Aug. 4, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
1 77 
ing. Down on your knees everybody!” We 
all crouched down and waited. He was com¬ 
ing very fast. We could hear his antlers strike 
the branches. He would grunt as he came 
along, and occasionally he would call; then 
he would stop and paw the ground. When he 
got quite close, Dan stopped calling, and soon 
I saw the top of his antlers back of a log as 
he crossed the hollow below us. I do not 
know whether I was afraid or not, but I 
wanted that moose to come out. He came up 
almost to the trail, but stopped behind a clump 
of small pine trees about thirty yards from 
where I was. I could just see the top of his 
antlers, but could not see any of his body, and 
fired one shot at a guess. I then ran forward 
on the trail, threw another shell in the cham¬ 
ber and came upon him in the open just as he 
was turning to run. I fired, hitting him just 
back of the left shoulder. He stumbled and 
pitched forward, but did not go down. I saw 
a puff of steam come from his side, but did 
not know what it meant. I threw another'shell 
in the chamber, but I never thought to shoot 
again. I called, ’'He’s hit! He’s hit!” and 
just stood there waiting for him to fall. It 
never occurred to me to shoot again, till he 
had disappeared in the woods. Then I started 
after him as fast as I could, but he seemed 
so entirely lost, and I could get through the 
woods so slowly, that I handed my gun to 
Archy and told him to kill the moose, for it 
was hurt. The moose had gone about seventy- 
five yards when he fell, and the Doctor ran up 
to within a few feet of him. The moose got 
up and turned on the Doctor, and he raised 
his rifle and fired, striking the lower edge of 
an antler. With head lowered, the moose was 
trying to come on, and the Doctor fired again, 
hitting him in the side. I came up just then 
and gave him another shell. Great puffs of 
steam were coming out of his side, and it 
looked so dreadful, I could not bear to see it. 
I turned away, put my hands over my face, 
sat down behind a tree, and told the Doctor 
to kill him quickly. I was so sorry he was 
dead I could scarcely keep back the tears. 
He was such a big animal. He seemed so 
harmless and we had fooled him. When he 
quick kicking, I went over and patted him 
saying, ‘‘Poor old fellow;” then the Doctor and 
the guides laughed at me. 
We went back to where I had stood when 
I fired the second shot at the moose. Dan 
stepped off the distance, and found I had been 
only eleven yards away. I had fired -three 
shots at the moose from my .303 Savage, only 
two of which had taken effect. The antlers 
were very brown, with sixteen points and a 
spread of forty-one inches. The moose was 
very black, and had what the guides called a 
muffle bell. It could not have been more than 
fifteen minutes from the time we first heard 
him till he was lying dead. It was early in 
the morning, and we were not more than a 
mile from camp. The color and shape of the 
antlers, and the color of the moose was so 
much like the one I might have shot on Harris 
Lake, we thought it must certainly be the 
same moose. While the guides were skinning 
it, a bull with a fair head came to within 
fifty yards of where we were, then hurried 
off. Long before the moose was skinned my 
feelings underwent a complete change. I was 
so glad I had gotten my moose. 
The weather was very cold that night, but 
the next day was beautiful. The guides brought 
in the hide and put things in shape, as we 
were to start out in the morning. The team 
and two riding horses came in that afternoon. 
A supply of wood was brought in and a fire 
was built in front of our tent. Dan and 
Archy took turns in replenishing the fire 
through the night, keeping our tent nice and 
warm. In the morning, after breakfast, we 
packed up and hit the home trail. 
The weather was fine. The forests were in 
holiday attire. It was color, color, color every¬ 
where. The floor of the forest was covered 
with a low growth of maple and moose wood, 
which was gorgeous in red, yellow and green, 
while the maple, birch and beech trees formed 
an equally gorgeous canopy overhead. As we 
rode slowly along, above the low bushes, we 
MY FIRST MOOSE. 
seemed to move through a sea of color. I was 
getting over some of my fear of a horse, and 
enjoyed the ride out very much. 
We reached Holt’s early on the afternoon of 
Oct. 3. We had been in the woods twenty 
days—four of them were spent on the trail— 
leaving us sixteen days to hunt. We had 
seen thirty-four moose, eight of which were 
bulls over two years old. The Doctor got 
his moose the second day we hunted, and I 
got mine on the fifteenth day. We had had a 
delightful time. Our guides could not have 
done better or been more considerate. There 
had not been one cross word or look, and I 
had not hoodooed Dan’s camp. 
We went to the top of the hill above Holt’s 
house for a last look at that wonderful forest 
which had been so green when we went in. 
“But lo, up the reach of the hills, where the trees bid 
the zephyrs to hush, 
A picture is painted anew by ’ a marvelous, mystical 
brush. 
