March IS, 1884] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



123 



into eddies would not be touched, and it was only when au 

 isolated one came beating its wings and fluttering on the 

 waters' top around the swiftest corners that a spring for it 

 was at all certain, and a brown hackle dancing around in 

 the same place would monopolize every rise within the 

 radius of a game fish's eyesight, They were not much in- 

 clined to jump at any time in the vicinity of the canyon or 

 its rapids', probably fearing that the mosquitoes would eat 

 them up, as some one remarked, but. on several other OCCa 

 sions and places, especially during quiet but lowering and 

 rainy evenings, they could be heard seeking their suppers, 

 being probably the gnats and mosquitoes the rain was beal 

 ing down; at least, let us all hope so and pray for rain and 

 graylings or grayling.* Our Tahkheesh friends were as 

 much surprised at this peculiar kind of fishing as the gray- 

 ling themselves, and expressed their astonishment in guttural 

 grunts. 



They ate all the spare ones we would give them, which 

 was often nearly a dozen apiece. The largest grayling we 

 weighed was two pounds and a quarter. 



Early on the morning of the 2d of July a small rafting 

 party of two or three persons was sent over the portage trail 

 to get below the cascades and help the raft's being brought 

 ashore at that point, and were supplied with rope for that 

 purpose. A little after 10 o'clock in the morning, Billy, 

 our half-breed, entered the canyon with our canoe and disap- 

 peared around the^oruer of the basaltic columns. A_t 11 ;35 

 A. M. we loosened the raft, from her moorings and, although 

 it took fully five minutes to pole her out from the eddy 

 where she had been moored, she at last got under headway 

 and started out. The first accident was a smashing collision 

 with the basaltic columns of the canyon's west side, that tore 

 off the inner log in a twinkling and snapped off the outer 

 one and shot it into the middle of the stream. It swung 

 around the lauding place with tremendous velocity and soon 

 took up its original swiftness. Rightabout the center the 

 canyon widens out into a circular basin of basalt where the 

 water's edge might possibly be reached on the western shore, 

 and in this whirlpool and boiling cauldron it was thought 

 that the raft, might get left spinning around in the big 

 eddies, but no such misfortune befel it, and it shot through 

 the basin so that a person on the banks couldn't have told it 

 from a stern wheel steamer. It weut grating over the rapids 

 below, laboring like a ship in a heavy sea until nearly down 

 to the sandhills by the cascades, when Billy and Indianne, 

 a large burly Chilkat-Tahkhecsh Indian, rowed out to meet it 

 at the bend and, then gathering itself like a horse for a 

 hurdle, it rushed at the cascades, first buried its nose in 

 the flying froth, and theu rising in the air shot through at 

 an angle of twenty -five or thirty degrees in the air, sinking 

 to a level in the simmering suds beyond. The same old 

 halliards was gotten ashore that had stood us so well before, 

 but it snapped like a thread as the raft reached its end. 



A second attempt, about 490 to 450 yards below the cascades, 

 was more successful, with a good, generous shaking up of 

 the whole. Not far from here was a little grove of small 

 pines, that had been well seasoned by some disasterous fire 

 raging through them within the last, 'two or three years, and 

 as oar present deck looked like the horizantaf plan of a 

 pound of fish hooks, we determined to take advantage of 

 this little grove to redeck our boat, which was accordingly 

 done. All of these groves and timber districts must be sub- 

 ject to periodical devastation of tire, especially the conifers, 

 the spruce, the pine and other resin-bearing trees, according 

 to the appearances that were presented to us from time to 

 time along our route, and are no doubt set fire to by careless 

 campers of nomadic Indians, or more probably by 'their set- 

 ting fire to dense masses so as to throw up a" thick smoke 

 that can be seen for miles as signals. In most of the fired 

 ranges the trees are quite large, 'and falling into de.cay after 

 having been killed by the fire, they soon form an'entangle- 

 ment of blackened limbs and trunks. This is anything but 

 easy for a pedestrian to make any headway through, espe- 

 cially when it is coupled, as usual, with a dense growth of 

 young trees, whose limbs extend to the ground. As I have 

 worked my way through them at a rate of a mile in twenty- 

 four hours, I could not help thinking of the chances of 

 escape if a grizzly bear should bo out taking the fresh air at 

 the same time, and the two paths should intersect, at an 

 angle of 180°, and the bear was of that Unreasonable nature 

 that insisted on the whole path and that "mighty quick." 

