218 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 5, 1910. 
A Day With the Grouse. 
Hendersonville, N. C, Jan. 21 .—Editor 
Forest and Stream: We have had so far the 
most severe winter for some years past. It has 
been genuine winter ever since December began 
and that month was the coldest in about ten 
years. But last week several robins were seen, 
and I trust they are the advance agents for the 
great body yet to come. 
These are rather early arrivals. Last week, 
as I stepped from the train in Brevard, a shoot¬ 
ing friend got on board, telling me as he did 
so he would telephone me that evening as to 
a tramp after ruffed grouse. He did so, and 
as the weather looked quite unsettled I asked 
him to telephone again the next morning. He 
did so at 7:50 a. m., and asking me to join him 
at Selica Station four miles up the road. So at 
8:20 I was footing it to Selica, reaching there at 
9:25. He was waiting, having come down on 
the morning train, while I was walking to meet 
him. 
We “took at once to the woods,” the moun¬ 
tains coming down quite near to the railroad 
at this point. We walked over ridges and up 
and down little mountain streams until after 
11 o’clock before seeing a grouse, much of the 
country covered having been recently burned 
over. The first little stream we struck in un¬ 
burned territory we got up a cock grouse. My 
friend saw it twice, but I did not. We lost it 
finally. 
Then after lunch we came to a little old field, 
in the edge of which was the source of one of 
these little mountain “branches” overgrown with 
the kalmia and rhododendron. He asked me to 
keep in the road while he skirted the field. Sud¬ 
denly a grouse rose from this little thicket, my 
friend making a quick shot, but did not score. 
The bird gave me a pretty cross shot as he 
came from the right some forty yards away and 
I made a clean kill. At the report of his gun 
another got up which he saw, but could not 
get a shot at. This bird we lost, as we could 
not put it up again. 
We pressed on for some distance, finally 
crossing the Gloucester road, a creek beyond and 
then another little field. As we were leaving 
this field, my friend in the road in advance, 
three grouse got up. He was taken so by sur¬ 
prise that he did not shoot until one of them 
got enough out of line from him for me to 
give a quick snap shot. This bird I hit hard 
and he then shot. The three birds all took 
cover on a branch nearby. My friend crossed 
it and we put his dog in. The first bird got 
up on his side and he shot. The bird was hard 
hit and later the dog found it and it was re¬ 
trieved. A large cock rose about seventy-five 
or eighty yards up the branch and came for 
twenty-five or thirty yards right toward me. I 
was about to turn my back on it, as I prefer 
to let a bird pass me. It is best to do so, I 
think, and very much safer—when a dog is in 
the direction from which the bird comes—and a 
surer shot. But he turned at right angles and 
gave me a very pretty shot as he came from 
left to right. Leading him about eighteen inches 
I fired, making a clean kill. Then a little higher 
up the wounded cock got up, giving my friend 
a chance with both barrels. With one he hit, 
but the bird went nearly to the top of the high 
ridge. 
My friend then called in his dog and I climbed 
up and round behind the bird until say twenty 
yards of the spot I was sure he was on. Then 
the dog was released and found the bird prompt¬ 
ly, and I returned to my friend, partly sliding 
and partly walking. 
Four birds! Twenty years ago from thirty 
to fifty grouse would no doubt have been put 
up in those woods. 
At 5:3o we were at Calvert station where I 
left my friend and walked up to the next station 
for a night’s rest. I confess I was a bit tired— 
not my legs; they never tire, but between my 
shoulder blades. But with hot coffee and a hot 
supper furnished by my genial hostess, Mrs. 
Glagener, at Rosman, I was all right and fresh 
as a lark next morning. 
I am thinking of the trout in the stream and 
my rod has gone to its maker to be overhauled, 
and the trout are patiently waiting for me to 
call on them in April on its return. The house 
wrens already say from the depths of their 
little throats that spring is coming. How can 
such little birds sing so? 
Ernest L. Ewbank. 
The Jackson’s Hole Elk. 
Cheyenne, Wyo., Jan. 18. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Just what the condition of the wild 
elk in Jackson’s Hole this week is is hard to 
determine. That section of the State has been 
pretty well cut off by deep snows, and snow 
slides have carried away the telephone wires on 
most of the lines and blockaded the mountain 
passes, so that a sled cannot even get through 
to carry mail and supplies. 
