456 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec, 27, 1888. 



I approached the tree in which she was sitting she made 

 no attempt to fly, even when I was almost tinder her. 

 My second specimen, a typical & Bvteo sivainsoni, was 

 taken on the morning of August 31. Both the giz- 

 zard and oesophagus were filled with grasshoppers, and 

 out of curiosity I undertook to ascertain their number. 

 I found 110 pans of the large hindlegs, while an assist- 

 ant counted 133 heads. It is safe to say that this hawk 

 had captured 125 grasshoppers before 9 A. M. If this can 

 be considered as the average number killed per day by 

 each bird, the total number killed by the flock during 

 their stay in the vicinity must have been something 

 incredible. 



"About the 1st of September the hawks disappeared, 

 and although I visited the place several times during 

 December and January, as well as during the summer of 

 1888, I never saw more than two or three at one time cir- 

 cling about in search of food." 



Perhaps some of your "Western readers may record 

 similar occurrences. 



mine 



SHOOTING CLUBS OF CHICAGO.-NO. 1. 



THE FOX LAKE DISTRICT. 



WHEN Abraham Lincoln was a young man there 

 were muskrat houses where the Chicago City Hall 

 now stands. All about Chicago and. to the west and 

 southwest especially, stretched unbroken miles of what 

 was then thought to be worthless prairie land. The coon- 

 capped settlers of Illinois clung to the timbered districts 

 of the Kankakee, the Illinois and other streams, and ven- 

 tured not forth upon a wind-swept plain whose soil, 

 since it appeared too poor to grow trees, seemed to their 

 eyes unfit for a crop of any life-supporting grain. Chicago, 

 situated fairly in the middle of one of those vast marshes 

 which at intervals threaded this worthless tract, was in 

 her first struggle at growth sneered at as a wildcat town, 

 and the Boston men who — as Boston men have ever since 

 devotedly done in the development of the improved West 

 —sunk their money in such risky securities as those of 

 such a wildcut town, were pitied or derided by even the 

 rough deer hunters of the Kankakee. The Boston man is 

 easy victimized, even to-day. He could never, nor has 

 he learned to resist the fascinations of a well-colored 

 town map. For that Boston man, however, who braved 

 the long and dangerous voyage by lake boat and stage 

 coach, and found finally the spot where his money had 

 vanished among the rat paths of what is now Chicago, 

 there remained but the one course of despair. Chicago 

 was built on a foundation of sunken wealth. We dig it 

 up to-day, and often it has been returned to some foolish 

 investor, or to his children, and returned increased a 

 hundred thousand fold. 



Counting what is part of Chicago, she is the second 

 city of America. Counting what Chicago is and can do. 

 she is the first city of the earth. Of her wonderful 

 growth, almost superhuman in its phenomena, it was not 

 possible for human mind to reckon. Of the wonderful 

 changes which have occurred in that growth it is not pos- 

 sible for the human mind to more than faintly reason. 

 They tell you that there was until lately very good can- 

 vasback shooting where a certain rolling mill now stands: 

 you hear it, but do not understand it. Mv friend tells 

 me that a few years ago he shot ducks on the exact spot 

 where Potter Palmer's Northside winter mansion stands; 

 my friend could not lie, but how could he shoot through 

 those massive walls? 



Clearly the Chicago man is a being of his own kind. 

 Chicago cares nothing for the methods of another city; 

 she has methods of her own. The only way you can ap- 

 peal to a. Chicago man is through the medium of ideas 

 and of enterprise. If you have not been there, stay away 

 from Chicago. Go to Boston or New York, or some other 

 quiet and sleepy neighborhood. 



