L&HAitr U. OF t- 003AKA 
974 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 18, 1909. 
only what I and my friends can enjoy; that is 
my motto now, and I hope that I may so use 
my pen as to induce others to adopt the same. 
We returned to Rockport early the next day, 
and there I was delighted to find enough hun¬ 
gry people to practically empty our icebox, and 
I felt strangely grateful to everyone who took 
a pair of birds. It took quite a load off my 
mind to know that not a bird was wasted. 
Delmonico went up to the store to get some 
more things and he came back, mad as a hatter. 
I asked him what the matter was and he said: 
“They have raised the price of eggs. They 
have always been eight cents a dozen down here 
and now they are ten. I expect we poor folks 
will starve to death.” 
Every time I have bought eggs since that day 
I have thought of Delmonico Kline, and I think 
he would actually explode with rage if he had 
to pay forty-five cents, as we do in New York 
to-day. 
Forming the eastern boundary of Aransas 
Bay, between it and the Gulf of Mexico, there 
is a long island which extends from the pass 
north for about twenty-four miles. It varies 
in width from one to four miles and is largely 
composed of fine mesquite land, the richest and 
finest land in Texas. Armstrong had been tell¬ 
ing me of the wonderful shooting all over this 
island, when we ran across the owner as we 
were returning on board the sloop. He was 
very anxious to have me see the island, which 
he called a ranch, with the hope that I would 
get up a sporting club and buy it. They told 
me such tales about the number of quail on it 
that my curiosity was aroused and we arranged 
to go over there that afternoon. We took the 
owner over with us, gave him a good dinner 
on board the sloop and promised to take lunch 
with him the following day after visiting the 
north end of the island. 
In the morning we anchored near the shore 
about three miles from the north end of the 
island and Armstrong and I went ashore in the 
sharpie. We walked about a quarter of a mile 
from the water and came to the beginning of 
the mesquite bushes, and we had scarcely en¬ 
tered the edge of these when I heard a familiar 
roar and saw a large covey of quail get up 
within ten yards of us. As the open season for 
quail was over I would not shoot, but Arm¬ 
strong had promised the owner to bring him in 
some quail for lunch and he killed eight and 
left. 
From force of habit I was watching the birds 
to mark down the singles, when my guide saw 
what I was doing and he said: “Oh, don’t mind 
that. We will see enough without* bothering 
about the single birds.” 
He picked up his two birds and we walked 
on scarcely twenty-five yards when we put up 
another covey. After that I kept count of the 
coveys, and when we had gone but a little more 
than a mile, walking on in a straight line, we 
had flushed 109, and not a covey with less than 
twenty birds in it. 
I asked Armstrong if he had picked out this 
particular place because the birds were more 
plentiful here, but he assured me that it was 
just the same throughout the mesquite brush 
land. As there are some twenty thousand acres 
of this land on that island I leave the computa¬ 
tion of the number of quail there to the reader. 
My own estimate would look like foolish rav¬ 
ing. I can say that I have never seen anything 
like it before or since. 
Flitting about among the branches of dwarfed 
mesquite trees there were quite a number of 
wild doves, and I amused myself by bagging a 
nice mess of these delicious, birds, a delicacy 
which I found superior to all the other game 
I tasted on that trip. 
It was pot 9 o’clock when we returned to the 
sloop, and as we were not due at the ranch 
house until two, Armstrong suggested that we 
try the English snipe in a piece of marshy 
ground about a mile to the west of us. We 
sailed over to this place and went ashore. 
About half a mile from the water we struck 
the cover and for an hour tramped around, see¬ 
ing quite a number of snipe. The birds were 
very wild and got up never nearer than fifty 
yards from us, so it was hard shooting, too 
hard for me, and I only killed two of the twelve 
birds we got. It was an education to see Arm¬ 
strong cut them down at seventy yards and 
more, and I do not think he missed one out 
of three. ‘ 
On the way back to the ranch dock Arm¬ 
strong told me of the outrageous performance 
of a man from Omaha who came down to shoot 
for five days with the idea of making a record 
for one man, one gun and one dog for one day. 
He went with Armstrong to the island after 
the quail, shot five days, and his lowest day was 
175, his highest one 190, and he threw away 
every bird behind him and left them to rot. 
