446 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tJuNfe 4, 1^98. 
We got supper, a real good one, and theft started to 
make a sleigh. I took the shelves from the kitchen to 
make the rimners, and Volant cut a couple of white 
birches, which he split and chopped into two lathes 
about 9ft. long by 3Xj4in., and bent to suit the runners. 
We soon had a very fair sleigh by connecting them with 
bars driven into auger holes. 
The next morning it was decided that- Frank and 
Volant should take the guns and make a try down the 
portage to look up tracks, while Spearing and I should 
go up for our deer, about two miles. We found it no 
easy task to haul it back to the portage. About ro A. M, 
we suddenly decided to go home. Leaving the deer 
on the ice, we returned to camp, and making up small 
packs each went back to the lake, where we found Frank 
and Volant, who reported no luck. Judge of our sur- 
prise when Volant told us to go on, he intended bringing 
out the caribou himself. We found at the station that 
it weighed i7olbs., and he weighed 120. Bring it out 
he did, up hill and down dale, till he struck the lumber 
road, where it lay till a horse was sent back for it. It 
was a long, hea^-y tramp coming out, after having the 
tramp up the lake, as it is over twelve miles by the 
lumber road to Frank's, and as we did not find the horses 
there we had to continue on. Spearmg and Frank got 
home about 7 P. M. I was later coming down than 
they, and when at about 6 o'clock I heard voices off in 
the woods, I knew there was a lumber camp there. I 
very sagaciously turned on the road and crossed over to 
it, and found the men just gathered in from the woods. 
As I appeared at the door and saluted in French, a 
clever-looking man appeared from the back and took my 
snowshoes and rifle and bade me welcome, at the same 
time removing my wet clothing and cap, and making 
a place on the drying rods hung them near the stove. 
He invited me to a special seat, and ordered the cook to 
set up rations of strong tea, pork and beans, camp-made 
bread, etc. Perhaps it was not welcome when used with 
the sauce I had picked up in my eight-mile walk. Then 
he made up his bunk and invited me to lie there till 
the horse should come up. Now it requires contrast 
to enable one to appreciate comfort, and I had had experi- 
ence that made me fully appreciate the comforts at that 
camp, with its kindly occupants. 
After the men, twenty-eight in number, had finished 
their supper, a signal was given by the foreman, and all 
hands knelt while prayers were recited, all joining in 
the responses. After this each one was at liberty. Some 
played games, cards, etc.; others repaired harness, made 
axe handles or spun yarns. About 9 P. M. the horse 
arrived with the caribou. Before starting the foreman 
dressed me in his warm, dry overcoat, as I had only a 
summer coat on, and away we went on a cold, windy 
drive, and got to Frank's all right, had supper and to 
bed till 12:30, when we drove down to the station and 
got the 6 A. M. train, and home in good order. Now 
talk about sentiment, really the lumber camp experience 
was very pleasant, with its kindly, disinterested atten- 
tions, and will always make a pleasant memory. About 
thirty of my friends had a share of the delicious veni- 
son, and I wish I could have sent you a steak; it was 
equal to small trout. I am having the head mounted 
and the skin dressed to make a hunting jacket, and I 
hope some day to have the pleasure of wearing it in 
your company. R. Sampson. 
Duck Shooting above Niagara Falls. 
Editor Forest and Sir earn: 
I received a letter recently from Mr. James Savage, of 
Bufifalo, containing two photographs of a duck shooting- 
party on Niagara River, within three-fourths of a mile 
above the falls and a quarter of a mile from the Amer- 
ican shore. 
After asking a number of questions on natural his- 
tory subjects about which he was desirous of obtaining 
information, Mr. S. said: 
"But I must stop plying you with questions, and tell 
you about my February duck shooting trip. Ed. R. 
went down to the falls on Friday night to be sure about 
the arrangements. He learned that another party in- 
tended to shoot from the blind we expected to use, so 
he and Neilson slept in the boathouse and were off long 
before daylight the next morning. 
"My train was an hour late, and I did not get there un- 
til 8 o'clock. I found the boathouse near the entrance 
to the power canal and a note on the door telling me to 
shoot my gun off and Neilson would come in for me. 
