Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-10-15

!.
'isk their whole winters wages by
being caught poaching. or course there
are few dare devils who take the
chances and make a success of 1t, but
they are not many. Most of the camps
have all the deer meat they want dur
ing open time, but don't believe that
a quarter of them have any at all dur
ing close time.
Professionally woOdsman while at
his work in the winter will get a. chance
to thump Il deer on the head with his
axe and he can't resist the temptation,
but as for them shooting them for the
pleasure of killing something and of
keeping ii up all the year round or
while they are in camp don't believe
ii for Il single minute. One red hot
port with fancy sporting rifle and
pocket full of money. and an unprin-
cipled cuss for a guide. will do more
damage to the game in a week that he
| spends in the woods, than whole
camp of lumbermen will do all winter,
! In my opinion. Iumbermen go into
the woods to get out lumber not to
hunt. and their time is pretty well
taken up. An occasional deer falls in
!
about all. It's just about as il hap
pens.
I've known camps where the deer
was as thick almost as the flies in Au
gust. and not a man. daring to shoot
one for fear that some man in the
camp. for some selfish reason or other
| would inform on him. Now there's an
F, other thing. In a crew of 40 or 80 men,
| mostly strangers to each other when
| they go in in the fall, il isn't safe to
take chances with the law. Many times
| there is some one in the crew who
| would jumD at the chance TO put a
| warden onto an illegal killing for some
personal reason. They don't very Of
Ten have any great love for the law
or care much whether it is enforced or
not, but they see a chance TO benefit
themselves by telling on their compun-
ions, and they will do il at the first
| chance. Those fellows have always To
be reCkoned with when it comes to
poaching.
Then again the old lumbermen don't
look on deer like the sport from the big
cities. HI. has seen EN- ever since he
was IA boy and lived with EN- every
winter OF his life. He thinks no more
OF seeing one than a farmer does at
seeming a crow. He likes some juicy
venison once in a while but the temp
tation has got to BE- pretty strong for
him 10 risk 1t in close time. OF course
its some different with the young fell
lows. but they have to reckon with the
other things I SPOKE Of.
There's one feature Of the business
that isn't mentioned very often and
, that's the shooting done by the natives
in close time. Along in October and
November. when every square rod Of
good hunting ground has got a new
sporting rifle on il ready to go OFF in
Simultaneous. the natives sort OF keep
under cover Most Of en- have got a
trusty old Winchester and few cart
ridges. and some Of the boys still hang
to the old. long barrelled, muZZle-l load
ing shot gun with its four or five fin
gers OF powder, old newspaper and
buck shot and kicking ability. During
the lulls they ge, a shot once in n
while and are pretty sure to Kill. But
it is a good deal like work hunting
deer in October and November, and
they have the fall farm work TO Keep
'em busy. 1t is q good deal easier 10
|
and things begin IL quiet down in the
woods. The work on the farm slackens
up bit bout that time. and there
amt SO much danger of having some
blasted idiot take the top Of your old
! cap for deer's horn. Now amt go
ing TO say that the natives slaughter
the deer wholesale. for they don't do ii.
but they do get one occasionally. and
| hn1 Yall -
about as many as the lumbermen and
what both get amt any great number.
They can get EN- easy in the winter,
and they take their chances.
The fellow that shoots the deer is
the sport. | 'spose the game ought TO
be kept mostly for him anyway He
brings lots of money into the State
every fall and the natives have it when
he leaves. He's a great institution but.
he's hard on the game Perhaps when
he comes out after his trip he has just
the legal number and perhaps he hasn't
got any But he's pretty sure to have
seen some and fired at some. No ac-
count is taken of the deer he wounds
and let's go off to die alone. When a
native draws a bead on deer he
might as well surrender. He'll have
| MIN II IL taxes week. But II the
sport shoots at one and loses him he
won't work very hard to get him. but
looks for more. Then perhaps he gets
his legal number and perhaps he
doesn't. He's in the woods to shoot
and he's got lots of cartridges. He's
| spending lots of good money and can't
be blamed for wanting all the sport he
can get. ! don't believe that the aver
age sport whose two doe have cost him
about a hundred apiece would let Il
fine set of antlers get away from him
even if the law does say that he can
| only have two head. When you get
hundreds if not thousands Of men in
the woods of the State all banging
away for couple of months. it stands
to reason that they are going to destroy
| more than two heads. apiece. Any
| thing that can be called deer will
draw their fire from little fawn to a
big buck.
! But, as l said the sports are a great
| institution for the State. and they pay
well for all the game they take out of
! it. But when they say that the lum-
bermen are killing all the deer in close