88 



FOREST AND STREAM SUPPLEMENT. 



[Feb. 21, 1889. 



ENGLISH LAKE SHOOTING AND FISHING CLUB. 



There is usually pretty good rail shooting in August 

 and September, and in September also there is usually 

 good shooting at woodducks. There used to be a pretty 

 heavy flight of woodducks along this part of the Kanka- 

 kee, and even now they nest in considerable numbers 

 along the oak flats. One nest with seventeen eggs was 

 found by children near the school house, not far from the 

 club building. Harry Hanson, 11 years old, is now the 

 proud possessor of three big wild geese, hatched from 

 eggs he took from a nest and carried home in his dinner 

 pail. Mallards nest all over the wet prairie, and at the 

 edges of the brushy points, usually upon the muskrat 

 houses. The teal seem to prefer higher ground. One 

 teal nest found had twenty-one eggs in it. The Canada 

 goose annually breeds on these marshes in numbers. It 

 is probable that the English Lake shooters kill more 

 geese than any of the other clubs. Mr. Jesse Cummings, 

 with John Taylor as pusher, killed twenty Canada geese 

 in one day last spring, shooting over decoys from a woven 

 grass blind on a shallow overflowed meadow. 



The teal flight comes regularly to the English Lake 

 marsh from the 18th to the 20th day of September, no 

 matter what the weather; so, at least, Mr. Taylor's ob- 

 servations would point, and he is a hunter. Once Mr. 

 Chas. Mears was down at the club house and having a 

 rather dull time of it. He had packed his kit together 

 and was about to start home on the evening of the 18th. 

 "I told him to wait for the teal," said Mr. Taylor, "and 

 sure enough on the next day, the 19th, the lake was black 

 with them." 



The fall mallard flight usually begins to drop in about 

 the 18th or 20th of October, I have already, in an early 

 note, mentioned the fact that the local nesting mallards 

 make a flight north about Aug. 30, and it is thought that 

 these home birds bring other new birds back with them. 



The spring flight usually comes up at the first loosen- 

 ing of the ice, there usually being a flying advance 

 guard, which may remain only part of a dav if the marsh 

 is still too close. Sometimes the whole spring flight will 

 go south for a few days. The date of the first spring 

 birds depends upon the weather. In an early season 

 they may appear in March; upon the other hand, shoot- 

 ing may not begin until April 1. The season closes by 

 law April 15. Although there are more ducks in the 

 spring, the scores already cited show that the fall offers 

 birds enough to satisfy a moderate shooter in any 

 ordinary year. It was in the fall, four years ago, that 

 Mr. Jesse Cummings, with John Taylor as pusher, took 

 in 128 shells, and brought out 92 mallards at 2 P. M., the 

 shells being then exhausted. In this case, the boat was 

 level full of ducks, and sat so low in the water that only 

 the combing of the deck stood out. The boat was strained 

 and broken, and was barely got in to the landing in time. 

 That ought to be pretty near good enough fun, and shows 

 what the marsh is capable of doing. After shooting like 

 that, it isn't much wonder that the club shooters com- 

 plain of a year like this; but the fact is, they would think 

 they had a right to complain of a bag of a dozen or fif- 

 teen birds, which to many sportsmen would seem a fair 

 day's shooting. There were a great many days this past 

 fall when English Lake men were growling about "no 

 ducks at all," when a patient hunter might have gotten 

 in with a dozen or so. Mr. Taylor, who has long been a 

 settler on the marsh, and indeed has filled acceptably the 

 place of club superintendent ever since the organization 

 in 1879, says that he does not think the days of the 

 Kankakee are numbered in the least, and points out the 

 fact that, while 1886 was the best year of the marsh, 1880 

 was the poorest. He thinks it is only low water and 

 local fires that have made the trouble this year. 



There are some ruffed grouse on and near the club 

 grounds, and there would be quail if the natives did not 

 murder them off. Rabbits and squirrels also are to be 

 found in some small numbers. The club records show 

 that there are a good many woodcock in season from 

 July 1 and on. The low warm timber lands of the Kan- 

 kakee offer a tempting field to this bird. 



In dull days of the past season it occurred to some of 

 the members to try the Kankakee as a fishing stream. 

 On Oct. 6, Mr. A. M. Fuller took 7 black bass, on Oct. 7 

 he caught 23, and Mr. Taylor 27. They took 80 black 

 bass out of one "hole" in the river. There might be 

 good_ fishing in this stream, but illegal spearing and sein- 

 ing is carried on openly, and in one well known case 

 natives were caught using dynamite. 



