[Nov. 8/ 1902. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
S69 
together, merging or consolidating for mutual protection, 
so much so that in one case they saw a flock of fully 
five hundred in one stubble field, and the old cock birds 
Avaited for neither dog nor man, but sailed away when 
danger neared. 
The first good batch of chickens, thirty-three in all, 
v/ere picked and cleaned, and were hung on the rear of the 
car to drain and cool, and lo and behold when the chef 
went to bring them in to put in the cooler, all but eight 
had been filched by the crew of a passing freight tram. 
The division superintendent was informed of the theft 
by wire, and the matter was investigated and no doubt 
the culprits located, but no redress or relief was offered, 
because, as explained by the official, were he to discharge 
tlnat crew, thev would go right up to St. Paul and order a 
strike on the whole system. And thus was cold comfort 
handed out to Capt. Bill and his crew. 
Well, I took my boy with me and turned him loose m 
the car. He soon had it well surveyed, from one end to 
the other, from kitchen to bath room. And then he came 
to the lockers where the guns were kept, and Mr. Mershon 
took his own Scott i6-gauge out and turned it over to 
the boy to study out, and when the boy got through 
"breaking" the gun and snapping the locks and aiming it 
at pig-eons flying along the tracks, he handed it back to 
Mr. Mershon and turning to me said:_^ "Pa, are you not 
going to take me hunting some day?" And then Capt. 
Bill jumped out of his chair. "What's that?" said he. 
"Never have taken that boy shooting ! What's these yarns 
then you have been writing to the Forest and Stream 
about' 'Taking your boy hunting'?" And then he drew a 
long breath and started in again: "When I read your 
article I gave you all the credit possible, because I be- 
lieved every word you wrote, and here I have you face to 
face with the bov and I find you have been stuffing the 
Forest and Stream readers." And Capt. .Bill said a lot 
more that would hurt my credit with the readers of the 
Forest and Stream were I to repeat. It's up to me now 
lo make good, and that boy before I am twenty-four hours 
older will have a i6-gauge gun and some shells, and he 11 
on •shooting if I must turn him over to Sam Fullerton to 
take him. After this I will quit shooting b rds with iny 
lead pencil and keep down to facts. One such_ checking 
up as Capt. Bill gave me should last a man a liletime. 
Well, after the car had been switched down the yards 
to be iced and watered, we left the car and wended our 
way toward the Sherry or Delmonico's of this town, 
Carling's (previously putting the boy on the trolley car 
for home), and securing a snug corner, we sat down to 
supper. The first call was for oysters, Humphrey and 
Morley scorning anything less than a straight dozen each, 
and while the oysters were opening, we fished for the 
simken cherry with our oyster forks and made up the 
order, which was simply straight steaks, extra sirloins 
and double porterhouses, with fixings— and what a sight 
ir, was to see those bronzed, hearty and health)' men enjoy 
their dinner. Morley, unacquainted with the laws of 
M'nnesota. and because of a taste left in his mouth for 
game ordered a broiled quail, but the virtuous indigna- 
tion of the colored waiter, Charles, broke forth m a look 
of righteous scorn, and Morley got no quail. 
1 nrd. but it was good to spend an hour with your teet 
under the mahogany with such a cro\yd Every man 
brimful of fun and rife with anecdotes. We missed good 
old Ted They said Jed did all things well until he hit the 
poker chips each night, and the pounding he got. he said, 
made him feel much like a local duck traveling from 
slough to slough on Sunday with ever}' farmer s boy within 
m les pounding him with a "Zulu. ' One mght Jed had a 
full house or 'a royal flush or something, and pulled 33 
cents out of the bank at quitting, which went far to- 
ward restoring him his nerve and self-esteem. . 
There were some gray heads in the party, and it one 
might judge from appearances other than the gray hairs, 
they are the youngest of the party. Long live the Sagi- 
naw bovs. and iiiay the Fates hold them together and 
good Dame Fortune grant them many such trips as they 
have just had, is the wish of 
' Charles Cristadoro. 
The Saginaw Crowd. 
