276 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 26, 1889. 



CHICAGO AND TH E WEST. 



CHrCAGO, 111.. April 18.— On the 15th of April the 

 Chicago men and other shooters who visit the Kan- 

 kakee country oiled their duck guns and put thern away 

 for a while, and the ducks will now have a little chance 

 to rest. Illinois holds on for two weeks longer, and may 

 offer some good shooting in the Fox Lake country, where 

 the hluebill and redhead flight usually is best late in this 

 month. The slaughter of ducks has been enormous, and 

 I am sure I do not see what more any shooter could ask 

 than has been offered this spring. Hardly any one has 

 gone out who did not get a good bag, and some scores 

 have stood very high. As stated in earlier letters, the 

 best of the shooting has been on the Kankakee. The 

 Cumberland marsh has sent in more birds than any other 

 club ground; English Lake perhaps second. Mak-saw-ba 

 has been unfoi'tuuate for some unknown reason. The 

 Illinois River country has been unaccountably barren 

 also. One of the very best localities this season has been 

 that part of the Kankakee above the Diana Club, near 

 "Water Valley on the Monon road. The largest bag I 

 have heard reported, that of Mr. Fred Ehlers, 134 ducks, 

 kdled after 11 A. M. of one day, was made on the big 

 marsh above the Diana Club. This marsh seems to have 

 held the bulk of the ga.me in that section, and the closer 

 the Cumberland boys got over toward it the better shoot- 

 ing they had. Messrs. Gammon aud McFarland got their 

 big week's shooting over in that direction, going up the 

 main marsh ditch about eight miles from the club house. 

 Tins "North Marsh," which lies just across tbe river from 

 the grounds of the Kankakee Lard and Cattle Co., has 

 been swarming wilh game, including numbers of wild 

 geese. The falling water cut off the entrance to this 

 marsh for boats two weeks ago, and few hunters have 

 had the hardihood to wade the two miles of swamp 

 which lie between the outer world and its hidden pene- 

 tralia. One market hunter by the name of Ainswortb, 

 who has been camped at the lower Red Oak cabin, week 

 before last shipped ninety geese, the product of one 

 week's shooting, wading and dragging on the. North 

 Marsh. He does not use decoys, but calls the geese by 

 honking, without a call, in which art he is an adept. ELe 

 has three pits dug, and alternates them. 



Some of these facts I learned on my last week's trip in 

 pursuance of the Klein tnann tip, which I afterward learned 

 was indeed steering me straight for the country where 

 the game was. However, when I told Mr. E. C. Cook 

 where I was going, he said he knew a surer and pleas- 

 anter trip than that, and after a moment's thought he 

 gave me what very few men get, a letter to the keeper of 

 the Kankakee Land and Cattle Co. Club, usually called 

 "De Golyer Club" for short, and privilege to shoot on 

 their marsh, known all through this country as the 

 sanctum sanctorum, of wildfowl. I had made some little 

 mention of this club in an earlier article, but had never 

 seen the grounds, which I was delighted now to visit. I 

 had, therefore, the Kleinmann tip and Mr. Cook's tip to 

 struggle with when I boarded the train for "Water Valley; 

 and when I had done that, almost the first persons I saw 

 were Messrs. McFarland and Gammon, going down to the 

 Cumberland for another carload of ducks. They gave 

 me a tip that I was a chump if I didn't come right along 

 with them, and go where the ducks really and actually 

 were. Of course, I couldn't resist a good tip, and was 

 just about to get off at Lowell with them, when I met 

 Mr. Kreutzberg, secretary of the Diana Club, and he gave 

 me a tip that if it was ducks I was after, I would better 

 come right along with him. I now had four tips on my 

 hands, and I really hardly knew what to do. With a 

 modesty which 1 sometimes think nearly amounts to 

 genius, I rapidly made my decision. I decided to accept 

 them all. Therefore, I went on to Thayer, instead of 

 Shelby or Water Valley or Lowell, and spent that night 

 at the Diana Club with a pleasant lot of fellows who^vere 

 down. 



