30 



FOREST AM) STREAM. 



wedding that evening at a neighboring house (two miles 

 distant), and to which we would all be welcome did we 

 chouse 10 go. At first all of us proposed to attend, but as 

 the hour drew nearer at which the farmer intended to 

 start, two of our number backed out; the howling storm 

 out -doors, and the warmth and comfort within, proving 

 too much for their courage. Banty and myself held to our 

 Original intention, and tucking ourselves well in among 

 Hie buffalo robes, went off, somewhat regretfully, I must 

 own. 



After a cold drive we reached our destination, and 

 alighting went into the well-lighted farm-house. It was 

 Hie first time I had ever been at such an affair, and I 

 enjoyed it thoroughly. Of course this was merely the 

 dance which was to close up the ceremonies in a fitting 

 manner; the marriage, wedding, dinner, etc., had been all 

 fixed up earlier in the day. There were some very pretty 

 Canadian girls there, one of whom was my partner during 

 most of the evening, and it was most amusing to listen to 

 her rapid talk, although I rarely understood more than half 

 of it. There was no supper, but I observed a certain black 

 bottle changing hands quietly among some of the meu; 

 the active habitants danced away, seemingly without 

 fatigue or desire for substantial refreshment until five 

 o'clock in the morning; and although we knew we had 

 hard work before us, and had been pretty well exercised 

 during the storm, still we enjoyed the fun too well to leave 

 before the party broke up. 



We soon regained our quarters, and tumbled into bed, 

 still resolved to rise at seven. Indeed the last thought I 

 ■was conscious of, was that it showed great pluck ia B. and 

 myself to tramp all day, dance all night, and then tramp 

 all nest day with only a couple of hours' rest. Alas! poor 

 human nature, "the Spirit, was willing," etc.; at the ap- 

 pointed time our confrere tried iu vain to get up— even 

 breakfast had no charms to equal those of our straw 

 mat trass. We did not rise until mid-day, and then we 



found that S and L had gone off some lime before, 



leaving word that they would wait for us at the Coleau du 

 Lac. The day was clear and fine, but the quantity of snow 

 that had fallen was immense, and as it lay in fleecy layers 

 thai gave way at the least touch, bur predecessors must 

 have had much difficulty in getting along. Their track 

 was perfectly plain and distinct, and where one had had a 

 fall, by no means an infrequent occurrence, the path was 

 still plainer, though not perhaps so distinct. We were able 

 to follow them wkb tolerable speed, for one of the beauties 

 jtv-shoes is, that after one man has passed over the 

 ground, his followers have a comparatively easy task; and 

 when we arrived at Cdlcau du Lac, we found that they 

 had reached it barely half an hour before, having taken 

 twice our time to do the distance. After resting here the 

 under of the day, we resumed our tramp by moonlight, 

 (stopping about ten o'clock at the house of a small farmer 

 (au Englishman) known to one of our party. 



Next day we resumed our tramp, and although it was 

 thawing slightly, and therefore very disagreeable to the 

 feet, which were soon soaking wet, we managed to make 

 a good distance. The day after we walked into Cornwall, 

 where we received a welcome, which, with the fun of the 

 tramp, sent us home with recollections that are apt to 

 break out uow-a-days whenever we meet. Habitant. 



. ♦♦• 



Jrur Forest and Stream. 

 A DEER HUNT IN CALIFORNIA, 



ON a cloudy morning, not many days ago, H. and I 

 started out for a day's sport hunting deer. The 

 -weather was not very favorable, as it was new the 

 change of seasons, when the nine month's dryness is sue. 

 needed by the life-giving rains, and the moisture charged 

 air, and the green fields, indicate the season that we Cali- 

 fornians call winter. Then the deer are leaving the moun- 

 tains in order to find shelter. 



After w T e left camp, our course led up a canyon which 

 was overtopped by tremendous mountains. On arriving 

 at a place where the canyon "forked," we decided to go 

 up the hill between the canyons, but thi3 was a way soon 

 repented of, for we soon found ourselves in an all but im- 

 penetrable chapparal, the (dense undergrowth that 

 coveiB the mountains of California. Our passage now was 

 not only tedious, but painful, as the brush and thorus were 

 strong and huge rocks presented themselves at every step. 

