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FOREST AND STREAM. 
ee 
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[Ocr, 23, 1884, 
keep a tuft of grass between me and the flock. Then began 
some systematic crawling. I did not go far before an old 
duck in the middle of the lake saw me and commenced 
quacking, I had to keep still for fifteen minutes before her 
suspicions were allayed and she went on teeding. Then 
I crept on again for a hundred yards, just dragging myself 
by inches and keeping flat to the wet bog, At last I reached 
the tuft of grass, and, peering through, I could see the flock 
bunched together, all feeding, standing on their heads in the 
water with tails straight in the air. I placed some cartridges 
ready at my knee for reloading, and then aiming at the point 
where the tails were mainly bunched, I whistled. Up came 
the heads like Jacks-in-a-box, and I fired al. once. Bob fired 
as the ducks rose toward him, and when the smoke cleared 
away six fine mallards lay stretched out on the water and a 
seventh, wing-broken, was making frantic efforts to swim 
off. I soon stopped that one and then began shouting to the 
dog, when hearing wings, | looked up to find the rest of the 
flock over my head wanting to light among the dead 
ducks. I fired both barrels, but without effect, as they were 
flying wild and I was excited. My shots disturbed two teal 
feeding across the lake, and they came and lit a short dis- 
tance up shore from me, A hasty detour, some more creep- 
ing and a shot, and the birds were mine. By this time the 
dog had come around and I went back for the mallards, alas, 
to find but six. One had been playing *possum, and as soon 
as I went after the teal had made off and hidden, 
The dog brought the six ashore and we returned to camp. 
I knew of a pond a short distance off, which I concluded to 
hunt up, while Bob built a fire. 1 found one black duck 
there which I succeded in soon bagging. I then started up 
shore on my way back when a teal got up right under my 
feet. I fired. but I doubt if the shot overtook him, he was 
going like a ball. He went directly to Bob, who hearing 
my shot had gone down to the lake and wasted more amuni- 
tion over him. We then had dinner in camp and made 
toast and broiled beefsteak till late in the afternoon. Before 
leaving for home I had one more look over the lake, and in 
derision fired a shot toward two gray ducks feeding in the 
middle of the lake out of range, when they rose and came 
aver under the shore and lit. I walked around and came 
out behind them, and when nearly within shot the dog 
moved from cover to see what was going on, I made a 
quick motion to him, but the ducks were off. I contented 
myself with some remarks more forcible than devout, and 
then -we turned homeward, satisfied with our partridge and 
nine ducks for one day. 
We have not been ouf since. An English officer passed 
through here on Friday with three Indians to hunt moose in 
the Joggins woods, and John Hickman and George McKay 
start for Baie Chaleurs to-morrow night after geese and 
brant. We will wait for reports from these last expeditions 
before seeking the larger game. B. 
DorcHEstTer, New Brunswick, Oct. 14. 
A BAD CASE OF BEAR FEVER. 
GREAT deal has of Jate appeared In Forest AND 
Srrpam about ‘buck fever,” and undoubtedly the hun- 
ters of this country lave discussed the malady without, how- 
ever, getting a proper diagnosis. I know of a case in which 
twa hunters were attacked by a somewhat similar trouble, 
but one which may not be so difficult to diagnose. 
Tn 1871 I was making a trip from Cincinnati to San Fran- 
cisco; it was a matter of business with me, but I made ar- 
rangements so that if I should conclude to stop over fora 
weelk’s hunt I might do so. It was before I reached Denver, 
- Ool., that I met a loquacious farmer on the train, Hetalked 
with great yolubility about hunting antelope, but apparently 
did not greatly relish thie sport unless properly seasoned with 
tussles with bears and wildcats. The latter I did not care 
. about, as I had shot many of them in my native State, Ohio, 
but the word ‘‘bear” sent the blood boiling through my veins. 
