336 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 16, 1889. 



mm jgng and §utf. 



JAMES RIVER TALES. 



BAIL SHOOTING ON THE CHJTOAX. 



TS there any sp^rt so satisfactory, enjoyable and lasting 

 X as that associated with the dog and gun? It fertilizes 

 the future with tlie richest of memories. Time and again 

 do we recill and live them over. 



Last fall I shot a few partridges in Saratoga county, this 

 State. It Had been several years since I followed Dan, 

 and the long last bad whetted my appetite. Besides I 

 wanted a few fresh memories, for my stock of old ones 

 was threadbare and bagged at the knees like a well worn 

 pair of trousers. Dan was handicapped by age and a 

 superabundance of flesh, the latter accumulated through 

 idleness and high living, but he did fairly well and 

 evinced a-* much interest in his work as when' we hunted 

 the turkey and quail of "Ole "Virginny." Thoro was one 

 old c ck partridge that fooled both of us several times, 

 and we regretfully left him to winter in Saratoga county! 

 Not long since I was on a Surface car late one night and 

 began to doze and dream of that bird. This time there 

 should be no mistake. Dan enters the small wale (the 

 Saratoga name for thicket, ravine or small piece of 

 woods), in which the bird has sought shelter after 

 several flights, while I hurry around to the other side. 

 Dan begins to go slow. I henr his tail beating faster and 

 faster against the bushes. Whu-r-i ! Out comes the bird 

 and starts across the oDem'ng— a lovely shot and a sight 



to gladden the heart. Up goes the gun, and the 



conductor informs me I am several blocks beyond my 

 street. 



****** 



"Hello, Jim! Just in time. Lovely day, isn't it? This 

 east wind ha-i btcked the whole river into the creek. 

 Everything ready, and I guess this light rain won't bother 



us." 



"Alt right, old man," was the response; "will be with 

 you in no time." 



The place was Claremont, Virginii, located on the 

 James River about midway between Norfolk and Rich- 

 mond. Jim was the chief engineer of a railroad survey- 

 jag party, and when he wasn't running an imaginary 

 line through some native's peanut patch he and the old 

 man were generally hunting, or making preparations for 

 a hunt, or swapping lies about a hunt they had made. 

 The old man was aiding in the materialization of a town 

 on the wild West plan. The town was booming. It had 

 a patent outride weekly paper and— the remainder of the 

 town was expected in course of time. Thi*, so to speak, 

 was its incubating period. The town was a work of art 

 and imagination nicely blended. It possessed all the 

 modern improvements, built on papier-mache foundation 

 and after the India ink style of architecture. Jim built 

 the town all alone by himself. He wouid point with 

 pride to its clean, roomy street*, the absence of unsightly 

 telegraph poles, and other striking evidences of the rnil- 

 lenial age. But those sora. 



It was along the tirst of September, and .J im and the old 

 man were going up the Chijoax Creek after sora or rail 

 birds. This creek emptied into the James River at Clare- 

 mont. It was patterned after the fashion of a rad fence, 

 and to say the least was a trifle erratic in the course it 

 pursued. 



The day was all that could be desired, and the water 

 promised to be unusually high, thus leaving very little 

 shelter for the birds and making good poling. A short 

 walk brought us to the boat, a light flat- bottomed affair 

 kept at the mouth of the creek. The wind was fair, and 

 the objective point, a low piece of marsh on the left, 

 was soon reached. Jim was to take the first whack at 

 the birds, while I shoved the boat and gathered in the 

 dead. This being the fust really good tide of the season 

 the eora were plenty. Toe boat had barely entered the 

 wild rice, before the birds began to rise on all sides. It 

 was bang, bang, right and left as fast as you could shove 

 in the shells. A few mi ses at the start, and then Jim 

 settled down to business and dropped them with com- 

 mendable regularity. The birds w ere fat and lazy, sit- 

 ting about on the lice in twos and threes and often per- 

 mitting the boat to aim ist run over them before they 

 took wing. We were using about two drams of pow- 

 der and half an ounce of No. 10 shot. It required very 

 little skill to knock them over, as they invariably flew 

 straightaway, and it was the rapid work with the gun 

 that gave zest and excitement to an otherwise rather 

 mechanical sort of sport. The greatest difficulty was to 

 secure the dead birds. This is where the professional 

 pus ner gets in his fine work. It maters not how many 

 jouhave down at one time, he locates and recovers 

 every one, for he is paid so much per bird. 



