162 
THE SPORTSMAN’S AND TOURIST’S GUIDE. 
GAME FIELDS AND ANGLING WATERS OF ARKANSAS. 
Arkansas game may be divided into 
two classes-local and migratory. The mi- 
gratory portion of the game may be sub- 
divided into such as come to stay all Win- 
ter, and such as merely pass us on their 
long Spring and Fall journey. To the 
former subdivision belong many of the 
ducks, to the latter the geese. Most of 
the local game is semi-migratory ; that is, 
it moves about and changes location ac- 
cordingly as the mast hits or misses, al- 
ways keeping an eye to the main chance, 
passing from upland to bottomland, from 
open woods to canebrake, as the food 
supply requires. It always happens when 
either deer, bear, or turkey are unusual- 
ly plenty in any locality, the others will 
not be far away. Arkansas has an area 
of more than 50,000 square miles and a 
population of less than half a million— 
less than’ ten to the square mile, rather 
unequally distributed in town and coun- 
try—the towns far outnumbering the 
country districts in the matter of growth. 
The State, for the purposes of a brief ac- 
count of its game resources, may be-di- 
vided into four sections: the Northeast, 
Northwest, Southwest, and Southeast, 
each. possessing distinctive characteris- 
tics. 
The northeast portion of the State ex- 
tends southward to White River and 
westward to Black River, and borders 
on the State of Missouri and the Missis- 
sippi River. It is, as a rule, low and 
swampy, possessing heavy timber and 
heavy canebrakes. The ‘sunk lands ” 
constitute a considerable portion of this 
part of the State. It is traversed by in- 
numerable sloughs and has many lagoons 
and cypress swamps. ‘There is a range 
of low hills running through it, known as 
Crowley’s Ridge. The general direction 
of the ridge is from northwest to south- 
east; it terminates at Helena on the 
Mississippi River. The principal rivers 
other than those named, are St Francis, 
L’Aaguille—prononneed ‘ Laugell ”— 
Bayou de View, and Cache, all sluggish, 
chocolate-colored streams, mere ribbons 
in dry weather, immense floods when up. 
These streams and their tributaries, as 
well as the lakes, or lagoons, are well 
stocked with black bass, pickerel, all 
sorts of perch, and such coarse fish as 
drum, buffalo, and cat ad nauseum. 
As might be inferred, this vast region is 
alive with game, and owing to the inac- 
cessibility of a portion of it in the. Win- 
ter and Spring months, serves as a sort 
of a game preserve, It is more sparsely 
populated than other portions of the 
State. Deer and bear abound, and it is 
not long since elk were known to exist in 
the vicinity of the sunk lands. There 
are large areas of fertile land, elevated 
just above the regions of eternal wet, and 
these are the sites of such settlements as 
‘have been made. 
boats nearly. the whole of this region 
‘might‘be traversed. 
‘of yielding the finest of sport may readi- 
By the use of light 
That it is capable 
ly be inferred. Inthe late Fall and Win- 
ter months countless millions of ducks 
and geese literally cover the waters. The 
far-famed Swan Lake is situated in this 
section. In the western part of this re- 
gion the proportion of dry land grows 
ereater. Here deer, bear, and turkeys 
are found in their native simplicity. 
Tradition tells of wild turkeys breeding 
with the tame fowl of the barnyard. 
Parallel with, and a few miles from 
Black River, flows Cache, through a ver- 
itable sportsman’s paradise. 
Bob White is here with his cheering 
note, not in great abundance, but suffi- 
cient for royal sport. Snipe and plover 
