4S2 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[kov. 85. 1898. 



stream for a good bit before finding a suitable landing. 

 I could hear the engineer and rodman as they took the 

 water together; neither wanted to be last. 



Church said he was dead sure of the way now. "This 

 is Black Bayou, all we have to do is to follow along this 

 bank." We followed the bank for about 2003^ds. and then 

 came on another slough, which Church called "Cow 

 Hide," 



We kept this game up until we had crossed fiye bayous; 

 out horses were worn out and had to oe more than coaxed 

 before they would cross the last, which was wider than 

 any of the others. 



"Let us find a spot above water and camp until day," 

 said the engineer. 



Church said he now knew exactly where we were. 



"That is a fine thing," said I; "I do, too." 



It was with difficulty that we found a "high spot" to 

 camp on. When we found it, it was only a few inches 

 above the water level. Still the rain fell; the water seemed 

 to be rising at the rate of an inch an hour. 



We dismounted, stiff and heavy, and tied the bridles to 

 small bushes so the horses could eat the twigs, which they 

 did so thoroughly tliat a spherical space was soon cleared 

 about each animal with a diameter twice the length of 

 the tie hne. 



After several unsuccessful attempts, we made a fire by 

 soaking lead pencil chips in whisky, and then the rod- 

 man and engineer holding my slicker over me, I used the 

 last match and got a blaze. It was lucky that the engi- 

 neer had such a supply of Fabers. At last we had a mon- 

 ster fire, and were warm, though soaking wet. 



The rain had dwindled to a heavy fog and after a while 

 the moon showed us a little light. We sat around the 

 fire on rotten and soaking logs, but there were few jokes 

 retold. Suddenly a large cur dog appeared. He was so 

 hungry that his behavior was most friendly. I gave him 

 the spoiled can of beef and we were friends at once. 



I spread my saddle blanket for a bed (the saddle sup- 

 plied an excellent pillow), made the dog lie down, and I 

 lay between him and the fire, as close as possible to 

 both. Only once did I wake up, when the fire burned 

 low, and all was quiet but the rushing water and the 

 horses as they broke off small branches and groimd 

 them up. 



We had used all the available wood at hand, so I had 

 to go some distance to find any. As I was stepping along 

 carefully on account of snakes just in front of me I spied 

 a bear. His back was turned and lie stood up pawing a 

 tree as I have seen them do in Colorado. 



In an instant I jerked out my Colt's and was selecting 

 a place to fire at, just behind the fore shoulder. The rush- 

 ing water made such a noise that he had not heard me 

 and the wind blew from him to me. I calculated to give 

 him three cartridges as quickly as I could pull the trig- 

 ger and have three to stop him if he came or ran. 



As I finished this plan in my head the bcRr turned and 

 saw me and said, "We must be on an island." 



It was the engineer. 



He had been gathering twigs for his horse, and making 

 the finest image of a bear I ever saw, with his long over- 

 coat and httle wet black hat pu'Ied over his ears. When 

 I told him that in three seconds he might have been "too 

 dead to skin" he became quite angry. 



Do you suppose he was provoked because I had not 

 fired? I don't know. 



We carried some wood back and revived the fire. The 

 hound had taken my place on the saddle blanket and was 

 shivering and sad, probably the result of the spoiled 

 corned beef. The rodman and Church slept without a 

 turn until it was daylight. Our breakfast consisted of 

 two red raw onions each. The derelict dog seemed to 

 have no appetite, though he was convalescent. 



We held a pow-wow and decided to follow up the 

 bayou we had crossed the night before until we came to 

 some known spot. All that day we floundered around in 

 the swamp, not seeing the sun once. Every now and then 

 the bayou widened out into a lake, which we had to skirt 

 for fear of bog holes. 



As dusk settled down again \V^e were a sorry crowd; the 

 clouds had vanished and it was much colder. We had no 

 matches nor means of making a fire; our provisions con- 

 sisted of about six small onions and one sick dog; our 

 horses yt^ere worn out and we were not very fresh. 



"I wish I was in my own dear back yard," said the rod- 

 man, "how quick I would go into the house." 



