180 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



WmBam 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



' u CO FlBLD ANDAvJOATIOSTOBTb, -PfJkCTlCAL NATtTrjAHlSTOBY, 

 FtSU CtU/TUHit, TIU5 PROTECTION OV Ga KB, PKZSERVATIOK or FORESTS, 

 ABU CUB INCULCATION 13 M.KN AliD WoSKN OF A HKALTBr INTEREST 



a Odt-doob Recreation and Study : 



PUBL1SUMD BY 



Rarest and ^tresnj fflublishitiQ fgotnyaqs, 



AT 



IT CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HAUL, 8QUAKK) NKW YOKK, 

 [Post Oppiob Box 2832.1 



THE DEER OF CALIFORNIA. 



'•rai, Four Dollar, a Year, Strictly Id A4»ann* 



Twenty-live per cent, off for Clnbe of Three 



Advertising Kbih, 



r prospectus as ahove one time, with 

 .ion Lherr-tn, nnd «eiid:v,L marked mpv 

 J Stream lor one year. 



NEW YOKK, THURSDAY, APK1L 26, 1877. 



To Correspondents. 



All communications whatever, whether relating to ousmess or literary 

 correspondence, mast be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub 

 CianiNS CeasPANT. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



All communications intended for publication must be. accompanied with 

 real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published If 

 objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regaraed. 



Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited 



We cannot, promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor as with brief 



tea of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 

 men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 

 Ind our columns a ..osirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 Is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 

 tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 

 may not be read with propriety in the home circle 



V7e cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mall service, if 

 money remitted to ns ts lost. 



Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, II possible. 



13?" Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHARLES hai.i.ock. 



Editor and Business Manager 



DON'T YOU FORGET IT. 



—On the 1st of May next the office of Forest akd Stbeaj 

 will be removed back to its original quarters, 103 Fulto: 



Street. 



The Hoxters' Camp at the Cextenxlu, Gkotjxds. — This 

 structure, which attracted so much attention at the Centen- 

 nial Exhibition grounds (the registered names of its visitors 

 alone reaching 20,000), was donated to the Fairmount Park 

 Commissioners by the proprietors of Fqbest axd Stream, 

 who erected and exhibited it, and will be a permanent fix- 

 ture until decay destroys it. Many illustrated papers, in- 

 cluding Harper an* Vrmik CesKe, published engravings of it, 

 Hid several paintings have been made. The most beautiful 

 of all of them is now on exhibition at the studio of John 

 Kese.l, artist, 814 Wood Street, Philadelphia, a photograph 

 of which now lies before us. It is indeed a most charming 

 study, and a pleasant memory of the great Centennial Ex- 

 hibition days. The size of the picture is 24x28 inches. The 

 prico is $200. Were wo not poor, we would buy it and 

 hang it up in our sanctum as a lasting memento of the show. 

 The next best wish is that some of our friends may buy it 

 for their own pleasure and satisfaction. 



BakoeI/EY Lakes. — We print to-doy the first of a series of 

 articles by Thomas Sedgwick Steele, of Hartford, Conn., on 

 the great Kangeley trout region, Maine. A series of similar 

 letters were issued in September 1874, through the columns 

 of the 3:mht<] Post of Hartford, and, until the article which 

 recently appeared in Smbwr's, was about the first to open to 

 the public in detail that interesting locality. Mr. Steele has 

 been one of our steadfast friends from the first starting of 

 the Forest axd Stream, and in addition to his reputation bs 

 a writer in this and other papers, employs his leisure 

 moments in the painting of trout, which studies have been 

 hung in the various Art Galleries of this country, three of 

 thtiu being now on exhibition at the Academy of Design, 

 corner 23d Street, and 4th avenue. Mr. Steele is partner in 

 the firm of T. Steele .t Son, importers, Hartford, Conn. 



