468 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[pKO. 12, 1896. 
fortunate members sit by the big fireplace stove in the 
middle of the aaaembly room, they can turn over the 
paejea of their game book and review, each for himself, 
the doings of the past with a pleasure almost as grea,t as 
though it were happening over again. From a few mem- 
oranda hurriedly penciled as I looked through the pages 
of this interesting game book, I see that in 1876 the mem- 
bers of the club killed 1,358 ducks; in 1879, 1.150 ducks; 
in 1880, 2,227 ducks. In 1881 they bagged 3,450 ducks, a 
daily average of 20 birds to the gun. In 1882, 1,402 ducks; 
average, 15|. In 1883, 1,771 ducks; average, 23. In 1884, 
1,942 ducks; average, 22^. In 1887, 1,160 ducks; average, 
16i, In the year of 1894 there were 1,304 ducks killed, a 
general daily average of 19 birds. Certainly a fine show- 
ing. 
The shooting at Big Point Club is chiefly at marsh 
ducks nowadays, as the last few years have been seasons 
of very low water, at which time the deep water ducks 
are not so abundant. The shooting is done from Rice 
Lake canoes propelled by paddle, a "teeterish" sort of a 
duck boat for the novice. 
Mr. Wells tells me that he very often runs down from 
Chatham to the club on his bicycle, this requiring but an 
hour or so, and thus gets an evening's shooting in the 
most pleasant way imaginable. Rarely indeed can the 
sportsman of to-day have such privileges near his home. 
The Ways of Some Deer Hunters. 
A friend in Ohio sends me the following clipping taken 
from the Dayton Journal. I think all will agree with 
him that is about the cheekiest thing that appeared in 
print for a long time. It would at first thought appear 
inconceivable that any man would be ass enough to thus 
publicly boast of his unlawfulness and at the same time in- 
dulge in such empty vaporings as to his own prowess. 
Set it down that such a man is a rank coward in his 
iieart, and an associate of rank duffers and pot-nunters, 
all of whom the great State of Ohio might do well to keep 
at home if possible and out of print when practicable. 
The question of non-resident shooting becomes obnoxious 
to dwellers in game-producing States when such men are 
the visitors. The extract needs no further conoment. It 
reads in full: 
Deer Hunters Returned from Minnesota with 
Six Carcasses. 
SHAKY GAME WARDENS SMELLING AROUND THE BUCKEYE PARTY, PALE 
AS GHOSTS, BUT THE BOYS SHIPPED THEIR VENISON 
HOMK ALL THE SAME. 
Wapakoneta, O., Nov. 20, 1886. — Editor Dayton Journal: We ar- 
rived borne on TTiiursday, Nov. 19. We intended to stay until ttie law 
was out, but owing to the close watch the Minnesota game warden 
had on us we concluded to return home. We had six deer in the 
party, and w e thought we had better start for home. 
We started back as far as Hibbing and waited until next day at 13 
P. M. There we took the MisBaba road for Duluth, the ^ame warden 
being on the same train, keeping his eye on us and telling the con- 
ductor and all his friends on the train that he would give them some 
venison. This evening we traveled on and reached Duluth at about 
3:30 P. M., and there we all started to the Northern Pacific ofiQce to 
have our tickets signed up. On our return to the car we found that 
there were sis State game wardens awaiting us. 
We all went into the car and in they came. It you ever saw six 
badly frightened men, it was the wardens. You can imagine yourself 
if you were in their place to go into a crowd of men, seventeen in 
Lumber, and every one having in one hand a Winchester rifle and in 
the other a double-barreled shotgun. It looked to them like a Jesse 
James gang. Anyhow there was cot a man among them but what 
bis voice trembled. Th6y told us their business, and, of com se, we 
complied with their wants. 
The first to be examined was Mr. V. W. Houchin's hunting chest. 
He politely informed them that they should be very careful and 
replace everything in its place as It was or he would see that it was. 
Then they began to feel a little shaky about it, at any rate they 
went through our baggage In a hurry, and should we have had some 
venison in our possession they would not have found it, as It was a lit- 
tle too warm for them. 
They were satisfied of their search and found nothing. Mr. O'Dell, 
of Sidney, very kindly thanked them tor following us wherever we 
went. Tbey followed us for one soUd week, and we Buckeye chaps 
were a little too sharp lor them. They examined the oar, but we have 
the venison. People in Ohio cannot imagine how the State of Minne- 
sota put such people in an o£Qce of that kind who are lacking of 
sense, the way their game wardens are. 
Had we made one move with all thoEe firearms we would have had 
six corpses for the Duluth undertaker. These very men will never be 
any whiter when they are dead than they were ai that time. 
