324 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 18, 1886. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE PARK. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your comments Tipon my letter of Sept. 25, "The 

 Ti-oop"s and the Park," you say it "contains evidence good 

 enough, as far as it goes, hut it is mainly of a negative 

 character and does not of necessity conflict with the posi- 

 tive testimony submitted by the special correspondent 

 sent out from" this office." Then follow "facts" in regard 

 to "drunten soldiers," viz.: "In the last week of August 

 a drrmken soldier, one. of the Park guardians, 'held up' a 

 stage load of ladies and gentlemen just within the Park, 

 coming from Cinnabar, cocked his revolver, and with 

 profanity and obscenity detained them until it suited his 

 intoxicated fancy to permit them to go on. On the fol- 

 lowing day a sergeant and two enlisted men were dis- 

 patched by Captain Harris to arrest this soldier. In due 

 time all fom' returned, every one of them drunk." On 

 reading this, I felt so satisfied that no such occm-rence 

 could take place on the part of enlisted men in the army 

 without an investigation and court martial following, 

 that I took means to ascertain and I now submit some 

 testimony on the aifair, not negative, but very positive, 

 inasmuch as it is testimony developed by an official in- 

 vestigation. 



"A soldier had visited the town of Gardiner, just out- 

 side the Park limits, and had taken more of' the vile 

 liquor sold there than he was able to carry. As he was 

 riding along the road on his way home, on a borrowed 

 pony, he was overtaken by the stage, the driver of which 

 drove liis lead horses on to the soldier, so that liis pony 

 became entangled in the harness. The driver was abusive 

 and the soldier talked back, and M'hen another citizen, 

 who had charge of the stages, came up and joined in the 

 altercation, the soldier drew and flomished his empty 

 pistol. The com-t was satisfied that the soldier got out 

 of the way as soon as he could free himself from his en- 

 tanglement among the lead stage horses. The court 

 could get no evidence as to the use of obscene language, 

 and in profanity the drivers were fully uji to the soldier. 

 Both driver and master of transportation flatly refused to 

 appear before a court martial and give testimony, nor 

 would they make any complaint. A sergeant and men 

 were not sent after the soldier in question at any time, 

 consequently did not return drunk, as the man was in his 

 tent in camp asleep an hour after the occurrence." 



It is rather a small matter to make much of, and the 

 way that soldier "held up" {anglice, your money or yom- 

 life) that stage reminds one of the fight of Jolm Phoenix 

 with the editor; but inasmuch as it partook of the nature 

 of a "national disgrace" it was worth while to get things 

 straight. 



One more: The &-es near the head of Black Tail Deer 

 Creek started in full view from the Mammoth Hot Springs 

 Hotel, on Aug. 14, three days before any troops arrived 

 in the Park, and no efforts worthy of the name were 

 made to extinguish them by the "trained force of assist- 

 ants." Am I doing another injustice in the thought, 

 "The troops are coming; this will make it hot for them." 

 Frederic May Wise, Lieutenant U. S. Navy. 

 Naval Academx Olitb. Nov. 1, 



[Assuming the information furnished to, and quoted 

 by, Lieut. Wise to be correct, we see but little to change in 

 what we wrote. We are quite Avell aware that an of&cial 

 investigation took place, and that the soldier, who at the 

 time of the occim-ence was a non-commissioned officer, 

 was reduced to the ranks. It was never intended to sug- 

 gest that the "holding up" of the coach was done for 

 purposes of plunder. It was, and was understood to be, a 

 drunken freak and nothing more; but the timid occupants 

 of the coach could hardly be expected to know this at the 

 time. The moral effect of the drunken soldier refusing 

 to get out of the road, and, with drawn six-shooter, dis- 

 puting the passage of the coach, would be about the same 

 whether his piu-pose were plunder, fun or fight with the 

 driver.] 



GAME PRESERVING IN BRITAIN. 



v. — THE GAME OF THE MOOES. 



