488 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec 20, 1902. 
"I had many times heard stories about the abund- 
ance, or, rather, super-abundance, of caribou in this 
particular portion of the country, but was scarcely 
prepared for the sight which greeted our eyes the 
day after we had pitched camp, and which continued 
all the days that we stayed there. It was the height 
of the migratory season, and the number of caribou 
that daily crossed our vision from our look-out station 
seems incredible. 
"The smallest band that we saw together at any one 
time numbered three animals, and the largest one 
hundred and two. Herds numbering from six to sev- 
enty-five were espied daily. Although the work of 
stalking them was exceedingly difificult on account of 
the bogs and swampy condition of the soil, which 
makes a tramp of a few miles exceedingly arduous and 
fatiguing, we found that the killing of our complement 
of bucks was practically simply a matter of selection. 
Altogether, we figured that over eight hundred cari- 
bou passed within our view, during our stay in camp. 
"Leading from the direction of Hawley we found a 
trail six feet wide and beaten down almost as hard 
as asphalt by the herds of caribou that passed along it, 
making for Red Indian Lake. Along this trail I suc- 
ceeded in photographing a fine buck, with a Series 
2 Zeiss lens at a distance of seventy feet. 
"In addition to the caribou we shot, we killed num- 
bers of Arctic hare and ptarmigan, or snow grouse, 
which we found delicious eating. Foxes were also 
rather plentiful, and altogether this shooting trip in 
the wilds of Newfoundland was a pleasurable and 
gratifying success in every particular." 
California Shooting. 
The California Game and Fish Commission made an 
important capture on Tuesday last, which will go far 
toward stopping the illegal traffic in quail, ducks and 
other game birds by commission merchants and cold- 
storage companies in this State. Ever since the quail 
season opened on Oct. i, complaints have reached the 
. commissioners that the law-rcspecting sportsmen found 
this wily little California game bird unprecedentedly 
scarce, and the quail grounds sown with empty shells — 
the tell-tale earmarks of the "sooner." Chief Deputy 
Vogelsang at once started on a still hunt and quickly 
learned that various firms of commission merchants 
were flooding the State with circular letters directed 
to market-hunters in the interior offering big pecuniary 
inducements to them if they Avould violate the Iw. In 
some instances as much as $2 per dozen for quail and 
all transportation and other expenses were guaranteed 
by the commission merchants. As the State is large 
and the appropriation small, Mr. Vogelsang was having 
"mighty hard hoeing," until fortune favored him. John 
F. Corriea, of Cain, Boyd & Corriea, addressed one of 
these circular letters to B. S. Smith, an Oroville shop- 
keeper, who enjoys a local reputation as a wing shot. 
Mr. Corriea did not happen to know that Mr. Smith 
was a Deputy Game Commissioner, and Smith did not 
go to the trouble of informing him of this important 
fact, but forwarded the commission man's letter to Mr. 
Vogelsang. The Chief Deputy wrote an enthusiastic 
letter concerning the prospects of building up a colos- 
sal business in illicit quail and sent it to Smith, who 
signed it and forwarded to Corriea. The latter took the 
bait like a fresh-run steelhead. By return mail Smith 
received a letter tellmg him to pack not less than four- 
teen dozen quail in a trimk and check the trunk to this 
city and mail the check to Corriea, who would send 
a man to the baggage office to get it. Deputy Warden 
Kertcheval took the train for Oroville, and he and 
Smith packed the decoy trunlv, but prior to doing so 
they spent three days wandering through the woods 
and canons collecting the necessary birds. Twenty-six 
quail, one more than the legal limit, was the total bag, 
and these were packed in a trunk with sundry pieces 
of lead-pipe and a few brick-bats to increase its weight. 
A representative of the commission firm called for the 
trunk and presented the cHeck, and Corriea was 
promptly arrested, but made light of the matter. Im- 
mediately upon his arrest he wrote to Smith, telling 
him to make himself scarce, but the astonishment of 
himself and of his counsel was boundless when the 
first witness called for the prosecution was Mr. Smith, 
of Oroville, who produced all the Corriea letters and 
testified to the facts as set forth herein. The pris- 
oner's counsel immediately applied for a continuance, 
which was granted. Mr. Vogelsang has a number of 
other commission firms on his list and further prose- 
cutions are in order. 
