688 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Nov. 30, 1912 
in Pittsburgh. Sunday we lightened up our 
luggage by sending back home everything not 
absolutely necessary. 
We left the city at 4 p. m. Saturday, with 
quite a send off by a crowd which had gathered 
to> bid 11s bon voyage as we started out on the 
second leg of our trip down the Ohio. We 
encountered some rough water at the junction 
of the three rivers. We camped about three 
miles below Pittsburgh on an island, a sort of 
summer resort, across from the penitentiary. 
Sunday morning we were visited by an old 
river-man who had boated it from Pittsburgh 
to New Orleans. Ide gave us a lot of informa¬ 
tion concerning the rivers. 
We left camp at 1:15 p. m. and started out 
on our first run down the Ohio. At Legion- 
ville we met a theatre boat, giving a perform¬ 
ance. She is fitted up inside like a regular 
theatre and plies up and down the Ohio giving 
shows at the small towns. 
We passed through five dams going to 
Rochester, but as the wickets are all down, we 
sailed over without stopping to go through the 
locks. These dams are all made of iron in 
sections, called wickets, about four feet wide, 
hinged at the bottom. At high water they are 
let down on the bottom of the river, thus allow¬ 
ing the boats to pass over. We arrived at 
Rochester at 5:30 p. M. and camped just below 
the city, after making twenty-two miles in four 
and one-quarter hours. 
Monday morning, as the fog was heavy, 
we did not start until about 11 a. m. At 3 p. m. 
we passed State Island where Pennsylvania, 
Ohio and West Virginia come together. At 
night we made our first camp in Ohio, a few 
miles below East Liverpool, at Dam No. 8, op¬ 
posite Newell, W. Va. 
Tuesday morning, the 17th, it rained hard 
and kept up all day, so we stayed in camp. We 
tried our luck fishing, but did not get a bite. 
The next morning we found the river a 
raging torrent from the heavy rain of the day 
before. It had risen to within a few feet ot 
our tent door, where the day previous it was 
about fifty feet away, and our canoe was 
nowhere to be seen, although the night before 
it lay but a few feet from the tent. We im¬ 
mediately started down the river in search of 
it. We inquired of a woman on a cabin-boat, 
and she told us she had seen it floating by 
early that morning. At Wellsville the ferry¬ 
man had captured the runaway. We piled in 
and paddled the four miles back to camp, load¬ 
ed in our effects, and proceeded on our way. 
According to the Government gauge at 
Dam No. 8, the river had risen four feet over 
night. The total rise was 9.9 feet. We passed 
Steubenville, O., and Dam No. 9, and that night 
we made our first camp in West Virginia. 
Thursday morning the canoe was again 
afloat, although the night before we pulled it 
back quite a ways from the waters’ edge. The 
river was full of drift wood, and it kept us 
dodging to evade the numerous logs, planks 
and trees. We met many “river rats’’ in skiffs 
searching the drift for something of value. They 
pick up everything that might bring a few cents. 
Occasionally they pick up some valuable stuff 
during high water. 
We arrived at Wheeling at noon and there 
spent a couple of hours. Just below Wheeling 
(Continued on page 699.) 
The Hunting Season’s Toll. 
Albany, N. Y., Nov. 18.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Some years ago, while secretary of 
the old Forest, Fish and Game Commission, I 
kept careful track of and published the list of 
hunting accidents each year. My object was to 
arouse a sentiment against carelessness on the 
part of all those who go afield with a gun, and 
apparently there was considerable interest taken 
in this and other States in the compilation. The 
Conservation Commission that succeeded the old 
Forest Commission does not think the collection 
of such statistics any part of its duties, but a 
wide awake local newspaper, the Knickerbocker 
Press, has set its Saranac Lake correspondent at 
work on the compilation, and he reports that this 
season when deer hunting ended, the record was 
eight hunters killed and twenty-four wounded. 
I have made careful inquiry about these figures, 
and am advised that they are correct in the 
opinion of practical woodsmen. J. D. Whish. 
[Special to The Knickerbocker Press.] 
