986 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 22, 1906. 
New England Sportsmen Meet. 
Boston, Dec. 15 .—Editor Forest and Stream: 
The Sportsman’s Protective Association of East¬ 
ern Massachusetts held its quarterly meeting and 
banquetted at the American House, Boston, on 
Friday evening the 14th instant. President 
Nowell occupied the chair. This is an exceed¬ 
ingly virile club, only two and a half years old, 
now numbering upward of 300 members. The 
first steps toward organization were taken by 
about a dozen sportsmen in Reading in March, 
1904, since which time its growth has been con¬ 
stant and rapid. 
President Nowell, after calling for order, re¬ 
viewed briefly the work which has been per¬ 
formed by the club along the lines of legislation, 
the stocking of covers w;ith quail and the plant¬ 
ing of fingerling trout in the streams. 
There were present about ninety members and 
several invited guests, a considerable attendance 
considering the fact that a large proportion of 
the members reside from fifteen to thirty miles 
from the “Hub.” They are scattered over more 
than thirty different towns, chiefly in the coun¬ 
ties of Middlesex and Essex. 
Dr. George W. Field, chairman of the State 
Fish and Game Commission, dwelt at some length 
upon the valuable influence of sportsmen’s clubs, 
especially in preventing violations of the laws, 
each member in a way, doing the work of a war¬ 
den. He said it was quite impossible for the 
commission with but sixteen paid deputies to 
properly cover the entire State in the enforce¬ 
ment of the laws. He also explained the situa¬ 
tion regarding the remnant of the heath hens on 
Martha’s Vineyard, mentioning the fact that they 
were numerous along the whole coast district of 
the State in the early history of the country as 
well as in New York and New Jersey, but that 
they had been all annihilated except about 100 
that now remain at the Vineyard and said the 
commissioners were making an effort to raise by 
voluntary contributions a sufficient sum of money 
($2,000) with which to purchase the land the 
birds now inhabit. He stated that considerable 
progress had already been made in that direc¬ 
tion. 
Ex-President J. R. Reed, of the State Associa¬ 
tion, entertained the members with a graphic ac¬ 
count of his experience in the Indian Territory 
and Oklahoma several years ago on a hunt for 
wild turkeys, and Dr. Morris, of the executive 
committee of the Massachusetts Fish and Game 
Protective Association, gave reminiscences of 
some of his moose hunting trips in Maine. His 
description of the erratic performances of a hunt¬ 
ing companion who had never been in a canoe 
before this trip and was also inexperienced in 
handling a gun, were exceedingly amusing. The 
Doctor has been in every hunting region in 
Maine, and this fall went into the section reached 
from Norcross. He said he had fine trout fish¬ 
ing the last two days of the open season. He saw 
quite a number of deer and some moose, mostly 
cows, calves and small bulls. He announced the 
opinion that large game in the State is far less 
plentiful than it was a few years ago, and he 
found birds very scarce. He was told by one of 
the drivers of a lumber team on a tote road that 
a woman, who was in camp near by, had “cleaned 
up” about all the birds along the road. A guide 
told him of finding in a cedar swamp the skele¬ 
tons of fifteen deer last winter which had evi¬ 
dently died from starvation, the trees having 
been denuded of everything within reach of the 
deer. . The scarcity of deer the Doctor attributes 
■to two cases, viz.: The greatly increased number 
of hunters and the lack of food. Your readers 
are aware that the receipts of deer at Bangor 
this year are less than those of last by more 
than 1,000. 
Mr. Reed and Dr. Morris were listened to 
with close attention, both having a remarkable 
faculty of relating their experiences. 
