6o 
[Jan. ii, 1908. 
farm houses. Around these houses so much 
land had been cleared that they escaped the gen¬ 
eral destruction. 
This landlord Fowler was the father of James 
Fowler, late of Blissfield, Miramichi, lumberman 
and moose caller, remembered by all the older 
residents of that section. James Fowler was 
born in 1816 and his recollections of the “great 
fire” were clear up to 1900, when his memory 
failed The night the fire passed his father s 
house he and a little brother were placed on 
an island in the river in charge of such house¬ 
hold goods as could be quickly moved. 
In this fire one hundred and fifty or more lives 
were lost; just how many was never known. The 
only escape was in the water of lake or stream 
or well. This is said to have been the greatest 
natural calamity that up to this time had ever 
come upon a British colony. Flelp was sent first 
from the United States and Canada, and later 
from England. The total contributions were of 
the value of $200,000, a great sum at that time. 
Of this St. John, then a little city of 10,000 peo¬ 
ple, sent $20,000 in supplies, and the United 
States $85,000 in money. Many terrible and de¬ 
structive fires have devastated Maine and the 
Maritime Provinces, but never has there been an¬ 
other in this eastern country covering so large 
a territory. All through the Miramichi Valley 
to-day may be seen the effects of the destruction 
of those fiery days of eighty-two years ago. 
Much of the soil was burned, and sections natur¬ 
ally fertile have grown up to small and inferior 
timber. 
At the camp-fires of the hunter for moose and 
caribou even to this day the talk often will turn 
to the “great fire” of 1825, and stories told to 
children by grandsire or dame repeated in the 
social hour at evening. Fred Talcott. 
The Season in Minnesota. 
Knife River, Minn,, Dec. 24. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: This has been a very unsatisfactory 
season on the North Shore from the sportsman s 
view point. But I think the lack of snow and 
the dry bush have been a good thing for the 
future. During the entire hunting season of 
twenty days hardly a flake of snow fell. Con¬ 
sequently many good hunters had no success at 
all. 
Last winter with its great depth of snow caused 
the death of an untold number of deer, and I 
suppose a greater or less number of moose. One 
party of land and timber cruisers found seven 
deer carcasses on one 160 acre tract. Partridges 
nearly disappeared throughout this country, which 
is forty miles northeast from Knife River and 
ten miles from Lake Superior. I have seen only 
five different flocks during the entire season. But 
the present prospect is good for another year, as 
it looks as though we would have an ideal win¬ 
ter for our wild game. 
Of course the timber wolves are more or less 
numerous, but if the snow does not get too deep 
and with too much of a crust it will mean the 
lives of many of the deer now left in the coun¬ 
try. The wolves are killing a few moose from 
time to time. I know of one good sized bull 
killed on Cross River during the hunting season. 
They ran him on to the ice on the edge of a 
little lake, he broke through at a spring hole 
and they promptly killed him. A gentleman from 
Two Harbors came on them while they were at 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
the still warm carcass and killed two of them, 
one an old dog wolf weighing 135 pounds. There 
is no question, but for every deer or moose and 
calf killed here the hunter gets one and the 
wolves from two to five. This may seem a rather 
large estimate, but if I was to change it I would 
increase the share that goes to the wolves. 
We had the usual number of deaths from 
gunshot wounds, though mostly they were pure 
accidents. No local case where anyone was shot 
in mistake for deer or moose, though the entire 
country was covered with all kinds of hunters. 
Let us hope as time goes on that these acci¬ 
dents will grow fewer, as they have in Maine 
in the last two or three years. 
Fred Chase. 
Law Enforcement Needed. 
Worcester, Mass., Dec. 22. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Local sportsmen are very much in¬ 
terested in the latest project of the indefatigable 
and enthusiastic Dr. C. F. Hodge to restock the 
New England covers with wild turkeys. The 
plan as outlined by the doctor seems feasible 
enough, provided proper protection could be 
guaranteed the first few years. There s the 
rub.” The doctor must realize that the exist¬ 
ing protection laws of this State are a dead letter 
to the hordes of aliens who infest every cover 
from the opening to the close of the season. By 
these freebooters everything is slaughtered with¬ 
out the slightest regard for law or sentiment. 
During the last open season scores of these men 
left this city daily and roamed every cover avail¬ 
able through steam or electricity. The exist¬ 
ing law requires aliens to secure a license be¬ 
fore going afield with a gun. In two years just 
one such license has been issued from City Hall. 
