The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1897-05-14
THE SUNK LANDS.
Gloomy and Forbidding Territory That
AboHnds In Game.

more gloomy or desOlate than that
vast territory in southeast Missouri
and Arkansas known as the sunk
lands. The bottom seemed TO have
dropped out when the big shake,
as the natives call the earthquake
of 1911, occurred. To novice i'll
woOdcraft or swamp navigation it
is most hazardous undertaking to
penetrate far beyond the borders of
this wilderness of cypress, elbow
brush and other specimens of the
lOwland trees and tangled vine
thlckets. 1t Is comparatively easy to
move about when the expresses mo-
nopolize the swamp, and when the
season has been very dry, along in
the fall, one can travel dry shod over
parts of the great waste There are
numerous lakes, large and small.
some of great depth. Most of these
areas of open water are dotted with
islands, and in many places fallen
cypress trees and great black stumps
make resting places for enormous
turtles, snakes and other reptiles in
summer, while in winter the rae
coon, otter, mink and muskrat perch
upon them to sun themselves in the
daytime, and at night they use the
logs when in pursuit of prey.
All throughout the sunk land
districts are islands from a half to
20 acres in dimensions. The larger
ones contain oak, hickory and small
er growths of underbrush. but most
of them are covered with small
cane, on which deer that find their
way into the solitudes feed and fat
ten.
One of the most remarkable of
these islands is known as Bone Is
land and covers an area of about six
acres. This island is a rendezvous
for professional hunters, and it is
rarely that the buzzards are not
seen soaring above. 1t is a desolate,
forbidding place and gets its name
from the fact that it is literally GOV
cred with bones of animals and
OAAhof II Jill AAC IlO1 30 hOh
natural history to the bones of
ducks and geese OF the latter great
heaps can be seen at different places
These bleaching bones tell of mer-
ciless slaughter of wild game for
their pelts and feathers.
1t seems strange that men should
destroy thousands of ducks and
geese just for their plumage and
quilts. Every year when the wealth
er is too warm to ship game three
men, who make Bone island their
place of abode, kill ducks and geese,
strip them of their feathers and
throw the carcasses in heaps for the
buzzards to live upon.
The beautiful wood duck, which
rears its young in the great swamp
district, is the first bird to be slaugh
tered. The fe .ther hunters begin in
August to destroy these birds and
never stop until they mate in the
spring. Later in the season, when
the big flight of wild fowl moves
southward, the slaughter is some
thing unprecedented.
The birds are ''potted" in the
night, when big guns are used that
do deadly work among the fiocks as
they rest in the patches of open wa
ter. Not far from Bone island there
is ridge OF which many oaks grow
that are prolific in acorns. There
the mallards go to feed in countless
numbers. The writer has seen a
moving mass, fully 100 feet wide
and 300 yards long, of ducks in the
gray of the morning, along this
ridge, struggling TO secure some of
the acOrns that fell from the oaks.
One of the hunters on the island
was laying for a shot, and when his
big gun sounded the pandemonium
that followed was indescribable.
The roar of 10000 wings and the
cries of frightened, squeaking, fee
ing game were absolutely startling.
The hunters double gun left 30 kill
ed and wounded mallards in the wa
ter when the rest had flown. Inside
of an hour the ducks had massed
again, when AZ were added to the
35 Four double shots during the
morning resulted in 105 ducks being
killed. AT night rs more fell before
the murderous weapon of the pot
hunter.-St. Louis Globe e-Democrat