366 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
iMay 8 1897 
us. I felt satisfied. I had liit her, and that I had hit her 
where I was told to, hut _ thought that if she was only 
wounded she might be waiting to know what struck her.'and 
bleeding to death. 
I kept perfectly still. In a couple of minutes the doe' ap- 
peared ^here I first saw the deer, ran by me a little rff her 
track, went a few rods, circled back, ihen struck the right 
trail with never a bark out of him, ran alone- a bit, when I 
saw him stand just behind the big birch. Then says I to 
myself, "Payne, you have her." I walked over that way. 
As soon as I got past the birch, there she lay, stone dead with 
a bullet hole clear through her just back "of the shoulders. 
Then I yelled: "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! Payne has 
onel" Joe Clement immediately came over from bis runwav 
one of the guides with Beaulne came up and congratulated 
me. Beaulne said it was as good as a |50 bill to him to 
know that I had been successful. We found I had missed 
the heart by about 2in , but had bored right through the 
lungs. Afterward we went, over the ground to see where 1 
had struck her. It was just 75ft, from where I stood. There 
was a little birch just the other side of her, against whicli 
there was a splash of blood, and in that tree, about lin. deep, 
was my bullet, which I subsequently secured. Tt was the 
first deer I ever shot and the first time I ever fired at any 
game with a rifle. You can imagine how much I prize that 
partly flattened bullet. 
Oust after we had my deer (which, by the way, was a 
three-year-old doe, that is, Beaulne said so, and of course he 
knows) hauled to the boat, we went to the other lake to re- 
port our luck, and found that Geo. Clement had secured an- 
other that had put into the water, shooting it with duck 
shot. 
There were four deer hangirg from the club house posts 
that night. We then gave up all idea of partridges, wanted 
to get a deer each, there being eight of us. However, that 
night about dusk, the guide, Geo. Clement and myself went 
down to the gate of the lake to shoot ducks as they flew 
over, but, although we each fired six shots, we came home 
without touching one of them. J. Bhuce Payne 
Pbovincb of Qubbec. ■ 
[to be cohcldded.] 
ONE MAN'S INFLUENCE. 
William B. Bennee, the Western Union telegraph, 
operator at Somerset, Pa., died suddenly at that place on 
Tuesday, April 27, of paralysis of the heart, aged about 
thirty years. 
To the bulk of your readers the above simple announce- 
ment is of no more interest than any other record of sud- 
den death; but Mr. Benner was a true sportsman, and has 
done much for the interest of the craft in Somerset county, 
which could be emulated elsewhere to the benefit of the 
lovers of the rod and gun. 
About three years ago he conceived the notion that 
something should he done looking to game and fish, pro- 
tection by the persons interested, aside from the laws of 
the State, and after talking; over the matter with others he 
went to Attorney A. C. Holbert, who, while not a fisher- 
man, is an enthusiastic gun man, and laid his ideas before 
him. They had several consultations, and Mr. Holbert 
drew up a "constitution and by-laws" and a call for a 
meeting, at the Hotel Vannear, of all lovers of shooting 
and fishing on a certain evening. 
When the evening came Mr. Vannear, himself a shooter, 
threw open his parlors, and seventy persons were there 
present. Mr. Benner was unanimously elected chairman 
pro tern., and directed the proposed constitution and by- 
laws to be read, and after their reading they were adopted 
as read, and the seventy persons signed them, forming the 
Somerset Game and Fish Protective Association. The 
salient features of this Association are as follows: 
1. No fees are paid for membership nor for remaining a 
member. 
2. Any person can become a member. 
3. Each member pledges himself on his sacred honor 
not to kill game or take fish out of season; not to fish with 
a net, except for minnows; not to shoot a bird on the 
ground, unless it has been wounded; not to fish or hunt 
knowingly on the lands of another without peraiission first 
obtained; not to kill any bird or beast under the protec- 
tion of the game laws of the State, and not to be a hog in 
either shooting or fishing; to give information promptly to 
the secretary of any violation of the game and fish laws of 
the State, especially of the killing of game or taking offish 
out of season, and the secretary pledges himself to inform 
the president and furnish him with a list of witnesses, and 
the president is pledged in like manner to prosecute the 
ofi'ender or offenders, and each member may be assessed a 
sum certain to defray the expenses of such prosecution, 
and if the same be successful the fine is turned into the 
treasury and appropriated first of all 'to reimburse the 
members their assessments. 
Mr. Benner was unanimously elected president, A. C. 
Ferner secretary and treasurer of the Association. The 
fact of the formation of the Association and its constitution 
and by-laws were published in all the county papers, and 
similar associations were formed at other points in the 
county; and the writer is informed that in adjoining coun- 
ties and even in far-away counties of the State similar 
associations have been formed, and have adopted, without 
change, the constitution and by-laws of the Somerset Asso- 
ciation. 
