Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1903-11-20
WILD GOOSE DRIVING.
A Form of Sport Said to Be Peculiar

~ rorm OF Sport Sdio 10 BE FeCulidr
to Warren County, NJ. C.
II doubt if there is another place
where wild geese are hunted after the
method used on the Roanoke river in
North Carolina" said a New York
sportsman, who has hunted there. In
the first place, there is no choicer
haunt for wild geese than parts of the
Roanoke river.
"In Warren county the river is for
miles a succession of falls and rapids,
AMI is unnavigable except by means of
the peculiar fiat beats the natives use.
The river is a quarter of a mile wide.
For miles the shores are lined with
oak and beech trees and all kinds OF
berry bushes and wild grape vines. In
their seasons acorns and beechnuts
and berries and grapes fall into the
river in enormous quantities, n as
they are carried down stream. they
lodge in the hollows of the rocks. 1t
is this accumulation of good and pala-
table picking that attracts the wild
geese in large numbers to that part Of
the river.
But the geese, after their kind, are
extremely shy, and the difficulty OF
getting about in a boat where they are
feeding makes cunning for them. e x
cept in one particular way, rather bar
rem sport.
ut is not known who discovered that
while wild geese on Roanoke river
would not sit still and wait for a gun
ner to get within gunshot of them.
they could be driven right I'D to the
guns, but for time out of mind that is
the way wild geese have been hunted
in Warren county. N. c. The geese
are driven to blinds where gunnersJ are
hidden, something in the way grouse
are driven on the English moors If
goose driving is practised elsewhere /
have yet to hear of the place.
I'm hunting wild geese on the Roa-
noke river, a blind for two men is
built on the smallest rock that will
give them sufficient foothold and well
below some favorite feeding place for
the geese. The nature of the rocks
and the hollows scatters the foeks as
they pasture, and while there may be
hundreds of the fowl in sight there will
rarely be more than two Or three to-
gether.
after the gunner have taken their
places in the blind, a third hunter
makes his way in a boat up the stream
until he gets above a lot of feeding
geese. Then he works out into the
river and drifts down with the cur
rent.
GAS he approaches the reese he be
gins to whistle shrill and loud. He
may whistle a tune if he knows enc,
or he may just whistle. And he must
be a person of long and strong wind.
when the geese hear the whistling
they begin to gather into n flock. AS
long as the man in the boat keeps
whistling, the budding geese, although
constantly moving along down stream
and ever out of gun range of the boat,
will have no eyes or ears for anything
else.
Tossing carelessly along on the
rapids a skilful driver will have a
hundred or more geese drifting ahead
of him, gazing wonderingly at him and
listening to his whistle, by the time
they have drawn near to the blind, all
well punched and offer a great oppor-
tunity to the waiting gunners within.
When the geese have been driven to
within thirty or forty yards of the
blind the guns open on them.
'The geese rise in such confusion
after the first fire that it is easy to
pick up and use a second gun on them
before they have got out of range, and
the driver is pretty sure to drop a few
as the frightened focks wing over him
! in their flight up stream. in which di-
rection they invariably speed. 1t is
great sport, this wild goose driving on
the Roanoke river. as any n will
agree who tries it once.'-New York
Sun.