Nov. 8, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



807 



climb down again, launch my boat and try to get tlie 

 last buck into it. 



If the reader has ever tried to drag a buck into one of 

 these light crank Adirondack boats in deep water, he 

 knows what I had to go through. I managed to do it 

 without upsetting after ten minutes hard work, and then 

 paddled up to the boat house, where I left hiin. 



On my way back a line doe jumped into the water and 

 swam a hundred yards ahead of me. As she left the 

 brook she offered me a good shot, but of course I did not 

 harm her. I dragged my first buck to the bank with 

 much labor and rolled him into the boat. By that time 

 the others returned without any deer, though the Senator 

 had two does pass him within easy distance. My prize 

 was duly admired and I congratulated, and I returned to 

 the club house well pleased with my first hunt at the 

 Adirondack Club. 



I never heard a hound during the hunt, nor did the 

 deer seem to be very much concerned about them. They 

 were taking it very quietly, and I presume having heard 

 enough to alarm them, were quietly sneaking out of 

 harm's way. Wakeman Holberton. 



THE DARDENNE CLUB. 



ST. LOUIS, Mo., Nov. 2.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 The duck shooting lakes in this vicinity are fast 

 being taken up by clubs for game preserves, and in a 

 little while there will be no place around about here to 

 shoot ducks at unless a person belongs to one of the 

 various clubs. There are now five clubs in this city that 

 have game preserves, and in all probability there will 

 soon be another added to the list. 



The latest addition to the list is the Dardenne Fish and 

 Game Club, and the grounds which it has ' leased are 

 situated in St. Charles, this State, thirty miles from this 

 city, in a north westerly direction. St. Peters, on the 

 Wabash Western Railway is the station to get off at, and 

 then there is a four-mile trip by wagon to reach the 

 lakes. 



Fifteen years ago the Dardenne Lakes were leased by 

 a club composed of gentlemen of this city and it was the 

 first game preserve established in this part of the country. 

 At the expiration of the ten years lease the owner of the 

 land demanded an increase in the rental, which the club 

 considered exorbitant, and failing to come to terms with 

 the landlord, Mr. P. D. Gallagher, the club abandoned 

 the grounds and located on the Illinois River, about 

 eighty-three miles above here. 



After losing a few years' rent for his swamp land, which 

 rental, by the way, was sufficient to pay the yearly taxes 

 on the 5,000 acres of land which he owned in the im- 

 mediate vicinity, he became quite anxious to entertain a 

 proposition to lease the grounds for a fan rental, and on 

 this fact becoming known to Capt. H. C. West, a very 

 enthusiastic field sportsman, by the way, he interested 

 himself in the matter and called upon several gentlemen 

 in this city and informed them of the scheme. No trouble 

 was experienced whatever in obtaining the necessary 

 number to organize the club, which was promptly done, 

 and the grounds and lakes were leased for a term of ten 

 years, to take effect from last Monday. 



A club house is to he erected immediately on a piece of 

 land on the bank of the Mississippi River which the club 

 has purchased. It is to be a large building and will em- 

 brace sitting-room, bed-room, dining-room, kitchen, 

 store-room and extra sleeping quarters for the necessary 

 help. A stable for a team of horses which are to be kept 

 at the grounds to convey the members to and from the 

 lakes is also to be built. 



A kennel to accommodate twenty dogs will also be one 

 of the fixtures of the place, and will be fitted up with all 

 modern improvements as to comfort for the canines. 

 Many of the members own valuable dogs, both bench and 

 field trial winners. 



The Dardenne Lakes are without doubt the best known 

 of any in this vicinity, and the grounds have the reputa- 

 tion of having more large bags of ducks and snipe made 

 in them than any other place within 100 miles of this 

 city. Away back in the '60s it was quite famous, and 

 there are many old-time field sportsmen in this city who 

 can recall pleasant recollections of days spent up there 

 shooting ducks and snipe when St. Louis was a mere vil- 

 lage. 



On the grounds in question there are two lakes; one 

 covers an area of about"600 acres and the other about 200 

 acres. Food is plentiful in both, and they are well sup- 

 plied with vegetation, which affords splendid cover for 

 duck shooting. Wild celery in abundance is found in 

 the lakes, and in consequence, excellent canvasback and 

 mallard shooting is had in early spring. The canvasback 

 is a rare duck in this section, and when they do make 

 then: appearance all other kinds are shunned for the time 

 being, and every point is strained to bag as many of 

 them as possible. A member of the old club, in the 

 spring- of 1883, bagged fifty-six in one evening's shooting, 

 which was the largest single bag ever made at the Dar- 

 denne preserve by any one in the last fifteen years. 



Mallard shooting in the fall, if the person is fortunate 

 enough to strike the flight, is most excellent, and some 

 remarkably large bags of them have been made up there. 

