April 6, 1895, 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
265 
ceeded in finding six nice covrys of birds during'the after- 
noon out of which we killed thirty-six, and^altogether 
we felt that^we had a very good day's sport. < &| 
I will tell you only^of^the first covey. 2hey were'beau- 
tifully located, at the head of a small branch in some low 
grass. I sent the boys, who were on the horses ahead, in 
the direction we thought the flight would be, to locate. 
This, North said, was great generalship. On the rise of 
the covey we got two, and when we went over the hill 
the boys had the others marked down. I called to North 
to hold on and give Jett time to locate each bird, which 
she did to the queen's taste. As true sportsmen, we left 
four for seed out of a covey of sixteen. Adam. 
BEAVER DAM LAKE. 
_ This country is situated in one of the best hunting ter- 
ritories of Illinois. As a resort for game, such as 
chickens, quail rabbits, squirrels, a few turkeys, ducks 
and geese m season, we have much to boast of in the way 
of delightful sport in the field. Oar prairies have but few 
streams, but the woods are dotted with natural and arti- 
ficial lakes, and several considerable creeks, reflect the 
beauties of their surroundings. Beaver Dam Lake is the 
largest of the lakes, and in the shape of a horse-shoe, 
covers an area a mile long and one-quarter of a mile wide. 
Twenty years ago it was the original channel of the 
creek, but the beavers dammed it up, changing the chan- 
nel of the creek and leaving a slough. Seven years later, 
several members of our present club enlarged these dams, 
formed a stock company of nineteen members, named the 
lake Beaver Dam, and now it is one of the choicest sport- 
ing resorts in the State. The State stocked the lake with 
all kinds of game fish, mainly black bass, and for the last 
three years fishing has been grand. Three and four 
pound bass are considered nothing above the ordinary 
catch, and a member placed one to his credit weighing six 
and one-quarter pounds. I am not a real lover of the 
finny tribe, prefer the gun to the rod, so let me tell of a 
hunting trip which I had this fall, and perhaps you will 
agree with me that game laws or Providence have been 
the cause of our many birds the past years. 
It was in the latter part of November, on a dark and 
gloomy morning, that I shouldered my twelve bore, 
called my Irish setter, Banks, and set forth to the lake. 
After disposing of some of my extra baggage at the club 
house, we started for a long ditch which leads west of 
the lake into a corn and weed patch — mostly weeds. 
Banks eagerly started out ahead of me, and we had 
hardly gone one hundred yards when he came to a stand. 
His position was on the bank of the ditch, and I decided 
he winded the birds from across the branch. I crossed 
over, intending to flush and drive them into a large patch 
of weeds. Nor was my judgment wrong; for after 
starting them up and calling two back — one with each 
barrel— the birds flew into the weeds and scattered in an 
ideal manner. Banks retrieved the two dead, and we fol- 
lowed to the new location of the covey. He soon was 
winding them and had another point. Oh! it was a 
noble sight; he meant business, and I pledged myself to 
try and do my share. Up got a bird, and thanks to the 
second barrel, he was a dead one. Out of 1 he covey of 
twenty-three, I killed eleven, and had I kept my promise 
and done as well as Banks, I doubt whether anyone else 
would have had an opportunity to try his skill on any of 
them. 
After Banks had surveyed the ground once more, to 
make sure he had done his whole duty, we strolled on into 
the corn patch. "When I arrived there I had lost my dog. 
I whistled, but he was evidently standing somewhere. 
For fifteen minutes 1 looked in vain, then 1 happened to 
think of that ditch, and there I found him, a perfect statue, 
standing in the ditch under a bank which the water had 
washed out. I stepped down, walked around, but 
couldn't get them up, when I wondered if he wasn't mis- 
taken, but a glance at him convinced mo he was right. I 
tiied to urge him on, but he was motionless. Where 
could they be? Whurr — whurr — whurr — bang, bang! 
Another double. They had been under the caved bank 
also, and my dog was almost over them. Banks must 
have held his stand for twenty minufps. Being in the 
ditch, I couldn't exactly see where they flew, but knew 
the direction, so wavei Banks to go ahead, following 
t heir direction. In a short time he had them side-tracke 1, 
and I bagged six more. I found one more covey that 
morning, but only killed two, and then I called my dog 
to heel and started for the club house for lunch. 
