374 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 21, 1800. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, 111., Nov. 20.— Under date of Nov. 10, Mr. 

 U. G. Huff writes from St. Glair Flats: "Last week 

 the Flats were full of what are locally called hoop-nets, 

 which were placed in all of the cuts back (north of the 

 south channel), so as to completely cut off all still-fishing. 

 The punters are shifting their ranches to the Soy Burs 

 and the mouth of the north channel in Anchor Bay, to 

 be on the best shooting ground for market shooting. 

 There are now more than 50 market-shooters on the Flats. 

 Joe Bedore is king of the tribe, as well as 'king on de 

 Flat, ba gare. : I inclose a sketch of the boat used by 

 him. I call it a battery, bub he calls it a punt. He being 



king, I give in. This 'punt' is lead-colored. It is used 

 anchored in the middle of 200 to 800 decoys. 



"Joe has declared against those bronze-headed decoys. 

 I am going to the Flats in afew days and will remind him 

 of the one he promised you. 



"Bill Hodgson would make a first-class warden accord- 

 ing to my way of thinking. 



"The punters tell me they have not seen so many 

 ducks on the Flats for years as are there at the present 

 time." 



Mr. H. H. Taylor, also of Detroit, writes that another 

 year will probably see the Flats an incorporated village, 

 under the name Little Venice. This is a fine tribute to 

 Grace Denio Litchfield's story by that name, published 

 last season in the Century Magazine. There is a haze of 

 natural romance about the region. 



Anent the recent mention of the demi-god Brusewitz, 

 who upholds the dignity of the game laws in this city as 

 warden duly appointed, Mr. John Preston True writes 

 from Boston, Oct. 24: 



In a certain town in New Jersey (so goes the story) there was 'a 

 prohibitory liquor law. There was also a choice assort tnent. of 

 grog shops in which the existing city government had a lively in- 

 terest, as they were ran by friends and served as rendezvous for 

 heelers. Finally, the better citizens went quietly to the supreme 

 court and secured a mandamus against that mayor and council, 

 requiring them to do their duty in regard to the liquor law. 

 There was woe among the politicians, likewise wrath and con- 

 sternation. If the law was enforced their own friends would suf- 

 fer. If it wasn't iheir own bodies would speedily be committed 

 for contempt of court. Self-preservation being the stronger they 

 passed the word around, and the Arabs of the rum holes folded 

 their tents and silently stole away. Supposing you try that on 

 your game warden! 



It would seem that we need a new warden here worse 

 than one galvanized by a mandamus. Besides, if Bruse- 

 witz doesn't know a prairie chicken when he sees it how 

 could we expect him to recognize a mandamus? 



And now comes the State of Wisconsin, the same with 

 blood in its eye, and once more we are going to have 

 "radical changes in the game laws." The following, 

 from the dispatches, will shed light on the radical change 

 business: 



Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 20.— The Wisconsin State Fish and 

 Game Law Oommission at its annual meeting held this afternoon 

 discussed the report and recommendations to be made to the nest 

 Legislature. These will recommend important and radical 

 changes in the present laws. The Commission will urge that the 

 fish and game laws be so amended to bring the operation and 

 effects of both under one distinct head, in order to avoid conflict 

 and consequent failure. The present system, it will be urged, is 

 most defective and unfortunate. A conflict of interests continu- 

 ally occurs that can only be avoided bv the unification of the fish 

 and game interests and the appointment of one official head, 

 warden, manager, or chief, who will have complete and undis- 

 puted authority, and to whom alone all subordinates should re- 

 port. During the last year 50,000,000 spawn of all kinds of fish 

 props gated in Wisconsin hatcheries have been placed in various 

 waters of the State. This immense hatch, however, has not more 

 than half met the demands. At the meeting this afternoon an in- 

 vitation was read from the Secretary of the Committee on Fish- 

 eries and Fish Culture Exhibit at the Columbian World's Fair in 

 Chicago to the Wisconsin Commission to attend an important 

 meeting of that commit tee at Chicago, Saturday next. The. invit a- 

 tion was accepted, and a delegation will leave for there to-morrow 

 for a general conference relative to a fish exhibit at the World's 

 Fair. 



It seems to me that the Wisconsin law needs less 

 tinkering and more execution. 



