July 25, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



The buffalo had many forces to contend with. In the 

 spring, when they were weak, they appeared to have an 

 insane desire to cross the Missouri River. The shelving 

 bar of a Missouri River bottom is almost always opposed on 

 the opposite side of the river by a very high bank. The 

 buffalo coming in vast droves to cross the river would 

 start from the low bar, swim directly across and blindly 

 ende ivor to ascend the perpendicular bank. The river 

 would be animated with the struggling, impulse-driven 

 animals. The strongest would crawl to the front, and 

 with unreasoning pertinacity strive to ascend the directly 

 upright bank. With an almost ca t-like climb they might 

 reach half way, then down they would fall on their strug- 

 gling companion-; in the river below. With added rage 

 and obstinacv thev would renew the climb, again and 

 again, until' after hours of inflexible persistency they; 

 would finally succeed in the seeming impossibility of 

 tearing a trail up the wall-like bank. Hundreds of the 

 weaker ones would succumb in this struggle in the river 

 and their floating carcasses would collect in vast numbers 

 in the river eddies. Many of the weak cows, which suc- 

 ceeded in getting out of the river, died in calving on the 

 bank. 



The color of the buffalo is a dark brown, but the calf is 

 red until about three months old. These little fellows, 

 when their mothers are dead or separated from them in 

 any way, will when very young often follow the first 

 moving" object they see, and I once had two of them fol- 

 low me to 'my camp. 



Another enemy of the buffalo was the wolf. Mingled 

 through the herds were packs of gray wolves. Ordinarily 

 these animals appeared to be on good terms with the buf- 

 falo. They came and went without creating any excite- 

 ment; it was only when they intruded through the out- 

 guard of old bulls and approached the vicinity of calves 

 that hostility was displayed. It was to the wounded buf- 

 falo, driven out of the herd by his fellows, that tire fiend- 

 ish wail of these furies of the plains sounded the death 

 knell. In the night could be heard a long, melancholv, 

 blood curdling howl, quickly followed by others equally 

 terrifying. It was the death smg of some buffalo. If it 

 was a cow or young buffalo, all was over when a despair- 

 ing, bellowing shriek was heard high above the fierce yelp 

 of the victorious destroyers. But with an old bull the 

 si niggle was different. When the howling chorus was 

 summoning every fanged iiend in the neighborhood, the 

 snorting bull could be heard charging his assailants. 

 Then followed the sharp carnivorous yells, as the snarling 

 pack precipitated itself on the raging bull, whose fierce, 

 furious bellows told of Titanic coinage and fortitude. 

 Even the lance-like fangs of his fell foes cannot tear his 

 thick hide; their weight cannot drag him down while- 

 he preserves his Cyclopean force. He shakes off his ene- 

 mies, but his wouuds are ebbing his giant strength. The 

 smell and taste of the gore madden the frantic pack: 

 then maniac yell tells of another onslaught. The doomed 

 bull is covered and weighed down by his furious assail- 

 ants, and his hoarse, monotonous bello vying tells of pain 

 and suffering such as only giants can endure. Amid the 

 hoarse, pain-racked moaning of the dying bull can be 

 heard that snap and snarl of. the blood-boltered victors 

 quarreling over their struggling spoil. The tenacity of 

 life in a buffalo bull is such that he can be partly eaten 

 up and be still alive. 



The belief is generally that the white hunter is largely 

 responsible for the extinction of the buffalo. The truth 

 is the exact reverse of this. The untanned robe was 

 worthless to him; he could trade for a robe outright 

 cheaper than he could hire one tanned. The white 

 hunter seldom skinned a buffalo. He took what meat he 

 wanted without reference to the robe. If he killed one 

 for wolf bait, he opened it, severed the quarters so that 

 they would lie flat on the ground, mixed one bottle of 

 poison with the blood, made slight incisions all over the 

 carcass, lightly sprinkled each gash with- poison; the 

 scrap meat, liver, lights and tripe were thrown into the 

 poisoned blood, some of which was smeared over the poi- 

 soned carcass. For a full-grown buffalo one-half ounce 

 of strychnine would poison it well, and would serve as 

 bait to catch about sixty wolves. When the bait was 

 frozen it would serve to kill a great many more, as they 

 could not eat it so fast. 



This wolfing was at one time very remunerative; I have 

 known wolfers to make as much as three thousand dollars 

 during a single winter, A wolfskin readily brought from 

 one and a half to three dollars at any trading post on the 

 Missouri River. By killing off the wolves the white 

 hunter saved far more buffalo lives than he destroyed. 



When the Indian merely killed buffalo for food and 

 clothes these animals were probably on the increase in 

 spite of the forces arrayed against them. But when the 

 trader came and dangled before the longing eyes of the 

 savage glittering trumpery gewgaws, a market was fur- 

 nished for his robe and the late of the buffalo was sealed. 

