Sept. 27, 1902.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
2.53 
watch for chickens, but there were none— just as we 
had been told. And I saw the reason for it very soon, 
too — water stood everywhere from an inch up to even 
a foot. The grain was abandoned, either left in the 
shock to spoil or uncut! What show would praine 
chickens have__in such a country, where the greater part 
of the land is'under water? 
The slough soon was in sight, and it was not long 
before we were having fair sport with teal and spoon- 
bills. , ^ r 
Since then we have made two visits to the sloughs of 
that region, and have always returned home with good 
bags of ducks, the little bluewings being most numer- 
ous. I have noticed something about this bird which I 
regarded as rather peculiar. The upper part of the wing 
was a marked blue, while the lower part, in some, was 
just marked a green. Did any one ever notice this, and 
is it caused by the mixing of the blue and green wings 
together? 
I will give an account of our last hunt on these 
sloughs. We were well prepared for the ducks this 
time, having a large number of decoys, which work well, 
the only trouble about them being to carry them about. 
As we were placing them in a likely spot, and wonder- 
ing whether there were any clucks about, we happened 
to'glance to a spot not far distant. The sight which met 
our eyes was quite satisfactory. In an open spot in 
the slough the ducks were having a delightful time play- 
ing about, giving each other a shower batch, and water 
was ilying in every direction. I now endeavored to wade 
as close to the ducks as possible, my friend staying 
secluded in the grass behind in the hope of a shot. I 
managed to get close to the birds before they took flight, 
but I made the mistake of rising too soon, and was 
able to get only two ducks on the wing, while my partner 
was not able to shoot once. We marked the flock 
down in a little slough in a distant cornfield and started 
for them, but before we had gone far, they circled back, 
and to our joy lit near our decoys, which we had left in 
a corner of the larger slough. We decided the best 
thing to do was to try and sneak up on them. A ditch 
aided us somewhat, for by walking in it we saved a lot 
of back bending. After getting out of the ditch we were 
compelled to crawl on hands and knees, and this soon 
developed into the caterpillar mode of locomotion. 
Keeping a bunch of weeds between us and the ducks, we 
managed to get within about ten rods of the birds, when 
they arose; but we arose with them, and when our guns 
ceased action we picked up five bluewing teal. Our 
good fortune continued till nightfall, when we gathered 
in our decoys and started for our buggy, well satisfied 
with our afternoon's work. Geo. J. Bicknell. 
[The small wing coverts at the bend of the wing are 
always sky-blue in the blue-winged teal and the specu- 
lum is green. However, in the female and young the 
speculum is absent or shows faintly. Similar coleration 
of these parts is found in the shoveller and cinnamon 
teal. Consult "American Duck Shooting" or Ridgway 
or Elliott, or any good ornithology.] 
$50 to $100, are imported yearly. Of fox skins, nearly 
30,000 pelts are tanned and dyed yearly. Lamb skins 
average about 1,000,000 per year. 
Formerly, Leipzig handled annually about 4,000,000 
Russian squirrel skins, which were bought mostly in 
England; but as the fashion of long-fur garniture on 
ladies' dresses disappeared, the demand was reduced to 
2,000,000 pelts. The tails for boas are mostly imita- 
tions' of marten and sable tails. The sale of the pelt 
of the white fox in this market amounts yearly to about 
$500,000, which is about the whole available product of 
the world's markets. 
The Intelligfence of Ross. 
Boston, Sept. 20. — Shore bird shooting is not very 
satisfactory to Boston gunners just now; nor has it been 
good this season. Early there were pretty good flights 
of peep and other small birds, but yellowlegs have been a 
failure thus far. Gunners say that there have been very 
few at Chatham, while nothing has been done with them 
off Scituate, and further up toward Boston. Down the 
North Shore the shooting has been equally poor. L. W. 
DePass' son, H. C. DePass, an expert boy gunner of 
fifteen, has made several shooting stops at Plum Island, 
since the open season begun, but has got no large birds 
yet. He has shot a good many peep and small birds. 