No prosecutions have been made, and none have been 
necessary. Persons who might have violated the law have 
come into the Association, and are active and conscientious 
members. The Somerset organization now numbers on 
its roll 150 members; others in the county swell the aggre- 
gate, as the writer ' is informed, to about 1,000 members, 
and all due to the efforts of the plain, impretentiors j'^oung 
man, William B. Benner. who now "rests from his labors 
and his works do follow Mm." Amatede. 
Pike County Game Shipments. 
DiLLiNGEBSViLLE, Pa., April 2B.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Your correspondent from Pike county is right. I 
made a geographical error in my article on April Q. The 
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. does not touch 
Pike county. Nevertheless the largest part of the game, as 
I was informed, came from Pike county and the upper part 
of Monroe county. The agents at the stations, who in- 
formed me as to the shipment of game, are situated in Mon- 
roe county, and I may say not such a great way from Pike 
county, Leon W. Mazukie. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Wisconsin Deer License Law. 
Chicago, 111., April 23.— The most important news of the 
week is, without doubt, that of the passage in Wisconsin of 
a deer license law similar to that in force in Michigan. Sen- 
ator J. Herbert Green, of the Fourth District, wrote me 
early in the week in regard to this, stating that the measure 
now in effpct was introduced in the Sennte as Bill 56. Sen- 
ate Bill 57 has also become a law. Wisconsin now has a 
regularly enacted and effective game law, with no loopholps 
left in its construction, such as were found in the Buckstaff 
law, under which misunderstandings of the deer season 
occurred last fall. The sportsmen of Wisconsin had a good 
advocate in the person of Senator Green, as well as in other 
representatives who have assisted them in former years. 
They did not secure a bill entirely prohibitirg the spring 
shooting of wildfowl, nor is it likely that the sportsmen of 
the State actually wanted such a bill. Tt is Ifgal now. as 
before, to shoot all ducks in the spring excepting mallards, 
teal or wood duck. 
The license for deer shooting under this new law is $1 fnr 
residents and $30 for non-residents. This is the third West- 
ern State within three years to pass a non-resident license law 
on all or some species of game. Such laws are naturally 
very unpopular with non-resident shooters, but it is to be 
supposed that the men of Wisconsin found the non-resident 
number so mary. that it seemed neces.qaryto lax them some- 
thing for the privilege of buntinsr in Wisconsin depr country. 
Whether the law will remain on the .statute books is yet to be 
seen. That it will in many cases be evaded goes without 
saying. While I can express no op'nion in regard to the 
wisdom of such a law, I do know that it was a question of 
very short time before the deer of Wisconsin would have 
been destroyed under the riotous wastefulness of the earlier 
system. It may be that any law, no matter how odious nor 
how severe, will in its way be well if it serve to call a halt 
for a moment and teach the unthinking jjublic what game 
really is and what a game law really intends. The great 
bulk of the shooting public thinks of nothing and cares 
for nothing so long as there still remains game to be killed. 
The result of the Wisconsin and Michigan license laws 
will be that next fall there will be a flood of deer-hunters 
which will pour into the woods of Minnesota. The latter 
State is to be the next great hunting and fishing ground of 
the Western people, and is as yet but little known as com- 
pared with Wisconsin. Tt would not be surprising if Min- 
nesota, so long a model in game-law matters, would find it 
necessary or expedient to pass a non resident license law. 
There have long been earnest efforts made to make the laws 
of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota as nearly similar as 
possible, the conditions governing the chief varieties of game 
being much the same in these three States. 
Other provisions of the new Wisconfin deer law are as 
follows: The open season is from November 1 to November 
20. Night-hunting, fire-hunting, water-hunting, the vse of 
dogs, the use of traps in takius; deer are all unlawful and 
prohibited. Tt is unlawful for any person to kill more than 
two deer, except "any resident or settler shall have the right 
to kill, at any time during the open season, any deer which 
is to be consumed by his family or neighbors, and not for 
the purpose of sale or traffic." The fine may be from |3o to 
$100. or imprisonment from two to six months. Thus it 
will be seen that the non-resident hunter is to pay $15 each 
for his two deer, and cannot kill anv more than two. 
Yet other provisions in the new Wisconsin law interesting 
to sportsmen are those forbidding the use of sneak- boxes or 
artificial blinds in shooting wild fowl, and prohibiting duck- 
shooting between sundown and sunrise. It is also unlawful 
to use ferrets in hunting rabbits. 
