July 25, I889.| 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



3 



hind him kept drawing nearer and pressing closer, until 

 at last, with a sudden burst of speed, the pony is along- 

 side, the rifle drops, a flash, a sharp crack, and the chase 

 is ended. The buffalo plunges to the ground, and with a 

 few struggles he is dead. Elsewhere an Indian is seen 

 running "down a bunch of ten or twelve ; sometimes it is 

 hard to tell if he is ridiug his pony or one of the buffalo, 

 so close are they; and the smoke from his rifle tells he is 

 not idle. Now' and then a great black mass drops and 

 rolls before him almost under his pony's feet, but with a 

 quick spring the wiry little animal clears the struggling 

 brute and is away again running side by side with the 

 others. 



About 3 o'clock in the afternoon the chase was well 

 over; thirteen hundred buffalo had fallen, and many 

 others had escaped, but badly wounded. The prairie now 

 was covered with men, women and children, pack 

 animals, travois and wagon carts. Butchering was the 

 order of the day, and by sundown nearly everything of 

 the meat kind was at the main camp. Here a grand 

 feast in celebration of the hunt was given; all night long 

 the squaws were kept busy boiling and roasting, while 

 the bucks told tales of their prowess in the field, sang 

 songs or made speeches. Little did they think that it 

 would be the last great buffalo hunt of their people. To 

 the young ones of the tribe it will seem like a dream, or 

 as if the doors of the happy hunting grounds had been 

 opened to them then, and then after one glance at the 

 exciting scenes so dear to their people, closed upon them 

 forever. J. J. Fulton". 



ADIRONDACK JOTTINGS. 



PERHAPS the following paragraphs, wearing various 

 hues and colors, are worth a place in among the 

 mental archives of those who have found pleasure in 

 handling the rod and gun. The facts and incidents are 

 placed in paragraphs because they have no more con- 

 nection with each other than Artemus Ward's lecture on 

 "Babes in the Woods" had with its subject. 



A good story has never been told in print of royal 

 Reuben Wood, that genial friend to everybody, whos' 1 

 death was so widely mourned. He was a true son of 

 good old Izaak Walton, an enthusiastic and successful 

 angler, of course. One evening while in camp iu the 

 Adirondacks, he was challenged by a member of the party 

 whose knowledge of angling was but slight. The con- 

 ditions were that they should stand near each other by 

 the side of a favorite pool, each casting into the pool 

 during a period of fifteen minutes, the contest to be de- 

 cided by count. Uncle Reube's eyes glistened as the de- 

 tails of the match were considered, and at the same time 

 he set about "making up" a new cast of flies, that he 

 might be ab'e to dohis best when the struggle came the fol- 

 lowing day. It was prepared with all his wonted skill, 

 cunning and delicacy, and laying the new "cast" and his 

 cigar aside he lay down to dream of how he would lure 

 the dainty trout to his creel. At the appointed hour the 

 contest began, with the usual judges and a referee. The 

 challenger oft and repeatedly led beautiful trout to his 

 score, but Mr. Wood was less fortunate. He was not 

 successful in "striking" his "rises." and only now and 

 then did he secure a fish. Late iu the contest he ex- 

 changed the leader he had made up so carefully for one 

 which had been much used, and then his luck began; 

 but it was too late, for when the time for the contest ex- 

 pired he was badly beaten. The real reason of his failure 

 was kept a secret for some time, but it finally became 

 known that while Mr, Wood slept the challenger had 

 filed the barbs from his hooks. In no other way could, 

 that noble-minded man have been beaten. 



Yes, it is true that larger frogs swallow smaller frogs. 

 I have been myself a witness to the process, and it is no 

 less certain that black snakes swallow both frogs and 

 trout, for I once found botu in the same snake. "When 

 a turtle finds such a combination he should have the con- 

 tentment of an alderman at the annual dinner. 



Did you read the story of the frog that swallowed a 

 bumble bee and the attack of cholera morbus that fol- 

 lowed ? 



"Sim" Washburn is a well-known guide at Loon Lake 

 in the Adirondacks. Like his father, he does not allow 

 himself to "get left" in telling stories. It was his father 

 who said he was once lost for forty -eight hours; that 

 when he came into a clearing on the morning of the sec- 

 ond day he met his brother, who called him by name. 

 "Am" said he had been lost so badly that he didn't know 

 his brother or his own name. But of '-Sim:" He tells 

 the story of a bear which he trapped, catching the ani- 

 mal by one hindfoot. The bear loosened the chain of 

 the trap, and dragging the trap to a tree, crawled up 

 the body thereof with his forefeet that he might place 

 the free hindfoot upon the spring of the trap and open 

 the jaws thereof . "But," said "Sim," "he wasn't heavy 

 enough, and you could see in the bark of the tree where 

 he put his toe nails in and pushed down to make him- 

 self heavier. In that way he opened the trap." 



