248 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 29, igoo. 
Boston and Maine. 
Boston, Sept. 22. — The forest fires are out. 'Over 2 
inches of rain has fallen in the coast towns of Massa- 
chusetts within a week, and the great danger from for- 
est fires is over for the present. This rainfall has ex- 
tended up the coast and well into the interior of Maine, 
and the forest fires, rendered less dangerous by the lighter 
rainfall of two weeks ago, are entirely out for the pres- 
ent. The hunter and guide both breathe easier. The full 
season on Maine deer is open Oct. i, and all can make 
ready with one of the greatest dangers removed. A feel- 
ing of indignation prevails in Plymouth county. A gen- 
tleman, who has lived and summered in Kingston, near 
Plymouth, for two years and is thoroughly conversant 
with that part of the country, said to me yesterday: "I 
wish that we had some of the careful, honest spirit of the 
Maine guides in Plymouth county. I know_ not what is 
to be done. Forest fires are getting to be far too com- 
mon and long prolonged there. Our lives and property 
are endangered every time there is a drought. I am sat- 
isfied that the fires are set. and set with either malicious 
intention or for the sake of the pay to be had for fight- 
ing fires. We paid 50 cents an hour for fire fighting dur- 
ing our late troubles, and then this pay was increased to 
$1 an hour. No sooner than one fire was out when 
another would be started. I believe that the Legislature 
should take up the matter of forest fires. They occur at 
every drought in the cape towns, but could not occur 
but for the carelessness or malicious intent of somebody. 
A commission should be appointed to thoroughly inves- 
tigate the matter. We would gladly welcome the aid of 
the fish and game commission or of hunters." 
The Maine woods will be full of hunters by the morning 
of Oct, I. Already several parties have started, and oth- 
ers are making ready. They will take a few days of late 
September trout fishing and a week or two in October 
for deer shooting. C. E. Sprague, A. Kilgore and F. 
Vaughn, of Boston, with Mr. Kimball, of Fitchburg, 
started for McDonald's camps. Portage Lake, Aroostook 
county, Me., Friday evening. They go via Bangor & 
Aroostook to Stacy ville, and thence sixteen miles by 
buckboards to the lake. Fishing parties, out from the 
same camps, mention seeing nineteen deer in one day. 
The party will be on the ground one week in October. 
Along with the pleasing reports from the hunting 
regions come the unpleasant sights of deer in Boston 
markets. I met a yputh yesterday with a fawn over his 
shoulders. It- looketi as fresh as though just out of the 
woods. He had on a white butcher's frock and was 
carrying the venisbn to a hotel — about the first of the 
season and entirely illegal in the State where killed." I 
asked him where the deer came from and got the usual 
answer: "I d'know." We wonder if this is the begin- 
ning of deer illegally transported and sold here, or will 
the" Maine Commissioners be able to stop it. T com- 
metid this item to their attention and will do all I can 
to aid them. 
Some of the Boston gunners are still after shore birds, 
although the shooting has been unsatisfactory so far. 
The late_ rains and stormy weather should bring better 
fligihts. Parties are at Chatham most of the time, but 
they get only a few birds. O. H. Smith and Mr. Hilton 
will go down to Biddeford Pool for a few days this week 
shore-bird shooting. 
Speci.\l. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Slow Dock Season. 
Chicago, 111., Sept. 21. — Thus far our duck season 
seems to be a little slow. Our chicken season is pretty 
much over, and our quail season is yet to be. Jacksnipe 
have appeared in but very small lots, and plover are none 
too numerous. We are getting down to an Old World 
basis here, and a good bag is something of a nine days' 
wonder. 
Some of our shooters have gone down to thbir. clubs 
this week to have a look into the ducking situation, but 
nothing very startling has turned up. The Tolleston 
members have not found verv many birds in as yet. Mr. 
\V. W. McFarland and Mr. Harry Meine, of the Henne- 
pin Club, on the Illinois River, in quite a distant part 
of the world from Tolleston, rei'jort much the same state 
of aftairs. Each of the latter had eighteen teal to show 
for the trip, which is not so bad for the early flight. The 
teal afe^the first duck to offer 3113' sport at this latitude. 
