Jan. 17, 1903.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
61 
top long after 12 o'clock noon; then proceeded to take 
in all the country as far as the eye could see, and it can 
see a long distsnce here, too. 
Had I been the master of my own time I should have 
camped there below the top until next morning, then have 
got up here again in time to see the sun rise; it would 
have been worth coming this far to see it^ bvt I hatd to 
hasten down and get back to camp. 
I knew those Seminole negro scouts that Captain Flynu 
had with him, and I liked them. When General Makenzie 
had them about Fort Clark I did a good deal of scouting 
in their company. That was in 1873. Makenzie thought 
a good deal of them, and he knew a scout when he saw 
one. 
General R. S. Makenzie, "the big chief with the crookod 
finger," of the Indians, was probably the best liked officer 
with some of us, and the most hated among others of 
any officer I have ever served under. I never had any 
fault to find with him, though ; he was always a good 
friend of mine when I needed one; I often wished we had 
more officers like him. 
His father was Commodore Makenzie, who hung the 
then Secretary of the Navy's son to his ship's yardarm 
for mutiny in the ante-bellum days. The general has 
been dead for about fourteen years now. Peace to his 
ashes. Cabia Blanco. 
Ekie, Pa. 
Massachusetts Game Interests. 
Boston, Jan. 10. — Editor Forest and Stream: The 
wheels of legislation were started with a rush on Fri- 
day, Jan. 9, when Speaker Myers, of the House, and 
President Jones, of the Senate announced their commit- 
tees. Such promptness has been unheard of in the Mas- 
sachusetts Legislature. Committees have not usually 
been announced until several days after the inaugura- 
tion of the Governor. 
The Committee on Fisheries and Game is composed 
of Senators Henry R. Skinner, of Watertown; -A. D. 
Basjley, of Boston, and David G. Pratt, of Middleboro, 
ana hiouse members Moody Kimball, Wm. B. Phinnev, 
Dwight F. Lane, J. J, Mellen, M. J. Mahoney, Wm. A. 
Fahey and Messrs. Walker and Hinckley. The four 
last-named are new to that committee. Senator Pratt 
was one of the most zealous workers last winter against 
li.c uia LO allow LUe menhaden seiners to operate in 
I Buzzards Bay. Your readers will remember that, under 
the leadership of the late Attorney-General Hosea M. 
Knowlton, the Fisheries Cohipany made a very de- 
termined effort for the passage of that bill, and that the 
attempt failed by reason of the unanimous action of 
the towns on the bay, and of the hook-and-line fisher- 
men generally, against the measure. From seventy- 
1 five to one hundred men appeared every day for nearly 
I a week at all the hearings, so intense was the opposi- 
■ tio>;. 
While the committee gave a majority report in favor 
I of the bill, it was permitted to be killed later on, and 
never went to the Governor. 
Whether any attempt to regain lost ground will be 
made by industrial fishermen the coming winter re- 
mains to be seen. But the tendency in Massachusetts 
of late is to restrict the use of seines in bays where the 
residents of the shore arc opposed to them. 
It is claimed that good fishing is one of the greatest 
inducements to attract city people, and residents of 
shore towns derive a good deal of pecuniary advantage 
from such visitors. 
The Poultry Show at the Mechanics' Building will 
open on Tuesday, the 13th inst., and bids fair to eclipse 
all previous displays of the kind in Boston. Sportsmen 
will find, among other attractions, several well-stocked 
aquariums, pigeons oi all varieties, rabbits and pheas- 
ants, etc. 
W. F. Beal, of Nahant, will exhibit cages of wild 
■ water fowl. E. S. Conness, of Mattapan, ring-necked 
and golden pheasants, and many well-known names of 
gentlemen from various parts of the country appear on 
the list of patrons and exhibitors. 
The Brunswick Fur Club invitations have been sent 
out from Barre to hunting men to participate in the 
fourteenth annual hunt of the club, to be held the com- 
ing week. ■ 
The N. E. Kennel Club is making great preparation 
for the 1903 show, which, it is believed, will eclipse all 
previous ones. The show of sporting dogs is expected 
to be the finest ever seen in New England. Mr. Thos. 
W. Lawson, who has fine kennels at Dreamwold, has 
oflFered $300, to be given in prizes. 
