FOREST AND STREAM. 
327 
Vineyard Point the same raft of ducks we had observed 
the day before, but they kept well out of range. A strag- 
gler flew near the shore and George dropped him, but 
he drifted away before the wind. This was the only duck 
to fall to a gun on the trip. But outside a summer cot- 
tage a pile of bottles was found, and they afforded us 
some excellent practice, and when the last was broken 
honors were easy. 
Perhaps just a word about our guns would not be out 
of place. Mr. Cantelow shot a fine double 10-gauge 
English-made gun— a good one for ducks, I should 
judge. Mr. Dclaney's gun was a 12-gauge, high-grade 
Fox. George shot a gun of his own design, and manu- 
factured by the Remington concern to-day. It was a 
beautiful little 12-gauge hammerless and weighed about 
6 pounds — the sweetest and most delicately balanced 
^double gun I ever had hold of. It is the apple of 
George's eye, and justly so. I used my old reliable 12- 
gauge Winchester lever action, a gun you would have to 
use a sledge hammer on in order to put it out of busi- 
ness. 
It is fortunate for me that 1 became acquainted with 
Barker. His snug little cottage, beautifully situated 
among a clump of cedars at the shore, in touch With 
sailing, shooting and fishing, affords me abundant op- 
portunity to invite him and my friends down for an out- 
ing now and then. I would miss much fun if I didn't. 
At 2 o'clock we sat down to a steaming banquet. It 
seemed as though our table held everything eatable — 
but ducks! I occupied the place where genial Mather 
used to sit, and I found myself wishing again and again 
that he and cordial Dean were with us, and that we could 
laugh once more at the witty Major's joke and hearty 
song. Who is there would have enjoyed our jolly mer- 
riment more than these? 
As our time was nearly up, the remainder of the after- 
noon was passed indoors. At length the time drew near 
for our departure. There was no game, but a change 
from hum-drum life and real recreation. The stage came 
all too soon, and the little cottage faded in the darkness 
ijf its nest among the trees as we were rumbled three 
miles over the rough road to the train. 
William H. Avis. 
H'ghwood, Conn., March T. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Snipe Shooting in the Mississippi Valley. 
Chicago, 111., April 21. — The man who believes there arc 
"just as many jacksnipe as there ever were" is having 
his innings this week. For some mysterious reason, 
which for the sake of harmony we will admit has been 
rightly discovered by our friend who thinks there are 
just as many birds as there ever were, we have had this 
season an unusually good flight of wildfowl, and are 
having, or have had, a flight of jacksnipe of somewhat 
similar extent. It is without doubt true that there are 
more snipe in on the Mississippi- Valley about the 42d 
parallel than have been known in a similar spring season 
in many years. 
In regard to the jacksnipe proposition, however, we 
must speak for the time in the past tense, or of a past 
whose extent is not more than half a dozen days. The 
first flight of jacksnipe came in on the beginning of the 
moonlight nights, and they have "followed the moon," 
as the saying goes, on to the north, the first and perhaps 
the heaviest flight having without question left this .imme- 
diate vicinity. This first big rush of the, north-bound 
longbills came in about a week ago to-day, and the snipe 
shooters all last week were in high feather. I know 
of one shooter here who on last Sunday killed thirty-eight 
jacksnipe on the Illinois River near Morris. Yet others 
made extraordinary good bags further down the Illinois 
River. Mr. C. H. Lester on Tuesday and Wednesday, 
near Henry, 111., found a very heavy body of jacksnipe on 
the cornfields, and during one day fired more than 100 
shots. These birds were feeding on the drying grounds 
of the cornfields, and were, of course, very wild. Mr. 
Oswald Von Lengerke, a very enthusiastic snipe shooter, 
was out on Thursday over grounds where he found very 
much better shooting earlier. On his latest trip he got 
only nineteen birds, and reported that most of the local 
men believe that the early flight of the birds had gone on 
northward, although no one believes that the bulk of the 
birds have gone beyond this latitude. Usually the best 
snipe shooting for this locality comes along the close of 
April, and the closing date of April 25 is just about the 
time when the snipe appear in greatest number and in the 
best condition to work by the sportsman, 
Mr. F. H. Bissell, a member of Calumet Hights and 
Lake George clubs, left to-day for a trip to Water Valley, 
Ind., in which place the grounds are reported to be in 
excellent condition and the birds in very good numbers. 
