180 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sep*. 1, im, 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[From a Staf Correspondeni.'l 



CHiOAfiO, 111,, Aug. 35. — Altogether the most important 

 shooting event now on the tapis is the opening of the 

 duck season at Horicon Club marsh, "Wisconsin, Sept. 1, 

 This event has grown greatly in importance, the more bo 

 because of the heavy bags usually made on that now 

 famous marsh. The forty who will go up to the Diana 

 club house will, under lead of Manager Percy Stone, in- 

 clude Col, C. E. Felton, Messrs. F. C. Donald, C, L. 

 Hunter, Walter F. Clark, L. M. Hamline, L. J. Stone, 

 W. S. McCrea, P. D. Armour, Jr., C. B. Dicks, W. P. 

 Mussey. W. C. Buchanan, F. H. Lord, Geo. C, Lames, 

 W. L, Shepard, Henry Smith and J. A. Hanley, all of 

 Chicago; Messrs. H. B. Hibben and brother, of Indian- 

 apolis; Mr. H. D. Smith, of Appleton, Wis,; Messrs. 

 Richard Merrill, L. J, Petit, Wna. Sanderson, Frank Falk, 

 Louis Auer and B. Leidersdorf, all of Milwaukee: quite 

 a party certainly. These should bag somewhere between 

 300 and 800 ducks the first day; the lowest bag of any 

 spring day before last fall never having been lower than 

 sixteen birds, with top bag seventy or over sometimes. 

 Just what the shootiiag will be this "time is hard to say, 

 but one thing is certain, it will be much pleasanter than 

 it was last September, for there is plenty of water all 

 over the marsh, so that the boats can get about. Last 

 fall the marsh was a sea of mud, and punting over it was 

 an experience never to be forgotten. I only wish I 

 could accept the kind invitation to come up next week 

 and have a horrible revenge for last fall's experience on 

 the flats of the West Bay. Not so many ducks are re- 

 ported this fall as last, but the grass is very high, and it 

 is iikely that there are plenty of ducks on hand, and more 

 are appearing daily from somewhere or other, possibly 

 young birds coming out of the grass. 



Great numbers of snipe have appeared on Horicon 

 Marsh, and when the grass is dry enough to burn and the 

 low ground has been burned over, the shooting at this 

 bird will be very fine, 



No one seems to know what baa brought the snipe down 

 so early this fall. There is some report of low water in 

 the British Provinces, but without confirmation, 



THE NORTHWEST. 



Dakota and Minnesota are this year experiencing a 

 complete revival in game matters on account of the gen- 

 eral rise of the local waters. For some years these two 

 States have been dried out, and this affected even the 

 chicken shooting very seriously. This year the dried-out 

 lakes and sloughs are full of water, and the result is most 

 surprising in the improvement of the game supply. There 

 will be better duck shooting in the Northwest this year 

 than for several seasons past, and the chicken shooting 

 will be much better than it was last year. 

 Yesterday that widely-traveled market-shooter, Billy 

 " Griggs, came up to my office, on his way from Central 

 America to Dakota, and in search of a good, comfortable 

 place to shoot a few thousand ducks this fall. Billy tells 

 me he had word from northern Minnesota a week ago 

 that the Indians were gathering the wild rice nearly 

 three weeks earlier than they usually begin. He thought 

 that pointed to an early fall and an early flight. The 

 snipe may see more attractions in the well-soaked soil of 

 this parallel than in the country further north. 



Mr. Mart M. Whitcomb, president of the Minneapolis 

 Gun Club, and an enthusiastic fowl shooter, was in town 

 this week, and has completed arrangements by which 

 Mr. R. B. Organ, of this city, who had so nearly a fatal 

 experience last season in his night in an open boat on a 

 Minnesota lake, will in October join the old party, in- 

 cluding Mr. Whitcomb and Col. Jacoby, and will again 

 try conclusions with the ducks in the blizzardy clime of 

 northern Minnesota. 



There are very few Western men, I presume, who go 

 East for either shooting or fishing, but it is surprising 

 how many Eastern men there are who are interested in 

 the shooting and fishing country of the West. Just now 

 I average from two to five letters a day from gentlemen 

 of the East who want to know about chicken and duck 

 country. From two received this morning, one from 

 New York city, and the other from Amsterdam, N. Y., I 

 take the following: 



"Two friends and myself contemplate taking a trip 

 during September out West, and I wriie to ask if you 

 can inform me where we can obtain good prairie chicken 

 and duck shooting, and what part of September is the 

 best time to go? It is immaterial whether we go to 

 Minnesota, Wisconsin or any northwestern State, but we 

 desire, if possible, to obtain good shooting. Do you think 

 the shooting would be better in North Dakota than in 

 your vicinity? Can you give me the names and addresses 

 of parties in your section who could give me information 

 in reference to the shooting?" 



