


















































































FOREST AND STREAM. 

[AuG. 31, 1907. 


Facts and Anecdotes. 
SHELDON, Vt., Aug. 14.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: If there is any reliance to be placed 
on bird signs we may look for and may expect 
an early and cold winter. The upland plover 
that bred in this vicinity began their southern 
migrations at least three weeks earlier than 
usual. The open season on these game birds 
commenced here Aug, 1, but. for the two past 
weeks the only shooting of this kind that we 
have had has been at the more northern bred 
birds that have stopped here to rest and feed. 
In the woodcock covers we have on inspection 
found more young birds than we have seen for 
several years, but by the time the open season 
commences they will be away to better feed- 
ing grounds. Good reports are given concern- 
ing ruffed grouse. Their broods are now well 
fledged and number from eight to a dozen. 
It has been over a third of a century since 
we began sending you brief items on game and 
fishing subjects, covering a range of territory 
from Prince Edwards Island on the Atlantic 
across the continent to Vancouver Island on the 
Pacific, during which time we have threshed out 
the vexed questions regarding the sex of the 
black or silver gray fox, and whether the panther 
screams or no, etc. But the article that has 
given us the most satisfaction is the one that 
brought the mother and son, who parted in Scot- 
land over twenty years previously, together 
again. Each thought the other dead. The son 
was in the employ of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany and was stationed at Cassiar, Bear Creek, 
near the boundary of Alaska; the mother was 
residing in an interior’ town in California. 
There are several other interesting incidents 
connected with this which we do not mention 
here. 
To increase the variety of feathered game we 
have eoporte and brought into this State caper- 
cailzie and blackcock from Sweden, and quail 
aoe ye grouse, and have bred hundreds 
of Mongolian pheasants, etc. The Swedish 
trapper who caught the capercailzie clipped their 
wings so that they could not fly, and as we did 
not hear of them after we turned them out, we 
assume that they became the prey of the first 
bobeat or fox that came along. The blackcock 
have bred and also have crossed with our ruffed 
grouse. The sharptail grouse late in the fall 
came into the erchards to bud and were bagged 
by the farmers’ boys, and most of the pheasants 
and quail shared the same fate, as the deep 
snows drove them ir. around the barn yards to 
feed, where they fell victims to the cheap shot- 
gun that nearly every boy in the country pos- 
sesses. In some of the thick woods where there 
are large sumac groves there are still a few quail 
and pheasant, though the flocks are scattering 
and few in number. This Aah that, given 
food, they can survive our coldest winters if 
we can educate the boy with the gun to let them 
alone. 
Speaking about boys, there is a “little kid” 
that has the makeup 
in Waterbury, this State, t! 
of a genuine fisherman. His father bought and 
presented him with a very light rod and tackle, 
and at the same time cautioned him against try- 
ing to pull out too large a fish, as he would be 
likely to break his rod. That evening he came 
in and told about such a very large fish that 
he had caught. He was asked how he managed 
to pull out such a large fish and not break his 
rod. 
“Oh,” he replied, “I made it lighter by first 
dutting it and then tutting its head off.” 
One day he was given permission to fish a 
brook near the village, and as he did not appear 
at dinner time his mother was much concerned 
about him until a friend drove in and said he 
saw him fully a mile and a half out from the 
town coming in with a fine string of trout. 
Speaking about children, we will give you an- 
other one and then stop. The youngest of a 
Barre (Vt.) friend’s children is a demure little 
lady, who one afternoon wandered out to a 
neighbor’s garden where, reaching through the 
fence, she purloined a handful of berries. An 
older sister saw her coming in with the fruit 
and exclaimed: 
“Why, Eula, you have been taking Mrs. 
berries; that is stealing and is wicked.” 

Little Eula hastily crammed the fruit into her 
mouth, and, as she swallowed the last one, with 
an air of astonishment, said: 
“Tss dat so?” Then meekly folding her hands 
and with bowed head said: “May de dood Lord 
forgib me.” STANSTEAD. 

