June 23, 1894.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



B88 



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MY FIRST TURKEY AND MY LAST. 



While reading L. J. M.'s first turkey hunt in Forest 

 and Stream of June 2, I was reminded of my first tui'key 

 aunt when a boy on the farm living with my uncle 

 Lolin Hiekok in Trumbull county, Ohio. We were busy 

 preparing the ground for wheat during the month of 

 September, when my uncle called to me to see the flock 

 if wild turkeys which were flying from a distant woods 

 ind lighting in a neighbor's cornfield. I had not had the 

 handling of a gun of any description very much at that 

 feirne, but I had been allowed the privilege of borrowing a 

 Springfield rifle of one neighbor and a pair of brass bullet 

 moulds of another; I could cast in these moulds a round 

 aall that fitted the rifle very nicely. I had practiced 

 mooting some at a mark at a distance of four rods, and 

 jould hit a 4in. bullseye quite often. Of course, this rifle 

 was the first thing I thought of after seeing the turkeys. 

 I hastened with all speed for my outfit, and in company 

 with a neighbor's boy, P. J. M., who was some four years 

 younger than myself, started off with boyish expectations 

 )f getting a good share of the flock. But alas, we had 

 not gone far when their wary eye had caught a glimpse 

 sf us, and after giving a warning note they flew ki differ- 

 3nt directions. One lit in a fair sized elm tree in the 

 corner of the nearest woods. It was a grand sight for us 

 boys to see him standing on the branch of this tree with 

 head upright and as motionless as the limb he stood on. 

 A.s I was the oldest I started in pursuit of this grand game 

 bird; crawling along an old rail fence to a large stump 

 about twenty rods distant from the turkey, where I was 

 in hopes I might get a shot. I can remember it as well 

 is if it was only yesterday — the careful aim I took at his 

 jody, and I can yet see him flutter and fall to the ground. 

 Two excited boys ran as boys will run when they have ■ 

 performed a feat of this kind; and we found the turkey 

 bad been hit by mere chance; his neck was cut nearly off 

 ;lose to the head. But I had an inward pride about my 

 accuracy with a rifle and did not see fit to tell where I 

 had intended to hit the turkey. 



The shooting flushed another turkey which had lit in 

 these same woods. This one flew to a distant swamp and 

 lit on the ground. After loading the rifle we went over 

 to the swamp and found it a hen— skulked in under a large 

 bog of wild grais. It was pretty well concealed, with 

 nothing in sight but the tail feathers; I had no difficulty 

 in hitting this one in the body. Now we had one apiece 

 and marched home with a great deal of pride and satis- 

 faction in our first successful wild turkey hunt. 

 [ Years have rolled by and the boys have grown up to 

 manhood. This was my first turkey hunt and my last 

 for years; they were soon exterminated in that locality, 

 as they have been throughout the Northern States. 



Previous to last year I had often wished I could go 

 where I could see wild turkeys once more. My brother, 

 Rev. L, B. U., located at Waverly, Va., was desirous of 

 my visiting him, and knowing my weak point for hunt- 

 ing he wrote frequent letters describing the marvelous 

 hunting and fishing throughout that section. I decided 

 to improve this opportunity, and so it happened that on a 

 bright October morning in the fall of 1893, I went to the 

 sunny South. I staid nearly five months, visiting differ- 

 ent sections of the State and hunting in Tide-water. 



I had become somewhat acquainted with a merchant 

 who resided at Airfield Mill Pond and he had extended a 

 very urgent invitation to my brother and myself to come 

 down and he would go with us to a cypress swamp where 

 the wild turkeys roosted. One Friday afternoon we 

 went. 



The Mill Pond had a quaint looking old grist mill and a 

 store; these two buildings comprised the business portion 

 of Airfield. A half-dozen old-fashioned two-wheeled 

 carts, each with a mule or a steer hitched between the 

 shafts, were standing in front of the buildings, some 

 loaded with corn for the mill and others with peanuts, to 

 be traded at the store for groceries and dry goods. To 

 Northern folks these carts look very odd indeed. 



