Feb. S, 1887.] 



Eight miles further on we came to Bollinger Creek, where 

 we stopped for dinner. A little way from here is located 

 the Osage Iron Works, which was in a flourishing condi- 

 tion years ago, but the men got on strike and let the iron 

 chill in the stack, and the furnace has not been started 

 since. The company own two thousand acres of land 

 and a lot of dilapidated houses; the land has several veins 

 of coal and iron and any quantity of limestone. 



At 5 o'clock we arrived at the Niangua (Nee-Sng-wa) 

 River, and put up our tent close to the clam opposite Arn- 

 hol tz's mill. Anxious to have fish for supper, two of us 

 started fishing at once and succeeded in catching some 

 small catfish and white perch. About dark it began to 

 Tain and continued nearly all night, which raised the 

 i liver three feet and made the water quite muddy. The 

 next morning, finding the ford looking rather dangerous, 

 we got a boy to pilot us across. Arriving at the mill we 

 found the proprietor, Mr. Geo. Arnholtz, sitting on a 

 millstone hammering away. This jolly Dutchman has 

 lived here for forty years "and is well-known for miles 

 around. Wc explained to Mr. A. that we had come to 

 hunt and fish for a few days, that we. had got pretty wet 

 the night before and wanted a dry spot to sleep on. Mr. 

 Arnholtz had a room in the mill which contained a cook 

 stove and bed, that be said we could have as long as wc 

 wanted to stay. The room suited nicely and we soon had 

 our traps unloaded, fire built, clothes dried and every- 

 thing in good shape. After dinner Charlie and George 

 took to the woods and I fished all the afternoon, taking 

 one bass, two white perch and a lot of small catfish. The 

 'boys brought in several gray and fox squirrels. 



During the afternoon a party from Versailles had come 

 and camped in the school house. They brought trot- 

 Hnes with them, and I noticed they selected the swiftest 

 deep places and set the lines slanting across the river. In 

 the evening Mr. Arnholtz came down to chat with us for 

 s while. As ho kept a pack of hounds and had hunted 

 deer for many years, his talk was very interesting to us. 

 Before turning I took a look at the hand-lines, and was 

 much pleased to land a channel cat weighing 71bs. In 

 the morning the Versailles party brought in over lOOlbs. 

 nf fish, one channel cat weighing 531bs., another weigh- 

 ing 301bs. 



- To-day we visited a famous cave about half a mile be- 

 low the mill. A great many stories are told about this 

 cave, and we were anxious to see what had furnished a 

 hiding place for horse thieves, bushwhackers and wild 

 bnimals in times past. The entrance to the caVe is about 

 pOft. above the river, and is quite narrow. For a short 

 distance inside, the floor is wet and slippery, but further 

 on it is hard and dry. We passed through numerous 

 rooms and halls, until we had gone fully half a mile — our 

 guide told us we could go two miles, but we had had 

 tenough and were willing to return to the outside world 

 again. Many of the passage-ways were only two or three 

 ioet high and quite narrow, allowing only one person to 

 pass at a time, while the rooms were very large around 

 ^and from 30 to 50ft. high. Almost the entire roof and 

 floor was covered with stalactites and stalagmites, and 

 when the cave was lighted up it formed a beautiful and 

 .interesting sight. 



Returning to tbe mill we soon prepared dinner, which 

 consisted of steaks from the 531bs. catfish, squirrel, fried 

 onions, potatoes, pickles, Harford sauce, canned peaches, 

 bread, butter and coffee. After dinner we secured an 

 old scow and started up the river. The channel was nar- 

 row and the Mils high and abrupt, giving one an idea of 

 •being shut in. We came to another cave said to be con- 

 nected by a. narrow passage with the one below the mill. 

 We took" their word for it. 



A couple of miles up, w T e ran the scow aground and 

 took to the woods after game. We hunted about two 

 horns, bringing back a few squirrels and an owl. Once 

 more afloat we soon arrived at the mill. The next morn- 

 ing we bade good-by to Mr. Arnholtz, and continued on 

 our way. Seven miles from the mill we came to Linn 

 Creek, the seat of Camden county , and crossed the Osage 

 a mile, above town and just below the mouth of the 

 Niangua. We had considerable sport during the day. 

 Quite often a squirrel would run across the road in front 

 of the wagon, and away we would scamper after it, falling 

 over rocks and brush, all the time trying to keep our 

 eyes on the picture, until the game was treed, then 

 the firing began and lasted until there was a dead squir- 

 rel. We kept this sort of thing up pretty much all day. 

 As one of the boys said, " It beat still-fishing all to 

 pieces.'' We reached the Little Gravois River late in the 

 evening and put up our tent near the stream. At dawn 

 in the morning I was off to the river fishing, while the 

 others went hunting. I caught several small jack-salmon 

 and one bass. 



