‘deal Bunting

And 4.5

ishing Grounds

Tron Mountain
REE Route ee

The
Iron Mountain
== Route —

AND BRANCHES REACHES

The Ideal Hunting and Fishing Grounds
The Great Timber Districts
The Valuable Mineral Deposits
The Incomparable Fruit Lands
The Fine Grazing Territory
The Broad Corn and Cotton Fields
The Cheap Farming Lands

«+. and offers ...
Limitless Opportunities for Labor and Capital

‘© Southeast # Missouri
Arkansas and Louisiana

5—DAILY TRAINS—5
From St. Louts

Double Daily Service from MEMPHIS.
Through Cars from KANSAS CITY via the
“WAGONER ROUTE.”

IDEAL « MAUNTING

AND

FISHING GROUNDS

¥

MISSOURI
e@ ARKANSAS
7 a LOUDIANA

Reached from ST. LOUIS or MEMPHIS by the

Copyrighted 1900, by
H. C. TOWNSEND, General Passenger Agent The Missouri Pacific Railway Co.

and Iron Mountain Route.

WOODWARD & TIERNAN PRINTING CO. ST. LOUIS,

Tdeal
Hunting and
Fishing
Grounds.

INCE the early explorations of the Mississippi by the adventur-
ous La Salle, who traveled the Father of Waters from source
: to mouth, the heavily timbered low grounds along its lower
course have been deservedly famous for a variety and profusion of
game, unrivalled throughout the length and breadth of our country.
Centuries have passed since powder and lead first superseded the
Indian’s arrow in its destructive work among the deer and bears of
the great Southwest, and in this interval the bison herds of the
plains have been literally annihilated, and the wildest recesses of
the Rocky Mountains penetrated in search of game; but still the
brakes of the Southern swamps guard their denizens as jealously
as in the past — a vast and inexhaustible reservoir replenishing from
its abundance the game supply of a thinly inhabited region two hun-
dred miles in width and reaching from Southern Missouri to the
waters of the Mexican Gulf. Here, sheltered by the impenetrable
tangles of brush and briar, and secure in the solitude they love
from the intrusive gaze of their human enemies, the graceful fawns
gambol about their dam in fearless glee, and the mother bear teaches
her ungainly offspring the first lessons in the school of life. Theirs
is the unbroken solitude of a great forest— that one thing essen-
tial to the preservation of our noblest species of big game; and, in
the present as in the past, they enjoy an immunity from danger of
whistling lead shared by the game of no other region, however
remote.

A north and south line drawn through the center of the United
States to-day will divide the remnant of American game in almost
equal portions. This will probably sound like an apocryphal state-
ment to a majority of sportsmen, who have grown to consider the

=9e

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

great West as synonymous with all that is attractive to lovers of the
rifle and choke-bore, but it is nevertheless a fact. The short-sighted
policy of a generation of pot-hunters has swept from existence the
large game of our prairies, and the stringent protection laws lately
enacted by the Legislatures of States on the Pacific slope may be
accepted as proof that California, Oregon and Washington have but
little of fur or feather to be benefited by protection — for nature’s
gifts are never valued until they are slipping from our grasp. Even
among the mountains of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, the rifle of
the market gunner has been busy, and the sportsmen tourists to the
Cour D’Alene, Big Horn and Wind river ranges are frequently forced
to return with nothing in the way of trophies to repay them for the
time and expense of their trip. But, brushed aside, as it were, by the
westward progress of industrial immigration, the game of the Cen-
tral States has sought refuge aside from the beaten track of this
human tide, finding congenial surroundings in a region from which
it will never be driven. In many of the Eastern States the good
effects of rigid game protection is being felt. In localities in Maine
and New Hampshire — and even Massachusetts — deer can be found
in numbers where forty years ago they were totally extinct; but in
Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, protection, until of late, has been
scanty and grudgingly bestowed, natural causes alone deserving
credit for the profusion of game still existing within the limits of
those three States. The inhabitants of a backwoods region rarely
take kindly to game protective measures, and in every legislative
convention this conservative element is well represented, and by
men who are prompt and vigorous in combating any bill that may
threaten what they are pleased to call encroachment upon their
“rights.” They have grown accustomed to look upon wild game as
the rightful property of whosoever possesses ability to secure it —
regardless of time and season — and, rather than submit to an abate-
ment of their self-claimed prerogatives, would connive at the utter
annihilation of the game they claim to prize so highly.

Perhaps, however, it would be well in this connection to trace
another cause that has materially aided in decimating, or rather
destroying, the big game of the West. At this period of the world’s
history very little, in any direction, can be accomplished without the

agin

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

intervention and aid of the pen and printing press, and the killing of
an elk or grizzly, when chronicled in the sporting journals of
America and Europe, has naturally led tourists, emulous of like re-
nown, to visit the scenes where those lucky chroniclers found their
game. Much has been written in praise of the hunting grounds of
the West, but practically nothing in regard to those adjacent to
deep, cypress-sShadowed streams of the South. The watchword of the
hunter has ever been “Westward, Ho!” but the time is near at hand
when, from the turbulent waters of the Big Muddy to the Pacific’s
gold-strewn sands, little will be left to tempt the pressing of trigger
or the ignition of gunpowder. Prompted by the glowing pen-pictures
of a Pickett or a Hallock, sportsmen, singly and in couples and trios,
endure the tedium of journeys to Alaska and our westernmost moun-
tains, wade icy torrents and clamber along the snow-burdened walls
of gloomy cafions, only to find at last that they are groping in mines
long ago since robbed of their golden treasures and tracing van-
ished sunbeams through the darkness of an endless night.

However, it is unnecessary to resort to comparisons in order to
describe in terms of sufficient warmth the attractions offered to
sportsmen by the hunting grounds of Missouri, Arkansas and Louis-
iana, contiguous to the Iron Mountain Railway and its various
branches. All-sufficient would be the most commonplace recital by
any one of the numerous sportsmen who have visited this region
within the last few years. A land where the extremes of heat and
cold are never known, snowshoes and alpenstocks alike unnecessary,
and the comforts of camp life unalloyed by a dread of being “snowed
in,’ demolished by avalanches, or smothered by sandstorms, its for-
ests are always easy of access from the outer world, and its wildest
regions are, at most, but a few hours removed from railway stations
and telegraph lines. Yet, even among the more thickly settled por-
tions of the uplands bordering the swamps, a trained deerhound will
strike the scent of game in a few moments’ search; while farther
back from the noise and bustle of the settlements, hidden by seem-
ingly endless forests, in which the mark of the woodman’s axe is
seldom found, all the varieties of beasts and birds originally inhabit-
ing the locality can still be discovered in pretty much the oldtime
profusion. This is the ideal hunting ground —the true Sportsman’s

a

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

On a Runway IN ARKANSAS.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Paradise; for no son of Nimrod had ever need to leave it empty-
handed, and a slightest knowledge of its manifold attractions will
effectually wean the lover of good sports from any desire to visit
other ranges, whatever they may offer in the way of four-footed or
feathered game.

Other things being equal, the gunner, when mapping out a future
trip, will invariably give preference to the locality wherein the
greatest variety of game can be found with the least fatigue and
trouble; therefore the region penetrated by the Iron Mountain
system has won a well-deserved popularity, that must become more
general with the lapse of time. In the more broken, hilly country to
the west of the main line of railroad, as well as throughout the low-
land stretching eastward to the Mississippi, deer are still quite
plentiful. By this it is not intended to imply merely that it is pos-
sible, by careful and persistent search, to discover isolated speci-
mens of the agile and wary Cervus Virginianus, as is the case in
some of the so-called game regions of the North and West. It is
simply a plain and unvarnished statement of facts and may be
accepted as such without reservation. The hunting region referred
to here has never been depleted of its game and restocked like those

of the Northeastern States; it has never been overrun, like the for-
est ranges of other sections, by peltry-hunting Creeks and Winneba-

goes, and the cowboys and miners of the Western Territories have
never frightened the echoes of these grand old woods with the cease-
less clamor of their Winchesters and revolvers. To a great extent,
the country still remains in its original state of nature, and if it
were possible instantly to divest Arkansas and Louisiana of their
forest growth, the number of deer discovered would be a revelation,
even to those accustomed to hunting in the best ranges of the ex-
treme West. Taken collectively, the States mentioned undoubtedly
contain more white-tail, or Virginia deer than can be found else-
where in a similar extent of territory.

The bear of the swamps is of the ordinary black variety, never
dangerous to mankind unless pressed so closely that there is no pos-
sibility of its escape through flight. Consequently the element of
danger is lacking in their pursuit, but there are but few hunters
so hardy that they would consider this as detracting to any extent

yo

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

from the interest of the chase. Bears are still occasionally encoun-
tered in the more sparsely settled mountain districts of Missouri
and Arkansas, but their favorite haunt is in the tangles of cane,
briars and vines, locally known as brakes, found everywhere through-
out the swampy districts. Here they reign as supreme rulers over
the savage solitudes, rarely disturbed by the planters and timbermen
dwelling in the vicinity, except when they decimate the swine herds
of the one or forage in the meager larder of the other. Their flesh
and skins would, doubtless, lead to a destructive campaign against
them—for bear meat is readily salable in any market; but still
hunting Bruin is tedious work, and a bear chase with dogs gen-
erally terminates with a rousing fight, from which, the pack, how-
ever experienced, emerges with broken limbs and bleeding sides.
In the early days bears were very abundant in the mountainous re-
gions of Central and Western Arkansas, and were commonly hunted
in the coldest months of winter when they were hibernating in
caves. Provided with a torch and armed with an old flint-rock rifle,
the hardy bear hunter would venture to Bruin’s sleeping apartment,
far in the recesses of the hills, and deliver the fatal shot at the
shortest possible range. At present, however, bear hunting in the
hills would be a profitless undertaking. Grown weary of unceasing
persecution, Bruin has emigrated to a lower and far safer region,
and now takes his long winter’s sleep in the hollow of some lordly
cypress or gum, far above the reach of the floods that inundate the
surrounding territory. There are but few professional bear hunters,
and of those, the majority trap more bear than they kill by legiti-
mate hunting.

Panthers, while not abundant, are still occasionally met, and the
muddy margins of forest pools are often dotted with the imprints
of their giant paws. Wild cats, the only other representative of the
feline race found in the region herein described, are so plentiful as
to cause endless trouble to deer hunters, whose hounds will often
leave the trail of their legitimate game to pursue “puss” as she
bounds from her lair. Long experience and frequent chastising will
render the older dogs proof against temptation, but an antipathy
for cats is one of the most prominent traits of puppyhood. A wildcat
is no mean antagonist when “cornered,” but unless surprised, will

gos

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

invariably seek refuge in a tree, climbing with the agility of a
squirrel. Their tracks are common everywhere, and hunters in the
Arkansas lowgrounds can indulge in a successful wildcat hunt al-
most any night in the year, and are liable to stumble upon a “bob-
tail” at almost any time while still hunting.

Many valuable hounds have fallen victims to the gray wolves,
whose sharp teeth and enormous ‘size render them dangerous oppo-
nents in a “rough and tumble” fight. But every year the wolves are
decreasing in number, though their mournful howling will still
frequently mar the slumber of the sportsmay wno is unaccustomed
to this peculiar “music of the forest.” They lie by day in the very
thickest of the undergrowth on the upland ridges, venturing forth at
night to devour anything of flesh and blood that comes in their
way, and will frequently catch the calves and young pigs of the
backwoods farmer within pistol shot of his cabin. Wolves are
rarely encountered by the still-hunter, except in the early dawn,
and their stealth and watchfulness render them very difficult to kill.

The wild turkey, though the wariest and hardest of approach of
all varieties of American game, always shows a reluctance to leave
its accustomed feeding grounds, and persistently lingers amid the
clearings of the older-settled districts, only growing, if possible, more
cautious and watchful as the farms grow in number and the wooden
strips between them gradually lessen in extent. Universally dis-
tributed over hill and bottom land alike, and, unlike the deer, afoot
and foraging from dawn till dusk, the turkey’s keenness of sight and
hearing is a potent safeguard, and the hunter who matches his skill
against the cunning of an old gobbler must make no false move in
the management of his campaign. The amateur, on his first outing,
is apt to note that, while “turkey sign” is abundant, the turkeys
themselves are notable mainly by reason of their scarcity, but, even
in this branch of hunting, experience and patience will earn their
reward in the end, and in due course of time the mottled bronze
plumage of the wild gobbler will begin to litter the ground in the
vicinity of the camp fire.

Quail, or partridges, are rarely included by the local gunners when
enumerating the varieties of game to be found within the limits of
their hunting grounds. Each field has its covey or coveys, and the

pages

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘Muy ‘SHIMANIG JHL NI dWvD VW

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

untilled, brush-grown ridges outside the territory subject to annual
overflows, will amply repay inspection by wing shots who are not
easily discouraged by rough walking and possess a fair degree of
skill at snap-shooting in close cover. Quail inhabiting the broad
fields of the larger plantations are generally so easy to approach that
the charm of the sport is in a great degree lessened. The birds are
unaccustomed to look upon mankind with suspicion, huddle closely
together at the approach of a dog, and rarely flush unless compelled
to do so. So far, very few Northern gunners have condescended to
spend their days in the South shooting quail, preferring to follow
larger and wilder game, but a week among the coveys on the Ar-
kansas, Red or Washita river plantations would be an experience
unequalled by anything to be enjoyed in the older States, and never
to be forgotten so long as the shooter retains an interest in matters
pertaining to the dog and gun.

In years gone by, many prairie chickens were to be found on
Grand Prairie in Arkansas, and other prairies of smaller extent in
the same, but the fate that has pursued the pinnated grouse in other
regions has overtaken it here. South of Alexandria, La., some
chicken shooting may be had, but at many points where they were
once abundant the grouse has now disappeared. Writers in the
various sportsmen’s journals have credited Arkansas with the pos-
session of many ruffed grouse, but the statement has no foundation
in fact, and is on a par with others of like nature that are con-
tinually finding their way into print. The southern limit of the
habitat of ruffed grouse west of the Mississippi river, hardly reaches
the dividing line between Missouri and Arkansas. Nine out of every
ten hunters, in the last mentioned State, know of the royal game
bird only by reputation, but it can well be spared where other varie-
ties of feathered game are so abundant.

In the late fall months, and frequently until the beginning of
January, the sloughs and slashes of Southern Missouri and Arkansas
are filled with wild fowl— mallard, teal, and wood duck, with a
sprinkling of other varieties — feeding upon the acorns of the willow,
vak and overcup. With the first cool breath from the north they are
assembled here by the thousands, remaining until the more severe
weather prompts them to drift on in the wake of a vanished sum-

oti

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

mer, the greater portion of their number spending the winter in the
sunny lakes of Louisiana, or in the sheltered bays that indent the
gulf coast. Occasionally, but not every winter, there is a flight of
canvasbacks and redheads, and along the larger rivers wild geese
and brants abound. Snipe shooting can be had in its season on the
various small prairies, but very little attention is paid to this class
of sport.

The days of the trapping brigades came to an end a half century
ago, but there are still hundreds of men who derive a revenue from
the capture and sale of furs, and Southeastern Missouri and Arkan-
sas has long been considered the choicest of trapping grounds. The
climate is a trifle too warm to admit of furs reaching the highest
perfection, but the quality is fair, while as regards quantity nothing
is left to be desired. The coon and mink furnish the greater part
of the peltries taken; but there is a fair sprinkling of beaver and
otter, while possum and skunk are so common that they are con-
tinually stepping an unwary foot in the traps designed to effect more
valuable captures. A great many bears are caught by trappers, who
set huge steel traps and log pens near their usual haunts, but wolves
and wildcats are generally too cautious to allow their hunger or
curiosity to lead them into dangers from which there is no retreat.
Trapping, as a pursuit, is not likely to appeal very forcibly to the
fancy of the average sportsman, and it is perhaps as well that such
is the case, for in Arkansas there is a law, still in force, which re-
quires the purchase of a license or permit by non-resident hunters
or trappers who ply their craft for profit within the limits of the
State, or, failing in this, enforces the payment of a heavy fine.

Such, briefly stated, are the attractions that await the hunter in
the region of which we write. The list of game as given, will hold
good in almost every locality, though, naturally, in every range
some one or more variety leads in abundance. Squirrels, foxes and
grays, and cotton-tail and swamp rabbits are everywhere too com-
mon to deserve special mention as game, but their presence adds
zest and variety to the scenes of sylvan beauty, further enlivened by
the thousands of feathered migrants, halting on the passage south-
ward, as though reluctant to continue their journey to a less at-

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS

tractive region whose climate grants them immunity from the
paralyzing chill of winter.