The merchant, D. B., was a jolly, good-natured fellow, 

 but not much of a hunter. The sun lacked about a half 

 hour of setting, and shone out clear and bright, when a 

 party of four of us started in pursuit of turkey. My 

 brother and the miller went on one side of the swamp, 

 and the merchant and myself on the opposite. I was very 

 much amused to see D. B. start off with a light-colored 

 Buit of clothes, nearly white in fact, and with a white 

 straw hat— a brand new one from the store. 



Thirty minutes' walk brought us to where the large 

 cypress trees were pointed out to me, in which they were 

 in the habit of roosting. I soon found a good hiding place 

 in the top of an oak that had been chopped down when 

 the leaves were all on. I). B. went about 300yds. further 

 down and selected the charred remains of an old pine that 

 lay on the ground, his clothes making a marked contrast 

 with his hiding place. In about thirty minutes three wild 

 turkeys put in an appearance twenty rods from D. B., 

 offering a fine shot for the rifle, which lay by his side. 

 Two of tbe turkeys marched straight toward him and 

 nopped up on a log that was pointing straight at the hunter 

 dressed in wnite; and there they stood, both in range, 

 playing peek-a-boo with D. B., who was on all fours, and 

 dared not move, to say nothing of shooting. It was cer- 

 tainly a picture for an artist. The turkeys discovering 

 that it was a hunter not very well disguised, gave their 

 warning note, and all three flew into the swamp. D. B. 

 was now released and related his experience with the 

 turkeys to me, which only had a tendency to arouse my 

 zeal for one of these fowl. 



It was getting quite dark and I began wading out into 

 the swamp. After wading about twenty rods I could see 

 a large gobbler perched on a limb in one of these large 

 cypress trees 200yds. away. I moved very cautiously 

 untU within 60yds. of the tree. My gun was loaded witn 

 buckshot, the left barrel with B.B. I took deliberate aim 

 intending to shoot the right barrel, but by carelessly hav- 

 ing both fingers on the triggers both barrels were dis- 

 charged. The report echoed and re-echoed over this 

 lonely swamp; a Mr. Barker who lived on the opposite 

 side of the swamp told me the next morning he had not 

 heard such a noise from a gun since the war. The gobbler 

 spread his wings and sailed down to the ground, but I 

 did not succeed in finding him until the following 

 morning. Five of the buckshot had hit him. This was 

 as fat a turkey as I ever saw and was the last turkey I 



have shot. I found squirrel and wild duck very plenty, 

 and they afforded me a great deal of sport. 



I heartily wish I could extend to every true sportsman 

 a similar trip. Fred Underwood. 



Ohio. 



STORIES OF EZRA.-III. 



Mac Smith Gets Ezra Riled. 

 In September John Smith, his brother Mac, Ezra and I 

 hired Clint. Burnham to take us over to Adair county on 

 a big chicken shoot. We borrowed a lot of fence posts of 

 one of the settlers, made a six-sided pen of them, leaving 

 an open place wide enough for a doorway, "chinked" the 

 cracks with hay, stacked hay on top of it, put two feet of 

 hay inside for bedding, and felt that if we were not in 

 clover we were at least in hay. 



The grass was fairly alive with chickens and everything 

 went smoothly till one afternoon Mac went off shooting 

 by himself, all the rest of us, with the team, going in the 

 opposite direction. We did not get back until nearly ten 

 o'clock that evening, and, of course were tired and very 

 hungry, and consequently cross. Mac's dog was at the 

 camp but Mac was not. We at once surmised that Mac 

 had probably shot himself, as he was an awkward, careless 

 fellow, always getting in some sort of a scrape. Heavy 

 yells and much firing of guns failing to bring any reply 

 from Mac, all thought of rest or supper was abandoned 

 till he should be found. We had about completed the 

 arrangements for the gloomy search, expecting that if we 

 found him, it would be only his dead body, when Mac 

 himself came out of the darkness and said, "Is supper 

 ready?" Ezra, fairly blazing with wrath, turned on him, 

 and catching him by the collar, said fiercely, "Where 've 

 you been? . 



