“White says he owns a portion of this marsh, 
and can ask whom he pleases; he invited Bur¬ 
gess and myself to come and shoot here when¬ 
ever we wish to, saying he would take care of 
us.” “Well,” I rejoined, “I don’t see that we 
clubmen have any rights at all.” 
“No,” said York, “neither Burgess nor I are 
going to take any stock in this club, we might 
as well throw our money in a ditch.” About 
noon we knocked off with about eight dozen 
birds apiece to our credit. 
Wednesday evening we drove in the wagon 
several miles, and seeing some grass plover I 
placed my decoys in a pond and without any 
blind I squatted on the edge and awaited develop¬ 
ments. The others kept on to occupy their old 
■blinds. Of all the birds in this section the grass 
plover is the finest, and largest; they do not often 
come in such numbers as to afford continuous 
shooting. They are fast flyers, and rarely circle 
around the decoys, but dart by. I happened to 
strike the right spot at the right time, and never 
in my experience did I ever see such a steady 
flight, they came twenty or thirty a minute with¬ 
out a break. I had some three score of No. io 
shells, and I fired straight along, the birds drop¬ 
ping right and left, and but for my dog I would 
have lost most of them, for it was useless to 
chase cripples, one would miss a dozen shots 
by so doing, and owing to the long shots, fully 
one-half were only winged and fell into the 
grass. Jessie lay crouched at my feet motion¬ 
less, and only at the word of command would 
she dart like a streak after the bird and drop 
it at my feet- Owing to my want of conceal¬ 
ment all the birds shied to the right or left and 
every shot had to be taken over 50 yds. Just 
about this time there occurred the most fas¬ 
cinating effect for a sportsman that it is pos¬ 
sible to conceive. The birds flew straight from 
the west, and low in the western horizon was 
a huge bank of clouds behind which the beams 
of the setting sun gleamed, changing the mass 
of vapor into a roseate golden and crimson hue. 
The sight was a gorgeous one, and dazzled the 
eye. Right from this mass of opaline tinted 
clouds the birds shot out like a dart hurled by 
a powerful engine. The glare was so strong 
that the birds could not be seen until within 
50 yards. It seemed an ocular illusion, to see 
the flash and glancing of wings appear suddenly 
from the fantastic, colored mist and luminous 
shade. These grass plover have a spread of 
wing equal to a seagull’s, and they know how 
to use them; when killed they do not fall, but 
tumble to the ground. I soon fired my last shot 
from my No. 10 Greener and seized my No. 
16-bore, but I might as well have shot with a 
horse pistol. 
The sun had set by this time, and I killed a 
few that were directly over my head, but I did 
not knock over more than one in five shots with 
the small gun. I stopped shooting before it 
was too dark to pick up the birds that had fallen 
in the pond, and just as the wagon drove up I 
finished my count, having exactly 51 grass plover 
and a few yellow shanks. Though I built a blind 
in the same spot soon after, I never killed an¬ 
other plover, nor did any of my companions. 
The birds simply and mysteriously disappeared. 
Cap’s score during the day was 160 gray ducks 
and yellow shanks. 
Thursday morning all of the party save my¬ 
FOREST AND STREAM 
self went fishing about three miles up the beach, 
where a half submerged wreck lay. They caught 
nothing, but the sun got in its powerful work 
and as they had splashed about bare-footed they 
all had blistered feet and ankles. The condi¬ 
tion of the men Friday was pitiable- Mac was 
sick in bed, York had a big swelling on his 
upper lip, which prevented him enjoying the 
hugest joke, for to laugh was torture. The skin 
was cracking on his nose, and he could hardly 
limp acros sthe room. Cap was used up, his 
ankles had all -the skin burned off by the sun, 
his face badly scorched, and his wrists blistered 
by bites of mosquitoes and bedbugs, and I was 
scarified by the devilish insects on wrists and 
ankles. I went to the blinds alone that morn¬ 
ing, and had scored over a hundred birds before 
my friends appeared. The yellow shanks and 
grass plover had vamoosed, and the graybacks 
were by themselves. When Shant White dropped 
me my decoys the sun had just risen, and I 
was no sooner settled in my blind than three 
men formed a skirmish about 100 yards ahead 
of me; and two more stood an equal distance 
behind me, and they blazed away at every bird 
that flew over them. By what authority they 
were shooting on the club’s territory I do not 
know, nor did I ask. I was almost as humble 
as Uriah Heep by this time. Though I said 
nothing, I was like the Irishman’s owl, and kept 
up a thundering sight of thinking. The birds 
flew beautifully, and when my 125 shells were 
exhausted it was somewhere about 9 o’clock, 
so I signaled Shant to bring up his cart and 
take me back to his house. The others remained 
in the blinds and returned three hours later, 
with but few birds, as they had dispersed over 
the feeding grounds. 
