




Nov. 9, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


CAMP ON THE TOBIQUE RIVER, 
bumpy country with’ rapid pace from early 
morning till nightfall on every day, fair or 
foul, of his former visit. 
Some of the readers of Forest AND STREAM 
have no doubt experienced a similar awaken- 
ing to the fact that their strenuosity is slowly 
but surely becoming more and more circum- 
scribed by physical limitations. At such an 
appropriate time for reflection, which need 
not be sad or resentful, the past assumes a 
greater prominence than ever before, and the 
interesting or stirring incidents of various vis- 
‘itations to nature’s strongholds become valu- 
able assets. They oftimes seem illuminated 
and stand out prominently in the mind, as- 
sociated with the somnolent odors of wood- 
mould and balsam, with physical and mental 
well-being, with an atmosphere of general 
wholesomeness, and with a recollection of the 
stimulating influences of the impressive silence 
and solitude of the forest and mountains. Then 
it becomes clearly comprehensible why the 
Indians, with the assurance that a happy hunt- 
ing ground awaited them, spent much of their 
time in a reckless courtship of death. 
On the afternoon of the following day a 
visit was paid to a beaver pond a few miles 
away, and as there was no sign of animal life 
therein, the conspirators seated themselves 
among the trees to await developments. It 
was but a little while before a disturbance of 
the water, somewhat louder than that made by 
the splashing of the hungry trout, attracted 
attention to a bull moose wading near the 
shore directly toward the place of conceal- 
ment of his possible murderers. He wore a 
very long bell, and his horns. bore fourteen 
points, with a spread of about forty inches. 
The woodsman whispered, “Many a worse 
head than that is carried out of these woods.” 
3ut the hunter had large ideas; things seemed 
to be coming his way; there were still remain- 
ing a number of days in his vacation, and, be- 
sides, the thought of slaying the seemingly 
trustful creature which soon came and stood 
like a domestic animal, less than thirty yards 
away, was so unpleasant that the nimrod de- 
cided to exchange his calling for that of 
photographer. When the camera clicked the 
bull accurately located the source of the sound 
and peered into the shrubbery in search of 
the cause, while the hunter, with head and 
shoulders mid the boughs of a low-growine 
spruce tree, was enabled to confirm the state 
ment that “hunting with a camera” is as con- 
ducive to thrills as hunting with a gun. Each 
time the shutter snapped the moose again 
searched for an explanation, becoming more 
and more restive, until he finally saw some 
slight movement of an unfamiliar form, when 
he immediately fled. Then, as transformed 
from an apparently tame to a wild, fleeing, 
alert animal, with protective instincts wide 
awake, bearing-a trophy of which no hunter 
would feel ashamed, the shooting of him need 
not have been attended by unpleasant thoughts: 
but it was too late: the incident was closed, 
and without regret. 
During that part of the following ten davs 
when the fickle weather permitted, or, rather, 