"Been huntin', of course, why?" said Mack, looking very 

 much surprised at Ezra's manner. 



"Why," said Ezra, "why? Didn't you hear all that 

 moller'n' 'n' shootin' here at the camp?" 



"Course I did. Reckon everybody in Adair county 

 could hear that." 



"What'd you reckon we was doin' all this for, eh?" giv- 

 ing him another shake. 



"Quit a-jerkin' me that a-way; I 'lowed you was doin' it 

 'cause you thought I was lost." 



"Then why in [shake] Sam [shake] Hill didn't you 

 [shake] answer? eh?" 



"Why," said Mac, in wide-eyed astonishment, "I wasn't 

 lost, I was eatin' a melon right over there at the water- 

 melon patch. Why?" 



Hungry, tired and exasperated as the rest of us were, 

 we all laughed, and everybody set to work getting supper. 

 The table was a flimsy affair made of some half-inch 

 boards cleated together and laid on four stakes driven in 

 the ground. Ezra was very fond of crackers, and his way 

 of eating them was to put two in his mouth, grind them 

 to dust, and hold the dust in his mouth till moist enough 

 to swallow. Mac sat next to Ezra at supper. The incident 

 Of the evening had set us to talking about firearm 

 accidents. At supper, Ezra remarked, "If some of us 

 were to get shot I don't believe I'd ever get over it," im- 

 mediately afterward putting two crackers in his mouth 

 and smashing them. Mac, as usual, said "Why?" Ezra, 

 still having his mind full of wrath and his mouth full of 

 crackers, was too full for utterance. He put his mouth to 

 Mac's ear and blew the cracker dust into it with all the 

 force he could. Mac fell over backward, his toes hitting 

 the under side of the table, knocking it higher than our 

 heads and spilling everything on it on our laps and in the 

 hay. Ezra followed up the onslaught with "You great 

 thick-headed galloot, are you ever going to learn any 

 sense?" 



Mac looked up and said, "Why?" O. H. Hampton. 



Fort Kennedy Wild Turkeys and Squirrels v 



Cupio, Ky., June 11. — This was once a fine game 

 country. My father moved to this part of Kentucky 

 forty years ago, and I well remember his going out 

 through the hills to attend to business and on coming 

 home telling my mother that he had seen several deer. I 

 have often seen fine bunches of wild turkeys around the 

 corn shocks on winter mornings. My father cared very 

 little for hunting but would sometimes catch some very 

 fine ones in a turkey pen. A friend and hunting com- 

 panion was telling last week that he knew of a flock of 

 several young wild turkeys back in the hills, and if I five 

 I will try hard to get a bead on one with my Winchester 

 this fall. Squirrel hunting is still very good in these 

 parts at certain times of the year. In August they begin 

 cutting on the hickory and afford fine sport. I sometimes 

 have gentlemen come out from Louisville to hunt the 

 gray squirrel with me. In the winter season I usually 

 hunt tnem successfully with a dog and use a .22cal. Bal- 

 lard rifle with a set of Lyman peep sights. I never kill 

 more game of any kind than I can make use of in my 

 Family with ease. I hear men say they can not help kill- 

 ing all they have a chance at, but I make it a rule to quit 

 with a reasonable bag, say from two to six squirrels. 



;r. B. S. 



Stop the Sale of Game. 



A Platform Plaxk.. — The sale of game should be forbidden at all 

 times.— Forest axd Stream, Feb, 10. 



