
' the Audubon law. 
| well. 
Sept, 28, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
497 

sound section and will open new streams for 
fishing and duck shooting. A good many sports- 
men from the north are coming down this win- 
ter. 
The news from the breeding grounds of the 
shore birds along the coast continues to be good 
and the wardens say the rookeries have done 
There have been no big storms to drown 
the birds and no abnormally high tides. The 
| wardens along that shore have two problems to 
contend with, the chief one being that of the 
| native pot-hunter who will risk his life to kill 
ducks for market by night. This thing is done 
by fits and starts. One season they will do very 
little fire lighting and then the next one there 
will be a sort of tacit understanding among all 
the pot-hunters and a lot of their followers that 
it is going to be an open season, and so the 
boom of the gun can be heard everywhere. 
These people are like the moonlighters of the 
up-country; that is, they will not tell on one 
another and evidence from them is impossible in 
nine cases out of ten. 
Particular notice has been taken of the in- 
crease in the number of song birds, thanks to 
It is safe to say the num- 
ber of such birds has trebled in the past three 
years. At one time small boys and even youths 
were heavy takers of birds’ eggs, but now this 
is almost ended and collections are no more 
shown as objects of great pride, since to have 
eges in possession is no small offense. The 
woods are vocal with the songs of the birds 
where but a little while ago they were almost 
silent. Five years ago I could find no gulls 
whatever at two or three points on the coast, 
| but this year it was a delight to see them back 
again, not in great numbers, it is true, but creak- 
|ing about in the air and swooping down upon 
| the schools of fish out beyond the bar. 
It has been surprising to me that parties of 
sportsmen from the north did not come down 
here, look about and rent quarters at country 
houses, or get permission to build log cabins 
and pay something for shooting privileges and 
| make themselves close friends with the country 

people. There are plenty of nice old houses 
here and there are all sorts of desirable situa- 
tions, but few sportsmen come into this part of 
the State from the north, most of them going 
west of here where there are kennels, leased 
lands, etc. They do not appear to strike out in 
new fields to any extent. They will find a very 
great charm in thus working together, three or 
four in a bunch. 
Squirrels are unusually plentiful this year. 
They, too, are getting more protection than ever 
before. Doves are only fairly numerous. These 
are never baited and slain by hundreds as is 
the very bad custom in South Carolina and 
Georgia where they are killed at this time of 
the year by the thousands. The hunting of the 
bull bat has entirely ceased in this State so far 
as can be judged. Frep A. OLps. 
A Letter from Labrador. 
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Sept. 21.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I inclose you a copy of a letter 
we have just received from Labrador, and think 
it will be of general interest to the readers of 
your paper: 
“Great Whale River, Labrador, May 
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Tasker: To-day my dog 
team returned back from Fort George and 
brought your letter with the photos inclosed, 
and for which many thanks. I also received the 
post card last March. 
“Things are just the same here. We are just 
settled down in the new house and are very com- 
fortable. Spring is now making its appearance. 
We had a very rough winter of it, more snow 
than usual, but the worst of it was there were no 
partridges [willow grouse] to be gotten which 
we depend on at this place for fresh meat. The 
only thing we had was salt beef, pork and pea 
soup until the middle of April, when I managed 
to get four deer [barren ground caribou], and 
since then have been living well, and to-morrow 
we will have the first goose. 
“All the Eskimos made good fox hunts, and 
those whom you saw about Little Whale River 
and Richmond Gulf did well. We all did well 
25.— 
about the post. I killed twenty-nine foxes and 
eight marten, and on New Year’s day was lucky 
enough to get a silver fox in one of my traps. 
“Jimmie Noonosh arrived back here on the 
4th of September. Jimmie made a fair hunt in 
marten, and also killed thirteen deer. Noonosh 
was in here this winter for provisions and says 
he was almost starving, there being no deer about 
where he was hunting. All the Indians have made 
poor hunts in furs owing to there being so many 
deer inland. One fellow was in here and told 
me that he had forty carcasses at his camp. 
“The Indians told us that you were intend- 
ing to come here the next summer to go across 
the country again; so, if such is the case, we 
will be now able to make you more comfortable. 
We are looking forward to seeing the steamer 
here about the first week in August to get news 
from the outside world. 
“So, with best wishes from us both, 
“THOMAS MACKENZIE. 
“P, S—July 25. All the Indians have now 
come in and were all well off this last winter; 
deer were very plentiful inland. At present the 
whole country is on fire, which is a bad look- 
out for marten hunting next winter; fish [salmon 
and trout] are about the only thing we get at 
present, but the Indians seem to be living high 
on white porpoise, having now killed two very 
large ones.” STEPHEN P. M. TASKER. 

