Jttlt 3, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
8 
The team was at the door at 8 o'clock sharp nextTmoming. 
Dick Morris was unable to join us for the day^ and in fact, 
for the hunt, through illness of a near relative. We missed 
him greatly. 
"With a skilled driver at the reins we left the city rapidly, 
taking the road by the State Penitentiary and climbing the 
long ascent near the Cove Spring. Beyond the ridge we de- 
scended to the edge of a broad valley where, in the olden 
time, was a race-track on which the horse Gray Eagle won a 
famous race, to the delight of Henry Clay and the hundreds 
of onlookers in attendance. The plain was now seamed 
with ditches for drainage, and dotted with shocks of gathered 
corn. 
Beyond this we passed the Todd farm with its fourteen 
miles of stone fencing, and noted as the site of a block 
house, built in Indian days, still standing with its wedge- 
shaped port-holes in the second story, concealed from outer 
observation by a more modern lining of boards. Half a 
mile further, the pike ran beside Elkhorn Creek, famous for 
its gamy black bass. Eollowing the rocky stream a short 
distance we halted opposite the Lover's Leap, a bold bare 
headland that projected from a turn in the cliff, 100ft. 
above the water. Surmounting its pinnacle was a solitary 
dead cedar. The foxes were wont to come to ^ this point, 
after night, and bark in hearing of the dogs in the farm- 
yard opposite — a challenge that seldom passed unheeded, 
for their music was speedily ringing along the steep hillside 
in hot chase. 
Below, a few hundred yards, at a turn in the road, was 
the mouth of the Pond Branch, the outlet of a small swamp 
where, thirty years ago, wild geese were wont to stop over 
night, and some of them make a fatal stop in their flight 
across the country. Close by was the site of the cabin 
where several women in frontier days successfully defended 
themselves from an attack of savages, enforced" with rifle 
and blazing arrows. One of the women, biting a bullet in 
two, loaded a rifle with the piece and shot an Indian through 
a crack in the door. His dead body was afterward found 
lodged in the creek below, against a big rock, that to day 
goes by the name of Indian Rock. 
Retracing our couise up the creek, we turned ofE by a 
country road and followed the Elkhorn banks on higher 
ground. The dam at Steadmantown, since washed out, was 
soon in sight with a vista of Elkhorn at one of its loveliest 
bends. Halting only long enough for a brief glance at the 
winding creek with its rocks and rapids, pools and shallows, 
we drove rapidly to the Forks, the junction of the North and 
and South branches. The little village, nestled by the 
united waters, encloses an unpretending frame structure on 
whose front is painted : ' Buck Run Baptist Church— Organ- 
ized 1818." 
Turning the horses' heads toward the city we soon reacted 
Black's Pond. a_ noted local fishing resort, three miles from 
Frankfort. This pond of fresh water, fed by springs, was 
first sought for its supply of bream or "mongrels" — next, for 
bream and silver perch— and now, the biack bass are disput- 
ing supremacy with the silver perch, the bream scarcely ap- 
pearing. Last season one fisherman took sixty-three bass 
from its waters as the result of a single day's catch. 
Skirting the city, a quick drive of four miles was made 
along the banks of the Kentucky River to the "Old Crow" 
distillery, where the fire water of that famous brand is pro- 
duced. With much persuasion some of the party were in- 
duced, under the seductive wiles of Tom Shy, the genial 
superintendent, to touch an atom of ten-year old, oily and 
fruity, washed down by a glass of cold sulphur water 'flow- 
ing from an artesian well on the premises. 
Harry objected strongly to surrendering his prohibition 
scruples, but when told he could not get the sulphur water 
without the "medicine," he reluctantly yielded, with the 
avowal that he was ever ready to make sacrifice "on the 
altar of his country." 
Returning to the city, a short whisk was made up the 
defiles of Devil's Hollow Pike, where one can readily im- 
agine, from the wild scenery, that he is miles from civiliza- 
tion. Returning, the team was again at the door, at sharp 
noon, -each passenger fully cognizant of an appetite. 
While lunch was being disposed of, and while the party 
were getting into their hunting togs, a change of horses was 
made. 
Some uneasiness was felt as to whether Harry and Ack 
would insist on carrying their "ammunition box" along in 
the wagon— room being at a premium. This fear was 
speedily dissipated when both appeared with belts bristling 
with cartridges and the pockets of their hunting coats ap- 
parently burdened with half the contents of the big 
box. Each was evidently loaded for war — "world with- 
out end." 
On the front seat sat Claude, a skilled colored driver; and 
beside him, in high feather, was Will, another colored 
"gemmau"of darker hue, who was going along to assist in 
packing game. The fresh team sped rapidly along the 
Cedar Run pike, leading southward, and within the hour 
drew up at the gate of Marvin Averill, a hospitable farmer, 
near whose house the rabbits were expected to leave their 
beds for the last time. Stabhng the horses, guns were put 
together, overcoats discarded, and under the guidance of 
Bob Averill, a son of the farmer, the party started for the 
fields. 
