8B2 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 31, 1904. 
Wisconsin. 
Here we are once more domesticated in the old Badger 
State, after an absence of some forty-six years. And 
what a change has come over the landscape in those 
years ! Where are the heavily wooded groves, the home 
of the deer? The swales full of mallard and teal? The 
copses alive with Bob White, not to mention enough of 
the pinnated grouse to satisfy any genuine sportsman? 
Now the large'timber is all cut off, and fields of grain for 
miles and miles in extent take their place, and the game, 
at least in this the lower part of the State, is gone never 
to return. There are no prairie chickens, very few quail, 
and but a small amount of ducks compared with what 
there "used to be." We have to put up now with the 
fox and gray squirrel and the Mollie cotton-tails. The 
upper part of the State, I am told, still holds its paradise 
for the sportsman. Many deer have been brought down 
to market thus far this season. I was fortunate in the 
years '56 and '57 to be employed as one of the examiners 
of the Fox and Wisconsin Land Improvement Company, 
who owned land (some 7,000,000 acres) scattered in 
twenty-eight of the counties of the State, and roamed 
with pick and gun throughout its wide domain, some of 
the northern part densely wooded, and I found a large 
variety of fur, fin and feather. The glory of the sports- 
man has departed from this section; but the fishing 
near-by at Rock Lake and Mud Lake is often quite good ; 
bass of 4 to 5 pounds, and pickerel of 12 pounds are quite 
common. Mud Lake used to be a grand place for ducks, 
esoecially in the fall, as its shores were lined with_ acres 
of wild rice and the fowl tarried in large varieties to 
fatten on the luscious seed. But some scoundrel— or 
more like egregious lunatic— put a quantity of the detest- 
able carp in the lakes, and they multiplied exceedingly, 
and of course tore up and destroyed the roots of rice and 
other plants so dear to the ducks, and now not a spear of 
any kind is to be seen in all the surrounding acres- 
nothing but mud, mud. It is too bad, and the miserable 
soft "poor man's food," as they were first called, can- 
not now be eradicated. 
In this pleasant village— or city, as they like to denomi- 
nate it— of some 2,000 inhabitants, I have found some 
congenial souls, disciples of the steel tubes and bamboo 
joints, to whom we "cottoned" at once. Among the 
first of these is Julius Wolfed, one of the business men 
of the community, one of the right kind, a reliable com- 
panion, a good shot, and a most indefatigable tramper. 1 
have had several days with him, and always with re- 
newed pleasure, if not at all times with as full bag as 
.we might wish, of snipe (they call them jacks here) or 
squirrels (both fox and gray), and the everywhere plen- 
tiful Mollie cotton-tails. Quail are protected until 1905. 
But last week we had a new experience m the way of 
hunting the longears. Mr. W. has two beagle bounds, 
little, short-legged fellows, and especially the bitch, black 
and tan, is a daisy. She will not weigh over 15 or 20 
pounds, but is staunch and true, runs the game slowly 
but surely, and, unless it be holed, will bring it around 
to the starting point. But there are a good many holes 
around the country, supposed at some time to have been 
the residences of badgers, woodchucks or skunks, into 
these receptacles Mollie will dive when she takes a no- 
tion—and she often takes the notion— and the hunter 
must seek another track. We were out last week and 
had some luck, having potted three or four Mollies and 
quite a number having disappeared m the earth. We 
were joined by Mr. Laskax, a successful veterinary sur- 
geon of the county, a genial and enthusiastic sportsman. 
He had no gun, but carried a small box under his arm. 
He was warmly welcomed by Mr. W. and the other 
hunters. "Now, Judge," said W. to the undersigned 
"you will see some fun, and ; if you can kill the first one 
you will do remarkably well." 
I did not understand what he meant, and the following 
occurred. The next time Mollie went to earth, the 
Doctor took from his box a long, brown little thing with 
bright, beady eyes and a sharp peaked nose Just back of 
its forelegs was attached a strong strap. Now, there are 
always two holes opening to the same earthly domicile 
Mr W stationed us near one of them, and told us to 
keep our eyes peeled. The Doctor carefully put the ani- 
mal (bird they call it) head first down in the ground. 
Almost instantly there shot out a streak of fur lightning 
with a white knob on end, and was forty yards away 
before your humble servants could gather our wits about 
us or our guns to our shoulders. Of course we shot be- 
hind him; and the next one also, for that matter. 