The twentieth annual hunting trip of the Saginaw 
Crowd was described by Mr. W. B. Mershon in the 
Saginaw Courier-Herald, from which we copy as be- 
low, for the Saginaw chronicles belong in Forest and 
Stream: 
You have asked me to tell the readers of The Cour- 
ier-Herald something about Dakota shooting, and the 
recent trip of the Saginaw party. I have not time to 
comiily with your request fittingly, but briefly would 
state that this year was the twentieth annual trip of the 
Saginaw Crowd to North Dakota. The first trip was 
made in our old hunting car. "City of Saginaw," in 1883, 
which was the year the Northern Pacific was completed, 
and we followed the excursion party that went to drive 
the golden spike binding the East to the West. At that 
time our old car, which had not nearly as large accom- 
modations as our present one, contained twenty-two pas- 
oengers. We slept double, even in the upper berths, 
and to-day I wonder how it was done. 
In those days the game was far more plentiful than 
now. We stopped at New Buffalo and had duck shoot- 
ing that was grand, but the next year, when we stopped 
at New- Bufifalo, the water had dried up a good deal 
and the shooting Avas far poorer, so we moved on to 
Dawson, Kidder County, which has been, with one or 
two exceptions, aur . annual place of rendezvous. 
Fifteen or twenty years ago, around Dawson, was one 
immense wheat field. It was a boom town and locality, 
but as the settlers found that it was only about one year 
in spven they could raise a crop of grain, thej' have 
gradually petered out. until to-day there are very few 
grain fields in that vicinity, and the few people there 
are subsisting by raising cattle and sheep. 
On account of the abundance of grain, the geese on 
their southern flight congregated there in vast numbers. 
Kidder County is filled with lakes and sloughs, as the 
prairie marshes are called. We used to pay more at- 
tention to goose hunting than anything else. The 
prairie chicken was unknown in that country then, but 
there were quite a good many sharp-tailed grouse. Of 
late the prairie chickens have increased, and the sharp- 
tailed grouse have decreased, so on our recent trip, out 
of ninety birds killed, probably three-fourths of them 
were prairie chicken, or more properly speakirrg, pin- 
nated grouse. But as I said before, our main joy was 
in goose shooting. 
The modus operandi was to drive out during the fore- 
noon early, and find some big grain stubble on which 
the geese were feeding, for until disturbed or the feed 
has been used up, they will continue to come to the 
same locality. They like the barley stubbles best, but 
failing in them, they go to the wheat stubbles, where 
the left-over and lost grain is most plentiful. _ Finding 
one of these feeding grounds, we would remain in the 
locality until the birds had eaten their fill and left for 
the lakes or watering places, which is usually about 10:30 
or II o'clock in the morning. We would then go into 
the stubble and begin digging pits, one for each shooter. 
If there were four in the party, we would make four 
pits 10 or 12 feet apart, and about 40 inches_ deep and 
30 inches in diameter, just large enough to sit in com- 
fortably and have your ey^es on a level with the ground. 
The earth was not piled up around the excavation, but 
scattered, and when the pit was finished, the stubble 
was pulled, going a distance from the pit for this pur- 
pose, and then this pulled stubble was transplanted, all 
around the freshly dug pits, so as to make it appear like 
an undisturbed stubble field. The hunter in a grass- 
colored suit, sitting well down in his pit, was almost 
completely hidden. 
Now came the placing of the decoys. These were 30 
or 40 in number, and were always placed to the leeward 
of the pits, and 20 to 40 yards di-stant, for the geese 
coming in with the wind would always_ turn and swing 
to the decoys, to alight against the wind. Thus, with 
their eyes fixed on the decoys, the geese coming into 
them, would necessarily have to pass over the pits in 
which the hunters were hidden, to alight among their 
sheet-iron counterfeits, for the decoys were made of 
sheet iron, heavy enough so they will not wobble in 
the wind, painted to resemble geese and stuck in the 
ground. They are merely profile, but by putting them 
at various angles, generally headed toward the wind, 
the incoming birds could see them until they really got 
over them. It was laughable at times to see geese com- 
ing up sidewise to these decoys, suddenly loose sight 
of them altogether, and you could see them crane their 
necks around in every direction to see what had become 
of their supposed brethren. 
