FOREST AND STREAM. 



4^9 



too many, Northerners set off to visit certain Southern 

 sections that they learn by hearsay is a good game region, 

 and they are alaiost sure to fall, into the hands of irre- 

 sponsible parties, wliose sole object is to make all out of 

 the7ii they oati, 



1 have^just returned from a hunting trip of several 

 weeks' duration in Tidewater, Virginia, being to the 

 manor born, and knowing everybody, have had all the 

 sport I desired both in quail and wildfowl shooting. I 

 found that the posting of land both in Virginia and North 

 Carolina had become an actual mania. Old barren mead- 

 ows, where a field lark would starve; swamps that a 

 prowling coon would turn up his nose at, piny woods 

 that nothing that runs on four legs, or birds of any 

 feather could exist, all posted. The sign meets the eye 

 everywhere, and even neighbors are warned oii'— the 

 generous character of the people all changed. Away in 

 the backwoods, where the foot of a stranger never treads, 

 one sees the proclamation and promulgation, often writ- 

 ten in barbaroiTs lettering, warning ijersons ''from gun- 

 ning on these yer premisses." 



In a measure the Eastern sportsmen are responsible for 

 this state of affairs. I know of an incident that hap- 

 pened last fall. A party of strangers chartered a car 

 and had it switched off at a station not a hundred miles 

 from Norfolk, Va., and roamed over the neighboring 

 country at will, breaking down fences, leaving gates 

 open, shooting at everything that had wings, and ship- 

 ping their game home, -without any courtesy shown at 

 all to the Grangers. Now every acre of land in that 

 section is posted. 



A small unknown farmer can offer but few induce- 

 ments to his guests. It is only the large land owner, 

 well-known and popular, that can give his friends acarte 

 hlav^he to shoot where and when they please. 



It is the same way in the North Carolina Sounds, the 

 best grounds are club preserves and rigidly guarded, and 

 they, under the present indiscriminate incessant gunning, 

 are almost worthless— but few clubmen have gone there 

 for the past three or four years. Miss Midgett has a re- 

 sort for sportsmen in the Sound, but the whole adjacent 

 territory is so lined with batteries, blinds and sink-boxes 

 that the ducks are driven away, and only on wild stormj' 

 days can any shooting be had. In Currituck, every day 

 but Sunday is open, and iiTesponsible parties shoot in the 

 night and slaughter the wildfowl in every conceivable 

 way. The game laws are practically inoperative. I be- 

 long to three Currituck clubs and know whereof I speak. 

 The keepers of my Currituck clubs write me that they 

 have never in their experience known ducks to be so few 

 in numbers, and so shy. 



It is true I had some very fine duck shooting at the 

 Ragged Islands, in Back Bay, adjacent to Currituck 

 Sound, which is situated in "Princess Anne county. I 

 was a guest of Mr. C. A. Woodward, of Norf oik, ' Va. . 

 who, by the way, is president of the club. A Norfolk 

 syndicate has bought these islands, thirty-two in num- 

 ber, after a hard legal fight and tedious litigation. This 

 property is a sporting principality. Under the Virginia 

 county and State law wildfowl can only be shot on Mon- 

 day, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, thus giving the 

 ducks three days i-est. The result is obvious. I believe 

 a few Eastern gentlemen of unexceptionable references 

 might get into that club. It certainly is the finest shoot- 

 ing grounds I have ever seen north of Florida. 



My advice to those contemplating a '-go-as-you-please" 

 trip to Currituck is like the advice of Puck to those con- 

 templating matrimony, "Don't." 



About the Dismal Swamp shooting, I would advise in- 

 quiring sportsmen to write to Messrs. Driver & Har- 

 grove, Driver's Post Office, Nansemond county, Va. 



Alex. " HtrNTEK. 



WILDFOWL IN OREGON. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Tuesday, Dec. 1, was a red-letter day in my hunting 

 experience. It was a day, which for general sport with 

 shotgun and retriever, is seldom equaled. So I shall 

 request Forest at^d Stream to tell our Eistern brethren 

 about it. 