The continued fine weather has seriously interfered 
with duck shooting in northern California, as the steady 
flight has not as yet begun. In no instance has an in- 
diA'idual member of any of the many ducking clubs 
about the bay recently bagged the limit, which if fifty 
ducks. Mr. Hermami Oelrichs, on his private pre- 
s ;erves in the Suisun marshes, came near it last week, 
returning to the city with forty-five ducks, mainly can- 
vasbacks and sprigs. Mallard so far have been very 
scarce this year, although teal seem to be compara- 
tively plentiful. Maiun. 
San Francisco, Dec. i. 
The Corriea Case, . 
_ As INTIMATED in thcsc columns last week, the prosecu- 
tion of John F. Corriea, the commission merchant who 
was so cleverly caught red-handed by Chief Deputy 
Charles A. Vogelsang with illicit quail in his possession 
which had been shipped to him by one of Mr. Vogelsang's 
deputies in response to a circular letter, couched in allur- 
ing terms, has begun to bear most excellent fruit. On 
the 8th inst. Police Judge Cabaniss convicted a Portu- 
guese clothing merchant, named Silva, with having 
twenty-four dozen quail in his possession. These birds 
were shipped by market hunters in San Luis Obispo 
County, and, the Commissioners have evidence that Silva 
was acting for Corriea in the matter. A case against 
another _ go-between, involving thirty dozen quail is yet 
to be tried. Corriea himself is making a strenuous fight 
to keep out of jail ; but a final decision of the case is ex- 
pected by the beginning of next week. The Comraisv 
aioners have been extremely active this sea^son in enfore* 
ing the game laws and great credit is due them and their 
energetic Chief Deputy, as the appropriation at their 
disposal for game protection amounts only to $3,600. 
A Mediaeval Recrudescence, 
Deputy Game Warden Robinson, of San Rafael, re- 
ceived a call the other day from a stranger who com- 
plained to him that an unknown foreigner was at that 
moment engaged in killing quail by some illegal device 
or other on the Hearst property near Fairfax. The 
stranger did not state what the device was, but Robinson 
saddled his horse and rode to the place in question with- 
out a moment's delay. There he found Jules La Shelle, 
n San Francisco Frenchman, hunting quail with a trained 
falcon. La Shelle informed him tliat he had purchased 
the bird from the captain of a French vessel. It was a 
magnificent specimen of the peregrine falcon aild had 
evidently been carefully trained, returning to its perch 
on its master's wrist whenever he whistled. A sprightly 
little fox-terrier flushed the birds for Monsieur La Shelle 
and the bird-hawk at once sailed in and did the rest. 
Robinson was an interested spectator of the performance 
for a couple of hours, during which period the falcon 
killed three quail. In speaking of it afterwards, he said, 
"Hawking is not prohibited by the game laws and there 
is no particular reason why it should be. A healthy man 
with any sort of an old scatter-gun would have bagged at 
least eight quail out of the four bevies flushed, in the time 
that it took La Shelle's hawk to dispose of three birds." 
On Unhappy Hunting Grounds, 
The number of ducking clubs controlling marsh lands 
to the north and south of San Francisco has increased 
so amazingly during the past three years that the annual 
rent of some of these favored localities has more than 
quintupled. As most of this tide-land and tule property 
is unfenced, altercations between members of rival clubs 
concerning the boundaries of their respective preserves 
have become vei-y common. The Swan Gun Club, of 
which Deputy Game Commissioner C. G. Gould is presi- 
dent, controls the shooting rights of a large territory in 
the Alvarado marshes, and its next door neighbor is Mr. 
F. J. Horn, a San Francisco liquor merchant. Last week 
Mr. Horn was crossing from one blind to another, when, 
so he claims, some person on the Gun Club grounds took 
a shot at him. This incident disturbed Mr. Horn's 
serenity to such an extent that, shortly afterwards, upon 
meeting Dr. _L. F. Cranz, a member of the club, at the 
railway station, he whanged that gentleman over the 
head with a walking-stick and subsequently was fined 
$50 by an unsympathetic justice of the peace. Both the 
club and Mr. Horn have decided to have their respective 
holdings surveyed and to preserve a strict neutrality, at 
least until the result of the survey is Imown. 
Marin. 
San Francisco, Dec. 9. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST* 
Anothef Reason. 