It was snowing hard, and as I stood on the pier at the 
entrance to the canal I was undecided whether I wanted 
to venture out or not. But presently I saw the flash of 
guns away out in the river, and after listening to the 
banging for a few minutes I thought I'd try it. My 
signal was answered and in half an hour Neilson reached 
shore and was ready to take me out. I had every con- 
fidence in his knowledge of the river and ability as a 
boatman, or I should not have gone. We rowed straight 
out from the canal 500 or 6ooft., and then headed down 
stream straight for the falls. I shall not attempt to 
describe my feelings as we shot down a couple of short 
stretches of rapids. Presently we swung off into an eddy, 
and a pull of looyds. brought us over to where Ed was 
waiting in the blind. . , , ^ 
''While Ed and Neilson were disposmg of the boat, a 
flock of fifteen or twenty ducks flew by at 25yds. _ I 
picked up Ed's gun and pulled, but the blamed thing 
would not go off. It was a hammerless and was at safe; 
and when I got fixed the ducks were out of range. 
"When I became thoroughly acquainted with the 
conditions and realized that I had taken greater risks 
hundreds of times in more famihar surroundings, I fully 
enjoyed the novelty of the situation in spite of the dis- 
agreeable weather. 
"From the maps I estimated by scaling that our blind 
was from i,oooft. to a quarter of a mile from the Amer- 
ican shore, and less than 4.Sooft. from the brink of the 
American Falls; Neilson said he thought it a little over 
half a mile from the falls. ^ ^ u t u a 
"We were on the lower edge of a field of anchored 
ice The water here is only 3 or 4ft. deep. The ice serves 
as a dam diverting the water in swift currents to either 
side and'giving us an area of still water below. 
"I had my camera, but did not get very good results, 
as pictures were over exposed. Wanted to get pictures 
of ducks coming in, but whenever that happened I 
somehow forgot about the camera and picked up my gun. 
It was a poor day for ducks; we got only eight. There 
were hundreds about, but they would not decoy. The 
day before Neilson had got fourteen, and another man 
shot thirty-three alone. Neilson is a great boatman, and 
is said to have landed jdai Goat Xsland 011 -^n^'. occasion 
years ago." 
I was invited to. be 6 He of Uiis duck shooting party, but 
politely asked to be excused. 
Some thirty odd years ago, when I was in the wool 
business, a man on Grand Island wrote me that he 
would like to have me come up and buy his wool. He 
said that I could row across from Tonawanda in a small 
boat. I kindly wrote him that if he waited for me to row 
across Niagara River to buy his wool he would never 
sell it. A few days after he brought it to me and I 
bought it. 
Last June, in company with Mr. Savage and another 
party, I rowed a boat across from La Salle to the 
lower end of Buckhorn Island, two miles above the 
falls, and found it no more dangerous than on the Erie 
Canal. J. L. DavisoN. 
LOCKPORT, N. y. 
In Chickamauga Gulch. 
Chattanooga, Tenn. — It was on an October afternoon 
that we left Chattanooga, on the Cincinnati Southern 
Railwajr, for Daisy, Tenn., whence we made our way up 
Waldens Ridge, and after traversing about two miles 
of rough mountain road we reached the home of an old 
friend of mine, J. N. Milsaps. After greetings Mr. Mil- 
saps, better known to the neighbors as "Pap," pulled 
down his eye-glasses, saying: "Well, George, come right 
in. I know what you have come for," and he added, act- 
dressing his wife, "mamma, George has not had any 
supper; see if you can get something for him." After 
a few minutes she announced supper, and we sat down 
to venison, corn bread and coffee, and you can imagine 
how good that tasted to two hungry men. During the 
meal I inquired after the health of the old lady, and this 
was her response: "Well, you know all the gals got 
married, and the work is too much fur me, and I am git- 
tin' old." After supper Mr. Milsaps said: "George, I 
am afeard I can't go; my rheumatism has made me so 
stiff I can't hardb'^ get about. But I insisted that we 
would not haA'e any luck unless he went, so he finally 
consented. By this time it was getting near time to re- 
tire, so calling for his Bible, the old man read a chapter 
and then we all kneeled in prayer, after which we retired. 
At 4 o'clock we were called to breakfast, and immediate- 
ly after breakfast all were anxious to get off. 