I loafed about there until 3 o'clock, talking to the old 
man who watches the lake, and he asked me if I had any 
goose loads. I showed him some four drams and an 
ounce of 00, chambered. He said: "They are all right, 
the wind has changed and the geese will be in to-night, 
you had better be on the watch." I promised him I 
would, but hardly expected to see any geese. Banks and 
I had bagged nine more quail that afternoon, and as it 
was about 4 o'clock, we started for the north dam. As 
we got near it, my dog stood another gang of quail, and 
just as I was getting ready to flush I heard that welcome 
sound, honk — honk. Of course, I didn't shoot at the 
quail. I flushed them so that I could get my dog off of 
his point and hurried to the willows near the darn. I 
could hear the geese coming nearer and nearer, and 
dually saw them over the west end of the lake. There 
were about twenty, and on the first circle they came 
within about two hundred yards; I commenced calling, 
but they made one more little circle out of gun shot, and 
then lit in the lake. That seemed hard luck, but I was 
relieved from my disappointment by that same tell-tale 
sound of another gang coming, and it was a large one; I 
counted seventy-five. I called again, but the flock on 
the lake could outdo me at this, and the last ones, too, lit 
in the lake, so that I didn't get a shot. I waited about a 
half hour longer and it was getting pretty dark, when I 
heard the swish of wings near, and throwing my gun 
in the direction of the noise, found it to be a fine flock of 
mallards, within forty yards, just swooping down to 
alight. But I took down my gun. The temptation to 
shoot was strong, yet I wanted a goose in preference, 
so I took down my gun and let them go on. It was get- 
ting still darker, and I heard three more flocks of geese 
come in, but they lidn't fly near me. So I decided to 
return to the club house, stay over night and get a shot 
in the morning as they went out. 
When I got there the old man said: "Didn't I tell you? 
Now you come in to supper, and after that I'll tell' you 
how f/0 work it in the morning." 
I was soon seated at supper, and whec we hadj|finished . 
the old man saii: 'Til wake you in the morning before 
daybreak, then you go around, on 'the west side of Ithe 
lake, follow that ditch you hunted in this morning about 
two hundred yard?, and then take an old road leading 
through the timber to the north dam. They will 'go out 
northwest in the morning, as they feed in that direction, 
and the wind coming from there they rise against H." I 
went to bed early, but I assure you it was hardto get to 
sleep, for geese were calling all around, but I was tired and 
soon drifted into a slumber which was as sweet as any I 
had ever experienced. 
At the appointed time I was up and after a hot cup of 
coffee, the old man said: ''Now when it gets about day- 
break, I'll walk around outside of the house and make 
a little disturbance. This will perhaps start the geese 
over you. if they don't see you, a^.d by the way, you want 
to leave Banks here." 
"He will be all right if he is along, "' said'I, "he under- 
stands it as well as I do, I can't leave him; he may be of 
some assistance," and so he was. 
"All right," the old man said, "good luck to you, and 
above all don't get so near that you can see the'water or 
the geese will see you." It took us about half an hour 
to get to the north dam, but we reached it without any 
mishap, and with the geese still on the lake and una- 
wares of my approach. My dog and I lay close up to the 
dam. under a low but thick willow, ami waited patiently 
for daylight. It seemed a long time. Two small gangs 
left as we were there, but it was so dark I couldn't see 
them, although thev were near. 
About 6 o'clock I could make the geese out, they were 
in the middle of the lake, and were fairly making the 
water foam with their flapping of wings. I could hear 
the old man across the water chopping wood and singing 
and then came the most exciting moment of my life. 
That gang of seventy-five had risen and were coming for 
the north dam. It seemed as grand a sight as I ever ex- 
pect to witness, as they came on, the leader in front and 
his followers in a line behind him. I hugged the dam and 
squeezed down against the willow so they couldn't see 
me. On they came— still a hundred yards off. Banks 
knew his duty, and hid like myself. Finally they were 
within fifty yards. I waited until they had come a little 
closer, then arose, this turned them all to the right, so 
taking careful aim, I pulled the trigger, and down 
came two. » dropped the gun on another, and 
imagine my disappointment when I pulled the trig- 
ger to hear the gun snap. I looked at the geese and then 
at my gun, then I looked around to see if anyone else 
could see what had happened, but I only found my dog, 
who was standing behind me awaiting orders. All this 
was done in a short time. I cocked the gun and tried it 
again, and it went off the second time, but the birds 
were out of reach. 
All the geese had now left the lake, so I turned my at- 
tention to the t wo I had hit. They were both crippled. 
