366 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 3, 1886. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN RESORTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



There have appeared in your paper from time to time 

 inquiries and articles about good points for summer recrea- 

 tion for business and professional men whose general welfare 

 requires rest from indoor duties, and whose inclination is to 

 spend such time in hunting and fishing because their object 

 is more perfectly attained in those health-restoring pursuits. 

 Some of these inquiries are directed toward the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and I am quite confident that if those desiring such 

 recreation but realized one-half the enjoyment to be found 

 in that region, not only in the pursuits named but in the 

 contemplation of the scenic wonders which there abound, 

 hundreds would go there instead of lounging about the hotel 

 verandahs at the watering places of the East. And yet I 

 know that some who do go to the region named are as to 

 the game and fish more or less disappointed. Not because 

 they are not there, but because of unwise selection of time 

 or place. 



Having speut a portion of each summer in these mountains 

 (in Colorado) for several years past, especially searching for the 

 best game and fish regions, I venture a few suggestions, hop- 

 ing they may serve to assist those who in the absence of 

 friends there in whom they can rely as to these matters 

 might be disappointed. 



A recent communication in the Fobest and Stream says 

 that fi-h abound in all the streams of Colorado west of the 

 main range of the mountains. In a certain sense this is 

 true, and yet the individual who, relying on that statement, 

 should go there before the 15th of July, would fail to catch a 

 fish, especially along the railroads and in the larger streams. 



There is no doubt but Colorado affords the best buuting 

 and fishing to be found on the continent easily accessible by 

 rail, and yet there are times and also places when neither 

 can be successfully done. 



1 have always endeavored to find places where both can 

 be hart within a reasonable distance of the camp, and have 

 invariably been obliged to go from ten to twenty-five miles 

 away from the railroads, although fishing alone can often be 

 had along the railroad lines, especially beyond the main 

 range in the waters running to the Pacific. 



For bunting to kill quantity, of course fall is the best time. 

 But it has its snowstorms 'and cold. But for ad-around 

 pleasure in camp, July and the first half of August is the 

 choice time. The fi bi^g is 

 then atits best, while the young 

 mountain grouse and other 

 small game is good size, and 

 the males snd young of tue 

 larger game, sucti as deei elk 

 and the liKe, are in good con- 

 dition. Of course no sports- 

 man would kill more than was 

 required for camp use. and 

 never an old or breeding fe- 

 male. The dimate of Colorado 

 is then in its perfection, the at- 

 mosphere is dry and yet cool, 

 and an outdoor camp is pieas- 

 ant as May in the East. The 

 larger streams, owing to the 

 snow in the mountains, which 

 remain* until the middle or 

 last of July usually, do not get 

 clear enough before that time 

 for good fisbing; but the 



smalh r ones, especially up in the mountains where the bpds 

 are rocky, are generally in good condition by July 10. The 

 game at that season has also retreated to the higher altitudes, 

 so that the proper combination is found only in those re- 

 gions. Poisonous reptiles are unknown in central Colorado, 

 wnik in that altitude the nights are loo cool for mosquitoes, 

 which, with an occasional cinnamon or silver-tip bear and 

 mountain lion, are the only ravenous beasts which live in 

 that region. 



A day or so of a drive with teams from the railroad will 

 reach these favorable spots, where, with a fair camp outfit, 

 more real enjoyment can be had than at any other place that 

 I know of on the continent. 



A camping party may "rough it" and live on bacon and 

 hard bread and sleep under a dog tent if they desire, but I 

 have never thought it veiy beneficial or pleasant for those 

 who have but a short time to spend in trying to get used to 

 it. Neither is it necessary to have loads of cots, silverware, 

 etc. The sensible way is to have a good, sizable tent, the 

 necessary camp cooking utensils, with plenty of canned 

 fruits and vegetables, even if it requires an extra team or 

 two extra pack animals to carry them. Thus equipped a party 

 will be comfortable, a very necessary condition to rest and 

 enjoyment. The additional cost amounts to but little, and 

 the larger the party the less the proportionate expense. 

 After years of experiment in camp methods I have settled on 

 the medium standard of equipmeut as far preferable to either 

 extreme, where recreation is the prime object. 



The expense of such a trip, say for thirty days, in the 

 Rocky Mountains, is much less than is generally supposed. 