To that second great class of sportsmen, the brethren of the
“gentle angle,” this vast expanse of wooded hills and lowlands, with
its numerous navigable rivers and thousands of streams of less
consequence, offers attractions second to none within the boundaries
of our Union. The claim has been made that in the more sluggish
bayous and streams immediately tributary to the Mississippi, the
fish found are not of the kind known to the sportsman as game fish,
but this is another error so transparent that it is hardly worth
refutal. If large-mouth black bass, averaging from two to five
pounds in weight, are not sufficiently ‘“‘gamey”—if pike-perch, crappie
and gaspergou are unfit occupants for an angler’s creel or beneath
the notice of a modern disciple of Izaak Walton; then the foregoing
statement is based upon facts and the fisherman had best confine
himself to the to be fingerlings taken from the famous streams of
the Adirondacks and the Maine woods. However, it is true that
here all are not game fish that take the bait, for a minnow caster
may at any moment find himself vainly striving to restrain the er-
ratic movements of a hook-stung dog fish, channel cat, or alligator
gar; and, then, though the sport is lively, the “wind up” is often to
be regretted, for a gar weighing from fifty to two hundred pounds
has a way of demolishing light tackle that is discouraging, to say the
least, and it is not every channel cat or grindle that will permit itself
to be towed ashore by a line incapable of sustaining one-fourth of its
actual weight. Aside from the ravenous bait-takers mentioned, the
streams are stocked with an abundance of salmon trout, perch, buf-
falo, shad, drum and the different varieties of the “cat” family—
some of them attaining enormous dimensions. As one writer has
truthfully said: “The fisherman who visits Arkansas may grow
satiated with sport, but he will never tire of it for want of success,”
and this verdict, delivered by one who has had opportunities to judge
from experience, will apply with equal force to the States adjoining
Arkansas on the north and south.

=79==

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

How to Reach the Woods.

HE sportsman, by perfecting his arrangements in advance,
dh can leave his office at the close of business hours, and after
a leisurely discussed supper, seek refreshing slumber in the
luxurious berth of a Pullman coach, to awaken next morning in the
hunting grounds of Arkansas, and, participating in a bear chase
or deer-drive, or, perchance, catching a soul-satisfying creel of lordly
bass, find himself again in the city on the morning of the second
day before the sun has gilded the smoke-stained dome of the court
house. However, trips of such short duration, though possible, are
not to be recommended, for most sportsmen are so constituted that
a single day in the woods will only excite an uncontrollable longing
to linger on, in spite of the calls of business, rather than to return
to the old atmosphere of care and worry, now rendered a thousand
times more tiresome by comparison with the wild life of the woods.
The hunter or angler with but a single day to spare, had best con-
fine his wanderings within narrower limits, contenting himself with
breathing the free air of the fields and dreaming of the time when,
the annual vacation in order, he will be at liberty to pack his
“duffle” in the trunk or canvas bag reserved for such occasions,
roll his blankets within the folds of his tent and turn his back upon
civilization for a term of weeks rather than hours. Within the last
few years, hundreds of sportsmen from all portions of the North
and East have visited the streams and forests to be reached by way
of the Iron Mountain system from St. Louis, Memphis or Cairo, with
the almost invariable result, that those who go once repeat the trip
upon the recurrence of the hunting season, and relate their suc-
cesses to their friends and associates who are thus led to follow in
their footsteps and strive to equal their achievements. Naturally, a
universal inquiry has arisen in regard to the best hunting and fish-
ing grounds of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana and adjoining
States, and the letters upon this subject received by the General
Passenger Department of the Iron Mountain Route have become so

a | ee

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

numerous that it has been found advisable to compile all available
information in pamphlet form for general distribution—a task of no
little difficulty, chiefly because the mass of data at hand, relating to
such a large scope of territory, must be carefully edited and “boiled
down” in order to force it all within the prescribed limits . The
facts that follow have been furnished by residents of the localities
mentioned and compiled by a person thoroughly acquainted with the
subject in all its bearings, and though, in a good many instances,
thoroughness of detail has been sacrificed to the demand for brevity,
the accuracy of the information given may be fully relied upon.

Facts have been given, and facts only, and, with these supplied,
the average sportsman can safely be left to plan out his trip as he
may think best. The object of this pamphlet is not to furnish a
guide book directing to a few old and worn-out resorts, but rather
to give the hunter or angler a general idea of the country he pro-
poses to explore, and of the species and descriptions of game and
fish that he will there encounter. The range of locality offered has
practically no limits, and hundreds of parties might be in the field
at the same time without one coming in contact with another. To
this enchanted land of forest, lake and stream, the Iron Mountain
Route is the great thoroughfare, and the pages that immediately
follow will treat exclusively of the points directly upon its line
which are contiguous to good hunting and fishing grounds. Farther
on, the reader will be led into a more extended field.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘OW ‘ONOESTTI_T YVAN “TIIJ S,aSYOT

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Within Sound of the Locomotive Whistle.

will carry one to some very good localities for obtaining

sport with rod and gun. If the angler has but a few short
hours at his disposal, HortInr or HEMATITE might be visited with
very good results, for in the small streams adjacent to those two
points, fish can be taken representing all the different varieties
found in the Mississippi river to which these waters are directly
tributary; squirrels, rabbits, and quail abound and an occasional
turkey may be discovered in the thicker coverts. Morse’s Mill on the
Negro fork of the Meramec, west of Horine, is a noted fishing ground
for St. Louis anglers, the principal kinds of game fish, taken at that
point, being large and small mouth black bass—more commonly the
latter—pike and crappie. BLACKWELL, the second station below
De Soto, is another point of which fishermen speak well.

The Columbus branch of the Iron Mountain Route, leaving the
main line at Bismarck, seventy-five miles from St. Louis, reaches a
country renowned for its quail and small game generally, as well as
for its fishing streams and the wild fowl that congregate in the
proper season along their winding channels. The broad grain fields
of Cape Girardeau county are a favorite stopping place for the
enormous flights of wild geese, following the Mississippi on their
passage southward, while the acres of standing corn left ungathered
until the latter months of winter affords ample reason and excuse

[Qe southward from St. Louis, less than two hour’s travel,

for the presence of thousands of quail.

ALLENVILLE will probably afford to the wing shot as good an op-
portunity for the exercise of his skill as a reasonable man could
wish. There are a number of lakes in the vicinity where the wild
fowl spend their nights, after days that are passed in robbing the
thrifty Missouri farmer, and the flight shooting in the morning and
evening is excellent. In the low grounds east of Castor, or Little
river, there are a great many deer and turkey, while all kinds of
small game abound.

Sa

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

A NATIVE, ON THE UPPER St. FRANCIS.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

MILE CREEK and WILLIAMSVILLE are stations on the main line, and
are also located immediately upon the banks of Black river, a stream
visited every year by hundreds of anglers from a distance. In the
interior of the Ozark mountains, west of these points, the Current
river tumbles over its bed of gravel and boulders, to join the Black
below the Arkansas border line. This is also a splendid fishing
stream, noted for the number of small mouth black bass that leap
and gambol in its waters. The Current River Club, composed of
influential citizens of St. Louis and other Missouri towns, has a

Castor River CLus House, Burrincton, Mo.

club house on this stream, which may be easily reached by a short
land tour from either of the points mentioned, or by rail from
Williamsville. In the mountains on either side the Current, large
and small game is found in comparative abundance, turkeys being
quite plentiful, while, with a good dog, it is very little trouble to
get a deer afoot in the early morning. The Irish Wilderness, a tract
of very broken and mountainous character drained by the Current
river, is a favorite resort for many old-time deer hunters who do
not object to encountering more or less of hard and rough work

49.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

CurrENT River, NEAR DontpHan, Mo.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

while in pursuit of their favorite sport. This region is perhaps
the wildest in Southern Missouri, but, owing to its distance from the
railroad, its detailed description cannot be attempted in the present
connection. It is rarely visited by Northern gunners, though ac-
cessible by wagon from different points on the main line of the
fron Mountain Route, but the sportsman who penetrates to the
depths of this bit of mountain wilderness will be well repaid for his
time and trouble. '

PopLak BLurr, at the junction of the Cairo branch, is a good out-
fitting point for parties who contemplate a visit to the swamp lands
of the upper St. Francis river, and big game ranges of New Madrid,
Dunklin and Pemiscot counties. Fishing in the St. Francis, Big and
Little Black rivers, and Cane creek is always first class. Bass, pike
ind crappie eagerly striking at almost any sort of bait or lure, and
there is a good deal of small game to engage the attention of the
man who loves the smell of burnt powder. Deer were formerly
abundant in this locality, but the venison-loving farmer and lum-
berer have been prominent figures in their disappearance. Poplar
Bluff has been in the past the objective point for a good many par-
ties of Northern hunters, and therefore the absence of large game
in that vicinity may be susceptible of a dual explanation, and that
the local gunners are not alone responsible.

At NEELYSVILLE, a branch of the Iron Mountain extends to Doni-
phan, situated on the banks of the Current river, a desirable point
for quail shooting and bass fishing, with the advantage of having
a big game range within a few hour’s drive in every direction. Some
fifteen miles west of Doniphan, on the Eleven Points river, a branch
of the Black, lies a hilly country covered with open woods and a
erowth of high grass, a favorite range for deer and turkey. Several
hunting parties from St. Louis visit this locality annually, while
the Current river at Doniphan often contributes its bass and crappie
to fill the creels of sportsmen from Missouri’s largest city.

Crossing the northern boundary of Arkansas at Moark, the first
station of importance is CorRNING, a favorite resort for fishermen
from St. Louis and other northern points. Black river, three miles
to the eastward, has an enviable reputation as a fishing stream, here,
as elsewhere in its course, and thoroughly deserves the good opinion

=of'=

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

of the anglers who frequent its banks; while almost within sight
of the station Corning lake spreads its placid surface in invitation
to the dancing lure and toothsome minnow. The fame of Corning
lake surpasses that of other Arkansas waters, because it is oftener
fished by parties living outside the State. It is a good place to go

Tue Brack RIveErR AT PopraR BLurFr.

for a few days’ sport because of its convenience to the railroad, and
the fact that boats are handy and can be had at any time for a
nominal sum, but there are hundreds of lakes as good, so far as the
mere matter of fish is concerned, scattered here and there through-
out the Eastern portion of the “Bear State.” Small houses for the
convenience of visiting sportsmen have been built at different points
on Black river, and as they rent for a trifle, are in many ways pre-

—99—

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Brack RIveR, NEAR BLAcK Rock, ARK.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

ferable to the impromptu camps generally erected as a temporary
makeshift without regard to the occupant’s comfort. The forests in
the vicinity are plentifully stocked with squirrels and other small
game, and wherever cultivated fields are found good quail shooting
is obtainable. As a stopping point for deer hunters, Corning is
preferable to Poplar Bluff, and in some years deer are found without
difficulty within a few miles of town, being particularly abundant in
the tract of country known as ‘Deer Range,’ lying east of Black
river. An occasional deer can always be found by the persistent
hunter, and flocks of turkeys are commonly encountered—this, in
point of fact, being the case almost anywhere in the surrounding
region.

KNOBEL, six miles farther down the road and beyond the crossing
of Black river, is the junction point of the main line of the St.
Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern and its Helena branch, and
aside from its natural advantages of location in the heart of a first-
class hunting and fishing country, is also particularly desirable as a
stopping place for sportsmen, since it is provided with good hotel
accommodations and is in easy reaching distance by rail of choice
fishing and shooting on the St. Francis and L’Anguille rivers. Guides
are obtainable here, as well as conveyances for transferring tents
and camp outfits to the hunting grounds. Deer, turkeys and squir-
rels are found within six or eight miles of town, and splendid fish-
ing for bass, pickerel and crappie in Mill, Maiden and Allen lakes,
from two to four miles out. Cache river lies six miles to the east-
ward, and is a stream famous for its game and fish.

Following, to HELENA, a course nearly parallel to that of the St.
Francis river, the branch road from Knobel offers to sportsmen a
score of stopping places, any of which may be selected with confi-
dence in the results. The famous Sunken Lands of the St. Francis
have been so often described in glowing terms that it is quite un-
necessary to grant them any of our limited space. Farther down,
where the river, confined between narrower banks begins to develop
a current and the impassable marshes give place to firmer soil, game
is found in undiminished quantity and its pursuit can be followed
under more favorable conditions. The name of the “Sunken Lands”
is attractive, and it would be difficult to find a section of country

ee ey

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS,

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Tue Knoset Ciuzs House, Bertic, ARK.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

better supplied with all that adds to the happiness of those who love
the wild life of the forest, but all of this—not even excepting the
wonderful wild-fowl shooting in season—can be enjoyed on the lower
river beyond the limits of this woodland lake.

GAINESVILLE the first town of any size on the branch after Knobel
has been left behind, has St. Francis lake in its vicinity which will
furnish sufficient employment for the men of rod and reel, while, as
elsewhere in this favored region, the gunners will never be at loss
for targets upon which to display their skill. BrookLAnp in Craig-
head and HatcHir Coon in Poinsett counties, stations of minor im-
portance in some respects, are, nevertheless, worthy of remembrance
by sportsmen who may contemplate a visit to this portion of Ar-
kansas, for at such points the trails leading to the woods are usually
short and often indented throughout their length by the sharp hoofs
of wandering deer hungry for a meal of the farmer’s peas or sweet
potato vines. VANNDALE and WYNNE, in Cross county, are both noted
points for deer hunting, while the different lakes in the St. Francis
and L’Anguille bottoms, as well as both the rivers just named, afford
an inexhaustible supply of bass, jack-salmon, crappie, and the other
fishes common to this region.

MARIANNA, twenty-six miles north of Helena, is not far from the
confluence of the L’Anguille with the St. Francis, and between these
two streams, for some distance above their juncture, is a large scope
of unsettled country, at present the chosen haunt of the deer and
bear. Here, the gray wolf still pursues his quarry as in the days
before railroads had placed this wilderness within twelve hours of
the Southwestern metropolis, and the panther’s scream occasionally
frightens the deer hunter from his stand or silences the sturdy chal-
lenge of the wild gobbler. Before the non-exportation laws went
into effect, a great deal of game was shipped from this point, and
enormous consignments of buffalo and catfish, taken from the adja-
cent rivers, still go to Northern dealers. Happily the shipment out
of the State of other varieties is rigidly prohibited, but the local
angler can supply his table, throughout the greater portion of the
year, with the choicest of game fish, secured with even the most
’ primitive of tackle from the pool or stream most convenient to his
dwelling.

==96".

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Probably 90 per cent of the sportsmen, who may chance to drift
down the main line of the Iron Mountain Route beyond Knobel, will
drop off at De LA PLAINeE or O’KEAn, feeling convinced from past
experience, that the deer they are looking for can be easily found
in the white oak flats contiguous to the Cache; if not in the river
bottoms proper. The oak forests in the districts between the Black
and Cache rivers have been sadly depleted by the axes of lumber-
men and tiemakers, but the game still lingers in the old ‘chop-
outs,’ though the undergrowth, in localities, is rendering its pur-
suit difficult. Fishing is good at both the points mentioned, but to
enumerate the different lakes and small streams within reach would
be unnecessary.

From WatNnut Rivet to Newport, at the crossing of White river,
the railroad passes through a belt of country similar in nature to
that just described, with Black and Cache rivers about equal dis-
tance on either hand. Though settlements are scattered everywhere
they are not so thick as to interfere with hunting to any marked de-
gree. The hunter never goes away empty-handed, and when accom-
panied by hounds often kills deer within sight of the different towns,
and turkeys forage the farmers’ corn fields daily, while of smaller
game there is an unlimited abundance. Walnut Ridge claims for
one of its citizens a record of five deer and twenty-five turkeys in
one day, a score that will hardly be duplicated soon, but which
speaks volumes for that locality as a hunting resort. ‘Wolves, wild-
cats and small game add zest and variety to the forest sports, and
wherever fields of any size are encountered, good quail shooting with
or without a dog, is easily obtainable. Newport is perhaps one of
the best fishing points in the State, as it is located on White river
not far from the mouth of Black and within easy reach of Cache.
Bass, salmon, crappie, pike and all kinds of perch are plentiful in
these streams, as well as in Burgon lake, only three miles from the
city, Gambol’s lake about four, and Waldo lake not more than five.
On the large farms and cotton plantations in Big Bottom, some
twenty miles up the White River branch, and Oil Trough Bottom,
directly across the river from the locality just named, the lover
of wing shooting can find quail to his heart’s content. Here the
birds are rarely disturbed by the local gunners, who consider such

229055

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘May

‘ANV]J DIG NO LYOdS S,AVG V

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

small game unworthy of notice, and they are very numerous and
easy of approach. BaTESsvVILLE is the terminus of the White river
branch, and is located in the edge of the mountainous region that
extends over the entire Western half of the State. It is an inter-
esting little city of several thousand inhabitants, located in the midst
of attractive and romantic scenery, and the fishing in that locality is
unexcelled. Batesville would be a splendid objective point for a
summer angling trip, and in its vicinity small game of all descrip-
tions can be taken in quantities, though large game is less abundant
than at points lower down the river.

BRADFORD, on the main line below Newport, is in a good locality
for both hunting and fishing, being handy to White river and pos-
sessed of all the advantages that such proximity supplies, while
there is also a first-class deer range in the hills some nine or ten
miles to the westward. Big lake, one mile east, and Little Lake,
about the same distance south, are both famous for the quantity of
fish they contain, as well as on account of their unusual clearness,
the bottom of either being visible at a depth of twenty feet. Other
lakes abound, furnishing splendid fishing and good duck shooting in
season.

