Feb. 2, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
85 
ticipating within a half an hour a new' two and "a half 
mile portage in a heavy rain. The disappointment was 
forgotten, and the portage was made in due time. How 
often I hare thought, though, that I could have made a 
portage many times two and a half miles long, couldT 
have been loaded down with that moose head, as my 
share of the baggage. 
I have heard almost all animal calls imitated under vari- 
ous circumstances, by many guides during many trips 
made into the wilderness. The case that I have just re- 
lated excels by far any that I have ever seen or heard. I 
can only add that I believe it to be the perfection of 
' woodcraft. 
EUGENE MCCARTHY. 
TEXAS AND THE SOUTHWEST. 
A Success fill Trip. 
For the past three winters the writer, always lucky, 
had the good fortune to make one of the famous Sam 
Allen fishing and hunting parties on Galveston Bay. 
. Col. Sam Allen needs no introduction to the readers of 
Forest and Stream, neither do his two sons, Balders and 
Percy. But then one never tires of talking and writing 
about good people, and as far as Houston is concerned , 
the jeunesse doree of the past decade did its best in pro- 
ducing such a man as Sam Allen. 
We left San Antonio on the 14th of January, chaperon- 
ing Mr. Ernest Steves, who has earned a Lone Star fame 
a selling long 3x4 planks and telling 50x75 shooting 
stories. He is blessed with a face that is always resplend- 
ent with Southwest Texas bonhommie, with an appetite 
that is always necessary to support a large and muscular 
frame. I'll say nothing about the thirst, but the blue 
marks on various portions of my anatomy at the gen- 
tleman' good-natured habit of planting Ms fist forcibly 
upon you when he is i a real good humor. The good hu- 
mor never running short, the good-natured pounding is 
always on tap. 
At Houston we were met at the depot by Mrs. Balders 
Allen who escorted us to the steam yacht Portland and 
barge under the efficient charge of Captain Thomas and 
pilot Pendleton. Of course, the cook and pprter need no 
introduction so we will waive that ceremony. 
In ten minutes more we were dodging barges and 
things on the narrow bosom of Buffalo bayou, but a few 
miles brought us skimming along the surface of a beau- 
tiful stream, profusely fringed on both banks with a hea vy 
growth of semi-tropical plants and flowers above which 
towered giant pines and cypress trees. The ride was de- 
lightful, the colonel at his best and a halo of jovial spirit- 
ualism surrounded the expedition. 
I had a good view of the famous and historic spot where 
the handful of American patriots bled and died in defense 
of their homes, fighting against the invading Mexican 
hordes commanded by the butcher Santa Anna. 
At the battle San Jacinto 1300 Americans were pitted 
against nearly 4000 Mexicans. "Our boys," remarked 
Colonel Allen, "killed them as fast as they coidd load and 
shoot or smash their heads in with gun barrels. I tell 
you they didn't mind taking a pot shot in that fight. 
They killed until it ceased to be sport, and undoubtedly 
fearing that the game would spoil on their hands, they 
captured fanta Anua and the rest of them, tied them up 
in bunches and took them to Houston. As we passed the 
place, felt as though we were on sacred ground, and 
maybe surrounded by the spirits if they who so^ nobly 
made the greatest sacrifice that one can make — died for 
their flag: who knows? But my emotions were quickly 
dispelled as we passed a sign that has been erected not 
more than two hundreed yards from the monument erected 
to the memory of the brave dead. It reads thus: 
"San Jacinto Battle Ground Tract, 30,000 acres at $30 
per acre." 
The Mulberry Sellers of the age has been there and left 
his sign. 
After a most interesting ride, down the bay, or across 
the bay, we reached the mouth of Trinity River. The. 
ducks there had been "burnt out" by an army of market 
hunters, who shot by day and by night, until the water 
fowl sought new feeding and roosting grounds. 
Col. Allen is much more of a disciple of the rod than a 
votary of the gun, and being thoroughly posted on salt 
water fishing, he was soon spotting around for shell 
banks. There being no shooting, and having had no fish- 
ing for a long time, I concluded to join the Colonel while 
the rest of the party went gunning. 
We soon found the shell bank, and right here I experi- 
enced something I never had before. The voracity of the 
red fish and trout cannot be described on paper. There 
were three rods in the boat, and frequently these rods 
were almost bent double under the weight of a heavy fish. 
