March 2, 1 895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
165 
probably remembering its narrow escape a short time be- 
fore. As it was now dark and the bird flew in the wrong 
direction, it was not followed, and man and dog set out 
for the town— a mile and a half away. They were tired. 
They had been afield for six hours. H had not stopped 
an instant, except the few minutes lie sat on the log while 
Joe had traveled full sixty miles. The faithful old fel- 
low was so 1 tired that he stopped at the first house they 
came to, and insisted on staying there, and lagged behind 
his master all the way to town, but they were very well 
contented as they trudged along, for both had done their 
very best and they had got the email. 
" The next day it rained, and the next one was a continu- 
ation of the rainy one. 
The following day being fair, in the afternoon Mr. Lee 
Cawthon, one of the thoroughbreds among sportsmen, 
suggested that H go with him to see if some quail 
could be found. They found three coveys, and did a lot 
of poor shooting, only getting sixteen quail out of about 
thirty- five shots. H remarked that if they only had 
somebody with them who could shoot a nice lot of birds 
would have been killed, but they consoled themselves by 
thinking that more fun could be had with the birds they 
did not kill than with the dead ones, and resolved to try 
it the next afternoon, and H also resolved to brace up 
and kill every bird he shot at. 
On the next day's shoot the first find was in thin weeds 
in a pear orchard. Joe was going rapidly, right with the 
wind, when he dropped fiat on the ground and lay mo- 
tionless. When the shooters came up. quail got up on 
every side of them. Lee scored one on the rise, but H 
being a little too far off, and trees in the way, did not 
shoot. Three or four birds dropped in tall grass in the 
edge of the orchard, the rest dropping on the farther side 
of a narrow swamp. Getting the birds out of the grass, 
Lee got one and H got feathers from another, and 
marked it down on the farther edge of the swamp. Get- 
ting through the swamp, Joe struck the trail of another 
one, and followed it fifty yards along the edge. When it 
flushed, H showed what a full choke gun will do, 
when pointed right at a quail only twenty yards away. 
While hunting for this dead one, Joe flushed another, 
which H felt sure he would get, but just as he was 
about to shoot, the bird darted suddenly upward. H 
tried to follow this movement of the bird, but had so 
nearly pulled the trigger that the gun was fired before it 
caught up with the unexpected movement, and the bird 
disappeared in the swamp. Meanwhile Lee's pointer had 
given his master three shots along the edge of the swamp, 
but he scored only one, the others going into the swamp. 
Then the dogs got the trail of another, and followed it 
into the swamp, and out into the grass and back in the 
swamp again where they lost it. It had probably flown, 
while the men and dogs were busy with the others. Then 
H went to look for the one he had feathered when it 
flew out of the field. Joe pointed it, and when it was 
kicked out it could not fly, so Joe caught it, and while 
bringing it in made another point. Two birds flushed 
and flew right into the swamp, onl} r a few feet distant. 
H remembered he was "not to see the bushes," and 
snapped both birds before they flew forty feet. Then he 
shook hands with himself, and sent Joe for the two birds. 
Lee now came up, and showed where he had marked the 
two birds in the swamp. H told him to get out on 
the farther side and be ready for them, when H and 
Joe should drive them out. They gave him a couple of 
shots, but both got away, 
, Now, just a word about Lee's shooting, which accord- 
ing to this account seems rather indifferent. It must be 
borne in mind that he is still a young man, and has had 
no such opportunities to perfect his shooting as H — - has 
had. In fact, there is no excuse for H not being a 
good field shot, for he has had a vast amount of practice. 
Lee has all the fine instincts of a thorough sportsman, and 
with enough practice will make an expert wing shot. 
H suggested that more birds could be killed with a 
cylinder bored gun; Lee said that was true, but it was 
lots more fun to kill one with a full choked gun, and, be- 
sides, it was hardly fair to the quail to use a scattering 
gun. 
Next they got in the cart, and drove to an old planta- 
tion two miles farther from town. Here was an ideal 
place for quail. There was a hundred acres of sedge, 
briars, weeds, and dead grass, with two thicket-bordered 
brooks running through the center and woods all round. 
They entered this tract where there was a bare hill com- 
manding a view of the whole ground. Joe paused a mo- 
ment, and looked it over, then looked back ai H , gave 
one joyous bark, and sailed out into the sedge carrying a 
high head and waving tail, sure he would find birds. His 
black head can just be seen above the sedge as he makes 
a wide cast to leeward, then comes up against the wind 
in a bounding gallop, but presently he drops to a trot, 
then stops, and, turniug his head, looks for H , who is 
still standing on the hill. H- starts toward the dog, 
and the black head drops out of sight. By the time H 
gets tli ere the birds have run, but Joe speedily roads 
them fifty yards to a solid point. H has called to Lee 
to come on, and his pointer backs Joe. The dogs are on 
opposite sides of the birds, and are facing each other. 