It took only afew minutes for me to make arrangements 
with the farmer and I concluded to stop with him at least a 
week, We left the train together and drove some fifteen 
milés 10 his home. In the evening he told me many stories 
of desparate encounters with bears, and pomted proudly toa 
badly Jacerated ear as eyidence of the cannibalistic propen- 
sities of the bears he had introduced himselfto. Ifound his 
talk very entertaining, but did not like the information I 
received that bears were becoming scarce and that my friend 
had not seen any in several weeks. 
The next morning we were out with two good rifles, and 
the word was ‘‘anything bigger’n a rabbit or a grouse.” I 
did not like the idea of shooting without a dog, but my 
friend assured me that dogs only served to alarm the game, 
and that he could do better without than with them. He 
evidently considered me greener than I was, but I humored 
him in everything, even when he suggested to me to keep 
within fifly yards of him and to signal with my handker- 
chief in case I saw any large game, He assured me that it 
required the skill of a hunter like himself to properly despatch 
Colorado game, Now I had “barked” squirrels in Ohio and 
Kentucky, and I saw but little difference between hitting an 
antelope and trimming the bark from under a squirrel. I 
accordingly made up my mind that the information my 
friend would receive of the presence of any large game would 
be given by my rifle discharged at the said large game. It 
was 9 o'clock in the morning and neither of us had fired a 
shot, when I noticed something moving in some thick bushes 
abont twenty-five yards from me, I glanced about me and 
saw my friend looking in a different direction. I cocked 
my rifle and held my breath, awaiting developments. Sud- 
denly the bushes parted and out stepped—a bear. Allow 
me to say here that I am glad that your correspondents have 
written so much about buck fever, for that explains the 
whole of my subsequent conduct, Iwas seized with bear 
fever. I dropped my rifle in one breath, and the next breath 
T took in the top of atree. I never could climb a tree; 1 
never had climbed one, but that day I discounted every 
squirrel in Colorado, You say you would have taken one 
shot at ihat bear? It is very nice to say so, sitting at your 
cosy fireside and reading this article. I think so myself 
now; but it isa different thing to be far away in the woods, 
many miles from the dear ones at home, to whom the 
ravenous bear might not leave even a little lock, with- 
out taking into consideration that a corpse after a bear 
gets through with it does not even make a proper sub- 
ject for a decent burial; and then with no one around 
who could tell John and Jake and the rest of the boys 
about it. Besides that you may not be so susceptible to 
bear fever as I am. But I am digressing. After I ascer- 
tained to my great relief that the bear showed no inclina- 
tion to force his company on me, I looked about, remem- 
bering the injunction about waving my handkerchief in 
case | saw large game, Judge of my surprise when I saw 
me climb a tree, I emigrate, 
a 
my friend up another tree. Both of us enjoyed the exhilar- 
ating effects of the upper strata of Colorado atmosphere for 
some time, and then descended ito terra firma and returned 
home. A coolness had sprung up between mine host and 
myself, and we cancelled out engagements at onco. At the 
dinner table mine host caught me glancing alternately at 
his wife’s tecth and then at his ear, and the coolness in- 
creased to arctic frigidity, I hastened away from this place, 
and since then I haye shot nothing larger than a jack- 
rabbit. 
What kind of a bear was it? Now you have got me. 
When I enter a menagerie I can tell you all about all the 
bears there, where they come from, how many children they 
can eat without disturbing their digestion—that is, the bear’s 
digestion—in fact, I am a perfect encyclopedia on bears; 
but that one particular bear I know nothing about, and I 
don’t want to, I learned all I wanted to know about him in 
less than the hundredth part of a second. I don’t know 
whether he was a brown bear, a black bear, a grizzly bear, 
a polar bear, or any other kind of a bear. 1 would not 
Swear it was a bear at all; it was some big, horrible thing 
that gave me a horrible fever and made me climb a tree, 
and if there is anything in the neighborhood that se aa 
YM. 