Oil ttie Kankakee marshes nothing has-appeared in the 
wa_y""6f teal or woodcock to attract much attention, and 
it is feared that this will prove a dull. fall on those his- 
toric groumls. The draining of the big marshes has 
been going along steadily, with more or less success, and 
there is plenty of lo-foot corn standing now on ground 
where once the snipe shooting was excellent. 
The big ditch which was supposed to drain much of the 
old Maksawba marsh has been more or less completed for 
some time, and the Maksawba Club was assessed the tri- 
fling sum of $9,600 as its share of the expense, this being 
one of the luxuries of holding real estate in that county, 
formerly a semi-marine region. The club did not like to 
loosen from quite so much money all at once, and so 
looked up the matter a little in the courts. The attorneys 
discovered from the original county surveys that as the 
ditch is now completed it is 18 feet higher at the upper 
end than it is at the lower. It was respectfully submitted 
that this sort of ditch would not drain the water the 
right way for water to run, which is down bill, and that 
hence the club didn't want the ditch and declined to pay 
its share for it. The suit was fought for some time in the 
courts, a lot of the little farmers who have holdings near 
by joining the club in the fight against the assessment. 
A .short time ago the courts handed down the decision, 
which is that the assessment against the club does not 
hold. The county will have to change ends with that 
ditch somehow or other, and though thts would at first 
appear a little difficult, perhaps it can be contrived. All 
things are possible in Indiana. 
To the north .of us the duck flight is still hanging fire 
as It ts to the south, and indeed we have as yet had no 
weather suffiaently rough to drive the birds down to this 
latitude, Or-t. t is the natural X\m for \\% to g?t th? 
first of the Northern birds, except the early shift of teal, 
which drop down from one*lake to another early in the 
fall, and which breed more numerously than any other 
duck in Illinois and Wisconsin. There is no reason to 
suppose that the fall flight will be any more of a disap- 
pointment than it has been for several years, and indeed 
there are many reasons to expect that it will be much 
better, for the water still holds, and a duck flight is al- 
ways a question of water. The Koshkonong marsh is 
good this fall, and some early birds have been killed 
there. This marsh may always be expected to have a 
certain amount of shooting, since the lake rarely varies 
much from its level. With the big Horicon marsh it is 
different, for it will go almost dry in a very dry year, 
the Rock River, there a very small stream, being prac- 
tically dissipated in the vast area of bogs when the water 
is low in that part of the country. This marsh is a big 
basin, with a lot of drainage area tributary to it, and 
when' the local rains are abundant it fills up, and its 
hardpan bottom, down beneath a dozen feet of the soft- 
est mud on earth, holds the water and supports the 
vegetation which is essential on a good shooting marsh. 
A few years of very dry weather will kill off the water 
plants, however, and a single season or half season of 
water will not be enough to establish a good stand of 
feed again. This fall they are having good sport in the 
old Horicon country, and if the following season shall 
prove as favorable as this we may look for the big breed- 
ing ground to reach much of its former prestige. The 
crop of teal is good there now, though it is not yet time 
for the Northern birds there. 
March of the Qoail. 
There still goes on, more appreciably and distinctly tliis 
season than ever before, that strange march to the north- 
ward of; the Bob White quail. Bob White bids fair to 
be the true exponent of "furthest north" idea. Some 
friends Avho shot chickens in lower Minnesota, near Fair- 
mount, this fall, tell me that they never saw more quail 
than they found in there while they were chicken shoot- 
ing.' A number of Minnesota shooters tell me that the 
email is taking the place of the prairie chicken in their 
shooting calendar, and is further north this fall than 
ever. So runs the tale front Michigan also. A day with 
ruffed grouse , is a great treat, but a day on a piece of 
country where there were both ruffed grouse and ciuail is 
1 double treat, and not to be surpassed in the experiences 
3f the field. As a possible experience, this is getting 
;loser and closer every year for the Northern shooter. 
'\t different times I have told of such shooting in the 
Michigan lower peninsula, and I think I never had bet- 
ter fun than in such mixed shooting on these two great 
game birds. If they had to choose between the two, I 
presume most men would prefer the quail, as it gives 
more action, more shots, more sights at game, but when 
both birds were accessible I noticed that a good many 
of the regular shots would now and again leave the quail 
or slight it and go after the grouse, as affording a bigger 
sensation, if one not so frequent. , 
All over this part of the country we hear continually 
that the quail are everywhere, from here south to the 
Ohio River. A new quail club is forming here in Chi- 
cago, with grounds on the Kankakee country of Indiana, 
of which more later on when the plans are more fully 
matured. There is a meeting of the executive commit- 
tee called for this week. 
