FOREST AND STREAM. 
859 
ft 
« f 
Nov. 27, 1909.] 
Round About the Crescent City. 
New Orleans, La., Nov. 16.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Hunters and fishermen alike re¬ 
port a little better luck during the past week 
than for some time, although the weather con¬ 
ditions have still been against the lovers of the 
gun. The long spell of summer weather seems 
to be broken and there is every evidence of cool 
weather coming to stay with enough rain to 
make it more seasonable. The long drouth has 
broken and now the hunters are gathering cour¬ 
age and from this time until the season closes 
many more of them will be in the fields and on 
the marshes. It is expected that the sales of 
hunting licenses will show a decided increase, 
and the revenues going to the game commission 
will be much greater than for the last few 
weeks. 
It is reported that ducks are very much more 
plentiful this fall than for several seasons and 
some splendid kills have been recorded by a 
number of hunters. There is no question that 
more ducks, geese, turkeys, deer and other game 
would have come to this market had the weather 
been more propitious. Quail are abundant in 
many of the parishes and they are now begin¬ 
ning to come to New Orleans in quantities and 
in fine condition. Large parties are being or¬ 
ganized here to take advantage of Thanksgiving- 
Day as a holiday and spend the time hunting, 
while others will fish if the weather will permit. 
Fese Sanchez killed a big buck Sunday weigh¬ 
ing 190 pounds on the Poydras plantation some 
thirty miles southwest of New Orleans. Mr. 
Sanchez is eighty years old and it was con¬ 
sidered remarkable that one of his age should 
be able to get a buck. There were several in 
the party with him. 
Large hunting parties were in the Barataria 
section, Chef Menteur and Lake Catherine on 
Sunday. Several well known fishermen were 
also at Lake Catherine and Chef Menteur dur¬ 
ing the past week and they were fairly success¬ 
ful in landing several dozen green trout. Sev¬ 
eral hunters report snipe plentiful and in good 
condition. The trouble with the ducks lately 
has been that they fly too high for the gunners, 
but during the past few days they are feeding 
and are more accessible. The prospects are now 
bright for the best hunting season in years in 
Louisiana. 
The State Game Commission is revising the 
laws on the subject of game and fish to be pre¬ 
sented to the next Legislature which meets in 
May in 1910. There are dozens of sections to 
be revised and numerous amendments to be 
offered in order to perfect the Louisiana 
statistics. It is proposed to improve the several 
acts so that they will meet the necessities of 
the case and benefit the largest number of citi¬ 
zens. Actual experience of over a year and a 
half has taught the commission a good many 
valuable lessons and shown that certain laws 
ought to be amended and others repealed. It 
will require much work on the part of Dr. 
Oscar Dowling, Mr. Miller, Mr. Ponder, Secre¬ 
tary Henry Jacobs and other members of the 
board to get all the proposed amendments into 
shape and frame entirely new sections. An 
effort will more than probably be made to have 
the Legislature increase the license tax imposed 
on the pot or professional hunter in Louisiana. 
It is declared that the present tax of one dollar 
is not sufficient in view of the fact that the 
pleasure hunter has to pay the same amount. 
I he pot-hunter kills thousands of heads of game 
during the season, while each pleasure hunter 
will average only a few dozen. There are those 
who claim that this tax is out of proportion to 
the benefit derived and should be changed. 
President Miller has accepted an invitation 
from the City School Board to deliver a series 
of illustrated lectures before the pupils and 
teachers of the public schools of New Orleans 
on the subject of fish and game bird protection 
and kindred topics. These courses of lectures 
will run all through this fall and winter and a 
number of prominent scientists are on the pro¬ 
gramme to deliver addresses on various sub¬ 
jects. Mr. Miller is very anxious to get the 
children interested in the subject of the natural 
resources of Louisiana and he feels that it is 
a most important educational matter. 
The commission is still at work on the sub¬ 
ject of establishing fish hatcheries in several 
points in Louisiana in addition to game pre¬ 
serves in Caldwell, Washington, Bessier and 
Webster parishes. This represents a big work, 
and if it can be accomplished much will be done 
to carry out the policies of the commission. But 
one of the most expensive plans contemplates 
a preserve for raising the d.amond-back terrapin 
on Queen Bess Island, near the mouth of the 
Mississippi River. F. G. G. 
Death of Charles Banks. 
It is but little more than three months since 
we called attention to the activities in America 
of some of the early game protectors, and 
pointed out that in the list of early members 
of the New York Association for the Protec¬ 
tion of Game, elected before the year i860, 
Charles Banks was the only survivor.- Now Mr. 