 At last, we emerged into an open plain, and were rejoiced 

 16 see three fine deer. Unfortunately they had the wind 

 from us, and were on the lookout. The distance being 

 over a thousand yards, it was neccessary to creep closer, 

 and to keep hidden, we had to keep to windward of them. 

 W'heu we bad approached near enough, we went in sight 

 again with our guns in readiness, but those three deer 

 didn'l stay long, you can bet. The way they made them- 

 selves scarce was a caution. Then we turned our steps to- 

 I , higher lauds, aud soou arrived at the summitof 

 flange, where we stopped to enjoy the prospect 

 and the cool air. By way of diversion, we rolled some 

 loose rocks down the mountain, which would sometimes 

 roll for a distance of two or three miles before stopping, 

 and it was not long before we saw three deer running 

 among ihe live-oaks, with which that side of the moun- 

 tain was covered. As they were at a great distance we de- 

 cided to let them go and try a new direction. We bad not 

 gone far before we saw three more. We remarked on the 

 foot that tbia was the third time we had seen three to- 

 gether, and remembering that "luck is in odd numbers," 

 we approached within 200 yards, and each picking a deer, 

 fired. H.'a deer started off with a broken leg, but my bul- 

 jot and the two that remained, stood for a moment 



in doubt as to which way to run. Their hesitation did not 

 last long, and we were surprised to see them coming to- 

 ward us, as fast as fear could drive them. 



Now, had we been old cool-headed hunters, instead of 

 the excitable boys we were, we should have waited until the 

 deer came closer; but instead of this, we sprang up and be- 

 gan to shoot as fast as possible. H. was armed with a Smith 

 & Wesson rifle, and I with a Winchester repeater. In five 

 seconds the battle was over, and thevictory was ours, that is 

 we had driven the deer off the field. But alas! they bad left 

 no slain. I was certain of having killed one, but his dying 

 efforts had taken him into that fearful chapparal, so we 

 started in the direction that H.'s wounded deer had taken, 

 and soon overtook it. But it had life enough yet to out- 

 run us, and it had all the advantage of us now, for H.'s gun 

 was not easily reloaded, and I had such an unmistakeable 

 attack of "buck ague," that I forgot to work the finger- 

 lever, and so snapped twice on an empty shell, under the 

 impression that the main-spring had become weak. The 

 deer soon left us, and vanished in the chapparal, so that it 

 was utterty impossible to penetrate. Nothing larger than 

 a rabbit ever does penetrate the thickest of these brakes, 

 except a grizzly bear or a wounded deer. So we started for 

 camp empty-handed, although with a dog and an ax, we 

 could have got two of the three deer. 



On our way back we got separated, and suddenly a buck 

 sprang up, on the slope above me. In an instant I sent a 

 ball through his chest, and before he had time to spring, 

 I pulled the trigger again, striking him through the lungs 

 just as he sprang. This ball entered behind his right 

 shoulder and went out at his neck on the opposite side. 

 With one bound he disappeared from my sight, and simul- 

 taneously with his disappearance, I heard H.'s gun. He 

 struck the same deer in the lower jaw, and knocked him 

 dowu. II. then ran in that direction, while I, ignorant of 

 the effect of his shot, ran up the divide, just in time 

 to see the deer rise aud cross the hill, for H. had failed to 

 find him. As be came in siglitlfired my third shot, which 

 went over his back and into a herd of mustangs. As I had 

 no time to look after horse meat, I followed after the 

 bloody trail before me, and soon saw our venison under 

 a tree in great agony. 1 approached confidently to cut his 

 throat, but he refused 10 let me do so, and started off in 

 a slow walk. Mingled red and white froth dropped from 

 his nostrils, and by the heaving of his flank I saw that he 

 wa3 dead on his feet. Just then H. came in sight and sent 

 a leaden farewell at him that sent the splinters flying from 

 his horns. This shock restored a moments life to him, 

 but his gait was a stagger and he breathed out blood in- 

 stead of air. I stepped up beside him and as I struck him 

 with my knife, he gave one glance at his captor, a sob of 

 indescribable anguish, a shudder, and submitted to his 

 fate. 



