310 
FOflEST - AND^STRE AM/ 
tOcrv;3QyI90Oi'' 
fall out in the Yellowstone country, and, Billy Hofer thinks 
thkt this is a good game year for all sorts of game m the 
West. 
Singular Fall Weather. 
This has been a peculiar sort of fall in this part of the 
world, and what Mr. Hofer says is only further mstance 
of- a singular season. It has been very wet all over Wis- 
consin and Minnesota for some time, especially the last 
thirty days/ and at Chicago. we have had a very warm and 
open fall thus far. It is indeed quite like spring, and not 
only have the human beings felt the resemblance to mild 
springtime, but the shrubs and trees have been utterly 
deceived. A great many trees have shed their annual 
coat of leaves, and are now upon the point of puttmg out 
btids for a second crop. In the parks of the, city and in 
the. woods adjoining here the sprouts and buds are well 
advanced on their second growth for the year. We willl 
have all sorts of odd things happen if this warm spell 
holds out. In the woods near here there are said to be 
violets in, bloom, though this is not supported by any direct 
testimony. , ' ' , ' , 
It may be imagined what effect such unusual weather 
is having upon our shooting season. All calculations are 
upset. The jacksnipe are no longer in evidence, and may 
have gone north or south, as one chooses to guess at it. 
The duck flight is not yet at hand in any unrnistakahle 
extent, nor can we do more than guess at the time when 
it may be expected. It is thought that the duek crop is 
better than ordinary, for plenty of water nearly always 
means plenty of ducks, but since the high water has 
extended over a wide part of the Northwest the birds may 
be very widely scattered, and the shooting not so heavy as 
it sometimes is at points which always hapve water -yvhen 
other regions are dry. 
I do not know of any shooting near Chicago this week 
worth mentioning, though I understand that soine of the 
Swan Lake Club members are going down there to-day 
and Monday next, which looks as though there might be a 
tip in from' there. No word has come up to-day from 
Koutts, Ind., saying that it is worth while to try it there 
for jacksnipe, and no reports would .seem to make it a 
cinch for a bag at any of our better known localities. Mr. 
C. H. Willoughby is among those who will try Swan Lake 
this coming week. Mr. Willoughby, by the way. is just 
back froni Ashley, Minn., where he had a very successful 
duck shoot this past week. 
At this writing there is no report of any approaching 
cold wave or storm to the north or northwest of here. 
The Diving of Crippled Docks. 
■■"I believe that the first thing I ever wrote for the good 
old Forest AND Stream dates back to about 1881, and if 
ihy recollection serves it was a description of a trip two 
or three of us boys had recently had in floating down the ■ 
Skunk River of Iowa in the fall, and shooting ducks along 
the ice banks that had formed along the river. It was 
just about Thanksgiving time, but very cold that year." 
We got a good many ducks, and I remember very clearly, 
even to-day, how much trouble we had in getting the 
birds we knocked down unless they were killed stone 
dead. They were sure to dive and hide Under the ice if 
tliey had a bit of vitality left to dive with, and we lost a 
great many birds in that day's shoot. We had only 
muzzleloaders and black powder, of course. I never have 
had just such an experience as we did that day, nor 
ever seen ducks act so strangely. They seemed too cold 
to fly^ and would skulk and hide rather than take wing. 
The ducks we killed were mostly mallards, that species 
being the latest to leave the central part of Iowa in the 
fall, and upon rare occasion lingering around open water 
holes well into the winter time. There was but a little 
open water in the center of the river at the time we made 
this trip. 
I presume every shooter who has very much experience 
has seen ducks strike the water and then mysteriously 
.disappear, never to be seen again. I for one can recall 
many such experiences, though never one so extensive as 
that of the trip down the Skunk River above mentioned. 
Once, I can recollect, when I was a boy, I knocked down 
two mallards that rose out of a little shallow smartweed 
slough ahead of me. They both fell in the water, which 
■was hardly over 18 inches in depth at any point, a:rid which 
was covered partly from view by a growth of weeds that 
stuck up all over the surface. Boylike, I plunged into the 
water, boots and all, not even waiting for the old dog, a 
;yery good retriever, to take his share of the performance. 
But, though both dog and boy did their best for nearly 
• an hour in and around that shallow little slough, we never 
saw hide nor. hair of either of those mallards again, and T 
.had to go home with a story at which everybody scoffed 
except my father, who had perhaps had similar luck him- 
self some day, . ^ ' 
■ A shooter out in Minnesota writes to a local papet of 
"that State this week upon this very subject of the diving 
of. crippled ducks, and what he says is of interest- to 
shooters, many of whom may bring to memory such ex- 
periences as my own when seeing the subject mentioned 
as. it is herein : 
"Le Sueur. Minn., Oct. 9.— It is a well-authenticated 
fact, and known to all ornithologists and' duck hunters, 
that a wounded duck will often dive and apparently not 
come to the surface again, although the place is watched 
■ for hours. In scientific works where this is spoken of it 
■ is accounted for by saying that the duck catches hold of 
..grass or roots under, the water and either drowns or dies 
of its wounds in a few minutes, the death rigor of the 
jaws preventing the body from coming to the surface. 
