Feb. i, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
make it out. I started toward him while my 
companion continued along the edge. I had gone 
but a short distance when I heard the roar of 
rising birds and his cheery cry of “Mark 1 ’’ I 
soon saw four partridges flying toward the lower 
end of the cover which was grown up to tall 
birches and maples with an occasional low grow¬ 
ing bushy pine. When we came to the place the 
dog suddenly stopped on point within ten feet 
of one of these pines. 
Motioning the colonel to go to an opening I 
forced a rise, giving him a fair shot. I could 
see the bird was hard hit, but it kept on, and 
is soon as he could untangle himself the colonel 
*ave it the other barrel. The bird was too far 
iway. When it had gone about a hundred yards 
it started nearly straight up in the air, and when 
three or four hundred feet high, it doubled up 
ind came down, striking the ground with a thud. 
My companion remarked that it made as much 
ioise as he did when he fell out of the chestnut 
tree. After a long search we found the bird 
more than a hundred yards beyond where we 
expected to. 
When we turned back to the small pines a bird 
rose quite a distance away, but I brought it 
down with a shot that was most satisfactory to 
•ne. A short time after my companion scored a 
bird that I had to literally kick from almost 
under the nose of the dog. The other bird rose 
out of shot and flew to a patch of alders. We 
marked down near the edge. When we arrived 
:here, the colonel took position between the patch 
pf alders and a dense swamp, while I went in¬ 
side with the dog to find the bird. 
The dog soon had her fast, and I put her up, 
when I had & fair shot and ingloriously missed. 
\s it turned in the right direction I felt secure; 
for the colonel was a good shot, but somehow 
le failed to connect. When I came to him and 
:o!d him that I was heartily ashamed of this 
lerformance he dryly remarked, “So am I, for 
[ had nearly as good a chance as you did, and 
should have stopped her.” 
The bird flew through a long strip of open 
voods toward a dense thicket at the far end, and 
ve at once went after her. When we had nearly 
•eached the edge of the timber the dog came to 
t point near a large stone heap, but it was in 
/ain that we kicked every little bunch of brush 
n the vicinity. There was nothing in it, and 
concluding that the bird had taken flight, I went 
o the dog, and with my knee pushed him on a 
step or two when, with one foot on the heap of 
stones and his head turned toward it, he held 
lis point and I knew that the bird was in there. 
Telling my companion to get ready I began to 
•emove the stones. In a moment the bird came 
>ut with a rush, passing within two feet of his 
lead, but he was ready and brought her down 
n fine style. 
A Cat and a Woodcock. 
The remainder of the day passed without note- 
vorthy incident until it was nearly sunset, when 
ve came near the house with two more beauties 
idded to our score. Between us and the house 
vas an alder thicket that often held a woodcock, 
nd as the dog entered the cover he found one. 
motioned my companion to go for it. When 
he bird rose it went toward the house, and the 
olonel dropped it neatly just outside the cover; 
'ut as soon as it struck the ground the big yel- 
°w cat that belonged to the house grabbed it, 
and at her best pace made a bee-line for the 
house. Now, our hostess had told me that this 
cat had upon two occasions brought live wood¬ 
cock home, so I had no fear that we would lose 
our bird, and when the colonel broke cover and 
asked if he had killed the bird I told him that 
he had hit it hard and the last I saw of it it was 
not a foot from the ground just over a knoll 
near the house, and that we would probably find 
it in the dooryard, adding that a man who could 
shoot so as to drop his game in the wagon to 
save the trouble of carrying it was very near 
the limit. 
When we turned the corner of the shed I saw 
the bird in the wagon seat and our hostess in 
INDIAN TOTEM AT CAPE MUDGE, B. C. 
The salmon forms part of the emblem. 
Photographed by John P. Babcock. 
the door about to explain; but I shook my head 
and made a slight motion with my hand, when 
she disappeared, for she knew from previous ex¬ 
perience that something was doing. Just then 
the colonel caught sight of the bird and made 
an exclamation that caused me to turn, when I 
also saw it. Then in as awed a tone as I could 
command I exclaimed, “This is the most won¬ 
derful happening that I ever saw.” 
The colonel said not a word, and we drove 
home talking upon various subjects with never 
a hint from him until he left me at my door, 
when with a merry twinkle of his eye, he dryly 
said: 
“When you get good and ready I would like 
to have you explain that woodcock happening.” 
The clearing of the mystery appeared to please 
him immensely, but somehow I got it into my 
head that he did not care to have the boys get 
hold of it, and my opinion was confirmed by 
his silence upon the subject. 
1/5 
A Washington Goose Hunt. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
It never rains as it is doing to-day without 
causing me to remember a goose shoot that I 
chanced to take part in at one time. Just why 
the mere fact that it rains should start a train 
of thought which always winds up with that 
goose hunt, I am unable to say, unless it is that 
there were a few showers turned loose while 
we were out on that jaunt. 
The Horse Heaven country in the Big Bend 
of the Columbia has long been lauded as a 
goose country. Hunters go and return filled 
with enthusiasm about the shooting. According 
to more or less veracious historians the geese 
come in there so thick as to obscure the sun. 
It can be very readily understood how they can 
obscure the sun when it is known that dur¬ 
ing all my sojourn there the sun never shone. 
One lonesome solitary old gander could ob¬ 
scure all the sun we saw and have enough ob¬ 
scurity left for all practical purposes. The re¬ 
turning hunters deposed that all they had to 
do was to dig a pit in the sand and sit down 
and wait. Some wise guy once said, “Language 
is made to conceal thought.” If he had added 
that it was also made to conceal the truth, then 
would the axiom be complete. The presumption 
was that you sat down in the pit and waited for 
the geese to come and obscure the sun. Of the 
waiting more later. 
We reached the station on the railroad from 
whence we were to take our departure, and in 
due time succeeded in chartering a buckboard 
and a pair of cayuses from one of the natives. 
Into this vehicle we loaded our camp duffle, and 
steering by a chart prepared for us by one who 
had before navigated these prairies, we set out— 
at least he claimed to have navigated around 
those parts. In less than two miles we con¬ 
cluded that we had either failed to “shoot the 
sun” properly or else he who made the chart 
was recovering from a birthday celebration 
when he performed that labor. The lay of the 
land did not resemble the crooked marks on 
the paper in the least. It was growing dusk. 
We decided to camp for the night. It was not 
then raining. 
We camped. Just over a little ridge from 
where we decided to pause for the night lay a 
small lake and besidd* it stood a sheep herder’s 
shack. There was plenty of water. This was 
accounted for by the fact that it had been rain¬ 
ing. It is rather a difficult task to make a suc¬ 
cessful fire out of nothing. We made a fire out 
of as near nothing as any weary mortals ever 
did. There was not a tree nor a bush in sight; 
nothing but sage and bunchgrass as far as the 
eye could see. Sage makes a pretty good fire 
when it is dry. The sheep herder was not at 
home. His supply of fuel diminished percept¬ 
ibly after one of us returned from an exploring 
expedition. Several times we went to look for 
ducks on the lake and on our return paused 
long enough to gather an armload of dry sage 
brush that had been piled near the shack. 
Along in the night sometime we heard 
language coming from the vicinity of that shack 
that sounded very much like a man trying to 
use all the profanity in the vocabulary in a given 
length of time and not repeat himself. The 
performance was simply marvelous. I never 
before appreciated the wealth of our language 
