Year: 1874

| From the american Sportsman.


There being no settlers in the country,
and the corn | had got from the Indians
would be consumed, | could see that if |
didn't clear me field and plant corn, no
one else would do it. There were six acres
of pretty canebrake at the mouth of the
| little creek, already alluded to. set to
work, and at such odd times as | could
! spare from my hunting excursions, in the
| course of the Winter cut the cane of that
six acres all down. 1t was soon dry, and
| was about to burn it, but an Indian who
happened to be present, told me that in
| March or April big water would come, and
if the cane was burnt off it would form a
big clean or open space, into which much
| flood wood would come and spoil the field.
! For being wet and sobby it would not
burn, until too late to plant.


Well; but will not the dry, buoyant
cane all wash away ." inquired. mo,
no; the cane forms large cake that can
not be separated by the water, and it is
made fast by those big trees standing all
through it," He convinced me; and sure
enough the big river came, and lifted the
dry cane at least twenty-five feet from the
ground. But as the Indians said it did not
float away nor let in the flood wood. did
not burn it until the 9th of May. The
first crop of young cane was three feet
| high, which, if had burnt the cane off at
| the time l had intended, would have been
work for the hoe; but now it was consumed
with the dry cane, and the ground left as
a plant bed.


| | planted the corn with sharp stick,
beat down the young cane twice and the
work was done. Gathered three hundred
bushels of corn, and the whole ground was
nearly covered with large pumpkins. 1t
didn't hinder my sporting operations much.
! That is the period of my old sporting
| developments | love to recall, when my
dilapdated mentality makes a retrograde
excursion through the track of the long
gone years. The brightest period it finds
is the space that occurred between the 1st
of November, 1918, and the 18th of july
| 1919. On memory's register, find SO many
exciting and rare hunting events-battles
with beasts, long races and swims, that
could only be performed by full grown
athletic men, that | am at loss to decide
which to choose, or how to portray some of
| the most interesting cases in a style for my
readers to understand and see the clear
pictures, without extending my narrative
to too great dimensions


We never seemed to require dog help;
still hunting in the daytime, and the we'll
| dIIdnSeu Iit pan Vi " DlSHt IL Is SUI
prising how soon, by constant practice, one
can learn to distinguish the eyes of the diff
| ferent animals; aye more, you can distin-
guish the fat from the lean deer, and who
ever has shined the eyes Of doe, with a
| fawn, can never after mistake the eyes of
a mother deer.


| am speaking now Of men possessing
discriminating powers. know there are
| plenty of beings who never learn such
things; but they, being the iniquitous pro-
| duction of nnprogressed, undeveloped pro
| genitors, are not to be noticed until | un-
dertake a description of the aligators and
swapping turtles. The amative develop
ments prevail in the heads of community
to So per cent, and in that portion of the
Genus homo the discriminating powers are
| limited.


About the last of November the water
fowls, in great variety, fairly swarmed in
the calm, undisturbed river, geese, some
swans tarried few days; brants, snow
geese, whte-fronted and sea geese; ducks
of many types, mallards, two species of
teal, a black duck with a broad BILL and
there were two ducks that | have never
seen any where else, not there either after
the first Winter. One was a large white
with black and brown spots on him, big as
a brant-pretty crown, bill narrow and red.


| shoot one to examine him. He was
too fishy for food duck, and did not look
SO well in hands as in the distance. The
other was no larger than wild pigeon;
colors a little more brilliant; but the form,
markings, male and female, precisely that
Of the mallard; the two curled green feath
ers in the tail-everything the same


On the before mentioned island the soft
shelled, fresh water tortoise came to de,
hair I ,,,l,
to them to shoot them from the main land.
| got some very fine ones before they had
deposited their eggs; they were fat and
nice, and the great number of eggs they
contained from go to l00) added greatly to
the delicacy of the dainty dish. They are
superb as an article of food and quite deli
cious. During the first Winter | caught
thirteen of them in beaver trap, and
what | considered remarkable, twelve of
them were caught by the left fore foot, the
other by the neck. Which I recorded as
satisfactory evidence that they are univer-
sally left handed. | had the good fortune
to see one of them throw the trap, and how
it happened that they are aptest to get
their foot fast in the trap.


had tied on to the trencher chicken s
raw neck bone, and set the trap on little
bench on the band of the river about eight
inches under water, near my baited place,
and having some good deer's liver for bait
| took down one OF my rods and seated
myself to fish little while. The water
being clear and the trap plainly in sight,
It wasn't long before | saw d soft shell
come up the bank to it, and he instantly
seized the chickens neck with his mouth,
pulled at it a little, but finding it pretty
tough he took hold of it with his left foot,
and pressing forciby, tore out mouthful
of the meat, and the backslap threw the
trap while his foot was in it.


They detailed my brother Garland and
myself to hunt meat for the three families.
My brother-in law being poor sportsman
we furnished his family too.


There were thirty six eaters in the fami,
lies, and to furnish them venison, fish and
fowl, didn't consume half our time and
the work necessary to be done in my little
six acre field, amounted to but-as good as
nothing. We had time to extend the Cir,
Gle of our exploring expeditions On one
occasion we made canoe trip Of six OF
seven miles up the river. Found bee