 I have made them repeatedly from this place inside of $150 

 per individual, for all expenses, including cost of camp, 

 teams, etc. Our camping expenses, including teams, tents, 

 provisions and outfit being less than $1.25 per day each, 

 while out. 



If I were to lay out a trip of this kind it would be from 

 Denver via the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to Manitou, 

 where a day or so can be pleasantly spent among its sur- 

 rounding natural wonders, equaled in a similar space 

 nowhere in the world ; thence through the Grand Canon of 

 the Arkansas, crossing the great continental divide at Mar- 

 shall Pass (10,852 feet elevation); thence to Gunnison or 

 some town in the Gunnison country, where teams and out- 

 fits can always be had at reasonable prices and from whence 

 the best game and fish regions can be reached in one or two 

 days' drive. When the camp is over, return by the Denver 

 & South Park Railroad over the Alpine Pass (11,623 feet 

 elevation and the highest railroad point in America); thence 

 to Leadville, taking the Union Pacific "high line," which 

 runs on the very top of the continental divide, crossing it 

 twice from side to side; thence down the Platte Canon to 

 Denver. Such a trip comprises all the grandest of Colorado's 

 scenic attractions, and there is no trip of equal length in 

 the word that can compare with it. The expense named 

 will cover this trip, w hich can be made in thirty aays, giving 

 two weeks or more in camp. Acquaintance at the various 



points and previously made arrangements brought the ex- 

 pense somewhat below what it would be for a party of 

 strangers going for the first time; but by judicious manage- 

 ment it can be done at the price named. 



These summer trios have become regular annual events 

 with some of us who prefer recreation in mountain camps to 

 any other, and finding them so enjoyable, have been enlarg- 

 ing our circle from year to year, until last year our members 

 came from five States, even so far away as Alabama, and 

 several of whom we never met until we came together by 

 previous appointment at Denver. We have learned that a 

 camp of strangers get along better geuerally than one in 

 which the members are too well acquainted, and some of 

 the most pleasant friendships of a lifetime were formed in a 

 Rocky Mountain camp. And so this yearly trip has come to 

 be what horsemen would call a sort of "free for all," the 

 fact that an applicant was a reader of some such paper as 

 the Forest and Stream being regarded as prima facts evi- 

 dence of respectability and a sufficient passport for admis- 

 sion. A true sportsman secures to himself an additional 

 pleasure when he can assist others to participate in the pleas- 

 ures of the camp and chase. 



We will make our start this yea.r about the usual time — 

 July 1— and if any reader of the Forest and Stream should 

 feel inclined to join us and will write me, I will cheerfully 

 give him further particulars. The precise camping ground 

 is not yet determined, and probably will not be until after 

 our arrival at Denver, to be then governed by game reports 

 and the condition of the streams. Davtd C. Beaman. 



Ottumwa, Iowa, May, 1886. 



A CARBERRY DEER HUNT. 



THE readers of your most interesting paper are regaled 

 weekly with stirring accounts of bear and deer hunts, 

 in which celebrated hunters have, by wonderful feats of 

 woodcraft and daring, redoubled their claims on Nimrodian 

 fame, and it strikes me that, it will afford a contrast and per- 

 haps amuse by its novelty, if T, a novice, recount my own 

 experience in the hunting of my first deer. 



This to me most interfs'insr event" to®k place near Car- 

 berry, Manitoba, in the fall of '84. Carberry is a vidage on 

 the south edge of the Big Plain. East, west and south of 

 it is a vast region of sandhills. In the sandhills to the south 

 is a poplar bush about sixteen miles long, within this a spruce 

 bush, and in the middle of the last is a tamarac bog, the 

 source of the Pine River. The deer have nearly all been ex- 

 terminated in this reaion; they are so scarce that a white man 

 hardly thinks of going out for a deer hunt, yet an old elk 



"jumping deeb." 



has occasionally been seen, and the Indians sometimes bring 

 a few jumping deer (Cariacus macrotis) into the village, while 

 on rare occasions they kill a moose within twenty miles of 

 the settlement. 



