210 
FOREST AND -STREAM. 
Ascii i^, igb4. 
After Jacksnipe with Peon Guides. 
On the Sante Fe Train in Kansas, Feb. 23.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: According to a promise made you 
several years ago, to the eflfect that whenever I in- 
dulge in any sport, a chronicle of which would inter- 
est your readers, I am to send you, if time permit, a 
description thereof for your paper, I now write to in- 
form you that I am just about concluding a combined 
business and pleasure trip of six weeks' duration in the 
Republic of Mexico. On this trip I have broken all 
my previous records in both wildfowl shooting and 
tarpon fishing, so perhaps your readers may be inter- 
ested in learning alDout the sport. 
In this letter I shall confine my attention to the 
shooting, leaving for a future communication some 
notes on tarpon fishing and tarpon tackle that I would 
like you to publish. 
My fishing experience was shared by my good friends, 
Messrs. F. S. Eaton and H. G. Pickering, of Boston; 
and Mr. Pickering has promised to send Forest and 
Stream, soon after his return to the United States 
next April, a record of our doings at and near Tampico 
during the first half of the present month. Desiring 
not to anticipate any portion of his story, I shall re- 
serve what I have to say about tarpon fishing until 
after his letter to you is published. 
On Jan. 8, I left Kansas City for the Republic of 
Mexico, professedly for the purpose of making an in- 
spection of all the bridges and openings on the entire 
line of the Vera Cruz & Pacific Ry., which is now 
nearing completion, and examining a proposed river 
crossing for a newly projected road, and incidentally 
for the purpose of taking my semi-annual vacation in 
a manner most pleasing to my taste. As my business 
appointment at Orizab^ was arranged for the 20th, I 
was able to stop en route for five or six days' shooting 
at an old stamping ground of mine in Central Mexico, 
where apparently a large portion of the brant, ducks, 
and jacksnipe of the United States and Canada spend 
the winter months in company with other wildfowl of 
a more sedentary nature, which breed and live entirely 
in Mexico. 
I took with me from Kansas City 800 loaded shells, 
Nos. 4, 6, 8, and 9 — not that these were sufficient for 
my needs, but that they were all I could carry in ad- 
dition to my other hand baggage. Just here let me 
digress a little to remark that the sportsman in trans- 
porting his shells by railroad is in rather hard luck. 
The railroad companies, if they know it, will not let 
them go as baggage; and the Pullman Company will not 
allow them in their cars. Again, if sent in advance by 
either freight or express, there is no telling when they 
will arrive at their destination, especially if they have 
to pass a custom house. Ordinarily, the Pullman con- 
ductors and porters ask no impertinent questions con- 
cerning the contents of one's hand baggage, so on 
previous occasions I have managed to carry my car- 
tridges with me in the sleeping car; but on this trip 
an officious passenger remarked to the porter that, "the 
heat of the steam pipes might explode those shells," 
consequently he had to refuse to allow them in the car, 
and I was compelled to hand them over to the baggage- 
rrian, and subsidize him to look after them in an ex- 
' officio capacity. Those cartridges were more trouble 
to me than a hunting dog would have been; for, not 
only did I have to interview and .tip each new baggage- 
man on the entire route, but in addition I had quite 
a time getting them through the Mexican Customs. 
However, "all's well that ends well," for I got the 
shells finally to their destination, saving on them over 
$1 per hundred, as compared with shells bought in the 
City of Mexico. Besides, the latter cannot always be 
relied upon, while my cartridges were first class, being 
loaded with Laflin & Rand's Infallible powder; a smoke- 
less powder that I have found will withstand the de- 
teriorating efifect of the damp climate on the coast of 
the Gulf of Mexico! 
On the forenoon of the 12th, I reached my destina- 
tion, and was met by one of my old and valued guides, 
who had everything in readiness for an early start on 
horseback to the shooting grounds, which we reached 
by I o'clock. These grounds, which I had shot over 
with great success two years previously, are simply 
ideal for jacksnipe; but they are not good for duck 
shooting — although alive with ducks — because of the 
lack of cover for hiding. They consist of a strip of 
marshland some two miles long, by about half a mile 
wide, most of which is covered with water not over 
knee deep, forming a small grass-grown lake in the 
middle, and leaving a boggy circumference about 100 
yards wide. It is in the latter that the jacksnipe feed; 
and they certainly were there in great numbers and 
fairly tame — for a while at least. 
Leaving our horses in the swamp to feed, and my 
spare gun and other impedimenta on the embankment 
of an irrigating ditch, I put on my rubber boots, 
loaded both the guide and myself with a good supply 
of shells, and proceeded to get down to business. Much 
to my satisfaction, I soon found that, in spite of being 
out of practice, I had not lost my old-time knack of 
bringing down my favorite game bird. At first I cer- 
tainly made some inexcusable misses, but as we pro- 
ceeded around the marsh the guide's hunting coat pock- 
ets began to bulge out, nothwithstanding the fact that 
ere long I had emptied them of shells. His load was 
augmented by three unfortunate ducks that had not 
figured with sufficient accuracy on the range of my 
little Smith gun, and its ability to throw No. 9 shot. 