In the- morning, by virtue of courtesy, I was offered the 

 sei vices of the best pusher oh that marsh, old McDowell, 

 and before daybreak we were gliding silently but swiftly 

 through the wide submerged tiniberland of the Kanka- 

 kee. Oars are not used on the Kankakee, the pusher's 

 pole replacing them, much to the good of speed and 

 ease. McDowell was astonishingly able at the pole, 

 and owing to this and to his thorough knowledge 

 of all the cut-offs, we arrived at the De Golyer club 

 house by ten o'clock. We must have traveled up stream 

 at the rate of four miles an hour for fully fifteen miles by 

 the river. "We saw a great deal of game, and put out the 

 decoys once, getting but three birds. We found Mi-. Fred 

 Cook and a friend, Mr. Springer, just going home. They 

 said the shooting had been poor, as the ducks were not 

 moving; but I noticed they had two sacks full of ducks. 



The De Golyer marsh is in a country naturally wild. 

 It is only three years or so since the last deer was killed 

 near the lower end of the marsh, and ten years ago there 

 were a good many in that vicinity. A year ago five tim- 

 ber wolves, black and gray, frightened the women about 

 the club house nearly to death by making a dress parade 

 in the door yard. Even as we looked out we could see 

 great numbers of wildfowl, and it seemed not strange to 

 know they nested very often in the marsh even to-day. 



I was astonished at the great numbers of mallards on 

 the De Golyer marsh, as I saw so few elsewhere. I was 

 told that this club did not shoot mallards in the spring. 

 That accounted for it. It was a very pretty and very 

 conclusive lesson on the subject of game preservation. 

 I am willing to go upon record that I saw more mallards 

 on four miles of the De Golyer marsh than I did on all 

 the rest.of the country I visited, which I should think to 

 be forty miles or more. The club feeds the mallards and 

 preserves them. The mallards go there and stay and 

 breed. It might look strange, but it is really as simple 

 as a, b, c. Protection protects, and the birds know it if 

 the hunters don't. This little club — there are only eight 

 members — certainly deserves mention for its liberality 

 and forbearance, with the game. The marsh is admirable 

 and admirably stocked. No one is allowed to kill a 

 muskrat on the marsh, as that animal keeps open ponds 

 and channels. The mink are killed, as being destructive 

 to the birds. No shooting is allowed after sundown, and 

 none upon any Sunday. Could anything be finer than 

 this? And could any confirmation or comment be stronger 

 than the circling* flocks of birds and the merry quack 

 of the exultant mallard coming cheerily up out of the reed-? 



My stay at the De Golyer marsh was short, and the trip 

 down the river rapid and delightful. On the way down 



I shot among other ducks a magnificent specimen of the 

 wood drake. The skin was wonderfully beautiful, and 

 one could feel little less than remorse at having killed 

 the bird. Had I not shot so wretchedly the string that 

 we took to the Diana Club might have been twenty birds 

 instead of ten; but I explained that— the way shooters 

 usually do. 



Finding it difficult to get into the North Marsh country, 

 I now started for the Cumberland Club, via the noon 

 train to Lowell. At hospitable Cumberland lodge I found 

 Messrs. McFarland, Gammon, Stevens, Gillette, Freeman, 

 Grey, Farmer, Harmeyer and others. No great bags 

 had been made, twenty being about the limit, except Mr. 

 McFarland's bag of 32. Mr. Gammon and I went out in 

 front of the house and killed a couple of jacksnipe, start- 

 ing two or three dozen, very wild and out of reach. The 

 marsh was pronounced to be in excellent shape for snipe, 

 and great shooting at them was expected within a week 

 or so. 



