April i8, 1903.]: 
FOREST AND SIHEAM. 
807 
e they discovered us, and it was laughable to see 
lie surprised look they gave us. They then made a 
cvv jumps to the side and went on down the trail. 
The guns we used were a .30-30, a .38-55, .38-56 and 
•45-70. 
On this trip I used what I consider the best all 
ind game gun, a three-barrel, one cylinder 12 gauge 
: ijt barrel, one choked 12 gauge shot barrel and a 
3S-55 rifle. In the cylinder barrel I used a solid ball, 
ind it is very accurate up to 50 or 75 yards. The pene- 
ration of this ball with three and a half drams of good 
3owder is good. We tried this on this trip, as cona- 
ijared with a .30-30 and a .45-70; the 12 gauge ball pene- 
;rated about two inches more wood than the others. 
The Prof, killed a deer with one of these, and the 
lole it made in that deer's neck was "great." One day 
G. and I Avent after grouse, he taking a shotgun and I 
my three-barrel. We had killed seven grouse, and 
were coming back to camp, when we saw two bucks 
:ross the valley and start up the opposite mountain 
side; G. said he saw where the large buck went into a 
scrub oak patch, and as he did not see him come out, he 
proposed to cross over and see if he could not drive 
him out so that I could get a shot, as he had only a 
shotgun. I sat on a log and waited. G. had walked 
to within about twenty yards of the scrub oak patch, 
when out jumped the buck, taking two or three jumps 
along the side of the mountain, and then turned up to- 
ward the top. After he turned I pulled between his 
horns and held high. At the crack of the rifle he fell 
over backward, shot through the neck. I confess I 
was about as badly surprised as the buck. So raucb 
for the three-barrel. If I had been hunting with a 
shotgun with no rifle attachment, that beautiful buck's 
head would not now adorn my wall. I mounted it my- 
self, and I believe I can tell any reasonably "handy" 
man how to mount his own game heads equal to most 
taxidermists. . . 
1 met my first mountain grouse on this trip, and I 
think them" very choice as an article of diet when well 
cooked; but as a game target, you cannot tell what 
to expect. Perhaps he will sit on a log until you can 
get close enough to knock him over with a club; and 
again he is up and off at the first sign of danger; and 
when flying through a quaking asp thicket, they are 
not easy marks. 
We also had some sage hen shooting, which is, T 
think, similar to prairie chicken shooting. The young 
ones,' if drawn as soon as shot and properly cooked, 
taste about the same as grouse. The old ones we did 
not try, but would think they would taste about like 
underdone sage brush. 
Colorado needs more and better game wardens. We 
only met one on our thirty days' trip, and of him our 
teamster said, "He is afraid to call me down for any- 
thing, for I caught him killing a cow elk last winter." 
And he also .said, "Anyone with $10 can fix him " This 
is the sort of protectors that protect the "game hog" 
and the "sooner," but not the game. 
i But I believe the law protecting doeS is generally 
observed by the residents, as the hills seemed alive 
with them, and many were quite tame. 
En Ami. 
Massachusetts Fish and Game. 
Boston, April 11. — Editor Forest and Stream: The 
Massachusetts Legislature has another good deed to its 
credit. This relates to marsh and beach birds. 
Section S of Chapter 92 of the Revised Laws, has 
been amended by striking out the word "May" in the 
third line and substituting the word "March." By 
this action March and April are included in the close 
season for "plover, snipe, sandpiper, rail and the so- 
called shore, marsh or beach birds." The remainder 
of the section is left as before, and is susceptible of 
further improvement as regards the "herring gull' and 
the "black-backed gull." There was never any good 
reason for making an exception of those birds. 
A former chairman of the Fish and Game Committee 
was instrumental in making this exception on the flnnsy 
plea that some of his constiuents about Martha's Vine- 
yard were accustomed to kill them for food, and the 
other members yielded to his wishes — an illustration 
of the fact that much of the legislation in these days 
is secured by compromises and concessions, if not by 
downright bargaining. As regards the two bills pre- 
sented by the Central Committee, viz: the anti-sale 
law on partridge and woodcock, and the deer law, 
there is no longer anj' fear — the former having (it is 
thought) secured the Governor's signature, and the 
latter having met nO serious opposition in its amended 
form providing recompense to farmers for actual dam- 
age done by deer to crops. 