Ptarmigan. 



AMONG the game birds of Britain the ptarmigan 

 (Tetrao lagopus) must undoubtedly hold place, though 

 we may rightly call in question the advisability of includ- 

 ing it among the game we preserve, because to aU intents 

 and purposes we do not preserve ptarmigan at all, unless 

 this term can be appHed to the slightly increased security 

 of life offered it by the diminution in vermin which the 

 game-keeper brings about. It is common beUef here that 

 the ptarmigan of Europe and the ptarmigan of America 

 are the same species, but whether this be so I cannot pre- 

 tend to decide. As far as Britain is concerned we have 

 but one invariable species, and that one only in deci-eased 

 numbers. It used to frequent districts in both England 

 and Wales, but has disappeared from these two provinces 

 and is not now to be met with further south than the Gram- 

 pian Hills of Scotland, being, however, by no means so 

 plentiftd in that comparatively southern locality as it is 

 in the Highlands, the Hebrides and other Scotch islands. 

 The tastes of the ptarmigan cause it to frequent the most 

 uninviting portions of the hills and moors. It abjures the 

 somewhat slieltered heather-clad moors and expanses for 

 the stony, barren hiUtops, apparently choosing those 

 parts where one would imagme existence most difficult to 

 maintain and life most precarious. Besides the extreme 

 scarcity of food of which these exposed hill-places give 

 one an idea, the birds, by then- choice, render themselves 

 liable to other dangers. The place of their being always 

 makes itself known both to man and to birds and beasts 

 of prey, and from both of these enemies the ptarmigan 

 imdoubtedly severely suffers. Its habits, too, are curious; 

 it is far from shy or wary, but of very confiding natm-e, 

 tame almost in the stupid determuiedness it exhibits in 

 sticking to its ground and refusing to move. I know no 

 game bird so easy of approach and difficult to make wild. 

 You can sometirnes almost walk up to them and kick them 

 up, BO chary are they of rising. Even when they do move 

 it is rather at the instance of the sentinel bird which con- 

 trols the movement of the covey or pack. 



Being an essentially Alpine bird the ptarmigan, as is 

 usually, one might say invariably, the case with all Alpine 

 creatures, changes its" coloring ciuring one season of the 

 year. So long a period is it white that I suppose we may 

 regard the winter dress of this grouse as its normal hue, 

 the pecuhar gray, white, yellow and black versicolored 

 plumage of summer and autumn being a temporary con- 

 cession to the antithesis of winter. In either case there 

 is no doubt that the ptarmigan owes an im mense share of 



its immunity from molestation to these variations in 

 plumage, for at either season, whether the mountain tops 

 be snow- ridden or not, the coloring of this game bhd is 

 always in strict harmony with that of the ground it fre- 

 quents and of its general smn-oundings. You place a 

 ptarmigan in its summer plumage against an expanse of 

 lichf>n-gro^\Ta granite rock, and I defy the most experi- 

 enced eye to discover the bird at 30 or 40yds. So well 

 sometimes does then- plumage assist them in concealment 

 that even at much nearer distances their presence comes 

 as a surprise. And so it is in snow time to an equal extent. 



The food of the ptarmigan is of limited variety, and 

 one would suppose of limited quantity, but this appears 

 not to be the case, as they are invariably in fah to good 

 condition. Shoots of mountain plants, berries and in- 

 sects comprise the diet, and in winter the birds bmTow 

 under the snow for their food, using snow dming hard 

 frost as a substitute for water, and apparently when other 

 fare runs short they consume a good deal of snow as a 

 means for Iteeping body and sovil together. 



Then- matrimonial arrangements are much allied to 

 those of the red grouse. They commence j)airing early 

 in the season and nest about June. Incubation occupies 

 three weeks, the female alone completing the task imder 

 the male's protection, j)tarmigan being monogamous. 