Mr. Bissell, of course, has taken out his little $25 license, 
but whether he needed it or not to hunt jacksnipe is one 
of the questions which remain unsolved in the labyrinthine 
obscurities of the Indiana game laws, which might well 
offer thought to Philadelphia lawyers and others of 
curious and investigating turn of mind. 
A shooter who went out in the middle of the week on 
the Northwestern road to a suburb just at the western 
edge of Chicago, killed twenty-two jacksnipe on the 
prairie sloughs. Here, there and everywhere come in 
stories of similar small bags reported over a very wide 
stretch of country, so that it seems quite sure that the 
snipe have worked well northward at this writing. Of 
course we do not hear so much from the big marshes of 
Indiana, and it is equally of course that good shooting 
there is being utilized or is going to waste, as the case 
may be. 
While coming in from the north of Chicago late this 
week and crossing the beautiful prairie country north of 
the Desplaines Valley, I saw considerable numbers of 
grass snipe working over the prairie sloughs which run up 
into the farm lands in that region. The ground looked 
warm and good for snipe, and probably one could find 
good shooting by moving around over a considerable 
stretch of country in that region. 
Wheaton, Arlington Heights and a lot of suburbs lo- 
cated on the western side of Chicago might turn out a 
few snipe to the persistent gunner, and the big Skokie 
marsh on the northern limits of the city will be visited 
by a considerable number of ardent ones, no doubt with 
very good success. 
Ducks. 
As to the ducks, at last — and one may say it with some 
relief — the shooting seems to be about over. There have 
been a great many ducks killed by Chicago shooters this 
spring. It is no use deploring this fact, and indeed the 
most that one can say in regard to spring shooting is 
that it is a matter which must be determined by every 
fellow for himself when the law does not make the solu- 
tion for him. Some do not believe in spring shooting, 
While others do; and yet others, and these rather the 
largest class, do not believe in it, but yet practice it. 
This latter may at first glance seem a puzzling statement, 
but it is not in the least puzzling to any one who will stop 
to have a close look at good old human nature. 
Iowa Without Protection. 
We have a beautiful way with us here in the West in 
the matter of our game and fish laws. As has been men- 
tioned previously, we left off protection for quail and 
woodcock in Illinois, we left off protection for jacksnipe 
in Indiana, not to mention earlier tricks which were 
turned and which have to do with previous sessions of 
the assemblages of Solons in this part of the world. i Now 
comes yet another game law mix up for the Mississippi 
Valley. Iowa, one of the most respectable and progressive 
commonwealths of the entire West, springs into the 
line of misdeeds by entirely omitting all provisions for the 
protection of fish and game for the coming two years. It 
is true that the State Game and Fish Warden, Mr. Geo. 
A. Lincoln, of Cedar Rapids, will continue to draw his 
princely salary of $100 a month, but this will be the ex- 
tent of his labors. The Legislature of Iowa has in effect 
tied Mr. Lincoln's hands, released him of all responsibility 
for his labor, and, indeed, made it impossible for him to 
labor in any form whatever for the interests which he is 
supposed to serve. In brief, the State of Iowa, which has 
in the past customarily appropriated $15,000 per year for 
the executive work of the State Fish and Game Com- 
mission, at the present session of the Legislature entirely 
left out this appropriation for the Commission. The re- 
sult is obvious. There is a law with no executive clause, 
an executive head with no ability to execute, a warden 
who is ward of nothing. 
Just how the mix up in the Iowa Legislature occurred 
is difficult to discover, just as it is difficult to find out 
how the error regarding Illinois quail and woodcock 
could have possibly occurred. Mr. Lincoln this week was 
advised that something had gone wrong, and hence started 
for the State capital at Des Moines to discover what had 
happened to him, and just how it happened. He may 
have a merry time, but will hardly make himself happy by 
digging among the doings of the Legislature. The jour- 
nals show that the Hil singer bill, which carried the ap- 
propriation, passed the House and was carried to the 
Senate duly, in which latter body the appropriations com- 
mittee reported the bill for passage on the same day. 
