146 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
lost my footing and there was a mix up. The snow was 
about 8 inches deep, and the deer sUd like a toboggan; 
over me she went,, I rolling and grabbing; finally I 
anchored and the deer went on for a long way. So we 
kept going till we reached almost snow line and also the 
edge of green timber, full a mile below, and in a very few 
minutes. Bruised and.. sweating, I called a halt for re- 
pairs, but not long. The storm was raging all around 
rne, and the timber was crashing and booming. I hur- 
riedly skinned out the hams, slipped into my pack harness 
and lit out for home as fast as the roughness of the place 
would permit, stopping occasionally behind some .secure 
looking tree fo let an unusually hard blast pass by. By 
2 o'clock I was home, tired, bruised, sore and scared, but 
happy. 
The next day it rained and stormed, but Wednesday 
morning I returned and brought home the remainder of 
my deer, and had all I could tote. We are now enjoying 
venison steaks, roasts, boils, stews, etc., and I am willing 
to try again. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST, 
Illinois Game Laws. 
Chicago, 111., Feb. 14.— Last week I mentioned some- 
thing about proposed changes in the Illinois game law, 
and it would seem that the fight at Springfield on these 
matters is waxing hotter as the months go by. There 
seems to be a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the 
Lyon bill both among the strict protectionists and among 
those who wish to see spring shooting abolished. 
In all this fight to secure intelligent legislature for the 
protection of onr wildfowl the Monmouth Gun Club has 
time out of mind led the legions who have been in favor 
of keeping up the ruinous policy of spring shooting. Fred 
Allen, one of the best known shooters of lower Illinois 
and the prince among good fellows, has been the leader 
of the Monmouth Gun Club. I wish that he might have a 
change of heart and might see that this attitude of him- 
stH and friends is a sectional and selfish one. In order to 
secure a little shooting for themselves in the spring, they 
wish to hold this State to a policy which is damaging 
to the great majority of the .shooters. Now, Fred Allen 
and his friends are all old enough to say they have had 
their share of fun. Let us have rotation in office and 
give the other fellows a chance. 
Spring Shooting in Nebraska. 
Mr. Henry Mayer, of Grand Island, Neb., writes the 
following letter about matters in his part of the world : 
"Our lawmakers in Lincoln endeavor to introduce and 
pass a law against spring shooting, to which our sports- 
men are opposed, for the simple reason that in spring, 
when the geese and ducks pass over our country, we have 
the only chance to shoot the birds, as in the fall they 
never stop with us here, but pass over us, generally of 
nights, and a mile high, going south. Twenty years ago 
we had fine fall shooting here, but tempora mutantur, and 
also the tactics of J;he geese and ducks," 
This Nebraska attitude on spring shooting is precisely 
that of our friends in the Monmouth Gun Club and of 
our Michigan friends who are standing out for the deep- 
water shooting on Lake St. Clair and other waters. It 
is sectional and, I regret to say, selfish. Now if all our 
Western States should 'abolish spring shooting it would 
be as fair to one man as another. We would certainly 
have more ducks at one place or another in the fall, and 
I am sure that some of these ducks would stop within 
reach of our friends in Nebraska, in Michigan, _ or in 
Illinois. The time when we can have shooting in our 
own dooryard is passing away. We all of us, whether 
of Illinois, Michigan or Nebraska, have got to count on 
traveling a little bit to get to those less settled regions 
which remain fit for feeding grounds for the fowl. It 
seems to me that, since non-resident shooting is to be a 
necessity for much of our population, a non-resident 
license law will some day come to sit pretty heavily on 
the average American shooter, yet he rnust simply accept 
this as a part of a greater expense, which is inevitable in 
securing sport in these days, and charge up his license 
just as he does his railroad fare. Every man in Nebraska 
votes for his local mayor, or constable, or coroner, officers 
who have to do with his immediate vicinity. Very good. 
But does he not also vote for a President of the United 
States, and is not the latter officer supposed to be useful 
to all the people of the whole country? It is the same 
way in these matters of game protection. We ought to 
look further than our own dooryard in finding the ap- 
plication of a protective measure. For the men of 
Nebraska, Monmouth or Michigan to say that they wapt 
spring shooting in their localities because otherwise they 
will not get any shooting, is simply to say they think the 
constable is a big enough officer for them, that they do 
not need a President of the United States, and that their 
neck of the woods is the whole country. Now, this argu- 
ment about spring shooting sometimes gets very bitter. I 
should not like to add anything to its bitterness, but I 
do submit to any old sportsman, such as I am sure Mr. 
