822 
FOREST AND STREAM 
very young he became an adept in the use of 
firearms, a skillful fisherman and an ingenious 
trapper. During later years he won a name 
for himself throughout the Adirondacks as an 
expert axeman; nor has this reputation suf¬ 
fered with the weight of three score summers. 
Indeed, he handles an axe to-day with an ease 
and grace that might well be envied, and 
drives home the blade at every stroke with 
a surety of aim and muscular dexterity en¬ 
livening to behold. 
Some time previous to the breaking out of 
the Civil War, Thomas Cary became engaged 
in the construction of a state road which ran 
from Lake Champlain to Sag Harbor. Not 
long after its completion, on Brandreth Lake 
—a secluded and beautiful sheet of water 
known at that time as Beach’s Lake, before its 
acquirement as a private game preserve by 
Dr. Benjamin Brandreth, he built a camp, 
probably the first ever erected on those virgin 
unspoiled shores. This particular region in 
those early days fairly swarmed with game 
and fish. All one had to do was to anchor a 
boat at any point on the lake, drop a baited 
hook overboard and pull in the desired number 
of glistening icy lake trout. Along shore 
abounded dozens of speckled beauties, and fre¬ 
quently a giant laker weighing ten or fifteen 
pounds would be added to the mess. The 
story is told that market fishermen during the 
winter would come to Brandreth Lake, and 
catch and cart away with them literally bar- 
relfulls of frozen trout. Aside from this prodi¬ 
gality in fish, the locality contained panthers, 
wolves and bears, besides any quantity of deer 
and ruffed grouse. 
After building the camp on Brandreth Lake 
where he spent many pleasant days hunting 
and (fishing, Thomas Cary moved to Racquette 
Lake, and became installed as the proprietor 
of the famous old Racquette Lake House. 
At this time the Civil War was at white 
heat, and Rube says that his father became so 
absorbed in the issues of the terrible struggle 
that he could hardly wait for the weekly mail 
to bring in news from the front, and with 
difficulty stood by his peaceful occupation as 
hotel proprietor. After several years he finally 
gave up his means of livelihood and returned 
to his home at Long Lake. There he spent 
the remainder of his days and there, outliving 
his wife by many winters, at last passed into 
the Happy Hunting Grounds at the ripe age of 
eighty-three. 
Until his nineteenth year, Rube worked 
chiefly on his father’s farm, and picked up such 
employment as could be obtained in the vicin¬ 
ity of Long Lake. In 18 & 4 , about three or four 
years after the last moose had been killed in 
the Adirondacks, he went on his first guiding 
trip. 
The party consisted of six gentlemen and 
six guides. Their route lay through Racquette, 
Brandreth, Salmon, Little Tupper and down the 
Racquette River into the Upper and Lower 
Saranac Lakes. The forest throughout this 
section was remote and in many ways un¬ 
discovered. The party aside from such few 
essentials as tea, sugar, salt and flour, sub¬ 
sisted entirely off the country, and the camps 
wherever located were always richly supplied 
with trout, venison and partridge. But never 
were more fish caught or deer shot than were 
needed; and in recounting those days Rube 
invariably waxes enthusiastic over the ab¬ 
stinence and fine sporting calibre of the men 
he first guided in the woods. 
“They was sportsmen, they was,” he told me 
when relating the adventures of the trip. “Sev¬ 
eral of ’em was young fellers, just fresh from 
serving enlistments in the war. Yer should 
have heard the talk that went around the 
camp fire every night. They’d seen some 
awful hard fights I guess from the stories they 
told. And you jist bet they could shoot 
straight, too.” 
One of these young gentlemen was Dudley 
Reuben Cary. 
Olcott, who later in life became the well- 
known president of a great trust company in 
New York City; another won reputation as a 
supreme judge, and, in fact, all were men of 
individuality and promise. 
The trip proved in every way a delightful 
success. The route had been happily chosen; 
the days were filled with pleasure and novel 
experience. From that time until he became 
game keeper on the Brandreth Park Reserve, 
Rube took up guiding as a profession. 
For several seasons he worked for a family 
by the name of Benedict from New York City. 
Later he entered the employment of Mr. 
William Constable of Constableville, N. Y., a 
gentleman of high culture, a keen sportsman 
and devoted student of nature. With him Rube 
remained for a number of years and between 
the two men there formed a firm and lasting 
friendship. It was Mr. Constable’s habit to 
spend a portion of the summer salmon fishing 
on the Marguerite River in Canada. On all of 
these expeditions Rube accompanied him, and 
so came to know the wiles and ways of one of 
the noblest game fish that swims. He 
also obtained a large information concerning 
Canadian territory and derived much knowl¬ 
edge and profit from the comparison of wilder¬ 
ness conditions there existant with those gov¬ 
erning the Adirondack region. 
After Mr. Constable gave up the regularity of 
his camping trips in the woods, Rube guided 
miscellaneously for several sportsmen, chief 
among whom were Mr. Stevenson Constable, 
Mr. James G. Blandford, and Dr. Benjamin 
Brandreth. The la.tter an Englishman by birth, 
was a devotee of outdoor life and a sportsman 
of unexcelled quality. He had recently ac¬ 
quired a large tract of virgin forestland which 
he planned to convert into a game preserve. 
This tract included Beach’s Lake, that body of 
water previously described as a camping place 
of Thomas Cary, besides a number of spacious 
ponds, and richly-stocked trout streams. Dr. 
Brandreth, at the time was looking for a man 
to take charge of the property and live perma¬ 
nently on the shores of Brandreth Lake. Al¬ 
ready he had employed several men in this 
responsible position, but unfortunately had 
found them, one and all, lacking in integrity. 
When Rube came to guide for him, Dr. Brand¬ 
reth, with his naturally observing and watch¬ 
ful eye, took silent note of the other’s effi¬ 
ciency, ingenuity and sterling woodsman quali¬ 
fications. Thus, it came about that in the 
year 1880 Rube became permanently installed 
as gamekeeper and caretaker on the Brand¬ 
reth Park Reserve. 
In 1875 Rube took part in his first panther 
hunt. At that time these big cats were still 
fairly plentiful throughout the Adirondacks. 
In winter their tracks were often to be found 
on the fresh fallen snow, and during all times 
of the year their blood-curdling screechings 
echoed frequently over the solitary forest- 
bound hills. I give here Rube’s account of the 
hunt, told in his own words: 
“Panthee’s is queer animals,” he remarked 
one evening when we had gathered for our 
usual conclave after supper round the wood- 
fire in the shop. “Yer never know jist how 
they’re goin’ ter act. Sometimes they’re cow¬ 
ardly and sometimes they ’aint. The first one 
I ever shot was down at Long Lake. A feller 
by the name of Bradly, who kept a store at 
Minervie, come up ter the house one day in 
January and told me he’d seen fresh panther 
tracks crossin’ the road jist outside the village. 
Next day me and Clark Farmer went out with 
a sleigh ter hunt them up. Farmer, he had 
one of these beedle dogs, and I was carryhY 
an old-fashioned breech-loading Mainyard 
rifle. 
“Well, we found the trail without any trou¬ 
ble and commenced ter follow it up. It run 
about north. Pretty soon we struck the fresh 
track of a panther travelin’ south and decided 
ter give up the other chase after this one. 
Farmer’s beedle dog took right ahold of the 
fresh trail and we moved along at a good 
speed. There was about eighteen inches of 
snow on the ground, but it didn’t bother us 
at all. 
(Continued next week). 
