HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS AND PLEASURE RESORTS. 65 
but let them come to Western Texas, 
and I will stake my reputation as a 
sportsman they will do as we do, The 
idea of calling a turkey up to shoot him 
down with a rifle) Why, you here see 
them at all times. But we only shoot 
for camp use, until the night before we 
start for home; then we have fresh 
turkeys. I will assert that J saw in one 
roost, the night before we left, in five 
hundred yards distance, over a thousand 
turkeys. I killed at least twenty-five 
turkeys in thirty mivutes. Our whole 
kill of turkey on the tramp was over a 
hundred, ‘seven deer, innumerable quail, 
both the common and blue topknot, one 
wild boar, four avalenas, or wild musk 
hog. This section is the wildest I have 
ever seen in Texas. ‘Those who wish to 
while away an most agreeable time in 
the most congenial climate, and where 
the best variety of sport can be had, can 
do no better than to make their head- 
quarters in the Alamo City, and I shall 
be only too happy to give them such 
directions as will afford them the great- 
est amount of pleasure.” 
/ 
CAMP HUNT BY LAZY ALIC. 
On the 11th day of November, 1878, 
I left home on a camp hunt to the upper 
Red River and Wichita county, to be 
gone thirty or forty days. My company 
consisted of three good hunters besides 
myself, a camp keeper, and a freedman 
to take charge of the cooking depart- 
ment, and three two-horse wagons with 
good teams. In the wagons were com- 
missary stores sufficient for the trip, with 
tents, guns, ammunition and all other 
requisites; with good teams and two 
men to the wagon, we had no trouble 
in making from twenty-five to thirty 
miles per day. Each hunter carried a 
a rifle and a shot gun. The rifles were 
Sharp’s and Winchester’s; the shot guns, 
two muzzle and two heavy breech-load- 
ers. For large game, such as buffalo and 
bear, I consider Sharp’s the best gun; for 
smaller game, such as deer, antelope, 
and turkeys, I give the preference to the 
Winchester ;4,, as I think they shoot 
somewhat more accurate, though not with 
the penetration of the Sharp’s 35,4, gun. 
A Winchester thirty-four inch octagon 
barrel, with the very latest improvements 
and properly sighted for the prairies, I 
consider a killing gun. At one hundred 
and twenty-five miles from home we 
passed the last settlements of the white 
man to the Northwest; continuing ow 
course across the prairies and small 
streams, we struck the Wichita near the 
old buffalo crossing. As we had not 
gone out for buffalo, but were after 
deer, antelope, bear, and turkeys, with 
such small game as we could pick up 
by the wayside, we concluded to make 
our camp. ‘Two of us had hunted over 
the same country one year ago, and 
knew the good places for game and 
camping grounds, which gave us a great 
advantage over other hunting parties 
that had never visited that region before. 
We were in camp and hunted fifteen 
days, during which time we took one 
hundred and twenty-six venison hams 
and sirloin saddles, with a good number 
of antelope, a Mexican lion or cougar, 
and many turkeys, geese, ducks, and 
chickens, of which we kept no count. 
The deer were unusually fat, there be- 
ing a good red haw mast on the creeks; 
the turkeyes, as a general thing, were 
poor; the light moon in November is 
running time for deer in Texas, therefore 
the old bucks were out in force, for of 
the number killed twenty were old bucks; 
the hams and saddles were all saved 
and salted in a box for three or four 