TO DAKOTA FOR GAME. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been a constant reader of your paper for a number 
of years, and notwithstanding that I belong to that class 
(postmasters) whom you accuse of handing out to the dear 
public your paper “well thumbed,” I have also been for a 
long time a ‘'regular subscriber,” I confess that when 1 
read your “‘soft impeachment” against the P. Ms. they were 
as a class raised several notches in my estimation as to their 
discernment in the matter of good reading, and 1 trust if 
this reaches the eyes of any of them they will at once be- 
come not only readers but subscribers as well. 
J have been yery much interested and profited by your 
articles from correspondents in different parts of the coun- 
try, giving notes on prospects for shooting, etc., and the 
direction of some of my annual shooting tours has been 
determined -by this information, One good turn deserves 
another. 
First as to the route and time. If you are after grouse 
and chicken shooting start the last of August. If you come 
from the Eastern States, a good route is via Canada South- 
ern to Detroit, Mich., thence via D. G. H, & M, RB. R. to 
Grand Haven, and then by the boats of this latter company’s 
line to Milwaukee. The day boat of this line, ‘‘The City of 
Milwaukee,’’ makes the run from Grand Haven to Milwau- 
kee (84 miles) in five hours. In Milwaukee, Messrs. Watrous 
and Mower, editors and proprietors of the newsy Su7day 
Telegraph, are both lovers of rod and gun, and Capt. Mower 
will cast a fly with the best. In the same building, in the 
main hall, is Peck of Peck’s Sun, who has a beautiful steam 
yacht on one of the lakes about seventy-five miles north of 
Milwaukee, built and equipped especially for hunting. 
From Milwaukee J took the Chicago, Milwaukee and 8t. 
Paul Railroad. From either Chicago or Milwaukee a return 
trip ticket can be had, good for forty days. The baggage 
cars are extra large and roomy, giving plenty of space for 
dogs (no one should go to Dakota without a good dog). The 
baggagemen, I found, without an exception, accommodating 
and gentlemanly, taking as much interest in caring for my 
dog as I did myself, and always making me feel that I was 
welcome in their car. 
My objective point was Redfield, in Spink county. I left 
Milwaukee at 12 P. M., arriving at Redfield at 8 A. M. of 
the second morning after, about thirty-two hours’ run. At 
Redfield I hired a team and drove twenty five miles south- 
west, to a town called Howell (Hand county). Here 1 met 
Major Howell, for whom the town is named, an old com- 
rade in the campaigns of the rebellion, who made me, as he 
will all who visit his town, feel at home and welcome. And 
now I was twenty miles from a railroad and in the midst of 
a perfect paradise for grouse and chickens. I don’t know 
how many birds I bagged. I was out for pleasure and health, 
and hunted every day, Sometimes I would come in with 
ouly five or six birds, another day with fifteen or twenty. I 
kept the hotel table supplied, and we had plenty to spare. 
The birds are mostly ruffed grouse, and for true sport give 
them to me in preference to the pinnated grouse, No wait- 
ing for a slow shot with these strong-winged, swift Septem- 
ber grouse. They start right from the ground and go, No 
rising up and sailing off like a prairie chicken. 
About fourteen miles east of Howell, and only eleven 
miles southwest of Redfield, is Cottonwood Lake, a body of 
water about one mile wide and three miles wide, Here a 
party of gentlemen from Michigan design locating a club 
house, supplied with boats, etc., necessary for waterfowl 
hunting. When this is done, I know of no better place for 
shooting ducks, geese and brant. I was a little early for 
waterfowl (October and a part of November are the best 
times), but spent one day at the lake, and at night on count- 
ing up the’bag found that I had thirty ducks (most of them 
mallards), two geese, one sandbill crane and _ three pelicans. 
One of the latter measured eight feet six inches from tip to 
tip. Ishot them for specimens to mount. This was a fair 
day’s work, considering the heavy, unwieldy boat I used 
and that I was shooting a light 74-pound field gun. 
