Nov. 31, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
4Dy 
"Oa Nov. 20 the following go into camp twenty miles 
west of Canton, Miss., for a week's bird hunt: Dr. John 
E. Owens, of Chicago; Mr. Jamea, of Maryland; Gen. 
Fred Myles, of New Orleans; Mr. E. Hough, Chicago; 
Mr. J. M. Aldrich, Michigan City, Miss.; Mr. R, W. Fos- 
ter, New Orleans; Mr. L. J. Lockwood, Memphis, and T, 
A. Divine, Memphis. I wish Roll Organ would come, Tell 
him to steal off." 
Now, the odd part about the above letter is tha.t before 
I had finished my thefts from it there came into my office 
the writer himself I It snowed yesterday in Chicago, but 
immediately on Tom Divine's arrival the snow began to 
melt in front of his beaming smile, and at this time is en- 
tirely gone in the vicinity of the city. Mr. Divine says 
that quail shooting has begun in his State of Tennessee, 
and that last week he and a friend had a nice day's sport. 
The birds were full grown and strong of wing. He re- 
ports that Capt. Bobo is now absent on a two weeks' bear 
hunt further down in Mississippi. Mr. Divine promised 
to send up large quantities of venison, wild turkey and 
quail for the Thanfi:sgiving dinners of his Chicago friends. 
He insists that the camp hunt mentioned in his letter is 
going to be the most pleasant affair which he and his 
friend Foster have ever pulled off. There will be no 
shooting at all, except on quail (called in the South par- 
tridges), and a daily limit will be put on each man's gun, 
BO that the camp will not be over-supplied with birds at 
any time. It would be hard to devise a more pleasant or 
sportsmanlike way of passing a week than these gentle- 
men will have. Mr. Divine is in Chicago on hurried 
business, but will remain here a couple of days until he 
has melted all the snow off the upper portion of Illinois. 
Chicago, III., Nov. 14. — The tarpon fishing on the Texas 
Gulf coast, near Aransas Pass, has this fall been excep- 
tionally good. The fame of this new tarpon locality has 
gone swiftly abroad since it was first called to the atten- 
tion of the angling public in the columns of Forest and 
Stebam. Hundreds of anglers have come from all parts 
of the country to enjoy the sport of tarpon fishing, and 
80 great has been the demand upon the supply of tarpon 
that it has been thought necessary to take early steps for 
protecting the fish against the too ardent anglers. It is 
asserted that over 400 tarpon have been taken in Aransas 
Pass waters this season. One party in a few days killed 
forty-two tarpon. These Texas fish are gamy as any of 
their kind, and it is estimated that not one fish is brought 
to boat out of every ten hooked. The Aransas Pass 
Railway Company is making consistent efforts to 
bring this Texas coast country into popularity among 
the sportsmen of the United States, and it would be 
very wise of the management of this road to 
aid in all ways in its power every protective effort 
which shall look to a conservation of the sporting riches 
of this wonderful country. The railroads of this country 
have destroyed the game. Yet the railroads of the coun- 
try are able to preserve the game to a greater extent than 
any other one agency if they cared to do so. Ic would 
seem an easy proposition that a species of traific enduring 
for twenty years is of more value to a railroad than a 
trifle heavier traffic lasting only four or five years. It is 
presumptuous to undertake to tell -another man how to 
run his own business, and I do not recall that the personal 
opinions of one man ever changed the business policy of 
a railroad company. Yet for one who has seen the havoc 
in Northern game and fish in the recent past the prospect 
is not a pleasant one of the havoc which will be wrought 
upon the game and fish of the South in the early future. 
Death in the Water. 
Jack Paynter, a trapper plying his vocation on the 
waters of Lake Koshkonong last week, had the misfor- 
tune to capsize his boat, and was unable to get ashore. 
He clung to the overturned boat for over an hour, and his 
cries were heard by another trapper, who paid no atten- 
tion to them. Some members of the Blackhawk Shoot- 
ing Club finally pulled Paynter out of the water in a 
frozen and exhausted condition, but he died soon after 
they got him to the club house. 
Dove Slaughter In the South. 
The daily papers of the South are beginning to agitate 
the question of action against the senseless and beastly 
butchery of doves indulged in by some shooters whose 
ammunition credit is greater than their store of brains. 