'ihe main State agent, Mr. J. E. Phillips, was at Hibbing when we 
arrived irom camp, and we were told he was there, so we proceeded 
at once to make sate our game, which we did, and I would like for 
any of my Ohio hunters to be very careful and not let those chaps 
gel hold of them, lor it they do that means $50 and jail. That's not 
very pleasant. Of course they cannot blame them, as they get one- 
half of what they arrest, so you see why we were watched so closely. 
Four hundred at d twenty-flve dollars was a nice thing looking Mr. 
Game Warden in the face, but when he put his hand down It was 
gone. 
I will close, hoping that in the future we may be able to again write 
ytu. Yours respecifuily. Q. W. muoHiN. 
Wild Game Around Chicago. 
A wild red fox, which came from no one 
knows where, was found running down South Water 
street in Chicago one day last week. It was pursued and 
killed directly in front of the big brick building which 
now stands on the site of old Fort Dearborn. The appear- 
ance of the fox is a mystery, but true to fox reputation, 
he old fellow was next to the poultry coops. 
The following story about a>ild deer is taken from a 
current issue of an Elgin, 111. , paper, Elgin being practi- 
cally a Chicago suburb: 
"This morning a deer appeared on Highland avenue at 
9 o'clock. It ran on Crystal street to Locust and on to 
Stale street, coming north again to West Chicago. 
Several men attempted to head it off, and it bolted west 
to South street. A man followed in a wagon, but the 
animal disappeared near the home of Horace French, tail- 
ing to the fields. Later J. M. Adams and others started 
with guns, etc., to capture the animal. A Chicago man 
has a country place west of Algonquin, where he keeps 
several fine deer. As the animal came from that direc- 
tion, it is thought to be one of his that escaped. The deer 
was found in the woods near Trout Park, and was shot by 
David Nish and Sidney Rogers late in the afternoon. It 
was a fine animal, in splendid condition, and weighed 
ISOlbs." 
No Cause of Death Found. 
The dailjr papers of last week fully described the sad 
and mysterious death of Mi-. W. W. Ingram, of this city, 
who was found dead in the woods near his camp, not far 
from Michigamme, Mich, When found, the body of Mr. 
Ingram showed that death had ensued some days before, 
and the body was of course frozen. Near the remains 
lay the carcass of a deer, which Mr. Ingram had evi- 
dently killed and was trying to take to camp. No wound 
or mark of violence was found on the body, and it seemed 
a mystery how death had happened. The most thorough 
investigations since then fail to throw any light on this 
tragedy of the woods, Mr. Ingram was a Chicago man 
of wealth. 
Killed his Brother. 
In the Michigah deer woods one young man accident- 
ally shot and killed bis brother last week. I withhold 
names out of respect to the living victim ^ who is nearly 
crazed. 
So far I have heard of only four or five deaths by acci- 
dental shooting among deer hunters this season, a record 
pleasingly small as compared to that of thirteen men so 
killed last year in Wisconsin and Michigan. 
A Quail Hunt In Canada. 
At the close of the International field trials, which we 
attended together, Mr. Wells asked me to come over and 
have a little quail shoot on the Big Point preserve, which 
was only a tew miles from the grounds on which the 
trials were run, and this I was glad to do of course, 
though quite unprepared for shooting. It was about 3 
o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at the shooting 
grounds and we had not a great deal of time, but from 
the time we cast off in the first cornfield I had as busy a 
time as I ever had in my life, until dark put an end to ex- 
ertions, which caused me to perspire freely, as though it 
were midsummer. The trouble was that I could not hit 
anything. This sometimes occurs to the best of men and 
very often occurs to me, but this time was the worst case 
of it I ever had in my life. We actually put up over a 
dozen bevies of birds, I believe, and I fired somewhere 
between twenty^five and thirty shots, and all the birds I 
got made just the magnificent total of eight! I should 
have killed at least fifteen or more. We had but the one 
gun between us, a handsome little English gun 
and as good a quaU gun as one need ask, but made 
after the English fashion with a very straight stock, 
which was a handicap almost prohibitory with me, 
as I cannot shoot a straight gun. Time and 
again I begged Mr. Wells to take his gun and do the 
shooting, but he grinned and decUned, saying he was 
having more fun than he ever had in his life ju^t watch- 
ing me shoot, as he had never seen anything liiie it I The 
dogs were working beautifully, Mr. Wells having along 
three: Cleopatra, winner of first in the trials ; Luke, 
divider of third, and Daphne, another good and as steady 
a bird dog as any man need want. It was Mr. Wells's 
declared intention to show me that field trial dogs could 
be good shooting dogs, and I must say that he can easily 
prove this proposition if he always brings to its support 
the three dogs he had that day, which would be hard to 
beat in the field. They made no mistakes and did some 
lovely work indeed. Their pleasure must have been 
marred by such wretched shooting as I did, but they 
kept to their work steadily and found us one bev^y after 
another. We did not work the singles very closely, ex- 
cept in one or two cases, but the covers seemed literally 
full of birds. We had point after point from all the dogs, 
in fine shooting country, and I had shot after shot, but 
believe it was the sixth or seventh shot before I managed 
to worry down a bird, then another one or so after a 
while. Then Luke got a bevy point in a cornfield, and I 
was lucky enough to get a bird with each barrel. On 
still another cornfield all three of the dogs were together 
pointing a fine big bevy when we came up with them. 