Mayer is, that under our present code of game laws our 
game is disappearing just about as fast as it can. The 
only wdij to restore it is to mitigate the unceasing re- 
lentles.sness with which it is pursued. It is thought by 
very many that the best way to do some of this mitigating 
is to stop killing ducks in the mating season. 
A Carload of Quail. 
Nebraska and Missouri remain the only two States 
which allow game to be shipped, yet it is pleasant to be 
able to say for Nebraska that she now and then takes a 
fall out of the game dealer. Mr. Mayer incloses the 
following description of the way a big Chicago provision 
house got into trouble : 
Lincoln, Feb. 7. — Through B. C. Eldridge, of South 
Omaha, the Armour Packing Company yesterday pleaded 
guilty in Justice Green's court to the charge of violating 
■ the State game laws. A carload of quail was found in the 
.company's possession last week, and proceedings were 
/begtjn by local members of the Fish and Game Protection 
,.A,ssqciation. On the plea of guilty the company was 
l^,Bed $560, which was paid promptly. 
The Reporter a.nd the Lions. 
Mr. M. S. Taliaferro, of Watseka, 111, has the follow- 
ing to say about some of the newspaper stories which 
have been coming out of Colorado in regard to Governor 
Roo.sevelt and party: 
"To one who has lived in the West these reports are 
amusing. In all my eleven years as a resident of New 
Mexico 1 never knew of a sportsman hunting the moun- 
tain lion. Occasionally you hear of one being killed, but 
only because it happens to be in the way. They never 
hunt for them. The so-called mountain lion is the worst 
kind of a coward, and I have known them to make no 
resistance even when cornered. I know of one case, near 
White Oaks, Lincoln count)', N. M., where John Owens 
and his son, a boy about twelve, were hutiting horses 
and came across a mountain lion, which they treed. They 
had no gun or other weapon with them — nothing but a 
lariat, which they intended to rope their horses with. 
After the lion ran iip the tree, Owens, Sr., climbed up 
after it. roped it, threw the rope over a limb, pulled the 
lion out and hanged him. Not very much fight in that 
lion, was there?'' 
Prairie Chickens in Illinois. 
Mr. A. W. Russell, of Wheaton, 111., send^ the follow- 
ing note regarding a bunch of Illinois chickens, which he 
has discovered within twenty miles of Chicago: "While 
riding yesterday two miles south of Wheaton. I met a 
bunch of eighty-one prairie chickens back of a barnyard. 
They were tame and in fine condition, and I was told 
by the farmer that they came over everj^ morning, and 
had their roost in a small grove half a mile from his 
barn." 
ih^S an Francisco Fly-Ca^ting Club Expels Mr. Lovett«^II3 
The end of a very bitter and unpleasant factional fight 
in the San Francisco Fly-Cast:ng Club is announced in 
the following dispatch, which is printed in the Record of 
this city: 
San Francisco, Cal., Feb. 13. — For "conduct unbe- 
coming a gentleman and clubman" Alvah E. Lovett was 
expelled last night from the San Francisco Fly-Casting 
Club. The trouble grew out of the national fly-casting 
tournament in Chicago last August, when Lovett was a 
representative of the San Francisco Club. He was ac- 
cused of tampering with the lines of W. D. Mansfield, 
president of the club, who was thereb>r rendered unable 
to enter the contests. Lovett was his rival. 
Unpleasantness developed between these two geiitle- 
men during their presence at the tournament of the 
Chicago Fly-Casting Club here last summer, and since 
then each gentleman has applied to members of the 
Chicago Fly-Casting Club with letters asking for evi- 
dence on the one side or the other. 
Chicago Fly-Casting Club. 
The annual meeting of the Chicago Fly-Casting Club 
was held at the Monroe restaurant on the evening of Feb. 
II, following the annual banquet. The following officers 
were elected for the ensuing year : President, W. T. 
