308 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Oct. 17, 1896. 
walked sixteen miles aldng the beach to the Queetz, 
where the Indiana held them up for every cent they had 
for a ferry across. They camp 3d on the beach that night, 
and along toward morning were awakened by a fierce 
fight close to their camp-fire. Every man grabbed his 
gun and rushed out, only to find that a lot of Indian dogs 
had stolen all their bacon. They trampad twenty miles 
more over what is known as the Ruby Sands to the Hoh 
River, where they found an Indian family consisting of 
thirteen people, which was about to embark for Port 
Angeles. Arrangements were made with the head of the 
family to take them along. The canoe was 42ft. long 
with a 6 ft. beam. It was made at St. George Island and 
was one of the finest of its kind, capable under the hands 
of the Indians of riding a severe storm. It was a great 
experience to watch the Indians work the canoe through 
the breakers into deep water. It took four days to reach 
Port Angeles, and the experience of going outside Cape 
Flattery in rough weather was novel and exciting. Once 
V during the trip the Indians put the canoe out of sight of 
land and ran in with the sealing schooner Viva, which 
had been seized in the Behring Ssa. As the canoe hove 
in sight the first words asked by those on board the 
schooner were: "Where is Cape Flattery?" The schooner 
Sutherland, with a big load of disappointed Alaska miners, 
was also hailed near the cape. 
From Port Angeles the party took a steamer for S Battle, 
arriving Sept. 14, A trio of tougher looking objects have 
not struck the city for a long time. Their whiskers re- 
sembled tules and their clothes made every policeman 
suspicious. When they walked into Jim Sheehan's place 
on Second avenue and made themselves known, Sheehan 
remarked: "Begorra, boys, you look tough, but you can 
have anything in the house." The invitation was ac- 
cepted and for a couple of days the heroes of the greatest 
hunting trip ever taken in western Washington had a 
glorious old time. Having their acquaintance with the 
world, they returned to Lake Oushman and are now lead- 
ing the lives of every-day ranchers. 
PoKTDS Baxter. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Reed Birds. 
Chicago, IU., Oct, 10. — The sportsmen of Chicago have 
heretofore never included the reed bird in their list of 
game birds, although they may have frequently seen the 
reed bird upon the menu at hotel or restaurant. There is 
a tradition, which I am sure is an altogether imjust one, 
which goes to the effect that my friend and companion 
Italian Joe, the famous upland market shooter of Chi- 
cago, kills and sells reed birds in this country all through 
the winter, delivering them ready picked. Of course in 
the winter time the reed birds have all gone South, 
though the English sparrows stiU remain. Very few 
shooters of this region know that the bird they call the 
bobuhnk is good to eat, but he is. There is a place down 
on the Calumet River where for the past few weeks count- 
less numbers of these birds have been passing over, and 
numbers of them have been shot by duck hunters from 
their blinds. The shooters, who are also cognoscenti, 
have had some sport and plenty of eating out of this 
flight of boboUnks. On the platter before cooking the 
reed bird is a corpulent little beast, about as big as an 
nnshucked butternut. On the platter after cooking he is 
not much bigger that your thumb, but good all the way 
through. A good relish for broiled reed birds is to make 
an orange salad, with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, 
salt and pepper. At least I saw this in a Sunday paper 
once. 
Rail Birds. 
In the East the tiny rail is looked upon as a game bird, 
and the time is coming when he will be viewed in like 
manner in the West, No snipe shooter of this country 
would ever pay any attention to a rail, and the bird has 
had neither a market nor a sporting value attached to it. 
Yet it is good to eat and does well enough to fill up the 
corners of a bag which does not carry as many jacksnipe 
as one has hoped. This fall the great Kankakee marshes 
are unusually fuU of water, and where last year there 
were good snipe grounds there are good rail grounds this 
year. The snipe hunter, splashing along in the shallow 
water, very often puts up one of these singular, heavy 
flying little birds, and sometimes does not resist the 
temptation to cut down the sluggish creature. If he only 
marks the bird down in the grass without shooting at it, 
and then attempts to put it up, he will find that he is 
rarely ever able to do so, for the rail is first a runner and 
then a flyer. The lesser rail is not shot for the market, 
but some of the himdreds of market shooters who haunt 
the Kankakee bottoms make a business of shooting king 
rail for the market. These men sometimes kill some of 
the small rail for their own eating purposes. The 
native rail shooter who is successful needs a dog, 
not to point the rail, but to chase it. This dog is usu- 
ally a cur, and his duty is to follow the rail to its 
alighting place and then to run after it as hard as he can 
go, chasing it out of the grass and forcing it to take wing. 