Now I am aware that there may be a big cry against 
Jacobstaff for this very unsportsmanlike way of bagging 
game; and he was at first rather ashamed of it ; but 
they claim here that it is no more unsportsmanlike to 
shoot Mollie (they always shoot her) jumping like the 
wind from the earth as to do so when on the track 
In Jersey there is a law in regard to the use of the 
ferret as the dagoes come over from New York carrying 
no gun, but instead a bag, and s lently get away with 
Enumerable of the little hares. There a sportsman will 
Ey shoot the Italian meat-hunter and the ferret before 
they will the rabbit. 
While we stood around a couple of holes debating the 
existence of a hare being therein, we happened to glance 
upward, and saw a bunch of leaves that resembled a 
Srel's nest. Knowing the propensity of these little 
animal to take their siesta as they feel so dispose^ we 
rnsuallv le* drive at it, and, rather to our astonishment, 
out Sped a big gray which was at once added to our 
£5 Now, six or eight full-grown rabbits in one's game 
nocket male quite a load to carry around very far; and 
some of our high-toned sportsmen friends will sneer 
and say it is small business for such an old hunter as 
Tacobstaff claims to have been. Let them augh. There 
is some ftm in it in lieu of better, and threescore and 
IweTve years is not as strenuous as he was; he cannot 
"follow the stag to his slippery crag," nor climb the 
rougrmountain S side for the lordly grouse ; but may 
Perchance renew his boyhood days with the innocent 
bunnies— and they do make good pies. , . 
What a lot of talk you are having about the sleeping 
dusky duck. Of course they sleep; not perhaps whole 
flocks at a time, but, like crows, some are always on the 
watch And a grouse does not strike the log or hole or 
even breast with its wings when drumming, no more 
than the hummingbird, when it hums or the woodcock. 
when it whistles. That is done with the rapid oscillation 
of the wings in each instance. So much for so much. 
Jacobstaff. 
Duck Shooting. 
Port Richmond, N. Y.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Write me down in italics as siding with that Blunt Old 
Man in the duck argument that's called into more promi- 
nent notice some of Forest and Stream's "fine old edu- 
cational mastodons." And I've killed some ducks, too, 
although I'm quite a fresh young man. 
"Ducks is ducks," and it's lawful and moral to take 
them flying, sitting, swimming or sleeping, high, low, 
j ack and the game. 
To my olfactories Charles Cristadofo smells of law- 
calf, buckram and mucilage, but he should use a better 
brand of logic in his business than the sample offered 
last week by the application of which he steps easily from 
sitting duck slaughter to fish dynamiting. 
In the words of the lamented Artemus ^Ward, "This 
is 2 mutch." 
There's an awful lot of good space goes to waste in 
your columns (maybe some is going now). Too many 
of these sea-lawyers arguing over ghosts that will not 
lay. 
Instance : Forest and Stream comes by the post, and 
I hurry to open it for an evening's unalloyed pleasure, 
when what to my horrified eye doth appear but "How 
does a drumming grouse do his drumming? On the log, 
over the log, on his breast, on his back?" and so on. 
Or another inquiry : "I killed a 7-point buck yesterday. 
Is each point a year or two years or six months, or 
twenty days or $10?" 
Never mind the rest — let sleeping ducks lie. 
Then after the inquiries — bedlam! Fossilized Nimrods, 
whose ideas no Presto could change, rattle into the fray, 
other wiseacres rally to the war-cry, and then to pot 
go three or four columns of the best sportsman's paper 
in our U-nited States. 
Let me modestly suggest a remedy : Have an "Anxious 
Inquirers' Column." Subordinate everything to it, even 
the editorial notes, and in this column print the latest 
accepted conclusions regarding these mooted questions, 
and have the grouse business first and last also for fear 
"Anxious" overlooks it. 
I hope you get my point. I'm for enlightenment and 
progress, but I am opposed to the sort of argument that 
rather seeks the conservation of opinions than the saving 
of truth. There are too many quidnuncs, closet- 
observers, semi-amateur naturalists on the ink-path. 
Mixed up with the mouse trails there may be the track 
of some larger deer ; but one gets so irritated by the petty 
meanderings that he leaves the hunt in disgust. 
None of this refers to men like Cabia Blanco, whose 
writings bear the stamp "Genuine." 
