494 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sax. 17, 1884. 



soitfl 



nt of still-hunting grizzly 



vil 



xprei 



nl,r, 



l tokei 

 rlvl ! 



Ihi 



bad 



and digghui gr 



all in nil, lie combines the. 

 with Chat attaching to trap 



1 bad a trap set on the h 

 tain close to the edge of a 

 region showed silent, but t 

 of grizzly. The next mo 

 having with me. my guid 

 vaueed noiseless! \ ■ l , r-. ■..■. 

 gtOUSe ran acroBS our natl 

 of a hen. We 

 was gone. TV 

 the swamp, \vh 

 jungle. Here 

 saplings, chewii w 

 not wiH get through here 

 tke swamp a little wavs further, 

 that led down into the' brush. J[. 

 again, but found It very blind and difficult to follow. There 

 was no sign of a clog, but the trail was like that of any 

 bear, only that now and then a slight scratch on the ground 

 or bruise on a tree would denote the passage of a trap. 

 He had broken loose from the clog! We turned, took the 

 back track, and a little ways hack found tie remnants of 

 the clog. This had been a stick of pine six or eight feet 

 long and four or five inches thick; and this ho had literally 

 eaten into short pieces of stove wood. 



Being thus freed of the clog, he had turned around the 

 two springs, making a package only sixteen inches wide, 

 then gathered up the whole thing like a small gripsack un- 

 der his arm and gone oil on "three legs rejoicing. The 

 weight of ibe forty-two pound trip was a mere bagatelle to 

 the great brute, and did not. hamper him as much as mv 

 nine-pound rifle did roe, The spot where he had 



d elope of a moun- 

 P, where the whole 



pproaehed it afoot, 

 W. Puffer. As we ud- 

 Jie solemn forest a mountain 

 tli her tail spread out like that 

 ljj and discovered that the clog 

 lickly followed to the edge of 

 lad iron.' into the very densest 

 by breaking down 

 iit holes. We could 

 g along tin- edge of 

 red a narrow glade 

 struck his trail 



to a rusty black; the males usually being the darker. The 

 beads were all pretty much the same color, being all dark. 

 The largest were about nineteen inches from the nose to the 

 end of the skull and fourteen inches from ear to ear.] 



plisbed this feat was all dug up, the underbrush smashed 

 and the freshly chewed down balsams were stained with 

 blood from his jaws. An encouraging exhibition, forsooth, 

 o£ the state of mind of our formidable game. We now- 

 turned and again took up his trail, spelling it out slowly 

 and laboriously. Three mortal hours we followed it, with 

 our lingers on the trigger, our nerves all on tension, ex- 

 pecting 'the bear to jump at every minute. First it led into 

 the heart of a gloomy swamp, where an ice-cold brook wan- 

 dered through a tangled mass of young pines, balsams and 

 fallen trees, overshadowed by great pines; then into a heavy 

 forest; then out on to a bit" of open prairie where amid 

 the sage-brush we lost it on the hard baked soil. On the far 

 side of the prairie we found it again, and followed into a 

 "slash" or "windfall" of heavy timber, where we had the ut- 

 most difficulty in tracking it through the snarl of fallen trees 

 piled one on the other in inextricable confusion. Finally it 

 led into a little open glade of tall grass, all cut up with elk 

 and bear tracks, and here we lost it. After much search we 

 found it agaiu at the foot of the glade where there was a 

 dense jingle of '■popples," balsams and young pines. A 

 liltl" dry water-course, three or foar feet deep, Van winding 

 through the thicket, and down this the hear had gone, in 

 the very thickest part of the matted jungle he had left the 

 gully, turned and come back a short ways along the edge of 

 the "bank aud lay there hidden in the brush, watching 

 backtrack. He bad our wind; he had heard ourvoiei . _. 

 we searched for the lost trad in the open glade; and he knew 

 it was now his turn ; he had sel a trap for us; and the hunters 

 were to be hunted. 



