FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



363 



ling streams containing fish in plenty. Af- 

 ter securing a goodly catch or bag, and 

 spending a day with Nature, he will return 

 invigorated by this trip and happy in 

 the thought that there are other hunting 

 days coming, with plenty of game to hunt, 

 and fish to catch. Nor will he then be in 

 danger of having his hide converted into 

 a porous plaster, or of being blown off the 

 earth by the shot and shell of some tin 

 plated idiot attached to the wrong end of 

 a gun. 



Also, in that happy time, sportsmen pil- 

 grims will come from far and near to wor- 

 ship at the shrine of Recreation; while 

 the birds which it has protected will hover 

 about the office doors, singing paeans of 

 praise to the magazine that has done more 

 to protect all Nature's works than any 

 other publication in America. 



A. L. Vermilya, Columbiaville, Mich. 



HOW TO POLISH HORNS. 



Reprinted, by request, from Recreation for 

 November, 1896. 



Boil the horn well, to loosen the flesh 

 and pulp. The pulp can be pulled out af- 

 ter it has been boiled. Then, with a knife 

 similar to a common table knife, but 

 curved at the end, the horn can be cleaned 

 and scraped on the inside as well as on 

 the outside. 



When thoroughly clean, taper a block of 

 wood so the horn will fit over it. Slip the 

 horn over this, being sure to make a good, 

 tight fit, so the other end of the block can 

 be put into a vice. With a knife and a 

 wood rasp you scrape the horn until it is 

 quite thin. That is where the beauty of a 

 polished horn lies. When you can almost 

 see through it, take a coarse file, and file 

 the horn evenly all around. Then use a 

 thin file; and lastly, a very fine one. 



Rub the horn with coarse, medium and 

 fine sandpaper; then put some powdered 

 pumice stone, on a piece of old bag cloth 

 and rub thoroughly with it. 



When polished until all scratches disap- 

 pear, get a box of Putz pomade and apply 

 with cotton waste. Polish by rubbing 

 up and down constantly. Then take 

 the horn from the block and with the palm 

 of the hand, rub for a day or two. This 

 gives the final polish. 



Alfred F. Mentzel, Milwaukee, Wis. 



KNEW WHERE TO FIND IT. 



I took out my shooting license Novem- 

 ber 1st, and with 3 friends drove back 12 

 or 15 miles to the deer country. Our 

 hunting ground was a great marsh, 

 through which ran a willow bordered 

 creek. At one spot the windings of the 

 stream shaped a peninsula about 40 acres 

 in extent and with a low ridge across its 

 neck. 



My friend Kelly was on the ridge, and I 



was following the creek. I heard a rus- 

 tling in the willows and called to my com- 

 panion to watch out. At the sound of my 

 voice a big doe broke from the cover and 

 made toward the ridge. She was followed, 

 an instant later, by 2 bucks and another 

 doe. The first doe I caught in the shoul- 

 der at 200 yards with a .30-30 Winchester 

 bullet, and she wilted in her tracks. I took 

 a snap shot at one of the bucks and put 

 a bullet through his ribs, but without 

 stopping him. Then Kelly began shooting, 

 and when I got to him I found that be- 

 tween us we had cleaned up the bunch. 

 We remained 6 days and killed in all 11 

 deer. The last one we shot was a buck 

 weighing over 200 pounds. There is plenty 

 of game in Wisconsin for those who know 

 where to find it. 



Buckskin Dan, Antigo, Wis. 



YOU'RE ANOTHER 

 I take Recreation and like it. I like, 

 especially, the way you give it to the game 

 hogs. Ducks, quails, chickens and rabbits 

 are plentiful in this part of Iowa. A friend 

 and I were out a short time ago and shot 

 over 50 quails in less than 4 hours. I 

 killed 20, sitting in the snow, at one shot. 

 We are 2 of the best shots in this part of 

 the State and are great sports. 



W. L. Roland, Des Moines, la. 



ANSWER. 



You say you like the way I give it to 

 the game hogs, yet by your own con- 

 fession you are one of the lowest and most 

 vulgar of the whole lot. The man who 

 would shoot quails sitting on the ground 

 and then boast of it deserves 5 years in 

 State prison, and I wish I could be the 

 means of sending you there. You say you 

 are great sports. Possibly; but not 

 sportsmen by about 500 per cent. 



The fact that you and your friend killed 

 over 50 quails in one day should debar 

 you from respectable society for the re- 

 mainder of your lives, but if you had killed 

 them all in a decent manner you would 

 not have gone quite so low in the scale of 

 brutality. I trust your State Legislature 

 may soon make a law that will provide 

 justice for such as you. — Editor. 



WORK NEEDED IN ONTARIO. 

 Game laws are poorly enforced in this 

 vicinity. You may go from one end of the 

 country to the other and not see any post- 

 ers giving the game laws of Ontario. Be- 

 tween the supineness of our wardens and 

 the energy of our hogs, game of all kinds 

 has been almost exterminated in this re- 

 gion. Private citizens have restocked the 

 waters with fish to some extent, and have 

 also imported Texas quail and stocked 

 some of the woods. I think if we had an 

 association here more interest would be 



