May 7, i^.j 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
S67 
'me, aad away AVe went .through tlie 1-am. On reaching 
the meadow we fated the wind and skirted it, George 
taking cne side and I the other, agreeing to meet at a 
point nearl}^ a mile away, where the opening narrowed 
and was not more than ro or 15yds. across, We hap- 
pened to approach it abovit the same time, and as we 
were doing so George jumped a six-point buck, which 
he could not see, and which crossed the narrows and 
ran toward me. It was pretty close before I could see 
it, and as I raised my rifle it stopped and snorted about 
30 or 40yds. away, I put a ball through its heart, and it 
dropped after running about Soyds. George helped me 
to dress it and hang it up, and we went back to 
camp for dinner, agreeing that as tracks were plentiful 
we would return in the afternoon. 
We did so, and Ed, John and Kenneth accompanied 
us. As the wind had fallen, we were able to hunt in 
any direction, and divided, John and Kenneth taking 
the course followed by George and me in the forenoon, 
and George, Ed and I going in the opposite direction. 
The meadow ended a short distance above us, and was 
divided from another by a neck of bush, George again 
did the dog act without seeing a flag. Just as Ed had 
entered the neck of bush we heard something coming 
from George's direction, aiid then a doe appeared run- 
ning about 6o3rds. away across his front; but as he 
heard something behind her he waited, and was re- 
warded by the sight of a veiy large buck with a ten- 
point head, which he thot through the heart, and which 
dropped within looyds. 
On Monday, which was very raw and windy, we 
crossed the river, taking a brace of beagles with us to 
hunt tlie large tract of burnt rocks on the other side. 
The dogs ran deer after deer with no result as far as 
we were concerned, but Johnston, who had got tired 
of hounding without any luck, went off for a still-hunt 
by himself. He had got a mile or two from the rest of 
us, and was traveling against the wind, when he saw a 
very large buck with a twelve-point head standing in 
a guUey about Soyds. away. He tired hurriedly and 
missed clean, but redeemed himself by. following the 
buck up, getting another chance and killing him. There 
was no one to help him to hang up his meat, which he 
managed to do after about an hour's hard work. He 
made plenty of noise, but had gone a very short distance 
from the spot when he saw another buck about a hun- 
dred yards away in a thicket. He fired and the buck' 
appeared to drop, but when Johnston reached the thicket 
he was astonished to find instead of a buck a doe, killed 
by a bullet through her spine. Johnston had seen noth- 
ing but the neck, and was unable to explain the result 
of his shot except by the fact that it was the rutting 
season. 
On the same da}' John shot a doe which walked into 
range on the edge of the "burn," but the dogs had 
nothing to do with it. 
Next morning we took out one dog and made for 
the beaver meadow, where Kenneth had shot his trick. 
The dog ran a fine buck, with an eight-point head, to 
Fred, who shot him through the kindneys, crippling him 
so that the dog caught him in a small water hole in 
the meadow and jumped on his back. Kenneth was 
close by and finished the buck by shooting him through 
the head. 
The dog then took another track and went straight 
away, and nothing was left but a still-hunt. Ed was in 
luck again. He saw a deei", which disappeared .at once. 
He mounted a log and was watching for it when an- 
other one, a large buck with a ten-point head, appeared, 
and he downed it by a shot through the shoulders. Two 
does were also killed, one of them by Kenneth, to whom 
it was scared by some one else as he was on his way 
to camp. As she was very close he put a ball through 
her neck and spoiled no meat. 
I should have killed a hirge buck on the same day 
if I had kept my wits about me; but I was taken by sur- 
prise. In climbing the side of a ridge in a timber slash- 
ing I had to walk over a lot of dry twigs, which cracked 
so loudly that I had no idea of getting close to a deer 
there; but on mounting the ridge I was astonished to 
see the buck about looyds. away, with his head down, 
looking straight at me and ready to jump as soon as 
he could satisfy himself as to what I was. Instead of 
raising my rifle slowly I forgot myself and brought it up 
with a jerk. The buck was under cover in about two 
jumps" and I had only a random shot at his flag and 
another ineffectual one as he crossed a small opening 
further on. He had a tremendous set of antlers, and his 
track corresponded with his big appearance. He went 
into a thick green bush, and though I tracked him for 
a long time and jumped him repeatedly I could never 
see him again. 
