Dec. 3, 1885.1 



FOREST AKU STREAM. 



S68 



Save at the head and foot of tlie lake there is no shore; from 

 the very edge the water has that dark green hue which be- 

 tokens great depth. 



On the opposite side, and on our side of the lake Jicross 

 the caiioD, the mountains rise to a great height, some of 

 them shaped like a needle. Beyond the head of the lake is 

 a lon^, wide, densely. timbered valley, and on the upper left- 

 hand side of this valley is a mountain, the top of which is a 

 true jrlacier. With the glasses it appeared to be at least 300 

 feet thick. We could see large fcsures in it, and in one 

 place a large mass had apparently lately broken off. A large 

 stream of water which comes from this glacier dashes over a 

 perpendicular cut on the face of the mountain at least 250 

 feet in height. We were unable to determine the length of the 

 glacier, as intervening mountains obstructed a view of either 

 end. 



After resting here for an hour or two, and Ben and the 

 trapper failing to put in an appearance we started back 

 toward camp. I was surprised to see large flocks of geese 

 flying above us, above the tops "of the highest mountains, and 

 apparently heading for the other side of the mountains. I 

 always supposed that waterfowl fly north and south — that 

 those whicn breed north of here winter in Southern Utah, 

 Arizona aud iNew Mexico. Is it probable that the destination 

 of these was the Pacific slope? 



About half way back to camp we stopped beside a little 

 stream, which gushed out of a reef just above us, to rest and 

 wet our whistles. As we sat there Jim, who is on(i of "ye 

 ancient prospectors," picked up several pieces of float 

 quartz, which were rich with gold and silver. As we were 

 near the top of the mountain the lead from which tbey came 

 could not have been far off, but as we were tired, and as this 

 country is an Indian reservation, we concluded we didn't 

 want a gold mine, and started on to camp, which we reached 

 without further adventure. Ben and the trapper had not 

 returned, there was not enough grub to last us till morning, 

 so we saddled up and started home, leaving a note to this 

 effect, stuck up by the only remaining piece of bread. The 

 moon evidently isn't right ior sheep, at least we didn't see 

 any, and as this is the last piece of bread we have, decided 

 to light out. 



We hadn't been in camp long and had just flnibhed our 

 supper, when Ben and the trapper came. When they left 

 us in the morninof they got around behind the mountain, 

 came to a lake high up and completely walled in by cut 

 bluffs, and saw seven goats on the other side of it, but had 

 not time to approach tbem. Thoroughly disgusted they 

 fired their guns and had the satisfaction of seeing the goats 

 strike out on the run, heading for Missoula, where Yellow 

 Fish and his band of hunters will have to follow them if 

 they want their hides. 



We put in, altogether, twenty-one days at the lake, hunt- 

 ing and fishing, the others trapping and prospecting — to me, 

 twenty-one days brim full of pleasure. At last the weather 

 turned cold, and the snow came down thick and fast. 



"Boys," said Jim, "the moon isn't right." 



Myself — "Fish in the lakes." 



The trapper — "Beaver in their holes." 



Charlie — "Sheep high up." 



Ben — "Bed rock deep." 



Dick— "White-tail scarce." 



John — "Goose gone over, and let's go too." 



So we decided then and there to break camp the next day. 

 We had concluded the night before to make the next 

 camp on the South Fork of Milk River, but tbe hill, where 

 we climbed it, was much steeper than we thought it would 

 be, and it took us all day to get up, pulling up one wagon at 

 a time with ten horses. 



At the South Fork we camped two days and hunted. Jim 

 and 1 rode up to the mountains after sheep. As we were 

 riding along we came across a fresh sheep trail in the snow 

 and saw the band just beyond going down into a pocket or 

 basin on the side of the mountain. I ran to the right and 

 Jim to the left. Ere long the band appeared beyond Jim 

 going up the side of the mountain. Jim killed one, a 

 fat doe. They were a long way from me and I failed to 

 hit. 



Nov. 21 we arrived at the North Fork of Cut Bank. 

 There is a good trail which reaches over the mountains into 

 Missoula and is much traveled by the several tribes of 

 mountain Indians. The trail apparently follows up Cut 

 Bank to its source. As far up as we went we found a wide, 

 densely -timbered cafion, walled in by tremendous mountains. 

 Old game signs were very plenty here, but there had been 

 no cold weather and snow to drive the elk down, so we 

 contented ourselves with hunting deer, and killed four alto- 

 gether. 