The records show that on Sept. 14, 1887, 12 wild pigeons 

 were killed in the woods near the club house, and what 



is more singular they were killed by a young lady only 

 fifteen years old. Miss Grace Hasten, daughter of J. T. 

 Hazen, of Cincinnati, O. On this same trip. Win; Has- 

 kins being her pusher, Miss Hazen killed one teal. She 

 shoots in regular hunting coat and hat and handles a 

 rifle as well as the shotgun, ringing the bell on the club 

 target as often as many of the men. 



The English Lake club house grounds cannot well be 

 shown in an illustration, as they cover too much country. 

 There is a pleasant little oak grove which fills up the 

 yard close to the house, and it is here that the little rifle 

 target is most usually set up. Here, too, is a contrivance 

 which I do not see at any of the other clubs, and which 

 is a good idea— a sort of little slimmer house, covered 

 with wire netting, and therefore perfectly ventilated, 

 wins is used as a duck house by the club. It is provided 

 with lock and key, so that no marauding railroad man 

 can slip over from a passing freight train and steal a 

 bunch of ducks, as had been done before this little house 

 was provided. The trap grounds lie between this little 

 grove and the boat houses, which latter are situated upon 

 the edge of a basin, which is connected with the river by 

 a short channel. 



There is one club boat house, and there are nine boat 

 houses which belong to individuals. In. and about these 

 boat houses one can learn about as much in regard to the 

 industry of modern duck shooting as he can anywhere. 

 I thought John Gillespie's den might do as wefl as any, 

 so we went into that. He had two boats of the patterns 

 most favored on that marsh, and on the walls hung a full 

 complement of oars, paddles and punt poles. There 

 were 200 duck decoys of all sorts, and a number of pro- 

 file goose decoys. Tools of different sorts were visible, 

 and indeed there was a whole chest devoted to tools and 

 odds and ends such as a blind maker and boat carpenter 

 might have to use. There were two or three boxes of 

 fishing tackle, which I regret to say I can't approve very 

 highly. If I had worked in a sporting goods house as 

 long as John has, I would have accumulated a lot better 

 supply than that. Boots, sails, nets, rods, and all that, 

 lay around or hung decently suspended. There was a 

 willow blind, such as I have described in a previous 

 article, and also a grass blind and a hay coat. The boats 

 had irons screwed along the bottom, to fit them for lim- 

 ning on the ice in the early spring; and I saw some pad- 

 dles shod on the end with a serrated steel, like a saw 

 blade, to fit them for use upon the surface of the ice. 

 The boat seat was a sawed-off chair, and the favorite 

 boat was arranged so that about 4,0001bs, of stuff could 

 be piled into or on top of it. I saw a contr ivance which 

 looked like a brass post auger with a school desk on top 

 of it, and was informed that this was a "marsh seat." 

 You screw the auger down in the mud, and its wide 

 flanges keep it from sinking; then you adjust the seat by 

 means of thumbscrew, and there you are. I would 

 rather sit on almost anything than that sort of a seat, 

 but I should think that it would be nice at a lawn-tennis 

 party. I saw also in this boat house another device, 

 although I believe Mr. Taylor was the owner of it as ap- 

 plied: it was a combination lock attached to the fasten- 

 ing of a spirits keg. Mr. Taylor told me that they took 

 in a gallon or so of whisky on a late hunt in the Indian 

 Territory, and the only way they could devise to keep 

 the negro cook and the visiting "Indians out of the keg 

 was to put a lock on it. They did so, and found it a good 

 idea. It would be a good idea if extended to divers other 

 kegs. 



