March 23, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
225 
Government over it, till very lately the silent pirogue of 
the 'Cajun hunter plied unmolested. At the time of the 
building of the jetties, however, the Government made 
suoh call for willows or fascines in the jetty work, M. 
Octave Barroner, who no doubt is a distant relative of 
Albare Bow-wow, my boatman, saw in the willow in- 
dustry a great opportunity. Besides working among the 
willow flats of the upper Jumps of the Mississippi (a 
"jump" is a channel where the river breaks through its 
old bank and goes wandering off cross-country in search 
of the gulf) Monsieur Octave, as he soon came to be 
called, used to such purpose his boat that before long he 
owned a lugger. Moreover, he amassed the fortune of 
$600, or perhaps even more. With this he bought of the 
government some 6,000 acres of this marsh land, on 
which a 'Cajun pig could dig grass bulbs (until the tide 
caught him) and on which there existed great store of 
raccoons and rnuskrats, all of which are good to eat. In 
this way Monsieur Octave became the king of the 'Cajuns. 
His son Tom, our worst pusher, and the most obnoxious 
fellow that ever was about a camp, recounted how at his 
wed ling he had had sixty -five gallons of wine, two kegs 
of whiskey and over 300 pounds of the flesh of ox, and 
swine, everybody being drunk and not going to bed 
for three days. Only the son of a king may do these 
things so royally. (Tom married a deaf mute, which 
shows that he had wisdom after all.) 
Well, when Monsieur Octave Barroner became king 
of the 'Cajuns, he issued a ruling for all 'Cajundom that 
no man should shoot more than half a day,' and that all 
guns should knock off work at 12 o'clock, noon. At any 
rate, this was the ruling he gave our party, to whom he 
chartered his lugger, his two sons. Tom and George, his 
son-in-law Emilien (or "Mary Ann," as we called him 
for short) and his fleet of pirogues. 
The above will give a notion of the conditions to be met at 
Deal Man's bayou. There is much country entirely open 
in different parts of the gulf marsh thereabouts, but a 
reader will see that to get at it be must take a schooner 
from Quarantine, or somewhere up river, and sail to his 
shooting point, there either going into camp as we did, 
with charcoal and a barrel of drinking water, or living 
aboard the schooner. I imagine that he would need to 
poke up his guides a bit now and then, or they would be 
perfectly willing to take his money and not work hard to 
get him to the shooting. These 'Cajuns are fine duck 
hunters, and know their country as no stranger can, and 
do things among the mud aud reeds that no stranger dare 
attempt; but they make their living at this trade, and 
are not eager, I should say, to see outside folks get much 
shooting. 
A GREAT WILD FOWL COUNTRY. 
As to the quantity of the wild fowl there can be no 
question. This coast country is the natural wintering 
ground of the fowl, and from Mobile to Corpus Christi. 
along almost all of the gulf front, they winter in numbers 
dependent upon the weather to the north of them. Every 
duck hunter knows that there is no country where ducks 
can be killed in numbers every day. The shooting even in 
the best locality depends upon many different and vary- 
ing conditions of weather and feed. A duck does not go 
and light in the Gulf of Mexico and stay there till spring. 
It will work up and down, going as far north into Louis- 
iana, Mississippi and Arkansas as the weather leads it to 
believe it should. A cold spell through the north and 
upper south will bring the birds in hurrying thousands 
down to the coast, and there is where the shooting is to 
be had. 
On the morning of our first day in camp we managed 
by diligent effort to get through breakfast by about 9 
o'clock. Then we went aboard the lugger and sailed 
down through the passes and bayous till we could see the 
rol 1 of the gulf. On either side of us we could see great 
bodies of fowl rising and working, vast black clouds, 
thousands 'and thousands of them, stich as we never see 
on Northern marshes now and probably never will again. 
The sun was pleasant, the sky was blue, the deck of the 
boat was comfortable. We were of fair appetite, con- 
tinually in the salt air. By vote, we concluded it was 
much wiser and more fit to sail back to camp and have 
some more crabs, mullet and French coffee than to be 
bothering the poor birds. So back we sailed through the 
endless, colorless flats of 'Cajundom, and after lunch, 
wisely went to sleep, Mr. Foster being easily leader at 
this. I consider Mr. Foster to be the politest man I ever 
knew, and the best reciter of poetry. He knows eveiy 
poem of James Wnitconib Riley, and can deliver them 
better than Riley himself. But you have to watch him. 
