FOREST 



string to the geese, keeping them to the raft, in order '!o~ 

 secure the platform from floating off it was anchored with 

 a brick at each end. At each corner of this platform three 

 pairs of decoys were placed, the wild geese being on the 

 platform itself, with strings leading into the blind boat. 

 I now instructed Isaiah to take the live geese stools and 

 platform in his boat, to place them about a hundred yards 

 forward of some sedge grass, and to wait there until we 

 1 came up with the blind boat. It was still pitch dark. While 

 this was being done, and the tide was making up fast, 

 Isaiah soon completed his task, and we rowed to where he 

 was and took hold of the strings which were attached o the 

 geese, which we fastened to the rollocks of the blind boat. 

 Isaiah was now ordered by me to take his own boat to the 

 Bay side and to scare up the geese and drive them in. I 

 had hardly got through eating my breakfast before Isaiah 

 had rapidly pulled around the point, and I heard him honk- 

 rng away merrily, Jake playing second fiddle. The first 

 gray streaks of morning commenced to show the coming 

 dawn, allowing me to look over my guns and arrange the 

 ammunition, which was all in good order, I was using my 

 swamp angel, (according to the judgment of some of your 

 Forest and Stream critics,) a 10-bore Snyder- Allen breech 

 loader, and a muzzle loader, Greener, 8-bore. I had pre- 

 pared my cartridges as follows: 5 drams of powder and an 

 ounce and three quarters of single I?, for the Snyder- Allen, 

 and 6 drams of powder and full two ounces of I?'s for the 

 Greener. There is no use of bringing pop guns down here. 

 You must load up, as geese have to be killed and killed 

 dead; for if you load as for pigeons, you waste your time 

 in picking up wing-tipped birds, for geese, even when 

 badly wounded, can swim with the tide faster than you can 

 row after them. 



Jake now commenced pulling the strings on the geese, 

 imitating the cry of the live decoys, they fluttering their 

 wings and making the spray fly. The decoy geese seemed 

 to understand their business thoroughly, having doubtlessly 

 taken advantage of Isaiah's instruction. Presently a flock 

 of five geese came up on the wit d out of the sedge, where 

 they had certainly been feeding,"and made directly for the 

 stools. Now I wanted for once to'amderstand the charac- 

 ter of the live decoy birds we were using, and whether the 

 wild geese would really appraoch close to them, so I deter- 

 mined to forego shooting the first flock and w T atch their 

 familiarities. The new comers, they were young geese, 

 absolutely alighted on the platform, and made advances to 

 their captive friends, not honking, but whistling, the sound 

 not resembling in the least the hiss of the tame goose. We 

 were in the blind-boat, not more than thirty yards from the 

 platform. They must have staid there fully three minutes, 

 when all of a sudden, from some unknown cause — for we 

 were in the boat hidden and perfectly still— they rose as if 

 alarmed all at once, and with such a sudden jerk, using tire 

 platform to make their flight from, that they upset the plat- 

 form and submerged for a moment our educated birds. I 

 was so intent on watching the antics of the wild birds 

 that I was slow in shooting. Though having shot geese in 

 this neighborhood for the last fourteen years, it was the 

 very first time I ever had an opportunity of noticing geese 

 as closely, or of acquiring so much knowledge of their 

 habits and actions. 



They must have got away fully twenty yards before I 

 could get the Greener to my shoulder, and I dropped two 

 and wing-tipped one which I did not recover. 



I have always observed that wild geese, when feeding, 

 leave one bird on the watch, and most thoroughly does she 

 perform the task. With outstretched neck, watching on 

 all sides, and listening to every sound far and near, she 

 keeps a wary guard. Nor does she look for a single worm 

 or scollop, however famished she may be, till one of her 

 companions sees fit to relieve her guard. Then the former 

 sentinel sets to work at her feeding with an eagerness which 

 shows that her abstinence while on duty was the result, not 

 of want of appetite, but of a proper sense of the important 

 trust imposed upon her. If any enemy, or the slightest 

 cause of suspicion appears, the sentry utters a low croak, 

 when the whole flock immediately run up to her, and after 

 a short consultation, fly off, leaving the unfortunate sports- 

 man to lament having shown even his head or the muzzle 

 of his gun above the sea sedge grass. 