I look for his contributions at once. There is a charm 
about his unaffected style that pleases me, and if he has 
ever published a book or a collection of stories, I want 
to know.it, so that I can get it. Sidney Edwards. 
East Wareham, Mass., Dec. 22.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your current issue I seem to have fallen into 
a pit of my own digging, and unless something is quickly 
done will be buried by the indignant sportswomen._ For 
I am made to say that ladies do not practice ethics in the 
field. I intended nothing of the kind ; their ethics are 
all right. The allusion to Lady Bellaston and her vigor- 
ous expression was to make a parallel illustration. Her 
footman, finding himself on slippery ground, took refuge 
behind his virtue, whereat the lady scornfully exclaimed : 
"A man's virtue! Ministers preach of virtue, but who 
ever heard of one's practicing it?" Likewise sportsmen 
preach of "ethics," but whoever caught one putting them 
into practice? 
Personally I have no doubt that many readers of 
Forest and Stream, and correspondents also, are all that 
they pretend to be, and would not shoot anything sitting 
or sleeping. But in forty years with a gun north and 
south on both sides of the continent, I have never met one 
of them. I have known some fine men, too. One of 
these, a gentleman by name of Piercy, who lived on the 
west side of Elk River in Maryland, told me of a shot 
which he always regretted. He was walking with gun 
in hand down to a pasture to drive up some cattle at 
evening. At their watering place he saw_ a quail run to 
the spring and stop; he fired quickly, without any con- 
sideration, and picked up nine birds that were all drink- 
ing at the sunken barrel. He shamefully related the 
facts to his father, and was reprimanded. On the other 
side of the river lived a man named Davis. I was up to 
his place one dav in the bitter December of '76, and he 
related a partridge shooting without any compunction; 
he "nursed" them through the snow till they were_ under 
a cedar; the result was greater even than Piercy s. 
Though they did practically the same thing, there was a 
difference greater than a river between the two men. 
In another place your types make me say, "We have 
read the Forest and Stream from the very first, the 
cream of the shooting world." "Write and subscribe," 
etc should be in the same sentence. I meant the cream 
of the shooting wrote for, etc. Walter B. Savary. 
Aitken Minn. — Editor Forest and Stream: If some 
of the critics who have spoken so harshly of Manly 
Hardy and a Blunt Old Man for shooting, birds sitting, 
would examine the subject a little, they might find some- 
thing out that would throw some light on it. There are 
always two sides. . - 
I once had experience with a man who prided himself 
on being a true sportsman, and who scorned to shoot at 
anything sitting. Time and again I have seen him order 
a bird flushed, and then, after his three to five shots with 
a repeater, I 'have seen the bird go wabbling off with 
broken legs or otherwise maimed, to die by inches in an 
unknown ^spot. After a few hundred such exhibitions 
I remonstrated and pointed out the evil results. It did 
not mend the matter in any degree; but I lost a good 
deal of prestige. It would be no sport whatever to hunt 
squirrels or rabbits with a shotgun, for mostly they must 
be shot sitting, hence we use a rifle. When we hunt 
birds we use the shotgun because their natural means 
of escape is by flying; yet if the birds are scarce and 
yrM, we should shoot them, on the ground;, m a tree, or 
wherever an opportunity" offers, for the reason that the 
distance the bird would fly while the shooter is taking 
aim would likely take it into debatable range, and a 
crippled bird would be the result. If the bird be at close 
range_ and in the open, one may as well flush it, as the 
shot is equally sure by the ordinary shooter; but don't 
make any virtue of giving the bird a chance, as it 
weakens the standard of sport. We want the bird, rather 
than simply to gamble with it for its life. If one be a 
poor shot, there is all the more reason for shooting on 
the ground. The origin of hunting was the desire to 
possess the game. If we do not want the game, it is pure 
wantonness to hunt it. The manliest set- of men I have 
ever met was among sportsmen on the field at a trap- 
shooting contest, or by the camp-fire. There was never 
any bickering among them as to- who was the true 
sportsman. The best man among them was the one who 
won the big prize or brought in the big buck. When- 
ever I hear or read of disputes as to what is the standard, 
I can't help but think it is caused by the introduction 
of alien elements 
The Kelly-Seton controversy going on of late, puts me 
in mind of an incident that happened on a tenting trip 
two or three weeks ago. One day I found the fragments 
of an old gun in the woods. I was quite busy just then 
with a covey of partridges and laid the fragments across 
the portage trail between two lakes. Diverted by the 
chase, I continued on to> camp. On the way I fell to 
speculating on the romance that might be connected with 
that old gun. That evening in camp I started twenty- 
seven different times to tell about the gun ; but each time 
some other member broke in with something that just 
came to his mind, and I was silenced. After that the 
gun incident passed out of my mind for the evening. 
