Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-01-05

shooting season Were promising. Large
broods of partridge We're reported
everywhere, but when the law allowed
the squeezing of triggers against them
only odd ones could be found An I'M
usually wet fall may have driven them
into the big woods, but it is certainly
fact that something happened to
make their usual Whirr a startling rar-
ity. Woodcock covers We're almost de-
serted, and when the native birds were
shot out they filled in so slowly and
scantily as to Undue gunners with seri-
Gus doubts concerning the coming of
flight birds. Wet covers may have
spoiled the shooting, for all the usual
woodcock grounds offered first-rate
canoeing away up to the first week in
November. Snipe shooting was good,
especially at the lower end of lake
Cobbosseecontee. The marshes at the
confluence of Jock and Juggernaut
streams were alive with them the early
part of October Good bags were made
by those fortunate enough to possess
good snipe dogs. Ducks were plenty.
There is always good supply of wild
fowl in Maine waters. but few persons
haYe any clear conception of the amount
of skill and knowledge of the habits of
wild fowl. which one requires to possess
in order to secure fat bags. The seeker
for wild fowl must know something more
than the mere management of a boat to
secure his share of these shy birds. He
must not only be a good shot. but he
must be a good sjudge of weather, the
currents. the tides, and beside all this
he must be good ornithologist. so that
he can at once recognize the birds he
meets with either by sound or sight, and
understand their different actions
whether in the water or on the wing.
There are a few such men living near
BowdOinham. but only few. and they
have made first-rate bags in Merryrneet-
ing bay, below Richmond. in the Kenne-
bee.
So much trouble and complaint has re-
suited from incompetent guides that the
fish and game commissioners of Maine
are making an effort to have all guides
licensed. In order to secure a license it
is proposed to have men making appli-
cation pass a rigid civil service exam
ination. The idea is a good one, and ev
erybody who has had experience enough
in the woods to know something of the
evils of poor guides will be glad If the
idea can be carried out. Sham guides
and the owners of camps and club houses
may be inclined to fight the matter in
the Legislature but any fair-minded man
must admit that something should be
done to prevent further buncoing of tour
that any out and out guide should pos
sess. There We're men in the woods last
year calling themselves guides whose
knowledge of a canoe must have been
acquired on a jigger wagon and whose
cooking warranted no better epithet than
1.-THE undertaker's hope" Such men have
not only frequently lost themselves and
their party in the woods. but they have
lost lives in the lakes and streams.
The open season on moose will proba-
bly, be shortened this year, There was
talk of putting on a five or 10-year pro-
lection. but it is doubtful if such radi
cal change in the game laws is really
contemplated A shorter season might
help out in the direction of protection.
The law on partridge and woodcock
should be changed. It's nuisance as 1t
is. The law should be altered to permit
the killing of partridge Sept. I, else the
close season should be kept on woodcock
until the open season on partridge begins.
Bird shooting ought to begin Sept. l.
The season in Maine is none too long.
1t is estimated that $4,000 persons Wis
tied Maine in 1896 for health and recrea-
ton, 10000 going to the Rangeley lake
region. Most of these visitors came
from Massachusetts. New York and
Pennsylvania. and for the fun they re-
ceived and the good health given them
by the balsam scented airs. they paid
to railroads. hotels, guides, grocery men
and ammunition dealers about s5.O0O,oOo
New camps are building away in where
the big pines whisper and the near flu
ture may see old Katahdin topped by a
hotel j. N. TAYLOR, in Boston Globe.