June 29, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
1015 
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poor in flesh, but in fine racing condition. What 
they lack in flesh they make up in flying powers. 
A few weeks’ stay and their little breasts assume 
a plump condition, the grass begins to get a 
trifle higher, and they are less difficult to ap¬ 
proach. Then the shooting is at its best and 
lasts until May 1 unless an unforeseen dry spell 
hastens their northern flight. 
1 he delights, of the sport are many. Picking 
up birds here and there in unexpected places 
greatly adds to the sport. Good marksmanship 
helps the game greatly, hut one is never certain 
of his bird. You will have a nice straight run 
of difficult kills, when Some slow, spiral, tantaliz¬ 
ing flyer wifi burst out of your pattern as though 
it was an easy matter. 
There can be no set rules for jacksnipe shoot¬ 
ing. Many have given the advice to hunt them 
with the wind at your back, as' then they get 
up against wind and offer a much' easier shot. 
This rule seldom holds good among southwest 
Missouri snipe, for they have either failed to 
read this advice or possibly they have tried to 
emulate the will of the Missouri mule, for they 
get. up wild down wind and bleat out their 
“skeap” in every direction. I have tried the 
wind at my back and walked into a dozen jacks, 
and of the dozen flushed no two went in the 
same direction on the first rise. Some have de¬ 
scribed jacksnipe shooting as shooting at a hol¬ 
low corkscrew, when their missing streak is at 
hand, but when they are running straights it is 
all apparently easy. About the only advice I 
could give to one learning to shoot jacks is to 
always hold high on the bird, keep on inch over 
him all the time, whether you snap shoot or 
otherwise, and pull the trigger—don’t jerk. 
Loch Laddie. 
In Quest of Game. 
Boston. June 22 . — Editor Forest and Stream: 
All the exciting and amusing incidents- in life 
are not to be. found in great cities. A sports¬ 
man in the wilds away from the haunts of men 
sometimes runs up against what he least ex¬ 
pects, and at odd times he gets an experience 
that is worth relating. 
• Some fifteen years ago my attention was called 
to the fact that there was black duck shooting 
galore to be had in certain places in Canada by 
those in the secret, provided they were willing 
j to pay for it; and with the view T of a chance 
to invest in a shooting privilege, a friend and 
I at that time visited one of the many islands 
! lying below Quebec in the St. Lawrence River. 
At that point the river is some twenty miles 
wide, .and the island we sought was located about 
midway in the stream. This island was about 
one mile wide at high tide. 
The owner of the place had built a rude 
f. shanty there, and on this occasion he accom- 
[ panied us hoping to make a sale. Here we re¬ 
mained four days, dividing our time for the 
• most part between duck shooting, that was sim¬ 
ply slaughter, and other amusements. The owner 
of the island was a funny little French Cana- • 
I dian. He knew nothing about shooting ducks, 
nor did he profess to know-. He was engaged 
in business in the city of Quebec, but he passed 
on some time ago-. 
1 My story now goes back to something that 
occurred here in Boston about one month pre¬ 
vious to our visit to this island. A prominent 
Canadian lawyer, whom I had met on Salmon 
rivers in the Provinces, came to see me. He 
said that he represented the interests of a num- 
[ ber of Canadian distilleries, and that he was 
j looking up information as to whiskey exports 
from Boston; that there was a great deal of 
i smuggling of liquor going on in Canada to the 
| damage of the interests of his clients; that it 
j was believed that many cargoes of whiskey had 
been exported of late by parties who claimed 
i that the shipments were to go to Europe, but 
| that the liquor, which cost for export some 
I twenty-five cents a gallon, was being transferred 
r to small craft off the shores of Newfoundland, 
and thence found its way up the St. Lawrence 
j River' to various parts of Canada. This lawyer 
sought introductions to our customs and internal 
revenue officers through me. and I afterward 
learned that large lots of whiskey had been in¬ 
tercepted on its way up to Quebec.' I had freely 
talked this matter over with the man who was 
my companion on our trip to the island afore¬ 
said. 
The little Frenchman wanted to sell the island, 
and he made offers that he thought would tempt 
us, but we wished to further investigate before 
deciding what we would do. I was an entire 
stranger to this Frenchman, and it seemed to 
me rather queer that, being no sportsman, he 
should care to own such property, and I inno¬ 
cently ventured to ask some questions on that 
point. He evaded my questions and thereafter 
seemed reticent in his manner toward me, and 
I was at a loss to understand it. 
At the end of the third day he suddenly an¬ 
nounced that he intended to go over to the main¬ 
land on the plea of important business. He bor¬ 
rowed car fare to Quebec, excused his departure 
as best he could, and that was the last I ever 
saw of him. From my companion I afterward 
learned the cause of this hasty departure, and 
also the result of my ill-timed questions con¬ 
cerning this man’s ownership of the island. 
It seems that he had taken my companion into 
his confidence; that my questions had made him 
suspicious, and that he was afraid that matters 
might go wrong with him. He admitted to my 
friend that there was a large lot of whiskey in 
barrels buried in the sands of the island, and 
that there was then on the way up the river a 
still more valuable cargo of the shine belonging 
to him; and that he was afraid of losing it 
through Government seizure. My companion 
said to me afterward that he then felt that .it 
was an honorable course to tell this man all 
about that lawyer's visit to Boston and that he 
had done so, and had assured the man that we 
were- both above suspicion of any intention to 
do him a wrong. 
