102 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Being Reports From Our Local 
Correspondents 
BACKWOODS SURGERY. 
Two physicians in a party of 'hunters near 
Kelliher, Minn., by their prompt action and re¬ 
sourcefulness saved the life of Harold Holt, a 
homesteader. The story is told by Dr. F. G. 
Mitchell of St. Paul, who is just back from the 
hunting trip. Holt’s gun was discharged when 
he slipped and fell from a stump. The muzzle 
was pressed against his breast, but a metal snuff¬ 
box deflected the charge. Two buckshot entered 
Holt's lungs near the heart, and seven lodged in 
the flesh. His companions hurried him to a 
nearby lumber camp used by Dr. Mitchell’s 
hunting party, and found Dr. Mitchell there. The 
doctor went back with them, made a rude 
stretcher, and after four hours of struggling 
through brush and swamps they got Holt to the 
camp. Dr. E. H. Marcum of Bemidji was also 
in the hunting party, and though neither of the 
surgeons had any instruments they set to work. 
They whittled some green birch twigs, with 
which they probed for the buckshot, getting all 
but the two lodged in the lungs. Boiled sheets 
were used to make lint for bandages and when 
the doctors left the patient seemed to be doing 
nicely. 
DEER FREE FROM DISEASE. 
Marquette, Mich.—William R. Oates says 
there is absolutely no truth in the widespread 
rumor that deer of upper Michigan are infected 
with the hoof and mouth disease. He bases his 
statement on reports from every deputy in the 
peninsula- 
HILLS AND DALES MAY BE STATE GAME 
PRESERVE. 
, Dayton, O. 
J hat state officials, advocating the appropria¬ 
tion of $25,000 from the hunters’ license fund for 
the establishment of a forest game and bird pre¬ 
serve, may desire to make arrangements for the 
use of Hills and Dales, the estate of John H 
Patterson, president National Cash Register Co., 
as a state game preserve is not thought improb¬ 
able. Mr. Patterson’s efforts to protect and pro¬ 
pagate game and game birds in Hills and Dales 
have been carried on at considerable expense and 
have proved satisfactory. Recommendations 
for legislation paving the way to establishing a 
forest game and bird preserve, were presented 
to the state agricultural commission last week. A 
bill probably will be drafted providing for the 
purchase of about 10,000 acres of cheap hill 
land in southern Ohio for the preserve. The 
statement was also made in connection with the 
recommendations to the agricultural commission 
that hundreds of families are now squatting on 
state lands in Scioto, Pike, Ross and Vinton 
counties that could be well used as game pre¬ 
serves. The advantage in utilizing Hills and 
Dales as a state preserve would be the fact that 
it has long been recognized as a place where 
hunting would be severely prosecuted, and hence 
it could be used as a safe haven for game with¬ 
out great expenses in hiring game wardens to 
guard it. 
BIRD CENSUS GUESSWORK. 
Baltimore, Md. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The so, but falsely called bird census is utterly 
without scientific value, and is destitute of even 
approximate reliability. I happened to receive 
this very morning a letter from a correspondent 
in which the statement is made touching the in¬ 
exactness of the methods employed. It is not a 
census, but a bad guesswork. The method was 
to employ estimators, who were supposed to be 
trained observers, who estimated the number of 
pairs per acre in various sections of the country. 
These estimates were averaged and the aggregate 
made up from these averages. The results 
reached are impossible of acceptance, as even in¬ 
dicating possibilities, much less probabilities. 
Those who understand bird life know full well 
that if a sharp-eyed observer were placed in the 
center of each five acres throughout the state, a 
single day’s observation would not give reliable 
results, as birds have a most provoking way of 
hiding and appearing, according to no apparent 
law. As indicating the extent of this habit, a 
page from my own experience will not be out of 
place. On a fine December day I walked along 
the escapement of one of the ridges of the Alle- 
ghanies for a distance of 15 miles. Five miles 
showed no particular bird phenomena. On the 
last miles of the tramp I started, without dog, 
49 grouse after I commenced to count. In one 
30-acre field covered with small oak and waste 
brush 11 birds started. I do not shoot. Three 
days later I advised a friend as to the conditions. 
He made the same trip with a fine bird dog and 
started nine birds. This variability shows the 
impossibility of reaching results by any crude 
method of estimation. 
The only posible way to reach anything like 
an accurate estimate would be to select nesting 
time and seek out and count all nests. I person¬ 
ally doubt that the gun cuts much figure in the 
to^al of bird life. Disease, the changing of the 
terrain by culture, the gleaning of the busy hen, 
all have their effect in limiting the numbers at 
any one point. The telegraph wire is a mighty 
raider of bird life. Some years ago in three 
subsequent days I gathered 14 birds of various 
species from beneath a stretch of about one mile 
and a half of telegraphway. 
However, no one will question seriously the 
conclusion that bird life needs all the possible 
protection which can be thrown about it by law. 
E. B. T. 
BEAR AND DEER IN A DAY. 
Bagging a bear and a deer in one day is the 
record of E. L. Eylar, who brought his double 
kill to Minneapolis. The animals were shot at 
Lake Kapatagoma, near Ray, in northern Min¬ 
nesota. The bear was found in a brake just 
after daylight, the hunter stumbling on him al¬ 
most by accident. Not until dusk was there any 
trace of other game and then Mr. Eylar caught 
sight of the deer running through the open 
about 75 yards away. One shot .35 rifle laid 
the animal low. Mr. Eylar said that the north¬ 
ern woods were filled with Minnesota hunters 
who formerly looked for their game in Wiscon¬ 
sin, but who were compelled to keep to their 
own state this season on account of the hoof 
and mouth disease quarantine, which prevented 
the interstate shipment of deer. 
SAYS BUCK LAW IS NOT PRACTICAL. 
Detroit, Mich., Jan. 4, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A hunter is always a “bug” when it comes to 
his part, convinced that the exigencies of his pet 
diversion overshadow all other considerations. 
Nevertheless, with the legislature about to con¬ 
vene, I hope that I may be pardoned for dwell¬ 
ing on a subject near to the hearts of thousands 
of Michigan men. 
Game Warden Oates in his annual report re¬ 
commended that a law limiting the deer to be 
killed to one for each hunter, and that an adult 
buck. It was argued that such a law would not 
only halt the extinction of deer in this state, but 
would do away with the danger of hunters shoot¬ 
ing one another. Other states, Mr. Oates said, 
had adopted such a law and greatly reduced the 
number of casualties in the woods. 
I think that the majority of deer hunters in 
this state will agree with me when I say that a 
buck law would have an effect exactly opposite 
to the one hoped for. In the thick timber, sec¬ 
ond growth and swamp land frequented by deer 
in Michigan, it is rarely that one gets a stand¬ 
ing shot and still more rarely that the shooter 