I stopped awhile at Cottonwood with Mr, Wm, Sutton, 
who has 160 acres of land bordering on the Jake. He is an 
enthusiastic hunter, and his latch-string always hangs out 
to men of his kind. Should any of the friends of Fornst 
AND STREAM contemplate a visit to Dakota, if they go via 
Milwaukee, I commend them to Mr. Geo. H. Heafford, Asst. 
Gen. Pass. Agent, and Mr, W. E. Rowell, Emigration Agent, 
of the OC. M. & St. P. R. R., for any other information 
wanted as to routes, etc. P, M. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Countless numbers of geese of different kinds swarm over 
the wheat stubble at this season of the year, Any one 
familiar with goose shooting would have no difficulty in ob- 
taining all he wanted. Here is a “pointer” to Hastern sports 
men who have been here and gone Hast, no doubt satisfied 
with killing a few little ducks: Come in October if you 
want sport, i 
Dressed in suitable clothes, the color of dead grass (this is 
important), I procure a dozen sheet-iron profiles, and with 
my great, big, heavy 12-gauge 74-pound hammerless, and 
plenty of shells loaded with one-ounce No. 2 chilled shot, 
take myself to some convenient stubble field, and there find 
a suitable place to bide. I arrange my decoys in a semi- 
circle inclined facing the wind, It isnow 3 o’clock P. M. 
and time for the geese to go out to feed, Looking in the 
here they come, 
both barrels, 
me: 
direction of Fox Lake I see long lines in the sky, I know 
at once what that means; the geese are coming, and as the 
first come nearer others follow, until there seems to be no 
end. Now I hear the honk honk of the nearer ones; and see, 
They haye spied my decoys. On they 
come, and as they hover for a second, having discovered the 
fraud, I suddenly rise up out of the stubble and give them 
_ Strange, only one goose came down. It can’t 
be that I missed. Guess they were further away than I 
supposed, But here come some more, and this time I haye 
better success, and down come two “‘whoppers.” So it goes 
on until 5 o’clock. Just two hours’ shooting and I have ten 
geese all told. Let us look them over. This large one is a 
Canada goose (Brenta canadensis) and weighs fifteen pounds. 
Here are three small geese marked just the same as the 
above; there are Hutchins geese (Brenta hutchinsiZ). Then 
we have three nice white ones, snow geese (Anser hyperto- 
reus), one speckled belly, yellow feet and bill, with creamy 
white feathers around base of bill, Here are two that puzzle 
Size nearly as large as the snow geese, color cinnamon 
ashy, dark on back and dirty white on belly, feet and bill 
yellow. Will Forest anp Stream kindly help me ont and 
i. M. K. 
say what they are? 
SANBORN, Dak., Oct. 15. 
THE WCOODCOCK’S CONCEALMENT. 
VERY one must huve a first time for seeing a woodcock 
upon the ground and alive. This sight came io me 
last week, Our party had been out all day, with fair suc- 
cess on quail, when toward night we put up a bevy, which, 
leaving two of its number behind for our bag, scattered in 
every direction. Some of them went over a fence, down a 
side hill into the thick birches, briers and alders, and there 
we searched vainly for them. Once through this thicket, 
we found it hard returning; but finally forced our way 
through to find one quail, which we missed. We followed 
his flight, and in his stead put up wild a fine woodcock. We 
marked him down in a thick undergrowth, shaded by 
second-growth pines, and deep in this cur dog pointed him. 
Jt was my turn to flush, and into the tangled mass I erept 
and pushed, gun in hand, until I saw him flattened out upon 
the leaves like a very leaf himself; his bill under a leaf, his 
reddish feathers all gathered under him out of sight, the 
brown stripes on his back looking like the veins of a fallen 
leaf, Save for the gleam of the darker-colored feathers among: 
the lighter ones, and T should not have seen him had it not 
been for the dog’s nose, which pointed straight into his hid- 
ing place. So still he lay I thought him a dead bird, and 
called out that he was the dog’s property. But, no! Pres- 
ently an eye opened, his head moved slightly, his bill lifted 
the leaf in front, his head cocked over a little to one side 
and his alert glance, taking in the situation, made me call 
out involuntarily ‘‘Mark!” and he was off; but so was my 
friend’s gun, and though the first barrel missed lum, the 
second brought him to the ground, and the dog which had 
pointed him so staunchly retrieved him to his master. 