About an hour afterwards— it was now high flood tide, 

 and the wind blowing dead on shore— I heard Isaiah ' 'honk- 

 ing," and to my delight saw him rise and drive a flock of 

 as many as two hundred geese towards our side over the 

 point.' Approaching our stools, they divided into two 

 nooks, one going apparently to the southward and the other 

 answering the cry of our live stools. Here Jake showed 

 soma excitement, and asked me to allow him to use my 

 Greener. "Take anything," I said. The geese came on 

 swiftly to the stools, swept past them for a moment, then 

 circled back, Jake jerking at the strings attached to the 

 educated geese. The wild birds seemed to hesitate, but all 

 hands honked away, and after a moment they all swooped 

 down, and were just about alighting, not more than three 

 feet above the stools, when Jake and myself fired off four 

 barrels almost simultaneously. Eleven geese we killed 

 outright, stone dead, they falling into the water with aloud 

 flop; five we wing-tipped, three of which Isaiah secured in 

 tiie pick-up boat. It took us fully two hours to gather the 

 birds, and by this time the tide had fallen so much that the 

 geese, although still flying in flocks, sought other bars and 

 points to alight on. Towards evening we had a few more 

 shots, but nothing of special interest, and I should not 

 have written this letter save to record the excellence of the 

 live stools, and the fraternization of the wild geese with 

 our educated ones. Very truly, C. B. 



Total bag, three days' shooting, 24 geese, 5 broad-bills, 

 ftnd 1 whistler, 



Editor Forest and Stream: — 



To gratify the imperious demand of the public, to place 

 my friend Captain Porgie in a true light, and allay, if pos- 

 sible, the torrent of ink shed which this remarkable case 

 has produced in scientific circles, are the objects of this 

 present statement. Captain Slocum W. Porgie is a modest 

 man and a truthful witness, and his modesty and veracity 

 have been shocked by the distortions and calumnies of 

 friend and foe on this unpleasantly notorious affair. The 

 action of certain illustrated weeklies in reprinting from an 

 old portrait which had done good service before as the 

 "Nathan Murderer," and been used with success as the 

 "counterfeit presentment" of a "famous Sorosis presiden- 

 tess," and labelling it now as "Capt Porgie, or the Demon 

 Slayer of Sorghum Bay," he looks upon as a highiy improp- 

 er proceeding; nor is he less justly annoyed at the gratui- 

 tous insinuations of the Popular Science Monthly and Amer- 

 ican Naturalist to the effect that he is a "hoary-headed old 

 miscreant," and a "blasphemous desperado." He says that 

 such language almost implies a reflection on his private 

 character, if not a positivejnisconstruction of his motives. 

 For which reasons he desires to be set right before the pub- 

 lic. Having ascertained that Captain Porgie was in the 

 city last week with his schooner, I calcd at his hotel, the 

 "Mariner's Haven," and found him engaged in a little priv- 

 ate business at the bar of the house. He was discussing a 

 modest luncheon of lobscouse a lafeaucasle, in company with 

 a half dozen other gentlemen of saline appearance and 

 flavor. The Captain is about fifty years of age, iron-gray 

 hair, a steel-blue eye, and copper-colored nose, and a de- 

 cided list to starboard. 



Your correspondent opened the conversation by intro- 

 ducing himself as the commissioner of Forest and Stream, 

 and with the hospitable query: — 



"Well, Captain, what's yours?" to which fourteen entire 

 strangers simultaneouily replied, "ruman'm'lasses." 



We sought a private room, and the conversation proceed- 

 ed substantially as follows : 



Capt, P. — "Thankee; I don't care if I dew. That's con- 

 sarned poor liquor. When I was in Cuby in '48, they was 

 a Mexican feller from Seinfoogos had some pooty nice 

 liquor, what he called 'pulque.' Ever drink pulque? Sho! 

 Well, you see pulque — " 



Your correspondent gently assured his narrator that 

 strict temperance principles and patriotic impulses alike 

 prevented his taking an absorbing interest in the produc- 

 tions, however fascinating, of a degraded foreigner; and be- 

 sought the Captain to impart the true story of his adven- 

 ture with the saurian of Sorghum Bay. We also, with a 

 pardonable desire to impress the narrator, told him that 

 our name was Cuvier, and that we thirsted for information 

 of an icthyological nature. 



Captain Porgie. — "Glad to make your acquaintance, Col. 

