130 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 7, 1889. 



he j*yorten\nn Satirist 



''Sam Lovd's Camps." By R. E. Robinson, Price $1. 



A MONTH IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



[Continued from p&fje Hie.] 



THE cold air of these frosty mornings makes one loth 

 to crawl out f rom under his blankets. We are astir, 

 however, by daylight. Tbe wind blows keenly, and sheets 

 of thin ice project from the bank of the little stream near 

 our camp. One of the hunters camped a few yards away 

 brings us a generous piece of elk steak, and by way of 

 returning the courtesy we gave him a share of our pota- 

 tatos. I start out with my rifle with the intention of 

 hunting along the plateau north of u«. and, bearing to 

 the west, come round to the camp by ni^ht, expecting to 

 explore as thoroughly as possible that part of the valley 

 on the west of us observed from the bald knob the even- 

 ing before. As the two hunters are going in my direc- 

 tion to bring in the elk, I walk along with them to the 

 place where the elk were killed. 



The great carcass of the bull elk hanging up to a tree 

 looked as big as a full-grown beef. Both that and the 

 cow were exceedingly fat. The head of the old bull with 

 its immense antlers lay upon the ground. The bear had 

 been kept away last night by a fire, but there were the 

 tracks of the night before, the hunters pointed out to 

 me the position of the elk when they first came upon 

 them. They were walking carefully over the little rising 

 ground, and first saw the old bull standing still. Judg- 

 ing that there must be others, the hunter crouched down, 

 motioning to his companion to do likewise. They crawled 

 carefully up to within 40yda , and one of them rose to 

 his knee and fired at the standing elk, putting a bullet 

 just behind the shoulders. The elk made one or two long 

 leaps, and then commenced running around the others in 

 a circle. He fell over, staggered up again, and fell over 

 again dead. The hunter knowing the old bull to be fatally 

 wounded, turned his attention to the others, that, instead 

 of running off, stood in a dazed, stupid manner, as elk 

 will do when suddenly fired into when not suspecting an 

 enemy near. Elk are the easiest killed of all the large 

 animals if the hunter can once get near enough to them 

 without arousing their suspicions, either by scent or 

 sight. One hunter told me. and I have no doubt of his 

 truthfulness, that he once killed sixteen without moving 

 from his position. He came upon them standing or lying 

 close together, and shooting the outside animals, or leaders, 

 whenever an attempt at a break was made, kept the whole 

 band so bewildered that they seemed to lose their senses, 

 and stood still or went staring round, seemingly unable 

 to make their escape. 



Leaving the hunters to take then meat to camp, I went 

 on toward the base of the mountain. I saw plenty of elk 

 tracks, some very large ones and apparently just made, 

 but as there had been no rain recently it was impossible 

 to tell whether the tracks were made last night or whether 

 they were a week old. I walked slowly and carefully, 

 peering through the thick growing pines, and creeping 

 cautiously over every little rising ground. The forest 

 consisted of a heavy growth of tall pines whose tops came 

 together above so thickly as to shut out the sun. There 

 was no underbrush and the walking was easy and quiet. 

 The surroundings were gloomy, somber, almost melan- 

 choly, giving one a feeling of loneliness and isolation, 

 but still of enjoyment. You feel that you are in the 

 midst of primeval forests, occupied only by its native in- 

 habitants, the beasts and birds. The air is scented with 

 pine and balsam, and is delightful in its purity and fresh- 

 ness. One feels an inclination to expand his lungs, and 

 take in as much of it as possible. There are numbers of 

 little red squirrels always darting about and attracting 

 your attention, and the provoking jays and magpies will 

 scream out over your head with a voice that ought to 

 belong to birds ten times their size. 



My course, marked out last evening from the bald knob, 

 now takes me to the left, and down off the plateau and 

 unto the basin on the west. Seeing an opening in the 

 pines, I go out in the direction and discover a small lake 

 or rather pond. It covers perhaps ten-acres. The moun- 

 tain comes down abruptly against the upper end where 

 the water is quite deep and clear, but below, or at the 

 other end, the water is shallow and the banks muddy, 

 and the margin thickly grown with grass and a variety 

 of lily. I saw no ducks or other waterfowl and no evi- 

 dence of their visiting this locality. I attempted to make 

 a circuit of the upper end and got into a thick tangle of 

 balsam and spruce trees coming up between fallen trees 

 and big rocks that made it very difficult, almost impos- 

 sible to get through. There were numerous tracks of elk 

 and deer where they had come down to drink, and near 

 the edge of the water I saw fresh signs of bear. 



