

a 



FOXIEST AND 5TRK 



my anxiety to get away from the spoi , I had laft lyilJj ; ] oi 

 gotten in tllfl inud, I was instantly pitched forward ■ ■ 

 face, my mouth and nose getting liulf-full of sticky, slimy 

 mud. As quickly as possible I picked myself up and grab- 

 bed the weapon, and started on a run along the pond, di- 

 rectly toward that haunted end from which the previous in- 

 stant I was so anxious to get awaj r , The natural danger be- 

 hind was much more to be dreaded than the supernatural 

 danger in front, The latter was for the moment forgotten, 

 and it was not until I had got within three or four iods of 

 them that 1 bethought me of where I was going. Then 

 looking ahead to see if there was a chance for me to pass 

 with safety between tie spectres and the Woods, and ! 



They were still there, upon the same spot, but greatly 

 changed in size and appearance. Proximity dispelled the 

 optical illusion and enabled me now to tell what they were. 

 The discovery filled me with shame. Deceived by the dis- 

 torting moonlight, aided by an excited imagination and a 

 state of semi-somnolency, I had allowed myself to be fright- 

 ened out ot my wits by ten of the most harmless creatures 

 in the world— white storks. Yes, the ghostlike objects were 

 only a company of storks, stalking silently as usual around 

 the pond, occasionally flapping a wing or stooping to pick 

 up a worm or shell-fish. Ugh! white storks! 



On discovering the real character of the objects my pres- 

 ence of mind very naturally returned, and I continued ourny 

 route, the storks, as I neared them, rising into the air anil 

 winging their way over the tree-tops. In my disgust, at the 

 scare they had given me, f attempted to send a bullet after 

 them, but the mud had got into the lube of my carbine and 

 it would not explode. 



1 contrived to keep awake and my wits about me for the 

 rest of the journey, and in about two hours reached camp, 

 where I found that Caywood had stayed awake all night, 

 and boiled the half-pint of beans we had reserved for break- 

 last until they were a perfect mush. I did not see fit to give 

 him the details of the night's experience, merely remarking 

 that I had seen no game, but had fallen into a mud-puddle 

 on my way back. 



Early in the morning we discussed our hean soup, and be- 

 fore the fog had well lifted from the surface of the river 

 started down the " Shute of Forty " for the city of Memphis. 

 Meanwhile, however, my curiosity had tempted me back to 

 the pond to search for the rattlesnakes, and to my supreme 

 disgust I found the snakes were more imaginary than the 

 ghosts. By my tracks I found the pile of brush where 1 had 

 heard the rattling, and at once saw what caused it. I had 

 stepped on the end of a stick which reached under the pile of 

 brush. This siick had branches, and when I stepped on the 

 end of the stick the branches had made a rattling among the 

 dry leaveB piled in with the brush. I tried it, and produced 

 the very sounds which had seared me. 



We reached Memphis before noon, and there I found let- 

 ters and money, but instead of the large sum which I ex- 

 pected, there was a mere pittance of S3, which barely suf- 

 ficed to supply immediate pressing necessities. My friends 

 had evidently mistaken the measure of my wants. After a 

 brief stroll about the city we resumed our voyage down river. 

 We did not care to stop long in towns. I anTnot especially 

 fond of the society of human beings when the opportunity 

 is offered to be alone in the fields of Nature. The crazy 

 poet, Cowper, has said that, "Gnd made the country and 

 man made the town," and if by this ho meant to express the 

 superiority of the charms of the country over those of towns, 

 he was certainly right. I must say, however, that most of 

 the country and many of the towns along this river are no 

 credit to their makers, whoever they may be. 



Just below Memphis is a red clay bank,' the city itself being 

 located on the northern end of it. These blufl's occur at in- 

 tervals all along the river, and there is usually a town on or 

 near them. There are ofien springs in these bluffs, but the 

 water barely oozes out, and is but little cooler than the river; 

 is strongly impregnated with the clay, and has a disagree- 

 able taste. How different from the cool, clear mountain 

 spring water found two hundred miles west of here. 



