Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
that after hooking the fish, the hook would slip off the end of the pole
and the pull of the fish would not break the pole. Anyway, it was with
this tackle that the fish caught me. We would stand on the bank and
as the fish would be milling around, watch for a fish we wanted, hook
him and the fun would begin. There would be plenty of commotion
among the thousands of fish and you had to be pretty husky to land
one. I begged my uncle to let me hook one, so he handed me the pole,
knowing full well what would happen. Not being content to stand on
the bank, I crawled out on an old slippery log that projected out into
the creek some ten feet, right among the fish. I picked out a good, big
one, and did I hook him! He landed me right off that log among all
those fish. The water was only about two feet deep, and there were
fish over me, under me, and on all sides of me, and as fast as I would
gain a footing, down I'd go again with fish splashing salmon eggs in
my ears, eyes, and mouth.
I'm now going to tell you a little story of my first wild duck hunt.
I was twelve years old ·when my father consented to let me go out
duck hunting alone. I had as a gun an old Lulu single barrel shot
gun with a hammer so big I'd just take hold of it with my whole hand
to cock it, and kick! I'll say it did, but shoot, say, the ducks and
geese I brought down in later years with that old gun! Across the
Palix river and just above and in front of the town of Bay Center
there is a mud flat of probably three or fonr thousand acres and a
natural feeding ground for the ·wild ducks. In those days it was
nothing unusual to see acres and acres of ducks feeding there. It was
out on that mud flat along the banks of the Palix that I made my first
kill. I landed my boat on the bank and was in easy shooting distance
of the ducks but, boy like, I wanted to get a little closer so began walking
toward them. I wasn't within forty yards of them at any time, so
kept trying to get closer. Those nearest me would fly, ah\'ays alight-­
ing just a little further out. I kept on chasing them through the mud
which was about knee deep, when at last I heard some one yelling at
me from across the river, telling me to shoot or they'd all fly. I
learned later this was an aunt of mine who had been watching me from
the opposite side of the river. "'VeIl, I banged away, killing three,
and then the chase was on, after one crippled duck, through the soft
mud. I was just about tired out, but I got my dnck.
Now, we'll take you from the rivers and mud flats to the jungles of
logged-off land and tell you of an experience with old Bruin. As I
previously mentioned, the black bear were formerly numerous in this
vicinity, so I will relate only one experience of the many I've had with
them. On July 3rd, 1902, Frank Goodpasture and I took our 30-30
and 38-56 rifles and hiked along an old cow trail for a half mile or so,
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