KiMUAiiA: Oo.'s CiGAiiEn'Es.— We nclutowlodge 

 of a package of fine cigarettes from Kimball & Co., of P,och- 

 estcr, N. Y. Five prize medals have been awarded to this 

 well-known firm. Their smoking tobacco is also much 

 onteeined, add the sairs, we understand, are very large. • 



THAT traditional authority, "the oldest inhabitant," re- 

 ports that "way back in the early days of California 

 there were while-tailed deer to be found in the land." How- 

 ever that may have been in the times gone by, the hunters of 

 to-day find only the black-tailed kind; and around many a 

 camp fire, in yarning time, men ore found who say that "the 

 oldest" aforesaid has laid down the rifle for the long bow, 

 and is a dead shot, with the latter weapon only. Some hunt- 

 ers say that there are two varieties of the black-tailed deer in 

 addition to the barro deer, and attempt to distinguish them 

 by the names of "brush" and "motuitabi" deer: the better 

 founded opinion is that they are not distinct varieties, but 

 the same, and that differences in habit can be easily ac- 

 counted for by the different conditions pertaining to locali- 

 ities — for example: in the County of Eos Angeles, Southern 

 California, within a distance of sixty miles from the blue 

 waters of the Pacific, black-tail deer are found, ranging in 

 altitudes varying from ten to ten thousand feet above the sea 

 level, with climatic conditions varying from the semi-tropi- 

 cal plains and valleys perfumed with the sweet breath of 

 orange and pomegranate flowers, to the pine-clad ridges and 

 snowy summits of the Coast Kange Mountains. On the 

 coast-line side of these mountains there are no deer save the 

 black-tail, the barro being found only on the desert side, 

 and somewhat rarely there. From the coast line to the main 

 sierra tho plains and valleys are intersected by short ranges, 

 ridgy and broken, covered generally with a dense growth 

 of scrub oak, mountain mahogany, some Shumate and 

 manzanite, and a great deal of what the native. Californians 

 call chomisal, a compound of most everything brushy, in- 

 cluding sage, greasewood, poison oak and wild plum. These 

 ranges vary from a few hundred to about two thousand feet 

 in height; and the first five thousand feet of the main range 

 has a similar growth and formation. Above the five thou- 

 sand foot level the character of the vegetation and the na- 

 ture of the range change. The slopes and the ridges are 

 longer and smoother, although rocky in many places; and 

 pine and fir timber, to a great extent, take the place of the 

 brush, which, however, is larger, and reinforced by the white 

 thorn, and manzanite in many places maintains its su- 

 premacy. The habits of the deer differ so materially in the 

 successive altitudes and temperatures, that our close season, 

 to afford adequate protection, should be almost always in ex- 

 istence in some part of the county. On the coast tho 

 rutting season begins in July; on the highest mountain 

 ranges not until October, and in some seasons even so late 

 as December. The times for shedding im tiers, dropping 

 fawns, and changing the red coat for the blue, of course 

 vary accordingly, In appearance the so-called mountain and 

 brush deer are precisely similar, except that in themountain 

 deer the blue coat is darker and the hair thicker; and being 

 seen in a more open country, and often times on high points 

 with only the sky for a background, they appear taller and 

 more majestic. In their breeding habits they vary accord- 

 ing to locality, as already stated. The bucks in the rutting 

 season travel further in search of the does, and are fiercer in 

 fight than those of the lower, warmer lands. When hunted, 

 the mountain deer rarely descends or attempts to keep on a 

 level with his pursuer, but at once strikes for the high 

 ridges and points, and if followed, shows no hesitation in 

 leaving his accustomed haunts. He never, unless wounded, 

 doubles on his track or attempts to hide. Depending for 

 safety entirely upon good legs, keen eye, quick ear, md a 

 nose almost equal to that of the mountain sheep, he has 

 little fear of wolves, but finds enemies enough in mountain 

 lions, the larger cats, and in man — Indian and otherwise. 