And the glory of summer is gone—the blossoms and 
birds and the glow— 
But the forests are tinted again in hues that the master 
minds know; 
The hills that are dimmned in the mist, change softly to 
blue and to brown, 
And leaves that are shimmering gems, float silently, 
silently down. 
The aisles of the forest are wide, the walls of the forest 
are high— 
The temple is garnished anew with the glory of earth and 
of sky.” A. W. C. 
Pennsylvania. 
Alligator Hides. 
The Shoe and Leather Reporter says that the 
consumption of alligator leather is greater now 
than ever before, the output of tanneries in 
America being approximately 280,000 hides an¬ 
nually, worth about $450,000. There are several 
distinct varieties of the alligator hides on the 
market, the most important being the Floridian, 
Louisianian, and Mexican, which differ from the 
others in certain well-defined characteristics of 
scales, and owing to the differences each variety 
has its. special use. Fifty-six per cent, of the 
hides used in the United States are furnished 
by Mexico and Central America, twenty-two per 
cent, by Florida, twenty per cent, by Louisiana, 
and three per cent, by the other Gulf States. 
There are practically no South American alliga¬ 
tor hides exported to this country. The quantity 
of alligators has greatly decreased in all of the 
Southern States, and it seems only a question of 
a few years when it will be impossible to obtain 
the hides at a price that will warrant their em¬ 
ployment in the manufacture of leather. Thou¬ 
sands of the reptiles have been slaughtered merely 
for sport, no use whatever having been made of 
them. It is estimated that the number of alliga¬ 
tors in Louisiana at present is at least thirty per 
cent, less than twenty years ago. 
The Automatic Gun. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your correspondent's letter concerning the 
automatic shotgun, in the issue of July 7, is cer¬ 
tainly very sensible and fair in spirit. May 1 
call attention, however, to what appears to me 
to be erroneous in his argument? 
He says that the fact that game has increased 
rapidly in some districts coincidently with the 
introduction of improved weapons is not con¬ 
clusive (that game protection can be effective 
when more deadly weapons are used). Anyone 
who is familiar with the facts, knows that as to 
those particular districts and weapons, the results 
are conclusive. Of course they could not be con¬ 
clusive as to other districts and other weapons, 
but assuredly they should have great weight in 
the consideration of the question of legislating 
against the automatic shotgun. 
Those who are opposing the use of this gun 
seem to assume that when they have proved 
what no one should deny—that the automatic is 
more deadly than present weapons—they have 
made their case. In reality, this is of very minor 
importance. Every advancement in firearms has 
been and must be in ease and rapidity of opera¬ 
tion, making the weapons more deadly. The real 
question is the effective protection of game under 
the law. 
I cannot agree that “no principle is violated 
by prohibiting the use of the automatic gun.” Can 
anyone point to a single instance where the use 
of an improved weapon has been prohibited? To 
compare the more perfect and more convenient 
arm (which sportsmen are always seeking and 
which adds largely to the pleasure of hunting) 
to the swivel gun or other gun of excessive 
caliber, is to shut our eyes to the clearest dis¬ 
tinctions. I predict that these distinctions will 
not be ignored by the legislatures of the various 
States, even though they may be by sentimenta¬ 
lists, and that the legitimate use of a superior 
gun, shooting standard hunting ammunition, will 
not be prohibited. * * * 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I believe this gun is here to stay, not be¬ 
cause it is a deadlier gun to the game, but be¬ 
cause of the many advantages over the old 
double-barrel guns in the ease of handling, the 
reduced recoil and the shells kept in reserve for 
wounded birds. 
In the issue of Forest and Stream of July 14, 
Mr. Geo. Kennedy says, “It is not that the 
slaughter gun gets so many more birds, but that 
it kills so many more that are not gotten.” 
I disagree with Mr. Kennedy there. I have 
myself personally seen wounded ducks escape, 
when I was shooting from a blind, because of 
the empty double guns of the shooters. This 
is where a repeater and the reserve shells come 
into use. 
Any true sportsman can use the automatic 
the same as a double gun, and there is the 
pleasure of having a superior gun which loads 
itself and has so many advantages. 
How many of you hunters have had your 
sport spoiled by a severe headache caused by 
the recoil of the old gun? I will admit the 
double-barrel was all right in its time, but its 
time is over, the same as the muzzleloader. 
A Modern Sportsman. 
American Guns Popular in India. 
Consul-General William H. Michael, of Cal¬ 
cutta, writes: American manufactured arms and 
rifles are preferred in India to those manufact¬ 
ured anywhere else. Even the British soldier 
who by good behavior has won a “shooting pass” 
-—that is, the privilege of going into the jungles 
to hunt—invariably uses a .45 or .50 caliber 
American made rifle. Only recently a crack com¬ 
pany of a noted British regiment was transferred 
from Calcutta to another post where good hunt¬ 
ing abounds. Before leaving, they purchased 
every American rifle of suitable caliber for large 
game to be had in Calcutta. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