At the upper end of the lake I see a dark looking place 

 in tbe rocky bluff above that appears to be a cave, and I 

 climb up there feeling considerable expectancy in view 

 of the fresh s-ign of bear close by. Where I expected to 

 find a cave, however, is only a little depression in the 

 bluff over which hangs a shelving rock. I found here 

 signs of mountain sheep where they had probably used 

 this place for a shelter, but not recently. Leaving this 

 interesting locality I kept around the foot of a hill, fol- 

 lowing a well beaten game path, and come out into a 

 more open forest of quaking aspen. In this path I came 

 upon the fresh track of a cow elk. The imprint looks so 

 recent that I instinctively look around to see if the animal 

 is not still here. I follow the track for some distance 

 and find where it changes its gait from a walk to a trot, 

 as I know from the deeper impression, the hoof spread- 

 ing apart at the points, the marks of the dewclaws and 

 the scattered freshly -turned leaves; so I concluded that 

 the elk has either seen or scented me, and placed a safe 

 distance between us. The open woods here seem an 

 ideal game country. There are little open parks with 

 plenty of grass, affording an abundance of excellent feed. 

 The country is well watered and the pine thickets afford 

 secure shelter, I see an enormous mountain lion's track, 

 and come upon the track of a deer so fresh looking that 

 I am sure the animal has but just passed. I try to follow 

 it, but it soon goes up the mountains among rocks and 

 logs where it is impossible for me to follow it. It is now 

 getting late in the afternoon and I turn in the direction ' 

 of camp. On my way in, which was twice as far as I 



expected, I met Dan also returning. He had obtained a 

 glimpse of a black-tailed deer near where 1 had seen the 

 fresh track, but otherwise had no better luck than myself. 



I suppose the most exuberant enthusiasm will dampen 

 after three days of unsuccessful hunting. I confess mine 

 did toward the end of the third day. For three days I 

 had tramped, tramped, tramped, over mountains and 

 dale; had hunted carefully, faithfully and persistently, 

 and although signs of game were everywhere, to use a 

 hunter's expression, I "did not see a hair." 



Toward the end, however, as I had turned toward 

 camp, my guide being with me, we came to where 

 twelve to fifteen deer had crossed a little opening in our 

 road. The sign was so recent that Dan insisted that the 

 deer could not be very far away. We determined to try 

 aud find them, and so, separating to 40 or 50yds. apart, 

 we crept cautiously into the thicket were the tracks led. 

 The place was so thick with young pines that it was im- 

 possible to proceed quietly without going very slowly. 

 Fallen trees lay crossing each other in every direction 

 where they had lodged after a fire some years ago. The 

 fallen timber was uniformly about the size of telegraph 

 poles, and lay in all possible positions so that they were 

 piled up to nearly or quite breast high in many places. 

 Between these had grown up a thicket of young pines. 

 There was now and then a little opening, but for the 

 most part they stood so close together with their branches 

 interlapping, that I had to force my way through them, 

 and of course in such places it was impossible to see any- 

 thing even a few yards ahead. I was making my way 

 through this as best I could, but necessarily making 

 some noise by the breaking of dry twigs and burned 

 timber, when suddenly I heard a great rustling and 

 breaking of dry branches in the thicket not more than 

 10yds. away. I could see the moving of the bushes and 

 hear the breaking and crackling as the animals made off, 

 but could see nothing of them. There seemed by the 

 noise to be two, going in different directions. The noise 

 would stop, then start up again as if the animals were in 

 doubt which way to go. I would raise up on tiptoe and 

 then stoop down and try to look under the brush, but was 

 unable to see anything of the game. Finally 1 pushed 

 through into a more open place where the trees were lower 

 and I could see over toward toward the hill in front of 

 me as it sloped up beyond. This must have started the 

 game up again, for I could hear one making off on the 

 right, while the other kept up the hill in front. I could see 

 the line of waving bushes and hear a great clambering as 

 if the animal found difficulty in getting through, as it un- 

 doubtedly did,f or it turned square to the left, as I saw from 

 the shaking bushes. It was making off at a great rate and I 

 was just about concluding to fire at random into the 

 moving mass of bushes and take my chances in that way, 

 when I caught a glimpse of bright gray, and knew that 

 the game was an elk. In a second it came out into fuller 

 view, and I caught sight of the head, neck and shoulders 

 of a cow elk. I took a quick aim at the largest part in 

 sight and fired. The report woke up the rest of the herd, 

 and on my right started up a great crackling of dead 

 limbs and rushing through the bushes as if a whole 

 caravan of elephants had suddenly been turned loose. 

 Running quick as possible in that direction to a bit of 

 higher ground, a five-pronged bull elk was seen loping 

 off in full view fifty yards away. Suddenly he stopped 

 to look in my direction and turned broad side in full view. 