Governor Hill, in his message to the Legislature, has 
recommended a hunters' license. He says: "In twenty- 
five States of the Union, and in the Dominion of Can- 
ada, licenses must be secured before non-residents may 
hunt certain game, or hunt at all." The State Sports- 
men's Association, at its meeting this week, voted to 
recommend the plan, ex-Commissioner Oak being the 
only one who raised his voice against it. From this 
distance, it looks like a "foregone conclusion" that a 
license law of some kind will be enacted. The idea of 
being obliged to resort to this plan for raising a 
revenue after what Governor Hill had to say concern- 
ing the condition of the finances of the State and the 
general condition of its various inductries, seems a lit- 
tle like nonsense. However, I will admit there are 
other reasons. The State authorities — Commissioners — ■ 
should know how many deer and moose are killed each 
year, as nearly as possible, and by whom they are killed. 
Col. E. C. Farrington, secretary of the State Associa- 
tion, says, "There is no close time except on the statute 
books. Protection in Maine," he says, "is a farce. 
The safe breeding places of our game are a thing of 
the past." He speaks of the constant extension of 
lumbering operations, and says camps are liberally sup- 
plied with game. He says "game laws are nullified and 
set at defiance by a large class of men." No doubt 
winter killing for lumbermen's camps should be wholly 
prevented. The men, whether residents of the State or 
non-residents, who see'.: recreation in the forests will 
pay more monej' for the privilege than can be derived 
trom game in any other way, and those who secure a 
deer or a miaose will be willing to pay a reasonable 
sum for every one they can kill. But it should be re- 
membered that not all who bunt are able to get game. 
Why not charge a small fee for the privilege of hunting 
and a larger sum for each deer or moose obtained? 
This, of course, on the assumption that some license 
pla_n_ is to be adopted. Massachusetts sportsmen are 
waiting patiently to see what plan will be adopted by 
the assembled wisdom of the State sitting at Augusta. 
Central. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Moscallungc ai d Duck. 
Chicago, III., Jan. 2. — Occasionally we hear stories 
about ducks being devoured by large fish, pike or muscal- 
lunge. Usually these stories have to do with young ducks 
and it is more than a fair guess to believe that very 
often a rnud turtle is the cause of the disappearance of 
the duckling concerned. There are, however, incontest- 
able instances of full grown ducks being devoured by large 
pike or muscallunge. A few years ago I printed in these 
columns the account of a giant pike which was found 
dead on the beach of Lake Minnetonka, which had evi- 
dently met its death in the attempt to swallow a wild 
duck, the wing of which protruded through the gills and 
caused its death. In yet another instance a Chicago 
angler, A. S. Trude, has found in the stomach of a mus- 
callunge the partly digested carcass of a full grown wild 
duck. All these stories are interesting, but the follow- 
ing, told me hy one of the witnesses, Mr. James Keely, 
managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, surpasses any 
duck or fish story yet recorded. 
The incident described occurred last October on one 
of the lakes near Manitowish, Wis. Mr. Keely was one 
of the late guests at the resort in question, and although 
he and his guide got a good many muscallunge, they 
found the weather a bit rough. It was at the season 
of the year when the ducks begin to drop in around the 
wild rice lakes of Wisconsin, and it was no unusual thing 
to see ducks in the course of a day's fishing. Therefore, 
no great interest was aroused when the two fishermen 
saw a good sized wild duck in the water a hundred yards 
or so ahead of them. At length, however, the attention 
of the fishermen was attracted by the movements of the 
duck, which seemed to be attempting to rise from the 
water, but was unable to do so. 
"I'll make him flj'," said the guide. Picking up his 
rifle, a .30-30, he fired a shot which landed a few inches 
from the duck. The shot cut up the water in a good sized 
swirl, but yet the duck did not rise. 
"That's funny," sa.id the guide, and picking up his 
oars, he pulled up within a few yards of the duck. He 
now picked up the rifle and standing up in the boat was 
about to fire again at the bird. "V^'hy, a fish has got hold 
of it," said he. And the next instant he fired at the head 
of what he and Mr. Keely both took to have been a 
3q-pound muscallunge. The shot blew off^ the fore part 
of the head and one of the jaws of the fish, which, how- 
ever, sank and was not secured. The duck was killed by 
the shock of the shit. When picked up it was found 
that its legs had been badly bitten by the fish, as well as 
the lower part of the body. The muscallunge had evi- 
dently seized the bird by the legs and was worrying at it. 
