Sja'T, 17, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



14 7 



coarse shot and make a pattern about the same as a 16-gange 

 cylinder, while the penetration is sufficient to cut down 

 brush and the bird besides. One thing is certain, a bird that 

 is shot at a less distance than twenty "yards is liable to be 

 smashed any wajf, while beyond thii'ty yards the choice luis 

 many advantages. However, opinions differ, and so do guus 

 and shooters, and If each individual can have what suits him 

 best we will all be happy, at least as far as guns are con- 

 eerned. 



As it was getting along toward noon we started for the 

 house, for we had the promise of stewed squirrel for dinnef j 

 and somehow it seemed strange that we should become so 

 ravenous in so short a time. After a dip with tlic pocket 

 cup into a cold boiling spring we made our way over by the 

 pond. On our arriv^nl .luck pointed out into the water at 

 something, and inquired wliat it might be, As it disap- 

 peared beneath the surface 1 answered, "A loon, Jack, 

 and a big one, too. After dinner we will take our rifles, 

 and if we do not have some sport with him, then I am mis- 

 taken." For quite a distance with our course an old cart 

 path ran parallel with the edge of the woods. Between this 

 road and the fields there were a lot of rocks, and in tliose 

 rocks w'ere many hcdgdiog dens. Jack said that he wanted 

 to '-'kill some of them." 1 protested against it, saying that 

 "life was as sweet to thcni as any other animal; that they 

 were doing no harm, and that they were of no use to us 

 after we did kill them; that it was a waste of ammunition 

 that gave no practice, and downriglit cruelty anyway." 

 "Cruelty be blanked," responded Jack; "hedgehogs are 

 good for nothing only to spoil sweet apple trees, as well as 

 hemlock trees in the forest, except it is to till cattle and dogs' 

 noses witii quills;" and a few minutes later the roar of his 

 old 10 bore rang out the death knell of something— I never 

 inquired what. 



We went up to the pond in the afternoon and had an 

 interview with that loon. Now if I were writing this for 

 the "remarkable shot" column, 1 should tell you how we 

 cut off his head at 100 rods the first shot, but the truth is 

 that we fired and fired at him until we were tired of it, and 

 never touched fl feather so far as I know, although the balls 

 Seemed to throw water all oYer him We could not estimate 

 the distance very closely on the water, and when We fired 

 he would dive and when he came to the surface again he 

 would seem to be 300 yards from where we fired at him. 

 We could not get nearer than .50 rods before down he would 

 go and swim under water a long distance. We enjoyed our- 

 selves, however, if we did not hit the loon. We saw the 

 track of an otter in the raud at the edge of the pond, and 

 saw a mink running along over across the cove. 



■Thtee years ago we were here and found no grouse, as we 

 worked a week for them and killed but three. This year 

 there are plenty of them. Why is it? 1 do not know. Upon 



„ . . „ up Old Billy 



and wc will go up there in the morning and give them a 

 twist. Of coarse we were ready for duck shooting but did 

 not like to tramp three or four miles and get no ducks. 

 "Uncle Jobn" has his team out to get in some barley which 

 he had cut, so we take a hand at it and help him get it to the 

 baru. Then we lay our plans for the morning's hunt, the 

 result of whicii I will tell you further on. Iron Rambod. 



SOMBRVXLLE, MaSS. 



DEER IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



THE only game law observed to any extent in the Adirou- 

 dacks if one which, though unwritten, is known to all 

 the guides and sportsmen in that region. It is "No one 

 ought to starve in the Adirondacks. " 



^ The reasoning of campers on this question is very plau- 

 sible. "The written law," they say, "was made to protect 

 game from those who shoot to sell, but the little we kill will 

 make no ditference." It does, however, make a big differ- 

 ence, for this same reasoning is indulged in by a host of 

 people, and as deer are more easily approached with jacks 

 in May, June and J uly than after the season commences, 

 since they stand more in the water and are less scary, almost 

 as much havoc is made out of season as in season. When 

 men are hungry or excited the difference between bucks and 

 does is often not noticeable, and when the does are killed 

 early, even if their fawns live, the latter are probably stunted 

 for life. 



