Bow - Shooting. 87 1 



Shooting fish might seem to be poor sport, but in the clear 

 spring-streams of North Georgia we have had some lively work and 

 right royal fun killing bass (" trout," the people call them there) with 

 the bow and arrow. Will was the first to attempt this, and after two 

 hours' sport he brought in a string of five ->r six bass, one of them 

 weighing over four pounds. They weie certainly the most tooth- 

 some fish I ever ate, their flavor being equal to the famed pom- 

 pano, while their flesh seemed firmer and juicier. After this, 

 "trout" shooting became a favorite change with us when tired of 

 other sport or when other game did not offer. No disciple of 

 Izaak Walton need fly into a passion at this, for in the clear 

 spring-streams of North Georgia no bass would ever take either 

 fly or minnow for me, though in the rivers and brooks they are lively 

 enough game for the hook. In the Oothcaloga, a small mill-stream 

 near Calhoun, I caught a string of sixteen pounds in less than two 

 hours, but in the Cranetah and Big Spring streams they will not rise 

 or strike at all. 



It is a long step from Florida to the Kankakee region of Illinois 

 and Indiana; but there are times when the sportsman may take the 

 step with profit to himself. In the spring and fall, this region is one 

 of the finest grounds for mallard, teal, wood-duck, and geese, to be 

 found in the United States. I need not say to a sportsman that the 

 mallard is a king's own bird for the table. The canvas-back does 

 not surpass it. I have shot corn -fed mallards whose flesh was as 

 sweet as that of a young quail, and at the same time as choice- 

 flavored as that of the woodcock. A favorite way of shooting these 

 birds, and geese also, with the bow, is for the archer to conceal 

 himself at a point over which a flock will fly when disturbed, and 

 send an assistant to go by a wide circuit round the game and drive 

 it over. I have seen eight or ten birds taken in this way during the 

 course of two hours' shooting. But the best sport is had by slipping 

 along the shores of the ponds and streams and getting tingle shots 

 by strategy. In the Kankakee lagoons one may shoot all day at 

 buftk-heads, wood- duck, teal, scaup-duck, and mallard without get- 

 ting out of sight of his camp. On the flat prairies bordering this 

 river plover are plentiful, and no bird offers a better mark for an 

 arrow. It is somewhat difficult to hit, but the sport is exciting on 

 account of the fact that on the smooth, level meadow of the prairie 