 But as no bear in his right mind would have lived twenty- 

 four hours among so many mosquitoes for all the un- 

 washed explorers from "the land of the midnight sun" to 

 "the dark continent," no such a collision occurred, and 

 I was left alone to fight my mosquitoes in peace. And. by the 

 way, there is some reason why the grizzly should dread the 

 mosquito of Alaska, and that reason is, that they have been 

 known to kill them during the short summer months. Absurd 

 as this appears, and as first it appeared to me, I was at last a 

 convert to the theory advanced by the Indians, that the large 

 brown bear of Alaska, here inappropriately, t think, called 

 the grizzly, has been known to succum b to mosquitoes in these 

 parts. I first heard of this on the lower river, and although I 

 was in a better frame of mind than the average reader of the 

 Forest and Stream for believing the story, I did not, 

 until an old trader in these parts who had no object in stuff- 

 ing me, and whose every manner and conversation on every 

 other subject was perfectly reliable, confirmed it. Should 

 one of these big brown fellows, tempted by something un- 

 usual, as a savory mess of defunct salmon, wander down into 

 or across a swamp unusually full of these prickly pirates, 

 and they make their attack upon Mm, the bear is likely to 

 rear up on his hindquarters, bruin fashion, and fight them 

 with his paws until he is nearly exhausted and his' eyes be 

 come vulnerable to the incessant attacks of the insects, and 

 iu course of time they are swollen shut, and if in this condition 

 the bear is not able to get away from the district? or should 

 get deeper into the marsh, starvation finally ends his suffer- 

 ings. Hard as this is to believe I felt that the reasoning was 

 not unreasonable and the outside facts in the case strongly 

 corroborating it in all that was needed to make it appear 

 possible and even probable. I think 1 have spoken in a 

 farmer article of the widespread terror the brown bear pro- 

 duces among all the Alaska natives within the limits of my 

 travels. I found the animals or heard of them, by this means 

 principally, along the whole length of the Yukon, and ex- 

 tending back along all its estuaries whose Indian tribes visit 

 the great river. 



[to be continued.] 



♦'•Would you say that graylings or grayling were caught iu large- 

 numbers on one upper Yukon.?* 1 asked one writer of another of the 

 parly as they sat together in the evening balancing accounts for the 

 day. "It mates no difference whether you lie in the singular or plu- 

 ral m Alaska, was the unsatisfactory answer of the individual inter- 

 rogated, who had supposed the questioner referred to the Yukon 

 above this place as the "Upper." 



^Hhqnl j§t$torg. 



THE DEER OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 



BY WILLIAM I'lTTMAN LETT. 



[Head before the Field Naturalists' Olub of the Caty of Ottawa, Ons 

 tario, Canada, on the l36h day of March"; 1884.] 

 "The antler'd monarch of the waste 

 Sprnng from Iris heathery couch in haste, 

 nut. ere his fleet career he took, 

 The dewdrops from his flanks he shook; 

 Like crested leader, proud and high, 

 Toss'd his be.am'd frontlet to the sky 

 A moment gazed adown the dale, 

 A moment snuffed the tainted gale, 

 a moment listened to the cry 

 That thicken'd as tl^^haso drew uigh ; 

 Then, as the headmol^oes appear'd. 

 With one brave bound the copse he clear'd, 

 And, stretching forward, free audfar, 

 §OUght the wild heaths of Uam-Var.'" 



-i, mi ii of thf lake, 



IN engaging, as briefly as possible, in the, to me, delightful 

 task of dealing with the deer of the Ottawa Valley, I 

 shall be obliged, for the sake of necessary conciseness, as 

 far as maybe, to steer clear of the rifle, the camp-fire and 

 the runway, and confine myself to hard and, if possible, in- 

 teresting facts connected with the history of the noble and 

 beautiful race of animals of which I am to treat. 



