736 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 7, 1908. 
The Season at Eagle Lake. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The grouse are with us again, and while 
possibly not in such numbers as two or three 
years ago, or in the memorable year of 1899, 
yet in sufficient quantity to make the local 
hunters of Ticonderoga and Scliroon call it 
“Good pa’tridge hnntin’.” 
The very first day at Eagle Lake, N. Y., 
while taking a stroll north of the Stone Bridge, 
Cliff flushed a half-dozen youngsters. They 
went into a low hemlock near the path, while 
the old one in charge hustled through the trees 
to the lake shore. The birds were the size of 
large robins then. 
During July and August I saw few birds 
along the lake, but reports of many young 
ones came to me from time to time, and when 
the blackberry season arrived grouse began to 
come down from the hills to feed on this fruit, 
which promised well in August. My carpenter, 
who walked six miles from a neighboring 
hamlet night and morning, reported seeing 
various bunches of deer of all ages, and about 
Sept. 1 began to give me accounts of the flocks 
of grouse met by him daily. One patch of 
woods near the lodge contained several large 
coveys, and the dusty road was often well 
marked with their tracks. Besides these, there 
were many hares, and my rabbit dog actually 
brought in three young ones in September in¬ 
side of two days, ending by toting a big one 
about a mile and laying it on the porch as a 
present. He had generously taken one hind- 
quarter for himself to lighten the load. 
There seemed to be two litters of hares raised 
this year. Then other game was abundant. 
Deer were seen about the lake occasionally by 
the farmers, and raccoon tracks were always in 
the road near the water. Hedgehogs, the pest 
of the former years, have almost disappeared, 
owing to the bounty of twenty-five cents a 
scalp. Not so, however, near Lake Cham¬ 
plain, where in one little piece of sweet corn 
in an old garden I caught six in two nights, 
using rusty woodchuck traps. 
One evening I saw an old polecat pacing 
along the highway, bushy tail high in air, 
meekly followed by five younger ones nearly as 
large as herself. They were black and white. 
Not a single mink did I see, although on the 
Jake boating every day early. 
The woodcock were much less abundant than 
"the previous year, possibly owing to the drying 
mp of their favorite boring places. With a sum¬ 
mer in which there was hardly a rain in three 
months and almost none in July, all hatched 
birds must have done well. 
The various cold ponds on mountainsides, 
stocked with brown, rainbow and speckled trout 
by the State Forest, Fish and Game Commis¬ 
sion, afford such an abundance of natural food 
for their new occupants that it is hard to coax 
one to take a lure or bait, to the astonishment 
of some anglers who were anxious to know 
how to take a few home. 
' The supply of perch and small-mouth bass in 
our lake is decreasing rapidly, and unless 
stocked soon with the latter, will become one 
of the has-beens in memory of its admirers. 
There was a report early in the spring that 
the Champlain and Sanford Railroad Company 
was about to run a steam railroad through our 
little valley, thereby ruining all the cottage 
sites, improvements and the hotel on the south 
shore of Eagle Lake. By vigorous protests 
from our people, and from the residents of the 
large New York colony at Paradox Lake, six 
miles toward Schroon, the route was diverted 
toward Schroon Lake. But now we learn of a 
survey by the Delaware & Hudson Railway 
over the Eagle Lake stage route for a spur of 
their road, and we dread the days of excava¬ 
tion, blasting and the horde of workmen fol¬ 
lowing in the train of such work, with whom 
no bird or fish life is safe for an hour. 
It is hoped that no railroad will come to 
destroy the beautiful forest-covered hills and 
valleys .of our little gem in the Ticonderoga 
Mountains, where so many people now seek 
rest and comfort. Peter Flint. 
Forestry and Game. 
Raleigh, N. C., Oct. 31 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: North Carolina forests are the prey of 
the ax, the fire and the hog, and the splendid 
forests of long-leaf pine are now little more 
than a memory. In a score of years I have seen 
them go, and the destruction has been un¬ 
checked. Only two men in this State have 
made pine-plantings, Mr. Vanderbilt and Mr. 
Tufts, the latter at Pinehurst, in the very heart 
of the long-leaf pine country. 