The Saginaw Crowd is threatening to go West about 
the first week in October, headed probably for North 
Dakota and after ducks. They are thought to have a 
strong tip on a certain spot, with no less an authority 
behind it than State Warden George E. Bowers, so they 
are hardly apt to be disappointed. Mr. Bowers enjoys 
the personal acquaintance of pretty much every duck 
and goose in North Dakota, and can tell where to go 
if any one can. I suspect the Turtle Lake country, but 
do not know for sure. All the stories from both North 
and South Dakota say there is a lot of water and plenty 
of birds. .•■ " 
No Law. 
It has been .the same old story this fall about the prai- 
rie chickens, of no law of any actual virtue so far as 
stopping the early killing of the birds was concerned. 
Illinois was- about the best State so far as we may guess. 
None could have been much worse than Iowa, if w'e may 
guess again from the personal reports in scattered cases 
such as come to hand. Eddie Pope, who shot in lower 
Minnesota, says that they found lots of birds, but that 
they had been cut up a good deal before the law was 
out. Another Chicago shooter who has a lot of farm 
lands out in Iowa, went out there to shoot, and paid his 
gun license for the privilege of shooting, tie killed forty- 
five chickens in a week, and was very sore. Pie said that ■ 
he found no covey which had not been shot up, and he 
saw a great many crippled birds. Pie learned that the 
shooting began in that neck of woods about the time the 
birds came out of the shell and continued regularly 
through July and August. By the time the legal date 
arrives in that land of unreserve the birds are pretty much 
all harvested, in the opinion of this particular shooter. 
There is no sort of doubt that this is the case over a 
great portion of the West. I do not think it is entirely 
the fault of the market shooters, though they do their 
share, but all sorts and conditions of men who live near 
a chicken country seem to find it impossible to wait till 
the law is out. It is ancient habit, T presume, but what- 
ever it is, it is almighty tough on the birds. 
Michigan Forest, Game and Fish Association. 
They are going to try once more over in Michigan, 
it IS a hard and uphill fight, but they are going to try 
Were not the men at the head of the movement so well 
■known, so able and so accustomed to succeed in what 
they undertake, one might say in croaking mood that it 
IS sure to be the same old story of a good motive, but 
an object too optimistic ever to be attained. The name 
of the new organization which is going to try to stop 
or at least to modify the course of human events as to 
fish and forests is the Michigan Forest, Game and 
Fish Protective Association, and has at its head such 
promment sportsmen and citizens as Watts Humphreys 
W. B, MershoH. Geo. B. Morley, Dr. Chas. W. AWen 
Y. Kmaler, etc,, sorn? of th^ best: men of Michi|an, 
The new Association has its headquarters at Saginaw, 
and the meeting of organization was held Sept. 13 at 
the rooms of the Board of Trade of the latter city, with 
a very full attendance. The officers and committees cho-- 
sen were as follows: President, Watts S. Humphreys; 
First Vice-President,. W. B. Mershon; Second Vice- 
President, John Baird; Secretary, Dr. Charles W. Alden; 
Treasurer, V. Kindler; Executive Committee, John P. 
Sheridan, E. P. Stone, Charles H. Peters, Herman Pis- 
torius, Louis Smith, Charles H. Davis, George B. Mor- 
ley, A. Benjamin Williams, George L. Burrows, Jr.; Ed 
McCarthy; Membership, V. Kindler, Dr. C. W. Alden, 
Louis Smith; Legislation and Enforcement of Laws, John 
Baird, V. Kindler, W. B. Mershon; Auditing, John P. 
Sheridan, George B. Morley, George L. Burrows, Jr..; 
Local Organizations. Herman Pistorius, Charles H. 
Peters, Thomas A. Harvey. 