From a daily paper in Chicago I take the following: 
"In a recent interview Judge Pish, of the Southwestern 
Georgia Circuit, expressed the hope that the Legislature 
at the present session would do something to protect 
doves from indiscriminate slaughter. Judge Fish has 
called attention to an abuse which demands immediate 
attention. He tells of one party which killed 12,000 doves 
in a few days last season. On the day after this slaughter 
the negroes picked up in the vicinity over 300 doves which 
had been wounded and died near the baited field in which 
they were shot. In South Georgia fields are frequently 
baited, and when great droves of doves get used to feed- 
ing in them it is easy for a few hunters to kill thousands 
of them. Many of the birds thus slaughtered are left on 
the ground. A rivalry has grown up among those who 
indulge in this cruel business. Single hunters have been 
known to kUl 500 in a day," 
Milwaukee Hunters. 
A number of Milwaukee sportsmen met at No. 701 Chest- 
nut street this week to talk over protective matters, and a 
little society was organized for the purpose of protecting 
hunting dogs. The Wisconsin Legislature will be 
memorialized to this effect by the sportsmen. A bill will 
also be introduced prohibiting the use of ferrets in rabbit 
hunting. The wipmg out of the Wisconsin game la ws for 
1895 gives the sportsmen of that State a grand opportunity 
to frame a model game law. They have in plain view all 
the mistakes in the game statutes of other States, and 
moreover have the benefit of the most modern enlighten- 
ment in protective matters. Certainly the new Wiscon- 
sin law, whatever it shall be, should abolish all spring 
shooting whatever, and should prohibit absolutely the 
sale of game at any season. These two measures alone, 
if enforced, would insure a splendid permanancy in the 
Wisconsin game supply, which is one of the meet consid- 
erable in the entire West. 
Ducks. 
Mr. A. C, Patterson and his friend, Mr. Lamphere, on 
last Tuesday and Wednesday, at the Calumet Heights 
Club, had the great good fortune to meet the south-bound 
flight of fowl, and made the tidy bag of sixty-five ducks 
between them; certainly a very satisfactory showing, 
since the shooting was less than thirty miles from the 
Chicago post office and main store. 
On Tuesday word was wired from the Lauderdale lakes, 
of Wisconsin, that the ducks were there in thousands, 
and several parties departed for that point or others of 
that vicinity. At Koshkonong Lake on Monday it was 
thought the birds were leaving for the South, as the weath- 
er was very cold and ice was forming. It is possible 
that some of the Koshkonong birds had dropped into this 
series of waters, the first below Koshkonong; but no doubt 
the bulk of the flight there was made of birds fresh down 
from the further North, part of which dropped also into 
Koshkonong. It seems now sure that the birds are all in 
this latitude or south of here, and that they are scattered 
from here to Arkansas and Texas. I should look for 
heavy shooting on the Texas waters within the next week 
following. 
Does. 
This week Chicago had a little fire out in the packing 
house district, in which the gallant firemen showed their 
skill and their humanity alike by saving the lives of five 
creatures, not human beings, but dogs. These dogs be- 
longed to the owner of the building, and had been im- 
prisoned in the house by the swift spread of the flames. 
All of the dogs were overcome by the smoke, and were 
carried out by the firemen in their arms and later revived 
after patient effort, d la heroine in the novel. A singular 
part of the story is that the entire building and also 
neighboring ones would have been destroyed but for these 
same dogs, which attracted attention by their barking, 
and so led a neighbor to turn in an alarm. The dog is 
man's best friend. 
Quail. 
Mr. E. H. Bisby, of Daer Park, Tex., a very successful 
and practical handler of shooting dogs, writes to Mr. 
Wm. Werner, of this city, for whom he has been train- 
ing some dogs, to the effect that Mr. Werner would do 
well to pack his grip sack and come to Texas for a quail 
shoot. He says: "I will show you more quail than you 
ever dreamed of, and the greatest duck shooting in Amer- 
ica, not 1,000 miles away from where I am. At times 
there are thousands of snipe. To show you how abun- 
dant the quail are I would say that yesterday I found with 
four young puppies twenty-nine different bevies of quail 
within a mile of my house. Come down and have a 
Christmas hunt." If Mr. Bisby can get Mr. Werner down 
into that promised land I can assure them both that they 
will both be glad of the trip and the meeting. 
Mr. Bisby, by the way, mentions the fact that he lately 
had a young puppy bitten by a moccasin snake, one of 
the Southern poisonous snakes. He states that the 
swelling was severe for about two hours, and that the 
dog then got better, and never stopped hunting at all. 