Slowly and cautiously we follow down the gully. listening 

 for breaking twigs and "peering sharply into the "impenetra- 

 ble foliag" that surrounds us. There is no sound save the 

 swish of the trees overhead, as they are moved by t In- gentle 

 breeze. The bear's trail shows plain and clear now. leading 

 onward deeper into the jungle. Suddenly the silence is 

 broken by a most tremendous aud horrible "roar that almost 

 freezes the blood in our veins, and an enormous grizzly 

 rears up on our right, not three gun-lengths away, and 

 springs right at us. No form nor shape can be distin- 

 guished, no head nor legs, nothing but a monstrous black 

 mass that comes crashing down at us through the balsams, 

 with an awful roar of indescribable ferocity. There is 

 no time for deliberation. Both rifles are pointed like 

 lightning into the center of the great black mass, as it 

 is absolutely impending over us, and crack simultane- 

 ously, There is no lime for a second shot; tile bear 

 is right on us! Each man springs for his life. We run at 

 riant angles to each other tome twenty yards, then swing 

 round again. The bear lies struggling "furiously amid a 

 tangle of broken balsams on the very spot that we bad just 

 left. I cannot see him clearly through ibe brush, so slap a 

 solid ball through his hips, then reload and run over to 

 Charlie, who is slutting him with shots from his Winchester 

 express. The grizzly now struggles to his forefeet, still 

 roaring savagely, and" makes tremendous efforts to get at us, 

 but. 1 now have' a good front shot and put an explosive shell 

 from rav No. 12 into the back of his neck, behind the head, 

 and so kill him. When be is absolutely dead, then cry 1: 

 "Charlie, shake hands"— and we shake! 



This was a very narrow escape. If we bad not broken 

 down the bear by those hist two shots, tired as he sprang, 

 ne would have had one or both of us. He was very large, 

 being nine feet two inches long from nose to hind claws, and 

 his fore leg was two feet round at the body. 



We return that afternoon with our ponies and the team- 

 ster. We roll the grizzly out from the broken balsams, and 

 1 photograph him before his overcoat is taken off. Then 1 

 hold my usual inquest "to ascertain the cause of his death." 

 The two shots tired as be jumped had gone right through 

 his heart, where my shell "had exploded and had literally 

 blown out I he back part oi' it. then the fragments of the 

 shell and the Winchester express bullet had gone clean 

 through him and out at bis back in one hole. 



My shell is of No. 12 caliber, contains a bursting charge 

 of 24 grains fine powder, and is driven by 120 grains F. G. 

 Yet with his heart blown out by this terrible projectile, the 

 bear had recovered enough from the shock to get up on his 

 forefeet, aud had taken considerable subsequent killing, and 

 if lie had caught one of us as he first fell be had vitality 

 enough left to have made mince meat of us before expir- 

 i n „-, Edwauo H, Litcufiexd, 



Brooklyn, January, 1884. 



[We have been shown by Mr. Litchfield some excellent 

 photographs of his camp and captured game; and have also 

 had the pleasure of inspecting a number of his trophies at 

 Bell's (the taxidermist) on Broadway. We saw there the 

 heads <>t nine grizzlies, one of the black bear and another of 

 a black cub. The grizzlies were all large, some especially 

 so. Several measured nine feet or more in length from tip 

 i. tip_from nose to hind claws as they lay on their backs 

 ready for skinning. The largest measured thus nine feet 

 and eight inches, in color they varied from a whitish yellow 



GAME AND FORESTS IN THE PARK. 

 Editor. Forest and Stream: 



Knowing your paper to be a champion for Die protection 

 of the National Park, and being one of your subscribers, I 

 take the liberty of addressing you concerning the protection 

 of the game arid the timber of the Park. 1 hear it repeatedly 

 remarked that there is no use in trying to protect the game 

 for the reason that it is migratory" and after spending the 

 warm season in the mountains of the Park, as soon as the 

 snows came it would all leave for the foothills of the lower 

 Yellowstone, there to be slaughtered without mercy by the 

 hunters of that, region. Now, I find that wherever there is a 

 place of refuge, deer, elk aud bison are sure to find it; and I 

 know- that when the cow and calf elk have migrated to more 

 comfortaole regions the old bulls have successfully wintered 

 here, as the dropped horns in the valleys of the Park will 



prove. 



