©EC. 5, 1889.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



383 



the captive girl's hand and those broken by the Hurons. 

 "The outer branch, near the prints of one of the horses, 

 was bent upward, as a lady breaks a flower from its stem; 

 but all the rest were ragged and broken down, as if the 

 strong hand of a man had beeu tearing them! So I con- 

 cluded that the cunning varments had seen the twig bent 

 and had torn the rest, to make us believe a buck had been 

 feeling the boughs with his antlers." 



One would imagine though that Uncas or his father 

 would have been likelier than the scout to detect this, 

 and he, more accustomed to civilized warfare and the 

 effect of ordnance, likelier than Uncas to hit upon this 

 ingenious method of finding the way through the fog to 

 the fort. "This shot that you see," added the scout 

 (translating the earnest advice of Uncas for Heyward's 

 benefit), kicking the harmless iron, "has plowed the 'arth 

 in its road from the fort, and we shall hunt for the furrow 

 it has made, when all other signs may fail." 



An old camper who know T s what a comfortable couch 

 the twigs of cedar and the various firs afford, wonders 

 why Cooper should bed his forest wayfarers on sassafras 

 boughs as in the cavern at Glenn's and on "sweet shrubs 

 and "dried leaves" as in the decayed block house. But 

 one forgets such trival matters in the vivid description of 

 the wild turmoil of waters with their constant and all- 

 pervading roar swelling and falling with every waft or 

 lull of the light breeze or of the sombre quietude of the 

 ruined stronghold whose sole surviving defenders now 

 revisit it or that which presently follows the last of the 

 "bloody pond," and the sudden and mysterious taking off 

 there of the French sentinel when the departing fugitives 

 "looked in vain for the form they had so recently seen 

 stalking along its silent shorps, while a low and regular 

 wash of little waves, by announcing that the waters were 

 not yet subsided, furnished a frightful memorial of the 

 deed of blood they had just witnessed." 



In the "Pathfinder" are frequent instances of the hero's 

 wood-wisdom, as for example this, "Only the risk of be- 

 ing shot from a cover, as he forced his canoe up a swift 

 rift, or turned an elbow of the stream, with his eyes fast- 

 ened on the eddies; of all the risky journeys, that on an 

 ambu-hed river is the most risky." Or this, "I hope Eau- 

 douce will have the wit to bethink him of the damp wood 

 now." This would give forth more smoke, betokening a 

 fire made by careless whites, while the comparatively 

 smokeless fire of dry fuel would be taken for that of an 

 Indian camp. 



The Pathfinder says, "A true woodsman never quits 

 his piece while he has any powder in his horn, or a bul- 

 let in Ms pouch." Of this most of us have had personal 

 proof, when the gun has been carelessly laid aside out of 

 reach for a moment and the shot of a lifetime lost thereby. 



The author endows Eaudouce with more ingenuity than 

 this master of woodcraft in one instance, when he directs 

 the branch of a tree to be cast "into the river to try the 

 current, which sets from the point above in the direction, 

 of the rock," in the" river on which the Pathfinder is ex- 

 posed to the fire of the Hurons. Finding it reaches him, 

 a canoe is sent to him in the same way and he escapes to 

 cover. The Pathfinder commends this in characterstic 

 fashion, "This has been done with a frontierman's judg- 

 ment." 



Here Cooper speaks for himself, when the guide's ear 

 has caught the sound of a branch broken by a footstep. 

 "All who are accustomed to that particular sound will 

 understand how readily the ear receives it, and how easy 

 it is to distinguish the tread which breaks the branch 

 from every other noise of the forest." "Silence is a 

 double virtue on a trail," says Pathfinder, and "patience 

 is the greatest of virtues in a woodsman." 



But it is needless to multiply instances from the Leather- 

 stocking Tales, to prove that Cooper was possessed of 

 skill in woodcraft, and a fertility of invention and keen- 

 ness of observation, which if he had been placed under 

 conditions similar to those in which Natty Bumpo. or as 

 he is variously called, the Pathfinder, Deerslayer, Hawk- 

 eye and Leathei stocking, received his training, might 

 have made him, in this respect, a living embodiment of 

 the immortal creation of his imagination. 



Only by years of study and practice of this unwritten 

 science, can one learn to read the signs so faintly traced 

 that mark the passage of man or beast through the puz- 

 zling sameness of the forest, where to the ordinary eyes 

 one great tree is as like to another as the unnamed stars 

 to each other, and where to such untrained vision noth- 

 ing but the place of the sun in the sky or the pointing of 

 the magnetic needle tells where is north or south. 



Much of Cooper's knowledge of woodcraft was no 

 doubt acquired when in 1808 he made the journey to Os- 

 wego in company with other naval officers, and was for 

 a time stationed at that port. 



