46 



RECREA TION. 



looked the matter up. The fact is there 

 were 4 hunters in the party, and we killed 

 72 ducks in 3 days. Only 18 of them were 

 mallards. So, you see this would bring the 

 average of each man down quite small. 



The Olympia Rod and Gun Club, which 

 controls the Nesqually preserve, is com- 

 posed of gentlemen who in every way have 

 endeavored to protect game, and it is one 

 of the strict rules of the club that no mem- 

 ber shall make a wholesale slaughter of 

 ducks. I have been a constant reader of 

 Recreation, ever since its first issue, and 

 am fully in accord with your endeavor to 

 protect game; but you should have given 

 us a chance to defend ourselves before pub- 

 lishing an article which originated in the 

 brain of a tin-horn newspaper reporter. 



E. W. Price. 



I regret I should have done Mr. Price an 

 injustice. I am aware that newspaper ac- 

 counts of hunting matters are often exag- 

 gerated, and I do not like the idea of criti- 

 cizing any man on such reports. In most 

 cases, before doing so, I write the men 

 themselves to know whether the newspaper 

 statement is correct. I did not do so in this 

 case, for the reason that the clipping was 

 sent me by a reader in Seattle who called 

 my attention to it, and I inferred from his 

 letter he knew the report to be true. — 

 Editor. 



FISHING FOR WOLVES. 



Ben Corbin, of Glencoe, Emmons 

 county, North Dakota, catches young 

 wolves with fishhooks and a steel line, and 

 has been known to land 8, on the same line, 

 in one night. 



When Corbin locates a den, he waits un- 

 til night, and then brings his fishing line 

 and hooks into play. The steel line is 

 fastened to a stout stake driven into the 

 ground, and is then carried beneath the 

 soil through the region immediately about 

 the den. From the main wire are numer- 

 ous smaller wires, projecting in all direc- 

 tions, to the end of each of which is a spring 

 fishhook. These hooks are baited with 

 good-sized pieces of chicken breast, or 

 other tempting morsels of meat, and the 

 plant is then left over night. 



When the young wolves leave the den at 

 night, to prowl about in search of food, the 

 first thing they encounter is these scattered 

 bits of meat. The wolf is a ravenous ani- 

 mal, and bolts small bits of meat whole. 

 The young ones attack these bits and swal- 

 low them. Snap, goes the bolted spring 

 hook and the wolf is fast. Every effort to 

 get away adds to the pain inflicted by the 

 hook, which has found lodgment in his 

 stomach or throat, and he soon learns that 

 absolute quiet is the best method, under the 

 circumstances. Not infrequently Corbin 

 returns to the den in the morning to find 



every one of the young wolves caught on 

 the spring hooks. 



Hundreds are thus caught every season, 

 and their scalps brought in for the bounty. 

 Corbin pockets, annually, hundreds of dol- 

 lars as the result of his ingenuity. 



If all stockmen and sportsmen would 

 adopt this method, and if they should be as 

 successful as Corbin claims to have been, 

 they might thus solve the wolf question. 



GAME NOTES. 



I saw an item in the March number of 

 your most excellent journal alluding to 

 " Deer Hunting in the Coast Range." Had 

 it borne the true name of the writer, I 

 should have most cheerfully, and in a gen- 

 tlemanly manner, replied to the same; but, 

 crouching Comanche-like in the dark, be- 

 hind a nom and pouncing from his conceal- 

 ment upon those who write true names, 

 he places himself beneath the notice of any 

 and all true sportsmen. Come out from 

 behind your hiding place " Winchester," 

 and you shall have courteous treatment. 

 Daniel Arrowsmith, LeRoy, 111. 



A writer who lives at Chatsworth, 111., 

 says the crows destroy more game birds 

 than all the human game hogs in that State. 

 He states that he located, one spring, 9 

 prairie chicken nests containing in the ag- 

 gregate 100 eggs, and a few days later, 

 when he went to look for them again, he 

 found they had all been destroyed by crows. 

 He advocates a law offering a bounty on 

 crow heads. If this report, and several 

 others I have read are correct, it would 

 seem that such a law is needed. I should 

 be glad to have reports from readers of 

 Recreation, on this subject. 



Cornwall Heights School, 

 Cornwall, N. Y. 



Editor Recreation: Last season was a 

 good one for shooting, in these parts. In 

 this school 4 of us killed 29 gray squirrels 

 and some grouse and rabbits. A man near 

 here caught 19 coons. Another man killed 

 12 gray squirrels and still another 6 squir- 

 rels, 2 grouse and 2 rabbits. A party of 

 sportsmen got 15 quails. 



The L. A. S. is good. Push it along. 

 Robert H. Wyld. 



( 



I once had a water spaniel which I 

 trained to hunt snapping turtles. He would 

 trail and bay them until I came up. Around 

 Point Pelee, Lake Erie, turtles were plen- 

 tiful, and I hunted them for the Sandusky 

 market. 



The dog was unusually bright and never 

 forgot a trick after he learned it. I was 

 offered $100 for him when he was 9 months 

 old. 



Robert Harris, New Windsor, Col. 