Messrs. W. A. Story, Harry Beal and the Sewell broth- 

 ers have a fine lake just outside the limits of the city of 

 Portland, on Columbia Slough; and as the weather was 

 suggestive of ducks Mr. Storey invited me to have a day's 

 shoot with him. He also invited two young friends, 

 Freddy Beal and Al. Versteeg, It seems that nothing 

 pleases my friend S, better than to be teaching the young 

 idea how to shoot, and he never loses an opportunity to 

 interest the boys in this direction. He always has a gang 

 of kids at his heels, and some of these self same kids are 

 becoming so expert with the shotgun that we older 

 sportsmen must look well to our laurels or take a back 

 seat. 



We boarded the Vancouver motor at 7 A. M., and in 

 half an hour were at the cabin. This "cabin" is a very 

 neat house that would furnish comfortable quarters f or 

 a goad-sizeed family. After placing the boys in a good 

 blind at the lower end of the lake S. took me into a 

 blind at the upper end of the lake, where we were to 

 shoot side by side for the day, I believe that he had 

 good reasons for having both of us in one Mind, 

 although he gave but one. 



This was my old Iiish setter Mike's eighth birthday and 

 he celebrated it in grand style. He seemed to forget all 

 his aches and pains. Eheumatism, gray hairs and stif- 

 fening bones were "not in it," and nothing short of a reg- 

 ular puppy spree would do him. 



A rheumatic old dog seldom retrieves a wounded can- 

 vas even on his birthday; but on this particular day the 

 old dog held his own pretty well with Storey's Pat, the 

 most powerful and ambitious dog in Oregon. Pat is 

 Mike's younger half brother, and he seemed disposed to 

 entertain his old relative according to the strictest rules 

 of dog etiquette. 



By 8:30 A. M. we had our decoys out and our guns in 

 om- hands ready for the day's work. It was the same 

 spiteful sort of weather that had ushered in one other 

 well-remembered day two years before when we killed 

 a aledload of canvasbacks. The wind came in gusts on 

 om- left; the dark clouds rolled up from the south in a 

 fretful sort of way: the moimtauas off to the east looked 

 cold and gray, and the bluffs along down the Columbia 

 were sj)otted with alternate rain and sunshine. The de- 

 coys nodded and bowed gracefully, and again we saw 

 that we had struck a "canvas" day. "Mark west." said 

 Storey, A moment of silence and then four quick reports 

 in rapid sucaession announced the fate of three out of 



a band of five canvas that had swung in to investigate. 

 The trio struck the water dead, but not without those in- 

 voluntary plunges peculiar to the canvasback in the 

 death struggle. But their momentary struggles only the 

 more reddened the wavelets with their rich crimson life 

 blood. 



"Mark? north!" and the simultaneous cracks of our 

 guns brought down a pair of fine mallards that had split 

 on the blind. And so it went on throughout the day, 

 with now and then some shot or incident that called 

 forth hearty congratulation, joke or laughter. 



"Shake! Now we are even,'' said Storey, as he neatly 

 dropped a single that I had missed clean with both right 

 and left. Then we shook, and our ha-has would have 

 decoyed a band of laughing hyenas, as he explained that 

 I had served him the same trick four years ago at Don's. 

 What a memory ! 



He had wiped my eye after four years waiting. I felt 

 proud that he had been forced to wait so long. A drake 

 canvas plunged straight from the clouds at the decoys. 

 My old Parker sent him a greeting that met him squarely 

 in the face, and the blood spurted as if he had been 

 lanced on the jugular as he fell dead in the blind. A 

 band of three all fell at the crack of Storey's left, two 

 stone dead and one tipped. Never in my experience 

 have I seen so many dead birds with so few cripples in a 

 day's shoot as yesterday. 



The wind blew our dead birds ashore, and the dogs 

 took care of the cripples. The bays at the other end of 

 the lake were making things lively, and we were sui'- 

 prised to see the birds falling so rapidly at their hands. 



