560 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Deo. 22, 1894. 
TEXAS AND THE SOUTHWEST. 
Blood on the Moon. 
San Antonio, Dec. 20.— When the San Antonio Gun 
Club purchased their beautiful grounds on the borders of 
the limpid waters of Elmendorf Lake, there was inscribed 
on the deed that passed the legend: "Privilege of fishing 
and shooting on Elmendorf Lake." Everything went as 
merry as a marriage bell until Micheljohn's discovery of 
black bass. Great finny monsters of the fresh-water 
depths were jerked out of their watery heaven and ere 
many moons had filled up and gone a score of frying-pans 
in San Antonio were doing a lucrative business. The 
black bass were also done — brown, and there settled upon 
the happy homes of the gun club membership a feeling of 
sweet repose such as is superinduced by a full stomach 
and a satisfied appetite. 
But alas! Peace was not long-lived. A monster storm 
appeared on the ultramarine azure of contentment. It 
was no larger than a man's hand at first sight, and before 
the trusty mariners had ported their helm the infuriated 
hydra-headed dragon of discontent had entered the 
sacred portals of peace and large fragments of shattered 
happiness strewed the pathways and byways which 
bind together the fair city of San Antone to the surbur- 
ban elysium of the gun club. 
It occurred thus. As soon as the discovery was made 
that the lake contained an abundance of fish* a coterie of 
about twenty members of the club "chipped in" and 
hired a double row of shining buttons with policeman 
attachment to make regular patrols along the verdure 
clad borders of the lake. He was also to make it very 
hot for trespassers. The select few pay $1 per capita for 
the luxury. As there are one hundred full-feathered 
members in the club there are eighty who do not come 
within the charmed circles of the "police commissioners." 
Some of the "eighty" don't shoot. But they would 
like to fish. But the select twenty say that no one can 
fish who has not been besmeared with the sacred oint- 
ment of initiation within the sacred and mysterious 
twenty, and they swear by the beard of Moses that they 
shall not cast a line in the lake, nor darken the portals of 
the sacred precincts of Lake Elmendorf unless they put 
up in legal tender of the realm that necessary quid, pro 
quo. 
The "eighty" say they have been paying dues for long 
years and that any benefit accruing indirectly to the club 
should be equitably smeared on rich and poor alike. 
At last accounts the turmoil and showers of expletives 
had so troubled the placid waters of the lake that an old 
spoonbill with his mouth full of seaweed was heard to 
mutter to an aged bass, "What fools these mortals be." 
Deer Hunters. 
Capt. E. A. Dosch, the septuagenarian nimrod, accom- 
panied by Charles Hummell, have returned from a suc- 
cessful deer hunt from Oppenheimer's Pasture, seventy 
miles west of San Antonio. They brought a handsome 
five-point buck and two does, besides a half dozen nice 
turkeys. 
Messrs. Ed. Dreiss and Hans Degener, two old-time deer 
hunters, have had their winter's outing. Each killed two 
deer. O. C. G. 
Big-Guns at Havre de Grace. 
Philadelphia, Pa. , Dec. 20 —Editor Forest and Stream: 
I take this liberty of writing to you about certain facts 
that are going on now nightly at Havre de Grace. My 
brother and I are part owners of a shooting craft for 
which we pay the usual licenses, and as you well under- 
stand there are considerable other expenses attached to it. 
We are old gunners and have been going to Havre de 
Grace for years. We believe there is a law prohibiting 
big-gun shooting at night, in fact there were at one time 
a lot of detectives appointed by the different counties to 
break up this big-gun shooting. We have heard no less 
than three to five big-guns in the different nights we have 
been down lately; consequently the ducks are so wild 
they will not decoy, and even the black-heads are going 
away, as we find they are bringing fair prices in the 
market and the big-gun shooters are after them. The 
money arising from the payment of licenses, according to 
our understanding, goes to the support of certain police to 
enforce the laws of the State, which read that no guns 
are to be fired after sunset, and no gun used that cannot 
be shot from the shoulder and that weighs over 151bs. 
We really think that this matter should be looked into. 
