May 4 iM.] 



#6RfeSt AND STREAM. 



38B 



country, where a man calls Atcliafalaya Chafalah, and 

 can't BTen pronounce his own name! 



• a • 



The sea marsh proper, not to mention the long bayous 

 and swamps that project t^ack into the country for Jong- 

 distances, is from three to six iniles wide, and runs practi- 

 cally from Galveston east across the whole of Louisiana. 

 This is the winter home of the main flight of the fow], the 

 snipe, etc. One can see there such sights as he never saw 

 elsewhere. At our station, twenty-five miles from Gal- 

 veston, we daily passed the feeding ground of a vast body 

 of snow geese, whose gabbling as they circled about could 

 be heard at a distance of three or four miles. I presume 

 this body of fowl was about a mile by a mile and a half in 

 extent. Beyond them the Canada geese were using, and 

 though I did not go so far as that, the local shooters told 

 me that the Canadas were there in numbers nearly as 

 great. Ducks of all sorts were in the air so constantly 

 and in such numbers that in a short time one ceased to 

 ipay any attention to them. The market-shooters would 

 not pay any attention to the "puddle ducks" (marsh ducks), 

 iV)Ut one morning Billy Griggs and I went out shooting 

 and photographing for a short time and killed fifteen. I 

 think Griggs is the best duck shot I ever saw. In short, 

 he did not miss, aud lie killed ducks further than I would 

 •dream of shooting at them. He used a 10-gauge Parker 

 which looked as if it had seen better days, indeed, all the 

 men around Stephenson's Lake rise Parkers. Once two 

 ■ducks came in, and Griggs assigned me one and assumed 

 the other himself. I missed mine with both barrels. He 

 killed his with one barrel, and then turned around and 

 killed mine with the other. I thought that was a mean 

 and unfriendly thing for a man to do. 



• • • 



Another time John Scales aud I went out together, a 

 little wind in the morning giving promise of a decent 

 duck day, which we had not had for a week. We pushed 

 away up into the marsh, and after shooting a few snipe 

 on the way, got into our blind about 2 o'clock. The ducks 

 ' decoyed beautifully, and we soon got 33 into the boat. 

 John is a good duck shot, as all the men at Stephenson's 

 are. but on one occasion his right hand forgot its cunning. 

 In fact, a Hock of teal came in to ua, and we fired four 

 barrels and didn't get a teal. I shall never forget the huge 

 disgust John felt over that. "Good God A' mighty! gol 

 darn! We never got nary one of 'em!" said he, and his 

 concern over it seemed so sincere that I laughed hard and 

 sat down on the bottom of the boat, where it was wet. 



• • • 



.John and I would have had some more shooting that 

 afternoon had not a fog come up from the Gulf — a heavy, 

 blinding, blanket-like fog which shrouded the marsh in a 

 few moments so that you could n<jt see a man 30yds. AH 

 rsense of direction was soon lost, and the only way I could 

 Jiave gotten anywhei'e near home would have been by 

 keeping the wind on my left cheek — which would have 

 ibeen bad had the wind changed. John, however, took us 

 jiome without a halt, following aU the windings of the 

 -waterways. Hunters seem to gain a sort of instinct of 

 cdirection from long experience, such as that possessed by 

 ;animals. That was a wonderful night, the time John and 

 I came down the marsh in the fog. The wildfowl seemed 

 (Confused and were flying every way. At every step we 

 •put them out {^ve had to drag the boat much of "the way), 

 and the air \\ as full of such a babel of wild sounds as I 

 expect never to hear elsewhere again. The geese of all 

 sorts, the brant, cranes and curlews kept up pretty well, 

 uttering their distinctive calls as they ilew. On the wet 

 bends of the marsh the juallards, sprigs, widgeons, spoon- 

 bills, teal and other sorts of ducks kept on flying up, call- 

 ing, quacking, whistling and cackling until the ear was 

 assailed with a delirium of sound. It was the sweetest 

 discord ever was, and no man wiU ever hear the hke un- 

 less he is on the sea marsh in a fog at early evening, 



• • • 



At Stephensons's there were "Bud" Stephenson, Billy 

 Griggs and .John Scales, who shot in partnership for the 

 market. They control the Stejjhenson's Lake marsh, Bud 

 having been raised at the old homestead where we stopped. 