 He seldom furnishes food for bear, but his fawns are often 

 taken by the eagle and California condor, in spite of the 

 efforts of their dam, who, with eager feet, shows light, and 

 sometimes loses her own life in endeavors to protect the 

 fawn, but not unfreciuentJy succeeds in escaping with them 

 to thick brush, where the fierce birds cannot follow. The 

 deer found in the brushy hills and plains near the coast 

 have the same enemies, and more of them, except that lions 

 are scarcer, and they are very seldom troubled by the con- 

 dor, which bird affects the mountains rather than the lower 

 ranges. When the brush deer is hunted, he depends upon 

 circling, doubling back, hiding, and in fact anything rather 

 than trusting to his legs to protect him. He will often allow 

 himself to be approached within twenty or thirty feet in 

 thick brush if he thinks himself unseen, and attempt to 

 sneak back behind his pursuer. The country he inhabits is 

 so dry that he has, except on very damp days, but little fear 

 of being followed by scent, and he knows, by both instinct 

 and experience, that his hope of safety is in the thickest 

 brush he can find. If hunted much he stays in the brush 

 all day, and ranges at night; a moonlight night is his especial 

 delight. He cultivates fat and cunning, and is, in spite of 

 the troubles arising from his close proximity to civilization, 

 a happy sort of a fellow. Like his mountain brother, his 

 domestic cares arc few; his are the pleasures, not the troubles 

 of married life. For a month or two he fights and frolics, 

 does the gallant, beau, and at the end of the season's dissi- 

 pations goes back to his bachelor haunts to prepare for an- 

 other campaign. He leaves family cares to Mrs. Blacktail 

 Doc; she looks closely after family matters, and sees little of 

 her errant lord until all trouble with fawns is over, and 

 they are utile to go out on the wide world and shift for thera- 

 BGlves. The does of the black-tail deer bear fawns in their 

 Kici .ml year. The first parturition is generally of a single 

 fawn, after that generally two, and triplets, although rare, 

 are not unheard of. The fawns remain with the doe until 

 the rutting season, sometimes until she is heavy « 

 und oases are known, though of anfrcqaont occurrence, 

 ■ h.T.'iDd daughter ban i ■ ■■: fa ' as together, 



The fawns are. dappled with white spots when born. These 

 spots fade gradually into the red, and are entirely lost with 

 the first change of coal. At the commencement of the rut- 

 ting season both bucks and does are fat, tho former at their 

 fattest; the does continue in good flesh until their fawns are 

 dropped, the bucks speedily run down, and at the close of 

 the season are very poor, their horns soon drop off, and they 

 loaf around singly or in bands of from two to a dozen await- 

 ing the sprouting of another pair. Their once sleek and 

 handsome blue (Spate begin to look worn and sunburnt, and 

 hang all too loosely where they once fitted tight and snug. 



This is their critical time of the year; their systems re- 

 laxed, poor in flesh and in spirit, they are peculiarly liablo 

 to succumb to disease and the attacks of their enemies. 

 Fortunately for them their flesh is of small savor, and the 

 hunter passes them by— even a tow-head yearling is better 

 meat. In a month or so their horns commence sprouting; 

 two little grey, velvet-covered knobs, appear on the back of 

 the skull, lifting the skin with them; they grow until four 

 or five inches in length; they branch, they grow more and 

 branch more until they ore a fine pair of antlers done in 

 velvet; they are quite tender, full of blood, and made out of 

 a soft, bony tissue, under the velvet. Finally this bony 

 tissue hardens into bone, the blood is absorbed, the velvet. 

 cover dries and cracks— begins to have a ragged, rusty look. 

 The horns at this season are like pliant steel, in the way 

 they spring back to shape when hent; they itch, and the 

 buck finds great relief in rubbing them against trees and 

 the hard stems of bushes, preferring brush hardened by fire, 

 which has consumed the smaller twigs and the leaves. This 

 rubbing, as nature intended it should, frees the horn from 

 the velvet, cleans arid polishes it, until finally it is perfect 

 as a weapon and an ornament. While the antlers have been 

 growing, other changes have taken place: the old coat of hair 

 has changed from blue to red, and in the red has faded, 

 loosened, fallen out, and been replaced by a bran new coat 

 of blue grey. To avoid the pain caused by striking his 

 tender growing horns against the bushes, the buck has taken 

 no more exercise than is sufficient to supply him food; he 

 has slept and eaten well, food has heen abundant, of excel- 

 lent quality; he is fat and strong, and is soon ready for 

 another campaign among the does, to enter the lists at every 

 tourney he can find, and hold them, too, against all comers, 

 to win favors in his lady's eyes. To this writing these are 

 perfect doer, but there are others, too — cactus bucks and 

 barren does which, from a loss of procreative power, live 

 under changed conditions. The barren does are always fat, 

 generally found alone, and are much esteemed for venison. 