Now, after preparing the pits and setting out the de- 
coys, and getting our shell boxes, which generally con- 
tained ti good stif? charge of smokeless powder, and 
about one ounce of No. 2 chilled shot, we would ad- 
journ to some sunny hillside for our luncheon and 
smoke, but if it was cloudy and windy, we would have 
the right to expect the early return of the birds from 
the lakes to the feeding grounds. On pleasant days, 
from 4:30 to 5 o'clock, was about the time to look for 
the birds, but on cloudy days or windy days they would 
come an hour or two earlier. 
A novice would always misjudge the distance and 
shoot before the bird would be within gunshot. I have 
known some of my Saginaw friends to stand up and de- 
liberately blaze away at an incoming bird, coming di- 
rectly toward him, when I am certain it had not ap- 
proached nearer than 200 yards. But remember it is a 
prairie country without a single bush to gauge distance 
by and absolutely clear sky and a bird weighing from 
twelve to fifteen pounds, and so it is not to be wondered at 
that they look big and right on to you, when thej' really 
were a rifle shot away. 
The captain of the party is generally put in the cen- 
ter pit and is supposed to give the word of command 
when to fire, so that each man can get in his right and 
left if possible. It is generally arranged so that the 
center man takes the center of the flock, the man on 
the right the birds on his side and the one on the left 
the same. Big birds as they are, and apparently slow 
flying, it is extremely diffictdt for a novice to keep cool 
and shoot right. Many a good man at the trap has 
learned to his confusion that he could break a clay 
pigeon easier than he could kill a goose at first. After 
a while, they catch on. 
Wing-broken birds should be gathered immediately, 
otherwise they will slink away and run of? into the 
stubble, and in an incredibly short time they get be- 
yond finding distance. 
In the old days, these goose shoots netted good sport 
and good bags. It was not unusual for three or four 
of us shooting together to get 25 or 30 birds in an 
afternoon or morning flight, and I have known instances 
where four of us shooting together have gotten as high 
as 65 birds in one shoot. They are fine eating, fat as 
they are on the wheat, and being generally young birds 
and not having toughened - themselves by long flights 
to the south. With the Saginaw party, no game ever 
was wasted, for what we did not use or give away out 
there, we brought home for division among our friends. 
With the disappearance of grain fields around Dawson 
and the widening out of grain culture in North Da- 
kota, the flight has changed, or in other words, spread 
out, so it is not so concentrated. I am speaking of black 
geese, of which there are three or four kinds; the geese 
that are most prized and the ones that decoy. The 
white, or Arctic goose, will not decoy and does not 
have specific places for feeding, for whatever field the 
first flock drops down upon, the others will follow, too, 
and some whim will strike them in the midst of their 
feeding, and they will all move off to another field, a 
mile or two distant. The white geese are far thicker 
than they used to be, and there are dozens of places in 
North Dakota, where you can go late in the fall and 
find these birds in thousands and tens of thousands. 
This year at Dawson we did not get a single goose; 
first, for the reasons given above, and next, because the 
weather was like mid-summer, and the northern birds 
had not come down. At Devil's Lake, the greatest of 
the northern feeding and resting places for water fowl, 
wfhere geese are usually in thousands, it was said at the 
time we were in North Dakota that no birds had 
reached there from the north yet. But we did have 
nice shooting upon sharp-tailed grouse and prairie 
chicken, though the law ran out on the isth, and we 
were not equipped with dogs; but at this time of the 
year prairie chicken do not not lie well to dogs and' 
are in bunches or "packed" for the winter. They are 
generally found in the wheat stubbles or along the weed 
patches adjoining them. 
The northern ducks had not come down to any ex- 
tent and were mostljf local birds that were on the lakes 
and sloughs; they were there in large quantities, but 
had been shot at so much they did not fly during the 
• day; and while sometimes an evening flight would be 
good for a few minutes, generally they availed them- 
selves of the bright moonlight nights for their flying 
from one place to another. Some of the lakes were 
well filled with canva shacks, and out of 254 ducks that 
our party of eight got in the two weeks we were there, 
37 of them were canvasbacks. 