We put off to what is known as Chickamauga Gulch, 
about eight miles north. Not a sign of anything alive 
did we see until about t o'clock, when we started up a 
flock of wild turkeys; I judge there were about thirty; 
but the dogs having frightened them, we failed to get a 
shot. We were hungry, tired, mad, and ten miles from 
home. "Daddy, I am hungry." "Well, Snyder lives two 
miles from here, and we will go and see if we can get 
something to eat. We found a dinner which tasted good 
to men who had not had a bite since 4 o'clock that 
morning. This is what we had: A pot full of turnips and 
greens, fat meat and corn bread baked in an old-fashioned 
Dutch oven, sweet potatoes and coffee, which was good 
enough for any lot of hunters. I offered to pay for 
what we had eaten, but Mrs. Snyder refused to accept 
anything, and became oft'ended because we wanted to 
pay for what we had eaten. I, of course, apologized and 
was told that one must not offer to pay for what is 
eaten, if you want to keep the people in favor witli you, 
SQ I gave each of the children twenty-five cents, and 
it was worth a dollar to see them ; I guess it was the first 
money they had ever had of their own. 
By this time we were ready to start on our bear 
hunt, and this is where the fun comes in. Mr. Snyder 
said to Mr. M.: "We uns will take that old dog and go 
down in the gulch, and maybe we can start a bear. 
George, you and Mr. B. go down the gidch." Not a 
half hour had passed when the dog struck the trail of 1 
know not what, but I thought it must be something 
more than a deer in such a place; the laurel and wild ivy 
was so thick that a deer could not run, and if it did it 
would soon break its neck. After a while I came to some 
flat rock on the bank of the creek, and the dog was not 
more than 200yds. in front of nv- yelping at every jumn. 
I saw on this flat rock two long flat tracks that made me 
think hard. The first sound of anything for one hour and 
a half was at last the report of Mr. B.'s gun. I answered, 
and when I got to him it was down in the gulch where 
you had to look straight up to see the sky. "George, 
we must get out of this place before dark." So we then 
pushed ahead to meet Daddy. The dog lost the trail, and 
I was glad that he did; the bluff was so rough that we 
could not travel fast. After a while we heard the re- 
port of Daddy's gun, and presently we came to him 
and found that he had killed a bear. He took us to it, 
lying on the bank of a small creek in a deep gulch. Now 
the tug of war was how to get the bear out, for all of 
us were almost tired out, and it was four miles to where 
we got dinner, and twelve miles from home. ^ 
How the bear was killed may be told in the old man s 
own words: "You know I told you I would go and 
try if I could get one of the turkeys that we had seen? 
I got to the spot and sat down, had just picked a leaf 
to make a turkey call, and had given one yelp, when I 
heard something coming to my right. I was afraid to 
move for fear it would turn it, and I would fail to get a 
shot at it. I held the fire until he got in front of me, 
when I sprang to my feet. Being so excited I pulled the 
trigger of my rifle barrel, then I thought of my shot- 
gun barrel- loaded with large shot, and as he started to 
change his direction I fired at his left side, and I think 
he must have turned fully two somersaults. He got up 
and I put the dog after him, and he finally dropped here 
where you see him. But boys, there is a storm coming 
up and we must get out of here." 
So we dressed the bear, lea\ing the skin on the car- 
cass, and got a pole, and it required the combined effort 
of all three of us to carry the game. The hill was three- 
fourths of a mile to the top from where we were,^ night 
had overtaken us, and the rain had commenced to fall. 
After a- long tiresome tramp we reached the house, and 
had hardly gotten in when it began to pour in perfect 
torrents. We found that the people had no meat in the 
house, but we supplied that want in a very few minutes 
with a portion of the bear; this the good lady cooked for 
us. After the meal we retired for the night, but I was 
so worn out that I could not eat any .supper, neither did 
I sleep any that night. 
The next morning We arranged with Snyder to hatil 
our meat twelve miles to the railroad for one-fourth of 
the bear. We gave Mr. Milsaps one-quarter of the meat, 
and after two hard days' work reached home with one- 
fourth of a bear each, and having had a large time. 
George W. McGorklb. 
High Island. 
Jan. 9 found the following jolly party of sportsnlen 
ready for a trip to the gulf coast of Texas: Mayor J. A. 
Woodson, L. W. Cherry, John M. Pemberton, J. W. Ir- 
win, Nat. Williams, George M. Heard, J. W. Blackwood, 
James Keatts, Dr. J. H. Lenow, Dr. G. M. D. Cantrell, 
Col. Ben. W. Johnson, June Ingram (the champion tar- 
pon catcher), and Nick Trulock. They were poined by 
Messrs. Ward, Clark and Taylor, of Hope. 
