688 
FOREST AND STREAM 
made no movement, but his fishing operations 
were instantly suspended and he kept his big 
wild eyes fixed on mine without an apparent 
motion of his long, lithe body. 
“Just then the hunting passion seized upon 
me, and I thought what a wonderful exploit it 
would be if I could kill or capture that splendid 
thing, defenseless as I was. Talk about your 
mind reading! That panther knew just what 
had come into my head, for he instantly as¬ 
sumed a crouching posture and turned his head 
once to see if his back track was clear. 
“My resolve was to get hold of a smooth, 
round quartz boulder, throw it with all my force 
at the panther’s head, stun him, knock him into 
the deep, dark pool, and finish the ‘varmint' 
with another stone as he arose from the depths 
and floated down stream. Quite an unusual war 
program, you will admit, for an humble follower 
of the gentle craft sitting there with a fish pole. 
There is Indian blood in me—my grandmother 
was a Mohawk—and it is possible that I in¬ 
herited the instinct that told me what to do, 
should fortune favor my plan. I had no desire 
to have this cat, his sister, mother or vicious 
sire, drop from some overhanging limb upon 
the head and shoulders of some member of our 
party, inside the next two or three weeks. Full 
of my plan to rid the forest of this beautiful 
yet dangerous animal, I began to dissemble, by 
feigning unconsciousness of his presence, looking 
up into tree tops, upon the brook or down at 
my feet, for a change. Every side glance, how¬ 
ever, always found those suspicious, searching, 
wild eyes fixed upon mine, not exactly in hate, 
but in wonder, as if the animal could not figure 
out what it was there at the end of his log 
bridge on the bank twenty feet away. 
“With great care I bent slightly forward, took 
up a stone resembling a base ball in size, and 
quietly resumed my former position. Then, I 
gradually felt for a place to set my feet firmly, 
preparing for a straight ball, for I am almost 
a professional pitcher and can put a sphere over 
the ‘plate’ as if thrown from a catapault. The 
panther allowed me even to stand up, without 
any movement on his part, but, as I swung my 
strong right for delivery, that stone caught his 
watchful eye, and whist! with a dodging side¬ 
spring and half side-somersault, he flung him¬ 
self out of the stone’s course and was out of 
sight in an instant. 
“Oh, if that good stone had only struck what 
I aimed at! Well, you can just imagine my 
condition. I was so weak with excitement that 
I could hardly stand, and it took me half an 
hour to recover. There was no more fishing 
that day, and my wife and companions remarked 
that I did not look very well. 
“About nightfall the next day Xavier returned 
with all sorts of good things to eat and we had 
a feast lasting up to ten o’clock—a very late 
hour for campers, who generally arose around 
four and had a quick breakfast. 
“As we had no ice-box or cold spring near 
camp, we stored our fresh beef and salt pork 
in a hole dug down deep to a cool bedrock un¬ 
der the men’s part of the open shack, and stoned 
up the sides with cobbles, taking the precaution 
to drag a heavy camp chest over the opening. 
This box was inside the structure and right by 
our pillows. In fact, the meat was almost un¬ 
der our heads as we slept. 
“Next morning Xavier aroused me, wild with 
excitement, saying in his quaint dialect: ‘Ole 
Bar come las’ night, him. He deeg from hout- 
side under our haid and carry hof pork. She 
leaf dat bit, dough. She ’fraid mak noise, her.’ 
“ ‘Xave,’ I said, ‘let’s go after that bear. Per¬ 
haps he is hanging around somewhere near.’ 
We grabbed a couple of rifles and started off, 
circling about the camp where lay our sleeping 
companions, all unconscious of the visit of a 
400 or 500-pound black bear, whose weight, 
height and gender my guide, with the rare in¬ 
stinct given by his Indian ancestry, had already 
fixed to his own satisfaction. Pretty soon from 
a rocky ledge there came the whistle of a hawk. 
It was Xavier’s ‘come’ signal, and I rushed to¬ 
ward it. ‘See dere, M’sieu; de ole bar she 
skint hout de beeg grease-griddle for de camp.’ 
Sure enough, there upon a big, flat stone was 
spread most evenly, just like a luncheon cloth, 
the great, brown paper that had formerly held 
our much-prized pork. Upon it, and exactly in 
the middle, lay the skin of an entire side of 
pork, perfectly clean of all meat. All else had 
been devoured by the hungry visitor. At sight 
of all this, we both fell to laughing, notwith¬ 
standing our keen disappointment at the loss of 
what was an absolute essential in camp life. 
“I never told the people about that panther 
episode, but Xavier and I always escorted the 
ladies on berrying or fishing excursions after 
that eventful meeting. 