After making something more than a half circuit of 
the lake, I saw that I was going to run short of shells, 
so we cut across and worked toward our cache. Sure 
enough, before getting there the last shell was fired, 
and for a while the snipe flew away unmolested. 
Upon my arrival at the cache I was very glad to rest. 
The day was hot and the sky cloudless; and, although 
the walking was as good as anyone could ask for in 
a snipe ground, having had no hard exercise for sev- 
eral months, I was taken with the most severe attack 
of cramps in the legs that I have had in the field. In 
half an hour, though, they eased up sufficiently to en- 
able me to start on another circuit of the same ground 
with a fresh supply of shells. The snipe appeared to 
be just as plentiful as before, and in spite of the cramps, 
which had not entirely left me, I shot about as well as 
ever. 
After having made a half circuit of the lake, we were 
joined by several peons on horseback, who appeared 
to be quite interested in the sport. To them it seemed 
odd that anyone would care to shoot birds worth only 
three or four cents (Mexican) apiece with cartridges 
costing ten or eleven cents (Mexican) each, so they 
made a suggestion to the effect that if I would wade 
out to the middle of the lake and stoop down, they 
would go to the far end, form a line, and drive the 
ducks toward me. 
Being pretty badly tuckered out by this time with 
the walking, I agreed and proceeded to the middle of 
the lake; but, alas! when I tried to stoop, the cramps 
caught me again with renewed vigor, and I had to re- 
main erect. The peons, though, did their part, and 
drove the ducks in great numbers down the lake toward 
me. Of course, seeing me erect, they all swerved and 
made the shooting rather long range for my light, open 
gun; nevertheless, inside of two minutes I had fired 
ten to twelve shots and had knocked down seven birds. 
This ended my shooting for the day; for I made a 
virtue of a necessity by leaving the marsh full of game 
two hours before sunset, with plenty of shells in our 
pockets. 
On counting the bag we found seventy-three jack- 
snipe, ten ducks and a hawk, the latter having had the 
temerity to make three dashes for a crippled snipe 
that was running only a few paces in advance of the 
guide. By his special request I treated the audacious 
bird to a dose of nines. These eighty-four birds were 
killed in less than three hours with an expenditure of 
149 cartridges; and not a single bird brought down was 
lost. This last circumstance was due to the extraor- 
dinary energy and viHgance of my guide, who is able 
to mark as many as half a dozen snipe, before pi'o- 
ceeding to retrieve them, and to find them all. It is 
true that I aided him occasionally by picking up a bird 
or two when he wa3 chasing cripples; but almost all 
the birds were retrieved by him. 
At 4:30 P. M., my peon escort left, well contended 
with a dollar "para beber," then we mounted our horses 
and started for the hotel. 
Before proceeding further with this story, I must in 
justice to myself and in order to avoid, if possible, being 
considered by your readers a "game hog," explain that 
my gun had not been out of its case for thirteen months, 
that probably a full year would elapse before my next 
shooting trip; that I have a number of friends in 
Mexico City who appreciate the game I send them; and 
that my outing was limited to about five days' sport. 
On this account, I did not, as in the past when shoot- 
ing in this district, put a limit on the size of the bag, 
but shot either a§ long as the shells held out or until 
physical exhaustion called halt. Not a single bird of 
my five days' bag was wasted, all being sent to friends 
in the city, excepting those used in the hotel and by my 
guides. 
As long as I live, I shall remember clearly the night 
that succeeded this first day's shoot; for the cramps re- 
turned worse than ever; the fleas bit and perambulated 
over me in spite of the insect powder with which I had 
sprinkled the sheets, and I could not close an eye the 
whole night. Worse than all these discomforts, though, 
vvas a thought that I could not dismiss from my mind, 
viz. : that I had gotten too old for wildfowl shooting— 
my fiftieth birthday was then due in three days — and 
that already I might have had my last good jacksnipe 
shoot. However, I turned out at daylight and pre- 
pared once more for the field. This time we reached 
the rnarsh at 10 o'clock, and although I was still very 
sore in the muscles, I found that the cramps had de- 
parted to return no more for that outing. 
The sound of the shooting soon brought my friends, 
the peons, in augmented numbers. Of their own accord 
they lined up some ten paces or more behind me, and 
extended over most of the snipe ground between the 
lake and the irrigating ditch. In this manner we swept 
the entire field driving the snipe before us, most of 
the birds coming within range of my gun, and flying 
either directly ahead or across from right to left. I 
must have "had on my shooting jacket" that day, for 
but few of the birds fired at escaped. At times there 
were half a dozen dead birds on the ground at Once. 