J 
i 
WITH THE GROUSE IN NEW ZEALAND. 
HAs spent about six months in close application to 
office work in the town of Napier without a holiday, 
and July 31 being the last day of the open season for game, 
I determined to have a few days after the birds on the 
property of my friend D., who owns a section of good shoot- 
ing ground about thirty miles out of town, I own two guns, 
but my favorite is a double breechloader, cylinder, 12-bore, 
30-inch barrels, and for all-round shooting I have found noth- 
ing to beat it. Ialso own two setters, which, considering the 
small amount of work they get, acquit themselves very fairly 
in the field. Count, the senior, is a big English and Irish 
crossed dog, orange and white with ticked head and neck, 
34 years old. I find this cross.a great improvement on the 
pure bred English, being a much stronger and hardier dog 
than the latter, Count is simply indefatigable, very staunch 
on his points, with a splendid nose and a wide range. His 
only fault is that he will not retrieye. I rarely, howeyer, 
Jose a wounded bird with him, for he will follow them up 
any distance and hold them down with his paw till my 
arrival without damaging more than a feather. Rock, the 
junior, is a pure bred lemon and white English setter, 
eighteen months old, and scarcely yet as reliable as the old 
dog; he sliapes very well, however, for a youngster, has a 
beautiful temper and retrieves perfectly. With care and 
good luck next season should make him a grand dog, and 
worthy of his name. 
Starting on horseback on the afternoon of the 28th, my 
dogs running alongside me, I reached D,'s comfortable 
country quarters just in time for tea, and found my favorite 
Bland, which I had left there last trip, all clean and ready 
for use. 
D. and I turned in early, and were up before daylight next 
morning, a8 we had some distance to ride to the best shoot- 
ing ground, The morning was fine and clear but frosty, and 
the country rough and hilly, so we were not sorry to get off 
and walk across some of the gullies by way of sparing our 
horses and promoting circulation. After about two hours 
traveling we reach a creek which was to be our depot for the 
day, tethered the horses, and scrambling up the further bank, 
found ourselves on a good-sized flat pretty thickly covered 
with manuka scrub. Here we separated, each taking one 
side of the flat. I had not gone more than 100 yards when 
Count evidently got on a scent, which turned out to be that 
of a cock pheasant, which unfortunately rose before I got 
wilhin shot; this was Rock’s doing, and as I saw the pair 
were too fresh to work well together just yet, I tied the 
youngster up toa stout bit of manuka and left him behind 
for the time. Count now worked splendidly, not missing or 
flushing a bird all the rest of the morning. 
The next bird to get up was a hen pheasant, and I had 
her down almost before I recognized her sex. Shortly after- 
ward, coming to a small grassy gully, Count stood again, 
and I walked up a cock and hen, dropping the former but 
letting his consort go in peace. The cock was, however, 
only winged and ran into’ the manuka, which was in places 
seven or eight feet high and pretty thick, but the dog fol- 
lowed and found him, and after some trouble I found them 
both. I traveled a good distance after, this without getting 
a point or seeing a bird, and was becoming somewhat dis- 
gusted when the old dog came to a beautiful stand within a 
few yards of me, I got the bird, a grand cock, up with 
some trouble and tumbled him over clean and dead. At this 
juncture I was stimulated by hearing D.’s first shot on the 
other side of the flat, both barrels at once, and I pictured 
him doing immense slaughter, This florid play of my im- 
agination must haye unnerved me as I missed a native rail 
; 7s 
