THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



[Bntered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the Forest and Stream Publishing Company, in tfce Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL29, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



3 TO CORKESPONDMNTS.. 



Editorial:— 



Nolo the Change; A Commercial Action ; William M. Tiles- 

 ton; LyeommgHporisraen'sCJun; An Unjust Insl .nation ; 

 Notes; Highly Important If True; For the Benefit of 

 Whom It May Concern , Correspondence : Agriculture in 

 Alaska _ 2 



3 Bad and Run:- 



out a Harorod : Notes from the Soootlng Grounds; Prae- 

 e .lvalue of ilun Tr.nls; Wholesale auJ It-mil Dealers; 

 ho Convention of MSI ; Another Opinion on Trap-Shoot- 

 ig; Shooting Matches 2 



I Pnfi 



:ction :— 



■Natural History:— 



' The Food of OurThrttsb.es : The Diary of a Bird; Habits of 

 the Crow; Tailing Skunks; Carnivorous Mice; Habits of 



ishers' Department.. 



The Kivlb:- 

 Eange and Gallery ; False Names ; Origin of the Term "Buil's- 



6ea and Riveb Fishing) :— 



Notes; Colors of Perch and Habits of Bass; Forking Fly- 

 I Bods; Fishing and the Sun-Spots; Look Sharp ,245 



■Yachting and Canoeing:— 



». Yacht Building at Bristol; Yachting News; A Ten Days' 

 Cruise in '7I>, ltecorded hy the ''Captain" 34" 



feutern Montana. 



I HAVE seen nothing concerning Western Montana in 

 Forest and Stream, and only lately any notes from 

 "the other side of the range." Perhaps a little informa- 

 .tion, derived from personal observation and the expe- 

 riences of others, may not be without interest, as Mis- 

 soula, being one of the smaller towns, and not on a main 

 line of travel, is seldom visited except on business. 



It is situated at the head of a valley, or gulch, some 

 •twenty-five miles long by from six to eight wide, sur- 



i rounded by mountains and traversed at the upper part 

 by the Hell Gale and Bitter Root rivers, which, soon 



l uniting, form the Missoula, the waters of which reach 

 the Columbia. The soil of the valley is fertile, although 



["needing irrigation on the higher levels. 



i The town boasts a bank, several mercantile houses, a 



I {louring mill, half a dozen "saloons," a cleverly edited 



/ newspaper, a church, a school-house, and is the county 



) Beat. Three and a half miles distant is the military post 

 of Fort Missoula, garrisoned by four companies of in- 



Cfantry. The mode of access is from Ogdon, by the Utah 

 I hern Railroad, thence dmi Deer Lodge by Gilmer 



I and Salsbury's stages. The "palace jerkies," run by the 



ftjspmpauy on this end of the line, are much admired by 



tall who have experienced their comforts. 



I Jhe Indian inhabitants of this section— Flatheads and 

 Pen d'Oreilles, both of which names have no proper sig- 

 nificance— are peaceful. Numbers of them, not living 



■pfcthe agency, are engaged in farming and stock-raising. 



■They became partly civilized, in the very early days, 

 Mhraigh the labors of the Catholic missionaries. The 

 (last disturbances were from the Nez Perce invasion in 

 P$77, and from a small marauding party of the same tribe 

 ■4 year later. Practically there is little or no danger to 

 f *)e anticipated from this source. 



i This region, as a whole, presents many attractions for 



lihe sportsman. In endeavoring to convey a fair idea of 



'lit extent of our hunting and fishing, there is, perhaps, 



loo better way than by referring to the scores which at 



' tribus times have come under my cognizance. The 



ishief game-bird is the sharp-tail grouse, which, in favor- 



I »ble years is found in abundance in the brush about the 



small water-courses in the early season, and later in the 

 grain fields. Occasionally, as last year, a cold and wet 

 spring greatly reduces their number. Within a few 

 miles, an hour's shooting will ordinarily bring to bag a 

 dozen or more birds. Eighty-two, in a half day's shoot- 

 ing to two guns, has been the largest score. 