I never attempted to retrieve any of them, leaving that 
to the guide and my cortege. And how those fellows 
did enjoy the sport!: Every time a bird fell a laugh 
went down the whole line; and when I would miss a 
bird with the right barrel and bring it down at fifty or 
sixty yards with the left (which is slightly choked) they 
actually yelled! Never before had I seen such; shoot- 
ing, never before had I shot in better form, and never 
before had I taken such pleasure in bringing down 
birds! The fun I gave those' fellows was to me the best 
feature of the sport. They had never seen anything 
like It before— and for that matter neither had I. Oc- 
casionally, in spite of all the commotion, a duck re- 
turning to the marsh would come within range and get 
bagged, and once I killed a curlew at over sixty yards 
—probably a chance shot, as I was then using eights. 
It did not take long for my gun to get too hot to 
hold, then I put a glove on my left hand arid proceeded. 
Iwo hours of this business were all that I could stand, 
so at noon we adjourned; for lunch arid rested till 2 
o clock, when we resumed operations. By this time 
the snipe and I had become acquainted, so they en- 
deavored with some success to keep out of the way, 
many of them rising out of range. At 4 o'clock I 
had had enough, so we returned to where we had left 
the horses, and proceeded to count the bag, which 
footed up to 103 jacksnipe, six ducks, and one curlew. 
In addition to these I had knocked down eight other 
birds which had not been retrieved (mostly ducks that 
fell in the tules across the irrigating ditch); and the 
expenditure of shells was .182. 
Before parting with our escort we arranged with 
them for the use of a boat, tow horse, and rider for 
the next day m order to reach the haunts of the brant, 
far out from the shores of an almost impassable marsh. 
_ For this sport I took along my guide's brother, who 
IS himself a hunter and guide, at least two men being 
necessary to retrieve the brant. He had guided for me 
previously, consequently I knew his worth. 
In my time I have hunted game of various kinds and 
have fished in many lands, but never in all my experi- 
ence have I found guides to equal these two brothers. 
They are certainly true sportsmen (even if they do 
shoot sometimes for the market). More hard-work- 
ing, willing and agreeable fellows I have never known! 
The amount of physical exertion they put forth on oc- 
casions is truly a revelation to those acquainted with 
the usual slothful Mexican nature. They are power- 
fully built men, between thirty and forty years of age, 
and about five feet ten inches in height. Such hands 
as they have! powerful, but well shaped, and their 
bodies are in propotion. Concerning the latter I speak 
advisedly, for severaf times in my service have they 
stripped off every rag, and for hours: retrieved dead 
and crippled brant and ducks in water sometimes over 
their heads! Early and late they will' labor for me 
without the slightest sign of grumbling, and they never 
permit me to do any of the work of which they can 
relieve me. They always give me the choice horse to 
ride, and very seldom allow me to carry any of the 
load, excepting when the weight of the game is too 
great for their horses, then they put a small portion 
of it upon mine. 
It is not everybody, though, that they will exert 
themselves for like this; and I know that there are 
some sportsmen for whom they refuse to work at all. 
The reason for this is that I am fond of them and they 
are fond of me. 
My hunting and fishing guides are nearly always my 
friends. Occasionally I run across a disagreeable one; 
but soon get rid of him pleasantly, and never engage 
him again. My guides all say that I work them harder 
than do any of their other patrons; nevertheless, they 
will nearly always go with me in preference to anyone 
else. This is probably due to the fact that it is both 
my custom and my nature to treat a guide not as a 
hired man, but as a companion and fellow sportsman. 
A guide who works for the dollars only, is not worth 
having. Unless he truly enjoys his share of the sport, 
he is not worthy to be a sportsman's guide. 
These two Mexicans of mine are themselves sports- 
men to the core. When I miss a shot it really dis- 
appoints them more than it does me. I wish, though, 
•that I could speak in the same strain of the Mexicans 
who row me for tarpon fishing; but, unfortunately, they 
are of a different breed. It is the dollars that they are 
interested in, and not the sport. Some of them, how- 
ever, that I am training, begin to show some interest 
in handling and securing the fish. But enough of dis- 
sertation, so let us. return to the narrative. 
By starting the next morning at 5:30, and riding about 
nine miles, we reached at 7 o'clock the place on the 
edge of the marsh which had been designated for meet- 
ing our man with the horse and boat. The latter only 
was there, so we had to send back for our motor, thus 
losing some time. . , , 
How well I remember my first experience, three 
years ago, with this . method of boat propulsion! Ro- 
salio had made all; ar^ang^ements the day before for a 
boat to meet us/,at a certain place and hour, but when 