MeEmpuis is now the eastern terminus of the Memphis Extension
of the Iron Mountain route, and the completion of that branch made
accessible, both from the east and west, a large tract of country
unsettled and wild, and hitherto inaccessible, but which had long
been known to abound in all kinds of game and fish. No point can
be said to surpass another for hunting and fishing on this whole
line, but at any point the sportsman chooses to embark he will find
plenty of food for his ammunition, and fish eager to snap his bait.
The first train from Memphis took a party of hunters from that
place, and almost immediately on its opening the Bald Knob Rod and
Gun Club was organized with headquarters at Earle, where they
have erected a club house. The following are the varieties of fish
found: Black bass, speckled perch, brim, and pickerel. In game: he
will find ample enjoyment in bringing down deer, turkeys, geese,
ducks, quail, rabbits, squirrels, etc. Batp KNos JUNCTION, the west-
ern terminus of this branch, was, until the non-export interfered, the
favorite hunting ground for a number of market shooters, the flat

—30—

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

woods, east of this point, fairly swarming with deer in the winter
when the overflow had driven them from the low bottoms of White
and Little Red rivers. In the winter of 1888-1889, over two hun-
dred deer were killed within six miles of Bald Knob, and other
seasons have seen this score exceeded. A great many bears still
roam through the cane brakes skirting the rivers, faring sumptuously
upon fresh pork whenever the fancy takes, and occasionally furnish-
ing a feast for the farmer whose smoke-house stands empty by
reason of their foraging. A description of the fishing in the neigh-
borhood of Bald Knob would be merely a repetition of an old story.
Streams and lakes are of precisely the same character as those men-
tioned in connection with other points, the variety of fish is iden-
tically the same, and the most persistent angler will always secure
the fullest creel or heaviest string, for the amount of his catch is
decided only by his ability to bait hooks and fight his fish.

From Bald Knob to Little Rock the main line passes through a
comparatively thickly settled district, gradually drawing away from
the course of the larger streams. In this stretch of fifty-seven miles
large game is scarce, though by no means altogether lacking. Quail,
squirrels and rabbits afford abundant sport for those who prefer
the shotgun to the rifle, and turkeys frequent the field farthest from
the farm houses, and find ample cover for the protection of their
young broods in the belts of timber that still remain. As the Ar-
kansas river is neared, wild goose and duck shooting is good in the
proper season, and many follow it as a profitable business, making
five and six dollars a day. This is particularly the case at
McAtmontT, on the main line, six miles north of Little Rock, and
here, too, fishing can be had fully equal to any in the State. Hill’s
lake, five miles east, is much frequented by fishermen from the sur-
rounding country, while Frammel lake, one mile, Peelar lake, two
miles, and Ink bayou, scarcely one-half mile east of town, all abound
in bass, trout, pike, and the different varieties of perch. Deer and
turkeys are frequently killed in this locality, and all sorts of small
game is abundant. i

At Traskwoop, the first station north of Malvern, the angler will
receive intelligence of excellent fishing on every side, but will be
somewhat surprised to find that the favorite method of obtaining a

— 3}

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘Muy ‘SONIYdS LOF[ YVAN “ITIP GIO IV

AFAR VLIHOIVAQ

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

supply of the silvery-sided beauties is by spearing—or “gigging,” as
it is here termed. In the Saline river and its numerous feeders, the
water is perfectly transparent, and, however deep the pools may be,
the fish are readily discovered, and as readily secured, by an expert
hand with the heavy, long-handled spear. At DoNALDSON, on the
Ouachita, the same method of fishing is generally pursued, though
a great many fish are shot with the rifle, in the use of which many
of the residents of this vicinity gain a remarkable proficiency. It
requires a peculiar training to enable any one to shoot fish in water
of even moderate depth with any certainty, but an expert shot rarely
misses his aim, and it is no unfrequent feat to shoot a thirty or
forty pound buffalo. In all the streams and lakes of this region the
water is so clear that a pin can be seen lying at the bottom at a
depth of ten feet, and so great is the variety and number of fish
that fishing with a hook is rarely undertaken. At Donaldson deer
are abundant, and occasionally a bear is found in the breaks of the
hills bordering the Ouachita bottoms. Where large game is easily
found, it goes without saying, that there is no scarcity of the
smaller beasts and birds, and at all points south of the Arkansas
river quail and squirrel shooting can be expected without the pos-
sibility of a disappointment.

In this connection ARKADELPHIA can be mentioned as one of the
best localities in the state for quail shooting, second only to portions
of Calhoun and Union counties southeast of Camden. Clark county,
in which Arkadelphia is located, has been long noted for the rich-
ness of its soil and the uniform success of its cultivators; a goodly
share of the county is in cultivation, and in Arkansas wherever
there are open fields, quail can be found by the hundreds and thou-
sands. A good many old-time deer hunters reside at Arkadelphia
and still own and train their packs of hounds, though deer in the
immediate neighborhood of the town are growing scarce and hard
to “jump.” The Ouachita furnishes the best of fishing, and in the
winter months the Arkadelphian finds abundant use for his shotgun
in attempting to halt the flight of the ducks and geese that are
following the river’s course.

CAMDEN, mentioned above, is the terminus of the Camden branch
and is thirty-four miles from the main line. This is one of the old-

| —33—

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

est towns of the State, and was the supply point for a large scope
of territory, in the days before the advent of railroads, when the
freight and passenger traffic of the entire country was handled by
steamboats. Situated on the bank of the Ouachita, and with Wood-
ard, Johnson, Pine, Moron, Blue and Fisher’s lakes all to be reached
over good wagon roads in from thirty minutes to one hour, the
angler who may chance to visit this town will hardly suffer for lack
of opportunity to wet a line in waters fairly aswarm with bass,
trout and perch. The hotel accommodations at Camden are excel-
lent, guides easily obtainable, and choice hunting grounds for large
and small game close at hand.

BouGcHtTon, on the main line a few miles below Gurdon, is in a good
range for all-around hunting and fishing, the little Missouri and
Antoine rivers and Cypress bayou, with other smaller streams and
lakes supplying the wants of the most exacting of anglers, while all
varieties of game common to the States abound. At Hope, a short
branch line leads to Nashville, a prime point for all who love the
best of sport. Red and Little Saline rivers, Little river and the
Little Missouri are all convenient and easy to reach, and the hunter
who penetrates their thickly grown bottoms should keep on the
alert for a shot at the largest of Arkansian game. Deer and wild
turkeys are too common to deserve special notice, and bears and
panthers are frequently encountered. WASHINGTON, the first town
reached on the branch, is but little further from the big game range
and has excellent quail shooting in its vicinity. Funton is another
good stopping place for sportsmen, its location on Red river making
it a particularly desirable point for those who wish to get good
fishing within rifle shot of a hotel, with an almost endless-range for
hunting on either hand. Little river, which enters Red a short
distance above Fulton, can hardly be improved upon as a fishing
stream, and its name is connected with half the bear-hunting yarns
told by the Nimrods of Southern Arkansas. Deer can be found both
in the river bottoms and among the pine and oak forests of the
flat lands and ridges, but still hunting is rarely resorted to—the
majority of the resident hunters preferring hounding. Turkeys are”
about the only other game generally hunted, though the woods are

ee ea

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

full of squirrels and rabbits, and the call of the Bob White echoes
through every clearing.

Conway, MorRgILLTON and RUSSELLVILLE are points on the Little
Rock & Fort Smith division, and all of them report good fishing in
the Arkansas river, as well as in the numerous small courses, that
have their source in the Boston mountains, flowing into the Arkan-
sas from the north. Small game is plentiful, and deer and turkeys
can be found in the hills a few miles back from the river, though not
in any great numbers. Piney, further west, is a more desirable
point for hunting than any of those just mentioned, and for fishing
is, perhaps, as good. Quail, squirrels and rabbits abound, as at all
other points in the State, and deer are frequently killed on Big
and Little Piney creeks at no great distance from the railroad. Wild
geese and ducks are plentiful on the sandbars of the river in the
winter seasons.

Spapra is the first station on the Little Rock & Fort Smith division
west of Clarksville. Spadra creek is fed by mountain springs. Its
waters are as clear as crystal, and abound in mountain trout and a
fine variety of perch. The scenery along this stream has long been
noted for its beauty and picturesqueness, its rocky banks resembling
an Adirondack stream. The Arkansas river is near, where all the
larger varieties of fish are found. In hunting, deer is the largest
game. Turkeys, ducks and squirrels furnish ample sport for the
hunter in their season. Higher up on the mountains great sport is
afforded in hunting the gray fox, which is very plentiful and valua-
ble for its fur. F

Fort Smiru is the western terminus of the Little Rock & Fort
Smith division, and the region around about, especially to the north,
south and west, is one vast hunting and fishing paradise. The
streams near the city, in which black bass, pike, crappie and cat-
fish abound, are Lees creek, Vache Grasse and Frog bayou in the
State, and the Poteau and Illinois rivers and Vian and Salisaw
creeks in the Territory. The fishing is excellent, but for genuine
sport the hunter, with his gun and dog, has the call here. This
sport is not confined to any particular locality, but parties are or-
ganized and excursions are made a hundred miles to the north,
south and west, all of which territory is a vast hunting ground

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘MU ‘SONIUdS LOP{s YVAN ‘SNIVINQOW UAAVZO ‘dWVD ,SYTLNAY

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

abounding in all kinds of game. The hunter will go prepared to
shoot deer, foxes, turkeys, quail, ducks and chickens. Local sports-
men are to be found who are always ready to join and assist in ex-
peditions of this kind.

There now remains to be described the different points of interest
to sportsmen along the Houston, Central Arkansas & Northern line,
a branch of the Iron Mountain Route, at present extending from
Little Rock to Alexandria, La., a distance of 305 miles. This line,
through a goodly portion of its length, is of comparatively recent
construction and renders accessible a vast stretch of unbroken forest
but little known to hunters from the outer world—a hunting ground
of more than ordinary merit, where the larger game can roam as far
as their fancy dictates without finding their way barred by the
settler’s fence or encroaching upon the cleared fields that tell of
civilization’s irresistible march. The road follows, for the first part
of its distance, a course parallel to that of the Arkansas river,
though running from one to fifteen miles to the southward of that
stream. Then, turning abruptly to the right, it bears away directly
through the heart of Louisiana, passing through some old, long-
settled farming districts, and, finally, plunging into the depths of
the largest unbroken body of pine forest that the United States now
contains, to emerge at last on the banks of the Red river at Alex-
andria. Every station in the entire distance deserves some share of
our notice, for each has its surroundings of forest and stream; each
its enthusiastic sportsmen, proud of their own hunting grounds and
loath to concede that there are better farther on. But what of space
will forbid mention of many points that might well rank with the
best.

WRIGHTSVILLE is twelve miles south of Little Rock, on the Arkan-
sas City division, and, as a center for hunting and fishing, is un-
surpassed. It is three miles from the Arkansas river, two and one-
half miles from Horseshoe lake, and one mile from Pennington lake,
which is fed by Fish creek. Pike, bass, cat, white perch, trout and
sun-fish are on the constant lookout for the fisherman’s hook. Com-
mencing at Pennington lake and extending westward to the Saline
river is an expanse of uninhabitated region known as the Pennington
Forest. This is composed of pine and cypress timber, with large

. st

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

tracts of jungle and cypress brakes. Deer and turkeys have their
favorite haunts here and small game abound in unlimited quan-
tities.

REDFIELD is on the Arkansas City section south of Wrightsville.
Deer, turkeys, squirrels, rabbits and quail abound in large quanti-
ties in that vicinity, and the hunter will not have to go beyond a
radius of ten miles from town to satisfy his desire to kill some-
thing. In the way of fishing, Harris and Lipscomb lakes, the Ar-
kansas river, Bitter Camp and Harrison creeks, are all within three
and a half miles of Redfield and are well stocked with black bass,
trout, jack perch, catfish and buffalo.

JEFFERSON SPRINGS is between Little Rock and Pine Bluff, on the
Arkansas City section, and has for fishing waters the Arkansas river
and its bayous, in which are found catfish, perch, black bass and sev-
eral other varieties in abundance. The woods in this vicinity have
plenty of deer, foxes, rabbits, opossums, squirrels, and, in their
season, turkeys, geese ducks and quail.

PINE Biurr is the most important city on the Arkansas City di-
vision, and is the center of excellent hunting and fishing territory.
The Saline river, Atkins lake and Clear lake abound in mountain
trout, speckled perch, black bass, catfish, etc., and splendid camp-
ing facilities are to be found around these lakes. The shooting is
also fine, and deer, turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, grouse, quail and
ducks are easily bagged. Occasionally a bear may be met, but they
are becoming scarce. Foxes are so common that fox-hunting has
ceased to be sport for the old hunters. The winter is very dry and
pleasant, and after the first of October this is a veritable hunter’s
paradise.

Nosie LAKE, on the Arkansas City section, has in its vicinity the
Arkansas river, Atkins lake and Noble lake, which are well stocked
with trout, catfish, buffalo, speckled perch, white perch and sun-fish.
The whole country about this place is a vast hunting ground in
which are found large quantities of deer, turkeys, squirrels, rab-
bits, foxes, geese, ducks and quail.

Leaving Noble lake behind, an ideal deer country is found near
VARNER, the third station beyond. The timber growth, which be-
tween Little Rock and Pine Bluff was principally pine, has changed

—39—.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

again, and the broad flats lying along the headwaters of Bayou
Bartholomew are wooded with the different varieties of oak, gum,
elm and hickory. The undergrowth is rather close here for rifle
shooting, but a shotgun answers as well at close quarters, and
around Varner it is unnecessary to risk long range shots. Turkeys
are quite plentiful, as they usually are in a region where pine-oak
acorns cover the ground in autumn and winter, and the wild black-
berry ripens its fruit in early summer. Squirrels are everywhere.
On the Arkansas river, north of the town, and across the river at the
mouth of Bayou Meto, a good many bears can yet be found, but they
are hunted persistently by market gunners, who ship their meat to
Pine Bluff and Little Rock, and their numbers are rapidly de-
creasing.

Dumas is a station of small importance in some respects, but the
residents of the little town are sportsmen, and they live in a locality
where they can gratify their fancy for deer driving to the utmost.
The stranger in their midst, if possessed of a taste for such sport,
would be heartily invited to join in their wild rides after the fleet-
footed and evasive buck, and it is nothing uncommon for a hunting
party to kill twelve or fifteen in a single day.

WALNout LAKE the next station to Dumas, has an enviable reputa-
tion as a fishing and duck shooting resort. The lake is deep and
clear, and its beauty, quite as much as the fine fishing it affords,
attracts numerous parties from as far away as Little Rock. A shoot-
ing club from the State’s capital has a club house on the bank of
Walnut Lake, and it is occupied pretty regularly during the hunting
season.

WINCHESTER, a few miles farther on, claims the reputation of ship-
ping more deer during the open season than any other station in
Arkansas. In 1890, two men, hunting principally at night with
headlights, killed 145 and 87 deer respectively. That this wholesale
slaughter did not “utterly extinguish the breed,” is evidenced by the
fact that twenty-six deer were shipped from Winchester on one train
in the fall of 92, and hardly a day passed that shipments of less
consequence were not made. The hunting grounds extend pretty
generally in every direction for a number of miles, but the best is to
be found between the railroad and Arkansas river some fifteén miles

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

away. Bears and wolves are often killed by the deer hunters, and
turkeys and small game are to be had “in quantities to suit’—if
such a phrase is applicable here.

Dermott is situated in the midst of a scope of wild country lying
between Bayou Bartholomew and the Mississippi river, and possess-
ing an inexhaustible supply of game of all descriptions. There are
many so-called good hunting grounds where the citizen with non-
observant habits, or the stay-at-home farmer, will tell you that game
is ‘“pow’e’ful sca’ce,’ but the good people of Dermott are all willing
to confess that the woods around them are swarming with wild life.
The fact is so patent that they cannot help observing it. Even a
blind man, if served with three meals of venison per day for a
series of months, would, in the end, be forced to admit that there
must be more or less deer in the vicinity, and there are ways in
which the mentally blind may be made to see. Fishing in the neigh-
borhood of Dermott is good, bass, trout and perch being the prin-
cipal varieties that interest anglers; but buffalo and cat, of the
largest size, abound, while small fry, such as crappie, perch, etc.,
snap greedily at the baited hook as soon as it touches the water.
Mason’s, Barth’s and Big bayous, and many lakes, large and small,
are close at hand, and it is not far to Bartholomew and the Mis-
sissippi.

MorELL and PorrLtanp the latter near the Louisiana line, are
both good points for parties to visit in search of choice shooting and
angling, Dobson’s Ferry, on Beuff river, twelve miles southeast of
Portland, being a notable place for game and fish even in this “land
of plenty,’ where deer skins are tacked against the side of every
cabin, and fish are so plentiful that hooks and lines are unnecessary
for their capture. The ‘deep water” in Beeuff river ranges from ten
to forty feet for a stretch of eighteen miles, and it runs through a
belt of forest nine miles wide without settlements.