He will smile brightly and say "Yes sir," to your re- 
mark, and then fall over and be'fast asleep. We used to 
have to wake him up to get iiini to give us Hamlet's 
soliloquy, or Riley's "Little Town o' Tail-holt," which he 
would do with unvarying excellence and good humor, 
and then fall asleep again. This I say in no spirit of re- 
proach of Mr. Foster, who is irreproachable, but as only a 
showing that he has wisdom, and knows a vacation trip 
to be a time of rest. To what end shall we destroy these 
ducks? he figured. And with his wisdom we agreed, and 
so fell asleep beside him in the knee-deep fragrant grasses 
of the tent, and the flowing tide came in. 
ADVENTURES WITH WILD BEASTS. 
Dead Man's bayou is 40 yds. wide and 10 to 20 ft. deep, 
and the porpoises come through sometimes. The first 
night in camp, when the two New Orleans servants, 
Jim and George were left alone in camp together, was a 
time of terror for them. A large number of raccoons, at- 
tracted by the smell of fish and game about the camp, 
came prowling around the cook tent. To Jim aud George 
these seemed no less than bears, and they fled in terror to 
the big house tent. Here they found a gun, but it being 
a breech-loading gun, they did not know how to load it. 
As they were experimenting with this, they heard a great 
lunging splash and a loud blowing noise in the channel, 
just outside the house tent. 
"Fo' God! Mistah Fostah, sah," said Jim, "they wuz a 
whale shoh'ly come froo this place, an' he done splash 
watah all over de bofe tents." This, it seems, was the 
crowning incident of the reign of terror of the 'coons and 
porpoises. George told how they defended themselves. 
"I know'd that gun wasn't loaded," said he, "but I 
know'd the whale didn't know it wuzn't, so I pointed it 
at him anyhow. It wuz on'y a bluff but we don workd 
it, an" the whale, he went on 'way when he seed the 
gun." 
"J J JJ ;bet .if die jsaw that gup, hejsaw it^beyond .oyer 
into the far~corner of the tent," said'Mr.'Divine; "go 
on and get some supper. Don't you suppose these gen- 
tlemen ever get hungry. ' ' 
^Mr. M. M.'Daily, of Duncan, *Miss., writes as follows in 
regard to the bear country mentioned in the "Sunnv 
South" articles: "As you know, I managed Capt. Bobo's 
plantation last year. This year I am farming on my own 
account, planting some potatoes and cotton and raising 
some bear dogs. During the Cbristmas holidays we killed 
two large bear. Had for by-four dogs in the race, and they 
fought for about an hour before the bear was killed. I 
wished you were here, for they run him over every man 
in the crowd, %nd finally Capt. Bobo had to kdl him. The 
bear weighed 550 lbs. There are more deer here this 
winter than I have almost ever seen for ten years." 
E. Hough. 
909 Security Building, Chicago. 
DUCKS ON NEUCES BAY, 
I want to refer the sportsmen of America to what Dick 
Merrill, (celebrated dog man) of Milwaukee, and H. R. 
Laning, of Chicago, will say about our last Sunday and 
Monday's shoot on Neuces Bay. We have just returned 
from there, where we have had three mornings of as fine 
and hard duck-shooting as it is possible to produce any- 
where. We fired nearly 400 shells per man in three morn- 
ings and two evenings, and there were six men in our 
party. Mr. Laning received a lesson in duck shooting, 
and he says that he will take back to Chicago something 
which he did not possess before— the ability to kill a 
swift incoming blue-bill. 
A GAY PARTY. 
The prince of the Southwest, George Fulton, had an- 
other opportunity to dispense his rare hospitality to a 
party from the north. Messrs. Boyce, Knight and Sheriff 
Pease, of Chicago, accompanied by their ladies, spent a 
few pleasant clays on the Fulton ranch, and while the 
ladies Avere being entertained at the ranch, the gentlemen 
had a rare day's sport on Neuces Bay and brought back 
with them a fine lot of ducks. 
The birds that were killed by this party were dealt out 
to all who wanted them for consumption, but the Chi- 
cago gentlemen were imposed upon by an old charlatan 
who hunts for market, and poaches on the Fulton 
preserves. As the ducks were being given out by a small 
lad of the party, the pot-hunter approached the young 
man and told him that he had a large family and that he 
could use what remained (about two dozen) so he took 
the whole lot and didn't do a thing but put the whole 
business in a sack and send them in for market. 
Last week, in company with a few boon companions, 
Max Luther left the city on the reefs for Mustang Island, 
where ducks are said to be thicker than hair on a dog's 
back. All went well until a landing was effected. From 
the deck of the sloop thousands of pintails, mallards and 
teal could be seen hovering over the little fresh water 
ponds that abound on the islands on the Texas coast, and 
which have all been filled by the late generous rains. 
The excitement was at | fever heat on the little sloop. 