We caught none weighing less than two pounds; from that 
to ten pounds. It is the best fishing from every stand- 
point that I have had in twenty-five years. It is a dream. 
It is still there, and should any of my Northern brethren 
hunt me up with fine sport in view, I'll send^him where 
he'll like the place'and do well. 
A Ularket-Huruer's Preserve. 
^Now, Mr. Banker-Market-Hunter Moody of Galveston. 
Chambers County, of rice farm and canvas-back duck 
preserve fame, comes forth and soars into the empyrean 
blue with the grandiloquent statement that he saved T the 
only canvas-back lake on the Texas coast from the rapa- 
cious clutches of the market hunters. That he is "pre- 
serving" the place against the murderous ravages of the 
indiscriminate market hunter, and that he defies the lake 
and surroundings by the sacred halo that surrounds ex- 
Governor Hogg and staff, when he invites them to go duck 
shooting. 
I also understand that several gentlemen, one of whom 
is well known hi shooting circles of Austin, have stated 
that Mr. Moody has done a great thing for the sportsmen 
in the State by appropriating Lake Surprise. The Austin 
gentleman referred' to says that several years ago, while 
hunting the high-toned canvas-backs that sport on the 
broad bosom of the lake, he was shot at by one!of the 
"'gang" of market hunters that infested the place. ' That 
he is glad that Colonel' Moody has driven them' out and 
given the "sportsmen" of the State a "go" at the birds. 
What a Xot of Hot. 
The facts are, that while Moody has discharged one of 
the market hunters, and another has left him, lie has re- 
placed them with others more expert in duck killing, and 
that he is still a beneficiary of the practice of slaughtering 
ducks for the Northern markets. The "gang" that "in- 
fested" the lake heretofore are the Stevensons, and I 
was told last week by a good man who lived on the lake 
for years, that it was "Bud" Stevenson who shot the 
Austin gentleman in the mouth with a load of BB's. The 
Stevensons are now, and have been since the securing of 
the questionable patent by Moody, in command of the 
canvas-back slaughterers. They direct the movements 
of the murderous "gang," place Governor Hogg and his 
lickspittles on the duck stand, and often do the shooting 
for them. 
In the meantime, Moody still receives his pound of flesh 
in the shape of one-fourth of the proceeds of this delect- 
able game. He is not veiy particular as to his reputation 
as a sportsman — such men never are. But then he is very 
rich, and he proposes to fight with his money any attempt 
to dispossess him from the lake. A great many people 
worhip at the money shrine, but "Texas Field" does not 
and never will. 
How about that party of gentlemen who asked Mr. 
Moody's permission to hunt on the lake for a brief week a 
year ago? If Mr. Moody was anxious to grant sportsmen 
the entree to the. "preserve," why did he refuse them on 
the ground that he would not interfere with the "poor 
people on the lake who made a living there? He did not 
then say that the "poor people" he spoke of were the cor- 
don of market hunters whom he had placed on the lake 
and from whom he exacted one-fourth of what they killed. 
Nice way of "protecting" the game! Make an alliance 
with a lot of pot hunters, and not only exclude reputable 
gentlemen, but publish falsehoods about them in the Gal- 
veston News. 
There is another thing yet to be touched upon: In order 
to secure the papers vesting the title in Mr. Moody, it was 
necessary to prove beyond a doubt that the lake' was not 
a permanent body of water, and accordingly the Galves- 
ton contingent soon scraped up about fifteen affidavits to 
the effect that they knew the lake to go dry. 
In a little over six months I have secured affidavits 
from not less than twenty people, some of whom have 
lived within a mile of Lake Surprise, to the effect that the 
lake never has gone dry; that it is a permanent body of 
water, and that it cannot be drained. 
These affidavits will be presented at the proper time to 
the Galveston grand jury, and the gentlemen who have 
been so anxious to swear to something they knew 
nothing about will be called upon to explain before that 
tribunal. 
The Sick Sportsman. 
The hospital department reports progress. Mr. A. W. 
Adams, of Chicago, who has been visiting San Antonio 
this winter, is much improved in health. Mr. Laning has 
gone to the coast with A. B. Critzer, in search of web 
foots. 