It seems that the Frenchman had also told 
my friend how he managed his business; that 
he made frequent visits to the island at night 
carrying over large milk cans which he filled 
with whiskey and put ashore before morning. 
These were sent up to Quebec on a milk wagon, 
and, as he was interested in several saloons, he 
made large profits. But he said that the busi¬ 
ness was getting to be so dangerous he had de¬ 
cided to sell the island and quit the trade. 
When my companion told him the story of 
the lawyer's visit to Boston the little French¬ 
man went ashore in a hurry. I subequently 
learned the sequel to the story. That little mail 
had brains. Believing that a seizure of his cargo 
of whiskey was a foregone conclusion, he went 
to a revenue officer and informed on himself, 
after making a bargain that the Government re¬ 
ward for seizure of liquors should be shared 
between them. 
By this clever arrangement the Frenchman 
was still ahead of the game on his whiskey deal, 
even if-his feet were a little cold over his ex¬ 
perience with us. John’ Fottler, Jr. 
Massachusetts Fish and Game. 
Boston, June 22 .—Editor Forest and Stream: 
On Thursday evening, June 21, I met a num¬ 
ber of the sportsmen of Lawrence in the Board 
of Trade Hall, where after an interchange of 
news, those present voted unanimously to pro¬ 
ceed to organize a game protective association 
and elected as President, Mr. Wm. Fitiacane; 
Vice-President, Fred Marland; Secretary, W. 
W. Bradbury; Treasurer, Wm. McDonald; 
Executive Committee, E. F. Joyce, Frank Rey¬ 
nolds, G. W. Hall, J. R. Shepard, W. Fowley, 
David Taylor and A. Haughton. The officers 
will prepare suitable by-laws and in all prob¬ 
ability will have an enrollment of at least 100 
members before the close .of the current year. 
A deer created quite a sensation in Malden 
this week by jumping through a window of a 
rubber factory, after vaulting over an eight-foot 
wire fence, receiving injuries which resulted in 
its death. The State authorities were notified 
and took charge of the carcass. 
Many inquiries are coming in about the new 
deer law. Some of your readers will like to 
know‘that under the new "law a hrmer or other 
person mSy chase, w'otmd, or kill by use of a 
shotgun, any deer found injuring or destroying 
any crop or fruit* tree upon cultivated land 
owned or occupied by him, but he must, under 
a penalty of $100 for neglecting so to do, 
report in writing such killing forthwith to 
the clerk of the city or town in which the deer 
was killed, stating the time and place and the 
crop or tree which was being injured. The clerk 
must make a record and forward the same to 
the game commissioners. 
PIenry H. Kimball, 
Maine Sportsmen’s Excursion. 
1 he twelfth annual excursion of the Maine 
Sportsmen's Fish and Game Association will 
occur on July 1. 2, 3 and 4. Kineo, »on Moose- 
head Lake, will he the destination. On the even- 
ing of the 2d there will be a meeting for the 
general discussion of matters relating to the fish 
and game interests. On that day and on the 3d 
there will be canoe races, portage contests, bat- 
teau races, rifle shooting, trolling and fly-fish¬ 
ing contests for guides, women and children, all 
.with attractive merchandise prizes. E. C. Far¬ 
rington, the secretary, will mail programmes of 
the excursion to interested persons who will 
write him at Augusta, Maine. 
THE TOP RAIL. 
Now comes a man with a proposition to start 
a mole farm: 
I he first mole farm in America will soon be 
established in the southern part of the Cumber¬ 
land Valley by Thomas Thrush, a young Carlisle 
man, say a press dispatch from Carlisle, Pa. 
Several acres of ground will be scooped out to 
the depth of five feet and sand filled in. The 
bottom of the plant will he of brick and a three 
foot wall will be erected around the entire plot 
thus caging the moles in. 
. “Mole skin, for which the animal is prized, 
,s „ much more valuable than seal skin. A New 
\ ork man recently paid $5,000 for a coat made 
of the mole’s fur. The animal is a little larger 
than the rat and is of about the same color.” 
Bricks being costly, it is suggested that in¬ 
stead of several acres, one hundred feet square 
be the dimensions of a trial “farm.” 
* * * 
A fish hatchery is a very convenient institu¬ 
tion, at times. I was told a good story concern¬ 
ing one the other day by an angler who stopped 
at a country hotel while fly-fishing in nearby 
streams. 1 he cold weather caused the trout to 
refuse all surface lures, and all the anglers then 
stopping at the hotel were complaining of small 
catches. Among them were two whose vacation 
was approaching its end aqd still they had few 
trout to take home. On their last afternoon, 
therefore, they bribed a man to drive them to 
a private hatchery several miles distant, and they 
returned each with a heavy basket of nice trout, 
which, however, were suspiciously even in size 
and weight. The driver said that there were 
ponds at the hatchery in which there were fin- 
gerlings only; other ponds containing larger 
trout; and still others where good-sized trout 
could be caught, all at so much per pound. It 
happened that .neither of the men had a fly-book 
with him, but the driver provided one with a 
hook dressed with a blade of grass and orna¬ 
mented the other’s hook with a bit of white 
linen, and with these wonderful lures they filled 
their baskets, weighed and paid for their “catch,” 
and caught an evening train for home, highly 
pleased with the results of their “fly-fishing” 
tr ’P- Grizzly King. 