We had now thirteen deer, and only one more to get to 
complete the number to which we were limited, two 
each. The next morning was very wet, and I went 
out for a lone still-hunt where I had been on the previous 
day. The rest of the party went to drag out deer, work 
from which I was excused, as I was not yet in good 
condition. I had not gone far before I started a buck 
and a doe together, but I saw nothing but their flags 
and did not get my rifle off. I circled on them several 
times and started them each time, but could not get a 
shot, and finally gave them up. I went further into 
the bush, and as I was picking my way through a swamp 
I saw a large buck about 75yds. away, walking fast and 
evidently tracking a doe. I waited until there M^ere no 
trees intervening, aimed behind his shoulder and fired. 
From the way he plunged I knew I had him, and let him 
go. He disappeared, and when I reached his track I 
could find no blood, but I tracked him abotit lOoyds. and 
found him stone dead, my bullet having gone through 
his heart. He was a beauty, with a particularly 
line ten-point head, heavy and well-matched horns. 
He was too heaA^y for me to hang up, even 
if I could have found a sapling to bend down 
for a spring pole, which I could not in the 
swamp, and I worked a long time dragging him to some 
hard wood and yelling between drags for help. At last 
John and Johnston appeared. They said that the}' were 
two miles away when they heard me, and congratulated 
me on the strength of my lungs, seeing that I was weak 
otherwise. As we were so far from the road and the 
brush was so thick, Ave decided to drag the buck out 
at once, rather than wait to blaze a trail in order to find 
him latef. It waS a weary trip, and- took us two long 
hour?, though Ed turned up to help us when we had 
got about half way, and we were all soaked to the skin. 
This ended our third season at the best place for deer 
hunting that We have ever struck, and next day we had 
our deer and outfit brought out by two teams as far a.s 
the hotel, where We remained over night, and on Friday 
we reached Ah Mic Harbor in time to catch the boat 
for Burk's Falls. On arriving at the latter place and 
having our deer weighed at the express office we found 
that they were even heavier than we had expected. Ed's 
two bucks weighed 215 and 204lbs. respectively, mine 
210 and 140, Johnston's 201, Fred's 180, and Kenneth's 
162. 
I shall add a few remarks about Ontario's game laws 
as far as deer are concerned. They remain as in 1896; 
two deer per man, $2 per license, two shipping tags 
with each license, hounding allowed, but no killing 
in water. Settlers in imorganized townships are allowed 
to get venison at any season for food only. The law 
works well as far as non-resident hunters are concerned; 
but the settlers and shanty men are in most places a law 
unto themselves. Local deputy game wardens do not 
meddle with them to any great extent, and are probably 
afraid to do so. Deer are said to be Idlled in the water 
in many places, and I may say that during our outing 
we repeatedly heard strings of ten or a dozen shots evi- 
dently fired over water, and in localities Avhere we knew 
there were no hunting camps. Deer are killed by set- 
tlers to sell to unsuccessful visiting hunters. This is il- 
legal, and is the cause of a great deal of mend.acity on 
the part of the purchasers in fabricating stories with full 
particulars of the killing of each deer. Non-resident 
deputies should be sent in occasionally to Avatch the 
settlers. 
The prohibition of the killing of deer in water works 
well with the non-resident hunters, who are watched 
very closely, and causes many an old-time canoe hunter 
to go home empty-handed. The result is that there is 
a strong agitation for its repeal. I hope and believe 
that this will be of no avail; but in my opinion, which 
is not confined to myself by any means, the Government 
should prohibit hounding. This Avould stop all killing 
in water, and further would reduce the number of faAvns 
shot. I make the latter assertion on these grounds: I 
have had years of experience in hounding, and the result 
of it is that I believe that the men on the runways get a 
great many more chances at fawns than at full-grown 
deer, because when a buck is run by hounds he circles 
very little, and often goes straight for water; a doe 
circles more than a buck, and a faAvn often hangs around 
one locality almost like a hare. On the other hand, dur- 
ing the rutting season, Avhich is the hunting season in 
Ontario, the bucks move from place to place more than 
the other deer, and give the still-hunter many chances. 
Advocates of a return to the old order of things argue 
that still-hunting is the most destructive of all methods, 
and that it is practically confined to backwoodsmen and 
professionals, as others are unable to practice it on ac- 
count of the danger of losing themselves in the bush. I 
admit that the expert still-hunter can kill more deer than 
any other except the butcher in the canoe, but as the 
law stands he is restricted to two, and while many non- 
residents in the bush dare not leave the roads and trails 
lest they should go astray, this is not the case with all. 