The record of legislation in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minne- 
sota and Dakota for the past few years shows an increasing 
sti-ingency in the game-law measures in this part of the 
West. It comes none too soon, if the game of this section is 
to be retained for the pleasure of the shooters. The history 
of its butchery has never yet been written. 
What News From Illinois? 
But what news from the grand old State of Illinois, which 
possesses the city of Chicago, which in turn possesses that 
odorous thoroughfare known as South Water street? What 
news from Illinois? Nothing, except that we still have 
South Water street, and still have the elegant game law that 
South Water street gave us years ago. 
Many Jaclcsnipe. 
The spring of '97 proves to be a great one for game, jack- 
snipe being especially abundant. Very laree bags have been 
made at Kouts, Davis, Shelby, Water Yalley, and other 
Kankakee points. The highest bag of which I hear was that 
made near Water Valley by two men, who killed 105 jack- 
snipe in one day. In his last trip to Maksawba Club, Mr. 
W. P. Mussey bagged forty snipe in one day, and eighteen 
the next. He and John Watson have again gone down to 
the club, and should be having even better shooting now. 
The weather is warm and exactly right for a good flight. 
Heavy Shooting at Poygan Club. 
There has been heavy shooting at Poygan Club, situated 
on Lake Poygan, Wis. This club has a laree Chicago mem- 
bership. One member this spring killed 101 ducks in one 
day. Two Chicago members in six and a half days' shoot-^ 
ing killed 473 ducks. The gentleman giving me this news 
requests that I withhold his name and that of his friend. I 
don't blame him for the request. He is the secretary of a 
prominent gun club of Chicago. I suppose he and his' friend 
were carried away by a sudden burst of enthusiasm, which 
lasted for six days and a half. 
The Dress of a Cowboy. 
There was a cowboy preacher recently arrested in Chicago 
for something or other, and one of the daily papers remarked 
that he was "resplendent in the full dress of a cowboy, 
buckskin jacket with gilt buttons, and doeskin trousers — 
both decorated with long fringe — high- top boots with spurs, 
broad-brimmed sombrero, and medals without number." 
Somehow or other I must be out of luck. 1 have been 
knocking around in the West for quite a while now, but I 
never did see a cowboy dressed that way. 
Some More about the Black Duck. 
April 34.— Mr. Thos. .Johnson, of Winnipeg, writes to me 
that he has just read the Forest and STiiEiUu comment of 
some weeks ago on the character of tlie black duck, which 
he was good enough to send down to this office from the far 
North country. He says that he can see no right that I 
have to call his black duck {Oideiniafima) a "base Ixm^ 
and no black duck at all." He adds: "This bird is not 
found in Manitoba, but I say it is a black duck, as black as 
the marsh duck of Ontario. If I have failed of finding the 
breeding places of the marsh black duck, I have found the 
lake wliere the sea black duck breeds, and where it is found 
in thousands." 
Mr. J. H. Mcllree, assistant commissioner Northwest 
mounted police, writes from Regina on this same subject: 
"I was interested about the yarn started by your friend 
.Johnston, of Winnipeg, that he had discovered the breeding 
place of the black duck north of Edmonton. I knew he 
must be mistaken, as I have been twenty-three years in the 
Northwest, am very fond of the gun, and have yet to see a 
black duck. I happened to be in Edmonton a little over a 
month ago, and went to the taxidermist there to see if he had 
a speciooen of this black duck. He had not, but he showed 
me a letter, or at least copy of ©ne, from you to Johnston 
which settled the matter. The next ihmg that struck me 
was the line of migration of these ducks in sprina: and fall. 
I have shot many hundreds of ducks in this vast Northwest 
in both, spring and fall, but have never shot a scater. I 
always looked upon them as a sea duck. 
"I have been taking Forest and Stream since about 
1876, and it loses none of its interest for me." 
Mr. Ruthven Deane, of Chicago, one of the best posted 
ornithologists in the country, is good enough to contribute 
some points about the black duck, which 1 append as per 
his letter: 
"I have hoen interested in reading the black duck controv- 
ersy in the Forest and Stream. In (he number of March 
13 your correspondent, Mr. Geo A. Boardman, of Calais, 
Me., states that the Eastern blacK duck is of only accidental 
occurrence in the West. Such may be the case in Minneso- 
ta, where Mr. Boardman has made his observations, but the 
true black duck (J.nas ohscura) is cerlainly a regular spring 
and fall migrant in Illinois and Indiana, and in considerable 
abundance, especially in the fall. As you are a duck hunt- 
er, I have no doubt but that this has also been your experi- 
ence. I have not infrequently counted .fi''tfen or twenty 
black duc-.ks in a bag of titty or six'y birds, the balance being 
mostly mallards {Anas ioscJiaa). 