The transition from the southeastern corner of Arkansas to one
of the northernmost parishes of Louisiana is all unnoted, for the
general character of the country shows no change. It is the same
dead-level country shadowed by giant oaks and gums, exhibiting
the great fertility of the soil where cultivated, by prodigious yields
of the corn and cotton, and elsewhere by the rankness of the under-

a f4e

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

growth and wild vegetation. A map of this region shows that the
country is cut up by a perfect network of water-courses, many of
them small, but all large enough to contain fish, and in Louisiana,
where there is sufficient water to conceal a bass or crappie, you may
drop a baited hook with a certainty of getting a bite. But little
game is exported from this State, on account of its remoteness from
the principal markets of the North and Hast, and, until of late, be-
cause there were no lines of railroads over which it could be
shipped; and though the conditions are now changed, it is probable
that the State Legislature will take action to prevent the indis-
criminate slaughter by market hunters of the wild beasts and
birds. So it is possible that Louisiana may retain the distinction it
now holds of possessing within its limits more game than any other
State in the Union.

Bonita and GALLION may be enumerated among the points in
Northern Louisiana that would particularly deserve the attention of
sportsmen. The same large streams that we first encountered many
miles up the line are here, to insure success rewarding the angler’s
efforts; the same forests, the same descriptions and abundance of
game.

MER Rouce, situated in the heart of the rich prairie of that name,
has nothing but small game in its immediate vicinity, but a short
trip eastward or westward brings one again to the virgin forest
with its original denizens and primeval beauties.

From Monroe to Columbia, thirty-nine miles, the railroad follows
the course of the Ouachita river. The greater part of the land im-
mediately adjacent to the river has been in cultivation for a score of
years, and if one was to search the world over it would be difficult
to find a country where quail are more abundant or as seldom
troubled by sportsmen. Back from the river larger game abounds—
a fact easy to understand when one takes into consideration the fact
that the nearest railway station east of Columbia is Grand Gulf,
in Mississippi, sixty miles distant, while it is over one hundred
miles west to Grand Cane, the closest point in that direction where
the game-scaring whistle of the locomotive can be heard.

Crossing the Ouachita near Columbia, the road enters the pine
region of Louisiana, estimated to contain forty billion feet of milling

=f9o=-

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

pine in addition to an incalculable amount of other choice woods,
such as oak, ash, gum, poplar and cypress. To estimate the amount of
game sheltered by this magnificent forest would be a task from
which the rashest of statisticians would shrink. The only way in
which it is possible to form even a faint idea of the facts, necessi-
tates a visit to the country itself and a sojourn there of days and
weeks. Between Columbia and Alexandria, sixty-nine miles, all the
improvements are entirely new, the timber work being about the
only industry carried on in the entire district, and the different
stations located at or near mills and for the convenience of the mill
men solely. Any point, selected at haphazard, will serve admirably
as a stopping place for sportsmen, and plenty of game and fish will
certainly be found in the immediate neighborhood.

TULLOS boasts of as good deer shooting as the country affords,
though the claim is contested by stations both above and below this
point. Near here, at junction of the Castor and Little rivers, the
fishing is undoubtedly as good as Louisiana, or the world, can show.
Bass, crappie, perch and bar fish fight each other for the possession
of the baited hook thrown in their midst, and the angler in telling
of his catch, roughly guesses at the weight instead of keeping tally
and memorizing the number of fish taken. The one might be for-
gotten, but the other he can get at approximately at any time by
“hefting” his string.

Howcotrr City, perhaps, has the best territory around it, and the
deer in that vicinity may be a trifle more plentiful and easier to
approach than at other points up and down the line. The surround-
ing woods are very nice for rifle shooting, being comparatively open
and principally of pine with no low limbs to impede the catching of
a quick sight on a running or standing. The railroad men, when they
get a day off for a hunt, usually stop at Howcott City, and as they
have a very good opportunity to hear of the best hunting ranges, it
is fair to assume that they have a reason for selecting this place.
Among the hunters who are thoroughly acquainted with woods, from
two to five deer per day for each gun is not considered above an
average score. Turkeys are quite plentiful, and along Little river,
in the swampy bottoms it is an easy matter to find and kill a bear.
The people in this region do not take small game into consideration

=495.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘ANID AAAIY YOLSVD IV HOLVD VW

Bie

EA eed

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

when speaking of what their forests contain, but nevertheless it is
here, and its presence is discovered as soon as one gets a hundred
yards from the little patch of open clearing in which the depot
stands.

PoLtitockK, the third station above Alexandria, deserves especial
mention, because here the sportsman can find all the varieties of
game common to this portion of Louisiana. At the same time it is
only a few miles from Catahoula lake, where the man who has lost
his bear can always find it—or another one; and if he should prefer
to dispense with bear meat and take alligator steak instead, he can
likewise be accommodated. Catahoula lake is surrounded by a verit-
able wilderness and is a great resort for water fowl of all descrip-
tions, many of them spending the winter along its marshy shores.
Of fish it is unnecessary to repeat what has already been told and
retold a score of times.

ALEXANDRIA at the head of low-water navigation on the Red river,
is in the center of the pine district of Louisiana, and consequently
in the center of the best game range of the State. Profiting by the
- possibilities of rapid transit that the railroads centering in Alexan-
dria allow, the sport-loving citizens of the town are often afield, and
game, fresh from the woods, and that never saw the interior of a
market, regularly graces their well-furnished tables. Of varieties,
the list is long, including bears, deer, turkeys, coons, *possums,
squirrels, rabbits, geese, ducks, quail and a dozen species of waders,
such as snipe, plover and curlew, all of which. winter, to some ex-
tent, in this latitude. Fishing, in the Red river and a hundred
smaller streams and lakes, supplies abundant occupation for those
who prefer the angler’s “pensive craft” to the fiercer joys of the
chase. The north-bound train on the Houston, Central Arkansas &
Northern leaves Alexandria in the early morning, and it is quite
common for parties of hunters to run up as far as Howcott City or
Pollock, kill from three to six deer and return on the evening train.
Plume hunting has long been a source of profit to the gunners of
Monroe and Alexandria—a great many semi-tropical birds nesting in
summer along the lower Ouachita and Red rivers.

It is difficult to understand why the hunting grounds of Louisiana
are not more frequently visited by sportsmen from Northern and

245

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Eastern States. Distance cannot be adduced as a reason for this
neglect of the best deer range now in existence, for the city of
Alexandria is only 638 miles from St. Louis, and is consequently
nearer by several hundred miles than the hunting grounds of Col-
orado, Wyoming or Montana. In Arkansas and Louisiana, while
judicious game-protective measures have been adopted and are gen-
erally respected and enforced, the open seasons are long, and the
privileges allowed can be thoroughly enjoyed. Here the severity of
winter storms or the impediment of snow drifts twenty feet in
depth never intervene to hinder the hunter in pursuit of his game.
Taking the season through not a single day need be lost from sport
by reason of icy winds or penetrating cold, and, better than all the
rest, the sportsman who wanders in this direction in seach of re-
creation, when returning home is never compelled to stop en route
and search the city markets for woodland trophies that he has failed
to obtain in a more legitimate manner.

UncLe Rastus StTartTING For A Possum Hunt.

462

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Along the Waterways.

The facts given in the preceding pages have been compiled for the
benefit of sportsmen who have but little time to spend in hunting
and fishing excursions, and naturally desire to reach and return
from the woods with all possible dispatch. There are many such,
and each year there is a marked increase in the number of those
who have learned that it is possible to enjoy a fair amount of wild
life in the Southern forests without the sacrifice of valuable time.
But there is a still larger class whose members believe that time
spent in healthful recreation is not lost, and prefer to work the
harder during eleven months in the year that the twelfth may be
their own to dispose of as they please. Such men may be found in
nearly every community, and, as they are the most ardent expon-
ents of the gospel of health and innocent pleasures, their presence is
easily discoverable. There is no taint of petty exclusiveness about
the true sportsman. His heart is too large to permit him to monop-
olize the good things of life. He is no misanthrope, to scorn the
companionship of his fellow men, but, instead, the brotherhood of
true sportsmanship is the broadest and most comprehensive in
nature. Therefore we find that the hunter or angler, who spent last
season in some delightful region well stocked with game and fish,
will not only return there again when the proper time arrives, but
he will be accompanied by one or more friends, less fortunate than
himself in the past, and who are now to learn for the first time the
real meaning of enjoyable sport. Every day during the autumn
months, such parties pass Southward over the Iron Mountain Route,
and among them there are many faces that the veteran conductors
recognize at a glance—faces that have become familiar by reason of
their reappearance, as regularly as the seasons roll around, during a
half score of years.

Such “old-timers” usually carry with them their camping “outfits,”
and go prepared for a stay of several weeks’ duration. They have

247

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘OW ‘YALVAA LEIMS NO

aWV) ONILVOTY

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

engaged in advance the services of a guide, have located, through his
aid, the present whereabouts of the game, and therefore know
exactly where their tent will be pitched, and possess a certain knowl-
edge of the woods and waters among which the succeeding weeks
are to be passed. With abundant time before them, they are not
restricted to the confined ranges in the vicinity of railroad stations,
but can venture out into the wilds. They are not dependent upon
railroads or other hired means of conveyance, for a few dollars will
procure them a batteau, skiff, or John-boat large enough to float
their belongings, and, thus provided, the secret places of the swamps
and mountains are open to them.

The States of Arkansas and Louisiana are traversed by a network
of streams, all navigable by canoes and other small craft, and many
by the larger class of Mississippi steamboats. They are the sports-
man’s natural waterways, and their number is legion. Most of them
are crossed by the Iron Mountain Route, or some of its branches,
and, in consequence, parties of hunters and anglers, after a few
hours’ run from the cities of Memphis and St. Louis, can cut them-
selves adrift from the busy, everyday world, and float out into the
forest dreamland in search of the pleasures that lie hidden in
nature’s chosen retreats. The majority of the streams are yet un-
explored by tourists, and thus it is impossible that their itineraries
should be given. In the greater number of cases the smaller streams
are yet untravelled save by the rude boats of timbermen and trap-
pers, and every turn in their winding course reveals new objects of
interest to the appreciative explorer.

After crossing the Meramec, a few miles south of St. Louis, the
first stream of importance encountered is Black River. The railroad
runs parallel to its course from Mill Springs to .a short distance
above Poplar Bluff, where it crosses, only to cross back again at a
point between Corning and Knobel, some thirty miles farther south.
Canoes and batteaux can run the river from Mill Spring, but Wil-
liamsville is a better point for starting on a river trip. From Wil-
liamsville to Poplar Bluff, the stream is quite rapid, and this portion
of the run is quickly made. Then follows a stretch of still water, to
the head of Big Island, where Tom River cuts across a great bend to

=49=-

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

enter the main stream, miles below. At this point, the current in-
creases, but below Big Island it grows slack again, and to make
speed, it is necessary to do considerable hard paddling until the
junction with Current River is reached, when the remainder of the
long voyage can be floated leisurely over without difficulty. Black
River has been long and favorably known by hunters and anglers,
but in most instances they have only visited points along its course,
and it is to be doubted if its entire length has ever been run by a
party of sportsmen. Yet, it is a trip that would repay bountifully the
necessary expense of time and trouble. The river traverses below
Williamsville, Wayne and Butler Counties in Missouri, and Clay,
Randolph, and Lawrence, in Arkansas, also forming the boundary
between Independence and Jackson Counties to the point where it
enters the White River at Jacksonport. It is well stocked with game
fish throughout its length, runs for nearly the entire distance
through a good game country, and a canoe voyage down its winding
course would be an experience worthy of being remembered while
life lasts.

The White river is by all odds the grandest of Arkansian streams,
and particularly so if viewed from a sportsman’s standpoint. Rising
in the Boston mountains, it sweeps in a grand curve through the
wildest region of Southern Missouri, re-enters Arkansas, and winds
for hundreds of miles amid the most picturesque scenery of the
central States, bordered on either hand by rugged hills and frowning
cliffs, until, after passing Batesville, it hides itself in the canebrakes
and swamps, and steals cautiously along to its far-distant confluence
with the Mississippi. The thorough exploration of this stream would
occupy the better part of an entire season, and though the current is
rapid, and the channel clear, it would take several weeks to traverse
the river from source to mouth, even in the swiftest running of
canoes. For such a trip, the sportsman should provide himself with
a variety of arms, and a well-filled tackle box, for he is certain to
come in contact with game and fish of all descriptions known to this
vast region. The head of White river can be reached by a short
wagon trip across the mountain from Ozark, a station on the Little
Rock & Ft. Smith Division, but the upper stream is so narrow and

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘OW ‘NIVINONOJ, NOU] YVAN ‘NVALOHD ANVT

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

rapid, that its navigation would be difficult and attended by some-
thing more than a spice of danger. Twenty miles from its source,
White river is still a mere thread of surging silver, boiling and foam-
ing around and over great boulders at the bottom of a sunless
gorge; but every ravine in that favored country has its spring-fed
rivulet, and as each adds its tribute to the larger stream, it swells
in volume, until, in time, it becomes more worthy of its ambitious
title.

Shortly it is joined by War Hagle Fork and Kings River, either of
them nearly as long and as large as the so-called Main White, and
then the river loses in a measure its turbulent nature, grows broader
and deeper, and its course becomes less tortuous and rock-impeded.
Canoeists who have traversed the more rapid streams of the North
Woods and Canada, would doubtless enjoy tracing out the wander-
ings of this erratic waterway, and in the rugged defiles of the Bos-
ton mountains would find many things worthy of their attention.
If, in their everyday home life they have come to know the value of
the different varieties of marketable lumber, they will, no doubt,
feel interested to find that this region still possesses great groves of
giant walnut and cherry and millions upon millions of feet of the
choicest white oak; if they are mineralogists, they will trace with
enthusiasm the outcroppings of lead, zinc and other metals; if
they have a fondness for subterranean explorations, they will find
the hills honeycombed with caverns of unknown depth and extent.
At all events they will know no periods of enforced idleness, for
they will be traversing waters as yet unwhipped by the angler’s fly,
and on either hand, the forests will offer an abundance of game of
all descriptions.

Below Fayetteville, the valley of the White widens, and for a
time the craft of the voyagers will float between gentle slopes given
up in a measure to the cultivation of grain and fruit. A few leagues
farther on, however, the character of the country again changes,
towering bluffs abut directly upon the stream, and it becomes a
succession of rapids. From this point onward, for many miles,
progress will be sufficiently rapid to please the most restless of
minds. Ever onward, the great volume of crystal water rushes, past

=

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Eureka Springs, crossing the border line into Missouri, past For-
sythe, the head of high water steamboat navigation, through Stone
and Taney Counties, rich in romantic scenery, and replete with
traditions of guerilla warfare, and the Bald Knobber troubles, until,
by a southward turn, the State line is again reached, and the ex-
plorers find themselves once more in Arkansas.

Meanwhile, the White has been joined by numerous tributaries of
importance, and at Lone Rock, under the shadow of Mount Matney,
the North Fork comes in, bringing with it the drainage of that great
hill region known as the Ozark Mountains. The White has now
become a river indeed, grand in volume and resistless in current,
while its scenery surpasses that of the upper Hudson. The mighty
stream rolls onward between beetling cliffs, its silent depths ad-
mitting the passage of large steamboats, and anglers will find that
its waters are figuratively alive with the finest of game fish. Pass-
ing on, the sportsman should stop and admire the famous painted
rocks at Calico Bluff, and if he desires to make a short excursion
inland, he would do well to visit the limestone caves on Sycamore
Creek, and the manganese mines near Cushman. He may cling to
his shotgun meanwhile, for it is well to remember that so long as he
is in Arkansas, he is never out of reach of game, and the best of
sport is sometimes encountered when least expected.

At Batesville the White passes into the low grounds of Hastern
Arkansas, and the mountains are left behind, but the hours spent
by the tourist in this the first half of his voyage will never be for-
gotten. He is now nearly two hundred miles below the upper limit
of steamboat travel, counting as the river runs, and most of this
distance has been traversed amid scenery surpassing that along any
other navigable stream east of the Rocky mountains. Of Arkansas’
mountain scenery, very little is known outside the State, but a rich
harvest awaits the literary wight who shall first catch with his
camera and describe with facile pencil the many points of beauty
and interest lying along the cliff-shadowed White, between its source
and the point where it leaves the hills to wander through forest and
brake to the distant Mississippi.

5a.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘MUY ‘OILYagG ‘ANID ONIHSIY GNV ONILNAP ANVIS] O1vaang

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Up to this time the voyager has had occasion to use a shotgun
more frequently than a rifle, but after passing Newport, some miles
below the mouth of Black River, he enters the big game country
proper, and, if he started upon his trip in the early autumn, it is
now in the height of the deer shooting season. All his surroundings
are changed. Instead of hills and rocks, he is now passing through
a dead level country, diversified only by cypress swamps and
stretches of cane-brake. Much of the land on either side of the river
is subject to annual overflows, and if he should sojourn in this
country until the dead of winter, the sportsman will probably awake
some morning to find himself in the midst of a woodland sea. Pass-
ing on down the broad stream, he occasionally encounters planta-
tions, and now and then a town of some consequence, but during
the greater part of his course, he is surrounded by a perfect wilder-
ness, in which the only signs of human presence are the high stumps
that tell of the visits of cypress choppers, and an occasional half-
wild cow or hog, only momentarily seen as they dash away in frantic
terror at his approach. It is a long run from Newport to Augusta,
where the Memphis branch crosses the river, and the next town
below is Des Arc, one of the oldest places in that portion of the
State, but possessing fewer inhabitants now than in the good old
days of steamboat traffic, twenty years ago. The next town is
Devalls Bluff, at the lower end of Grand Prairie, then Clarendon,
Mt. Adams, Crockett’s Bluff—the chosen home and hunting ground
of Colonel Bob Crockett, grandson of that great hunter and states-
man who died for Texan independence in the Alamo—Indian Bay,
and St. Charles. Forty or fifty miles below this point, the Missis-
sippi is reached, and the long voyage is at an end, but from Newport
to this point the hunter and angler has discovered so much of
attractive country, and his time has been so pleasantly passed, that
it is safe to say that no party will ever accomplish the entire trip
in a single season.

