The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1903-05-08
WILD FOWLS IN MEXICO.
known 10 Hunters where There
II Mach Game.

! These is part of the American con-
tinent seldom visited by sportsmep,
which is q hive of winter game. 1t
offers extraordinary inducements to
the amateur shooter and wide field
for the market hunter. The chances
are that it viii remain for years vast
natural reserve and place from which
will come the birds to replenish an
nually the decimated fiocks that win
ter ON waters more easily reached, says
the New York Sun.
The territory embraces the far-ex-
tending marshes Of northeastern Mex
leo. 1t is country of lagunas, or slug
gish rivulets, scarce lower than the
lands through which they flow. The
soil is permeated with water which
seeps and trickles for miles.
1t grows an endless variety of food
and in enormous quantities. Its ponds
are in thousands. Cover is everywhere.
With every advantage of climate,
water and food the ducks have sougA4
it in millions, particularly as there
they are comparatively undisturbed,
and the same leaders visit it year after
year, taking their fresh offspring. 1t
is known as the Lagunas district. Rail-
ways have lodged it as far as possible,
as building through it IS costly in the
extreme 1t lies partly in the state Of
Coahuila and partly in Nuevo Leon at
distance of from 100 to 200 miles be-
yond the Rio Grande.
Tho Ma,ffoanr bouo - rcr,,,e 1o~~~
to speak of, because they have never
needed them. They are not sportsmen
as Gringos understand the term Occa-
sionally one of them takes single
barreled fowling piece which came
from Spain century ago. or a musl1et
which has drifted down from the
States, goes out and murders duck or
two for dinner, but that is about the
limit Of the national shooting
Americans who have heard of the
region go down in small parties, stay
for a week or ten days and make enol'-
nous bags, from which they feed
themselves and as many of the natives
as happen to be about, but it is not
likely that the Lagunas country will
be invaded in force for the next quar-
ter of century. Getting into the
neighborhood costs money and then
there is a long and toilsome trip to the
grounds.
The heart of the Lagunas is not to
be reached under so miles from any
railway, and the adventurer will be as
apt to go by OK cart with wooden
wheels as any other way. Walking is
good deal faster and easier
Orce there, however, a man may
wear out his gun shooting from day
light to dark if his shoulder does not
wear out first and there is no migra-
tory northern bird which he will not
find, not to mention several varieties
Of ducks and many varieties of birds
which never come north at all. Snipe
are there, woodcock every kind of
American wild duck, geese of many
kinds, pelicans, bronze ibises, fiamin.
goes and what not and in such guam.
titles that killing them, unless a man
picks out difficult shots, becomes a
monotony.
There is seldom frost and never ice |
of more than widow pane's thick
ness, and in the winter the climate is
excellent; in spring and summer it is
deadly. There Is, of course, no way in
which the game can be shipped out,
but market hunters who went down
there and established line Of trans
to the railways would make
fortunes. It IS region where boat
with a swivel gun would stock a city
With game IN a week