For a minute the two men stand, and admire the two 
dogs, wishing for a camera to preserve the inspiring sight. 
Then they put them up and get two, the rest going just 
across the thicket, and dropping in very thick high grass. 
Joe gets out of sight, and they can't find him, but pres- 
ently Lee's dog points in grass knee high. H flushes, 
the bird, and it goes toward Lee. who is forty yards away. ' 
H said: "Shoot it," and Lee tried both barrels at it 
but failed to get it, and H tried to console him by 
telling him it was the most difficult shot ever tried. At 
the report of Lee's gun the rest of the birds flew out of 
the high grass, and then Joe walked out of it with a 
"what's the matter with you fellows?" look on his face. 
These birds flew through the thicket, and scattered 
along it for a hundred yards. Lee went after them, and 
got several shots and bagged two, while H followed a 
single one he saw drop a short ways out in the sedge. 
The cover was thick enough to thoroughly hide a turkey, 
but that quail ran several rods before it was pointed. It 
rose high, and circled to the right, trying to get back to 
the thicket, but instead of getting there, it illustrated 
how badly a choke bored gun will spoil a quail, and an- 
other one that was near by did not feel safe and tried to 
dodge behind a bush and get safely to the woods, but just 
before it reached the bush the shooter held true on it. 
Then H 'went over" r to ,, help' , Lee,"and|missedTa*couple 
that got safely into the woods. Lee went after^them, 
and got one which he was a long time in findmg, and 
H turned out into the sedge to look for another covey. 
The sedge was so high the dog was soon out of sight, and 
did not come when called; so H , confident the dog 
was on a point, spent fifteen minutes hunting him, by 
climbing the tall pine stumps and, looking, but could see 
no dog. Finally he heard quail chattering, and a mo- 
ment later saw them rise from the sedge, part going to 
the thicket and the rest going off to the right, were not 
marked. A little later a single one flew, and was marked. 
Joe came to where H was still standing on a stump, 
and Lee and his dog coming up, both went after the sin- 
gle bird. Both dogs got on its trail, and roaded to a 
point. Both men shot at it, and probably both hit it; any- 
way it was killed. Then the dogs struck out for more 
birds, and Joe was soon lost again, but was presently seen 
on a hill side, pointing in thick grass. H tried to 
flush the bird, and kicked the grass all around in front of 
the dog, but no bird came out. Then Joe was told to 
catch it, and pounced on a thick tuft of grass which he 
tore open and then caught the bird, but let it go, probably 
thinking H wanted to shoot it. Anyhow, he did shoot 
it. Soon afterward Lee's dog pointed near by, and it took 
both men to knock a few feathers out of it, but it was so 
hard hit that Joe caught it when they followed it up. 
The dogs pointed again before going af fer the wounded 
one and two birds flushed. Each man picked a bird, and 
both made clean kills. When going after the wounded 
one they flushed another, which, by using both barrels, 
they managed to wound, but could not mark it, so did 
not go after it. Over at the thicket they got uj) the rest 
of the birds and scored two misses apiece. H marked 
one in the edge of the field, and got it; then the otner 
birds were followed into the woods, but Lee's dog in try- 
ing to jump over a barbed wire fence got his flanks caught 
on the top wire and his struggles soon got his hind legs 
into a very serious tangle among 'the wires. It looked as 
if legs would be broken, and the dog's hide cut into 
strings. H dropped his gun, and tried to release the 
dog, but as he was a big dog and hung on the other side 
of the fence, he could not do much with him until Lee 
got on the other side and held him up, while H un- 
tangled him. Meanwhile Joe concluded that H and 
the dog were fighting, and had. to be severely kicked t« 
keep him from chewing the other dog's head off. For a 
few minutes the two men and two dogs were mighty 
busy, but the unfortunate dog was released without any 
injury beyond a few cuts and scratches from the barbs, 
and pointed a quail before he got one hundred yards from 
the fence. That was the last bird for the day, and it got 
away. 
It was nearly sundown, and they noted they were tired 
enough to quit, so they got in the road and walked to the 
cart. At the foot of the hill they stopped to drink from 
the pure water that ran down the brook, and laid out 
their birds on the bridge floor to count them. There were 
just eighteen, and they thought it was enough. H 
has had many shooting companions, but none pleasanter 
than Mr. Cawthon. He has the true instinct of the sports- 
man, which takes care that a shooting companion shall 
have his share of the. sport, rejoices at his success, and 
finds excuses for his failures. He is just the opposite of 
the game hog. 