On the recommendation of the commissioners sev- 
eral bills have been reported favorably, and we shall 
soon know their fate. One of these is for better pro- 
tection of song and insectivorous birds. 
Another relates to "possession of bodies or feath- 
ers of certain birds." One authorizing the "Commis- 
sioners to re-stock certain great ponds with food fish," 
and another "To prohibit the use of trawls in certain 
ponds," in which "the use of more than ten hooks by 
one person shall be deemed a trawl." Still, another 
prohibiting the "use of dynamite or other explosive in 
fishing waters." If all these salutary measures run 
the gauntlet the present session of the Legislature will 
surely be a record-breaker, so far as the cause of pro- 
tection is concerned. 
On Thursday there was a vefy hot debate in the 
house over Representative McCartney's bill to allow 
Sunday fishing in salt water. The reference of this 
bill was to the Committee on Probate and Chancery — 
just why it was so referred the Avriter has no knowl- 
edge, as it would naturally go to the Committee on 
Fish and Game. It was favored by the socialist mem- 
ber from Haverhill, Mr. Carey, by Representative Dean, 
of Wakefield, one of the strong men in the house, and 
by Mr, O'Rourke, of Worcester, while the speakers m 
opposition were Representatives Quinn and Ham, of 
Boston; Everett, of Wareham, and others. The bill 
was up for the third reading, and was defeated by a 
large vote. 
Two years ago a bill presented by Ward N. Boylston, 
which was drawn to repeal the law against Sunday 
fishing, was lost by one vote. 
Trout Fishing. 
A few anglers of Boston and vicinity have tried their 
luck, but owing to the cold weather of the first few days 
this month they have not been very successful. 
At Wakeley'President Reed, who never misses fish- 
ing x^pril I, and Prof. Myron Whitney, took a few 
trout. "Several others who have visited the Cape waters 
have not yet returned to the Hub. 
From Worcester come reports from a score or more 
of fishermen, several of whom took a good number, 
but most of them report that they found unmistakable 
evidence of illegal fishing during the warm days at the 
end of March in well-worn and numerous tracks along 
the banks. 
This suggests the need of more extended warden 
service to patrol the brooks just before the opening of 
the fishing season, A larger reserve force for special 
emergencies is greatly needed, and probably in due 
time will be provided. 
I have interesting information from New Hampshire, 
but must defer it to another time, only mentioning what 
1 presume many of your readers have heard, the license 
fee voted by the last Legislature for non-residents 
hunting large game is $10. Central. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST* 
Big Jacksnipc Flight. , 
Chicago, 111., April i. — ^What will doubtless prove to be 
the best flight of jacksnipe this spring is now all over 
this country, and those who get afield inside of the cur- 
rent week will no doubt have the best sport of the 
season. There were warm rains for three or four days 
back, and for the last twenty-four hours the earth in all 
this neighborhood has been simply covered with angle- 
worms. This shows that the feeding is good for the 
jacksnipe, and the latter seem not slow to appreciate the 
fact, since they have appeared in good numbers in all the 
better known grounds in this vicinity. 
Mr. J. G. Kendall and one companion in Indiana last 
week bagged forty-six jacksnipe, shooting on the Kanka- 
kee bottom. 
Mr. Oswald Von Lengerke on last Monday bagged 
thirty-three jacksnipe, and sixteen on one shoot a few 
days precious. On last Thursday he and some friends 
went out over the same ground near Morris, III., and only 
got a dozen birds between them. He thinks that now the 
flight will be better, and intends to try them again to- 
day. 
Billy Cutler, a very ardent snipe shooter, got back from 
Momcnce, on the Kankakee, the other day with a fine bag 
of jacks and other snipe. He reported very pleasant 
sport, indeed. 
At Fox Lake, along Squaw Creek and other bogs, the 
snipe shooting has been excellent within the past few 
days, according to scattered reports which are now com- 
ing down. 