It was noticed that both Harry and Ack were solicitous as 
to how the bunt was to be made, who were to go together, 
etc. Evidently each had great respect for the shooting 
qualities of the other. A mile or so between seemed desir- 
able. All tremors of this sort soon vanished in the excite- 
ment cf the hunt. 
Crossing a deep gully severing the sparsely wooded hiU 
slope, the party in irregular line were advancing up the op- 
posite side when a cottontail sprang out from a small 
brush heap in front of Foulds and started for the hilltop. 
His gait was sixty miles an hour, but at the crack of the guii 
he turned several summersaults and lay still, a dead rabbit. 
"Good boy!" shouted Charley Furr. 
It was evident that Foulds could shoot. Hesaid "Fetch!" 
to the colored aid-de-camp with a nonchalance equaling 
Brewer when he makes a difficult double of vvild drivers. 
Before the worm fence at the lop of the hill was reached, 
a second rabbit was frightened from a bunch of wire grass 
in front of the writer. As he scudded away with all canvas 
spread, 1 gave him the right barrel, cylinder, and then the 
left barrel, choke. The dirt flew along the path he was 
travehng. and yet, singulaiiy enough, he never stopped. The 
boys laughed. 
How strange they never understood that my object was to 
badly frighten the rabbit and cause him to come round ao-ain 
to our visiting friends could kill him. Rabbits always come 
back near the place they start from when eluding pursuit, a 
trait 1 have long known. One must utilize his knowledge 
Beyond the rail fence was a long, double hillside, separated 
by a ridge, and grown up in orchard grass, with bunches of 
yellow sage, low bushes, clumps of briars and brush heaps — 
a typical place for mollies. Everywhere in the heavy grass 
were seen their runways and crossings, along which at night 
they sported and courted. 
Furr and Foulds, with Will as beater, followed the slope to 
the right along the line of fence; young Averill took the cen- 
ter, while Hall and the writer, with Claude to carry game, 
bore up the ridge on the left. But a few a; steps were taken 
before the game was afoot. As the line progressed and the 
covers were invaded, the popping of guns was frequent and 
exciting. 
Encountering a brush pile I gave it a kick and a rabbit 
resulted. This time, feeling that the boys did not properly 
understand the higher motives and promptings that should 
actuate one hospitably inclined, I shot to kill. At the in- 
stant the rabbit executed a right angle, and the corner 
being abrupt my shot followed the straight line— on harm- 
less mission bent. A snicker from Claude in the rear em- 
phasized the miss. I glanced at Hall to see if be noticed 
the discrepancy between shot and rabbit. The sly rascal 
was looking straight ahead with a forced smile of commiser- 
ation on his face that seemed to say — plainer than words — 
"I thought somebody said these Frankfort boys could shoot 
—oh my!" Worse still, just then two rabbits bounced out 
in the path ahead of him, and with a neat double he bagged 
them both. 
In my direction matters were getting serious. Unless I 
settled down to business, ceased philosophizing, and went to 
killing rabbits instead of scaring them over to the next farm, 
it wasn't likely that any casual hints I might drop about 
that "ammunition box" would have much weight. Practice 
is better than theory, as was evidenced in such bracing up 
as enabled me to drop the next three rabbits in three shots, 
wiping Ack's eye with the last. He was doing good work, 
too, gathering meat. 
For the next hour, as we beat the bushes and kicked the 
brush heaps, there was fun galore. Rabbits were pattering 
in every direction to escape the pursuer, stirred by gun shots 
andshouts"There hegoes!"— "Look out!"— "bang!" "bang!" 
Here and there one was toppled over, others left scraps of 
white wool on the bushes, some crept off before the hunters 
were in sight, and others still broke covert so close at hand 
that to shoot was cruelty and destruction. When the fence 
was finally reached at the far end, and the game was in- 
spected, it was found we bad bagged thirteen rabbits. 
After a brief rest the party crossed the fence -into a thin 
woodland where heavier patches of briars were encountered 
rendering it more difficult to route the mollies and stili 
harder to make successful shots. Stones were thrown where 
neither hunter nor darkie could penetrate, and as the fleeing 
mollies zigzagged along the tortuous path the shots often 
went wild. Then the scattered trees bad something to do in 
defense of rabbit bacon, as the scarred bark testified. 
In the midst of the briars we met another party of hunters 
with a big bunch of rabbits, and deeming it useless to trace 
their tracks we turned to the left. The woods became open, 
almost bare, and the ground covered with dead leaves. As 
we were descending the slope to reach some thickets, visible 
in the bottom, Charley Furr. on the extreme right of the line, 
started a big brown woods rabbit from the shelter nf a rock! 