 Naturally they would not like the pubhc to bother them, 

 and at first I do not think Mr. Stephenson liked to have 

 me come to do any shooting, because he wished to treat 

 all alike, and refuse all. I am certain that no stranger 

 could go there and shoot, and I could not send my best 

 friend there to shoot. Billy Griggs got me in, and after 

 we aU luiderstood each other we had as jileasant a time as 

 anybody ever had, and I had the best shooting I ever had 

 in 'my life. It being too mild for the canvasbacks to work, 

 we went to shooting jacksnipe, and the foxrr of us, though 

 .usually only three guns were at work, and part of the time 

 .only two, killed dm-ing the week between tw^o and three 

 barrels of jacksnipe. I gave the others my birds, and only 

 shot for three days, or half days, as we never went out 

 .until 11 o'clock, and in a little time could shoot away 50 to 

 .100 shells. At night we worfld come home with the horses 

 inearly hidden under strings of jacksnij)e. One evening 

 Bud and I went on and left Billy Griggs behind, shooting 

 lOn a little bit of grass ground, not so good in our opinion 

 as the ground where Bud and Billy killed about 150 the 

 day before. Bud and I each bagged 43 and intended to 

 have the laugh on Billy, who never showed up all the 

 evening. Unfortimately, however, Billy killed 60 birds 

 by himself, right on the ground where we had left him, 

 and had good walking to boot. This made us tireder than 

 the walking had. 



• • • 



Billy Griggs is probably the best duck shot now shoot- 

 ing, and on snipe he is also good, though I think handi- 

 capped by using a 10-gauge. He works veiy slowly on 

 snipe, just potters around and goes as quietly as he can. 

 In a day he will pick a lot of snipe, and he has the en- 

 durance to keep on doing it day after day. He and I shot 

 together two days on snipe and I never was out with a 

 pleasanter or more truly courteous companion. 



• • • 



How many snipe were kiUed in all I cannot say, but I 

 saw two barrels packed, and in one of them were put 

 41 doz. snipe. The manner of taking care of the birds is 

 interesting. When the birds were shot they were never 

 carried very long in the game pockets, but were sus- 

 pended in the air, tied by the neck in small bunches. At 

 night they were carried home tied behind the saddles of 

 the tough httle ponies. All night long the birds were left 

 himg up out in the air. In the morning they were i)acked 

 on long flat slabs of ice, as closely and neatly as sardines 

 in a box. After a layer of snipe had been put down a 

 tlun slab of ice was placed over them and another tier 

 laid on that, then more ice. Only two layers of ice were 



used, to avoid crushing the birds. Tlie buds were frozen 

 stiff in this way. The ice was brought out from Galveston 

 in the Stephenson schooner and both ice aud birds were 

 covered deep under cloths and hay. In packing for ship- 

 ment a long stick of ice, about 6in. or more square, and 

 as long as the barrel, was wrapped in sacking and stood 

 up in the middle of the barrel. The snipe, each with 

 the head neatly doubled imder, were then carefullj^ packed 

 with their tails toward the middle. Additional pieces of 

 ice, also wrapped up to prevent melting, were put about 

 the circumference of the barrel. No snipe was so packed 

 that it did not touch ice. The birds themselves, frozen 

 hard, acted as a non-conductor of heat for the ice in the 

 middle of the barrel. "I could ship these birds to 

 Europe this way," said Griggs. "That chunk of ice in 

 the middle will not be all melted when this barrel gets to 

 Chicago." After the barrel was x^acked it was rolled on 

 a sledge and by a I'ope hitched to the ponunel of a saddle 

 was skated down to the shore of the bay. There it v\'ent 

 into a big flat boat and was lightered out to where the 

 schooner lay at anchor. Thence it went according to the 

 vagaries of wind and tide, across the bay to Galveston 

 and thence by steam to the gi-eat market where all snipe 

 are going fast. You may have eaten some of our snipe 

 and ha.ve noticed that they were better than the ordinary 

 bird of commerce. Indeed, in my brief experience as a 

 mai'ket-shooter, I gained conceit enough to think that we 

 packed birds better than anybody else. From this I 

 reaped no financial gain, but I am not sorry to have seen 

 the systematic and businesslike way ui which the best of 

 market-shooters carry on their trade. Griggs told me 

 that they had not lost a bu-d in shipment. ' 



• • • 



Most people hang up ducks by the neck. In warm 

 weather, so I learned from my market-shooters' the right 

 way is just the other Avay, by the feet. Thus the entrails 

 do not crowd down to the tenderest and thinnest part of 

 the body, and the birds wiU keep a third longer without 

 tainting. 



• • • 



Five years ago they did a f oohsh thing at Houston. They 

 chose up sides and went out for that abomination— a ' 'side 

 hunt." There were 30 men on a side, and they brought in 

 7,000 snipe in that one day. One man killed ^70. This 

 was on the old Sam Houston battlefield . There have never 

 been so many snipe in that section since. Some of the 

 birds were eaten at the game supper that followed, and 

 some were given away, but the greater portion spoiled and 

 were thrown away. "This," said Billy Griggs, who told 

 me of it, "was 'sj)ort,' I suppose." 