Saranac Lake, N. Y., Nov. 16.—Eight per¬ 
sons killed and twenty-four wounded is the ros¬ 
ter of victims of the hunting campaign just 
closed in the State of New York. The death 
list exceeds that of 1911, when five were killed; 
1910. when six were killed; 1909, when a half 
dozen were sacrificed ; 1908, when only one was 
killed, and equals 1907, which up till this year 
was the record year of deaths by hunting acci¬ 
dents. The number of injured far exceeds that 
of any previous year of which there is a full 
record. 
These long lists of dead and injured occur 
in spite of legislation attempted by the State last 
winter, the intent of which was to reduce the 
number of accidents in the woods. Well may 
the citizens of the State pause and inquire: 
“What is the matter?” 
Men in the woods know; few others do. 
The cause of all killings and mannings of human 
beings on the hunt is in the last analysis, care¬ 
lessness. And the Legislature of the State of 
New York cannot make laws legislate against 
carelessness. Every accident of this and every 
other hunting season may be laid at the door 
of this single cause, subdivided into a number 
of other causes which as a matter of fact are 
effects of the one great cause. Shooting at ob¬ 
jects indistinctly seen, carrying cocked guns in 
thick undersbrush, too familiar handling of 
loaded weapons, “didn’t know it was loaded,” 
and other common direct causes are all traceable 
to the same origin. Intoxication is another 
cause—the man who goes into the woods with a 
gun and with liquor is either a fool or a criminal. 
Our Dear Old Friend. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 21. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Inclosed find my annual contribu¬ 
tion. I used to be an occasional correspondent. 
Have read Forest and Stream since its incep¬ 
tion and expect to while I live. Am now in my 
seventy-fifth year and take but one outing each 
year. E. S. Whitaker. 
Killing Does. 
Gloversville, N. Y., Nov. 16.— The deer sea¬ 
son in New York State closed yesterday. On the 
whole it was a good season for the hunters who 
were out in Fulton and Hamilton counties. Dur¬ 
ing the entire week parties brought in large 
bucks and larger stories of what might have been 
had not their guns missed fire or had they been 
better shots. Several automobile parties arrived 
Wednesday from the Ostrander camp at Griffin. 
They averaged one buck to every two men, which 
is considered unusally good luck. 
This year saw the working of the new deer 
laws, and according to hunters from the cities, 
it was satisfactory. Guides, farmers and back¬ 
woodsmen say it proved a farce. One guide, who 
arrived in this city Wednesday, said that in his 
opinion there were no less than 100 does lying 
in the woods dead within twenty miles of North- 
ville. 
He asserted that no guide or backwoodsman 
was going to let a deer get away just because he 
was unable to tell whether it was a buck or a 
doe, and that the rule was to shoot first and' 
look afterward. If the animal proved to be a 
buck, the hunter dressed it out and summoned 
aid to get it back to camp. If it proved to be 
a doe, he let it remain in the woods to rot, or 
as has been reported unofficially in several cases, 
he took it home after first dressing it so that no 
one could tell whether it was a doe or a buck. 
Several local hunters have returned to this 
city with stories along the same lines. They re¬ 
port that does are not infrequently seen lying 
dead in the woods. In several instances, they 
say, parts of the animals have been cut off, evi¬ 
dently showing that the hunter saved part of 
the meat. 
Dogging deer had been reported a little less 
frequently this year than previously, although 
the practice still continues in the more remote 
sections back of Northville. It is asserted that 
the buck law has in a measure done away with 
the hounding of deer, as the hunters found that 
their dogs often put in a whole day running a 
doe which could not be brought out even if they 
should get it. 
Another illegal method of taking deer, jack¬ 
ing them by night from a boat, has been indulged 
in less than ever this year because of the new 
laws. It is contended that although unpopular, 
the laws have resulted in great protection to the 
deer in localities where a hunter would not dare 
to take a chance on shooting a doe. 
Another favorable sign this year is the rare 
occurrence in this neighborhood of a hunter 
being shot for a deer. Thus far only three have 
been injured in this way and they not seriously. 
In other years the number of hunters taken for 
deer have been large, and the fatalities shocking. 
Those who are praising the new laws claim that 
the buck law is responsible for this and point 
out that if the hunter has to see horns on a deer 
before he shoots, he will not be liable to take a 
crack at a human being. 
With the deer season closed, hunters will 
turn their attention to rabbit and fox hunting. 