One of a camping party boasted to me of having killed 

 both doe and fawn. The constables being appointed from 

 the country round and knowing many of the guides, it is a 

 generally understood thing that if no venison is in sight 

 there will be no search for any. As soon, therefore, as a 

 deer is killed the carcasis is buried or hidden in the under- 

 brush, and if a constable should pay a visit to the camp he 

 and the campers have so many pleasant topics of conversa- 

 tion that it seems a pity to introduce unpleasant ones. Ac- 

 cordingly, if a bone is carelessly left exposed to view or a dog 

 comes in munching one, the niinion of the law courteously 

 looks at the salt pork for explanation, and all have a pleasant 

 time. From the venison being deprived of air and being 

 overheated most of it spoils before it can be eaten ; but even 

 if the party is large enough to eat the whole deer while it is 

 in good condition, if another can be shot, little beside the 

 haunches and the saddle are kept, as the other parts are not 

 so good and are, moreover, lean and stringy'early in the 

 season. From these causes the waste of meat is enormous, 

 except in the case of a few sportsmen who, wiser than their 

 fellows, allow their guides to sell the meat not wanted for 

 the camp and divide the proceeds. 



When sportsmen go to the Adirondacks for the first time 

 they go when the law is "up," but when they find that the 

 ■fleer, having been hunted for more than two months, are very 

 wild, and they are assured on all sides that the unwritten 

 law above alluded to is upheld by sportsmen, guides and 

 TOOSt constables, they generally rail from grace, arguing that 

 ■one person should have an equal chance with another. Liv- 

 ing on salt pork and trout is, I may say from experience, a 

 very powerful argument in itself. Camping out is in fact 

 very demoralizing. A man may arrive looking a walking 

 advertisement for some sporting tailor. In about two weeks, 

 with clothes dirty and torn, hands inlaid with ashes and pow- 

 der, face unshaved and hair unbrushed, he looks a veritable 

 tramp. Another arrives, so observant of the fourth com- 

 mandment that he chops a double amount of wood on Satm-- 

 days. After a time, however, you will not only see him 

 chopping wood, but out paddling, and later taking out his 

 gun, because, as he says, "We really must have meat, you 

 know, and I don't con.sider this work." 



And the hunter in like manner becomes so thoroughly 

 demorahzed after a week or two in the Adirondacks that he 

 8 no more troubled by qualms of conscience for having 



killed deer, grouse or ducks at any season than it is said our 

 Western cousins are after shooting Indians. Should there 

 appear a constable dctertiiined to enforce .strictly the laws of 

 the Btale he would be regarded as trying to overthrow an 

 older and more sacred law, and a howl of indignation would 

 be raised throughout the Adirondacks and threats would lie 

 poured in on him from all sides.— Correspondence Mw Fork 

 Herald, 



SOUTHERN SHOOTING GROUNDS. 



THE following letter was written in rcspon.se to a letter 

 of inquiry cohcerning a desirable locality for winter 

 shooting. The inquirer described himself as a sportsman 

 compelled to go South for his health, and anxious to find a 

 point convenient to good shooting. Me wrote to Mr. Free- 

 man because he had seen that gentleman's name in the 

 Forest Stream: 



Bear Sir: I think you will find this city a good place to 

 make your headquarters for the winter. Ice is uncommon 

 and snow very rare, ihough at times the thermometer for 

 one or two day.s will range down to about 8(1°, but this is 

 very seldom. The climate is as good as you will find in the 

 States, and we have instances of renewed vigor and health 

 in persons of weak lungs, notably Mr. 1. M Boorchman, a 

 gentleman of over seventy years of age, wlio years ago had 

 hemorrhages, and to-day is a vigorovis man for his age, and 

 who can give you better information as to the temperature 

 of the city than any one else here, having for thirty years 

 and over kept a record of it. 



