45 ^ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 23, 1907. 
In North Carolina. 
Raleigh, N. C., March 13.—The session of the 
Legislature has ended and it has done more for 
the protection of game than ever before. The 
most extensive protection has been given pheas¬ 
ants and ruffed grouse in about twenty-five 
counties, and in some cases no shooting is be¬ 
ing allowed from five to ten years Much pro¬ 
tection has been given partridges and deer in 
a number of counties. The Currituck represen¬ 
tative in the House, who was elected, it is 
stated, on a platform of which the chief feature 
was the repeal of the Audubon law, went home 
without any glory. The story of your corres¬ 
pondent about him and his proposition was read 
by a number of members of the Legislature 
here, all true sportsmen, who would not for a 
moment have permitted the proposed action to 
be taken. The only thing done in regard to 
eastern Carolina in the matter of ducks was 
that their shipment our of the State is not for¬ 
bidden. There was a bill introduced for such 
prohibition applying to three counties, but after 
a conference it was thought best to let the law 
stand. No change was made as to the open 
season for game, which, except in a few coun¬ 
ties, now runs from November 1 to March 1. 
The bills which have passed very thoroughly 
protect the beautiful pheasants which have been 
liberated in considerable numbers around 
Greensboro, High Point, Hickory, etc. Farm¬ 
ers show a great deal of interest in this matter, 
far more than ever before, and their co-opera¬ 
tion is a powerful factor. 
Reports from various parts of the State show 
that the partridges went through the winter well, 
though there were some low temperatures and a 
good many snows. There was plenty of food 
for them, none of the snows being very deep. 
There were sleet storms over a large area of 
the State, but neither these nor the snows lasted 
long; the result is that more partridges go 
over than at any time for several years past. 
One thing which aided in bringing this about 
was that February was stormy and during most 
of it up-country shooting was almost impos¬ 
sible. In the Raleigh section there are cer¬ 
tainly a lot of birds left. The snipe shooting in 
the Raleigh section began this week but the 
birds have been rather scattering. The game 
wardens are watching very carefully and have 
made several arrests for the shooting of rob¬ 
ins, which are protected after March 1, be¬ 
ing on the same footing with partridges. 
Secretary Gilbert Pearson of the Audubon So¬ 
ciety, at next session will endeavor to have a bill 
passed protecting woodcock, which are vanish¬ 
ing quite rapidly. Some woodcock have been 
brought into Raleigh this season. City sports¬ 
men kill few, but countrymen a good many. 
The usual price for partridges, sold by coun¬ 
try sportsmen in this market during the season 
was 12J4 cents and in some cases 15 cents. For 
woodcock they got 15 cents and the dealers 
sold the latter at from 20 to 25 cents. 
The reports from the east and in the moun¬ 
tain regions also show that an unusually large 
number of bears were bagged and that the deer 
shooting was very good. 
The Legislature enacted laws for two counties 
allowing them to give bounty for wolf and 
panther scalps, making nine counties which have 
this privilege. Several large wolves were killed 
at the base of the Smoky Mountain, very near 
the Tenessee border, and news has come of the 
killing of some panthers in that section. Wild 
cats have become quite numerous. In the park 
at Raleigh, in the Zoo, are domesticated wolves, 
which were bred in this State, their mother hav¬ 
ing been caught in Person county. 
Sportsman or Hunter. 
Louisville, Ky,_ March 9.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: What is the difference between a 
sportsman and a hunter? English writers use 
the term sportsman exclusively. A number of 
American authors, including such high author¬ 
ities as Roosevelt and Van Dvke, prefer hunter. 
Some Americans who have hunted or shot in 
South and East Africa, India and Canada and 
British America, where the Englishman is fre¬ 
quently met with, have come into the general 
use of sportsman, and Mr. John R. Bradley on 
his return from an East African shooting ex¬ 
pedition recently made the statement in a maga¬ 
zine article that the hunter was one who hunted 
for the market, a pot-hunter or a game butcher, 
and that the sportsman was a gentleman who 
hunted for the exhilaration of the sport. 
On the other hand, there are sportsmen and 
sportsmen, and the “sport” is a malodorous per¬ 
son, especially if he be of the “dead-game” 
variety, one who frequents the prize ring and 
the betting sheds of race tracks. The term 
sportsman has no doubt suffered from the ab¬ 
breviation to the extent that the “gent” has cast 
reflections on the gentleman. I hold that the 
hunter is as good as the sportsman. American 
hunters can refer with reasonable pride to* Boone, 
Kenton, Lewis, Crockett and Clarke, their ances¬ 
tors. The history of the sportsman is more or 
less closely associated with the royal slaying of 
game in private preserves, which according to 
history was often too tame and excessive to be 
called sport. 
This is a subject important to sportsman or 
hunter. Much might be said on either side, and 
no doubt, your readers woud like to know which 
is the proper word to use. Brent Altsheler. 
Fine for Killing Robins. 
Greensboro, March 16.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: During the past week eleven persons 
have been arrested and fined for killing robins 
out of season. These cases were conducted by 
game wardens J. T. Barnham, of Smithfield, and 
J. R. LTpchurch, of Raleigh. Robins have been 
very abundant this spring, especially in the cen¬ 
tral and eastern parts of the State, and, as usual, 
large numbers were killed while on their north¬ 
ern migration. A law passed two years ago mak¬ 
ing it illegal to- kill these birds after March 1 is 
regarded as a hardship by some local gunners, 
who claim, that as the bird does not breed in 
eastern North Carolina, they had just as well be 
killed as long as they remain in the State. Per¬ 
sonally I hope to see the day when the robin will 
be as exempt from the shotgun as is the mock¬ 
ing bird. T. G. Pearson, 
Sec’y of State Audubon Society. 