Saranac Lake guides will tell you that wires were laid 

 from the Saranac Inn to some of the principal fishing- 

 resorts in the vicinity that ex-President Cleveland's luck 

 might be telegraphed to an anxious world. This story is 

 somewhat "fishy," nevertheless tourists often hear it.' 



Paul Smith now owns 15,000 acres of land and water 

 surrounding his summer habitation, which he proposes 

 to hold for a game and fish preserve for the guests of his 

 house. One of his sons is the manager of the Foquet 

 House at Plattsburgh, which Paul recently purchased. 

 By the way, did you know that his real name is Apollo 

 Smith? That he was for many years a guide and is now 

 worth half a million or more dollars? He was known 

 when a guide as "Pol" Smith, and the corruption has 

 progressed until Paul is now his accepted name. Why 

 not take one more step and prefix "Saint?" It would 

 accord well with his lake, St. Regis. 



Ex-Mayor Bookstaver, of Syracuse, has several times 

 delivered a lecture, in which he takes the position that 

 the brute creation is endowed with souls, and that if the 

 spirit of man lives in the hereafter, so must the spirits of 

 brutes. This is no new idea, to be sure, but he fortifies 

 it with exceptionally strong proof, scriptural and other- 

 wise. He relates wondrous instances of the intelligence 



of animals, even more surprising than that which is 

 shown in this ibmi which I found somewhere: 



"I have a collie puppy, sprung from a breed noted for 

 its remarkable intelligence, whom I have continually 

 had to chastise for his persistence in selecting the best 

 sofa for his afternoon nap. He apparently set his mind 

 to reasoning over this and came to the right conclusion — 

 that he was punished for the damage to the sofa cover. 

 Accordingly the other day he rolled up the piece of car- 

 pot which has been set apart for his nightly accommoda- 

 tion in the servant's hall, and having carried it in his 

 mouth to the drawing room, spread it out carefully on 

 the forbidden sofa, where he was discovered sleeping the 

 sleep of innocence, no doubt being quite satisfied that he 

 had surmounted the only objection to his choice of a soft 

 resting place." 



Probably there are no more extended or prolific bass 

 fishing grounds in this country than those stretching 

 from Onondaga Lake, near Syracuse, to Ogdensburgh 

 The river from Onondaga Lake to Oswego, where it 

 empties into Lake Ontario, affords excellent sport. Along 

 the shores of Lake Ontario there are many excellent re- 

 sorts, while off Sackett's Harbor is Stoney Island, around 

 which tons upon tons of large, gamy fish have been 

 taken. And so down the St. Lawrence River there are 

 many "bass bars," which yield abundantly to him who 

 knows where they lie and has the art of capturing these 

 fish. Many a three pounder has been taken, and not a 

 few four-pounders have come to grief. 



Syracuse has many expert anglers who visit all waters 

 and tell big stories. Supreme Court Justices Kennedy 

 and Vann are now on vacations in the Adirondacks, and 

 County Judge Northrup is soon to go to St. John's. Rev. 

 Dr. Lockwood will spend August and part of September 

 in the great wilderness, and Bishop Ludden will go South 

 on a hunting trip in the fall. Other men of Syracuse, 

 who are hardly less prominent — among them the vener- 

 able ex-Judge Comstock — will soon flee to resorts which 

 nature still adorns. Syracuse is most fortunately situated 

 in relation to good water for anglers, and it has at least 

 its full proportion of experts. Comparatively few of its 

 rest and recreation seekers find their way to fashionable 

 watering places, but seek the seclusion of much less pre- 

 tentious and far more restful resorts, where neat flannel 

 shirts and other clothing to match have not been ruled 

 out by the mandate of fashion. D. H. B, 



Syracuse, July. , 



THE NATIONAL PARK. 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, July ^.-Edi- 

 tor Forest a nd Stream : We have had very hot and 

 dry weather for the past three weeks. The forest and grass 

 lands are in a very parched and inflammable condition. 

 Many small fires have been extinguished by the soldiers 

 patrolling the Park before they could do any damage. 

 The few showers have helped matters a little, but not 

 enough to have even checked a forest fire if it once got a 

 start. But for the vigilance and prompt action of Capts. 