First and foremost on the list, properly and correctly, I 

 believe, I shall place the wapiti {GWttls owailutm), the 

 great stag of Canada. I do so on account of his being not 

 only the most noble specimen of the genus in America, but 

 by far the most beautiful and stately animal of the deer tribe 

 in the world. No animal known to naturalists carries such 

 a magestic and symmetrical set of horns as the wapiti. In this 

 particular he far surpasses the great sambur of India and 

 the red stag of the British Islands. A large male of this 

 species will weigh between eight hundred and a thousand 

 pounds, the female, when full grown and fat, weighing; up- 

 wards of seveu hundred pounds. The form of this noble 

 animal is compact, strongly built and graceful, the only appa- 

 rent drawback to its perfect beauty being the shortness of 

 its tail. A large buck wapiti stands seventeen hands high, 

 equal to the height of a large horse. The colour is vellowish 

 brown, verging towards a dark, glossy brown about the 

 head and shoulders, belly brown, and a yellowish white 

 patch on eachhiudquarter. The horns, however, constitute 

 the greatest poiut of beauty in the wapiti. Antlers of the 

 largest size have been frequently met with measuring up- 

 wards of six feet from the burr, around the beam to the 

 highest point, ornamented with four formidable brow ant- 

 lers, two over each eye, each eighteen, and sometimes 

 twenty-four inches long, curved upward, and elegantly 

 tapering and sharp and smooth at the points. The other 

 prongs or tines range from a foot to eighteen inches in length, 

 and are nicely graduated to fine points, as if they had been 

 artificially tapered and polished. The horns shoot upward 

 with a graceful sweep, and are generally peculiar for the 

 almost uniform regularity of their growth. The largest stag 

 of the highlands of Scotland would appear but a mere fawn 

 standing beside a full-grown, peerlessly-crowmed stag of 

 Canada. The monarch of the highland glens seldom reaches 

 more than four hundred and twenty -Ave pounds in weight, 

 while his giaut American congener turns the scale, when 

 gralloched, at double that weight. 



The wapiti — long misnamed an elk — was formerly quite 

 numerous in the Ottawa Valley. In contradistinction to the 

 cariboo and the moose, he was found more generally on the 

 southern shore of the river. One hundred years ago these 

 animals were still preseut in no inconsiderable numbers in 

 the county of Carlelon, the hardwood forests of which were 

 their favorite haunts. The horns of the .wapiti are still 

 quite frequently turned up by the plough in the vicinity of 

 the city of Ottawa. 1 have frequently fouud them when a 

 boy, in the woods around the village of Kichmoud, lying on 

 the surface of the ground in a pretty fair state of preserva- 

 tion, a sure indication that not very long before those majes- 

 tic animals must have been natives of our immediate neigh- 

 borhood. The fragment of a wapiti horn, which I show 

 you now, was found a few years ago near Eastman's Springs, 

 and about eight years ago a much larger and more perfect 

 specimen was found on the farm of Mr. R. J. Hinton, within 

 two miles of the city limits. Many naturalists imagine that 

 the presence of the wapiti in this neighborhood dates back 

 to a period comparatively remote. This, however, can 

 scarcely be the case, as facts more conclusive than even the 

 finding of their horns can be adduced in proof of those ani- 

 mals having been numerous here less than one hundred years 

 ago. Mr. Rice Honeywell, of the township of Nepeau, one 

 of our earliest settlers in this region, positively affirms that 

 within the last seventy years he has seen the wapiti both 

 alive and dead within four miles of the city of Ottawa, on 

 the old Thompson farm. Mr. Honeywell knows well the 

 difference between a wapiti and a moose, many of (he latter 

 he was in the habit of seeing in the same locality. This 

 brings the period of the existence of this grand animal in our 

 midst much closer and less remote than is generally sup- 

 posed. The wapiti is still hunted successfully, being' much 

 less vigilant and much more easily approached than any 

 other Canadian deer. In the Northwest, the Indians ride in 

 amongst a herd, keeping well down on the necks of their 

 horses, and thus frequently succeed in killiug a herd of 

 nine or feu in a lew minutes. A wounded wapiti is a dan- 

 gerous animal to approach unprepared, as many an unlucky 

 hunter has fouud out to his cost. 