"Shut your fool face and try and make a little fire with 

 your gun," was all Church could say. 



We tried dissecting a cartridge and strewing the pow- 

 der along a log and then exploding a cap, but we had 

 nothing to catch; every shred of clothes we wore was wet 

 and it was of no avail to flash the powder. 



The others sat down with their backs to a fallen cypress 

 and proposed to wait for day. 



I did not see the fun in this; so I skirmished about, and 

 found a large tree long dead; and with my big jack-knife 

 1 whittled into it until I found some soft dry punk in the 

 interior. Then I cut up four or five cartridges and 

 moistened the powder, made a pile of punk and powder 

 in layers and suitable proportions and snapped a cap at 

 the mass. Alter several attempts I had a red coal about 

 as large as one's fist. 



After blowing until my face ached and my eyes ran on 

 account of the smoke; it was disheartening to see the red 

 grow smaller and smaller and the ash grow larger, until 

 there was nothing left but a little spark which soon van- 

 ished. 



At any rate my efforts had warned me a little. As I 

 called the dog and made htm lie on one side with the log 

 on the other, I could hear a rooster crow away off to the 

 right. The others were all asleep and strange to say I 

 soon was in the same fix. 



At day we all woke in ample time, om- horses apparently 

 had not moved during the night, but stood with heads 

 hanging down and eyes shut. 



I told of the rooster I had heard crow during the night. 

 We saddled our disconsolate stock and stiffly moved off 

 in the direction from which the sound seemed to have 

 come. 



In about five hundred yards we left the forest and en- 

 tered a cotton field. We could see a Httle bunch of cabins 

 away over across the dried stalks, 



"That's Israel's store," said Church. 



Israel had corn for our horses and crackers for us, also 

 some vitrified, dark-colored bread which he called "ginger 

 cakes," out of respect for honorable age. He also sent a 

 woman to make us some coffee. 



After eating for an hour or more our stock had ad- 



vanced almost to par; we were full, warm and contented. 



Church and I went again to Soda, when we brought 

 back 208 ducks. P. B. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



ti?Vom a Staff Correspondent.] 

 Phenomenally Good. 



Chicago, 111., Nov. 11.— The season just closing has 

 been a phenomenally good one for wildfowl in all this 

 section of the West. The shooters who struck Minnesota 

 just before the freeze up had great shooting. E. T. Mar- 

 tin, a market-shooter operating in that State, sent in to 

 Van Uxem last week for 3,000 more shells, and reported 

 very heavy mallard shooting. 



Mr. Abner Price, of this city, with a friend, are lately 

 back from Duck Island Club, below Peoria. Mi-. Price is 

 an old time duck shooter, but says he never had a better 

 shoot. The two guns killed over 800 mallards in two 

 weeks. 



At Hennepin and Swan Lake clubs, Senachwine Lake, 

 and the Illinois River country thereabouts, some very 

 heavy shooting, largely on mallards, was had for over a 

 week. Last week the weather warmed up, and the flight 

 worked back north above Koshkenong and all over the 

 Horicon Marsh. 



Mr. L. M. Hamline, of the Diana Club, returned from 

 Horicon Marsh Monday last. He says that he has hunted 

 ducks all his life, and all over the country, but never in 

 his life did he see in one flight as many ducks of all kinds 

 put together as he did of mallards on the day before he 

 left. 



In the South Also. 



Clear in the South, also, the flight has reached, as wit- 

 ness the following from the valued Foeest and Steeam 

 correspondent, "Arodnac,"in Louisiana, who writes from 

 New Iberia, Nov. 4: 



During this past week I visited the towns Jeannerette. N"ew Iberia 

 and Abbeville. Never in my life have I seen as many snipe and ducks. 

 I learned at Jeannerette that Mr Henry Hebert, the well-known 

 sportsman, and the best shot of the parish, has been killing from 

 seventy to ninety snipe a day. My friend, Mr. L. Lyons, told me that 

 boys of 13 to 15 are bagging from twenty-five to "forty ducks of a 

 morning. 