A little above I have mentioned the writing of Grace 

 Denio Litchfield, on the St. Clair Flats. That was fiction, 

 and not altogether piscatorially accurate fiction. I can 

 not refrain from offering below a bit of writing, not fic- 

 tion, but better than fiction, done for an Indiana paper 

 by Evaleen Stein. It is simply a description of the Kan- 

 kakee Paver, of which mention is so often made in these 

 columns: 



For half a hundred miles above and below San Pierre it flows 

 through an almost unhroken wilderness. On either hand wher- 

 ever the swampy ground is sufficiently flrm.it is fringed by a 

 lordly forest, m whose shadowy depths ta.U elms andlinderis I ower 

 m all their solemn primeval beauty, while down by the water's 

 edge, among the delicately indented foliage of the river oaks and 

 maoles, the silvery sheen of birches and tender green of water 

 willows, the wild marsh mallow flushes to blossom in masses of 

 rosiest pink, and thrusting their way far out into the current, 

 thickets of button-bushes dangle their soft balls of ivory bloom, 

 the river itself is of the most marvelous transparency; and so 

 perfectly does it mock all things above and about it, so akin to 

 realty is its tremulous underworld, that to one floating upon its 

 surface there comes the strangest fancies; keen thrills of delicious 

 airy freedom, of winged buoyancy, such, perhaps, as the birds 

 may feel as they pose in the heights of mid-heaven. And yet 

 notwithstanding this limpid clearness, there everywhere plays 

 through the water a faint elusive tinge of amber, so betraying 

 the slight tincture of iron that lurks within it, and that gives it a 

 truly Midas touch. Indeed it has so bronzed and gilded and over- 

 laid every tiniest shell, every pebble and grain of sand, that the cur- 

 rent seems literally to flow through more priceless treasure than 

 did ever airy tabled stream of Grecian story. And when the yellow 

 sunlight filters down into its depths, to look into the river is i ike 

 peering ''/rou-u a i sr., , > : i <; crystal ^ mdow, srauj^i m Lues nf in- 

 describable richness and beauty, and wrought with fantastic 

 devices of tronded river mosses, of long, silvery grasses, with 

 here and there a little turtle or a shoal of shining' fishes, and far, 

 tar down, between the intricate tracer v of this strange living 

 fleeted skv' * twinkle u f bright glimpses of a delicately re- 

 light you are, Evaleen, though the rest of us couldn't 



say it so well as that. But that's the kind of rivers we 

 have out here. 



At Kansas City last week I saw "Buffalo Jones." He 

 had with him a couple of blankets made from the wool 

 of the buffalo. The fabric was woven by an Eastern mill, 

 and it was soft, silken and indescribably fine and warm 

 to the touch. A finer material for a lap robe or heavy 

 overcoat could not be found. Early in this century an 

 English and Scotch company was formed to manufacture 

 cloth in just this same way, but the project failed, and 

 was loudly written down as a wildcat, visionary scheme. 

 Yet here Mr. Jones, who has a way of doing the impos- 

 sible, is on hand quietly showing his little blankets, soft, 

 warm and entirely to be coveted. Mr. Jones says he just 

 peels the wool off from the buffalo at shedding time, it 

 coming off eaeily, in large flakes. He thinks one buffalo 

 will annually yield wool or "fur" enough to make a yard 

 of cloth. This is the first of the cloth he ever had made. 

 It can be made in quantity. It is very soft in texture, 

 softer than any woollen cloth, feeling more like fine fur. 

 The Jones herd of buffalo will be at Chicago during the 

 World's Fair. 



At Kansas City Mr. F. J. Smith informed me of an odd 

 freak game bag and gun that had come into his posses- 

 sion, an albino jacksnipe, nearly white, which was lately 

 killed by Mr. Hagedon, of Butler. Mr. Smith also has a 

 white quail, mounted for company for the jacksnipe. 

 These birds probably suffered from extreme fright of 

 some kind, so that their hair turned gray in a single 

 night. 



The great Chicago-Kansas City pigeon matches last 

 week attracted much attention. I wonder if anybody 

 knows how many tame pigeons are shot in a year at Jim 

 Elliott's park in Kansas City? Well, it is just about 

 60,000. John Watson, the veteran manager of the only 

 park patronized by Chicago shooters, says that Chicago 

 shoots only about 30.000 pigeons in a year. 



All the way from San Francisco comes a young gentle- 

 man and lays a card on my desk just when I am out of 

 town. Mr. Phil B. Bekeart, when I last saw him, was 

 one of the main hustlers of the E. T. Allen sporting goods 

 house of San Francisco, and I am sorry not to meet so 

 bright and well posted a young man. He knows a lot 

 about sport on the Coast. 



Not many goose shooters this fall. I may have com- 

 mented earlier on the Dakota trip of Messrs. Farmer, 

 Dicks, Hansen and Bluthart. They got ninety-six geese, 

 some grouse, some mallards and some jack rabbits, the 

 last what for I dun no. They were out ten days in the 

 Devil's Lake country, making Lacotah their entry point. 

 Mr. Farmer added to his decoy flock of geese while in 

 Dakota by purchasing two finely trained Canada geese. 



A little shooting at ducks lately, but nothing paralyz- 

 ingly large. "Ed Howard wires down that the ducks are 

 in again at Fox Lake. 