The agile animal scudded diagonally down the slope witii 
that ejaculatory motion of the hinder parts that suffgested 
intermittent springs along the backbone. 
"Kill him! kill him!" cried Furr, whilst his own gun re- 
posed peacefully on his left arm, wholly forgotten. 
The rabbit meanwhile was getting a little more electricity 
in his legs, and the pattering of his feet on the dead leaves 
was incessant as April raindrops. Harry, who was next, 
let go a bang harmless as air, and that cotton-tail seemed to 
feel there was "a tide in the affairs of" rabbits as well as 
men that required all the "git up and git" that existed in his 
anatomy. He flattened his ears on his back, gave an extra 
hitch to his white blossom of tail, elongated his body, and 
skimmed the surface in marvelous jumps that surpassed any 
previous record. Just as he seemed to feel a gloating satis- 
faction in his gait Averill threw a load of shot into the 
ground ahead of his nose, when, with reckless audacity or 
aimless fright, he abruptly turned and started up the hill in 
a bee line for Ack Hall. To blunder, head on, into the very 
jaws of death seemed the height of madness. 
Perhaps we ill-judged that rabbit's measure of cunning. 
As Ack saw him coming flippity-flip, he braced his legs, 
cocked both barrels, and prepared to send the poor hare head- 
long to the other world. I could already imagine the grass- 
nibbler turning flip-flaps under the shock of lead in body and 
brain. 
In a few seconds he was in short range. Ack threw up 
his gun, pressed the trigger without sighting— and overshot. 
The leaves flew awful. So upset was he by the miss and the 
evident determination of the rabbit to run him down that 
the other barrel went off of itself, sending the load to cut 
the twigs in the trte-tops. 
The gang were by this time wild with delight, which a 
moment later verged on hysterics as I added two more shots 
in harmless combustion to facilitate that charmed rabbit's 
exit from the field of bloodless battle. Avoiding Ack's 
clubbed gun, he darted safely by and went galloping over 
the ridge toward Cincinnati— not a hair oh his body touched 
nor an eyebrow left behind. 
Leaving the scene of our discomfiture, we hunted the 
thickets in the bottom, adding two more to our stock of rab- 
bits. Furr bagged one and Averill the other. Crossing next 
a cornfield with little cover, we entered a field grown up in 
ragweeds - thin in places— with briars and green creepers 
along the drains. Several mollies were killed in the open 
spots as they ran the paths or crossed from one cover to an- 
other, but the weeds were generally too thick for accurate 
shooting. 
As the sun was now getting low in the west, we circled 
toward the house, making the last hunt on a hill slope dot- 
ted with brush heaps, bunches or' brown sage, and well set 
with clumps of long bluegrass. Harry was first over the 
fence, and first to make a kill, starting a rabbit from the 
fence corner as he leaped to the ground. Ack was next 
fortunate in starting one from a brush pile, but his recent 
narrow escape from being run over by the woods rabbit had 
evidently upset his nerves, for he scored a clean miss. 
"Hold on, dar! Hold on, dar!" ejaculated Will, the 
colored attendant, who was a little in advance on the right 
as he raised one hand warningly toward us, retreating 
slowly, with eyes bulging, and excitement in his every 
movement, "I done cotch dat rabbit, shore!" said he, as he 
backed slowly away from a little tuft of long grass, 'under 
which he had discovered a molhe snugly sitting." 
"Pat rabbit sleep," said he; and as Claude came up he 
angrily added, "Here, you nigger, keep back! You gwine 
spile everything." 
Making a short circuit to get the tuft of grass between him- 
self and the rabbit, he laid aside his bunch of game, dropped 
on his hands and knees, and began a stealthy crawl toward 
his victim. The rabbit, if asleep, was no doubt dreaming of 
courtship or cabbage leaves, and unconscious of the dark 
destiny creeping toward him. 
"Dat fool nigger ain't gwine to cotch dat rabbit," said 
Claude, with evident disgust and distrust; "he's too slow, 
and rabbit ain't sleep nuther. Never saw rabbit sleep 'cept 
wid both eyes open." 
Will, meanwhile, was getting closer to the unsuspecting 
rabbit, stopping occasionally to look around and see if the 
party was keeping back. Scarcely 3ft. separated him from 
the grass tuft, when he slightly raised his body, shoved his 
knees well forward under him, and with a sudden spring 
launched himself forward, while both hands came greedily 
down on the empty bed, as the rabbit, with elusive feet, was 
going down the hillside at ninety miles an hour. 
The crestfallen darkey turned a face towai-d us so full of 
pitiable misery that the whole party burst out with laughter, 
while Claude rolled on the grass in an ecstasy of delight. 