TEMPERATURE AT MACON, GA., FROM AtJOUST, 1884, TO AUGUST. \m^. 



September, 1884 



October, 1^!,S.1 _ 



Noveiu)>er, 1884 



Jiecember. 1884 



March, 18^5 



April, 18N.5 



Mny, \m, 



.luue, 1H85 



July, 1885 



Mean. 



Maximum. 



Minimi 



7G° 



90° 



61° 



75° 



93° 



.52° 



% 



91° 



84° 





78° 



?7° 



50" 



74° 



18° 



450 



78° 



18° 



44° 



72° 



18° 



51" 



74° 



15° 



65° 



87° 



35° 



70° 



88° 



44° 



79° 



95° 



60° 



81° 



95° 



60° 



79'^ 



94° 



e4° 



From Macon you have easy access to the hunting grounds 

 of the coast and inland. Small game, especially quail (or 

 partridge, as we call them), is abundant near us. Ducks, 

 turkeys, gray squirrels and deer can also be found, the latter 

 more abundantly near the coast, not far from Brunswick, 

 Ga. , where fine fishing is also to be found. You can in a 

 day's ride by cars reach the forests and lakes of Southwest 

 Georgia and Florida. Macon is the center of the State, and 

 affords all the comforts and conveniences of the age for your 

 family, from which you can with ease and safety take a day 

 or week's sport at any time 



I refer you for other places to E, A. Crawford, Tallahassee, 

 Fla. ; M. R. Curtis, Fernandina, Fla ; F, C. Randolph, 

 Montgomery, Ala.; Capt. M. G. Cooper, Savannah, Ga.; 

 Thomas Martin, Blufftou, S. C. ; 1 P. Chapman, Americus, 

 Ga. ; M. M. Parker, Macon and Albany, Ga., and Mr. Berry- 

 man, Brunswick, Ga., all of whom are members of the 

 National Gun Association, and the towns are good locations. 

 I send you copy of Georgia State Fair premium list, and 

 would be glad to see you on that occasion when you will 

 meet a number of sportsmen. Another advantage that these 

 towns have over Florida is that there is here an equally as 

 good climate and I think better, and here you can be accom- 

 modated at a moderate price, and not charged every time you 

 ask a question or look at any one. 



I can give you all the clay-pigeon shooting you want any 

 fair day on our grounds wiihin ten minutes' walk of the city 

 hall. Extending to you an invitation to make Macon your 

 headquarters with as many others as you can induce to try 

 this climate, I am, yours respectfully, 



M. R. Fbbbman. 



DAKOTA FIELD DAYS. 



Editor Forest and Slremn: 



The prevalent idea is that it is so cold up here in the North- 

 west that people freeze to death; but this is a great mistake. 

 The 16th of last December, sixty miles north of this city, in 

 company with four gentlemen, I went for a deer hunt. "Tne 

 weather was so mild that 1 could not bear an overcoat. On 

 the 20th it set in cold. On the 1st of March it was like May, 

 and" continued so all through March and April, beautiful 

 warm, clear weather, with an occasional shower. Then we 

 had j ust nine weeks of beautiful winter weather with four 

 inches of snow. 



I promised in my last that this letter should be devoted to 

 the geese and duck family. I can onl,y give my experience 

 last fall, but later on I hope to tell of 'the good times I am 

 anticipating next month. Last October I went east of town 

 three and a half miles to a large grain field, and dug a pit. 

 This was my first experience in goose shooting. About 4 

 o'clock in the afternoon the flight began. The geese came 

 by the hundreds, but 1 could not keep mj head down, and 

 could not understand why they would turn so abruptly to the 

 right and left just before getting within gunshot. Two lone 

 ones ventured too close to my decoys and I got them. A friend 

 told me if I should hold even a finger up and move it I could 

 not tret them near me. The next evening I was better 

 schooled and got as many as I could jiack home on my In- 

 dian pony. Never did any man have belter sport. For six 

 weeks I went almost every evening, getting all the shooting 

 I wanted. 