encouraged hunting, various lakes and bogs 
were visited, and the intervening woods pa- 
trolled. Calling met with no encouragement 
whatever, and there was no. scarred and 
mutilated underbrush to indieate that the bulls 
were preparing’ for, or thinking of, combat in 
defense of their respective spouses. The super- 
abundance of cows, resulting from the pro- 
tective laws, is making the bulls somewhat in- 
different to the imitation of the call of the 
cow, even under most favorable climatic con- 
ditions. There is no cause for jealousy. 
Several bulls were seen, in addition to many 
cows, but their heads offered no temptation 
whatever. As the time limit of the hunt ap- 
proached, the woodsman became very anxious 
lest his patron might not have his wish grat- 
ified, and lest he himself might not be credited 
with the making of a successful search. He 
was ambitious, was sure that large heads were 
within the surrounding timber and would 
gladly have increased each day’s mileage; but 
the hunter's extremities could not be made to 
work any faster. When traveling along a 
hardwood ridge. while the woodsman’s mind 
was working under considerable pressure by 
reason of his determination to succeed, a 
cow was jumped and promptly fled. A com- 
panion bull was slower in getting the scent, 
and was discovered by the now impetuous 
guide, who, catching only a glimpse of the 
head, but believing such an enormous bull 
must be well provided with horns, directed 
the hunter to “shoot quick!” With the ex- 
ultant feeling which accompanies success, the 
latter obeyed, but an examination of the fallen 
animal quickly changed his mood, for the 
horns were so poorly developed and so irreg- 
ular as to be unworthy of transportation over 
the thirty difficult miles to the clearing. The 
hard-working, well-meaning woodsman was so 
cast down by mingled disappointment and 
mortification because of having conduced to 
put his exacting sportsman out of the game 
with but an apology for a head, that the hunter 
promptly assumed his full share of the respon- 
sibility and admitted that he should have made 
an independent examination of the whole 
make-up of the animal before possessing him- 
self of it; and thus it is that New Brunswick 
continues to be the hunter’s Jena and Water- 
loo. LIPPINCOTT, 
Grouse Scarcity. 
SPORTSMEN returning from nearby hunting 
regions remark on the scarcity of ruffed grouse 
compared with last season. They admit that 
the unusual density of the foliage is advantageous 
to the game, but. the fact that few birds are 
seen or heard in places where they were to be 
found in fair numbers last year is significant. 
TWO VIEWS OF A YARDS 
I4-POINT BULL 
DISTANT. 
VLOOSE 25 
“I 
Ww 
wn 


COW MOOSE SWIMMING A LAKE, 
Game Abundant tn North Carolina. 
RALBIGH, N. C., Oct. 26—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Governor Glenn has made a number 
of appointments of game wardens in new terri- 
tory under provisions of the Audubon law. 
The writer has talked with numbers of men 
and boys from country and city, and it is 
found that robbing birds’ nests, killing bull 
bats, shooting partridges out of season. etc., are 
all things of the past. Birds are numerous in 
the city, while in the country it is safe to say 
that there have not been as many in a score of 
years, 
That the work of the Audubon Society is 
growing in popularity is shown by the fact 
that magistrates are now imposing heavier fines 
than ever before, and it ts also much easier to 
secure convictions on good evidence than it was 
two or three years ago. 
There are more partridges in the State this 
fall than for many years. The splendid season 
is responsible for this to a considerable extent. 
though the excellent Audubon work is bound 
to have large results. There are indications 
that sportsmen from the North will be 
numerous this season. 
It is certain that a number of landowners are 
careful about the birds. Some of them perhaps 
carry this carefulness to excess, but they have 
been worried about pot-hunters and this brought 
about their strictness, but this has certainly 
had the happy effect of protecting the birds very 
largely. The coveys are large this year, and in 
a walk in the suburbs of Raleigh this week the 
writer found five. The frost which has so far 
been felt in this section has been very light, and 
the larger trees have not lost their greenness, 
while the smaller ones are taking on the 
splendi f As we reached the 
very 
tints of autumn. 
lowest point in the little valley, the scene being 
made even more splendid by the after glow, 
sun having set, there was a soft whirr of wings 
and over us passed nearly thirty partridges, 
spread out like a fan, going home to roost in 
the center of the peafields on a terraced hill- 
side. There is no end of food for the birds this 
year. The pea crop is a large one, this being 
the food they like best of all, while in woods 
and fields there are plenty of other good’ things 
to be had for the seeking. 
The shooting season begins in most of the 
the 


counties on Nov. 1. -Some sportsmen from the 
North are coming down in November, which is 
a little early. The cover is pretty thick, of 
course, until the end of the year, as the ison 
here is open. almost always until January, but 
there is extremely fine sport in November and 
December. The birds seem to be very well 
grown. The local papers in various parts of 
the State where deer found report them 
numerous. Wild turkeys are always in request, 
and within the past six weeks I have seen their 
tracks within a mile of Raleigh’s boundary. 
The outlook is for.an uncommonly good shoot- 
are 


ing’ season. Frep A. OLp 
All game laws of the United 
Canada, revised to date and now 
given in the Game Laws th Brief. 