In a comoarativt ly short time the ammunition was 

 use I up, and taking stock of the dead we counted over a 

 hundred b ids. In the meantime the wind had increased 

 in force, and when we started for home the creek was 

 rough and dmgerous for so light a boat, the coffee- 

 colored waves often coming in upon us. The water came 

 in faster than we could bail it out, and wtien within 80 

 or 40yds. of the shore the boat began to sink. We man- 

 aged to reach shallow water before a big wave struck us 

 and 6 isbed the job, leaving us standing in water up to 

 our armpits, making frantic efforts to secure our birds 

 and other loose contents of the boat, which were floating 

 about us. A provoking mishap but rather a ridiculous 

 situation, and one that seemed to afford considerable 

 amusement to several negroes in a big lighter on the 

 shore. After getting as much of our property as we 

 could we threw a rope to thenegiops and asked them to 

 pull the boat ashore. They stood on the end of the 

 lighter, which, by the way, was half full of water, and 

 gave a mighty tug at the rope. Snap went the rope, 

 tumbling the negroes over backward into the water with 

 a great sp'ash. Then the laugh shifted to the other side, 

 and we made merry at Sambo's expense. Finally the 

 tangle was straightened out, the boat made fast, and we 

 started to finish our journey on foot. But our tribula- 

 tions were not over, for on coming to a small stream that 

 made in from the creek the bridge was missing and we 

 had to take to the water once more. However, this was 

 the last of our misfortunes, and after getting inside of 

 dry ol >thes and outside of a warm supper, we decided 

 that altogether the afternoon had been one of jolly good 

 sport. "What matte'-s a ducking when you bring home a 

 well filled game ba^? 



The sora always left with the first frost. One day the 

 marsh would be alive with them. If there was a" frost 

 that night, the next day you could hardlv find a bird. 

 The negroes kill them at night for the market, but they 

 waste no powder and shot in so doing, A fat-wood fire 

 in a tin pan, elevated 4 or 5ft. above the bottom of the 

 boat, a light paddle, from 12 to 16ft. in length, and the 

 sora-smacker's outfit is complete. One shoves the boat 

 while the other manipulates the paddle. The birds are 

 bunded by the light, and before they can get out of reach 

 down comes the death-dealing paddle. The smacker 

 rarely misses. Every swing of his long stick means a 

 dead sora, and so the slaughter continues while the tide 

 remains high enough to float the boat. Ten to fifteen 

 dozen is an average night's work. 



But there is other sport to be bad besides sora shooting 

 on the Chipoax Creek and its vicinity. Summer duck, 

 mallard, black duck and geese are quite plenty in their 

 respective seasons. Wild turkey, too, that prince of all 

 game birds, is to b^» found there, and the deer afford ex- 

 cellent sport. I will tell you of these things later on. 



Old Man. 



A HUNT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



We left Medicine H it early in the morning for the 

 famous sand hills on the Red Deer, of which we had 

 heard glowing accounts as to the abundance of game. 

 We were a large party, having been joiaed besides our 

 own people by six Hunters from Hat. Captain Moodie 

 of the mounted police came with a spanking team hitched 

 to a buckboard. and a fine gray saddle horse ridden by 

 his servant that we were to use, and with the three four- 

 seated wagons, the baggage wagon, and half a dozpn led 

 cayuse ponies, we made quite an imposing appearance 

 as we started. 



It was a bright, crisp day, with a suspicion of snow in 

 the air, and we rattled along over the bare hills, covered 

 only with buffalo gra s, at a spanking pace for about 

 seven miles, when we stopped at a little lake to wait for 

 the laggards — the half-breed guide who drove the bag- 

 gage wagon was always behind. There were plenty of 

 avosets, snipe, plover and a few ducks, and some of the 

 party, especially the one who was supposed to be the dead 

 shot of the p^rty (any wa\, to hear his stories one would 

 think so), had quite a time popping away at them but 

 with no grt at results. After we all got together we 

 made another start and kept on, over the same kind of 

 country, looking all the time for the lake where we were 

 going to feed. About 2:30 P. M. we came in sight of it. 

 It was about one and one-half miles by one- half, and 

 was black with ducks which flew up and down all the 

 time. 



Swallowing their lunch, four or five of the party went 

 after them and shot as fast as they could for an hour or 

 so. In the meantime it began to snow in great wet flake* 

 and we decided to pitch our tents and camp for the night. 

 There was no wood. The snow fell very fast. We got 

 our tents pitched and sat in tnem. Tried to make a fire 

 with bulrushes, of which a fringe a few feet wide grew 

 all around the lake, but they only smoked. Captain 

 Moodie, whom long life on the frontier had made fertile 

 in expedients, worked diligently, and after awhile, by 

 splitting up a box that held provisions, eked out with 

 bulrushes, managed to boil some water and make tea, 

 and we who did not go out to shoot sat and shivered in 

 the tent. The hunters came straggling in very much 

 excited. They picked up that fell on the land, and that 

 was only a small portion, abut a hunured ducks, many 

 of them canvasbicks, besides geeoe. A colder, wetter, 

 hungrier crowd was seldom seen, and we all soon went 

 to bed to get warm. The alkaline water had made two 

 of us sick, and as soon as we would get a little warm we 

 had to get up and go out, coming back colder than ever. 

