Sept. ^o. 1902.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
'Alien it was a common bird, an4 there are men of experi- 
ence who would have the killing of the woodcock ab- 
solutely prchibited for a term of years. Such absolute 
protection, if actually given, would no doubt enable the 
species to recover,] 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Lull in Spottiog Seasm. 
Chicago, III., Sept. 13. — There is a bit of a lull in the 
sporting season here for the time, the first flurry of the 
chicken season, always short, having subsided, and the 
ducfc season not yet having begun. Fishing is over for 
the trout anglers, and the sport of the angle does not 
appeal to the bass and 'lunge fishers so much now as it 
should, though the fish are rising better than for three 
months, possibly Ijetter than at any time this season. 
Everybody wants to go shooting, and nobody is going 
because the outlook afield is not yet sufficiently allur- 
ing. Meantime, we wait for a little while, a week, per- 
haps two or three weeks, until we may see what we are 
to see for this fall. 
The Illinois chicken crop was not only a failure, but a 
very alarming failure. The birds simply are not here. 
No one knows what has become of them, but the truth 
i."one the less stares us in the face that we have no birds 
worth mentioning to carry over as breeding stock for 
next year. We have been shooting chickens here for 
several years now, and for one or two seasons we had 
more birds in Ilhnois than we had in Dakota, but this 
was the result of a closed term of three years, and it 
seems not to have lasted, We are confronted with the 
apparent necessity for another closed term of several 
years. Shall we get it? We ought to, but we will not. 
The Illinois laws were never in worse shape, nor was 
ever the outlook for our game in worse shape than it 
is to-day. With woodcock and quail unprotected, our 
grouse absent or unaccounted for, and the remaining 
features of our game laws in a lamentable state of con- 
fusion and misapprehension, we have surely little to 
boast about here in Illinois at present. 
The salvation of the situation here has been the Lacey 
law. Really it does not seem that there is very much 
illegal game coming into the Chicago market, very little 
if any of our local game. Deputy U. S. Marshal Bor- 
tree, certainly a very ardent protectionist if we have 
any, says that he thinks the laws against sale and ship- 
ping are better respected than he would once have 
thought possible. Deputy Clark, who has under his more 
immediate charge the South Water street operations, is 
of much the same belief. The depredators don't like to 
run against Uncle Sam. As to early and illegal shoot- 
ing, one can only guess. There were no chickens left 
on opening week, but perhaps these died from other 
causes than sooner shooting. I have not heard of any 
arrests and convictions, but there may have been some, 
the records being' concealed in the offices of the State 
Warden. 
Teal Comirg In. 
The first flight of teal, just eight days ahead of time, 
arrived in this region yesterday and to-day. These birds 
are reported at Grass Lake, north of us fifty miles or 
so, also at Senachwine and Swan lakes, a hundred miles 
or so south of us. These seem to lie travelers and not 
local birds. Some of our old-time shooters say that the 
Iccal-bred teal get up and go north early in the fall, and 
then come back again later on. As to the accuracy of 
this, it is hard to vouch. At any rate, here these teal 
are, a ray of hope upon a horizon otherwise black enough 
in a sporting way. No doubt ample arrangements arc 
now under way for their proper entertainment. Tolles- 
ton Club has had good shooting at local mallards. These 
teal should be there to-day cr tu-morrow. 
Wild Rice. 
Speaking of teal reminds one <.if wild rice, regarding 
which' a considerable amount of correspondence has 
come during the past year. 1 mxt out at St. Paul a firm 
who sell this rice regularly. They told me that they 
supplied it both for the table and for sowing purposes. 
The table article is burned or singed, this operation be- 
ing performed by the Indians, who place it over a hot 
fire in order to remove liie husks or beard. Jhis leaves 
a long, darkish kernel, something like a grain of oats 
which has been blackened by mildew. The grain is hard 
and firm, and the taste is more like oats than like 
domestic rice, although it is very sweet and palatable. 