It is the only sport we can get at now near our city, and 
we are under expense of several hundred dollars a year, not 
only paying licenses, but payment of the crew and keep- 
ing up the rig. The night before the last shooting day, 
Wednesday, my brother, who was the only one down, 
distinctly heard, between 12 and 2 o'clock, three big-guns 
to the southward of him. It is not only the ducks they 
kill and gather, it is the hundreds of wounded ones that 
escape from a discharge of 31bs. of shot, and the terrible 
fright they experience being paddled up to and fired into 
while feeding. My brother lay in the box — a single box, 
too — all of Wednesday, the 19th, and noticed bunch after 
bunch of ducks flying, probably 300 to 400ft. in the air; 
none of them would dart, all going to the southward. 
This of course, you understand, is caused by the fright 
the ducks have had being big-gunned at night. He killed 
six ducks, and these were killed in hard shots flying over 
the box, as he had no darts. It seems to us there should 
be some way of stopping this unlawful big-gun shooting. 
J. B. M. Harris. 
Cobbs Island Shooting. 
Cherriton, Cobbs Island, Va., Dec. 20.— Owing to the 
very moderate weather last week, gunning was not so 
good as it was the week before. Captains E. B. Cobb and 
George Isdell gunned three days and bagged 71 black 
ducks (or black mallard). William Knapp, B. S. Payne 
and F. S. Payne gunned four days and brought in 68 
black ducks, 54 black brant, 4 geese and 25 small duck of 
different kinds. The latter three gentlemen were from 
New Jersey. Thomas B. Smith. 
A Pennsylvania Party's Luck. 
Allegheny City, Pa., Dec. 18.— Alex. King, Thomas 
Smith and Joseph P. Eeed returned yesterday morning, 
Dec. 15, from a three days' hunt in Indiana county, with 
39 pheasants, 27 rabbits, one red fox, one raccoon and an 
owl that measured 4ft. from tip of one wing to the tip of 
the other. P. F. S. 
About Prairie Chicken Trapping. 
Siotjx City, Dec. 14.— Editor Forest and Stream: The 
season cf the year in which the trapper of prairie chick- 
ens gets in his deadly work is fast approaching and I think 
that a little jogging of the memory on the subject will 
not be amiss on the part of the various State game protec- 
tive associations, game wardens and all who are interested 
in the preservation of this fast disappearing bird. State 
Legislatures as a rule will soon be in session and now is 
the time for us to get more stringent laws on the subject 
passed, I think that while the general game laws may 
be amended to advantage, we can do more real good if 
they are let alone as they now stand and our attention is 
directed toward the enactment of such new laws that the 
trapper will find it unprofitable to break. Trapping is 
done almost entirely by farmers and destroys more game 
than all the market-hunters, game-hogs and others com- 
bined. 
Now that the cold weather is setting in, the chickens 
are moving south; and sections that since early in the 
spring have been deserted are now full of birds coming 
from Minnesota and Dakota. All through Central 
Nebraska and along the Missouri River in South Dakota, 
Nebraska and Iowa the cornfields are full of them, where 
a short time ago one might hunt for a week without find- 
ing one. These birds are so wild that there is little dan- 
ger of many being killed in a legitimate way, but as the 
ground is covered with snow and their food is out of 
reach they will become victims of the deadly traps by the 
thousand, to say nothing of the hundreds that will be 
potted as they huddle under some haystack or other cover 
for protection against the snow and cold. 
I don't know whether Iowa has a game warden or not, 
but if there is such an official or any organization for 
game protection they can find plenty of work this corn- 
in gwinter if they want it right in the Missouri River 
bottoms. As a starter they could not do better than visit 
and investigate thoroughly Monona county; in the vicinity 
of Ouawa in that counry trapping has always been 
practiced to a large extent. In my own trips in the latter 
part of the season I have never failed to see dozens of 
traps in plain sight from the wagon-roads. I have a 
number of friends in Ouawa who are sportsmen in every 
sense, and who deeply deplore this state of things but say 
that the men who violatethe laws are customers of theirs, 
and it would mean ruin to their business if they should 
prosecute the offenders. Now right there is a line field 
for a game warden to commence operations, and I could 
and will name dozens of other localities if that is not 
enough to warrant the proper officials beginning their 
work. 
I understand that the South Dakota sportsmen intend 
to do_ something besides talk toward putting a stop to 
trapping in the southern counties along the Missouri 
River and I sincerely hope it is true. A few more years 
such as last season and the chickens will be as extinct in 
South Dakota as the buffalo. W. R. H. 
Killed the Bear with an Axe. 
Bethel, Me., Dec. 15.— Mr. Oliver Lee, of Topsfield, 
ran short of kindling wood last week and shouldered his 
axe and started for the woods in search of a dead tree. 