Dr. Schenck, Director of the Biltmore Forest 
School, has issued invitations to attend the 
twentieth anniversary of forestry at Biltmore, 
together with the tenth anniversary of the Bilt¬ 
more Forest School. The programme is full of 
good things. The first day there will be an 
excursion over the Biltmore estate, covering an 
inspection of some 500 acres of various forest 
plantations replanted between the years 1889 
and 1905 in white and yellow pine, ash, maple, 
oak, chestnut, hemlock, poplar and walnut, and 
a study of planting operations in actual pro¬ 
gress; a Thanksgiving invocation and lunch in 
one of the finest plantations, followed by a drive 
through a natural second-growth of yellow pine, 
ten to twenty years old, obtained by successive 
cuttings on several hundred acres of woodland; 
through thinnings »and through improvement 
cuttings in course of progress, through compart¬ 
ments treated as hardwood coppice under pine 
standards, etc., at each site Director Schenck 
explaining the situation and the object from the 
point of growth as well as cost. In the evening 
there will be a Thanksgiving dinner, a gala 
affair, at the hotel at Asheville. The festivities 
and inspections will end on Sunday, Nov. 29. 
Upon careful inquiry made in a score of 
counties during the past ten days, it is found 
that there are more quail than were at first 
expected. The autumn has been favorable for 
them, almost summer weather to this date, with 
no frost worth mention, except in the mountain 
region. It is probable that this season sports¬ 
men will drift further south in the State than 
they have usually done. They will find New 
River in Onslow county a particularly good 
place for shooting and fishing, with head¬ 
quarters at Jacksonville, which is on the rail¬ 
way and at the head of navigation on the river, 
the stream being thirty miles long, very wide 
and deep and really a salt-water estuary, though 
on its upper reaches there is extremely fine 
fishing for black bass. Another good point for 
fishing is at Nag's Head, with headquarters at 
Manteo. A third is at Beaufort, where salt¬ 
water winter fishing can be enjoyed all the sea¬ 
son. At the mouth of the Cape Fear River, 
where the conditions are sub-tropical, there is 
also good fishing. There is much activity 
among the sportsmen, dog trainers, etc., who 
have estates or leased lands in the vicinity of 
Greensboro, High Point, Newton, Lexington 
and other places in that belt. At Pinehurst the 
area of leased lands has been increased and now 
covers some sixty thousand acres in the sand¬ 
hills, and partridges and quail have been pro¬ 
moted there with a very large measure of suc¬ 
cess. These have been brought from various 
points in this State and from other States. 
Not very great success has attended the 
efforts to propagate pheasants in the State. 
Fred. A. Olds. 
Silz Case Decided. 
Special Dispatch to Forest and Stream. 
Washington, D. C, Nov. 2. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The Supreme Court to-day ren¬ 
dered its decision in the Silz foreign game case, 
affirming the findings of the New York Court 
and so upholding the New York Forest, Fish 
and Game Commission. 
This is perhaps the most important decision 
ever rendered by the United States Supreme 
Court in a game or fish case, and taken in con¬ 
nection with previous decisions by the same high 
court, settles a multitude of questions with re¬ 
gard to fish and game. All persons interested 
in game protection are delighted with the de¬ 
cision. 
“The Coon Came Back.” 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
At my bungalow on Dobsis Lake, in Lake¬ 
ville Township, Maine, some three weeks ago' 
I set three steel traps for a coon which was 
visiting my poultry yard. He sprung all three 
traps and went off with one of them. A few 
days since I again set traps for him, and the 
next morning found a monstrous coon. He 
had brought back the third trap, hanging to 
one small tendon, he having gnawed off his foot. 
He had also gnawed the other forefoot nearly 
off, and evidently in a short while would have 
freed himself. John F. Cook. 
Virginia-Carolina Field Trials Ass’n. 
Entries for all the stakes of the Virginia- 
Carolina Field Trials Association, Members’, 
Derby and All-Age Stake, and Free-For-All 
Stake, close on Nov. 18. The latter stake is 
open to the world. Setters and pointers are 
eligible to it regardless of age or winnings. 
Conditions, $5 to nominate; $10 to start; $300 
guaranteed; first, $150; second, $75; third, $25. 
Address, Secretary Chas. B. Cooke, Richmond, 
Va., care of Evening, Journal. 
All the fish laws of the United States and 
Canada, reznsed to date and nozv in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