Deer. 
Messrs, John Densmore and John Henry, of Tomak, 
Wis., two weeks ago killed near City Point, Wis., a deer 
which is thought to be one of the largest of the season. 
It was a fine buck, weighing 3631bs. 
Leopard. 
Sportsmen who attended the Sportsmen's Exposition 
two years ago, and who of course saw the Forest and 
Stream exhibit there, may perhaps remember the fine 
specimen of taxidermist work shown in the mounted deer 
head known as the "Challenge," This was the work of 
one of the very best of the Western taxidermists, Mr. 
Carl Akeley, at that time of Milwaukee. Mr. Akeley 
afterward came to Chicago — where all good people go 
after they die, if they are not happy enough to get 
there before that time — and became the taxidermist 
for the great Field Columbian Museum. He was with 
the African expedition of that concern, which 
within the year went to the Dark Continent for a com- 
plete set of specimens of the African big game. Of all 
this we are to have a story, but I cannot refrain from 
mentioning a little adventure which a current Milwaukee 
paper mentions as having befallen Mr. Akeley during his 
African trip. It seems he was out hunting one day with 
a native hunter, and while taking a rest under a guava 
tree heard a rustle in the underbrush and the next 
moment saw a leopard in the act of springing upon him. 
Quick as a flash he fired his rifle, but only wounded the 
beast in one of its hindlegs. The next moment the 
hunter and the beast were engaged in a death struggle, 
Akeley finally coming out victorious by simply strangling 
the animal to death, though the leopard lacerated Akeley's 
arm with his teeth. 
Chanee. 
Mr. H, B, Jewell, mayor of the pleasant little city of 
Wabasha, Minn., writes as follows in regard to the change 
of habits sometimes shown by wildfowl of late years. 
Mr, Jewell is a close observer of the habits of birds and 
what he says has interest. I recall also in this connection 
a mention I made some years ago at the instance of a 
member of the Nee-pee-nauk Club, of Wisconsin, who 
said that the shooters on Puckaway Lake were confident 
that the mallard ducks there had so far changed their 
habits as to cease to a great extent their usual feeding sys- 
tem on the marshes, and to take to the open water, where 
they could not be disturbed, This gentleman said that 
the mallards of those waters would dive in 3 or 4ft. of 
water like the deep-water ducks. Of course all shooters 
know that the mallard is not a diving bird by natural 
habit, usually feeding in water shallow enough to allow 
the bird to reach its food by simply plunging its head and 
neck under water, and never diving unless wounded or 
closely cornered, or when its wings are frozen fast so that 
it cannot rise quickly. As to his mallards Mr. Jewell 
says: 
"Your mention in a late number of Forest and Stream 
about mallards changing their habits is true. I have been 
noticing it for several years back. They roost daytimes 
on sand bars and other exposed or inaccessible places, and 
fly in to the feeding places after dark, and the first gun in 
the morning scares them out, and they don't come back 
imtil night. Duck shooting haa been very poor in the 
Mississippi Valley this fall." 
Out. 
There are some deluded folk who train up their chil- 
dren, or try to train them up, in the belief that there is 
no such thing as luck, whereas even a common gambler 
knows better than that. If there were nothing in luck, I 
should be pleased to know why it is that I am always in 
my office when the crippled beggars, and match peddlers, 
and widows with seven children, and life insurance 
people, and Salvation Army girls peddling the War Cry, 
and also hobos just in need of a plain drink happen along, 
and how I always manage to be out of it at the time when 
good people — for instance, like Harvey McMurchy, of the 
Hunter Arms Co., whose card I find on my desk just 
now — chance to come in. I am sure Mr. McMurchy does 
not classify under any of the above heads, and therefore 
I should have been glad to see him. Or I should have 
been glad anyhow, without any therefore. There is some- 
thing in luck. E. HouQH. 
1306 BoTCE Building, Chicago. 
HOW THE NEW JERSEY LAW WORKS* 
Turnerville, Gloucester County, N, J,— I wish to say 
a few words in condemnation of the New Jersey game 
law. As it is to-day it will only be a few years when the 
game will be a thing of the past. What we want and 
what is needed is a uniform law. I have noticed in the 
beginning of August and September quite an increase of 
quail and rabbits; but the season coming in for gray squir- 
rels and pheasants has given all a chance to roam the 
woods and fields with dog and gun; and all kinds of 
game birds have been shot. Rabbits have been killed by 
parties coming from Philadelphia on Sunday with their 
dogs, as many as a dozen after one little rabbit. This 
happens almost every Sunday; and not only these, but 
others from Grenloch and Turnerville. Box traps have 
been set along the swamps and springs a month back by 
people who pay rent for a farm and say they have a right 
to set them. A deputy should be appointed to look after 
this part of Gloucester county, and also Camden county. 