At Abbeville a number of pot and professional hunters were in town 

 Thursday while I was there, selling teal duck at 10 cents and mallards 

 at 25 cents per pair, snipe 70 cents per dozen. The merchants of 

 Abbeville state that such a quantity of game was never seen before, 

 and complain that it has cut down their sales of meat and other pro- 

 visions. Mr. Ed Smiley, a thoroughly reliable gentleman, told me 

 that a boy killed and picked up fifty-four greenwing teal with two 

 shots. 



At New Iberia the snipe are more numerous than duck. 



We have had very dry weather for two months, and this accom- 

 panied by the late low tides on the Gulf, has dried up all the sea 

 marshes, and the game has been compelled to seek the small lakes 

 and rice ponds near the towns, which causes such a slaughter. Every 

 man and boy who Owns a gun can be seen going to or coming from a 

 hunt. 



The outlook for quail shooting is splendid, and as soon as the frost 

 lays down the high brush I will give them a trial. 



Slaughter the Rifirht Name. 



Slaughter is the right name for the way ducks have been 

 killed along this line of migration this fall. No one can 

 tell what made the flight so heavy here, especially as re- 

 gards the unusual numbers of mallards. So far as I kno sv, 

 the best shooting had anywhere in the United States this 

 fall was uu the Horicon Marsh. I have just taken from 

 Mr, Pfi-cy Stone's note book a few of the scores of the 

 Diana Club, which I append, Mr, Chas, Wilson shot at 

 the club nineteen days and he bagged 544 ducks. Dr. H, 

 C. Buechner kiUed on one trip of four days 127 ducks, and 

 on another ti'ip of three days 141. One day he brought in 

 36 mallards, Mr. C. B. Dicks in three days bagged 131 

 ducks. Mr. Hamline's big day was 58 ducks, of which 54 

 were mallards. John Yorgey, the Diana keeper, and a 

 member of the club, on one day killed 110 ducks, and 10^ 

 of these ivere mallards. Query: Is that a thing to be 

 proud of? And query again: What did he do with them? 

 Mr. Melchior in one day killed 127 ducks, many of them 

 mallards. Mr. Barrell in six days kifled 192 ducks, and 

 150 of them were mallards. Query: Is that anything to 

 be proud of? Mr. Shailer succeeded in killing 41 mallards 

 in one day. Mr, P. F. Stone in ten days, or parts of days 

 (he does not shoot afternoons), killed 318 ducks, and he 

 told me once that he got over 40 mallards one day, Wal- 

 ter Dupee sliot ten days. His smallest bag was 23, and he 

 ran up to 48, Others shot in about the same ratio. 



The average at the Diana club house for the past thirty 

 days, big bags and little, good shooters and poor, has been 

 over thirty ducks to the gun, each day, and of these by 

 far the greater number were mallards. About half the 

 club members shoot all day, early and late. The other 

 half shoot about half the day, usually stopping after the 

 morning flight. At the Upper Club such bags have not 

 been frequent, but were possible, as those who ptished 

 down to the lower end of the upper marsh discovered 

 lately. I have not the scores of the Upper Club. 



Slaughter the Right Name. 



I have always been friendly and always expect to be to 

 the Horicon clubs, and I know personally almost every 

 man mentioned above, and I belong to the Upper Club 

 myself; yet, I repeat, slaughter is the right narhe for such 

 shooting as that, and I know of no mairket shooting this 

 year, anywhere, so murderous as that. I shot with 

 market-htmters last winter, and I am invited to come 

 there and shoot again, but I will say that I saw no such 

 murdering as this, nor do I want to. Readers can frame 

 their own opinions and their own criticisms, but these 

 certainly are the facts. Probably the Horicon marsh 

 bred 50,000 ducks this year, if any estimate can be made 

 on such matters, and the members who preserve this last 

 of the great Wisconsin duck marshes certainly are en- 

 titled to the sport for which they fight the law breakers, 

 but if the marsh raised 5,000,000 ducks, I can conceive no 

 sportsmanlike title conveyed through a club membership 

 to kill every one of those bu-ds possible. Let a f ew of them 

 go. Give the poor birds a chance. It is just as much 

 fun to kfll 25 mallards in one day as it is to kill 50, and 

 the man who has 25 of these great birds in his boat ought 

 to start home and throw his sheUs in the water if he can't 

 resist the temptation. That's enough, especially in these 

 days. This big flight doesn't mean that the ducks have 

 bred in unusual numbers this year. It means that they 

 are passing sout^h over this section this fall, for reasons 

 known xo no one. 



