
Dec. 14, 1907.] 

FOREST AND STREAM. 

Tales of the Plains. 
IiI.—Custer’s Dog. 
Ir was a fine clear bracing morning in the last 
,;week of September, when our shooting , party 
|broke camp on a fork of the Republican. River, 
‘to go in search of meat for the troop. The past 
|}week had been rainy and wet, and supplies of 
flesh food were running low. They generally do 
|} when you have to get “enough fresh meat for a 
| hundred men, and when the base of supplies is 
|about 100 miles away from camp. We had plenty 
of pork, potatoes, beans, etc., but we needed 
| fresh meat. The men were in the saddle about 
six hours a day, covering twenty to twenty-five 
| miles on the move to a new camp. Above them 
|/was the same eternal sky, and about them the 
| changeless prairie, and the monotony of both 
grow on one day after day. It is no wonder 
| that we used to find ourselves dozing off while 
|in the saddle. When camp was reached, a buf- 
{alo steak or a little tenderloin of elk used to 
|come in very handy. 
Farley the guide and the men selected as de- 
tail had got the mule wagon in commission, and 
we were moving off, when a greyhound came 
bounding toward us from the troop camp. He 
| was big in bone and muscle, with plenty of flesh 
and his tawny coat striped with black. He 
showed form and quality in every movement, 
Jand well he might, for he was one of a pair 
sent as a present to Gen. Custer, by Queen 
Victoria. 
I do not care much for greyhounds, but this 
dog was the special pet of all the men in the 
/troop. He had followed us when we left Harker. 
|Farley the guide had received instructions to 
jlook after the dog during Gen. Custer’s absence 
‘in the East, and how Farley had the nerve to 
jJallow the dog to come with us for a month’s 
\scout I cannot tell. Nevertheless the dog had 
| followed us, and it was Farley’s lookout to re- 
jturn him safely to Harker. 
On our second day out, the hunting party was 
passing over a small low range of hills, when 
‘from their crest we sighted ten antelope, graz- 
ing on the crisp buffalo grass about half a mile 
away. After approaching as near as we could 
without disturbing them, we left the wagon and 
men, and Farley and I dropped down into a 
little gulch, thinking we could make a stalk of 
a few hundred yards to within shooting dis- 
tance. Crawling through red clay mud and over 
some of the nastiest small round and jagged 
stones my hands and knees ever came in contact 
with, we had worked our way some distance to- 
ward the antelope, when, on raising my head to 
take a peep at them, I turned it, and saw the 
dog following us, crawling on his stomach, with 
eyes dilated and every fibre in his tawny body 
|quivering with excitement. By this time Farley 
had seen the antelope about 200 yards away and 
had raised his rifle prepared to. shoot when I 
gave the word. Just as I raised my rifle, the 
‘dog rushed between us full tilt after the ante- 
‘lope. I took in the situation at a glance and 
icalled: 
“Farley! Farley! for God’s sake, don’t shoot; 
you'll hit the dog.” 
It was too late. In the excitement he must 
have pressed the trigged, and the rifle cracked. 
I saw the dog suddenly wilt down, stop, turn 
jand then walk directly back toward us. The 
poor hound came slowly up to Farley with such 
a look of wonder and love in his eyes as I have 
never been able to get out of my memory. Far- 
ley seemed to be stunned. “My God! what shall 
I do? I have shot the General’s dog. The men 
will never forgive me. Take your revolver and 
jput him out of his misery. I can’t shoot him. 
|I never can face the General again.” 
The ball had entered the dog at the root of 
jthe tail and had passed clear through him, com- 
ing out under the right shoulder. I could no 
more shoot that animal than I could pull on a 
human being in cold blood. We made a soft bed 
of grass on some flat stones beside a little run- 
ning brook, carried the dog there, and placed 
him on it as comfortably as we could. Then 
we left him, and with tears in our hearts, if not 
in our eyes, slowly returned to the mule wagon 
with our bad news, and so back to the camp. 