After traveling a long way he came to a splendid old dry 
pine partly turned up by the roots, at which he went, 
cutting a large notch, and soon discovered a bear had 
previous exemption rights and was preparing to defend 
them. At a lai-ge hole in the hollow tree a short distance 
from where he was chopping a big bear stuck her head 
out with a hoarse growl and champing of teeth, occupying 
the immediate and earnest attention of Mr. Lee, who at 
once forgot his kindling wood notions and started for 
the black and fast appearing body of the big bear. Lee 
struck the bear a heavy blow with his axe, which only 
seemed to enrage the beast, and before he could strike 
again the bear was fairly out of the den and ready for a 
lively scrimmage, and it was only after several strokes 
that the axe had penetrated her brain and she succumbed 
to the inevitable. Lee then heard a whining noise in 
the tree and on examination found two recently-born 
cubs, which he dispatched. A historical fact is that no 
female bear can be taken from her den, dead or alive, 
without first dropping her cubs. The cash proceeds of 
the affair, besides the winter stock of bear meat, was $15 
bounty and $20 for the old bear's hide. J. G. Rich. 
North Carolina Game Resorts. 
Newbern, Dec. 14. — There are more bears in these 
parts than there are hunters. South of here they are 
very numerous and many have been killed of late. Local 
papers mention them frequently. Farmers complain of 
their depredations. A day or two ago a wild hog weigh- 
ing 6001bs. was killed within six miles of Newbern, and 
its meat was sold in the city market at four cents per 
pound. The animal was shot with buckshot. Six charges 
were fired into him. Quite a few sportsmen are at Hotel 
Chattawka. Sheppard Knapp, Jr. , and W. H. Blanchard, 
of New York, are in camp near here. Partridges are 
numerous. Venison and quail on toast are a frequent 
bill of fare. Snipe on the marshes near cown and ducks 
in Bryce's Creek, up the Trent River, within a two-mile 
pull by boat. Paddies, mallards, widgeons, bufneheads 
and teal. Snipe are always abundant and but little shot 
at. There are three parties professional here who take 
sportsmen out at $3 per day, over good dogs, and several 
gentlemen amateurs have good outfits and will be glad to 
make up parties to go out. Temperature so far 60° to 75°, 
excepting the late cold snap. C. H, 
On Broadwater Bay. 
Philadelphia, Dec. 17. — A party of five consisting of 
the Moore brothers, S. Penrose, Henry Fisher and the 
writer, spent three days last week on Broadwater Bay, 
Va. , duck shooting. We ' 'struck it" just right, wind and 
tide in our favor, Birds plentiful and inclined to decoy. 
Black ducks and broadbills were the principal birds shot. 
Whole number shot 186. Captain A. F. Taylor,, our host, 
did his best to make our trip an enjoyable one and was 
highly successful. This was our third trip there and 
each has been better than the one previous in point of 
ducks shot. But one brant was captured and if any one 
is interested to know who shot him refer him to Mr. 
Fisher. Dr. Marston. 
The Question They Ask in Kentucky. 
Cincinnati, O.— Editor Forest and Stream: I have 
been a consistent reader of the Forest and Stream and 
the articles published on "pot-hunting" and "Stop the 
Sale of Game" have been carefully read, and any laws 
which will stop both will meet with my hearty approval 
although I have but little time for field pleasures. One 
week last November Judge Williams and I took a trip to 
the residence of Mr. Wm. Cloud, in Boone county, Ky., 
and we found that pot-hunters had almost cleaned this 
pretty piece of country of game. The weather was very 
bad, with driving rains, snow and and a little sunshine 
mixed in onco in a while. We succeeded in getting a 
few rabbits, the only game we saw. We had very little 
trouble in getting permission to hunt on adjoining farms 
although the question "Are you shooting game to sell ?" 
was answered with a prompt "No, sir." The kind hos- 
pitality of Mr. Cloud will never be forgotten, and his 
amiable wife saw that we had all the comforts of our 
homes. Doc N. 
Chuckor Partridges in America. 
Macomb, 111., Dec. 18.— Editor Forest and Stream: We 
have six chuckor partridges raised loose by a bantam 
doing nicely. They are quite tame and stay in the yard 
with the common hens, and roost in the barn on the hay. 
These birds have never been confined, but run loose all 
over the farm. They will go into the woods and be gone 
half a day at a time, but are always at home at night and 
morning. I believe we shall be successful in introducing 
this beautiful game bird. Col. J. Penters, of the English 
Army, at Victoria, B. C, has sent to India for some, and 
looks for them to arrive in New York in April. 
