SHOOTING IN THE NORTHWEST 



James K. Boyd. 



F 



ROM early 

 spring, 

 t h r o u g h 

 all the summer, 

 our party, when- 

 ever we met, 

 had something 

 to say of our 

 prospective 

 western trip in 

 the autumn of 

 1894. Many 

 were the con- 

 jectures as to 

 the best time to 

 go, the pros- 

 pects for sport 

 and how many would finally go. 

 As the time drew near it became evi- 

 dent that at least one of the quartet 

 would have to remain at home, and, 

 strangely enough, if proved to be 

 the single man. One other had 

 many misgivings and a third saw 

 breakers ahead; but finally we set 

 the time of departure for Saturday, 

 September 22nd. We selected the 

 Lehigh Valley and Grand Trunk rail- 

 ways to Chicago and, with dog in 

 charge of one man, another carrying 

 two grips, and -each of us loaded with 

 guns, rubber coats, etc., we started. 

 We reached Chicago at 9:25 p. m., 

 Sunday, transferred to the Chicago 

 and Northwestern railway, and left 

 on the 10:30 train for St. Paul. That 

 city was reached at 11:55 a * m > anc ^ 

 as the Northern Pacific train was to 

 go at 4:15 p. m., we had ample time 

 to attend to call on friends there. 

 Again, at 4:15 p. m. we were on a 

 train of fourteen sleepers and 

 coaches drawn by two locomotives. 



The following morning found us at 

 our destination in North Dakota, 

 where we were met by our guide of 

 the year before, and who soon 

 landed us at his house. As he was 

 busy, we concluded to hunt alone 

 during the afternoon of that day. 

 We started with our team, but were 



disappointed in not finding plenty of 

 grouse where we had found great 

 numbers the year before. We picked 

 up thirteen grouse and twenty-three 

 snipe. Some practice on plover and 

 jack rabbits enabled us to " get our 

 hand in." 



The next day we killed an equal 

 number of grouse and had a little 

 pass shooting, during the late after- 

 noon, when we killed a fine string of 

 mallards, teal and snipe. 



We devoted the next day to 

 grouse shooting and had a good day's 

 sport, killing forty-five. Much of 

 this shooting was done in thick 

 cover and we had great difficulty in 

 scoring some of the birds. 



The following day, bright and 

 early, found us on the way to a lake 

 where we had found excellent shoot- 

 ing at ducks and geese the year be- 

 fore. Now, we found only a dry 

 slough. In fact, many of the lakes 

 and sloughs were entirely dry, and 

 on a windy day the alkali dust was 

 extremely disagreeable. The im- 

 mediate neighborhood was barren of 

 prairie chickens where last year we 

 killed many. We returned to our 

 pass and killed a few ducks, of vari- 

 ous kinds. We put in the fifth day 

 at a large lake, said to be good for 

 redheads, canvasbacks, teal and grey 

 ducks, but the result was not en- 

 couraging. 



