270 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[APRIL 3S, 1891. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, HI., April 15.— To-day the duck season 

 closes in Illinois, and the troxit season opens in Wis- 

 consin. One continuous round of pleasure. As for the 

 duck season now ended there seems little reason to call it 

 anytning but a changeful and capricious one in shooting, 

 though perhaps that is all that can be said for any duck 

 season. The birds have certainly been seen over our 

 marshes in unusual abundance. That is the main and 

 cheering fact, and I am glad we have so few heavy spring 

 bags to report. I have shot ducks in the spring myself, 

 and I know many goodish sort of men who do the same, 

 but the practice "^is falling off as it should very well do. 

 Anything to save the birds. I believe that the spirit ex- 

 pressed in that wish is on the increase in this country. 

 There is getting to be more of a popular interest in game 

 laws. The whole people must be convinced of their ne- 

 cessity, The voices of a few sportsmen make small noise, 

 but tiie voice of general protest against the destruction of 

 our fish and game was never so apparent before in this 

 region. 



As to the ducks, more Bpecifically. On Camber land 

 marsh more ducks have been killed than in any one sea- 

 son for five years. On Mak-saw-ba marsh the shooting 

 has been hard, but the birds abundant. There are not 

 very many hard-working shooters in Mak-saw-ba Club, 

 but^ those who did work got birds. At Lake Senachwine, 

 in the Illinois River country, the feed seems to have been 

 good, and the shooting has been pretty regular. On Tel- 

 leston marsh, Little Calumet, the fowl have been abund- 

 ant as usual and more so. This is choice property. A 

 year ago last fall Mr. Alex. Semple shot on Tolleston 

 marsh on seven consecutive Mondays, stopping at about 

 3 P. M. on each day to take the train in to the city. His 

 bag for the seven days was 331 ducks and 93 snipe. This 

 is within 30 miles of" Chicago. I think this a record not 

 often beaten. This spring I do not hear definitely much 

 from Tolleston. You have to hunt hard for Tolleston 

 news, though why this should be I am sure I don't know. 



Beyond all question the feature and the chief cause of 

 wonder for this season has been the jjrolonged and tre- 

 mendous flight of ducks in that much derided and much 

 settled up locality, the Fox Lake region. They tell me 

 this passes belief. One of the market-shooters there 

 shipped 500 ducks, the ijroduct of his single gun in three 

 days shooting. Everybody who went up there w^ithin the 

 past two weeks seems to have hit it right. Billy Mussey 

 is jasfc back. He got 61 in two days. Charlie Burton had 

 several. good bags. Fred C. Donald also got a fine lot. 

 Al Knox got 73 one day. Ed. Cleaver, Will Price, Charlie 

 Carhart, Frank Floyd and numbers of others also had 

 fine shooting. At the opening of this week there were 

 about 3,000 canvasbacks working on Fox Lake, and prob- 

 ably 15,000 bluebills. 



From Hennepin Chib I do not hear much, except that 

 Geo. Davis got a good lot there a little while back. This 

 is in the mallard country, but the mallards seem to have 

 been scarce all this spring, 



A]pril ic?.— Snipe were chiefly absent before this week, 

 but ai-e now coming in. They are all over the Cumber- 

 land, Water Valley and Koutts country on the Kankakee 

 to-day. Earlier in the week they were at Gillman, on 

 the Illinois Central road. Last Wednesday Percy Stone 

 and Rolla Heikes picked up fifteen right around Wheaton, 

 To-day is soft weather with warm rains, and unless ap- 

 pearances are very deceiving we shall hear- of heavy bags 

 of jacksnipe made to-day and to-morrow. I should try 

 it myself down at Shelby, Ind., if there were not a pre- 

 viously formed arrangement, by which my friends Hirth 

 and Harryman and myself are to open the bass season 

 for ourselves at Momence, on the Kankakee River, to- 

 mon-ow afternoon. From now on the fishing interests 

 wiU be looking up as compared with field shooting. 



