Oct. 6, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
535 
hunters complain, too. They are not asking 
damages, but say their dogs leave fox trails and 
follow the deer, much to their annoyance and 
detrimental to the sport. 
In Massachusetts and Connecticut the farmers 
may obtain redress from the state for ruined 
crops; but in little Rhode Island there is no 
other course than to build deer-proof fences or 
take the consequences. Deer have increased 
wonderfully, they having practically none of 
their hereditary enemies to contend with, and 
realizing their safety from man. with only stray 
dogs to annoy them now and then, it is not to 
be wondered at that they hover about garden 
patches and orchards. Perhaps there is more 
truth than will be admitted generally in the fol¬ 
lowing comment on the situation by the Wor¬ 
cester Gazette: 
“Happily, the wail of the farmers and orchard- 
ists of Connecticut and Massachusetts is not 
entirely one of grief and despair. Indeed, it 
is suspected that the jolly farmer is not desper¬ 
ately anxious to have the law against deer 
shooting declared off. A beneficent provision 
of the law is that any farmer who suffers damage 
to his crops by reason of deer appetite may re¬ 
cover the value of his crops from the state. As 
it is somewhat less trouble to have crops eaten 
on the ground and paid for by the state than to 
market the stuff, it is obvious that there is a 
reason for the popularity of the deer laws. In 
any event, it is noticeable that the farmers are 
not asking too strenuously for the abolition of 
the anti-deer-shooting law.” 
The situation is not without its humorous side. 
It is even hinted that the deer nuisance is turned 
into profit by shrewd New ' Englanders who 
realize that summer boarders like to be near 
wild life, if possible, when assured of the ab¬ 
sence of danger. And he who can promise his 
guests that they can see “wild deer” every day, 
needs no press agent. In Rhode Island the 
state is among the losers to its pet deer, which 
are accused of invading the lands of the state 
college at Kingston and despoiling fruit trees. 
The Country Hunter Wants All. 
Wilmington, N. C., Sept. 29. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Game is steadily on the decrease 
in these parts, and unless some stringent 
methods are adopted, our fields will be feather¬ 
less and our forests furless in less than another 
decade. The existing laws amount to almost 
nothing, as we have no game wardens or any 
one else to see to their enforcement. The city 
shooter is the only one who observes the game 
law; the country man hunts when he pleases, 
and pleases to do most of it during the closed 
season, “before,” as he puts it, “the guy from the 
city comes out and kills the last patridge in the 
flock.” 
It is a wonder how the deer have survived so 
long. The country man starts hunting in July 
or August or the very first day he can spare 
from his farm, and hunts every day he can from 
then until he either has to go to work on the 
farm again in spring, or until he can find no 
more deer. The wild turkey is the only game 
bird not on the decrease. Almost any forest 
with upward of forty acres contains from ten to 
thirty turkeys, and is likely to contain them for 
years to come, as they are generally too wily 
for any but a born turkey-hunter to even see, 
much less shoot. The city shooter would be 
satisfied with the present laws if they could be 
enforced. The country men are already satis¬ 
fied with them because they keep the urbanites 
away until the country man has had his gorge. 
In other words, the average country man con¬ 
tends that he should be allowed to kill anything 
wild on his own lands at any time he chooses. 
J. A. McIntire. 
Vermont Deer. 
Vermont deer attain a high average weight, 
judging from the official returns just made public 
by Commissioner Thomas. During the open 
season of 1905 nearly 500 deer were killed in 
the state by sportsmen, and the average weight 
for that number was 198 pounds. Windsor and 
Rutland counties were the most popular for deer 
hunting. 
Minnesota Caribou Horns. 
Nilwood, Ill., Sept. 24.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: 1 spent the winter of 1893 in the woods 
in northeastern Minnesota. Although a long 
one, the winter was passed pleasantly. There 
were three of us in a good claim cabin. We set 
three lines of traps that took us all our time 
to look after. 
On March 9 I took my rifle and went on an 
expedition to locate a new line where fur was 
more plentiful, and to see if I could get some 
meat for our larder. I took a northerly direc¬ 
tion. intending to cross the Whiteface river near 
its head waters, going from there to Seven 
Beavers lake. 
About a mile from the cabin in an open spruce 
swamp I ran into a herd of caribou. They did 
not seem to care much about me being among 
them, and I took my time in looking at them, as 
they were the first I had ever seen alive. They 
had evidently never seen a man, for I was with¬ 
in a hundred feet of the nearest one, and none 
of them were over 300 feet away. I noticed one 
MINNESOTA CARIBOU HORNS. 
that was almost white and which I took to be 
a young one, on account of its size, it being 
much smaller than any of the others. I was 
about to make it a contribution to the larder, 
when quite a large gray old fellow, with his 
antlers still on, came poking out of a clump of 
small spruce near the edge of the swamp. When 
he caught sight of me, he stopped, threw up 
his head.and sized me up in a great way. 