But the Saginaw Crowd does not go so much for shoot- 
ing birds and the game that they can get as for the rest 
and recreation, getting away from business, politics, 
coal strikes and everything else of that kind, that one 
has to contend with eleven months of the year, and is 
in great luck if he can skip the twelfth month; filling 
one's lungs with that grand, pure air of the treeless 
plain, outdoor exercise and freedom from all care, pay 
far better than a wagon boxful of ducks or geese. We 
had birds enough to cat, birds enough to give to our 
railroad friends passing through Dawson, and that was 
enough, and I hope that the Saginaw Crowd can take 
these annual trips for twenty years to come. Three 
members of our party have joined the silent majority, 
and will go with us no more, and those that are left 
notice that they cannot stand so much tramping nor so 
much fatigue as in days of yore. The enthusiasm of 
youth is lessened, but we hope that the last spark of it 
will not vanish for many years to come. 
W, B. Mershon.. 
Washington Goose Shooting. 
Seattle, Oct. 25. — Editor Forest and Stream: This 
is the time of year when the honk of the goose is heard 
every night as the flocks Aving swiftly along in a V or 
wedge, far above the cit}-, in their annual migration 
to the "south. It is a sound that sets the hunter's blood 
tingling through every vein and conjures up visions of 
wheat fields, profile decoys and a hole in the ground. 
In this hole the hunter imagines himself crouching on 
his knees with every sense alert, waiting for the "wush- 
wush-wush" of wings. 
No one who has not experienced the sensation of wait- 
ing for this welcome sound to approach at the break of 
day, and set his eyes on the glorious old Canadian geese 
as they wheel into the decoys in broken ranks, can 
realize the excitement of this sport. It gives the dys- 
peptic new life; it robs the overworked business man of 
the blues and makes the slave of the golden nuggets 
think there is something in life beside the chase for 
wealth. 
A man who has been through it once will travel miles 
for another charge from the same battery. It is life it- 
self. And when he glances along the barrels of his 
trusty old shotgun, pulls the trigger, quickly changes 
the line of vision to another whirring body, pulls the 
trigger, and then sees two great big honkers tumbling 
out of the sky wirh their feathers and wings all askew, 
he feels like jumping high in air and yelling like a 
Siwash Indian on his first spree. To make a double 
on geese is the ambition of every sportsman, but the 
feat is not achieved as often nowadays as it was ten or 
fifteen years ago in western Washington, and I feel al- 
most safe in saying the same thing of the magnificent 
shooting grounds in Oregon. 
The Puget Sound country does not offer the best 
goose shooting at the present time, either on land or 
water, although occasionally a good bag is reported. 
Eastern Washington, especially Walla Walla and Yaki- 
ma counties, affords much better sport than western 
Washington. The black brant sometimes come into the 
sound in such numbers that the sportsmen who hap- 
pen to be on the ground make good killings. The black 
brant is a relative of the goose, and in some localities 
has the goose family name attached to it with an adjec- 
tive of a descriptive character that keeps the brant char- 
acter from being entirely lost. The barnacle goose of 
the Atlantic coast is a brant. It is, in fact, the real 
brant. Out in the Pacific Northwest we do not see 
this bird, or, at least, I have never heard of it straying 
out this far. If the black brant has worked its way 
East it will be news to me. It is probable that members 
of both species stray into some of the' States included in 
the Middle West belt, and the same is probably true of 
the black brant. 
The goose most common in Washington is the honker, 
or Canadian goose. Sometimes" it is called the gray 
goose. The snow goose, which derives its name from 
the color of its pltmiage, used to be plentiful in Cali- 
fornia and Oregon. As it passes the summer in the 
far north, it must come somewhere near Washington 
in its annual trip to the south. Why it practically over- 
looks this State I am unable to explain, but I judge from 
conversations with old residents and hunters, that such 
is the real condition of affairs. It may be that the 
migration is along the coast line, well out to sea. If 
this surrnise is true, it explains why California and Oregon 
claim this bird as one of their winter visitors while we 
look for it in vain. 
A limited number of Canadian geese pass the winter, 
or a greater portion of it, in western Washington. 
There are probably more of them than one imagines 
from the fact that they are careful to select secluded 
lakes and ponds in which to sleep. When one considers 
the large stretches of heavily timbered country, dotted 
with little lakes, it is easily seen how these most wary 
of birds can be in the country and yet be seldom noticed. 
They make two flights every day, morning and evening,' 
and this rule is what gives the hunter his tip as to the 
