186 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[■Sept. 30, 1886 



A FAMILIAR SHRIKE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have been reading of "A Familial- Titmouse" in your 

 last issue. Such an incident is a touch of natore 

 that makes all true sportsmen kin. One stormy night 

 last spring in Florida, I was quietly smoking and writing, 

 when I heard a noise at the window behind me. I turned 

 and saw a bird fluttering against the glass, I gently 

 opened the wmdow and he flew in and around the room. 

 I stood quiet and raised my hand above my head, and he 

 came and perched on my finger. I spoke to my friend in 

 the adjoining room and' he came in, which startled the 

 bird and he again flew about the room. We remained 

 quiet and presently he again alighted on my hand. 

 Finally he flew and perched over the door, where we left 

 him till morning, when we opened the door and he flew 

 away. It was a shrike. The same day I related the in- 

 cident to a very intelligent colored man, and he was hor- 

 rified that I had not killed the bird. "You'll have bad 

 luck sure. I tell you that's a mighty bad sign." I gave 

 him my mind on such brutal superstition, which, altliough 

 it failed to convince him, made me feel easier. Calumet. 



CiNCiNSTATi, Ohio. 



The Sea Serpent.— W. H. Winslow, M.D., of Pitts- 

 burgh, Pa. , writes from his cruising cutter Pilgrun to the 

 Journal of Belfast, Me., that on Aug. 24 ofl! Cape Neddick 

 he saw something that he thought was the .sea serpent. 

 ''It looked," he wfote, "like a black log of wood, one foot 

 in diameter and 8 feet long, prQjected from a boat-like 

 body at the front, and above the surface of tlie water at 

 an angle of about twenty degrees. The surface was 

 black and sliming, the angle between the neck and body 

 was curved, and the general appearance was as if the 

 part above water was continuous, with a very long sub- 

 aqueous body. Before I could get the glasses to bear 

 accru-ately the marine monster sank. Then he appeared 

 inshore of us, upon the bow, upon the beam, upon the 

 quarter, and then sporting in the breakers. He kept 

 about the same distance from us and did not afford us 

 any better view than that at first. The animal was lively 

 and perfectly at home in the water. He was seen by all 

 on board and all agree upon the above description. 

 There was no inebriety, enthusiasm, or delusion about the 

 case, but calm, careful, critical observation." , 



Migration of Woodpeckers.— The Cedars. Oakdale. 

 L. I., Sept. 20,— There was a big flight of birds of the 

 woodpecker species on Saturday, Sept. 18. They were 

 very beautiful. I do not remember seeing anything of the 

 kind before. They looked very much like the bird called 

 thehigh hole, only a size smaller, and their markings be- 

 ing pure white and jet black, with the exception of those 

 I supposed to be the male bird, and those had a beautiful 

 crimson head and neck. I was pleased to see so many 

 pretty creatures left. — ^Alfred A. Fraser. 



Domesticating Wildfowl,- Cold Spring Harbor, 

 N. Y. , Sept, 20. — Editor Forest and Stream: I have re- 

 cently piu'chased a few blue- winged teal, an old female 

 and four young, hand bred and very tame. My wood 

 ducks are getting then- fall plumage, some drakes are in 

 full feather and others liave only a little pink on the bill 

 and some green on the head to distinguish them. The 

 mallards are dull yet and so are the pintails. Mating has 

 begun with the wood ducks, if it ever ceases, and the 

 males are fighting as in spring. — Fred Mather. 



krne ^dff mtd 0ut(. 



Add/ress all eummunicat/Uyiis to the Forest and Stream Pub. Co. 



THE TROOPS AND THE PARK. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



As a constant reader and subscriber of yom- journal I 

 note with interest yom* editorial of the ioth uj)on the 

 "New Government of the Park," based upon the rej)ort of 

 a special correspondent. 



I have just returned from the Park, having spent about 

 two weeks there, traveling with a pack outfit; and hav- 

 ing entered it by the Clark's Fork trail to Cooke City, and 

 traversing it to almost its southern border, camping off 

 and on the traveled routes, I feel constrained to offer my 

 personal testimony against that of your correspondent as 

 regards the faithfulness with which the troopers of the 

 1st Cavalry are performing their duties as Park police- 

 men. 



I am not in a position to directly impugn the good faith 

 of your correspondent, because, in the first place, I can- 

 not from personal knowledge speak as to the "good way 

 to which we have been accustomed under Col. Wear's 

 superintending," as the soldiers had relie\'ed the regular 

 keepers when I arrived; and in the second place, my testi- 

 mony woidd be the negative one, that I did not see the 

 depredations which are said to be now occurring; but as 

 we traveled along Soda Butte such testimony is good 

 enough as regards the fires which are said to be now or 

 recently raging there. 