• • • 



Wimberly, west of Houston, is great countrj^ for snipe. 

 The Trinity River, southwest of Houston, is magnificent 

 for ducks, especially for the maUards which swann there 

 after acorns. Bear, turkey and quails are also in the 

 Trinitj" River country, but the best place for the big game 

 is in what they call the Big Thicket, northeast of Houston, 

 along the Sabine River, and near Carter Station. 



E. HOUOH. 



Oregon Pheasants and Quail. 



Portland, Ore., April 20. — In Foeest and Stream of 

 April 13 "Podgers" asks me to state whether I have had 

 any experience as to the assertion that wherever quail 

 aboimd the pheasant is exterminated or driven away. I 

 have never heard a suggestion of the kind befoi'e, and 

 cannot understand upon what theory such an idea could 

 be founded. If my friend "Podgers" has particular refer- 

 ence to the ring-neck or Mongolian pheasant, I believe 

 that he is eminently correct in the declaration that the 

 proposition is a "perfect absurdity." I have known the 

 Mongolian pheasant quite intimately ever since its first 

 introduction into Oregon; and while ouv local sportsmen 

 are about unanimous in the opinion that where he gets a 

 start the aboriginal pheasant and gi'ouse "must go," as it 

 were, I have never heard of the Mongolian and quail 

 interfering with each other's vested rights, and would be 

 very much sm-prised to learn that such is the case. The 

 belhgerent disposition of the ring-neck is a, ma tter of com- 

 mon notoriety here. Ifc is a well-known fact that the 

 cocks will come out of the brush any time to lick the 

 barnyai'd roaster that crows a little too much or too arro- 

 gantly. He is a very hardy, pugnacious bird ; and those 

 who know him best will back him against anything that 

 wears feathers on this coast in a fight to a finish, contest 

 for points, or on the general proposition of "the survival 

 of the fittest." If the common hen hawk cannot molest 

 the family of Mr. Ring-neck while the old man is at home 

 (see Forest and Stream, March 3, 1893), why should the 

 pheasant show the white feather for the impudent but 

 harmless httle granivorous quail? S. H. Greene. 



The Defeated California Law. 



DuNSMum, Siskiyou County, Cal., April M.— Editor 

 Forest and Stream: In your issue of March 23 "Podgers" 

 has much to say about an effort made in the last Legisla- 

 ture to pass a new game law. His statement is mislead- 

 ing, to say the least, and he does not mention the clause 

 in this proposed law which should be objectionable to 

 every fair-minded man, and which killed the bill. Had 

 it passed it would have made the State a shooting pre- 

 serve for the wealthy clubs and their friends, and barred 

 out any one not rich enough or fortunate enough to be- 

 long to one of these clubs, from enjoying a day's sport 

 with gun and dog. This clause made it a misdemeanor 

 for any person to hunt in any county in the State, except 

 the county in wliich he resided, without first taking out a 

 ficense in each county in w^hich he proposed to hunt, pay- 

 ing $25 per annum for each license, provided that if he 

 owned land or leased laud in any county no license was 

 required in such county. A "httle joker" in favor of the 

 rich clubs provided that if a man had an invitation "in 

 writing" from some pei-son owning or leasing land in an- 

 other county it was lawful for him to himt without taking 

 out a hcense. This would have enabled the aristocratic 

 shooting clubs to invite their friends to then preserves 

 without i)utting these friends to any expense. 



As there is no game in San Fi-ancisco county, and sports- 

 men from that county hunt in five or six different counties 

 during the open season, you can readily see that this hcense 

 business would have shut off mo.st of the hunting. 



Stack was not a member of the Legislatiue, but he is 

 president of the State vSportsmen's Protective Association, 

 an organization which did much to defeat this measure, 

 and which numbers among its members just as true gen- 

 tlemen and sportsmen as the clubs. 



We have a good trespass law, but the clubs wanted one 



that would protect their leased, uuinclosed marsh land, 

 much of which is tide land cut up by navigable sloughs. 

 They did not get this either. Hence these tears. In your 

 editorial "Tags are Un- American" you voice the true 

 American sentiment, but the California clubs proposed to 

 go even further than Maine and Michigan and to tax the 

 State's own citizens every time they went into a county 

 to hunt in. w^hich they did not own or lease land. The 

 leading papers in the State all opposed this measure, and 

 the Examiner and Chronicle, the leading San Francisco 

 daihes, did much toward defeating it, and were tendered 

 a vote of thanks by the S. S. P. A. for this service. This 

 association is steadily increasing in membershij) and will 

 in the near future be represented in every county in the 

 State, and should anj' of the members of the last" Legisla- 

 ture who supported the county license clause come up for 

 re-election there will be a surprise in store for them at the 

 polls. 