The Senate bill introduced by Senator Lambert was at 
that time indefinitely postponed. This is the end of the 
trail. Nobody knows what became of the appropriation 
bill after that. Senator Lambert was supposed to have 
backed the appropriation for the Commission. The sitt- 
ings committee reported that the appropriation bill had 
not and could not ever have properly come before it. The 
chairman of the committee on appropriations. Senator 
Garst, might perhaps have known something about the 
matter, but if he knows what action had been taken in 
regard to the appropriation he at least maintains a dis- 
creet silence. 
The Iowa appropriation bill carried $5,000 to cover the 
fisheries at Sabula, $8,000 for protection and distribution 
of. fish, and $2,000 for protection of game, the latter, of 
course, an absurdly inadequate stim. All of the expenses 
of the State Warden and his deputies were to be paid 
out of the appropriation, there being no provision in the 
Iowa law for the expenses of the fish and game warden. 
There is now no possible way, except a private one, 
for the wardens to meet their necessary expenses, and it 
would seem that the salary of $100 a month would not 
induce a warden to become especially gay in the matter 
of traveling, investigation and prosecution. The waters 
of Iowa must go without restocking for a couple of years, 
and the fish ponds located for the furtherance of the work 
at Sabula must now be allowed to fall into ruin. This 
is a very delightful state of affairs, and it shows how 
much the people of the Mississippi Valley care for their 
fish and game. Did they actually care, they would cer- 
tainly visit a swift punishment upon some one who ought 
to be and could be discovered as the author of such mis- 
takes as those which have marred the records of the 
States of Iowa, of Illinois and of Indiana. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, III. 
"West Virginia Fish and Game. 
Romney, W. Va., April 16. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Since my last letter to your very much appreciated paper, 
I have spent three months of the time in the western 
part of this State in the counties of Lewis, Braxton and 
Upshur. In Braxton county I noticed any amount of 
quail, pheasants and some squirrels. We have had a very 
hard winter this winter, ending up in a twenty-inch snow- 
storm on April 8, which no doubt killed lots of birds, but 
left some over, A good many deer were killed last win- 
ter by being run into the river by hounds and drowned 
under the ice. This practice will be broken up.' It is a 
very hard thing, though, to enforce game laws in a county 
where the people do not help or sustain the officers, but 
brighter days are coming for my county, as a party of 
thorough sportsmen are building an $8,500 club house 
about five miles south of Romney, and have purchased a 
trout stream, together with four or five thousand acres of 
wood land. Their house is only a quarter of a mile from 
the South Branch of the Potomac, and they have a fine 
sulphur spring within a few yards of the club house. 
With the advent of these sportsmen I look for the river 
to be restocked with the gamy black bass and their help 
in abating other nuisances. J. B. Beady. 
Some Hunting" Experiences."; 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
There are so many good articles in Forest and Stream 
that it would be useless fof me to try and select the best. 
I have been very much interested in those on the calibers 
of rifles ; and let me say to the boys, that so long as there 
are so many men of different temperaments and disposi- 
tions, so long will there be a need for different caliber 
rifles. 
I am certain that if I was out with a man for a week 
in a game country I could tell him what kind of a rifle 
he would need, or whether he would need any at all, 
In my experience, which dates from 1856, I have used 
from caliber .22 with 5 grains of -powder and 40 grains 
lead to .50, with 168 grains Curtis & Harvey Diamond 
grain powder, with 210 grains lead. The latter rifles were 
two English Express. I resighted both of these rifles, and 
I killed a deer with each. I must say that for kicking and 
mangling they were ahead of anything I had ever tried, 
and after they had been fired a few shots, it was a hard 
job to get them clean. I have killed deer, elk, buffalo, 
sheep, bears, wolves, coyotes and all the different varieties 
of small game with the old Colt's Navy revolver, .36 cali- 
ber, and the best of it is there has always been some one 
with me to enjoy the sport. 
One Sunday evening Stillwell and I went up the. gulch 
that led to the lick. We were after grouse, which had 
begun to come down from the mountains. I insisted on 
going as far up as the lick, though at first he remon- 
strated, but I kept coaxing, and finally he consented, and 
when we got to the little knoll and peeped over, there 
were two elk in the lick — an old cow and yearling. I 
raised my revolver and fired at the yearling, and I killed 
it dead. The old cow ran out near us, and Stillwell shot 
at her, and I was telling him not to shoot, but luckily 
he missed. We dressed the yearling, went home and got 
a horse and carried it in. 