Among the guests present at the banquet were 
two senators elect, Hon. H. S. Riley, of Woburn, 
and Hon. J. W. Grimes, of Reading. Thirty new 
members were elected. The coming week will 
be a busy one for the State Association, a meet¬ 
ing of the board of management being called for 
Monday evening, an association meeting Wed¬ 
nesday afternoon, and a meeting of the legislative 
committee of the association and allied clubs on 
Friday evening. Nine clubs have already taken 
“club membership” in the State Association, 
and thus have a representation on the legis¬ 
lative committee of the Massachusetts Fish 
and Game Protective Association, viz.: The 
Fitchburg Rifle and Gun Club, The Sportsman’s 
Association of Eastern Massachussetts; Middle¬ 
sex Club, Georgetown Fish and Game Protective 
Association, Rockland Fish. Game and Gun Club, 
Lynn Fish and Game Protective Association, 
Lenox Fish and Game Association. Taunton Rod 
and Gun Club, and the North Brookfield Sports¬ 
man’s Association. H. H. Kimball. 
Climbing Mt. McKinley. 
At the annual dinner of the Explorers’ Club, 
held in New York, Friday, Dec. 7, Dr. Frederick 
A. Cook, of Brooklyn, told of the ascent of Mt. 
McKinley. 
The Explorers’ Club was organized more than 
a year ago by men who have been to new lands, 
and this was its first annual dinner. The meet¬ 
ing was presided over by Col. David L. Brainard, 
of arctic fame, the first vice-president of the 
club. Last spring Dr. Cook and Prof. H. C. 
•Parker, of Columbia, set out for Alaska to try 
to climb Mt. McKinley. During the summer they 
made many attempts, meeting only discourage¬ 
ment and disaster, and finally in August Prof. 
Parker was obliged to return to his work in the 
east. After his departure another effort was 
made, and by great good luck a ridge was found 
which after days of anxious work led the ex¬ 
plorers to the mountain’s summit. Dr. Cook is 
quoted as follows: 
“When we had worked upward through the 
foothills to a height of 5,000 feet we ran up 
against cliffs for 15,000 feet. There seemed to 
be no way of ever finding an opening. We made 
up our minds practically that the mountain 
couldn’t be climbed, so we spent weeks in ex¬ 
ploring a great glacier, collecting specimens and 
taking observations. During that exploration 
came the first bit of good luck. We found an old 
miners’ trail, long deserted, that ran for four 
miles in the direction we wanted to go. At the 
end of the trail we came upon a system of cari¬ 
bou trails which took us twelve miles further. 
“At that time we had no idea of making the 
summit and were ready to give up almost any 
day. We came to a cliff about 4,000 feet high 
and managed to find footholds on it. By night 
of the day we started to climb the cliff we had 
worked upward half the distance and had to 
stick for the night. Next morning we were un¬ 
decided whether to go ahead or tiirn back, but 
decided to go ahead, since we had gained so 
much. 
“All the time the seven of 11s were roped to¬ 
gether. Our supplies were of the slimmest. We 
had a small store of pemmican (dried beef and 
tallow), of small, hard biscuits, tea, sugar and 
pea soup. We made two meals a day, morning 
and evening. To make tea we had to' dig a little 
snow from the floor of our tent and it took two 
hours to melt the snow and get the water to a 
boiling point. The temperature at 18.000 feet was 
sixteen degrees below zero (the same as at the 
top of the mountain we found later)- and it 
seemed as if we would never be warm again. 
“To make things worse, the cans in which our 
wood alcohol, our fuel, were stored, leaked, and 
our tea and sugar got soaked. So we had to 
live partly on wood alcohol for most of the trip 
up the mountain. We were so terribly exhausted 
during the two or three, days before we got to 
the top that our hearts pumped terribly, and it 
seemed a frightful effort to lift one foot after 
the other. 
“At night we made camp wherever possible, 
making snow houses and wrapping ourselves up 
in our sleeping bags. Sometimes at night we 
had to kick each other and pummel ourselves 
with our fists to get even a measure of warmth. 
They were the most miserable days I ever spent 
or expect to spend. 
“It was 10:30 o’clock on the morning of Sept. 
