214 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Other until I reached Cherokee, near the Hne between 

 Arkansas and the Indian Territory, there I heard the 

 birds were roosting at Highcove, Indian Territory, 

 about two days travel from Cherokee, taking what was 

 called the State Road going througli vast timber lands 

 on which grew what they called Black Jack Oak, on 

 these oak trees grew a small acorn which the birds 

 were feeding on. On the evening of my second day 

 through the Territory, T came to the pigeon roost. 

 I could hear the birds craking and flying in such large 

 flocks for about one mile before I reached the roost. 

 The size of the roost was estimated to be fifteen miles 

 by forty miles. My meat supply was getting low, so 

 I decided on having some pigeon pie. The moon was 

 shining very bright. Taking my shot gun I fired two 

 shots into the trees and picked up forty-one pigeons. 

 There were nine Indians in this roost shooting for the 

 market, and in three niglits, killed and sold 3,630 

 pigeons. 



I remained in the Territory until February, 1878, 

 when I left for' Pennsylvania, to get ready for the 

 spring flight in March, 1878. I pitched my tent near 

 Kane, at a place called Highland. That season there 

 was carload after carload shipped from Kane and 

 Sheffield, to the northern market. The spring of 

 1882 was my last year to follow the wild pigeon, 

 leaving the forests of Potter County on the Couders- 

 port Pike, May 29, 1882. However, in 1884, I re- 

 ceived a letter from a friend from Hartsgrove, Ind., 

 who had just returned from the Indian Territory, 