There may be hundreds of rail all about one on a marsh, 
which the shooter will never see or hear if he hunts with- 
out a dog, whereas with a well-trained cur dog he can kill 
100 rail a day if he likes, and at times can make a bag of 
three or four dozen of king rail, which bring a very good 
price on the market. The king rail flies about like an ice 
wagon, and so cannot bo called difl0.cult to hit. He is 
much more difficult to eat, especially in respect to his 
hindlegs, which constant exercise has developed into a 
toughness similar to that of the nether limbs of a bicyclist. 
There never was a season on the Kankakee when rail 
were as abundant and as easy to kill as this fall, Of 
course they cannot be shot at all in the Eastern way of 
hunting them from a boat, but have to be walked up on 
the marsh, In this way they can never be exterminated, 
as the spots where they are most abundant are in the deep 
and heavy cover of the wet marsh, where they cannot be 
reached on foot or in a boat, 
"English Partridges." 
There is another native industry ^on the Kankakee, 
which I venture to say is unknown to the public, I 
learned of it through a local hunter, who thought I was 
a good kind of man to keep it quiet. It seems that the 
market hunter is a lot wiser in his day and generation 
than he is sometimes considered. So far from being reck- 
less and prodigal, he is thrifty and prudent to the point of 
conservatism. I presume that every man who ever went 
on a tnarsh anywhere in this whole wide world has had 
the big brown bitterns, locally called "fly-up-the- creeks," 
"squawks," etc, etc., fly up under his feet and flap 
heavily off, with long neck extended and legs hanging 
back in dragging helplessness. These birds are held in 
disrespect of the public, and though many are shot, few 
are ever eaten. Yet I am told in confidence that they are 
not bad to eat — if you are hungry. More than that, I am 
told and believe it to be true, that at the time of the 
World's Fair there were several market shooters on the 
Kankakee marshes who shot these bitterns regularly for 
one of the big restaurants at the Fair, where they were sold 
as "English partridges," Let visitors take counsel of mem- 
ory, and declare if they ever ate any English partridges 
at the World's Fair. The shooters got from $3 to $6 a 
dozen for their birds, and I presume the restaurant man 
got about $3 apiece for them. Those were golden days. 
If I should lose my job, I think I would avail myself of 
this professional pecret and go into the business of killing 
English partridges, at which one should make about $50 
a day with one hand tied behind his back. 
The Arrival of the Mud Hen. 
The above references to lately unknown or generally 
despised game birds reminds one of yet another fowl 
whose portion was once humility, but which now has 
risen to recognition, none less than the mud hen, of gre- 
garious and accessible nature and habits. Not long ago 
the man who would bring a mud hen home with him 
would have received the contempt of the fraternity, but 
not so to-day. The native of the Kankakee eats the mud 
hen and declares it good as any duck, and many sports- 
men there be who are fain to make the same admission. 
Bags of mud hens at some of our swell clubs are not un- 
known, and more than one shooter has this fall surrepti- 
tiously brought home to the city a few of these birds, in 
the hope that he might find something upon the table 
which would warrant him in pursuing the birds upon the 
marsh, from which, as in the case of Casablanca, all but 
it has fled. It is an easy prophecy that we shall see the 
time when meadow larks, blackbirds, bitterns and spar- 
rows will all be classed as game birds. 
Shooting Notes. 
Mr, H. J. Root, of Omaha, Neb,, writes regarding game 
prospects in his State as foUows: 
"I returned a few weeks ago from a chicken hunt in 
the northwestern part of the State, and while I had very 
good sport and was successful in bagging something like 
160 birds in a week, at the same time I am afraid it is 
only a matter of a short period before this magnificent 
game bird will be a thing of the past, 
"I have visited this particular part of the country more 
or less for the last eight years, and while this season 
chickens were more plentiful than they had been for 
years, I can readily see that they are gradually disappear- 
ing. This, I believe, is caused by the laws. From in- 
quiry I foimd that they had been shooting them since 
J uly 1, not only the people in the small towns, but parties 
from Sioux City, They were shot before they were hardly 
able to fly, 
"I believe that under the enforcement of the laws in 
this State the birds would be plentiful for years to come, 
as when the law is out they are plenty strong of wing to 
take care of themselves, 
"Jacksnipe have commenced to come in good numbers, 
and we are looking forward to some good shooting on 
marsh and lake this fall, as there is plenty of water and 
no reasons why game should not be plentiful," 
Mr, F. R. Bissell is back from North Dakota, where he 
took out a State license like a little man. He says the 
shooting he had was worth the license. He bagged 280 
birds, ducks, geese and cranes, and had a delightful trip, 
Joel Kinney bagged flfty-six jacksnipe a week ago 
Thursday on Maksawba marsh, and says that if he had 
shot as well as some men do on snipe he could have killed 
a hundred. 
