The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-06-29

bordering on the bay, and, Tn 1acli dll
 along the coast, wild geese occupied the wide and open plains by the hundreds
 of thousands. I have seen more than 8
 thousand acres of these big fowl pastur- ing in solid block, and that many cat tie feeding couldn't have cleared the grass away as completely as those
 geese did I heard that the killing of
 these geese for market had grown to be
 a great industry, and that some men were getting rich at it. Ranchers were
 also offering a bounty for the geese, as
 cattle raising was becoming an impor-
 tant business, and the geese pre-empt- ed so much of the pasture area that
 the loss was serious to the cattle men.
 scraped enough money together to
 buy a gun and abandoned gold mining
 for goose hunting.
 When hunting for wild geese on
 those plains first began the hunters
 were able to crawl up on them as they
 fed and get within easy gunshot. But
 the geese soon got on to the sportsmen,
 and by and by mo one could get within
 half a mile of a flock. Hiding in grass
 blinds was tried and worked well for a
 time, but the cunning geese sized the
 blinds up at last and wouldn't come
 anywhere near bunch of grass. So
 something had to be done. Some one
 had noticed that cattle feeding on the
 plains could crop the grass almost on
 the heels of a host of geese, and the
 fowls took no notice of them. He had
 an OK that was even tempered and ac- commodating, and one day he turned 1t loose and let it feed along toward where a tremendous flock of geese were pas
 turing.
 Now and then he'd hurry the OK up
 little. walking close to 1t on the side away from the geese. By and by the OK got close. enough to the geese to sat isfy his owner, who stood still until the OK SnAd passed on out of the way. Then he emptied one barrel of his gun into the flock on the ground and gave it the other as the birds rose. He picked up sixty-two geese. The OK was somewhat surprised, but didn't object to repeating the operation next day, when it was equally successful. Geese were worth one dollar apiece. That was the origin of stalking wild geese with oxen. in less than a month there wasn't goose hunter along the coast who didn't have a goose stalking OK.
 Tho oxen soon fell into the full spirit of the hunting. Some were better than others. An OK that understood his bus mess would feed along toward a flock of geese or pretend to be feeding, not directly toward them, but carelessly and by many turnings, because he had discovered that the geese had grown suspicious even of cattle. and would in- yariably rise before an OK that wasn't cute enough to dissemble in the course of his feeding. Another thing we soon discovered that spoke volumes for the astuteness of the California wild goose. made this discovery myself. I had been shooting for a week over big brindle OK that had developed special aptitude for the work and enjoyed it hugely My success had been great, when one day I was astonished to see q big flock of geese that my OK and were stalking get up and fly away long be- fore we had got within any kind of gunshot The OK was just as much surprised as I was and gazed after the departing flock for a moment and then turned and looked at me as if demand ing some explanation of that fiocks sin- gular conduct It seemed to me as if he suspected me of having been indiscrset in some way and spelling the. hunt. Old Brindle went back home showing his disappointment plainly and brooded over it all the rest of the day.
 Next morning we went out to try the flock again, for they were sure to be on the feeding ground The same thing happened again. The birds got up a quarter of mile away or more. felt sorry for the OK, for he took the matter good deal to heart. And I fell to thinking on the way home, and 1t was there that I came to the conclusion that the California wild goose was an able bird. To test my belief next morning 1 | turned old Brindle into a white OK by | whitewashing him. At first helprotest- ed but 1t seemed to suddenly strike | him what 1t was being done for, and he started out on the hunt feeling good. I | was right in my opinion of the Califor- | nia wild goose. Those geese had been | shot at over that brindle OK until they | recognized him every time he drew | near, and knowing what he was there for took to getting away when they saw him drawing near But the white OK | they didn't mind They associated only | a brindle OK with danger, and so sat still as we approached, and tunahled | q lot of 'em before they got out Of reach And old Brindle seemed all but tickled to death at the success of the Tn course of time l had to change him from white OK to a red one, and by and by ventured to send him forth in his natural brindle again. The ruses all worked for I found that while those wild geese had a memory it | was short and I could play the same OK on them time and time again after an Interval of a couple of weeks or so And, of course, this changing the color of geese stalking oxen became universal on the plains.
 For two or three years every one who followed wild goose hunting in this way made lots of money. Then busted miners and even broken down sports .ook 1t up, until there were almost as many hunters as geese, and the mar Sets were kept overstocked. There was 10 more money in 1t, and I quit. But ook with me forty thousand dollars ,lean money that I had made in the wild goose market I know that at east six of the big Pacific coast for unes of to-day had their foundation in he capital their DOssessors got from |