While we were eating breakfast a gang of turkeys 

 walked across the road about 100yds. from camp, in plain 

 sight. The idea of getting a shot at turkeys drove hunger 

 away instantly, and dropping knives and forks we took 

 oui' guns and started off in different directions. I had 

 been out about twenty minutes when I heard two shots 

 in quick succession. Stepping behind a bush I pulled both 

 hammers back and waited, hoping that fate would send 

 the turkeys my way, and after waiting a quarter of an 

 horn I concluded they had crossed the river and I might 

 as well return to camp. About half way I found Charlie 

 sitting on a log with two turkeys beside him. I was a 

 little provoked that he should get two and I none, but 

 before I had time to explain my feelings Charlie picked 

 up one of the turkeys and told me to take the other and. 

 go around and come into camp from the direction I took 

 in starting out. George did not even ask, but took it for 

 granted that we had each shot a turkey, and he does not 

 know to this day but that I killed the one 1 brought in 

 that morning. 



On the road that day we played the same game with 

 the squirrels that we did the day before. It was lots of 

 fun for us. At a farm house we traded one of the turkeys 

 for bread, milk and onions. That night we camped at 

 the mouth of the Big Gravois, and a few yards from the 

 Osage. The Osage is a half mile wide here, and at this 

 time was very high, backing its muddy water up the 

 Gravois for nearly a mile, beyond that the Gravois was 

 clear and afforded us some fine bass fishing. 



Ducks and squirrels were abundant and we did not 

 have to work very hard to get enough to eat. We stayed 

 here three days enjoying ourselves completely. The 

 fourth morning we were up and had breakfast before 

 daybreak. The packing up was done in a sorrowful 

 manner, for we all regretted to leave this beautiful place. | 

 But once on the way we f orgot the blue waters of the 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



Gravois and the muddy Osage, in the anticipation of the 

 bird shooting we were sure to have when we reached the 

 open country again. 



About 2 o'clock we were well out on the prairie, and 

 coming to a nice camping place concluded to stop for the 

 day. We were once more among the quail, plover and 

 prairie chickens, and after a hasty dinner we all struck 

 out across the prairie. I walked for an hour without get- 

 ting a shot, and was returning to camp when I saw a 

 flock of mallards drop in a pond quarter of a mile away. 

 I crawled within twenty yards of the pond, then showed 

 myself, and when the ducks rose I let go both barrels 

 into them and scored nothing; not even a feather dropped. 

 I could not account for the miss, as it was as fair a shot 

 as I ever had. Much disappointed I started toward camp. 

 On the way I saw another pond off to the right, and fol- 

 lowing the swale leading up to it I was soon peeping 

 through the weeds across the water. Almost the first 

 thing I saw was a mallard drake sitting on a little island 

 about twenty yards away. I looked carefully to see if 

 there were any others and came to the conclusion that 

 this was a lone cluck. As the. result of the afternoon's 

 sport (?) had been 0. so far; I resolved to take this lone 

 duck "on the wing." Shoving the gun through the weeds 

 I took deliberate aim at the sleeping greenhead and banged 

 away. In an instant there was a terrible splash and flop- 

 ping of wings and about forty mallards got up so flus- 

 trated that they flew in every direction. The sudden and 

 unexpected noise fairly frightened me, but in a second or 

 two the hair lay down on my head again, and I had sense 

 enough left to let go the other barrel into the thickest of 

 the flying ducks, dropping three of them. Gathering up 

 the four greenheads I struck out for camp feeling pretty 

 joyful over my luck. We had quail for supper, some- 

 thing we had not eaten before for several days. Just as 

 we sat down the sun went to bed, pulling a bright red 

 blanket over his head. Clumps of trees and herds of cat- 

 tle dotted the prairie in every direction, and away off to 

 the south a dark line of timber showed where the Osage 

 hills began. It was a pretty sight, but what interested us 

 most just at that time and added so immensely to the pic- 

 ture were the few feet of ground directly before us upon 

 which our supper was spread. 



For the next few days we traveled across strips of 

 prairie and through belts'of timber, stopping as often and 

 as long as we wished wherever we found, game. All 

 through this country the quail shooting is excellent; 

 prairie chickens are rather scarce but there are enough to 

 afford some sport. There are thousands of rabbits, and 

 ducks and geese are quite plenty during the winter 

 months. These last stay on the sandbars in the Missouri 

 River at night and in the day time resort to the corn and 

 wheat fields on each side of the river, often flying as far 

 as thirty miles to feed. As we neared home wo were re- 

 minded of corn husking and other work to be done on 

 the farm, and we would have to sit down to tame food 

 again — such as pumpkin pie°, ham and eggs, hot biscuits 

 and honey, apple dumplings and cream as thick as your 

 finger; but Charlie " 'lowed we would have to stand it — 

 for a while." Jack. 