At four o'clock in the afternoon our decoys were all 

 stowed away and we proceeded to count up. Mr. Storey 

 and I had bagged 141, while the boys counted out 75, a 

 grand total of 216 birds. 



I feel that much of our success was due to the fact that 

 both Harry Beal and Mr. Storey have been untiring in 

 their efForts to make this a mod'el preserve. 



The birds has^e plenty of feed and are guaranteed abso- 

 lute rest five days in each week, but they must fly high 

 the balance of the time. S. H. Geeenb, 



PoRTLAiro, Oregon. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, 111., Dec. 13.— Mr. P. S. Cox, the young 

 man with the pleasantest smile in Chicago, has re- 

 turned from his favorite shooting grounds at Rice Lake, 

 Ont. Mr. Cox is not above swatting a duck on the water, 

 if he gets a chance. At Rice Lake, the other day, there 

 drew in to his decoys a mixed flock of ducks, six teal, 

 four mergansers and two mallards. These lit among the 

 decoys, by Mr. Cox's jjermission, and immediately there- 

 after Mr. Cox accomplished the dillftcult feat of taking a 

 general shot at the bunch and killing all six of the teal, 

 and two of his inflated decoys, worth $1.35 a piece. The 

 rest got away. "I never kill any but good ducks," 

 says Dick. And then he smiles. 



Last Saturday night Mr. C. D. Gammon, Mr. H. Par- 

 ington and Mr. Ed. Hughes left for Ontario, Canada, for 

 a moose hunt. They do not divulge the exact nature of 

 their plans, but say they have a sure thing. 



Mr. Harry Higginbottom and two friends are back 

 from a. big game hunt in the country below the Yellow- 

 stone Park. They killed 14 elk. This is hurried. I do 

 not know whether or not they were in Wyoming. 



Mr. J. W. Schultz, of Piegan, Mont., perhaps the best 

 outfitting guide of the Northwest country, writes me 

 that during the week preceding Nov. 17 Baron von 

 Grotthuss and a hunting friend killed, at Two Medicine 

 Lake, not far from Piegan, six mountain sheep (big- 

 horns), two elk and a bear. Two of the sheep were large 

 rams. Mr. Schultz would be the best man to write to for 

 any one wanting to kill a bear. He offiers to secure at 

 least four shots at bear for any party he takes out or no 

 pay, which is fair enough. This is for the bear season, 

 which is best in May. Mr. R. D. Perry, of Braintree, 

 Mass., who was out with Schultz last May, killed four 

 bears. Unquestionably a big game hunt can be made suc- 

 cessful in that country. 



The t^ste for a wild', desperate, blood-curdling, awfully 

 awful Western time after savage beasts seems to have 

 broken out in the East, and I expect a whole lot of folks 

 back there think they are regular devils. This is what 

 the Associated Press thinks about it under the head of 

 "Brutal Killing of Wolves." 



Gbeensbukg, Pa.. Deo. 9.— Paxil H. Haeke, owner of a stock 

 fa'm near here, conducted a "wolf hunt," there to-day. Two 

 Western wolves were the victims of the "chase," the dogs being 

 Russian wolfhounds. Neither of the wolves was given a chance 

 for his life, the first being turned loose in about an acre of ground 

 surrounded by a high board fence. Four dogs were let at him, but 

 the wolf was game and would have won the terrific fight bad not 

 threp. more dogs been turned loose. The woll: was then torn to 

 shreds in s few moments amid the yells and shouts of a delighted 

 mob. Believing that the second wolf wotild give a lively chase, 

 even against the entire pack of wolfhounds, fourteen in number, 

 Ha( lie had it turned loose in a ten-acre tield. For a few moments 

 a wild scene enstied, but the wolf was easily captured. Just as it 

 was crouching for a leap over the fence and into a thicket the 

 leading hound caught it by the neck and dragged it back to the 

 howling pack, by which it was torn in pieces m a moment. The 

 chase is the first of a proposed series to be held on the Hacke farm 

 during the winter unless the auchoriiies prevent. 