No member of my party, for instance, CA^er sees the bush 
of the North except when he goes there to hunt deer, 
and it includes a schoolboy; but Ave can all strut through 
the wilderness without difficulty, and though Ave have 
made a practice of spending the most of our time on 
ruuAvays we have done the bulk of our killing season 
after season Avithout the help of dogs. The hunter Avho 
must be guided to his stand when the hounds are about 
to be let loose, and led back to .camp Avhen the run is 
over, has no business in the deer forest, and should stay 
at home. No Government should legislate for his spe- 
cial benefit, and I hope ours will not. W. P. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
f 
A Jack Snipe's Nest. 
Chicago, 111., April 30. — We are about at the dead 
center of the season these days. May i is about the last 
day Avhich CA'en the most enthusiastic snipe hunter will 
allow to himself in the spring season. For over a week 
the birds have been pairing in this latitude. Ten days 
ago a gentleman who was shooting on the Kankakee 
marsh found a snipe which Avas sitting on its nest. His 
dog was trailing about, and as the shooter stood still 
he observed the snipe, which he thought to be crippled, 
start from the ground Avithin a yard or so of his feet. 
The bird fluttered away a few yards and then lay upon 
the ground with both Avings outspread, apparently quite 
helpless. Something impelled the shooter to look about 
him, and there at his feet he saw what he had never seen 
before, a nest of genuine jack snipe. There were three 
eggs in the nest, and the finder describes them as being 
surprising to him in their size. They were nearly as 
large as pigeon eggs, but very large at one end and 
tapering rapidly to very small size at the other. In color 
they were blotchy yellow. It is needless to say that the 
shooter did not attempt to injure the mother snipe, Avhich 
finally flew away in regular jack snipe fashion, and not 
in the least crippled. This gentleman says that he never 
had before seen a jack snipe resort to this well-known 
ruse, Avhich is practiced by mother birds of many spe- 
cies. The same friend tells me that in earlier years, 
when he did not put up his gun at the first of May, he 
has found jack snipe in this latitude as early as May 
10, showing well-developed eggs. The birds were very 
fat and offered easy shooting, but since then he has 
made a game law of his own, which he has never vio- 
lated. 
This discoA'ery of the nest of the jack snipe is the 
second of which I haA^e ever heard, although it is well 
known that these birds nest to a certain extent, even in 
these days, over a great portion of Illinois and Indi- 
ana. Earlier in the history of shooting of this region, 
when ducks occupied more attention than snipe in the 
rriinds of the sportsmen, the jack snipe bred in the 
marshes of the middle West miich more than they do 
now." They unquestionably breed to a gre^t extent in 
the marshes of central Wisconsin, and much of the Sep- 
tember snipe shooting on the Winneconne and Horicon 
marshes is on local birds. The bulk of the flight, how- 
ever, passes on into the mysterious North, where the 
main nesting grounds are supposed to be situated. Even 
there, I imagine, this Avisc and secretive little fowl hides 
its nest so skillfully that it is rarely seen by the eye of 
man. It is no Avonder that tradition assigns odd habits 
to certain birds of little known antecedents, such as the 
snipe, the Avoodcock and the rail. Is it perchance true 
that this snipe discovered by my friend upon the Kan- 
kakee marsh was a freak of its kind, and that for the 
most part the jack snipe come up from under the mud 
in the spring after their hibernation, as it is well known 
among many natives is the citstom of the little rail bird? 
After the snipe Ave have nothing until the woodcock, 
that other weird, mysterious creature, shall appear in 
its own occult manner along the tangled streams. This 
bird is the subject of much story in the Eastern States, 
but as I haA'e earlier remarked, it does not cut much 
ice in this neck of the woods, possibly because it is 
most abundant in July, when good men sleep, and in 
light-winged dreams ascend to other places than waist- 
deep bogs Avhere mosquitoes and malaria are more cer- 
tain than the bird with the bulging broAV. If one could 
hunt Avoodcock as my friend does doves down in Ten- 
nessee, with a bucket and sangaree and a fan, it might 
be practicable, but the hard common sense of the Chi- 
cago man usually keeps him out of the slums most 
affected by this paradoxical beast. I say paradoxical, 
because no man hath yet discovered how it is that a 
woodcock can poke around in the uncleanlincss of his 
surroundings and come forth therefrom not only unsul- 
lied, but exceeding sweet. Thus goes on the divine 
poem of nature, by Avhich spring broilers are extracted 
from earthworms and the grasshopper of the field. 