The executive committee of the Illinois State Sports- 

 men's Association have been busy lately in their arrange- 

 ments for the annual spring shoot, June 9 to 13, inclusive. 

 The cash prizes already foot up a greater total than at 

 any previous shoot here, and will go so much larger still 

 that it is likely the aggregate will show larger than at 

 any shoot of the entire circuit this year. Comparatively 

 little merchandise will be offered in prizes, though I 

 notice Secretary Shepard came around to ask about that 

 annual missionary copy of FOREST AND Stream, But 

 then Forest and Stream isn't merchandise. It's more 

 like currency. By the way, Mr. Wm. .J. Starr, of Eau 

 Clare, Wis. , was in town the other day. He visited a 

 sporting goods house here, and reporting his conversa- 

 tion later the gentlemanly salesman who supplied his 

 wants said to me, "I have a compliment for your paper. 

 Mr. Starr says it is the only gentlemanly paper published 

 in the line of field sports. It's clean." That's about so. 



I see that my friend Charlie Budd fell down against 

 Jim Elliott's liill in Kansas City the other day, in a little 

 entanglement aboixt a "championship" cup. Charlie 

 only got 46 and James A. R. got 49 out of 50. The latter 

 therefore retains the "championship," in spite of six 

 recent Waterloos. Six Waterloos are a good many. But 

 then, 49 out of 50 are a good many, too. 



That sweet thing, Harvey McMurchy is not, it appears, 

 on the coast at all. He was here last Tuesday, enjoying 

 himself with the "grippe," but promised to start for St. 

 Paul that night and to be back in Chicago in time for the 

 Illinois shoot. It seems that Mr. McMurchy and Mr. 

 Haggerty got into a little entanglement last week, down 

 in St. Louis, Mr. McMurchy 96 out of 100 live birds, Mr. 

 Haggerty 85. This was a strictly private, social race, 

 scores suppressed. ]\Ir. Haggerty kept his suppressed all 

 right, 



Mr, A. G. Spalding has retired from baseball and now 

 says he intends to get acquainted with his business a 

 little. The sport of baseball is much a scheme, and is 

 up and down , always a matter of fight and faction. The 

 spirit of field sports is sweet and undisturbed, perennial 

 and pleasant. I sincerely trust that some one of Mr. 

 Spalding's lieutenants will sell him a gun and a fishing 

 outfit and make a reformed man out of him. 



A week ago Chicago had a baby lion, born at Lincoln 

 Park, Last Wednesday evening it died. Its mother was 

 Maggie, the big and popular lioness known by all visitors 

 of the Park. Maggie died on the same day of the birth 

 of the little fellow, and the keepers smothering their 

 regret for the loss of the old pet, put the lion kitten in 

 the charge of an Irish setter female. The setter and the 

 cub took to each kindly, and for a timeseemed to flourish 

 in their strange relation. The cub was about as large as 

 a full-grown cat. Soon, however, the baby lion began 



to pine away, and passed in his checks last Wednesday. 

 The setter made a great outcry over her foster baby's 

 death, and fought those who came to take it away. 

 Since then she has been inconsolable, for she had been 

 very proud of her baby lion, as indeed the keepers and 

 all Chicago had been. So the animals have tragedies, 

 too. 



Last week I sent to Forest and Stream a copy of a 

 game law bill passed by the Senate April 9. This bill is 

 not a law, and we hope it cuts no figure, for it is not the 

 bill introduced by oiu- sportsmen's" committee, but one 

 presented in the Senate by Senator Hamer. The sports- 

 men's bill was introduced in the House Committee, and 

 it passed the committee favorably, though it will doubtless 

 meet opposition on the floor of the House, on account 

 especially of one clause attached to it, which exempts a 

 warden specifically from action in damages for a wi-ong 

 seizure or prosecution. This clause may or may not be 

 constitutional, but is probably unfortunate. At this date 

 we cannot learn what the fate of the sportsmen's bill will 

 be, thought it is thought that by next Tuesday something 

 will be kno^vn. Recent developments point to an adjourn- 

 ment of the Legislature at an early date, and it can only 

 be hoped that the measures wished by the sportsmen 

 shall go through. 



