The record-union., 1891-10-01
THE WORTHLESS CARP.
Driving Out the WiId-FowI by Destroy
ing Their Food.
Dry and Unpropitious Opening of the
shooting SeaSon-Wanted. a Good
Storm of Rain.

The knights of the trigger are praying
for rain, because the close season for
wild game expired yesterday and they
are hungry for tramp over meadow or
upland.
Experienced sportsmen all know the
utter futility of attempting to get any
pleasurable shooting while the weather
and ground are so dry, and will postpone
their jaunts afield until the conditions
shall be more favorable for sport.
Quail shooting in weather such as the
present is laborious for both man and
dog, and one day of it w II suffice to dis
gust even the most emf usiastic sports
man. The bushes are still covered with
| their summer-growth of leaves, and
until Jack Frost removes some of them
the cunning ortyr Cdtyo,nicus is pretty
safe from harm at the hands of the aver
age gunner.
THE MEADOWS NOT ENTICING AS YET.
The wild-fowl have not as yet come
down from their breeding places up
north in sufficient numbers TO insure
anything like satisfactory shooting, and
will not until driven hither by heavy
storms.
Very few care to hunt wild geese ex-
shooting for the market, and none have
yet been killed, showing that they are
still scarce.
Snipe-shooting is long way off yet.
The birds do not settle hereabouts in any
numbers until about February or March,
when the meadows are in good condition
after the winter rains. From then until
May these delicious and game-like birds
furnish the highest degree of sport for the
better class Of wing-shots.
Is DUCK-SHooTING DOOMED?
The future of wild-fowl shooting in the
valleys whose streams or sloughs con-
meet with those Of the bay is becoming
subject for serious contemplation by
sportsmen. A decade ago the marshes of
the Sacramento, San Joaquin ond other
valleys afforded as fine duck-shooting as
the most ardent devOtee of that class of
sport could wish for; but since the carp
and catfish were introduced into the
rivers the annual flights of ducks have
been decreasing in numbers, until now
1t looks as II few years hence will see
the ducks practically driven out through
the destruction of their feeding grounds
a writer IN yesterdays Examiner, who
evidently understands the situation, saws
on this subject:
Carp were introduced here with a
flourish, and the highest anticipations in
dulged in, but the hog-like tribe have
proved scourge and curse in many
ways. They have increased and spread
until they now infest all of the tide
sloughs adjacent to San Francisco Bay,
and have been carried by the winter
floods to remote points in the marshes,
where the receding waters have left them
land-locked until succeeding winters.
sluggish or still waters just suit the
carp. They are vegetable feeders, and
voracious. To such an extent have they
multiplied that they now threaten the
very existence Of the duck-shooting clubs,
which depend for sport upon the wild
ducks attracted to their preserves by
the abundance of natural and planted
feed in their ponds. The ducks are fond
Of all water-grasS seeds, and to some ex-
tent feed upon the grasses themselves
HAVOC AMONG CLUB PRESERVES.
"The carp by thousands have bred in
the shallow waters Of the ponds and
marshes, and in some instances have de-
voured the grasses SO completely that the
ponds which were once thicl1ly covered
with duck feed are now perfectly bare.
AT the Tule Belle Club on the Suisun
mafSh the hsh are present in myriads
and the ducks find absolutely no feed In
its ponds. The same state of things, but
to less extent, is noticeable at the ibis
Club, also on the Suisun. The Teal Club
has suffered seriously, and the Cordelia
Club TO q marked degree.
In the tule swamps higher up the bay.
and along the San Joaquin and Sacra-
mento Rivers. the fish may be seen in
vast shoals slowly swimming along near
the bottom or roofing in the mud for
plant food. At the Tule Belle Club Stew
art johnson has killed hundreds by toss
ing them out on shore with an oar. some
of them weighing sixteen pounds. That
club is considering the advisability of
draining its ponds and letting them lie
dry for a season to kill the fish. Other
wise it is feared the large outlay for shoot
ing purposes may prove valueless.
'"Ihe fish are soft, bony, coarse in flesh
and rank in flavor, and are fit only for
reduction to fertiliZing materials. Unless
remedy for the evil is found the anathe-
mas to be poured out by the injured
sportsmen will make the former Fish
Commissioners rest uneasily in their
graves"
COUGHS AND HoARsENESS. irrita-
ton which induces coughing is immedi-