And how many arrests, Mr. Editor, have been 
made in these two years in consequence of this 
flagrant violation of the statutes? As far as 
I have been able to learn, not one. 
In view of this neglect to enforce the laws 
1 am curious to know just what chance Dr. 
Hodge’s wild turkeys would have with this un¬ 
checked element. 
It is extremely difficult to fix the responsibility 
for this deplorable state of affairs; in fact, no 
one seems disposed to move in the matter at 
all. Apathy seems to have infected the local 
officials and game wardens alike, and fish and 
game protection is relegated to the “demnition 
bow wows.” Not many seasons since a man 
speared a seven pound trout in one of the many 
streams emptying into the lake. He then sold 
the fish for two dollars; two violations of the 
law, and done publicly. What happened? A 
local paper applauded the act and called him 
the champion angler of the lake. With public 
sentiment at such a pitch Dr. Hodge’s turkeys 
and the traditional snowball in tophet would 
have an equal show. What is wanted in this 
vicinity—and many others I fear—is a fearless 
warden who will enforce the laws. Until such 
a man appears nothing which wears feathers, 
from a squab angel to a hummer, will be safe. 
J. W. B. 
All the fish laws of the United States and Can¬ 
ada, revised to date and now in force, are given 
in the Came I.azvs in Brief. See ctdv. 
New Publications. 
Feathered Game of the Northeast. By Walter 
H. Rich. Illustrated, 450 pages. New York, 
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. $3 net. 
Nearly 100 birds are carefully described in this 
volume in a painstaking way that will appeal to 
the sportsman and the ornithologist alike, while 
the general reader will find in it little reading 
that he can call dry. For example, in describ¬ 
ing the habits of the ruffed grouse, he says in 
reply to an imaginary query of “Don’t they ever 
give you a sitting shot?” 
“Oh yes, when you are tangled up on the point 
of a wire fence, with one barb stuck into the 
middle of your back just where it cannot be 
reached with either hand, and another induce¬ 
ment to profanity has a grip on the leg of your 
trousers—at such times a grouse will often flap 
lazily from the ground into a tree right over 
your back and perch where you can see him only 
by twisting your neck almost off; but shoot? 
Oh. no. There he will sit and criticise the lan 
guage in which you voice your benevolent wishes 
for the future welfare of the inventor of that 1 
style of fence (may they be fulfilled!) until he 
sees signs of the barbs letting go their hold, 
when he is away like a bullet, his wings a mere 
haze as they roar through the branches.” 
Of quail Mr. Rich says that after the libera¬ 
tion of Southern quail in New England they sel¬ 
dom remain longer than one season. “Whether 
they have moved southward at the approach of 
cold weather—by no means an unusual occur¬ 
rence in the north, I think—or have failed to 
survive the winter, seems to be an open question. 
It is probable that the former is often the true 
reason for their disappearance, for with the small 
chance of a grain or seed diet when New Eng¬ 
land’s winter has fairly closed in upon us, their 
prospect for food must be slight indeed, and 
knowing this, Bobwhite takes no chances. In 
most cases the birds for stocking our covers have 
been obtained from Southern localities, -which 
fact would seem to o.rgue a less fitness to en¬ 
dure the rigors of our winters.” 
This is a statement with which readers 
will agree, since it is a well known fact that; 
quail do not migrate. They do move about at 
times, as when searching for better food or 
shelter, but even if they were inclined to turn 
their faces southward the first river encountered 
would turn them back. The flight of the quail 
is a short one at best, and even though it is a 
fact that they possess sufficient power and en¬ 
durance to carry them in safety across small 
rivers, they cross waterways but seldom, and not 
at all, we believe, unless hard pushed. Occas¬ 
ionally quail fly across small streams when the; 
nature of the ground will permit them to start 
from an elevation. 
Mr. Rich says the quail are spreading north 
ward and westward, adding: “In these new sur 
roundings they are said to be taking more anc 
more to grouse habits, both in strategy and it 
mode of life evincing a disposition to hide it 
trees when much harried, and for the night- 
traits which are not common further south.” 
Mr. Rich favors the prohibition of spring shoot 
ing and the sale of game, and suggests that th 
motto, “Don’t forget to leave enough for seed 
be pasted in every shooting hat. 
The illustrations are numerous and are by th 
author. 