In the timber, pines and cotton woods are a reasonable 

 number of ruffed grouse, and on the higher ridges the 

 blue grouse are found. The latter, however, are not 

 Sufficiently abundant to pay for the labor of climbing to 

 their resorts. No ptarmigan have, to my knowledge, 

 been shot, but they doubtless exist about' many of the 

 higher peaks, several of which in sight are snow-clad the 

 year round. There are no quail in this vicinity, although, 

 from the fact that the Territorial law forbids their de- 

 struction for six years from 1879, it is pr:sumable that 

 their introduction has been attempted or contemplated 

 in other sections. Curlew are tolerably abundant in 

 early summer, nesting on the prairie, but except at the 

 time when rearing their young are, from the absence of 

 cover, almost, unapproachable. Snipe and plover are not 

 abundant. Woodcock are unknown. The wild fowl 

 shooting is not particularly good and does not compare 

 with that on the other side of the range, the great flights 

 passing far to the east and west of us. A dozen or fif- 

 teen ducks to one gun, in a day's shooting in our imme- 

 diate vicinity, would be beyond the average bag, although 

 much better sport is reported at Flathead Lake and up 

 the Bitter Root. A few ducks and geese breed here. 



The unparalleled abundance of largo game during the 

 past season has been due to the unusual depth of snow 

 forcing the deer to seek lower levels, so that in localities 

 where ordinarily but two or three could be expected, a 

 dozen would be' found. Hunting without snow-shoes was 

 exceedingly laborious, and the kind in favor here is not 

 like the Canadian, finely netted and running over point 

 at the heel. It is, on the contrary, very coarsely worked, 

 with green circle, so that, except where tile foot rests, 

 the clenched fist can be passed through the meshes. The 

 general shape is oval, and the maximum width from 

 eighteen to twenty inches. No doubt the longer and 

 narrower shoe would be preferable on level ground, but 

 for bill-climbing there is nothing like the " bear paw." 



To give some idea of the numbers in which deer have 

 been found, a party of three, shooting on what is known 

 as the " big grade," on the old mullein weed, some forty 

 miles from here, killed over sixt}' deer, chiefly black-tail, 

 and eleven mountain sheep. There was hardly a limit to 

 the number of white-tails that might have been slaugh- 

 tered, but attention after the first few days was elevated 

 to black-tails and sheep. Deer were not killed if canons 

 or hills made it too difficult to drag out the carcasses. 

 The party had about ten days of hunting. Another ex- 

 pedition of three, on a three days' hunt, seldom going 

 out before 9 o'clock and generally returning by 1, killed 

 twenty white-tail. All of the four companies at the Post 

 had as much venison as they desired. Notwithstanding 

 all this abundance, I do not know of but one instance 

 where deer were slaughtered for their hides alone, or 

 where the products ot the hunt were not used to good 

 advantage. These figures are not givfen to illustrate the 

 skill of the hunters, but to show the plentifulness of the 

 game. 



Elk and moose are occasionally shot, but as in winter 

 the depth of snow makes the carrying of supplies a terri- 

 ble labor, even with snowshoes, aud in autumn the fallen 

 timber and general ruggedness of the country present 

 great obstacles, it is difficult to penetrate to their ranges. 

 Perhaps a light toboggan that could, loaded, be easily 

 pulled by one man, offers the best solution of the problem. 



Mountain sheep are tolerably plentiful, but the amount 

 of wind and muscle required for their successful pursuit 

 is appalling to any but an old mountaineer. 



One mountain goat was sent from here in the early 

 winter to the Smithsonian Institution. They are less 

 abundant than the sheep, and even harder to secure. 

 They must be rather rare in Eastern collections, for the 

 Smithsonian offered a very handsome price for half a 

 dozen skins and skeletons. Bears are not common, nor 

 arc lynx or mountain lions often seen. The buil'alo 

 range is reported to have once extended to this region, 

 but since 1853 none have been seen. The visitor of that 

 year was an old bull, and although hailed by the Flat- 

 heads as the approaching fulfilment of a prophecy that 

 the buil'alo would return/seems to have been simply an 

 estray front the main herds, They could never have 

 been very abundant. 



Our fishing is excellent, except in the Hell Gate, where 

 it is spoiled by ruining operations above. The best is in 

 the So-So, a tributary of the Bitter Root, where the trout 

 run from a half pound up to two and a half pounds. 

 Seventy trout have been caught there with a fly in five 

 hours' fishing, whose total weight was not far from fifty 

 pounds, The length of river fished over did not exceed 

 two miles. The largest trout caught in the Bitter Root 

 weighed about nine pounds.aud was landed with a light ily- 

 rod and tackle. Fish of this size are rare, not more than 

 three or four having been caught in this stream in the 

 last two years. The Bitter Root trout take a fly all win- 

 ter, a black or gray hackle being the most killing. In 



Flathead Lake trout have been caught through the ice 

 weighing as high as thirty-five pounds. Ten and twelve 

 pounders are not uncommon. Fish of this size are also 

 found at the mouth of the St. Regis Borgia. Brook trout 

 are abundant in a small stream some ten miles from 

 town. 