1 am stationed at Soda Butte, on the east fork of the Yel- 

 lowstone, as one of the assistant superintendents of the Park, 

 and within the week I have seen over one hundred elk in 

 one herd, quietly feeding on the southern slopes of the foot- 

 hills and within half a mile of my cabin. In talking with 

 some old hunters thev said that formerly the elk had left 

 iiere. all excepting the" old bulls, before the 15th of Novem- 

 ber, but owing lot. heir being bunted so much as soon as they 

 left the confines of the Park, they had turned back for 

 safety. This proves conclusively that the rigid enforcement 

 of a" strong protective law will be the preservation of the 

 game in the Park; aud I hope Congress will give us power 

 the coming season to perform our duties better than the last. 

 At present we have not the power to arrest violators of the 

 laws, and only our presence has been the curb of restraint 

 upon hunters," who question our authority, because there are 

 no defined boundary lines to the Park! Still we have ac- 

 complished much; but, not as much as a Uue sportsman would 

 like to see. 



What I have to say concerning the Park forests is that 'he 

 timber is mostly resinous, and for two mouths of the season 

 at least the climate is so dry that it is almost impossible to 

 stop a fire ouce started. A railroad through the Park means 

 the destruction of its forests, which go further to make up 

 the matchless beauty of the Park scenery than any other one 

 thing. Therefore 1'hopc that the Forest and Stream will 

 enter a protest against any railroad company having the 

 right of way through the Park. Ichtht/s. 



TI5U.OWSTONE Kational Park, Dec. 24, 1883. 



THE U. S. GOVERNMENT DEFIED. 

 V\7 ASiliNGTON, Jan. 10.— The Secretary of the Interior 

 t V sends to the Senate to-day correspondence concerning 

 matters in the Yellowstone Park, which had beeu called for 

 by resolution, This resolution requested that copies of all 

 bases, contracts, orders, instructions and regulations made 

 ssued by the Interior Department or its order since the 

 last session' of Congress in relation to the Park, he trans- 

 mitted to the Semite. In his letter of transmittal the Secre- 

 tary savs that the onlv authority gianted for the privilege 

 of locating hotels and furnishing transportation to visitors 

 to the Park is contained in the lease, executed March 9, 188a, 

 to C. F. Hobart, Henry F. Douglas and Rufus Hatch, of 

 the Yellowstone National Park Improvement Company. 



He then says: "I beg leave to invite attention to the ne- 

 cessity of providing by legislation more practicable aud 

 efficie'ut means for the punishment of infractions of law and 

 the regulations of the Department governing the Park. The 

 greater part of the Park is in the Territory of Wyoming, 

 but not within an organized county. It has been found im- 

 practicable to enforce the orders and compel the observance 

 of the rules of the Department in respe* to the occupation 

 of the Park, in the absence of a judicial officer before whom 

 offenders cau be taken. The superintendent and his assist- 

 ant can only call the attention of visitors to the law and 

 regulations thereunder aud request their observance, but if 

 the visitor refuses to comply with such request the officer 

 has no means of punishment." The Secretary states that- 

 game has been killed by visitors and hunters contrary to the 

 rules of the Department, but that no puuishment has been 

 or can be iullicted for such violations of the law, and adds: 

 "If it is desirable to preserve the Park in its primitive state, 

 or nearly so, it is necessarv that there should be one or mors 

 officials authorized to punish the infractions of the law and 

 the rules of the Department. Power should be given not 

 only to punish offenders, but to remove them from the Park", 

 if, in the judgment of the Department, their presence in the 

 Park is not desirable." 