It might have been supposed, though it has not been 

 supposed, that Chicago men would know how to play as 

 well as they know how to work. The conventional pic- 

 ture of the Chicago business man as being a careworn 

 overworked individual, with no soul above a dollar and 

 no nose above a grindstone, is an altogether inaccurate 

 and erroneous one. Quite to the contrarv, the Chicago 

 man knows how to take generous recreation as well and 

 better than any other kind of a man. Chicago theaters 

 are as good as any. Chicago city club houses are models 

 of taste and luxury. More than all that, the Chicago 

 man has due appreciation of the fact that only the outer 

 air is good; and into the sports of the outer air he has 

 gone with a thoroughness, a comprehensiveness and an 

 uitelligence which cannot be claimed by any other city 

 It shall appear later on in these articles that this is true 

 not only of what is called the natural sporting class, but 

 ol none so much as our very best business men and most 

 prominent citizens. 



It is a common saying that Chicago has anything vou 

 want. Singularly ^ enough, this is true even for the sports- 

 man. Many a Western man has been surprised to learn 

 that within fifty miles of Chicago there was better duck 

 shooting than he ever saw, and bass fishing such as he 

 hadn't had a legitimate chance to dream of; and he has 

 been surprised at the ease with which regions could be 

 reached near at hand to the citv, abounding in deer in 

 1 V U ? 6 \ £ r ?" se > and al ^ost every kind of small 

 game. The fact is the city lies in the middle of what is 

 naturally a magnificent game country, and not even 

 these continuous years of settlement and not the hiving 

 here of countless swarms of motley humanity has served 

 to frighten the wild game from its territory or clear the 



?^f?T th u eu ' ac ? ustomed waters - u Pon the 

 north he the unexhausted woods of the two peninsulas- 

 nearer yet are the woods and streams of Wisconsin ; below 

 S, ^^^^y 'attorn lands of the Kankakee and Illi- 

 nois, the finest duck grounds out of doors; while anyway 

 you look there are pretty little lakes offering comfort 

 bar & f 01 ; a 8Um T r da ^ Tt is not fi ction to say 

 hands TW c? Sp ° rt al8 ? 1 CMca g' has all things in hi 

 5% J hat C 5W? would wisel J f oster her btst inter- 

 ests m the matter of sport, as in all else, and that the 

 characteristic ideas and enterprise would be shown in 



£ t ri h ° d °l d0m " tMs is ' 1 a mat ter which mfgS 

 better have been expected, since it is really so planfa 



It was known in a general way that Chicago men had 

 bought shooting grounds not fa/ from the city; that ! they 



¥11. A T 



MAP OF THE FOX LAKE DISTRICT. By Courtesy ot the John Wilkinson Co. 



had preserved tracts of duck marsh; that they had in 

 some instances erected club houses; but just the extent 

 of what that means, and just the completeness and thor- 

 oughness implied in carrying that out, was left, I believe, 

 for Forest and Stream to learn. Certainly no other 

 newspaper, so far as I know, has ever investigated this, 

 certainly an interesting field. 



A glance at the accompanying map — prepared, by the 

 way, as a matter of enterprise, by a firm which sells 

 great quantities of fishing tackle to frequenters of that 

 region — will show the general features of the best known 

 sporting ground near Chicago, the Fox Lake district, 

 famed for redheads, canvasbacks, big bass and pickerel. 



The Indian whose canoe first parted the wild rice along 

 these shores never lacked game or fish for his fire; the 

 trapper of the past generation found his traps always full 

 of fur along these waters, and the market shooter reveled 

 in unstinted slaughter. Even to-day there is part of the 

 old abundance left, and quite enough to warrant the 

 general occupancy of the larger lakes with the club 

 houses and cottages of Chicago's men of means. How 

 general this occupancy has been is best seen by an ex- 

 amination of the appended birdseye map of Fox Lake 

 and the immediately adjacent waters. 



Fox Lake, the largest and deepest lake of the system, 

 is an irregular sheet of water, about three by one and a 

 half miles in dimensions, and is possessed of features of 

 some picturesque interest, its banks being in great part 

 hea vily wooded and of not unpleasant outline. In depth 

 the lake runs from shoals to eighty feet it is said. It has 

 always been a great fishing ground for bass, pickerel, 

 croppies, sunfish and other sorts, and the angler who 

 understands his art can still be sure of a good creel there. 

