Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-01-07
FowLINe IN THE SOUTH BAY.
Ducks Slaughtered from the Edge of
Ice Holes.

DUCKS slaughtered from the EDGE OF
Ice Holes.
Long Island Letter in New York
Sun. This IS the slaughter season for
wild fowl in the South bay. Hun
dreds of ducks are being shot by ma
tive sportsmen from the edge of ice
holes, where the birds, deprived of
their usual feeding grounds, congre-
gate in masses. While these waters
have veritably teemed with all vari-
cites of ducks since the opening of
the season on November /, they have
till now lived far out from shore and
successfully evaded the point shoot
er. Now, however, as they are com
PEELED to feed in the few airholes that
have remained open, the veriest tyro
in hunting can kill all the birds he
can carry home.
The open holes are visited in scOot-
ers-small rowboats carrying a sail
and supplied with steel runners to
ice. Sometimes the airholes are
miles from shore, and the intervening
distance is filled with thin or "por-
ridge" ice. Then the utmost skill
and strength is required to reach
the hunting point Sometimes, be-
fore the hunter is ready to start
home, a binding snowstorm sets in
and the direction of the wind is the
only means by which the hunter is
able to lay his course to the mainland
The cold materially increases the
hardship and danger attending the
trip. These difficulties, however, are
rather desired than regretted, because
the more severe the weather the bet
ter the chances of good flight and
absence of other hunters.
When the ice hole hunter reaches
the shooting point he will find many
ducks which have settled on the wat
er in the night. Reluctant to aban-
don the only feedinging ground &C
cessible, they will permit him to ap-
proach within few rods of them be-
fore seeking flight. These he pur-
posely refrains from shooting be-
cause the report Of the gun may cause
the rest to abandon the locality alto
gether.
The wisdom of this is established
later when the ducks begin to return
in veritable stream and the gun be-
comes so heated in shooting that the
barrels must be dipped in the icy
waters of the bay to cool them With
in a few minutes after the return OF
the birds begins, the open water be-
comes literally crowded with the dead
and wounded. These latter the hunt
er does not attempt to retrieve. know
ing that they cannot escape and pre-
ferring to continue shooting the in
coming birds. The sport continues
until the last bird of the flight is kill
ed cor darkness compels the hunter
to start for home. Large numbers of
redheads have been among the ducks
killed in the last few days. These
command neraly 81 pair in the mar
ket, at which price the demand can
be only partly supplied A few can
vasbacks are sometimes shot, thoughes
they are rather rare in this sectfonl
While shooting at ice holes is gen
orally believed to be injurious to the
sportsman's interest, as it deprives
the ducks of their only feeding ground
and thereby drives them from the To-
cality altogether, the large profits
possible to those who follow it re-
suits in its being considerably prac-
ticed by the natives. City sportsmen.
on account of the hardship and dan
ger entailed by ice-hole shooting, do
not as a rule care to tackle it.