 Cuvier; well, I don't mind telling you, sir, though I don't 

 care to speak of the circumstance to lubbers generally, after 

 the way your papers sarved me. Some people don't know 

 a true story when they hear it, and some people can't open 

 their hatches without discharging a cargo of lies. But I 

 ain't that kind, sir. I've been a sailor, man and boy, for 

 forty year, and I never told a lie, outside of a Custom house 

 in my life. That's why it gets me up when folks don't be- 

 lieve about that sarpint I saw last fourteenth of August, at 

 2,10 P. M., from aboard my own schooner, the 'Hiram A. 

 Dodge,' in Sorghum Bay, latitude 43 Q north, and my first 

 mate drunker 'an a porpoise in the forc'sle. A good deal 

 drunker, sir. Capt Kampike was with me, too. Jotham 

 Rampike, of^Sculpin Centre, and was going home after 

 losing his vessel and seventy barrel of mackerel, good No. 

 2 mackerel, in a sou'wester off Cape Ann, with all on board 

 except himself and a nigger cook. Saved by the mercy of 

 Providence, and a Calais wood boat. He was a awful 

 critter. Shed say he was an eighty barreller, half an acre 

 across the bow T s and a hundred fathom from stem to stern, 

 and had flippers like a walrush. He was lying across our 

 bows, about a half a cable distant. There wan't a capfull 

 of wind aloft, and the sea was as smooth as the bottom of 

 a flap-jack. Rampike and me obsarved the critter clussly. 

 He had a mane as high as the foremast, and was covered 

 with scales like a mud turkle. Rampike was an old whale- 

 men and always has a harpoon round his rigging some- 

 where. He wanted to sock it to him, and I let him try it 

 on, though I knew it wan't no use. Sea sarpints ain'J; to 

 be fit with harpoons, Mr. Cuvier, not that kind of sarpints. 

 But I let Rampike have his way, for he's a dreadful set man, 

 and he driv the iron into the critter's gills. Sarpint didn't 

 mind it no more 'an a flea, but he just histed his bowsprit 

 and surw T eyed us all over, kinder curous like, much as to 

 say, 'I'm a noticing on you, gentlemen, and I'll make salt 

 junk on ye, bimeby.' 



Then Rampike wanted to try him on with a shark hook; 

 never see sich a lubber as that Rampike, for a man who 

 sailed a morphidyke brig eleven year and ought to know 

 suthin. Sez I, 'No, Rampike; I wouldn't be a consarned 

 ijit, if I could help it,' sez I; 'Let's lighten ballast,' sez I, 

 and get on his weather quarter.' So we took holt and emp- 

 tied two sandbags, and I fastened a "hank of beef to the 

 kedge anchor, and then the balloon riz." 



Cor.— "The balloon, Capt. Porgie!" 



Capt, P.— "Sartinly; didn't I say wethrowed out ballast, 

 and of course the balloon riz. Oh, you didn't know we 

 was in a ballon. Aint never been to sea? Thought not. 

 Of course, alius keep a balloon .aboard to rekonitre. Could 

 n't get along 'ithout 'em no ways. Well, sir, as I said, it 

 riz, and I drawed the grapnel just across the sarpint's nose 



ana lie snapped for it like a shark. Bolted it; went anchor 

 and all. Rampike jest set on the edge of the car and 

 laughed fit to bust, and all the while the sarpint kept a 

 chewin' and a chewin'; and bimeby he began to smell the 

 trap and to lash the waves all around like a typhoon; and 

 Rampike wanted to let drive at him with a round shot outen 

 the old swivel. Never see sich a lunkhead as that Rampike. 

 Whoever heerd of shootin' sea sarpints with round shot 

 outen a balloon? Sez I, 'Capt, Rampike, I'll manage this 

 discussion, if you please.' And I was going to give a turn 

 on the windlass and bring the critter to close quarters, get 

 him yard-arm to yard-arm, as it were, when I'm blowed if 

 I didn't see the pizen reptile a swallowing that 'ere four inch 

 manilla like prize candy, and stowing it away by the fathom 

 till he was within twenty foot of our car! Rampike was 

 standing there like he was struck dead, and had dropped 

 the slow match into the car, and sot fire to the bottom of it. 

 I see how things was placed immediate." That sarpint 

 would make us sick in just four seconds and a half 'ithout 

 we changed our moorings. 'Rampike,' sez I, 'follow me,' 

 and I went overboard and Rampike after me just as the scaly 

 critter was taking a mouthful outen the bottom of our car. 

