The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1911-09-14

! ties" said an old time hunter, men
and boys with rifles and shotguns,
and it won't be long after the inva-
sion begins before the newspapers
will be giving up their usual amount
/ of space to announcing the killing of
this, that and the other guide. hunter
/ or innocent outsider by eager and
i inexperienced gunners.
The amateur hunter has become
/ such a menace in the woods that to
the real sportsman the pleasure of the
! chase is greatly married. He doesn t
know as he breasts the ridges or
steals along among the swail growths
/ or threads the maZes of the Laurel
swamps what moment he will be bor-
ed through by a rife bullet or LAGER
ated with shot.
1T has got so that guides are reluc-
tant to go out into the woods with
parties on account of the uncertainty
of life in them during the hunting
season, in such universal evidence is
the amateur hunter and his fool
methods nowadays. There was face
tiousness but at the same time a sug-
gestion of seriousness in the reply an
Adirondack guide made last season to
1llRd 0Q HonI lBqM o. sc iIlnbuI us
he had been induced to take out one
day, had had.
Not very good, said he. but l had
fine luck. None of 'em shot me-.
Twenty three persons shot, five Of
them fatally, is the record, l believe,
of the fool hunters that turned them
selves loose in the Adirondacks alone
last year, a small percentage of wing
ing perhaps, when We consider the big
army of the wingers that invaded
those woods, but quite enough. The
small area of Sullivan county itself
yielded five of the gunners, who shoot
whenever they see anything move. AS
near as can be estimated from the re-
turns collected for last season the
amateur hunters throughout the
country bagged POI persons, counting
as persons those from the ranks Of
/ those hunters who were themselves
winged And yet, for they learn
nothing by experience and example
/ these Dangers away at every leaf that
! stirs will be on hand this season as
free handed as ever.
In no instance is the killing or
wounding of person in the woods
while hunting eXeusable or in any
way to be condoned unless it is by
accidental discharge of a gun. And
If men who go into the woods would
but observe very simple rule the
newspapers would never be called
upon to record the killing or injury
of a person by these accidental mis-
takings of him for game. That rule
is: Never fire at anything presuma-
bly, game until you can see enough of
it to assure you beyond all question
that it is the object you suppose it TO
be and not a human being, although
the probability of a human being 9th
er than yourself being anywhere with
in gunshot range is of the remotest
kind
This is a very simple rule and easy
to follow, and the wise and experience
ed hunter will never fail to observe it
strictly, although he may have every
reason to believe that not another
soul is i'm the woods within miles Of
him. Forty years ago | got my les
son under that rule was hunting in
Maine. My companion was Nat
Moore one of the most finn MS OF the
St. Johns river guides. We were af-
ter moose. We had stopped on the
edge of a thick spruce swamp and as
we sat there we heard the sound OF
something coming tearing through
the bushes.
I'VE listened to the sound. The
guide whispered that it was being
made by either a moose, a bear or a
caribou, he wasn't sure which, and
we awaited its approach, our rifles
ready and | 80 eager that my heart
thumped so l could hear 1t. Present
" we saw the bushes moving with
the approach of the creature and
heard the dead sticks breaking under
its feet. We couldn't get even a
glimpse OF It, and as it paused mo-
ment In the brush within easy gua-
shot became afraid that it had
winded and would be tearing away
back into the swamp and we would
lose the prize, so l raised my rife to
fire at the spot where the expected
game had stopped, but Nat Moore re-
strained me.
Its a bear he whispered, but
don't ever shoot till you see the nose
or the ears or the feet or something
or other Of an ANIMAL. Then you
won't ever kill man in the woods.
But there isn't a man within ter
miles Of here | whispered back.
mo, said Nat, but it's always best
THAT was as far as he got, for thai
ine+an+ ont of the bushes half sDrang