 The whites did more toward killing off the other game. 

 To hunt buffalo successfully expert horsemanship was 

 necessary, but niai-Ksmanship was not required. The 

 Indian is a poor shot, and has neither the endurance nor 

 appdeation necessary to make a good hunter of other 

 game. 



Elk, when banded up, usually numbered from one 

 hundred to fifteen hundred head. The bulls shed their 

 horns about March, and live solitary until re-armed. The 

 pregnant cows go off by themselves and calve the first 

 part of June. At this period the herd is composed of the 

 younger members. During July the bulls, whose horns 

 are then in the full velvet, lie in sunny coulees, turning 

 their soft, tender antlers to the ardent sun to be hardened. 

 The horns are actually hardened by a bony ring forming 

 at the base of the horn , which cuts off the blood vessels 

 which supply it with nutriment. The band usually feed 

 during the night along the foothills of the mountains, 

 retiring at the rising of the sun to the timber. Their 

 ordinary gait is a swinging trot, but when pressed they 

 will break into a fast gallop, which, however, they can- 

 not long maintain. An early morning in September is 

 the pleasantest time to hunt elk. The cows are then in 

 fair order and the bulls are in their best condition. The 

 bulls emit a trumpetlike squeal, somewhat similar to the 

 bray of a mule, and this shrill signal on the mountain air 

 is a certain guide to the elk hunter. All game animals 

 are keen of scent, and the hunter should never place him- 

 self where the wind blows from him directly to the game. 

 The hunter for hides never attacks elk until they are in 

 good position to make a large killing. He will patiently 

 wait until they enter a canon or open glade. Always 

 keeping out of sight, he fires at the leader ahead of him. 



The band stops and bunches. The hunter keenly watches 

 for and fires at any elk which attempts to lead out. 

 After a few of the bolder spirits are thus shot down or 

 turned back the herd becomes dazed; they "mill" around, 

 and the rapid deadly firing sweeps the dismayed band. 



An enraged bull elk is to my thinking the most dan- 

 gerous looking animal in the mountains. I remember 

 once on a hunt, I suddenly came on a magnificent look- 

 ing bull elk, which was lying in a slight depression. I 

 fired from the horse and wounded him. He bounded 

 away and I after him on the horse. After a short run I 

 caught up with him, and he savagely turned on me. He 

 was about a quarter of a mile from where a wagon could 

 be got to him, and I conceived the idea of aggravating 

 him so that he would chase me to where I could have a 

 wagon brought to him, I put several rocks in my 

 pocket, rode up to him again, and threw one at Mm. He 

 made a dash for me in the direction I wanted him to go, 

 and it put my horse to considerable trouble to keep out 

 of his way. We repeated the maneuver until I finally 

 got him where I wanted him. By this time he was a 

 picture of incarnate rage. Every hair stood on end like 

 a cat's; his mane stiff with ire, stood forward like a ruff; 

 his gigantic antlers trembled with passion; his mouth 

 frothed with fury ; his eyes were moulten lakes of green 

 fire, gleaming with frenzy. He dressed over six hun- 

 dred pounds. 



Antelope were the easiest game killed. These beautiful 

 animals are cursed with an insatiable curiosity. Anything 

 unusual attracts their attention. The hunter could sit 

 down on the prairie, and in a short time he would hear 

 the peculiar whistle of an antelope, which woidd bouud 

 and skip coquettishly around its would-be destroyer. If 

 too coy to come within easy range, the hunter could 

 readily overcome this diffidence by standing on his head 

 or lying on his back and kicking up his legs. Only the 

 male antelope have horns, the sheaths of which are 

 annually shed and developed. Their rutting season com- 

 mences about September 10, when the bucks in their en- 

 counters with each other often interlock then horns and 

 perish in this anything but loving embrace. Late in the. 

 fall and Avinter, antelope bunched in bands from a hundred 

 to two thousand or more. This was the period in which 

 they were slaughtered for then hides, and I have known 

 one man to kill more than two thousand in a single 

 winter. 



Many white hunters had scruples against killing game 

 for their hides: I knew a professional one who would 

 scarcely speak to a person who wantonly killed game. 

 This man, whose athletic figure, dressed in buckskin, his 

 cartridge belt hung with knives and revolver; with stern, 

 grave, rugged, virile features, covered with a shaggy 

 mane for a beard, and with a heavy bass voice, that 

 sounded like the rolling of muttered thunder, looked the 

 personification of the ideal pirate. Yet no dreaming 

 maiden possessed a more genuinely tender heart. 



