FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



THE DAKOTA WAY. 



Urichsville, O. 

 Editor Recreation: 



Thinking you might be interested in our 

 party's recent hunting trip to South Dakota, 

 I will endeavor to give you some idea of our 

 experiences. Mr. O. L. Peter and I were 

 there a week before the main body of our 

 party came to Waubay. Mr. Peter not be- 

 ing very well, we only made a few trips over 

 the prairies in search of chickens, of which 

 Mr. P. shot several each trip. Our main 

 party, composed of the following gentlemen, 

 reached Waubay on Saturday : Jas. L. Ma- 

 son, Pittsburg, Pa.; James L. Reynolds, 

 Steubenville, O.; L. B. Roney and C. M. 

 Kline, Dennison, O.; S. W. Walters and 

 Edward Campbell, of Gnadenhiitten, O., 

 and Jesse Cochran, of Columbus, O. 



We did our first shooting on Tuesday, 

 killing only a few chickens, a hawk and two 

 jack rabbits. On Wednesday, the largest 

 score was made, 65 chickens, for a party, 

 with 12 guns; Mr. Campbell making the 

 best record — 16 chickens. 



Campbell, Roney, Cutting and I, were in 

 one wagon, and, while driving along by a 

 wheat field, a chicken jumped up behind us, 

 when L. B. Roney saw it. Breaking his gun, 

 he put in two shells, and twisting around to 

 the left, fired the right barrel, and winged 

 the bird. He jumped out, laid down his gun, 

 and ran to get this bird, when another rose 

 to his right 25 feet away; he ran back and 

 picking up his gun, fired the left barrel, and 

 winged this bird also. He got both, when 

 another rose about 50 feet away, and was 

 shot by Campbell, who had jumped out of 

 the wagon at the second shot. We imme- 

 diately christened Roney, " Bogardus Lon." 

 Ordinarily Roney would miss 8 birds out of 10. 



On Sept. 5, we went to Pickerel Lake, 17 

 miles N. E. of Waubay, and went into camp 

 for a few days' hunting and fishing. We 

 had scarcely got our tents up, and in order 

 when it began to rain. This soon turned to 

 hail, about the size of peas. The storm con- 

 tinued, and the hail grew larger and larger, 

 until we became alarmed, lest we be driven 

 into the ground, tents and all. The largest 

 hailstones, after lying half an hour, meas- 

 ured 12 inches in circumference; and fell so 

 thick that the lake in front of our tents was 

 thrashed in a seething mass of watery mist. 

 When the hail storm ended, a wave of suf- 

 focating, hot air rushed after the storm, re- 

 sulting in the formation of a cyclone, which, 

 when we first saw it, seemed to be coming 

 directly towards us. After a quick run to 

 a convenient dugout, we were relieved to see 

 that the funnel-shaped cloud had turned and 

 gone east. We watched it for about an hour 

 before it finally disappeared from view. We 

 later heard that it went 62 miles over into 

 Minnesota, where it blew down a few houses, 

 and killed two children. 



The trip, as far as hunting and fishing was 

 concerned, was disappointing; but, as most 

 of us had never been in the Far West, we en- 

 joyed the climate, scenery, and the hospital- 

 ity of the people at Waubay. We had a 

 splendid jack-rabbit chase, with two large 

 greyhounds. One rabbit got away, but the 

 other was caught. It was by all odds the 

 funniest experience of our trip. 



En route home we caught a glimpse of 

 the dells of the Wisconsin, at Kilbourne 

 City. The most interesting part of our trip, 

 however, was from Minneapolis to Lacrosse, 

 along the Mississippi, past Lake Pepin, and 

 the great cathedral - like rocks at Red 

 Wing, Winona, etc. There are many pic- 

 turesque lakes in Wisconsin, along the C. M. 

 & S. P. R. R., some of which are near Mil- 

 waukee. 



All my friends who have seen Recrea- 

 tion are delighted with it, and most of them 

 will subscribe. Mr. O. L. Peters, one of our 

 Dakota hunters, will get up a club soon. He 

 will try for a rifle, to be given to his little 

 daughter, who wants to be a hunter, and to 

 join her father in his trips hereafter. 



We expect to catch some muscallonge and 

 jack salmon in our river (Tuscarrawas) near 

 here, before grim winter catches us. Bass 

 are being caught freely. The other day a 

 fisherman returning to town by rowboat, saw 

 a duck disappear under water, and it never 

 came up. He says some big fish caught it. 

 I have heard of pike doing such tricks, and 

 think this must have been either a pike or a 

 muscallonge. We are going to try and 

 catch it, whatever it is. Will report our suc- 

 cess. R. F. Kern. 



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