For several days nothing of interest occurred to vary the 

 monotony of our daily experience. There was the same 

 eternal wail of collonwoods, the same abundance of mos- 

 quitoe-"', and the same abseweof game. We were begin- 

 ning to get tired of our mode of voj aging, and one day — 

 which had been unusually hot— we determined to shorten 

 our trip by traveling at night. We thought we could shove 

 the boat out into the current and turn her bow down stream, 

 curl ourselves up as well as we could and go to sleep, and 

 in the morning wake up and find ourselves fifty miles on 

 our journey. We did not anticipate any danger from such a 

 course. We had seen nothing during the daily travel of the 

 last thousand mile3 that would indicate that we would run 

 any risk. 



[The rest of the narrative is but a continuation of mis- 

 haps, privations and famine, culminating in several weeks' 

 sickness at Vicksburg, where the voyage was brought to an 

 abrupt end by the appearance of yellow fever. The climax 

 of the situation occurred just as might have heen expected 

 from the determination of the voyagers to float Imp-hazard 

 at night. It was moonlight, and they had hardly proceeded 

 two hours on their first venture beforo they were caught in 

 the swiftest kind of a shute with an up-river stern-wheeler, 

 somewhere near the mouth of French River. The tide ran 

 like a mill-race, so that the steamer could hardly make head- 

 way notwithstanding she churned the water into great bil- 

 lows of foam, which swashed up against a perpendicular 

 bluff in a bend where the onset of the current had hollowed 

 out a great whirlpool. Just here we will let the writer re- 

 sume his graphic recital.] ,. 



We passed each other about the middle of the shute abreast 

 the steamer's paddles, a few rods above the spot where the 

 whirlpool was circling. We glanced at her guards and at 

 the Widls of her pilot-house, and saw that her name was 

 Kate— something. We had no time to read the rest of her 

 name, for we swept past her like a shot into the tumult of 

 her paddleB and the vortex of the whirlpool. The great 

 muddy walls of wave lowered five feet above our little skiff, 

 and seemed to assume an intenser hue of blackness in their 

 rage. The skiff spun around like a "tetolem." I pulled 

 with all my siren mh at the oars to keep tbe boat's head to 

 the waves, but suddenly the right oar snapped in twain and 

 the blade went leaping down the rapids, ll was all day with 

 us then, and I knew it. The bow was caught by one billow, 

 the stern by another, while the third rose up amidships. We 

 swung about half-way round, when a large wave took us and 

 pitched us atop of one just forming, and in less than a jiffy 

 the skiff was bottom upward. 



| To relieve any aDsicty of tliflTeatli svill State briefly 



that the skiff and her two passengers finally tat 

 safely on a sandbar below. Of course the cargo of provi- 

 sions, blankets, and et celents, was a total 1os3i Very 

 naturally, as the writer continues, they had no desire to 

 travel any farther by night, and so they hauled the boat 

 high up on the bar and lay down on the sand and slept until 

 morning. The next Any they arrived at Helena, Ark., 

 where they spent their last twenty cents for com meal, upon 

 which they subsisted for four days. Once they attempted to 

 vary their subsistence by a levy on a cornfield, hut the owner 

 threatened them off. On the fifth day the writer was at- 

 tacked with chills and fever, and Caywood on the day fol- 

 lowing. After that they went ashore every day for nearly 

 a week to shake off; meanwhile, having nothing to eat for 

 nearly five days. The writer's time was so occupied that he 

 failed to keep up his diary. Finally, they reached Vicks- 

 burg, the goal of their almost forlorn hope, where the first 

 thing they did was to order a square meal; but their stomachs 

 rejected the food. The following paragraph concludes this 

 eventful history.] 



We then went to a hotel, and put ourselves under charge 

 of a physician, and for three weeks scarcely stirred from our 

 beds. Toward the latter part of July, just as we were get- 

 ting able to walk about our room, the presence of yellow 

 Jack in the river cities caused us to give up our hoped-for 

 expedition to Texas and make our way North again. 