On Tolleston Marsh the shooting has been good till 

 within a few days. They have raised the wind and they 

 have raised the water down there on Tolleston. They 

 dammed the Little Calumet and so got a wet marsh. 

 Don't know what the folks below there are going to say 

 about that. 



Dick Turtle has been down at Senachwine Lake and 

 had fair shooting at ducks. 



Quail are unusually abundant not far out from Chicago. 

 Messrs. Butler, Smith, Donald, Willard and the writer 

 will make a trip before long, south of the city, after 

 quail. 



There are dozens of localities within 100 miles of Chi- 

 cago where cotton-tails fairly swarm. I confess to a 

 vulgar fondness for the sport of shooting cotton-tails, and 

 if a light snow comes before long a little party of us may 

 go out and have a regular country time of it. 



E. Hough. 



KANSAS GAME AND HUNTEHS. 



BURLINGTON sportsmen have been enjoying the 

 fickle weather of the past few days in close pursuit 

 of the numerous flocks of wildfowl that in their south- 

 ward flight make this then- resting place. The redheads 

 have passed us, but the mallards, teal and canvasbacks 

 are here yet, and the ringnecks and scaups have begun to 

 arrive. The last two named are the most abundant of all 

 our ducks in number and their period of migration 

 is longer. 



Just two miles east of town is one of the largest ponds 

 in this section of the State; an ideal ducking ground that 

 would make a perfect preserve. Here in season I have 

 taken almost every species of waterfowl found in our 

 State, either in migration or as residents. In summer 

 the king rail hides in the sedges thaj; lie along its marshy 

 shores, the teal nests upon its grass crowned banks and 

 the grebe builds its floating home amid the lotus leaves 

 that deck its placid bosom. In the evening the boom of 

 the bittern and the qua qua of the night-heron, with the 

 loon's weird cry, echo and re-echo through the gathering 

 shadows. 



The ducks gather here in immense numbers both in 

 spring and fall, and many are taken by local sportsmen. 

 In the Forest and Stream of the 6th inst., "F. B,," of 

 Ottawa, this State, says that "the sandhill cranes seldom 

 stop there." That may be true of his vicinity, but from 

 personal observation extending over several seasons and 

 the testimony of reliable sportsmen, I am convinced that 

 these long-legged, long-necked denizens of other climes 

 not only stop here, but frequently linger for several days 

 at a time. I have the skin of one specimen taken this 

 fall from a flock known to have remained in the neigh- 

 borhood for over a week. 



It is possible that the conditions and topography of this 

 vicinity are more favorable for them than the section 

 "F. B." writes from, though our counties adjoin. 



The market-hunter lives here in force, killing game 

 legally when he can, but taking it at any time. Our 

 game law is a dead letter, One of these hunters recently 

 brought in ten dozen quail, another six dozen as the re- 

 sult of a single day's hunt. A golden eagle was killed 

 Oct. 27 a few miles from town which measured 6ft. lOin. 

 from tip to tip, and weighed 7-Jlbs. It was a male and in 

 perfect plumage. I have the specimen mounted before 

 me as I write. Would like to hear from others in differ- 

 ent parts of the State. p. M. F. 



Burlington, Kansas, Nov. 14. 



The fall rains have just commenced here, and as a re- 

 sult the ducks are coming in fast. During the first part 

 of the week the meat markets were full of mallard ducks 

 and quail which were shot in this vicinity, Most of 



them, I think, are disposed of in the city instead of being 

 shipped to St. Louis and Kansas City, as is usually the 

 case. The weather is so warm the game will not keep 

 long. 



Last Wednesday I met a man who lives about seventy- 

 five miles west of this place, who had been looking for a 

 gun to bunt with this season. He said: "I am a market- 

 shooter, and in the winter I do nothing but hunt._ I am 

 now on my way home from Kansas City, where I have 

 been looking for a gun and trying to arrange to sell my 

 game. Prices are so low in Kansas City this year that I 

 shall send my game to St. Louis in wholesale lots." 

 These are the men who get the game in Kansas; they 

 are good shots and know just where to go, and thus they 

 clean out the game in a very short time. 



It has been raining here for thirty-six hours and the 

 ground is very muddy. This will bring sorrow to the 

 hearts of some of our men, because it spoils their hunting 

 with greyhounds. They would rather chase jack rabbits 

 and cottontails one afternoon than to hunt with a shot- 

 gun for two weeks. Greyhounds are numerous around 

 Ottawa, and some of them are astonishingly good rabbit 

 dogs, though few can show a pedigree. 



A farmer near town made an unusual catch one day 

 this week. He was out hunting and shot a large golden 

 eagle with a shotgun; the charge of shot only stunned 

 the bird and he was captured alive. He was brought to 

 town and formed quite an attraction for a little while; 

 he was finally sold for $10. XX. 