Bearing upon the American complaisance in regard 
to the destruction of that wild game which is one of 
the great heritages of this people and the very one 
most difiicult to replace, I may cite yet another rea- 
son why there are some things in this country of which 
we need not be proud. Here is a letter written to a 
Michigan sportsman by another Michigan sportsman: 
"The inclosed clipping is from the Mt. Clemens 
Leader of Nov. 24. Wm. Sunderlin is a rubber in a 
bath house in Mt. Clemens, and his wife a cook. These 
two people make a business every fall of going North 
the 20th of October and stajring until about the close 
of the seasofi, getting all the birds they can. Then they 
have their photographs taken with their birds strung 
on a pole, and have the cut put in the Cutter's Guide. 
If you will write to F. R. Eastman and ask him to 
send you one copy each year of the Cutters' Guide with 
these cuts showing, you will then form an idea of the 
amount of birds which these people destroy. I say 
destroy, because last year, when they strung them on 
the pole to carry them to the protographer's office, the 
wings and legs actually dropped off the pole they were 
carrying them on, the birds were so rotten. I take 
Forest and Stream, and read the reports of the 
'Saginaw Crowd' and enjoy them very much. That 
is why I take the liberty of writing this letter to you. 
I know you will be interested in what I say, as every 
sportsman should be. I had intended sending this 
clipping to our next Legislature, but I am satisfied you 
could put it in better shape and that it would have a 
better effect. What would you think of a law which 
would forbid any man or woman having in possession 
at one time more than 50 partridges or quail, or 50 
birds of either kind, and not more than 100 birds in a 
season, either quail or partridges? It is a great mis- 
take that all States ilo not take up Forest and 
Stream's platform, of 'No sale of game.' We have 
market hunters here. They go out in naphtha launches 
at night with a big headlight and slaughter the ducks. 
The ducks will not stand being shot after going to 
roost. You can pound them as much as you please in 
the hours set by law, but not after they go to roost. 
We have a game warden here, but it is a case of $1,000 
a year to do nothing. I have told him repeatedly about 
this, but it does no good. A political job, don't you 
know. I have a cottage at the lake and can hear them 
shooting ducks until I go to sleep. We sportsmen 
have got to get a move on us or the game hog will 
wipe out everything." 
The name of Mr. Sunderlin is not a new one in these 
columns. The Forest and Stream a year or two ago 
printed a story in regard, to this man and his doings 
quite similar to that given above. The photograph 
showed many rows of grouse hung up for the purpose 
of photographing, and it was stated at that time that 
the work of the photographer was nearly intolerable 
by reason of the odor from the decomposed birds. 
Just why Michigan will tolerate such doings is some-, 
thing difficult to understand. 
The Quail SeMon« 
The quail sf^so)^ is oyer \^ l^lvQfsota 9&4 l^iolii- 
gan, and has not yet opened in Wisconsin, owing to 
the close term there. It will presently be over in. 
Illinois, and it has been over all the year in Indiana, so 
far as most of the Chicago shooters are concerned, 
the non-resident license law barring out a great many 
men who formerly shot birds in Indiana. A good many 
of our sportsmen have been going after quail and 
grouse in the State of Michigan. It is their custom 
to bring their birds home with them in spite of the 
Michigan law. 
_ As to the State of Illinois, inquiry aiid investiga- 
tion in good neighborhoods lead me to believe that 
the reports regarding scarcity of quail in this State 
have been well foutided. Sottie of my friends have 
pooh-poohed the idea that quail are itlfluetlced by wet 
or dry seasoils. I am personally conviiiced that they 
are as subject to drowning out as the prairie chickett, 
and I base this upon investigation of a wide strip of 
country in the southern part of the State this fall. As. 
everyone in this part of the world knows, we had an 
unusually wet spring and summer. I have seen miles 
of bottom land covered with weeds and corn, ideal 
grounds for the feeding and breeding of quail, grounds 
with timber close at hand and all kinds of hedges and 
brush patches adjacent, which this fall show almost 
no quail whatever, although last year, the year before 
and for many years preceding the quail were very 
numerous indeed in that very locality. In Christian 
County, formerly as good a quail country as we had 
in Illinois, the water still stands where for months at 
a time it stood in the overflows, due to the heavy 
rains of last spring. I know personally that there was 
a fine breeding head of quail left in that country last 
fall. There were not as matly quail at the beginning 
of this season as there seemed to be left at the end of 
last season. Increase is hardly apparent at all. A 
good many coveys are put up w^hich experienced hunt- 
ers declare to consist of old birds exclusively. Again, 
there are some young birds, showing extremely late 
breeding, perhaps after the high waters had to some 
extent subsided. I am entirely disposed to believe with 
these shooters directly on the ground that the Bob 
White quail not only may be, but is largely affected in 
its breeding operations by continued wet weather. 