Fox Lake, Wis. — You are doing a grand work and we 

 trust that in the near future the sale of game and spring 

 shooting will be abolished. Over 5,000 ducks were killed 

 and shipped from our little lake the past spring, mostly 

 by Milwaukee shooters. The late freeze up left a few 

 open holes; and one man with four guns and a man to 

 load killed 150 in less than half a day. W. E. W. 



PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT. 



Hulbert Bros. & Co. issue a large general catalogue of sportsmen's 

 goods. 



Every angler should have a "Scott" outfit for repairing, manufac- 

 tured by Dame, Stodard & Kendall, Boston. 



In renewing the advertisement of his hotel, W. R. Bishop, of the 

 Oranbery Lake Hotel in the Adirondacks, writes that he gets more 

 correspondence through Forest and Stream thau any other advertis- 

 ing he ever placed. 



Yachting Cruises.— The Quebec Steamship Co. have arranged two 

 special summer cruises from New York and Boston to the British 

 Provinces, the first of which will leave New York July 8 and the sec- 

 ond Aug. 4. These cruises, which are characterized as "yachting," 

 will take in the Bay of Fundy, the Uulf and River St. Lawrence, the 

 Saguenay River and Quebec, and will afford an opportunity of visiting 

 Lake St. John, the home of the leaping ouananiehe. A handsome 

 little circular will be sent those desiring further particulars by the 

 New York agents, A. E. Outerbridge & Co., 39 Broadway. • 



en difd gitrp fishing. 



BOSTON MEN IN MAINE. 



Boston, June 16.— More of the trout fishermen are re- 

 turning every day. Generally the experienced fishermen 

 have been having reasonable luck, if luck it may be 

 called. But they go off with the season. They study the 

 time and all the conditions. They have had years of ex- 

 perience. Truly success should go with such well- 

 directed effort. Mr. Walter L. Hill with Mr. Wilder, of 

 Lowell, his friend, has just returned from a successful 

 trip to Moosehead. They took a good number of square- 

 tailed trout and a few lakers. Their largest square-tail 

 weighed about 41bs. But they caught a laker weighing 

 some 91bs. Mr. Hill is more in love with Moosehead as 

 each annual trouting trip goes around. Mr. George 

 Linder, with Mr. Benjamin Hurd, has also lately returned 

 from Moosehead. Mr. Linder and his friends go for fly- 

 fishing only. They make a rule never to troll for trout. 

 They try them faithfully every day, when the weather 

 permits, with the fly. If they rise, then there is rare 

 sport. If they do not rise, then there is the camp and the 

 enjoyments of camp life. Mr. Linder says that he used 

 larger flies this year than usual, and he is satisfied that 

 they are better. He believes, after years of study of the 

 subject, that the trout do not see the fly when the water 

 is rough, and that a large fly is more likely to be seen 

 than a small one. Somehow this Linder party is fully as 

 successful as the bait-fishermen and the trollers— the re- 

 ward for the amount of study and skill its members put 

 into fly-casting and fly-fishing. The produce party, at 

 Moosehead, one of the largest parties of the season, was 

 fairly successful, though going rather early and striking 

 the worst of weather. 



Mr. C. H. Andrews and Mr. E. B. Haskell, senior 

 proprietors of the Boston Herald, are about starting on a 

 fishing trip for black bass. They go to the Belgrade, Me. , 



Sonds. One or two friends may accompany them. The 

 bl. Rockwell trouting party, that recently visited Aller- 

 ton Lodge, the beautiful camp of Messrs. Haskell and 

 Andrews; on Lake Mooselucmaguntic, was fairly suc- 

 cessful with trout, though they had high winds and 

 "beastly weather." Mr. Curtis of that party took a trout 

 weighing 71bs. 



