i&HAiiV II- OF 1. OR9ANA CXAZSPAIGN 
936 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. ii, 1909- 
North Woods after deer and other big game. If 
he is lucky he will bring home three or four 
fine plump specimens. 
Squirrel hunting has been very good. During 
a trip north of here recently I bagged twenty- 
five in a two-days’ hunt. What fun it is to creep 
into the oak woods and with the gun at the 
ready, wait for the nimble ones. 
Since the above was written there has been 
anxiety for the safety of Minneapolis hunters 
in the northern woods during the heavy snow¬ 
storm. Veteran hunters cannot remember a deer 
hunting season that was attended with more suf¬ 
fering for the hunters. Many of the men in the 
woods are snowed in and are waiting for the 
swamps to freeze, so that they may either hunt 
or return home. One hunter who returned from 
the Vermillion iron range says the storm dur¬ 
ing the first days of the season made hunting im¬ 
possible. It had rained continually for several 
days and the lowlands, then fairly dry and pass¬ 
able, were filled with water so that the hunters 
could not go through. Then followed the days 
of cutting sleet and snow and the hunters were 
forced to take shelter. Occasionally they could 
hunt, but little territory could be covered. 
The same weather conditions prevailed east 
of the Cayuga iron range where Henry Hanke, 
a well known Minneapolis man, and a party were 
hunting. Word came from him telling of im¬ 
passable swamps and the driving storm that 
swept that region recently. He was waiting for 
a freeze so that he could hunt. While the hun¬ 
ters went prepared for bad weather, they . 1 
not prepare for a driving storm and a high wind. 
Determination not to return empty handed, how¬ 
ever, made it easier for the men to stay in their 
hunting quarters, and each day they expected to 
see the ground frozen and be able to track deer. 
The first week on the upper peninsula of 
Michigan likewise proved disappointing to the 
hunters. The temperature had been very mild 
and a great deal of rain had fallen. Then came 
the storm of a few days ago. There were prob¬ 
ably more men in the woods after big game 
than ever before, yet in all the districts the kill 
thus far reported was very light. Returned hun¬ 
ters say the deer were unusually wild and that 
it was hard to stalk them. They attributed this 
condition not only to the weather, but to the 
evident fact that much hunting has been done 
before the open season. It is known that many 
camps had been established, and it is not un¬ 
likely that the chase was well in progress be¬ 
fore the season opened. Among those arrested 
for illegal hunting was a churchman from the 
copper country. 
Estimates of the number of hunters in the 
woods placed the total in excess of ten thou¬ 
sand. Almost five thousand of these are from 
Southern Michigan, three-fifths of whom en¬ 
tered the straits of Mackinac and hunted in the 
eastern portion of the peninsula. Ohio as usual 
furnished a great many of the non-resident hun¬ 
ters, but a number of other States were also 
well represented. It is charged that some of 
these men obtained resident licenses through the 
connivance of friends and accommodating county 
clerks south of the straits. The law was vio¬ 
lated in other ways also, but the game wardens 
are so few in number and the territory is so 
vast in extent that few arrests have been made. 
For instance only one State deputy has been 
allotted to Dickinson and Marquette counties, 
the eastern part of Delta and part of Iron, the 
total area of which is greater than some States. 
To date little has been accomplished in the ter¬ 
ritory in the way of apprehending violators that 
are said to hunt the year around and send their 
game to the city markets. 
It is reported from Iron Mountain that venison 
and birds have been shipped from points on the 
railroad to Chicago dealers regularly for the last 
few months. It is common talk there that the 
sale of meat to the lumber camps has fallen off 
fully sixty per cent, since the fall and winter 
season set in. Loggers buy deer from the pot¬ 
hunters at three dollars each. It is extremely 
difficult to stamp out this hunting with the in¬ 
adequate force of deputies at the command of 
the State game warden, but doubtless much could 
be accomplished were the laws amended as to 
prohibit hunting parties from going to the woods 
in advance of the opening of the season. Two 
or three days is ample time to prepare camps, yet 
for two or three weeks prior to the opening of 
the season men were establishing themselves in 
the wilds under the pretext of getting their 
lodges ready. 
It is not every year that an albino deer is 
killed in upper Michigan, but at least one has 
been bagged. The prize fell to C. F. Kimber, 
of Escanaba. The deer was a small one of about 
seventy-five pounds. It is pure white even to 
the hoofs and the eyes are pink. It was shot by 
Mr. Kimber while hunting on the west branch 
of the Escanaba River. 