Church; Vice-President, H. G. Hascall; Secretari'-Treas- 
urer, N. C. Heston ; Captain, A. C. Smith ; member of Ex- 
ecutive Committee, H. Wheeler Perce. There were thirty 
members present, and the usual enjoyable time was ex- 
perienced. Dr. Armstrong told his usual merry stories, 
Mr. B. H. Bradley described his bass fishing trips on the 
Kankakee, Mr. Leonard Goodwin pulled oflf a series of 
fish stories and the new president, Mr. Church, made a 
general talk in very agreeable fashion, 
Illinois Fish Exhibit. 
Dr. S. P. Bartlett, of the Illinois State Fish Commis- 
sion, is in Chicago for the purpose of arranging the 
aquaria for the exposition of the International Forest, 
Fish and Game Association, which begins on Feb. 27. 
Dr. Bartlett is as hale and hearty as he was fifty years 
ago, and is as much to-day a friend to the carp as he ever 
was. I asked him if he intended giving a generous ex- 
hibit of carp at the show, and he said he knew no reason 
-why that noble creature should not have a full representa- 
tion. 
"The trouble with you fellows is, you don't under- 
stand the carp," said Dr. Bartlett, "He is just as good a 
fish to eat as any other fish, if you know how to cook 
him. Of course, you can't broil or fry or bake or boil a 
carp. You have got to know how to cook him right. 
.Now, you don't like to eat a raw cucumber, do you? 
Yet if you take the same cucumber and make it a vehicle 
for certain sauces and condiments, -you find that the 
cucumber is very good indeed. It is the same way with 
the carp." 
I suggested to Dr. Bartlett that perhaps the time of 
the Illinois State Fish Commission might be very well 
spent in planting cucumbers and not carp, but he seemed 
to think that this work was not germane to the purposes 
of the Commission. 
"You newspaper men are all alike," said he. "I remem- 
ber once taking this thing up with Gene Field while he 
was alive. Gene used to come out with a column or so 
every once in a while on "How to Plant Carp." He said 
that some people thought they were better planted in 
hills, but he himself held they should be planted in rows." 
With this latter opinion I think the sportsmen of the 
country would be very apt to agree. 
Dr. Bartlett, none the less, will have a splendid ex- 
hibit of Illinois fish at the exposition, and indeed the en- 
tire fish exhibit will be a great feature. Matters are be- 
ginning to hum here now, and a number of exhibits are 
headed for Chicago, which will reach here early in the 
week, including a number of the trout and ouananiche 
from the Canadian Provinces. 
Notes of the Show* 
Joe Kipp, of the Blackfoot reservation, one of the best 
known characters of Montana, writes that he will be on 
hand for the exposition with a collection of Indian ma- 
terial, which he will put up in the form of an Indian 
camp. He will probably be accompanied by Hart Schultz, 
of the same reservation. Mr. Kipp is an old-time man, 
who saw the West before the railroads, and his experi- 
ences in the Indian trading days would fill a big and in- 
teresting book. There may be people at the show who 
will say more than Joe Kipp about wild life, but there 
won't be anybody here who knows more. 
Jack Monroe, in a letter at hand this week, stated that 
he had his camps all pitched in the mountains near the 
Blackfoot reservation, and had employed the best snow- 
shoers of that country. He thought he could get some 
goats, and his only anxiety was about getting them 
through alive under the provisions of the Lacey act. The 
Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Interior have 
been approached for the necessary permission, which will 
no doubt be given. 
The Premier of Canada wires from Quebec that he is 
using every effort to secure a live wild caribou for this 
exposition, and he believes the matter will be accom- 
plished. 
The proposal to decorate the interior of the Coliseum 
with pines has proved a tremendous undertaking, though 
since it has been started it will be completed. Two enor- 
mous Norway pines will be erected outside the door of 
the Coliseum, and odd enough they will seem on the street 
of the busy city, where never a tree has stood for a gen- 
eration. The artists needed a large number of Norway 
pines for the columns to face the interior arches, and they 
chose this tree on account of its orange colored bark and 
its wide and bushy top. Charlie Norris, boss of the 
woods crew, who has started in early this week at State 
Line, Wis., to get these trees, is meeting with a great 
deal of difficulty. Each tree of the dimensions specified 
weighs over six tons. Each tree has to be let down with 
a block and tackle, for at this season the branches are as 
brittle as icicles. The tops have to be sawn off and 
brought in separately. It will take a train of twelve cars 
to bring the trunks of the trees, and there will be vast 
quantities of spruce, balsam^ pine and oak trees used as 
well. 