When I saw the antlers, I concluded that the 
little fellow could go and grow up to be a big 
one, and that those antlers would be mine, even 
if the meat was tough. It was no trouble to hit 
so large a target at such a range, and the game 
fell at my first fire. The others began to trot 
around in a confused manner, making no effort 
to get out of sight. I counted twenty of them 
before they got out of sight, and am positive 
that there were several I did not get. I then 
dressed the meat and went back home. When I 
told the other fellows about it. they laughed at 
me for claiming the one I killed had his antlers, 
and that there was any such number of them in 
the bunch; but they changed their laugh to ex¬ 
pressions of surprise the next morning when 
they saw the tracks and the antlers. 
I have the antlers yet. The hide I had tanned 
by an Indian who did not do a good job, as 
it began shedding the hair in a year or so and 
finally was thrown away. I am sending with 
this a photograph of the antlers. I have never 
seen a set anything like them, except on a rein¬ 
deer, and all who have seen them, say they never 
saw caribou horns like them. J. P. B. 
A Simple Repair Outfit. 
Every druggist has on sale little tin boxes 
containing strips of adhesive plaster in various 
lengths and widths. Ostensibly this plaster is 
for cuts, scratches and other injuries to the 
human cuticle, and very useful it is for the pur¬ 
pose. But the discerning sportsman finds it 
equally useful for many emergencies that cannot 
be classed as human ills, and if he is careful he 
will not neglect to keep one of the boxes in 
his ditty bag or tackle box. Like many patent 
medicines, it is a sort of cure-all. A corre¬ 
spondent of Forest and Stream recently told 
how his party went on a trip with a completely 
equipped emergency medicine kit, which was not 
opened until, on the way home, the axles of the 
wagon Called for grease and would not be still 
until the vaseline bottle was taken from the 
medicine kit and the axles anointed with its 
contents. The writer holds that that kit was a 
complete success. It served a useful purpose 
and could not be classed as so much useless 
dead weight to be carried or pawed over during 
the owner’s vacation. 
Let us see what can be done with the drug¬ 
gist’s sticky tape. Sonnj one may claim that 
ordinary adhesive tape such as electricians and 
bicycle riders carry in rolls will be better, but 
the writer does not think so, for the medicated 
tape has curative properties not possessed by 
the cheaper kind, and as it comes in a tight tin 
box, will not come into contact with substances 
that might infect a flesh wound. 
A broken fishing rod tip can be repaired with 
the tape and a bit of thread, fine silk preferred; 
and if the hand-grasp slips in the hand in cast¬ 
ing, a couple of spiral turns of the tape im¬ 
prove it greatly. 
On a canoe trip a hole may be cut in the 
canvas skin of the canoe, but if the edges are 
pressed down and tapped lightly with a knife 
handle or smooth stone and a strip of tape ap¬ 
plied, then coated with shellac if there happens 
to be any in the outfit, or the wax from a candle 
if not, the place should be watertight. This 
operation should take place in the warm sun¬ 
light to be most successful. 
An accidental puncture 'in an air mattress—a 
thing that seldom happens but may occur on a 
rough trip—is quickly closed by a piece of the 
tape, and air boat cushions come under the 
same head. 
Rubber and other ponchos, jackets and similar 
waterproofs, and waterproof duffle-bags are 
easily repaired if a rent or puncture occurs. 
The writer, in making camp one day, acci¬ 
dentally jammed his tent-pole through a thin 
twill tent near the peak, leaving a V-shaped hole 
that gave promise of leakage as well as ventila¬ 
tion. Sewing up the rent would have been a 
waste of time, for the shape of the rent de¬ 
manded a patch and careful sewing. No patch 
material being handy, as an experiment he tried 
the cure-all tape, placing one patch horizontally 
inside the tent, and another one vertically out¬ 
side, pressing each one, and the goods, into 
close contact by means of a camp plate. Then 
he resumed his occupation of resting and specu¬ 
lated on what would happen when rain fell. 
Nothing happened, for the patches stuck to¬ 
gether like two postage stamps on a damp day 
in camp, and are still holding their own. 
A rifle or gunstock accidentally broken at the 
tang can be repaired temporarily with tape if a 
thin splint of green hickory, maple or birch is 
laid along each side before winding. And a 
broken canoe paddle can be rendered as good as 
new by similar means, but in this case three or 
four thin splints should be used, their length 
exceeding by a couple of inches the break. ( hi 
a trip into the back woods a broken paddle 
means much to the sportsman, but there is a 
remedy. If the break is short, a supplementary 
winding with fishline is advisable. A dozen 
other emergencies when a bit of tape will come 
in handy might be mentioned, but these will 
suffice. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