"Wild animals still prowled through the adjoining 

 forests," Miss Cooper tells us in her introduction to the 

 "Pathfinder," "bears, wolves and panthers were not 

 wanting. Of deer there was an abundant supply, and 

 one or two fresh beaver dams were only a short distance 

 from the banks of the river." The young midshipman 

 threw himself with all his usual spirit into the hunting 

 and fishing expeditions. Here, too, he must have re- 

 ceived those impressions of the beauty and grandeur and 

 solemnity of the primeval forest, which enabled him in 

 after years to describe so well its varied moods and 

 asp c ct, and to express through Hawkeye's lips such emo- 

 tions as these, "In the forest I seem to stand face to face 

 with my Master; all around me is fresh and beautiful, as 

 it came from his hand, and there is no nicety of doctrine 

 to chill the feelin's. No, no, the woods are the true 

 temple, a'ter all, for there the thoughts are free to mount 

 higher even than the clouds;" and again, "I want no 

 thunder and lightning to remind me of my God, nor am 

 I as apt to bethink me most of all His goodness in trouble 

 and tribulations, as on a calm, solemn, quiet day hi the 

 forest, when His voice is heard in the creaking of a dead 

 branch or in the song of a bird." 1 



Some such simple-minded, faithful and honest ranger 

 of the woods he may have met on the frontier, a worthier 

 example of the class than the old hunter, the shiftless 

 hanger-on of the settlements, whom he knew in his boy- 

 hood. 



Yet it is hardly likely that he ever found, perhaps no 

 one ever did find, in real life such an one as he describes 

 the Pathfinder to have been. 



"Ever the same, utterly without fear, and yet prudent, 

 foremost in all warrantable enterprises." "His feelings 

 appeared to possess the freshness and nature of the forest 

 in which he passed so much of his time, and no casuist 



could have made clearer decisions in matters relating to 

 right and wrong." 



He was not without prejudices that were deep rooted. 

 His "beautiful and unerring sense of justice" influenced 

 all around him. "His fidelity was like the immovable 

 rock." '-Treachery in him was classed among the things 

 that are impossible, and as he seldom retired before his 

 enemies so was he never known under any circumstances 

 that admitted of an alternative to abandon a friend." 



A nobly-conceived character and truly as Thackeray 

 said of him, "One of the prize men of fiction." It is 

 easier to criticise than to create. Cooper created that 

 which will last as long as American literature endures, 

 and it becomes us better to be thankful for this than to 

 be critical over any shortcoming's. 



Thackeray was a warm admirer of Cooper. It is thought 

 by some that he fashioned the death scene of Colonel 

 Newcome after that of Leatherstocking, and their simi- 

 larity is certainly striking. 



Leatherstocking, feeble with age and life slowly ebbing, 

 had been placed by his Indian friends in an easy posture 

 on a rude seat, his rifle on his knee. " Between his feet 

 lay the figure of a hound." " The aged men of the tribe 

 had drawn near to observe the manner in which a just 

 and fearless warrior would depart on the greatest of his 

 journeys." "The light of the setting sun feli upon his 

 solemn features." "His gaze seemed fastened on the 

 clouds, glorious with the tints of sunset." "Suddenly 

 the old man, supported on either side by his friends, rose 

 upright to his feet. For a moment he looked about him 

 as if to invite all in presence to listen, and then with a 

 fine military elevation of the head and with a voice that 

 might be heard in every part of that numerous assembly, 

 he pronounced the word, 



"'Here!' 



"When Middleton and Hardheart turned to him they 

 found he was forever beyond the necessity of their care." 



SLIDE ROCK FROM MANY MOUNTAINS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The Poet and the Philosopher have again been in the 

 mountains together; H. G. Dulog and "Yo" have made 

 their annual hunting trip. During this trip, as a result 

 of several conversations held about the camp fire at night 

 after a hard day's work after deer, sheep or'goats, it was 

 determined to send in to you a series of letters for publi- 

 cation, if you should deem them worthy a place in the 

 columns of Forest and Stream. 



Each one of these sketches is complete in itself, and 

 each one is tree — that is to say, is an uncolored narration 

 of fact, so far as the writers are concerned. Names of 

 actors in the events related have sometimes been changed, 

 but in all cases where the writer tells of what he himself 

 did, the account is exact. 



While it is, perhaps, not customary in newspaper offices 

 for a contributor to "put a head on" his matter, still it is 

 suggested that an appropriate heading for these papers 

 would be "Slide Pock from Many Mountains," the events 

 narrated having taken place in the Rocky Mountains in 

 several Territories, as well as in the Cascade Mountains 

 of British Columbia. 



The letters are inclosed with this. Yours very truly, 



H. G. Dulog. 

 Yo. 



tap/ ^jiistarg. 



NAMES OF THE WHITE GOAT. 