Another good shot I made with the same pistol was at 
a very large panther. The dog treed it and the boys 
wanted to go to the house and get the rifle. I told them 
no, I would kill it with my revolver. I walked up to 
within about twenty yards and shot it in the eye, and 
it rolled out dead. I could go on and numerate many 
good shots with the navy revolver, but these are enough. 
One of" the most successful rifles I ever owned was. a 
carbine .44 caliber, 24 grains powder and 200 grains lead. 
With that rifle I killed 72 deer. 32 elk, 8 mountain sheep, 
4 bears, 4 wolves, 20 coyotes and a great many grouse. 
One day Roll Brown and I went up to the same lick in 
which I killed the elk. About sundown an elk came out. 
on to a ridge and stopped and acted»as though very sus- 
picious. Roil had on a white straw hat, and I think the 
elk must have seen Roll move. I knew by the elk's actions 
that it was not coming on in to the lick, so I handed 
Roll the carbine and told him to hold about half-way up 
the elk's body and just back of the foreleg. He did as I 
told him, and at the crack of the rifle the elk staggered 
forward, and run not over 50 yards and rolled over and 
slipped down into the ravine dead. 
Mr. Barring and I were after sheep in Big Sheep Canon, 
and I was traveling ahead. Soon I located some not over 
seventy yards distant and squatted down. Mr. B. stepped 
up and fired both barrels of his Express and missed. The 
sheep had not seen us. They ran down _ around and 
stopped, not over 100 yards away. I told him to try my 
carbine. He took it and shot at a small ram and killed 
it dead. The sheep then ran round up the river. I never 
saw any one more disgusted than was Mr. B. to think that 
he had shot twice with his $150 rifle and missed, and had 
taken what was then about a $15 carbine and killed with 
the first shot. 
The next day I had the satisfaction of showing them 
elk, and they got one, and they were the best pleased 
men I ever saw. 
They were disgusted with the sights that came on their 
rifles, and had me sight them like mine. Then they did 
much better shooting. 
Should I ever hunt any more big game I should use a 
.30-30 or .32-40 carbine, Lyman rear sight and thin front 
sight made out of a dime* and filed so thin that when I 
drew a bead on a deer's neck at 100 yards it would not 
look bigger than a quarter of a dollar, and I would prac- 
tice so that I knew just where my rifle shot before I 
started for the game. 
I will now tell of a hunt that five of us took up on 
Mount Bonaparte about five years ago. I at that time 
had two rifles— a .38-55 and a .22, that shot the .22 long 
rifle cartridge. I gave the .38 to Mr. Moll, and told the 
boys that I would take the .22 and go along and kill 
grouse. It was in September, and the birds were fine. I 
had my old dog Frank, and I was breaking a couple of 
pups, and had them so they would mind very well. When 
we got in to the timber about three miles above the mill, 
the dogs struck some hot grouse scent, and soon they 
flushed a nice flock, and I shot six times and got six birds, 
all shot through the head. That was all we could locate, 
so we went on about a mile further and separated. Three 
of the boys went across Mill Creek, and the rest of us 
went on up the mountain. 
I kept near the creek, and soon I left my horse, and 
when I got up into the burn I noticed quite a number of 
fresh deer tracks. I kept on, and Mr. Snyder was up 
to my left. I came out into an open place, and had gone 
but a few steps when I missed the dogs. I went back a 
few steps and there they were. Frank was on a deer 
point, and the pups were watching him. I looked up, and 
there stood two fawns. They had shed their fawn coats 
and were in the short blue. I guessed they were 125 
yards, and I raised the Lyman up three points and shot 
at one's neck, and I saw the dust fly over, but very close. 
I then drew down as much as I thought I shot over and 
fired, and down went one and I threw in another car- 
tridge and shot and killed the other. I went up and 
dressed and hung them up. Along in an hour or so I 
heard some of the boys that had crossed the creek shoot- 
ing. I counted eleven shots, and I thought they were 
getting lots of game, as one of the boys had been a 
soldier and thought he could kill more game than I could. 
A little before I returned to the mill Mr. Snyder and 
I got together, and I told him what I had killed. He 
was much pleased. I asked him if he heard the boys 
shooting. He said yes, he heard the same shots I had 
heard. The other boys did not get in till near sun.- 