Columbus, O., .Tun. 15. 



Address all eommunicatiovs to the Forest and Stream Pub. O. 



THE TERNS OF MUSKEGET ISLAND. 



FROM time immemorial Muskeget Island has been a 

 famous breeding place for terns and seagulls. Over 

 its iron shores the herring gull and the blackback hover in 

 winter, and sometimes the great white-winged gull, 

 wandering from the ice-laden ocean of the far North, 

 stops here for a little w-hile. But in spring, when the 

 leaden clouds have left the sky, and the smooth sea 

 shines brightly blue under the serene heavens, when the 

 shoals of fish begin to move northward, and the hardy 

 fishermen prepare then nets and push off then boats 

 from the shore, then the terns, joining the advancing 

 army of bird life, come to us from the south, and revisit 

 their summer home at Muskeget. And what thousands 

 of them there are. How they circle and whirl and dart 

 about the island; or go off in little fishing parties out to 

 sea, or along the shore, or at midday roost at ease upon 

 the black rocks, which are turned to "white by the downy 

 plumage of the beautiful birds. 



They are innocent little things, doing no harm, to any 

 one, and in fair weather serving a useful purpose by often 

 guiding the fisherman to the distant shoals of mackerel 

 or menhaden, while, in foul, the clamor which they 

 make about their rock-bound home warns the sailor of 

 the neighborhood of a dangerous coast. One would think 

 that the terns and the gulls might live here in peace, but 

 it is not so. The hat bird butcher wanted their skins, for 

 women will have terns to wear. So he went to Muskeget 

 when the birds were breeding, and the ground was cov- 

 ered with their eggs, or with then helpless downy young, 

 and began his slaughter. For years, too, he kept it up, 

 until the birds became sadly reduced in numbers, 



Not very far from Muskeget Mrs. Richard P. White has 

 her summer home. She is deeply interested in all ani- 

 mals, and when she learned of the butchery of these sea 

 birds which add so much to the attractions of life on the 

 shore, she put forth every effort to have it stopped. 

 Often at the sound of a gun she would hurry from the 

 house, and stepping into her light boat, would row over 

 to the island to remonstrate with those who were killing 

 the birds. But this after all did but little to put an end 

 to the destruction. So a year ago last autumn she spoke 

 to Mr. Isaac Folger, a gentleman living in Boston who is 

 greatly interested in birds, and he expended much time 

 and effort in trying to persuade the Massachusetts Legis- 

 lature to pass a law prohibiting the destruction of the 

 terns up to the first of October each year. Such a law 

 was passed, and this was thought to amount practically 

 to an entire prohibition, for the terns by the first of Octo- 

 ber are supposed to have started on then* journey south- 

 ward, but it is said that last autumn they did not leave 

 the island until the middle of the month, and that before 

 they started great numbers of them were killed. 



But it was not enough to secure the passage of this 

 law. The island is some distance from the mainland, 

 and it was evident that some one must be at hand to see 

 that the law was enforced, So Mrs. White and Mrs. Wm, 



23 



Appleton, both of whom are vice-presidents of the Audu- 

 bon Society, contributed a liberal sum of money to pay 

 a man for watching over the birds. This he has done, 

 and it is thought that during this past summer, for the 

 first time in many years, the terns were allowed to rear 

 then broods in comparative peace. 



Mrs. White gives some account of the cruelties which 

 are attendant upon this needless and wholly inexcusable 

 killing. A reliable man who stopped at the island on the 

 day following a visit of the butchers, counted and killed 

 on the ground, sixty birds which were so badly wounded 

 as to be beyond hope of recovery. 



Of the number of adult birds slain here no estimate 

 can be formed. To count the birds by thousands would 

 not give an idea of it, we are told. The slaughter 

 amounts to tens of thousands of adults, and besides these, 

 how many nests of starving young and of deserted eggs. 

 And all this destruction went on so that a few women 

 might wear pretty birds in then hats. 



It rather shakes one's faith in the tender-heartedness of 

 woman, does it not? 



AN OFFICIAL EXTERMINATION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of Jan. 13 you reprint from the Proceed- 

 ings of the National Museum the account by C. H. Town- 

 send, Agent of the Smithsonian Institution, of what must 

 be judged from the narrative itself to be the final and 

 complete extinction of the California sea-elephant. 



