122 



RECREA TION. 



IN THE SUGAR CAMP. 



Le Roy, 111. 



Recreation comes right along, and it is 

 getting right there. I congratulate you on 

 your success in making it what it is to-day; 

 the leading journal in all the name implies. 



Well, I've been after the furred animals 

 of this region, especially the mink, the past 

 and present season. The ladies — God bless 

 'em — must have boas, muffs, etc. And 

 what's a fellow to do but get out and after 

 'em — the minks, I mean — and I've piled up 

 quite a few of them thus far. 



I often thing of, and even wish I were 

 again in the Coast Range mountains of 

 Southern Oregon; away up near their 

 summits in the little open grass-covered 

 flower - bedecked glades, or treading 

 through the bewildering maze of wild pea 

 vine in the densely timbered canyons; hear- 

 ing the whirr of the blue grouse or the 

 smash and crash of brake and chaparral as 

 the bounding buck or stately bull seeks 

 to widen the breach between me and him. 

 Yes, I would like to be there. But I must 

 put up with an occasional cotton tail, or a 

 squirrel, a prairie chicken or wild duck, 

 when each has its open season. And in lieu 

 of the mountain trout must be content with 

 the bull-head. Such is life. But I can stilly 

 thank Providence that civilization can't rob 

 me of this — I can tend the " Old Sugar 

 Camp," gathering and boiling the sugar 

 water in the old iron kettles, in the old style 

 furnace, in the little old log shack, with its 

 clapboard roof. 



Dan Arrowsmith, Le Roy, 111. 



my way I will do the best I can for him, any 

 time during the open season. 



S. L. Atkinson, 

 Gig Harbor, Wash. 



GAME NOTES. 



There is not much game in this vicinity, 

 only grouse, rabbits, raccoons, minks, otter 

 and an occasional bear. Trout are not 

 plenty, although salmon are here for every- 

 body who cares to take them. There has 

 not been a deer seen in this neighborhood 

 for years. I keep a small sloop, in which I 

 go hunting every fall. Four years ago, 

 Joe Burnett, of St. Paul, Frank Allen, of 

 this place, and I went for a hunt on Whid- 

 by Island. In 25 days, including 4 days 

 going and coming, a distance of 80 miles, 

 we killed 26 deer, 9 brant and ruffed 

 grouse galore. Mr. Editor, please don't 

 get your branding iron yet. At that time I 

 had never seen a copy of Recreation, and 

 it will not happen again. It cuts like sin to 

 get roasted to such a nice brown, every 

 month. If some people in this locality 

 don't mend their ways, I shall be the means 

 of their getting into your branding pen yet. 

 I hope the L. A. S. will reach one arm out 

 this .way, about the 1st of next August, 

 when grouse are in evidence in the back 

 rooms of most butcher shops and restau- 

 rants. 



I am not a guide nor a good shot, but if 

 any reader of Recreation happens to come 



By reading Recreation, I have saved 

 myself and family a great deal of suffering, 

 and have added years to my life. I want to 

 give Recreation credit for the following 

 hair breadth escape: 



I had the Klondike fever — had it bad — 

 and if it had not been for L. L. Bales, my 

 bones might now be at the bottom of that 

 Klondike shaft, pictured in November Rec- 

 reation. I wrote letters to different 

 parties to learn if Alaska was so great a 

 poor-man's country as it is said to be. I 

 saw, in January Recreation, a picture of 

 Mr. L. L. Bales, one of its Alaskan corre- 

 spondents. I said to myself, " there is a 

 man who will tell me the truth in regard to 

 the gold craze in Alaska." 



I wrote to him and in a short time re- 

 ceived an answer. It was short and to the 

 point, and it broke my Klondike fever 

 quicker than a dose of aconite would. In 

 return for his kindness, I hope Mr. Bales, 

 on his next exploring trip, will find so large 

 a gold nugget that he may afford to retire 

 from business, and spend the remainder of 

 his days in writing for Recreation, and 

 telling of his many trips as a guide. 



Chas. H. Robbins, Owasso, Mich. 



I am opposed to spring shooting, and am 

 glad to say we have knocked it out in our 

 State and in Canada. I would like to see 

 the League take this matter up. I was in 

 Iowa all last March, except one week when 

 I was in Nebraska. I saw hundreds of 

 ducks — mallard, teal and others — offered 

 for sale in every town. Pot hunters follow 

 the creeks and rivers and murder the birds 

 on their Northern flight. I was told some 

 awful stories of kills made in a snow storm, 

 just after the first warm weather, when the 

 ice was broken. Please ask some of your 

 subscribers, where they have spring shoot- 

 ing, to express their views, I think a true 

 sportsman, even in a state where they have 

 no shooting in fall, would vote to prohibit 

 the killing of game in every part of the 

 Union, after January 1st. All I speak to 

 say, " Yes, that is all right if the other 

 states would do the same " ; but all agree 

 with me that it is poor sport, and the birds 

 do not amount to much when they get 

 them. 



Geo. F. Weber, Detroit, Mich. 



A subscriber iii Maine recently sent me a 

 clipping from a local newspaper, stating 

 that Everett E. Sinnett, of Bailey Island, 

 had killed 63 coots in one day, and re- 

 quested me to roast him. I thought it best 

 to write Mr. Sinnett for verification of the 



