FOREST AND STREAM 
855 
his way back to camp after dark; in skinning 
a deer; in the arts of camp cookery; in supply¬ 
ing those delightful little camp luxuries that 
a tyro invariably goes without; in reading 
forest signs, and in following the trail of an 
animal, Rube is first and last an artist of 
supreme quality. 
It may be remembered by some of those who 
read this paper, that to Reuben Cary belongs 
the distinction of having trapped the last 
timber wolf ever seen or heard of in Adiron¬ 
dack territory. The animal was caught in the 
spring of 1893 , and was an unusually large 
specimen. His teeth were greatly worn, and 
he was hoary with age, but possessed a rarely 
beautiful skin. An account of the incident was 
written by Pauline B. Brandreth and published 
in Forest and Stream during the same year. 
In pursuit of the whitetail deer and black 
bear Rube has acquired a variety of interest¬ 
ing and exciting experiences. I do not here 
use the word exciting from the standpoint of 
danger, but rather by way of indicating the 
inevitable thrill that accompanies every hunt¬ 
ing experience regardless of what the circum¬ 
stances may be. There is no detail moreover, 
belonging to the habits of either species with 
which he is not familiar. From boyhood he has 
studied them, and hunted them, and has thus 
come to know them as only an old seasoned 
woodsman can. 
A few years ago, just to illustrate the tenac¬ 
ity and enthusiasm with which he still follows 
the game trail, I knew him to spend two 
weeks or more tracking a large bear through 
November snows, over miles and miles of 
forestland. The animal was wounded, and 
Rube being a humane sportsman, was there¬ 
fore doubly anxious to come up with it. He 
hunted alone, and several times camped over 
night on the trail; but in spite of his persist¬ 
ency the bear through the assistance of a 
heavy fall of snow finally succeeded in shak¬ 
ing off its pursuer and made good its escape. 
On other occasions, however, he was more suc¬ 
cessful, and in two instances only avoided a 
run-in with the prospective quarry by quick 
shooting. That the timidity of a black bear 
cannot always be depended on, these follow¬ 
ing instances fully illustrate. 
One day in late autumn Rube was traveling 
along the slope of a mountain attending to a 
line of small traps which he had set in the 
locality. Attracted by a sudden motion on the 
hillside above him he glanced up in time to 
catch the flash of a bear’s head as it disap¬ 
peared behind a tree trunk. He stopped and 
almost immediately Bruin, apparently un¬ 
aware oif his proximity, appeared in full view, 
shambling down the slope. There was a little 
ravine below him spanned by an old log, and 
he launched forth on this rude bridge in an 
endeavor to get across. Rube now fired, knock¬ 
ing him off into the ravine below. In an in¬ 
stant, however, he was on his feet and chang¬ 
ing his course, came scrambling and growling 
up the incline in the direction of his enemy. 
He attempted to climb over a fallen tree, and 
in the act Rube finished him with a second shot. 
Another time I was fortunate in being with 
Rube, when on an afternoon in October, 1912 , 
we ran unexpectedly into a herd of four bears. 
For five minutes or more there was “some¬ 
thing doing” in that particular neighborhood. 
The herd consisted of an old she bear, a large 
yearling and two cubs about as big as Airedale 
Terriers. It fell to my lot to bowl over the 
yearling as he clambered up the side of the 
hill, whereupon the old bear hearing his out¬ 
cry, gave vent to an enraged squeal and wheel¬ 
ing in her tracks, charged viciously in our 
direction. She was badly wounded, but pre¬ 
sented a formidable sight with her mouth wide 
open and her eyes glaring. Rube, however, 
was not at all disconcerted. As a matter of 
fact I am sure he relished with true sporting 
instinct every moment of the situation. At 
precisely the right instant and while I was en¬ 
deavoring to get a fresh cartridge in my rifle, 
he fired a charge of buckshot into the bear’s 
head, which effectually put a stop to further 
difficulties. The cubs, of course, we did not 
attempt to molest. 
Keen as is Rube’s love for hunting, he is no 
less an enthusiastic devotee of the piscatorial 
art. Indeed, I have almost been led to believe 
that he favors the latter sport above all others. 
But whether this is actually so or not, there 
remains the fact that he is an expert fly- 
caster, an artist in the line of bait-fishing and 
an ardent enthusiast, whose delight in plying 
the rod and reel never appears to grow less. 
