March 8, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
301 
who had two men building a stone fireplace 
and chimney. 
By the time we got started on our way, the 
lake was very rough, and when we were about 
a mile from the camp and in the middle of the 
lake, I broke an oar and we worked our way 
back to the camp with one oar and paddle. The 
young ladies loaned us the pair of oars we had 
used the day before, and we reached the 
Raquette Lake House just after dark. 
The next morning (Saturday, Sept. 30) we 
secured a guide (James Burk) to take us across 
the lake to North Bay and to return the oars 
to the Hasbrook camp. From North Bay we 
started for Brandeth Lake, six miles. When 
about four miles on our way, where another 
trail came in, we saw a box fastened against 
the embankment. On going to inspect it we 
found that it was for United States mail. Think 
of putting your letters in an open box twenty 
miles from any postoffice! We arrived at 
Brandeth Lake at i o'clock p. m. This is one 
of the most beautiful sheets of water in the 
Adirondacks. Here we met a gentleman, Reuben 
Cary, who gave us information as to our route. 
In your issue of Jan. 4, the article headed 
'“Old Leviathan of Burnt iMountain Lake,” I 
recognize in the pictures ("Rube”) Reuben Cary, 
our chance acquaintance of 1888. The day after 
reading the article, in looking over my notes dur¬ 
ing that tramp I found a piece of paper two by 
three inches in size, on which Mr. Cary had 
written his address, "Reuben Cary, Brandeth 
Lake, P. O. Blue Mountain Lake, Hamilton 
County.” I had not seen it for at least twenty- 
four years, which inspired me to write this 
screed. Besides giving us good advice in not 
trying to go by the way of Cranberry Lake at 
that season of the year, but to go by Munsey’s 
and Stillwater through to Lowville, Mr. Cary 
put in our pack basket two pounds or more of 
juicy venison steak, and escorting us to the limit 
of civilization, bade us good-bye, but when about 
a mile on our way he overtook us. After leav¬ 
ing us, it occurred to him that we could not 
reach Muncy’s that evening. He had followed 
us up to say that he and Mr. Brandeth had a 
camp about three miles on our way, near Deer 
Pond, and that we could occupy that night and 
over Sunday, also sa3dng that we would find 
everything that we would need. Again thank¬ 
ing him for his kind offer, we again bade him 
good-bye, and resumed our tramp. We arrived at 
the camp about 3 o’clock. Just before reaching 
the camp I secured a partridge, and with it, the 
venison and a pot of cooked beans, we lived on 
“the top shelf.” We found the balsam beds 
so good and fine that we did not get our break¬ 
fast until II o’clock. About noon it commenced 
to snow, and we thought we would better be 
getting on our way, and leaving Camp Cary, we 
started on a quiet walk through the woods to 
Muncy’s. Much of the way the trail was barely 
visible, but we did enjoy that walk through the 
big trees. Twice we saw where a bear had 
sharpened his claws on hemlock trees, one of 
them as high up as I could reach, and a year 
or more after I received some bear claws and 
teeth from Emmett Harris, whom we met the 
next morning after that walk. We arrived at 
Muncy’s on Beaver River at 3:30 p. m., leaving 
at 5 o’clock Monday morning and reaching Mr. 
Harris’ camp just in time to avoid a downpour 
of rain. Here we cooked our breakfast of fried 
bacon and potatoes with a liberal supply of 
coffee, which ]\Ir. Harris said he was short of 
and proposed to exchange maple sugar for what 
we did not need on our way out. As maple 
sugar was a luxury with us, we gave him all 
our coffee for a fine cake of four or five pounds 
of sugar. About ii o’clock it stopped raining 
and we started for Stillwater. 
I must not forget to mention that the main 
room of Mr. Harris’ house was a veritable 
museum. The entire walls were covered with 
the antlers of moose, elk and deer, and the 
rafters of the roof covered with the skulls of 
every animal he had procured for years, down 
to as small as a mouse, including those of the 
bear, wolf, panther, black and brown bear, and 
even one of a grizzly bear secured in the Rocky 
Mountains. Also the outside front of the house 
was covered with antlers, among which were two 
pairs of deer antlers locked together while 
fighting. One deer was dead when found. I 
asked him if he had ever put any price on his 
collection. He answered that he never sold any¬ 
thing. I proposed that he leave the collection 
to some museum. He said that he had two 
children teaching in the Normal School at 
Brockport, N. Y. 