The Buffalo Fork of the White River, rising also in the Boston
mountain region, is in itself worthy of extended notice. It is a
typical mountain stream, and one of the most turbulent in the State.
Its navigation has been attempted, but never successfully. Several

args.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

years since, S. D. Barnes, a well-known writer for the sportsman’s
journals, accompanied by Harry Hsslinger, another woodsman of
experience, essayed its exploration, were caught in one of its many
dangerous rapids, and barely escaped with their lives, losing their
boat, camera, and other valuables. Buffalo Fork enters the main
stream some twenty miles above the mouth of North Fork.

Cache River takes its head in the swamps of Southern Missouri,
and runs in a southerly course, entering White River at Clarendon.
It runs the entire way through the flat woods and swamps, and its
navigation is impeded by drifts of fallen timber, except after the
commencement of the winter rains. The Knobel Branch of the Iron
Mountain Route crosses it at Cache Station, and it can also be
reached from different points on the main line, Walnut Ridge being
the most desirable place to outfit for a long trip. With light wooden
or canvas boats, the stream could be easily traversed, and the deer
or bear hunter could hardly undertake a more promising trip.

The hunting and fishing along the St. Francis has been mentioned
at length in another connection, and it is unnecessary to dwell upon
it here. The stream has more than a local reputation, and the
forests along its course can be conscientiously recommended to
visiting sportsmen who love wildfowl shooting, or are anxious to
try their rifles on large game. In only a few instances have North-
ern hunters visited the country along the lower St. Francis, and
much of this vast region is comparatively unknown.

At Judsonia, the railroad crosses Little Red river, a stream noted
for its abundance of fish. Its source is in Van Buren and Searcy
Counties, and from its head spring to its mouth, is deserving of the
notice of hunters and anglers. The river is navigable by small
steamboats as far as Searcy, but above this point it is very rapid
and shallow, running over a gravelly bed. An enjoyable trip would
be from Clinton, in Van Buren County, where boats could be built
or purchased, to some point on White River, thus affording a variety
of sport, from angling for small mouth black bass to shooting deer
and bear in the blue cane of the swamp region.

Fishing and wildfowl shooting is generally good on the Arkansas,
from Ft. Smith, where it enters the State, to its mouth, but as the

BE ae

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Lower Hinson [,AKE—CAsTOoR RIVER CLUB.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

river runs a greater portion of the way through a rich agricultural
region, most sportsmen prefer visiting a stream with wilder sur-
roundings. Still, after passing Little Rock, there are broad stretches
of swampland abounding in deer, bear and other large game, and it
is a well-known fact that some of the best hunting grounds in the
State lie contiguous to this its largest stream. The best part of the
river for the hunter of big game is found between Pine Bluff and
its mouth, and the sportsman who visits that locality will find he
has made no mistake in the selection of a hunting ground.

In the regular enumeration of Arkansas rivers crossed by the
Iron Mountain Route, the Saline properly comes next, and though
little known to sportsmen, it is as well deserving of attention as
many of its sister streams. It is a tributary of the Washita, and a
river of considerable length, taking its rise in the hills south of the
Arkansas, and flowing in a southeast course through Saline, Grant,
Cleveland, and Bradley Counties, in all of which the wild lands fur-
nish an ample supply of deer, turkey, and smaller game. The
Washita, or Ouachita, as the name is spelled along the lower course
of the stream, is in reality the grandest river of Southern Arkansas.
It heads in the mountainous wilderness of Montgomery and Polk
Counties, a country renowned for its big game, and flows in a
southeasterly course over gold-bearing sands to its junction with
Red river, in Central Louisiana. To describe its many windings,
or to treat with any degree of prolixity of the country it traverses,
would necessitate the use of more space than can be given the
subject here. It is fed by many subordinate streams, the most
important being the Caddo, Little Missouri, Bayou Moro, and Saline,
in Arkansas, and the Bayou D’Arbonne, Boeuf river, and Black river,
in Louisiana, and could be navigated by cabin boats at any season
of the year from a point far above Hot Springs. The Washita
Valley is credited with affording the best quail shooting to be had
in the South, and there are deer and turkey in abundance in the wild
lands along the entire length of the stream. The best deer shooting
in Louisiana is probably in the pine woods adjacent to the Washita,
and in the country around Catahoula Lake, a region easily accessible
by the branch of the Iron Mountain Route, now extending to

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘HUY “ANV] SIG “AOVIg S,1dIN WOL

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Alexandria in that State. It is a country but little visited by
sportsman tourists, who, as a rule, are content to enjoy the hunting
and fishing to be found nearer home, but in a few years, Louisiana
will be given recognition as she deserves, and be generally admitted
as being the best game country in the Union. Anglers and hunters
should, before deciding upon their plans for a coming vacation,
examine a good map of Arkansas and Louisiana, trace the course of
the Washita river, and fully consider its claims upon their attention.

The Red river, and its tributary known as Little river, are both
well worthy of a visit. Little river has a reputation known all over
the State for the size and number of the black bear that frequent
the brakes along its banks, and through the country it traverses a
good hound can jump a deer at any time on a few moments’ notice.
Hounds are almost indispensable to the hunter on these Southern
streams, as the thickets are very dense, and most of the shooting is
necessarily done on runways, and ahead of dogs. Hunting packs
are kept by nearly all local gunners, whose cooperation can be
readily obtained at a small expense. It is rarely advisable for the
sportsman to carry his own dogs with him, for they are trouble-
some, cause a great deal of expense in transportation, and if valua-
ble should not be permitted to run in a country infested by wolves,
panthers, and droves of wild hogs, more dangerous to canine life
than either. Setters and pointers that are not wide rangers will
be in little danger, since their owner’s presence will act as a safe-
guard, but if they are in the habit of making long casts for game,
or if they should have a fondness for chasing Mollycottontails, it
would be better to leave them in the safety of their kennels, since
otherwise they are more than apt to “come up missing” before the
hunt terminates.

Speaking in a general way, if the sportsman intends to confine
his wanderings to the hill regions of Missouri and Arkansas, he
need only supply himself with a light shotgun, and a supply of fish-
ing tackle, but if he ventures down in the swamps, it is necessary to
bring a firearm heavy enough for the largest game, and, above all,
a good, reliable pocket compass. The importance of this precaution
will, perhaps, be better understood and appreciated from the state-
ment that the woodsmen best acquainted with the country usually

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

carry compasses, while those who do not, very often wish them-
selves better provided. In the overflow regions, there are practically
no permanent landmarks, except the windings of the streams and
the location of the scattered lakes. The country is everywhere the
same, a succession of overcup and gum flats, cow oak ridges and
canebrakes; and as the ridges, so-called, are elevated only a few
inches above the surrounding country, the importance of keeping
one’s correct bearing becomes self-evident. The action of the over-
flow moves the fallen timber in every direction, and a log which
once pointed directly towards camp may be turned in exactly the
opposite direction before the next season comes around. To adopt
an old Texan axiom, which in its original freshness related to a
“six-pistol”: “A fellow may go a long time without needing a com-
pass, but if he ever does need one, he needs it powerful bad.” How-
ever, the hunter who travels by canoe or skiff, and keeps close to the
stream in his rambles, will avoid in most instances the discomforts
of losing himself; and even if forced to spend a night beyond the
sight of his camp fire, he has nothing but

enforced loneliness to dread, and the

experience is one that he will
remember with pleasure in
the years to come.

A HUNTER’S SHACK IN THE
BOTTOMS, ARK.

a oo 3 f

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Game of Texas and the Gulf Coast.

route to the Gulf Coast, where, from the mouth of the Mis-

sissippi to that of the Rio Grande, the lagoons and inlets
swarm in winter with myriads of water fowl driven by the harsh
breath of old Boreas from their nesting grounds in the far North.
With the first days of November, brigades of teal and wood ducks
(the skirmish line of the legions to follow) make their appearance
as if by magic, and a few days later their numbers are recruited by
scattered flocks of mallards and pin-tails. Later on the red-heads
and canvas-backs follow; then the geese, and, last of all, a noisy
rear-guard of cranes. Meanwhile the grassy marshes, back of the
line of sand dunes, are filling up with clouds of plover and snipe,
while herons and white plumed egrets stalk in their midst like staid
but curious giants inspecting an army of pigmies. Game birds and
wild fowl, they are all here, after having run the gauntlet of a
thousand guns; but their safety is far from being assured, for sports-
men will go far to enjoy exactly the sort of shooting that can be
had here, and modern methods of travel have placed the utmost
limits of American territory within easy reach of the gunner of only
moderate means.

“Ps Iron Mountain Railroad affords the most direct through

In the shallow water, beyond the broad reaches of shell-strewn
sand, huge tarpons are sporting amid the shoals of mullet, their
great scales reflecting back the rays of the sun with that white
lustrous glow that has won for this monarch of game fish the title
of “Silver King.” The charm of angling with rod and reel for fish
with the fighting qualities of a bass and the weight of the largest
of Mississippi “cats,” annually attracts many fishermen to the gulf
towns of Louisiana and Texas, but they are in other ways amply
repaid for their long journey and the fatigue of many hours spent
on the water. Mullet, sea trout, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, pom-
pano, and a host of other fishes, are as plentiful as “top-swimmers”

pgs

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

in a “back North” carp pond, and red snapper can be taken farther
out where the water attains to the depth of ten or twelve fathoms.

Galveston bay, Matagorda bay, and other points where tarpon fish-
ing is usually good, can be reached via the through Pullman service
on the Iron Mountain system; and from Galveston, Velasco, Rock-
port, Aransas Pass and Corpus Christi, the most popular fishing re-
sorts of Southwestern Texas can be visited by short railway trips
through a region unexcelled for its fresh water fishing and wing
shooting. From Alexandria a line has lately been built to Watkins
at the mouth of the Calcasieu river, or Calcasieu Pass, and here, too,
good fishing can be obtained, as well as the choicest of shooting at
nearly all varieties of feathered game.

Aside from its angling and wild-fowl shooting, Texas offers many
attractions to the visiting sports, for in many places its western
prairies still abound with antelope and deer. In the mountain ranges
adjoining the Pecos and Rio Grande there are Mexican lions, leopard
cats or ocelots, and bears, while occasionally droves of peccaries or
Mexican hogs are encountered, though they are now becoming very
scarce and hard of approach. Lobo wolves and coyotes are com-
monly found in all that vast region west of the Brazos and would
afford excellent sport if hunted with properly trained hounds. Of
feathered game, the uplands in the interior of the State can still
show a fair sprinkling of turkeys, and there are localities in which
prairie chickens are abundant; but quail is the game most commonly
hunted, and they can be found by thousands everywhere. The
mesquite prairies between San Antonio and the coast fairly swarm
with them, and among so many localities where they can be readily
killed in any desired numbers it would be difficult to name one
possessing particular advantages.

=e

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

‘muy ‘SONIYdS

LOW[ YVAN ‘AWVD

SXALNAY

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

The Best Place of All.

N selecting a locality for an outing the sportsman should take
into consideration the size of his party and past experience of its
members, and the length of time that it is proposed to remain

in the woods, as well as the kinds of game or fish to be taken, and
the methods to be secured in taking them. If deer hunting is the
prime object of the trip, and rifles the weapons intended to be used,
it would be well to wait until late in the season, when the leaves
are down and it is possible to secure standing shots with time for
deliberate aim. Therefore the scene of the hunt must be located
outside the overflow lands, because at that time of -the year the
deer have been driven from the overflow by the high water. On the
other hand shotguns are most effective before the leaves have fallen,
or in the thick cane of the bottom lands, for there is nothing like a
handful of buckshot for quick work at close quarters. Again a party
of men thoroughly unacquainted with the “ways of the woods,”
would be better off encamped in the midst of a wilderness with a
guide to look after those that lose themselves, than if more com-
fortably domiciled at some boarding house in a railroad town with
saddle horses to carry them on long daily jaunts through the best
territory available.

There are places where still-hunting is possible, and others where
it is difficult to kill deer without the aid of dogs to chevy them from
the thick undergrowth and cane. In a word, whatever style or man-
ner of hunting may be desired, it may be easily and certainly found
within a radius of a few miles from any of the big game ranges in
the preceding pages. To choose at random among the points en-
dorsed as “good” will be like investing in a lottery that has no
blanks and many capital prizes, but it is a course that can be adopted
without misgivings, while it is needless to say, that it lies beyond
the power of mortal man to name the “best of all places,” though
this little bit of information is earnestly required with the first
move towards preparing for the autumnal hunt. It is well to bear

=465—

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

in mind, however, that the best hunting for big game is usually
found in the neighborhood of the larger rivers, and that while deer
and turkeys may be found in the vicinity of first-class quail shoot-
ing, this plump and fleet-winged little game bird is rarely in the
lower bottoms where the annual overflows forbid successful farming,
and the black bear and panther roams the brake in fearless freedom.

The angler may select the scene of his outing anywhere along
the larger streams of Arkansas and Louisiana, and without mis-
givings of the success that awaits him. If he comes from a distance,
and especially if his visit is made in the early spring months, he
should select a locality where he will be convenient to lakes in case
rains and consequent freshets should interfere with fishing in the
streams. He should come well provided with good, strong tackle,
and should not pin his faith to one lone rod, however much of a
favorite it may be. There are ‘“rod-breakers” in the waters of
“Old Rackensack,” and in those of the State which joins it on the
south, and it is always well to provide for contingencies.

If the sportsman should desire more specific information than
these short paragraphs afford him, it would be well to get in cor-
respondence with some resident hunter able and willing to act as
his guide, and trust to him the arrangement of the campaign and
the selection of its scene. This, for reason stated further on, can
be recommended as the best possible course to pursue. While guides
may not be strictly classified as necessaries to a well-regulated hun-
ter’s camp, they are luxuries that most sportsmen can afford, par-
ticularly as their presence often proves a saving in time and labor,
and generally secures success in attaining the object sought.

—=66—

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

General Remarhs.

S a rule, sportsmen who intend remaining in the woods for any
considerable length of time, usually prefer to build a cabin
or pitch a tent in some desirable spot where they can enjoy

themselves to their heart’s content, and in their own way, isolated
for a space from the outer world and heedless alike of its cares and
customs. Perhaps, in no other way can the majority of hunters and
anglers enjoy, to so great an extent, the pleasure of a long antici-
pated, and ofttimes, hard-earned vacation. Granted a comfortable
tent fitted with all the necessaries of life, and located in the midst
of a region teeming with game and fish, and the sportsman will
come to appreciate more thoroughly than ever before how few and
fleeting are the hours that lie between the rising and setting of a
November’s sun. There is a subtle charm about camp life that wins
its way with all. The frugal breakfast, hurriedly prepared and as
hurriedly discussed before the stars have faded in the west, is more
tempting to ‘tthe palate than an epicurean feast, while the long,
pleasant evenings, when tired limbs are stretched in the camp fire’s
glow and the incidents of the past day are lived over again, will
linger in the sportsman’s memory until sturdy saplings have sprung
up through the ashes that once sparkled before the tent, and hands
that held rifle and rod with nervous grasp are palsied with the frosts
of age.

But though the establishment of a permanent camp has its im-
portant advantages, there are drawbacks that are also worthy of
consideration. Many of the best points for hunting and fishing are
difficult to reach when encumbered with a heavy tent and camp
equipage. More than this, big game will sometimes drift from a
locality where a short time ago it was quite abundant (and this, too,
without any apparent reason for such a move); and after everything
has been made snug and comfortable about camp, there is a natural
and strong reluctance to pull up stakes and seek other and more
promising fields. A good deal of this annoyance can be avoided by

=—¢7=

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

postponing the hunt until the season is well advanced and the acorns
have begun to fall, for, after the “running” or mating season is at
its height, deer are not liable to change their feeding grounds if the
food supply is ample to supply their wants. November first is per-
haps quite early enough for deer hunting in the latitude of Central
Arkansas, though the season opens three months earlier, and the
game is easier of approach than after the date mentioned. Before
tis time, however, the movements of game are so uncertain that the
most experienced of hunters are frequently puzzled to account for
them, while to foresee them is quite out of the question. The fact
that game was abundant in a certain range last year or the year
before, cannot be accepted as positive proof that it will be found in
that locality this year in the same abundance. There are nine
chances in ten that such will be the case, but the tenth chance
should not be overlooked. It is just here that the services of a
guide become invaluable, particularly for parties who are making
their first visit to the woods; while in the case of those who have
already some acquaintance with the residents of the locality they
propose visiting, the same end can be gained by writing in advance
to some hunter for specific information.