A GLANCE at the list of names which have been ap- 

 plied by sysfcematists to the white goat-antelope, as 

 given below, will serve to show the uncertainty which 

 existed in the minds of the earlier writers as to the sys- 

 tematic place which this animal should occupy. The 

 reason for this ignorance is not far to seek when w T e con- 

 sider the very slight material wdiich was at then- disposal. 



Lewis and Clark, who brought home from their expedi- 

 tion a hunter's skin, speak of the animal as a sheep. Ord, 

 who described it from this same meagre material, fol 

 lowed them, and placed it in the genus Ovis, perhaps for 

 no better reason than that the pelage of his specimen was 

 in part woolly. 



M. de Blainville, however, who saw the complete speci- 

 men in the Museum of the Linnean Society recognized its 

 true affinities, and in his description assigned it to the 

 genus Antilope, and to tne sub-genus Bupicapra, thus 

 placing it near the chamois. A year or two later 

 Rafinesque characterized very imperfectly the genus 

 Mazama, in which he seems to have intended to group 

 this antelope, the prong horn, and one or two species 

 of deer which can probably never be identified. He 

 stated that the white antelope and another species in this 

 genus would probably be found to represent a new 

 group, which he called Oreamnos* and announced that 

 this group would be fully described in a forthcoming 

 work, which, however, was never given to the world. 



A little later, in 1822, came Hamilton Smith's excel- 

 lent description in the Linnean Transactions, accom- 

 panied by a figure which, so far as I know, is to-day 

 much the most lifelike and the best that has been pub- 

 lished. Smith had before him a complete specimen of 

 Mazama ?nontana, and thus avoided some of the mis- 

 takes committed by A merican writers. He regarded the 

 animal as an antelope. 



Misled by the fact that the wdiite antelope lives among 

 the rocks and has a tuft of hair on its chin, Harlan and 

 Godman called it a goat (Capra), as did also Richardson 

 in 1829, Baird in 1852, Audubon and Bachman In 1853, 

 and the Prince of Wied in 1862, while Fischer, who in 

 1829 quoted from Desmouhns (Dictionnaire Classique 

 d'Histoire Naturelle), throws doubt upon this generic 

 reference by writing Capra (?) columbiana. 



It is not strange that Ltiben should have remarked in 

 his Saugethiere, that it is difficult from the descriptions 

 to know whether this is an antelope or a goat. 



In 1827 Hamilton Smith formed the sub-genus Aplocerus, 

 which was adopted by Turner in 1850, by Richardson in 

 1852, and in tins country by Baird in 1857, by Cones and 

 Yarrow in their excellent Report of the Zoology of the 

 Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, and generally in the 

 Government reports. Rafinesque's name Mazama was 



* Am. Month, Mag., Vol. n„ 1617, p. w. 



revived in 1850 by J. E. Gray in the Klnowsley Menagerie, 

 in his paper in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 

 and in his various catalogues down to 1873, and was then 

 laid aside until brought up by Dr. Gill in Ms catalogue of 

 the "Collection to Illustrate the Animal Resources of the 

 United States," which is a "List of the Principal Useful 

 or Injurious Mammals," a paper published in connection 

 with the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. 



The generic name Oplacerus, proposed by Haldeman 

 in 1842 (Proc. Phil. Acad. ScL, pp. 187-188), to take the 

 place of Mazama, only needs to be alluded to, to say that 

 it evidently has no connection with the species under 

 consideration. To what use of the term Mazama he 

 referred seems uncertain, but that it was not to the white 

 antelope is made evident by the reason advanced for the 

 adoption of the name Oplacerus instead of Mazama, "this 

 [latter] name ha ving been preapplied to Ovis or Capra 

 montana, Ord, by Rafinesque," 



Almost as many specific as generic names have been 

 given to this animal. Ord, translating the English name 

 given it by the. explorers who reported it to him, called 

 it montana, and this name having priority, must stand. 



There seems to be no doubt that Rafinesque's genus 

 Mazama should be adopted for this animal. It is 

 true that no less an authority than the late lamented 

 Baird expressed in most unmistakable terms the opinion 

 that this name "is utterly inadmissible as a genus of 

 mammals," but this was written more than thirty years 

 ago. and we may doubt if he would look at the matter 

 in the same way if he were alive to-day. In his article 

 (Pacific R. R. Reports, 1857, p. 665) on the genus Antilo- 

 capra he write as follow- s: "The generic name of Maza- 

 ma, as established by Rafinesque, II., 1817, 44, has been 

 quoted by some authors for the American antelope, as 

 well as for the mountain goat and the smaller deer. An 

 examination of his diagnosis will show very satisfactorily 

 that the name cannot be used at all, on account of its 

 embracing too many incongruous elements, as follows: 



Mazama.— Eight front teeth on the lower law, none in the 

 upper, no canine teeth, grinders truncated; head with solid, sim- 

 ple, straight round and permanent horns, uncovered by a skin; 

 neck and legs not very long, cloven hoof. Tail short. Uhs. This 

 genus differs from Cervm by having simple permanent horns, 

 from the genus Girajfa by not having a skin over tbe horns, nor a 

 loug neck, and from the genus Gazeihi by its horns not being hol- 

 low. It belongs to the family Humlnaliu, sub-r'amilv stereveerta, 

 next to the genus Girajfa. It appears to be peculiar to America, 

 and contaius many species which had been taken for deer, sheep, 

 antelopes, etc. 



