The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1902-05-29
LAKES IN THE ARID REGION.
The Wild Fowl Find Them, However Remot

Just as irrigable and irrigated lands
will produce better and more certain crops
than lands which depend upon rainfall for
moisture, so ponds or lakes made in ard
lands are the best duck ponds in the
world. Never on any Northern body Of
water are wild fowls packed together as
on these artificial sheets.
The reason is simple. They are the
only waters within many square miles of
territory and ducks and geese 60 to them
because there is nowhere else to CO.
Within nine miles Of the city of San An.
tonic, Tex, is a lake or pond of this char
acter called Mitchelrs Lake. 1t was made
by damming up the lower end of a natural
landfall and this dam resulted in pond
a mile long by half mile wide and
shoulder deep in the center.
1t soon became rich in duck grass and
| edible weeds and some wild rice was
| planted in it. Then ducks visited it in
tens of thousands.
They were confined in so narrow q space
that killing them was no trouble at all.
If driven away by repeated gunfire. they
flew some miles to the south or west and,
| finding no other water, returned. Thus
on shooting days at Mitchell's Lake there
was Il constant egress and ingress of wild
fowls and the gunners shot until their
| heads ached.
The lake depended upon rainfall and in
dry seasons there was sometimes not more
| than two inches Of water in it's center and
much of its bottom was dry. In those sea
| sons jacksnipe preferred it and settled
| upon its fiat in swarms.
Many times Il hundred mallards have
been killed by a single gun ut Mitchelrs
Lake between daylight and late breakfast
and the snipe have been taken off it by
the gross. The pond lies $50 miles above
the Gulf Coast and is a stopping place for
birds which make the salt water their
| Winter home.
| the old Spanish mission and not far from
the San Antonio River, some men have
purchased 300 acres and will make pond
similar to Mitchelfs Lake. 1t is intended
solely for a private shooting association
Among the members are Rolla Heikes, a
professional trap-shot, and l.. Hough. a
sportsman and novelist.
| These ponds are now being built i'm
many places through the West and South.
west. The land in those regions is cheap
and much Of 1t is not fit for any thing save
to be put under water
Where the course of n dry creek can
be found. a creek draining n good bit
Of territory when there is anything to
| drain, the construction of shooting lake
Of this kind is not costly. The dirt may
! be had as low as SS an acre. and building
Il dam amounts to little
However small a lake of this kind NAV
be and however far in the desert, the wild
fowls find it as soon as it has water and
duck feed. They do this though it be SOC
miles off the regular air lanes which they
travel in going south or coming north. the
two routes being distinct and widely
separated.
Always, too, around these ponds. there
is great increase of wild life and yege
tation seems to spring up to shelter il
Quails, blue and brown, seek the waters
as do wild turkeys and doves. Jacksnipes
find it as readily as do the ducks. geese
and swans. Small birds fly to it from nc
one knows where and nest by it.
Occasionally far out on the brown table
lands duck appears which is rarely seen
away from salt water, such as the ale
wife, or sorIth-southerly of Chesapeake
Bay, though why and how they get.ther,
Is one of the many unexplained mysteries
about fowl flights.
As the birds visit the new lake preda.
tory tuna follow them and hide in the
mesquite and catclaw which is sparse AT
first-foxes, bobtailed cats, ocelots, skunks
and so on. Soon acres which 12 months
before were but part of dusty waste
untenanted save by the tarantula and
centipede, show every form of wild life OF
which the West Ii capable.