776 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 16, 1907. 


The Season in the Adirondacks. 
Littte Faris, N. Y., Nov. 4.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: It is said that the death record for 
this year in the Adirondacks through “acci- 
dental” shootings has never been equalled in 
this region. The reason is obvious. A horde 
of men have gone ranging through the woods 
with rifles and shotguns, supposing that the 
mere carrying of firearms made hunters of 
them. One can imagine a skilled hunter kill- 
ing his man through accident. When hunters 
carry weapons that will drive bullets through 
two or three feet of hardwood, it is easy to 
think that in shooting at game, a bullet might 
plunge through everything that screened a 
hunter far out of sight. In all eight persons 
were killed. A long and sorry list might be 
made of those who shot off hands and legs. 
The whole trouble lies in ignorance. Till he 
has killed his man or lost his leg the person 
who doesn’t realize that a gun is a deadly 
weapon treats it as a plaything. No one is 
careless with dynamite unless he is a fool. The 
proportion of gun users who are fools is, per- 
haps, as small as in any other occupation 
or pastime, but one doubts it at times. If 
hunters were obliged to pass some kind of a 
civil service examination before being permitted 
to go afield, and if men who habitually are care- 
less with their weapons were deprived of the 
pleasure of using them, there might be some 
mitigation. If people who violate the law and 
kill some one were treated like burglars who 
kill or wound people while breaking the law, 
the spectacle of judges, leading politicians and 
others who should know better, breaking game 
laws would become less frequent. 
There have been a number of cases this year 
where people became lost in the Adirondack 
forests. A man named Edwards, who worked 
for Sol Carnahan on the Tim Woodruff log 
job, near Raquette Lake, late one day lost the 
faint trail leading to the camp on Sumner 
Creek. After that he wandered about more 
than a week, and he was found only when he 
had fallen to the ground exhausted. <A _ boat 
happened to pass near him on Moose River, 
and one of the paddlers discovered the prostrate 
form of the lost man in the weeds—a hunter’s 
eyesight, doubtless, which saved his life. 
“On Oct. 29 Matthew Sherman, of Cherry 
Valley, was reported “lost.” He had been put 
on a runway near Ingram Lake. He left the 
runway and could not be found. He wandered 
for several days, and finally turned up at another 
camp a dozen miles or so from the stopping place. 
Getting lost is liable to happen to any one. 
Every hunter loses himself more or less. It is 
the careless observer who does not find his way 
back to camp by Io o’clock P.M. 
Secretary Whish, of the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission, has not yet collected the 
statistics which go far toward making the com- 
mission’s reports valuable for sportsmen, so 
accurate figures are not obtainable. It is prob- 
able, however, that the number of deer killed 
fell off to some extent. The reason is that the 
whole Adirondack region is now thoroughly 
hunted every fall. Here and there one may 
find a ‘‘pocket” where the deer aie stupids, but 
these pockets are few, and becoming fewer 
every year. I saw 65 deer in ten days in one 
such pocket a few years ago. There are still 
many deer in that locality, but hunting by a 
few men every fall for a week or ten days has 
made them wild and wary, and all Adirondack 
game is wilder now than ever before, which is 
a fortunate thing. With such thorough protec- 
tion as Chief Burnham and his wardens give 
them, and the rapid growth of sentiment 
against violating the deer law, game is holding 
its own very well in the mountains. A number 
of habitual law breakers—jackers and hounders, 
especially—have been held up to ridicule by 
fines, and they now begin to show a sense of 
decency. With sundry “financiers” and poli- 
ticians put down as game law breakers, the 
woodsmen begin to say, “Well, they stopped 
them, and so I won’t go out of my way now 
to kill venison.” Last spring I told of a trapper 
who bought a horse for bait, rather than kill 
deer. That is a very significant fact. 
Hunters in the mountains report that the deer 
seem scattered. A great many of them came 
down to the edges of the clearings during the 
summer, and apparently fewers were killed than 
usual out of season. Hunters who used to go 
back into the woods thirty miles to get game 
have discovered that there was often as good 
hunting ten or fifteen miles from home. 
One of the interesting facts coming under an 
observer’s attention is “party luck.” Eight or 
ten years ago, several Germans went into the 
Herkimer county woods together. They came 
out with one deer, and wove romances wonder- 
ful to hear about that deer. All hands had to 
have a share in the killing, of course, and the 
accounts which failed to dove-tail were many. 
One bullet broke the buck’s back—the only 
wound. To hear tell, one man jumped him, 
one man turned him, one man ran and headed 
him off, one man “blatted” and stopped him 
“just out of sight,” while the gunner brought 
the game down. As the years went by, the 
party got more and more game. Graduates of 
the German army and United States navy, they 
could all shoot. Now, they can kill their game 
without any assistance of brag or excuse. The 
five killed five deer and a fine black bear this 
year. 
Hunters got their tracking snow this year as 
usual, for there was one snow fall that varied 
in depth from an inch to more than eight inches 
about the middle of October. It stripped the 
leaves from the trees earlier than usual, and 
1unters could see their game. The result was 
many deer killed at that time. The fact that the 
eaves fell early helped the hunters enjoy sport, 
which a late foliage season would have pre- 
vented. Of course, scorés more of hunters were 
abroad in the last days of October than usual 
necause they could not get any hunting in 
November—the deadliest fall month for deer. 
The shorter the season, the higher the average 
number of hunters abroad on any day. But, 
on the other hand, fewer men are actually in 
the woods during the season. Unquestionably, 
Commissioner Whipple’s fight for a shorter 
season is saving the deer. 
More black bears seem to have been killed 
this fall than usual. At least, accounts of bear 
killing have been printed in Adirondack papers 
oftener than usual. The reason is the bears 
are becoming more and more numerous. 
Hunters find their tracks everywhere in the 
woods now, although in former days a bear 
track was something of a novelty. The reason 
why bears are more numerous is because the 
cowardly practice of trapping them is slowly 
passing away, while the legislature is beginning 
to recognize the good character and worthy 
features of a much abused animal. 
The law protecting bears in summer is one 
that every sportsman and nature lover ought 
to uphold. Of course, in Lewis and Essex 
counties, the bears are of a very different breed 
from those elsewhere in the mountains, and 
ought not to be protected. Take an Essex 
county bear, for example. It is a very frightful 
animal from the viewpoint of an Essex county 
hunter. Its jaws are armed with long white 
teeth; its tongue is red, and the roof of its 
mouth is black. Worst of all, the track an 
Essex county bear leaves in the mud is very 
dreadful. Take a place where the bear’s paw 
slipped a bit, and it is easy to conjure up 
claws four inches long, “sharp as razors and 
needles.” 
Just imagine an Essex county hunter meet- 
ing one of these awful creatures in the woods 
all alone! Of course, the hunter would be 
paralyzed, and the rest of the tragedy, if one 
bears in mind the long teeth, the black mouth, 
red tongue and claw prints in the mud, is easily 
imagined. Nothing can exceed the horror or 
consternation of an ordinary hunter in Essex 
county when he meets one of the local bears 
loose and running wild. Of course, if the bear 
is in a steel trap, with steel jaws gripping the 
nerves, tendons, broken bones and mangled 
flesh a man may venture up to five or ten rods 
of the creature, and with a proper body guard 
for flank movements on the part of the victim’s 
allies, it is not unusual for a hero to plug his 
victim through the body. In Lewis county, the 

