Dec. 27, 1888,] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



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There is a high narrow ridge between the two big lakes 

 here, and an open spot in the timber on this high, dry, 

 ridge, a most unlikely-looking spot, sometimes yields a 

 good bag to a shooter who can hit a small body of lub- 

 ricated electricity, There is a little round pond visible 

 from this ridge, not shown on the maps, in which two 

 guns last fall bagged 180 bluebills. This, however, was 

 with decoys. 



The art of shooting over decoys is highly perfected on 

 Fox Lake. The cover on the main water is very poor, 

 and artificial blinds must be used. These are sometimes 

 constructed of oak boughs or rushes, tied to a frame 

 whose supports are thrust into the bottom of the lake. 

 The shooting is done from the boat, which is anchored in 

 the blind. The canvas blind, described in detail in a late 

 article as a gunny-sack cover spread on a stretching- 

 frame to a height of about 3ft. above the boat, is rapidly 

 coming into favor and general use. I shotdd think some 

 of the blinds mentioned as used by some of the river 

 clubs could be introduced with good results on Fox Lake, 

 aud perhaps some shooters there may use them, although 

 1 do not know of any such. 



The method of shooting is to go out in the morning 

 and find some bay where a bank of birds are feeding, 

 whereupon they are quietly driven out, the blind arranged 

 and the decoys put out. The ducks come back to feed, 

 and come in usually in twos and threes, or in small 

 bunches, in the best way for shooting. This, at least, is 

 the theoretical way they come in, and the actual way 

 when the birds are "new." They soon become wary and 

 decoy very little except in the dim light or unusual 

 changes of the weather. Last spring, on one day between 

 the hours of 9 A. M. and 12 M,, Dr. Baxter bagged 14 

 bluebills and ran out of shells. Two thousand ducks 

 once went down the lake as one steamer load, the product 

 of two days on the lake. This is a sample of what the 

 decoy shooting sometimes is. Of course, the shooting is 

 best in the spring, as ducks then decoy more readily. 

 Among the favorite localities on Fox Lake are Willow 

 Point blind, across the lake from the bluff, Indian Point, 

 Ingleside Bay, Willard's Cove and the bays at the head of 

 the lake. Along Pistaqua Lake are Slough Bay, Redhead 

 Bay, Eagle Bay, Meyer's Bay, Drury's Bay and the point 

 which runs out below the old Cedar Island Club. 



The favorite boat on Fox Lake is not over 12ft. long, 

 double-ended, flat-bottomed, decked and combed. These 

 boats ride a very heavy sea, provided you don't attempt 

 to run them end on. Wallowing in the trough, they 

 seem never to take any water. This was a new style of 

 boating to me, but it seemed to work. There are, of 

 course, many sailing craft, and two or three beastly little 

 nuisances of pleasure steamers, whose skippers take a 

 wild delight in cruising through the center of the lake 

 and keeping the ducks stirred up from their only resting 

 ground. 



There are some matters which should receive the strong 

 attention of those interested in the continuance of Fox 

 Lake as a pleasure ground. One of these is fishing 

 through the ice during the winter; it is destroying the 

 fish at a terrible rate. Another is the continual harrying 

 of the ducks in the open water, and the incessant 

 "coasting" them up along the shores in the morning. 

 Not a boat ought to go out on the lake before full day- 

 break, and each boat ought to go directly to its own 

 stand, and leave the edges of the lake alone. Shooting 

 on the middle of the lake should be stopped entirely". 

 Thus the ducks would have given them a chance to feed 

 and a chance to rest, and would not be so apt to entirely 

 desert the region, as they may soon do unless a change is 

 made. To try to row up on a bunch of ducks in "the 

 open lake, and by repeated firing of heavy charges to 

 perhaps scratch down one out of fifty shots, is not sports- 

 manlike, and sportsmen should endeavor to have it 

 stopped. Let each shooter keep to his blind or fly way, 

 and the total result will be very much greater. The 

 ducks must have some chance, or they cannot be ex- 

 pected to stay. 



The birds-eye map gives a fair idea of the genera 1 

 lay of the lake, and is accurate in its essential features. 

 To the left, along Nippersink, there lie a few landmarks 

 which are not shown, among others Harry Dunnell's 

 house and the residences of Rob. Stanley and Capt. Hill, 

 the commander of the steamers Mamie and Mary 

 Griswold. The visitor to the lakes can take a steamer 

 across from the east shore, or if he wishes to go to one 

 of the larger club houses or hotels or the bluff, can follow 

 a winding and not very good road, six miles around the 

 lake. 



This district can be reached via Northwestern Railway 

 to McHenry, where a journey by stage or steamer of 

 six or eight miles is necessary, or by the more generally 

 convenient route of the Wisconsin Central, which runs on 

 up to the Wisconsin Lakes of the system. The usual 

 point where the club men disembark is Lake Villa. The 

 schedule rate for a round trip ticket from Chicago on Lake 

 Villa is $2.45, on Camp Lake $2.90, on Silver Lake $3. A 

 twenty-five-ride commutation ticket on Lake Villa can be 

 purchased for $12.45. The distance is only about fifty 

 miles, and a shooter leaves the city at 3 P. M., arriving 

 at the club house for supper in the evening, and in time 

 to make all preparations for the morning shoot. 



From the above preliminary and necessarily rather 

 guide-bookish description some little idea can be gained 

 of this, the most general playground of Chicago. In the 

 summer time it comes as near as anything to being 

 Chicago's Coney Island; but in the shooting season it has 

 a sterner aspect, and you may meet here nearly every 

 well-known shooter of the city, including many members 

 of the clubs below town. If there are ducks anywhere, 

 there are ducks at Fox Lake, and many duck hunters 

 who have strayed away after other idols are glad to come 

 back to the Fox Lake country when they hear the flight 

 is on. 



