The Tupelo journal., 1903-10-16
WILD-GOOSE DRIVING.
Form of Sport Much Enjoyed By the
Gunners of Warren County,
North Carolina.

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, re-
lateS the New York Sun. "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 succession of falls and rapids
and is unnavigable except by means
of the peculiar fiat boats the natives
use. The river is quarter of a mile
wide.
For miles the shores are lined with
oak and beech trees and all kinds of
berry bushes and wild grapevines. In
their seasons acorns and beechnuts and
berries and grapes fall into the river
in enormous quantities, and as they
are carried down stream they lodge
in the hollows of the rocks 1t is this
accumulation of palatable 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 get
ting about in a boat where they are
feeding makes cunning for them, ex-
cept in one particular way, rather bar
rem sport.
1T is not known who discovered
that while wild geese on the Roanoke
river would not sit and wait for the
gunner to get within gunshot of them,
they could be driven right up 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 the blinds where the gun
ners are hidden, something in the way
grouse are driven; on the English
moors. If goose driving is practiced
elsewhere l have yet to hear Of the
place.
I'm hunting wild geese on the Roam
oke river, blind for two men is built
on the smallest rock that will give
them sufficient foothold and well be-
low some favorite feeding place for
the geese. The nature of the rocks
and the hollows scatter the flocks as
they pasture, and while there may be
hundreds of fowl in sight there will
rarely be mere than two or three to-
gether
After the gunners have taken their
places in the blind a third hunter
makes his way in 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 current.
'As he approaches the geese he be-
gins to whistle, shrill and loud. He
may whistle a tune if he knows one.
Or he may just whistle. And he must
be person of long and strong wind.
when the geese hear the whistling
they begin to gather into one 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 rap
ids a skilful driver will have g hundred
or more geese drifting ahead of him,
gazing wonderingly at him and listen
ing to his whistle, by the time they
have drawn near to the blind, all well
punched, and offering great opportuni-
ty to the waiting gunners within.
When the geese have been driven to
within 80 or 40 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 second gun on them
before they have got out of range, and
the driver is pretty sure to DROP few
as the frightened flocks wing over him
in their fight up stream, in which di-
rection they invariably speed. 1t is
great sport, this wild goose driving on
the Roanoke river, as any one Will
agree who tries it once"