FOREST AND STREAM. 
96 
Hunting With Novices. 
Rochester, N. Y., Jan. 11 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Every fall of the past ten years I have 
visited the wildest sections of the Adirondack 
Mountains on a hunting expedition. 
Each year on the approach of the season for 
going to the mountains I determine to take with 
me no new recruits, but my determination is 
ever frustrated. I see danger in taking into the 
wilderness men who are not familiar with wood¬ 
craft. They are in danger of accident, are liable 
to shoot their companions, mistaking them for 
deer or other game, and are liable to be lost 
in the trackless forest. But as the hour draws 
near for departing to the woods, one relative 
or friend after another pleads to join the party. 
When consent is given this one finds another 
who pleads urgently to go, thus our party is 
ever enlarged by new members who have no ex¬ 
perience concerning the hunting of bear and 
deer. 
It was a rule of the camp that all were to 
start out early in the morning for the hunt, with 
positive orders that every man should be back 
in camp at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, for the 
reason that it often grows dark suddenly in the 
Adirondack Mountains in the afternoon, particu¬ 
larly when storms are brewing. If members of 
the party were not back by 4 0 clock it was un¬ 
derstood that danger would be apprehended in 
the camp to those remaining out. If at 5 o’clock 
all members of the party had not returned, it 
would be understood that there was trouble, that 
someone had been lost or that an accident had 
happened. 
One day we all started out for the hunt at 
sunrise, going in different directions. At 3 
o’clock all returned to the camp but two. At 4 
o’clock these two had not returned. When 5 
o’clock arrived and the two missing men were 
still absent, we held a council. The decision was 
that we should shoot off a gun and wait for re¬ 
turn signals. We did this, but heard no re¬ 
sponding shot. Again and again the gun was 
discharged, and finally we heard a response that 
appeared to come from directly across the lake, 
near which we had camped. It was quite dark, 
and we knew that these two men could not find 
their roundabout way to our camp unaided. We 
therefore jumped into a boat, crossed the lake, 
and with some difficulty found the two missing 
men. 
After leaving us in the morning they had taken 
a course toward the foot of the lake, and had 
wound their way far around the mountain where 
they had seen signs of deer, and finally had shot 
a large buck. The locality was so inaccessible 
and wild they feared they would never be able 
to find it again if they left the deer there, there¬ 
fore they resolved to drag it to camp. This was 
laborious work. They would drag the deer a 
few rods and then would be obliged to stop and 
rest, after which they would drag it again a 
short time and rest again. When darkness came 
on they lost their way. After a severe struggle 
they reached the shore of the lake where they 
heard the discharge of our gun and responded. 
Their intention was to remain where they were 
until morning. This was a wise decision. When 
hunters are lost it is best to remain where they 
are until help arrives, for if they keep on wan¬ 
dering they are liable to wander further away 
from the camp rather than nearer. 
Our camp, made of bark stretched upon poles, 
was located twenty miles from the nearest post 
office, on the edge of a natural clearing in the 
forest. Here at night we were lullel to sleep 
by the wild cries and hooting of strange birds 
and four-footed beasts. Here was absolute soli¬ 
tude, such as would have delighted Daniel 
Boone, an explorer like Livingstone, or any man 
who loves to commune with nature. 
In our search for large game we often dis¬ 
turbed the partridge and fox, but seldom at¬ 
tempted to shoot them, since the discharge of 
our gun would have alarmed the deer and bear. 
You may be surprised to learn that in the Adi¬ 
rondack Mountains there are few squirrels, and 
few of those common birds so frequently found 
near the habitations of men. For the most part 
this great wooded tract, embracing one hundred 
square miles and thousands of lakes, thousands 
MR. EHRICH AND A SMALL ANTELOPE. 
of rivers and streams, is a dense solitude broken 
only by the occasional chattering of the bluejay, 
the plaintive whistle of the white throat spai- 
row, or the pecking of the woodpecker upon the 
dead body of some old tree. 
The woods are so dense in some parts as to 
cause almost darkness even when the sun is 
shining on the branches overhead. As we tramp 
through this forest we have to stop and admire 
the wild beauty of the scene, composed often 
of masses of broken rock containing material 
enough to build a city, with here and there 
boulders as large as an average house, covered 
with moss. Sometimes these vast masses of rock- 
are so tilted upon other rocks as to move with 
slight pressure. At times we would come to a 
wild ravine which seemed to have been made 
by splitting the mountain by a gigantic earth¬ 
quake. Again we would find ourselves at the 
top of the mountain range from which we could 
see the forest and lakes from ten to seventy 
miles away. 
As a rule we met no one in these wild retreats, 
•[Jan. 18, 190! 
but occasionally we would find a solitary m 
fishing in the pool or brook, or cooking s 
supper or dinner before a rude camp, these e 
men who spend weeks and months gatherg 
spruce gum. They are hardy fellows, cap; e 
of climbing easily the greatest trees in seah 
of the juices which have exuded from spre 
trees and dried into lumps, used in the mai- 
facture of chewing gum. 
Now as to our hunting. In New \ork S:e 
the hunting of deer with dogs is prohibid, 
hence in order to drive the deer through tit 
runway certain members of our party were d;- 
gated each day in turn to act as dogs. Tl$t 
men would go through the sections where sis 
of deer were found, baying and barking a 
hounds, making all the noise they could in oei 
to drive the deer, while other members of a< 
party were located on the runway of the ci 
in different parts of the forest. 
When the frightened deer approaches the n 
ter he often stops for a moment, and then ii 
that the hunter fires. At other times the e: 
scents the hunter before he gets near him a 
turns off at an angle, when the man with hi 
gun has to shoot on the run. This reqre 
an expert shot. 
Still-hunting is usually resorted to after a tS 
or a fall of snow. It would be folly to attip 
to still-hunt deer when the leaves were rj 
and when with each movement of the feet a si 
ling noise we made, and with each breakir c 
the dead branch came a report which vil 
frighten deer many rods away. Often in a il 
hunt, a man will follow a deer all day longifl 
lose him at last, while on other occasion 1 
may come within gun shot in a few hours. 
I can give you some idea of the difficul < 
the killing of deer in the Adirondacks byel 
ing you that many parties go there and it 
back without securing one. Other partii 1 
from four to six men may return with a ig 
deer. My party brought home four fine 1:1 
which was far better than the average si:e 
of Adirondack hunters. There are plen 
deer in the Adirondack Mountains, but they a 
wide range and become very wild soon affitl 
day for hunting arrives. 
The black bear of the north is a roving a n 
continually shifting from one place to aitj 
at all seasons except the few months in ni 
he curls up and lies dormant like the woodui 
The bear seems instinctively to know wh- 
go to find blackberries, beech nuts, suc'h 
roots and other food in which it delights. 1 
bear roots up the ground under beech "« 
much as the hog would, in search for « 
nuts. The bear discovers where the chip™ 
and squirrels have stored nuts in the grou 
the winter supply, and robs their stor(>t 
We are told that bears break into the ptP 1 
of pioneers, carrying off pigs, but I have e 
known of such attacks, but I have knowtaj 
to attack beehives with impunity for the 
which they relish. I have heard of be;i 
tracted to telegraph poles by the hummg 
the wires, thinking that they were in the 
of a beehive. 
At sunrise one morning the. greenest rm 
of our party-, who,would in the West be J 
a tenderfoot, said he had seen a deer 1 
distant rocky hilltop, and that the de 
black. We laughed at him and told hind 