It was really very pretty, so says Dr. Bartlett, our State 

 Fish Commissioner, to see how the sportsmen's commit- 

 tee tangled up and got away with Col. Bond and his game 

 dealer cohorts before that House committee. There were 

 Mr. Wolf red N. Low, of this city, for the State Association, 

 and Ml'. Clarence Knight, the able attorney who assists 

 the Fox River Association, and Mr. F. A. Baird, also for 

 the latter body, and Mr. Hawley, of Dundee, all agreed 

 for the sportsman's bill, which, of course, includes the 

 clause shortening the selling season for the dealers. 

 Against these Col. Bond made certain statements as to 

 the dates in other States, but the boys were loaded for 

 him — had a copy of the Booh of tlie Game Loh's, I be- 

 lieve — and could quote dates a shade better than he could. 

 "Col. Bond was knocked out," said Dr. Bartlett, "andtlie 

 boys beat the dealers altogether, in a square fight before 

 the committee. I never heard a more diplomatic, able 

 and convincing effort in my life than Mr. Low made. 

 And the bill went through with the committee right there." 

 Pity if it doesn't beconoe a law, as it deserves to be. The 

 point taken by the speakers for the sportsuien was just 

 this: The only way to prevent the destruction of game 

 is to prevent its sale, and the effort at that should he in 

 cutting off the inducement for the killers to kill. This is 

 just the doctrine so often presented in these columns. It 

 goes beyond the warden system pure and simple, for the 

 latter means to stop the killing while the inducement to 

 kill stiU exists. And on this very basis the dealers were 

 beaten by our men. We ought to remember that. 



I regret to announce publicly what has been known 

 privately for a time as a certainty — the closing out of the 

 Jenney & Graliam Gun Co. Since coming to then- new 

 location they have made but little over their heavy ex- 

 penses, and having a chance to sell their three years' 

 lease at a profit of $6,000, they took it and willclose. 

 This was voluntary and not forced. E. Hough. 



NOTES ON DEER HUNTING. 



C CHELMSFORD, Mass., MB,rch 2B.— Editor Forest mid 

 ! Stream: A late experience in fox hunting, coupled 

 with the article of Mr. Geo. H. Wyman on "The Traits of 

 the Virginia Deer" in Forest and Stream of March 19, has 

 suggested a few remarks. One of the pleasures of pe- 

 rusing a sporting journal is the comparing of notes with 

 the experience of other sportsmen. Your Boise City cor- 

 respondent struck the key note of the spirit of sport in 

 remarking that "it is not the kilUng of deer that makes 

 sport, but the chase, and I am as well contented without the 

 killing as with." His idea of sport in that line is shoot- 

 ing on a runway before a deerhound in company with his 

 friends. This statement will accord with the feelings of 

 experienced huntsmen in every section. 



That the hounding of deer is especially "a slaughter of 

 the innocents" is a mistaken oi)inion, and I agree with 

 Mr. Wyman that one good still-hunter can arrange to kill 

 more deer in a week than a party of several will get at 

 different runways before hounds. There are exceptions 

 to all rules. While agreeing with the general tenor of 

 Mr. W.'s article and as to the time a deer takes to water 

 when pursued by a hound, will say that in the backwoods 

 of Ontario I have known a band of six red deer take to 

 the lake in ten or fifteen minutes after being started by 

 the hounds. The hunter in this case made a pot slaughter 

 by killing five of the six with gun and paddle. As an 

 offset to this, a friend of mine killed seven deer on a stiU- 

 hunt in Michigan in one day, not over three deer being 

 seen together at any time. 