A very good method to pursue upon a first visit to the woods, or
at any time when the sportsman has not more than a single com-
panion, is to secure lodgings with some accommodating farmer or
timberman and turn to account his knowledge of the neighboring
forests. Many of the settlers own well-trained deer and bear dogs,
and the outlay of a few dollars will secure the co-operation of the
dogs and their owner, thus changing a mere chance of killing game
to something approaching a certainty. Of course there is ever an
element of uncertainty existing, until the hunter has proven by
actual tests his ability to kill game when it is run “right slap
over him,’ but when the cause of failure rests with the sportsman
himself he is not apt to blame the country, its game, or the parties
who induced him to visit the one in search of the other. In case a
hunting party consists of three or more members, unaccompanied
by a guide, it is still advisable to pitch their tent close to the dwel-
ling of the timberman or farmer aforesaid, and for reasons pre-
viously mentioned.

—¢s—

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

A third plan of procedure is to build a cabin-boat near the head-
waters of one of the streams and float downward with the current,
finding something of interest to the sportsman in every mile of its
course. A skiff or large canoe is sometimes used in place of the
larger craft, accomplishing a longer distance in a specified time, but
entailing more of hardship and exposure upon the voyagers. The
size of a cabin-boat is only limited by the width of the smaller
streams in which it is to be used, or by the amount of money set
apart for its purchase or construction, and its cost is comparatively
small compared with the advantages of a floating camp of ample
size to furnish living and sleeping room for three or four men.
With such a craft the choicest of hunting and fishing grounds can
be reached, and as the fall rains flood the low grounds, forcing out
the deer from their summer range, the creeks and bayous afford
splendid cruising grounds, with assurance of a rich harvest on the
outlying cane ridge now transformed into miniature islands, each
with its four-footed Crusoes awaiting the subsidence of the floods.

In this connection it will, perhaps, be interesting to read the
account of a cabin-boat trip down White river, undertaken and ac-
complished in the autumn of 1892, by two sportsmen from a North-
ern State. The particulars, as given, were originally prepared by
one of the gentlemen for publication in a sportsmen’s journal, from
memoranda jotted down on the “voyage,’ and may be accepted as
mirroring with remarkable fidelity the every-day occurrences of a
delightful trip.

ye
Oz

ege=

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

“"MUY ‘LYOdMAN UYVAN “ATA ALIN AV

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

A Cabin-Boat Trip Down White River.

LLAN started southward October 28, and three days later
EN I followed to join him at Little Rock. My train into St.
Louis was late, and I had scarcely time left for purchasing
my ticket over the Iron Mountain Route and attending to my bag-
gage, but by a good deai of rushing, I managed all right, saw every-
thing stowed in the baggage car and my Irish setter tied to the
biggest trunk, and was climbing into the smoker when a thought
suddenly struck me. Allan had proposed wiring me at St. Louis
of any change of plan. Possibly I had been a bit neglectful in not
inquiring for a telegram.

A rush to the Western Union’s room; back to the smoker, and then
the train was under motion. I had found a telegram — luckily it
was prepaid, for I would have had no time for making change.
Tearing it open, I read as follows:

“To FRANK S., Union Depot, St. Louis, Mo.:
Stop at Newport. Have got a sure thing worth millions.
ALLAN D.”

This was highly encouraging, though somewhat vague; neverthe-
jess, I was glad to learn that there was even a prospect of sport
ahead. I consulted my folder and found that Newport was on the
main line, at or near the crossing of White river, eighty-five miles
north of Little Rock. Then I lighted my cigar and puffed compla-
cently until the conductor came along, when I acquainted him with
the change in my destination and requested him to share the infor-
mation with the monarch of the baggage car. After this I felt en-
titled to a bit of intelligence in return, and, as it happened, the con-
ductor was able and willing to answer in a very few words the half
dozen queries that I propounded.

“Yes; good place to stop off. Hunting everywhere. All sorts of
game, from bear to snowbirds. Go up towards Batesville if you

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

want quail— see you’ve got a fine dog in the baggage car. Better
hunt deer, though; there’s more fun in it. Next— Ticket, please.”

I smoked, inventoried my fellow passengers and found a fair _
sprinkling of sportsmen — incipient or pronounced — but none from
Arkansas; and then went back to the sleeper till the porter aroused
me at five o’clock with the information that Newport was only
thirty minutes away.

It was not yet day when we slowed up at the depot, but Allan was
on hand, and had a drayman ready to take my baggage.

“Where’s Pat; did you bring him?”

“He’s in the baggage car. How’s the pup?”

“Square as a barrel-hoop. Here, you fellow, look lively there and
get the trunk over. There, I’ll lead the dog and take your gun.
Bring your grip in your hand.”

“How far’s the hotel?”

“Hotel, nothing; it’s a country residence, and we’re sole pro-
prietors. Come on —right across the track.”

The drayman drove away to a crossing farther down, but we
lugged our loads across a half-dozen tracks, stumbled a few yards
over soft, yielding turf, and found ourselves on the bank of a big
river, the farther side of which was obscured in the gloom. Below
us I could see the gleam of flowing water, and a dark blotch that
looked like the roof of a house with a glow of ruby-colored fire-
light showing through a foot square window.

“Hello, Bud! Lend a hand with this luggage, will you? The
bank is a bit steep for us greenhorns.”

It was a “bit steep” —if straight up and down is “steep” — and
how the two trunks were lowered down that twenty foot bluff I
never learned. Of my own descent I shall say nothing, save that
it was accomplished with all due celerity, and that the momentum
I acquired carried me over a short gang plank, through a narrow
doorway, and almost over a small kitchen stove that was unex-
pectedly encountered. 1 don’t think the stove was injured in the
collision, for it stood sufficiently rigid to repel my charge, but it
was certainly the warmest stove for its size and looks that I ever
saw.

2

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

I stumbled to a folding cot, and sat down to collect my scattered
thoughts, while Allan busied himself collecting the contents of
my grip, which had suffered more than its owner. A small brass
lamp was burning dimly on a rude table in one corner of the little
room, but its light was insufficient, so Allan lighted a campaign
torch swinging by a wire from the ceiling. Then I had an oppor-
tunity for looking around, but could gather no satisfactory knowl-
edge from the scrutiny.

“Cabin-boat,” said Allan, replying to my look of inquiry. “She’s
small, but I think she’ll answer. Twenty feet long, over all. Twelve
foot beam. Cabin, twelve by twelve.”

So this was a cabin-boat. In an ordinary state of mind I might
have understood all this; but just now I was slightly rattled.

“It was a happy thought of mine — don’t you think so? I just
stopped off here a minute to look around, and the first thing I saw
was the ‘Palace.’ That’s her name, you know.”

I was growing more and more mystified. I opened the door and
attempted to pass out, but paused at the threshold. In front of
me, and seemingly on every side, there was water.

Beyond the doorway the bow extended a scant
four feet, nothing but a platform without
pbulwarks, a stout pin, to serve aS a row-lock
on either side, while
the long oars hung
on hooks over the
door. It was day-
light now,and I could
see that the boat
had cast loose from
the shore and swung
into midstream, head-
ing downward. On
the left bank were
the white walled
houses of Newport

on the right a

HOUSE BOAT ON WHITE RIVER, ARK.

7g

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

thin fringe of willows and sycamores; beyond them an opening
which might be a cultivated field or a swampy lake, I could not tell
which. My two trunks were on the boat’s bow— extremely close
to the edge it seemed to me; Pat, the Irish setter, still chained,
crowded between them. In the water, dead ahead, floated a tree
trunk with one ragged limb that threatened to rake dog and trunks
from the boat. I made a step forward with some hazy idea of
averting the catastrophe, but just then the craft on which I stood
swung sharply to the right, passing the obstruction without touch-
ing.

‘“Who’s steering this ark?” I inquired of Allan, who had joined
me.

“Bud, the former owner of the Palace. He is a fisherman-and
a trapper; one of three who built the boat on upper Black river,
intending to spend the winter in the woods. They reached Newport
all right, and then the other two went on a spree, and are locked
up on a charge of attempt to kill, which will insure them warm
quarters until the spring term of court. I bought the craft of Bud
for twenty dollars, and for twenty more he is to stay with us till
our hunt is over.”

We went back into the diminutive cabin and called Bud to join
us. He was a typical backwoodsman, tall and lank, with straw
colored beard that clung closely to his lantern jaws, and spread, in
a thin fringe, over the breast of his black overshirt. His age
neither of us attempted to guess, but he was certainly past middle
age, and though his strength was considerable, his movements
were commonly slower than those of many an octogenarian. He
shook hands cordially, spoke flatteringly of the “purty dorg” I had
brought on board with me, examined my hammerless Greener, and
commented on the “sure enuff wire barrels,’ and then busied him-
self in the preparation of breakfast, while-Allan and I got my
trunks inside, and took Pat back to the dry goods box, at the stern,
which he was to share in company with Allan’s “Pup,” a foxhound
of uncertain age, but many accomplishments.

Meanwhile the boat had been floating at will with the current,
broadside and stern on, as often as in the proper way, but Bud was

—74——

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

keeping a weather eye open, and if danger threatened from contact
with either shore or a floating iog, a powerful sweep of the single
steering oar would set us right again without delay. At length,
after a glance ahead, our ‘Man Friday” informed us that a “hull
passel” of ducks were floating close to the right shore, and that we
were fast nearing them. Here was a chance for a first shot at
Arkansan game. The ducks were certainly there, and if there was
not a “hull passel,’ there must have been at least a half of one.

“Mallards,” muttered Allan; ‘Let her float on till they rise; then
pick your bird and make a sure shot.”

But the ducks did not rise. Perhaps they thought our
craft was a “runaway” without crew or pilot; at all events,
they just sidled out of our way a bit with the evident inten-
tion of letting us pass. Just aS we were even, we sprang into
view, with a yell that put a hundred wings in instant motion, and
our first barrels rang out together. I don’t know how many ducks
fell, for the number of those down were augmented next instant
by a second harvest from the demoralized flock, but there were
ten plump mallards to retrieve when the smoke had cleared. Bud
gathered them in with the aid of a canvas boat that lay, already
stretched, on the sloping roof of our cabin; and as Allan and I
piled them together in a heap on the floor, we registered a vow
to shoot no more ducks until the day before our return, and I am
glad to say that we kept our resolutions in spite of temptations
such as few gunners are ever called upon to resist.

“We're gittin’ clus ter ther railroad bridge,’ said Bud a few
minutes later. “There’s good quail shootin’, in a big field on ther
right. Ef you’l take that bird dorg of yourn in that field, you'll
kill a bushel in an hour.” I looked at Allan inquiringly, but he
shook his head.

“We're not here to exterminate all the small game in the
country,” he said, “big game is what we’re after, and outside of
killing a few squirrels or birds for our own use, we'll stick to big
game exclusively. Just now our larder is pretty plentifully sup-
plied with fresh meat’ — with a glance at the pile of mallards —
“and I favor letting the quail slide.’ And so they slid.

—

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

That night we tied up our boat in an eddy at the mouth of a dry
slough, undoubtedly quite a river itself in a time of high water. We
had floated many miles during the day, but the river’s bends were
many and sharp, and it seemed to us that our actual progress had
been but small. Bud assured us there was game in the vicinity,
and so, more to please him than for any other reason, we landed
and made a short detour through the woods.

The sun was down, but enough of daylight remained to permit
us to examine the footprints, marking the soft earth on every hand,
but our ignorance of woodcraft prevented us from gleaning half
the significance of the tell-tale marks. There were squirrel tracks
everywhere — we recognized those at a glance. Then there were
other tracks of the same size, but rounder and deeper; others
longer and resembling the print of a baby’s foot, except that the
marks of long claws were plainly evident. ‘“Minks and coons,” re-
marked Allan.

By this time I had made a discovery of more importance and I
was not long in making the fact known. A bear had walked along
the water’s edge, in the soft mud. Bruin had entered the water,
presumably to drink, then waded along for a distance, and returned
to the cane, heading towards the river. The tracks were not par-
ticularly fresh, but the fact of their existence was quite enough for
us. Further on the discovery was duplicated, and as there was
a noticeable difference in the size of the tracks, our spirits rose
still higher. There was certainly two bears in the vicinity — or
there had been within the last forty-eight hours.

“We'll look for them in the morning,’ said Allan, as we turned
away. “It’s too late to find ’em to-night.”

“Lucky for us that it is,” I replied, “for we haven’t a charge of
buckshot with us.”

It was a fact. In Bud’s anxiety to drive us ashore, he had hurried
us out with nothing in the way of ammunition, save the shells in
our guns. Four loads of duck shot in a range where bears were as
plentiful as flies in August.

We again pushed our way across the cane ridge, but the forest of
“fish poles” seemed taller than before, and we were longer in

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

reaching the farther side. At length we burst forth into an open-
ing, but it was only a narrow one; a sort of dry slough, with the
cane beyond higher and thicker than ever.

“We've missed our way a little,’ remarked my friend. “Suppose
we follow this slough, it is easier walking and must lead us to the
river.”

We turned to the right in the direction indicated, and then some-
thing happened. In the midst of the rattle of flying hoofs and
breaking cane four shots rang out in quick succession, and we
stood in mortified silence looking blankly in each other’s faces. I
was the first to speak.

“It was a big buck. I saw his horns.”

“And we shot him with chilled sixes,’ replied Allan. “Let’s go
back to the boat.”

That was our first shot at deer. We were both willing and
anxious to tie up at that particular landing for a month, or until
we had loaded the boat with venison and bear meat; but Bud, in his
superior wisdom, willed that it should be otherwise. He admitted
that there was some game in the vicinity, but not enough to “fool”
with. It would pay us to drop farther down the river where the
bottoms were wider and big game more plentiful. So we floated on,
occasionally landing to kill a squirrel or two—for we had given our
ducks to a trapper who had passed by, going up the river in a
dugout. The canvas boat was kept floating at the stern and proved
very handy on many occasions, particularly when we wished to
make a landing to inspect marks on the shores that our keen-eyed
boatman suspicioned of being deer or bear tracks. A half dozen
times we found spots that seemed, from all indications, to promise
favorably for sport, but Bud was intractable and doggedly kept our
craft in mid-stream, aiding the current at times with the long bow
oars.

“No use stoppin’ afore we reach Ergusty,” he would say. “Thar’s
some game along hyar, but we’uns want a heap of it.”

At length, Augusta was reached, and as we passed under the
bridge of the Memphis Branch, we both heaved sighs of relief. We
were'a mile or two ahead of the cabin-boat at this point, trolling
from the canvas boat for big mouth black bass and catching a good

— 7

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

many more than we cared to keep; but the river had a renewed
interest for us now, and we dropped our rods and pulled on rapidly.

Pulling on until we fancied ourselves as far as Bud could drift by
midday, we landed on a sandbar, lifted our boat out and tilted it
endwise against a log so that our guide could not pass without
detecting it. Then we sallied forth in search of adventures, bearing
directly away from the river through the open bottom—for there
are broad belts of open oak woods interspersed between the cane
brakes and lakes, and we had accidentally struck one of these clear
strips, locally known as “overcup glades’’ from the overcup oaks
that constitute their principal timber growth.

The earth was hard and dry, for it was too early for the fall
rains and not a respectable shower had fallen for weeks. <A good
many deer tracks could be found, but they were all very old. Ifa
deer had passed that way within a week or ten days the closest
of scrutiny failed to find evidence of the fact. Yet there were deer —
lots of ’em—as we afterwards found, in this very range that we
had stumbled upon by the merest chance, and it was not many min-
utes before we had ocular proof of their existence.

Without the slightest warning, a deer stood before us in the open
glade and not a hundred yards distant. He may have been lying
down and arose at the sound of our approach, or he might easily
have been feeding there in plain sight of us both for several mo-
ments before we saw him, for we were walking with extreme
caution and there were but very few fallen leaves to rustle beneath
our feet. However, we did not stop long to speculate on how the
deer got in his present position. The fact that he was there was
quite enough knowledge for one dose. We were content to accept
matters as they stood and ask no questions.

When the hero of a dime novel draws a bead on big game of any
kind, the rifle barrel “trembles and wavers for an instant and then
becomes rigid as a bar of steel.”” The barrel of my 45-90 was ex-
actly as “rigid” as the aforesaid steel bar, but after it “wavered
for an instant” it began wabbling and describing eccentric circles,
making wheels, as it were, of which the deer constituted the hub.
I dropped my arm, drew a long breath and then tried it again, but
with no better results.

a (

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

“Shoot, you idiot!” whispered Allan, fiercely, “He’s going to run.”

I pulled the trigger, and, sure enough, the deer ran. I had ex-
pected to see speed exhibited by a frightened deer, but this one
managed to exceed my expectations. I emptied the magazine of my
repeater, a short magazine holding only five cartridges — but when
our game passed out of sight, around the end of a mudhole thickly
grown with elbow brush, he was traveling as briskly as ever.