The firm told me that this form of the wild rice berry 
is never sold for planting purposes, and that they supply 
the-unsinged or bearded seed for sowing, the price for 
the seed being 5- cents a pound less than the cooking 
article. They tell me that the Indians do not bring in as 
much wild rice as formerly, but possibly the informant 
Lold me this because he needed the money. There would 
seem to be plenty of wild rice and plenty of Indians left 
in Minnesota, not to mention North Carolina. 
Grouse Country. 
Some of my Michigan friends who like a turn or so 
at ruffed grouse shooting might bear in mind Detroit, 
Minnesota. Deputy Warden Stephens, of that pomt, 
asked me why I didn't come out there to have a grouse 
siioot with him this fall. "How many can you get in a 
day?" I asked him. '-Twenty-five, easy," said he, "but 
no more. That's the daily limit." 
If I thought I could get twenty-five ruffed grouse m 
a day of wing shooting, I think I would bid good bye to 
sorrow and just go shooting. We never did get that 
manv in our palmiest days over in Michigan. If the 
whole part of a half-dozen guns brought in that many 
we felt we had done pretty well. 
November Ducks. 
Tom Divine, of Memphis, Tenn., now for a year or 
so the Mississippi missionary of the Winchester R. A. 
Ca, has been over on the St. Clair Flats of Michigan, 
getting over a little case of Mississippi malaria, but 
started hom.e ycsterdav. Turn told me here that really 
the best pla(;e to gee d\\d<, shooting in November is n\ the 
Swan Lake Club of Vicksburg, at Washington Lake. 
He says that as the weather begins to tighten up North 
the birds pile into these Southern waters in thousands 
and offer the finest kind of sport. The club has never 
established a limit to the daily bag, but will soon do 
so, There is talk of making the novel limit of one hun- 
dred shots a day. This would not mean fifty birds a 
day for so very many shooters, but it would allow every 
fellow a lot of fun almost any day he went out in 
season. 
Oo GrUzIy Ridge. 
I have a friend otlt in the West, who lives where there 
is always snow in sight. We have never seen each other 
yet, and have only exchanged letters twice, but we are 
friends, and will probably go after my grizzly together 
one of these fine days. My friend writes in his last 
letter : 
"Yes, we have grizzly bear and mountain sheep in this 
country, as well as deer and smaller bear. Although I 
failed on this trip to get either, it was not because the 
game was not there, for we saw plenty of deer and bear 
sign along the river' and in the caiions. We were in a 
mountain sheep country, but the weather was too hot to 
climb the rocks and cliffs after them, so we contented 
ourselves with fish, grouse, peaches, apples and black- 
berries. I was out for health more than game. 
"There have been a few very large grizzlies killed in 
this county in the last year, and in each case the bear had 
killed from 300 to $500 worth of cattle befor he was cap- 
tured. I have not heard of any depredations of cattle- 
killing bear this summer. I think it would not be a diffi- 
cult matter for you to find your game over on what is 
called Grizzly Ridge. You would outfit here for your 
trip to the mountains, this being the most convenient to 
the best game localities. It would also be the best place 
to leave your wife, providing she did not accompany you 
on the hunt. You would have to go with a pack outfit, 
as the bear country is inaccessible for anything but a 
pack train or a iootman. You will find no trouble in 
procuring your man and outfit for a trip of that kind." 
I like the sound of that name, Grizzly Ridge. Must 
have been a bear made a track across there some time, 
anyhow. I'm expecting another friend — whom I have 
never met or written to yet, by the way — along through 
here from that same country this winter, and if I see 
him, I will tell what he says about the prospects in that 
part of the world. 
Off For Moose. 
Messrs. T. W. Robinson and John Morron, of this 
city, start Sunday next for New Brunswick for a moose 
hunt, with Jack Moore as guide in Adam Moore's newly 
discovered moose country. They will very likely gel 
their game. These are the only Chicago hunters to 
qt^alify so far for New Brunswick. 
Vishlninne Reunion. 
