106 
FOREST AKD STREAM. 
4 
[Aud. 8, 1903. 
path of the bluff and on to the marsh. Somewhere 
ahead of us, siiugly hidden among the dense tules, 
whose tassels waved many feet above our heads, was 
a patch of -©pen water — dubbed by the boys "teal hole," 
though viihy teal and not mallard, or sprig, or gad- 
wall, history sayeth not. No one had ever been there, 
so far as we knew, but we knew that open water there 
was, from the actions of the birds ni trading over the 
marsh. The sun was up, and the ducks were holding 
high carnival on the lake and its bays as we trudged 
along its margins. HowcA'^er, we were bound for "teal 
hole," and so let nothing tempt us from our course, 
not even when a band of mallard swung down and into 
a little cove near us. 
Once in the high tules we found it impossible to 
proceed except by following one of the cattle trails 
that threaded the marsh here and there. These led, 
as we soon found out, in no particular direction, and 
we were getting hot, weary and discouraged, when 
only a short distance ahead of us, wc heard the roar 
of many ducks taking wing. Guided hy the sound, we 
broke our way through the almost impassable tules 
until suddenly and with a great sense of relief, we 
parted them and stepped out into a beautiful pond of 
open water — the "teal hole." It was perhaps a hun- 
dred yards long by half as wide, fringed by a compact 
mass of tules at least twelve feet above the water line, 
among which, in places, the older stalks had fallen 
so as to form a platform on which one could lie at 
ease, or even walk, with care. The water came to the 
bottom of our shooting coat.s, but as the footing was 
hard and we wore waders, that made little difference. 
Selecting two stations on the shady side, and at cither 
end of the pond, Kenneth and the Duffer climbed out 
on the tules, and removing our coals to make a nest 
for our shells, proceeded to make ourselves comfort- 
able and await events. We had no decoys, of course, 
and in fact needed none. It was not long before the 
raft of birds which had taken flight at our noisy ap- 
proach through the tules began to return in singles, 
pairs, threes and small bunches. The shooting was 
not as easy as one might suppose, for the height of the 
surrounding tules prevented the birds being seen till 
fairly over us, and then quick work was necessary to 
kill clean and drop one's birds in the open water, for 
a bird falling in the cover was lost for good — or bad. 
Then, too, there was no general direction to the flight, 
as the birds pitched in from all quarters. 
We had hardly gotten settled before the rapid whiff! 
whiff! of wings announced a pair of mallard. They 
poised for a brief instant over the opening, and Ken- 
neth's and the Duffer's guns spoke as one. Each bird 
must have received a double charge, for they collasped 
and fell as though flattened out. Kenneth chuckled. 
The Duffer called out as he blew through the barrels. 
"You wasted your powder, old man." Next a band 
of teal — greenwings — darted down so quickly that the 
rapid four shots must have been badly directed, as 
only one little fellow was beating the air with his pad- 
dles when the echoes subsided. Then swiftly overhead 
glided a band of seven — gadwalls but so silently, so 
swiftly, that the guns did not speak. Then with strain- 
ing eyes we watched and waited — when, swish! {.hey 
had circled, and were over us again, and beating the 
air to drop. This time the work was perfect and two 
brace of the beauties were down — clean killed. 
The morning gradually wore away, and beside the 
two gunners in the tules two piles of ducks had col- 
lected, while some odd birds were chafing the rushes 
in the sunlight on the lea side of the pond. 
Just as we were gathering up to go, a mixed band 
of cans and redheads came in like a limited making 
up time. Two barrels spoke to empty air, but as the 
two seconds cracked out their call, a grand old drake 
can fell with a royal splash. "Good shot, Bob," sang 
out the good-natured Kenneth, and "Your bird," called 
the Duffer, not to be outdone. It was grand sport, but 
oh, what work it was getting the birds in! The straps 
swung over the guns, and the guns balanced, muzzle 
and heel, on two pairs of aching shoulders, the inter- 
minable tules, the ooze, and muck that held our tired 
legs as in a vise, but at last the trail opened on the 
lake side, and there on the bluff was the cabin, and 
rest, and dinner, and pipes, and good cold beer, and 
smiling Billy calling out: "Well, poys, gudt luck, yes?" 