Ottawa, Kansa s, Nov. 15. 



COMBINED RIFLE AND SHOTGUN, 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Your correspondent "Shongo" describes in your paper 

 of Nov. 6 an "all-round sporting gun," devised to meet 

 his own wants and built in accordance therewith by his 

 friend Prof. W. B. Hall. 



I appreciate very fully the reasons he assigns for dis- 

 satisfaction with the arms he had previously used, and I 

 seize the opportunity his letter affords to call attention to 

 the existence of another gun contrived to meet the same 

 wants, and of which a single specimen was constructed 

 many years since and is in the possession of its inventor, 

 Dr. Edward Maynard, the inventor of the well-known 

 Maynard rifle. 



It is a double gun, the barrels side by side, and may be 

 a double rifle or a double shotgun, or one rifle and one shot 

 barrel, interchangeable with the same facility as the single 

 barrels of the Maynard rifle. Its general principle of con- 

 struction is the same as the single gun, but with some very 

 important improvements. The trigger guard, for instance, 

 which acts as the lever to move the barrels, is attached 

 to the stock instead of the barrel, as in the old pattern, 

 the hammers are reduced in size, and brought in exact 

 line with the surface of the barrels instead of projecting 

 above it, and the general symmetry of the gun is such as 

 to commend it alike for beauty and service. 



The barrels are united at the breech and muzzle by a 

 perfectly simple and effective contrivance which holds 

 them as firmly as if soldered, and yet admits of expan- 

 sion and contraction of either barrel without affecting 

 the other, and allows them to be instantly separated 

 when removed from the stock. 



The rifle barrels in this model are 20in. in length and 

 the shot barrels 26, but lengths and calibers can, of 

 course, be varied to suit tastes. The inclosed target was 

 made with this gun by L. J, Peck, of Albion, N. Y., to 

 whom it was submitted for testing, and is in itself suffi- 

 cient evidence that the reputation of the Maynard is fully 

 sustained in its new form. It has always seemed to me 

 the nearest approach to perfection that I have ever seen, 

 and Quartermaster-General Meigs said of it after a care- 

 ful test, "If introduced it would drive all the other sport- 

 ing guns from the market." 



The question then naturally arises, "Why is it not 

 manufactured for sale?" And the answer is the same 

 that prevents the introduction of many other articles of 

 far better quality than are now to be had — the willing- 

 ness of the great mass of our people to take an inferior 

 substitute because it can be had at a less price. If a 

 national contract for military arms can be secured it 

 will pay to provide the machinery for their construction,, 

 and that same machinery can be used for a sporting 

 weapon of similar pattern, which may be built of cheap 

 materials and put upon the market at a low price. But I 

 the men whose artistic tastes revolt at the sight of a 

 cheap substitute and who are willing to pay the necessaiy 

 cost in order to secure the best that can be produced are I 

 not sufficiently numerous to warrant manufacturers in 

 erecting machinery for the sole construction of a sport- 

 ing weapon. 



Since the construction of the gun I have described, 

 which, as I have said, is the only one ever yet made, 

 Dr. Maynard has contrived several very valuable im- 

 provements of which I have seen the drawings. 



I have hoped that I might witness the introduction of 

 a weapon which I am sure would gladden the heart of 

 every genuine sportsman, and that the inventor might 

 reap the reward he so richly deserves, but he and I are 

 alike too near the close of life to afford further indulg- 

 ence of such anticipations. 



Whatever may be the nature of future discoveries and 

 inventions, however, the existing model of which I have 

 spoken of a combined and mutually interchangeable 

 double rifle and shotgun will remain as evidence that ,1 

 the inventive skill of the present age was far in advance 

 of just representation in actual construction. 

 Minneapolis, Nov. 12. H. W. S. Cleveland. 



CHINESE PHEASANTS FOR VANCOUVER 



YANCOUVEE, B. C, Nov. 13.— The first lot of Chi- 

 nese pheasants imported by the Vancouver Game 

 Protective Association came to hand by the Parthia a few 

 days ago. We have sent them to Magee's farm, about 

 five miles distance from the city. They will be kept in a 

 pen for a few days to recover from the voyage, and then 

 turned loose. They arrived in splendid condition, and 

 while November may not seem the best month to turn 

 them down, we had to take them when we could get them. : 

 The weather is fine, and we have had no frost yet, so 

 they will have a good chance of looking around their new 

 home before winter sets in. There will be a large lot on 

 the Batavia in a fortnight's time, and these will be turned 

 out on different parts of the mainland. Will advise you 

 later on about cost of birds, how they thrive, and any 

 other particulars which will interest your readers. 



CHAS. E. TllPALL, 