Nov. 23 we drove down to the junction of the North and 

 South Forks, and on the 24th reached the agency. 



All in all, we had a pleasant trip, plenty of fish and game 

 for camp use, and, above all, a sojourn among the pines and 

 lakes so like those of our boyhood days. As a resort for 

 sportsmen the Chief Mountain country cannot be excelled. 

 The scenery is grand, game plenty, the fishing unexcelled. 

 Here the angler will find new ground, lakes and streams 

 on whose bosoms a fly has never been cast, and in whose 

 crystal depths a bait has never been dropped. 



J. W. SCHULTZ. 



Uppek MARiAa BivER, M. T., January, 1885. 



A RxJFFED Grouse Story. — The Paterson, N, J., Pz-m 

 Is responsible for the following: Up in West Milford town- 

 ship/where game is plentiful and wary, the partridge have 

 very little to do to look out for hunters. Last week a num- 

 ber of hunters went up there from Paterson and the partridge 

 evidently thought they would make fun of tbe hunters and 

 so they proceeded to hunt the gunners. One of them 

 tackled the wrong man in the person of Mr. Clinton, the 

 janitor of the court house. The bird had evidently been 

 started by some hunter, and the first thing that "jfmmy" 

 knew was that tlie bird came toward him with the usual 

 confounding noise these birds make when they are in a 

 hurry. He did not want to take a shot at an incoming bird 

 when he could get a quartering shot just as well, and so he 

 stepped aside out of tbe way of the bird, which seemed to 

 be in a particular huriy. The bird at that moment changed 

 its mind and deviated from its straight course, coming into 

 contact with the left cheek of the janitor. It struck the 

 cheek with its wing and inflicted quite a painful and cer 

 tainly unsightly wound. The blow rather surprised Mr. 

 Clinton, but with the self posses.sion that characterizes the 

 true sportsman he turned around and emptied a barrel at 

 the bird, which he had for dinner yesterday. The wound 

 on "Jimmy's" face looks curious, the skin was not broken 

 except at the lower extremity of the wound, the rest of it 

 being bruised and the blood having gathered under the 

 epidermis. 



CLIMATE OF THE WEST. 



Dekveb, Co1„ Nov. 15. t886\ 



Editor Forest and Btremn: 



In your issue of Nov. there is an article without signa- 

 ture, but credited to "a special correspondent," which 

 should not be allowed to pass without comment. It is upon 

 page 282 and under the caption of the "Granary of the 

 World." It is an admhable article for its purpose; so ad- 

 mirable that but for its fallacies and the harm they may 

 work through your columns, it should not be questioned. 

 The wrong that is done is in the assurance so forcibly stated 

 that the climate of much of the region referred to in the 

 article is undergoing change— rapid change from arid to 

 humid. The writer says: "It is stated that the climate of 

 the western country is constantly being modified by the 

 changes wrought by" human agency. Ana this statement is 

 true. The annual precipitation is far greater now in regions 

 recently occupied than it was when the settlers first came 

 into tbe country." I have no hesitation in saying that the 

 assertions quoted above are not true, although "it is stated" 

 or "they say" it is true. I know that a large majority of 

 the people who now live in these arid regions will assert 

 that the climate is changing; that there is annually a great 

 deal more rain and so on, with all the candor and positive- 

 ness of this correspondent. They say so with perfect hon- 

 esty and fully believe what they say. Yet it is not true. 

 The mistake of the farmer and the cow-puncher may be 

 overlooked. His opportunity for observation is not large 

 or extensive; his access to collated facts and figures is lim- 

 ited, and his methods are without system. But an intelli- 

 gent and able correspondent, or a great newspaper whose 

 opinions may influence hundreds or thousands of people in 

 locating homes for their lifetime, should not propagate such 

 false conclusions. Facts and figures are accessible to them 

 and should not be ignored. 



Now, 1 will tell you how the farmer in an arid region 

 reaches his conclusion upon this subject. He comes from 

 the Mississippi Valley, for instance, to Colorado— I use Col- 

 orado for the illustration because it is a fair and favorable 

 section of the arid region and is more familiar to me. He 

 settles upon the dry plain and begins the effort to make a 

 farm. He has removed from an extremely wet agricultural 

 region to an exceedingly dry one. The contrast is very 

 great and strikes him forcibly. The memory of the old is 

 yet vivid ; the reality of the present is exaggerated in the 

 comparison. He tries irrigation, aud, in his opinion, can- 

 not get water enough for the ground he tries to water. Yet 

 he makes progress. The next year he finds his labor easier. 