"In regard to Mr. Boardman's reference to 'two sizes' of 
the scaup duck, you slate that you take the smaller of the 
two as applied to the ringbill {Aythya, collaris) I think that 
Mr, Boardman does not refer to lliis species, for there are 
two distinct species of the scaup, both iound on Eastern and 
Western waters, the American scaup duck {Aythya inarita 
wearctica) and the Lesser scaup duck {Aythya affinis) The 
American fcaup, more commonly known as the big hluebill 
or canvasback bluebill, is quite rare in Illinois and Indiana 
.so far as my expeiience goes, and from such information as 
I have eotten fiom many sportsmen. At the English Lake 
Shooting Club, on the Kankakee niarsties in Inriia-iia, I have 
not known of more than half a dozen having been shot by 
the club members in the past thirteen years. I understand 
it is not of such infrequent occurrence on the Illiuoi° Riv r 
in the Swan Lake region, especially in the spring. Of the 
Lesser scaup, or, as better known in our shooting Sfclions, 
the bluebill, you are of course intimately acquamted." 
I want to thank Mr. Deane for setting me right about my 
comment on Mr. Boardman's "two sizes" of bluebiHs. Mr. 
Boardman was right, as he usually i«, though it seemed to 
me he might have confused the two birds, the bluebill and 
the ringbill, which sometimes are so confused, my own 
memory being vague about the two siz^s of scaup. I saw a 
fine specimen of the ' larger bluebill" (American scaup ot 
"Greater scaup," as it is sometimes called) at the office ot R. 
A. Turtle, a local taxidermist, not long ago. This bird I 
recognize, but I think I have not seen it in my shootmg in 
the North for six or eight years, and it is rare among Illinois 
duck shooters I think, though Mr Boardman has perhaps 
found it in more abundance in Minnesota. I am quite sure! 
have seen it in Texas. The man who had the specimen 
above mentioned no doubt thought it a curiosity here and 
had it mounted. Of course, these bluebill?, hig or little, 
are not bla'^k ducks, even of the "sea black duck" sort 
which Mr. Johnson sets up; but I think now we have got 
these different animals sorted out so that we can tell what 
they are. 
I am all the time learning that there are a whole lot of 
things I don't know a good many things about, including 
ducks. It is astonishing how loose the average obaervalion 
is, when one is not making a special study of a subject.. 
How many men can tell off-hand, for instancp, what is the 
color of a canvasback's bill, or of a mud hen's foot, or of H 
mallard's foot, or can lell what a redhead's bill looks like, or 
that of a blutbill, or of a velvet scaler? We all ought to 
know all such things, and probably we thmk we do, but 
quite a few would fall down on so short and simple a cate- 
chism as that. I remember that once when I was a boy 1 
was executing a fine pen-and-ink sketch of a duck, under 
the supervision of my farher, but he told me that I had put 
ou the legs at such a remote corner on the duck ihat it could 
by no possibility have been able to stand up. Does every- 
body know where the hind legs ought to go ou a duck? 'l 
presume everybody thinks lie knows, but 1 would have to 
bet that he doesn't, This is how it happens that we some- 
times get mixed up on bird matters. We try to tell some- 
body how a bird looks, and we can't, because we don't 
know. 
From the Far North Country. 
Mr. Thomas Johnson is very good at getting up for us 
curious things, surprises in natural histor}' and odd ques- 
tions of interest. This week he sends down a photograph 
of a snow-white mountain sheep head, witu the following 
letter in regard to it; 
"I am sending you. a photo of the head of a white Rocky 
Mountain sheep. 1 understand that no museum in the 
world has a specimen of this animal. This one was killed 
by a British sportsman, Mr. Mallurner, in British Alaska. 
Mr. Secord, of Edmonton, a friend of mine and his, got a 
photograph of the head, which he sent to me." 
The photograph mentioned is at hand. It is very curious. 
It shows the horns of a big horn, possibly four, or three, 
years of age, but the scalp is pure white. The hair of the 
scalp seems to be that of theshtep, there being no possibility, 
for instance, that it could be a scalp of a mountain goat 
stretched over a sheep skull, even did the size of a goat scalp 
permit this. The jaw and uosex)f the head are those of the 
big-horn, and the whole head is a well-mounted specimen, 
though I should call the eye used rather too large. It may 
be an albino sheep, or it may be a new sort of sheep, and at 
any rate the head is very interesting. Mr. Johnson does not 
state when this head was killed, though that may have very- 
much to do with its color. In our hunt on the Blackfoot 
reservation this winter we found the color shown by the big 
horns very much lighter than that of the fall coat. There 