As it was a subject of general remark, however, that if 

 the soldiers could be disparaged the old keepers would 

 hafe a better "sbow" to regain their billets, your coitcs- 

 pondent is "booming" that view of the new government. 

 The following is the paragraph that compels me to offer 

 myself in print: 



'"It is a huge piece of folly for the Government to let 

 loose the vandals upon the Park, and nothing less than a 

 national disgrace, that Col. Wear's force of assistants 

 should be succeeded by soldiers Avho go off on drunken 

 sprees, and in the people's pleasure ground 'hold up' 

 stage coaches of tom-ists in regular old-fashioned 'road 

 agent' style." 



I was not a "tourist," but a camper with pack train 

 from a ranch in the Big Horn Basin, and as such pitched 

 my camp by preference alongside those of the troopers, 

 who are scattered by twos tlnroughout the Park, for the 

 reason that leaving frequently our traps, gmb and horses 

 for visits afoot or ahorse to places of interest we believed 

 that the soldiers would "have an eye to them." 



Now, from what I saw, these troopers were performing 

 theii- duties in the most conscientious mamier. They are 

 to be seen patrolhng their districts from sun-up till dark; 



and from talks, when I met them, and around camp-fires, 

 I judged them to be an unusually good lot of men — men 

 who being off on detached service, with no commissioned 

 oflicers directly over them, were doing then- duty aU the 

 same and "right up to the handle." My experience is 

 that the soldier and the sailor will generally act thus in 

 Uke circumstances. Very likely there were vandals in 

 the Park, but you would have us believe they are just 

 corning in. By referring to Gen. Sheridan's rejport of his 

 visit in '83 you will see that vandalism is no new thing. 

 Every man who has been through the Park must know 

 that even the "services of an able and energetic official, 

 who commanded a trained force of competent and faith- 

 ful men," can not, when that force is limited to ten, pre- 

 vent depredations over an area of about 4,000 square 

 miles. 



Gen. Sheridan tells how the Park can be properly 

 guarded, and from what I Imow from men who "have 

 been there" as to the slaughter of game, I hope that Capt. 

 Harris's force will be largely augmented. 



Frederic IVIay Wise, Lieutenant U. S. Navy, 



Naval Academy Club, Sept. 2i. 



MY BEAR HUNTING. 



BEAR hunting possesses for the average hunter a 

 peculiar fascination, and the killing of a full grown 

 bear has long been supposed to confer a certain distinc- 

 tion, eagerly sought by many a youthful aspirant, ambi- 

 tious of the honors of the chase. Many years of successful 

 deer hunting, a great part of which was in a country 

 much frequented by bears, had left me barren of the 

 honors connected with the capture of bruin, and it is only 

 of late years that the kiUing of two bears encourages m'e 

 to lay claim to a prominent place among the vice-presi- 

 dents of the United Association of American Beai- 

 Hunters, In the hope that the perusal of these lines may 

 give a momentary j)leasm-e even to the veteran members 

 of the aforesaid association, and encourage the yoimg 

 hunter in his difficult search for one of the most wary 

 and cmming of the brute creation, I hereby appeal to the 

 patient editor of om- own loved Forest and Stream to 

 chronicle the story of my success. 



The details of my many previous disappointments, when 

 upon several different occasions bears had been metmth, 

 and which almost in the very instant of anticipated 

 triumph had ctmnmgly eluded me, I will not dwell upon. 

 The meeting face to face with a big black brute in a dense 

 thicket some years since, which proved to be so much 

 q\iicker than I that he sprang from sight before I could 

 secure even a snap shot, together with the deplorable loss 

 of another beautiful black skin, occasioned by the tem- 

 porary disarrangement of a complicated gun sight; the 

 inventor of which is, I hope, now serving a hfe sentence 

 in some first-class lunatic asylum, only stimulated my 

 ardor until I realized fully tliat I had ''lost a bear," and 

 that in the words of an acquaintance (a member of the 

 "Jones family" of the name of Beard), "I couldn't dis- 

 pense without him," 



About a year since while one day engaged in work near 

 my house, one of my little boys, moimted on his pony, 

 came racing down the hill toward the house, plying his 

 riding whip, while his eyes blazed with excitement, cry- 

 ing, "O, papa, papa; get your gun, qtuck! we've got a 

 bear cub up a tree, and Lew Weatherwax and old Jack 

 (the dog) are watching him until you come." 

 "Are you sure you've got him treed?" 

 "Oh, yes, we saw him up on the limb of a big pine." 

 Hastily grabbing my rifle, I mounted another pony 

 standing near and away we sped up the hillside. Arrived 

 at the spot, I found the boy and his dog at the foot of the 

 tree on guard. "Where is he, Lew?" 