We passed in our verdict that he was plucky and started 

 off to camp with him, and were tired enough when we got 

 there. Melyix Snow. 



Santa Barbara. 



Mvr Fend and Stream. 

 HABITS AND PECULIARITIES OF THE 

 MOOSE. 



THERE is probably no animal on this continent about 

 which so little that is strictly true is publicly known, 

 anil so UIUCQ that is false or absurd has been written, as 

 the one whose name stands at the head of this article. 



No stronger proof of the first assertion is needed than a 

 glance at the two great lexicons to which Americans are 

 accustomed to llee for information. Webster gives a cut 

 of the European and American elk, with a description 

 which leaves the reader to infer that the latter animal and 

 the moose are identical; while Worcester has a representa- 

 tion of a nondescript animal, which is neither the one nor 

 the other, with a description of the "elk" or "moose" ex- 

 tracted from the "British Cyclopedia" The "New Amer- 

 ican Cyclopedia" has a very full and correct description of 

 the forms and appearance of the moose, but says: "a male, 

 female and fawn usually yard together," and speaks of the 

 animal as "tramping down the snow in its yard," both of 

 which assertions are utterly at variance with the facts. 

 Now as the utter extermination of the moose in this coun- 

 try is only a question of time, it is important that its hab- 

 its should be thoroughly understood during its existence. 



It is an extremely shy and solitary animal, making its 

 haunt in the deepest recesses of the forest. The early wri- 

 ters evidently obtained their knowledge of it at second 

 hand. One of them speaks of it as "invariably browsing 

 backwards," and that it is hunted in the following manner: 



"The hunter creeps on the track with the greatest cau- 

 tion till he discovers by the marks on the snow that he is 

 very near it. He then" breaks a twig, at which sound the 

 moose starts up and prepares to flee, when the hunter fires 

 and seldom fails to bring down his game." 



Nothing more absurd could well be written. Fancy a 

 moose browsing backwards in three feet of snow, with a 

 stiff crust on the top! How can the hunter tell by the 

 "marks on the snow" that he is very near it? and why is 

 the animal invariably lying down at that particular mo- 

 ment? It is true that the experienced still hunter can tell 

 about how long a time has elapsed since the passage of the 

 animal by drawing his finger across the "drag" made in 

 the snow when withdrawing its feet, except when the 

 BD.OW tmd air are at the same temperature, when this sign 

 fails; nut even when in force it cannot be depended on as 

 indicating the proximity of the animal, as it may have 

 Ijeen lying down for hours, or, on the contrary, it may 

 have been "startled by some unusual sound in the forest, at 



a point just beyond that to which the hunter has arrived, 

 and be already miles away, when the hunter supposes it to 

 be within gunshot. 



Strolling up California street the other evening I caught 

 sight, through an opposite window in the second story of 

 a building, just occupied by a traveling museum, of the 

 antlers of the noble game under consideration, and paying 

 my "two bits" passed up the stairs and found myself in the 

 presence of a stuffed specimen of a "bull moose" about 

 four years old, suspended from whose neck was a placard 

 bearing the following remarkable legend! Swiftest animal 

 on earth; has been known to trot 17 miles an hour for 24 

 lumrs; never known to gallop. To give color to this extra- 

 ordinary assertion the taxidermist, in mounting the skin, 

 had stretched it to nearly twice its normal length, with a 

 corresponding diminution in size, and had drawn its hind 

 legs backward till it bore about the same relation to the 

 living animal that a thoroughbred greyhound does to an 

 English bull dog. By dint of questioning, the fact was 

 elicited that the animal was shot somewhere on the Co- 

 lumbia river a little more thau a year ago. There was no 

 appearance of any "bell" hanging from the throat, and a 

 close inspection failed to discover any signs of its having 

 been cut off; but it is hardly probable that the animal dif- 

 fers so essentially from its congener of the Atlantic slope. 