The Wishininncs have been dropping into town for 
the past week, coming from here, there and everywhere, 
as becomes gentlemen of the Wishinhuie sort at this sea- 
son of events. Mayor Harrison spent his summer at the 
Huron Mountain Club, of Michigan, and had the worst 
luck fishing ever known to befall any member of that 
organization. He only caught three or four good trout 
all summer, and there was no one else who did not get 
big ones. Similar luck attended him later in the angling 
season, when he went to the Manitowish Chain after 
muscallunge. Seventeen pounds and a half was the best 
he could do, though others were snaking 'em in all 
around him, up to 35 pounds or better. 
Hon. Hempstead Washburnc was more lucky in his 
sojourn at Huron Mountain, He, or his son, it does not 
clearly appear which, accomplished the undoing of a 5%- 
pound trout, not to mention others of goodly propor- 
tions. Mr. Washburn" is all smiles where he isn't all 
sunburn. , , , • 
Mr. Graham H. Harris was happier than anybody this 
week when he dawned at the club table. He has been 
out in the Rockies west of the National Park for six 
weeks, and has had magnificent fishing in the Snake and 
other streams. He met there Mr. Ed. Ellicott, also of 
Chicago, and the two did extensive business with the 
trout. Mr. Harris wants to start right back again to 
the Rockies. 
Eddie Pope has been chicken shooting, and is expected 
back soon with stories of sport and glory, and several 
others have shooting or fishing yarns to spin. Great 
deprecation was expressed over the summer records of 
Messrs. Wells, Denis. J. V. Clarke and Lou Clarke. Mr. 
Wells, the president of the club— we have never been 
able to oust him from that ofiice— had a vacation, but 
threw it away playing golf at Exmoor Club, of Chicago. 
Mr. Lou Clarke did the same. His brother, J. V. Clarke, 
deserted to Rye Beach, which is somewhere in the dark- 
est East. Mr. Dennis did as badly in taking his golf 
around Boston. These disaffections among the 
Wishininnes have caused a sharp schism, and the in- 
ternal conflict in the club ranks run to threats of firing 
all members who forsake the rod and for the crooked- 
clubbed game of Thistledom. This and other matters 
will come up for discussion at the first formal meeting 
of the body, which will be a dinner at the Mayor's resi- 
dence next Tuesday evening. Only Creole dishes will 
be served, and many important questions of national im- 
portance hitherto left unsettled will upon this occasion 
be finally disposed of. 
Western Licenses. 
Mr. Jas. K. Boyd, of New York, writes about Minne- 
sota game laws : 
"As to the Minnesota non-resident law, you write none 
will be required from hunters coming from States not 
having a non-resident tax. Mr. Stephens sa^s law re- 
quires paying $25. A recent article in Forest and 
Stream says there is a tax of $10. Can you enlighten 
us? If you will, we will be greatly obliged. We would 
stop in Minnesota on our way to North Dakota if not 
t;:xed. . • , c 
"I was greatly interested in your chicken article of 
thi§ ^veek, Nothing h^s my blood boil the gam? 
since my last year's shoot. Meat dogs are the correct 
thing." 
The Game Lazirs in Brief states : "Minnesota requires 
a non-resident license for hunting game of any species 
from citizens of all States, which require non-resident 
hunting licenses. Fee, $25." 
This is the latest of which I know. I did hear some- 
thing of collecting licenses from some parties who were 
out in Minnesota during our late trip there, but I could 
not say whether all theee were from other license States. 
Illinois and Wisconsin men get it in the pocketbook. 
Perhaps the wardens find that the only practical way to 
get any license money is to assess every shooter found 
there. If they did not do this, they might find that 
everybody came from some innocent State. It has al- 
ways been a great aid in the enforcement of the game 
laws of Minnesota to put the burden of proof on the 
other fellow. I wotild suggest that Mr. Boyd get his 
r.dvice on this direct from Mr. Fullerton, the State war- 
den. I would also advise him to steal Mr. FuUerton's 
meat dog if he can. Mr. Fullerton won't mind it. He 
never gets a good dog but what some fellow comes 
along and steals him. In fact, he rather expects you are 
going to steal his dog, I think. He acted surprised be- 
cause I didn't. 
Keep in Line. 