 Taking careful aim this time, the bullet struck fairly 

 back of the shoulder. The animal made two or three 

 plunges and fell flat on his side, lay for several minutes 

 and then jumped up and i*an off as if nothing had hap- 

 pened to him. Another bullet aimed wildly struck him 

 in the flank. I was sure he could not get far away, al- 

 though I could not find a particle of blood. Following in 

 the direction he had taken about five hundred yards, my 

 guide, who was along, discovered him crouched down 

 among the branches of a dead tree. I crept up to within 

 ten or twelve yards. He was still alive, his head and 

 antlers swaying from side to side in a last effort to hold 

 up his head, when I finished the noble animal's lifo by a 

 bullet through the head. Going back to where I had 

 fired at the first elk I could find no sign of having hit her, 

 and supposed I over-shot. 



The morning after the killing of the elk I started out 

 early for the place to finish skinning, for we had only 

 taken out the entrails the night before, while Dan was 

 to come on later with the horses to bring it in. I carried 

 my shotgun this time, intending if any bears had dis- 

 turbed the elk meat during the night to set the gun for 

 them— that is, fasten a string to the trigger and the other 

 end to a piece of meat placed in such relation to the muz- 

 zle of the gun that the least disturbance of the meat will 

 discharge the gun at the animal's head. I intended to 

 annihilate with a load of buckshot any bear that came 

 around after elk meat; but the bear did not come, and so 

 saved himself such a disgraceful death. On my way to 

 the elk I started up two deer. I was making consider- 

 able noise at the time forcing my way through some 

 fallen timber, and on hearing a slight rustling, looked in 

 the direction and saw two deer bounding up and down 

 and apparently dodging behind the trees, their ears and 

 tails appearing alternately above the little pine trees. 

 They made two or three bounds and stopped, but each 

 with its body behind a tree. All the time they were get- 

 ting further away, and fearing I would lose a shot, took 

 a careless aim at the head of one and "let go" the rifle 

 barrel of my Baker. It was probably a clear miss, as I 

 did not see anything more of the deer. The other bounded 

 out to the right, and I fired at it with a load of buckshot 

 without any effect that I could see more than to increase 

 its speed into a regular blue streak. I don't think any- 

 thing can outrun a black-tailed deer. It is astonishing 

 how quickly they will get out of sight of a hunter. A 

 few days after this I was going over the top of a little 

 hill near camp, walking very slowly and looking out, as 

 I thought, very closely; it was open woods, too— that is, 

 there was very little underbrush, nothing but tall stand- 

 ing pines. All at once, and quicker than I can speak the 

 words, the ears, head, neck and bodies of two deer rose 

 up, seemingly out of the ground and from right under my 

 eyes, and dodged behind the trees and were off and out 

 of sight before I could get anything like a fair bead on 

 them. They evidently had been watching me, and were 

 prepared to g*. Another time I was hurrying to get to 

 camp just before dark, I heard a rustling to my right and 

 caught a glimpse of some moving Object at full speed, 

 and following after was a little fawn, doing its best to 

 keep up. It was too far away and too quick out of sight f 

 to make a shot worth while. A herd of deer when sur- * 



prised will just make the slightest rustle and get out of 

 sight, while an elk when suddenly started in thick brush 

 will make a noise like a drove of cattle. 

 1 The bear still continued to make nightly visits to the 

 place where our hunters had killed the elk. after the 

 offal and pieces of meat that had been left. About this 

 time we were visited by a couple of English sportsmen 

 who were on their way north through the National 

 Park to a point on the Northern Pacific Railroad, and 

 they had in their outfit a large bear trap, weighing forty 

 pounds. They set the trap in the vicinity, and the next 

 morning had the bear, a two year old grizzly, or silver- 

 tip. 



The bear was two years old past and larger than any 

 full grown black bear of the East. Its color was between 

 a black and brown with the ends of the fur inclining to 

 white on the back and flanks, but not enough white to 

 change the general color from a dingy black. Some 

 half a dozen experienced hunters who saw the animal 

 differed in their judgment as to what species it belonged 

 to. but the majority inclined to the opinion that it was 

 the young of the grizzly. There are three varieties of 

 bear known to the hunters in this region: the cinnamon 

 or brown bear, the silver-tip, and the grizzly. By some 

 the two last are regarded as the same, and I often heard 

 them spoken of as the silver-tipped grizzly. It is quite 

 probable that all these are the same variety of bear, but 

 differ in color with age and individual characteristics. 

 Certain it is that specimens are frequently killed that 

 are so mixed with the resemblances of each that the 

 oldest hunters and ranchmen, who have seen and killed 

 all, cannot tell which it belongs to. They all attain an 

 immense size, and according to the testimony of the 

 coolest headed hunters, they are, when full grown, ex- 

 ceedingly ugly and dangerous customers to tackle. 