I think the boys will be staggered a little when they see 

 the above figures in print. It seems natural to go on 

 shooting while one can, but it won't hurt to think this 

 thing over. Mr, Stone, the club manager, grew serious 



as we looked over these figures. He says he thinks a 

 movement will be made to establish a daily limit to the 

 bag for each gun. He thought 50 mallards would do. 

 Half that is plenty for mallards, though a bag of 50 mixed 

 birds would not be so bad. Mr. Stone deprecates the 

 habit of pounding the birds all day, and raxely ever stays 

 out after 10 o'clock in the morning! 



Of course when one shoots he want to get a bag, but 

 there is reason in all things. Is not the matter herein 

 worth thinking over? And is not slaughter the right 

 name for shooting such as the above, no matter who on 

 earth did it? 



The Story Continued. 

 Let us continue logically the story of destruction and 

 depletion, not croaking, but just giving facts. It's a long 

 way to Washington, away out on the Pacific coast, isn't 

 it? Certainly away out in Washington the game and fish 

 never will nor cotild be exterminated, could they? Well, 

 here is what comes to me in a letter from Snohomish, 

 Wash., imder date of Nov, 1: 



It may interest you somewhat to hear of the shooting and fishing in 

 this locality, though I cannot say much in favor of it. Owing to the 

 denseness of the forest it is almost impenetrable, and it seems to be 

 the invariable opinion of those who have hunted elsewhere that it is 

 the worst— the -'meanest" country to hunt in that ever was. Difficult 

 as it is one might have some sport by simply following the cut trails, 

 were it not that they are incessantly hunted in season and out by as 

 lawless a class of shooters as ever shouldered a gun. Three or four 

 years ago both ruffed and blue grouse were abundant along all the 

 trails and roads in this vicinity, but now you might go a dozen 

 miles without seeing one. There are stUI a few deer not far awaj% but 

 the prospect of seeing one unless driven by dogs would be dim indeed. 

 Bears of the black variety seem to be more plentiful than any other 

 large game, and with two or three good dogs there would be no great 

 difficulty in getting a shot at one, especially to a person with plenty of 

 wind and a pair of strong legs. Cougars are also occasionally met 

 with and they seem to he of a more courageous and dangerous type 

 than their cowardly relations of California and the Eastern States. 

 Duck shooting is pr bably the finest sport to be had on this coast, at 

 least this immediate portion of the coast. It would, however, be 

 difficult for a duck to rest upon any of the beautiful waters of this 

 immediate vicinity f r half an hour without being snot at Three or 

 four years ago these same waters were full of ducks, but now ttiey 

 knnvr enough to stay away. But at various points along the Sound 

 within twenty or thirty miles of here the ducks are said to be lu 

 millions and the shooting fine. 



The trout fishing is a prominent feature of this country. The 

 treams are magnifloent and have before now swarmed with trout of 

 several varieties. But the fishers are proportionate in numhers and 

 fully equal to the occasion of depleting the waters. Already it is 

 necessary to go from twenty to thirty miles away to get first-class 

 fishing. But when one does go so far it is a comfort to say that he 

 gets it, certainly all that any one could ask. Talking about the 

 number of people that fish here, I Tjuist say that it is something 

 astonish ng All ages and all sexes fish not only for sport but for the^ 

 pot -mostly for the pot. The State has good game and fish laws, but 

 very few persons pay any attention to them. Yesterday was the last 

 day of the trout season, but I think that I could safelv undertake to^ 

 find fifty violators of the law within two tnilps of thi's place to-day, 

 The methods employed by the-e people are tho.si' which procure for- 

 them the greater amount of fish in the shortest si)ace of time. This- 

 includes the use of dynamite, nets, spears and various other contri- 

 vances which I could describe but do not know the names of, as I 

 never saw them until I came here. It is the finest field for a game- 

 warden imaginable, but where they keep themselves is more than 1 

 know, 



1 could tell you some things about the trout, the flies which I have 

 found to be best, etc., but I have now to limit myself lu the amount 

 of writing that I do. and consequently must refrain. Should it be; 

 desirable, however, I should be pleased at some other time to do so. 