The condition of affairs in this secluded sec¬ 
tion of Wyoming’s mountain ranges and the 
tameness of the wild elk in winter can be some¬ 
what understood by the following interesting 
clippings from the Jackson’s Hole Courier, a 
little weekly newspaper which is published in 
the main settlement there: 
The elk have come over on this side of the 
river at the mouth of Fish Creek. 
The elk are feeding with B. P. May’s bunch 
of cattle near Blacktail Butte. 
E. D. Stearns came up from Flat Creek Wed¬ 
nesday and says the coyotes have left the Jack¬ 
son’s Hole country. 
With the aid of John Anderson Mr. Fisk will 
soon have his hay fenced elk proof. 
It is reported that W. P. Redmond froze two 
toes and a thumb while he was sleeping at his 
haystacks hazing elk. 
Santa Claus went down through Spring Gulch, 
his team being composed of six spike elk; just 
breaking them, we guess. 
Lew Eynon has just completed fencing his hay¬ 
stacks against elk, and on each post has put a 
notice which reads as follows: “To whom it 
may concern: Any elk, deer, antelope, sheep or 
goat which passes through, over or under this 
fence will receive a prize of $50 cash, coupons 
or alfalfa hay. Lew Eynon, by Mouk, Sec.” 
The snow slides ran the first day of January 
and almost got a victim this time, but the mail 
carrier escaped. He lost his outfit with the ex¬ 
ception of one horse and the hind bob. All the 
mail out from Jackson’s Hole on that day is 
buried on the mountain side somewhere. 
W. A. Bartlett. 
The Game Situation in New England. 
Settlement accompanied by unrestricted hunt¬ 
ing advanced more rapidly at first in Massachu¬ 
setts than in any other part of the country, and 
therefore her game decreased most rapidly, 
mainly because of the shooting, although the 
changed conditions inevitable to settlement, the 
cutting down of the forests, etc., were in part 
the cause of the destruction of game. There is 
very little about the occupation of the country 
by man that tends to decrease birds where shoot¬ 
ing and trapping are not permitted. In India, 
where the people hold animal life sacred, quan¬ 
tities of birds remain and breed about the houses 
even in the cities. It must be admitted that the 
cutting down of the forests and the draining of 
marshes tend to drive out certain game animals 
and birds and the occupation of the land by 
houses and streets is not conducive to the in¬ 
crease of game, but except in the very centers 
of population birds and animals will increase 
rather than diminish in number under civiliza¬ 
tion, provided they are not hunted. The opera¬ 
tions of agriculture augment their food supply 
and so tend to increase their numbers. 
As the game became rarer, more laws were 
passed ostensibly to protect the supply. Many 
of these laws seem ludicrous in the light of our 
present knowledge. After most of the wildfowl 
that once nested here had been killed or driven 
out of the country, laws were passed to protect 
a few of them during most of the breeding sea¬ 
son. Those that did not breed here were pro¬ 
tected, if at all, when they were out of these 
States and shooting was allowed, during practi¬ 
cally all of the time they remained. After the 
upland game birds had become locally rare, the 
shooting season was shortened, but no adequate 
provision was made for enforcing the law, there¬ 
fore the laws were disregarded. Close seasons 
for several birds were declared after they had 
been practically exterminated. In much of our 
game legislation we have closed the door after 
the horse has been stolen, but rarely have we 
securely locked it. There are instances where 
birds and animals have become extinct without 
any attempt having been made to protect them 
adequately. Some of the laws grant special 
favors to marketmen and other interests that 
profit by game destruction. Often the laws 
serve better to protect the hunter than to pro¬ 
tect the game. For these reasons most game 
laws have failed to increase the game supply. 
The people neither grasped the situation nor 
showed any disposition to apply the remedy so 
long as game enough remained to give the gun¬ 
ner a chance to make day wages by shooting it. 
Within the last half century the effectiveness 
of firearms has been so increased that the hun¬ 
ter is much more formidable and destructive 
than in past time, and the means of travel and 
communication have been so improved, extended 
and cheapened that almost every part of New 
England has become easily and quickly accessible 
to hunters. 
While the number of hunters has lessened in¬ 
proportion to the entire population, the great 
accession in population has increased the num¬ 
ber of hunters enormously. Last year I gave 
an estimate, based on returns from hunting 
licenses, that there were then three million hun¬ 
ters in this country. This was a low estimate. 
Many farmers who hunt unlicensed on their own 