The authorities ought to prevent. The Barzois ought to 

 be taken to the place where the wolves live wild and not 

 have trapped wolves brought to them. To kill an ani- 

 mal in a pen or against odds which make escape impos- 

 sible is not sport in any sense; and it disgraces good dogs 

 to engage them in that way. This is precisely similar to 

 a "coyote chase" which I once saw at Hutchinson, Kan., 

 and which I took pleasure in censuring as severely as I 

 knew how. Penned game is not game, and to kill it is 

 butchery and not sport. Even a wolf should have his 

 chance. The Associated Press is right, if it has its facts 

 right. 



Mr. W. L. Shepard, of Chicago, is the most unfortu- 

 nate man in the world. He always has a grievance with 

 Fate, and something is always happening to him. Mr. 

 Shepard was duck hunting with Mr. Abner Price, guests 

 of Ml'. Fahnestock, on the grounds below Peoria, on the 

 Illinois River. Abner is an oldtime duck shooter, but he 

 says he never saw more mallards even in the oldtime 

 days. He located pretty quick, and in a couple of days 

 walked out of the marsh with 165 mallards in his pocket. 

 Mr. Shepard was not so fortunate, and the mallards 

 shunned him, so that when the time came to start for 

 home he was in deep chagrin over the smallest of his 

 string. Mr. Price took pity on him and gave him a few 

 dozen ducks, so that in all he had fifty or more. These 

 he put in a big carry-all bag, which he put on top the 

 luggage in the wagon, and then the party started for the 



railway station. Somewhere on the road the bag fell 

 out of the wagon and was lost. Then Abner sweetened 

 Mr, Shepard tor another fifty mallards. Then they came 

 home. 



Mr. P. F. Stone and brother were at Paducah, Ky., last 

 week, and while there Mr. E. Rhinehart, of that city, 

 took them out quail shooting. They got 45 birds in six, 

 hours. Mr. Stone says that mallards were reported plenty 

 at Reelfoot Lake, Tenn, , and mourned the necessary re- 

 fusal of an invitation to go over to that famous ground. 



Mr. R. A. Turtle and two friends were rabbit hunting 

 this week on the Kankakee, and killed 60 rabbits. 



Mr. John Earle, Mr. McCabe and Mr. A. J. Atwater, of 

 this city, with Mr. G. C. Noble, of Goshen, Ind., had a 

 quail hunt last week. Mr. Atwater attributes their lack 

 of success to a red calf, which flushed all the birds. This 

 beast took a great notion to Mr. Barle, and persistently 

 followed the party wherever they went. 



Recently we had a wild-wolf chase in the Chicago 

 streets. Now it is a bear chase. Yesterday a brown bear 

 belonging to an Italian escaped and was pursued all 

 through Hyde Park precinct by an excited populace. The 

 bear finally treed and was captured. Chicago is getting 

 to be an awfully wild place. It will be a royal Bengal 

 tiger next. 



Some Chicago inventions: It was a Western man, I am 

 told, who invented the Mack automatic weedless trolling 

 gang. This is now handled by the Sportsmen's Novelty 

 Co., of Chicago, in which, I believe, Col, C. E. Felton is 

 largely interested. This gang can be put on any spoon. 

 The hooks are guarded so that they skate over weeds or 

 through rushes, but are sensitive to the strike of a fish. 

 Being automatic, they need no setting or adjustment. 

 This is a device which should save much profanity. Col, 

 Felton tells me it is very practical. 



Messrs. Von Lengerke & Antoine, well-known in the 

 Chicago sporting goods trade, point out an improvement 

 in their red V. L. & A. shell, consisting of a further 

 widening of the conical pocket. This, with the treble 

 No. 2 primer, they think make the shell hard to beat. 



Jimmy Nicholls, of the late Jenney & Graham Gun Co., 

 is now acting as agent for the gelbite product, the in- 

 vention of Dr. Emmons, of the Bast. Of this I had not 

 heard much until lately. It was formerly handled here 

 by the American Powder Co. The explosive was billed 

 for improvement, and this may have transpued. This 

 week Nicholls had some of it out at Burnside and asked 

 the boys to try it. Mr. Mussey and Mr. Wilcox were 

 shooting a 35 bird race, the result of which was 17 to 16 

 in favor of Mr. Mussey. The latter used gelbite shells 

 for his last three shots and they killed the birds with 

 remarkable keenness, so he thought. 