It was Mr. Kinney's report that sent Mr, W, P, Mussey 
down to the marsh in a hurry, but meantime had come 
the heavy rains and high water mentioned earlier, and 
the birds were scattered, Mr, Mussey and Mr. John Wat- 
son together only got twenty-seven birds in two days. 
From now on the chance for a good day's sport at the 
jacks will be less than it was two weeks ago, as the water 
may flood the bottoms of the Kankakee country all fall. 
Other country is not so good, and I hear only of small 
and scattering bags. 
At Lake Koshkonong, Wisconsin, ducks are coming in 
at this writing in good numbers, and there are also a 
good many jacksnipe reported there. This is a good 
place to keep an eye on for the next three weeks. 
I do not get word of any good duck shooting in this 
country at all this fall. W. W. McFarland killed forty 
ducks opening day, Sept. 15, at Hennepin Club, and I am 
not sure this is not near the top for the vicinity this sea- 
son. Aiew scattering bags of small numbers and no 
general interest are reported here and there, from Poy- 
gan to Kankakee, but no shooting of which it is safe to 
make mention as worth looking into. The flight of fowl 
has begun down the Mississippi River, but shooting there 
i3 better in the spring, when shooting should not be done. 
So far as I can learn, Dakota and Minnesota are the 
nearest field of much interest for October. 
W, L. Wells is at Momence shooting snipe to-day, hav- 
ing gone down on a report that he thought indicated a 
cinch for a bag of fifty birds or so. Momence has some 
excellent snipe ground near it, and in the past it has 
offered as good shooting as was to be found in this 
vicinity. 
A party of Ohicigo shooters, which included Messrs, 
R. R. Clark, 0. D. Gammon and their friends Messrs, 
Pease and Kelly, are back from Colorado, where they 
had a big game hunt. They brought back to this place 
for mounting twenty-three heads of blacktail deer and 
three elk heads, so it would seem they had meat enough, 
Mr, W. B, Mershon, chief of the Saginaw Crowd (the 
Forest and Stream Co., Ltd.), left his card for me one 
day this week when I happened to be out of the olfice, 
and stated, all too briefly, that the special car conveying 
himself and party to their hunting fields in the North- 
west was then lying at the depot, due to start in a few 
hours, I regret very much that I could not meet Mr. 
Mershon and his friends, and see the famous car of which 
readers of Forest and Stream have heard so much and 
so pleasantly. 
Messrs. H. B. Start and Ernest Bell, of Elgin, III., leave 
soon for Dallas, Ark., where they will stop and hunt and 
fish for about six months. They go by rail to St. Louis, 
and then finish the journey on horseback from that 
city. They should meet some very interesting experi- 
ences. 
National Association. 
The annual meeting of the National Game, Bird and 
Fish Protective Association will be held Feb. 10, 1897, in- 
stead of the second Wednesday in January, as formerly 
announced in the literature of the Association, this change 
being made by consent of the committee having the exec- 
utive matters in charge. 
Game Prospects. 
So far as can be determined at this date, the shooting 
season for this vicinity this fall will be nothing extra for 
ducks. For snipe it has been beyond the average. For 
plover it has not been so good as usual. For prairie 
chickens it has not been good, on account of a great 
deal of early illegal shooting. Quail will be un- 
usually abundant in this State and in Indiana this fall. 
Woodcock are not much included in the plans of shooters 
of this place, nor is the ruffed grouse, although there are 
many points not far distant in Wisconsin where very fair 
ruffed grouse shooting can be had. These birds are about 
as abundant as they have been for the past few years. In 
general there is a marked settling back of this country 
into the inevitable times of a permanent game scarcity. 
Our shooters are hunting all over the West and South for 
country where they can get something to shoot. The few 
remaining good game countries cannot take measures too 
strict to keep what game they have out of the markets 
and out of the game pockets of the sportsmen. Yet we 
have game enough, even now and even here, to give 
everybody good shooting if each would be willing to stop 
at a fair divide, and not want the whole cake for himself. 