 But the false ideas conveyed by that ridiculous placard 

 will be carried away, aud be rehearsed by the readers to 

 children and "children's children." 



The moose is not a remarkable swift animal. The wri- 

 ter once saw a freshly started one strike out on to an open 

 bay over a mile in extent, where the footing was perfect, 

 he just sinking enough to steady his feet. He was pur- 

 sued by two dogs of oidinary speed, who not only found 

 no difficulty in keeping up with him, but would repeatedly 

 dart across in the vain endeavor to sieze upon his heels, 

 losing thereby several rods of ground, which they easily 

 regained. 



That for which the animal is remarkable is bis long con- 

 tinued powers of endftrsuiec, and his apparent indifference 

 to, and ability to overcome, any natural obstruction in his 

 native wilds. He not only surmounts with ease, and with 

 out breaking his trot, windfalls over six feet in height,. but 

 he also passes over with impunity the most treacherous 

 and bottomless morrasses. Indeed, half his existence iu 

 the summer season, when undisturbed, is passed in the lat- 

 ter, feeding on the stalks and roots of the yellow water 

 lily, which is above all his favorite food. 



Almost all writers speak of his tramping down the snow 

 iu his yard, and many write of the hard-beaten paths made 

 by the animals in going aud returning to their yards, as if 

 they left them in the morning and returned at night like 

 cattle to a corral. The size of the yarding ground is reg- 

 ulated wholly and solely by two considerations— the depth 

 and hardness of the snow, and the facilities for browsing. 

 When the snow is shallow and soft they will wander 

 forward for miles, hardly ever straight forward, but "beat- 

 ing back and forth over more or less width of ground, 

 usually on each side of a brook of open mountain water. 

 When the snow becomes very deep, or a sharp crust is 

 formed on the top of it, their field of operation is corres- 

 pondingly restricted. They will then retrace their steps 

 carefully, walking in the paths already made, and eating 

 the coarsest food they daiutily rejected when travel was un- 

 impeded. Sometimes, when the fearful northern snows 

 come down in depths of six feet, and the sun of March 

 forms a crust on which a man can travel without often 

 breaking through, it is almost impossible for them to move 

 sufficiently to avoid starvation. They will then eat every 

 green thing as high as they can reach, and which is not 

 more than au inch in diameter, and such places where they 

 are thus "snowed up" can be told at a glance by the expe- 

 rienced hunter for years afterward. The two sexes never 

 yard together of their own volition. Sometimes a male 

 will be chased into a yard of females or vice versa, and its 

 track be lost by mingling with those that cross aud recross 

 it in every direction. Then, if the buow is deep or the 

 crust sharp, it will remain there, always, however, choos- 

 ing a part abandoned by its former occupants, aDd which 

 they thereafter always carefully avoid. To such an ex- 

 tent is the avoidance of the sexes carried during the winter 

 season that the young male invariably separates from his 

 mother the second fall (when 18 mooths old), and some- 

 times even the first, as the writer has found them in yarda 

 with older males when less than a year old. The females, 

 on the contrary, remain with their dams two and three 

 years. So that it is not unusual to find the mother, her 

 first, second and third offspring, aud one of her eldest iu 

 the same yard. This is the extent of their breeding to- 

 gether. My observations teach me that they are less gre- 

 garious than any other variety of the Cervidie. 



The first young is dropped at two years of age, only one 

 the first birth aud often tho second; after that two, and I 

 believe always of opposite sexes— at least I have never 

 seen an exception, and the same is true of the common 

 deer. When three are dropped at a birth they are usually, 

 if not always, two females and a male; one of the females 

 is undoubtedly incapable of reproduction, as in no other 

 way can tho presence of "barren does" be reasonably ac- 

 counted for. They bear about the same proportion to the 

 whole numbers as do the number of triple births. They 

 appear to be perfect animals in all their parts, are some- 

 what stouter and more compactly built than their fruitful 

 companions, and all invariably loaded down with fat ia 

 August, when those having fawns are quite lean. I am 

 speaking now of deer, as my opportunities for observing 

 thorn have been so much greater, but it applies equally to 