I was talking with a friend of mine the other day, and 
he asked me to go shooting with him. "I had a good 
shoot out in Nebraska last fall," said he, "but I shot a 
fellow, out there, and that sort of made me feel out 
cf sorts; spoiled ray hunt, in fact. This fellow was the 
most excitable tnan you ever did see. When we were 
-,;alking along in line, and the dogs came to a point, he 
would always run out ahead of everybody and try to 
get the first shot. I told him he'd get shot or shoot 
somebody, and blamed if the very next day it didn't 
happen! He ran out in front about thirty yards, and a 
bird crossed over his way. I killed the bird. Didn't 
see the fellow. ■ Say, you ought to heard him holler ! _ We 
was some bothered to get the shot out of him. I said to 
him. 'Now what did I tell you? Now I'll tell you what's 
v/hat. Either you have got to go back to camp, or I will. 
I won't shoot in line with you any more.' Well, the fel- 
low, he says, T guess I'll go back,' so he went back to 
camp, and I was glad he did. He made me nervous." 
Forest Fires and Timber Reserves. 
The Interior Department on Sept. 10 received a peti- 
tion from Fremont county, Wyo.*, asking that 550,000 
acres of land lying on the continental divide southwest of 
Lander be made a forest reservation. The largest fire in 
the history of the general land office occurred on this 
tract and is still raging. 
Got A Muscaliuoge. 
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., has returned to his home 
after his' first trip into the West. Among the different 
and perhaps not always accurate stories regarding hi« 
success it may be stated with probable truthfulness that 
the young man caught a 22-pound muscallunge in Wis- 
consin. This would seem to be luck enough, even with- 
out any chicken shooting. E. HouGH. 
Hartitord Building, Chicago, III. 
Connecticut Rail Shooting. 
Essex, Conn.. Sept. 12.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
So far as getting rail is concerned, the shooting the 
past week has been all that could be asked for. On 
Saturday, the 6th, for the first time in the season, several 
shooters killed the legal number of birds, and since that 
time the shooting has been exceptionally good. 
Some black ducks have been killed and a few blue- 
winged teal as well. No snipe are reported as yet, still 
it is quite early to be looking for them. A good frost 
v.nll probably bring thero on in numbers. G. W. C. 
MiLFORD, Conn.. Sept. 12.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
It is years since the rail shooting has been so good as 
during the past week. There seems to have been a suc- 
cession of flights of birds, and many of the bags have 
been good, running from thirty to forty to the boat. 
One gunner who one day had the whole ground to 
himself, succeeded in getting the limit, fifty birds. 
This year the grass is exceptionally thick, and it is 
only on the occasion of an unusually high tide that the 
boats can move freely through it. On a number of 
occasions shovers have reported that there were lots 
of birds in the thick grass and the cattails, where owing 
to the low stage of the water they were entirely safe. 
Old shovers belic\e that the season is nearing its 
end, and say that a little colder weather than that al- 
ready had will send all the birds south and close the 
season, except for the few hardy birds that sometimes 
linger among the sedge further down the river, for a few 
weeks longer. R. P- 
Deer Jacking in New Yotfc. 
Orange, N. J.. Sej)t. 12. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your* issue of Sept. 13 you rnake mention of the re- 
cent accident near Blue Mountain Lake, and state that 
"jacking" is illegal (as it shpuld of course be). I note 
that in the Brief, page 25, Laws of New York, Sec. 6, 
says: "No jacklight or other artificial light shall be 
used in taking deej- before Aug. 15, 1902." How is this 
to be construed? Of course I agree heartily with the 
tone of your editorial, but was rather surprised to find 
the above quoted statement in the Brief. In discussing 
the late tragedy, I had argued that all jacking was 
illegal, but to make sure I looked it up, G. W._ W. 
[Our correspondent must have looked up an edition of 
the Brief printed before the amendment of 1902 was 
adopted. The July issue of the Brief gives the prohibition 
of jacking without any limitation as to time.] 
All communications intended for Forest and Stxsak shoold 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., ITew 
Y o^^, ||«(| ^ot to indiir»doal wa»«cted ^ith thf pper. 
