Sept, 14, 1901,] 
jowerful teeth of some animal, and the water near the 
bank was filled with twigs and branches. Laying hold 
at the chain I found that the trap was held by some heavy 
3ody, and clearing away ihe rubbish, I discovered a splen- 
did male otter fast in the powerful jaws of the trap, and 
Qrowned beneath the bushes he had felled upon himself 
iu his rage and agony. That was one of the proudest 
moments of my life; T felt like a boy who has caught his 
first woodchuck in a figure 4 trap. The pelt was of ex- 
:ellent quality and added $15 to my season's sale of furs. 
"Probably the only fur-bearing animal that has not de- 
:reased in numbers during my lifetime is the skunk. It 
seems to nie that the more skunks I catch the more there 
are to be caught, and no other animal is so easily cap- 
tured. A piece of fresh meat, fastened to the pan of the 
sup, is all that is necessary. In war times a good, black 
skunk skin was worth $3, but to-da}' the best of them 
only bring about $1.25, but, by utilizing both pelt and 
oil, for which there is always a ready market, I can still 
make a very good profit on the unsavory little creature. 
Fifty j^ears ago a species of white hare were numerous 
in this locality, though now thej^ are practically extinct. 
They were much larger than our common gray rabbit, 
and excellent eating. The city hunters used to consider 
it great sport to shoot them, and would come at the first 
fall of snow and engage me to guide them and run the 
hares. After posting my men, I would take the fresh 
track of a hare and follow it unerringly, until, in accord- 
ance with the unfailing tactics of hunted hares and rab- 
bits, the game would double on its course, when one of 
the waiting hunters woidd kill it, and I would take up 
another track. Some people would not believe that state- 
ment, but it is true, nevertheless; and there are men 
living who have hunted hares with me in that very man- 
lier who will substantiate my story. In all my experi- 
ence I have never hunted with a dog, believing that one 
dog will scare more game out of the country than the 
banging of all the guns in Christendom. 
"in my youth I made a habit of imitating the peculiar 
calls and whistles of game and became so expert that I 
:ould decoy a flock of quail or partridges within shotgmi 
distance, and all my bird shooting has been done in that 
pmanner. 
"Another kind of game that is now extinct was wild 
pigeons. At certain seasons they came in such numbers 
that they fairly darkened the sun in their flight. In a 
pine wood, near where I lived, was a roosting place, 
Afhere. year after year, the migrating pigeons would con- 
Bregate to pass the night, and there all the men and 
oys of the neighborhood would go and knock the poor 
jirds off their perches, and wring their necks, much after 
the manner of a- latter-day chicken thief. So plentiful 
were wild pigeons at such times that they" sold in the 
markets at fo' pence ha' penny a dozen; about 18 cents 
in the present currency. Wild ducks were also very plen- 
tiful in my younger days, and I always took great pleas-' 
ure in hunting them, although I never derived any great 
pecuniary benefit therefrom. Perhaps the narrowest es- 
capes from death I have ever had have been in connection 
with duck hunting. I have made it an invariable rule, 
when hunting, to secure at any cost whatever game I 
may have killed or wounded, and this determination has 
gotten me into some pretty serious situations. I was once 
hunting along the banks of a small sheet of water known 
as Little Pond, when I discovered a pair of ducks in 
the open water, not far from the shore. My double-bar- 
reled gun was always ready for business in those days, 
and I killed a duck with each barrel; but the question 
then was, how to secure them? It was in the latter part 
of March, and the ice in the pond had broken up, and 
was floating about in various-sized cakes, none of them 
being large enough to bear my weight. There v;as no 
boa; near, and a pole long enough to reach the ducks 
was out of the question. I hesitated in unceitainty quite 
a long time, but it seemed to me that the one thing 
nccessary to make my life perfectly happy was a roast 
duck dinner; so, taking off my clothing, I plunged into 
the water, pushing the cakes of ice out of my way as I 
swam. I had almost reached the ducks when I realized 
that I was becoming benimibed, and must make all 
haste for the shore if I wished to get ihere alive. I had 
just strength enough to pull myself on to the bank, by 
the aid of some overhanging bu.shes. and was obliged to 
rest for some, moments before I could get into my clothes 
and start for home which I reached in a condition that 
nearlv frightened my vvife out of her senses. In my wild 
scramble lor the shore I had received numerous cuts 
and bruises from the sharp edges of the ice, wdrich, in 
my benumbed condition, were not apparent, but as I 
warmed up from the exercise of walking, the blood began 
to flow, and when I reached home my body was covered 
?nd my boots well filled with the ruddy stream of life. 
