebody had sneaked the dog out and must have had 
a time with him. He came home so lame and tired 
that he could scarcely get along. He had got pretty 
well rested when the two old boys went out with him 
two days later, but didn’t seem to have anything on 
his mind but to run, and he did for two hours; but at 
last happened to find a covey of quail in time to point 
them before they flushed. One bird fell when the covey 
got up, but the dog seemed to prefer live ones. At any 
rate he chased them when they flew, and it was almost 
impossible to get him to hunt the dead one. In fact, 
he didn’t seem to think killing quail was the business in 
hand; and hunting singles was entirely too slow for 
him. He seemed to think he was under contract to 
cover forty acres in forty minutes. Four of the flushed 
birds were marked down in a clover field and the rest 
of them, about half a dozen, came down along a bushy 
old fence row. Four of these were flushed by tramping 
almost every square foot of the cover along the fence, 
but persistent tramping failed to get the rest of them. 
Those that were flushed had to be almost stepped on 
before they would fly. The four that got up were safely 
bagged. 
Meanwhile the dog was doing his utmost to win his 
stunt of forty acres in forty minutes and happened to 
get within eighteen inches of one of the birds in the 
clover, and held his point till the men got there. It 
was Henry’s turn for a shot, and he doubtless would 
have killed if his first barrel had not snapped, which 
rattled him so he missed with the second. The bird 
went out of sight over the hill with the dog a close 
second. Then the men made some remarks that were 
rather derogatory to guns that snapped, and dogs that 
chased quail clear out of sight. As he was a borrowed 
dog, -they did not feel at liberty to take severe measures 
to correct him, both of them expressed a desire to own 
him for just fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes were put 
in trying to tramp up the other three quail which were 
known to be in the clover, but could not raise a 
feather till the dog came back and ran over one about 
thirty feet behind Henry, who failed to get a shot at it. 
The firtding of any more of these birds seeming hope- 
less, they went half a mile to a patch of brushy woods 
which was reported to be the home of two coveys. The 
dog found a rabbit in a corn shock, rousted it and ran 
a mile, here, there and everywhere. He seemed to think 
now, that he had finished his forty minutes stunt, and 
settled down to try to find some birds. He soon found 
a hot trail and followed it carefully and slowly for more 
than a hundred yards, then lost it and began circling 
about in anxious haste, trying to pick up the trail again, 
but it was no good. It was plain that the birds had 
taken wing. At the end of half an hour, the dog pointed 
[Dec. 9, 1905, 
in a fallen treetop, lying in a thicket. Henry got tAA'O 
Avhen they came out, but the rest got safely away, scat- 
tering badly. There was a large amount of leg energy 
expended in trying to tramp the scattered ones out of 
the brush heaps and five were rousted, but only three 
of them Avere bagged. The cover was too thick for 
good shooting. It Avas now nearly sundown and tAvo 
miles lay between the shooters and home. An effort 
Avas made to find something to shoot as they walked 
for home, but not even a rabbit was seen. On the 
whole, though, these two old fellows unanimously vot 
that they had had a great time and decided that abom 
day after to-mOrrow afternoon they Avould be at it again. 
The bags made have been small, but when it is re- 
membered that they Avere made in a section where quail 
are supposed to be practically extinct, and are, in fact, 
so few that a person not acquainted with the country 
would hardly 'find a covey once in two days, they think 
they did well, and feel that the recreation has been 
profitable to them. Some others have been benefited, 
too, for more than half the quail bagged have been 
given to sick people, and the heartfelt thanks which 
have been given the donors, leave no doubt about the 
birds having done the sick ones some good. These two 
old fellows find that their views on shooting matters 
have changed considerably since they were real boys. 
At that period of their lives, the sole thought was to 
kill, kill; and if there. wasn’t a lot of killing there wasn’t 
much sport in it. In those days, going shooting was 
not a release from the cares that burden older people, 
for there were no cares loading down the boyish mind, 
but to the man of mature years there is always a load 
of care and responsibility, which make a burden that 
must at times be laid off for a rest, or the man finally 
becomes a mere beast of burden, and for the man who 
loves the .sports of the field, there is nothing that will 
so completely make him forget his troubles as a tramp 
afield where there is reasonable expectation of at least 
some game. O. H. Hampton. 