Florida quail are somewhat different from the northern 
ones in their habits. They are more frequently found in 
the woods, and the Florida [log hunts them in the woods, 
as well, or better than he does in the fields, but the north- 
ern dog is not a satisfactory woods hunter, because he has 
not been in the habit of finding them there. These piney 
woods quail are great runners, and do not lie nor fly close- 
ly pressed, and it is very seldom a dog finds them without 
trailing a long way, and when they alight they are almost 
sure to run some distanre before hiding; neither do they 
lie so well as the northern ones, but will frequently fly 
from the dog after he has pointed and is perfectly quiet. 
For this reason it is well to get within shooting distance 
as soon as possible after the dog points one. 
Very reluctantly H packed his trunk that evening 
to take his departure for Pensacola, for there were still 
quail to be had, and Mr. Cawthon urged him to stay, but 
that had to be the last of the quail shooting for a while, 
at least, though H promises himself just a few more 
days with Mr. Cawthon, five or six maybe, before he has 
to face the cold March weather of Wisconsin. Now, H 
didn't know a soul in Pensacola, but two hours after he 
got there, he saw some guns and fishing tackle in Johnson 
& Forbe's show window, went in and introduced himself 
as a lover of field sports and as an occasional contributor 
to Forest and Stream. "Yes, glad to see you," said Mr. 
Willis. "We all are the biggest lot of gun cranks in 
town, and we read Forest and Stream, too. Mr. H , 
shake hands with Mr. Beers, our full-choke duck crank, 
and Mr. B. Forbes, our cylinder-bored, all-round shooting 
crank, and Mr, H. S. Forbes, our full-choke quail crank." 
Then these big souled sportsmen took H right into 
their hearts, and began to overflow with plans for help- 
ing him to generous slices of quail am! duck shooting, and 
offered to put all the fish in Pensacola waters at his dis- 
posal, if he would stay till they got ripe. 
The first event to come off was a trip to the ducking 
grounds at the mouth of the Escambia River, where the 
club have a house, boats, decoys, etc. On- this trip, Mr. 
Beers— Ben, the boys call him, took H under his 
wing, and sure did himself proud as an entertainer and 
chaperone to a lone duck hunter in a strange land. 
Every inch of him is good fellow, but he does not de- 
serve any credit for it, because he is just built that way 
and couldn't help it if he tried. It is ten miles to the 
club house, but the road was good, the weather warm a_s 
summer, and the time so pleasantly passed in talk that it 
was a very short ten miles. 
Mr. Beers said his first shooting experience happened 
when he was a small boy living in New Orleans. His 
father brought a musket from the war, and it lay around 
the house until Ben and his brother managed to get a cap 
and some powder. They had no shot, but substituted a 
handful of small nails. After charging the gun, they 
started in quest of game, and seeing a buzzard soaring- 
high over the city, decided that their pet chickens were 
in great danger from this hawk, and thus they must kill 
it. The explosion of the over-loaded gun roused the en- 
tire population for several blocks around, and in a few 
seconds rjOO people were collected to learn what had 
"busted." Then" the little fellows got scared, and run- 
ning into the house, never stopped till they were on the 
roof. As they cautiously peeped over the edge of the 
cornice, a policeman spied them and ordered them to 
come down or be instantly shot to death; so they 
came down and were marched off to jail for shooting in 
the city limits. But it did not break Ben from shooting, 
for he never misses a chance to go after ducks. A few 
days ago he was sitting half asleep in a blind, when he 
was roused by a rush of wings that made him think at 
least fifty mallards were dropping right among the de- 
coys, and on looking out he was made very wide awake 
indeed by seeing an enormous grey eagle swoop onto a 
dead mud hen that lay among the decoys and start away 
with it. Then Ben stood up and put a charge of No. 5 
shot right into the eagle, but it just humped itself a little 
and dropped the mud hen, but the second shot winged it, 
and it was Ben's eagle. Then while he and his boatman 
were examining the great bird, another eagle swooped 
down on the mud hen, lying only a few yards away, and 
carried it off, Ben and his man being so surprised that 
they never thought of shooting it. 
It was dark soon after Ben and H. reached the club 
house, and soon afterwards a thunder storm came on, 
one of the big kind that always confine themselves to the 
South, but the hunters were so cosy before the bright fire 
in the old fireplace, and spent the evening discussing 
various social and political problems; then setting the 
clock to alarm at the next morning, 'they turned in. 