The Messrs. Blake are going this year to Prince 

 Edward Island, for fishing. They are to follow in the 

 footsteps of Mr. Daniel Gunn, who went down there last 

 year and had good success, and he has explained the way 

 to the Messrs. Blake. Mr. Gunn, it will be remembered, 

 has succeeded in landing a shark, a young whale and a 

 sea serpent, all at one cast, and it was not a good day for 

 fly-fishing either. Now will the old codfish again wink 

 his eye when he sees this number of the Forest and 

 Stream. Mr. Gunn is a senior member of the printing 

 trade of Boston and a man liked by everybody. 



A new salmon fishing club, so far composed of Boston 

 and New England business and professional men, is being 

 formed this season. Control has been obtained of the 

 southwest branch of the Miramichi, largely through the 

 exertions of Mr. W. A. MacLeod and Mr. E. S. Beach. 

 Both are bright young gentlemen of the legal profession." 

 Some fifty lovers of the rod and reel have signified their 

 intention of trying the Miramichi waters this season, 

 under the management of the new club. Four fishing 

 parties have been arranged from this number. The first 

 party was to leave Boston on Saturday, June 16. Among 

 the number about sure to go may be mentioned Mr. W. 

 A. MacLeod and Mr. E. S. Beach mentioned above. Mr. 

 Fred. W. Ayer, the well-known Bangor, Me., lumber 

 owner and dealer, is also to be one of this first party. 

 Mr. Ayer, it will be remembered, is the gentlemen who 

 has done so much to bring out the possibilities of the sal- 

 mon pool at Bangor. In the party will also be J. P. 

 Liver more, of Boston, Mr. F. B. Greene, of New Bedford' 

 and Mr. A. J. Parsons, of Boston. Of their experience 

 and success, the Forest and Stream should have some 

 account later. 



Some of the members of the Magaguadavic Club have 

 lately returned to Boston from the first fishing trip of the 

 season to the home of this young club, in New Brunswick. 

 The club has some fine lakes and streams under its con- 

 trol. It is presided over by Mr. C. W. M. Guild, of 

 Boston, an angler of a good deal of experience and good 

 success. Two members of this first party caught forty- 

 eight trout on the fly, the united weight of which was 

 741bs., the largest weighing SJlbs. 



The members and invited guests of the Megantic Club, 

 who have returned from their spring fishing, express 

 themselves as greatly pleased with the club and its ap- 

 pointments. The stewardship of Mr. Fred. M. Viles is 

 spoken of as highly satisfactory, together with his able 

 corps of assistants. Some 41b. trout have been taken 

 from the Arnold Lake, and one or two from the Upper 

 Spider. The fishing was never better, especially the fly- 

 fishing. It is pleasant to state that members and guests 

 of this club are advocates of fly-fishing. But very little 

 trolling is done, in fact, except in some of the waters 

 where togue or lakers are found. From the Chain of 

 Ponds lakers up to 9 and 121bs. have been taken this 

 season. 



Mr. William B. Smart, of the Boston Post, an angler 

 and true sportsman, annually passes a few weeks in trout 

 fishing in the vicinity of Phillips and Eangeley. He re- 

 turned to Boston on Saturday, from Reddington, where 

 he had excellent fishing on the streams that can be 

 reached from the Little Railroad. Special. 



A Curiously Marked Hornpout. 



Montpelter, Vt.— Let the albino experts have this from 

 Vermont: Mr. Geo. Smith, conductor on M. & W. R.R. 

 showed mo to-day a live hornpout of 7 or Sin. that was 

 taken from Kettle Pond, near Marchfield, by Mr. S. E. 

 Willis, a Piainfield fisherman. This fish has one red eye 

 and one of regular color. It has a silvery belly and golden 

 sides. It has on each side, well up on the back, a streak 

 of silver running from head to tail, and the fins and tail 

 are silvery, showing the blood markings of. a dressed fish 

 of ordinary color. Gantric 



The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tues- 

 day. Correspondence intended for publication should reach 

 us at the latest by Monday, and as much earlier as pradicabl 