As I looked around through this typical boat house and 

 made mental inventory of the curious stock, I began to 

 be impressed with the notion that duck hunting nowa- 

 days comes pretty near being a business all by itself. It 

 in no wise lessened this idea to walk through the assort- 

 ment of boats, of which this club has an unusually good 

 one. There are over 100 boats owned by the club, most 

 of which, when bought of the trade, are of either the 

 Green Bay or Waukegan model. Neither of these boats 



?uite pleased theEnglish Lake men, and in an earlier paper 

 remarked how Wm. Hine— who, by the way, lives at 

 North Judson, and not at Logansport— had been trying 

 to get just exactly the kind of a boat they wanted. I 

 should think Kane & Co., or Douglas, or some of our 

 folks out here, might supply a craft which would be infi- 

 nitely better, and I would rather see such firms patron- 

 ized, believing that the business belongs to them and can 

 be better handled by them. The local boats were not 

 above criticism, by any means. The Green Bay boat, as 

 is well known, is a shallow, wide and straight-bottomed 



boat. Some such model seems best adapted to the long 

 trips through shallow water and through the boat ways 

 mowed oiit through the tall "cane" and rice. There is 

 not enough river work to niake much need for a higher, 

 rounder and stiffer boat. The Hine boat does not differ 

 widely from Green Bay lines. It is flat, round, with long 

 rake, and is about 15ft. long. There was one little, low, 

 highly-polished butternut boat, as pretty as a racing shell, 

 that took the eye at once, though too pretty for actual 

 service, and there were numhersof others, of good make 

 and finish, and in style different as the tastes of the 

 owners. Most of the boats were partially protected along 

 the bows and sides by tin or copper. It does not take 

 more than half a day or so of work in tough ice to cut 

 through the thin shell of a ducking boat. Nearly all these 

 boats, of whatever make, had a trim and hunter-like 

 look about them, and were strong and light, so that the 

 pusher may easily handle them. The English Lake push- 

 ers have never had an accident yet. There are fifteen of 

 these men who are considered regular pushers, and more 

 can be called if wanted. I believe the pusher fee at 

 English Lake is $3 per day; 



The original club house was only 24x46ft. in size, and 

 was inoved over from the other side of the river in 1879; 

 The first addition was made four years ago, when rooms 

 18 X 36ft. were added for the accommodation of the keeper's 

 family. A second addition of 24 x 36 was later put on f 

 and the total is quite a good sized building, whose ex- 

 terior; with its long porches, its broad and home-like air, 

 and with the flanking outbuildings of barns, ice houses, 

 sheds, etc., give it much the character of a big farm 

 house, set down on a not very prepossessing farm coun- 

 try, at the edge of a body of scrubby timber, and in the 

 arm of the river. There are about nine acres of farming 

 ground utilized near the house, and at some little distance 

 there are forty acres devoted to oats. 100 tons of hay 

 were this fall 'put up by Mr. Taylor, who has all the 

 privileges of the farm, besides the emoluments of the club 

 keeper. There are twenty-seven head of cattle and a lot 

 of horses in the barns, but they are just like any other 

 cattle or horses, and I believe none of them are broken to 

 retrieve. 



The interior of the house is more prepossessing than its 

 exterior. The first room is the gun room, and this shows 

 the stern sportsmanlike qualities in its furnishings that 

 such a place of congregation should. There is, of course, 

 the usual big box stove, and there are, of course, the pro- 

 per gun racks, tidy lockers, and shelves for the big tin 

 shell boxes. In the little hall leading to the dining room 

 hangs a large map showing in detail the club's possessions. 

 Near by stands an ornamental bionze gong, of a deep and 

 booming voice, such as may have startled the ears of the 

 Spanish conqueiws when they heard the fateful roll of 

 the Aztec war drum. To deeds of high emprise, also, does 

 this modern signal summon, and he must be indeed 

 valiant who comes forth ultimate conqueror in the con- 

 test with the hosts of yellow-leg chickens, backed by all 

 the skillful enginery "of honest butter, flaky rolls, fair- 

 visaged cream, and coffee, naive if insidious, the same 

 marshalled, aided and abetted by Mrs. Taylor, who pre- 

 sides over this portion of the club's welfare. As is. com- 

 monly the case after a scene of wild dissipation of this 

 kind, I have only a vague recollection of separate events, 

 and would not dare say how many times I tried to engage 

 Mr. Taylor's attention In another part of the room, while 

 I endeavored to steal another piece of chicken without 

 admitting that I wanted it. That kind of chicken is only 

 grown in its absolute perfection at English Lake club house. 



The sleeping apartments are upstairs, and are uniformly 

 and nicely furnished, with marble stands, good mirrors, 

 durable carpets, etc. 



In the gun room there is a very business-like air con- 

 veyed by the long lockers, the full racks, the gun imple- 

 ments, etc, and this is well augmented by the imposing- 

 front of a very large and beautiful elk head, presented to 

 the club by Messrs. E. Hoyt and John Gillespie, as the 

 little metal inscription states; once the folding doors are 

 opened, however, the spectator is presented a parlor in- 

 terior which might well serve for an illustration in an 

 architectural magazine's article on modern home furnish- 

 ing, and which at once arouses the impression that if 

 modern duck hunting has been reduced to a business, it 

 is a mighty pleasant and luxurious business in at least 

 some of its features. I have seen few rooms more un- 

 speakably comfortable looking than the English Lake 

 parlors. There is a nicely tiled fireplace which would 

 measure, I should say, 8ft. across. What rare stories of 