Regarding the destruction by deer hounding much de- 

 pends upon the caliber and training of the hounds. With 

 the average hound pitted against the average four-year- 

 old doe or buck, the latter are able to protect themselves, 

 in a great degree, by sagacity, flight or fight, unless the 

 hounds are aided by a large scattering of hunters stationed 

 at various runways. The pleasurable excitement of the 

 chase holds good either with deer or foxes. The deep 

 baying of the deerhound when on the scent, changing to 

 the glad, eager cry when in sight of its quarry is appre- 

 ciable music to the patient waiter on the ridge, runways, 

 or in the canoe. 



The foxhound commences baying and barking from 

 the moment of striking a fresh fox track, and the cry is 

 increased in rapidity and volume as the scent gets 

 stronger and the pace* more rapid. It is marvelous how 

 they supply wind for so much noise and action. 



The hunter, understanding the habits of the fox and 

 the corresponding action of his hound, will know from 

 the voicing of the latter about where to station himself 

 to intercejit the wily fox, who lias, perhaiis, been started 

 when himself on the trail of a partridge. Unless very 

 hard pressed Mr, Fox will either cncle round or by some 

 stratagem take the back door to the point of starting, 

 and. the alert sportsman will at times be kept in lively 

 motion to speedily gain desirable positions when the 

 chase is nearing him. 



Mr. L. Douglas, of this place, who during the past 

 winter has secured with dog and gun nine foxes in this 

 vicinity and two on the borders of New Hampshire, in- 

 vited me last week to ti'y my luck with him at fox hunt- 

 ing, which invitation was gladly accepted. Starting 

 early, when we came to a fork of two main roads with a 

 newly made timber road near by, and an open field and 



swamp on the right, he showed me where, by stationing 

 himself at this point, he had shot three foxes within a 

 month. 



On reaching the swamp, which was frozen over suffi- 

 cient to traverse by using care, we found tracks of rab- 

 bits, partridges, mink and fox impressed ta the newly 

 fallen snow. The morning was too cold for the hound to 

 scent well, and after trailing several diflierent tracks by 

 sight, he invariably returned to us without getting up a 

 full cry. At a certain intersection of two brooks we 

 found numerous mink tracks, some of which were so 

 large that D. concluded to return in the afternoon and 

 set a couple of traps for them. 



While indulging in a rest, a lunch and a chat regarding 

 the habits of the fox, my friend spoke of one that watched 

 him. Seeing his tracks repeatedly at a certain crossing 

 of the road in angle line with a stone wall, he had for 

 several mornings started out early to try and intercept 

 him. As the fox did not "show up,'' and as his tracks 

 led up to a large rock on the hillside overlooking the 

 road, D. concluded the fox could also play at the game 

 of intercepting; consequently to beat his game, an unusu- 

 ally early start was made one morning, and D. stationed 

 himself where he could overlook the rock, and soon Mr. 

 Fox came trotting along and sneaked up on the rock 

 where he sat watching for the usual coming of his hunter. 

 A charge of BB shot from the rear stopped his watching. 

 This reminded me to remark that bears will indulge in 

 similar watch meetings at times. 



Last spring, while walking with Sam Crowle from his 

 shock to the crossing of the IlHcilliwact near its junction 

 with the Columbia, he was complaining of the bears who 

 were constantly chasing and sometimes killing his pigs. 

 There were fresh tracks along the trail, and Sam re- 

 marked that quite likely some of the bears wore then 

 watching us. After he had rowed me across the river I 

 proceeded on my way to Revelstoke, and he had not gone 

 over a quarter of a mile on his return trij), when after 

 passing a large fallen tree he heard a slight noise, and on 

 looking around he saw a black bear on top of the wind- 

 fall facing him. As bruin quickly turned to jump down 

 Sam sent him a .44-caliber bullet as a salutation, which 

 traversing his body from flank to shoulder laid him out 

 quivering. This bear had evidently lay within ten feet 

 of us when we passed him on the trail. 



After lunch, Douglas said wp had better go on a mile 

 or more to a fox borrow he knew of, and then if the dog 

 did not strike a fresh scent we would defer the hunt until 

 the next flurry of snow. From the present outlook that 

 will be a long postponement. Wayland. 