I had always longed for one good day at the ducks, so 

 that I could see just how these big bags were made which 

 are so often scored to our Chicago men. I got just such 

 a day at the Cumberland. Alf. Dodd, perhaps the best 

 pusher on that marsh, was directed to take the longing 

 aspirant out, and he did so. We put out our decoys once, 

 and I got three ducks while Alf . explored a little. He 

 came back, told me he had "found where they were," 

 and we pulled up, moving nearly a mile, and making a 

 little portage, getting into the open marsh south of the 

 South Islands. We drove out a great body of birds, and 

 a little before noon put out our decoys, crawled into the 

 grass, and were soon in the middle of a "big day." I 

 stopped early in the evening at forty birds, and we had 

 an easy and pleasant trip down the ditch to the club 

 house, unloading 40 ducks, and also 14 snipe which we 

 had acquired on the way up in the morning. "When I 

 counted up my game after I got home, I found 59 ducks 

 and 17 snipe, and I'm sure that one hunt is enough for 

 my share. 



One can always learn something, and on this little trip 

 I learned something about a 12-gauge gun. The birds 

 were coming in very fast about noon, and we couldn't 

 get time to eat. Alf. Dodd told me to go ahead and eat, 

 and he would take my gun (a 12-gauge hammerless) and 

 keep the ducks out of the blind. He killed three shots 

 straight with it, and they happened to be very long and 

 difficult, I bantered him to get more difficult shots, and 

 he killed six straight at ranges I had never dreamed were 

 possible for any gun. The birds were killed dead, struck 

 with the center of the charge every time. The man 

 would kill practically every duck he shot at, and in a 

 style that seemed to me very wonderful. I always load 

 my own shells, and shoot at ducks 3|drs. of powder and 

 lfroz. of shot, No. 6, this being the load shot in this case. 

 After this I realized that it is with a gun much as it is 

 with a violin. There is music in the violin which only 

 a master can bring out. I know very well now that I 

 am not master of my own gun, and that it has capabilities 

 which it takes an old marsh shooter to get out. The gun 

 shoots infinitely better than I do, and hereafter I could 

 not conscientiously blame it for any miss. As for the 

 man wdio says a 10-gauge is necessary for duck shooting 

 he doesn't know what he is talking about, and moreover, 

 he doesn't know how to shoot. He can't get the music 

 out of the instrument. He wants a bull fidddle. 



There was another pleasant episode in this trip. I was 

 in a blind about 200yds. from Mr. John Grey, who had 

 very cleverly got his decoys out where they cut off all 

 the flight from my blind, although he didn't mean to do 

 that especially. I watched the birds draw down to his 

 fleet, and hardly a flock passed that he did not strike. 

 Very often I w r ould see two birds wilt, one after another, 

 and I must say I never saw such double shooting at ducks! 

 Mr. Grey fired twenty-four shots and bagged twenty -two 

 ducks, never killing more than one bird at a shot. That 

 was the best duck shooting I ever happened to see, and I 

 did see that. Mr. Grey says, "In shooting doubles out of 

 a blind you always want to figure where the second bird 

 is going to be when you want to pull on him. If the 

 birds are going away you always shoot the furthest first. 

 If they are incomers you shoot the closest first. The 

 second bird is carried on by its momentum, and as it 

 starts to climb is an easy shot. You must be careful with 

 your first barrel, as if it were your only chance. Be sme 

 you kill your fir st bird, but never stop to see whether you 

 do or not. Pull your gun right on to the place where you 

 have figured the second bird ought to be, and let him 

 ha,ve it. You can always kill the second bird easier than 

 you can the first, if you remember this, because the 

 second bird will begin to check up and climb at the 

 report of the gun. I often kill the second bird before the 

 first strikes the ground, and when I don't know whether 

 I have killed the first one or not. I always suppose I 

 have. In that way I don't allow myself any loose shoot- 

 ing on the ground tha t I can kill a bird with the second 

 barrel if I miss it with the first." As to the efficiency of 

 Mr. Grey's system, there can not be any doubt. In a set 

 of shooters such as he travels with, I shouldn't like to call 

 him, or anybody else, the best shot of the lot; but if I 

 could shoot ducks the way he can 1 would cease this 

 mad struggle for riches and go into the market-hunting 

 business. 



