March 25, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
455 
went a trifle to the right. The deer sprang in 
the air and turned broadside on, frozen in his 
tracks. I deliberately moved the white bead 
until it was exactly where I wanted it, but when 
the sharp report rang out I was more than sur¬ 
prised to see the buck bound out of sight, for 
1 was as cool as a cucumber. 
I went back to the camp and put up a square 
of paper at sixty-six yards, walked back and 
fired at it. The bullet struck nearly a foot low! 
The rear sight had been lowered almost an 
eighth of an inch. On a twenty-inch barrel that 
is sufficient to cause a miss in shooting at a 
deer at sixty yards if the holder knows nothing 
of it. 
During these days the dog was watching the 
camp when we were away; or, if we went out 
“she can handle them, too.” 
to grassy gap for a few squirrels, he was al¬ 
lowed to accompany us, and right proud he was 
to do it. Birds, squirrels, rabbits, ’chucks—any¬ 
thing in the game line compelled a share of his 
attention, and I am sorry to relate that his utter 
disregard of the law caused him one day to show 
a too inquisitive buck the nearest route to cover. 
Truly, the Airedale is always on the job. 
Some of the boys came up occasionally and 
spent the night with us, to be near the hunting 
grounds in the morning. They brought their 
rations, knowing that we had to have ours toted, 
and they frequently brought fresh pork for a 
change for us, and right welcome they were. 
Two who are considered among the most suc¬ 
cessful hunters left us two deer hams each, say¬ 
ing they would not tote them home for them. 
Nevertheless, they had toted them over rough 
country that far. And these were North Caro¬ 
lina mountaineers of whom you have read, but 
they are not as you have heard them described. 
I cast my lot among them a few years ago, and 
have found them very kind and accommodating 
neighbors. Of course they have faults—so have 
you and I—but for uprightness and fair deal¬ 
ing give me the country mountaineer. I could 
wish for a little stricter observance of the game 
law, but the Vanderbi.t preserve, so long as it 
exists, will serve the purpose, as protection there 
is constant, there being no open season. 
Mat. and Wes., two brothers and neighbors of 
mine, had been out with me once for a couple 
of days. Mat. is fire warden for the fiber com¬ 
pany that owns several thousand acres of timber 
land adjoining the preserve, and Wes. is a trap¬ 
per of note. One morning Wes. came to the 
camp and said Mat. would meet us at a point 
some distance from the camp where sign was 
plenty. We had gone only a short distance when 
a fine two-prong buck sprung out of a gap, and 
as he dashed down the ridge Wes. fired a .25-20 
bullet at his shoulder. We followed the track 
and found him lying with his head down hill. 
When he sprang to his feet, we both fired, 
\\ es. once and I twice. The boys not only gave 
me this buck, but toted it most of the way to 
camp. 
On our next trip we soon discovered fresh 
signs of a forest tragedy of the previous night. 
A streak of feathers led to the carcass of a fine 
large gobbler that had yielded up his life to a 
red fox. Wes. shot a fine two-prong buck. We 
camped in a ravine that night. The next morn¬ 
ing we had passed through the gap without see¬ 
ing any fresh sign, and had concluded to go 
back toward home when Alat. said: “I see one. 
He is down where we came through the gap. 
He smells our sign.” The buck was slowly and 
suspiciously walking toward us, stopping every 
second or third step, head up in the air, about 
125 yards away. Mat. deliberately put his rifle 
on the ground, determined to give me the shot. 
Slowly the white bead traveled up between the 
intervening saplings, found the gray mark, there 
was a sharp report, and the buck dropped in 
his tracks. He lay still for a minute, then raised 
up on his haunches like a dog, gave one snort 
and was dead, a victim to the accuracy and tre¬ 
mendous shocking power of the little .25-35 bul¬ 
let. Nothing but the shock of 2,050 feet per sec¬ 
ond, entirely absorbed by the animal, could ac¬ 
count for the knockout blow, as no immediately 
vital spot had been traversed. 
This deer was cut in two, the boys each tak¬ 
ing a part while I carried two guns, and the re¬ 
turn journey was commenced, and it was all I 
could do to keep up with them. At noon we 
arrived where Wes. had hung the deer killed the 
previous day. I took part of one of the car¬ 
casses, and the journey was continued until the 
trail leading to the valley was reached. There 
we parted, the boys taking their load home with 
them, to be delivered the following day at my 
home, for the legal limit had been reached, and 
while the boys took half of one of these deer, 
what had been previously given me made a trifle 
over three bucks for the season, and not a scrap 
of the meat spoiled, some being smoked, some 
dried, some eaten fresh, about one carcass given 
away, besides a nice lot canned fresh by my 
wife for a future taste of the venison during 
closed season. 
I arrived at camp about 3 o’clock and found 
the lady of the camp had been busy during my 
absence, but that is another story, and she will 
tell you about it at some future time. 
W. H. Shay. 
Secretary Whish Resigns. 
John D. Whish, for nearly ten years the sec¬ 
retary of the New York State Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission, has handed his resignation to 
Commissioner Thomas Alott Osborne, who has 
accepted it. 
Afr. W hish is well known to the sportsmen and 
nature students of this and other States from 
the intelligent interest he has taken in all 
branches of conservation work. He came into 
the service of the State when the old Forest 
Board and the Fish and Game Commission were 
consolidated during Governor Roosevelt’s ad¬ 
ministration. One of his first acts was to col¬ 
lect and send out to the largest woodland owners 
and lumbermen a set of pamph’ets dealing with 
CALLING TURKEYS. 
forestry problems. This information was of 
great service to the landowners and resulted in 
an important movement toward reforesting work 
in the Northern counties. 
Later when the untimely death of State Fish- 
culturist A. N. Cheney occurred, Mr. Whish took 
hold of the hatchery work and conducted it suc¬ 
cessfully up to the time when the State secured 
the services of Dr. Bean. During this period 
Mr. Whish received a silver medal from the St. 
Louis Exposition as a collaborator in the prepa¬ 
ration of the large collection of New York State 
fishes then exhibited and now forming a per¬ 
manent exhibit at the New York State House 
in Albany. 
During recent years Air. Whish has practically 
had charge of the preparation of the valuable 
annual report issued by the commission, and has 
contributed much interesting matter to its pages. 
He will remain in Albany for the present. His 
successor is to be Francis A. Willard, the secre¬ 
tary of the Democratic State League of which 
Commissioner Osborne is the head. 