I expected that Allan would comment on my poor marksmanship,
but he had nothing to say. Instead he offered to carry the now
empty rifle, and there was a certain peculiar twinkle in his eye that
made me suspicion the friendliness of his thoughts. Was it possible
that he was hugging himself over my ill-luck and looking ahead to
the time when the first deer should be slain, and by his own un-
erring hand. I believe it was this thought more than any hope of
having touched the deer that prompted me to follow on and look for
signs that my shots had taken effect.

There was no blood where the game had stood when first discov-
ered. A few hairs were scattered among the fallen leaves, but
Allan suggested that they had been rubbed off against a tree as the
deer turned. Further on we found where one of my bullets had
entered a persimmon sapling eight feet from the ground.

“Shooting too high,” said I, “I have heard that that is a common
occurrence with inexperienced shots.”

Allan said nothing, but pointed to a long furrow plowed in the
earth a few yards beyond. I thought of accounting for this low
shot by the fact that I had not raised my sights, but as it was made
at point blank range — if there is such a thing —I concluded to hold
my peace, and I was glad I did so when, on going around the pond
we stumbled on the deer lying dead, with a bullet through the ribs
from side to side, and another bullet hole in the left flank, ranging
forward and lodging against the shoulder. This must have been
from my last shot, for from the course my game had run I could
not have struck it in the left side with any of the previous ones.

It was a fair-sized buck, but in my excitement I could have
carried it to the river bank without assistance. I suppose we
should have dressed it on the spot, but our ideas of the operation
were vague, and so we carried it as it was and tumbled it down on

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

the sand bar beside our boat just as the Palace “hove in sight”
around the bend above. We had killed our first deer, and felt
reasonably proud of our achievement, though Bud persisted in
speaking of “that little ol’ deer you’uns happened ter hit,’ just
as though the killing was an accident and the game itself so small
as to be beneath the notice of a true sportsman.

It would be useless to relate all the incidents of the next few
days. Before the week was out, Allan and I had each two deer to
our credit. We might have made a better score, perhaps, but for
one circumstance that weighed heavily against us. In driving his
bargain with Bud, before my arrival, Allan had foolishly. allowed
our guide the privilege of setting and attending to a few traps as
a means of increasing his earnings, and we more than suspicioned
that, in selecting our stopping places, Bud was guided more by the
amount of “coon sign” visible than by the probability of big game
being found in the neighborhood. More than once I consulted
Allan as to the practicability of making a new trade with the
“rights and privileges” left out, but we both shrank from broaching
the subject to the “party of the second part.” Bud was a trapper,
dyed in the wool, and if we had hinted at hanging up his traps for
the season, he would certainly have thrown up his important posi-
tion on board the Palace, and mapped out a campaign in which we
would have had no part.

About three days was the limit of our stay in any one place, just
time enough to get practically acquainted with the lay of the sur-
rounding country. In one place—it was where the cut-off from
Seven Mile lake entered the river—our halt was extended to a
week, for game and fur both were abundant. At this point I
killed four turkeys out of a flock of twenty or thirty, and Allan shot
three deer, only one of which he secured.

We passed Des Are and Devall’s Bluff, two towns of considerable
local importance. At the place last mentioned, we lay over a
couple of days while awaiting provisions from Little Rock; but our
time was not lost, for some of the planters in the neighborhood
invited us out to their farms for quail shooting, giving Pat a
chance to show the sort of work of which he was capable. We

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

found the birds extremely plentiful, and so tame that they would
hardly flush until fairly kicked out of the grass. The only draw-
back, that could be called such, was the extreme rankness of vege-
tation, which rendered it difficult at times to keep our dog in sight;
but Pat worked tirelessly, winning the good opinion of all.

Our last week was spent at a point which possessed sufficient
attraction to the over-particular Bud to make him concur in our
desire to linger. There were more deer here than at any place
previously visited, but we spent very little time in their pursuit.
On the day of our arrival, Allan discovered a pool a mile or so
from the river, where a bear family had been watering, and we
thought our days would be best employed in watching for their
return. Winter was rapidly approaching, and the beginning of the
rainy season might be expected any hour. Therefore, if we wished
to try our hand at what Bud called “water-hole shootin’” we must
lose no time. Our opportunity might vanish at any minute.

As the food supply was very scarce in all parts of the cane re-
gion, it is possible that the bears were ranging a wider scope than
is usually the case. Bud assured us that “b’ar allus drink out’n
ther same hole,” but if these did it must certainly have been “a
long time between drinks” in their case. Every hour for three
days and nights we kept that little pool under our watchful eyes,
but nothing materialized. We had made us a snug blind behind an
old log, occupied by both of us at night, while we watched by turns
during the day, and if even a squirrel had ventured down to quench
its thirst it could not have escaped our notice.

The morning of the fourth day we spent in our cots on board the
Palace. After dinner we smoked our pipes and read some week-
old Memphis dailies until the sun marked the hour for our after-
noon’s hunt; and then, for the first time during our trip down the
river, all three of us started together, Allan with his Winchester,
and Bud carrying his 32-caliber Marlin, while I brought up the
rear, bearing the Greener with an ample load of buckshot in either
barrel.

This world is full of coincidences, and the unexpected encounters
us at every turn, About the time we stepped from the door of our

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

floating camp, an old she bear and three half-grown cubs scrambled
from their lair, and took a course that brought them to their old-
time drinking pool, just as we reached it. Perhaps our surprise
at the meeting was greater than their own. At all events, before
we had had time to collect our thoughts, Mrs. Bruin was leading
her interesting family in full retreat toward the nearest brake.

“Shoot,” yelled Bud; and the spiteful report of his little rifle
was followed by the fall of the nearest cub. Instantly I threw my
gun forward, and both triggers were pressed almost simultane-
ously, but I had only a stern shot, and the No. 8 buck lacked pene-
tration for this sort of work. By a rare piece of carelessness on
his part, Allan’s rifle was unloaded, and before he could throw a
cartridge into the chamber, the old she bear had disappeared in
the cane, dragging one hind-leg that had been broken by my shot.
The cubs were slower, and another fell at the reports of the two
rifles; but, only wounded, it struggled on, and two more shots
were required to finish it.

Allan and I, if we had been alone, would have undoubtedly lost
the wounded bear and the remaining cub, but Bud had been in
many a bear hunt, and knew exactly how to proceed.

“Run around the p’int of ther ridge,’ said he, ‘“they’ll ha’ter
cross ther slew, an’ you kin head ’em off. Go ahead an’ I’ll foller
‘em up.” :

He plunged into the cane, while we dashed away in compliance
with his instructions. A run of two hundred yards brought us
into the slough just as the remaining cub attempted to cross; but
a shot and a yell turned him back, and we could see blood on the
cane leaves where he had entered the brake.

Both of the bears were now wounded, and we had them between
two fires. Of course it would be possible for them to attempt fo
escape along the narrow ridge, but a bear makes considerable noise
in breaking its way through tangled cane, and by carefully listening
we would be able to discover the direction they were going and
cut them off.

Minutes passed, however, before any noise disturbed the oppres-
sive silence, save the wheezing escape of a steamboat ascending

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

the river, miles away, and the honk, honk, of a flock of geese hurry-
ing southward. Suddenly we heard Bud's rifle again, and then his
loud, deep-chested yell:

“Look out, fellers! I’ve done shot off tew more of her legs, but
she’s comin’ on ther stumps.”

Something was coming. We could hear it tearing through the
cane like an incipient cyclone.

“Stand fast Craig-Royal and we’ll weather it,’ quoted Allan under
his breath; and then three shots were fired as fast as fingers
could press the triggers; the cub fairly rolled out of the cane, his
hide riddled with bullet and shot, while the old bear, open mouthed,
dashed by so close that she struck the barrel of my gun, broken
down for the reception of more cartridges.

How I wished for a repeater! It takes time to reload a shotgun,
and instants seem like hours at such a time as this.

Bang!

A 45-caliber bullet struck Bruin in the shoulder, but a trifle too
far forward to break the bone. The blow checked her for an instant
and she turned half around facing us—and just in time to catch
three ounces of buckshot in her breast. That was a “finisher.” At
such short range no rifle can equal in life-destroying power a heavily
loaded shotgun.

Thus ended our bear hunt and our last day after big game of any
description. That night the wind blew sharply from the north-
east, a fall of snow and sleet followed.

With the storm came the ducks and geese, and, if we had liked,
we could have loaded our boat with wild fowl. On the second day
the cold moderated and the sleet changed to rain, but still the migra-
tion of ducks continued. Flying overhead and swimming with the
current they passed us by thousands; unmolested, too, save by an
occasional shot from one of the rifles, fired in a vain hope of equaling
the feats credited to Leatherstockings and Dan Boones of fiction.

Three days before the date set for the end of our hunt, a steam-
boat passed, with Newport its objective point, and we decided to
grasp that opportunity for our return. Fifteen minutes sufficed to
pack our small belongings; a small army of ebony-hued roustabouts

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

stood ready to hoist our trunks and boxes on board the larger craft;
and then the engineer’s bell rang, the big stern wheel revolved, and
we began slowly forcing our way against the swollen current of
White river, leaving the Palace to peacefully float at her moorings,
once more, by our free gift, the property of that most inveterate
of trappers, Bud.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

The Open Seasons for Game.

ARKANSAS.

QuatL.—October 1 to March 1.
PINNATED GrouskE, Pratri—E CHICKEN.—September 1 to February 1.
Wixip TurKkey.—September 1 to May 1.
DrEeR.—August 1 to February 1.
License.—$10.00 for each County.

LOUISIANA.

QuaiL.—September 1 to April 1.

Wixtp Ducx.—September 1 to April 1.
RuFrreD GRousE.—September 1 to April 1.
Wivp Turkey.—September 1 to April 1.
Drer.—September 1 to April 1.

MISSOURI.

Quait.—November 1 to January 1.

Woopcock.—August 1 to January 1.

Wiup Ducx.—October 1 to April 1.

PINNATED Grouse, PRAtRIE CHICKEN.—November 1 to January 1.
Rurrep Grouse.—November 1 to January 1.

Wi.p Turkey. —November | to January 1.

Snrpz.—August 1 to January 1.

DrEeR.—October 1 to January 1.

Non-residents not permitted.

TEXAS.

QuartL.—October 1 to March 15.

PinnaTED Grouss, Pratrre Cuicken.—August | to February 1.
RurreD Grouse.—October 1 to March 15.

Wi.p TurKEy.—September 1 to April 1.

Derr.—September 1 to January 1.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

National Game Law.
|

The following enactment by Congress will be of vital interest to
sportsmen, and should be carefully perused:

An Act to enlarge the powers of the Department of
Agriculture, to prohibit the transportation by interstate
commerce of game killed in violation of local laws,
and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the duties
and powers of the Department of Agriculture are hereby enlarged
so as to include the preservation, distribution, introduction, and
restoration of game birds and other wild birds. The Secretary of
Agriculture is hereby authorized to adopt such measures as may be
necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act and to purchase
such game birds and other wild birds as may be required therefor,
subject, however, to the laws of the various States and Territories.
The object and purpose of this Act is to aid in the restoration of
such birds in those parts of the United States adapted thereto where
the same have become scarce or extinct, and also to regulate the
introduction of American or foreign birds or animals in localities
where they have not heretofore existed.

The Secretary of Agriculture shall from time to time collect and
publish useful information as to the propagation, uses, and preserva-
tion of such birds.

And the Secretary of Agriculture shall make and publish all need-
ful rules and regulations for carrying out the purposes of this Act,
and shall expend for said purposes such sums as Congress may ap-
propriate therefor.

Sec. 2. That it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to im-
port into the United States any foreign wild animal or bird except
under special permit from the United States Department of Agri-

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

culture: Provided, That nothing in this section shall restrict the
importation of natural history specimens for museums or scientific
collections, or the importation of certain cage birds, such as domes-
ticated canaries, parrots, or such other species as the Secretary of
Agriculture may designate.

The importation of the mongoose, the so-called “flying-foxes” or
fruit bats, the English sparrow, the starling, or such other birds or
animals as the Secretary of Agriculture may from time to time de-
clare injurious to the interests of agriculture or horticulture is
hereby prohibited, and such species upon arrival at any of the ports
of the United States shall be destroyed, or returned at the expense
of the owner. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized
to make regulations for carrying into effect the provisions of this
section.

Sec. 8. That it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to
deliver to any common carrier, or for any common carrier to trans-
port from one State or Territory to another State or Territory, or
from the District of Columbia or Alaska to any State or Territory,
or from any State or Territory to the District of Columbia or Alaska,
any foreign animals or birds, the importation of which is prohi-
bited, or the dead bodies or parts thereof of any wild animals or
birds, where such animals or birds have been killed in violation of
the laws of the State, Territory, or District in which the same were
killed: Provided, That nothing herein shall prevent the transporta-
tion of any dead birds or animals killed during the season when the
Same may be lawfully captured, and the export of which is not
prohibited by law in the State, Territory, or District in which the
same are killed.

Sec. 4. That all packages containing such dead animals, birds, or
parts thereof, when shipped by interstate commerce, as provided in
section one of this Act, shall be plainly and clearly marked, so that
the name and address of the shipper and the nature of the contents
may be readily ascertained on inspection of the outside of such
packages. For each evasion or violation of this Act the shipper
shall, upon conviction, pay a fine of not exceeding two hundred
dollars; and the consignee knowingly receiving such articles so
shipped and transported in violation of this Act shall, upon con-

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

viction, pay a fine of not exceeding two hundred dollars; and the
carrier knowingly carrying or transporting the same shall, upon
conviction, pay a fine of not exceeding two hundred dollars.

Src. 5. That all dead bodies, or parts thereof, of any foriegn game
animals, or game or song birds, the importation of which is pro-
hibited, or the dead bodies, or parts thereof, of any wild game ani-
mals, or game or song birds transported into any State or Territory,
or remaining therein for use, consumption, sale or storage therein,
shall upon arrivai in such State or Territory be subject to the opera-
tion and effect of the laws of such State or Territory enacted in the
exercise of its police powers, to the same extent and in the same
manner as though such animals or birds had been produced in such
State or Territory, and shall not be exempt therefrom by reason of
being introduced therein in original packages or otherwise. This
Act shall not prevent the importation, transportation, or sale of
birds or bird plumage manufactured from the feathers of barnyard
fowl.

Approved, May 25, 1900.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

The Wonderful Chicot Lake Country.

From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

OWN in Southeastern Arkansas the lovers of good shooting
|) and fishing, wild and weird scenery, such as can be found
in no other part of the State—or the country, for that mat-
ter—are directed to Chicot, Lincoln and Desha Counties. The Ar-
kansas branch of the Iron Mountain Railroad penetrates this wild
territory, with its fine lakes, bayous, creeks and rivers, wonderful
pine forests, cane thickets and dark cypress swamps. The deer,
bear, wild turkey, wolf, panther, squirrel and myriads of wild fowl
find places that are suited to their ideas of free life, where everybody
that has a gun will not venture as deep as their haunts into the
trackless forests and great water spreads.

The fishing is surely the finest of its kind in the whole country.
Both large and small mouth black bass are found in the waters of
the southeastern wilderness. Lake Chicot is perhaps the greatest
body of water to be found in the South for grand fishing and duck
shooting. The waters are as clear as crystal and of great depths.
The crappie of Lake Chicot are the finest in the world. George R.
Mann, the well-known architect, was fishing down there last Novem-
ber, after the fly-casting season was over. Where a giant pine had
tumbled into the water and sunk to the depths of 50 feet, Mr. Mann
let down his line, baited with little sunfish, and to his astonishment
began pulling out crappie that averaged nearly three pounds each.
In one hour’s fishing he had more fish than he could carry, and
pulled off toward the club house, letting out his long trolling line.
In one mile’s rowing he took nine bass, running from four to nine
pounds. That ended his fishing for that trip. The ducks came
along toward night, and then his soul was full of glory. He is a
duck shooter who knows how to drop the broadbills -all the way
up to 75 and 80 yards. He killed fifty ducks in the evening’s shoot,

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

in Chicot and other waters. There are many points in the lake
where the water is 150 feet deep.

and concluded that the rest of his time he would put in exploring
the surroundings. He ran into deer and all other game in such
numbers that he came to the conclusion that there must be a game
convention in session in the glorious old pine forest.

The following letter from J. M. Parker to Mr. H. C. Townsend,
general passenger agent of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company,
will give the reader briefly the conditions that prevail at Arkansas’
grandest fishing lake. Although Mr. Parker omits to mention the
shooting in the neighborhood, he tells the sportsmen who may desire
to get out in the great fishing and game country some interesting
facts. The name of the club at Lake Chicot is the Idlewild Hunting
and Fishing Club. The members are mostly from the South, but
they do not exclude good sportsmen, who come well recommended,
from the privilege of their cozy and complete club house. It is
presumed from the tone of Mr. Parker’s letter that letters of in-
quiry should be addressed to him at Hamburg, Ashley County, Ark.
Here is the letter:

“Dear Sir--We have a very nice club house over on Lake Chicot,
and Mr. Wheless spoke to me about the message which you sent
him in regard to fishing on the lake. I should be more than pleased
to have you, or any of your friends whom you would like to send
down, come to our club. I should take pleasure in showing you
everything we have, and can assure you that the fishing is as fine
as there is in the country, striped bass, black bass and trout. They
are all striking at flies and trolls, and some phenomenal catches
have been made. The lake is about twenty-five miles long, and a
mile wide. We have a very nice club house, capable of taking care
of about thirty people, and have as good a kitchen and dining room
service as they have in any of the hotels in the South, and good
accommodations for rooms, and plenty of boats, and can take care of
any party that comes down, giving them all the comforts of a club,
together with as fine fishing as there is in the country. Gov. Jones
and party spent a week with us and were very highly pleased.

