Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-04-22
WILD FOWL ARE PLENTY.
Secluded Lake in Louisiana That Is
Alive with All Kinds
In Winter.

In central Louisiana east of Rapides
parish lies Catahoula lake. 1t is real
ly an extension of Black river into a
shallow, marshy body, several miles
wide and long.
Save where the river runs through
its center, it is not deep and it is
grown up with a vast quantity of
weeds, reeds, lily-pads and duck
grass and it is the winter home of in
conceivable numbers of wild fowl.
Snipe are along its low banks, wood
cock in the woods about it and on
its surface is every sort of duck
which frequents the south Atlantic
country.
There are plenty of wild geese, too,
which feed upon nearby prairies in
daytime and roost ON it at night.
Brant are there in thousands as well
as cranes and herons.
No railway runs near enough to
Catahoula lake to disturb its inhab-
itants and it's rich stores of food will
continue to make it an abiding place
for fowls for many years to. come,
says the New York Sun.
1t is hunted only by camping par
ties who go to it from neighboring
towns and by professionals who
shoot for the money there is in it.
There are not enough of these peo-
pie to make an sensible impression
upon the supply of game.
The shooting ON Catalonia is gen.
orally as good as it was Is years ago,
since it is far out of the beaten track
of sportsmen. The men who GO
there make enormous bags and this
is true particularly of those who
have taken the precaution to supply
themselves with boats in which they
may get out from the land. ~
Even without a boat steady killing
Is possible. 1t is a popularity of
Catahoula that at frequent intervals
along it's shores long points of land
run far out. They are not more than
ten yards wide and their outer ends
are covered with reeds which afford
excellent cover.
Most of the ducks learn to know.
these points and to avoid them, but
enough of them refuse to grow wise
to make the shooting admirable.
Squatting on the end of point a,
man may mark a fight of mallsrds
hurting toward him from two miles
down the lake and he will have am
pie time in which to calculate their
height, the distance at which they
will cross him and their speed.
This is shooting that has many at
tions some remarkably long shots
are possible and there is nothing
which does duck hunters heart
more good than to bring his duck
down apparently out of the sky 1t
is nothing out of the way for fair
shot to make a score of so ducks day.
in and day out for week on Cata-
houla, and there are men who kill a
hundred a day regularly.
The market hunters who live about
there use swivel guns when they
think they will not be found out, but
they make no effort to dispose of
the meat They have no way of get
ting their game TO New orleans, lune
only market worth considering, so
they shoot for the feathers.
The fowl life on Catahoula is so
great that the clamor is audible some
miles away. Visiting sportsmen al
ways know when they are approach
ing it by the iucessaht sqnawking of
the ducks and honkiug of the geese.
This noise is SO great that it is a
serious inconvenience until men get
used to it. For three days after they
leave the lake they can hear the cries
of the birds sounding in their ears,
Catahoula is a place where man
can shoot until the barrels burn him
through the glove on his left hand.
and then he can shove the muzzle
into the cold water and shoot again.
1t is a place where he can shoot un
til he becomes disgusted with shoot
ing. and many sPortsmen do get dis
gnsted with it, going home days be-
fore their time.
49,