The prospect of learning something of deer hunting in this 

 locality was not particularly bright, still. T had often seen 

 deer tracks in muddy places, when on ornithological rambles, 

 so there was no doubt of the presence of game; therefore, 

 after the first snowffdl, I resolved that since there are some 

 deer about here, and since, after having found a track, it is 

 only a question of time and perseverance before one comes 

 up with the track maker, I do hereby register a vow that 1 

 will not cease to hunt in those hills until 1 bring out a deer, 

 unless the shooting season close before I succeed Accord- 

 ingly, on the 27th day of October I set out on foot and 

 traveled fifteen miles without seeing anything. The next 

 day I went further and fared no better. On the third day 1 

 found two stale elk tracks, but got home weary and empty- 

 handed, after walking twenty miles through the deep snow. 

 The mileage is given with confidence, as the region was sur- 

 veyed some years ago, and I have discovered many of the 

 stakes. Next day I went still further and in a new direction, 

 found a stale track, and was led by it to a quiet, wooded 

 tract, where fresh signs were exceedingly abundant. On the 

 fifth day I drove to the bush with several companions, who 

 were glad enough to profit by my labors, though tbey had 

 laughed at my faith previously. I saw no deer, but Mr. 

 James Duff, who was with me, had five good chances which 

 he was obliged to let slip, as he had only a shotgun. 



Early next morning I set off again with my brother. I 

 saw seven deer, he saw two. I wounded one with buck- 

 shot but did not get it. 



This was the first time I had ever seen a wild deer. I 

 shall not forget the impression made by the fight. We were 

 going over the brow of a hill when 1 noi iced a very fresh 

 track and said: "We had better follow tiiat a little, it looks 

 so new." Before 1 had gone many steps my brother cried: 

 "Look out, there's a deer just ahead of you!" Sure enough, 

 down in the hollow among the scrub, were the white tails 

 of two deer, bobbing up and down. The deer themselves 

 were of the same Color of the scrub, but the puie white tails 

 bting held erect, were strikingly conspicuous. I stood gaz- 

 ing at the graceful creatures for a moment or two, and then 

 they moved off a little and commenced to rise in the air with 

 a peculiar bounding action, although without any apparent 

 effort. They seemed to be playing, their moverm nts were 

 so entirely without any appearance of haste or alarm. It 

 did not occur to me at first that they were running away. 

 The idea I had in my mind of a deer speeding was formed 

 on seeing a dog or a fox. I expected to see the labored 

 straining and the vast athletic bounds; but no, these evidently 

 had not yet commenced to run, they seemed to be merely 

 bounding up and down in the air, and it was only on noting 

 the different hilltops which their feet touched lightly in suc- 

 cession, and by seeing the fair, rounded forms rapidly be- 

 coming smaller in the distance, that it dawned on me they 



were flying for safety. Higher and higher they rose each 

 time; gracefully their bodies swayed inward as they described 

 a curve along some bold ridge, or for a long space the white 

 bannerets seemed hanging in the air while these wingless 

 birds were really sailing over a deep gully. I stood gazing 

 until they were out of sight, and it never once occurred to 

 me to shoot. 



When they were gone 1 went to their trail where they had 

 appeared to be rising and falling over the same place. 

 Here was one track, where was the next? I looked all 

 around, and was surprised so see a blank for fifteen feet; I 

 went on — another blank, and again and again. The blanks 

 increased to eighteen feet, then to twenty and then to twenty- 

 five feet. Each of those playful, effortless bounds covered a 

 space of eighteen to twenty -five feet. Ye gods! They do 

 not run at all, they fly, and once in a while come down 

 again to tap ihe hilltops with their dainty hoofs, Later on 

 in the day I saw three more and fired two charges of buck- 

 shot at them without securing any. 



During the whole of the next day I traveled without see- 

 ing anything. 



On the eighth day I went again with some companions, 

 saw nothing all day. As we were going home, James Duff 

 proposed that I should go with him for another look before 

 we gave up. We went to the wooded shores of what is 

 known as Smith's Lake, and almost immediately started 

 three splendid deer. They ran past us at a distance of about 

 one hundred yards. We both fired. One of the deer was 

 wounded but they all went away, fleetly bounding over the 

 hills. We followed the trail at a run, overjoyed to see a 

 slight drip of blood at each bound. Before stepping on to 

 the top of each hill, we looked carefully lest the deer should 

 be in the hollow. After traveling several miles, as we rose 

 to the top of a hill I peered over, then sank ba^k on the snow, 

 crying under my breath, "Here they are." We both crawled 

 to the brow of the hill, and there, forty yards away, stood 

 two deer looking at us Our hands began to tremble as we 

 hastily, too hastily, threw up ourrifLs and fired— without 

 the slightest effect. The deer stood gazing at us. In furious 

 baste we reloaded, and quivering in every limb with the 

 "buck ague," we blazed away whh no better luck, and as 

 the deer turned to begin the playful bounding, 1 sent another 

 useless ball after them. I simply felt sick to think of what 

 we bad done; if we had had the slightest degree of coolness, 

 we would have been sure of two fine deer. 