One swam to shore, but the other was still fluttering 
about sixty yards out in the water. I sent Banks to bring 
it in, and after a good fight he managed by hard work to 
get it to the shore. During this time I had secured the 
other one, and shonldpring the pair I went to the club 
house. The old man met me and shook hands. He 
wanted to know why I waited so long with the second 
barrel, and when I told him, said: "After this I'll bet you 
get your caps down tight." While I was waiting for 
breakfast I weighed my geese; one weighed eleven 
pounds and the other eight and one-half pounds. Break- 
fast being over, I collected my game, bade the old man 
and his wife good-bye, and started for the depot. I had 
a load on my back, nineteen and one-half pounds of 
geese, thirty fine quail, and a heavy gun. I was soon at 
home and surprised my friends by the game I had killed 
on the banner hunt of my life. Btjrgy. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
FRIENDS EVERYWHERE. 
Chicago, Ills,, March 80.— Anent mention last week of 
my mysterious letter, which was forwarded here by an 
unknown friend in the N. Y. Post Office, the following 
from another Forest and Stream friend., this time in the 
Boston, Mass. . P. O. , may have additional interest. Verily 
the paper does have friends everywhere, and there is no 
paper published so far as I know , which elicits friend- 
ship of so unique a sort. At the World's Fair it was al- 
ways a source of surprise to see the way many visitors 
felt toward Forest and Stream, though strangers to any- 
eon connected with the paper. It was as though they 
ownedthe paper themselves— as indeed they certainly do. 
There is a great deal of hard work connected with "pub- 
lishing any newspaper, but I imagine it is a peculiar 
satisfaction to the publishers of Forest and Stream, to feel 
that they give their readers something more than paper 
and ink, and receive in return something more than a 
financial payment. The letter from the Boston P. O. 
fiiend may, I hope, be published without formal consent 
therefor, and reads: 
"Post Office, Delivery Division, Boston, March 28, 
1895. Dear Sir: The U. S. Army Directory gives 'H. S. 
Kilbourne, Ass't Surgeon, Fort Clark. Texas.' 'J. Gay- 
ler' is the Ass't Post Master of New York, an angler and 
gentleman. All this has reference to your letter in the 
Forest and Stream of the 30th inst. The friends of that 
paper are everywhere. Yours, in F. and S., Edward Bar- 
ker, (Supt Ds'y Div.) Chairman membership committee, 
Mass. F. & G. Pro. Ass'n. 
NIGHT FLIGHTS BY THE STARS. 
A writer in the Chatauquan explains the unfailing in- 
stinct of direction in migratory birds to their knowledge 
of the stars, and says that when migrating birds can not 
see the stars at night they lose their way. One often 
hears old hunters say that the snipe "come in on the 
moon." I recall that once in 1878, in Iowa City, of a 
dark, rainy night, the residents were much astonished 
to hear the air above them for over an hour full of the 
whistling and twittering of passing birds, which were 
fllying very low over the roofs of the houses. No one at 
that time knew what the birds were, but I noticed in a 
paper of a few days later date that a great flight of 
golden plover had appeared at that time along the west 
shore of the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa. The 
flight, as we heard it that night, was passing southeast, or 
toward the Mississippi, but^it' was*in*the'spring" time/ and 
the birds should have been going north over the prairie 
country and not along the great flyway of the»water 
birds; at l a ast I should consider that this would be the 
case. As.I look at it now, I believe this great flight of 
plover was entirely out of its reckoning that foggy night. 
WINTER DYNAMITING. 
The trout streams running into the Mississippi waters 
along the Iowa and Wisconsin sides have been visited 
much of late by winter dynamiters, and it is a pleasure to 
hear that two of the latter, F. Draper and L. Davis have 
come to grief in Richland township, near Manchester. 
Sheriff Odell captured them and they were fined $80 and 
costs each, one going to jail. They were shown to have 
killed thousands of trout from three to six inches long by 
exploding dynamite under the ice. 
PROTECTIVE MATTERS AT CHICAGO. 
Mr. M. R. Bortree is patiently waiting for the trial of 
the case he has brought against the Union League Club 
of this city for serving illegal pheasants, and says he will 
surely land them. There is little doing in protective mat- 
ters this week, though word comes up from Springfield, 
that the sportsman's bill is reported favorably by the 
joint committee of the legislature and is now before the 
house. The present committee have been very fair and 
courageous with the sportsmen all through this fight, 
and if the latter do not win in all they ask they will not 
feel that they have had churlish treatment at least. 
Blow, the renegade warden, persists in saying now that 
he is the sportsmen's friend, but his words have very 
small weight with the shrewder ones, who believe that 
one "flop" does not square a lot of unfaithfulness. 