I was not seriously hurt, however, and the next day I 
returned and captrired the ducks. Another incident of 
like nature occurred about a year ago. I took down 
my old gun one day and told my wife that I was going 
to celebrate the attainment of my eightieth year by hav- 
ing a duck hunt. She begged me not to go, saying that 
I was .getting too old for such dangerous sport; but I 
was not to be persuaded, and started out, determined to 
have one more try at the ducks. I followed the river to 
a point about two miles below my place, and there, sure 
enough, was the expected duck, breasting the current 
about midstream. My first shot crippled the creature so 
tliat it could not fly. but the swift current whirled it away 
at a rapid pace, and. being afraid that I should lose _my 
game, I plunged iiito the water after it, heavy hunting 
coat, rulDber boots, cartridge belt, and all ; the 
water was about waist deep, and the river bottom 
full of rocks and holes, but I stumbled on, now up, now 
down; onre I was carried off any feet and hurled against 
a big boulder, but I regained mv footing, captured the 
<luck, and, finally, made my way to the shore, very wet. 
but also very proud and happy. When I walked into the 
house, dripping from head to heels, gun in one hand and 
duck in the other, my wife looked up in astonishment, and 
exclaimed : 
" 'Collins Barnard, how could you do it?' " 
" 'Wife,' said T. 'T never yet lost a duck!" ' 
The near approach of evening reminded me that I 
must close iny visit, and thus end for th© time being the 
jl,irrfitive of the old trapper,- which J (\o\\\)t not he could 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
have continued indefinitely, with unabating interest. So, 
with a warm hand clasp from the inmates, I left Sunny 
Side, the pleasant home of the Barnards, on the bank 
of the Farmington River; as beautiful a spot as can be 
found in the whole realm of nature. Here more than 
fifty years of their lives have been spent, and here hunters 
and trappers have gathered for many years to listen to the 
interesting reminiscences of the old sportsman, and to 
eat the game dinners for which his wife has become 
famous through all the surro-unding country. 
No children have come to gladden their declining years, 
bi:t friend? are theirs without number, and they approach 
what Mr. Barnard would term the close of the hunting 
■season, with that sweet spirit of resignation and content 
that, is the reward of a .simple, upright, and congenial 
mode of living. 
Prairie Chickens> Teal and Small- 
Mouth Bass, 
Monday, Sept. 2, will be tire opening of the season 
on chickens and duck.s, and every man who owns a gun 
and dog. and who can shut down the lid ,^of his desk for 
a day or two, is preparing to go afield. 
Every other man you meet on the streets of St. Paul 
is either carrying a gun case or shell case or is leading 
his dog. 
I am going myself to Dalton, and have just come from 
the Great Northern Railroad oflice, where they tell me 
extra sleepers are to be added to the night train to take 
care of the gunners. There may be game on other rail- 
roads than the Great Northern, but that seems 
to be the line the boys are most using. I have 
never been to Dalton, where Ten Mile Lake is to be 
found, but I am told that you can select your own sport. 
If it is teal you are after you can get them on the pass 
at the beginning and ending of the day and fill in the 
interim amongst the stubble after chickens. If you care 
not for chickens, and prefer casting for bass from your 
boat, you can fill in the middle of the day with the small- 
mouthed bass. 
It is simply a matter of taking your rod and gun, and 
a few shells, and doing as the spirit moves you when you 
reach the gi-ounds. 
The teal, no doubt, will prove plump and tasteful after 
their summer's feeding and tapering off on wild rice, 
and can be trusted to take care of themselves on the 
wing against the fellow who fails to hold well in advance 
of them. They are reported in goodly numbers, and 
promise fine sport. 
The chickens are well grown and will no doubt make 
those who get them earn their bag. Being strong of 
wing, they will cover an acre or two after being shot 
into, instead of dropping again to cover, as fledglings 
will do, within easy gun shot. 
If inclined to try the bass no pleasanter weather could 
be wished for than we are now having. 