I am not so fond of boat journeys as 1 was. I believe 

 there are more pleasant ways' in which to wander over the 

 earth. Guy KJybbs. 



For Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun 

 PERKINS IN PURSUIT OF QUAIL. 



OLD man Jenkins, who lives on the Pine Hill road, about 

 a mile beyond Perkins' place, called in the other day 

 to borrow a paper. While I was engaged in routing out the 

 one he wanted, he kept on with his conversation, and at last 

 got to what he wanted to say. 



"The boys tell me," said he, giving his quid a preparatory 

 roll, " that you've been writin' to the papers 'bout Perkins' 

 turkey hunt." 



" What turkey ? what papers?" said I, for I did not care 

 particularly to have the " Pine Hillers " know that 1 reported 

 their harmless little eccentricities. 



" Oh, you know well enough," replied the old man, " that 

 time Perkins shot the buzzard ; and the boys say you writ all 

 about it to that paper of yourn what 'lows it's a sin to shoot 

 birds a sitlin', and tells about trout flopping around a killing 

 flies with their tails same as a sore back ox in flylime. Any- 

 how, tbey say you done it, an' Perkins is powerful mad about 

 it ; you better bet he is. But what I want to know is, if you 

 never heard 'bout the time Perkins an' me went out to kill 

 partridges on the fly. Never heard 'bout it? Well, set down 

 here an' I'll tell ye. You see, last fall Perkins met you out 

 there just this side of my place, when you was after partridges 

 with that long-legged pinter of your'n, and he seen you kill 

 two or three birds on the wing. Well, next mornin' he comes 

 over to my house and puts at me for to go along with him. It 

 didn't 'pear to me as 1 had the time to go proj-ecting about 

 the old fields after little birds, and I proposed to Perkins to 

 try a turkey hunt. Perkins begin to git a leetle riled, and I 

 agreed to go with him, an' got down my old gun an' started. 



" When I got out there by the fence, thar stood Bob, Perk- 

 ins' biggest boy, an all fired smart boy, but meau as the old 

 Nick. ""But you know Bob, he's the one as told you 'bout Perk- 

 ins killing the buzzard. Well, thar stood Bob with t.n old 

 shaggy dog some movers fetched along here about a month 

 before that, an' Bob, he'd stole him from em, you see. Bjb 

 had him fast with a plow-line round his neck. 



" ' What kinder dog's that?' says I. 



" ' He's an Irish setter,' says Perkins. 



" Well, he was Irish enough to be on the fight, it didn't 

 take me long to see that, for he went tor me on sight, flit to 

 tear me all to pieces ; but Bob, he yanked him down a time 

 or two with the plow-line and kicked him a good one in the 

 ribs, and that sorter soothed him like. 



" Then we all went along; but the dog seemed not to care 

 much about g°ing, and sorter hung hack, but Bob, he 'lowed 

 he had to go, an' I tell you he drug him along till the dog he 

 changed his mind and then he drug Bob along pretty consid- 

 erable much, you bet. We hadn't gone very far from the dog 

 figat till I saw a gang of partridges all huddled up in a fence 

 corner 'mong some briers, an' I was just goin' to shoot an' kill 

 the hull lot ; but Perkins, ho Towed that wau'i the way, 'Skeer 

 'em up an' give 'em a chance,' that's what he said. Well, Bob 

 sent in the dog, and he put 'em up and took out arter 'em an' 

 Bob arter him, feared he'd lose him, but it's my opinion he 

 wouldn't a lost much— and Perkins blazed away with both 

 baarels, but never teched a hair, only leetle most a killed Bob. 