Quail. 
Very plentiful and good sport may be had fifteen miles 
from San Antonio. Messrs. Rothwell and Phillips re- 
turned from their weekly hunt last Sunday evening with 
seventy-three quail and a lot of doves. I saw several other 
parties and all seeme,d to have had a good time and nice 
sport. 
After Dr. Carver. 
In a letter to me, Mr. E. Brown, of Burton, Texas, says 
he would like to have Dr. Carver come down to Texas and 
swipe the ozone with him. He only wants the doctor to 
call off five misses in a hundred birds, and wants the 
event to come off at the State shoot, in May next. 
TEXAS FIELD. 
ROUND ABOUT NEW ORLEANS. 
Game Resources. 
New Orleans, La. , Jan. 18. — It is extremely difficult to 
write of the game and fish resomces of Louisiana without 
raising in the mind of the reader a suspicion of gratuitous 
exaggeration. The stories of the bags which have been 
made and are made of the swarms of game and fish at 
different seasons and places, in their relation sound more 
like apocryphal flights of Munchausen than they do of the 
statements of plain truth. 
But the infrequent accounts of the abundance of game 
of Louisiana, published as a fragment of an outing story, 
are wholly inadequate to give any clear conception of 
Louisiana's game supply. The fifty or sixty birds shot in 
a day by the shooter, while large within the scope of a 
personal experience, are a mere "nothing as compared to 
the great whole. 
Nevertheless, I believe that the game supply of 
Louisiana is diminishing. So far as the migratory birds 
are concerned, ducks, geese, snipe, woodcock, plover, etc. . 
any diminution of their numbers in the North would be 
correspondingly but not so perceptibly felt here— not so 
perceptibly, because the ducks of the vast regions of the 
North, all congregating en masse in the vicinity of the 
Southern coast in winter, would then appear to be plenti- 
ful, even when the grand total had seriovsly diminished. 
That the incessant slaughter of dues from" early fall till 
late spring, commencing at the extreme North and con- 
tinuing through the length and breadth of their Southern 
flight, and, most destructive of all, through the winter 
months, when they have settled in steady habits of 
habitat and feeding grounds, then in the spring the same 
merciless destruction awaiting them on their return 
Northward migration, will eventually exterminate them, 
I firmly believe. Shooters and improved methods are 
constantly increasing. The duck region is progressively 
more thoroughly covered by the shooters. There is 
hardly a slough, stream or lake from far North in. British 
America to the Southern limit but what has its quota of 
shooters. The destruction in each place continues from 
the time that the ducks appear till the moment that they 
leave for elsewhere. But going elsewhere is but to ran 
into the same vigilant destruction which awaits them 
everywhere. It is difficult for a duck to TAnd a place 
whereon to safely lay his wearied head. 
Were the destruction carried on by the sportsmen of 
the land, there is no doubt but what the natural increase 
would more than keep pace with the destruction caused 
by them. But the demands of the market are far greater 
than the demands of sport. Few people can shoot ducks, 
yet all can eat them. There are not ducks enough in ex- 
istence to supply the constant demands of the market. 
The population is constantly increasing, while the ducks 
are decreasing. 
Granting that the same efforts will be made to supply 
the demands of the market in the future as in the past, 
the fate of the duck is easily forecast. In the North I 
have heard the remark made that the ducks had abandoned 
some of their old routes and feeding grounds once favored 
by them in their Southern flights. The true explanation, 
I believe, is that there are not sufficient numbers of ducks 
to make the showing in their flights as in the yeaxs gone 
by. It is not reasonable to assume that there are just as 
many ducks after killing them as before killing them. 
Game Preserves. 
I believe that the game preserve is the solution of the 
problem so far as preservation relates to the birds which 
are not migratory. As to the migratory birds, the game 
preserve will prolong their existence indefinitely, perhaps 
permanently, for it will shut off territory from the multi- 
tude of shooters and reserve it for the use of the few. If 
the territory so preserved is large enough, it is plain that, 
with the restrictions which would be imposed by personal 
ownership, the perpetual preservation of the migratory 
bird would be assured. 
Even in this section of favored abundance, the game 
preserve is coming into favor. The need of game laws, 
properly enforced, is also beginning to be duly appre- 
ciated. ' Still, a vast negligence or indifference prevails 
amongst the masses. 