It may amuse the readers of the Forest and Stream to 

 learn how one of the members of one of tlie swellest clubs 

 of California catches trout on the McCloud River. A 

 week or so before he wants to fish he hires Indians to 

 dump large cpiantities of salmon .spawn into certain favor- 

 ite j)ools. This causes the trout to congregate in large 

 numbers in these pools, and when the sportsman (?) ar- 

 rives he has no trouble in catching plenty of trout. He 

 uses the same kind of bait and yanks the fish out by main 

 strength. ^ Fair Play. 



Game Notes from Aroostook. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Owing to lack of snow this season big game will "spring 

 out" in safety. I have heard of a few deer being run 

 down by dogs, but don't know of a single moose being 

 killed. But it is only the question of a few weeks when 

 they must yield their hides to the backwoods butcher. 

 Eai'ly in June moose are in the water, where it is easy to 

 kill him, and much the easiest and safest way to get them 

 out by canoe. Game wardens don't fancy going into far 

 back waters in fly time and the poacher knows he is safe. 

 It is seldom that a game warden has courage and dispo- 

 sition to "'pull in" these skin-butchers at any season. 

 Game Warden E. 0. Collins, of Caribou, Me, , has started 

 in for a record by bringing to book one of the worst of 

 his class for crusting two moose a year ago. and the cul- 

 prit is doing time in jail in hen of the fine. It is rumored 

 Collins will take his man at the expiration of sentence 

 for snaring three moose last fall. Not that the snaring 

 was illegal. Ah, no! for the game law" does not forbid 

 snaring of anything except grouse; but for killing two 

 more moose than the law allows; and right here let me 

 say that it looks like a "straining at a gnat and swaUow- 

 ing a camel" as the law is now. In all the tinkering of 

 oiu- game laws no attention has been directed to this bar- 

 barous method of exterminating big game. The snare, 

 steel trap and set-gun, so much in vogue in back settle- 

 ments — and availed of even by some posing as sportsmen 

 — are unworthy of a civilized age and should be made to 

 go. On the headwaters of the St. John the season is cold 

 and dry, and winter stiU holds in its grip the streams 

 and lakes. 



The water is very low and but little snow% But very 

 few men as yet have come in for stream driving and I 

 don't remember the time when the lumberman's pros- 

 pects were so poor. I apprehend that summer sportsmen 

 will find much trouble by hung-drives. Pine Tree. 



Bears in the Peach Brakes. 



Velasco, Texas, April 29. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Bear hunting in the wild peach brakes of this, Brazoria 

 county, is such liard work that few sportsmen care to 

 indulge in it, and bruin's family would be much larger if 

 two enthusiasts, .John Weems, of A^'elasco, and Ed 

 Sweeney, of Columbia, would keep off the warpath. 

 Tiiese two chums have for years made it a rule to kfll 

 twelve bears every winter and cai3ture a few cubs every 

 spring. This season they bagged thirteen and made 

 eleven captures. 



Negroes living on the San Bernard and Cedar Creeks 

 often catch cubs for sale, the price up to twenty months 

 ago averaging two dollars a head. Recently a number of 

 European ships have come to the new port of Velasco, 

 whose captains and crews bought so liberally for export 

 that a cunning httle black cub now brings ,$10. The 

 brown ones are not in such demand, being ugly and ill- 

 natured. Tex, 



N. W. Iowa Game Notes. 



The fates seem to be against the game in this section 

 this year. After passing through a winter of unusual se- 

 verity the birds have alternately been snowed under, 

 droAvned, and frozen since April 10, until the prospects 

 for next faU's shooting are very poor. Ducks and geese 

 have aU been gone for two weeks or over. The best duck 

 shooting was during the last week of March. But very 

 few jack or whistling snipe have arrived yet, although 

 past time. Prairie pigeons or plover will be here about 

 May 15. P. C. B. 



"Danvis Folks." 



Auburn, Cal., April 19.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I want to express my great pleasure at once more renew- 

 ing acquaintance with the "Danvis Folks." I had feared, 

 from the reported loss of eyesight by Mr. Robinson, that 

 his pen was laid aside. I am delighted that it was not so, 

 and trust that his physical eyes are again as clear as his 

 mental ones, and hope that they may long continue so. 



My youth was spent close to the borders of old Vermont, 

 and, although on the Canada side, chiefly among Ver- 

 mont people. Therefore, the old shoemaker and his 

 friends remind me of my friends of nearly fifty years ago. 

 For this reason Mi-. Robinson's writings appeal to my 

 heart, separated as I have been for nearly thirty years 

 from the old, familiar friends and associations of child- 

 hood. Arepae. 



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