Any one who has seen "Old Sampson" the huge grizzly 

 that for a long time was with Barnaul's menagerie in 

 New York city, can form some idea what kind of "com- 

 pany" these monsters would be when found "at home." 

 An Indian, it is said, never attacks an old grizzly bear 

 single-handed, and the white hunter is careful about 

 doing so unless the chances for hitting a vital spot the 

 first time are rather in his favor. "I have seen too many 

 men torn up by the brutes," said an old Rocky Moun- 

 tain stage driver to me, "to make me anxious about 

 taking any risks with them, "I don't mean these little 

 black bears," he added contemptuously, "they are noth- 

 thing." At one ranch house where I stopped two days 

 there was a large family including two or three well 

 grown boys. I tried several times to get them to go out 

 with me with their dogs to a large thicket not far down 

 the creek where a bear was said some time before to 

 have made his home, but their invariable answer was, 

 "We hant lost no bears." 



Often when wandering alone a good many miles from 

 camp through tangled jungles of willows, or in narrow 

 rocky passages where the game paths were pretty well 

 beaten and tracks were plenty, I have thought of my 

 guide's friendly advice: "If you meet a grizzly and he 

 gets up on you, keep cool and aim for his nose." It is 

 just a little' doubtful whether, in such circumstances, I 

 would have followed the advice strictly in either partic- 

 ular. I never, however, got to the point of the young 

 hunter who started out in the morning with great enthu 

 siasm following a bear track, and "just spoiling for a 

 fight," but about the middle of the afternoon quit the 

 trail because, as he said, "the tracks were getting a little 

 too fresh." Frequently, however, as I stopped to rest on 

 the edge of a rocky cation with a narrow stream separat- 

 ing me from the steep cliffs on the other side, or as I 

 looked around while eating my lunch, sitting on a log 

 near the margin of one of the little cold water lakes with 

 which the region abounds, admiring the exquisite fringe 

 of water lilies and balsam on the opposite bank, I have 

 wished, if I ever were to meet a grizzly, he would come 

 on now. At such times I was always willing to be inter- 

 viewed by the oldest inhabitant — the father of all the 

 grizzlies and silvertips, if he would only present himself 

 on the other side. 



The dangers, from bears, however, is not to be con- 

 sidered, as the chances even for seeing one are very small. 

 The bear, of course, is a night animal, and although he 

 may leave many tracks on your hunting ground, it is 

 very seldom that he is seen there. He retires toward 

 morning to the inaccessible thickets and rocky cliffs and 

 goes to sleep, where it is only by the merest accident that 

 he is discovered. If the grizzly is surprised in such places 

 he will rise up slowly on his haunches, uttering a low 

 angry growl, and stand half erect, his body bent forward 

 with forelegs drooping and nose sniffing the air in the 

 direction of the intruder. At such a moment, if the 

 hunter wishes to take no risks, he must lodge his bullet 

 in the brain, for in any other part, although it may prove 

 fatal in the end, the animal will five long enough to give 

 the hunter a close call for his life. My guide, who had 

 spent twenty years in the vicinity, mining and hunting, 

 had never seen but three, and these all at one time, an 

 old bear and her two cubs. He killed the old one and 

 one of her cubs at long range, the other getting away. 

 Another hunter with whom I was associated several days 

 in camp, an experienced woodsman, and an excellent 

 man by the way— Mr. Hiram Scott, of Miner's Delight- 

 had never but once been in a "tight place." That time 

 he came unexpectedly upon a big grizzly and her cubs. 

 Before being aware of the presence of the interesting 

 trio he was within 20ft. of them. Up came the rifle to 

 his shoulder and his aim was deadly, but the faithless 

 cartridge refused to respond. In Mr. Scott's own words, 

 "The blamed thing snapped." Throwing down his gun 

 he made for the most convenient tree and drew himself 

 up out of reach just as the animal's foreclaws grazed his 

 boot legs. My jolly friend, Mr. Frank Coffey, has lived 

 forty years on the frontier and among the Indians, and 

 has never had but one real adventure with a grizzly bear. 

 He was in company with a number of cowboys and they 

 caught sight of a bear out on the open plain. They 

 spurred up their ponies and gave chase, the bear running 

 for dear life. Coffey was ahead and urging his pony at 

 the top of its speed. He managed to get up within a few 

 yards of the bear when the pony stumbled and fell, and 

 horse, man and bear tumbled in a heap. "It was hard to 

 tell," said the genial Frenchman, "which was worse 

 scared, myself, the pony or the bear, for we all ran in 

 opposite directions as fast as we could." 



C. L. S, 



Chattanooga, Tennessee. 



[TO BE CONCLUDED]. 