The ducks are just as plentiful as the geese. They stay 

 here till cold weather, untold thousands of them. There are 

 large sandbars on the Missouri River, on which they stay 

 during the night and day, going out in the morning and 

 evening on to the grain fields to feed. It is a common occur- 

 rence for one man to kill seventy-five in a day. Let some of 

 the Eastern sportsmen gather up their traps and come out, 

 and if they don't write the Forest and Stkeam: that they 

 have had the best time of their life in the hunting line, they 

 are hard to please. We have a gun club of sixty members, 

 and they can do tine work with the gun The officers are': 

 President, W. B. Bell; Vice President, W, H. Williamson; 

 Secretary. Harry Weatherby. I will tell you something of 

 the deer m my next. W. H. Williamson. 



P. S. I find so many letters in answer to my communica- 

 tion in your paper that I cannot answer all, will you allow 

 me to answer them in one? All Western towns arc full of 

 young professional men, and I cannot advise any more to 

 come to this city unless they have monev to invest, then the 

 chances are great of accumulating wealth. To go into the 

 farming business a man should have at least $1,500 to build 

 a house, buy stock and have enough to tide him over the 

 first year till he can -raise a crop. You caa get 320 acres of 



boautifid land for the taking. The climate is very good 

 especially for lung troubles, not so good for catarrh. There 

 is but little chance for a young man to find employment, but 

 there i.s any amount of room for all who will make work. 

 There is a certain class of young men who can go into any 

 country and get along. It is no child's play to go into a new 

 country and carve out a future; but to all who arc willing to 

 undergo privations, this is the country. For any one having 

 from $.3,000 to ,$5,000 to invest, I can say I have never seen 

 such chances to make a fortune on so small an investment 

 and so certain. Thank you for allowing this to appear in 

 your paper. W. H. Williamson. 



Blsmark, Dakota. 



THE GAME OF VENTURA. 



OUR county seems to be about the least advertised of any 

 county in this State. lu one respect I am glad of it, 

 for as yet we have been troubled with the vvoul(i-l)e "sports- 

 man tourist" and "trout hog" but seldom. Ventura county 

 is one of the best game coimties in the State. We can fur- 

 nish you with almost anything in that line from a quail to a 

 grizzly bear. Blacklaii deer are plentiful, and occasionally 

 a whitetail is lulled. Several years ago elk and antelope 

 were seen. Rocky Mountain sheep are sometimes brought 

 in. California lions, coyotes, wildcats, lynxes, and foxes 

 are to be found in some parts of the countJ^ Deer have been 

 killed within two miles of town this year. A giizzly was 

 seen within sixteen miles. A mountain lion was killed one 

 day this week with bird shot. Venison dried in the sun for a 

 few days is brought to Ventura and sold for from twenty- 

 five to thirty cents per pound readily, giving the hunter a 

 good profit. Quail exist in the greatest abundance. In 

 some places tliey destroy considerable young grain as well as 

 apricots and peaches on (he trees. Farmers consider them a 

 pest, and are glad to have any one shoot them. Last year an 

 acquaintance killed twenty-six at one discharge of liis gun, 

 (a pot shot), both barrels' being fired. There is but little 

 advantage in hunting our California quail with a dog, as 

 they will not lie to a dog but keep running. A number of 

 young ducks have been killed lately — mostly mallard and 

 teal— there being no law against it. In the fall and spring 

 thousands of ducks and geese are to be seen. They destroy 

 large quantities of grain for the farmers. 



An exciting pastime our sportsmen sometimes indulge in 

 is a wolf hunt on horseback. It is thrilling to watch the 

 coyote's race for life, but the greyhounds generally overtake 

 him. 



In season the numerous trout streams in the county abound 

 in trout. Large creels have been uaught in the Ventura 

 River, which empties into the ocean at San Buenaventura. 



