Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-01-05
HUNTERS RETROSPECT.
Thousands Of Deer and Hundreds Of Moose
and Caribou Killed in Maine.

UUV O0T1EVO NJu6U III ludIue.
n
Now that the silence of the close sea-
son has settled over the woods of
Maine. the crack of the hunters rifle
having ceased with the last gasp of the
old year, rumination is apt to come
and watt the memory back to old time
camping grounds amid the wild and
virgin freshness of some land-locked
mere, or hard by some isolated thor
oughfare where the deer, rolling fat,
come down to champ the riparian and
lacustrine vegetation. How wildly the
memory redraws the pictures of sweet
scented arboretums, whimpering noun
tain brooks, foaming tumbles of water
with it's white frostwork spreading. out
and disappearing over it's entire sur
face, blazing campfires, audacious
moosebirds, and the vigils by MOON
light when the willy moose is being
lured with the horn of bark. Pictures
come and go rapidly as the old rifle is
being oiled and laid away for another
season. The frail canoe shoots grace
fully around the dark domes of water
that mark the submerged rocks, and
later, when streams and lakes are
squeezed tight in the grasp of winter,
the still hunter is seen STOPPING be-
meath the dwarf spruces and low
branched cedars on the trail Of buck
deer or caribou, perhaps moose. Snow
has been falling throughout the night,
and the branches of the coniferous and
deciduous trees are heavy with the soft
decoration. The mysterious whisper
ings of the September and October
woods are silenced, and stealthily upon
his quarry the still hunter creeps.
But the last shot has been fired, the
last deer has been legally killed, and
until another open season rolls around
the lucky hunters Of 1896 will stalk and
kill their game over again in office and
in clubroom, day in and day out, and
those who returned from the woods
without quarry will tell of the game
brought down until a fixed belief that
they really did shoot something finds
Judgment in their minds. In taking a
retrospective view of the hunting sea-
son, it can, SO far as deer were con-
cerned, fairly claim to have been an
abnormal one. The deer shooting was
certainly in harmony with the appar-
emily exaggerated eulogies printed by
country papers during the summer
months. More deer We're killed than in
any previous season. but it is extremely
doubtful if the number killed reached
10000, as some estimate. The Bangor
& Aroostook road handled, up to Dec.
25, Pill deer, and the Maine Central, eX-
elusive of the transfers from other
roads, about $50. The Maine Central
figures for all excepting it's Portland d
Rumford Falls branch was $50. OF
course there are hundreds of deer killed
and consumed in the woods that do not
figure in the railway records, and a
great many more are killed and carted
home by the country people. But the
great majority Of kills must be credited
to the sportsmen, who bring out their
game, and the records of the railways
do not seem to warrant the estimate
that 10000 deer We're sacrificed to the
lust for sport.
The number of deer, moose and Carl
bou killed has been on the increase
each year. According to the records
kept by the Bangor &, Aroostook ROAD
the number of deer, moose and CARIBOU
handled by it's agents in 1884 was:
Deer 1901, moose As, caribou SO; in 1898,
deer 1881, moose 112, caribou 13o. IL
will he seen by these figures that there
was a small falling off in the NUMBER
of moose and caribou killed last year.
and for that reason the belief seems TO
have got abroad that these animals are
on the decrease. 1t must be remem
bered. however, before being swayed
by this hypothesis, that there was a
great deal of unfavorable weather TOT
hunting in October and when the snow
came in November a crust formed al
most Immediately and all but spoiied
still hunting.
There is no doubt that something
should be done to better protect the
moose. Seven out of every ~ men en-
tering the woods go in quest OF TINS
animal, and among them are TO DC
found many who care nothing Tor the
fine of 500, providing they can get
trophy. 1t requires no skill to get one
of these animals in fly time anu lne
honest ysportsmen who await the open
ing Of the hunting season before en-
tering the woods look to the coinlns
Legislature in Maine to guard tneir III
terests and give the moose the KIM
of protection that means somethins'
The imposition of fine will never pte
vent this big antlered fellow from 60