1 1 6 The Passenger Pigeon 



big catches. In 1868, at Cheboygan, I took over six 

 hundred fat birds before sunrise. I sold to the United 

 States officers at Mackinac for trap shooting, also to 

 Island House. In 1861 there were only a few profes- 

 sionals: Dr. E. Osborn of Saratoga, N. Y; William N. 

 Cone, Masonville, N. Y; John Ackerman, Columbus, 

 Ohio ; L. G. Parke, Camden, N. J. ; James Thompson, 

 Hookset, N. H. ; S. K. Jones, Saratoga, N. Y. ; George 

 and Charles Paxon of Evans Center, N. Y., and maybe 

 a few others. After this time, trappers increased fast. 

 More salt was used in Michigan for bait than any other 

 State. I paid at Shelby $4 per barrel. Big bodies of 

 pigeons were drowned off Sleeping Bear Point because 

 of fog and wind, while trying to cross Lake Michigan. 

 I have seen them. 



In the Logan County roost, Ohio, I killed with two 

 barrels, of a six-bore shoulder gun, 144 birds. The 

 other boys killed nearly as many with smaller guns; 

 we shot on the roost in the dark. Our plan was to fire 

 one barrel on the roost and the other as the pigeons 

 flew. The highest price paid per dozen was in New 

 York City — $3 — ^by Trimm & Summer from Penn- 

 sylvania. 



For a good many years the birds were in the eastern 

 States, with heavy catching in Massachusetts and New 

 York, also Pennsylvania, and the hunters worked into 

 Canada, then into Ohio, and so on to Michigan and 

 Indiana, long before they took in Wisconsin and Minne- 