Mazama term a, Raf.— Yellow-brown above, white beneath. Horns 

 cylindrical, straight and smooth. This is the Temamazame of 

 Mexico. 



Mazama dnrsata, Raf.— Entirely white and woollv, a mane along 

 the neck and back; horns conical, subulate, ncute.'slightlv curved 

 backward, base rough. Obs. This animal has been called Ovis 

 montana by Ord, but the genus 0»te, or rather Aries, has hollow 

 and flat horns, etc. 



Mazama xr.rice.a, Raf.— White with loug silkv hair, no mane, etc . 

 This is the Bupieapra americana of Blainville, but he has not 

 ascertained the horns to be hollow. 



"Were the genus Mazama less decided in its expressions, 

 it might be taken for either the antelope or mountain goat 

 (better the latter), but when we are positively assured 

 that it differs from the antelope in having solid horns, 

 and from the deer merely in the horns being simple and 

 permanent, instead of branched and deciduous, there is 

 no alternative but to expunge the name from the systems 

 until we find an animal with horns like the giraffe, only 

 much longer, and not covered by a skin." 



Except in respect to its so-called solid horns,Rafinesque's 

 diagnosis of the genus Mazama agrees sufficiently well 

 with the characters of the white antelope to be applied 

 to it, and the whole question as to whether this generic 

 name should or should not be employed seems to turn on 

 what that author intended to imply by the use of the 

 term solid horns. 



It has been suggested to me in conversation by that 

 eminent naturalist Dr. Theo. Gill, that Rafinesque's idea 

 of what constitutes solid horns was not what we under- 

 stand by the same term to-day, and that the agreement 

 of the other characters given with those of the white 

 antelope and the doubt as to the sense in which Rafin- 

 esque used the term solid justify us in employing this 

 generic name. 



It is perfectly clear that Rafinesque intended his de- 

 scription of Mazama dorsata and sericea to apply to the 

 white antelope and to no other animal. Of this there is 

 no shadow of doubt. The animal is identified beyond a 

 peradventure. This being the case, and Mazama being 

 the earliest generic name applied to it, it should be re- 

 tained, and the white antelope becomes Mazama ?non- 

 tana (Ord.) Gill. 



The local names in use for this species and those 

 applied to it by various authors are numerous. The 

 older writers called it mountain sheep, Rocky Mountain 

 goat and white goat, and these names still obtain iu 

 various localities where it is found. On the eastern 

 flanks of the Rocky Mountains and generally in the United 

 States it is commonly called "goat" or "white goat;" but 

 among the Canadian Indians, who speak a little English, 

 it is more often spoken of as "sheep," and this term is 

 universal among the Indians, and nearly so among the 

 white population, of the northwest coast through Wash- 

 ington and British Columbia to Alaska. In southwest- 

 ern Montana, in parts of Idaho, in eastern California, 

 and perhaps in other places, it is sometimes known as 

 "ibex," a name which is also often applied to the 

 two or three-year-old male of the mountain sheep 

 (Ovis canadensis). Lewis and Clark state that the 

 Indians spoke of the white antelope as " white buf- 

 falo." Mackenzie, according to Richardson, says that 

 his Indians designated Oiris canadensis by the same name, 

 but it seems likely that the reference may have really 

 been to Mazama, to which such a name would be espe- 

 cially applicable, as will be recognized by any one who 

 has had ample opportunity of observing these high- 

 shouldered rock climbers. 



Most of the Indian names for Mazama montana, so 

 far as I have been able to gather them and to learn 

 their significance, have reference to its color; thus 

 the Blackfoot name ApoW-mah-lcee-ltinua appears to 

 mean "white head," the Cree name is Wa-pa-tik, which 

 signifies "white deer." The Indians of British Columbia, 

 as stated, call it "sheep," and where the bighorn {Ovis 

 canadensis) also occurs, the former is known as Taculp 

 sheep (white sheep), and the latter as Klale sheep (black 

 or dark sheep). Both these adjectives are from the 

 Chinook jargon. The Squawmisht Indians of Washing- 

 ton and British Columbia call the white antelope Hotih- 

 solken. The meaning of this name is unknown to me. 

 The name Kwhait-lii given this species by the Comos, 



