Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-09-07
Vancouyer's leland the Elysium OF
SpOrtsmen.

|
A writer in the Turf, Field and Farm
says:
We met, the other day, quite unex-
pectedly, and after an absence of many
years, with an old chum of our boyhood,
whose curiously- ly-checkered fortunes have
cast him upon the shores OF this far-ofi
island, where he has been residing of
and on more than five years. His mar
ratives of stirring adventure by flood and
field in that sportsmans paradise were
as full of interest and as graphically
told as those of Captain bonneville by
Washington Irving. The sluggish blood
was stirred and the imagination fired, as
he proceeded to narrate his contests
with the bear, the wapiti the black-tailed
deer and the royal salmon of that favored
region. As his tale progressed we felt
as we fancy an old broken-down hunter,
turned out to end the remnant OF his
days in fat pastures, might feel when he
hears, as it sweeps by him, the madden
ing music OF pack of hounds in full
cry. How we regretted the youthful
days-alasl long since passed-when
with us the acme of all human delight
was in the pursuit of all the manly open
air sports, whether by land or water.
The boundless, breezy plains of Texas,
with their herds of deer, its timber
fringed water courses, the favorlte
haunts of the black bear and the wild
turkey, we know to be q fine hunting
country, but the Lone Star State is fast
losing that mysterious charm peculiar
to regions but little known, and but
partially explored, and the game, like
the great herds of wild mustangs, is fast
vanishing before the onward march of
the white man.
Florida, with its keys and innumera-
BILE inlets haunted by the monstrous am
phibious manatree, its semi-tropical eli
mate and vegetation. its gloomy hum
mocks the favorite home Of the black
bear, the deer and the wild tur-
key, its marshes and everglades the
winter resort of all the varieties of web
footed and wading birds known to
American orn;thology, and its rivers,
lagunes and bayous crowded with fish,
is and must remain full of attraction to
the naturalists and the sportsman, but
he must be prepared to brave the in
cessant attacks and endure the tor
ments inflicted by myriads of mosqui-
toes and flies, ticks and "chiggers." +" In
its exemption from these minute but
formidable pests, Vancouver is blessed
land indeed Our friend describes its
climate as healthy and so braoing as to
ENABLE the hunter to bear almost any
amount Of physical exertion. His ac-
count of the proiuslon OF furred and
feathered game-the latter of rare va
rieties, seldom seen within the limits
of civilization; its rivers and numerous
inlets fairly choked with countless
schools of royal salmon, and its coasts
swarming with many species of the
finest fish, recalls the visions of the
happy hunting grounds" which are
said to float before the eyes of the dying
Indian.
The Island of Vancouver, discovered
by the English navigator of that name,
is three hundred miles in length, witn q
breadth varying from thirty to fifty
miles. 1t is chiefly valuable on account
of its strategic position, its numerous
and fine harbors, its forests of the no
blest of all the pines, the Douglassii,
which furnish the finest spars in the
world, and its fisheries, represented as
the most productive known. Its chief
port is Victoria, at the southern ex-
tremity of the island, with population |
of five or six hundred inhabitants, and |
here the exploring and hunting parties, |
of which our friend formed part, were
fitted out. rr1
AS the climate Of Vancouver is very
similar to that Of England, the active
season with the sportsman extends from
the first of May into December.
In the spring he visits one of four lakes |
in theinterior, where he can kill speckled
trout averaging two, but occasionally /
running up to six pounds, until his arms
grow weary. In June the vast shoals OF
salmon arrive, and these, unlike those OF
Oregon, greedily take any gaudy fly.
By August the sportsman, satiated with
angling, lays aside his rod, and taking
his shotgun and rife, pitches his camp
in the glade lands Of the far interior, and
from that time out he has his choice OF
bear, panthers, elk, black-tailed deer,
blue and willow grouse, quail, snipe,
plover, and all the varieties Of fowl on
the Northwest coast.
To such Of our brother sportsmen as
have the good fortune TO be free from
the carking cares Of life, with the liberty
to choose their own hunting-grounds, we
say 60 to Vancouver, where mosquitoes
are few, ticks are unknown, and the art
Of scalping is lost
Except 0glesby and Logan, there is
not a man Of any standing advocating
the Grant cause in the State of Illinois.
Tie Greeley men are heffing ON = 600