During the summers spent in Canada he took 
a number of splendid salmon from the Mar¬ 
guerite River. The largest lake trout ever 
captured by him in this part of the country 
weighed fifteen and one-half pounds. It put up 
a terrific battle and required an hour to land. 
Of speckled trout, land-locked salmon, rainbow 
and cut-throat trout, he has brought to net 
many a noble specimen. 
Throughout the long Adirondack winters 
Rube invariably devotes a portion of his time 
to trapping. Several years ago he broke the 
record in this vicinity with ten mink, fifteen 
marten, three fisher, one otter and nine foxes. 
Of all the smaller fur^bearing animals he holds 
the otter in highest esteen. 
Since childhood I have hunted, fished and 
traveled the woods in company with Rube. Al¬ 
though well past sixty, he is as active, as 
vigorous and wiry as most men of forty. Old 
age is to him a thing unknown. His step is 
elastic, his eye bright and keen, his hand as 
sure and steady as ever it was. Except that 
his patriarchal beard has turned from brown 
to silvery white he has changed not at all in 
twenty years. It must be that somewhere, 
and at some time during his tramps through 
the forest he has stumbled upon the Spring of 
Eternal Youth. But, after all, longevity ap¬ 
pears the natural birthright of the woodsman, 
and if you should go to Long Lake to-day you 
will see men like John Franklin Emerson, 
David Helms, Jerome Wood, Robert Hartson, 
Charles Sebattis and William Robinson, still 
actively engaged in the duties and enjoyments 
of life, apparently unaffected by the usual en¬ 
cumbrances of advancing years. 
There was one time when Rube’s teeth 
troubled him considerably. Somebody asked 
him why he didn’t go to a dentist and have 
them attended to. 
“There ’aint much use in doin’ that,” he re¬ 
plied philosophically, “It’s too near sunset.” 
But, as a matter of fact, and considering his 
virility of health and energy, he will doubtless¬ 
ly be witness to many golden evenings of the 
north, closed to the vision of contemporary 
associates. 
PROTEST FROM PENNSYLVANIA. 
Lancaster, June 17.—The protest raised by the 
fishermen of Lancaster and Dauphin counties 
against the very apparent inadequacy of the fish¬ 
way erected in the mile-long dam spanning the 
Susquehanna River at the power plant of the 
Pennsylvania Water and Power Company at 
Holtwood, resulted in a visit to the dam by Hon. 
Nathan R. Buller, Fish Commissioner of Penn¬ 
sylvania. After a thorough inspection of the 
dam and fishway, Commissioner Buller stated that 
the fishway is not a failure and cannot be so 
classed because it has not been completed and is 
only in the experimental stage. According to 
the original plan only half of the great project, 
none like it ever attempted in this or any other 
country, has been constructed, or about 300 of 
the 600 feet. 
While it is true that there is a drop of almost 
eighteen feet at the mouth of the fishway at the 
present time, it is claimed by the engineers, who 
went over the ground with the Commissioner 
and Robert S. Spangler, Esq., of York, author 
of the joint resolution which passed the Legis¬ 
lature for its construction, it is due to a washout 
from the heavy spring floods, which were con¬ 
tinuous and were to be expected when the work 
of construction stopped at the high point it did. 
The inspection has shown that at some points 
where it was supposed that they had erected walls 
to baffle the raging waters, such was not the 
case, and something else must be done. In fact, 
as far as the present construction has gone, 
Commissioner Buller and the engineers, who 
have been making the matter a study, see where 
it can be not only strengthened, but made more 
feasible for the passage of fish of all kinds. This 
will be done as the condition of the river permits 
by the company, and the fishway extended for 
several hundred feet in a direction that will con¬ 
form to the regular channel of the river, up 
which shad have been known to travel. 
The shad season, just on the eve of closing, 
was the most disastrous, financially, in the his¬ 
tory of the industry in the Susquehanna River. 
Experienced fishermen predict that next sea¬ 
son will be a poorer one than the present and 
that the runs of shad will decrease for at least 
three seasons after that, even should an adequate 
fishway be provided. 
The fish commissioner last week suspended the 
law prohibiting the catching of fish within 400 
feet of the fishway. There a pool, 50 feet in ex¬ 
tent, had formed, and it was literally alive with 
all kinds of migratory fish, unable to ascend 
the river. Fishermen were allowed to go in with 
their nets. Salmon, 14 to 18 inches in length 
and weighing 15 pounds, were taken; also many 
bass. These were helped over the dam. Shad 
cannot be helped up the river in this manner as 
they cannot stand the necessary handling. 
McNEAL. 