E. Hough. 
1206 BoTOB BuTLDrao, Chicago. 
TENNESSEE QUAIL. 
Memphis, Tenn., Oct, 5.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
As the season advances and the leaves begin to turn my 
hunting fever rises, and I feel as though I would die if I 
did not have the glorious privilege of making my com- 
plaint to some sympathizing ear. I received a letter from 
my old hunting chum in Chattanooga the other day and 
I inclose it to you. It simply tells of the abundance of 
game in East Tennessee, and I can vouch for it being 
plentiful in West Tennessee, if the people out here tell 
the truth, and I believe they do. Quail are more plenti- 
ful this year than I ever knew them to be before in this 
State, and I hear that these conditions prevail all over 
the South. I asked an old farmer who chanced to come 
into our office to-day how the "crap of patridiges" was 
out in his country and his answer satisfied me. 
But the cable that is welded aroimd my leg is larger 
and stronger than the one which held poor Prometheus 
captive, and I fear the "patridges" will not be hurt by 
my shot this year. Business! that is a terrible word 
when a fellow wants to go hunting, I saw a deer hang- 
ing up at one of the commission houses to-day, and I 
could hardly persuade my legs to go by it. My eyes were 
riveted on it, my legs refused to move, and my mind 
went back to manjr a happy scene in bygone days. 
Will some sympathizing fellow sportsman answer one 
question for me? Why is it that a fellow who cannot 
hunt, who is absolutely anchored to business — why is it 
that he cannot get the notion out of his head and forget 
all about it? If some kind person wiU give me a recipe 
to cure the hunting fever without going hunting I will 
look upon him as a benefactor. A, B. Wingfield, 
Chattanooga, Tenn., Oct. 1. — Dear Mr. Wingjield: 
* * * I am beginning to take the hunting fever, and 
think I will have a pretty bad case by Nov. 1. I think 
there are more quail than usual this year; there are at 
least ten coveys in one mile of my home on the ridge, and 
in all of our usual hunting ground in Tennessee and 
Georgia I hear there are more than ever before. I went 
squirrel hunting Labor Day, Sept. 7, at Flintstone Tan- 
nery. I left home at 6 A, M. in my buggy and got 
to Flintstone about 8:30 o'clock. Found a man and dog, 
and went up on the side of Lookout. We spent an hour 
after a groundhog and got him, and killed six squirrels 
by noon, I only saw seven, and only shot seven times. 
The little sixteen is the gun for squirrels as well as quail. 
If I had had a sportsman with me that day I think we 
could have killed fifteen or twenty ; the dog treed at least 
twenty-five, and they were not in holes either. The 
negro never saw one that day until I had shot him (the 
squirrel, I mean), and J got too lazy to look up in the 
trees. 
I don't think I will go after quail until next month, 
though the dogs, Billy and Mack, are dead anxious to go 
now. White and Oowart are arranging for a deer hunt, 
and it is booked for me to go with them, John Ridge has 
killed forty- two wild turkeys this fall. He brought me 
two last week. He killed seven in one hour the day 
before. W. C. 
Better Game Protection in Bergen County, N. J. 
Hackensack, N. J., Oct, 8.— The largest meeting that 
has been had for some time of the Farmers' Game Protec- 
tive Association was held at Cherry Hill on Tuesday last. 
Discussion on the subject of the present game laws showed 
that they are regarded as weak and insufficient, the 
various open seasons on the different game rendering it 
difficult to properly protect the game and enforce the 
laws. The constables reported that a number of convic- 
tions had been obtained and fines imposed, and it was the 
sense of the meeting that the laws should be vigorously 
enforced and maintained, and an endeavor made to obtain 
better laws next year, 
The association offers a reward of |10 for the arrest 
and conviction, or information leading to the arrest and 
conviction, of any person killing rabbits or quail before 
the 10 th day of November, or for trespassing on lands 
posted by the association, and the association will waive 
all its rights to the fines imposed for the violation of 
game laws to the person securing the arrest, which is $20 
for each bird or rabbit so killed. It also intends to vigor- 
ously enforce the law against shooting on Sunday, or the 
kilhng of insectivorous birds. Fish and Game Warden 
Geo. Ricardo is also on the alert and wiU prosecute all 
cases brought before him either by members of thei asso- 
ciation or by the farmers. 