 In 1873 a "party of three gentlemen bagged in a three- 

 days' shoot 634 mallard ducks, besides a number of other 

 varieties: they also had a few geese, brant, snipe and 

 some quail. This is a matter of record, and can be seen 

 on the record book of the club, which was kept at the 

 club house, ami in which each member was required to 

 record the amount of game killed by him each day. 



The lands surrounding the lakes 'are low and marshy 

 and well adapted for snipe shooting. There is probably 

 2,000 acres of this kind of land, besides 1,800 acres in what 

 is known as Bellew Swamp, which is owned by an Indi- 

 ana gentleman, and which is also included in the club's 

 preserve, it having leased it for the same length of time 

 as the Gallagher lauds. 



All things considered the Dardenne's game preserve 

 offers to its members as fine sport as can be found in this 

 part of the country, and before the close of the present 

 season large bags of clucks will be put on record as hav- 

 ing been killed on the preserve. 



Following is a partial list of the club's members, all of 

 whom are residents of this city: 



Capt. H, C. West, Gen. J. W. Noble, J. B. Morris, Col. 

 Morre, Mark Taylor. C. F. Mathey, Richard Hospes, F. 

 Bradford, A. Shapliegh, J, Delany and J. Shepley. 



Unser Fritz. 



MAINE DEER. 



RANGELEY, Me., Oct. 29.— Editor Forest and Stream; 

 In your issue of Oct. 25, 1 think that "Special" has 

 a very good idea of the deer question. If the Commis- 

 sioners will give us the month of September in addition 

 to what we now have as open season, I do not think the 

 guides would paddle a sportsman up to a deer in the 

 early part of the season. And as for allowing hunting 

 with dogs, I think, andinfactl know, it would beclosely 

 looked after, as T would shoot a dog if seen chasing 

 a deer and let the deer go, and I have heard others say 

 the same thing. 



And as to the loggers I do not think that out of the 500 

 men employed for the last two years, which embraces 

 about twenty camps, there are a half a dozen deer killed 

 during the winter, as the men get too tired during the 

 week to run deer Sunday. I have been a guide here for 

 eight years, and worked in the woods in winter, and I 

 have known positively of but one deer being killed by 

 any of the crews. 



As for fires in the month of September, the guides are 

 very careful about their camp fires, always putting them 

 out before leaving camp. 



Deer shooting, as he says, has not been much of a suc- 

 cess so far this season, as it has been so wet. I know of 

 but one moose and two or three deer being killed so far, 

 but it is not the scarcity of deer that prevents, for there 

 are plenty of them in the woods. Last fall, in being out 

 six days I saw nine, but did not shoot any on account of 

 bad doing, as they would always get the start of me. I 

 do not think any one can go a half-mile in the woods 

 without crossing deer tracks after first snow comes. The 

 law allows three deer to each man, but I don't think that 

 there are more than two or three who get what the law 

 allows them. W. A. R. 



Boston, Nov. a.— Editor Forest and Stream: Deer 

 hunting in Maine is being followed for all it is worth this 

 fall, and it is really worth a good deal, if we are to take 

 in all the accounts we hear and read. But it is evident 

 that Maine sportsmen are getting more of this noble game 

 than outsiders. Conductor George West, of the Maine 

 Central Railroad, has lately returned from a successful 

 deer hunt, resulting in the slaughter of two fine bucks. 

 A letter from Millbridge, Washington county, Maine, re- 

 ceived by a Boston merchant yesterday, gives a brief ac- 

 count of a party of three Rockland, Me., hunters, who 

 have just returned with a deer apiece, the result of a four 

 days' hunt in the wilds of the upper Narragaugus River. 

 From a party of Boston gentlemen, who also just returned 

 from the same region, it is learned that a party of three 

 Mount Desert sportsmen came out of the Narragaugus 

 woods the day that the Boston party was going in, with 

 three deer apiece; all the law allows them. There were 

 also other hunters in at the time, and they had taken 

 several deer. There is not a doubt that the num ber of 

 deer killed this fall in Washington county alone will he 

 very large. This killing is done in the open season, and 

 hence it is entirely legal, provided that each hunter kills 

 but three deer, and dogs are not used in their capture. 



Special. 



AN OCTOBER OUTING IN FLORIDA. 



AT 4 o'clock of a gray October morning a sailboat 

 darted out from the shelter of one of the many 

 piers that line Pensacola's water front. It was sailing 

 under jigger and foresail, and as it reached the open 

 water and felt the full effect of the fresh breeze it bounded 

 away o'er the billows like a thing of life. It contained 

 two persons, the Skipper and Crew. The Skipper's ex- 

 perience in Floridian waters was very limited indeed, 

 but the Crew was a walking compendium of information. 