 Boutelle and Bomus, with the men under their command , 

 much damage would have been done to the forest in the 

 Park. Capt. Boutelle's orders are that if a fire starts of 

 any size beyond the control of one man, for everybody to 

 drop whatever work they are doing and go immediately 

 to the fire to assist in putting it out. A recent instance 

 will illustrate how carefully the reservation is being pro- 

 tected from fire. A few minutes before 7 o'clock on the 

 evening of the 13th inst. a telephone message was deliv- 

 ered to Capt. Boutelle, that there was a large fire in 

 Hayden Valley, on Trout Creek. In twenty minutes the 

 captain and every available man at Camp Sheridan were 

 in the saddle and soon started on their night ride of forty 

 miles to the scene of the fire. An escort wagon with five 

 days' rations fo.lowed immediately. In the meantime 

 every man except the cook had left the camp at the Lower 

 Geyser Basin for the same point. The command reached 

 the fire on the morning of the 14th and soon had it under 

 control and extinguished before it had done any great 

 amount of damage. If Capt. Boutelle had waited until 

 morning before he started, he would have found the fire 

 beyond his control; nothing but a heavy storm could have 

 saved the vast body of timber between the Yellowstone 

 and Madison rivers, as every day the fire would have 

 been spread by the gales that begin to blow by 10 o'clock. 

 The prevailing dry weather would have allowed the fire 

 to burn for weeks. The Captain deserves great credit for 

 his prompt action and untiring efforts in preserving the 

 beautiful forest of the Park from destruction. 



The travel to the Park is increasing rapidly. Tourists 

 over the stage lines are arriving in parties from forty to 

 sixty daily. From seven to fifteen teams with camping 

 parties pass the Hot Springs every day. On the 14th 

 inst. twelve teams belonging to American immigrants 

 from the Black Hills, on their way to Oregon, started 

 through the Park. After doing the wonders here they 

 will continue their journey, leaving the Park at River- 

 side. Following the teams from Dakota was one from 

 northern Iowa bound for the same State. They are wed 

 provided with everything necessary for their long drive 

 and to settle in a new country. 



On the 16th inst. the U* S. Geological Survey, Mr. 

 Arnold Hague in charge, left the Springs for a perma- 

 nent camp at the Yellowstone Lake. From there the 

 parties will travel to their work on the east side of the 

 Park. 



Work on the wagon roads is progressing rapidly. The 

 $50,000 that became available on the 1st of July is being- 

 expended as the law directs, most of it on the new road 

 from the Upper Geyser Basin to the Yellowstone Lake; 

 nearly 200 men and teams are employed. 



The Hon. S. S. Cox is paying the Park a long visit and 

 making himself thorough familiar with the reservation 

 and its needs to make it what it is intended to be — a 

 pleasure ground for the people of the United States. H. 



"Caribou Hunting" is a handsome water-color painting 

 which comes to us from the Hamilton Powder Co. , of Mon- 

 treal , Canada. The scene is laid in a Canadian forest on a 

 winter day. Two successful hunters are making their way 

 to camp oil snowsboes, and dragging after them the huge 

 caribou that has fallen before their aim. The composi- 

 tion is admirable, and the picture is so evidently true to 

 I life that it deserves a high place among illustrations of 

 I woods sport. When one sees so many meretricious draw- 

 | ings of game and its pursuit, it is a pleasure to call at- 

 tention to a decidedly good piece of work like this. 



THE EARED SEALS.-I. 



AS will be seen by our "List," published in the Carni- 

 vora of the present series of articles, we have in the 

 United States fauna three species of oared seals, all be- 

 longing to the family Otariidm, and each one placed in a 

 separate genus. 



But few of our animals have had a greater share of 

 attention bestowed upon their natural history than the 

 Piiuripedia, and they are well deserving of it. Prior to 

 1879 there existed a comparatively rich literature pertain- 

 ing to the Otariidre, but this was vastly increased when 

 in 1880 and 1884, respectively, appeared the exhaustive 

 works of Allen on the North American Pinnipeds and 

 Elliott on the Seal Islands of Alaska. Both of these 

 admirable monographs enter in great detail upon the life- 

 histories, the economical aspects and our present knowl- 

 edge of the sea lions and seals, and Allen especially has 

 something to tell us about their osteology and general 

 structure. 



In the case of the eared seals now before us, the writer 

 has largely drawn upon these well-known authorities for 

 the information herein set forth, and the figures illus- 

 trating my remarks are all from the accurate pen of Mi*. 

 Elliott, being selected from his published sketches. 