The Legislature of Montana, at the last session, appro- 

 priated a thousand dollars for removing obstructions at 

 the Great Falls of the Upper Columbia, to permit the. 

 running up of salmon into Montana waters. These falls 

 are in Washington Territory, about ninety miles from 

 Fort Colville, and as they are far from any road or trail, 

 it is difficult to obtain exact information concerning 

 them. In addition to the problem of rendering these 

 falls passable, comes the question as I o whether salmon 

 will traverse some two hundred miles of more or less 

 muddy water that intervenes between Lake Pen d' Orielle 

 and the Bitter Root. Local opinion, based on experi- 

 ences in the Salmon River country, favors the belief that 

 they will. The nearest waters m which they are now 

 found are those of the Clearwater, over one hundred and 

 twenty-five miles at the least estimate. At Moose Creek, 

 one of its tributaries, five Kanakas stored over a thou- 

 sand pounds of dried salmon for winter consumption, 

 and caught them at odd times, while not engaged in min- 

 ing. 



On the North Fork of the Clearwater, a scouting party, 

 short of food, killed a twenty-five pound salmon with 

 rocks, and they are not infrequently, in the mining coun- 

 try of that region, thrown out and killed with sluice- 

 forks. 



Sportsmen's clubs have been recently formed in Mis- 

 soula and Dell Lodge, for the better enforcement of the 

 game laws, and also for the purpose of procuring such 

 definite information as may be necessary to gain practi- 

 cal good from the above-mentioned appropriation, 



Missoula, Montana. 



NOTES FROM THE CONNECTICUT LAKES 



VHE region of the Connecticut Lakes presents to 

 sportsmen certain features of attraction whioh 

 will, T think, warrant a few notes additional to those al- 

 ready published. 



There are three lakes in the chain. First Lake con- 

 tains large lakers and some speckled trout, is surround- 

 ed by woods, except along the southwest shore, and there 

 is a hotel at the outlet. Eastward the Mtigalloway Moun- 

 tains lift their magnificent timbered slopes. Last fall 

 the. lumber company built a road four miles north to 

 Second Lake — the gem of the chain— doing some lumber- 

 ing along the outlet, below the lake. The axe must 

 reach its shores in a few years, but for the present season 

 they are safe, and the land-owners say they shall remain 

 intact as long as possible. 



Third Lake, five miles beyond, is within the limits of 

 the wilderness, but is too near the French settlements 

 over the line to be a retreat for much large game. Still 

 it is a beautiful piece of trout-haunted water, lying at 

 the very height of land, with the mountains rising 

 abruptly from its clear depths. The Frenchmen fish it, 

 but I doubt if a fly has ever been cast on its surface, and 

 if another summer shall yield the opportunities of the 

 last three, I promise myself to make test for what the 

 clumsy tackle of the Kanucks may have left. This lake 

 is only a mile and a half long, and its principal inlet, the 

 source of the Connecticut River, is a mere rill, tumbling 

 from the spruce-darkened heights to the west. 



But Second Lake !— a name unsuggestive in itself, vet 

 with it come back in memory the scenes of four delight- 

 ful months of long summer days— days filled with an un- 

 forbidden and unmixed pleasure, which in after-thought 

 inspires regret only that it had an end. To us who, 

 nearly four years ago, first pitched our camps by the un- 

 disturbed and trout-tilled streams, it is known as " The 

 Lake." So to remain, with a charmed memory of days 

 spent iu a spot perfect in its wildness. "The Lake I" and 

 inseparable from it in thought is Thomas Chester aud his 

 log-camp facing the lake, and the limitless forest east- 

 ward. I always rather envied friend C, of Concord, 

 his being the first to stop at the fresh, new camp, hut as 

 our trout-seeking trio came only two days later, it. was 

 ample compensation to be. able to stay a longer time than 

 he. It was then only a year since Uncle Tom had come 

 over from Katahdin, and begun his raid on the beaver. 

 From that time — and at first thought it. may seem re- 

 markable — the game, instead of diminishing, has in- 

 creased. This is partly owing to the fact that the natives 

 from the near settlements keep awav. in the knowledge 

 that it is useless to trap where Chester does, for there is 

 not another such trapper in the State. Then his camp 

 has in summer been occupied by a few gentlemen who 

 have hunted deer chiefly by the not very destructive 

 method of night floating. The natives, with their nets 

 and other implements infernal, keep aloof to the extent 

 that true sportsmen are present, and together with two 

 or three favorable winters, tins has contributed to the in- 

 crease of large game. No dogs arc used about the lake- 

 not that Chester has control outside his own camp hut 



