Virginia Lands Posted
WASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 23. -- Editor Forest and Stream: I have received so many letters of inquiry of late from northern sportsmen, asking about the shooting in Virginia and North Carolina, that I find it impossible to answer them as I would like to -- individually. I will therefore respond through the columns of the FOREST AND STREAM, all the more readily from the fact as that journal is publishing for its patrons all the information it can obtain about the shooting status of the Old Dominion and Tar Heel State. By writing a plain statement I will at least save some sportsman a long fruitless trip, to say nothing of loss of time, temper and tin.
I often meet in my travels during the shooting season parties of disgruntled Northerners who have left home with glowing visions of glorious sport, and retracing their steps sadder and madder men. It is a safe and sound rule for a stranger never to start for either of the sister States without having an objective point and completed arrangements with some reputable native. Many,
too many, Northerners set off to visit certain Southern sections that they learn by hearsay is a good game region, and they are almost sure to fall into the hands of irresponsible parties, whose sole object is to make all out of them they can.
I have just returned from a hunting trip of several weeks' duration in Tidewater, Virginia, being to the manor born, and knowing everybody, have had all the sport I desired both in quail and wildfowl shooting. I found that the posting of land both in Virginia and North Carolina had become an actual mania. Old barren meadows, where a field lark would starve; swamps that a prowling coon would turn up his nose at; piny woods that nothing that runs on four legs, or birds of any feather could exist, all posted. The sign meets the eye everywhere, and even neighbors are warned off -- the generous character of the people all changed. Away in the backwoods, where the foot of a stranger never treads, one sees the proclamation and promulgation, often written in barbarous lettering, warning persons "from gunning these yer premisses."
In a measure of the Eastern sportsmen are responsible for this state of affairs. I know of an incident that happened last fall. A party of strangers chartered a car and had it switched off at a station not a hundred miles from Norfolk, Va., and roamed over the neighboring country at will, breaking down fences, leaving gates open, shooting at everything that had wings, and shipping their game home, without any courtesy shown at all to the Grangers. Now every acre of land in that section is posted.
A small unknown farmer can offer but few inducements to his guests. It is only the large land owner, well-known and popular, that can give his friends a carte blanche to shoot where and when they please.
It is the same way in the North Carolina Sounds, the best grounds are club preserves and rigidly guarded, and they, under the present indiscriminate incessant gunning, are almost worthless -- but few clubmen have gone there for the past three or four years. Miss Midgett has a resort for sportsmen in the Sound, but the whole adjacent territory is so lined with batteries, blinds and sink-boxes that the ducks are driven away, and only on wild stormy days can any shooting be had. In Currituck [Sound] every day but Sunday is open, and irresponsible parties shoot in the night and slaughter the wildfowl in every conceivable way. The game laws are practically inoperative. I belong to three Currituck clubs and know whereof I speak. The keepers of my Currituck clubs write me that they have never in their experience known ducks to be so few in numbers, and so shy.
It is true I had some very fine duck shooting at the Ragged Island, in Back Bay, adjacent to Currituck Sound, which is situated in Princess Anne county. I was a guest of Mr. C. A. Woodward, of Norfolk, Va., who, by the way, is president of the club. A Norfolk syndicate has bought these islands, thirty-two in number, after a hard legal fight and tedious litigation. This property is a sporting principality. Under the Virginia county and State law wildfowl can only be shot on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, thus giving the ducks three days rest. The result is obvious. I believe a few Eastern gentlemen of unexceptionable references might get into that club. It certainly is the finest shooting grounds I have ever seen north of Florida.
My advice to those contemplating a "go-as-you-please" trip to Currituck is like the advice of Puck to those contemplating matrimony, "Don't."
About the Dismal Swamp shooting, I would advise inquiring sportsmen to write to Messrs. Driver & Hargrove, Driver's Post Office, Nansemond county, Va.
ALEX. HUNTER.