26 o 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 16, 1907. 
Ducks Abundant in the Northwest. 
Seattle, Wash., Jan. 30 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: More fine strings of ducks were brought 
into Seattle last week than at any other time 
this winter. Conditions were just right, and 
those who were fortunate enough to have the 
privileges of good preserves killed the limit (25) 
in two hours or less. So continuous was the 
flight that it was not necessary to use the blinds. 
One could sit on an old log or stand in the open 
and yet get all the shooting desired. 
At the Swinomish Club preserve the sport was 
the best known in years. Instead of taking what 
came along the gunners selected their birds, 
killing nothing but mallards, canvasbacks and 
sprigs. A few teal were bagged, but they were 
so plentiful that no attention was given them 
after the first flurry. A. H. Harrison and H. C. 
Bromley, well known local sportsmen, said there 
were flocks of 400 or 500 teal in front of their 
blinds at different times during the day. Frank 
Atkins and Wilbur F. Coleman were among the 
local hunters who had more luck than they knew 
what to do with. Both are crack shots, and they 
ran out the limit before the day was half 
over. 
Charles F. Harpst went out for one day, but 
the flight was so good that he extended the time. 
He ran out of shells on the second day and stood 
on a log watching the teal and spoonbills wink 
at him as they passed. Mr. Harpst owns one of 
the largest Chesapeake Bay dogs in Washing- 
ington. He is a fine retriever, but before he had 
got through fighting the tide and ice he was 
satisfied that duck hunting from his viewpoint 
was not all sport. 
Sam and Jack Moore were also on the flats 
near Whitney. They put in two days of it and 
brought home a big bag. Along toward even¬ 
ing they simply stood in the country road and 
picked off the ducks as they flew across from one 
slough to another. 
H. L. Smith and W. F. Coulson were out 
from Anacortes. Like other hunters they ran 
out of shells and had to go home. They had 
a small flat bottomed boat, and it was a sub¬ 
ject of betting among the hunters along the 
slough whether they would keep afloat. Luckily 
for them they did not get ducked, but others 
were not so fortunate. Frank Atkins took two 
involuntary baths, but he would not give up and 
hunt cover. 
Elkan Morgenstern and Bob Ingersoll brought 
home all they could carry. “If we had had a 
dog,” said Mr. Morgenstern, “we could have 
killed ducks—well I do not know how many. 
I never saw so many in all my life.” 
E. E. Ellis and Bill Stewart went down to 
the Swinomish preserve for a hunt, but being 
among the best shots in the northwest, they did 
not have much time in the blinds. It was so 
easy for them to knock out the limit that they 
caught the next train home. 
The reasons for the large number of ducks 
along the sloughs controlled by the leading clubs 
are found in the rough water on the sound, scar¬ 
city of food and large quantities of ice in places 
where the water is shallow. The unusually 
large number of teal indicates that they are 
already working back from the south, although 
they made a sad mistake in their calculations. 
From reports from California it is known that 
the continued severe weather has sent thousands 
of ducks from Puget Sound further south. At 
the present time teal, spoonbills, sprigs, mallards 
and some widgeon constitute the bags. A few 
canvasbacks are falling before the gnns, but 
they are such wary birds that their numbers are 
not being depleted to any considerable extent. 
Frank Atkins made one of the prettiest shots 
on record, and by it landed a magnificent can- 
vasback drake. He was standing on a bridge when 
his lordship tried to cross. Atkins not only 
stopped him short but made his calculations so 
exact that the bird dropped on the bridge and 
was saved. Had he gone into the water it would 
have been impossible to save him, as the cur¬ 
rent was swift, and there was no dog near enough 
to retrieve. 
The ground at all the preserves is frozen solid, 
but north of Seattle there is comparatively little 
snow. Scarcity of food, except in places where 
the clubs are feeding despite the high cost of 
wheat, is driving the ducks to a grass diet, and 
this will make them poor in a few days. Last 
week, however, nearly all the ducks brought in 
were in good condition and showed that they 
knew where the grain had been thrown out. 
Portus Baxter. 
His Trip for Caribou. 
We are permitted to publish portions of a 
private letter, giving an account of a trip to 
Newfoundland made a year or two -since by a 
friend of the subscriber who sends us the letter. 
The writer says: 
The Newfoundland trip was a good one, and 
withal successful; but as is usually the case we 
would know better what and how to do another 
time. It was an unusually poor season for good 
heads, and I was lucky to get the limit allowed 
to one license. I got three caribou, and two 
of them were better than any others I saw that 
were shot this season. . Saw some mounted 
heads, though, that had mine properly trimmed. 
The other two boys didn’t do so well, Sid not 
getting any at all, and my brother Harry only 
one. That one, however, was a good one, 
though not as good as my best. 
The one I like best of the three has a very 
wide spread for a caribou antler, measuring 39 
inches, has very graceful and wide beam, but 
the brow antlers are not very good. If they 
were fine, I couldn’t ask for a better head. 
After all, a man’s satisfaction with the head he 
gets depends much on how it compares with 
others, and the poorest one of the lot we got 
this year would have made us swell with pride 
last season in New Brunswick. I got my best 
one by a lucky shot about 400 yards away and 
running. It was 442 paces, to be exact, and you 
can be sure I was glad to see that caribou come 
down, for he was going at a gait that would 
have taken him out of range in short order. 
The other two were cinches, about 150 yards, 
standing and dropped in their tracks. 
We went up the Humber salmon fishing the 
first eight days and then went back to the rail¬ 
road and east to Terra Nova, where we did our 
caribou hunting. 