While Cy DeVry, animal keeper, was down at the 
Caton deer park, at Ottawa, to take charge of some of 
the deer which the Caton estate has been good enough to 
lend this exposition, he was unfortunate enough to allow 
three of the ten deer to escape, and the probability is that 
they will never be recaptured. 
Mr. Evans, who will have charge of the several hun- 
dred pheasants which will be shown at the show, also had 
a misfortune this week. There was one beautiful im- 
l.iorted hen for which $70 had been paid, but which broke 
a wing in the crate. The wing was amputated, but the 
hied three days after. 
The Dough Bird Again. 
Mr. John G. Smith, of Algona, la,, long time presi- 
dent of the Iowa State Sportsmen's Association, and a 
sportsman of experience, adds to the information regard- 
ing the dough bird in a recent letter, which reads as be- 
low: "I notice in the Forest and Stream of Jan, 26 an 
article "All About the Dough Bird." Years ago I went 
to Eastham, on Cape Cod, shooting almost every year, 
I generally arrived at Eastham about Aug. 24. Between 
that time and Sept. i the golden plover and Esquimaux 
curlew were likely to come on from the north. Ten of us 
rented about 400 acres of old pasture land and burned it 
over, as the birds liked the burnt ground. We dug holes 
in the sandy ground and put out about fifty decoys. We 
often had fine shooting, both at the golden plover and 
dough birds. Both came to the decoys very nicely, and 
many times I have had them come in flocks of a hundred 
or more. The dough birds were always very fat and 
were considered the best table bird sold in the Boston 
markets. They seldom sold at less than one dollar each. 
At that time I could contract, if I wished, every dough 
bird I could kill at one dollar each. At that time I sup- 
posed that they were a seashore bird, and not to be found 
inland. 
"In the spring of 1866 I discovered my mistake. I saw 
more dough birds in May of that year in northwestern 
Iowa than I had ever seen before in all my life. They 
were on their way north. Thousands of them were to be 
found on the burnt prairie with the golden plover. I 
shot a few, but none of them were in good order. The 
plover were in fine condition, I have never seen a dough 
bird in the West except in the spring, and never yet 
killed one here that was fat enough to be good eating. 
I think very few if any pass through Iowa on their way 
south, I have reached the conclusion that most of the 
dough birds go south via the sea shore. They will decoy 
here very nicely to golden plover decoys. Their habits 
seem to be much the same as the golden plover, but I 
do not think they can fly as fast. I recollect one morning 
on Cape Cod. A large flock of dough birds came to the 
field. They went to the decoys of a gentleman by the 
name of Curtis, from Quincy, Mass., and he killed fifteen 
with his first barrel. He caught them on the turn over 
the decoys, and I think it was the finest shot I ever saw. 
I think fifty were killed before they left the field. There 
must have been two or three hundred in the flock." 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Buiiding, Chicago, 111. 
New York Game Bills. 
The New York State Fish, Game and Forest 
League. — To all Clubs, Associations and Members of the 
New York State Fish, Game and Forest Leagixe: In 
compliance with the recommendations of the League, 
adopted at its annual meeting on Dec. 6. 1900. the Legis- 
lative and Law Committee has prepared and had intro- 
duced in the Assembly, through Hon. J. L. Burnett, the 
following measures : 
Bills Nos. 351 and 356 provide for an increase of the 
number of the protectors from thirty-eight to fifty and 
for an increase in their salaries. The number of protec- 1 
tors authorized by law is inadequate to the work of 
efficiently enforcing the forest, fish and game laws of the 
State, composed of sixty-one counties, and the character 
or their work is such that they are poorly rewarded. 
Bill No. 352 amends the present section in regard to 
explosives by requiring all persons selling dynamite or 
other explosives to keep a record of all sales thereof, 
showing the name and address of the persons to whom 
sold, together with the date of such sale, and also makes . 
the penalty for the use of d3mamite or other explosives 
for the taking of fish a misdemeanor and takes away 
the right to impose any other or alternative penalty for 
such use. 
Bill No. 353 makes the close season for wildfowl from 
i 
