448 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 2, 1885. 



deuces of being very old indeed. I captured some interest- 

 ing reptiles and insects here, which were duly placed in 

 alcohol on our return to the ambulance. 



About 4 in the afternoon, after an unusually pleasant 

 drive, we pulled up at the pueblo of Las Nutrias. [I find 

 that many people call this the "Nutria," and it is so printed 

 on many of the. Government maps, but I believe it is correct 

 as I have written it above, and it signifies, in Spanish, the 

 beavers.] Here we saw some Zunis, very different in ap- 

 pearance from those we had left behind us in the morning. 

 One young chief, who spoke a little English, took us into his 

 house. This was kept in very excellent order, and thrift 

 marked all its appointments. The walls were freshly 

 whitened, the corn nicely stacked up on one side, and all the 

 cooking uteDsils cleanly kept. Indeed, the whole was quite 

 inviting. The women of the establishment, including two 

 or three pretty young maidens, were much more tastefully 

 attired and pleasing in their manners. 



Outside, however, it was the same old, tumble-down 

 pueblo with its almost unbearable odors, its heaps of refuse 

 and its general uncleanliness. 



Here we watched the women baking bread in one of the 

 curiously shaped, little oval ovens, like Dutch ovens, found 

 in all situations in these pueblos, from street to house-top. 



The bread was made into oval rolls, with a crease obliquely 

 cut through the middle. I have seen just such bread in old 

 Mexico, while in Cuba I remember they twist up the ends of 

 their rolls and the crease marks it vertically. We saw them 

 also making the lie-toe here, and to me it was a very palatable 

 production. 



The last mile of our twenty-six was now rapidly driven 

 over, when we were once more on our first camping ground 

 to find everything prepared for us. As there were at least 

 two good hours before sunset, we left the Professor to skin 

 his birds and prairie dogs, while we explored a magnificent 

 canon near at head, through which Las Nutrias finds its way. 

 The rocky sides of this canon rear tliemselves to a height of 

 130 feet or more, and plainly show the action of water near 

 their summits worn during geologic times. In these inacces- 

 sible places numbers of the white-throated swifts (Panyp- 

 tila saxatilis) had built their nests and already had young. I 

 tried both above and below in the canon to secure some of 

 these, but failed from both points. They are (he hardest 

 bird to take on the wing that I know of. I did kill one fine 

 old male, but he dropped far below, where after a careful 

 search we failed to find the specimen, and I reluctantly gave 

 it up. This cousumed all our time before dark, so we 

 strolled back to the tent just in time to enjoy a hearty 

 supper. 



We pulled out early in the morning to drive to the fort, 

 and the clear mountain air was absolutely delightfnl as we 

 passed through the pifion hills and great pine forests. 



During the ride I collected several fine birds for the Pro- 

 fessor, and took a magnificent specimen of a large gray 

 squirrel with black tufts by his ears fully an inch and a half 

 high. It also had a broad chestnut stripe down its back, 

 and a splendid gray and white tail. If 1 am not mistaken, 

 we had before us a specimen of Abeit's gray squirrel (Sciurus 

 aherti). 



At two in the afternoon we drove into Fort Wingate once 

 more, and our trip to Zuni and back was at an end; its 

 pleasant incidents not soon to be forgotten, although I am 

 afraid that those who took part in it may never be associated 

 together again. Dr. R. W. Sbcufeldt, TT. S. A. 



JFoilT Winsate, New Mexico, April 18, 1885. 



Photogkraphxng a Sitting Grouse.— Lennoxville, Que., 

 June 28. — Editor Forest and Stream: I was much pleased by 

 the account of photographing a woodcock on the nest, as 

 mentioned in last issue of Forest asd Stream, and con- 

 gratulate Mr. Kibbe on his feat. It was more interesting to 

 me on account of a somewhat similar experience this spring 

 in photographing a sitting partridge or ruffed grouse (Bonasa 

 umbelhts). The bird was discovered by a young lady at a 

 picnic. After several attempts I secured a negative of the 

 bird, also one of nest and eggs, copies of which I send you. 

 I did not attempt posing my sitter, but from her general 

 behavior I do not think she would have allowed any such 

 familiarities. In fact I only succeeded in getting a negative, 

 by arranging with the aid of an ingenious friend, Mr. Pea- 

 body, a sort of double drop shutter, worked by strings from 

 about thirty feet away. The camera was placed and focussed 

 about five feet from the nest during the bird's absence and 

 concealed with brush. I then left the place for an hour or 

 two as the bird refused to come back while I was near the 

 nest, and after seeing from a distance on my return that she 

 was on the nest again, made the exposure, as above, by 

 strings. Amateur photographers may like to know that the 

 exposure was about ten seconds with a diaphragm of about 

 one-quarter inch, and an instantaneous plate which proved 

 to be rather under-exposed. If any Forest and Stream 

 readers wish for copies of these pictures I can procure them 

 at twenty-five cents each. — W A. Farwell. 