Everyone was anxious to have a go at the birds, and ac- 
cordingly, each man constituted himself a committee of 
one to look after his gun and shells. 
Max, who was at the helm, giving out commands, cast 
a glance of commiseration at his comrades, and thought, 
"Go ahead, you lubbers. Get excited as much as you 
can. But wait till the old 'vet' gets out old 'Betsy,' and 
then you'll hear some music." Then, after each man had 
received his fowling piece and shells, and not until then 
did our veteran institute a search for his gun and am- 
munition. 
The deck was ransacked, the contents of the cabin 
were overturned, and the darkest corners of the hold 
eagerly sought in a vain endeavor to find that ten guage. 
The shells were not to be found either, and in a fit of 
rage the veteran duck-hunter turned to his "nigger" and 
howled: "Where's my gun, Sam?" "Max, de las' time I 
seed ol' Betsy she war a lyin' on de counter at Gaawg 
Robets, sah, an' dem two hunderd shells dat you tole me 
to buy was a-layin' along side." 
Straight as an arrow and plunk amidships the thought 
struck Max that he had put his gun and shells on Geo. 
Robert's counter, and that in his hurry to be off to the 
boat he had forgotten them. He didn't mind the absence 
of the gun and shells half as much as the talk that he 
knew must follow. "If that San Antonio dude that 
writes 'Texas and the Southwest' ever gets hold of that," 
he thought, "its all up with me. My reputation as a 
sportsman will languish a perishing thing in the quag- 
mire of neglect, and even the Corpus Christi Caller man 
will not place credence in my duck stories. Alas! I am 
undone! And he had to sail back to Corpus, where he 
found the gun and shells just where the "nigger" had 
stated they were. 
COLONEL BILL FERGUSON. 
For probably the same reason that the Hon. Dan Voor- 
hees is called the "Tall Sycamore of the Wabash." the 
urbject of these fines is called the "tall Pecan of the 
Southwest. " Col. Bill Ferguson is one of the most noted 
sportsmen of the Southwest, having hunted all the four- 
footed game in America, and is considered on excellent 
authority on field shooting in general. In his tour of in- 
spection of the different custom houses that float "old 
glory" to the breeze, Col. Ferguson often takes trips to 
Galveston, and from there by Gulf to Brownsville, and 
from the latter named place up the Rio Bravo, to Eagle 
Pass, when he reaches his headquarters. Describing the 
beautiful country which he traversed from Brownsville 
to Eagle Pass, Mr. Ferguses said that the country is in a 
primitive condition. Thousands of birds of all kinds are 
there. The Chackalanca he met on all sides. Mr. Fergu- 
son killed some, and he says the flesh is as white as a 
turkeys, and of a good flavor. The marshes and lagoons 
are alive withwaterfowl of all kinds, while deer and tur- 
key are often met with on the mam trail. 
A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT. 
Lieut. J. G. Ord, one of the best known and most 
efficient sportsmen in the southwest, in company with a 
young and popular lover of the woods, Mr. Charles 
Eccles, aged about 20, has been scouring the mountains 
of West Texas and Mexico in search of big game and the 
pretty things that abound in that wilderness. While at 
the north of the Pecos River, 23 miles from the Southern 
Pacific Railway, young Eccles, upon picking up his rifle 
by the mugzie a,s it Jay^on the ground, was 3bot through 
the hand, the ball going up thelleft arm and tearing the 
flesh and shattering the boneslup to the elbow.^JLieut. 
Ord immediately took up the main artery and ligatured 
it, thus saving the young man's life. "Talk about a 
game boy," said Lieut. Ord, "that young fellow rode 
those 23 miles to Corastock facing a'bitter norther with- 
out a whimper. I led his horse all the way, and he did 
not speak ten words on the trip." At last accounts the 
injured boy was doing very well, and there are some 
hopes of saving his hand and arm. O. C. G. 
IN AROOSTOOK WILDS AGAIN. 
The scene was not exactly in the Aroostook wilds, but 
at the headwaters of the Penobscot River, and only ten 
minutes walk into waters that empty into Aroostook 
River. Parties come up the Aroostook River and across 
into Penobscot waters to hunt. In my letter of March 2, 
I spoke of leaving this section with a Boston party. The 
day we left Clarence, Peavy and a,nother guide from the 
Oxbow settlement on the Aroostook R. R., came there 
with a sportsman from Connecticut, and when I returned 
some three weeks la,ter, the first of October, I found that 
Peavy's party had just left, as their fire was not all out. 
From what I learned and saw, signs of the Peavy party 
and another party had been moose hunting there all of 
twenty days, but going out of the woods in October. The 
result was that moose were not so plenty as they were 
when I left in the first part of September. Other parties 
went back with me the first of October; Dr. McGay 
from New York was with them. 