 Experience is educating him. He applies the water better 

 and makes it go further. The ploughed ground holds mois- 

 ture. The small rainfall that formerly flowed swiftly away 

 over the hardened, unbroken surface of the plain'is now 

 absorbed and retained in the mellow surface of the ploughed 

 field. Still better, the growing crop shades the surface and 

 impedes the rapid evaporation of the little moisture by sun 

 and wind. Our transplanted farmer thinks, "Wellj this 

 isn't so dry a summer as last." Already lie is adapting him- 

 self to his surroundings and necessities. At the same time 

 the memory of old things grows dimmer. His thoughts are 

 more occupied by the present His interest is here and he 

 must make the best of it. He no longer contrasts the last 

 summer with the summers of years ago in rainy Illinois or 

 Iowa. And so the years go on. Each one adds to the area 

 of his ploughed lands, and each ploughed acre ameliorates 

 the natural arid and inhospitable condition of his surround- 

 ings. Each year his stipend of water from the neishboring 

 streams will water a greater breadth of land. Each year it 

 will be husbanded better and applied with more judgment, 

 and thus the necessity reduced, the supply increased, the ap- 

 plication improved — there is a threefold gain. 



Again, during these years he has planted trees about his 

 house and barn and along the roads and ditches; meadows 

 have been established and blue grass covers the dooryard. 

 In time he observes that there is dew on the grass. A por- 

 tion of the moisture that was drawn up by the sun of yester- 

 day has returned in the cool hours of the night and now 

 appears in sparkling dewdrops at the tips of the green 

 blades. The farmer is ready to assert, and swear to it if so 

 asked, that the climate has changed, that he saw the change, 

 and that the change goes on year by year because white men 

 have settled the country and are scratching overa little of its 

 surface like a bantam pullet in a ten-acre field. It is ten 

 years since he lett Illinois. He has forgotten all about it 

 except a few of the most striking incidents of his life. He 

 does not know whether the rainfall is fifteen, thirtj'- or fifty 

 inches per year. He is only certain that the climate of his 

 new home has changed; that it changed for him and by his 

 puny efforts, and to all this he is ready to append his solemn 

 affidavit. The man's new education fs complete; his forget- 

 fulness of the past is more so; his ignorance of the real facts 

 is most profound. Yet "special correspondents" listen to 

 his story, accept his statements, adopt his opinions as their 

 own, assert that "this is true," and then influential news- 

 papers — the makers and leaders of public opinion— put 

 them in cold type and spread them broadcast to the world. 

 How much better it would be to prove such statements be- 

 forehand ; give the truth, and not try to promote any cause 

 or settle any country by false pretenses. 



Now what are the facts? The site of this city has been 

 settled twenty -seven years. As persistent an effort has been 

 made here and throughout the neighboring country, to 

 modify and improve the soil and the climate, as has been 

 made in any part of the arid region of North America, and 

 the elTort has been quite as successful. No one will dispute 

 that. The following shows the precipitation (rain and snow 

 full) for thirteen years: 1872, 17.95 in. ; 1873, 11 73 in. ; 1874, 

 13.45 in ; 1875, 17.25 in.; 1876, 20.12 in.; 1877. 16.38 in.; 

 1878, 15.51 in.; 1879, 10.86 in. ; 1880, 9.58 in.; 1881, 13 79 

 in. ; 1882. 14.49 in. ; 1883, 19.49 in. : 1884, 15.07 in. Aver- 

 age per year 14.9 in. These figures are exact and reliable. 

 They do not show any steady increase of rain fall. On the 

 contraiy they show a series of cycles— of increase and de- 

 crease, with extremes seven years apart. I could go back of 

 1872 but not without some trouble at the present time. I 

 will only assure you that the record would be just about the 

 same. _ The precipitation this year to the present time is 

 14.53 in,, 4.94 in. of which was ia two snow storms a few 

 days apart in the month of April. And right here, to illus- 

 trate the infirmity of human memory and the fallacy of 

 present judgment, I will refer to the month of August last 

 past. Everybody pronounced it remarkably wet. ' Never 

 saw such a rainy August." "How the chmate is changing." 

