GAME AND FISH RESORTS. 7 



Railroad. Stage routes are much infested by Indians, chiefly 

 Apaches, rendering travel and hunting here very precarious. 

 For this reason we have not specified particular localities. The 

 sportsman will not be apt to go far from the regular lines of 

 travel, nor will he need to do so. He will find in his pathway game 

 of all kinds and in such quantity as to afford him constant oc- 

 cupation. We will however mention, as one of the best regions 

 for elk, deer, antelope and wild turkey shooting, the White 

 Mountains. 



ARKANSAS. 



Arkansas has a population of 800,000. It is sparsely settled 

 in many parts, and therefore offers unusual opportunities for 

 sportsmen who are willing to rough it. There are very few coun- 

 try hotels in the State, that can be dignified even by the name of 

 tavern, so that the sportsman must generally be prepared to camp 

 out, or take chances at the farm houses and plantations. As a 

 rule, the people will be found hospitable to true gentlemen sports- 

 men, and willing to entertain them. Much of the hunting will 

 have to be done from the saddle or pirogues. The State is tolera- 

 bly flat in the lower division, filled with canebrakes, and cut up by 

 water courses. In the middle it is densely wooded and undulat- 

 ing, interspersed with prairies. The northern part is hilly, and 

 the northwestern part partakes of the features of the Indian Ter- 

 ritory adjoining. The northeastern counties are an unbroken 

 level, with the exception of Crowley's Ridge, a low I'ange of hills, 

 which traverses six counties from northwest to southeast, averag- 

 ing in width from two to five miles. This range of hills runs par- 

 allel with the St. Francis River, and is the western boundary of 

 the Great Mississippi Swamp. To the east of this range of hills, 

 and between the St. Francis and Mississippi Rivers, lie the swamp 

 counties of Crittenden and Mississippi — about forty miles in width 

 and about one hundred in length. They are but thinly settled, 

 abound in lakes and bayous, and are traversed by the Tyronza 

 and Little Rivers, tributaries of the St. Francis. 



The unsettled portions of these counties consist of dense and 

 heavy canebrakes and low swamps. The animals found here are 

 the bear, panther, wolf, wild-cat, deer, and turkeys and water-fowl 

 of every variety, from the swan to the smallest duck. This is also 

 a fine field for trapping. Beaver, otter, mink, coon, etc., are very 

 abundant. The rivers, lakes and bayous abound in every variety 

 of game fish known to this latitude — such as trout, black bass 

 striped bass speckled perch, and all the varieties of bream and lake 

 perch ; thesp are taken in great numbers at any season of the year. 