 The nest is a rough structure, a mere depression in the 

 ground, but sheltered by some stone or tuft of growth. 

 Both birds assist in the rearing of the flock, the young- 

 sters reaching maturity very speedily. In late autumn 

 several broods pack together rmtil the following spring, 

 when the pack is broken up. 



As a game bird, a bird of sport, the ptarmigan has its 

 merits, but gastronomically speaking it is rather a failure, 

 bearing m mind the excellence in this respect of those 

 other two of the Tetraonidce, the red and black gi-ouse. 

 It is an interesting enough bird, not so much perhaps on 

 account of any little idiosyncracies of habit it may possess, 

 but rather for reason of the barrenness, the iminviting, 

 sometimes inaccessibleness, of its haunts. Moorman. 



THE GAME WARDEN MURDER. 



THE sensation created by the murder of the two game 

 wardens at Fletcher Brook, in Maine, last week, is 

 widespread and profoimd. Nothing has ever taken place 

 in the history of game laws and game protection in this 

 coimtry which will go so far to make the real jjosition of 

 both poacher and game officer clear to the public mind, 

 and the pubHc heart, perhaps mdifferent heretofore, has 

 been touched. Persons who have never befoi'e given the 

 question of game preservation a moment's thought have 

 read of the double tragedy, and opinions, not favorable 

 to the poacher, have been' formed. Game wardens and 

 commissioners have told the story of their trials and 

 dangers before, but they have never before received the 

 attention that this crime will bring. The poachers' 

 nefarious business has received a check such as could 

 have come from no other som-ce. Fi'om out of the grave 

 of the one-armed-soldier-murdered warden will spruig up 

 an army of game officers that will double guard the deer 

 parks of Maine. It is fortunate that the Legislatiu-e of 

 that State convenes so soon — almost before the public 

 mind has had time to sleep over the double murder. The 

 Maine Connrdssioners propose to ask the State for a better 

 game patrol; a force by wliich they could better cover a 

 territory so vast and valuable as a'game preserve. They 

 may now ask for ten times the mimber of officers they 

 liave been allowed heretofore, and the State will grant 

 their request. They may ask for money to pay wardens 

 and they will get it. 



McFarlan and Graves may escape with their lives, but 

 the chances are against them. Tlie lialter awaits one or 

 both of them ; and with that halter will come the entire 

 solution of that tlu-eat which has been so common dur- 

 ing the past two years— "I'U shoot the d d warden, if 



he meddles with me or touches my dog !" The feeling 

 which makes a man protect Ms dog is a rnoble one. The 

 more we have of it the better will the world be. The 

 love of tlie faithful bi-ute is next to the love of a child. 

 But how much love can a man claim for his child when 

 he is constantly causing it to run its neck within the 

 hangman's halter, where the poor innocent but aAvaits 

 the clip of the sheriff's hatchet to hurl it into eternity V 

 The brute is not to blame, it is tme, and should not be 

 made to suffer for the crime of its master, but what shall 

 we say of the master who, with ]iis eyes wide open to the 

 fact tJiat the State of Maine axithorizes the desti'uction of 

 any dog found hunting deer, still persists in taking the 

 poor brute into that State for the sake of exposing him 

 to destruction ? Has such a man any claim to being a 

 true lover of that noble animal, the dog ? 



But the tnie animus of the matter does not hinge on the 

 question of the love of the dog. There is intense hatred 

 of the game laws in that State, and hence of tlie officers 

 who attempt to enforce them. That very region where 

 the double tragedy took place has always been the hotbed 

 of the worst of outrages in the direction of poacher 

 against game warden. The stories— not a whit worse 

 than they really are— have all been told in the Forest 

 AND Stream. Many of the poachers are characters of 

 the most dangerous sort. They have not only persisted 

 in the disregard of wholesome game laws themselves, but 

 they have done all in then- power to encourage poaching 

 by ^dsitors from other States. Boston poachers, I started 

 to call them gentlemen, hut poacher fits them better— have 

 letters in their possession from Wesley and the region 

 around Fletcher Brook, tu-ging them to "come down and 

 get a shot at a deer" in close time, and ' 'd— the game laws, " 