Habits op the Prairie Dog. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Mr. E. S. Noble, of Elk Rapids, Mich., a gentleman with 

 whom many of your readers are well acquainted, brought 

 home from Colorado about a year ago two prairie dogs. 

 They are still alive and in good condition. Mr. Noble in- 

 forms me that they drink water not often but copiously. 

 There is not the slightest doubt as to this fact. A gentleman 

 from whom one of these animals was obtained, and who has 

 shown a good deal of interest in their habits, is of the 

 opinion that there is always a large hole which leads to 

 water in each of their villages, and that it is used by all the 

 inhabitants. In this connection Mr. Noble raised the ques 

 tion how the vast number of rabbits inhabiting the great 

 arid plains of the West are supplied with water. The dis- 

 tance at which it appears to be from then- ordinaryhaunts is 

 often very great, and they, of course, are not supposed to 

 construct wells. — Kelpie. 



j?## utfd 



An Owl in a Coop.— Mr. Webb, a farmer residing in 

 the town of Somerset, brought into the city to-day a great- 

 horned owl {Bubo mrginianus) that was caught in its own 

 trap. Mr. Webb had propped up one end of a chicken coop 

 by putting a small stick under it. Bubo, while foraging for 

 a late supper or an early breakfast, thought he saw bis 

 chance for a meal of genuine spring chicken, and so intent 

 was he in securing it, that he passed by the old hen — as he 

 entered her domicile, who made an abrupt exit — and in do- 

 ing so knocked out the stick from under the end of the coop, 

 and Bubo was a prisoner. The chickens being small, all but 

 oue made their escape through or under the slats in front. 

 Bubo was so taken aback in finding himself in such a situa- 

 tion, that his appetite failed him, and his meal of spring 

 chicken was found uneaten by Mr. Webb the next morning 

 —J. L. D. (Lockport, N, Y., June 26). 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream. Publish- 

 ing Co. __ 



THE DEER HOUNDING LAW. 



Laws of New York.— By Authority. 



Chap. 557. 



An Act for the better preservation of wild deer, and to 



secure the evidence of accomplices in certain cases. 



Passed June 13, 1885; three-fifths being present. 

 The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate 

 and Assembly, do enaet as follows: 



Section 1. No person shall hunt or pursue any wild deer in 

 this State with any dog or bitch, except in the county of Suf- 

 folk, where it shall be lawful to hunt with dogs during the 

 first ten days of October, excluding Sundays, in each year, If 

 any dog or bitch shall be found so hunting or pursuing in the 

 State, it shall be prima facie evidence of the violation of the 

 foregoing provision of this section by the owners of, or person 

 or persons having or harboring such dog or bitch. Any per- 

 son offending against any of the provisions of this section 

 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and in addition thereto 

 shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars for each and every 

 such violation, to be sued for and recovered as provided by 

 Chapter five hundred and thirty-four of the laws of eighteen 

 hundred and seventy-nine, as amended, for the recovery of 

 the penalties thereby imposed. 

 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 

 State of New York, I . 



Office of the Secretary of State f "*• ■ 



I have compared the preceding with the original law on file in this 

 office, and do hereby certify that the same is a correct transcript 

 therefrom and of the whole of said original law. 



Joseph B. Oabb, Secretary of State. 



CHEYENNE TO INYAN KARA.-III. 



^O PEAKING about shooting," he said, "reminds me of 

 k5 some wonderfully effective shooting I once saw aboard 

 a ship of which I was third officer. It was on the Libbilly 

 from San Francisco to Liverpool. She was a big four-master 

 and one of the speediest craft that ever scoffed a storm. Our 

 cargo was silks and silver and probably worth a miliion 

 dollars or more. The sailors when we slipped our moorings 

 at San Francisco had no knowledge of the value of our cargo, 

 but as we were slowly drifting through the doldrums off 

 the Canary Islands, between them and the Bermudas, they 

 having little to do for several weeks but kill time, had acci- 

 dentally discovered the value of our cargo and entered into a 

 plot to seize the ship at the first opportunity. The plot was 

 revealed to the officers by a young lad who had Deen be- 

 friended by the captain. The boy's name was Scotty and he 

 had been picked up in the streets of San Francisco and well 

 cared for by the captain. He could chew more tobacco and 

 drink more whisky than any person I ever saw, and was, 

 withal the best sailor aboard ship. He could walk any rope 

 in a storm with his hands in his pockets." 



Here Curtis went to bed. 



"I have seen him shin up the topgallantmast skyclew 

 hazard, over six hundred feet above deck, and come down 

 head first, then go out on the jibboora, dive overboard when 

 the ship was making thirty knots an hour, catch hold of the 

 rudder and be on deck ready for duty at a moment's notice 

 hardly wet." 