Within the next fifteen years he sent me 
many pairs of deer antlers and legs and skulls 
of bear and beaver, and many pounds of maple 
sugar and spruce gum. We reached Stillwater 
at 4:30 P. M. This was probably the best place 
for deer and grouse shooting that we had passed 
through, and here we found the best accommo¬ 
dation for sportsmen that we saw on the whole 
tramp. J. C. Dunbar, the genial host, was a 
gentleman and sportsman. Leaving Stillwater 
at 8:30 Tuesday morning we reached Fenton, 
eleven miles. At 3 o’clock we put up for the 
night. It rained or snowed just enough to 
make it disagreeable. We got an easy start on 
Wednesday morning for Lowville, where we ar¬ 
rived at 4:30 P. M., having made the eighteen 
miles in seven hours exclusive of stops. 
Here we were practically out of the woods, 
but as our objective point was Gouverneur, St. 
Lawrence county, we took the trail on Thurs¬ 
day morning for that place, and from there we 
walked to the village of Oxbow in the after¬ 
noon, remaining there until Saturday morning, 
when I left my tramping companion with his 
brother. Dr. IMoak, and started for Theresa, 
Jefferson county, my boyhood home, and where 
I was born. Sept. 8, 1833. I did not take the 
direct road to Theresa, which would have been 
only a ten-mile walk. Instead, I headed for 
Indian River below Muscalonge Lake, from 
which by the river route it was. fourteen nJles 
to Theresa. Crossing to the west side of Indian 
River, I followed the road to opposite Reed Lake, 
which was a mile away on the east side of the 
river. Stopping at a house I learned that they 
had a boat on the river half a mile away. I 
employed a lad of twelve years to take me 
across the river to “Doolittle’s” where I pro¬ 
cured a boat which I rowed four miles to 
Theresa after dark, and raining most of the 
way. Here ended my tramp of 130 miles through 
the Adirondacks. 
“Konsider the postage stamp, my son: its 
usefulness konsists in its ability to stick to one 
thing until it gets there.”—Josh Billings. 
Tame Ducks in Springfield, Mass. 
Springfield, Mass., March i. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: About ten years ago Judge Aikeri, 
of Greenfield, in this State, who now is chief 
justice of the Superior Court, presented to the 
park commissioners of Springfield a few mal¬ 
lards. These ducks were placed in Forest Park, 
which is located about a mile from the business 
center of the city, and consists of 464 acres of 
land, containing half a dozen artificial ponds, 
and a small stream that runs the entire length 
of the park, and for a portion of the way through 
a few acres of partly flooded land, which is cov¬ 
ered by a growth of alders and willows. In 
this section these mallards, or their descendants, 
have each successive breeding season made their 
nests and brought forth their young, which, with 
the old ones, have had the free range of the 
park during the warmer months. With the ex¬ 
ception of the open winter just passed, these 
ducks, at the time the ice has begun to form in 
the ponds, have been caught by means of a net 
and kept in confinement until spring. Once when 
the net was sprung, several wild blackducks were 
captured and confined, and they, like the mal¬ 
lards, became semi-domesticated, and once at 
least a blackduck and mallard mated, and 
hybrids were the result. In the course of the 
last ten years, many of these ducks have dis¬ 
appeared, very likely joining migratory flocks 
of their wild relatives. 
In the latter part of 1912 a male green¬ 
winged teal came into the park, joined this 
flock of ducks, and has spent the winter in their 
company. At first he was very uneasy at the 
approach of a person, but now he has become 
so tame- that a man may stand within a few 
feet of him without his showing much fear. 
About Feb. i, in this part of the Connecticut 
valley, there .seems to have been a flight of Hol- 
boell’s grebe, and many reports were made of 
their presence here. Three were found near 
Springfield in an exhausted condition, and being 
caught, placed in a tank of water and given a 
fish diet, soon revived and in a short time would 
take food from the hand. Usually mallards, 
blackducks, teal and grebes make a hurried de¬ 
parture at the sight of man. but as is here shown 
when kindly treated are glad to become friends. 
Robert O. DIorris. 
Passenger Pigeons. 
Fort Dodge, Iowa, Feb. 17. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: There has been considerable dis¬ 
cussion through the columns of your paper of 
the passenger pigeon, its habits, etc., and some 
speculation as to the cause of the disappearance 
of these birds. The writer was born and reared 
in a country where the wild pigeon was as plen¬ 
tiful as any place in the United States. Fortu¬ 
nately, for myself at least, my recollections of 
the passenger pigeon are well preserved, and if 
3'ou think the readers of Forest and Stre.am 
will care to read, and you to desire, I shall be 
pleased to forward to you for publication an 
article on my recollections of the passenger 
pigeon, also an extract from a letter from one 
of the few surviving pigeon netters. I can 
vouch for the statements in the letter, and shall 
endeavor to make my article concise as possible. 
Awaiting 3’our reply. I am. 
C. A. Bryant. 