Jacksnipe got here April 14, and are now pretty much 

 all over the country out here, and this bids fan to be an 

 exceptionally good season for them. The rapidly falling 

 waters of the marshes have left better wor king ground 

 for them than has been the case for a number of years. 



There have been five of great trumpeter swans on 

 Calumet Lake, just at the edge of the city, for the past 

 week or so. Mr. E. C.J, Cleaver, secretary of the Grand 

 Calumet Heights Club, a few days ago killed a trumpeter 

 on the river, and it is thought to' be one of these five. The 

 swan was a fine specimen, and will be mounted. It was 

 killed with No. 5 shot. 



Our shooters are now turning their attention to Fox 

 Lake, and big bags of bluebills are soon to be expected. 

 Lake George, in the Calumet region, was covered with 

 bluebills a week ago. It is a great place for them. Dick 

 Turtle killed forty -one in two half-days, evening and 

 morning. 



The cluck season may now be said to be over. Snipe 

 shooting will occupy the boys till the fishing season 

 beginp. Some of our shooters will go down to the Crown 

 Point trap tournament Thursday and Friday of this week. 

 The town has been crowded the past week with sports- 

 men attendant upon the Mascoutah Kennels' bench show, 

 which but just rolled its muttering thunders away. 



Mr. G. W. Williams, of Lexington, Ky., who was here 

 with the winning greyhounds in the late show, is a brother 

 of Roger D. Williams, one of the judges in last fall's 

 American coursing meet. Mr. Williams says that he is a 

 member of a club which shoots ducks every fall on the 

 New Madrid marsh, over the line in Arkansas. The 

 shooting is usually magnificent there in the fail. Reel- 

 foot Lake, in Tennessee, says this gentleman, is no 

 longer of much value as a duck ground. Lexington 

 shooters have a few quail and rabbits in their own coun- 

 try. A club of the young anglers of Lexington has been 

 formed, most of whose fishing is done in the Reservoir, 

 three miles or so from town. The artificial fly is almost 

 the only lure used, and very good strings of croppies — 

 locally called "New Lights" — and bass are being taken 

 now. Warm invitations come up to Forest and Stream 

 to visit the land which is proudly declared to have the 

 best whisky, the most beautiful women and the fastest 

 horses on earth. It would be hard to imagine a more 

 pleasant trip than one into the royal Blue Grass country. 



Mr. Rollo M. Heikes, a well-known shooter of Dayton, 

 Ohio, was in town April 16, on -his way to the Omaha 

 tournament. 



Dr. Baxter has been absent two weeks, duck shooting 

 in Dakota. Nothing has been heard from him, but he 

 must have had good sport. 



Mr. John Gillespie killed 34 ducks on Fox Lake on 13th. 

 The flight went north, then settled back, and he caught it. 



Mr. Wm. Payson bagged 40 jacksnipe at Harvard, 111., 

 April 13. Mr. R. B. Organ got 26 jacks and 2 ducks on 

 the Kankakee the same day; also a good wetting in a 

 muskrat hole. Messrs. J. A. Sharp and Al Carlyle got 

 70 snipe one day week before last, at Water Valley. 

 Messrs. Stevens and Street got 24 snipe and a number of 

 ducks on their late Cumberland trip. Messrs. W. H. 

 Lees and John Matter had good snipe shooting at the 

 "Sag" week before last, the latter getting 10 jacks and 10 

 yellow plover one day. 



The Grand Calumet Heights Club, a very active young 

 organization, has appropriated $50 as a donation to the 

 State Sportsmen's Association. If other clubs would 

 follow this commendable course it would help the meet 

 out wonderfully in the way of prizes, etc. 



The ninth annual tournament of tbe Southern Illinois 

 Sportsmen's Association will be held at Belleville, 111., 

 June 6, 7 and 8. 