J. M. ParKer, President.”

Where Mr. Parker speaks of “trout,” he refers to the small-mouth
black bass, as it is called trout in the South. There are also pickerel

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

There are some monster catfish down in the depths that afford
great sport for hand or trot line fishermen. A party of them from
Arkansas City took a wagon load of channel and gudgeon cats in one
night. They would rather have that kind of fish than black bass
or giant crappie any time. They had a great night’s sport on Chicot,
winding up with a coon hunt that netted twenty-seven pelts. There
are also beavers and otters in Chicot and adjoining county.

Old “Pap” Martin was out with a party of gentlemen for a day
in the early season, and they gathered 260 pounds of bass and crap-
pie. “Pap” Martin is a great old sportsman, who can catch more
bass with buck tail bobs than any man in Arkansas. He is a famous
old hunter also, having to his credit over 1,000 deer and 200 bears.
He hunts around Chicot, Lincoln, Desha and Ashley counties, and
does most of his fishing in Chicot Lake.

The whole country for miles up and down the Mississippi, through
the southeastern tier of counties, you will find as pleasant places to
visit as you ever wished for. Combination of good fishing, wild
scenery and here and there a hunter’s cabin to cheer you up, and
game such as you hunters are not used to, can always be found in
such quantities as good sportsmen enjoy seeing, even if they don’t
want to kill it. In the forests may be found deer, quail, wild turkeys
and squirrels,in abundance.

At Idlewild Station a large and commodious club house has been
erected, known as the “Idlewild Club.” This beautiful structure is
located on a high bank, overlooking the clear and placid Lake
Chicot, after which this route has been named. This lake is a
mile wide, twenty-five miles long and from five to fifty feet deep.
In it are found black and striped bass, and all the game fish to be
found in any waters of its kind in the United States. It is equal,
for sport, to any of the lakes found in the far North. Here is the
finest fly and troll fishing in the South. Three parties, in boats, in
one afternoon, caught eight hundred black and striped bass with
hook and line.

Thus writes J. M. Parker, general manager of the Mississippi
River, Hamburg & Western Railway, which connects with the Iron

Mountain and Southern at Montrose on the Arkansas City Branch
from Little Rock.

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

Sport in Desha County.

HE following experience of two sportsmen down in Desha
“fe County, as related in the Globe-Democrat of St. Louis, will
be interesting reading to all who love to hunt and fish:

“Talk about a stag party,” says a hunter, who has just got. back
from Desha County, Ark., having spent two weeks in that wild and
woolly country around Dead Lakes; “well, I ran right into one the
second day I was down in Desha County. It was early in the morn-
ing that I was trailing down a bayou through a moderate growth of
cane. I heard a noise back in an opening, where only switch cane
grew. Then I heard a buck bleat angrily, then a thrashing about
in the cane. Cautiously I crept through the thicket and peered out
into the opening. The sight that dawned upon me was really start-
ling in its realism. Standing at the edge of a thicket were two
lordly bucks with heads erect, intently watching a morning duel be-
tween two other equally fine specimens of the male deer. Their
horns were locked, and both the bucks were on their knees. With
gun in readiness for a quick shot I watched the battle royal almost
breathlessly for a few moments. The struggle was the most fierce
I ever witnessed of any kind. It was at times thrilling and majestic ‘
to behold. It seemed as if the brutes were inseparably locked in
the death struggle, so I leveled my old 10-bore, shelled with 4 drams
of nitro-powder and 12 buckshot, at the heads of the fighting mon-
archs of Dead Lake. When the old piece bellowed and belched its
deadly charge the seconds of the duelists leaped into the air and
were lost in the tall cane like a flash. But those old fighters never
broke apart, but fell prone upon the carpet of switch cane, with
protuding tongues, both of them being shot through the heads and
necks and very soon were ready for the knife. When I was cutting
the deers’ throats I heard two gunshots in rapid succession in the
direction the two bucks had vanished. My partner, John Hornsly,
of Little Rock, was down the bayou in line with the flying bucks.
We were to meet about opposite the place I killed my two bucks.

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IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

I could do nothing until we joined hands, so I sauntered down in the
direction from which the reports of the gun came. Hornsly saw me
coming and yelled like an Indian to me to hurry to his aid, saying
he had two bucks downed. I helped him hang the game up, but
never said a word about my double-header shot until I walked him
up to their dead bodies. We were both so surprised by the results
of the morning we could hardly express ourselves. Hornsly looked
as if he would faint when he saw my old bucks stretched out; but
the spasm did not last long. He broke out into Indian whoops that
echoed through the dark old forest and rolled far over Dead Lakes,
and died away along the Father of Waters. Hornsly stood guard
over my fallen foemen until I could go back to camp, where our
guide was to arrive that morning with his team. He was the most
surprised man that ever crossed White River when he learned we
had killed a whole flock of deer.

“We concluded that deer were too easy for us; besides, we had
more than our allowance of venison. After starting the guide into
Winchester with three of the bucks to be shipped to friends of
Hornsly in Little Rock, who were to have them dressed and divided,
sending one saddle, carefully marked, to Chief of Police Campbell, of
St. Louis, we turned our attention to ducks and the securing of live
bait for fishing in Noble and Swan Lakes. One of the deer we re-
tained for meat at camp. I ate so much venison I can feel horns
sprouting. The two bucks with the locked horns were not separated,
but shipped as they fell.

“Fishing in Swan Lake was excellent. We had to use little sun-
fish for bait, but the bass and pickerel took to that kind of bait as
well as any we cared to offer. Hornsly caught some of the greatest

crappie I ever saw, and what do you think he caught them with?
Nothing but the eyes of big skip-jacks that we caught in seining
for bait. I caught a 12-pound pickerel on a 6-inch skip. We caught
lots of fine pickerel, which our guide salted and packed for home
use. His style of pickling was new to me, but I must say the fish
tasted all right after two weeks in the brine. There were plenty of
ducks, squirrels and all kinds of game in Desha, and now it is getting
to be just the time to fish and hunt down in the wilds of Dead Lake
country. I don’t expect anybody will run into a stag party like we
did, but they will get some fine sport.”

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

On Little River’s Spreads.

WO sportsmen relate their experience after ducks in the Little

if River country: “We heard some wild stories about the bad

men that hunted the mallards for a livelihood in the Little

River everglades, but we threw ourselves upon their hospitality and

were treated with every courtesy possible by those hardy denizens
of the Southeast wilderness.

“We landed at Buffington, on Iron Mountain, and had a cabin-boat
built, and just cut loose and floated down to Dad’s. That’s all I
knew about the old trapper except that he is a good and faithful
old guide. His cabin in the woods is a picture typical of his calling.
The hut of the ‘Arkansas Traveler’ could not be more picturesque.
Dad’s cabin was decorated with skins of all the fur animals that are
found in the Little River country. I lost out on pictures that I had
hoped to make. I discovered there was but two exposures left in my
camera when | got down to work. It is a great disappointment, for
there was so much of character and scenery that was worth a place
in the collection of hunting and fishing pictures.

“The way the natives hunt ducks is very interesting to one who
gets his first introduction to their methods. They have live decoys,
that are trained as well as Sport’s Gath. Dad was pulling down the
channel one day, when four mallards came skimming the surface of
the stream, and I threw up my gun to take a crack at them.

“Hold on, Mister, don’t shoot them birds,’ said Dad. ‘They be
John Short’s decoys. He do have sum uv the best in the woods.’

“T could hardly believe it possible until the four drakes settled
down among the ducks that Short had anchored only 30 feet from
us. The females had a ring around their necks, to which was at-
taehed a string and a weight, that was anchored on the bottom. The
drakes were left to fly at will, and many a big flock of mallards were
lured in by these birds.

“T was wondering how the hunter could get the drakes when he
quit for the night, but he demonstrated very quickly. The ducks

=294—

IDEAL HUNTING AND FISHING GROUNDS.

were lifted into the boat, and then the paddle was raised in a threat-
ening manner, and the old male birds climbed over the gunwale
of the duck boat and squatted down, heads to the bow, where they
remained until Short reached camp. Where these market hunters
get the live decoys I did not learn, but nearly all of them have the
sure enough live mallards.

“How these men can stand the hardships and privations of con-
tinuous existence down in the wilds of Little River country is a mys-
tery to me. They seemed to be as hardy as a stall-fed athlete of the
town. There is no great remuneration in killing ducks for the
market, on account of losses in shipping the game. But one of the
hunters told me there is a fascination about hunting and trapping
that holds a man who once gets into the business against all induce-
ments to better his condition.

“IT want to say that there is no place in this country where the
duck hunter can get right into tthe haunts of the wild fowl com-
parable to the spreads of Little River, and where Mr. McKinley and
myself spent three of the most enjoyable weeks that could be asked
for by a sportsman. There are deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, ducks
of all kinds, and a world of furred animals down yon’. I am told

the ducks stay all winter unless the weather happens to be exceed-
ingly severe.”

[RON
MOUNTAIN
ROUTE

5 DAILY TRAINS iS
“© Missouri
Hrkansas

and

Louisiana gy

Pullman Buffet Sleeping Cars, Reclining
Chair Cars (seats free of extra charge)
and Elegant Day Coaches.

Through Service to

MEMPHIS, SAN ANTONIO,
LITTLE ROCK, DALLAS,
HOUSTON, FORT WORTH,
GALVESTON, EL PAS
AUSTIN, 0,
LAREDO (where Direct LOS ANGELES,
Connection is made for AMG che

the CITY OF MEXICO.) SAN FRANCISCO.

VALUABLE ASSISTANCE.

The following Traveling and Passenger Agents of the MISSOURI PACIFIC RAIL-
WAY and IRON MOUNTAIN ROUTE ace constantly looking after the interests of the
Line, and will call upon parties contemplating a trip and cheerfully furnish them
lowest Rates of Fare, Land Pamphlets, Maps, Guides, Time Tables, ete.

Or they may be addressed as follows:

ATCHISON, KAN.—C. E. STYLES.....-...00..0e0008 shitaves deteeag ae beau ..Passenger and Ticket Agent.
NU SUNN TMS: PACWIS..acescccssesascesss cessuntennconnk eee ra Traveling Passenger Agent.
BOSTON, MASS.—Lovuis W. EWALD......... New England Pass’r Agent, 192*Washington St.
CATRO, ILL.—C. G. MILLER............csceccesseessecenseeey esses City Ticket Agent, 309 Ohio Levee.

BPs taj ISENN EGE c MPn Cees c rs ceee cto s de vebdcncen Sussereacscoune Ticket Agent, Union Depot
CHATTANOOGA, TENN.—I. E. REHLANDER ........ Traveling Pass’r Agent, 16 East 8th St.
CHICAGO, ILL.—BIssELL WILSON .. ...District Passenger Agent, 111 Adams St.

CINCINNATI, OHIO—A. A. a ALLAGHER, District Pass’r Agt., 408 Vine St, bet. Fourth.
and Fi 55
T. A. WILKINSON, Trav. Pass’r and Land Agt., 408 Vine St., bet.
Fourth and Fifth Streets.

DENVER, COLO.—C. A. TrIPP..Gen’l Westone Frt. and Pass’r Agt., cor. 17th & Stout Sts.

E. E. HOFFMAN... Ba sere ee ... Traveling Passenger Agent.
DETROIT, MICH.—H. D. ARMSTRONG. aban ce G ce Vinaraltie ‘Pass’ r Agt., 32 Campus Martius.
FT. SCOTT, KAN.—I, R. SHERWIN..... ....0 phssuestceascnduivautenaes Passenger and Ticket Agent.
HOT SPRINGS, ARK iJ oS. REAMEY....c..ccccccccsssenseocsccdeoascessce aesshaaa constant: Ticket Agent.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND.—G. A. A. DEANE, Jr.......... Traveling Pass’r Agent, Room 16 Clay-
poole Building, cor. Washington and Illinois Sts.

KANSAS CITY, MO.—E. S. JEWETT..........0...005. Passenger and Ticket Agent, 901 Main St.
eka lWON gee cesveass tigsieer caste Western Passenger Agent, 901 Main St.
J. FE. ETTER........ Passenger and Assistant Ticket Agt., 901 Main St,
PA CSTIVON A orcesnes shencees Head canavssceswesn sane Traveling Passenger Agent.
TPOMMBUGHES ooo ioc etevavescasccess City Passenger Agent, Union Depot.
LEAVENWORTH, KAN.—J.N.JOERGER ......cc.cssecceesseceneusees Passenger and Ticket Agent.
LINCOLN, NEB.—F. D. CoRNELL........... Passenger and Ticket Agent, 10390 St. and Depot.
LITTLE ROCK, ARK.—J. A. HOLLINGER......... ccc eseeeeeeee Passenger and Ticket Agent.

LOUISVILLE, KY.—R. T. G. MATTHEWs.....Traveling Passenger Agent, 304 West Main St.

MEMPHIS, TENN.—H. D. Witsow.....Pass’r and Ticket Agt., 314 Main St., (cor. Monroe).
ELLIS FARNSWORTH, Tray. Pass’r Agent, 314 Main St., (cor. Monroe).

MEXICO CITY,, MEX!.—H. C.) DINKINS ..5sh sic ececaccscectes, cosetes _ General Agent, Hotel Coliseo.
NEW YORK CITY—W. E. Hoyr...........General Eastern Passenger Agent, 391 Broadway.
J. Ps MCCANN. cscssoscsosducs Traveling Passenger Agent, 391 Broadway.

OMAHA, NEB.—Tuos. F. GopFrEY..Pass’r and Tkt. Agt., S. E. cor. 14th and Douglas Sts.
W. C. BARNES......... Trav. Pass’r Agent, S. E. cor. 14th and Douglas Sts.

Wo KK (CHAMBERS nirvavvscsacedscscsess Ticket Agent, Union Passenger Station.

PITTSBURG, PA.—JOHN R. JAMES............. Central Pass’r Agt., Room 905 Park Building,
Fifth Ave. and Smithfield Street.

PUEBLO, COLO.—WM. HOGG.....00s1.c-cccsvessecoesevsocsvscevavssoccnces Passenger and Ticket Agent.
ST. JOSEPH, MO.—BENTON QUICK... Passenger and Ticket Agent, S. E. cor.6th & Edmond.
ST. LOUIS, MO —B. H. PAynk...... ......00. Assistant General Passenger and Ticket Agent.

H. F. BerKLEY...Pass’r & Tkt. Agent, N.W. cor. Broadway and Olive St.
M. GRIFFIN ...City Passenger Agent, N.W. cor. Broadway and OliveSt.
W. H. MORTON. ieeee cesseseeces aeeueee Agent, Room 402, Union Station.
A. V. BRIGHAM ............ ........ Traveling Passenger Agent for Arkansas.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—H. B. KooseEnp......... Com. Freight & Passenger Agt. ,
Nos. 105 and 107 West Beeondt St. (South).

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.—L. M. FLETCHER.............6 Pacifie Coast Agent, 212 California St.

Hide SW AUGH). 2. sci. c2s00c5- Tray. Pass’r Agent, 212 California St.

SEDALIA, MO.—J. W. McCLAIN............. AT aR irk eae ete Passenger and Ticket Agent.

TEXARKANA, ARK.—P. E. BAER.........00008 ise ... Ticket Agent.

WICHITA, KAN.—E. E. BLECKLEY............... ee aS haa ‘Ticket meat 114 N. Main St.
C. G. WARNER, RUSSELL HARDING,

2d Vice-President, 3d Vice-Pres’t and Gen’] Manager.

H. C. TOWNSEND,

General Passenger and Ticket ‘Agent,
Sr. Louis, Mo.

RARY OF CONGRE

il

iil i

ne IMOUN.: ax
(ROUTE, |
sew, GREAT SOUTHWEST SY

CONNECTING THE COMMERCIAL CENTRES AND RICH: FA

MISSOURI,

THE BROAD CORN AND WHEAT FIELDS AND THRIVING TO"

KANSAS,

THE FERTILE RIVER VALLEYS AND TRADE OENTRE

NEBRASKA,

THE GRAND, PICTURESQUE AND HNCHANTING SOBNERY,
THE FAMOUS MINING DISTRIOTS OF

COLORADO,

THE AGRICULTURAL, FRUIT, MINERAL AND TIMBER LANDS,
FAMOUS HOT SPRINGS OF

ARKANSAS, — ef .
THE BEAUTIFUL ROLLING PRAIRIES AND WOODLANDS - |

INDIAN TERRITORY,

THE SUGAR, COTTON AND TIMBER PLANTATIONS OF

LOUISIANA,

THE COTTON AND GRAIN - FIELDS, THE CATTLE RANGES

WINTER RESORTS OF
TEXAS,

‘HISTORICAL AND SOENIO

= ~O