: This theory is probably correct as regards ducks dying of 
- their wounds ; but .that they, must otherwise drown is 
certainly not correet in all cases, as some weir authenti- 
- pGated - instances .have proven, in the case of spoonbills and 
•sawbins,.good divers, but .it .is not likely thev "p6ssess any 
• marked ability, over all other ^-vvatet fovrls for remaining 
- tinder water. -■• ., . : ': . . .' <: 
-•" -'A sawbiU was wounded and . dove oh being pressed l5y 
the.- dog. ■ After swimming around, for some time the" dog 
took refuse on some rushes nearVby and refused to come 
\Vhen called. The htinter went to dinner and remained 
away at least an hour, and a h^lf, ind on his return found 
•the dog: still on. the watch^. As the d6g.,fnsisted that the 
duck was there, the man made a search' for if.'whifch took 
considerable time, as the moss was thick, with nearly a 
foot of water oypf it, l¥ll«n taken from th? mi^T the 
duck was found to have a broken wiig, but otherwise vvas 
not hurt, and did not appear to be in the least exhausted 
by its long immersion. , .. 
"The second case was on Sept. 24, 1900, and ivas a 
spoonbill. This duck dove on being shot, the hunter wait- 
ing some fifteen minutes for it to come up, then went out 
and found the duck hanging to some moss just Avhere it 
had gone down. It was plainly in • sight, and after 
watching it for a few minutes he pushied it loose, when 
it swam away and was shot on coming to the surface. 
"In each instance the duck was underwater longer than, 
it could hold its breath, which is the ordinary method' of 
water fowl when diving, and it would seem that nature 
had provided them' with .son>e means of living beneath: 
the water for a considerafcle leingth of time, if they re- 
mained perfectly quiet. It is potssible the position they as- 
sume, the body being directly over the head, has some- 
thing to do with it, and it may be their condition ai suchi 
times might be a suspended anitnfation, or what in a persoiv 
would be called a trance state, as they pay no attention 
to a slight disturbance, allowing themselves to be handled. 
It requires considerable effort to loosen them from the 
grass or moss to which thesy are attached." 
It is commonly supposed that the marsh ducks or shal- 
low water ducks — "puddle ducks" they call them in the 
South — cannot dive to any depth in the water, and can- 
not secure food when it comes to going over their heads 
after it. I presume every shooter has seen a flock of 
mallards standing on their heads in the water, tugging at 
roots or other food subrniTged in the water, and from 
seeing this has thought that the birds could not go any 
deeper than their length. This I do not believe to be the 
case. I h^ve earlier by .some years in these columns men 
tioned what I took to be a change of habit in the mallard 
duck in the region of .Puckaway Lake, Wis., where these 
bij-ds were so perseoitted by the gunners that they were 
forced to feed at nighlt or in the open water in the day 
time. It was stated by close observers there that tlie 
mallards could and did drve in 4 feet of water to feed, and 
that they fed in with the bluebills and other deep-water 
ducks. I know that a wounded mallard can dive all right, 
and am disposed to think that a sound one can if it 
wants to. ■ , 1 
T.wo Gons. 
My old friend J. B. H. was a sportsman of the old 
school, and for the betet part of his life used the muzzle- 
loader, both rifle and^ shotgun. When he was fourteen 
years old, back in oM Virginia, his father gave him a 
rifle, a muzzleloading squirrel rifle, such as the riflemen 
of Andrew Jackson used at New Orleans, and such as 
the hunters of America made famous for a century. TJiis 
was a flint-lock rifle- then, long-barreled, small-bored, with 
the wood extended clear out to the muzzle. There is no. 
name of any maker on the gun, which would surprise the 
shooter of to-day. I presume some blacksmith of the 
mountains made this ancient rifle, and surely he made it 
honestly. It was ever a grand arm for close .shooting, and 
many is the rabbit and squirrel I have killed with it- my- 
self, for it was the first gun I- ever shot in my life. When 
the flint lock went out, this old rifle was altered to use 
the "pill percussion" lock. Then it wa's changed again to 
the percussion c^p of later days, such as was used, up to. 
the time breechloaders came in. J. B. H. used this guiii 
all his life, so long as he shot a rifle, and I do not think 
he ever fired a breechloading rifle in his life. He killed 
deer with this little bullet, and even got buffalo with it 
when he crossed the plains in the early '60' s. 