Before passing to the consideration of the Califomian 

 sea lion, it will be as well to remind the reader that seals 

 and walruses are now universally considered bv zoolo- 

 gists to be true C'arnivora, that in past ages have become, 

 by the action of evolutionary laws, modified for an aqua- 

 tic existence. So that now the water is their true ele- 

 ment, and in it then- movements are active and graceful, 

 while on land both seals and walruses are extremely 

 clumsy creatures. The eared seals and walruses are the 

 higher types of the group in all particulars, while the 

 more remotely related Phocidce are the lowest and more 

 generalized species. Professor Allen has said that "the. 

 t innipeds present a high degree of cerebral development, 

 and are easdy domesticated under favorable conditions! 

 They manifest strong social and parental affection, and 

 defend their young with great persistency and courage. 

 They are carnivorous (almost without exception), subsist- 

 ing upon fishes, mollusks and crustaceans, of which they 

 consume enormous quantities. The walruses and eared 

 seals are polygamous, and the males greatly exceed the 

 females in size. Hie ordinary or earless seals are com- 

 monly supposed to be monogamous, and there is gener- 

 ally little difference in the size of the sexes. The walruses 

 and. eared seals usually resort in la.rge numbers to certain 

 favorite breeding grounds, and during the season of 

 reproduction leave the water and pass a considerable 

 period upon land. 



^ "The earless seals, on the other hand, with the excep- 

 tion of the sea elephants, do not so uniformly resort to 

 particular breeding grounds on land, and leave the water 

 only for very short intervals, They usually bring forth 

 their young on the ice, most of the species being con- 

 fined to the colder latitudes. Only one of the various 

 species of the Pinnipedia appears to be strictly tropical, 

 and very few of them range into tropical waters. As a 

 group, the pinnipeds are distinctly characteristic of the 

 arctic, antarctic and temperate portions of the globe, 

 several of the genera being strictly arctic or subarctic in 

 their distribution. The walruses are at present conflued 

 mainly within the arctic circle, and have no representa- 

 tives south of the colder portions of the Northern Hem- 

 isphere. The OtariidcB and Phocidiv, on the other hand, 

 are abundantly represented on both sides of the equator, 

 as will be noticed more in detail later." 



To these general observations of Allen I would add, 

 that so far as the discovery of fossil pinnipeds is con- 

 cerned, their remains are meager. The late miocene 

 and pliocene strata in this country and Europe have 

 afforded the most specimens, and some of these have 

 been described by VanBeneden, but they throw scarcely 

 any light upon the origin of seals in time, though the 

 general affinity of these animals to the ancient bear type 

 is recognized. And Flower says tuat "all the extinct 

 forms at present known come within the definition of 

 the existing families; and, though annectant forms be- 

 tween these occur, there are as yet no transitions to a 

 more generalized type of mammal. Indeed, all those of 

 which the characters are best known belong to the com- 

 pletely developed Phocine or Trichechine, not to the 

 Otarine type." 



To come now to the study of the Califomian sea lion 

 (Zalophns calif ornianus), I will for an appreciation of 

 its form and external appearance, simply invite the 

 reader's attention to Mr. Elliott's superb and life-like 

 sketch of the animal, herewith reproduced, through the 

 generosity of the editor of Forest a>d Stream. 



First of all we must observe, that these cared seals are 

 naturally classed in two group', determined by the 

 character of their pelage or coat. They are distin- 

 guished as the "hair seals" and the "fur "seals" or res- 

 pectively the "sea lions and the "sea bears." Now the 

 hair seals have only a coarse, stiff coat of hair, without 

 any underfur, while the fur seals yield that weil-known 

 and valued pelt the soft "sealskin" of commerce, it 

 being the underfur of the species to which we allude. 

 The Califomian sea lion is a typical hah seal, and agree- 

 ing with its kind is characterized when full grown, by 

 its brownish or yellowish coat of hah, which varies in 

 length with the time of the year, and is notably darker 

 in the young of this species. There is a wide range of 

 variation in this particular, and the northern and south- 

 ern types appear very different, even at the same season. 

 Although the Otariidm are found in the Arctic and Sub- 

 arctic oceans upon both sides of the equator, they are, 

 strange to say, entirely absent from the waters of the 

 North Atlantic, a fact for which we have no satisfactory 

 explanation. 



So far as our explanation is concerned, the Califomian 

 sea lion is for the most part restricted to the coast of 

 California, it never having been observed north of that, 

 while southwardly its range has not been determined 

 with precision. 



In point of size the male Calif ornia sea lion is decidedly 

 larger than the female, the former attaining a total 

 length of 9ft. or more, while the latter rarely attains to 

 7ft. Corresponding differences, as we might readily 

 imagine, are to be lound in the skeleton, whereas in the 

 external characters the male and female resemble each 

 other considerably. 