Of course reply was made to this to the best of my 

 ability, much on the lines of such comment as appeared 

 on this topic in Forest and Stream of Aug. 18 and 25. 

 Illinois is not the place for chicken shooting this fall. 

 Last fall, I believe, Illinois was really better than Dakota 

 or Minnesota, though very few believed that then or will 

 now. This season it is difi:erent, for any one coming 

 from so far east as New York for a shoot it would be 

 much better to follow the usual Chicago trend and go on 

 out to the further Northwest. A party could take the 

 Great Northern road, north from St. Paul, and go on up 

 into extreme northern Minnesota, and relying on local 

 advices of the railroad men, etc., could hardly go wrong 

 for a good, pleasant trip, if they had any experience in 

 hustling at all. The Manitoba field trials, which will be 

 run next week, will be held at Morris, Man., not far 

 across the Minnesota State line, and they certainly expect 

 plenty of chickens in that section. It is obviously im- 

 possible to give exact local advice, for we don't get much 

 idea of the supply of birds until the season opens, and 

 only a general idea of the excellence of a locality can be 

 had until after parties have reported actual experience 

 there. It is safe to go to North Dakota or Northwestern 

 Minnesota for grouse this year, but it is assuredly not safe 

 to take any outside advice blindly. Get the general 

 direction, get out on the ground, and then inquire and 

 move around, 25 or 50 miles at a jump, till you get your 

 spot. Judicious treatment of local residents has much to 

 do with success in locating good country, 



LATE SHOOTING. 



For those who want to kill a whole lot of soft young 

 bu-ds out of the grass or stubble, now is the time to go, 

 for the coveys are not so much shot down and the birds 



re much easier to kill. I cannot see in what respect this 

 early chicken shooting can be called sport. A trip in late 

 September or early October would offer far more pleasure- 

 able shooting at chickens, with a much better chance at 

 ducks. For chicken shooting as a sport, with some 

 features of skill and chance in it, I would rather, person- 

 ally, wait till October, and then go to the sandhill country 

 of northwestern Nebraska. Then one gets grouse shoot- 

 ing in a form fit to be called a sportsmanlike performance. 

 No fluttering of wings of a weak bird trying to get out of 

 the grass. Each bird booms up strong, clean and swift, 

 and you have to hurry, not wait till it gets far enough to 

 shoot. It is a mistake to think that chicken shooting is 

 not good, and that the birds will not lie to the dog after 

 they have packed up. If they are worked properly on a 

 warm day, they will not only lie to the dogs, but will 

 offer the prettiest sort of sport, I can well quote our 

 market-hunting friend, Billy Griggs, on this, and I like 

 to do so, as showing that a market-shooter is not always 

 fond of shooting young grouse. 



"I like to hunt chickens in October," said he. "You 

 go along a strip of the light sod corn in the morning, and 

 you put out a great big bunch of birds, maybe 500 of 

 them, big as turkeys and as wild as deer, you think. You 

 watch 'em go, far as you can see them, maybe two miles, 

 your driver standing up on the wagon seat and watching 

 them with a pair of field glasses tiU they go down in 

 some grass or slough. Then you drive right for them, 

 and put them up again, and shoot at them often as you 

 like. They won't go so far this time, maybe half a mile, 

 and you work over after them. By and by your dog strikes 

 one, and you kick it out and kill it, and then another one 

 goes out, or two or three. That's all you want. Don't 

 be in a hurry then, but just unhitch your team, get out 

 your lunch and wait a while. The sun gets warmer and 

 the birds will not leave. You have got them located all 

 right, and after awhile you go to woi'k on them. You 

 will find they lie well enough for the dog, but they are 

 wilder and stronger than the August birds, and better 

 shooting every way. You want No.6 shot for this shooting. 

 Very often you can walk around the edge of a bit of sod 

 corn and get maybe a dozen of these great big booming 

 flyers. I would rather kill a dozen that way than to ki 11 

 fifty little ones in August or early September." 



The second letter above mentioned has to do with my 

 now famous game pocket, and from it 1 quote: 



"I write to you for the location of your game pocket. 

 I do not want the location for myself, but for my grand- 

 father, Mr. Elias Mathias, of this city, and Mr. Joseph 

 McMurray, of New York city, both thourough sports- 

 men, who hunt for sport and never for profit. They 

 would like to hunt chicken for ten days and hire dogs at 

 the pocket. If you should conclude to give me the loca- 

 tion please let me know if they can hire dogs at the 

 pocket." 