When they got up the sky was black as ink, and the wind 
blew forty miles an hour. The temperature had fallen 
twenty degrees. It was impossibe to row'a boat against 
such a gale, and the intended trip across the bay after 
mallards had to be given up. So they waited till day- 
light and then went three-quarters of a mile down the river 
to try for bluebills. As they rounded a point, some 
green-winged teal got up, and H. being in advance, 
dropped one, then so soon as the gun was empty, a big 
bunch of mallards arose nearer than the teal, and I 
thought how useless was an empty gun. At the mouth 
of the river was a substantial blind, having a floor just 
above the water. Here^part of the decoys were put out 
and H. put in the blind, Ben put out the rest of the de- 
coys near the bank, put on his grass suit and sat down in 
the rushes, and the boatman started out on the bog to 
stir up the ducks. There were several shots offered dur- 
ing the next hour, but so violent was the wind that the 
shooting was almost at random, and ten shots only 
brought down six ducks, one of which fell into the bay 
and was blown out to sea. Another was only winged and 
the wind blew it so far away that it was out of range 
when it struck the water, so it deliberately swam ashore, 
walked up the bank and into the rushes. Another 
wounded one, fell into the water fifty yards away, and in 
shooting at ii on the water it was plainly seen that the 
wind carried the shot charge two or three feet to one side. 
In a couple of hours the wind had blown most of the heat 
out of the men's bodies, so they rowed back to the house, 
built a rousing fire, ate another breakfast, and after get- 
ting thoroughly warm started to Pensacola, voting they 
had had a good time anyway. 
Dorsey, the boatman, is deserving of mention, for there 
is no better one. His mother was a negro and his father 
an Indian, and in this case the union bore good fruit. He 
rows a boat, handles the horses or cooks a good meal to 
perfection, and is entirely reliable. He is a keen sports- 
man, too, and no doubt would get his share of the game if 
he had opportunity to shoot. 
Pensacola offers many inducements to the tourist 
angler. It is a very comfortable place to stop, water 
transportation is abundant and cheap, either by sail boats 
or naptha launches. Its land-locked bogs are of great ex- 
tent and pretty enough to satisfy anyone, and there are a 
great many points of interest about the navy yard and 
the forts that; have defended the entrance to the bay. 
Along the pouter beach of Santa Rosa Island, the shell- 
gatherer can get all he wants in quantity and variety. 
In their season there is great abundance of nearly all 
varieties of both fresh and salt water fish, common to this . 
latitude, but it is too far north for much good fishing be- 
fore the first of March, and the winter weather would 
hardly satisfy those in search of a tropical climate. There 
is a good many days of perfect weather, but there are 
some rainy ones and cloudy days with wind that is too 
cold for the enjoyment of laziness. During March and 
April, both the climate and the fish just hump them- 
selves to give the angler a good time. 
H. has set his heart on landing a fifteen-foot shark, and 
harpooning just one big porpoise out of the scores that he 
sees tumbling and rolling in the bay, but as it is too early 
for this sport, he and Joe will go quail hunting for the 
next three weeks. The capture of shark and porpoise and 
a lot of ten pound red snappers will be duly announced— 
after they are landed. H. has thought every day of 
the many readers of Forest, and Stream who for various 
reasons cannot help him enjoy these good things in per- 
son, and hopes they may derive some pleasure from the 
next best thing, reading about them in "our paper," for 
he gets a vast amount of solid comfort from reading the 
narratives of his fellow contributors, and feels under ob- 
ligations to them. O. H. Hampton. 
Expects to Read It Forty Years. 
OREGON I consider tlie Forest and Stream the finest paper 
in the United States for a sportsman. My name has heen on your 
list during the past ten or eleven years, and I expect ;to continue 
the balance of my lifetime, which should he thirty or forty years 
more, at least. FRANK M. FARLAND. 
" The Next Best Thing." 
NEW YORK. — On account of my poor health, I am unable to 
have my usual hunting, but I get along very well reading Forest 
and Stream. I could not stand it if it was not for the old Forest 
and Stream; it fills a place nothing else can fill. nnmM/1 
M. S, GOODING. 
Vom Hofe Reels. 
Anglers, before placing their orders elsewhere, should see the 
Vom Hofe reels, manufactured by Julius Vom Hofe, Brooklyn, N. 
Y These reels are not sold at retail by the manufacturer, but 
may be found in the leading fishing-tackle stores everywhere,- 
The angler who purchases a Vom Hofe reel, even m the cheaper 
grades, is sure of one of the best articles that skill and honest 
work can produce. The reels are unsurpassed for fine workman- 
ship, smoothness in running and durability.-Adv. «*• 