The day may come when the ducks and chickens may 
be shot off should a retrograde movement be made and 
game protection be done away. with. But as long as our 
State is protected as it is to-day, not in name but in 
fact, our furred, finned and feathered game allowed to in- 
crease under protection, s-o long then will the State of 
Minnesota stand well up in the estiiiiation of the discern- 
ing sportsmen of the country. 
The man who has never shot a prairie chicken or a 
sharp-tailed grouse can come to Minnesota and enjoy 
a new sensation. The quail shooter, when he gets onto 
a flock of prairie chickens for the first time, finds his 
wonted quail grown to the size of a barnyard fowl. If 
he has mastered the art of stooping a sailing quail he will 
not be found wanting when the chickens break cover. 
Minnesota is a great State — now called the "bread and 
butter state" — because of the superiority of her flour and 
the excellency of her butter — and amongst her many at- 
tractions that of being an ideal spot for the lover of rod 
and gun is not the least of her claims to public attention. 
Charles Cristadoro. 
St. Paul, Minn. Aug. 2T. 
The Right to a Blind. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Last Friday evening I went down to Barncgat Bay for a 
couple of days' snipe shooting. We were on the marshes 
all day Saturday, and lay close by in our catboat on Sun- 
day. Sunday morning two men came out to the blind 
which we had occupied on Saturday, and which we were 
intending to occupy on Monday, and seemed to be setting 
out their stools. They left soon afterward, however, and 
we thought nothing more of it. 
On Monday morning we arose early, to be sure and 
get this blind which we wanted, and upon arriving there 
found two or three stools set up and several others — fif- 
teen or twenty — lying in the shallow water on the 
meadows. Leaving these stools exactly as Ave found them, 
we put out our own, considering that, as we were first at 
the unoccupied blind, the right to shoot there was ours. 
Quite a bit later, well after sunrise, two sportsmen and a 
gunner came out on the marshes and claimed the blind 
as theirs, and demanded that we get out. They said that 
the right to shoot in that blind belonged to them, as their 
stools were there. I replied that I knew of no custom 
in that bay, or any other, whereby a man could set out 
his stools on Sunday morning and go away and leave those 
stools, expecting them to retain the place for him to return 
and shoot at his pleasure. I pointed out to them that 
following out their principle a man could have a prior 
right to any .good place on a marsh for all summer, pro- 
vided he left his stools in that place day and night. This 
their gunner declared was so, viz., that a gunner could put 
his stools out anywhere and, provided he left them there, 
shoot at that stand whenever he wanted to. driving any- 
body out he might find shooting there, although he had 
not been there himself for two or three days previously. 
This. I claimed, was as ridiculous as it was unreasonable. 
Finally, seeing that there was very little prospect of any 
shooting for that dav, as the birds didn't seem to be flying, 
I left the blind. " . 
Which one of us was in itfie right? Is there any custom 
among sportsmen which permits a man to set out his 
stool's this rnorning. to go away !\Tid leave them, and re- 
207 
turn a day or two later and demand that the man shooting 
in that blind, who has gone through the discomfort of 
rising early to get that very blind, shall vacate. This 
blind, according to the statement of their own gunner, was 
the best on the meadows, and they none of them owned 
any property there. Does not a man have to hold a blind 
himself in person, to keep it ? I have slept in a gunning box 
all night when there were as many gunners on the marsh 
as there were last Monday, so as to be sure to bc there first 
in the morning. These men wanted that blind, but they 
were unwilling to go through the discomfort of rising 
eaidy enough to insure their getting it. * 
Manhattan. 
[On your statement '6i the case you are entirely right, 
and the contention of your opponent is absurd. As you 
state, if any such rule as your opponent advocates existed, 
a man's decoys might hold a single blind or point during 
a whole season. We have never heard of any such rule 
among gunners, and do not believe that it exists. Physical 
possession is the only thing that will give a man the right 
to a blind. We assume, of course, that this was public 
marsh and not private ground. Of course, different clubs 
have varying rules with regard to the possession of points 
on their own grounds, but in a public marsh the right to a 
blind belongs to the occupant of the blind.] 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Iowa Judge Fined, 
Chicago, III.. Sept. 5. — There are "sooners" afid 
"sooners," but the soonest kind of a "sooner" is the judge 
of a court of law who deliberately breaks that law and 
then tries to excuse himself. 