Here Foucab and Doc rolled into bed. 



"The last I heard of him he was first officer on one of 

 the Cunarders. Well, we officers watched out very care- 

 fully day after day, and finally learned that the crew in- 

 tended to take possession of the Vessel on the first dark and 

 stormy night Everything went well until we were four 

 days from Liverpool, in latitude 34.7, and longitude 6.8J, 

 when at about five bells a little speck of black showed in the 

 sky off our larboard side. The captain called the first offi- 

 cer and myself into his room. It was the second officer's 

 turn on deck and I was to go on at three bells, which would 

 bring it into dark. I filled my pockets with hand grenades 

 and went forward toward the forecastle, taking care to 

 avoid getting mixed up with too many of the men, as I did 

 not care to tackle over ten or a dozen at a time." 



Here Hans and Albert went to bed. 



"Darkness came on, and soon the ship was laboring. Darker 

 and darker came the night, and the wind began to whistle 

 through the shrouds. In less than the telling you could not 

 see your hand six inches from your face. Though it was 

 now my turn on deck, the captain came up and ordered a 

 dozen men to go aloft and take in the maintopgallantsail. 

 Up they went and in five seconds down they came. 1 never 

 saw such quick work in all my seafaring life. 'Up aloft 

 and clew the mizzen royal to the yawl,' cried the captain 

 Up again they went and were down again soon as before. 

 The captain mistrusted that the}' had cut the canvas loose 

 and cast it into the sea, but it was so dark that not a sail 

 could be seen from the deck. Calling Scotty, he told him to 

 go aloft and see if the sails had been furled or cut loose and 

 report immediately. Scotty was right back aud reported 

 that they had been cut away. Calling the men to him he 

 ordered them up aloft again, told them what they had done, 

 and bringing his Winchester up to his shoulder threatened to 

 kill the first man who made a cut at a rope." 



Here Fred went to bed, leaving Tom, the burro man, and 

 his partner to hear the last of the sailor's yarn. 



"They had gone about ninety feet up the must, and, sup- 

 posing they were hidden in the darkness, drew their knives 

 to cut loose the inainskysail, when bang! bang! bang! spoke 

 the Winchester and three sailors came tumbling on the deck, 

 each man shot in the back of the head, and dead before they 

 struck the deck. They were remarkable shots, each man hit 

 on the bump of animosity. 



"The other men did their duty and put. the sail shipshape 

 and followed each other down, and then huddled around the 

 captain, seized his rifle and hurled him to the deck. I com- 

 menced to throw the hand grenades among the crowd. The 

 first one thrown struck the lock of the Winchester, and ex- 

 ploding, scattered itself in the face of the sailor holding it, 

 killing him instantly." 



Here Tom went to bed. 



"The rest released their hold on the captain, when I struck 

 one full on the teeth and shattered his head, and the rest of 

 the sailors threw up their hands. Meanwhile the storm had 

 abated, the moon came out, and presently everything was 



quiet. We put three of the men in irons. The rest we kept 

 at work under close watch until we reached Liverpool, when 

 we delivered them to the authorities and two of them were 

 hung and the rest sentenced to Pitcairn island for life. The 

 owners of the ship rewarded the captain and offered me 

 command of a steamer running from Queenstown to New 

 York, but I had tired of sea life and declined it." 



The burro man and his partner, pale and trembling, were 

 too tired to return to their own camp, and made down as 

 best they could by the fire to dream of sailors, hand grenades 

 and longitude. 



It was very late next morning before the quiet of camp 

 was disturbed. Hardly any one dared to move for fear of 

 hand gienades, but finally, when the sailor rose, and the rest 

 saw the childlike and bland expression of his really good- 

 looking face, they ventured forth and had breakfast. The 

 burro man was glad enough to get away, whispering as he 

 went, "if he makes many such breaks as that last night, I 

 couldn't get on with him twenty-five years. That was a 

 twenty four carat story, wasn't it? It will always make a 

 cold chill run down my back and my feet freeze whenever I 

 think of it," 



"Bet your life," says Tom, "I'm a pretty good liar myself 

 on the ground, but when he takes me on salt water and up 

 those tall masts he makes me dizzy." 



Tom and Doc saddled up a couple of clever-looking mules 

 preparatory to having an antelope hunt on the big flat thiee 

 or four miles from camp. The antelope he reported were 

 usually very plenty, but cautiously announced that possibly, 

 we would not see any, as they were here one day and some- 

 where else the next. It was the next with us. We took 

 our direction northwest, then north, then east over toward 

 the Devil's Tower, climbed hill after hill, searched carefully, 

 but if there had ever been an antelope in the country he 

 could have proved an unimpeachable alibi for this clay. It 

 made the Doctor say that the next time he went antelope 

 hunting he'd take a shovel and hunt for angle worms, or dig 

 a well. 