Robert Erskine Ross. 
In Buncombe County. 
AsHEViLLE, N. C, July 28. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The last session of the Lgislature of the State of North 
Carolina enacted a law incorporating the Audubon So- 
ciety of North Carolina. This law specifically states 
that "the Governor shall appoint such game wardens 
as shall be recommended by the Audubon Society." 
The aim of the Audubon Society of the State of 
North Carolina is to enforce the State and county 
game laws, and also to protect the song birds, their 
eggs and nests. On and after September i, 1903, non- 
resident hunters in North Carolina will have to take 
out through the clerk of the Superior Court of any 
county) a non-resident hunting license, the fee for 
which will be ten dollars. This license will allow the 
hunter to hunt in any county in the State, provided 
his hunting is done in conformity with the local county 
law. Unfortunately, most of the counties in North 
Carolina have different game laws, although the non- 
resident license will apply to all counties alike. Some 
of the county laws are very drastic, absolutely prohibit- 
ing trespassing or hunting on the property of another 
without first having obtained the written permission 
of the owner. In Cherokee County the law prohibits 
the carrying out of the county (dead or alive) any 
quail, pheasant or wild turkey, either by a resident of 
the county, State, non-resident, or by any common 
carrier. 
The open season in the different counties is not ex- 
actly the same, but generally all game is protected 
from Jan. i to Nov. i. In Buncombe County the close 
season is from January i to Nov. 15. 
Under the present laws it is expected that the whole- 
sale shipment of birds and game out of the State will 
now be prohibited, as it is the purpose of the Audubon 
Society to appoint game wardens all over the State. 
They have- already this summer done good work along 
the coast in protecting the sea birds from the plumage 
hunters. 
Some two months ago there was organized in Ashe- 
ville, N. C, a branch of the Audubon Society of North 
Carolina for the purpose of protecting the game and 
song birds in Buncombe County. We will this fall 
have several game wardens in the field and purpose 
to see that non-residents, as well as the citizens of the 
county, conform to the present laws. 
For several years back there have been thousands of 
bull bats shot in the vicinity of Asheville every August; 
these birds flying just at sundown, making fine sport 
for those who enjoyed this kind of shooting. It is 
our intention this year to make every endeavor to stop 
this practice. The local branch of the Audubon So- 
ciety are now placing posters all over the county call- 
ing attention to the present game laws and offering a 
reward to any person who will furnish evidence suffi- 
cient to convict any violator of the game laws. I here- 
with inclose you a copy of our poster, together with 
a copy of the Audubon bill above mentioned. 
Every fall. North Carolina is visited by a large num- 
ber of non-resident sportsmen and to those who have 
their localities already chosen, I would suggest that 
they secure their licenses before leaving hoinc, by writ- 
ing to the clerk of the Superior Csurt in the county 
which they propose to visit; this can be done by ad- 
dressing the clerk at any time after Sept. i. A license 
taken out in one county allows the holder to hunt in 
any county he may desire, but does not in any way 
give the hunter the privilege of trespassing except as 
provided in the different county laws. 
The formation of this society has already resulted 
to the advantage of our song birds here in Asheville, 
as there has been much less promiscuous shooting go- 
ing on this summer than ever before. We now have 
a good law and we propose to see that it is enforced. 
C, P. Ambler. 
More Game Preserve Chuck. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Probably I did not make my . meaning clear in what I 
said about game preserves. I do not advocate destruction 
of millionaires' rights any more than I do those of less 
wealthy individuals. But I do say that the uncultivated 
and uncultivatable lands seem from the very fact of their 
uselessness as regards financial profit to point to a use 
by the general public rather than by a few individuals. 
And it is in the right of eminent domain that individual 
selfishness finds its check. The right of eminent domain 
lias been expressed several times in a fashion that left 
its mark on history. In France this same question of 
game preserves flamed into a revolution. I refer any one 
to Carlyle's "French Revolution" for details and deduc- 
tions therefrom. The law was on the side of the preserve 
owners. Everything that lawyers and judges could do 
was done to protect the owners of these preserves. But 
the owners of monstrous preserves were killed when their 
peasants revolted. The indisputable right of the many is 
paramount, and that right is not made by any set of law- 
makers in human guise. I know how some of those law- 
makers get their offices. I have heard the prices of votes 
discussed. The laws on the statute books are not all 
just and good — if so, why the many changes from year 
to year ? What has become of the "divine right" of kings, 
for instance? 