Moose Meat Dutiable. 
The United States Board of General Ap¬ 
praisers has ruled that venison and moose meat 
are subject to duty at the rate of two cents per 
pound, the same as beef. 
The decision was rendered on a protest made 
by Spencer C. Fisher against the action of the 
collector at Port Huron, Mich., who demanded 
duty at the rate mentioned above on the car¬ 
casses of deer and moose Mr. Fisher had brought 
into Michigan from Canada, and held the car¬ 
casses pending this decision. Judge Waite, in 
writing the decision, said “the flesh of moose and 
deer is similar in material and use to beef, and 
the collector’s decision must stand.” 
Quail for Rutland. 
Rutland, Vt., March 12.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The sportsmen in this vicinity have 
purchased sixteen dozen quail and expect to 
liberate them about April I. We are in hopes of 
having a little quail shooting in the fall. 
R. W. W. 
Black Bears in Lewis County. 
Last week Governor Hughes signed the 
Boshart bill which exempts Lewis county. New 
York, from the operation of the forest fish and 
game- Jaw. providing a ctase season for black 
bears in this State. 
Death of Colonel Shaw. 
Colonel Henry G. Shaw died on March 11 
in San Francisco in his sixty-fifth year. He was 
a well known newspaper editor, and one of the 
founders of the National Rifle Association of 
America. 
The Remains of an Ancient Fleet. 
St. Augustine, March 1 6.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In the harbor of St. Augustine to¬ 
day there are still floating and in daily use by 
fishermen perhaps a dozen dugouts made from 
cypress logs, none hardly less than fifty, and one 
or two at least. seventy-five years old, and per¬ 
haps older. This is all that remains of a fleet of 
canoes that from many generations before the 
time of the landing of Menendez have been used 
by the dwellers along the Florida coast. The 
Indians of the village of Seloy, the site of the 
city of St. Augustine, were using them as their 
fathers had used them for hundreds of years 
before their time. 
The Spanish invader took at once to the idea, 
only improving upon the method of construction. 
The Indian, without knowledge of metals, 
wrought out his canoe, as had his ancestors for 
hundreds of years by the use of fire and stone 
celts or chisels brought by exchange from Georgia 
or 1 ennessee or North Carolina. They could be 
paddled with great swiftness and were available 
for all the necessities of war or the chase. The 
invading Spaniard simply changed the tools of 
construction from fire, and the stone chisel to the 
iron adz, and the fleet of cypress canoes has been 
continued to this day. The remarkable thing 
about them is their long life. 
The one pictured on the cover and floating, 
with the marsh as a background, is at least 
seventy-five years old, and has been in the water 
and in constant use all of that time. It has 
carried many a deer from Anastasia Island to its 
owner’s home in St. Augustine, and its carrying 
capacity has been taxed by loads of all the 
numerous varieties of fish that find their home 
in the waters of the harbor of St. Augustine and 
North River, Matanzas River and the Sebastian. 
It is not yet twenty-five years since the main 
fish market was along the sea wall, whither the 
inhabitants of St. Augustine wended their way, 
many of them by 4 o’clock in the morning, to 
purchase fish for breakfast, caught a few hours 
before in the lagoon behind Bird Island, and 
passed up to the purchaser from the canoe lying 
anchored at the wall. But the little fleet grows 
smaller as the years pass, and the motor launch 
and the sailboat, assisted by the motor, have 
driven it out, until the numerous fleet of the 
years agone has dwindled to a dozen. The 
modern snirit has seized upon one of these, and 
putting in it a motor and a screw, has trans¬ 
formed it into the most modern craft. As the 
lines of these old dugouts can hardly be im¬ 
proved the owner has now a craft of very high 
speed. The picture was taken on the water and 
near a dock to which is was tied, and is not 
what I wanted, but was the best I could get. 
The two dugouts, lying out of the water on 
the beach, are j 11st below the high ground re¬ 
cently identified with certainty as the place where 
the first mass was celebrated, Sept. 8, 1565, and 
it is altogether likely that many dugouts that 
day. floated in the nearby water, while their 
Indian occupants were interested spectators of 
the novel ceremony, and the site of which was 
to be marked in the near future by a chapel 
named “Nombre de Dios,” (The Name of God). 
Two days before, Sept. 6, 1565, they had seen 
from their canoes the beginning of the first earth¬ 
work that marked the site of the present Fort 
Marion, and always from that day to this over 
the harbor, up North River, and down Matanzas 
way, often following the tortuous course of the 
many marsh creeks, these primitive canoes have 
borne their occupants for business or pleasure, or 
both, propelled by a paddle and an oar, and only 
the insistent progress of things has finally 
driven them out despite their lasting qualities. 
The same notions have taken the masts out of 
most of the yachts in St. Augustine harbor and 
replaced the sail by the motor, so that the white¬ 
winged fleet that scattered outward every morn¬ 
ing, and came homeward each night as the sun 
went down and the breeze fell, is also a thing 
of the past. 
And so as with many other things linked 
with all of our . history, the dugout becomes a 
memory, and will soon only be found in the 
museums that 'gather and preserve the relics of 
the past. DeWitt Webb. 