Indiana. 
Minnesota Moose Woods* . 
Nilwood, 111 ., Nov. 29 ,.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
November 19 I returned from a two weeks’ visit with 
old hunting companions in Minnesota. The non-resi- 
dent license law made it impracticable for me to do any 
hunting, and I would have returned home after a week’s 
visit, but those companions of numerous hunting trips 
pleaded with me to stay and go with them on the trip 
they were going to take and act as guide for them in the 
new country they would hunt in. This I agreed to do, 
providing they would let me choose the place. This 
being satisfactory to them, I at once made a prospect- 
ing trip and the first day located an abandoned lumber 
camp, the office building of which was still standing 
and in good repair, about two miles from Skibo Sta- 
tion on the D. & I. R. R. R. 
I did not take long to satisfy myself that there was 
game in the immediate vicinity — both moose and deer. 
Accordingly, on the 7th, S. and myself took the train 
at Bewabik for Skibo, leaving M. to follow on the 8th. 
We spent the days until the loth packing in our stuff, 
arranging things about the camp and getting plenty of 
wood for the time we would be there. The evening 
of the 9th found us all ready to take to the hunting the 
next morning. 
According to orders, I was up and had breakfast for 
them at 6 A. M., and at 6:30 we left camp. Giving M. 
general instructions as to direction and the most likely 
place to find game, I took S. under my wing and, for 
the first time in my experience as a hunter, hunted 
without a gun. 
We had worked nearly all our territory and Avere on 
tlie way across a rocky ridge to a large spruce swamp, 
where we intended to try and locate a moose; when 
about half way up the ridge, we came across the tracks 
of a moose. They appeared to be fresh, and Ave con- 
cluded to do our best to follow them. This ryas sIoav 
work, as the ground was frozen; but after going about 
a hundred yards they led into a swampy place, where 
the tracks showed up plain. We had not gone far in 
the swamp when we found that there were three moose, 
and frorii' indications they had gone into the sAvamp to 
spend the day. Our progress was necessarily slow, and 
Ave were very cautious in our movements, taking great 
care to make no noise and fully expecting to jump 
th^m at any moment. . The wind was in our favor, and 
unless they turned to our right, they would not get 
scent. 
Contrary to our expectations they were not in the 
swamp, but had gone on through and into a place 
where the spring fires had deadened a lot of small 
popples. After they quit the swamp, we abandoned the 
trail and worked straight up through the popple thicket. 
When we got to the edge of the thicket we sarv a nice ! 
young bull moose standing on the top of a little knoll 
about sixty yards distant. He had no horns to speak 
of, but as S. afterward remarked, “We wanted meat, 
not horns,” and he immediately fired and got the first 
moose of the season. The moose did not fall dead, but 
gave a great bound and stopped, standing with his feet 
wide apart and breathing with such a great effort that 
we could plainly hear him. S. prepared to give him 
another shot, but I advised waiting, as the poor fellow 
was about “all in” anyway. 
While we waited, a full-groAvn cow and her calf 
walked out of the brush and stood within fifty yards 
of us, looking at the dying bull. It was about three 
minutes before he fell, and when he did the coav and 
calf walked up to him and stood quite still. We then 
went straight toward them and were not particular as 
to the amount of noise we made. They did not seem 
to notice us until we were within about twenty yards 
of them, and not then until I spoke and admonished 
them to leave there before we were tempted beyond 
our strength. Of* course I could do them no damage, 
but S. said it was all he could do to let that calf go. 
When I spoke, the cow looked around and saw us 
coming and trotted away over the knoll into another 
swamp. 
We first measured the great beast and found that he 
was six feet from the bottom of the hoof to the top 
of the shoulder, and eight feet from the back of his 