Yesterday I could hear the hounds running and the 
report of the gun. It is not the people who live here, but 
people who come here and think they have a right to do 
as they like when they get in the country. 
Again, all this summer dogs have been running at large 
and eating up the young rabbits. 
The laws should open for all kinds at once, at then no 
one would have a right to go out with his- gun before. 
Again, the season opening, as it does this year, ten days 
after the Pennsylvania law, gives them a chance to kill 
off their own game and then flock across the river and 
slaughter what is left of ours after the pot-hunter has had 
his share, I hope the law will be changed this coming 
winter so it will help some of these evils. It is the same 
way with trout, bass and pike. S. 
[You should communicate your information of game 
law violations to Fish and Game Protector Chas. A. 
Shriner, Paterson, N. J.] 
Carp and the ToUeston Marsh. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The ToUeston Club, of Chicago, of which I am a mem- 
ber, has a most admirable natural duck marsh containing 
about 2,500 acres near the town of ToUeston, Lake county, 
Ind. Up to within a few years there has been on this 
marsh an exceedingly rank and heavy growth of wild 
rice and other natural food for all varieties of ducks. 
Unfortunately by some means carp have gotten into it 
and have nearly ruined the feed, having eaten out all of 
the wild rice, wild celery and much of the smart weed. 
They grow to an enormous size, and have increased in 
numbers to an incredible degree. 
The Little Calumet River runs through this marsh, and 
when the water is low the river seems to be absolutely 
full of them. When the water is high they spread over 
the marsh and eat everything that comes in their way. I 
write this in the hope that it may lead to some informa- 
tion as to the best means of getting rid of them. They 
are a nuisance of the worst possible description, and if 
every carp in the United States could be annihUated it 
would be a matter of congratulation to everyone who is 
fond of shooting. I have heard of their destroying other 
marshes as they have ours, and it seems to me that there 
ought to be some method of exterminating them, 
I have been a subscriber to Forest and Stream for sev- 
eral years, and hope that I am not asking too much in 
requesting information on the above subject, 
Edwin T. Daniels. 
[We can suggest no remedy, for no practicable method 
of exterminating carp has been devised except in ponds 
or streams which it is possible to drain off, when the fish 
can be pitchforked out, or in private waters, where they 
may be limed. A marsh such as that of the ToUeston 
Club, with a river flowing through it, is at the mercy of 
these water vermin.] 
As Many Hunters as Ducks. 
WaIiKER, la, — I have been on a shooting trip through 
Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota. Game in these States is 
not what it used to be. Many of the small lakes and 
sloughs are dry on account of dry seasons. Another 
great drawback in the game country is that there are so 
many hunters. I have been at several lakes where 
hunters were as thick as the ducks, one especially. Lake 
Geneva, in southern Minnesota; at a narrow place in the 
lake there were upward of fifteen tents of campers, and 
the shooting in the morning and at night sounded like 
the rattle of musketry when a flock showed that way. 
Hunters say that the supply is steadily decreasing. 
K. 
A Maine Ruffled Grouse Dearth. 
Brewer, Me. — In over fifty years of gunning I have 
never known ruffed grouse so scarce over so large a part of 
our State. Sometimes they are locally scarce, but this 
season the same reports come in from everywhere. It 
takes extra luck for a man and dog to average one a day 
and more than three-quarters are old birds. We never 
had any snaring here, and no market gunning worth 
mentioning. Hawks and owls are also always scarce 
near here. M. H. 
Michigan Partridge Shooting'. 
Saghnaw, Mich., Nov. 11.— The partridge shooting is 
fine around Saginaw, I have been out three times since 
the season opened, Nov. 1, hunting a day or part of a day 
each time, and have brought in just thirty birds, averag- 
ing about ten for each trip. Not bad, is it? Besides, the 
bag has been sweetened up with half as many quail. 
Our Dakota trip was a grand success; more birds than I 
have seen before in years. We had splendid goose shoot- 
ing, and any quantity of ducks to be had for the asking. 
W. B. Mbrshon, 