Along the Skokie marsh north of Chicago and in the 
region of Crystal Lake in this State, jacksnipe have been 
about as numerous as they usually are within the past 
four or five days. I hear of some very decent shooting in 
these neighborhoods. 
Along the Calumet country, which was forrnerly 
famous snipe ground, although it is now almost within 
the limits of Chicago, the longbills have been present 
in good numbers. Henry Kleinman killed fourteen in 
one day this week, and other shooters have been heard 
hammering the birds pretty hard in that neighborhood, 
so that there would seem to have been quite a little flight 
in on these once much frequented marshes. 
As to a tip for this present flight, I would suggest the 
Little Calumet marsh near the B. & O. bridge, at the 
points Avhich are commonly used by the members of the 
Calumet Heights Club. 
The Tolleston members also ought to get a few snipe 
around their preserve this week. There may be a few 
birds along the western prairie sloughs adjoining this 
city. Sometimes a few jacks can be picked up among 
the fields near Arlington Heights, a suburb in the north- 
west corner of this city. I have no reports from the 
Illinois River or Mississippi bottoms, but presume they 
are having their share of jacks from this general flight, 
which now seems to be working north. 
Ducks Gone, 
The ducks seem now to have pretty much all gone. I 
hear of a last flight of bluebills now far up in Wiscon- 
sin on Fox Lake, and suppose that the shooting is over 
for this season in this part of the world. 
No Spring Law Needed. 
I was tallcing this morning with a friend who some- 
times kills a good many jacksnipe and a few ducks in the 
spring. I asked him why he was not out duck shooting, 
and he said that he had not in very many years shot 
ducks so late in the season as this. He admitted that he 
had killed eight ducks this spring, and that sometimes 
earlier in the season he did a little spring shooting on 
ducks. In this he is joined by a good many others who 
also. I fear, sometimes take down their guns in spite of 
their consciences. I recall having made recent mention 
of the rules which Mr. J. B. Castle, the member of the 
House of Representatives w^ho has in charge our present 
game law bill, always laid down for his personal conduct. 
These rules do not frame themselves according to the 
game laws. It is Mr. Castle's theory that you do not need 
a game law to stop yourself from spring shooting, if that 
is the way your convictions lie. He feels the same way 
about large bags and a great many other unwise things 
in sportsmanship. 
When you come to think about it, Mr. Castle and gen- 
tlemen like him are quite in the right of it No one 
compels you to go shooting ducks in the spring if you 
don't want to. If you are really a thinking sportsman, 
the kind that you and I write about, you don't wait for the 
Legislature to tell you what to do. You are not obliged 
to kill 100 ducks in a day's shooting af you don't want 
to. If you do this I would suggest that, as a matter of 
personal consistency, you don't say anything whatever 
about the desirability of having spring shooting stopped. 
Of course you probably will, for such is human nature. 
I simply say that it is not obligatory upon you. 
In my own case, I gave up the spring shooting idea 
with considerable reluctance. Like nearly all other sports- 
men, I am very fond of a little exercise; especially in the 
spring. It is such a joy and comfort to get out of doors 
and become good and tired, and incidentally to shoot a 
few things beside. I stopped duck shooting largely be- 
cause the Forest and Stream said it was not the right 
thing to do, and I did not think it was quite consistent 
not to practice one's own preaching. The first season I 
found it a little hard to stay in the house on the first few 
days when the passing of winter made it desirable to get 
out of doors. The second season I though little of it, 
and of late years the giving up of spring duck shooting 
has been perfectly painless with me. I admit that I shot 
jacksnipe two or three years after I quit duck shooting. 
Then I saw that the principle was the same, and I stopped 
that also. I don't think that to-day I really suffer very 
much from it. Under the laws of this State this has not 
been obligatory upon me any more than it has been upon 
anyone else, but I have proved to my own satisfaction 
that you don't have to have a law to prevent your doing 
things which you say you do not think are right. 
Now suppose instead of spring shooting one would take 
to spring fishing. Early spring fishing is wrong in the 
case of those fishes which spawn during the spring time. 