 The old dog arter awhile got the plow-line wrapped around 

 some bushes, and that held him fast till Bob could get him 

 again, 



" "Bimeby we found another gang.and Perkins shot an' fetched 

 one; but plague my cats el" that blamed dog didn't ketch him an' 

 swallow him afore he teched the ground. You j ust oughler to 

 seen Bob light onto that dog an' choke him; but 'twant no use, 

 the bird was gone clean outer sight, onlyjusta feather or two. I 

 begin to get sorter tired like, but Perkins.he 'lowedhe'd just got 

 his hand in, and we took another course down by the widder 

 Smith's, the tow from Perkins' gun sot the old sage field afire.an' 

 leetle most burnt up the poor woman's fence. I tell you, the 

 way me an' Perkins, an' Bob, an' that bow-legged boy of the 

 widder's, Jim I believe she calls him, fit that fire was a caution 

 to snakes. Bimeby we got the fire under an' started for home. 

 When we got most thar we come across a trap of Bobs with 

 eight partridges in it, an' ef you'll believe me. that foot of a 

 Si" Perkins wanted to turn 'cm out an' shoot at 'em one at a 

 time. 'Give 'em a chapce,' he said, same as ef lie belonged 

 to one of first families of old Yirginy. Boh didn't like the 

 idee much, but he let him shoot at two an' then ho grabbed 

 the rest of the birds, an' he an' the dog put out for home. 1 

 thought I had 'bout enough hunting an' so 1 left too. 



" When 1 got home, my old woman, she wanted to know 

 whar was my birds, an' I up an' tells her all about it, When 

 I got through the old woman says, ' Well, you might a knowed 

 that afore you started i the idee of an old man like you, the 



hoar] man in the Hard Shell Babtlaa meetlne-boose, 



around in the briars after birds with that fool of a Perkins, 

 who haint -sense enough to feeej in out of the rain 1 It's two 

 redikilus.' An' 1 kinder th Will,. 



SnmnnuJi, Tenn., April 27. 



For Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun 

 ABOUT BOB WHITE. 



TF a familiar acquaintance with our quail (Ortt/D Virginia- 

 *■ mis), and a close observation of their habits, extending 

 over a period of twenty years, entitle.one'8 views on the subject 

 to respect, Ineed make no apology for intruding them upon 

 the notice of your readers. I wish to direct the attention of 

 those interested in the protection and propagation of quail to 

 some facts which, I think, are not generally understood, hav- 

 ing, it Becms, from their very familiarity, escaped notice. 

 The interest every where so happily manifested within the 

 last few years in game protection, and the Jate wholesale des- 

 truction of quail, if report be true, throughout the Northern 

 and Western Slates, render the subject of more than ordinary 

 interest at this time. 



It seems to be generally supposed that if the quail of any 

 particular locality are protected for a number of years— like 

 hares, turkeys, deer, etc.— they will be greatly multiplied ; 

 and, on the other hand, if they be totally destroyed, that it 

 will require the number usually found at the pairing season 

 to stock that locality with its former abundance. Now, I 

 contend that neither of these propositions is necessarily true. 