 The coast from Pensacola to Key West was as f amihar to 

 him as the streets of a country town to a native-born citi- 

 zen. He had hunted and fished its whole length, and 

 had been over it in the interest of science. The Crew 

 had come on this trip in order to show the Skipper the 

 best game resorts near the city. It was early for game, 

 but, nevertheless, the guns were taken along. The desti- 

 nation was Garcon Point, nine miles to the eastward on 

 Escambio Bay. 



The wind began to freshen and hauled to the eastward. 

 The Skipper glanced dubiously at the windy-looking sky, 

 then at the increasing white-caps, and pictured to him- 

 self a nine-mile beat to windward in a leaky, open boat. 

 He remembered how a few days back he had. undertaken 

 alone to sail to windward, in the same boat, with a heavy 

 sea on. He succeeded, but he had to bail water with one 

 hand, and steer with the other for three long, weary hours. 

 He consulted with the Crew. The Crew, old salt though 

 he was, did not relish the beat to windward. It was de- 

 cided to shape the course for the old Naval Reserve, 

 where there was a fresh-water lake and some thick 

 woods. The sheets were eased off, and the boat with the 

 wind on the port quarter glided down the long swell with 

 a speed that was decidedly exhilarating. After a run of 

 an hour the boat was rounded to in the lee of a sand spit 

 and anchored. A landing was made, the Skipper keep- 

 ing his feet dry with his hip rubber hoots. He says, how- 

 ever, that long boots may do for wildfowl shooting on 

 Illinois marshes, but hereafter in Florida he will wear an 

 old pair of shoes and leather leggings to protect his lower 

 limbs from thorns and possible rattlesnakes. 



The Crew pointed the Skipper in the direction of the 

 lake and bade him search, which he did. Pushing his 

 way through some dense palmetto scrub, his vision was 

 gladdened by the view of as pretty a lake as one seldom 

 sees, even in this land of lakes. It is one-quarter of a 

 mile long and not over 200yds. wide at its widest part, 

 with wooded bluffs on either side and a small stretch of 

 marsh at each end. Its clear, orystal waters abound in 

 fish , and it is a noted resort for ducks, especially when the 

 weather is stormy and the birds seek refuge from the tur- 

 bulent waters of the bay. One can stand on the wooded 

 bluffs or among the flags and have good shooting as the 

 birds fly up and down the lake. 



A sharp glance over the expanse of water reveals two 

 dusky objects near the rushes on the northern shore. 

 The Skipper carefully retraces his steps to the beach, and, 

 keeping the sand ridge between him and the fowl, works 

 his way toward them. While pursuing his devious course 

 over logs and refuse timber, he is startled by the whir of 

 wings near him, and looking up beholds two dusky ob- 

 jects cleaving the gray mist of the early morning with a 

 vigor that betokens them to be bluewing teal. His 10- 

 bore belches forth, hut they stop not, He ejaculates, 



"The first ducks of the season and a rank missl" A few 

 minutes later a boom to the south'ard is heard, and he 

 knows that the Crew is "on to" something. Later in the 

 day he learns that the Crew saw the teal alight on the 

 water, and, taking advantage of a patch of grass, had 

 crept on them and got a shot and bagged one. The Skip- 

 per continues the march, and soon discovers in the further 

 end of the lake two waterfowl that he takes to be ducks. 

 He carefully conceals himself in a patch of scrub pal- 

 metto and patiently waits for them to come Within gun- 

 shot. A kingfisher comes and perches itself on a dead 

 limb above his nead, but soon discovers him and flies 

 away. Several herons fly over the lake a hundred yards 

 up, and an alligator comes to the surface a few rods off 

 and slowly swims in a circle for several minutes and then 

 disappears. The fowl start to swim down the lake, and 

 as they approach the blind he notes with disgust that 

 they are diedappers. The spirit of destruction, however, 

 is on him, and he turns loose his breechloader and one of 

 the birds turns its feet heavenward and the other dives to 

 shot. Walking out on the marsh, a plover flies up and 

 wilts before the leaden hail; a white tern ventures within 

 gunshot and pays for its rashness with its life. Leaving 

 the marsh he enters the pine woods, and after a walk of 

 half a mile emerges on a clearing that shows signs of 

 having been made many years before. A negro hut 

 stands in one comer, half hidden in a grove of thrifty- 

 looking orange and peach trees. As he crosses the clear- 

 ing he is welcomed, by the usual number of dogs, that 

 seem to be necessary adjuncts to farming life in Florida. 

 The sable proprietor issues forth, calls off the dogs, and 

 pi-esents his visitor with several fine samples of west 

 Florida oranges. Upon being interviewed as to the game 

 resources, he ventures to assert that there are some deer 

 and turkeys back in the hammock. The hammock is 

 several miles back and the day is well advanced; so, ac- 

 companied by a negro boy, the Skipper strikes hack into 

 the pines to look for doves. The doves fail to materialize, 

 but on the way a snake is started and its head shot off. 

