154 



RECREATION, 



these 2 butchers, accompanied by Elwin 

 Merlin, marshal of Trempeleau. The offi- 

 cers caught the 2 Polanders in their duck 

 blind, took them into court, where a fine of 

 $25 and 30 days in jail was assessed against 

 Reszka and $20 and 20 days in jail against 

 Bruski. This will give these men plenty of 

 time to make up their minds whether it 

 pays to violate the Wisconsin game laws, 

 even if they do live in Minnesota. 



and it will serve the alleged sportsmen 

 right. 



George Tucker, of Brenham, Texas, 

 writes a long story to a Western sports- 

 man's journal in which he tells and, in 

 fact, openly boasts that he and 5 friends 

 killed 5 antelope in violation of the Texas 

 law. The editor of the aforesaid journal 

 prints the story without a word of con- 

 demnation or comment of any kind. That 

 is the kind of stuff most editors of sports- 

 men's journals are looking for. All they 

 seem to want in the way of entertainment 

 for their readers is stories of killing, 

 whether legal or illegal, whether sports- 

 manlike or whether the work of game 

 pot. 



Charles Ferber, of Scranton, Pa., went 

 trout fishing in Wayne county, in April 

 last, and made a good catch. On his way 

 home a game warden held him up and 

 sized up his fish. Eleven of these proved 

 to be less than 6 inches in length, and the 

 warden ran Ferber in. A local justice of 

 the peace fined him $10 for each short, 

 making a total of $110, which Ferber paid 

 and went on his way, a sadder but wiser 

 man. He would better have waited another 

 year for those trout to grow. 



Dick Rock, an old-time hunter and guide, 

 who lived on the bank of Henry's lake, 

 Idaho, was killed some time ago by one of 

 his pet buffaloes. He had several buffaloes, 

 moose, deer, etc., on his ranch and was 

 very fond of them. Rock also contrib- 

 uted to the cause of game protection 

 and propagation by catching and shipping 

 to Eastern Zoological parks, good speci- 

 mens of mountain sheep, moose, buffalo, 

 etc. His loss is deeply felt by all who 

 knew him. 



I am informed that 30,600 deer skins 

 were shipped from San Antonio, Tex., last 

 winter. Yet, there are men in Texas who 

 pretend to be sportsmen, and who, when 

 asked to aid in any effective way in the 

 procuring and enforcement of game laws, 

 make all kinds cf excuses. If the sports- 

 men of that State allow the slaughter to 

 go on at the present rate, they will soon 

 have nothing better than sparrows to shoot, 



A man in Greenwood, Miss., advertises 

 3 deer dogs for sale, and states, as a rea- 

 son for wishing to sell, "I have killed all 

 the deer in my neighborhood." That is a 

 case of a game hog and 3 hounds going 

 into partnership to exterminate the game. 

 Hunting, like politics, sometimes makes 

 strange bed fellows. 



A CROSSING OF THE DANUBE. 



Some years ago I was one of a party 

 seated around a camp fire in a Bavarian 

 forest. Many stories, that would have 

 taxed the credulity of any but sportsmen, 

 had been told. When it came the turn of 

 J., a veteran forester, he permitted his 

 fancy to soar in this wise:. 



"I was hunting on the lov. r Danube in 

 a forest belonging to the crown of Austria. 

 My companion shot a bull elk. The ani- 

 mal plunged into the river, which is there 

 about 2 miles wide, crossed and lay down 

 on the other shore. There was no boat 

 within miles of us, but we were loath to 

 lose our game. While casting about for 

 means of crossing we found a patch of 

 wild cucumbers. All plant life had thriven 

 wonderfully that year and the fall had been 

 exceedingly dry. We were therefore not 

 surprised to find that some of the cucum- 

 bers had reached a length of 6 or 7 feet. 

 They were as dry as boards. Selecting the 

 2 largest we fashioned them into boats by 

 cutting holes in the tops. Then we lashed 

 them together and after tying 2 dry seeds 

 to sticks, to serve as paddles, we crossed 

 the river, my companion in one cucumber 

 boat and I in the other. 



"We found the elk apparently dead and 

 having laid him across the boats, we start- 

 ed to return. The additional weight sank us 

 dangerously low, but as the river was only 

 2 feet deep we kept on. When a few hun- 

 dred yards from shore the elk, which had 

 been merely stunned, recovered conscious- 

 ness and kicked the boats to flinders. I 

 would have taken a shot at him before he 

 reached shore had I not been compelled 

 to rescue my companion who could not 



swim 



But," cried the listeners, "you said the 

 water was only 2 feet deep." 



"And that is quite true as regards its 

 normal depth. But the carp in the Dan- 

 ube are in the habit of feeding on brewers' 

 grains thrown into the river. That stimu- 

 lating food often makes them so dizzy that 

 they spin around violently until they wear 

 holes in the bottom. Some of the holes are 

 10 feet deep and yards across. It was in 

 one of the largest that my friend fell, so 

 you can understand his danger.'" 



Petaluma, Flatwillow, Mont. 