Up to the time J. B. H. was middle aged, he had rather 
a dislike for any man who would use a scatter gun. Then 
he moved from old Virginia out into Iowa, away back in 
1854. Soon after that time he got him a shotgun, and it 
was a singular sort of gun — very good, too, in its day and 
way. I never saw but one other gun like it, and we got 
that also, and so had a pair of them. The barrels were 
stub twist, and the stock was made in one short piece of 
wood, into which a spike or rod extended back from the 
metal cover of the locks. The locks were altogether en- 
cased in this malleable iron cover, lying back of the ham- 
mers, but not let into any part of the woodwork, the fore 
end being but a short piece and fitting back against the 
iron frame of the lock covers. This peculiar build gave 
the gun great strength and durability. It was never out 
of order, and required but little care. Thousands and 
thousands of prairie chickens and quail and ducks and 
snipe and wild turkeys this old gun_ killed in its day. It 
was my. own first tool at wing shooting, and so I came to 
love it. . 
In the cabinet which kept thes'e two old guns— which 
were loved by their master more than his later breech- 
loaders — there was a little black coffee pot, a riveted sheet 
iron coffee pot which was sturdy as the two old guns. It 
would not come to pieces or melt in the fire, or leak or 
get out of humor. This little black coffee pot made the 
trio across the plains along with the old rifle in i860. It 
refreshed its master at many a lonely carao on the Platte, 
the Rawhide, the many little streams along the old wagon 
highway that la<er became the iron way to Denver. 
When J. B. H. laid aside forever the things of this life 
there were left the old rifle, the old shotgun, the old coffee 
not, each as it had been for many years past. By his 
beque-^t they came to me. This week T took them out 
carefully and moed them all off clean, n.nd hung them 
on the wall. I have t>. rifle rack where I keep my, nice 
new !?uns. the modern breechloaders as fhev have come to 
me. from the hea\'y Sharos, up. through the. Winchester 
,4?-70. to the .:?o-30. which was my last ven.ture at tryin.p^ 
to keep uo with the times in rifles. I love all these guns, T 
nresumet and tliere arf modern urn« for coffee, as wf all 
knov; But on the wall, above all the re.st.. sn=nend.ed a'^ 
>arpfullv as T could do it., .hsng the two .old. puns of 
" \ B. H.. and -the- little old coffee not: and.the. old-.tinie 
flasks and nouclres from which- hf u.«edfo ln.3.d his-^rli*i.'^in 
••■♦ii> d*ys gone^ bv. -Jf there is ? fire I think T T^.qw; .what 
■ T shall try "first 'to rescwe of my.ho-usehold.goo^^'s.. . , 
-f'- •. : -i ■■ - • > = ■■ - ..B,. -HouoH. 
TTAnTFORTi BuitDTNG.- Chicago. 111. ' ' 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and. Strea.m. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Eels. 
.Vi?/.. fhf. list -of , ^opd things in W 0 0 dcraft in -r) wr ■ adv, -cols. 
•The' PhUEST.XhfD;. SfRBAM !.<! ,put to prfss eacii week on Tuesdav. 
Correfpordence intended for publication should ' reaeli ^t" the 
l^t?st Monday m<!^ 9« WWh «*r?>fr 81 prBCtica?*!^, 
Possibly on hiore than one previous occasion I have ; 
called attention in tliis column to the fish "law in New- 
York which permits the use of eel pots in waters not" 
inhabited by trout, and urged that the law be amended- 
to legalize the use of eel pots in waters where trout ate 
found, for it is in such waters that eels do most harm by 
destroying trout spawn. The law says that any eel pots 
used in the State (for they are permitted in waters not 
inhabited by trout or lake trout) "must be of a form pre- 
scribed by the Fofest, Fish and Game Commission, and 
it would be perfectly salt to trust this matter entirely 
to. the Commission in all waters. I have urged this 
upon the Commission, and recommended it to the Leg-^ 
islaturc, but the oid exceptions remain in the law because 
some one put them there, and they must not be disturbed, 
though they were conceived in ignorance of the real 
needs of restrictions. To-day my eye caught a reference 
to eels in a recent issue of Land and Water, and I copy 
it, for the writer of the letter has evidently been recom- 
mending action similar to what I have recommended, and 
perhaps failed of a remedy, as I have hitherto failed. 
This is the letter: 
"At this season I would again remind owners of trout 
waters of the importance of taking all possible oppor- 
tuiiities of reducting the numbers of eels in the same. 
