The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1895-01-18
FOOLISH WILD GEESE.
Hunters Negliile Their Came Into Am
buscat1e by Whistling.


buscatle by Whistling.
''They have Il queer way of hunting
| wild geese on the Roanoke river, especial
~ that part of the Roanoke river which
is. in Warren county, North Carolina y
| said Il man who claims to know. ''The
river as it passes through Warren county
is formed into succession of falls and
| rapids by the bed OF peculiar rocks over
That portion Of the river is absolutely I'M
navigable, except by the old-time fiat
bottom canoes or skiffs, or whatever
kind of boat they may be called, which
the natives :have used ever since there
were any natives in North Carolina. 1t
and Il person well posted i'll the character
of the river to get up stream, and you
have: to watch out with both eyes wide
open when you go down stream.
The Roanoke river is Il quarter of a
| mile wide in Warren county, and the
rocks that project everywhere above the
| surface from shore to shore, are scooped
out in the hollows like butter bowl.
| The shores of the river are thickly bor-
dered for miles with oak and beech trees,
and many kinds of berry bushes, and the
| many islands are thickly grown with
these trees aud bushes. In their season
| acorns, nut berries and mast drop into the
!
are carried down stream they lodge by the
hundreds of bushels in the hollows of the
rocks. This Judgment Of food, of which
| they are particularly fond, attracts myr-
| lads of wild geese and other wild fowl to
that part of the river, but it is the geese
| that the sportsman, both native and Wis
ltlng, especially cares to 60 out after. Not
ducks and the like, but ducks and the
like haven't yet fallen into the way of
| letting. themselves be bagged after the
method by which the Wild geese are
bagged, and as that is the only way wild
fowl in the Roanoke part of Warren
county, can be >bagged, the sportsman
like. Like their kind everywhere. wild
| geese on the Roanoke river are very shy,
| and it would take a man with good long
range rifle, provided he is good shot.
to get satisfactory bag in the course of
DAY, SO the native way of hunting them
| is the only one if a person wants to eniov
| himself. '''
ITO hunt wild geese in Warren county
after the method of. the local sportsman,
bind is made i'll the river at one of the
smallest of the rocks that will give the
hunter foothold, and one that is well be-
low Il favorite feeding place for geese.
Inc nature Of the rocks and the hollows
scatter the f'ocks as they 'pastur,' as
the natives call it, and although there
may be a hundred or more of the fowls
in sight there will rarely be more than
two or three together. After a hunter
has taken his place iii Il blind below the
feeding geese another hunter puts ont
III his boat from point a long distance
above them. He let's his boat drift with
the current: simply holding it back with
the oars if it goes too fast. AS the
boat draws near group of feeding geese
h11nfnr 20 :-L1.
tune or: if be doesn't know any tune,
just whistles: This attracts the atten,
tion OF the geese. 1t does not brighten
them. but stirs them up. The little groups
gradually gather together into one flock.
The geese direct all their attention to
the shrill sound coming from the boat,
and drift down stream away from it
as the boat losses along carelcssly on the
rapids. The man in the boat is known as
the driver, and if he is skillful he will
so manipulate his boat and his whistle
that he will have a hundred or more geese
drifting ahead of him and gazing wonder
lngly at him, or in wonder listening to
the sound he is making, until by the time
they draw near the blind they will be
tiles to the hidden hunter. 1t is usual
for the man in the blind to let the geese
come within thirty or forty yards of the
blind before he cuts loose. The geese
rise. in great confusion after the first
shot, and before they get out Of range
| two or more effective shots may be had
at them. and the driver ispretty sure to
drop q few before the flock has passed
over him on its way back up the river.
The flying geese fly II mile or two and
then apparently forget all about the
trouble they had got into. for they drop
into the river ae,iin, float down in their
| feeding. and in the course of an hour or
so permit themselves to be driven once
more into the same ambuscade ''--;un~