 He seen us jump, and aimed a lick at us with his tail, but 

 'the balloon being lightened up, went aloft like a rocket, an- 

 chor, sarpint and all, and when we clomb aboard the 

 schooner there was a holler in the water like as if an earth- 

 quake had dropped there. We saw the balloon and the 

 sarpint heading NNE, about half a mile high, and could 

 hear the snake hissing and coughing and swearing like a 

 volcano. And bimeby there come the all-cussedest explo- 

 sioe you ever heard, and we knowed the fire had caught in 

 the gas and set off the swivel, and given that reptile critter 

 rather a surprise party. And that's all," said Capt. Porgie, 

 as he shook the bottle mournfully. 



We asked the conscientious narrator had he seen any re- 

 mains of the shattered saurian. 



"None to speak of," he said. Folks on shove had 

 spoken of gathering up barrels of scales all over the coast, 

 but he, Capt, Slocum W. Porgie, "made it a pint" to not 

 place too implicit confidence in the statements of shore 

 folks. He had found a painful absence of veracity and an 

 unscrupulous disregard of accuracy in their narrations. 



Such is the simple, straightforward story of one who has 

 beheld the terrible denizen of the deep in his native element 

 as well as in the less congenial sphere of upper air. The 

 writer would gladly wish that he could here chronicle a fit- 

 ting tribute from our savans to this gallant mariner, but to 

 the disgrace of our common nature be it said, no such tes- 

 timonial has been spoken of; on the contrary, his story has 

 been greeted with suspicion or open hostility by those "who 

 should be first to greet him with pride and respect. Only 

 one public functionary in this city has treated his story with 

 any show of credence. The agent of the Society for the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has placed sufficient faith 

 in our hero's tale to indict him for causing the death of 

 this sea serpent under circumstances of peculiar cruelty. 

 Capt. Porgie confesses that such persecution and contume- 

 ly are almost a source of irritation, and appeals to his fel- 

 low countrymen for justice. Shall he appeal in vain? 



J. J. R. 



[Notwithstanding the high scientific attainments of our 

 informant, and his undisputed claim to veracity, we have 

 an inkling that he has been imposed upon. The circum- 

 stances related are plausible enough,'' and the identity of 

 the Sorghum Sea Serpent fully established by savans, but 

 we have never known of any of this species of saurian be- 

 ing found in the latitude mentioned, and more than all, 

 question whether the tractile force of mere deglutition 

 woule be sufficient to enable the creature to swallow 

 a balloon under headway. We place little faith in 

 balloons anyhow, or anything connected with them. How- 

 ever, we give the story for what it is worth, ackowledging 

 its value to science if true, and, if not true, consoling our- 

 selves that wiser men than we have been made the victims 

 of wags without conscience, -who to ensure the successful 

 perpetration of a hoax, are contented to pass it off on poor 

 credulous marines. — Ed. F. and S.] 



Not There. — The Canadian Gentleman 's Journal is anx- 

 ious in regard to the whereabouts of a large bear. We 

 should most respectfully ask, if in Toronto they do as they 

 are reported to have done in London, when a fashionable 

 hair dresser hired the man who did no end of howling a la 

 bear, as an advertisement for pots of bear grease? We pro- 

 duce the article in question, taken from our excellent Can- 

 adian contemporary : — 



"Mr. Britton, butcher, of this city, has been carefully 

 feeding for Christmas time a remarkably large bear with 

 which he intended to create a sensation in the St. Lawrence 

 Arcade. _ A well-known young sportsman had volunteered 

 to administer a leaden pill to bruin yesterday afternoon, 

 and having armed himself with his caribou revolver and a 

 knapsack full of penetrating arguments, proceeded to the 

 scene of action. The chain to the end of which the bear 

 was supposed to be attached was lying loosely on the 

 ground, and at the word— ' A\\ ready,' from the ardent 

 sportsman, an attendant commenced to haul at the chain, 

 but no bruin appeared at the end of it. A special force of 

 detectives is now engaged hunting up the missing pet. Any 

 information will be thankfully received." 

 — «**<*- 



— "The double barreled gun came safely to hand, express 

 paid. You put it down at $45; I have just refused $50 for 

 it. I am now going for a rifle, the kind will depend on 

 my success in getting up a club. The paper is unexcep- 

 tionable, and is worth the money without the prize. How 

 do you manage it, to give a really gocd paper, and such 

 handsome prizes?" St. Louis, ^December 22. See Prize 

 List of the Forest and Stream, 