On West Pearl River there are about thirty fishing 
camps owned by amateurs. On the Queen and Crescent 
Road, situated on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, 
there are a number of camps, and there are also a large 
number of camps on the Morgan Railroad, the local name 
for this branch of the Southern Pacific. These so-called 
camps often are houses comfortably furnished. Several 
sportsmen club together, form a kind of jointjstock affair, 
raise the necessary funds and build and [furnish the 
house. They, of course, select a place in* a favorable 
game section. There they spend a pleasant day, week or 
month, alone or with their families or friends, a most 
delightful way of taking an outing. As the fishing and 
shooting seasons are much longer here than in the North, 
a great deal of return can b'e gotten for the investment 
in a permanent camp. 
The points mentioned, however, are still accessible to 
strangers, and live minnows and shrimp can be obtained 
for bait for black bass, known here locally as green trout. 
So far as fishing and shooting is concerned, any stranger 
who comes here properly accredited can have both to his 
heart's content. 
No more generous sportsmen exist than those of the 
South. There are no latch-strings on their shooting or on 
their doors, so far as it refers to their hospitality. In 
giving this imperfect description of the evolution of sport 
and of the sport itself, I desire to pay this passing tribute 
to a class of sportsmen whose nobility withstands the 
mutations of time and progress. 
Game Px-eserves for a Song. 
The game preserve, in this section of abundance, is 
much in the nature of a gift to him who will take the 
trouble to reach forth his hand to accept it. 
In a conversation with Mr. E. T. Manning, who is a 
perfect encyclopedia of sporting information, he gave me 
much valuable information. Said he: "The amateurs 
have just begun to appreciate the value of the great ad- 
vantages of New Orleans as a starting point from which 
they and their friends can reach favored shooting and 
fishing grounds. In fact, the various clubs have begun to 
buy up the desired property from the State. That prop- 
erty, being overflowed land, has been transferred by the 
United States to the State authorities. Those lands can 
be bought for twelve and a half cents per acre from the 
State. The taxes are merely nominal, being 70 cents on 
every $1.00. 
"Com. Thomas Sully, of the Southern Yachting Club, 
jointly with some friends, through Mr. James L. Brad- 
ford, a land attorney who made heretofore some very 
valuable selections on Lake Borgue shores, has secured 
several sections for a duck and fish preserve. Those local- 
ities are entirely free from market shooters, and as yet have 
but one camp of fishermen in that whole section. 
"By making selections of the grounds adjacent to the 
entrances of the bayous and the bayous proper, he has 
been enabled to control enormous stretches of country 
where the greatest quantities of wild fowl and snipe are to 
be found, and of the waters where the black bass grow 
largest. At the entrances of the bayou sea fish, such as 
speckled trout, sheepshead, flounders, redflsh and many 
other varieties less well known to the public, are taken 
in great quantities. 
"In one trip of the 'Helen (Com.Sully's cruising yacht) 
eight of the party took 165 fish in three hours. The fish 
wire speckled trout, redflsh and sheepshead. At the 
same time, three guns got 82 ducks in the three hours' 
shooting, of which 50 odd weje mallards, about 30 spring 
tails' and the rest teal. That was not -an uncommon bag. 
"Speaking of game, I remember, in 1886, we had a 
team shoot. Mayor Guillotte was captain of one team, 
and I was captain of the other. We had almost every 
variety of game as the result of the shoot— deer, turkeys, 
all kinds of ducks; in short, all kinds of game and ani- 
mals but bear. Hawks and owls were also killed. My 
bag consisted of 67 woodcock, which counted 25 points 
each. There were over 76 men at the club dinner which 
followed, and at $20 per man of the losing team, the 
dinner was a good one." 
In response to my question as to the extent of market 
shooting, he said: 
"There are between 400 and 500 men engaged in 
market shooting within a radius of 30 miles of New 
Orleans. The largest camp of all is controlled by Mr. 
Felix Roux, at Bayou des Allemands, on the Southern 
Pacific Railroad. At that point there are from 100 to 13i) 
men who shoot for market. The records of the station 
agent show that from 87 to 110 baskets of ducks are 
shipped daily, through the season, from that one point, 
and are shipped to L. Bartholomew & Co. in the French 