SHORE BIRD SHOOTING. 



BOSTON. — The spring shooters along the Massachu- 

 setts shore are making some good bags this year, 

 though not all are fortunate. Mr. Gordon Plummer, of 

 the Boston Leather Co. , is a lover of spring shooting, as 

 indeed he is of any sort of shooting, and many is the 

 trip for shore birds that he is the author of. Indeed he 

 is on record almost every season, fall and spring, for 

 going shooting, and generally with remarkably good 

 luck. This time it was a good company that went down 

 to Nantucket, a little over a week ago, composed of Mr, 

 Plummer, E, S, Grew. W, H, Rothwell, W, E, Plummer, 

 all of Boston, with Will Mason, of Providence. They 

 were away about a week, and came back with a score of 

 187 birds, 100 of which were brant geese. They brought 

 home 87 brant, having used several at the house where 

 they stopped. These Ijirds, together with several eider 

 ducks, black ducks and sheldrake and old squaws in 

 abundance, they had on exhibition for their friends the 

 other day. It was a bag seldom seen in these days of 

 scarcity of game, and only brings with the pleasure of 

 the hunters the pity that they killed so many birds on 

 their way north to breed. 



The spring shooting is also reported to have been exeel- 

 lent in the vicinity of Portland, Me., and more especially 

 at Pine Point. Geese and wooddack were taken with a 

 number of brant and an abundance of lesser birds, such 

 as sheldrake, old squaws, etc. A large number of local 

 sportsmen took part in the shooting. In the vicinity of 

 Biddeford Pool good shooting was also reported. Alto- 

 gether the spring shooting has been better than usual 

 this year. Special. 



ROCHESTER AND VICINITY. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Some very practical people may be glad to know that 

 canoe and yacht clubs are of some other use occasionally 

 than causing men to fool (?) away their time several 

 weeks in the year, and may approve of the action of the 

 canoe and yacht clubs of this city in holding a joint meet- 

 ing lately for the purpose of enlisting the members in the 

 project of the Government to form a lake naval organiza- 

 tion for the protection of the lake cities in case of war. 



The snipe are here and several fair bags are reported, 

 the best being that of E. O. Sage and Dr. Stoddaxd, of 

 this city, who brought in ten as the result of a day's 

 shooting. The only trout fishing heard from so far is that 

 of the Caledonia Club on the opening day, when several 

 members made good scores. The dealers in tackle report 

 trade very brisk for this season. 



The Monroe Sportsmen's Association has put out the 

 following quantities of fish: In Oatka Creek 50,000 brook 

 trout: in the tributaries of Irondequoit Creek 50,000 brook 

 trout; in the tributaries of Oatka Creek 50,000 brook trout; 

 in Burned Swamp Creek 10,000 brook trout; in Old Allen 

 Creek 25,000 brown trout: in the Hoffman Creek 5,000 

 brook trout; in the Genessee River above the city 100,000 

 wall eyed pike; in Irondequoit Bay 1,000,000 wall-eyed 

 pike; in Black Creek 50,000 wall-eyed pike; in Lake On- 

 tario in the vicinity of Rochester 12,000,000 wall-eyed 

 pike; in Irondequoit Creek above Float Bridge an indefi- 

 nite number of channel pickerel; in the Genessee River 

 above the city a large number of native black bass from 

 six to eight inches in length; in Irondequoit Bay an in- 

 definite number of Oswego bass and in Long Pond a very 

 large number of bass, channel pickerel and wall-eyed 

 pike. At the meeting when it was decided to do the 

 work just detailed, Monroe H. Green, of Caledonia, 

 brother of the lamented Seth Green, was present and pre- 

 sented some very interesting points; also advised as to 

 the waters to be stocked and the kind and quantity suita- 

 ble for each. Since April first, game i^rotector Schwartz 

 has captured and destroyed seventeen gill and fyke nets. 

 This is a good showing and added to his past record 

 marks him as one of our most efficient protectors, 



