1 86 



RECREATION. 



were given into his charge. Within a week 

 from the time he took possession of them 

 I saw one of them over 140 miles from 

 the agency, with his gun, and 1 guess Cap- 

 tain Ray allowed all of his Indians to leave 

 the agency, for there were more Indians 

 here afterwards than before; and the Ban- 

 nocks are worse than the Shoshones. 



Gardiner, Park Co., Mont. 



Editor Recreation : 



It seems a pity that the otherwise almost 

 perfect August number of Recreation 

 should have been marred by the article en- 

 titled " Random Shots." If the author has 

 no delicacy about seeing his name attached 

 to such a bit of romance, he should at least 

 remember that the reading public likes and 

 demands facts, and "facts" is synonymous 

 with "truths." 



The truth sometimes hurts, but to be shot 

 at (and hit) with an untruth, even though it 

 be a random shot, is like being struck with a 

 poisoned barb ; one may or may not get 

 over it in the years to come. When Mr. 

 Harper intimates that there are some guides 

 in the Yellowstone Park, or Jackson's Hole, 

 who have only a frying pan and a tin cup 

 for an outfit, he knows he is getting danger- 

 ously near the borderland of fabrication. 

 His plea that they take along silver plated 

 ware, was probably inspired by the fact that 

 his Yellowstone Park guide was so equipped, 

 and not only with silver plated table ware, 

 but with enameled dishes, and bedding 

 galore. 



Mr. Harper's advice to tourists to bring 

 their provisions in boxes with padlocks, is 

 quite refreshing. From much personal ex- 

 perience I must deny that " the quality of 

 the provisions of the frontier stores is not to 

 be relied upon." On all sides of the park, 

 and in Jackson's Hole, can his list be dupli- 

 cated, " flour, corn meal, sugar, coffee, tea, 

 chocolate, hams, bacon, jelly, jam, pickles, 

 and olives," and a dozen other dainties his 

 guide well knows of, if he does not. 



Our friend advertises the fact that he is a 

 worshipper of the mighty dollar. Most 

 pleasures are more or less luxuries. A trip 

 through Yellowstone Park, Jackson's Hole, 

 or to the Teton country, with private 

 guides, is a great pleasure and perhaps to 

 many a corresponding luxury to be seriously 

 considered before being indulged in. Our 

 friend's protest that overcharges are habit- 

 ually made for horse hire in this country is 

 hardly true, and his reasons for making such 

 a statement are certainly illogical. He might 

 just as well claim that because a city livery 

 horse is worth only $40 or $50, to ask for its 

 use from $5 to $10 a day "is clearly ex- 

 orbitant." The guide's horses have to be 

 looked after all winter. For each trip they 

 are shod at an expense of $2 a head, and of 

 all the horses belonging to the many guides 

 I know, not one can be purchased for less 

 than $25. Too often a guide will have out 



but one party during a season, and that one 

 for only a short trip. 



Wishing only to correct the wrong im- 

 pressions " Random Shots " may have pro- 

 duced among your 10,000 subscribers, I reit- 

 erate my statement that the grandest of trips, 

 the best of guides, the best of horses for the 

 purpose, the best of outfits, and the best of 

 provisions can be had out here, and at prices 

 so reasonable that, were they known in the 

 east as they ought to be, the only difficulty 

 would be the furnishing of guides and horses 

 enough for the crowds that would come. 



R. D. 



Simon Pokagon, the celebrated Indian 

 chief, residing at Hartford, Mich., in a per- 

 sonal letter to me, says: 



I have read the article on page 95 of 

 the August number of Recreation, in re- 

 gard to the Indians killing game contrary 

 to law: If you could have seen the destruc- 

 tion of deer, elk and buffalo that I have seen 

 you would blame my people less for killing 

 game than you now do. When a boy I 

 have seen white men kill whole herds of 

 buffalo for the sport of killing, leaving them 

 unskinned upon the plain. I have seen 

 them destroy all kinds of animals and fish 

 without any desire, apparently, to make 

 money out of them, or to use them, but sim- 

 ply to satisfy their greed for killing. The 

 Indians have been taught by the white 

 man to indulge in cruel, wicked, wholesale 

 slaughter. Before the white man came 

 among us we only killed what we ate, for 

 we were taught that to kill more than we 

 needed was displeasing to the Great Spirit, 

 and would shut us out of the happy hunt- 

 ing ground beyond. One young man was 

 banished from his tribe because he waded 

 into a lake, with his head covered with a 

 bunch of wild rice, moved out to a large 

 flock of ducks and took one after another 

 by the legs, drawing them under the water 

 and drowning them. In this way he caught 

 and drowned over 100 ducks — a few more 

 than are shown in the beautiful duck pic- 

 ture in your August number. 



If white men fully understood how nat- 

 ural it is for the red men to copy them, they 

 would have more charity and far less re- 

 venge. 



East Branch, N. Y. 



Editor Recreation: 



I have been a guest in this hotel for three 

 seasons and have been fishing almost every 

 day. I know of no place, within a day's 

 ride of New York, where a sportsman can 

 catch as many fish amid such charming sur- 

 roundings. The town of East Branch is 

 beautifully situated at the junction of the 

 East Branch of the Delaware and the 

 Beaverkill river, the latter being justly cele- 

 brated as a trout stream. The Delaware is 

 full of fine pools and deep eddies which are 

 filled with small-mouth black bass, some of 