Banks has passed on to the great majority, hav¬ 
ing died Nov. 16 at his home, 14 West Fortieth 
street. 
Charles Banks was a New Yorker, having 
been born in North Moore street, seventy-nine 
years ago. He was one of the publishing firm 
of Banks & Brothers, but later incorporated as 
the Banks Law Publishing Company. Mr. Banks, 
as may be imagined from his more than fifty 
years’ membership of the New York Associa¬ 
tion, was a keen sportsman and always deeply 
interested in the protection and preservation of 
game. He was an associate and contemporary 
of James Harper, Genio C. Scott, Philo G. Rug- 
gles, Orison Blunt, Recorder Hackett, Charles 
E. Whitehead, Robert B. Roosevelt and Royal 
Phelps. 
An enthusiastic gunner as well as angler, and 
an expert in both branches of sport, Mr. Banks 
was a man of very agreeable personality and 
had a multitude of warm friends. Two or three 
years ago when, on account of advancing age, 
he tendered his resignation to the New York 
Association for the Protection of Fish and 
Game, the meeting laid the paper on the table 
and sent him a round robin signed by all the 
members present, asking him to withdraw his 
resignation, which he did. 
Mr. Banks was one of the founders of the 
Southside Sportsman’s Club, now of Oakdale, 
L. I., and was a regular visitor to the club ever 
since its establishment. He was a brother of 
Commodore David Banks and of A. Bleecker 
Banks, of Albany. 
Deer in Town. 
The brief open season for deer shooting on 
Long Island can always be depended on to fur¬ 
nish readable stories, often humorous, frequently 
pathetic. Here is one of them which appeared 
recently in the Sun: 
“He came bounding through the city streets 
this morning with four hounds close behind on 
his trail, and the sight made that part of Brook¬ 
lyn rub its eyes and look again, for he was a 
big, full-grown buck deer, with great sweeping 
antlers, and he was being hunted to his death. 
Flis head hung low, as if from utter exhaustion, 
and he ran unsteadily, while the four grim dogs 
in back of him ran close to the ground as if 
they, too, were tired. He was right in the 
Wyckoff Heights section of Williamsburg then, 
and he ran zigzagging through the crowded 
streets until death came to him at Wyckoff 
avenue, between Himrod and Harmon streets. 
It was a bullet from a policeman’s revolver that 
did it. 
"He was first seen the evening before about 8 
o’clock, when he ran through the R. D. Bors- 
mann feed store, at Myrtle and Cypress avenues, 
Ridgewood. Henry M. Rusch, the manager, was 
in the store with several others at the time. The 
deer upset several chairs, two desks and smashed 
three windows before it finally broke out by tak¬ 
ing a window sash with it. The hounds were 
close behind at that time and hunted and hun¬ 
ters went across Hugo’s farm at a lively pace 
after making the trouble in the store. Rusch 
and his companions were so startled that they 
did not lift a finger to catch the animal. 
“It was generally believed that the quarry must 
have been uncovered by the hounds in the neigh¬ 
borhood of Forest Park, L. I., where there are 
some miles of thick woods, partly stocked with 
game. From here the dogs must have followed 
almost at the buck’s heels for the long miles 
into the city. The deer and his pursuers were 
running about 300 yards apart, and when next 
seen in the morning the distance was about the 
same. Many miles must have been covered by 
the tired animals during the night before they 
turned again toward the city early in the morn¬ 
ing. From Wyckoff avenue, where the deer was 
noticed in the morning, the chase turned into 
Gates avenue, along Gates to Woodward avenue, 
into Onderdonk avenue, then back to Wyckoff, 
through Bleecker street, along St. Nicholas 
avenue and Stanhope street, then back once more 
to Wyckoff avenue. 
“The crowds were scattering along the streets 
on either side. On Wyckoff avenue, between 
Himrod and Harmon streets, Policeman Mc¬ 
Carthy, of the Hamburg avenue police station, 
decided that it was up to him to put a stop to 
the thing. He ran out into the street to halt 
the deer. The big animal raised up his hanging 
head for an instant, and then without a second’s 
hesitation wheeled and charged the man. Police¬ 
man McCarthy made the biggest jump on record 
in the whole force. 
“The deer crashed unsteadily up on the side¬ 
walk. and then his antlers went through the 
plate glass window of John Gutsky’s plumbing 
shop. The impact threw the animal to his knees. 
He fell over on his side, weak from exhaustion. 
In the meanwhile McCarthy had drawn his re 
(Continued on page 878.) 
* 