One Boston gunner made a trip to Chatham last Satur- 
day, with the result of only two stray yellowlegs. and 
no large birds. J. H. Jones was down the North Shore 
the other day, with his Irish setter, Ross. Mr. Jones shot 
six grass birds, and Ross retrieved them in fair shape, 
though with a look of disgust, disinterested disgust, as 
much as to say, "They're not quail, and you, big man, 
ought to know it. They smell fishy." Jones thinks Ross 
is worth more than a week ago, in fact. The other niorn- 
ing he went down to the station at East Somerville to 
come to Boston. Ross followed, but was driven back, 
with the order to go home. This the dog did in good 
shape, but just before the 7'io train got in, hearing the 
whistle, he started for the station. Boarding the right 
train he came to Boston alone. Getting out at the North 
Station, he scoured that great depot all over with nose 
to the floor. Not getting his master's track by the scent, 
he quietly boarded the next train out and Avent home ; 
getting off at the right station, without hint or suggestion 
from anybody, though the trainmen, who know both 
the dog and his master, saw him. The trainmen are ready 
to vouch for this action of the dog. They saw him and 
were ready to offer him hints or suggestions, if there was 
danger of his being carried by. But he was up and on 
the alert before the train stopped at his home station. 
Jumping off, he quietly trotted home, and was ready to 
meet his master when his train arrived at night. 
Special. 
Fur Market of Leipzig:. 
Consul-General Oliver J. D. Hughes writes from 
Coburg: Nearly the whole fur trade of the world con- 
centrates itself in the two cities of London and Leipzig; 
but as about two-thirds of the London furs which are 
sold at auction, go to Leipzig, the result is that the fur 
market of Leipzig is really the greater of the two. The 
Leipzig warehouses receive raw and half-prepared furs 
from Siberia, European Russia, America, Australia and 
China, making the business of the fur exchange worth 
from |i5.ooo,ooo to $17,000,000 j^early. The chief article 
of import is the raw astrakhan from Bokhara, which 
comes via Nizhni Novgorod, this product reaching an 
importation figure of about 1,000.000 skins, each of which 
is worth from $2.06 to $3.35. With the cost of tanning 
and dressing added, the value of this trade amounts to 
from $3,000,000 to $3,500,000. 
The second most important division of goods includes 
fable furs, of which about 5P,ooo skins, each worth from 
The Rail Shootingf. 
MiLFORn, Conn., Sept. 20. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Once or twice within the last week we have thought that 
the rail were gone for good, but each time a new flight 
of birds has been found on the following day. and we 
have had good shooting. On two or three occasions, men 
h.ive killed up to the limit. The old shovers tell me that it 
is long since the shooting has been so good, 
I went out on Tuesday and killed a few birds. There 
were two or three other boats out, but by good luck I had 
the cream of the shooting. Unfortunately, however, the 
tide was not a good one, and many of the birds were 
found just at the edge of the reeds and the cattails, and 
dodged into the cover so quickly that they escaped. Then, 
too, in several places I found birds so numerous that to 
tell you the honest truth I got excited and missed a good 
many shots that I ought to have hit. Sometimes five or 
six birds would get up at once, and before I could do 
more than fire my two barrels, they would all be under 
cover. 
It looked to me as if these birds had just come in. and 
dropped down in the grass anywhere, and had hardly 
moved about at all until my boat came shoving among 
them. 
I do not say how many birds I killed, but I may confess 
that I ought to have had a good many more than I ^ot. 
The season is pretty nearly over now, and the first hard 
easterly storm that we have, followed by clear cold 
weather with a northwesterly wind, will undoubtedly send 
all the birds along, and for us in New England will end 
the rail season of 1902. R. P. 
\m m{d ^iv^r filing. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Foxest and Strxah. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Chicago Fly-Castlog Club. 
ChicagOj 111., Sept. 19. — The semi-annual return contest 
for the cast-iron medals between the Chicago Fly-Casting 
Club and the Grand Rapids Fly-Casting Club, will take 
place on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 20, on our 
grounds. An effort will be made to allow further re- 
entries to our members, to complete scores not already 
filled. The contest will be continued on Sunday morning 
at 9 :30, and this will be the last tournament day for this 
season. It is hoped the members will attend, especially 
those who have not completed their scores. 
