132 



RECREATION. 



coaches, or, better still, continue by your 

 own conveyance; see the geysers and other 

 wonders, go via Yellowstone lake to Yel- 

 lowstone falls. Here you can dismiss your 

 outfit and take the stage to Cinnabar, and 

 thence by the N. P. Railway home. I 

 made this trip last season, and found July 

 20th to September 1st the best time, as the 

 mosquito season was then past. 



It will take you some time, after you have 

 reached home, to digest all you have seen 

 and learned. You will begin to realize the 

 vastness of the country in which you live, 

 and how little you know of it. Your mind 

 will be broadened, you will look back upon 

 the outing with pleasant recollections, and 

 will wonder how you could have seen so 

 much at so small an outlay; viz. $250 to 

 $300. W. H. Beck with. 



LOOKING FOR WINTER MEAT. 



Jackson, Wyo. 



Editor Recreation: Having missed the 

 elk when they moved into Jackson's Hole, 

 which they did during a big snow storm 

 in November, and when thousands of them 

 passed within 2 miles of our place, we kept 

 looking for more elk; but could not make 

 much headway on account of the continual 

 snowfall. At last I had to give up getting 

 my winter's meat from that band. How- 

 ever, my experience in»Northern Minnesota 

 came in handy and I made a toboggan out 

 of a plank, a pair of web snowshoes out 

 of a wagon bow and an elk skin. Then, 

 with a companion, I started out to get 

 meat, on another tack. 



Having on a suit of white, canvas cov- 

 ered clothing, with mittens and gun-cover 

 white, I knew if I found game I was sure 

 of a shot. We tramped 2 days, through 

 ZV2 feet of snow and storm, to Cedar 

 mountain, whose cone is usually swept bare 

 of snow and where some game winters. 



Putting up at a ranch our first inquiry 

 was for game. The man said he had seen 

 thousands of elk pass and that getting be- 

 hind a bunch of 300 he had driven them 

 past his neighbor's door, and they killed 

 enough to last till summer. He graciously 

 offered us all we could haul home. How- 

 ever, I knew deer were plentiful and wanted 

 some venison. In the morning my partner 

 and I started out. The weather having 

 cleared we went to Cedar mountain and 

 climbing it found ample signs of deer, elk, 

 wolf, lynx and mountain lion but no game. 

 They seemed to have gone up the river 

 and into a large tract of willows. 



Separating from my companion we took 

 to the open plain, or sage brush flat, as it is 

 called. I went in the open and my partner 

 skirted the foothills. Presently' I heard a 

 shot and looking in the direction taken by 



M could see some deer running up a 



canyon. I could not get there in time to 

 head them off. 



I went through a cut, in some low hills, 

 and climbed a knoll. Presently a big 

 buck jumped up, in a bunch of poplars, and 

 started down the hill. I could not get a 

 good shot and saw him join a bunch of 

 about 30 deer that had been lying in the 

 sage brush, on the flat. Then he left them 

 and turned into some quaking asp, in the 

 foothills. I followed and was making good 

 headway when I heard a snort above me 

 and looking up caught a glimpse of his 

 flag going over the crest of the hill. 



On climbing up I saw where he had 

 doubled on his track and waited just long 

 enough for me to come in sight of him 

 when he took after the bunch again. I 

 took up the trail, skirting a bunch of wil- 

 lows and soon saw 4 pairs of elk antlers. 



Going in I routed the elk, and waiting 

 until they got into the open and started up 

 the hill I picked the largest, fired and broke 

 his back. The other 3 bulls ran about 50 

 yards and stood on the side hill looking 

 back. I did no;t shoot at them, for I had 

 meat enough. 



I arrived at the ranch at 8 p.m. and found 

 my companion had killed one small buck 

 deer. Burt Harris. 



CONDENSED RATIONS. 



After careful deliberation, 45 of the most 

 experienced officers in the U. S. Army have 

 adopted a highly-condensed emergency ra-' 

 tion — and now we wonder why this was not 

 done long ago. The daily ration, as issued, 

 weighs 35 ounces, and consists of the fol- 

 lowing items: 16 ounces of hard bread, 10 

 ounces of side bacon, in paraffin paper; 4 

 ounces of pea meal (for soup), in a cloth 

 bag; 2 ounces of coffee; saccharin (solid 

 sugar), 4 gr.ains, in the form of 2 tablets; 

 y 2 ounce of salt; ^ ounce of tobacco, and 

 f ounce of pepper, in a pill-box. The total 

 cost of the ration is 17^4 cents, and in bulk 

 it is so small that when first issued it was 

 viewed with anxiety akin to alarm. 



On May 18, Troop E. 1st U. S. Cavalry, 

 commanded by Capt. W. C. Brown, left 

 Fort Sill, I. T. for a 12 days' trip, through 

 a wild and uninhabited country, to test the 

 staying qualities of the condensed ration. 

 On the last 10 days of the trip, the entire 

 troop, of 2 officers and 44 men, subsisted on 

 only 5 full rations each; or, in other words, 

 Yz of an emergency ration each day. The 

 soldiers found the ration better than it 

 looked; that it fully satisfied hunger, and 

 sustained health and full vigor, in spite of 

 long marches and stormy weather. 



The continuous rain had a far more de- 

 pressing effect on the troop than the half- 

 rations. Although the men lost an average 

 of 3 pounds each, in weight, in the 12 days, 