“Later, that very fall, an old panther and two 
half-grown cubs gave three guides and a party 
of us hunters a big scare one night in a remote 
part of the North Woods, but that’s another 
story. Next time you catch me in the den, 
chez mot or at the club, perhaps I’ll tell all about 
it. 
“As Xavier would express it, this very night 
up at Boreas River, near the Tom Andrew 
Clearing, were we to drop in at his hospitable 
fireside, ‘Ba oui; two, tree panthaire hin de 
woots. I know me.’ 
Let’s us settle it right now. What’s the 
matter with our taking that Adirondack panther 
hunt that we’ve been planning for the last three 
years? It’s time that we got one of their skins. 
Of course, they are as shy as partridges, but I 
am sure, if we will only Stick right to it and 
get that Canuck to help us out, that we can 
‘get’, this very fall, perhaps, the last pair of 
‘painters’ in the State, and rid the country final¬ 
ly of these cowardly brutes. 
“And, say, old man, shall we keep our rifles 
in camp this season out that way, ‘Even in Sim¬ 
mer Time When Daysies Blaw.’ W’at you tink? 
Yes?” 
SYNOPSIS OF JERSEY FISH AND GAME. 
The New Jersey Board of Fish and Game 
Commissioners has just issued a synopsis of all 
acts of the last Legislature relating to fish and 
game. The announcement is made in the form 
of a bulletin, which says: “Below will be found 
changes made in the laws, all of which are now 
in effect with the exception of the new hunting 
and fishing license law, which will not go into 
effect until January 1, 1915.” The bulletin 
further says that “until January 1, 1915, hunt¬ 
ing licenses will be issued by authority of the 
laws under which they have been issued in the 
past and in the same manner.” 
Reference is made to the amended laws as 
follows: 
“Makes close season on wild turkeys for five 
years; provides that all pound net licenses shall 
expire December 31; provides that all menhaden 
licenses shall expire December 31, and makes 
the penalty for violation $500; makes close sea¬ 
son for net fishing in the Mullica River from 
March 1 to November 15; prohibits persons un¬ 
der 14 years of age from taking out a resident 
hunter’s license; prohibits all spearing and erec¬ 
tion of all eel weirs in fresh waiters; permits 
50-fathom gill nets and hauling seines to be 
used in the Delaware River and Bay between 
Delaware and New Jersey, from March x to 
December 31, for the purpose of taking feed 
fish and white and yellow perch; skunk, mink, 
muskrat and otter may be taken by being trapped 
in all parts of the state from November 15 to 
April 1, excepting in Salem County above Mill 
Creek, where it is lawful to kill such animals 
between those dates. 
Makes a close season on female English or 
ring-necked pheasants for five years, except on 
game preserves duly licensed by the Fish and 
Game Commissioners; prohibits baiting or de¬ 
coying of wild water fowl in any salt or fresh 
waters, with exception of wild celery and wild 
rice; prohibits use of hauling seines beneath 
the ice in salt water; prohibits dogs from run¬ 
ning at large, except during the open season 
for killing quail, rabbit, squirrel, English or 
ring-necked pheasants. 
The following information is given concern¬ 
ing the new hunting and fishing act: “All 
licenses must be obtained from county or munici¬ 
pal clerk or salaried fish and game warden, and 
these licenses entitle holders, who are residents 
of the United States and above the age of 14 
years, to hunt with firearms and to fish. These 
licenses are known as ‘Resident Hunting and 
Fishing Licenses.’ No license to fish is required 
of resident females or males under 14 years of 
age. 
“Non-resident and alien males and females 
above the age of 14 years must secure a ‘Non- 
Residents and Aliens’ Hunting and Fishing 
License,’ in order to hunt any protected or un¬ 
protected wild bird, animal or fowl, which license 
also entitle the holder to fish. No license to 
fish is required of non-resident and alien females, 
or non-resident and alien males under 14 years. 
No license is required to hunt or fish by owners 
of farms or their families on land owned by 
them, but employes living on such places are 
not exempt from the law in these respects.” 
FYKE NETS SEIZED. 
Four valuable fyke nets were taken from 
Cayuga lake in New York State, recently and 
burned on the shore probably before the very 
eyes of their owners. Special Game Protector C. 
A. Hurd did the work, protected by two mem¬ 
bers of the Cayuga County Fish and Game Club. 
The lake was dragged near Bridgeport, and four 
large fyke nets caught. The fish in the nets 
were liberated, and the nets taken ashore and 
burned. A curious crowd, some members of 
which were much enraged because of the activity 
of the protector, viewed his work from the 
shore. Netting in Cayuga Lake has been pro¬ 
hibited by the Conservation Commission. 