JEP7HA G. DUKLAP. 



Mr. Dunlap could please the Forest and Stream's large' 

 family no better than by writing more of his part of the 

 country. Meantime, how about the continued story? If 

 Forest and Stream did not raise its voice for the sake of 

 a different story, wliat would be the conclusion of this 

 story, and how long before the conclusion came? 



The South. 



Mr. Wilbur Dubois of Cincinnati writes Mr, Waters of 

 this ofiice as follows: 



A friend and I want to go quail shooting in January somewhere in' 

 the South for a couple of weeks. Can you recommend some really 

 good point where we could find plenty of birds, with possibly a 

 sprinkling of woodcock and inallardsf (I don't know whether Mr. 

 Hough would say this is a hard bill to fill or not.) My friend is Mr.W. 

 W. Pea body, Jr., secretary of the B & O. S. W.R R , and he will have a. 

 private car and can go to any locality, and we should he happy to 

 have you and Mr. Hough go along if we can contrive to get away. We- 

 expect to have a lady with us, and I am afraid this will spoil the- 

 affair for Mr. Hough. Perhaps he could reconcile himself to his fate, 

 however, if informed that she is an old acquaintance of his, Dame 

 Bang byname. In the way of femininity this will be the only local ( 

 demon in the car. 



We hope to get off some time in the month I have named. From, 

 your wide experience in the South I thought you might perhaps know 

 of some particularly good locality. 



Mr, Dubois was advised by Mr. Waters to go to south- 

 ern Louisiana. If it should come to pass that the Western, 

 force of Forest and Stream could join the jmrty, there 

 AvoiUd be a heavy jar as we all struck the sea coast coun- 

 try. Of that, more, or maybe less, anon. afi they say in, 

 some newspapers. 



This morning Mr. John E. Ennis, district passenger' 

 agent of the Missouri Pacifig Eailway, invited me to his 

 office, and asked if I did, not \yant to join a private party 

 in a special car, to go to Rockport, Tex., where tliey were 

 invited to enjoy the hospitality of a Texas baron, a friendi 

 of Mr. Ennis's. Tarpon fishing, canvasback shooting, and; 

 later quail shooting, are among the attractions and cer-- 

 tainties of the trip. Rockport shipped 55,000 canvasback: 

 ducks in ninety days last winter, and the tarpon fishing" 

 there is better than it is in Florida, so they tell me. The 

 quail shooting along the Aransas Pass Railroad, north of 

 Rockport, is notedly good. Invitations are coming in 

 pretty well to-day, and I don't know where one could 

 get more inviting ones than the two above. I handed Mr, 

 Ennis the invitation from Mr, Dubois, and the former at 

 once formulated a .scheme to merge both these pioposed 

 trips into one, and will write Mr. Peabody to that effect. 

 Should this be the event, and should the Western staff be 

 able to join the car, there would be a still greater crash as 

 we brought up against the deep-water improvements at 

 Rockport. That would be, to use the vernacular, a trip 

 for your life. Of this also some more after a wliile, and 

 may Forttme throw 7-11 out of her checkered box, for I 

 know of no man more deserving than myself, nor any 

 man who wotild like a trip better than Mr. Waters. 



Wants to Know. 



A gentleman to be known as "IL," of Cleveland, O., 

 writes as below: 



I notice a letter from "F. O. S " on page 384 of Forest and Stream 

 for Nov. 4, speaking of Spring Lake. What county is this in and what 

 is nearest railroad station. Do you know what accommodations can be 

 had near the lake? 



Also can you inform me where fair duck shooting in latter half of 

 November, also in first half of December is likely to be found, with- 

 out trespassing on preserves, where a helper can be engaged, distance- 

 not over bOO miles from Cleveland? 



Spring Lake is an old channel of the Illinois River, not 

 far below Peoria and only a few miles from the Duck 