It is interesting to know that the National Museum has 

 by Mr. Townsend's expedition secured specimens of this 

 rare animal and that the biologists and naturalists of the 

 future will not be left quite so badly off, in regard to it, 

 as they are to the rhytina, the dinorinis, the dodo and the 

 solitaire, not to say the great auk. This is, however, the 

 only consolation permitted the casual reader of this ac- 

 count. Nothing more cold-blooded, remorseless and heart- 

 less has fallen under my notice for many a day. We 

 have been treated of late to many touching appeals for 

 mercy to the few remnants of once mighty tribes of liv- 

 ing beings. We have been told with what senseless fury 

 the inhabitants of a region in France, who had discovered 

 a family of beavers living on an island in a river — the 

 species having been supposed to be long ago extinct — fell 

 upon and slew every one instead of, as one might have 

 hoped they would be wise enough to do, taking all possi- 

 ble pains for their preservation. We have been led to 

 believe that it was only heartless pot-hunters or ignorant 

 and thoughtless people who were guilty of exterminating 

 game, but in this account we are treated to something 

 novel, viz., the story of deliberate and, so to speak, "of- 

 ficial" extermination of the sea-elephant. The expedition 

 was undertaken under the directions of Prof. Band. The 

 search continued for two months and included every 

 place where sea-elephants had been seen or heard of in 

 recent times, though it was already pretty well known 

 that there was only one place, a lonely beach on the pen- 

 insula of Lower California, where there was any hope of 

 success. 



Says Mr. Townsend: "Thirty or forty years ago the sea- 

 elephant was found in many places on the coast between 

 Santa Barbara Islands and Cape St. Lucas, but continual 

 persecution lias almost exterminated the species." In 

 view of what follows of Mr. Townsend's own action one 

 can but wonder what meaning he intends to give to the 

 word "persecution." After giving an account of the ex- 

 peditions of oil hunters during the last few years, and 

 telling how the last ship but one killed ninety-one sea- 

 elephants, but left "a few females and young undis- 

 turbed," and how the last ship, arriving a month later, 

 "and, finding no large animals, killed the females and 

 young animals spared by the crew of the former vessel — 

 forty in all," he goes on' to state how his own schooner 

 arrived at the beach and found three young sea-elephants. 

 " After unsuccessf id searching elsewhere, returned Nov. 

 18 and killed a female, the only animal on the beach. 

 After another trip as far north as San Diego, returned 

 again Dec. 31 and found fifteen animals, all of which 

 were carefully preserved and are now in the Smithsonian 

 Institution." After this cool statement of the final _ 

 tragedy, without a word of explanation or palliation oT^ 

 his own act. this narrator goes on to say, "From this it 

 would appear that this interesting and valuable animal 

 has heavy odds to encounter in its struggles for existence. 

 No sooner were the three hundred or more that had ap- 

 peared during the years of their seclusion discovered 

 than they were speedily made away with. That a pretty 

 clean sweep had been made of them was evident from 

 the meagre results of our own careful search, during 

 which we not only inspected the coast line, but circum- 

 navigated the islands of the region both large and small." 



Here then we have the full story. This trained man 

 of science, ostensibly working in the interest of science, 

 actually commies, with all possible deliberation and full 

 understanding of his deed, the very act which all science 

 and all humanity should deplore, the final extermination 

 from the face of the earth, so far as himself and all others 

 can judge, of what he himself calls "an interesting and 

 valuable animal." 1 submit that the like of this story has 

 not been encountered of late, and that unless there are parts 

 of it published in the original "Proceedings" but not given 

 in the Forest and Stream, and which make some 

 attempt at j ustification, the whole affair is abhorrent to 

 every right-minded reader. Out of sixteen animals found 

 after the most exhaustive search, just sixteen were 

 slaughtered, not even a single pair of them being 

 spared for the possible continuance of the species. 

 If by any chance any straggler has been omitted, no 

 thanks to Mr. Townsend. One wonders if in all this he 

 were only living up to explicit instructions of the august 

 head of the Smithsonian Institution. C. H. A. 



Boston, Jan. 29. 



Where do Meadow Larks Winter?— The communi- 

 cation of "J. H. D." in Forest and Stream of Jan. 20, 

 telling of a great flight of meadow larks on the eastern 

 shore of Maryland last fall, has just caught my eye, and 

 eminds me that not three weeks ago while looking from 

 fch* car windows near Princeton, N. J., I saw seven 

 muadow larks rise from a snowy field beside the railway. 

 I have never seen one of these birds in New England in 

 the whiter and the sight surprised me in New Jersey. Do 

 they winter so far north in any numbers ? The day was 

 very cold and the ground well covered with snow, and to 

 me the larks seemed far from where sensible larks should 

 be at such a time,— C. H, A, (Boston, Jan, 37), 