Included in the correspondence are copies of applications 

 for privileges in the Park, among them being requests for 

 permission to open trading stores, liquor shops, feed corrals, 

 to keep dairies, and supply the Government with dairy pro- 

 duets. to establish an observatory, to open stores for the sale 

 of newspapers and fruit, and to build steamboats and other 

 watercratt and operate them on Yellowstone Bake. A letter 

 from W. Scott Smith, a special agent of the Department, is 

 included in the correspondence. Mr. Smith reports that the 

 superintendent has either failed to comprehend the import- 

 ance of the duties of his office, or has intentionally disre- 

 garded them, that he has never even attempted to execute 

 his duties, has shut his eyes to the fact that hunting has 

 been going on openly during the summer within the Park, 

 and that hunters have been employed by the hotel company 

 to go into the mountains and Kill game to supply the com- 

 pany's guests and the company's camps. He reported that 

 he found no officers of the Government guarding any of the 

 natural curiosities, and that he had been informed by visitors 

 that they had purchased choice specimens from the assistant. 

 superintendents. 



In reply to Smith's charges. Superintendent Conger asserts 

 that the Secretary obtained his information from Mr. Ho- 

 bart who Conger says, has openly threatened to secure 

 his removal. He charges that Hobart's hostility to him 

 arises from the knowledge possessed by the latter, that he 

 guards too closely the interests of the Park and the public to 

 suit Ibe romp, ny. In another letter he charges that the 

 hotel company's people help themselves to whatever they 

 want inside or outside the Government inclosures; that they 



, . l n r and allow their herds to overrun the Government 



grounds; that they wilfully braak down and destroy fences, 

 erected by the superintendent, and that Hobart threatens to 

 tear down the fences as olten as they are erected. The conse- 

 quence of the destruction of the fences, he says, is that the 



pastures have been overrun by the company's herds and are 

 bare of grass that he will" be compelled to take the Gov- 

 iimeut slock out of the Park and winter it, and also to 

 purchase food for it at heavy cost. He closes his letter with 

 this statement: "Hobart lias boasted in my hearing of his 

 influence with you. and that he had frequent letters from 

 you, and he told one of rny assistants that you bad prom, - ,1 

 him that I should not visit Washington this winter, and be 

 also said that the reason you would not write me was that 

 you was not going to have my letters paraded before Cou 

 gress." 



Secretary Teller replies to Superintendent Conger, blam- 

 ing him for not conveying this information to him sooner, 

 aud for not making such charges when lie saw him, and for 

 waiting to communicate it in a private letter. He refuses to 

 receive any private communications on public business, and 

 says he has placed Conger's letter on file. 



Other letters between the Department and Conger, and 

 between the Department and Mr. Hobart and Bnfus Ilalch, 

 with reference to alleged violations of the rules governing 

 the Park, follow. The burden of the superintendent's com- 

 munications isthatheis powerless to prevent such violations. 

 In one letter he says: "An order from the Secretary or the 

 superintendent to' this class of offenders is just about as 

 fective as was the ancient Pope's bull against the comet." 

 Hobart denies Smith's charges, and makes charges against 

 Conger of inefficiency, neglect of duty, and perversion of 

 his official powers. jCoogei in some of his letters charges 

 that the company is cutting timber, mining coal, erecting a 

 telegraph line, etc., in violation of law. These charges 

 Hobart denies, and Rufus Hatch calls attention to the state 

 mt that a telegraph line is being built under the authority 

 of the company, denies such authority, and asks the Secre- 

 tary to order the superintendent to prevent, the construction 

 of the line. 



THE QUAIL OF VIRGINIA. 



Editor Forest avd Stream: 



I have read many of the communications which have 

 appeared in the Forest and Stueam during the past 

 months, from those "in the field 1 ' and Others, with much 

 interest, and some, misgivings as to the source of information, 

 which I think in some cases is calculated to mislead, f 

 allude particularly to hunting in Virginia, where 1 have 

 hunted every fall for the past fifteen years. Most ol these 

 writers give the impression that game is constantly abundant. 

 there, and expenses low. 



When I first commenced bunting iu that State I could go 

 out without a dog and find from five to a dozen coveys of 

 quail in a day, getting many good shots in the open," aud 

 always finding them easy to "mark, and follow up. At that 



time a bag of over fifty was often made in a day by a 



shot, over good dogs. Then but few good wing shots I 

 to be found among local sportsmen. Very few breech 

 loaders were used. Well trained dogs were scarce, aud little 

 appreciated. "Times have changed since then." mid quail 

 shooting is a different thing. As the local burners pie ■, 

 in the science Of shooting, the birds seem to become educan d. 