 A horse, wanting a dry place to lie down, chose the side of 

 the tent and lay down on the head of one of us; so taking 

 the whole thing together the night was not the most com- 

 fortable one, but the Mark Tapley of the pa rty on waking 

 up said, ' Oh! isn't this jolly; I never passed a better 

 night !" We did not drown him, but felt like it. 



The snow was about Gin. deep and it was very cold, so 

 two of us concluded that we had had enough, and taking 

 two cayuse ponies we started back to Medicine Hit, 25 

 miles, with nothing but trackless hills to go over, as the 

 snow had covered up our trails. The half-breed said 

 "k^ep a little west of south," and off we went. If any- 

 body has ever ridden a cayuse 25 miles when he did not 

 want to go (and he seldom does), he knows something 

 about what we went through. Pounding, kicking and 

 shouting we worked our passage on, hour after hour, 

 thinking every time we got to the top of a hill that we 

 would see something, but another hill just as high was be- 

 fore us. At last, as our courage had just about oozed 

 out, we came on an old trail that looked as if a wagon 

 had some time or other gone over it. After following 

 it about a mile we came in sight of the lake seven miles 

 from the Hat, and knew where we were, and if we ever 

 felt good, or a meal tasted good, it was when we got 

 back to our car. I will leave for some other time the 

 story of how we went out to shoot prairie chickens, 

 waited an hour for a ride home, and rode 100yds., when 

 the team ran away, throwing us about 30ft., breaking our 

 guns, and nearly breaking our necks. 



The rest of the party went on for about twenty five 

 miles and camped for the night in the snow, with no 

 wood or water. Four of the party were sick all night, 

 cold and alkali being the cause, and found it the longest 

 and most uncomfortable night in their lives. The next 

 day we struck the river and followed it down to the Sand 

 Hills, where we camped in comfort. Two of the party 

 started off to kill all the game in the region, and got lost, 

 not having seen anything. With nothing to eat, it snow- 

 ing a little, they walked and walked until even the sage 

 of the party had to admit he did not know the way. It 

 was a hard blow to him, as be had a fairly good opinion 

 of himself, but they kept on walking and firing their 

 guns, and after about an hour they heard an answering 

 shot. Visions of supper, fire, etc., rushed over their 

 minds, and they hurried on, the answering shots coming 

 nearer and nearer, but no signs of camp-fire. At last 

 they came on another tenderfoot of the party who hailed 

 them with, "Oh! I am glad to see you, I have been lost 

 for two hours,'' and even Mark Tapley, who was one of 

 them, almost said "What will become of us?" but caught 

 himself in time. They had to keep on or freeze, and 

 after walking until about 11 o'clock they at last found 

 the camp. 



The next day we hunted, There were plenty of sharp- 

 tailed grouse, but they were very wild. The moment 

 your head showed up over the hill, up with a whirr would 

 get all that were within 200yds. We followed them all 

 day and killed fifty or sixtv. Our mighty hunter in 

 chafing them around a sandhill came suddenly upon a 

 doe and gave her two barrels. She ran around the hill 

 and he followed her and afti r awhile came on her again, 

 giving her more, and kept it up until the poor thing was 

 so full of No. 8 shot that she could hardly carry them, 

 and Mark Tapley, meeting her face to face, finished her. 

 When we came to eat her there was as much shot as 

 m^at. We hunted another day, killing nothing, and 

 started back, reaching our car without any trouole, 

 traveling 150 miles and killing one deer, while the wagon 

 loads of antelope, bear, deer, etc. we expected to kill 

 were left in undisputed possession of the Sandhills of the 

 Red Deer. 



It is astonishing how little game there is on those 

 great plains. Since the buffalo are extinct you travel 

 mile after mile and see nothing but an occasional coyote, 

 except prairie dogs, and even they are scarce. Around 

 the water courses there are some grouse and a few lynx 

 and skunks, and in trie season many ducks and geese, 

 but the hunter who expects much game will be greatly 

 disappointed. w. 