 Wherever they are not migratory (I believe sometimes they 

 are so to a limited extent), and I would treat only of those 

 that are not, in any season, there will not be found 'more than 

 a certain number of coveys in any particular section of 

 country, and those coveys will be confined to certain well de- 

 fined localities in that section—?', e, each covey will have iis 

 own range or habitat. As the season for nesting and rearing 

 the young broods has been propitious or otherwise, the con- 

 veys will be correspondingly large or small. If the young 

 brood has been destroyed, no birds will be found oh their 

 range, if a whole covey of grown birds be kdled at one 

 shot, as is often done by pot-hunters, their range will be oc- 

 cupied the following season by a pair from some other covey, 

 and the usual brood reared. Further, the area over which 

 any covey moves and feeds is comparatively small, their pere- 

 grinations rarely extending over a radius of more than two 

 or three hundred yards. In localities particularly favorable 

 two or three coveys may be found very near each other, their 

 ranges often overlapping, and without a disturbing cause will 

 so continue. But if the natural face of the ground bo 

 changed, as by the clearing away of forests, they may change 

 their habitat or become extinct. To repeat : It seems to be 

 fixed that only a certain number of coveys— not birds— shall 

 occupy a given section. Perhaps it is instinctive and a check 

 ou over-production. The supply of grain on which, in this 

 section, they feed in early autumn is soon exhausted, or, from 

 exposure, becomes unfit for food, and they must then resort 

 to the matured seeds of ceitain weeds, insects, etc.; and as 

 the Bupply of the latter is an almost fixed quantity, the demand 

 in their economy may be regulated accordingly. Whatever, 

 the reason, I can affirm these facts with confidence, as regards 

 Eastern Virginia, and doubt not the characteristic fallows 

 them wherever this species is found. 



On my shooting grouud, embracing about ten square miles, 

 I know where each covey Ehould be found ; and when the 

 close season expires, take gun and dogs and go to such known 

 points, and if no birds are found alter thoroughly beating 

 any ground, I do not hunt that place again during the season. 

 Tlie next season they will probably beiouad there. Indeed, 

 my old dog is too knowing to work over field between points, 

 but as he approaches the well known range of a covey none is 

 more alert. In taking out a young dog, or one unaccustomed 

 to the ground, his display ot fine action from range to range 

 may give pleasure, but no points. 



What becomes of the surplus birds? An answer to that 

 question might be fairly demanded, and yet 1 cannot reply 

 with confidence. Hawks, their worst enemy in this section, 

 kill many after the gun is laid aside. Foxes, minks and 

 skunks catch some.- They are pugnacious, and at pairing 

 time, I have no doubt, fight to the death for literally who 

 shall be "cock of the walk ;'' and it maybe tho Darwinian 

 theory of the ''survival of the fittest" obtains— but I will 

 riot undertake to say the weakest are entirely exterminated. 

 After mating they may seek the points which instinct teaches 

 fulfill the necessary conditions, and if already occupied, an- 

 other contest may ensue, if unable to breed, they may die. 

 Herbert, I think, states that under such circumstances the 

 cocks collect in flocks to themselves, but I have never ob- 

 served that in this section. It might be asked if the dead aia 

 ever found. The sportsman who briugB down a bird in thick 

 cover, carefully marking where it falls, knows how difficult a 

 matter it is to recover it without the aid of a retriever, and 

 will hardly expect to cross accidentally the birds that may die 

 among the rank vegetation of early summer. On the other 

 hand, we might adopt the Yankee's argument of replying to 

 one question by asking another. Why do they not multiply 

 indefinitely when undisturbed? We know the] 

 Nature provides a check in some way, and the ohj- 

 inquiry is to determine how. 



f u corroboration of the theory advanced, the experience of 

 a noted shot and keen sportsman of an adjoining county may 

 be cited. lie lias paid great attention to the protection of 

 game on his estate, situated ou tbe Mattopuui. He states that 

 the more he shoots in any season the greater the increase of 

 birdB the succeeding year, and attributes it to tbe frightening 

 off of hawks by the discharge of his gun, the movement being 

 accelerated occasionally by a pelting at long range. The 

 method he employs to trap hawks is at once ingenious, simple 

 and effective. Oummon sleel traps are baited with birds of 

 bright plumage and placed in the tops of trees and on poles 

 near the haunts of the birds. The lure is conspicuous and 

 tempting, and many are captured in this way. 



No bird affords better shooting than quail, or partridge as 

 they are always called in Eastern Virginia, and nowhere is tha 

 sport b«tter. Would you compare ducking? The fusilade 

 and slaughter of a favorable hour may be more exciting, or 

 perhaps better satisfy the Anglo-Saxon propensity of killing 

 something ; but when we think of leaving a warm bed at 

 dawn, lying in a box or bk'ud on an exposed point with the 

 mercury al^ero, and returning mne times out of ten chilled 

 and empty-handed, such excursions are desired only as an oc- 

 casional variation, The flight of snipe 1b at best uncertain 



