APRIL 28, 1906.] 

FOREST AND STREAM. 
671 

From North Carolina. 
RateicH, N. C., April 13.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The hunting season in most of North 
Carolina ended March 15. It was a good one for 
partridges up to Feb. 1, the winter having been 
very open, though there was much rain in De- 
cember. March was wet and there was but little 
shooting, as a rule, during the half of that month 
which the law permits it. It is safe to say that 
a great many partridges went over until next sea- 
son and in very good shape, too. The worst 
weather of the winter was during two or three 
early days in February and toward the end of 
March. 
The Audubon Society, which looks after the 
game, of course incurred a heavy expense during 
the past season, as the State was covered more 
thoroughly than ever before. Most of the war- 
dens have been dropped from active duty until the 
autumn begins. 
The shooting of snipe along the beaches is not 
permitted after March 1, but. in the up-country 
the season is yet open. It has been quite fair 
here and some good bags have been made. The 
birds in this section prefer fairly open marshes 
where there are cattails, and they are also fond 
of ditch banks in the meadows. They are all 
English snipe, very few of the shortbill ones hav- 
ing been seen this season. Upland plover have 
been scarce and I have seen only one. Usually 
these birds will come toward me when I give their 
call, but this one paid no attention to it at all. 
The duck shooting during the winter was gen- 
erally unsatisfactory. There were a great many 
birds, but they stayed out in the wide sheets of 
water. Of course, some good bags were made. 
Frep A. OLbs. 
Adirondack Beaver. 
WE are kindly permitted by Mr. John N. Drake, 
of New York city, to publish two private letters 
that he has just received bearing on the attempt 
to restock the Adirondacks with beaver. The 
subject is an interesting one, and it is well to put 
on record all the details connected with it. A 
few years hence they may make very interesting 
reading. The letters follow: 
WEEHAWKEN, N. J., April 14.—John N. Drake: 
Dear Sir—You ask me to give you a history of 
the attempt to restock the Adirondacks with 
beaver, by the State and the Brown’s Tract 
Guides’ Association. 
Colonel Fox and Superintendent Middleton, of 
the Forest Fish and Game Commission, pur- 
chased seven beaver to be liberated at the end of 
the Louisiana Exhibition, Dec. 1, 1904. That 
being too late in the season for them to prepare 
for winter, A. M. Church, secretary and treasurer 
of the Brown’s Tract Guides’ Association, agreed 
that the Association would care for and turn 
them loose at the proper time. So they were 
shipped to Old Forge, at the foot at the Fulton 
Chain of Lakes. 
There the Association built three houses in a 
small pond of the Fulton Chain fish hatchery and 
hired one of the pioneer guides to feed and care 
for them during the winter of 1904-5. They did 
very well with one exception. One was ugly and 
could not get along with the rest, so he was put 
in a pen alone, with a screen of heavy wire to 
separate him. But about April 20 he gnawed 
through the screen and in the morning he was 
missing. On making a search of the “pond his 
body was found buried under the refuse; he had 
been killed and buried by the rest. 
The latter part of April the ice and snow were 
gone enough for them to care for themselves, so 
the Association hired five guides to take two of 
them to Otter Brook, on the head of the South 
Branch of the Moose River, to where there was 
a lone beaver living that T. L. Woodruff, Esgq., 
had released several years before. 
We did not know what gender the hermit was, 
so we tried to pick male and female and started 
on the “journey of liberation,” as that great Adi- 
rondack enthusiast, Harry V. Radford,, styled it. 
He came from New York to see them liberated. 
I tried to persuade him not to make the trip to 
the South Branch, but he was game. and when we 
got off at 6 A. M. at the head of Fourth Lake, 
for a twelve-mile tramp over three of the high 
ranges in that part of the Adirondacks, with pro- 
visions for two days and two beaver and crate 
weighing 125 pounds, with the streams and 
swamps overflowing with water, when we 
reached Frank Gray’s camp at 12 P. M., your hum- 
ble servant was tired. The younger fellows would 
not own to being tired, but I noticed it was hard 
work to get them started at 5 A. M. to go on two 
miles further. 
We found where the other beaver had felled a 
tree, within two or three days at the farthest. 
They stayed in that vicinity all summer, and the 
accompanying letter from Frank Gray is the first 