THE JOYS OF ROUGHING IT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



When reading the descriptions of elaborate club houses 

 and the expensive paraphernalia employed in hunting, 

 I sometimes think that after all there is fomething 

 in the "advantages of poverty," at least so far as the 

 enjoyment of woodcraft is concerned. My ideal of sport 

 with rod and gun is to get as close to nature as pos- 

 sible; for what is it that gives us enjoyment in this par- 

 ticular form of amusement but the sati-fynig of the 

 yearnings of the untamed part of out nature? I hold, 

 then, that the more we uncivilize ourselves the more en- 

 joyment we will receive. Now, uncivilized men are indi- 

 vidualists in the highest degree; there is no division of 

 labor among them, each one does almost everything for 

 himself, catches his own fi h, shoots bus own f arne, pad* 

 dies his own canoe, as is frequently the case wiih sports- 

 men, I am too poor to employ much help in my hunting 

 cxcuisions, and were I rich as Gould I would follow no 

 other method. Of course for a novbe or tenderfoot thia 

 would be impracticable, but if any one favored with a 

 good constitution and some experience would try my 

 method.s, I am persuaded he would approve of ihem. He 

 would see, if he used his eyes and ears, that he would 

 soon acquire a good knowledge of woodcraft. He would, 

 even in a stiange neighborhood, with Indian instinct find 

 trout pools and deer runways; he would find himself able 

 to tell by the sound of a hound's tongue whether he was 

 running a deer or merely making a'spurt after a rabbit 

 or porcupine, and he would tell at which point ducks 

 would be likely to fly near and where to set out his decoys. 



Every man who has hunted deer knows how mu< h 

 more satisfactory it is to kill one still-hunting than by 

 any other method. There he depends on his own skill, 

 not only his marksmanship, but his woodcraft as well, 

 To my mind ther^ can be very little satisfaction in the 

 mere killing of a deer in the witer by a sportsman who 

 has been paddled by his guide up to it, after it was driven 

 there by dogs set out by another guide, and who himself 

 could not go into the woods alone for fear of lo-ing his 

 jvay. To my mind such sport is on a par wiih Engli-h 

 pheasant shooting— a very tame affair. Should my ideas 

 be carried our, I admit there would be less game bl ought 

 home by sportsmen, but what they did get would be hon- 

 estly their own. 



I wed remember the first deer I killed. Two of us, 

 rather young men, secured the privilege of supplying 

 the provisions and accompanying a couple of professional 

 hunters on an exclusion to the backwoods. My mind was 

 tilled with visions of deer, bears and wildcats; and not 

 being the possessor of any more formidable weapon than 

 a 12-gauge shotgun, I was about sacrificing it lor a cheap 

 rifle, when I mentioned the matter to one of the hunters • 

 with whom I expected to take the trip. He asked me 

 what kind of a rifle shot I was and how much practice I 

 had had. When I confessed that my piacice consisted 

 of shooting about twenty rounds of Government ammu- 

 rlltion yearly at fixed targtts, he told me to keep my 

 shotgun or get the loan of a larger one if possible. 1 bor- 

 rowed a nondescript engine of destruction, which the 

 owner called a goose gun. (I found he spoke the tiuth 

 in regard to the name when I had carried it for some 

 miles through the woods.) It was originally a muzzle- 

 loader, but had been converted by a clever blacksmith. 

 The bore was 8 gauge, with barrels 40in. in length, ami 

 weighed about 151bs. I got with it eleven brass shells, 

 which I thought not half enough at the time; but as I 

 could not obtain any of the size in the town, I had to 

 make the best of it and take a good amount of ammuni- 

 tion for reloading. 



Two days' j >urney by stage brought us to our destina- 

 tion; and on the following morning we went for a hunt. 

 I was placed on a runway with instructions to keep still. 

 My companion and one of the hunters watched the lake, 

 while the other hunter put out the dogs, I got myself 

 and most of the big gun secreted behind a broken hem- 

 1 ck stump. In about an houi 's time I heaid our hound 

 giving tongue, probably a mile away, toward the lake. 

 I thought the race was not coming my way, but soon the 

 bay. of the hound sounded nearer, and this time it was 

 accompanied by the yelping of the cur, which constituted 

 the other part of our pack. It was evident the race wa8 

 coming my way and I became very nervous in conse- 

 quence. All my previous expedience had been with 

 small game and the thought of a monster buck caused 

 me to tremble with excitement. I could, I fancied, hear 

 my heart beat. What if I should m.ss! The thought 

 brought me to my senses, so I steadied my nerves and 

 silently raised the hammers of my gun. Presently a 

 small spike horned buck, which looked as Large as an ox, 

 appeared on the edge of the small clearing in front of me. 

 He halted for a moment, as if undecided what to do, 

 but the loud voice of the hound seemed to cause him to 

 make uphismind, and on he came straight toward me and 

 destruction. When he was about the distance a pitcher 

 stands from a batter on the baseball field, I gave a sharp 

 whistle, as I had been previously instructed. He stopped 

 and I covered his shoulder with the howitzer and pulled; 

 he leaped into the air and fell; raised his head and I 

 pulled the other trigger. Fortunately for what was left 