This inquirer was also given the address of the 

 "pocket," which, fortunately, is big enough for all. As 

 to the dog question, one must refer again to the issues of 

 Aug. 18 and 25. I beg to be understood not as advertis- 

 ing a spot where all the earthly wants of a shooter can 

 be supplied on demand, but only a place v^here there 

 are some birds, therefore a place a good ways from the 

 conveniences of civilization. Never having been there 

 myself, as 1 must repeat, I cannot say whether or not 

 any broken dogs can be hired. One or two might be 

 found, but it would be far safer to take dogs along. 

 This I say for the benefit of other readers who contem- 

 plate a trip of this sort. The Northwest chicken country 

 is not yet much given over to the guides who furnish 

 everything, including dogs. Go out in there and get 

 acquainted with some man who has a herd of Jersey 

 cattle, and a good-looking family, and some well-broken 

 dogs, and treat him so well that he'll invite you to come 

 out next year and shoot with him. That's the way Roll 

 Organ does, and others of our successful sijortsmen who 

 go out to Minnesota and the Dakotas. Under this sys- 

 tem you don't need a dog. 



laNORANCE OF THE LAW. 



A young gentleman of this city has long been planning 

 a trip to Nebraska after chickens. He and his party 

 went last week, and he faithfully promised to send 

 friends a lot of chickens before this time. At this writ- 

 ing he has sent a pair of jack rabbit ears, invariably the 

 first trophy of an Easterner in the West. As the Ne- 

 braska law does not open the season until Sept, 1, and as 

 it prohibits the shipping of such game out of the State, it 

 is probably jiist as well that he didn't send any chickens. 

 Now, if this gentleman had only read the Book of the 

 Game Laws before starting on his trip, he need not have 

 wasted two weeks of time, nor have gone to Nebraska to 

 learn the Nebraska law. One thing 1 do counsel, and 

 that is that every one about to go shooting should get 

 this same book and refer to it. Without such reference 

 to the different laws, the best of shooters may uninten- 

 tionally violate a law, I am sorry for our friend waiting 

 out in Nebraska for the season to open. 



For any one desiring chicken shooting near Chicago, I 

 would advise a trial at Annawan, Henry county. 111., via 

 Rock Island railway. There is good nesting ground 

 there still, and from earlier prospects there should be a 

 little shooting there now at least. 



Some chickens are to be found, or last week were to be 

 found, near La Grange, in Du Page county, just west of 

 Chicago on the C, B. & Q. road, though it is doubtful 

 whether there will be any left Sept. 15, as the early 

 shooters are after them. Mr. T, C. Morris, lately of Balti- 

 more but now of Chicago, lives at Hinsdale, near by the 

 fields, and he has long had a covey located in the fond 

 hope that he would be able to get a shot at a prairie 

 chicken, something he never had in his life. Mr. Morris 

 got wind of a party of three who next Sunday, Aug. 28, 

 will make a sneak on his covey of birds. He entered 

 complaint of this in the proper place, and President 

 Organ of the State Assodiation will have an officer meet 

 Mr. Morris to-morrow night. They will arrange a little 

 Sunday surprise party for these three ardent souls if they 

 can, and I truly hope that by the time this appears the 

 way of the transgressor may have been made hard. All 

 three of these men know the law is not oft' till Sept. 15. 



A well-connected young sportsman of this city was in- 

 nocently telling his friends yesterday of killing sixteen 

 woodcock out of seventeen that he found in a little wil- 

 low patch near Lake Koshkonong, Wisconsin, last week. 

 He was absolutely ignorant of the fact that the Wiscon- 

 sin season for woodcock does not open till Sept. 1, I did 

 not know .this myself till I looked it up to-day in the 

 Booh of the Game Latos. 



R. A. Turtle is .just back from a few days on the Kan- 

 kakee Marsh above Water Valley. He and a friend killed 

 fifteen dozen yellowlegs, but only saw three jacksnipe in 

 the country where they hunted. Mr. Turtle says that 

 dozens of young wood ducks are being killed along the 

 river at that point, and that one party whose identity 

 would occasion great surprise, had been netting, and one 

 day caught 144 fish. It would seem that the Kankakee 

 Association could do a little desirable work just about 

 there just about now. 



The game law of Ontario opens the season on ducks 

 Sept. 1. I understand that another paper states this as 

 Sept. 15. The same law limits any shooter to 300 ducks 

 in a season. This clause, one would thinJj, would sit 

 lightly on our urbane friend and earnest young sportsman. 

 Col. Harry Dale, of Rice Lake Club, Ontario, Col, Dale, 

 howf-ver, resents this imputation, and offers to bet |1,000 

 to 13.50 that he kills 500 ducks this fall. At a reasonable 

 fine per each of the extra 200, I am afraid he wouldn't 

 get the best of it, even on that basis, though I don't be- 

 lieve he thought of that. 



"That's nothing," said Mr. R. S. Cox, also of Rice Lake, 

 and Col. Dale's faithful friend and companion. "After 

 a while I'll tell you the name of another man over at 

 Rice Lake who always fishes all through the close season, 

 and promptly winds up his line when the season opens. 

