THE REFERENDUM 



375 



much game as there is now, and all that was 

 killed was shot with a muzzle-loader. But 

 to-day people are not content with a few 

 ducks, and in the fall some kill fifty or sixty 

 at one time. The game is fast disappearing, 

 and unless the government takes stringent 

 measures, the lakes and rivers t.hat were once 

 made beautiful by hundreds of wild fowl, 

 will harbor only a few miserable mud hens. 

 Already, the bill prohibiting spring shooting 

 has been passed, and it is to be hoped that 

 many more good laws will also be made. 



Besides protecting the ducks, fish ought 

 also to be protected, and if instead of paying 

 salaries to game wardens, the government 

 would clean the lakes and rivers of all use- 

 less fish, the waters would soon be stocked 

 with better game fish. 



Some prominent sportsmen of Oshkosh 

 think that if all the carp, sheepshead, pickerel 

 and dog fish were taken from the lake, the 

 game fish would multiply. 



Arbor Day is a day on which we plant 

 trees and protect the plants, but we should 

 also protect the fish, not only from the 

 sportsmen, but from the larger and more 

 destructive ones of tbeir own kind. 



L. W. Hall. 



IN THE BOSTON MOUNTAINS. 



Editor Recreation : 



To those not familiar with the geography 

 of Arkansas, we may volunteer the gratuitous 

 information that the state is divided into 

 nearly equal parts, from Northeast to South- 

 west, forming what is commonly called the 

 highlands and lowlands. The main line of 

 the Iron Mountain road, very accurately 

 marks the dividing line. But this Northwest- 

 ern part is by no means all of the same char- 

 acter. South of the Arkansas River, the 

 country consists of long East and West 

 ridges, clear to and into the Indian Territory. 

 North of the Arkansas it is a set of plateaus, 

 that rise like steps above each other, the 

 highest forming the watershed between the 

 Arkansas and the White Rivers. These pla- 

 teaus are what the natives call the Boston 

 Mountains, and what Northern people call 

 the Ozarks. Easterly in this region, there are 

 few ravines, but in Newton County, of which 

 I write, there are numerous ravines, coves, 

 dells, and springs, so combined as to form 

 many beautiful and picturesque scenes. 



The best means of reaching this paradise of 

 the hunter and tourist, is via the Frisco Sys- 

 tem. We left Kansas City on the above line, 

 traversing the entire Eastern tier of counties 

 in .Kansas, south of Kansas City, except one, 

 thence to Pettigrew, in Johnson County, 

 the nearest railway point to the region we 

 sought. 



There were four of us who at the same 

 time had felt the need of recreation. We had 

 been drinking bad water in Kansas for seve- 



ral months, and now for a while we should 

 drink from the finest mountain springs to be 

 found anywhere in America ; as pure as are 

 those of Eureka Springs. 



From Pettigrew we traveled by horseback 

 into Newton County, the supreme height of 

 the Boston Mountains. An accommodating 

 native transferred our tenting outfit to a 

 beautiful spring, that formed the source of a 

 small tributary of White River. 



We got into camp too late in the evening 

 to get out and secure game for supper or 

 breakfast. We breakfasted early next morn- 

 ing, all being anxious to get out and view the 

 surroundings, and try for game. We had 

 agreed the evening before that we would not 

 hunt too far from camp, looking for squir- 

 rels, and a possibility of the sight of turkeys. 

 But the unexpected is sure to happen. One 

 of our party had not gone half a mile from 

 camp when a two-year-old buck got up and 

 raced away. 



Two loads of squirrel shot were sent after 

 him, and at the very short range it was fired, 

 hit him hard. Following him slowly, and 

 giving him time to lie down, his slayer soon 

 came up to and dispatched him. We now 

 had venison in ramp, and everybody felt sure 

 of getting a deer as a reward of our trip. 

 And none were left to feel themselves un- 

 fortunate, for besides a deer falling to each 

 man's gun, we got two beautiful heads for 

 mounting. Turkeys we found real plentiful, 

 but it was the grey squirrels that continually 

 furnished the cream of our sport. 



The forests here were mostly untouched 

 by the woodsman's axe, the timber very 

 tall and valuable, with all the limbs well uo 

 from the ground. So that when the familiar 

 barking was heard, and we took up the course 

 by sound, our game was usually high in some 

 giant oak. Besides, the timber was so dense 

 that the squirrels would often travel from 

 tree top to tree top, starting at sight of us, 

 and just out of gun shot. It was hurry-up 

 sport to halt him before reaching u den tree. 

 And most of the shots were on the run, and 

 high up among the intervening branches, and 

 the sight we got of them was little more than 

 by the eye of faith. 



It was fast, continuous sport, with plenty 

 of misses, and often our game reaching a 

 place of safety. Sometimes we four did team 

 work, when our victim's chances were very 

 materially decreased. 



When our hunt was ended, it was unani- 

 mously voted that nowhere we had ever 

 hunted had we ever enjoyed better sport than 

 in the Boston Mountains. And then, the 

 hunting ground — incomparable ! 



The writer often wandered for hours look- 

 ing at the perfection of the hardwood forest, 

 and the beauty of the landscape. Timber so 

 perfect that it looks as if grown to order. 



The natives are hospitable, and obliging, 

 many of them without any education ; and, 