We rode for two hours through a big flat covered with a 

 rank growth of sagebrush, where any antelope crossing 

 would have to provide himself with a haversack of hay and 

 a bottle of water, Tt would have been a good locution to 

 establish a sausage factory if the hogs could only stand it. 

 Happy is the angler who, after patient waiting and no re- 

 turns, can wade ashore, and seating himseif by the brook- 

 side listen to the forest melody, rejoice in the balmy breath 

 of the woodland mornings, and watch the dart of the. swal- 

 low and the plunge of the kingfisher. Some of my pleas- 

 antest days by the trout streams have been when I have 

 caught nothing. It's different with hunting here, or per- 

 haps the surroundings aud accessories are inferior, or per- 

 haps I don't enthuse sufficiently for the average hunter. As 

 some philosopher says, "That kind of hunting may be sport, 

 but it is not pleasure." 



Tom and Doc appeared in camp feeling like the principal 

 mourners at a funeral. Curtis had been in two hours. His 

 day was a red letter one. Two fine bucks, one particularly 

 an ex-monarch of the hills. As a friend of mine once re- 

 marked in all seriousness — and why shouldn't he be serious 

 about it — "I think my mother was one of the nicest old ladies 

 I ever saw," which reminds me that this was one of the finest 

 deer it was ever my good fortune to inspect. 



Curtis was resting after an hour's tramp on a hillside. He 

 had stretched himself out very comfortably by the side of a 

 log and almost lost to his surroundings, when he heard a 

 gentle break among the twigs and leaves at the foot of the 

 liill. He quickly discovered the disturber of his day dream 

 and entered into negotiations for his surrender by hiding be- 

 hind his log, where he watched the near approach of the 

 buck, who came directly toward the log, then turning 

 slightly, donated his side for a mark. Four shots, any one 

 of which would in connection with old age, have eventually 

 proved fatal, testified to Curtis's accurate holding; but as 

 long as the buck stood up within decent range he was a re- 

 ceptacle for lead. While Curtis was returning to camp for 

 a pack mule, he was lucky enough to break the neck of the 

 other buck, downing him in great style at the first rattle out 

 of the box. 



It rather put Tom on his mettle, while Curtis tried to wear 

 his blushing honors meekly: yet one could readily detect the 

 slight undercurrent of self-complacency which possessed 

 him. These were the only specimens brought into the estab- 

 lishment during the day, but as they made ample amends for 

 other shortcomings, and as there was no present prospect of 

 half rations we were all serene. 



Bright and early rose Tom, long before the morning sun 

 commenced to mount into the fathomless blue. He holted 

 such remnants as he could readily find of the last night's re- 

 past with a do-or-die manner, and shouldering his rioV, hast 

 ened to the woods as though he had an important business 

 engagement. Betty is with him, for he is determined to use 

 every precaution toward making a good showing, for he be- 

 gins to feel that he must verify some of his boasts. 



The well-trained Betty follows closely at his heels, never 

 once offering to lead nor stray to either side, A half hour 

 passes, and Tom, hurriedly examining some tracks which 

 cross his direction, turns sharply to the right and in ten 

 minutes more begins more carefully to conceal his move- 

 ments. A finger raised quickly— a signal which Betty well 

 understood — makes that young lady even more careful than 

 before. Away in the distance, browsing beneath a small 

 cluster of trees, stands a blacktail. Carefully as though he 

 were treading on eggs, Tom picks his way until almost 

 within fair shooting distance, when an unfortunate step 

 snapped a dead limb, and the deer, hearing and looking up, 

 stood not upon the order of his going but immediately 

 started. 



There was nothing to do but to fire quick as he couJd 

 bring his piece to bear; and doubled up like a jack-knife was 

 thatdeer a moment alter Tom pulled that trigger. It looked 

 like an accidental intentional shot, but it opened the afore- 

 said deer from a to izzard. Betty was let loose, but her 

 services were not required, for before Tom came up the deer 

 was as dead as Charles II. Betty had, however, secured her 

 favorite hold on the nose, and Tom, stroking his moustache, 

 said, "Oh, no, I can't hunt any. It's the man who lives 

 around the corner who downs them all alike. Come, Betty, 

 there's more of them beyond here." Tom's next shot was 

 not as well placed as tlie first, but it was easily to be seen 

 that it hit hard. Away went the deer at an unuatural gait, 

 and away went Betty full of music and excitement. This 

 was the opportunity "she had been patiently and an jdously 

 awaiting, and how she did put the yaids and rods behind. 

 Slowly and surely she gains, until at the right moment she 

 makes her spring and her jaws close with a firm grasp on 

 the nose of the wounded deer. There is no shaking loose 

 from that vice-like grip, struggle you ever so hard. Over a 