I recall a hunting trip we had together. We were on 

 the divide of the Belt Mountains. He wished to have a 

 smoke, and we sat down in the edge of the timber, facing 

 an open glade through which ran a game trail; in a short 

 time a she bear appeared, following along the trail close 

 to which we sat, accompanied by a couple of cubs. We 

 instantly cached ourselves, and waited until they should 

 come close enough to make a certainty of killing all three 

 of them. The cubs would run ahead and play back and 

 forward to then plantigrade mother; occasionally she 

 joined in their cubbish antics. Once she stood upon her 

 hindf eet and one of her shaggy darlings jumped into her 

 outstretched arms, and was clasped and fondled with al- 

 most human attitude and a,ffection. I glanced at John; 

 tears were coursing down his rugged features as he said 

 in his deep bass voice: "Mack, that lets me out." We left, 



Henry Macdonald. 



VACATION TALK. 



THE days of rest are here. People are forsaking as 

 generally as circumstances will permit their ordin- 

 ary avocations, and devoting themselves to having a good 

 time, and to providing a good time for those dependent 

 on them. The growth of the vacation idea during the 

 past dozen years has been enormous. The family in 

 moderate circumstances which does not take some kind 

 of an outing in the sum mer is now the exception. ' 'Where 

 do you go this summer?" is the familiar question of the 

 day. Closed houses in town contrast strikingly with the 

 well-filled summer homes at seaside and spring, and em- 

 phasize the reason for the crowded boats and trains. 



There is both good and evil in this growing idea that to 

 go away for the summer, or a part of it, is a necessity. 

 Evil, because it sometimes involves expense beyond one's 

 means, or exertion greater than one's strength, or incon- 

 venience which outweighs any possible gain. But the 

 good is vastly greater in the aggregate than the evil. It 

 is not easy to over-estimate the advantage to most men 

 and women of a complete change of location, surround- 

 ings and occupation once a year. Modern life is complex 

 and exciting. It demands intense and constant applica- 

 tion. The strain is relieved and the system recreated by 

 the annual change. How each one shall spend it is a 

 question for each to decide. Two things itis usually safe 

 to prescribe: First, complete change; second, occupation. 

 Idleness is a mistake, and it nearly always fails to afford 

 true recreation. An active man or woman does not long 

 enjoy inaction. And there is no need of it. The occu- 

 pations for vacation are as numerous as the individual 

 tastes. One finds in a summer school what another gains 

 from a yachting cruise, and his friend from a tramp in 

 the Tyrol. To dig clams and catch bluefish will rest one, 

 when another can find his best stimulus in a rifle or a 

 tennis racket. 



There is no worker who does not need rest, and who 

 will not work the better for it. If the longer vacation is 

 impossible, as it is for many a man and woman, even in 

 prosperous Cambridge, there is the piece-meal vacation 

 to fall back upon. The Saturday half -holiday gives its 

 blessing to some of these people. The Sunday horse cars 

 are available for those who have no other respite from 

 grinding labor. Charity, with its country week, its fresh 

 air funds, and its generous gifts of horse car tickets, helps 

 those who cannot help themselves. 



Vacation days are here. Let us use them to make the 

 coming year of work fruitful — more fruitful than its pre- 

 decessor. — The Cambridge (Mass.) Tribune. 



An Adirondack Tract of Land on which are sites 

 favorable for game and fish clubs, is advertised in our 

 advertising columns. 



"LET HER GO GALLAGHER." 



J PHILADELPHIA, July 20.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I' I notice on p, 513 of Forest and Stream, under the 

 altogether novel and original heading of "Let her go 

 Gallagher," a mention of the Gallagher carbine. As the 

 correspondent does not seem to know much about it, I take 

 the liberty of sending you a word. The Gallagher was 

 one of two or three styles of weapons made during the 

 transition from muzzleloaders to the breachloaders, using 

 a complete cartridge; that is to say it used a cartridge 

 with a detached percussion cap. The breach action was 

 peculiar, being operated by a finger lever, which consti- 

 tuted the trigger guard, the barrel dumping. I am un- 

 able to give date and place of mauufactuie. 



I might add that the style of cartridge was also peculiar. 

 It was, as I have said, of brass, but had no fulminating 

 cap. It was center-fire, the ignition being effected 

 through a recess in the base of the cartridge, which fitted 

 into a projection in the base of the breech, in the center 

 of which was drilled the passageway leading to the nip- 

 ple. The finger lever, through al>out one-half the distance 

 required to open the breech, pushed the barrel along in 

 the line of the axis of the bore and then dumped it. This 

 was rendered necessary in order to get out the exploded 

 shell from the recess of the breech (about JJIn. deep from 

 base of breech to joint with barrel). It had no shell ex- 

 tractor, and must have been altogether a most unsatisfac- 

 tory style of weapon. 