 Yet, it is not fair to lay it all to local sportsmen. A few 

 years ago a hunter from the North was a raiiiy. Now they 

 are legion. I estimate the number of residents who can 

 shoot well has increased at least ten-fold. Quail shooting 

 in Virginia is now, as it is in most other closely hunted 

 ground, very hard work, and very uncertain. It has been 

 Steadily becoming more unsatisfactory each succeeding 

 year, and especially has this been noticeable during the last 

 "three or four seasons. 



1 hunted this fall in the counties of Bed lord, Pittsylvania, 

 Appomattox, Charlotte, Albemarle, Ring William and Han- 

 over, the result of which i will give in as condensed form as 

 possible Two of us hunted together, My companion, with 

 whom I have hunted for several years, one Of the best 

 shots in brush or open that I ever knew. Both of us are un- 

 tiring workers, 'and neither < ! harder than we did 

 this fall. Nearly all our birds were killed in the woods, we 

 Idem finding a covey in stubble or open: when we did, it 

 ..as right at the edge" close to thick cover. All the rl ' 

 were most unfortunate, the birds flying in the sun, in our 

 faces, or wheeling and twisting ill the most inconceivable 

 way, making it very uncertain shooting, almost impossible 

 ever to secure a double on the rise. In all places where we 

 bunted it was much the same. Birds would not he to our 

 dogs, but would run like wild turkeys and gat up too 

 far off to give us a shot. Often they would take a second 

 flight, thereby putting us completely at a loss where to find 

 them. When our dogs would come to the place where we 

 marked them down, they would make game and sometimes 

 stand. Dining sixteen Jays spent iu the field we found 71 

 coveys of quail", out of which we bagged 814 birds, an avei 

 age of about twenty per day: four and a half to each covey. 

 We also killed forty rabbits, which may count with some of 

 your readers. To accomplish this cost me (my share alone) 

 §81.37. We had our own dogs, guns and outfit.. The .ex- 

 pense was onlv for railroad fares, livery, expense on dogs, 

 board, etc. VVear and tear of guns, clothes, Ct< 

 "toddies" and cocktails not counted in. We Stayed with 

 friends most of the time, where we bad no board to pay, 

 ft will readily lie seen that my share of the birds cost over 

 50 cents each. 



A sportsman's outfit is now very expensive, and alter one 



is fully equipped, the thing itself is cosily. Making , i 



the following cities a central point from which to hunt, the 

 railroad fare" from New York to Richmond r-.K10.50, Peters 

 bur" §11.50, Norfolk $7.50, Charlottesville §10.95. Danville 

 $14? Lynchburg §12.50. Local lares are do 5 cents per 

 mile 'The Norfolk & Western Railroad, Richmond & Alle- 

 gheny Railroad, Seaboard & Roanoke, and Washington 

 City," Virginia Midland have a dog tariff of about I 



per milo, and are very accommodating. The Richmond & 

 Danville carry dogs free. The Chesapeake & ( Ihio Railroad 



seemed to be a little mixed. If the owner of dogs is "going 

 bunting," that is rigged in hunting suit and has his .gnu along 

 he is allowed one dog free, extra ones at about half the cost 

 of his ticket. If he should be dressed in such a way as not 

 to give evidence that he is on a hunt, and if he ha- QO gun. 

 he is made to put bis dogs in the Adam, Kxpress car, where 

 the lowest charge made is $3.50 for each dog. Country 

 hotels charge ftoin §1.50 to $8 per day. Board at farm 

 houses, where it can be ha- > week or §1 per 



day. Livery hire, buggy §2.50 to §:> per day. Saddle horse 

 $1 to $L 50. Two-horse team and di iver i i 

 is always necessary to fee servants pre.tly well it < 

 have your dogs well at leaded to. 



I notice that one of your COTresponrh BtS fays that it may 

 be safely estimated that at the time he wrote 5,01 

 men from the North were scattered over Virginia and the 