The purpose is to make this the parent Association, 
with membership all through the State, and when any 
given locality has shown a membership sufficiently large 
to warrant the action, to form a local branch, to be rep- 
resented by delegate to the parent society. The pro- 
tection of the forests is put first in the list of purposes, 
for though most of the men above mentioned are old- 
time lumbermen or are interested in lumbering opera- 
tions, they know the value of the forest through that very 
experience, and know that the forest must be protected 
if the game is to be preserved. The Association will 
hold a considerable weight and will use its influence for 
good and rational legislation. It cannot, of itself, reform 
the whole bad system of our poor laws and slack observ- 
ance of them, but it can do very much in that direction, 
and it is backed by men who are above all things prac- 
tical and not given to talk or to resolutions which do 
not resolve. 
Pearls in the Mississippi. 
Benj. F. Dayton on Sept. 17 found in the Mississippi 
River near Winona, Minn., a pearl which is thought to 
be worth $2,000, or for which he has at least refused a 
very large sum of money, though these big fresh water 
pearls are nearly always overvalued by the finders at 
first. T. J. McNamara. of the same locality, not long 
ago realh' sold a pearl for $200, and this is a far bigger 
and better one. It is thought to be the finest ever found 
in the great Papa of the Waters. This shows the luck 
of some men. I have fished all over that country, but 
no pearl ever came my way. I preferred black bass at 
the time to clams. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, III. 
Sportsman. 
11 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I was struck on reading in the Aug. 11 issue of the 
FoKEST AND Stream the discussion by Ransacker of this 
subject, anent his reply to sundry criticisms of his 
former article on the same theme, by what I may term his 
unique, not to say grotesque, application of Webster's 
definition of the word. I very much doubt if Mr. 
Webster, had he seen this discussion, w^ould have in- 
dorsed the list of forest, field and water vandals whom 
Ransacker names as being properly embraced in his 
definition of a sportsman as "one who pursues the sports 
of the field." And I further question if his assertion 
that this is not a sportsmen's journal, and that the readers 
and friends of Forest and Stream are not and ought not 
to be proud to be known and rated at home and abroad 
■under that general classification of title, meets with any 
general indorsement. Ransacker refers to the term "law- 
yer" in illustration of his point, but does he imagine that 
because some shysters and blackmailers have worked 
themselves into the calling thus classified, any true lawyer 
who honors his profession is any the less proud of his 
vocation, or any less esteemed in the community in 
which he lives and works? He cites also the careless 
usage of the word "gentleman" as illustrating his point.- 
It is very true that the word is sometimes too generally 
used and indifferently applied, but while this is so, it has 
lost none of its original significance, and to say of a man 
in all seriousness that he is a gentleman conveys at once 
the idea that he is also a noble man and a person to tic to. 
I think, though, that part of Ransacker's trouble lies in 
the fact of his having gone too far back for his definition 
of the term "sportsman." Turning to the new Standard 
Dictionarj', I find this definition: "A person who is fond 
of, patronizes or participates in honorable field sports, 
especially hunting and fishing." Ah! here we have an- 
entirely different ring. This is the modern interpreta- 
tion of the term. There is no calling or pastime of raarr 
more truly and genuinely progressive than that of sports- 
manship. Webster's definition was well enough , in his 
time. Game of all kinds was abundant then ; men had not 
awakened to a realization of the necessity of conservation 
and protection. Even the trapper and snarer mJght per- 
haps then have been accepted as a sportsman, because the 
pernicious nature of his work, had not yet impressed il 
self upon the public mind. But surely no reasonabU- 
person will claim to-day that there is any more sports- 
manship in the fellow who takes game or fish that come 
to his hand dead through snares that work in the night 
than in the butcher of domestic animals who sells us bull 
tenderloin as first-class beef at 15 cents a pound. The 
pot-hunter, market-shooter and men of their ilk may 
yaunt themselves as sportsmen, but they deceive no one 
as to their true standing. They do not read Forest and 
Stream, and this paper does not represent them in any 
way except as it holds them up to the public scorn which 
they so richly deserve. 
Let us not, therefore, despise nor consider for one 
moment any departure from the term of which we have 
been taught for generations to be proud. 
The man who participates in honorable field sports. 
There it is in epigram; and he who follows field sports 
of any class whatsoever that are not honorable, is by this 
definition not a sportsman. Any way, he is unworthy our; 
serious attention, and we exalt him too much in giving 
him such consideration. 
Just as the gentleman is an honorable man. so the 
sportsman mast be an advocate and follower of honor- 
abl<? sport, «id of pone else.. "When tw goes b^o?^4 
