Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-03-24
A HUNTERS PARADISE,
Within Easy Reach "a Land of Game, Where
the Waters TEEN With Fish.
. lSpeclal correspondence.
NnT FNoxy NEn--L IN

Especial Correspondence
INDIANoLA, Tex, March 10. Captain
Fletcher of New York and your correspond
emit have come down to southern Texas in
search of health and incidentally of game
We asked the landlord of our hotel at Tex
ana what supplies we should need for our
proposed hunting trip along the shores of
Matagorda bay.
"Supplies?" he repeated. 'Why, except
little cornmeal, flour, SALT and such like,
with jug of something to help along your
bait, you won't want anything. The bay
swarms with swans and all kinds of duck
The water is alive with fish. You can't see
the sand for oysters. And as for deer and
bear, if you land at the mouth of the San
Bernard and hunt in the bottoms you can
find such game till you get weary a-shoot-
ing. Trust Pat. Heknows what you want
and just where to take you"
Despite his rather Celtic front name, Pat
was coal black negro of 40, who for 20
years or more had acted as guide to sports
men in this paradise for game. Pats son
Link - an abbreviation of Lincoln, we
learned-was engaged to assist his father,
and he proved to be so active and efficient
that it looked as if his father assisted him.
Before coming here l often wondered
where the wild geese. brant, swans and all
the varieties of ducks that make their way
north every spring spent their winters.
Now the problem is solved. They come to
southern Texas and show their wisdom in
the choice.
Back for 80 miles from the gulf of Mex
ico-or. rather, from the long series of bays
and lagoOns separated from it by low
sandy slands-the prairies are alive with
geese, brant and sand hill cranes. They are
so thick that it seems unsportsmanlike to
shoot them. They Craze with the cattle
and seem so Indifferent to men on horse
back that it would require no skill to kill
them with pistol.
From TeXana we drove down to the place
where Pat, who had preceded us, had a
sloop ready. The vessel bore evidence of
hard service, but there was n place to sleep
and cook, and that was all we cared for.
If we had been pot shooters, we should
have been deferred from our trip by the
fact that at all the settlements along the
gulf venison and wild fowl could be bought
for about the price of the ammunition eX-
pended in procuring them AS we sailed
eastward | was Interested to learn that,
while the geese and their first cousins, the
brant, spend their days on the prairies and
only come down to the water at night,
the ducks, of which we got eight varieties,
and the swans keep af1oat nearly all the
time The latter looked like great white
balls on the dancing malachite waters, and
when frightened by the sloop they took to
the air and flew away with grace and ma
jestic sweep of wing that were worth COM
ing many miles to see.
According to Pat, Swans is mighty good
eatin whin one can't git nawthin bettah,"
but had they been the verieSt carrion the
temptation offered as they wheeled about
US in graceful flights was too great to be re-
sisted. Captain Fletcher and myself bagged
four an hour after leaving lndianola, and
we might have filled the sloop without per-
ceptbly reducing the tiOcks about us. We
discovered an island hummock on which
grew a splendid grove of live oaks, and here
we made camp for the night. We found
an abundance of driftwood on the shore
and soon had a campfire roaring, at which
Pat and his son cooked the oysters, fish
and ducks we had brought from the bay.
Anything more wildly picturesque thaa
our camp it would be difficult to imagine.
Pendent through the glistening green of
the live oaks were long, swaying plumes
Of gray Spanish moss, an excellent sub
stance, as we found, for Il bed. The air was
as balmy as Maryland May day, SO that
we needed no shelter but our blankets.
From the water came the ceaseless croak-
ing and quacking of wild fowl. The lap of
the incoming tide and the swish of the out
going river, the droning of insects, attract
ed by the fire, and the murmuring of the
sea breeze through the overhead branches,
all made us feel that we were in an ideal
hunters camp and far removed from THE
worlds madding strife"
After a supper that a King might have
envied, eaten with appetites worth mil
lionaire's wealth, we lit our pipes, and too
full of the intensely peaceful enjoyment of
our strange surroundings smoked in silence
till TO- Then we lay down on the Spanish
moss, nor knew that insomnia or dreams
troubled men. c. a. r.