 "Wettest summer ever known in Colorado," and similar re- 

 marks, with adjectives, were heard daily. The following 

 figures show the August rain fall for fourteen years : 1872, 

 1.65 in. ; 1873, 1.41 in. ; 1874, 0.88 in. ; 1875, 1 97 in. ; 18T6, 



2,08 in.; 1877, 1.30 in.; 1878, 3 26 in. ; 1879. 1.38 in.; 1880, 

 1 46in.; 1881, 2.33 in.; 1883, 1.20 in.; 1883, 0.75 in.; 1884, 

 1.71 in ; 1885. 1.18 in. 



Eleven Augusta in which more rain fell and only two iii 

 which there was less than in the last one . There were many 

 light showers, days in which only one-hundredth or two* 

 hundredths of an inch of water fell, yet the public mind was 

 controlled and the conclusion reached unanimously that it 

 was the wettest August ever known in Colorado, It could 

 have been so proven in any court. 



Now we will take a wider scope, giving the precipitation 

 at certain stations in seven States and Tenituries, purposely 

 extending from the great lakes and the Mississippi valley 

 westward to the Rocky Mountains, to show the wide varia- 

 tion in rainfall. The reader can refer to a mip and draw his 

 own conclusions as to the limits of the humid and arid 

 regions, and the figures for a series of years at many of the 

 stations will tell whether there is material change* or not. 



2S'2S-?rc 2"P£22222 



• 3.: % 



?! S- J = *1 I 



; .' • : 5" 



S Si 



o: 



g: : § SS 



^^^^ 5?.- 



: ^ 



2S S 



eg 



19.65 



8.38 

 40.65 



19. 75 

 23.25 

 19.30 



17.48 

 28.52 



18 12 



36.89 



38.11 

 29.76 



1880. 



16.81 

 Jl 88 

 19,94 

 14 77 



11.88 



44.57 



19 80 

 15.76 

 13.90 



40.95 



22 93 

 45.74 



39.95 



37:58 

 29.48 

 15.51 

 1 39.16 



1 













►-•oeceto toco »o» ocnctoM o to Mto*--<j<<» 



No of 

 Years. 



c^So5? ceo £2^0:^00 o GtJTtChfOcc 



^ ! 

 1 I 



There are certain stations in the above that are exceptional 

 from topographical causes. Pike's Peak is a loftv. isolated 

 mountain that attracts clouds from all directions. The pre- 

 cipitation is very great and mostly in the form of snow. It 

 is far above the limit of timber growth, and the only benefit 

 derived is from the water as it subsequently finds its way to 

 lower levels. Deadwood is in a promontory of the moun- 

 tain heights that juts far out into the plain, aud attracts 

 clouds for much the same reason. The other stations where 

 the precipitation exceeds twenty inches per year are within 

 the influence of the great trough of the Mississippi. 



It is well to .show men how they can adapt themselves to 

 new conditions, new countries, to changed circumstances, 

 and to othpr climates. It is not amiss to convince them that 

 they can live easier and happier, enjoy better health and 

 longer life, raise better crops and eat'better bread and beef 

 upon the Great American Desert than is possible for them in 

 the valley of the Mississippi. But, for heaven's sake, do it 

 in a truthful, honest way. Do not deceive them into the 

 belief that the country or the climate will change its charac- 

 ter just to accommodate them. Human history does not 

 show a country in which the climate has changed from arid 

 to humid, from dry to wet. Geology, the face of tbe coun- 

 try, fossil remains, the great gravel beds, the wide valleys 

 in which our diminished streams now flow, all confirm it. 

 Arid regions are all growing dryer; so gradually, it is true, 

 as to be imperceptible in the economies of man. None of 

 them grow wetter. I challenge your "special correspond- 

 ent" to show one instance and prove it by figures. 



Wm. N. Byers. 



*Iaiii iodefetedto Sergeant J.J. Gilligan, of the Siggjal Service 

 Corp*. U.S.A., for the table of stations ana figures used above. 



POINTS WORTH CONSIDERING. 



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 Stream actually contains, weekly, more reading matter pertaining to 

 its chosen field than is found in an.v .similar publication in the world. 



2. In general excellence the reading columns of the Forest and 

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 the world. 



3. Taking into account the amount and the character of weekly 

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4. If a sportsman wishes a sportsman's paper, he will be better 

 suited by the Forest and Stream than by any .similar publication In 

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