California Game. 
San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 7.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The best of the dove season seems 
to be over and hunters are now out after quail, 
the season for which opened on Sept. 1. The 
outlook is promising. 
Great preparations are being made for the 
opening of the duck season on Oct. 1. There 
is plenty of overflowed land this season and it 
is possible that the young ducks, that now cover 
the marshes in San Francisco Bay and other 
favorite haunts, may take an early flight to the 
more remote ponds which have replaced a num- 
ber of the alluvial islands in the Sacramento and 
San Joaquin rivers as a result of the breaking 
of levees last winter. As a result of this possi- 
bility the hunters are all planning to get in their 
work on the first days of the open season. All 
the lodges in the Suisun marshes have been put 
in order and a close watch is kept against illegal 
shooting before Oct. 1. 
Achille Roos, of San Francisco, is just com- 
pleting a new hunting lodge at Teal Station on 
the Suisun marshes in San Francisco Bay which 
is admitted to be the finest thing in the way 
of a hunting lodge that has yet made its appear- 
ance in the duck region. It is of light gray ex- 
terior with red roof. The main feature is the 
dining room which is fitted up in mission chapel 
style with gabled roof and exposed rafters all 
in dark oak. It cost $7,000 and bears the name 
Allegre Lodges William Murdock has built a 
club house on the grounds of the Western Gun 
Club at Well’s Slough, near Suisun. It is in 
bungalow style. 
Southern California sportsmen are agitating 
the matter of common shooting days and a strong 
move will be made to get the half a hundred 
organizations in and about Los Angeles together 
on a Sunday and Wednesday agreement. The 
reduction of the duck bag limit to thirty-five has 
led a number of hunters to favor small-bore 
guns. Last year a number took to sixteen bore 
guns and this season a few twenties will make 
their appearance. 
The most exciting news from the California 
deer hunters comes down from Mendocino 
county where Fred Warren escaped from a 
wounded six point buck only through the per- 
sistent efforts of a dog which finally drew the 
attention of the buck from Warren to himself. 
Mr. Warren and C. F. O’Brien started out to 
kill the deer, as it had been known to run in 
a certain locality for some time, but had proved 
too wily for the hunters. Warren got a shot 
at the buck and dropped it, though subsequent 
events proved that it was only stunned. War- 
ren dropped his gun and was just ready to cut 
the animal’s throat when it revived and attacked 
him. He caught the buck’s horns and was 
carried down the hillside. Both O’Brien and the 
dog heard him and the latter snapped at the 
deer’s legs with such effect that the buck turned 
his attention to the new enemy, giving Warren 
a chance to throw himself into the brush, 
O’Brien then shot the buck. It dressed 150 
pounds. As a reward for his action in saving 
Warren’s life the Point Arena Gun Club has 
presented the dog with a handsome collar. 
JN aeadl afaatl 8 
With Boston Sportsmen. 
Boston, Sept. 21—Editor Forest and Stream: 
The annual onslaught on the big game of Maine 
is about to begin. October 1 will usher in the 
open season on deer, and sportsmen are getting 
ready to leave for the woods. The usual sum- 
mer reports telling of the enormous number of 
deer—each one seen a half dozen times—have 
been duly received and digested, and now comes 
the time for proving up. Reports which have 
reached me from many sections of the State 
seem to indicate—with the exception of a few 
quite inaccessible regions—that the moose are 
being driven further back and over the line into 
New Brunswick. Concerning the deer, I am 
constrained to believe that the record at the 
end of the coming season will show a falling 
off in the number killed, although there are 
plenty left to furnish good sport. The region 
north of Moosehead, hard to reach owing to 
its distance from the railroad, is naturally well 
stocked with deer, but even there one must get 
away from the Allegash trail to get the best 
results. It is quite becoming to wish every 
man his full quota of game, and at the same 
time to sound a word of caution in order that 
the maiming and killing of fellow sportsmen 
may be blotted out entirely during the season 
about to open. 
Since 1882, Mr. W. M. Prest, of Boston, has 
been going into Maine after game, and his 
many changes of hunting locations since that 
time is an interesting illustration of how the 
sportsman bent on solitude has been forced 
back. Starting in at the Rangeleys, he drifted 
from year to year through the Dead River 
region, then to the east and west branches of 
the Penobscot and finally to the Allegash. 
There he stayed for some time, but the country 
becoming too popular to suit him, he was again 
obliged to move on. He thinks he has now 
discovered a section so far back from the beaten 
trail that he is assured of almost permanent oc- 
cupancy. Accompanied by his brother, he has 
started for Fort Kent. At this place they will 
meet guides and go by buckboard twenty-nine 
miles to the mouth of the Allegash. From 
there it will take the party three days to reach 
Musaksis Lake, where they will camp for a 
month. A little stretch of real virgin wilder- 
ness in there gives Mr. Prest some splendid 
shooting and he has never yet failed to get an 
abundance of game. Mr. A. S. Hyde, of Bos- 
ton, left Sept. 22 for a region about as far back, 
but further south. 
A year ago some friends who had secured 
control of a section of great natural beauty 
and primitive wildness in Quebec induced Mr. 
A. T. Clark, of Newton, to join with them in 
forming a small club. Early in September he 
left for the north to fish and hunt as much of 
the new territory as possible. He was to join 
a friend from Chicago at Quebec, thence by 
water up the Saguenay to Ha Ha Bay, and 
twelve miles to Little St. John Lake. ‘Taking 
guides there, they will by canoe and portage 
cover as much of the region as the time at their 
disposal will permit. 
About the best bag of shore birds, made up 
chiefly of yellowlegs and chicken plover, nearly 
one hundred, were brought home recently by 
Mr. Timothy Tufts, of Somerville. They were 
shot near North Truro on the Cape. When I 
say that Mr. Tufts will on Oct. 15 next pass 
his 89th birthday, the reader can judge some- 
thing of the vigorous youth of the man. For 
more than fifty years he has gone hunting each 
fall. Of this trip he says that he enjoyed every 
minute that he was out with his gun, 
HACKLE. 

