432 
FOREST AND STREAM 
April 5, 1913 
An Oklahoma Shooting Trip. 
New York City, March 26.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: For some time past I have been 
meaning to write to 3'ou about a little shooting 
trip 1 took in the late fall in McCurtain county, 
Oklahoma, which maj' possibly be of interest in 
case you should have any inquiries regarding 
sport in that territory. 
A party of four Chicago friends, including 
myself, took a long, hard trip over the Frisco 
Road to the southwestern corner of Oklahoma, 
where we went into the old Choctaw Indian 
country, part way over a lumber railroad and 
the rest of the distance—about twenty odd miles 
from civilization—in wagons over what they 
called roads, which were really blazed trails 
through the woods for the most part. 
We found beautiful rolling wooded country, 
but with a decided lack of good water, and had 
considerable difficulty in locating our camp near 
a good supply. 
We were late enough to miss the rattle¬ 
snakes and other vermin, which were pretty 
well holed for the winter, althdtigh we saw a 
few tarantulas roaming around at midday in 
the sun. 
The weather during the day was very warm 
and beautiful, but the nights were exceedingly 
damp and chilly. 
There are no real guides there, and the 
hunters we could get, for the most part, were 
made up of poor whites who were satisfied with 
low wages and who had no’ idea of the duties 
of a guide. They did, however, help us in some 
directions when they were not scooting off by 
themselves without our permission looking for 
game. 
In hunting, we had no difficulty in finding 
plenty of deer and had gotten three good bucks 
before I left, after being in camp eight days. 
I devoted most of my time looking for turkeys 
and was successful after a great deal of hard 
work. I should like to spend more time in 
turkey hunting, as it is extremely difficult to 
get near enough to get a shot at a turkey. 
We had some duck shooting, quail, rabbits, 
fox, squirrels and plenty of ’coon and ’possum 
hunting at night in addition to the deer and 
turkey, and got some of about everything there 
was in the woods. 
Our evenings around the camp-fire were 
about the best part of the trip, as the stories 
and talk of the local hunters, with their debates, 
were most interesting and laughable, and the 
old fiddle was not neglected. 
You can imagine we lived pretty well, hav¬ 
ing a good cook to work over the camp-fire 
and all kinds of food, besides game. 
It was a most enjoyable experience all the 
way through, and I should not have missed it 
for a great deal, but, like every other available 
hunting place to-day, the woods were terrifically 
over-crowded and we refrained from going way 
through to the mountains on account of re¬ 
ports of the hunters in that better territory. 
Under present conditions it will be but a year 
or two before the game will be almost extinct 
there, even with the care of the wardens who 
are trying to enforce a law, which is being vio¬ 
lated every day, as regards the killing of num¬ 
bers as well as species of game. 
Again, the class of hunters through those 
woods is not trained and is very careless. I 
will confess that I was nervous a great many 
times when I was roaming around alone be¬ 
tween and over the ridges, when I could hear 
dogs and shootin.g in different directions about 
me. I should prefer to find a new ground for 
my next trip and certainly would not go into 
THE AUTHOR. 
this country earlier on account of snakes and 
ground vermin. 
We saw ver}" few Indians, but we under¬ 
stand that a good many of the old tribe of 
Snake Indians, of the Choctaw family, have 
isolated themselves further back in the woods 
as civilization has progressed through that coun¬ 
try, and that a year ago they showed some 
temper and exception to the invasion of their 
country b}' the hunters, which resulted in a little 
shooting, in a few cases fatal, but now there is 
little fear of trouble through there. Civilization 
is progressing very fast through all that coun¬ 
try; the towns springing up are remarkable in 
many ways. It will not be a great many years 
before the lumber industry and other lines of 
business will be in full swing, where ten years 
ago was an absolute wilderness. 
George E. Farrington. 
Menhaden-Oil Exports to Scotland. 
The annual imports of menhaden oil into 
the Glasgow consular district amount to about 
20,000 barrels, nearly all from America. Most 
of the oil is refined by one concern. Owing to 
the advancing prices of linseed oil, menhaden 
oil is used largely in paints and in the manu- 
facti Te of linoleum. 
Connecticut Game Protection. 
Essex, Conn., March 7.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: To my way of thinking the McLean 
liill for the Federal protection of migratory birds, 
is the greatest measure ever adopted by any legis¬ 
lative body in this country for the protection of 
our wild life. Without doubt under Government 
supervision the law will be more strictly enforced 
than it is at present, and a uniformity of open 
and closed seasons for large sections of the 
country will work wonders in keeping up the 
supply of ducks and other migrants. It will also 
do away with the foolish attempts that are con- 
stantli' being made whenever any State Legisla¬ 
ture is in session to have whatever good laws 
that State may have repealed. 
I know how it is in the State of Connecticut 
and ofttimes am disgusted at the shortsighted¬ 
ness of those people who are trying to bring 
about those changes. For instance, there is a 
bill up now for lengthening the open season for 
shooting ducks till the ist of February, intro¬ 
duced, I understand, by some gunners who re¬ 
side on the Sound shore in this county (Middle¬ 
sex). To be sure, there are ducks galore, and 
the ever present desire to kill is again made 
manifest by this silly bill. And yet the reason 
for this abundance is not far to seek. In the 
year 1907 the State of Connecticut wisely put 
the ban on the killing of ducks after Dec. 31, 
this becoming a law after the closing date of 
the open season had vacillated between March 31 
and April 30, almost biennially for several legis¬ 
lative terms. Almost immediately results began 
to be in evidence. The supply, which for a few 
years had been decreasing, now began to hold 
its own, and to-day, in spite of the ever-increas¬ 
ing number of hunters, it is safe to say that 
there are more ducks of almost every variety 
than there were eight or ten years ago. 
I doubt very much if there is a more thor¬ 
oughly gunned section in the State than in the 
four towns of Lynne, Old Lynne, Essex and 
Saybrook in the lower Connecticut valley. I 
have recently compiled a few figures to see just 
what proportion of people were taking out hunt¬ 
ing licenses, finding a list of the same in the 
last report of the Connecticut Fish and Game 
Commission. In the counties of New London 
and Middlesex, the ones in which these towns 
are located, the proportion is one license for 
every forty-six and thirty-five of the population 
respectively. In the above mentioned towns the 
proportion is ii, 18, 17 and 26 in the order given. 
There may be towns in other portions of the 
State that furnish nearly as many licenses, but 
I doubt very much if any four adjoining towns 
produce so many hunters. 
I merely mention this to show that there is 
some shooting done in this locality, and to make 
plain that whatever game we may have, is not 
here because it finds this section a refuge and 
a safe retreat. Now, here are a few samples 
of bags of ducks that have been made here re- 
centhc I know of two hunters who on two dif- 