However, we were, still on the track of the deer we had 

 wounded, and followed in vain until sundown. Then we 

 came upon an Indian who was evidently hunting the same 

 three deer. He had fired at and turned them, and then with 

 an amount of open-beartedncss 

 unusual for an Indian, he 1old 

 , — us where they went, and added 

 that "they would spend the 

 night there, and he would get 

 them in the morning when the 

 wounded one would be too 

 stiff to travel much." We bade 

 him good night and went home- 

 ward until out of his sight, 

 when we turned and went to 

 the thicket where he said the 

 deer were lying. It was dark 

 when we arrived there, but we 

 put the deer out so as to pre- 

 vent the Indian getting ahead 

 of us in the morning. Then 

 we started off, weary and hun- 

 gry, for a twelve miles tramp 

 home through the snow. 



I have often been asked 

 in the East if the Fenimore 

 Cooper Indian exists or ever did exist. If fine physique, 

 manly qualities and a certain amount of freedom from 

 grosser vices will "fill the bill," I have certainly seen many 

 of these Indians among the Crees. My recent acquaintance 

 was a Cree and a fair representative of his tribe His name 

 was Chaska. He was about six feet in his moccasins, straight 

 and well built, bis features decidedly aquiline, his hair hung 

 in two lone: black braids, ornamented with a bunch of brass 

 rings and thimbles. He was dressed in the customary white 

 blanket and leggings. A scarlet handkerchief covered his 

 ears. He carried the usual fire-bag, knife and gun. He was 

 a minor chief and evidently a man of experience, for he 

 spoke excellent English. 



On the ninth day I went with several companions to the 

 deer bush by dawn before the Indians were astir, although 

 they were camped close at hand. We foolishly went all 

 together into the bush where the deer were; they separated, 

 and we were misled by one of them. When a mile away 

 we heard the Indians behind us, occasionally shouting. It 

 was Chaska directing his two men. Then we heard a shot, 

 then renewed shouting of orders, and another shot, and an- 

 other, then unmistakable yells of triumph. We went back 

 and found that the Indians had got both the deer. Chaska 

 had put one man at each end of the bush and gone into it 

 himself. He shouted his orders, for as long as jumping deer 

 do not see the hunter they appear to care little for hearing 

 him. 



I met Chaska in the afternoon, we were both running 

 on the same trail, I said to him: "Why did you take our 

 deer?" 



He said, "How your deer?" 



' Because I put the first ball into it." 



Then he said, "Who owns wild beasts? The man who 

 kills them owns them, and I killed those deer." 



It was evidently no use arguing with him, for he has 

 possession, but I made a note of it for future reference. 



We hunted together all that afternoon and I got from him 

 a lot of hints and instructions in deer -stalking. He was 

 really a splendid fellow. 1 found that, like most of the In- 

 dians, he was a very poor rifle shot, and but for his skill and 

 experience in woodcraft, would have fared no better than 

 ourselves. 



During the afternoon my companions drove home. De- 

 termined to hang on to the last, I hunted till dark and walked 

 home. 



During the whole of the next day I tramped about alone. 

 On the next I went wiih James Duff, who alone of my com- 

 panions seems gifted with any degree of perseverance. We 

 saw nothing and I had both my feet, slightly frost-bitten. On 

 the twelfth day, in spite of my injured feet, I started off 

 alone. Started three deer; followed them in vain lor fifteen 

 miles. On the next day my brother drove with me to where 

 I quit the trail the day before, and after following for two 

 hours, we came across two deer which we tracked in vain 

 for five miles. Then we went back to camp for dinner. 

 My brother was disgusted, and after resting, drove home. I 