 Such Boston poachers have been down there on such invita- 

 tions and they have killed deer in close time, wliicli deer they 

 have never paid for. To-day they hang their heads Avlien 

 they find that instead of "poor, but honest guides," they 

 have been the company of outlaws and murderers. Per- 

 haps they will not feel like going down to Maine nest 

 summer 'and Idlhng a deer on the sly. It is possible that 

 their wives may persuade them to stay away, if there 

 is to be any mm-der about such a little breach of 

 the laws of another State! To brand sucli men as tliieves 

 —stealing game from another State, and game that the 

 State is trying to protect and propagate for the good of 

 the whole sporting fraternity— has not seiwed to restrain 

 them, but the fact that murders are to grow out of their 

 crimes may now serve to bring them to their senses. 

 Like the Dutclunan's philosophy of the other evemng. 

 He had listened to his friend's accoimt of the double 

 tragedy, as his friend had read it from the morning 

 paper, when he exclaimed, "It pe much petter to led 

 Maine game alone!" Special. 



COLORADO GAME GROUNDS. 



DENVER, Colo., Nov. S.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I recently spent a few days in Middle Park, along 

 Grand River and about Hot Sidphur Springs and Grand 

 Lake, and offer a few remarks about game. Ten years 

 ago that region was a veritable hunter's paradise. He 

 had only to slay and eat, but that did not satisfy him. 

 He ate but a tithe of what he kiUed. Eleven years ago 

 this winter elk filled the Park as cattle do to-day. A set- 

 tler of that period told me that for thi'ee or foxu- months 

 of ihat winter he beheved he never looked out of his 

 house witliout seemg elk, and at times he thought there 

 were three thousand in sight. Elk and antelope came 

 into his corrals and ate hay with his cattle. Now they 

 have almost disappeared. There is plenty of range for 

 them; range tliat is not wanted for anything else, and 

 will not be for many years to come, but they have been 

 ruthlessly slaughtered and for almost no profit. Big kills 

 are seldom heard of now. I heard of only two this fall. 

 A Mr, Kline, who lives on Fiaser River in the Park, killed 

 seven elk in one day only a few miles from his home. 

 The other case was m the Flat-Top or Cook Momitains, 

 about the head of William's Fork of Yampa River. Tlu-ee 

 young men, one of whom had hunted a little before and 

 the other two not at all, in four days killed fourteen elk 

 and ten deer. Twelve of the elk were killed in one 

 day. 



A gentleman who came up from Egeria Park about 

 the time I went over, told me he thought there 

 were four hundred hunters at that time in and about 

 Egeria Park and among the Flat-Tops. A few were 

 loading their wagons with meat, many were getting a 

 partial supply, while many others were not killing 

 enough to eat. Tliose who went fiuthest found most 

 game. I saw many coming back, and was glad to know 

 that their wagons were not generally overloaded with 

 meat. One party, who had traveled between 200 and 300 

 miles to then- himting gronnd, said they found plenty of 

 deer — frequently saw from 200 to 300 in a day. They had 

 full loads. I met one gentleman who came from Kansas 

 to hunt and Imd spent about a month at and near Steam- 

 boat Springs. He was starting home in greatly im- 

 proved health, brown as a bear and in exidtant spirits. I 

 asked him, "What luck?" and he answered "First rate; 

 good enough for me — good enoiigh in fuct for any man; 

 killed one elk and got a good head." He reads Forest 

 AND Stream, and is coming back next year to repeat his 

 hunt. Altogether the htmters are not destroying very 

 much game this year, and its waste is correspondingly 

 small. 