 The reedy shallows of the lake afford fine breeding- 

 grounds for the fish, and its deeper waters protect the 

 big fellows from a too greedy persecution. A still better 

 breeding bed exists in Grass Lake, which lies directly 

 north of Fox Lake, connected by a long and winding- 

 channel. Grass Lake is a vast and shallow sea of rice, 

 reeds and rashes, filled with numerous spots of deeper 

 water. For the greater part of the year it is altogether 

 impenetrable to the hunter or fisher, and cannot be 

 troubled with line, spear or net. Camp Lake, Silver 

 Lake, the Twin Lakes and Lake Maria are other lakes 

 of the system which show good strings in the fishing- 

 season, and so does Pistaqua or Pistakee Lake, which is 

 also one of the duck-shooting lakes. It is with Fox Lake, 

 Grass Lake and Pistaqua Lake that the greater portion of 

 our present interest centers. 



In Lake county alone there are said to be over forty 

 lakes. In two townships over one-half the superficial 

 area is water, and good duck and fish water at that. The 



system offers for duck feed, wild celery, wild rice, the 

 "marsh potato," spiral grass, smart weed, and many 

 aquatic plants to which wildfowl resort less willingly. 

 The deep-water ducks, canvasbacks, redheads, bluebills 

 and ringbills have always made a heavy flight to the Fox 

 Lake celery beds, the first this side of Koshkenong Lake, 

 some distance to the north. Grass Lake, shallow, full of 

 wild rice and other feed, is patronized by the mallards 

 and teal more especially. Both classes of ducks trade 

 along the river or cross the bluffs to Pistaqua Lake, Be- 

 sides the varieties named there are found in less numbers 

 the widgeon, ruddy duck, ringneck, goldeneye and buffle- 

 head, with the sheldrakes, mergansers and that ilk, and 

 some geese and brant. Swans are once in a while noticed, 

 but none has been killed of late. Among the marsh ducks 

 also are the "black mallard" (dusky duck), pintail, spoon- 

 bill, gad wall and woodduck. There is some good snipe 

 ground about the lakes, and very decent bags are made 

 in season. The spring flight of deep-water ducks is 

 usually very heavy, as might be expected along so ex- 

 tended a chain of big waters holding feed, and until this 

 lamentable fall there has generally been abundance of 

 shooting for the many shooters. Only a portion of the 

 territory is owned by the Chicago clubs, and the hotels 

 can accommodate the visiting sportsman and supply him 

 with boat and pusher. When one considers this, and 

 when he further considers the crowded appearance of the 

 lake shores, which look more like a village than a shooting- 

 locality, he will be surprised to hear that almost any one 

 of the numerous bays affords good shooting. The ducks 

 do not appear to mind the houses, but feed out in the 

 open water in full view. It is rather an anomalous state 

 of' affairs, and shows nothing more clearly than the per- 

 suasive powers of wild celery. About as good fishing as 

 any the lake affords is directly in front of the Howard 

 House stairs. A Mi-. Anderson, of this city, once took a 

 35+lb. muscallonge there. Two other gentlemen once 

 caught an 181b. muscallonge near Crab Apple Island. A 

 14-year-old boy with a common cane pole caught one of 

 32Jbs. Dr. Bell, of Chicago, landed one of 3llbs. Yet 

 another weighed 42|lbs. Large pike are also taken in 

 the deep channel leading out of Grass Lake. The channel 

 is clear, running over a sandy bed, and the banks of 

 rushes and lilies on each side afford good lurking places 

 for the big ones. 



Among the good fly way points on Fox Lake are the 

 little channel between Petite Lake and Fox Lake, the 

 river bays between Nippersink and Fox Lakes, and the 

 top of the wooded hill between Fox Lake and Pistaqua 

 Lake. The latter stand lies just above the building 

 marked "Union Club." (There is no Union Club now, 

 that body having been absorbed by the Mineola Club), 