"Up on that big limb," replied the little fellow, point- 

 ing upward. 



I looked up. and a chubby black face, ornamented with 

 a pair of bead-like eyes, projecting from the top of a hori- 

 zontal hmb a foot in diameter and thirty feet from the 

 groimd, confronted me with curious gaze. My first 

 thought Avas that it was a very small cub for the latter 

 part of summer. "Where did you find Mm, Lew?" said I, 



"Just as we were coming up the hill here. Jack started 

 him at the edge of that thicket, and we think there is 

 another one near here for we heard a noise in the bushes, 

 and after he had treed this one Jack ran back among the 

 bushes and made a big fuss." 



"WeU, boys, I think there was an old bear and her cubs 

 in the thicket, and now I want you to mount your ponies, 

 lead mine along with you, call tlae dog, and stay entirely 

 away from here : and as the sky is clear and the moon 

 will shine all night to night, I will stay and watch for the 

 return of the old one; I want her," I replied. Left alone, 

 I lay down near the foot of the tree and began what 

 promised to be a weary vigil. An hour passed quietly, 

 when, after hearing considerable scratching above me, I 

 rose and walked around the tree to assure myself that 

 the cunning rascal was not playing me a trick, when 

 nearly a hundred feet above me I saw him crawling 

 out on a hmb, where he turned slowly around, when I 

 was amazed by the discovery that the tail of this very 

 singular bear cub was more than a foot long! A rifle 

 ball stretched him dead at my feet, with the customary 

 "dull, sickening," etc., but the more I examined him the 

 more I feared that some unsuccessful rival might insist 

 that my beautiful cub bear was, after all, nothing but a 

 fisher. 



Six months after this business called me to the Uttle 

 settlement along the Columbia River, thh-ty miles west of 

 my home, and mounting a cayuse pony and taking the 

 rifle across the saddle in front of me, I set out along a 

 lovely moimtain trail, where only the house of a single 

 settler interrupted the monotony of the forest for twenty- 

 five miles. When about two miles along the trail I met 

 an old man, who, with a sti-ong English accent, inquired 

 if I had seen any " 'orses," After a moment's conversa- 

 tion, noticing the rifle, he asked, "Is that a good gun?" 



"Yes, sir," I replied, 



"Then I must tell you what I saw. I was 'unting my 

 'orses along the top of that mountain spur there to the 

 north, when coming to the end of it about a mile from 

 'ere, where this road winds along at its foot (you will see 

 it, sir, as you ride on, you can't miss it), and not finding 

 my 'orses I crept down the face of the rocky bluff to get 

 into the road below me, when just as I was jsassing a 

 couple of big openings in the rocks, which you can see 

 quite plainly from the road, I 'card a strange noise. At 

 lirst I though it was my dog, but glancing down the 'ill I 

 saw the dog a quarter of a mile away. Again I 'eard the 

 noise, when I stopped, glanced back over my shoulder, 



and there in the cave f iirthest to the west 'oo should I see 

 but Mr. Grim 'imself !" 



"What do you mean, sir," I said, "a bear?" "Yes," he 

 replied. 



"Are you sure?" "I saw 'im." 



"Did you leave him there?" "Me! Wot would I do 

 with 'im? I 'ad no gun; I got out of there as quick as I 

 could." 



"I mean did you see him rim away after you left?" 

 " 'Im? _ No; 'e's there yet." 



Putting spurs to the pony the gallant creature soon 

 covered the intervening mile", when far above me, on my 

 right, rose a ledge of rocks' about .50ft. high, while the 

 steep hniside sloped from the foot of the chff down to the 

 trail, 300ft. below. Dismounting I tied the pony securely 

 to a small pine, and shpping an express ball cartridge into 

 the barrel of the .45-70 Marhn, and four solid ball 

 cartridges into the magazine, I chmbed laboriouslvup the 

 steep slope to the foot of the cUff, keeping mv eye fixed 

 upon the western opening in the rocks, fearing that the 

 bear might, on hearing me approach, dash out and give 

 me the slip. At the foot of the cliff, a glance shoAved the 

 eastern cave to my right to be empty of everythmg save 

 the grassy bed of some animal. The western cave was 

 deeper and consequently darker. A long stare revealed a 

 wedge-shaped opening in the rocks, above and beyond a 

 large fallen boulder at the back of the cave, and there in 

 the gloom I could faintly distinguish the outline of some 

 animal. "Tlie longer I stared the more I was convinced 

 that this time at least there could be no questioning the 

 fact that I had found Ur.ms amerieanus at last. 



I observed that the bottom of the cave was very steep, 

 and that if he jumped or rolled off the boulder he would 

 be sure to conae out into the oj)en where I was in spite of 

 himself, 



I concluded to deliver my fire and then jump quickly 

 to the right into an open spot free from stones and brush, 

 reloading as I went, and then tm-n and face him Ivith the 

 reloaded rifle should he need another shot. 