I do not say that millionaires ought to give their prop- 
erty away to the poor, I don't believe in any such thing 
as that, though some of the wealthier men are easing 
themselves in that direction to some considerable extent. 
But I do maintain that the State, and not the individual, 
ought to own the Adirondack wilds. It is the playground 
of scores of thou.sands, and these thousands are of more 
importance to the State than any score of millionaires. 
It is more important that 50,000 men be in good condition 
to do their work than that any fifty millionaires should 
have each a lolling place of 50,000 acres per. It is en- 
tirely feasible that the State should acquire by the legal 
processes the right of eminent domain to the Adirondack 
region. I do not believe that there is anything fanatic 
in the proposition that the Adirondacks be a great park 
where all men, millionaires and clerks, and farmer and 
woodsmen, and mechanic — men, women and children of 
every description — could roam at their own free will, so 
long as they did not interfere with the rights of 
others. 
In regard to the game belonging to the men who own 
the property, suppose the preserve owners took a notion 
to kill off their game for the sake of selling it— getting 
some of the divine rights profits out of their "property?" 
Where would we be at in a case like that? More espe- 
cially if the game was migratory? 
The bearing of the Golden Rule on the question of pri- 
vate game preserves is, of course, perfectly obvious, but it 
is unnecessary to go to that in the question of a State 
preserve. In the latter instance the selfish argument of 
"policy" is suflSciently strong. Some men are so dense 
as to be open to only the one argument of "it pays," and 
to these people it can but be perfectly plain that a State 
park would do the State — i. e., all the people — more good 
than any number of private parks from which all but the 
favored few are excluded. Places where the workers may 
rest during their vacations are a national necessity, and 
if the State does not provide them the State will tire out, 
for the State is the people. 
There is no region in the world so well adapted for so 
great a number of people for a public playground as the 
Adirondacks, and it is the folly of New York that it does 
not make of it a place where all may come and go, camp, 
fish and hunt as they please with due regard for the com- 
fort and rights of others. 
It is right and proper that there are men of great 
wealth. They are able to use it in great and progressive 
enterprises which would otherwise be impossible. The 
man of wealth is of importance to the development of 
humanity as is the man of brains, but neither the man of 
wealth or the man of brains has, the right to use his 
powers to the oppression of the great mass of people who 
haven't much of either. The wilds of the Adirondacks are 
of more importance than those of the Yellowstone 
National Park so far a$ humanity is concerned, and it 
ought to be as free to all as the Natiomal Park — gun 
restrictions and all if the need of the whole host of visi- 
tors to it required it, 
I quite agree with Didymus that it is simply fighting the 
wind to argue with regard to the selfishness in the ques- 
tion of private game preserves. It is not thus that the 
question will be solved. Nor would it be right to deny 
ic one man of wealth what is allowed to another in the 
way of preserves. But here in the Adirondacks the State 
ought to take the matter up, regardless of lumber com- 
pany, game club, or individual, and take the land by the 
perfectly legal process of "eminent domain" — for the good 
of the many— in order to secure to the people for all 
time a beautiful land of play, recreation and health. The 
rectifying must be done with due regard to the laWj and 
in no other way. 
Personally I do not interfere with the legal rights of 
others, and I try to recognize their moral rights so far 
2S I can affect them. I know of a few places where 
I can hunt unmolested by anyone, and I go to them. I 
could not feel comfortable hunting where I was not 
wanted, even though I knew the watchers would not catch 
me, and that I had a perfectly legal right to hunt there. 
I much prefer to hunt and fish where all are at liberty to 
do so, and my success is sufficient to gratify my desires. 