THE SEAL, SKIN INDUSTRY. 
From San Francisco one learns that the Alaska Com- 
mercial Co., the tidy trust which controls the fur seal 
trade, have been paying dividends of |800 on the $100 
share, par value, for the last five years. Thus we learn 
why one's best girl finds it difficult to wear the skin of 
the fur seal. These fabulous profits, say the despatches, 
are creating some stir on the public mind, the latter hav- 
ing been taught to believe there was no profit in this 
monpoly. A little law suit developed the facts. Mean- 
time from Washington comes the advice that the Treas- 
ury department is fixing up the regulations for the Corn- 
mei - cial Company for the coming season. The number of 
skins to be taken will probably be set at 20,000, the same as 
last year. Sir Charles Tupper, the Canadian Minister of 
Justice, has resigned, and this pleases the Americans who 
want the seals protected, as Sir Charles seems to have had 
it in for the seals, and was opposed to measures looking 
toward s'ringent protection. Meantime the price of 
sealskin cloaks will continue to remain bove the reach 
of honest newspaper men in the lower wait s of life. A 
good many of us will thus bp barred out of the Patriarchs 
ball at New York, who would otherwise be fitted to adorn 
that assemblage. At least, I suppose they wear sealskin 
there, for it comes high. 
SHOOTING NOTE. 
The GUdipus of Sophocles, a Greek play, popular 400 
years B. C, was performed last week in Chicago by 
Beloit college students in the Greek language, Sophocles 
was a great sportsman. There is not much other shoot- 
ing news here this week. 
BASS IN THE SUNNY SQUTH. 
Mr. A. M. Nicholson, of Orlando, Florida, sends in the 
word that in four days last week he caught thirty-seven 
bass, fishing only a little while each evening, in Lake 
Eola. One bass weighed ten pounds, and it is gravely 
stated as matter of praise, that it was landed in one and 
a half minutes by the angler, who used a Cincinnati bass 
hook and a single strand of Barbour's linen thread, 
though I don't just know what that may be. If anyone 
up here caught a ten-pound bass he would fight him all 
day, clear into the stilly night, and the oftener he told 
about it the longer the fight would be. So far as I know, 
seven pounds two ounces is top weight for bass in the 
waters of this vicinity, and that is a great excess over 
the average weight. Yet they do say that in Florida the 
bass grow to be twenty-five pounds in weight, which is 
very discouraging to a Northern man of any ambition as 
a fisherman, 
ONE CLOCK AHEAD. 
Some time ago the Spratts Patent Co. sent out to this ad- 
dress a very pretty little glass clock with the name of 
tlieir firm on the dial. The name of Mr. B. Waters was 
on the outside of the box, but Mr. Waters having retired 
to a quiet life in the village of New York, in the neigh- 
borhood of the Forest and Stream kennel department, he 
never got this clock at all, and at this writing he does not 
seem apt to do so. It is a pretty good clock. Nothing 
that comes into this office ever gets away. Gentlemen 
wishing clocks forwarded would better call in person, 
and they will always find us disposed to argue the mat- 
ter in a perfectly fair way. 
THOUSANDS OF QUAIL SET FREE. 
T\e tribune of this city in its issue of March 26, has the 
following interesting and singular item in regard to 
which I wish we had fuller report. "Guthrie, Oklahoma, 
March 26.— The game law recently passed by the Legis- 
lature was put into effect yesterday. On the Rock Island 
road, near Chickasaw, officers discovered 5,000 quail be- 
ing shipped in transit to St. Louis. After breaking the 
boxes that contained the birds the doors of the cars were 
opened and the meadows and fields fairly swarmed with 
game for a while. The birds had been trapped in the 
Chicasaw country.,' 
The number of quail trapped and shipped out of Ar- 
kansas and the Indian nations in the past ten years 
would probably run into the millions. The public has no 
idea of the tremendous extent of game destruction caused 
by the insatiate markets. I have known of an order from 
a Boston house to a Chicago firm asking for 300,000 quail. 
The figures of game actually killed and consumed would 
appal even a reader who is not a sportsman. Of course, 
such figures cannot long endure, for the game will soon 
be gone, even from such remote points as Oklahoma. 
Let us hope that the new law of the territory will always 
be as vigorously enforced as in the above instance. 
But suppose the Western States and territories do make . 
the best laws they can to protect their game. The 
premium f^r its destruction by illegal methods still exists 
so long as the great markets like Chicago, New York and 