Here I managed to kill one bird with my right and to 
knock down two with my left, my average thus begin- 
ning to take a look up, though, as 1 remarked.to my com- 
panion, I would still be forced to make a good many 
triplet kills to bring up the aforesaid average to anything 
like what it should be. I had several more shots after 
that, but did not hurt anything, and Mr. Wells told me 
he would be perfectly happy to have me come there and 
shoot all I wanted any time, as it did not hurt the birds 
any and seemed to please me. He said he could easily 
see I was a game protector. 
One little incident occurred on this delirious afternoon 
which goes to show how very careful all men should be 
in shooting in the field. We had a nice lot of birds 
marlied down on a bit of bare pasture, where they were 
scattered among logs and brush heaps, and the dogs were 
picking up single points as fast as they got over the 
fence to them. There were a few head of cattle in there 
and also a big gray colt, which was very playful and in- 
sisted on coming up and biting and chasing the dogs 
away from their points, much to our disgust. I had just 
said to Ml". Wells that I should need to be very careful 
not to hurt any of these animals when I shot, and he took 
pains to drive away this big colt as I went behind the 
dog to shoot. At that time the horse was some 30yds. or 
more away and at one side, and Mr. Wells was watching 
it to see that it did not hurt the nearest dog, which ic 
was trying to bite. He waved a stick at it and it started 
off, apparently with the intention of attacking the dog in 
front of which I was about to put up my bird. Just as 
the horse started toward me on the gallop, the quail also 
started on the gallop, swinging rapidly around to the 
right, directly toward the horse. I shot and missed it 
with the first barrel, and then swung on with it 
for the second barrel. Just at the very moment I 
was pressing the trigger I saw appearing in the 
narrow circle of vision about the gun barrel the 
head and ears of this big and troublesome gray 
beast, which till then I had not seen at all. It 
was too late to stop, and I half expected to kill a horse 
that sbot, or at least wing-tip him, if 1 couldn't kill a quail. 
As fortune had it, I did not touch the beast, bub could not 
have missed it by more than 8 or 4ft. This led Mr. Wells 
to infer perhaps that I was trying to hit the horse and 
couldn't; but hedidn't say so. He only said that if we had 
shot that horse it would have broken up the Big Point 
quail preserve, because the Frenchmen of whom the land 
was leased would never have gotten over it. We were 
both angry enough at the horse to want to shoot it, but 
both very glad we had not. I think this was the narrow- 
est escape I ever had from an accident in the field, and 
cannot be too thankful when I stop to reflect how very 
awkward the circumstance would have been had the acci- 
dent really occurred, even though the horse could hardly 
have been much injured at the distance. It is a pretty 
good plan not to shoot at all where there are cattle or 
horses close; but in this case we thought we had every- 
thing all safe. The horse was running right toward the 
gun, or rather directly at right angles to the direction of 
the gun, and going at full speed, from behind me, just at 
the time when the gun was swinging around toward him. 
I could just see the front of him as I fired. I almost wish 
I had killed him, for we had so little in the bag after 
all the opportunities^ and a horse would have setved td 
fill up. 
That was a weird afternoon, and at least funny enough 
to be remembered. I hope to meet Mr. Wells again some- 
where in our part of the country where we can both have! 
guns, so that he can get some birds for his dogs. I am not 
sure that I ever could learn to kill those Canadian quail, 
for they are about as big as turkeys^ a bright red color, 
and fly like a streak of lightning. I think without jest- 
ing that these birds were fully a third larger than the 
quail of Louisiana or Texas. Their coloring is more 
briUiant and less dull and ashy of hue than that of the 
Southern q^uail. Mr. Wells tells me that the club must 
have thirty or forty bevies on its grounds. The birds 
would do well there except for an occasional severe winter 
I which cuts down the stock. The Big Point Club men have 
imported numbers of quail from the Southern States and 
put them down here, this being the remedy after a hard 
winter; but this year the birds are unusually abundant. 
The best of care is taken of them on these grounds, and 
regular feeding places, protected from the snow, are es- 
tablished for them in the winter. The cover is corn, 
stubble or timber— what is called in Canada the "bush"— 
and is all that the birds could ask. 