Massachusetts Sportsmen’s Clubs. 
Boston, Aug. 24.—Editor Forest and Stream: 
Another sportsman’s club has applied for mem- 
bership in the Massachusetts Fish and Game Pro- 
tective Association. This is the Northampton 
Rod and Gun Club. Mr. Edward Miller, its 
secretary, has been selected to serve on the legis- - 
lative committee, and Mr. Edward Rice for the 
enforcement-of-laws committee of the State as- 
sociation. This club has done excellent work in 
liberating quail and stocking trout streams. Last 
year it planted 4,000 fingerlings, and it has placed 
another with the State Association for 5,000 for 
fall planting. The president of the club is Mr. 
(er i. Sawyer. 
Mr. Joseph H. Wood, of Pittsfield, is pessi- 
mistic about the fall shooting of grouse. In 
some instances where the eggs hatched seven, 
eight and, in one instance eleven in a nest, the 
young birds disappeared in a few days. On one 
farm two large broods were hatched, not more 
than four of them surviving at the end of a 
week. Mr. Wood expressed regret at the pas- 
sage last winter of the nonresident license law, 
believing the principle of requiring a license to 
hunt is un-American. 
A very interesting letter comes from a man 
who holds a prominent official position in one 
of the towns in the cranberry raising district 
of the Cape. “For more than fifty years,” he 
writes, ‘“I have hunted and fished in this vicinity, 
and it is with the deepest regret that I have 
noted the rapid decrease of our fish and game, 
especially during the last ten years.’ He ob- 
serves with pleasure of late an increasing in- 
terest in protection. Deer in his vicinity are 
increasing in number, but he fears the farmers’ 
law of 1907 opens the door for their destruc- 
tion. He says two or three ponds in his section 
have in years gone by furnished good bass fish- 
ing. He would like to see them restocked and 
then closed for two or three years against all 
fishing. He speaks of the large element of for- 
eigners, notably “in the cranberry season,” 
French, Italians and Portuguese, the first espec- 
ially lawless. In September last year near their 
camp were found snares and box traps, and in 
the pond trawls. The culprits took fright and 
left town before the officers could arrest them. 
H. H. KIMBatt, 
Shooting from Power Boats. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The papers are full of what the Legislature 
of North Carolina is doing to the railroads and 
is going to do to the liquor dealers, viz.: to pro- 
hibit the manufacture and sale of all intoxicat- 
ing beverages within the State. While engaged 
in prohibition the Legislature should not lose 
sight of other matters which affect a large class 
of persons without the State, who visit North 
Carolina annually and pay generously for the 
privilege of hunting game of various sorts. It 
should absolutely prohibit the shooting of wild- 
fowl from power boats. 
From the moment when the earliest flocks of 
ducks arrive from the north they are continually 
chased and shot at from naphtha launches on 
every river, sound and bay in eastern North 
Carolina, so that decoys have become, in many 
localities, well nigh useless, the ducks being 
either rendered so wild that they will not ap- 
proach the points and little islands, or are driven 
away altogether. What has Mr. Olds to say on 
this subject? A SUFFERER. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 


Game in Oregon. 
OLALLA, Oregon, Aug. 10.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In the July 20 issue of Forest AND 
STREAM appears a_ sketch and picture of my 
brother, O. H. Hampton. It relates that he 
was the oldest of six children in eastern Indi- 
ana. I was the next oldest of the six, and in 
those boyhood days of running barefoot used 
to be equally expert in gathering thistles with 
my feet, but never as a wing shot could I com- 
pare with him. 
Before I was large enough to carry a gun, I 
used to go with him into the woods and help 
him load the gun. He needed help. The shot- 
gun he used then was of a very ancient pattern; 
squirrels were the game. In one bottle he 
caried the powder and in another the shot, and 
the caps ina box. A large supply of newspaper 
was also necessary for ‘‘waddin’.” When 
squirrels were found and one had been dropped 
from the tree with the only load in the gun, it 
was a time for excitement and hurry to get 
again loaded for another, before they all got 
away; it took so long to load. 
Coming up to the present, I will write a few 
words about game in the Coast Range Moun- 
tains near the Pacific in Southwest Oregon, 
where I now am. The cougar-panther, bear 
and deer abound, the latter being quite 
abundant. The season opens for buck July 1s. 
I have not been out yet. The other fellows must 
be given a show, of course. Several I know 
have been-out with good success. 
Two of my neighbors who went into the 
mountains after deer had a rather remarkable 
experience. Finding a suitable camping spot, 
they halted, left their traps and horsés, and 
with anticipations well up, began the hunt 
through the mountain forest. Not successful 
in getting any game, they turned back toward 
camp. It is an easy matter to get lost, for a 
time at least, in these mountains. That is what 
happened to them. 
It was getting near night, and to all appear- 
ances they did not seem at all likely to find 
camp before dark. To one side of them a noise 
was heard. Peering through the bushes, some 
big game was _sighted. What was it—elk? 
Must be; too big for any deer. No time was 
lost. The game stood still, and was quickly 
dropped in their tracks. 
They approached the then dying animals. 
But, behold their surprise! They had reached 
their camp, but did not know it, and had shot 
their own horses. 
As for myself, perhaps I take rather more 
to the domestic animals than the wild ones. I 
have a band of the beautiful Angora goats. 
They browse on the brush of the mountains, 
their food being almost the same as that of the 
deer. 
One evening when the Angoras did not come 
home as usual, ] went on to the mountainside 
after them. Three deer seemed to have joined 
the band, as they were browsing so near them. 
I tried to drive them all up together, but as the 
deer seemed inclined to go the other way at a 
very good speed, I decided to let them go. 
I always have liked to see animals have their 
liberty and enjoy themselves any way. 
A. L. Hampton. 
An Albino Deer. 
Aw albino buck has been reported from Red 
Bridge, Mass., where several residents claim to 
have seen it with several other deer that are 
more or less tame. The buck is said to be white 
save on the neck. 
THE ForEST AND STREAM may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
SUBSTANTIAL NOURISHMENT. 
The chief concern of every camper is to ob- 
tain substantial nourishment in compact form. 
No camp or cabin is complete without its supply 
of Borden’s Eagle Brand Condensed Milk and 
Peerless Brand Evaporated Milk. They have no 
equal for Coffee, Fruits and Cereals.——Adv, 





