A Flyer in Geese. 
“Yes, I guess I’ll go duck hunting to-day. I’m 
within striking distance of the end of my fall 
work, and if I don’t take a day now and then. 
I’ll never get it, so—” 
Honk! honk! honk! came the wild clamor of 
three hundred throats, rudely breaking in on 
my ruminations. I was half in and half out 
of the kitchen door. I paused, looking up and 
instantly saw a mighty flock of wild geese bear¬ 
ing straight down on me, boring the morning 
mist with express train speed. I flung myself 
back into the house. 
“There’s the all-firedest flock of geese a-com- 
in?)” I yelled. “Come, quick!” 
In a moment the whole family was out on 
the door stones, just in time to see the flock 
go over, scarcely a gunshot high, their great 
wings driving them forward with swift, tire¬ 
less beating, their voices stirring our blood. 
“Now, I’m going up the river. Give me some 
lunch.” 
Before I could throw my things together, my 
father came in—“Those geese have turned back 
and have lit right out here; they’re lost in the 
fog,” he exclaimed, excitedly. 
In a moment I was running recklessly down 
to the shore, my lunch and field glasses bump¬ 
ing my back as I bounded down the steep path. 
Quickly noting the tide and wind, and picking 
some weeds for a battery, I shoved my canvas 
duck boat into the water, heading down and out 
into the fog. driving the boat along with every 
ounce of strength I had. 
Off Gordon’s Point I suddenly saw the flock. 
“Holy smoke, what a lot of geese I” I exclaimed. 
There was a long, unbroken line of them dimly 
visible in the mist, a half acre of solid geese. 
With trembling eagerness I now rowed back 
toward shore until I felt that their sharp eyes 
could not see me. Then oars came in, paddles 
went out, and lying flat on my back I began 
to creep toward them, rapidly at first, then more 
slowly, as I drew near. 
Oh, but that was a sight for the gods 1 Hun¬ 
dreds of geese, most of them dazzling white, 
their reddish heads held proudly alert as they 
swam slowly among each other. When I was 
about seventy yards from them they grew un¬ 
easy, beginning to call, then with a deafening 
roar of wings and water they tore themselves 
from the river and climbed the air, a host in 
full flight. 
Twice the old gun burst forth, bringing four 
of them tumbling back. Snow geese—a boat 
load of them! From Grinnell or Grant Land 
or Baffin Bay or northern Greenland, or the 
islands in the Arctic Ocean, two or three or 
even four thousand miles had they come, bring¬ 
ing to me that wonderful Arctic whiteness in 
their plumage, a whiteness born of the frozen 
seas and low hung sun, a whiteness so pure 
and wonderful that it seemed sacrilege to touch 
It. Their heads were russet, their wing tips 
gray-black, their bills and feet a strange purple- 
pink, a jewel-like color, just touched by the 
aurora borealis. They had a spread of wings 
almost as great as the spread of a strong man’s 
arms. 
The night boats from New York, delayed by 
the fog, were just stealing by, tearing the silence 
of the Hudson valley with their sirens as I 
slowly climbed the hill, my arms aching with 
the load I bore. Julian Burroughs. 
Boone and Crockett Club Annual 
Meeting. 
The annual meeting of the Boone and Crockett 
Club will be held at the University Club, Fifth 
avenue and Fifty-fourth street. New York city, 
on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 7:30 P. M. The routine 
SNOW GEESE FROM THE HUDSON RIVER. 
Photograph by Julian Burroughs. 
business, including the election of officers and 
committees, will be transacted at this meeting. 
The annual dinner of the club will be held 
after the meeting, at 8 o’clock. 
Mr. Charles Sheldon will deliver an illustrated 
address on his experiences in the Mt. McKinley 
region, Alaska, during the winter of 1907-8. 
Mr.. Roy C. Andrews, of the American Museum 
of Natural History, will deliver an illustrated 
address on the subject of “Whale Hunting off 
Vancouver Island and the Alaska Coast.’’ 
All the game lazvs of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and nozv in force, are 
given in the Game Lazvs in Brief. See adv. 
Elephani ShooGng in Africa. 
Did you ever shoot an elephant, or see one in 
its wild state? To look at the elephant in cap¬ 
tivity and then to sde a herd of wild ones in 
their own haunts is like chalk to cheese. There 
is no finer sight in the world than a herd of 
elephants undisturbed at water or quietly feed¬ 
ing. 
In a few years I suppose such a sight will 
not be possible, for the elephant will be a thing 
of the past; nevertheless there are still many 
places in Africa and India where there are a 
good number of these great beasts. Northeast¬ 
ern Rhodesia, British East Africa, Uganda, 
Congo and the Nile provinces all have"* their 
herds, but in German East Africa the laws for 
their protection are not strict. In that coun¬ 
try a man may kill as many as he chooses— 
either male or female—so long as he gives the 
ground tusk to the Government, or if he pre¬ 
fers it, takes out a license—for 100 rupees, I 
believe it is—and takes out a fresh license for 
every elephant he kills. Thus he can go on 
killing ad libitum. This should not be; it gives 
the ivory hunter the opportunity of slaughter¬ 
ing too many, though there is of course his side 
of the question to be looked at. It is his busi¬ 
ness and livelihood. 
In Rhodesia last year I believe there was in 
one instance a herd of over fifty being com¬ 
pletely wiped out—cows, tolos and bulls, but 
these are reported to have caused a great deal 
of damage to the crops and plantations and were 
dangerous also. It may have been a matter of 
necessity to kill them. It is pleasing to add 
that they estimate the number left in north¬ 
eastern Rhodesia alone to be over 1,000. 
In British East Africa and Uganda the laws 
are very strict. The license costs $50 and only 
two bulls are allowed to the hunter and these 
must carry ivory weighing over thirty pounds 
to the tusk. This is a good regulation, but it 
is a very hard thing to estimate the weight of 
tusks; especially so when one is among a herd 
in a thick bamboo forest and the animals cannot 
be seen until one is" within about ten yards’ dis¬ 
tance, and then not plainly. In British East 
Africa there are herds which have been exten¬ 
sively shot at that will charge directly they hear 
the report of a rifle. One cannot afford to get 
too close to them. 
Last year I took part in a shoot, which I am 
glad to say ended satisfactorily, both financially 
and from a sporting view. After all is said and 
done we are not all millionaires, and if one can 
make a part of the expenses of a trip or the 
whole, why so much the better. 
There were three in the party and we de¬ 
cided to go to the German border, by which I 
mean the border between British East Africa 
and German East Africa. We had been out 
three weeks and had found nothing worth going 
after, only a good many cows with tolos 
(young') and some small bulls, when at last we 
ran across the spoor of a traveling herd two 
days old which we followed. Talk about a trail; 