I used to catch bass on the spring run under the mill 
dams, and many and many a bass I have taken which was 
loaded with spawn. A few years ago I figured out that 
this was hardly consistent or proper. I don't fish for bass 
now until along in June. Under the laws I can if I care 
to. This statement on my part I certainly hope will not 
be taken as any expression of self-righteousness, for I 
have never found it necessary to be self-righteous. It is 
just an unbiased statement as to a possible personal atti- 
tude in regard to good personal game laws. 
Now, in the case of brook trout, they are fall spawners. 
There are more trout now in Wisconsin and Michigan 
than there were ten years ago. You will see that nature 
has offered you a certain compensation for your self- 
abnegation in renouncing spring shooting and early spring 
bass fishing. After the 15th of April — that is to say, by 
the time the leaves have begun to come out and the grass 
has begun to shoot — you are at liberty to legally and 
sportsmanly to go after a form of sport in its natural 
and proper season. Is there not sufficient in the possibili- 
ties of trout fishing to reimburse one for the unseason- 
able forms of sport against which many of us declare 
openly, but which so few of us are personally so willing 
to renounce? It is certainly a question which every fel- 
low can solve for himself, and solve it without any claim 
of special virtue one way or the other. 
Geese Around Chicago. 
Within the past week there have been very large num- 
bers of Canada geese in the neighborhood of Crystal 
Lake and on some parts of the Skokie marsh, though 
they are more usually to be found on the corn fields ad- 
jacent to these regions. These geese seem for the most 
part to roost out on Lake Michigan and come inland to 
feed. One farmer who lives near Crystal Lake came in to 
town for some No. 5 buckshot to-day. He says that day 
before yesterday he made a sneak up to a bunch of geese 
in his corn field and fired into them with No. 2 shot, kill- 
ing seven geese. He thought if he had buckshot he could 
have done better execution here, or on some other 
chances on which he had still lono-er ran-je ^ I It^v- 
from time to time mentioned this flight of wild, geese 
along the lake shore north of Chicago. Mr. iowi-^cJ 
Smith is one of those northern suburbanites who some- 
times do a turn at the passing flocks of geese which 
come over the bluffs along the lake shore. 
Good for Texas. 
The most startling news in the world, if it can as yet 
safely be called news, comes in the form of a report of 
the proposed sportsmen's bill in the Texas State i^egisla- 
ture. M}^ friend Guessaz, of San Antonio, writes : "Our 
game bill has passed both Houses and we are expecting 
the signature of the Governor every day. It is a corker. 
It absolutely prohibits the sale or barter of any game 
bird, or any bird of brilliant plumage — -even of any song 
bird. It limits the bag to twenty-five birds of any kind, 
shortens the open season fifty per cent., limits deer kill- 
ing to bucks, and allows only six bucks per man each 
year. We admit that it is weak in that it has no pro- 
vision for wardens, but that will come in time. It is 
certainly a fine measure." 
It is certainly a fine measure, and one most startling 
as coming from this hitherto careless State of Texas. If 
this law shall really stop the market shooting along the 
Gulf Coast — including the unscrupulous and unlimited 
market hunting of Banker Moody at Galveston — then cer- 
tainly the millennium will seem to have arrived in the 
Lone Star State. We may be crowing before we are out 
of the woods, but it is much to be hoped that the Gov- 
ernor will put his signature to this bill, and that, indeed, 
he has done so before this writing. Two years ago this 
advance along the lines of game protection would have 
been considered impossible for the St^te of Texns. One 
year ago, or six months ago, it would have been almost 
chimerical to expect that the State of Illinois would stop 
the sale of ducks. Yet it is hoped and believed that the 
Illinois game bill, which has hitherto been otttlined, will 
pass and be signed, just as it is hoped and believed that 
this Texas measure has by this time become a law. The 
sportsmen of the West need by no means be discouraged. 
The splendid progress in game legislation within the last 
few years seems to indicate that at last the people of the 
West are begitming to value their game and to take 
measures for preserving it. While I was in Texas 1 
heard a great deal of talk about this proposed sportsmen's 
game bill, but must confess that I thought nothing would 
come of it, as hitherto the Moody idea and allied influ- 
ences have been too strong in the Legislature of Texas 
to allow -sportsmen to get a decent bill upon the statute 
books. 
The limited bag idea also seems to be growing in th« 
