April, 1919 
FOREST AND STREAM 
177 
DUCKS AND ALKALI 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
I N the extreme northwest corner of 
North Dakota, some three or four 
1 miles from the Montana line and about 
I the same distance from the Canadian 
line, lies a small lake, covering some 160 
acres, that is very strongly impregnated 
, with alkali. In October, 1916, a party of 
, six of us went out from Poplar, Mon- 
I tana, for a duck hunt. After hunting on 
, another lake some five miles farther west 
we moved east to the lake above men- 
' tioned one afternoon and went into camp. 
: We had very good shooting that evening, 
but before going to bed it was decided to 
' go back to the other lake for the morn- 
, ing shoot. The writer, not being as 
! young as he was before it was his priv- 
l ilege to wear a G. A. R. button, said he 
would stay and watch camp. But the 
! others did not go the next morning on 
I account of the weather. 
; During the night the wind came up 
and blew very hard from the northwest, 
I and the weather turned so cold that the 
water in our large milk can was frozen 
' quite hard, and when the writer got up 
, it was still blowing so hard I did not 
1 dare build a fire to make coffee for fear 
j the blaze might get away and start a 
prairie fire. This mention of the weather 
I is really necessary in order to explain, 
somewhat at least, what had happened, 
I and the very peculiar thing that befell 
us at this little lake. Now I wish to 
say right here that if I did not have 
the evidence of the other five members 
I of the party to fall back upon I would 
I not dare to tell just what kind of luck we 
! actually did have. Four of the men were 
I residents of Poplar, and the other, a Mr. 
j Ferguson, a man who has hunted over 
nearly all the United States, lives at Cul- 
I bertson, Montana, but our experience was 
I something entirely new to him. 
I After eating a cold lunch we took our 
guns and walked down to the lake for 
I our morning shoot. Arriving at the lake 
I the first thing we saw was what we took 
to be a wounded duck start out from the 
shore and go flopping off in the water 
and to put it out of its misery shot it. 
' As we had not brought along our waders, 
and as the wind was blowing toward the 
shore, we walked on, intending to pick up 
the duck on our way back. We had not 
' gone far before we flushed another duck 
j which acted just like the first one. We 
! shot that and went on, leaving it for the 
I waves to wash ashore. Going a few rods 
farther across a point we sighted a third 
duck in the same condition as the others, 
but we shot it before it had time to get 
far from shore. While waiting a few 
minutes for the wind to blow the bird 
within reach the thought struck us all 
at once that neither of the three birds 
appeared to have been winged, as we re- 
called that all three were using their 
wings for all they were worth. When 
W'e picked up the last duck shot we no- 
ticed it was extremely heavy and an ex- 
1 amination showed the breast, tail feath- 
ers and the underside of the wings coat- 
ed with what we first took to be ice, as 
it hung in white balls and crystals. We 
went back and picked up the other two, 
and they were in precisely the same con- 
dition. Investigation showed it was not 
ice at all, but crystalized alkali. The 
truth was that for some cause better 
known to the chemist than to us, the ex- 
treme cold during the night had caused 
the alkali in the water to congeal, as it 
were, and as the water splashed the 
highly impregnated water against the 
bird as he sat along the shore, it had 
accumulated in such quantities on his 
feathers he could not fly. As soon as 
the crystals dried, which was in a short 
time, they turned to white powedr and 
fell off. We picked off some feathers and 
put them in a box and brought them 
home as an evidence of the truthfulness 
of our story, as without this evidence no 
one could have been expected to believe 
us. Taking the three ducks back to camp 
and leaving them we returned to the lake 
and soon had a dozen nice ducks, all we 
could carry back, the shore being lined 
with these flopping ducks. I have sim- 
ply told facts, and if any other hunter 
who may read this ever had a similar ex- 
perience I should be pleased to hear 
from him. 
C. A. Bennett, Minn. 
The biter is bit 
A NOVEL WAY TO FISH 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
T ENCLOSE a photo which will prove 
^ of interest to all members of the clan 
of Isaac Walton. By hook or crook we 
obtain our ends, but not often in this 
manner. Fishing with a hellgramite for 
bait, the common name given by fisher- 
men to the larva of the Dobson or Homed 
Corydalis, in this instance he proved him- 
self not only a hellgramite, but a heller. 
Getting the long-looked-for bite I drew 
in my line with expectancy, sure enough 
I had a beautiful sunnie and in this 
particular case the biter was bit. In- 
stead of hooking the fish, the hellgramite 
had closed his ice tongs most tenaceously 
on the lower part of the fishes gills thus 
making a record and novel fish landing 
for me. Thinking this would prove of 
interest I quickly got my camera and 
here are the results. Lake Hopatcong, 
I have been told, contains besides its 
splendid game fish, millions of sunfish. 
Hopatcong is the Indian name for sweet- 
ened water, perhaps that is why the sun- 
fish from its waters are of exceptional 
sweetness. 
J. B. Pardoe, New Jersey. 
CONCERNING ARROW-HEADS 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
O VER most of the Continent of North 
America are to be found arrow 
heads, fashioned from flint or other 
stone. 
Could you, through the columns of 
Forest and Stream or by referring the 
matter to some one conversant with the 
subject, give me information as to how 
these arrow heads were worked and fash- 
ioned by the peoples who used them? 
In the ages they 'were in use it may be 
presumed that no tools made of metal 
were available. 
J. W. McIllree, Victoria, B. C. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
F or the benefit of your correspondent, 
I will say that stone arrow-heads 
and similar implements were worked 
with very simple tools. While it is true 
that there were always local variations 
and slight differences in methods of han- 
dling the work, just as there are differ- 
ences in blacksmithing, etc., yet, in the 
main, the process is the same. There 
is in fact only one successful way in 
which stone of this kind can be worked, 
that is, by chipping. The flint, or more 
properly, chert, is usually taken from 
the original strata and is thus some- 
what softer and more workable than 
when exposed to the air. Blocks are re- 
duced to the desired general form by 
striking with boulders or hand hammers 
of stone. These forms are then brought 
into leaf shape about the size of the 
point desired by striking with smaller 
stones. Finally, they are shaped and 
finished by pressure applied with bone 
or antler points. Further details of the 
process will be found in general books 
on the subject. 
Clark Wissler, New York. 
FROM A SOLDIER 
To the Editor of FOREST and Stream: 
A S I am in the army now I find my- 
self going back into the past for 
that touch with Nature which is now 
denied me because of my work. I did 
not know how much I could miss it 
until I had spent a year in the Army. 
I am promising myself that, when I get 
my discharge, I shall go out and build 
for myself a log cabin and spend the rest 
of my days in the great out-of-doors. I 
know now what Mother Nature meant 
when she said : “Give me a child in his 
tender years and he will never forsake 
me.” 
I have been roaming through quite a 
number of back copies of Forest and 
Stream. Age doesn’t hurt them. They 
are just as good as new even though some 
of them are entitled to quite a number 
of birthdays. 
Warren Kimsey, Arkansas. 
(several letters are held over) 