When I used the specimen I had one— picked up by a 

 cousin (a lieutenant in the 14th Infantry) on the field at 

 Antietam— I used it with loose powder and shot; and I 

 have a very distiuct recollection of having my left thumb 

 shot full of powder on one occasion; for when my edition 

 of Gallagher went off, she generally let go both at breech 

 and muzzle. 



This may seem like a good deal of space to ask for a 

 description of an entirely obsolete weapon. Yet you can 

 attribute it to the remnants of great enthusiasm in the 

 gun and ordnance line on my part, saturated by a some- 

 what clear recollection of a feeling not unlike that of a 

 dozen needles forced into my thumb the time that Galla- 

 gher let her go backward. D, G. 



FOREST AND STREAM GUN TESTS. 



1 > ED HOOK, N. Y. , July 19.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 JLV It is with a great dea l of satisfaction that I read in 

 your last issue that we are to have a thorough and 

 authoritative test of shotguns and the various charges in 

 use. Like the trajectory test it will piiok some great 

 bubbles and correct some widely prevalent errors in load- 

 ing. Another important matter, it will establish a stan- 

 dard for testing penetration. 



At the risk of being considered officious I would urge 

 the consideration of the test recommended in Alexander's 

 "Game Birds of the United States," book-binders' mill- 

 board No. CO. After a considerable experience in testing 

 I can strongly recommend this article. The expense can 

 be very much reduced (and the result just as satisfactory) 

 by reducing the size of the "penetration sheets." In my 

 tests I make twelve pieces, GAx'un. of each sheet of 22x27. 

 After counting the number of pellets (of Tatham's No. 8, 

 standard, chilled) penetrating the second sheet, I then as- 

 certain the number of sheets penetrated by half that 

 number of pellets, which is set down as the penetration 

 for that particular charge and gun. 



In the matter of fixed rests it appears to me the manu- 

 facturers make a mistake. The sportsman does not shoot 

 his quail and grouse from a "fixed rest." The nearer the 

 conditions of the test to actual business in the field the 

 more accurate will be the information thus obtained. If 

 the shooter is in the sitting position and simply steadies 

 his left arm by leaning it against some support, he can 

 aim sufficiently accurate and yet allow the gun to recoil 

 (and throw the muzzle to either side) so as to show where 

 the center of the charge is thrown in actual service. 



A point of considerable importance is the measure used. 

 As measures from the same manufacturers were found to 

 vary considerably, I found the only satisfactory way was 

 to weigh the charge, poth powder and shot. We will 

 watch for the reports of your test3 with a great deal of 

 interest. R. J. C. 



Express train No. 101, west bound on the Duluth, 

 South Shore & Atlantic Thursday morning, with con- 

 ductor Sims and engineer Dave Watts in charge, encoun- 

 tered a big black bear between Sage and Sault Junction. 

 Dave had seen that bear many times before near the same 

 p'ace, but this time he came up on bruin just as he was 

 leisurely crossing the track. Confused by the sight of the 

 oncoming train the bear hesitated a second, then turned 

 and dashed down the track, which is as straight as an 

 arrow there. Dave had been making up time, as 101 was 

 a little late in pulling out from the point, but lie saw at 

 once that the bear was striking the ties a few notches 

 faster than he was, so threw his engine wide open, ac- 

 cepting the bear's challenge. Then followed the strangest 

 railway race ever seen on a Michigan railroad. Steam 

 and iron are more than a match for wind and muscle and 

 in a minute or two the pilot caught bruin and threw him 

 off the track, rolling over and over like a great black 

 rubber ball. As the train swept by those on board caught 

 a glimpse of the bear as he rolled into the ditch by the 

 side of the roadbed, but they could not tell whether he 

 was injured or not. Conductor Sims says that his train 

 has struck many deer in the seven years he has run on 

 the Mackinaw division, but he scored his first bear Thurs- 

 day. — Marquette (Mich.) Mining Journal. 



If the alligator hunters keep up the warfare they have 

 inaugurated against the reptiles the streams hereabouts 

 will be bereft of them. When the business first com- 

 menced some time ago there were only two or three at 

 it, but now their name is legion and they find it no longer 

 profitable to hunt on the lake and outlet, and are goiag 

 gradually further and further down the river. The busi- 

 ness is paying, as two men get on average fifteen to 

 twenty 'gators a night, and the hides bring from 50 cents 

 to $1.25 each, according to length.— Panasoffkee Corres- 

 pondence Jacksonville (Fla.) Times-Union. 



The Massachusetts Special Folice Officer ap- 

 pointed to enforce the game and fish laws, under pro- 

 vision of the law passed at the last session, is William H. 

 Proctor, of Swanipscott. He is a member of the Massa- 

 chusetts District Police. Chief Rufus R. Wade, Com- 

 monwealth Building, Boston. 