935 

Nearly two weeks had passed when about mid- 
night the camp was all astir; men running here 
and there with lanterns and guns. It seemed as 
if every coyote on the plains had collected about 
the camp. What was our surprise and delight 
as we came to the edge of the camp to see the 
old hound coming toward us. He was tottering 
in his tracks, but still had life enough in him to 
show his gums drawn back from those sharp 
cutting fangs from which more than one coyote 
had suffered on the homeward march of 
the brave old hero. Through miles of pathless 
prairies he had come back to a home where all 
welcomed him. Cx Be DW 
Wild Fowl at Currituck. 
Currituck County, N. C.,° Dec. 3.—Editor 
Forest and Stream: I think there are more red- 
heads and all other kinds of ducks—except can- 
vasbacks and ruddy ducks—in Currituck Sound 
to-day than we have had here in ten years, and 
it seems to me I never saw so many Canada 
geese and swan at any time. The opening day 
was a failure this season except for ruddy ducks, 
which were very abundant. The first of Novem- 
ber is too soon to begin to hunt at Currituck, as 
many thousands of ducks have not then left the 
northern waters. Nov. 10 would be quite early 
enough. 
We have a fine crop of water plants of every 
variety which usually grow here, and the game 
is in splendid condition. During the moonlight 
nights just past, nearly all the ducks went over 
into the ocean at sunrise, and stayed all day 
causing poor shooting, but there has been a big 
improvement during the past week. Any abate: 
man intending to visit Currituck will do well t 
consider this if he can so arrange his panies 
It is safe to say he will find twice as many ducks 
when the nights are dark, since at that phase of 
the moon they cannot feed so well and do not 
leave the sound during the daytime. 
Mr. B. W. Haynes, an efficient game warden 
from up the State, and his two assistants, 
patrol the sound daily with their power boat, and 
are doing good work. Mr, Haynes is a man 
who does things and the law breakers know they 
must be good. He is working with the Gunner 
and Fisherman’s League which was formed for 
the better protection of game and especially to 
stop fire lighting and to keep North Carolina 
(or Currituck county) from stopping the: sale 
of game which of course would be a hard blow 
to the natives who depend on hunting for a liv- 
ing. I notice a big improvement in this part 
of the sound already. More Anon. 
A Coon Supper. 
Mirrorp, Conn., Dec. 4.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The raccoon picture on the cover of 
ForEST AND STREAM, Noy. 30, reminded me of 
the sport I had two weeks ago. As my setter 
dog, Shot, had the misfortune to have his leg 
broken by an automobile the week before Oct. 
1, I was obliged to give up my annual hunt for 
grouse and quail. Two weeks ago the fever 
came on, however; I got game hungry, and to 
get the rust out of my gun barrels I borrowed 
a small squirrel dog and started for the jungle. 
Soon I heard the sweet sound, yip, yip, and 
I floundered into the swamp to see what the 
dog had treed. Seeing nothing I turned to re- 
trace my steps, when from the corner of my eye 
I saw something slowly moving down a tree at 
some distance away. I let go the right at its 
head and down it fell, but it sprang up again, 
only to get the left barrel. Away it went through 
the swamp, dog after it, and I after both. I 
soon caught up and saw that it was a raccoon. 
As I came up to them the dog ran in and seized 
him by the throat. The coon was badly wounded 
and put up a poor fight and was soon put out of 
commission. 
IT went to a farm house and phoned to one of 
our restaurants asking if they wanted a fat coon. 
“You bet,” was the reply. In two days there 
was a game supper at one dollar per plate, and 
as I understand it forty plates were laid, and 
the coon played his part in that game supper 
with the ducks and gray squirrels. 
S. Downs. 

The Adirondack Deer Season. 
GANSsEvoorT, N. Y., Nov. 23.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: A broken le g prevented me from 
taking my usual annual trip to the Adirondacks 
this season. It is the only time in over forty 
years that I have missed spending from two to 
six weeks in the woods each year. However, I 
have had opportunities to talk with a large num- 
ber of hunters on their return from their hunt- 
ing trips, and judging from their experiences 
and the opinions which they freely expressed 
to me, the new deer law is satisfactory to no 
one. It did not require much of a prophet to 
fortell this result, for there is abundant reason 
for this universal dissatisfaction. 
It has been claimed, and no doubt truthfully, 
that the new law saved many deer from being 
killed, and this is referred to editorially in: Forest 
AND STREAM as a reason why sportsmen should 
be satisfied with the law, but if deer were’ in- 
creasing rapidly under the old law as was evi- 
dently the case, why should sportsmen desire a 
still more rapid increase? 
The increase under the old law was so great 
that the deer forests no longer furnished suffi- 
cient food in winter and the deer were forced 
out into thickly settled communities in search of 
food. 
Right here in Saratoga county, where deer 
were never seen previous to the present century, 
they are now seen by the dozen in all parts of 
the county. I could have shot two from the 
piazza of my residence the past season. Three 
were killed within two miles of my home, and 
many others in nearby places. -A still more rapid 
increase in their numbers, therefore, is mani- 
festly undesirable, for many obvious reasons, and 
is an objection to the law which causes it. 
But this is not the gravest objection to the 
new law. The unanimous verdict is that the law 
is largely responsible for the frightful loss of 
life from accidental shooting in the deer woods. 
This is a reasonable verdict. The law crowds 
the woods with hunters in October when the 
leaves make it difficult to see things clearly. 
Then because of these adverse circumstances 
doubt arises as to whether the coveted trophy 
will be secured, and the result is a mad scramble 
and reckless shooting at everything which moves. 
The wonder is not that so many are killed and 
wounded, but rather that so many escape unhurt. 
Many have told me that they would never again 
hunt deer under the present law. Others have 
frankly declared their intention to violate the 
law, prefering to take the risk of arrest by the 
wardens in November to that of being shot by 
the hunters in October. I have advised obser- 
vance of the present law while it exists, and a 
united effort to have it repealed at the next 
session of our Legislature, when I hope a sensi- 
ble deer law will be enacted to take its place. 
There should be no difference of opinion as 
to what would constitute a sensible deer law. 
Such a law would protect deer enough to keep 
their present numbers from diminishing, but not 
enough to cause an undesirable increase. It 
would secure this protection by issuing permits 
to kill and making it unlawful to have the game 
in possession without the permit being attached 
thereto. It would make the open season from 
the first of October to the first of December. 
This would make it impossible to kill deer law- 
fully by the objectionable method of jacking. It 
would permit them to be killed when they should 
be killed, viz.: in November, when they are in 
the best condition, when the sport is at its best, 
and when the weather is cold enough to keep 
the meat from spoiling until it could be used. 
And lastly it would prevent the crowding of the 
deer forest with hunters and the terrible loss 
of life, which is the inevitable result of a short 
early season. 
A question is never settled until it is settled 
right, and our deer law question will never be 
settled, and the constant tinkering of our deer 
laws will never reach an end until a law similar 
to the one outlined above is enacted. 
JosEPpH W. SHURTER, 
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. 

