The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-03-03
Geese Hunting Oxen.

used to stalk wild geese with oxen, y
said ex-Game Commissioner James
Wistar of Pasadena. "Stalking geese
with oxen may sound little queer,
but that's the way we used to hunt
'em in the early days. A good stalk
ing OK, I want to tell you, was valua-
Bile bit of property DO years ago in
California, and we used to talk about
him and discuss his points just about
the same as sportsmen nowadays dis
cuss the points of their bird dogs. A
good stalking OK could earn his owner
anywhere from $50 to 500 day if
the owner himself was any good.
"I went to California in 1851 and
promptly dropped every cent | had in
a gold mine venture. In all the coun-
ties bordering on the bay, and, in fact,
all along the coast, wild geese occu-
pied the wide and open plains by the
hundreds of thou sands. I have seen
more than thousand acres of these
big fowl pasturing in solid block,
and that many cattle feeding couldn't t
have cleared the grass away as CON-
pletely as those geese did. I heard
that the killing Of these geese for
market had grown to be great indus
try. and that some men were getting
rich at it. Ranchers were also offer
ing a bounty for the geese, as cattle
raising was becoming an important
business, and the geese pre-empted so
much of the pasture area that the
loss was serious to the cattle men. l
scraped enough money together to
buy 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 no one
could get within half mile of a flock
Hiding in grass blinds was tried and
worked we'll for a time, but the cum
ming geese sized the blinds up at last
and wouldn't come anywhere near a
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 host
Of geese, and the fowls took no notice
of them. He had an OK that was even
tempered and accommodating, and
one day he turned it loose and let it
feed along toward where tremendous
flock of geese were pasturing.
"Now and then he'd hurry the OK
up little, walking close to it On the
side away from the geese. By and by
the OK got close enough to the geese
to satisfy his owner, who stood still
until the OK had 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 62 geese. The
OK was somewhat surprised, but didn't t
object to repeating the operation next
day, when it was equally successful.
Geese were worth 81 apiece. That
was the origin of stalking wild geese
with oxen. In less than a month
there WASH t goose hunter along the
coast who didn't have goose stalking
OK.
''The oxen soon fell into the full
spirit of the hunting. Some were
better than others. An OK that un-
derstood his business would feed along
toward 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 invariably rise be-
fore 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. I made
this discovery myself. / 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 big flock
of geese that my OK and I were stalk
ing get up and fly away long before we
had got within any kind of gunshot.
The OK was just as much surprised as
was and gazed after the departing
flock for moment and then turned
and looked at me as if demanding
some explanation of that flock S singu-
lar conduct. 1t seemed to me as if he
suspected me of having been indis-
Greet 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 quarter of a mile away or more.
I felt sorry for the OK, for he took the
matter good to heart. And | fell to
thinking on the way home, and it was
there that I came to the conclusion
that the California wild goose was an
able bird. TO test my belief next
morning I turned old Brindle into
white OK by whitewashing him. At
first he protested, but it seemed to
suddenly strike him what it was being
done for, and he started out on the
hunt feeling good. | was right in my
opinion of the California 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 | tumbled
a lot of en- before they got out Of
reach. And old Brindle seemed all
but tickled to death at the success of
the masquerade. In course Of time [
had to change him from white OK to
a red one, then to spotted one, then
to a black one, and by and by vcntur-
ed to send him forth in his natural
brindle again. The ruses all worked,
for l found that while those wild
geese had a memory it was short, and
| 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
an +bo ,,1oirs