The duck was a full grown specimen of the dusky duck 
or black mallard, which, as all sportsmen know, is the 
very largest of our inland ducks. The bird had its wings 
spread out on the water and was apparently struggling 
against the efforts of the fish to pull it under. The wing 
expanse of a full grown mallard would, of course, oft'er 
considerable resistance, although one would suppose that 
a very large muscallunge must have been able to over- 
come this resistance. Mr. Keely ate the duck and only 
regrets that the muscallunge sank, this latter part of the 
story being almost its only unsatisfying feature, though 
as to the truth of the incident there can be no doubt at 
all. I have heard of muscallunge striking at the copper 
tip of an oar, of their striking a tin cup from the hand 
of a man as he dipped it over the side of a boat, and all 
sorts of other strange things. Perhaps this old fellow 
took the red feet of the duck to be some new kind of 
spoon hook. 
Game in Mantofaa, 
Mr. W, F. Ellis, of Manitou, Manitoba, paid this office 
a visit this week. Mr. Ellis is a very well known breeder 
of English setters and is a sportsman of very many years' 
standing. Largely connected with business affairs in his 
province, he has none the less always found time to keep 
up his interest in field sports, both in shooting and in big 
game hunting. 
Mr. Ellis says that the prairie chicken crop still holds 
good in the vicinity of Manitou, so that it is worth while 
to breed good dogs and plenty of them for the sake of 
that sport. He says also that the big-game hunting east 
of him, in the Rainy Lake countrj% is excellent, and 
slates that one would have no difficulty at all in getting 
his legal limit of two moose. He says that nearly all 
of those who went in last fall with the deliberate inten- 
tion of getting moose did so without any trouble. The 
non-resident license is $25, the same as charged by the 
Slate of Minnesota; but the Manitoba season being so 
much longer, really offers one a much better chance for 
getting his moose than Minnesota with its open season of 
but a few days. _ Mr. Ellis cheerfully offered all kinds 
cf inducements_ in the matter of getting a moose if I 
cared to go up in his country next fall. It is not beyond 
the bounds of possibility that fortune may sometime give 
rne the opportunity of investigating the moose question 
either in Minnesota or Manitoba, or both. We hear so 
many stories about the shooting up there that I am dis- 
posed to think there must be some fire where there is so 
much smoke. 
The matter of guides seems not to be so well worked 
cut in Manitoba as in New Brunswick, and I hardly 
think the moose are as good specimens as those of New 
Brunswick. As to the nature of the hunting, I can learn 
very little, except that it is done in the swamps. Calling 
does not seem very generally practiced, and Mr. Ellis 
said that the "first snow" is the best time to go moose 
hunting, from which I infer that they stilMiunt in that 
country. He speaks with absolute confidence of the cer- 
tainty of getting moose if a man is- a hunter. 
Mr. Ellis also tells me that the elk are tiot quite all 
gone in Manitoba country not far from Rainy Lake. 
There are still a few elk left in Minnesota, perhaps 40 or 
50 in all, and the Manitoba range is similar in general 
respects to that of Minnesota. Mr. Ellis last year got 
word of four elk not far from the place where he was 
stopping, and a hurried drive brought him and a friend 
in sight of the game. They opened a running fire and 
Mr. Ellis was lucky enough to stop one bull elk with his 
double express rifle. He says the head is a beautiful one 
and is much admired. He heard of one or two other elk 
being killed in that part of the country, one head that 
sold for $50. 
Mr. Ellis adds another bit of information which in- 
deed has been made public in the columns of the daily 
press for some time. That is to say, he mentions the 
tremendous influx into the Canadian Northwest of Amer- 
ican citizens of the better type, hardy farmers who are 
purchasing in great numbers the cheap lands of Canada. 
Without doubt the American West is gone. The next 
West is to be in Canada, partly in Ontario, partly in 
Manitoba and Alberta. The Saskatchewan valley is re- 
ceiving a great deal of this new population. Edmondton, 
in the opinion of Mr. Ellis, is to be the next great city 
cf the Northwest. It is with great regret that an Ameri- 
can sees this exodus into Canada of this splendid class 
of American citizens. Our loss, however, is Canada's 
gain; and after all, Canada and the United States grow 
closer together every year; so that whether our settlers 
be Yankees or Canadians, they are practically brothers 
after all. 