"I know'd it," said he, as soon as he could get his breath; 
"dat nigger better go and ketch a cow. He ain't fit to 
'raetle wid wild animals." 
"Fore de Lawd," dejectedly added Will, who had now 
got on his feet and gathered his bunch of rabbits, "dat ha-are 
jes' too slick— he warn't 'sleep— he des possumin'." 
This incident, with the bagging of one more rabbit on the 
hill slope, closed the day's sport, as the treetops in the West 
were already drawing frescoes on the sun's face. Crossing 
the pasture to the house, we stopped at the gate, and, count- 
ing game, found we had twenty-five plump rabbits as the 
result of the afternoon sport. 
And Henry and Ack had a few shells left. Old Sam. 
Frankfort, Ky., June, 1897. 
GOVERNMENT GAME RESERVES. 
Editor Forest and Btream: 
Having read the comments upon my article advocating 
game preserves under the control of the United States 
Government, I would like to add that although I confined 
myself in that article to discussing means for the protection 
of the birds while on their migrations, I entirely agree with 
Mr S. F. FuUerton in regard to the importance of protecting 
them when on their breeding grounds. Whether this could 
best be at»^ained by a system of reservations would depend 
on the extent to which large numbers of birds are accus- 
tomed to congregate to nest in or about the same place. I 
have heard such places described, and they must be above all 
others the places to be protected. But where the nests are 
scattered over a wide extent of territory protection by such 
means would not be possible. More information about the 
breeding localities of our game birds, and in regard to the 
numbers of birds and eggs which are annually destroyed dur- 
ing the breeding season is very much to be desired, and it is 
to be hoped that the efforts of Foeest and Stkkam to dis- 
cover the truth about the albumen industry will result in a 
great deal of light being thrown upon these matters. 
There can be no doubt, however, that the incessant shoot- 
ing the birds are subjected to during their migrations has 
s<jmething to do with the scarcity of game of this kind. The 
extraordinary exertions which the birds are obliged to make 
to accomplish their journeys make rest and an abundant 
supply of food particularly necessary. They are very often 
too much fatigued to seek food except in such places as will 
furnish it in plenty and in a form easy for them to obtain, 
and to these places they must return again and again in 
spite of the losses caused by the gunners. It is no doubt 
true that under the moat favorable conditions the migrations 
cost the lives of great numbers of birds. In the case of the 
small birds, I have noticed how otten one comes across dead 
birds, which have apparently died from natural causes 
during these seasons. 
I may perhaps be pardoned for repeating once more that I 
would not propose the establishment of Targe reservations, 
but of small ones, perhaps one or two square miles in extent^ 
or sometimes less, in the places where the most destructive 
shooting is done; one man, backed up by proper authority, 
could look after such a preserve and generally have time to 
do something else besides. And, far from thinking that the 
whole country would have to be covered with such preserves, 
I believe that each and every one, rightly located and taken 
care of, would have its effect, though of course the more of 
them the better. 
The best indication of what the State laws can be expected 
to do for the preservation of the migratory birds is what 
they have done in the past and are doing at present. No 
doubt, if the State laws of the present time had existed and 
been enforced for a century past there would now be plenty 
of game, but nothing can be more evident than that they are 
not accomplishing their purpose. They have always been 
behind in the race with the increasing destruction of game; 
they are getting more and more hopelessly behind. Can any 
one believe that public opinion would sanction the passage or 
CO- operate in enforcing laws suflaciently stringent to even 
preserve the amount of game of this kind that still exists? 
Certainly not until it is too late. 
I think, however, that game laws alone will never suflSce 
to preserve the birds. The number of places suitable for 
them is rapidly diminishing, and it is only by means of 
reservations, public or private, that this can be provided 
against. 
From private preserves I think little protection for the 
migratory birds can be expected. Their partridges or 
pheasants will be carefully looked after and the shooting 
limited to what they can stand, but if a duck, snipe or 
plover once gets away he will probably not return, and it is 
only natural that every effort should be made to bag him. 
The great amount of change, making the ponds, streams and 
woodlands less available as game localities, which is going 
on, especially in the thickly inhabited States, but also aU 
over the country, is hard to realize, as it is a gradual process. 
Thousands of marshes have been more or less completely 
drained, and ponds formerly frequented by ducks and other 
water birds are now unsuitable because of the banks being 
cleared and buildings erected on them, the increase in the 
number of boats on the ponds, and the growth of reeds and 
water plants which formerly afforded food and concealment 
for the birds being destroyed by raising the level of the water 
or otherwise. Of course, a great deal of this is the inevitable 
result of the progress of civihzation, but as Mr, C. A. Shriner 
has pointed out, there has been a great deal of useless des- 
truction of the natural features of the country. The O'svners 
of the lands have derived little or no benefit from it, and the 