I got my first goose on the Upper Humber, 
and that, by the way, was another lucky shot. 
I have a reputation in that locality, and this is 
how it was made. We were just getting the 
duffle into the canoes, preparatory to starting 
down stream on the way out, when a couple of 
canoes came around the point below us, and one 
of the guides in the canoe began to shoot at 
what looked to be a couple of ducks about 200 
yards ahead of him. He was making an awful 
mess of it, shooting wide at least five or ten 
yards, so I ran into the tent and got the rifle 
for a try at the ducks. They were considerably 
over 300 yards from where we were, and I 
could only see their location by the wave they 
made in breasting the water swimming up stream. 
My first shot went just over them, 'but I landed 
them both in the next two shots, one of them 
through the head. 
Well, you should have seen the guide’s eyes 
stick out, while I tried to act careless and un¬ 
concerned as though I pinked ’em like that any 
time. When I paddled out to them and found 
it was a couple of geese I’d bagged, we were 
properly elated and broiled one that night be¬ 
fore the camp-fire. That was, I suppose, about 
the most toothsome morsel a man ever put his 
teeth into. 
I thought of you more than once when I had 
a grilse on, for they are certainly “the goods.” 
They fight as hard as a black bass, and I do not 
believe I landed one that did not come out of 
the water a half-dozen times before I got him 
to net. They weigh about 3 to 5 pounds, and 
fight better than the salmon. I only got one 
salmon, and it only weighed six pounds, and was 
hardly a fair specimen. ’Twas too late in the 
season and the salmon were not taking the fly, 
though we saw plenty of them jumping the falls. 
Sam, 
The Preserve Unfair. 
Little Falls, N. Y. Jan. 19 —Editor Forest 
and Stream: I cannot get it through my head 
that the “game preserve idea” is the best way 
to save the game. After all the arguments are 
in, I still believe that the real, American way of 
saving the game and fish is to make laws and 
enforce them which will give every man an equal 
chance in the woods. 
Says Mr. L. O. Armstrong on Jan. 9: 
“Fish caught by Mr. -- in unpreserved 
waters; 1900, March, April, May, 20 salmon; 
1901, March, April and May, 17 salmon; 1902, 
March, April, May, n salmon. _ . 
“Now mark the difference. After establishing 
a preserve in his own waters this gentleman 
caught; 1904, March, April, May, 77 salmon; 
1905, March, April, May, 122 salmon; 1906, 
March, April, May, 123 salmon.” 
The way I took at this is; in the three “open” 
years Mr. ——— caught 48 salmon, and had his 
share of the sport. Other men, perhaps, to the 
number of forty or fifty, had similar sport ac¬ 
cording to their skill and deserts. 
In the three closed years, Mr. Blank caught 322 
salmon. The men who had divided the 274 fish 
among them did not get their share of the sport 
at all. Mr. —--- got it all. The way to have 
saved the salmon from depreciating in numbers 
was to limit the catch of each man, not cut off 
the sport of all thd fishermen except one. 
Mr. Armstrong was telling of Canadian waters. 
An incident to the point comes under my own 
experience in the Adirondacks. Moose River 
hunting grounds from the Natural Dam to far 
below the lower Stillwater is preserved. Last 
fall there were only ten or twelve hunters for 
deer on the preserved lands, while on the much 
smaller space above Natural Dam there were ten 
or twelve parties, say seventy hunters, crowded 
on the State land in that vicinity. The club men 
had two or three square miles each for hunting, 
while the “public” had only a quarter of a square 
mile or less for their sport. 
I cannot believe that this is a fair division of 
pleasure. I approve of every restriction which 
applies to everybody, in the way of game and 
fish laws. I sincerely believe that it is an out¬ 
rage when a few men have all the hunting, while 
the vast army of men who should like to hunt 
and fish are deprived of their pleasure. 
I do not think this is “sour grapes” or selfish¬ 
ness. I am not so fond of killing as I was a 
few years ago. I find that the man with a camera 
has a wider range of marks than the one with 
a gun. I still shoot; but my camera is a much 
more important part of my outfit now than it 
ever was before. If I had to choose, I should 
take the camera. Still I should very much object 
to being obliged to stop using my .45-90 as one 
of a hundred in order that the hundred and first 
man might have his two deer without fail, while 
the rest of us were obliged to buck the trespass 
suits if we took a chance. 
If there must be preserves, let us have parks 
where no> one is allowed to hunt, as in the Yel¬ 
lowstone. As Mr. Armstrong proves, the private 
preserve is not fair. It deprives the many of the 
right to fish and hunt for the sake of the few. 
If game and fish grow scarce, then stop the hunt¬ 
ing and fishing; treat everybody alike. If I was 
Mr. - I am quite certain that I should feel 
ashamed of myself. Raymond S. Spears. 
A Woodsman’s Opinion. 
Mr. F. E. Courtney, an Adirondack woods¬ 
man and game protector, in opposing the propo¬ 
sition to make the closing day for trout fishing 
and the opening day for deer shooting Sept. 15, 
says this is too late for trout fishing, as he has 
frequently found them on the spawning beds 
early in September in Jessups River and other 
streams flowing from springs, where the water 
is very cold. By the 15th, he says, the trout are 
not fit for the table. Aug. 15 is the latest date 
he would want to see trout taken. 
Mr. Courtney is also in favor, as he says, of 
making the sportsman hunt deer according to 
law, and regards the present season as satisfac¬ 
tory; in short, the sane doctrine of enforcing 
existing laws. 