W. O. Blaisdell. 
A Singular Accident. 
Patterson, Pa. — Last week a singular accident befel a 
young man named Wagner, while hunting up in Licking 
Creek. A large hawk came flying overhead. Wagner 
shot at it. The double-barreled shotgun jumped out of 
his hands, and striking on the rocks, the second barrel 
heavily loaded with buckshot, was discharged, the whole 
load passing through his leg. About two weeks ago near 
the same place a man named Harshberger attempted to 
pull his rifle out of the bunk muzzle foremost, when it 
was discharged, the ball passing through him. He was 
still alive when last heard from. Quite a number of bear 
have been trapped and shot within a radius of twenty 
miles of this place; three were killed in one week. Deer 
are very scarce in this section. Sancho Panza. 
Chicago and the West. 
Chicago, Dec. 22. — The second annual meeting of the 
National Game, Bird and Fish Protective Association will 
be held Wednesday evening, Jan. 9, and Thursday, Jan. 
10, 1895, in the Sherman House club rooms, Chicago. 
An urgent invitation is made by the secretary for the 
attendance of delegates and members, and a cordial 
request for the game and fish wardens to attend also. 
The rush of the holidays will then be over and business 
men will have more leisure, so that excuses for non- 
attendance will not be valid. Let every one be there. 
E. Hough. 
Louisiana Game Resorts. 
New Orleans, ha— Editor Forest and Stream: North 
and northwest of Shreveport, La., are a number of lakes, 
where wild duck and geese are plentiful in winter; and 
Lake Bistineau, southwest of Shreveport, has almost a 
national reputation in this regard. For wild turkey and 
deer, you may safely trust to finding them almost any- 
where in northwest Louisiana. 
If one wants to find bear, he can easily do so along the 
Sabine River. 
The Megantic Dinner. 
Boston, Dec. 20.— Editor Forest and Stream: The 
annual dinner of the Megantic Fish and Game Club will 
take place at the Hotel Vendome, Commonwealth 
avenue, Boston, Thursday evening Jan. 10. 
W. C. Prescott. 
Enforcing the Michigan Venison Law. 
Lansing, Dec. 13,— Editor Forest and Stream: Last week 
the State game warden visited our city and arrested six of 
our butchers, charged with haviDg venison in their posses- 
sion, and offering it for sale after the law allowing them to 
kill venison had expired. Two pleaded guilty and paid their 
fines, and four are to stand trial. 
Heretofore the law has been a dead letter at Lansing, and 
these butchers who had venison on hand when the law 
allowing them to sell it had expired, kept right on selling 
till the stock gave out. But things have changed, and for 
the better. Deputy Warden J. E. Nichols, of Lansing, is a 
great sportsman, and an up-to-date legal man in every sense 
of the word. In a little chat a few days ago, he remarked 
that the State Game Association were to have a meeting at 
Lansing soon, presumably soon after the Legislature meets 
in January next, and that it was in the air, that our game 
laws would be looked after sharply. A tax on non-residents; 
prohibiting the killing of does and fawns; making the open 
season alike and at the same time in upper and lower 
Michigan and Wisconsin; prohibiting the sale of game, and 
making a close season on quail, are some of the points. 
Very few quail can be found in Michigan to-day. Four 
years ago when the close season expired, or was taken off, 
the birds could be found almost everywhere, but the 
slaughter was too great for them to stand, and to-day our 
best shots get but three or four in a long all day tramp. Our 
dealer in sporting goods has had a card in his window most 
of the season indicating that he wanted to buy quail, by the 
hundred— even the festive little rabbit begins to feel the 
effect of an all the year open season, and the ferret and dog, 
and small boy, have nearly exterminated them. Grouse a 
few years ago abounded all over the State, till to-day it takes 
a good shot to get one, and there is not one grouse in the 
woods to-day {where ten years ago there were hundreds. 
Most of the deer killed this year were does and fawns; very 
few bucks were killed. Julian. 
Prairie Chickens. 
Recent reports received by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- 
way from stations in the prairie chicken country of Minnesota and 
South Dakota all indicate a prospect of the best hunting for years. 
Chickens are very plentiful and in fine condition. Duck shooting 
prospects are also good. Full information can be had by addressing 
Ticket Agent, Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, 207 Clark 
street, Chicago.— Adv, 