Robert Page Lincoln. 
Northern Ducks Arrive. 
Los Angeles, Cal., Nov. 30. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Mid-November brought the local club 
men a decided improvement in sport, storms in 
the north sending down flights of new birds, 
spoonbills chiefly, but other varieties were repre¬ 
sented in more or less plenty except teal, which 
continue to be scarcer than usual. 
It was expected that under the twenty-five bird 
limit, making straight bags of one kind of birds 
would become popular, and it may yet work out 
that way, but the best shots up to a week or ten 
days ago have had their hands pretty full put¬ 
ting together the limit of everything of the duck 
family that wandered within scratch range of 
their blinds. Nearly all the ducks are very fat. 
The present season has been even more mild 
than usual. Reports from the mountain lakes 
tell of plenty of redheads and canvasbacks. 
Snipe still are scarce. They have been becom¬ 
ing rater each year, and it seems almost as if 
something else than man was to blame for their 
extermination here at least. Up north they were 
shot along the Sacramento River bottom very 
assiduously for the market until that was made 
a misdemeanor. The scarcity of snipe is a real 
hardship. 
Quail shooting is holding out well, particu¬ 
larly in San Diego county. Messrs. Chandler, 
Frank and James Cassou and Hum, of this 
city, put in several days last week on the Gue- 
jito ranch, and after missing the first two days 
on account of rain, wound up with a two days’ 
shoot that yielded them the limit in very short 
time. They report that the quail in that par¬ 
ticular section, many of which never were shot 
at before, have bred very sparingly, if at all, the 
last three or four seasons. Many of the big 
ranches and Spanish grants in San Diego county 
are preserved rigidly, and no one is allowed to 
hunt over them; in fact, posting is becoming 
more general among the ranchers and stockmen 
all over Southern California. They have been 
forced to post their places to keep the careless 
hunters off. It is these men who make the decent 
law-abiding sportsman all his trouble. Ihe irre- 
sponsibles leave gates open, shoot calves, hogs, 
horses and cows and run all over a man s crops 
regardless of his rights, and small wonder it is 
he thinks hunters are all of a piece and bars the 
entire fraternity. How much better to go to c 
ranch house and ask- permission to shoot rathei 
than pre-empt the privilege. This generalb 
makes a man sore of itself, and often result: 
in ordering off the intruders when a little diplo 
matic decency would not only have got the shoo 
for the day, but like as not for all time. 
The quail know how to take care of them 
selves pretty well, and excepting after dry win 
ters, when they do not breed at all generallj 
are well enough protected by the no-sale an' 
bag limit clauses of the game law. 
Great numbers of ducks can be seen roostin 
on the ocean when calm, and the large rafts the 
tell of northern birds are again in evidence. Th 
duck hunters have been turning out in greate 
force, too, of late. This has kept the birds mov 
ing and has had its share in improving the spo: 
all around. 
On one of our ponds on the canvasbac 
grounds is a sort of convention hall for wir< 
tails, as the ruddies are commonly known c 
the clubs. These stubby little fellows hold fori 
there in force. Several dozen of them may 1 
seen at any time sailing about in the breeze, st 
little tails stuck up like sails, and apparently ha 
ing the greatest kind of a time. One cann 
help having some respect for the ruddy aft 
visiting New York hotels. The bird is pass' 
up by local gunners when anything that will g 
up ten feet or more from the surface of t 
water is available, but this year the shooting h 
been bad at times, and to fill in vacant hi 
hours, rounding up the ruddies has come ir 
vogue. Two or three men will walk arou 
their favorite pond, draw in on them, and cre< 
a disturbance that results in the ruddies risi 
with a great splattering of wings and feet, g 
ting up a most surprising momemtum in a f 
yards. As they go down the ponds, going 1 
rounds of the blinds, two barrels ring out 1, 
“wire-tail salute,” and more often than not 
band travels on as many as it started. Wi 
tails fly like bullets and the best shots can ir 
them with a consistency that is amusing. O' 
in hand they are a particularly delicate dr 
very hard to pick, but well worth all the trou 
their firm red flesh being as a rule plastered v 
fat. I have been surprised to find them exhi 
ing the peculiar sweet flavor of the canvasb; 
and believe they feed upon the same food w 
available, as they are most accomplished div, 
Edwin L. Hedderl - 
All the fish laws of the United States 
Canada, revised to date and now in force,- 
given in the Game Laivs in Brief. See ad) 