On Saturday, Sept. 20, a dinner will be held at the 
Chicago Athletic Club at 7 P. iM., complimentary to 
the members of the Grand Rapids Fly-Casting Club visit- 
ing the city. The local club sincerely hopes for a generous 
attendance. 
Among those who are expected to come over from 
Grand Rapids to-morrow afternoon are IMessrs. John A. 
Waddell, C. B. Kelsey, Asa Stuart, Eber Rice and Douglas 
Berr3^ It need not be said that the little dinner at the 
Athletic Club will be a very pleasant reunion of these 
angling companions. The relations of Chicago and Grand 
Rapids in the matter of the angling craft are very pleasant 
and will ever remain so. 
iMr. F. N. Peet, a prominent member of the Chicago 
Fly-Casting Club, speaking of the late trip to the Pacific 
Coast, states that while there he met at Seattle iMr. W^ 
S. Phillips, El Comancho, formerly of Chicago, and now 
of Seattle. iMr. Phillips entertained the Chicago men 
royally and did what was possible in the way of fishing, 
though the salmon run was not at its best at that time. 
All the Chicago party had good fishing in the Rogue 
River, and were able to show the Coast anglers something 
about spoon hooks and little casting rods, to say nothing 
of learning something themselves in the matter of flies 
and fly-rods. 
By the way, Asa Stuart made iMr. Peet a fly-rod which 
excited the envy of about every fisherman on the Pacific 
Coast. I violate no confidence in saying that iMr. Stuart 
will perhaps have two or three of these same rods with 
him when he comes over here to-morrow. He will never 
get out of town alive with them. We'll get them by 
peace, if possible, by force if we must. There are some 
drawbacks to being an amateur rod maker, one of which 
is that you cannot keep any rods you make — that is, if you 
make them as well as Asa Stuart does. He makes the 
kind of fishing rod which will go out at night and fish 
by itself, unless you lock it up, and his split bamboo 
creations have been the undoing of many a lusty rainbow 
on the Pere iMarquette. 
Good Bass Vater. 
iMr. Harry L. Notter, of this city, tells me something 
about Gun Lake, of iMichigan, which he says is about the 
bassiest water he ever saw in all his life. This sheet of 
water lies between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, and has 
a total shore line of about ninety miles. It has large and 
small mouth bass, pike, som^e croppies and an occasional 
muscallunge. The bass there will rise to spinning baits, 
wooden minnows or almost any kind of a thing which 
moves, whirls or jumps. There are some cottages in 
there, but the lake does not seem to be very much touted 
or tipped off. I suggest it as something very well worth 
lemembering. Incidentally, if may say that tb^re is a big 
marsh at one end of the lake, which is stated to be a good 
duck ground in the fall. 
Coateats of Fish. 
A local paper prints as "news" the story of a New 
York paper which states that Mrs. Thomas Young, of 
Sebago Lake, Me., caught a trout which disgorged a red 
stone which fell into the bottom of the boat. This red 
stone was preserved by Mrs. Young, who later discovered 
that it was a ruby worth about $roo. Since this thing has 
been printed as news in more than one paper, there can 
be no doubt whatever as to its accuracy, though I do not 
myself believe the story itself is so remarkable as that of 
the Wisconsin trout captured by Mrs. William Jones, of 
Ashland, Wis., which, when taken from the hook, dis- 
gorged a red hot cooking stove. It is stated that Mrs. 
Young intends to have the ruby set into a ring for her 
own use. I see no reason why a cooking stove discovered 
in this way by a lady could not also be used to her own 
personal use and behoof. 
Strange Revival on the Kankakee. 
A very singular state of affairs exists at this writing 
along that historic stream, the Kankakee River. I first 
got track of this through a Mr. Jensen, who has been 
camping out for a couple of weeks at a point on the Kan- 
kakee, about five miles from Koutts, Ind. He states that 
he is in a country which is practically wilderness. He has 
seen no sign of human being or human habitation during 
his stay on the timbered banks of this strange and fas- 
cinating river. He has been putting in his time doing a 
little fishing. He reports bass very scarce, but has been 
having great sport with big catfish, taking one which 
is stated to have weighed 87 pounds. He came back to 
Chicago on a visit and takes with him to his camp a lot 
of big tarpon hooks, saying that he intends to do business 
with big catfish. 