I helped the Doctor's party to the hunting grounds; we 
had to cross one lake before we reached the lake where 
we were intending to hunt. When the team arrived at 
the lake with the supplies there was a heavy sea running, 
so that it was impossible to cross with the canoes, and we 
concluded to wait a while. Some started out for a hunt 
I showed the Doctor a road that went round the lake 
to a camp on the carry where we intended to stop that 
night, and I went part way with him, and when I got 
back to the canoes the wind had slackened some and I 
took part of the baggage and crossed; when I returned 
for the rest', the Doctor's friend and his guide had got 
back with a caribou. The Doctor's friend saw two caribou 
near the shore of the lake, he did not know what they 
were, but knew they must be wild animals, and he 
opened fire on one, firing five shots, three of them taking 
effect. We were to stoo at the old camp until my man 
arrived, then we were all going up to the narrows I 
spoke of in my other letter. The next day the wind blew 
heavily again, and the Doctor and I took a cruise in the 
woods and got a few birds. When we got back to camp 
my man from High Bridge, N. J., had arrived; he also 
had some partridges killed on his way im The next day 
we moved up the lake some three miles to a nice camp 
ground in the narrows. I had camped there before, so it 
was not much of a job to pitch tents; a table was already 
there made of cedar spilts, and a covering of splits was 
above it to keep off the sun or rain, and seats about it to 
sit on. 
We had every thing"all readv for a hunt by 3 o'clock. I 
took Mr. Christie and started up the lake to a dead- water 
stream. We were intending to call for a moose on this 
stream that evening if the wind went down. When we 
got near the mouth of the stream we saw a deer walking 
and feeding along the shore of the lake. The deer did not 
seem to notice us, and we kept on without disturbing 
him, and some two miles up the brook at a shallow place 
in the stream there was a buck feeding in the middle of 
the stream. I paddled my canoe in very short range of 
him before he discovered us. He stood quartering and 
tail to, but he turned his long neck so that he looked 
back almost crosswise over his back. He stood a few 
seconds and then bounded for the woods. We passed on 
slowly, looking and listening for bigger game. We did not 
intend to kill anything but bull moose or bull Caribou. 
It was mostly bogs on the shores of this brook, and we 
were intending to call where there was an open bog on 
both sides of the brook. At the head of the bogs there 
was a high ridge on each side of the stream, and the 
water was so shallow in the brook between the ridges 
that a short carry had to be made if we went any further. 
The stream was some ten rods vide at the head of the 
bog and suddenly narrowing up to ten feet. When we 
got to this spot it was getting dark and the wind was still 
blowing. Near this narrow place in the brook we dis- 
covered a big moose wading along close to the bushes 
hanging o^er the water. I imagined I saw antlers, and I 
told Mr. Christie to fire; he did so and the moose started 
for the mouth of the narrow brook; he fired two more 
shots. The moose came to hard bottom as it entered the 
narrow and shallow brook and stopped, turned its head to 
look at us. We then saw that it was a cow and had no 
antlers. Mr. Christie said that he hoped he hadn't hit 
her, and as he spoke she staggered and fell. A.s we 
landed, another moose started within thirty feet of us, 
but through the thick bushes we could not see what 
kind it was. After dressing the game we started for 
camp. The next day we went back and took the hide and 
what meat we could, and hung up the rest to take some 
other time. 
About this time another party joined us on the camp 
ground. Deer was so plenty that we did not have to leave 
the canoe to get them, as they were out on the shores and 
bogs. My man did not care much for deer, but thought 
he would shoot one at the last of his stay if he could. The 
weather was bad for calling moose, as it was windy and 
stormy, and we did not get but one good night during 
our stay. Two sportsmen, another guide and myself, went 
to the upper boys on the brook where Ave had killed the 
cow. The rains had raised the water so that we could go 
up the creek without carrying by. Above the dam on the 
brook, were two branches, one leading to the north and 
the other to the south, and bogs along the brook for four 
miles. I took the north branch, the other guide took the 
south. I called at different times for three hours before 
I heard a sound of a moose; I then heard one in a ridge. 
The stream took such a turn that the moose had to cross 
near the dam to come to us, and the other party had got 
tired waiting and had started for camp; they had not 
heard the moose, the noise of the water running through 
the dam prevented them from hearing him. He crossed 
just in front of them, and they heard him as he started 
through the -thick alder bushes just in front of them. 
They had 1'righteued him. We could hear his antlers 
rattle on the bushes and trees as he went off, and as we 
heard th9 other party talk after the moose started, wg 