The progress of settlement, the cutting down of the forests 

 and the resistless march of civilization has driven those 

 noble animals out of their old haunts. The race in this 

 neighborhood w r as by no means exterminated; for then there 

 were but few huuters, and the appliances for slaughter were 

 of a much more primitive description than the arms of pre- 

 cision of the present day. Rifles in Canada were unknown 

 in the days of the wapiti; and the weapon of the Algonquin, 

 the Iroquois and the Abenakis was the bow and arrow. Like 

 flic Indian, the wapiti has had to travel before the aggressive 

 strokes of the axe toward I he setting sun; and. heris now 

 only to be found in Canada at, the North and South forks of 

 the Saskatchewan in any great numbers. Parker Gilmore, 

 a famous sportsman and a naturalist of no mean order, says: 

 "I do not think from the information 1 have been able to 

 obtain from searching old authorities who have written on 

 the fauna of North America, that the range of the wapiti ever 

 extended eastward to the Atlantic seaboard; but, that their 

 habitat commenced with the prairie country, say Illinois or 



Indiana. However, those States have long ceased to know 

 them; for, like other large game, they have rapidly retired 

 before, the tide of emigration. The upper waters of the 

 Missouri, the plains around the fork of the North and South 

 Saskatchewan are where, at present, this mammoth stag will 

 be found most abundant. " 



The stag of Canada, like the cariboo, is essentially gre- 

 garious, the herds frequently numbering hundreds. Those 

 grand animals, year after year, are growing scarcer. The 

 assassin skin-huuter and the repeating rifle are doing their 

 deadly work amongst, them, and the time will shortly arrive, 

 if legislatures iu Canada and the United States do not forth- 

 with undertake the needed work of protection with a strong 

 and relentless hand, when this stately ornament of forest and 

 prairie will leave his last shed antlers to tell the people of no 

 distant day of the folly and improvidence which deprived 

 them of a woodland glory of which any country ought to be 

 proud. The miserable, thoughtless Iudiau. aud the atrocious 

 skin - hunter, have nearly exterminated the bison, the 

 mightiest of all American game animals. The boundless 

 prairies where they were formerly to be found by hundreds 

 til thousands, even in millions, arc now wide wastes covered 

 by l he white bones of the butchered herds. The trainp 

 which shook the prairie as the mighty cavalcades thundered 

 along, is no longer heard ; and small bands of ten or twenty 

 here aud there, like heaps of ashes, indicating where fires had 

 once been, alone tell the pitiful story of the present. 



Do not say that I speak from a sportsman's selfishness, I 

 never expect to kill a bison or a wapiti; but I love the beasts 

 of the wilderness aud the beautiful birds of the air. If I 

 could, 1 would not exterminate even the skunk. Each beast 

 of tb« field antl each bird of the air bus been allotted its 

 proper place, and assigned its legitimate positiou of useful- 

 ness or beauty; and I hold no feeling in common with the 

 man who, through avarice or cruelty, wantonly destroys them. 



The wapiti has long been called an elk, while it has al- 

 ways been well known "by naturalists that he has none of the 

 distinguishing characteristics of the geuus Alees, in either 

 form, appearance, anatomy or shape of horns, but must be 

 recognized as the head of the family of stags, the largest and 

 the most stately of the whole tribe* of ilic'Cemdie. To this 

 family belong the red deer of the British Islands and the 

 Indian and Asiatic stags. It is time that the misnomer ap- 

 plied to the wapiti w T ere transferred to the moose, the true elk 

 and undoubted congener of the Scandinavian and great 

 Irish elk. In this particular of misnaming, history, year 

 after year, repeats itself, and, as it were, causes the world to 

 listen again and again to a gross misrepresentation, counte- 

 nanced and tolerated by science. 



THE BARREN GROUND CARIBOO {Tarct/ldHS arctic (i ■.*) . 