A strange part of Mr. Jensen's story is that he tells of 
a great run of .small pickerel in the iKankakee. No one 
at Koutts could tell where these pickerel came from, bu* 
they were in there simply in hundreds, all of about a 
size, between two and three pounds each, and every one 
of them anxious to bite at any living or moving thing 
offered to it. Mr. Jensen said he had caught them until 
he was tired. No large pickerel were reported, no very 
great numbers of carp and scarcely any bass. 
So much for one arm of the story, so to speak. A few 
minutes ago I met on the street corner my friend Roll 
Organ. "Hold on," said he. "I want to tell you a fish 
story. Just to pass the time, I went down to Water Val- 
ley on the Kankakee, a week ago last Saturday. You 
ought to have seen the pickerel we caught! I was after 
bass, but the river was about three feet too high, and I 
caught no bass. I found the stream was full of pickerel 
and began to fish for them, with small carp minnows, tak- 
ing out in less than two hours thirty-odd pickerel, all of 
them about two pounds in weight. I went down with 
Frank Bissell to his cottage at Water Valley. There 
was a big picnic on there, and the bridge was lined with 
fishermen, and every one of them was catching pickerel 
as fast as he could throw in. There seemed to be schools 
of these fish moving up the river. We have had the 
highest water on the Kankakee known for years, and dams 
and fishways have been overflowed so that the fish could 
run up stream with 'ease. I imagine that this big run of 
pickerel is the result of this state of affairs. I think also 
that in about a week or two, when the w^ater gets down 
within the banks, we will have the best bass fishing on the 
Kankakee we have ever had." 
Here was itnsought confirmation of the other side of 
the pickerel story. It is curious to note the changes in 
the history of this ancient waterway. At first it abounded 
in wall-eyed pike, with a few bass, and some giant pike, 
which at times reached weights of 20 to 30 pounds. Then 
about eight years ago it was taken over by the bass, large- 
mouths and small-mouths, and was one of the best bass 
streams in the country. Then came the visitation of the 
carp. Now comes this invasion of pickerel. In connec- 
tion with Mr. Organ's story of catching pickerel on carp 
bait, there arises the joyful hope that these pickerel will 
do at least something toward thinning out the carp. In- 
deed, I am disposed to believe that the best cure for the" 
carp nuisance would be a general planting of pickerel. 
By this term is meant the great northern p.ke, which at- 
tains very heavy weights when conditions of food are 
favorable. Given a stream full of little carp, our friend 
Esox could make a living with perfect ease, and if he did 
make a living at the expense of many thousands of these 
disgusting foreign fish, the carp, methinks that Mr. Esox 
himself would rise high in the estimation of W^estern 
anglers, even were it for philanthropic reasons alone. 
Therefore there is occasion for rejoicing in the story of 
pickerel in the Kankakee. 
Bound for FiHeld. 
Within the week a very pleasant party will leave Chi- 
cago for a trip to the Fifield chain on the Wisconsin Cen- 
tral line, among these Messrs. Charles A. Comiskey, Ban 
Johnson and J. P. Agnew, accompanied by Messrs. James 
C. Pond, general passenger agent of the Wisconsin Cen- 
tral Railroad, and Mr. D. K. Thompson, Chicago agent 
of the same line. This visit to the_ Fifield chain will be 
made the occasion of the presentation to Mr. Comiskey 
by his friends of an elaborate leather tackle box, perfectly 
stocked, together with a handsome rod case properly filled 
with rods. The intention is to convert Mr. Comiskey 
from a baseball man into an angler. There is no question 
of the desirability of this change, and if the party with 
v;hom he is to travel shall have any kind of luck, there 
will be a new face in anglerdom hereafter. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Buii-ding, Chicago, 111. 
5 n 
S Take inventory of the good things in thts issue 
K of Forest and Stream. Recall what a fund was 
5 given last week. Count on zvhat is to come nest S 
ft week. Was there ever in all the world a more cji 
5 abundant weekly store of sportsmen's readingt ^ 