The trips of pleasantest memory are not those that result 
in heaviest bags or baskets. A mere wood lot with only 
a chipmunk or tAVO in it should be enough to fill anyone's 
meed of pleasure. Nevertheless, the deep wild forests 
ought not to be closed to the man who longs to be beyond 
the sound of ax, wagon or train. For every man who 
loves woods let there be woods provided, free and unre- 
stricted. It will do the nation good to have it so. No 
man ought to be prevented from yielding to temptation 
v/hen yielding does no harm. RAyMOJSfD S. Spears. 
NORTHWOO0, N, y. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In all humility I approach headquarters to ask its 
opinion of the existing condition of things in England. 
I suppose it is generally known that nearly all the tillable 
land is owned by a score or two of the lordly old families 
to whom it has descended from feudal times, when it was 
said that 
"They may get who have the power. 
And they may keep who can." 
Enormous tracts were kept by those who could, and 
their power was such that advancing civilization could not 
interfere with them nor disturb their titles, and cannot 
to this day. Yet who among those who advocate the prin- 
ciple of the greatest good to the greatest number would 
not like to see that land distributed in a way that would 
benefit all England? Scarcely any grain is raised in the 
country, for the reason that very little land is obtainable 
by the working classes to raise it on, and England must 
import her breadstuffs and lose a great proportion of 
her population that ought to be kept to enrich the nation. 
Whether the enormous increase of wealth is gradually 
leading our own free country into the same condition of 
things, I leave for wiser heads to settle, but all the argu- 
ments of the wisest men can never convince me that any 
consideration of the public good is ever thought of by the 
holders of these enormous tracts. H. 
Sport and Sportsmen. 
MoNADNOCK, N. H., July 31, — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of July 4, Mr. Charles L. Paige 
resents Messrs. Hearst's and Davenport's attack on 
sportsmen. Never was a topic that called for more 
patience on both sides. Not to be sacrilegious, one 
might say, Venator nascitur, non fit — so truly justified 
does he feel in his attitude. So more than all other 
customs time-honored is this of killing to live, and so 
glorious to youth is the sense of daring all and endur- 
ing all to conquer a dangerous adversary; and who 
among us shall cast the first stone in a matter where 
all of us — every one in the world — are in the same 
boat? Only at most, a little further along the scale, 
one way or the other; all alike sharing a subsistence 
scheme in which we live by countless deaths of weaker 
animals. 
In fact, the only standpoint for opposing sportsmen's 
killing is not the usual feminine cry against cruelty, 
that being untenable, considering how we all live. The 
true standpoint is the naturalist's claim that the world 
shall not be robbed of any of its beautiful life-forms. 
In medio tutissimus — pursue the middle course — is 
the wisest of sayings, and the medium here would seem 
to be a state of willingness to kill for one's apparent 
needs, either bodily or mental; this willingness being 
midway between youth's fiery hunter period, and the 
sentimentalist's wish to- die rather than to kill anything. 
Will anyone deny that the most significant movement 
up to now is from these rapacity pleasures toward the 
pleasures of thought? Mr. Paige says: "In many cases 
it is the men who kill animals directly who are most 
active in preserving and increasing the animals for a 
useful purpose. The men who shoot game are at the 
present time the men who are most earnest in thp 
efforts to protect and provide for it." Does Mr. Paige 
mean this for a joke? Surely no one ever hears 
sportsmen mention any but the one reason for such 
game protection, namely, that they may kill it. Mr. 
Paige forgets a mighty force, wielding already in its 
adolescence a strong hand, where he still sees only his 
own, when he says: "Who ever hears of anyone ex- 
cept sportsmen doing anything to protect game ani- 
mals, or birds, or fish?" He should know that the 
Biological Survey is at work in Congress, and all over 
the land, for the protection of all species; and that as 
a choice of evils it often joins ranks with sportsmen, 
preferring to keep up a species even for them to deci- 
mate rather than see it vanish altogether. 
Look at these two forces, side by side, in the effort 
to preserve game. The naturalists striving to save it 
to study and admire, and so that they may know that 
each wild region still has its wonderful typical inhabi- 
tants; the sportsmen, on the other hand, that they may 
kill it! Would any disinterested judge hesitate as to 
which of these attitudes is most representative of 
humanity's hope to-day? 
As we look back into the prehistoric dimness, 
I 