Mr. Fred Allen, of Monmouth, 111., the inventor of the 

 world-known Allen duck call, was in town yesterday. 

 He says he never saw a heavier south-bound flight of 

 mallards down the Mississippi than there was this fall, 

 though they kept in mid-river and gave little shooting. 

 From the heavy fall flight he predicts a heavy flight up 

 for next spring, and says he never knew this to fail. 



Mr. A. Hirth, of the Spalding's tackle department, has 

 been off duty for a week with a bad knee, the lingering 

 result of a street car accident. E. HouttH. 



QUAIL IN KANSAS. 



FORT SCOTT, Kan.— ft has been the fortune of the 

 writer to shoot quail in almost every State between 

 the Allegheny and the Rocky Mountains, over every kind 

 of cover, assisted by all kinds of dogs and in companv 

 with all kinds of men, from the most contemptible pot- 

 hunter up to the thorough sportsman who would scorn to 

 shoot a bird on the ground, although he knew the bird 

 had five chances out of six if he undertook to kill it on 

 the wing. Some recent experiences in Kansas were so 

 different from all previous ones, that they may interest 

 others who have always shot quail in thick, brushy, 

 cover. 



The land around Lyons is almost level, and is all prairie, 

 with no brush even along the little streams. The land 

 where the quail are found is mostly under cultivation, 

 and at this time of year one-half of it is in winter wheat 

 and the rest in cornstalks that are eaten down by cattle 

 till they afford but little cover. The fai-ms are fenced 

 with hedges, many of them 15 to 20ft. high, and there is 

 a strip of weeds and grass several feet wide on each side; 

 and if there is a road on either side it is usually grown up 

 the same way, except a single track along the middle, and 

 as the rods are all four rods wide, they afford a good deal 

 of cover. In addition there is along each hedge a large 

 amount of tickle grass, tumble weeds and corn husks, 

 lodged there by the winds. At this time of year the 

 quail are nearly all found right along the hedges, because 

 there and nowbere else are found food, shelter and pro- 

 tection from the hawks, wloich always abound where 

 quail are numerous. The reader will see from the above 

 that it is an ideal place to make a heavy bag with little 

 labor, if the birds are there; and I can assure him that 

 they are. or were there, for there are not so many as there 

 were by 350 to the writer's certain knowledge. When the 

 birds are flushed they fly along the hedge twenty to forty 

 rods and alight close to it, so there is no bother about 

 marking them. There is a good prospect for getting 

 half a dozen shots at a bird if he is not killed. 



My trip to Lyons was a business one, but there is alwave 

 a shotgun and shooting suit in my trunk at this time of 

 year, and flnding that |a few days could be spared for 

 sport I inquired of the landlord and he referred me to 

 George Hibler. Yes, George said, there were a good 

 many and he would go with me. He was on hand in the 

 morning with a pointer and a 13-gauge Greener that 

 looked as if it had seen a vast amount of service. "No w " 

 said George, as we drove out of town, "this pointer is 'a 

 great dog to run along the hedges and find coveys, and 

 that is about all he's good for. We'll go by Sherm. 

 Pode's and get his black bitch. She's great on singles and 

 dead birds." We took the bitch into the buggy and let 

 the pointer run. He trotted along the road some 200yds. 

 ahead of us, looking neither right nor left and apparently 

 thinking of anything else than birds. Presently he 

 turned into the weeds at the roadside and stood looking 

 back at us and wagging his tail. "Covey of birds there," 

 said George. "Don't believe it," said I. "Yes there is, 

 for money, marbles or chalk," said George. "Put the 

 bitch out and see what she will do," said I. She went 

 along the road at a fast run, but when opposite the 

 pointer she stopped short, in the very act of crouching 

 for another* Jeapi turned her head towardi the roadside 