Early in the morning, and late in the evening, 
is the best time for shooting, the birds are on 
the wing then and stool readily. It is a waste 
of time, labor and patience to sit in the blinds 
during the forenoon and afternoon, to say noth¬ 
ing of the positive discomfort of sitting under 
a dazzling sun, unprotected by shade or umbrella. 
The secret of making big bags consists in three 
things; first, good shooting; it goes without say¬ 
ing that the expert handling of the gun is the 
paramount consideration. Secondly, to keep 
motionless in the blind until the very moment 
you are ready to shoot. A single incautious 
gesture and the game will swirl to the right or 
left out of gunshot. The third is, to let the 
birds pass the decoys, and just as they turn or 
beat back give it to them. Never, if you can 
help it, let a bird light among the decoys. One 
is almost certain to shoot, and the scattering 
pellets will riddle the decoys as well as kill the 
birds. Many large scores have been made by 
members. The club has unfortunately no writ¬ 
ten record, and the tallies are marked like Rip 
Van Winkle’s score on the wall. As brief as 
it is, nothing could plainer show what excellent 
shooting this place affords. The worst score 
was a member from Washington City, who wrote 
on the wall under date of May 7, 1890, “I bagged 
five yellowlegs, and that was all. I made big 
preparations, and these snipe cost me about $20 
apiece.” 
Friday all hands were out early, and it being 
our last day we remained in the blinds until the 
early afternoon. Cap, who took an all day’s 
shot, closed the day with 100. Both York and 
Mac did well. I stopped at 118. A final count 
751 
up showed that the grand total was 1,267 birds. 
As large as the score is, it could have been easily 
doubled had we hunted steadily ana started out 
by dawn every morning. 
■On returning from each shoot the birds were 
laid side by side belly upward in shallow zinc 
cases about 3 feet long, 12 inches wide, and about 
3 inches deep; there was only one layer of birds 
put in each case, which was then fastened and 
placed in a large refrigerator, and covered with 
broken ice. In shipping these cases were placed 
in ice boxes. The birds soon become frozen, and 
will remain fresh and sweet as long as the ice 
lasts, which should be renewed every twenty- 
four hours. It is indispensable that this be 
looked to; a change of temperature for even one 
hour will ruin the birds. We were compelled 
to order another ton of ice; at least half was 
lost by melting in transit- Another thing, the 
birds when packed must be perfectly dry. The 
slightest moisture decomposes them. 
After dark all hands set to work collecting 
our traps. Mac and I settled with Shant. His 
charges were extremely moderate, $7.50 for 
board, $2.50 for boat hire, cart hire and per¬ 
sonal attendance. Just then York came in la¬ 
boring under some excitement and asked me to 
come over to the other house as there was go¬ 
ing. to be music in the air, Leon’s bill would 
bankrupt the crowd. It was exactly double the 
other. I have one beside me now, and will 
copy the unique production: “Board for Cap 
and York, $18; horse and wagon, $6; three 
days’ labor, $9; for hire of boat, $2; one bottle 
of ‘peches,’ $1; down to Wash Woods, $2.60; 
use of decoys, $1.50; fishing, $1.50.” 
Charging $9 for personal service topped in 
the way of extortion anything that ever came 
under our observation, seeing that both York 
and Cap cut their own bushes, made their own 
blinds, planted their own decoys, brought in 
their own birds. The labor of this worthy con¬ 
sisted in dumping his guests on the ground and 
then driving off. Even the decoys were not his, 
I lending York a portion of mine. A highway¬ 
man will generally allow his victim to retain 
enough money to take him back home, but 
Leon would take his last cent if he could. 
Last summer Col. Lewis was at the club and 
received an urgent telegram recalling him home- 
It happened on the odd day of the week, the 
steamboat only leaving on the even days, so the 
only way to get to Norfolk was by a drive to 
Virginia Beach. Shant’s team was away, and 
the Colonel applied to Leon to take him to Vir¬ 
ginia Beach. Now the regular price for carry¬ 
ing sportsmen to and from the beach to the club 
is $2 each way; but this Shylock insisted upon 
charging the Colonel just five times as much, 
well knowing he had the guest in his power. 
In northern Idaho and Montana, which had 
many fires during the past summer, 35 per cent, 
of the fires on national forests were caused by 
railroads, 26 per cent, by lightning, and 10 per 
cent, by campers. The remainder were due to 
brush burning and other miscellaneous or un¬ 
known causes. 
The Sihlwald, or city forest of Zurich, Switz¬ 
erland, adds to the town’s revenues $7.20 per acre 
a year, reducing the amount needed to be raised 
through taxation by more than $32,000. 