Opening day for prairie chicken shooting in Iowa is 
Sept. T. which date this .year fell upon a Sunday. On 
last Saturday Judge Trimble, of Keokuk, la., accompanied 
by Judge Hubbard, of Cedar Rapids, la., went to the 
town of Ledyard. in Kossuth county, for a chicken hunt. 
They did not wait until opening day or the day following 
opening day, but started out on Saturda}'. They re- 
turned at noon with five prairie chickens, and were 
promptly arrested by Deputy Warden Riley and taken be- 
fore Justice Clarke, of Algona. Judge Hubbard, of Cedar 
Rapids, offered a novel defense, with which he under- 
took to browbeat the justice under threat that, if con- 
victed, he would certainly appeal his case to the Supreme 
Court of the State. Intimidated by the superior rank of 
the prisoner, the justice allowed him to depart, meantime 
taking the case under advisement. Judge Hubbard in de- 
fense stated that Sept. i came on Sunday, that he could 
not conscientiously hunt on Sunday, and he knew that by 
Monday the birds would all have been killed. He said 
that the law did not recognize any fraction of a day, hence 
he was not violating a 'aw which says it shall be "illegal to 
kill chickens between the Tst day of December and the 1st 
day of September in each year." 
. Justice Clarke, of Algona, on Monday announced that 
he had fined Judge Trimble, of Keokuk, $100 and costs — 
about $120 in all. There was no evidence that Judge Hub- 
bard had really killed any prairie chickens, and no fine 
was imposed upon him. It is not known at this date 
whether Judge Trimble has paid his fine or has ap- 
pealed his case. The wdiole matter would seem to be 
rather a deplorable one, and the example of these gentle- 
men simply strengthens the position of the other "sooners" 
whose sole argument after all is that of selfishness. 
Iowa Chickens, 
As to the chicken crop in Iowa, it seems to have been a 
good one — since, at so late a date as five days after the 
opening of the season, one must speak in the past tense 
regarding prairie chickens. The great drawback to suc- 
cessful shooting was the very hot and dry weather, which 
no doubt cut down the average of the bags to a very 
great extent. One of the best bags of which I have heard 
at this date is that of J. C. Hartman, of Waterloo, la., 
who killed seventeen chickens on Monday, his first day 
afield. He reports the weather very hot and dry. Water- 
loo is in a very old settled part of Iowa, and if there are 
chickens there, there should be many more birds in por- 
tions of the country more favorable to their welfare. 
Some Chicken Bags.* 
Sept. 7. — Among other fair bags of prairie chickens 
made since opening day, there may be mentioned the fol- 
lowing : 
Dick Turtle and his friend, Mr. F. Atherton, of this 
city, killed 39 birds near Custer Park, III. 
Mr. Fred Roberts, of Chicago, killed 29 chickens at 
A^'irgil, 111. Mr. AVm. Kehl killed 7 chickens at St. Anne, 
III. 
A A'^ery good bag was made by Mr. Geo. Roll, of Blue 
Island, with Mr. Niebert and a friend, near Joliet, III., the 
total ba,g being 48 chickens. 
Mr. Geo. Glissman and a party of two friends killed 19 
chickens near Sycamore, in this State. Yet another good 
bag, although som_ewhat mysterious in some of its features, 
is that made by Mr. Bynon and two friends, somewhere 
along the Wabash Railroad, within eighty miles of Chi- 
cago. These gentlemen killed 56 birds in two days, but 
do not care to state the exact locality where they were 
shooting. 
Mr. M. E. Moran and his partner, Mr. Wolfers- 
bcrger, went out to the farm of a friend near De Kalb, III., 
and the party killed 39 birds. 
Mr. C. C. Hess shot at his favorite ground near Lorenzo 
and bagged 9 birds on opening day. 
Up in Wisconsin Mr. H. Austin, of Fox Lake, and a 
friend, bagged 17 chickens on opening day. W. Edgerton 
and two friends got 19. R. G. Grube and W. Mahoney 
bagged 12. 
From all that can be learned, the above scores are typical 
of the general success. They are not heavy in compari- 
son with the old-time bags of prairie chickens, but in view 
of the size and quality of these somewhat helpless birds, 
they mark a success which is big enough, and as great as 
might be expected in these daj's. Incidentally, they prove 
that the prairie chicken is by no means extinct, even in 
the thickly settled portions of the Mississippi Valley. 
What the success of shooters may have been further out 
t-o the (\'.!<] th*" better Ghicken grQunds of Minite- 
