498 RECREATION 



the Pahute tribe get ducks in the win- member that Bill is one of the best un- 



ter. For the most part these hunters advertised and unsung rifle and revol- 



are equipped only with bows and ar- ver shots in the West. Many and many 



rows, and their hunting is so handi- the rabbit I have seen him kill with his 



capped by lack of arms that they con- .303, cutting the head from the body in 



fine their attentions to rats, lizards and each case. 



rabbits. At the beginning of winter, There were few ducks at the China 

 however, when the duck flights com- Ranch, but we found quite a bunch up 

 mence, their hopes revive. At the north the other fork of the Amargosa River 

 end of the Valley, there are large borax about eight miles, so that we had a fine 

 works, now shut down for the greater Thanksgiving dinner at the ranch. We 

 part of the time on account of the had duck and rabbit and quail, as well 

 cheapness of borax ; around these are as canned meats of several kinds, pota- 

 the great evaporating pools or vats, toes and macaroni and canned corn and 

 sometimes a hundred feet long and half tomatoes, tea and coffee, plenty of good 

 as wide. In winter these are coated bread, several kinds of dried and 

 with crystals of varying size and canned fruit sauces — and, ye gods, how 

 weight. Frequently at nightfall soli- good they tasted, — and a box of fifteen- 

 tary ducks will settle upon these invit- cent cigars. Most of us had smoked 

 ing pools of water and by morning their our pipes so much that we would have 

 feathers will be so laden with the crys- hailed the cigars had they been of cab- 

 tals that they cannot fly. Then Mr. bage with onion-skin wrappers. I pre- 

 Pahute gets in his work. He strips off served the bill-of-fare of that wonder- 

 his few clothes and slips into the icy ful meal, but it is stowed away some- 

 water, often wading several times where in the bottom of a trunk and I 

 around one of these large tanks before have given this much from memory, 

 he succeeds in tiring ,the bird so that he The climate was all that could be de- 

 can lay hold of it. Sometimes as many sired, the party congenial with one or 

 as several dozen are thus obtained from two exceptions, and all went well, 

 all the vats by a party hunting together. Over in Nevada, our next stopping 

 I should like very much to tell you place, we were not so anxious to hunt, 

 more of these Pahute tribesmen and for we could get fresh beef from the 

 their habits of life, with all of which I ranch house. However, while out mak- 

 am familiar, but I have neither the time ing pictures one afternoon, I noted two 

 nor the space at my command just now. or three bands of wild pigeons, which, 

 At this Willow Creek ranch, we I infer, must make their homes in the 

 found wild cats and coyotes so plenti- mountains thereabouts. They are fine 

 ful that we frequently routed one out game birds, but rather poor eating, 

 in going from one open meadow to an- Their meat is tough from excessive use 

 other through a bit of heavy willow of their wings and at the time of the 

 growth. One afternoon I made an al- ripening of the acorns is rather strong, 

 most impossible snapshot at a cat going He who gets them for his table earns 

 through the underbrush and, to my sur- them, too, as I can state from personal 

 prise far more than to that of anyone experiences on the opposite side of the 

 else, killed the animal instantly. I was coastal ranges. They must be killed 

 using a 25-20 rifle, and, by the way, that with a rifle, unless one goes to their 

 is a right good little gun if you get roosting places and commits murder, 

 good cartridges. Bill Dougherty, our and they must nearly always be shot on 

 guide, a grizzled old plainsman of fifty- the wing — not by any means an easy 

 seven years, killed a golden eagle at feat. The Nevada Desert in this re- 

 300 measured yards and this convinced gion seems to be even more barren than 

 him of the work of the little gun, but the California portion, and -the pigeons 

 in considering: this shot one must re- added much to an otherwise dead land- 