 The boy maintains stoutly that it is a rattlesnake, but the 

 Skipper doubts it, as it is devoid of rattles, although it 

 has the diamond-shaped spots on its back and looks 

 decidedly ugly. Soon after the Skipper and Crew meet 

 at the boat, sails are hoisted, anchor weighed and the 

 course laid for the city, using the red water tower on 

 Spanish Fort as a guiding point. IVANHOE. 

 Pensacola, Floi-Ma. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



TCHINSON, Kan., Oct. 29.— The general drought 

 of the past year, or more properly speaking of the 

 past two years, has made havoc with sport in Kansas. 

 All the ponds of this section of the country, with very 

 few exceptions, are dried up; the streams run only in 

 driblets, aud even the big and turbulent Arkansas shows 

 but a thread of water. A few weeks ago it was entirely 

 dry. At Great Bend the bed of the Arkansas has been 

 for weeks as dry as a floor, and the Cheyenne Flats, 

 whose long chain of lakes usually affords the finest of 

 wild fowl shooting, have had no water on them at all. 

 The result of all this has been that the fall flight has not 

 come down across this country yet, and probably will 

 not until some very severe storm drives it across corintry 

 regardless of water-courses. The Arkansas begins to 

 show a little water, now that the use of the irrigating 

 ditches in Kansas and Colorado is slacking up, and nearer 

 the mountains there is always a constant, though small 

 stream of water in its bed. Along this part of the river 

 and so far down at least as La Junta, Col., numbers of 

 clucks and geese have been found for some weeks hack. 

 At Hutchinson the hoys have had only two good days, 

 when a small flight came down the river, actuated by no 

 apparent reason. On last Thursday Will Chamberlain 

 bagged twenty ducks, several geese and a white crane. 

 There were a few canvashacks anions the ducks, and 

 one Canada goose among the others. The Canada goose 

 is rare along this river. The Hutchins goose and snowy 

 goose afford the bulk of the shooting. There are a num- 

 ber of splendid young sportsmen here who keep up one 

 of the very best' trap clubs in the State, and have more- 

 over a strong leaning to wildfowl shooting. Among 

 the inveterate ones at the latter sport, and those also 

 most successful, are Mr. Eli Young, Mr. Miles Taylor, 

 Mr. Sam Forsha, Mr. Fred Burslem and Mr. Will Allen. 

 When these gentlemen like, they can string out a hun- 

 dred or more goose and duck decoys along a sand bar, 

 and many a gray sunrise finds them in the pits waiting 

 for the '"morning flight," of which they always give 

 good account. There are no keener sportsmen or better 

 fellows than Hutchinson's shooters, most of whom are 

 well-to-do young business men . They are strictly modern 

 in their ideas and practices, and a visitor must be pretty 

 nearly a "daisy" if they do not show him something 

 ahout guns and shooting. 



Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 31.— Messrs. Thos. Yearnshaw 

 an3 Scott Alexander have returned from a successful 

 shooting trip at Roosevelt, on the D. M. & Ft. D. road, in 

 northwestern Iowa. They were absen t about a week, and 

 during that time bagged over 250 redheads and canvas- 

 backs. They report snipe in great plenty imthat vicinity. 

 After their return the main flight of ducks appears to 

 have held up, and to be now stationary about thirty miles 

 north of Spirit Lake and along the southern edge of Min- 

 nesota. Shooters in central Iowa complain that no ducks 

 have made their appearance in any great quantities. 



Mr. C. E. Yearnshaw, just returned from Missouri River 

 marshes near Sioux City, Iowa, reports that the flats 

 were fairly alive with jacksnipe. 



Mr. C. W. Budd, known all over the country, lives here 

 in Des Moines, and is at present home getting acquainted 

 with ids wife and family, after his long and continuous 

 trip through the trap-shooting circuit. He had had a 

 couple of clays' rest when I met him, and expressed him- 

 self as feeling immensely better. He says shooting at 

 the trap isn't such a picnic as it looks. Mi-. Budd was 

 just going fishing as I saw him, and declared a big bass 

 or pickerel would please him as much as another medal. 



The Des Moines river is showing more water now than 

 in the past few months, and fair fishing has lately been 

 had in the deeper water above the dam. 



The Des Moines trap club is a large one, and comprises 

 a lot of jolly fellows. Politics and warm weather have- 

 interfered a little with the serious business of life, and the 

 boys have let the clay birds go more than in duty they 

 should have done. They promise to reform now at once, 

 Davenport, Iowa, Nov, 2,— The rifle and trap clubs 



IF 