The next day, coming in over the portage trail, one of 
the boys picked up the gun, and the way he rung the 
changes on the gun and its possibilities kept us all in a 
fever all evening. 1 had found the gun, but the other 
fellow got in all the "guff," and did reap all the glory. 
The man who can talk loudest and fastest wins the 
argument regardless of any right of discovery or merit 
in the text. E. P. Jaques. 
Editor Forest and Stream: - 
I am only a blunt old man, something of a duck 
shooter (if I do say it myself), but no argufier. I have 
no controversial equipment which fits me to debate with 
Mr. Brown, nor indeed have I entertained any purpose 
of carrying on a controversy with him over this question 
of shooting ducks on the sit. That, and that only, is 
the point under discussion, though I confess that when 
reading Mr. Brown's letter in your current issue I for- 
got for the moment just what it was we were arguing 
about. Mr. Brown has a lot to say about how John Bur- 
roughs telepathized a sleeping duck (which J. B. hadn't 
ought to have done), and how the harsh criticisms of a 
writer of animal stories have brought blindness upon him 
(which I believe they did not do), and how the Shiras 
bill was going to forbid the shooting of sitting ducks 
(which of course it is not going to do), and how I am 
old (which I am) and sit back in an easy chair (which 
I do do), and how I wouldn't give my name (which I 
won't do), and how therefore he wouldn't give us those 
club names (which I think he should do). . It was all 
good reading, and I enjoyed it; but, as I said before, I 
am no argufier, and shall not attempt to take up these 
extraneous considerations. One thing I will say— I can 
see a point when the point is there. And another thing 
I will say — I can stick to the point when it is there, and 
can hang to it through thick and thin, sink or swim, live 
or die, survive or perish. (P. Henry.) A third thing I 
will say — if we are ever to get anywhere in this discus- 
sion, Mr. Brown ought to stick to the point, too. I mean 
that he shall ; or at least I mean no't to let him forget 
or evade the point. And the one sole, solitary, single, 
particular individual and only point now before the meet- 
ing is this, namely: 
Mr. Brown has said that for shooting a duck on the 
water, a member of a ducking club would for the first 
offense be- reprimanded and expelled for a repetition. 
I questioned this statement, and called upon Mr. 
Brown to name the clubs where such a course of pro- 
cedure could possibly happen. I said that it was up to 
him to prove his extraordinary assertion by adducing 
some corroborative prooL and that the names of clubs 
which would expel members for killing ducks on the 
water would supply the proof. 
Mr. Brown refuses to do this. I believe that his re- 
fusal is due to his inability to name the clubs. I think 
I am perfectly safe in saying that he will not give us any 
names of clubs which would expel their members for 
shooting ducks on the water, for the simple reason that 
he cannot. I don't believe that there are any such clubs. 
However, I may be mistaken. I am not always dead 
right. I don't know it all ; and a certain woman is fond 
of saying to me, "There is no fool like an old -fool." On 
the other hand, old as I am, I am not beyond learning 
something from those who know more than I do,, and I 
would be grateful if any of the readers cf Forest and 
Stream would tell me the names of ducking clubs which 
would expel a member for having shot ducks on the 
water. We are none of us too old to learn, not even 
A Blunt Old Man. 
"Wildfowl at Cttffitticfc Sound. 
Poplar Branch, Currituck Co., N. C, Dec. 23.— Edi- 
tor Forest and Stream: For the past two months the 
duck shooting here has been very "spotty." There have 
been multitudes of fowl, but, on the other hand, we have 
had much mild and pleasant weather during which ducks 
do not fly, and of course offer no shooting. Southerly 
breezes have piled up the water in the upper end of the 
Sound, and perhaps this has something to do with the 
absence of birds. Last week there were a good many 
ducks here, the weather was rough, and there was some 
good shooting, and two men shooting together for five 
days averaged about thirty birds daily or fifteen to the 
There are great quantities of geese here, and many 
swans ; but as yet no canvasback have been shot, for the 
weather has not been cold or rough enough to bring 
them to the decoys. A little later we hope for better 
weaker, §«owp^ t 