Perhaps the quail may have sense enough to breed on 
a spot above the actual overflows, but the heavy rains 
would seem naturally to be well-nigh as fatal to the 
tiny little Bob Whites, naked and not larger than a 
bumble bee, as with the young of domestic^ poultry, 
which any good farm wife knows will perish in scores 
when subjected even to one heavy summer rain. 
A Qaail Shddt in Illlnole. 
Believing it to be paft of the duty of any American 
citizen to Vote at least ortcfe In every election, and to 
go shooting at least once in every shooting season. 
I this week left town and spent a day or so with my 
friend. Warren Powel, in Christian CDunty. Mr. 
Powel began to apologise about the birds almost be- 
fore we started out shooting at all, but it not being a 
part of the programme to kill all the birds in the 
county, we got along nicely In spite of the fact that we 
did not find so much game as we formerly did In his 
country. 
Our old friend Dolly, Mr. Powel's hunting dog, 
proved herself as good a judge of quail as ever be- 
fore. Dolly, broad and portly from lack of use, is just 
beginning to show the touch of advancing years, and 
she makes her head save her heels upon occasion and 
her nose save both. I have never seen a better nose 
on any dog than that carried by this same wise-headed 
individual. Mr. Powel and I took Dolly one after- 
noon and walked out a little way from his house. We 
put up five bevies in all, one in very heavy scrub oak, 
and three others on one stubble field just about dusk. 
On the whole, we counted ourselves very fortunate in 
picking up an even dozen of nice birds. We did our 
best work on one bevy which we marked down on a 
grassy hillside. For a few brief moments we really 
thought we were pretty hot quail shooters, since we 
let nothing get av/ay. Then we went over into the 
aforesaid scrub oak, put up a bevy of big, strong birds, 
and got a practical lesson in humility. We did not 
bag a single bird out of these, and indeed had only one 
shot, fired to no effect at the Avild bevy rise on the 
leaves. These quail simply vanished, disappeared, 
evaporated! We knew perfect! j'- Avell that a better 
single bird dog did not exist than Dolly, but we found 
only two or three birds out of the entire bevy, and 
these were very wild. We looked carefully into the 
trees, believing that most of the unaccounted for were 
hid in the scrub oak; but as it was growing dark, we 
could not locate them, and finally gave it up. 
Bob White is certainly getting to be a inore difficult 
proposition ever year. I perfectly agree with a chance 
acquaintance, whom I met in Minnesota, who said that - 
he thought the quail was the most resourceful of all 
our game birds. We are in the habit of thinking that 
the ruffed grouse is wiser than the quail, but such is 
not really the case. Suppose you put up a covey of 
fifteen grouse, would you not be apt to get easily four 
or five before you got done with the singles? Yet the 
man who at this season of the year bags four or five 
birds to the bevy of quail, is doing very good work 
with head, gun and dog. The birds fly to timber when- • 
ever they get a chance, and when in cover of that kind 
they are hard to pick up. 
Our three bevies on the stubble field we found when 
it was so dark we could hardly see Dolly while she was 
pointing. We should not have cared to disturb the 
birds so late, but had to cross this field on our way 
home. Stooping down to see more clearly against the 
sky, we did get four shots at the first bevy, and some- 
what to our own surprise picked up three birds. A 
little later Dolly pointed yet another bird in the dark, 
sprang, and caught a single, which seemed to be dis- 
abled and crippled from our own or some other gun, 
Grand Jubilee, 
On the day following this Mr. Powel planned a 
grand quail and 'coon jubilee. We were to go out 10 
miles to a little cross-roads known as^Vanderville, ngar 
virhat was thought to be a good quafl coimtry. With 
US were Istill H»raer at^4 \kk dog ^ock, hp^^i old 