hunters awakened to the deadly nature of local 
bears last winter, and they, too, may be trapped 
in fly and maggot time, which is the proper sea- 
son for bear trapping. Maggots are the back- 
bone of the trappers’ defense from bears. While 
the maggots hold the bear’s attention, the 
trapper can approach with his long range rifle 
and put the animal hors de combat. Bear 
trappers always tell how savagely the animal 
acted, and how it almost got loose, which adds 
greatly to the glory of the hero of a steel trap 
episode. Nearly all Essex county bears are 
trapped, presumably because it takes consider- 
able of a woodsman to kill one still-hunting. 
If bears were given half a show in the Adi- 
rondacks, they would soon become so’ numerous 
that hunters would be able to get them with 
some certainty. In fact, really skilled bear 
hunters can now get their game every fall, some 
Thus Burt Conklin, | 
Will Clark, John Pardy, and others usually | 
kill a bear or two every year, just as they kill | 
With proper protection, bears would | 
be so plenty that real hunters could go into the | 
men often killing them. 
their deer. 
woods in late November and find their game, 
just as the hordes of tenderfeet who now make 
the mountain forests dangerous do get deer in 
a season. The proof of this is found in the 
fact that bears are more plentiful now than ever 
before in localities where trapping and unfair 
methods were once used generally, but are 
now abandoned for real sport. 
I have seen no report of a panther being 
seen or heard in the Adirondacks this year. For 
several years past a panther was reported from 
various Adirondack points, at times which indi- 
cated an animal making a long circuit, by way 
of Indian Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, Spruce 
Lake, and going as far west as Moose River. 
Wolves are reported from time to time, sey- 
eral having been seen and heard in recent years 
here and there in the mountains. 
The beaver put out by the State commission 
have thrived, and beaver dams have been built 
in several places where beaver had long been 
absent when the commission took the matter up. 
RayMonp S. SPEARS, 

Newfoundland Caribou Notes. 
St. Jouns, N. F., Nov. 2—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Reports from the deer barrens are 
to the effect that sport is good. The weather 
has not been favorable for the best hunting; 
nevertheless some good heads were obtained. 
Hon. Geo. Shiras, 3d, well known to readers of 
Forest AND STREAM, has been hunting caribou 
with his camera. He reported that notwith- 
standing the unfavorable weather he procured 
some good pictures of caribou, single and in 
herds. He also secured several good flashlight 
pictures similar to those exhibited by him through 
ForEsT AND STREAM. Doubtless lovers of genuine 
wild animal pictures will be pleased with the 
latest catch secured by Mr. Shiras. 
W. Harris and W. H. Clare, Americans, who 
have been shooting up Terra Nova Lake with 
guide Robt. Brooking, of Alexander Bay, came 
down with six heads. Harris had three with 
28, 30 and 40 points respectively, and Clare three 
with 20, 25 and 29 points respectively. They 
report caribou plentiful in the vicinity of Terra 
Nova, and moderately fine weather. The river 
was very high and easily navigated, and it is 
expected there will be a big rush to that locality. 
During the past week caribou have been re- 
ported very plentiful in various sections of the 
country. Every day hundreds of them have been 
seen crossing the railway track everywhere be- 
tween Grand Lake and Bishops Falls, and hun- 
ters are meeting with fairly good success. 
When the express that arrived yesterday was 
going west, some hundreds of caribou were cross- 
ing the track between “the Quarry and Howley. 
Train hands say they never saw them so plenti- 
ful or so many stags. W. J. Carroit. 
THE Forest AND STREAM may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly, 