There are a number of clubs and private citizens own- 

 ing property on the shores of Fox Lake. Several neat 

 cottages adorn the little island known as Crabapple 

 Island, as shown in the birdseye map. The more im- 

 portant club houses lie along the picturesque west shore, 

 whose wooded bluffs reach back to a considerable height. 

 The sites of these club houses are picturesque in the ex- 

 treme, and a sojourn in one of those abodes is enough to 

 rest a tired man, whether he gets any ducks or not. 



The club intended for specific mention on the folio wing 

 week is the Mineola Club, a veiy strong and thoroughly 

 representative body of Chicago sportsmen, a complete 

 list of whose names will be given. E. Hough. 



175 Monroe Street. 



DUCKS BY THE BARRELFUL. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



You are often asked, "Where have the ducks gone?" 

 Let me tell you where some have gone. Two weeks ago 

 I was on my way to Arkansas, when our train stropped 

 at Paw Paw Junction, This is just at the edge of the 

 "Sunk Lands" of the St. Francis River, Arkansas. On 

 the platform were twelve barrels and two sacks of mal- 

 lards for a produce house in St. Louis. On the night be- 

 fore nineteen barrels were shipped from the same place 

 to the same house. Here were thirty-one barrels and 

 two sacks sent out in two days. The smallest barrel was 

 marked "sixty-four mallards." 



Now, let the gentleman sportsman figure up, and let 

 him add a fair number of cripples and ducks lost in the 

 weeds, and he will get some idea of what these market- 

 shooters are doing. These fellows own nothing but their 

 guns and dinghy boats, and' follow the ducks to their 

 bedding waters werever they go; yet, with infinite gall, 

 they have posted up notices warning outsiders against 

 coming there to hunt. It is probable that not one of the 

 gang ever saw a tax receipt (of his own) in his life; yet 

 men who do something to keep this country going must 

 stay away that they may kill and sell. Every little time 

 I see some crank who defends the "poor market-hunter." 



I wish men of this stamp could have seen this pile of 

 slaughtered ducks. I know you are doing all you can, 

 but why in the name of heaven can't we get up some laws 

 to stop the sale of game. That is the only thing to do. 

 Must the tens of thousand of true sportsmen all over this 

 land give up their sport in order that a few market- 

 hunters and a few produce houses may make money? 

 Year by year we go further and get less"; and it will be 

 only a question of time till all American game will go 

 just as the buffaloes have gone. Earnest. 



ADIRONDACK DEER. 



NUMBER FOUR, N. Y., Dec. lfl.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I am in favor of anything that will tend to 

 save the deer. A law to prohibit the killing of does 

 would be an excellent measure of protection. Something 

 needs to be done to protect both the does and bucks if we 

 would have deer long in the Adirondacks. 



The extension of the open season for hounding was the 

 best possible thing for the destruction of Adirondack deer 

 that could be devised. More than twice as many deer 

 were killed during the last fifteen days as during all the 

 rest of the open season. Deer take to water much quicker 

 as the season gets later. During September, especially 

 the first half, deer do not like to swim, and will throw 

 the hound off the track by running into small streams or 

 skirting along the shores of lakes. Besides, in October 

 farmers and most people living around the borders of the 

 woods have their work done and are ready for a hunt, 

 and every dog that will follow a deer is brought into re- 

 quisition. The three deer and one deer transportation 

 law does does not apply to the hounders; they jerk all the 

 surplus, and it is brought out of the woods in that way. 

 I know of parties that went into the woods last October 

 and numbered more than twenty hunters with nearly as 

 many hounds. If they killed three dear each it amounts 

 to nearly one hundred deer. I agree with E, S. W, that 

 if there must be any hounding at all let it be in Septem- 

 ber. But why have any hounding at all, if destructive, 

 which every one knows it is? For, like crusting, it 

 brings the easy killing of deer within the reach of all. 

 Will some one explain the difference in the principle of 

 driving them into the water where there is no chance of 

 escape and catching them in the deep snow. I think that 

 of the two modes crusting is more to be commended as it 

 does require long tramps on snowshoes, and a good deal 

 of labor. I believe the time is not far distant, when who- 

 ever taking advantage of its instinct by ch iving a deer 

 into the water with a dog, and it is while there deprived 

 of all means of escape, sets upon him with his boat, re- 

 peating rifle or club, whichever weapon best suits his 

 fancy, and murders him, will be rated with the cruster. 

 It requires no more skill nor experience, and I believe is 

 no more honorable nor sportsmanlike, 



I do not see any objection to having the open season 

 extended to Dec. 1, so long as one is restricted to three 

 deer. Not one in a hundred can exceed that number 

 were he to hunt the whole of November. There seems 

 to be a growing tendency among sportsmen to try still- 

 hunting deer in the woods. They begin to appreciate 

 that there is more pleasure in following the wary deer in 

 its native haunts and learning its habits, and where one 

 is constantly coming in contact with fresh objects of in- 

 terest to the student of nature, thau there is in sleepily 

 waiting in his boat for the frightened deer to carry out 

 the warnings of its instinct for safety by plunging into 

 the water, only to be more horrified by the sight of the 

 hunter there awaiting its destruction. 



I know of some sportsmen who abhor hounding and 

 jacking and are foremost in protecting the deer in the 

 Adirondacks, and who only enjoy still-hunting in No- 

 vember, and think it unfair that they are denied the 

 privilege of killing their three deer when they are in 

 their prime and w r hen the weather is cold enough so that 

 their families and friends can share with them the spoils 

 of the hunt, Musset. 



