stream family in the season of long evenings 
nd cold winds. We might add snow, but so 
ar it has been so scarce that we almost feel 
shamed to be found cleaning up and repairing 
nowshoes.— Editor.] 
New Hampshire’s Deer Season. 
Springfield, Vt., Dec. 26. — Editor Forest and 
tream: Our neighboring State of New Hamp- 
hire has certainly covered herself with glory, 
'he lower part of the State had had no deer 
unting for some fifty years. Deer had increased 
wonderfully, were rather tame, and we who live 
ear the State had seen them frequently while 
aveling, and while the farmer may have suf- 
:red slightly the people who came to the State 
ir the summer, and all who were out of doors 
tid loved nature and her creatures, enjoyed 
nmensely the frequent sight of the many white- 
iled deer. 
The last Legislature granted a two weeks’ open 
season in December, and unfortunately the 
weather held good this fall so that the many 
tender-hided hunters, who would not have gone 
out in severe weather, were abroad, and to pro¬ 
tect New Hampshire’s sons, this same fatherly 
Legislature prescribed the use of the shotgun as 
a safe and simple method of exterminating deer 
without harming the citizens. 
Such tales of slaughter and of cruelty as have 
come to us from the use of this weapon make 
the blood boil in any decent man. Buckshot were 
strung together by wire and used with deadly 
effect at distances as great as deer are usually 
killed with a rifle. Often more than one deer 
in a group were hit at a time. Reports from all 
over the State tell of seeing wounded and flee¬ 
ing animals, some trailed down and worried by 
dogs, and others fleeing across the Connecticut 
River, taking refuge on the Vermont side. All 
men should arise and protest against this slaugh¬ 
ter and against the cruelty of the shotgun method. 
In the little town of New Hampshire, just 
across from here, the number of deer slain was 
appalling. The law allowed two to each gunner 
—just twice too many—and permitted the kill¬ 
ing of does, so that all kinds of deer, from little 
fawns of forty pounds up to some magnificent 
bucks were brought in by the excited New Hamp¬ 
shire gunner. The wonder of it all is that, so 
far as I know, there were no fatalities, for cer¬ 
tainly any man who is fool enough to shoot an¬ 
other for a deer would do it just as quickly with 
a shotgun as with a rifle, and most of us would 
prefer to take our chances of being missed with 
the former, but in .our own State the first two 
or three years of open season there were no 
fatalities, while this year there were several and 
last year one or two. I have no explanation for 
this. W. W. Brown. 
A WRECK ON THE VIRGINIA BEACH. 
From a photograph by Edwin Levick. 
