112 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



KILLING CLEAN. 



Be not satisfied with wounding jour game only, but aspire to 

 become a nice, clean shot, as it will save you much trouble and 

 vexation, and make your dog show to more advantage. For in- 

 stance, if a covey rise, and we wound two birds and see them 

 fluttering on the ground before us, we feel great anxiety as to 

 their fate ; and, fearing lest they might get off, or secrete them- 

 selves so that the dogs cannot find them, we can with difficulty sup- 

 press the strong desire that naturally rises in our mind to quit our 

 position, before loading, to secure them ; much less, then, can we 

 hope to overcome this impulsive inclination on the part of our 

 dogs. In spite of repeated castigations, the excited animals will 

 rush after the fluttering birds, and persist in catching them, in 

 opposition to all our endeavors ; and the consequence is the flush- 

 ing of one or two laggers, who often remain behind when the 

 coveys spring, and both of which might have been bagged if our 



we consider that these birds are only shot singly, and only on the wing, we con- 

 sider this extraordinary shooting. They found the ducks rather scarce, as they 

 only bagged about fifty in two days." 



Or this, from the " Lancaster Herald," of Grant county, Wisconsin, of January, 

 1856 : 



" Game is very plenty with us, this season, in all parts of the State. Venison 

 is sold daily in our streets as common as pork and beef, and at the same price. 

 Prairie-chickens (pinnated grouse) and pheasants (ruffed grouse) are offered for 

 sale by the boys at our doors at one dollar to one dollar and a quarter per dozen, 

 partridges at forty cents per dozen, hares at one dollar per dozen, wild turkeys 

 twenty-five cents each." 



Or this, from the Philadelphia " North American," of January, 1856 : 



"WiLD GAME FROM THE WEST. A week ago two hundred boxes of partridges, 

 averaging, probably, one hundred birds to a box, were shipped eastward from 

 Janesville, Wisconsin; and a short time previous to the 8th inst. two hundred 

 deer were shot in the neighborhood of Sparta, in the same State, and sent east- 

 ward." 



Or this, from the same journal, of a little later date : 



" The ' Vincennes Gazette' notices the arrival at that place of two thousand four 

 hundred hares, six barrels of partridges, fourteen whole deer, twenty-five saddles 

 of venison, one hundred and forty -four prairie-hens-, (grouse,) together with wild- 

 geese, wild ducks, wild turkeys, squirrels, &c. &c. to an almost incredible extent ; 

 making, in all, five wagon-loads." 