At present sea fishing is indulged in largely. Lai-ge schools 

 of "sea trout" have come in lately. Over a'iiundred can be 

 caught by one person in an hour. From the wharf a dozen 

 or more varieties of fish can be caught, and occasionally a 

 shark. If you like the excitement of trolling you may get 

 into a small sailboat and saU a mile out into the channel, 

 drop your line astern with nothing but a white rag or piece 

 of poiished ablone shell for bait, and you will not wait long 

 until you have hooked a ten-pound bonita or barraconda, or 

 perchance a thirty-pound yellowtaU or "sea salmon." You 

 will probably catch twenty-five or thirty in two or three 

 hours' sailing. 



Now, don't let any ignoramus imagine that I mean, in 

 regard to the wild animals, that you can go to any place in 

 this county and fall over bears, lions, wildcats, etc., for you 

 can't do it. Typo. 



San Buenaventura, Cal. 



IOWA PRAIRIE CHICKENS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have skirmished about to a reasonable degree in a reason- 

 able time, but never till now, never till '85 did I strike the 

 sportsman's paradise. It is in Northwestern Iowa; and where 

 can you find better? One week ago to-day the chicken season 

 opened, and auspiciously, too, you may believe. I am glad 

 to know^ that the residents hereabouts are observing the law 

 regulating the hunting season, and woe be it to the outsider 

 who does'not do likewise. 



Last spring's prairie fires occurred early in the season, 

 hence the birds have had better chances for nesting and in- 

 creasing than for several years past. The result is lots of 

 chickens, Messrs. Hinsey and McDonald, Chicago, Milwaukee 

 & St, Paul Railroad officials, have been here several days 

 lately. I mention this fact because they come here each year, 

 are enthusiastic sportsmen, and usually meet with as good 

 success as any of the fellows. Their best day resulted in 

 nearly 150 birds, and it was a cold, dreary day when they 

 couldn't bag over a third of that number. Yet the other 

 hunters follow close up to them, and it's a poor hunter that 

 cries for more birds. It would seem that with so many 

 hunters the prairie chickens must soon play out, but the 

 natives say no. This year there are more than last, and last 

 year there were more than the year before. Your prai- 

 rie chicken seems to be a bird that lives on the edge of civil- 

 ization, so, I take it, the advance of civilization drives 

 him away faster than the hunter. 



The laws of Iowa prohibit quail shooting throughout the 

 entire year and it is a law well in force. Eventide is made 

 joyous with the whistlings of the delicious little Bob Whites, 

 a condition of affairs that would soon play out were the law 

 to be abolished. 



The chicken season will scarcely have done ere the geese 

 and ducks will have made their appearance, and they come 

 in such quantities as to make their season quite as enjoyable 

 as that of the chickens. Northwestern Iowa is a section of 

 country particularly adapted to chickens, ducks, geese, and 

 the like. Maybe your finer-haired chap don't enjoy rabbit 

 shooting; but if so, the reason is that he never engaged in it. 

 You see, out here we have in addition to the cotton tail, his 

 elder brother, the jack rabbit. During the winter an occa- 

 sional deer is run down, and wolves are by no means 

 scarce. 



Such is some of the fun allotted to us out here, but I should 

 feel "undone" if I neglected mentioning the fishing. The 

 rivers and ponds do not lack for the finny tribe. The 

 seiners have made havoc, but, thank heaven, we now have a 

 State Commissioner who looks after his business, and with- 

 out doubt legitimate fishing will always be ours. Pickerel 

 take the lead. The river is filled with little bayous and deep 

 holes, and here is where you find him. Can there be any- 

 thing more enjoyable than to take a half-holiday, and armed 

 with rod and trolling spoon, repair to these pickerel dens? 

 A pickerel is chuck full of life, and he takes hold of a hook 

 with a will. When once hooked he tries to tear out the 

 bottom of the river; and that's whare the fun comes in. It's 

 delicious, especially if it's a twenty -pounder. GitAHT. 



EooK VALiEY, Ia.j Sept 14. 