We found our friend at the ranch house and 
had a very good dinner, being regaled by his 
stories of life on the island. There were thiee 
thousand head of cattle there, all running wild, 
about the same number of sheep, countless wild 
pigs, fifty ponies, about the same number of 
deer and a herd of Angora goats. One Mexican 
lived’ on the island with his family and his chief 
duty was to keep the fifteen windmills in work¬ 
ing order. These were scattered all over the 
island and made fresh water pools where the 
live stock got their drinking water. Not an 
acre was under cultivation and it was a shame 
to see such great resources of nature unused. 
All the poorly constructed buildings were built 
of hard woods and I asked how this happened. 
The owner told me that the sailing vessels, 
which carry lumber from Mexico and Central 
America to Galveston, often lost part of their 
deck load at sea and the wind cast the logs up 
on the beach of the island, affording him an 
endless supply of the finest woods. After we 
had finished our dinner Armstrong and I rode 
over to see this free-for-all lumber yard, and 
we found the beach for miles and miles strewn 
with valuable timber. When I returned to the 
house I asked the owner why he did not charter 
a schooner and send some cargoes to market, 
and he replied: “I reckon it’s too much like 
work.” 
Although that man was a Yankee born he had 
been in that southern clime long enough to be¬ 
come infected with an incurable disease lazi¬ 
ness. I was much impressed with the possi¬ 
bilities of the island ranch and believe that it 
could be made to pay a royal income by culti¬ 
vating the mesquite lands, attending properly to 
the cattle and sheep and renting out the shoot¬ 
ing, not to mention the lumber gold mine. 
Edwin Main Post, 
[to be concluded.] 
New York State League. 
The forty-fifth annual meeting of the New 
York State Fish, Game and Forest League was 
held on Nov. 9 and 10 in Syracuse. It was at¬ 
tended by the delegates or alternates of forty- 
seven clubs, by visitors from Canada and from 
other States, and was marked by the enthu¬ 
siasm with which addresses were received and 
by earnest efforts to improve existing laws 
rather than to propose new provisions. 
The assembly hall was appropriately decorated 
with mounted specimens of the game and fish 
of the State and with evergreens. Snow fell 
during both days and the temperature was 
low, though delegates from the northern part 
of New York mentioned that sleighing up there 
was still fair, and those from the southern tiei 
of counties spoke of the drouth and the dus 
they had left behind. 
Little time was wasted during the two days 
and the visitors were well pleased with the con 
vention and with the entertainment accordee 
them by the sportsmen of Syracuse. 
Thursdays Sessions. 
The convention was called to order the morn 
ing of Dec. 9 by President F. S. Honsinge 
who, after an address of welcome by one 0 
the officials of Syracuse in the absence c 
the mayor, appointed the following a credentia 
committee: Robert B. Lawrence, of New Yor, 
city; Harvey McMurchy, of Syracuse, an 
Nathan Hanford, of Ithaca. 
After the reading of the minutes of the la 
annual meeting the regular order of busine 
was suspended in order to give James S. Whi] 
pie, Commissioner of Forest, Fish and Game < 
New York State, an opportunity to deliver hj 
promised address and take an afternoon trai, 
so that he could keep a lecture engagement th 
night. The commissioner said that he consider ! 
the game and fish laws the most difficult of .1 
laws to formulate and to harmonize to suit t! 
many interests that must be considered.. Wh! 
he undertook the work of revising and' codif 
ing the forest, fish and game laws two y ti- 
ago, he thought a few weeks’ work would si 
fice, but he and his staff devoted the best p; 
of five months to the task, only to find, afi 
believing the work well done, that the Legist 
ture was not content until it had torn his wo 
to pieces and destroyed its usefulness by inse 
ing local and other exceptions. While the p^ 
pie as a whole want good game laws, aftei 1 
he said, they are local in that every sportsni 
wants suitable exceptions to fit the conditi<} 
he finds in his own locality. 
“It is to the department’s interest to enfo: 
good laws,” said Mr. Whipple. It has no <.1 
to grind.” He believed it had made some p] 
gress and was certain it enjoyed the confide: 
of the people. Six years ago the total revet 
of the department was $23,000, but it had in¬ 
cases then than now. This year its output, 
fish numbered 500,000.000. although the preij 
number of hatcheries is the same with the \ 
ception of one, not yet completed. This is . 
Linlithgo hatchery, on the Hudson River rj 
the town of the same name. This year the ; 
partment handled 1,600 violations and ha 
revenue of $200,000 a year. The shellfish t 
partment is self-sustaining. Several years { 
it accomplished little; today it enables the )* 