Wild Pigeon Stories, 
With permission I print a little wild pigeon story told 
by Mayor Harrison of this city at a late luncheon of the 
_ Wishininnee Club. The old Harrison homestead in this 
' city was established by Carter H. Harrison, Sr., formerly 
mayor of this city, who made his home at Ashland ave- 
nue and Jackson boulevard, in the west division of this 
city. Here Carter H. Harrison, Jr., lived during his 
youth. He speaks of the fact that there were a few 
large cottonwoods which grew near the edge of the 
grounds, and states that one day he saw a couple of wild 
pigeons light in one of these cottonwoods. This was 
about the year 1872, at which time the big fire in Chicago 
had done its work, although the city was by no means 
a wilderness, but, on the contrary, tliickly built up far 
beyond the situation of the Harrison residence. A boy 
of the neighborhood, known very well to the Harrison 
family — by name Gib. Harris, now in business on West 
Madison street, in this city- — was standing near the car- 
riage house door at the time these pigeons alighted in the 
Cottonwood trees. Pie had with him, boy-like, a sling- 
shot, and taking hurried aim at one of the birds at 
a distance of many yards, perhaps 50 or 60 yards, he fired 
his sling-shot and killed one of the birds, which act 
Mayor Harrison remembers with perfect distinctness. 
Gib. Harris was some years ago winner of the champion- 
ship in the Illinois State Sportsmen's Association tourna- 
ment at Watson's Park, Burnside. His proclivities as a 
shot began early in life, it seems. Mayor Harrison re- 
members also seeing this same young man come in with a 
back load of upland plover which he had killed near the 
vrest edge of Chicago as it then existed. The date of 
1S72 is at least quite within the memory of a great many 
of us, and it seems not a little strange that in those days 
wild pigeons not only passed here but actually alighted 
within the limits of the greatest city of the West. 
Others present at the little luncheon above mentioned 
went on to tell wild pigeon stories. Mr. W. L. \Vells 
stated that when he used to live as a boy at Monwouth, 
111., he saw upon more than one occasion a flight of wild 
pigeons which lasted throughout the daylight hours of an 
entire day. He said the flight reached from one edge 
of the horizon to the other. The birds flew in a long 
string, "a column about as wide as this room," said Mr. 
Wells; and at a height above the ground which left it 
possible to kill them with an ordinary shotgun. Natural- 
ly the people were out in force to take advantage of this 
flight. At the report of a gun, which nearly always killed 
a bird out of the solid column, the line of the pigeons 
would bow up, and, passing on, resume about the original 
level, only to bend up again at the next gun discharge 
further along on the hne of flight. Mr. Wells stated that 
he had known boys to arm themselves with long cane 
fish poles and with these to knock down numbers of 
birds from the low-flying line of the pigeons as they 
crossed a hedge. 
Others present at the little symposium above mentioned 
added their personal observations to the sum total ; there 
was hardty a man who had not seen the wild pigeon in 
greater or less numbers. There was general interest ex- 
pressed in that never answered question, What became of 
the wild pigeons? The almost instantaneous disappear- 
ar.ce of these birds is paralleled only by the disappearance 
of the northern herd of buffalo in the year 1883. People 
talk about the ^ mysterious agencies which must have 
destroyed the pigeons. The agency was the same in the 
case of the wild pigeon and the wild buffalo. And now 
we mourn these facts in our history. 
Large Pompano, 
Our little pigeon symposium took place on the occa- 
sion of a Wishininnee banquet given at the club meeting 
house by Mayor Harrison. Judge R. N. Ogden, of New 
Orleans, a near relative of iNIayor Harrison, had sent the 
latter a splendid pompano, whose weight, by the way, was 
exactly 26 pounds, about five times that which the aver- 
age man supposes is the top weight ever attained by this 
fish. This splendid pompano was prepared for the Wish- 
ininnees and they held one of their impromptu sportsmen's 
meetings then and there. It is to be said that this fish 
in delicacy of flavor seemed to rival the quality of the 
same species in lighter weights. The average man who 
eats pompano sees a fish of one pound to perhaps three 
cr four pounds weight. Appreciative of the courtesy, the 
Wishininnees sent a round robin of enthusiastic thanks 
to their old time friend. Judge Ogden, 
Lost, Strayed cr Stol n. 
• The Wishininnees have been very industrious for the 
last ten days in town. On last Saturday night they were 
the guests of Mr, Montgomery, publisher of the Chicago 
Tribune, who, after dinner, took them through the plant 
and new hmldiug of that able journal- A number of tVw 