Aiming carefully at the center of the dark mass I fired, 

 then sprang sAviftly into the open space, hearing the fall 

 of some heavy body behind me, tm'ned qiuckly with the 

 reloaded rifle presented and AAdth my finger on the trigger. 

 There he was. A cub evidently and apparently stione 

 dead, as he rolled slowly downward toward the m'oxith of 

 the cave. 



When, however, the sunlight rested fairly upon the 

 formidable looking quills that covered his ' back and 

 shoulders, the distressing conviction forced itself upon me 

 that my euA'ious detractors, with the eagerness of malice, 

 woirld hasten to assert that Uncle Fuller's bear cub num- 

 ber two was, after all, only what my old trapping chum, 

 Jim Morehead, Avould call (Avith a tremendous accent on 

 the second syllable of the big word) tlie "onhumanhest" 

 porcupine iri Washington Territory. 



I am perfectly vAdlling to acknowledge that the recollec- 

 tion of the two exciting himts would be far more pleasant 

 had the tail of the first bear been somewhat shorter, and 

 the hair of the last one not quite so shariJ. I do not wish 

 to seem too particular, yet I must confess to a certam 

 amount of dissatisfaction. The depressing dread of ad- 

 verse criticism has until now betrayed me into delaying 

 my application for admission into the honored Associa- 

 tion of American Bear Himters, yet I have concluded to 

 rest my case upon the evidence in court. I can only 

 refer to the very positive declarations of the two excited 

 boys, and to the equally empliatic assertions of the vera- 

 cious old Englishman; all of Avhom repeatedly insisted 

 upon the identity of the aforesaid bears, and clamored 

 for their destruction. 



And if, after all, some captious critic remains imcon- 

 vmced, I take pleasure in assm'ing him that if my kind 

 of bear does not suit him, there are whole families of 

 bears of the requisite brevity of narrative and any de- 

 shed fineness of hah yet roammg the mountains that 

 smTound om- little valley, and I venture to express the 

 hope that he will come out here, and, after smoking the 

 pipe of peace AA-ith the old uncle, proceed to hunt out, 

 select and kfll the bear of his choice. Uncle Fuller. 



Thetis, Stevens County, Washington Territory. 



UNCLE KELLUP TAKES AN OUTING. 



FOR a fortnight past he could think of nothing else. 

 He has hurried home at night and swallowed his 

 supper in indigestible bulk to overhaul his scanty para- 

 phernalia and inflict one final bru-nishing on the aheady 

 shinmg equipments. He has induced Aunt Susan to 

 make hhn a broA\-n hunting jacket after a design fur- 

 nished by himself, Avith capacious pockets for game and 

 miniature fobs for caps and ammunition. This to sup- 

 plement the cartridge belt. 



Soon after daybreak the Hvery team is left at the door, 

 according to contract. A cold mist is slowly rising and 

 rolling away; tliere is a suggestion of frost in the air, and 

 the sidewalk under the maple is littered with variegated 

 leaves. He covmted on getting an early start and going 

 off on the quiet before the neighbors were aroused, but 

 Dodger has been careering up and down the street this 

 last half hour cutting such noisy capers that more than 

 one curious blind has been cautiously opening to see 

 what an unwonted thing has been distm-bing the equan- 

 imity of tliis usually so sedate canine. A moment ago he 

 bristled and groAvled at a dog a half mile down the road 

 and turned to bark at a pigeon soaring over his head. 

 Then he sidled up to an old tree just to show how he 

 would approach in case it Avas a large, fierce dog, and Avas 

 having a sanguinary time grappling with the root when 

 he espied a brindled terrier running down the street be- 

 hind a man in overalls Avith a tin dinner pail. Tlxis 

 remmded him that things must be nearly ready for a 

 start, and he wont in to see about it. 



In the meantime Uncle KeUup has been hurrying back 

 and forth with this, that and the other not-to-be-forgotten 

 article, tiU at last the feed bag, lantern, lunch basket, 

 etc., are aU aboard, and Susan standing in the doorAvay 

 to wave them off, so Uncle KeUup oaUs the dog and tries 

 to induce him to jump in over the rear as a sporting dog 

 properly should. Dodger approaches warily, and at 

 length, placing his forepaAvs on the tailboard, is hfted 

 ignominously in. The old fellow who lives just below 

 and gets up before breakfast to smoke his pipe and putter 

 in the garden, has been leaning on the fence the past 

 half hour an interested spectator, regaling himself hugely 

 at Uncle KeUup's expense. 



They are very old jokes, very old indeed, but to his fond 

 imagination they are excruciatingly funny. 