As you are all doubtless aware, there are two species of the 

 reindeer of North America — the barren ground cariboo and 

 the woodland cariboo (Tarandus remp^trj— resembling each 

 other iu almost every particular, excepting in size of body 

 and shape of horns. The barren ground cariboo is found in 

 every part of Arctic America, including the region from 

 Hudson's Bay to within the Arctic circle. It is somewhat 

 smaller than our common deer (Ccrrus rirgi/uan>!-s), the 

 largest bucks seldom weighing more than 125 pounds when 

 skinned and dressed. These animals, however, do not en- 

 tirely confine themselves to the extreme north, but in the 

 autumn migrate southward, and spend the winter in the 

 woods, where they have been frequently killed by the In- 

 dians. Both male and female of this species have horns, 

 and, like all animals of the deer genus, shed them yearly, in 

 the month of February, somewhat later in the season than 

 the red deer of America. Like the wapiti, the cariboo of 

 both species have canine teeth in the upper jaw, but no in- 

 cisors. The smaller species, not being now, nor has it been' 

 at any time common to the valley of the Ottawa, and being 

 nearly identical in habits with the larger, I shall not go into 

 any more minute particulars as to food, color, size or habits 

 of the former, but proceed with a description of the larger 

 species, which has always been, and is still, an inhabitant of 

 certain parts of the Ottawa country. 



The woodland cariboo {Td/randna mngifer), as I have re- 

 marked, is similar in appearance and habits to tbe Taruudus 

 arcliciis, but double as large, with shorter and stouter horns 

 in proportion to its size. It inhabits Labrador and Northern 

 Canada, and thence may be found south to Nova Scotia aud 

 New Brunswick, the northern part of the State of Maine 

 and Lower Canada on both sides of the St. Lawrence, thence 

 westerly in the country north of Quebec back of Lake 

 Superior. It never migrates towards the north, but makes 

 its migration in a southerly direction. In this particular it 

 acts directly opposite to the course pursued by the smaller 

 species in its migrations. The following is the description 

 given by Audubon of this deer : 



"Larger and less graceful than the common American 

 deer, body short and heavy, neck stout, hoofs thin and flat- 

 tened, broad and spreading, excavated or concave beneath; 

 accessory hoofs large and thin, legs short, no glandular open- 

 ing aud scarcely a perceptible tuft on the hind legs; nose 

 somewhat like that of a cow, but fully covered with soft 

 hairs of a somewhat moderate length; no beard, but on the 

 under side of the neck a line of hairs about four inches in 

 length, which bang down in a longitudinal direction; ears 

 small, blunt and oval, thickly covered with hair on both 

 surfaces; horns one foot three and a half inches in height, 

 slender, one with two and the other with one prong; prongs 

 about five inches long, hair soft and woolly underneath, the 

 longer hairs, like those of the antelope, crimped or waved, 

 and about one to one and a half inches long," As to the 

 color of the animal, this author states that, "at the roots 

 the hairs are wdiitish, then become brownish gray, whiter on 

 the neck than elsewhere; nose, ears and outer surface of 

 legs and shoulders brownish, a slight shade of the same 

 tinge behind the fore legs, hoofs black and throat dull 

 white, a faint whitish patch on the side of the shoulders, 

 forehead brownish white, belly white, tail white, with a 

 slight shade of brown at the root and on the whole upper 

 surface, outside of legs brown, a band of white around all 

 the legs adjoining the hoofs and extending to the small 

 secondary hoof s„, horns yellowish browu, worn white in 

 places." 



This description is all very well, and in the main points 

 generally correct, The rather arbitrary dimensions given of 

 the horns is scarcely borne out or corroborated by the prae 

 tical naturalist known as the hunter. The horns measured 

 by Audubon for this description were likely those of a female. 

 Here before you are two sets of horns of the woodland cari- 

 bou, both of which came from above the Desert River on the 

 Clafineau. seventy or eighty miles further north. They arc 

 singularly dissimilar in appearance, and I am of opinion 

 that, both were taken from the heads of male animals. I 

 saw tt pair of cariboo horns some years ago in the possession 

 of Mr. Hiram Robinson of this city, which were very much 