Those fishes, so valuable for food, and so highly ap- 
preciated at table, are so terribly destructive to more 
valuable denizens of the waters that they frequent, that 
not .one .s.hould be left to work mischief therein. This 
subject has been so freely mentioned in sporting papers 
in former years that there is no need to enter fully into 
it at the present time. Suffice it then to merely repeat that 
to secure best results in trout and trout culture, eels * 
should on no account be neglected on their descent to 
salt water. Every effort should therefore be taken to 
make use of them for food of man. Let, therefore, every 
means be taken 'in order to reduce the number of eels 
in trout waters.'' 
If any one has an idea that the capture of all the eelS' 
that may be captured in eel pots will decrease the ulti- 
mate supply of eels this idea is entirely erroneous. I 
wrote an article of considerable length in Forest and 
STRE.-V7i[ to show that eels did not breed in fresh water. ' 
and that females only ascended from the sea as elvers. 
When mature they descend again to the sea, and therei 
breed, and again the swarm of elvers go up stream, to - 
spread far and wide and work destruction to trout . 
spawn. The eel has no fasting period in fresh water, 
and spawn of other fishes is never secure from them. 
All the eels that might be taken in eel pots would not\ 
materially diminish the supply, and the eel pots would 
not take troiit in trout waters, as our law makers appear 
to think. We make a certain progress in fishculture, in- 
crease the iiumber df fish propagated by artificial means 
and reduce the cost per thousand of hatching and rear- 
ing, but 6ther things do not keep pace with this prog- 
ress. No doubt that years ago, when the eel pot -law 
was first' enacted, it was honestly believed that it was. 
hot safe to set eel pots in trout waters, but when -ex- 
perience has taught that the eel is a spawn destroyeti, 
why prevent its capture in the-A-ery waters where it ddes 
most harm? If a law is useless, or even a menace to 
cheap food fish, repeal it. More and mOre I am- im- 
pressed with the force of a remark made to me by the 
late Col. Marshall McDonald, when he was U. S. Fish 
Commissioner — or rather it was in a letter, and I regfet 
that I cannot "now quote it verbaitim; but the idea was 
that until one was ready to acknowledge one's errors 
and correct them, one would, never become a successful 
fish breeder ; and this will apply to law makers. 
Decrease of Trout. 
From the same, or another, Land and Water I cut 
a paragraph^ from a letter by that keen observer and 
practical angler Alder, who deplored the decrease of 
trout in a certain lake system: 
"The decrease in the. number of trout can only be ex- 
plained, by overfishing. There is too much legal killing 
of small trout, and one cannot possibly estifnate the 
amount of illegal fishing." ..... 
Solomon in all his glory arid power and wisdom;' never 
said truer than this, I put in the italics, but the words 
are Alder's, and though they were intended to apply to 
English or Scotch lakes, they will apply to nearly all 
the trout waters in North America, and would apply to 
the waters of South .A.merica as well, if they had trout 
there. If it were legal to catch 3-inch trout there are 
thousands who would catch them, and as it is not legal 
they are. now taken illegally, artd of 'the legal trout, 6 
inches, comparatively few are ever returned to the water, 
even by men who' profess to the M. A. degree in 
angling. If every angler co.uld become a salmon fisher- 
man there would then be a show for small trout, because 
some would acquire the habit of returning small trout 
to the water. .-Mder has a more feasible remedy, thougih 
I doubt if it will prove wholly effective until the millen- 
nium, when it is to be hoped that, fishermen will be 
educated to that degree that they will return to the 
water all small trout, whether or n9t they are of legal 
size. . His plan is .'as follows; 
- "Tine .otily way :tl\at I. .can see. to combat the increase 
.•:tv:'the'.fi.timbers.,of trout iciUe.d i.k t'o iiitroduce hatcheries 
■•.•o»-ttje-:l^?es. ' ..l'M.re;.ar^.-fl4o5t-e3fcc^llfejit. siteis. on most of 
•th'e ■- lakes; {^r--§U£li-,;hatcheries,, aH.^^^ the number of small 
:sti^m£ ^Wni'^e into -them- would giH^ an ampler s.iipply 
• of; water :tban ijvoul4 \be, .neces.sary .for operations on a 
-much 'larger i!9cale.^.lth^n, ,15. w;ant.ed ;t9 renew the stock 
ofi trout.'"'';.-.- - . .' .- J ■ J. 
- Alder's , faith is. sQ-tnetHmg- to, adirnre, or they have pet 
ter fiahi laWs in Europe, or th^ Jaw.s are better enforced 
■ than on- this side, of the sea^ if he thinks' a. hatchery on 
f( small scale will renew the stock of trotit. Herfe vy? ?[re 