With the woodcock comes the black bass and the 
smiling muscallonge. Thus Ave need wait but a few short 
weeks between courses of our sporting repast;, and the 
toothsome and gamy clay bird we have always with US. 
Audubon Society of Indiana. 
There are few names in American history better 
known than that of Audubon, yet perhaps a great many 
do not know so very much about his personal life. A 
newspaper of Indiana states that he was born ''across the 
river from Evansville, Ind." The State of Indiana this 
week formed an Audubon Society, under the auspices 
of the Indiana Academy of Science, and it is the inten- 
tion that the name of the great bird lover, who knew 
so intimately all the wild creatures of this country, shall 
not be allowed to die in that State. The inauguration of 
this movement appears to have been of exceptional in- 
terest and strength, and among other papers read at the 
initial meeting the folloAA'ing were scheduled: Gov. J. 
A. Mount, on "The Importance of Protecting' the 
Birds;" Amos W. Butler, on "Bird Life in Indiana:" 
D. M. Geeting, on "What Can the Public Schools Do 
for Bird Protection?" W. S. Blatchley, on "Birds in 
Winter;" James Troop, on "Birds and Insects;" Joseph 
Swain, on "Audubon;" Mrs. Martha McKay, on "The 
Relation of the Birds to Man;" George L. Roberts, on 
"Bird Study in the Schools;" C. E. Newlin, "Birds' 
Nests;" "The Boy and the Pigeons," by George S. Cott- 
man; "The Effect of Man's Destruction of the Birds 
upon Himself," Mrs. May Wright Sewall; "Preservation 
of Natural Forest Areas and their Influence on Birds," 
by William Watson Woollen. 
The Passing of Kasfcaskia. 
With approaching senility we are all given to remi- 
niscencing. Not content with the history which is going 
on about us, we want to go back and dig around in the 
history Avhich happened about the time we happened, 
or maybe a leetle earlier. Thus I have for many years 
been much interested in the early history of Illinois, 
about the time of the early fathers. Any one who lived 
in those times, in the past century or the early part of 
this century, must have heard of the town of Kaskaskia, 
Ills. This tOAvn was ' one of the very earliest human 
ganglia of sufficient size to be called a settlement. Its 
early inhabitants Avere mostly French, and many French 
families have remained in that part of the State imtil 
this day. I do not remember at just what date the town 
of Kaskaskia Avas founded, but it Avas before Eddie 
Price came to Illinois, which is a very long time ago, 
for Mr. Price has often told me that he was here before 
they had turned the water into the Kankakee River. In 
the early days, when St. Louis was a fur trading post, 
they used to talk about the "French settlements" up in 
Illinois, meaning by this Kaskaskia and vicinity. But 
as I was about to say, the ancient town of Kaskaskia is 
now approaching its end. A good many of its inhabi- 
tants have left to go to Oklahoma and the Paris Expo- 
sition. The vineyards round about have become' less 
and less fruitful. The river has been washing into the 
streets, so that the scow of the cat-fisherman may now 
pass softly where once the moccasined feet of the voya- 
geur trod. This week the Great Father at Washington 
reached out his hand and took away the post-office from 
Kaskaskia, inasmuch as most of the inhabitants sleep- 
ing on the hillsides of that quiet country are noAV of 
that sort who care not for the printed page, or the in- 
dited messages of loA^e or commerce. Kaskaskia has 
passed away, and with it Avhat a fund of. story. What 
stirring times there must have been in those days of 
real men and real opportunities! To-day Ave fight each 
other all over this country for $9 a month, and feel 
savage if we see another fellow smile. Would it were 
Kaskaskia back again, and that there Avere left alive on 
earth only the men and Avomen who read Forest and 
Stream and love its doctrines! It would again 'be a 
lovely world if Kaskaskia were here. 
Too Bad. 
A current number of a newspaper of Williamsburg, 
Iowa, has the following lament in regard to tlie op- 
pressive game laws enacted by the Iowa Legislature: 
"loAva's new game laws have practically killed 
the sport of hunting. Dealers in sporting goods 
report a great falling off in their sales. No man 
cares to go out for a day's sport and take chances 
on paying a heavy fine or serving a jail sentence by un- 