 He says he wouldn't give a cent to fiah when everybody 

 else can." From all I can learn Rice Lake must be a 

 weird country. E. HoTJGH, 



175 Monroe .Stkeet, Chicago. 



ABOUT KILLING ELK. 



The Union League Clue, New York City, July 25. — 

 Editor Forest and Stream: Happening to glance over 

 an article m Forest and Stream, current date, I came 

 upon an account of an elk stalk, in which the two gentle- 

 men killed fourteen head out of a small bunch, of which 

 thirteen were cows. Now every one who ever had any- 

 thing to do with wapiti knows that after the difficulties 

 of the stalk are overcome and fire is opened, the herd 

 will huddle and lose their heads so that most of them can 

 be killed There is no particular skill required in the 

 process, for their confusion admits of much shooting, and 

 the veriest "duffer," if he fires often enough, must make 

 some hits. So much for the achievement. The disgrace 

 lies in the fact that two men were unsportsmanlike 

 enough to kill fourteen of these fine creatures, and thir- 

 teen of these cows, for a camp of about eight people. 

 Killing the bull for his trophy was well enough, espt oi- 

 ally as the cows would be gone to find a new mate dur- 

 ing the rutting season, and perhaps one cow might have 

 been shot for meat. The death ot the other twelve with 

 their possibilities of eight or ten calves next season was 

 an atrocity. Alas! however, it is only one of the atroci- 

 ties which have made of a country, which one remem- 

 bers twenty-five years ago as well stocked with beautiful 

 creatures, now a dismal waste without life. 



I note that these considerate '-sportsmen" let the 

 yearling calves go free, possibly out of a fellow feeling 

 for the bears and wolves who probably made meat of 

 these unprotected innocents in a very short time. 



I really wish that it could be made a penal offense in 

 this country to kill any game bird or animal with any 

 other weapon than a long bow or single-barreled smooth 

 flint-lock. This would give the game a chance and in 

 case of an able-bodied bear would indicate "sand" in the 

 hunter. M. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



I feel that, in common with other sportsmen, I owe you 

 a debt of gratitude for publishing, in your impression of 

 Aug. 25, the account of the hunt in the Rocky Mountains 

 signed by "Shongo." 



Many men — even many newspaper editors — would have 

 suppressed the article on the ground that such a tale of 

 butchery had no place in a journal published for sports- 

 men's reading. I am glad that you took the broader view 

 and published the paper, thus bringing up for discussion 

 a'subject which can not be too thoroughly canvassed. 

 Many wrongs are committed through ignorance or 

 thoughtlessness, which if publicly condemned will not 

 be repeated, and many young men, who have read the 

 article by "Shongo," and will see the comments which it 

 must call forth, are likely to ponder both, and to mark 

 out for themselves a course of action against the time 

 when they shall find themselves within easy range of a 

 band of elk or blacktail. 



I presume that I am old fashioned, and having hunted 

 in the West in early days, when all game was very jslenty, 

 I learned never to kill more meat than 1 could use. I 

 have always been a "pot-hunter," so far as big game is 

 concerned, for I always killed meat to eat and for no other 

 purpose. I always preferred to kill a deer i-ather than an 

 elk. and an elk rather than a buffalo, and if the season 

 was right I never killed does or cows. 



The butchery of thirteen cow elk in these days seems 

 to me little less than a crime, and so far as can be learned 

 from the account given by "Shongo" was entirely without 

 justification. I do not wish to condemn that writer, for 

 I know too little of the circumstances to do so. It may 

 be that he is a young boy who lost his head in the excite- 

 ment of seeing game, and' led on by his older compan- 

 ion, kept shooting as long as there was anything stand- 

 ing; or he may be one of our English cousins, who are 

 somewhat notorious for their love of bloodshed. The 

 Reas, George and Tom, I used to know well enough years 

 ago. They are old and good hunters, men who value the 

 game for what it will put in their pockets and with no 

 idea above the d jllars and cents of a hunting trip. They 

 have been hide hunters, and I was told years ago that 

 they made a practice of dynamiting trout at Henry's Fork 

 of Snake River, and I know that they used to haul away 

 the fish by the wagonload to the towns nearest their 

 place. These men would shoot down the last buffalo or 

 the last elk in America with no feeling beyond one of 

 triumph that they had the last one and there were none 

 left for other people to kill. 



In these days every man who reads knows that big 

 game is very scarce, and it should be the ambition of 

 the hunter to kill as little as he can get along with 

 rather than as much as possible. The hunter's camp 

 must have meat, but a single deer or a single elk repre- 

 sents enough of this to last a long time. A great quan- 

 tity of meat carried about for a long time spoils or 

 becomes sour. 



Females should never be killed unless meat is really 