Will some one please tell why a State like Indiana, so 

 large, so intelligent, so wonderfully welt supplied with 

 game and game resorts, and yet so persistently robbed 

 and threatened by a lawless element which has no re- 

 spect whatever for even such loose laws as Indiana has, 

 cannot claim a State sportsmen's association? Time the 

 Indiana boys got together. It will not be a very expensive 

 or a very troublesome matter to organize, and the work 

 thus made possible might be productive of the greatest 

 good. Certainly there is a wide field for such work. If 

 there is any State organization of this nature I owe it an 

 apology, for I never heard of it. If it is too bashful, let 

 it get over that; and if it does not exist let it summon 

 itself together out of chaos. It is time. 



The date claimed for our State tournament is Tuesday, 

 June 4 and the remainder of that week. John Watson, 

 of Grand Crossing, will furnish the birds, and the trap 

 shoot will be at his grounds. Committee on programme 

 consists of R. B. Organ, W. P. Mussey and AlexT. Loyd. 

 They meet this week. The Loyd system of trap shooting, 

 first presented in these columns Ajnril 4, has been laid 

 before the association. It has already met the approval 

 of most of our leading shooters here, and wdl doubt less 

 be used at the State meet. E. Houun, 



No. 17") Monkoh Street. 



A SPORTSMAN'S COMMENT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



By means of the excellent articles from the pen of Mr. 

 E. Hough, that have appeared in the pages of Forest 

 and Stream during the past winter, sporting and shoot- 

 ing matters in and about Chicago have been placed prom- 

 inently before the sportsmen of the whole country. No 

 doubt every reader of this paper who is interested in the 

 sub ject, has studied closely the exposition of the question 

 of game protection as it exists in the States of Illinois 

 and Indiana, and waited anxiously to see what would be 

 the outcome of the efforts of sportsmen before the legis- 

 latures of these States. 



So far as I have been able to understand the situation, 

 there has been a woeful lack of concerted action among 

 the sportsmen; powerful influences in an opposite direc- 

 tion have been brought to bear, and the results have been 

 practically nil. The influence of those great and wealthy 

 shooting clubs, described by Mr. Hough, should be suf- 

 ficient, if exerted in the proper manner and direction, to 

 accomplish almost anything in the shape of necessary 

 legislation for the proper protection of game. But, that 

 no effort with wise and unselfish ends in view will be 

 made, is evident from the following paragraph clipped 

 from an article of Mr. Hough's in Forest and Stream 

 of April 11: "Messrs. McFarland and Gammon in their 

 week at the Cumberland bagged 520 ducks, besides their 

 geese, cranes and snipe mentioned earlier. * * * 

 Mr. C. D. Gammon has put up a gold medal for the 

 Cumberland Club, the man killing the most ducks this 

 season to win it." Mr. C. D. Gammon evidently intends 

 to keep that medal for himself. 



On the same page with the paragraph quoted above 

 appears the following: "The Michigan Legislature has 

 passed a bill to repeal the law prohibiting spring duck 

 shooting," and small wonder might have been very ap- 

 propiately added. 



After reading such statements as the above in regard 

 to the exploits of Messrs. Gammon and McFarland, the 

 sportsmen of adjoining States would be very foolish if 

 they continued to allow themselves to be used as the pole 

 with which the thrifty Illinois shooter gathers the spring 

 duck persimmon. The shooting clubs of Chicago need 

 never expect that public sentiment will be anything but 

 hostile toward their organizations, nor that depredations 

 on their territory by pot-hunters, market-shooters and 

 others of that class will not be winked at by local courts, 

 so long as they permit within their precincts and by their 

 members such wholes de slaughter of the game birds 

 that belong to the people of the whole United States. 



The idea of a uniform inter-State game law advanced 

 by Mr. Hough is go©d, and such a law offers the only 

 satisfactory solution of the problem of game protection. 

 I think, however, that Mr. H. is too modest in crediting 