In North Park, during the past summer, which was 

 remarkable for its drouth, forest fires swept over vast 

 areas of the game ranges around the rim of the Park and 

 high upon the mountaia slopes, drivuigthe animals down 

 into the open park among the settlements. Elk, deer 

 and antelope could be killed anywhere and by anybody, 

 but the thoughtful settlers agreed that there should be no 

 wasteful slaughter. They killed what they needed for 

 their own use and notified outsiders that they would not 

 be allowed to kill more. 



Along Grand River was formerly good shooting gro\ind 

 for waterfowl in the migratiag seasons. In fact, ten 

 years ago and more many geese and ducks were hatched 

 and rearer there. Now 'they have almost entirely disap- 

 peared. In traveling nearly a hundred miles up and 

 down the Grand I did not see half a dozen ducks and not 

 one goose or brant. Grouse ai'e yet plentiful. 



At Grand Lake trout were still taking the fly in the 

 last days of October, but the time to catch them was 

 short and uncomfortable. It began at dvLsk and lasted 

 half an horn- — possibly longer, but I saw no one who cared 

 for the sport more than about tliat length of time. An 

 industi'ious angler could take about twenty fish in that 

 time. Not one could be caught in daylight. They were 

 taken from the shore. I tried them in the river but could 

 get none. 



Of game notes here there are not very many. Two of 

 our city hmiters went up toward South Park about a 

 month ago and fell upon the trail of a little bimch of 

 buffalo — twenty -six, they reported — followed them up and 

 eventually butchered tlu'ee, a buU, a cow and a calf. 

 They lost the meat before getting it out to the railway. 

 Then- great exploit was duly heralded through the daily 

 papers. One of the latter proclaimed them a pair of 

 heroes and decked them all over with garlands through a 

 column and a half of slush. We will try to get a law 

 tln-ough the next legislature to prohibit absolutely the 

 killing of buffalo in the State. 



Capt. Sedam brought in a mule deer last week that he 

 killed in the western part of the State, whicli weighed, 

 with the entrails out and a week or more after it was 

 killed, 2821bs. It had an exceptionally fine head of ant- 

 lers and will be preserved entire. I saw the carcass of a 

 hesur on the street a coiiple of days ago, and a daily paper 

 said yesterday that "the market is abundantly supplied 

 with srame. consisting of buffalo, elk, antelope, deer and 

 bear." ' W. N. B. 



Delphos, Kan., Nov, Q— Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 have just returned from a hunting trip in Colorado, and 

 wish to call attention to the slaughter of game going on 

 in the Egeria Park country of that State. I estimate that 

 from Oct. 15 (the commencement of tlie open season) to 

 Oct. 25 at least 2,000 deer, fom--fifths of wlhch were does 

 and fawns, were shot in that section ffjr market during 

 the fortnight, and the season continues up to .Jan. 1. At 

 this rate large game in Colorado ^viU not last three yeai-s 

 in the best game portion of the State if this slaughter is 

 allowed to continue. I shot all the game, elk and deer, 

 that was needed for om- party and no more, although I 

 had many tempting opportunities. I met, in a very 

 pleasant and sm-prising way, yom- Denver correspondent 

 "W. N. B.," at Hot Sulphur Sprmgs, and we had an en- 

 joyable chat over Forest and Stream people in the olden 

 time, as well as those of later days. I shall take pleasure, 

 business permitting, in giving a detailed account of my 

 trip to the Rocldes some time dm-ing the winter. G. H. B. 



Where are the Rail?— Easton, Md., Nov. 6. — ^Wliat 

 has become of the rail? We have had no shooting worth 

 speaking of for the past two seasons. From what I can 

 learn their absence is not confined to this locality, but ap- 

 pears to be general. Pai-tridges are, I think, rather more 

 plenty than usual this fall, though they get to the woods 

 just as quick, all the same. We've no ducks as yet, they 

 are very late this year. A good many geese have passed 

 over, but few have tarried.— SAJJawiLLAH. 