- At Lake Charles, La., some of our party would have 
been glad to stop off, as the duck shooting near this 
point is very good; but the desire to get among those^ 
millions of ducks and geese and snipe on the coasF- 
was too strong and we concluded to go on. Arriving 
at Beaumont we found a special waiting to take us to 
High Island, forty-five miles distant. Our trip over was 
specially enjoyable. As we approached the gulf we saw 
thousands of ducks along the railroad, and every man in 
the party was anxious for a try at them. The distance 
prevented us reaching them that day, but we paid theitx 
our compliments later on. We arrived at High Island 
at noon, where the manager of the Sea View Hotel met 
us at the depot. The hotel stands on an island in this 
great salt marsh, 45ft, above the sea level, and is a very 
popular summer resort, kept open in winter for sports- 
men. 
After dinner we divided up and started out for the 
first taste of shooting. Some went in wagons, others 
horseback, and the remaining few put in the afternoon 
shooting snipe within 200yds. of the hotel. Here Pember- 
ton, Keatts and I took saddle horses and started off 
down the beach to Mud Lake, a distance of four miles. 
En route we met riding along the beach four market 
shooters; one among them had tied to his saddle some- 
thing like a hundred ducks, the result of about four 
hours' shooting that morning down the marsh some eight 
miles. We reached Mud Lake in about an hour's ride, 
passing thousands of snow geese and brant and geese 
feeding in the open marsh. 
We found Mud Lake a big open body of water which 
Avas covered with ducks of many varieties, but our only 
shooting was had by stirring them up and catching one 
now and then as thej' flew around, so that our bag that 
evening amounted to less than twenty-five ducks. Be- 
ing fair shots we wanted to get into that market hunt- 
ers' country, and upon our arrival at the hotel that night 
engaged a guide to tal<e us down early the next morning. 
The remainder of the party came in with more or less 
success. No big bags, however. 
The next morning bright and early (4 A. M.) found 
Pemberton, Keatts and the guide in the saddle and Nat. 
Williams and the writer in a buckboard bound for the 
market hunters' paradise. All went well with Nat. arjd 
myself as we drove along the beautiful beach; but when 
it came time to drive in to the marsh with the buck- 
board, we could not make it. The guide directed us as 
best he could to some open holes, and he and Pember- 
ton and Keatts rode off in the darkness. Nat. and I 
started in, working our way into the marsh, but soon 
found the market hunter in ahead of us; and we had to 
make the best of it and take such shooting as came our 
way. This was not satisfactory, and we could see the 
ducks flock after flock go to the decoys of the market 
hunter, as they passed over the open water holes we 
were trying to find before daylight. Away off in the dis- 
tance we could hear the steady firing of our companions 
and we knew that they were having better shooting 
further down. 
After bagging a few ducks we wearily dragged our- 
selves to our decoys and back to the buckboard to await 
the return of the party. After an hour or two they came 
with fine strings of ducks hung to their saddles, and we 
rode home to dinner. 
I had inquired of the guides about the mallards, and 
was told that they had left that country six weeks be- 
fore, but I thought the ducks I had seen from the train 
were mallards, and I was anxious to go after them. I 
soon learned that they were in White's pasture, seven 
miles back from the coast; and after much effort I en- 
gaged a guide to take us to the ground. The next 
morning by daylight Pemberton, Keatts and myself, 
with our coats holding ten decoys each, were off for 
some mallard shooting. After a hard, muddy ride we 
crossed the creek running out of Mud Lake and into 
the fresh-water marsh beyond, and soon mallards begun 
getting up everywhere out of the high grass and sailed 
away without a shot. 
As soon as it was daylight we could see them pitching 
into the fresh-water ponds scattered over the vast marsh. 
Riding up to one of these ponds, not over 50ft. square, 
it seemed to me that 10,000 mallards and sprigs would 
take wing. In fact, the sky was filled with flying mal- 
lards; but we found them going further back all the 
time. Not a shot had been fired as yet, but we came at 
last to a place that we thought would do, and after plac- 
ing our decoys and making the best blinds we could, we 
began shooting, and by the use of my duck call and the 
decoys we had some excellent shooting at this place and 
bagged some thirty-eight big, fat mallards. 
We were elated to find a country that was undisturbed 
by the market hunters, for they did not know there were 
any mallards in that section.. 
We rode home and arranged to try it the next morn- 
ing, dividing our party up; but a norther came on that 
night and the birds were scarcer and would not decoy 
nor come to the call readily, so that -we contented our- 
selves with twenty-one more green heads. When too 
late we learned that the tank where the cattle drank was 
the objective point of this great flight of mallards, where 
they were wont to rest and play in mid-day. _ 
On our way to the hotel that morning we toimd that 
