FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



How He Did It. — Hon. L. A. Huffman, of 

 Miles City, Montana, in a personal letter to the 

 editor, says : I had an experience with one of 

 those pneumatic hunting boats the other day that 

 would have made you smile if you had been for- 

 tunate enough to see the show, and in the bargain 

 got an invitation to sample at our family Thanks- 

 giving board, and the geese I murdered with my 

 old reliable Colt which you sent me so long ago, 

 when we had more hair and life before us than 

 we have now. It was this way. You know the 

 long bar below the " old town " crossing of the 

 Yellowstone — slack water and high cut banks for 

 a mile ; most unapproachable place. Many's the 

 time, when going and coming from the Meadows, 

 I have seen honkers and big fat laughing geese 

 roosting out there in perfect security. You know 

 how cunning those big white beggars, with the 

 black markings, are ; well, last Friday eight of 

 them and about twice as many honkers were hold- 

 ing down the lower end of that bar. 



I blew up the pneumatic, under the fringe of 

 cottonwoods half mile above ; trimmed it with 

 rye grass quicker than I can tell you, slipped 

 down to within 500 yards with the current, 

 then dropped the 20 pound stone I had tied to a 

 piece of fish line. It found bottom, and then the 

 fun commenced. I had to stop perfectly still, 

 every time one of the old captains made that 

 queer remark, you have so often heard. Then 

 when they had talked it over and settled down to 

 business, oiling their feathers and scratching 

 places that itched round under wings, I would 

 work a little nearer. 



It took an hour at least, and I would hardly 

 have got in range at all, had not a little squall 

 from down river come tearing along just in time, 

 the noise and roughened water gave me my op- 

 portunity. I dropped the string, cocked both 

 barrels and let her drift — sixty, fifty, forty yards, 

 and old Captain Whitey screamed : "Great gosh, 

 children, the thing's alive, come, let's go !" But 

 just then a charge of BB.'sfrommy right knocked 

 out his eye and broke his wing. Then a plump 

 young honker, that hadn't been saying anything, 

 rose straight toward me and fell to my left, so 

 close, he splashed the spray in my face, and I 

 crossed the slack water to the main land, 20 

 pounds richer in wild goose meat. I squeezed 

 out the wind from the pneumatic and trudged 

 my three miles home with a light heart, and 

 goose enough for " ours" and one to spare for a 



feller that thinks I'm a blanked for 



guns, decoys and prowling in the meadows, when 

 it rains and blows great guns. But he enjoyed 

 the bird just the same. 



Editor Recreation. 



Dubois, Wyoming. 



Elk, deer and mountain sheep are plentiful 

 here at present. This is a direct result of our 

 showing some of the Indians who were here last 

 fall, who were supplied with hunting passes from 

 their Agent, and who had been to the west of the 

 Continental divide, slaughtering elk, the route 

 to their reservation. 



The Shoshone range, to the south-east of the 

 Yellowstone National Park, and the Wind river 



and Gros Ventre ranges, to the south of the 

 Park, are the best hunting and fishing grounds 

 in the west, and since the buffaloes have disap- 

 peared, has become a famous hunting and fish- 

 ing resort for the Shoshone Indians, of the Wind 

 River Reservation, and for the Bannocks, of the 

 Fort Hall, Ross Fork and Lemhi agencies. Had 

 it not been for the Park, the elk might have been 

 nearly exterminated long since. 



In September last I met, near Rollins's camp, 

 on Snake river, a party of Indians from the 

 Lemhi Agency, and in talking with them, one 

 buck said that when the elk heard the report of 

 a gun, they would start for the "white man's 

 country," meaning the Park, "and that," said 

 he, "is the last we see of them. They never 

 run toward the south." This remark I know to 

 be literally true. 



The elk trails, crossing the Buffalo Fork of 

 Snake river, while the earth is still soft in the 

 spring, all the tracks leading in the direction of 

 the Park, show that the elk have already learned 

 that there is one place where they are safe. 



The Shoshone range is an excellent sheep coun- 

 try, but so rough that Indians do not hunt there, 

 to any extent, as the lazy devils dislike to hunt 

 on foot, and will not do so unless necessity 

 drives them to it. 



There are also a number of elk in this range, 

 and if they can be protected from Indians, they 

 will soon be plentiful. Nelson Yarnall. 



Editor Recreation. Kearney, Neb. 



I can substantiate the accounts in your April 

 number, from the residents of Jackson's Hole, 

 being personally acquainted with most of 

 them. In the fall of '92, I spent six weeks 

 there, and saw two bands of Indians, besides 

 six abandoned camps, where the hair from deer, 

 antelope and elk hides lay in piles a foot deep. 

 Carcasses lay strewn in all directions from the 

 camp, making food for the beasts of prey. 

 There is no waste of game by the residents, who 

 strenuously object to it, and only kill enough 

 for meat. The game ought to be protected for 

 the pioneers who develop the country. Keep on 

 with your good work and see if the red vaga- 

 bonds cannot be suppressed. B. F. J. 



William Fahie, agent of the Game and Inland 

 Fishery Protection Service, at Rawdon, Canada, 

 estimates the number of moose in his county at 

 60 ; John Bower, agent at Shelbourne, says that 

 over 70 moose were killed in his district during 

 the open season of '93 and '94, but that there are 

 still plenty of them left ; Edward Jenner, of 

 Sherbrooke, puts the number of moose in Gays- 

 boro county at 600. He stales that 35 were 

 killed in his county last season. C. R. Kelly, of 

 Yarmouth, writes that 63 moose were killed in 

 that county, and A. O. Pritchard, of New Glas- 

 gow, reports the killing of over 60 in his county 

 within the year, one party of Indians having 

 killed 14. 



A bill has been introduced in the Idaho legis- 

 lature appropriating $2,000 for importing Mon- 

 golian pheasants. F. R. Fouch. 



-,Si 



