Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1893 — Hunting Wild Geese. [ARTICLE]

Hunting Wild Geese.

A sure way to hunt wild geese is to stalk them at daybreak or just after sunset, when they aro resting overnight in the waters of rural lakes, way stations in their migratory flight to the north or south. Sometimes the sportsman builds a blind on the shore of the lake, and, screened by its leafy thatch or wall, gets a dozen shots a day at as many different flocks. Of tenor, though, he trusts to luck for u shot. From his homo abovo the shore of the pond he marks a flock that has dropped leisurely and unsuspiciously into its quiet waters at sundown, and a little later, musket in hand, skulks through Holds and pastures, tangled underbrush and swamps, frequently crawling over the quaking surface of black morasses, to the fringe of thickets nbout tho biink of the lake. Then, with wonderful patieuee and selfcontrol, he lingers there,' prone on his face, until the game, splashing about in the water as it feeds, has worked well iu toward the shore. Very slowly and cautiously he lifts himself upon his kneos, stealthily forces the muzzle of his piece through interlacing tree boughs and netted wild vines, brings the ribbed gun barrels into lino with eye and game, and breathless, his figure tense with the huntsman’s rigor, pulls both triggers at once. Thero is u deafeuing report, a wild cry from tho startled birds. Tho recoil of tho overcharged piece hurls the guuner bodily back upon his haunches, but he leaps forward lustantly, tearing his way through the thicket, and darts down the beach. The surface of the lake that a moment before was almost tranquil, shining with tho crimson lustre of the dying day, is now a scene of wild commotion, beateu into foam and spray by tho sinewy pinions of hulf a score of mangled wildfowl. The sportsman does not hesitato, pauses not to divest himself of a garment, but rushes into tho lake, and swinging, wading, tumbling about, hunts his game iri its own elemeut with the skill of an experienced retriever. He wrings tho birds’ nocks with tho lawless conscience of a chicken-stealing poacher, and throws their bodies ashore. Some of the fowl elude him, eventually may escape, but most of them be bags, and returns home.through the darkening wood and meadow lands, laden with spoils.—[New York Sun.