The quail is a fixture in that part of Canada and will 
always remain so, for the Canadian laws are good ones 
and are enforced. Until lately many thousand quail used 
to be brought into Chatham each winter for sale, but now 
that is all stopped. The excellent law of Ontario forbids 
the sale of quail or grouse, and a similar law is passed for 
Manitoba. Mr. Wells was the man who got the law passed 
in Ontario. If he would come over to this country and 
get a similar law passed, the sportsmen of the United 
States could afford to pension him off at $1,000 a minute 
for the rest of his life, and rise up and call him blessed 
besides. One needs no further argument for a non-sale 
law than a look at the well-stocked covers of the coimtry 
around Chatham, which has been settled for generations 
and once shot well down, but which has now all the game 
a sportsman could ask. Chatham is an ideal town for the 
residence of a sportsman for that very reason. There is 
good shooting near at hand all the time in season. Would 
that the people of the United States had an equal respect 
for the game laws, and a law equally good to respect. 
Mr. Wells writes me since my return that he and a 
friend have just been out on a little shoot back a way in 
the bush, and that they killed twenty ruffed grouse and 
forty quail (no horses). That is a great country for ruffed 
grouse, and the men there know how to shoot them; Mr. 
Wells himself, by the way, being about as good an all- 
round shot aa they have, and very skillful on grouse, so 
say his friends. E. HouaH. 
1206 BoYCE BmLDiNO, Chicago. 
THE MOST ENJOYABLE HUNT OF 
MY LIFE. 
And why was it so? Just because I was a novice and 
unskilled, but was lucky. I had but recently learned 
that I could "kill on the wing," by having, in a desperate 
mood, fired at and brought down a ruffed grouse after 
having tried in vain to catch a glimpse of the cunning 
birds on the ground, which, to my mortification, would 
rise thundering before me in mockery of my inability to 
see them. I was happy — perhaps a little proud. My 
eyes were opened. I saw that what I had so much cov- 
eted could be secured in a manner I had not before 
dreamed of, so far as myself being the marksman. 
It was then that I be£an to try to acquire some skill in 
the use of the gun. I "poked" around with my brother's 
old gun a few times with not much success. One day, 
however, I concluded to take a hunt around the Shadka 
Lake, or Big Pond, as it was usually called, which was 
situated four miles distant from town, in hope that I 
might find more of the ruffed beauties to bang at, if not 
to capture. But I was disappointed — nay, vexed — when 
I learned that the family horse must be used that day to 
subserve the interests and dignity of labor rather than the 
pleasures of the chase. But I must have my hunt. So I 
resolved to try my luck again near home, but on new 
ground. I borrowed a double gun — flight, but excellently 
made, and a good shooter — and started out accompanied 
by a Skye terrier. I had not gone more than half a mile 
when, as I leaped a ditch, a grouse rose and flew toward 
the woods. Little did I dream of his vicinage, and my 
surprise was unusual. A flutter of the heart, a 
nervous pressure of the trigger, and the bird fell 
dead. It was an added charm of weight when the 
game dropped into my bag. I then directed my 
course toward the Hudson — enchanting river! — and 
walked along its banks, enjoying that Indian 
summer day, a poet in feeling as well as a hunter in pur- 
suit. Above me on the brow of a hill were other hunters 
with hounds, enjoying perhaps as much as I the glory of 
that autumnal atmosphere. From their direction, like a 
dart piercing the air, came a grouse which they perhaps 
had flushed. In a twinkling he passed me, and was be- 
yond gunshot before I could level my fowling piece. But 
I did not go far until I came to a ditch, beside which 
grew a few stunted bushes. I walked along this until I 
came near its termination, when from its cover started a 
grouse and struck out for the woods. He had a pretty 
long stretch to reach the timber, and a more open and 
straightaway shot no sportsman could desire than that 
presented to my as yet unskillful but lucky aim. Like 
the first, the grouse dropped dead. Could I believe my 
senses? Two clean, consecutive scores! Hoopee! To 
show that brace of birds was an anticipation lelt in a life- 
time, and I must needs turn my face homeward. On my 
way I passed through a bushy field and shot a rabbit that 
was crossing my path. A little further on I struck a 
growth of timber, and a third grouse took wing. The 
trees seemed to be in my way and I was bewildered, but 
ventured a shot, and — was it possible? — he fell. But 1 had 
only wing-tipped him, and he ran as a grouse can, and I 
would have lost him perhaps had not my faithful Skye 
overtaken him. Well, I had a good heavy bag and no 
game lost that I had piilled on that day — a day as memor- 
able as any I have ever spent in the field. "Accidental" 
marksmanship as it was, I have never had a more pleas- 
ant little hunt even with my pointers and setters, and 
when I could "draw a bead" with conscious accuracy 
upon the swift-flying grouse, prince of New York game 
birds. M. D. Elting. 
Ckntbal Citt, W. Va. 