 The cactus bucks, socalled from the supposed resemblance 

 of their homs to the young plant of the cholhi cadi, present 

 one striking peculiarity: their horns are always malformed, 

 diseased, and never out of velvet. It is almost certain that 

 they are never shed, and are a constant source of annoyance 

 to the deer so unfortunate as to wear them. They grow a 

 gnarled, distorted mass of diseased bone, in almost every 

 conceivable shape, sometimes one horn, often two, like a 

 man's hand, a cactus, a Turd's wing, a strangely twisted root, 

 sometimes on one side only, sometimes growing down over 

 one eye or an ear, growing back over the neck, or down the 

 forehead. In every ease of this kind the testicles are found 

 to be either injured, diseased, or entirely wanting. Tho 

 deer are generally in good order, and often fat. In Southern 

 California deer are seldom found in bands, except during 

 the rutting seasons. Traditions of large bands come down 

 tons from "the early days," but bands of thirty are very 

 rare at present, and bands of fifty, occasionally seen in the 

 Tejou Mountains, are regarded as great curiosities. Albinoes 

 are sometimes reported in the shape of white and spotted 

 deer, but are so rarely met with that the last, well-authenti- 

 cated ease is that of a large spotted doe, in the red, with 

 large, pure white spots, killed by an old hunter at. Agua 

 Calieute, in lHlri. Hybrids are very rare, and when met, 

 with are the result, of a cross between the barro deers and 

 blucktails. The barro deer, so numerous in some portions 

 of Arizona, is found in Southern California, only on the 

 desert- side of the Coast Bange Mountains. In color and in 

 habits generally it resembles the blacktail deer, but is much 

 heavier and of a stouter build; its ears are larger, neck 

 shorter, legs thicker, and its body much squarer set. Its 

 tail is ii little larger than that of the blacktail deer, black on 

 top, white underneath, and much shorter than its ear-, re- 

 sembling that of the common "blacktail deer" in color and 

 appearance. It looks like- a now model blacktail deer given 

 increased sizo, modeled and proportioned somewhat after 

 the style of a jackass built for speed, and without doubt was 

 christened "barro" by the Mexicans on account of its gen- 

 eral resemblance to the domestic animal of that, an 

 1869 one, a buck, was shot near- the. Forks of the Mojave 

 River, by a hunter uf much experience with deer, and by 

 him estimated to weigh three hundred and twenty-five 

 pounds. The average estimated weight of seven killed 

 within a distance of forty miles of the Mojave in 1870 was 

 two hundred pounds each : neks, four in number, 



and one hundred and fifty for the three does. Of about 

 thirty head of blacktail deer killed the. same year by the 

 same hunters, only one would have over one hundred and 

 fifty pounds, and the average bucks not more than one 

 hundred and twenty, the does ranging from ninety to one 

 hundred and ten pounds. 



—+— 



Notice to Spobismkn.— Having received so many communications 

 asking us lor information In regard to our six-section baa 

 black hasH, grilse and salmon rods, -wa have prepari ■■■'■■ 

 .subject, which wa small take pleasure in forwarding to any mti i i (fa 

 keep on hand all grades, the prices uf which range roi 

 Wo put our stamp only on the best, in order to protect our customer! 

 end our reputation, for we are unwilling to sell a poor roil with a i»lse 

 enamel (made by burning and Blaming, to imitate the genuine amelaj, 

 without batting our customers know just what they are 



P. O. Box l,i!!U,— jMo. Ajrc-Ej U Lmbbil, 16 Uaiduu lane. 