16 when we finally gained the top. We were so 
worn out. so terribly exhausted, dizzy and numb 
in every faculty that not a man of us could really 
appreciate the glorious sight that unrolled be¬ 
fore us. In all we spent just twenty minutes on 
the summit, taking the temperature, getting our 
angles and doing other hurried scientific work.” 
Among the other speakers were Mr. Frank M. 
Chapman, of the American Museum of Natural 
History; Mr. Chas. H. Townsend, Director of 
the' Aquarium; Mr. M. H. Sayville, H. L. Bridge- 
man, and S. P. Vernon. 
Dr. Cook was elected president of the club. 
Michigan Deer. 
Saginaw, Mich., Dec. 7.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The following clipping is from this 
morning’s Saginaw paper: 
“Marquette, Mich., Dec. 6.—Approximately 12,- 
000 deer were killed in Michigan during the re¬ 
cent hunting season, according to figures partially 
compiled from express companies’ reports. Sixty- 
four hundred carcasses were transported by way 
of Mackinaw to lower Michigan, 2,600 were de¬ 
livered to upper peninsula points, and hundreds 
went south via the two Chicago lines. In addi¬ 
tion, hundreds of deer shot by upper peninsula 
hunters were brought in by wagon loads.” 
I do not know whether the figures are right or 
not, but I do know that the number of deer hun¬ 
ters in the woods this year in Michigan was start¬ 
ling. The law should be made so that no deer 
unless it wears horns should be killed, then limit 
the number, and making the season longer and 
enforcing the law take away a lot of the element 
of danger of being shot or shooting someone, and 
it would be protection to the deer. 
Ruffed grouse shooting in this part of the State 
has been good this year. More birds have been 
killed than in any two years before. While the 
prohibiting of market shooting has had a good 
deal to do with the increase, yet the mild winter 
a year ago and the good, dry spring for a breed¬ 
ing season probably had more to do with it. 
The Michigan law allows the shooting of twelve 
ruffed grouse per day and one must not have 
more than fifty in his possession at any one time, 
which is the means of some pot-hunters sending 
home fifty when they get the first batch and tak¬ 
ing the second fifty home with them. Fifty 
ruffed grouse in a season and twelve in a day 
is certainly enough for the greediest, unless he 
is doing business for the almighty dollar. 
W. B. Mershon. 
Hudson Bay Furs. 
Messrs. C. M. Lampson & Co., of London, Have 
just issued their November list of this year’s im¬ 
portations of fur by the Hudson’s Bay Co. The 
numbers for 1906 compare interestingly with those 
of the previous two years. 
1904. 
1905. 
1904. 
Badger . 
. 322 
510 
289 
Bear . 
. 4.705 
5,783 
’ 5,276 
Beaver . 
. 34,630 
54.013 
30,056 
Fisher . 
. 3,229 
3.010 
2,090 
Fox, silver . 
. 896 
942 
490 
Fox, cross . 
. 4,490 
4,988 
2.387 
Fox, red . 
. 10,200 
12.140 
7,181 
Fox, white . 
. 11.409 
6.346 
4.634 
Fvnx . 
. 56.611 
58,791 
36.028 
Marten . 
45.146 
35.579 
Mink . 
. 32.817 
59.863 
55.889 
Musquash . 
. 407,134 
695,070 
1,056,253 
Otter. ...'i. 
. 6,993 
10,570 
4.8S3 
Baccoon . 
. 600 
281 
404 
Skunk . 
. 11,430 
9,129 
6,090 
Wolf . 
. 2,771 
1.673 
1,196 
Wolverin . 
. 734 
504 
412 
New Hampshire Game. 
Charlestown. N. H., Dec. 13 . — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Trout fishing has been more suc¬ 
cessful .this summer, in this quarter, than for 
many years, not only in the number of trout 
taken, but in their increased size and weight. 
Deer are reported very plentiful, and are seen 
almost daily either singly or in bnnches of sev¬ 
eral. I hear nothing of the feathered game for 
there are very few bird dogs in this village. Gray 
squirrels have been fairly numerous. 
Von W. 
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