START FOR THE SOUTH BRANCH. 
ARRIVAL AT GRAY’S CAMP. 
OPENING THE CAGE. 
I have heard from them this spring. As soon as 
I can learn how the other four wintered I will 
give you a history of their liberation. 
D. F. SPERRY. 
Gray CAmp, March 28—Frank Sperry, Old 
Forge: Dear Sir—I thought you would like to 
hear from the beaver you brought here last April. 
I went up there the other day to see how they 
were managing. They have adopted the country 
on Otter Creek, where you opened the cage door. 
They have been working on the poplar near there. 
I counted seventy-five trees, from two to seven 
inches in diamater, they had cut and used for 
food and to make a log cabin. They made a 
house about ten feet across at the bottom and 
six feet high, shaped like a haystack, Gothic 
finish outside. Inside I suppose it is of the 
poplar logs. I have no doubt they have 1m- 
proved on the houses they had at the St. Louis 
Exhibition, or even the ones they had at the Old 
Forge hatchery, where they still owe for their 
winter’s board, 
Deer have wintered well here. I have not 
found one dead. Last spring a man could count 
roo dead in a day. G. FRANK Gray. 
On the Sounds of North Carolina. 
I yoURNEYED from Norfolk to Beaufort through 
the inland waters of Virginia and North Carolina 
by way of the canal to Currituck, Albemarle and 
Pamlico Sounds, thus passing through what is 
considered the best wildfowl feeding ground on 
the Atlantic coast. Having read and heard much 
of these waters and the quantity of wildfowl said 
to abound there, [ decided to combine business 
with pleasure and make the trip. I invited two 
friends to participate. 
It was decided that I would go to Norfolk, Va., 
and engage a boat. This I found a harder task 
than we expected. There were many considera- 
tions to observe. The first was comfort. One 
would soon get tired of this kind of trip unless 
the accommodations were good. We wanted a 
boat, with both sail and power, which did not 
draw too much water, as we had been informed 
there were many shoals and points to cross. We 
wished to engage it for one month, but some of 
the prices asked for that length of time were at 
least one-third of the original boat cost. At Nor- 
folk a man had a boat which he had fitted up to 
take out parties on trips of this kind. It was 
about 55ft. long with 14ft. beam; was schooner 
rigged and had a 10 horsepower gasolene engine. 
The captain claimed that it drew only 3ft. when 
under sail, and 3%ft. when the motor was run- 
ning; that under favorable conditions he could 
make six miles an hour, and that he had made 
ten miles, using the sail with a fair wind. I made 
him an offer, which he accepted. 
While both my friends were eee im- 
pressed with the boat, they did not like the cap- 
tain. There seemed to be a suspicion that all was 
not as represented by him. I did not think much 
of him myself. I had had several experiences 
with captains of small crafts, and had found them 
all alike. They look on every city man as a dude, 
sent them by a special providence, and regard it 
as unbecoming to their profession if they do not 
attempt to get the better of him. I proposed to 
do with the captain as I had done with the 
others; that is, pay the price asked, then fight it 
out as we went along. 
Baggage, provisions, coal and water aboard, we 
pulled out in the stream and anchored for the 
night. 
Next morning we started for the mouth of the 
canal, which goes through to North Landing 
River, thence to Currituck Sound. The canal is 
about ten miles from Norfolk. It is simply a 
straight ditch for two-thirds of the way, about 
forty feet wide, running through a low wild 
looking country full of swamps and swamp tim- 
ber. It runs into a creek which is very crooked 
for a mile or so, thence out into North Landing 
River, which really seems a part of Currituck 
Sound. 
Starting for Currituck Court House, 
commenced to see wildfowl in increasing num- 
ber as we went along. When opposite the Swan 
Island Club there were thousands of geese, red- 
heads and other ducks, with a number of swan 
sprinkled with them. These grand white birds 
always kept a little away from the rest and 
bunched up by themselves. We could not get a 
shot at them. 
We came near sailing among a big raft of red- 
heads, but they swam off to the side as we ap- 
proached. It was just as well we did not shoot, 
as we found out afterward it is illegal for a non- 
resident to shoot while afloat in Currituck county, 
There are many game wardens thereabouts. 
Currituck Court House is a very small place, 
with one good store, a court house and several 
dwelling houses scattered along the shore. It 
was there we took out our hunting license. The 
money for licenses, we were informed, goes to 
a private society, the Audubon, and is used for 
the protection of game and song birds. 
We were told at Poplar Branch that there was 
little tide except when the wind blew right, and 
that the water rose and fell according to the di- 
rection of the wind. Poplar Branch consists of 
three good stores and a few houses. It is situated 
about one-half mile from the dock. The people 
there were very scciabie. On inquiry we found 
good shooting could be had if we went out with 
the right people. 
Ne Gwe 
