22 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 80, 1891. 



THE RANSACKER'S VISION. 



Editor Forest and Strmm,: 



When you know that I pass much time in the least fre- 

 quented parts of some of the mountains in northern Cali- 

 fornia, miles from railroad and steamboat, and, indeed, 

 some distance from the nearest representatives of my race, 

 you will not wonder tha.t I meet with singular and often 

 remarkable adventures. The particular region I affect is 

 between an old and historic mining town and the Pacific 

 Coast, a locality only accessible by roundabout mountain 

 trails and seldom explored. The metal gold, so esteemed 

 by mankind, although found at eveij point of the com- 

 pass from my cabin, has never been found within a rifle 

 shot of my boundaries, so that no adventurous miners or 

 prospectors have diatiu-bed my domain. In fact, sir, I 

 have passed many days without seeing or hearing any- 

 thing connected with the fabric civilization. I have a 

 sort of isolated realm of my own which is densely popu- 

 lated and contains many thousands of natives; but, with 

 the exception of the feathered tribes, I never meet with 

 any of my subjects that walk upon less than four legs. 



I have constituted myself a sort of Ransacker and 

 esteem it a part of my business to inquire into and inves- 

 tigate certain mountains, forests and caflons. I have 

 theories, sir. and like to investigate some of the causes of 

 effects. In my domain, which is varied and vast enough 

 for any one Ransacker to essay, I think, who will compe- 

 tently investigate thoroughly, there are about a thousand 

 hills, some moimtains and several streams. The hills and 

 mountains are covered with forests and the streams are 

 kept in continued freshness and health by the melting 

 snows on my highest summits. There are bears and deer, 

 squirrels, quail, lizards, snakes and other hundreds of 

 creatures on the lands, while the streams seem to contain 

 only a fair number of rainbow trout, a few waterdogs. 

 frogs and some several minks, otters and coone. I knew 

 of a turtle, about the size of a saucer, but I have not seen 

 him this year and am not sure but the coons may have 

 got him. 



In a recent raneackiag expedition I followed an old 

 Indian trail (abandoned since about 1850) to a remote 

 corner of my domain, and met with a most notable ad- 

 venture. The trail was out of its old-time repair, steep 

 and rocky, and when I had come to the crossing of one 

 of my streams, what seemed to have been a large slide 

 from one of the mountains had piled it with granite 

 boulders, tree trunks and other obstructions, so that the 

 gorge was impassable to an easy-going, deliberate Ran* 

 Backer. I have a habit of sitting upon a log, a rock, or even 

 the ground, when confronted by obstacles that I am not 

 afraid of, especially if I am tired, and of contemplating. 

 I now found this my simplest recourse, and having ob- 

 tained a satisfactory reclining attitude, I proceeded to 

 contemplate the blockade of the trail and my tumultuous 

 surroundings. I observed that the spot was particularly 

 rough, picturesque, remote and natural* There was a big 

 circular hole in the granite bed of the stream into which 

 the water fell from a shelf, perhaps lOft,, and. made a great 

 roar; and splashing over the speckled granite and mossy 

 boulders as large as my house, sent showers of crystal 

 flashing through the checkered shade to where I was; but 

 away from the immediate descent the clear, cold water 

 widened into a pool, reflecting its surroundings with all 

 exactness imaginable. The place was closely hemmed 

 with, sugar-pines, cedars and firs, while so dense a growth 

 of ferns and spicewood intervened that I thought it much 

 the nature of a jungle. A few moments' ehmb would, 

 however, give me a view of a hundred miles over forests 

 and plains. A lizard having become too presuming for 

 my scant acquaintance with him, I flipped him into the 

 pool. Although his plunge was to him entirely unex- 

 pected and severely cold, he swam to the opposite bank 

 safely, oblivious of the trout, almost large enough to en- 

 compass him, that glided just beneath making close es- 

 timate of the lizard's dimensions. The simile of an alli- 

 gator having achieved a landing on the moss was trying 

 to locate and dry himself when my contemplation of him 

 ended. I thought I saw in the waters the reflection of 

 something behind me; and, as I am adverse to approaches 

 of unknown creatures from that quarter in jungles, I 

 always change front. 



I looked for some moments before I descried a dark ob- 

 ject about as large as my hand back of a point of rock. 

 Familiar with most creatures in my domains, I was not 

 long in determining that the object was, although an un- 

 usually large one, a deer's nose. Just back of the nose I 

 could " now make out long tines of antlers, though the 

 buck held his head in so level a line I could see little of 

 bis face. I guessed his face a wide one by the width of 

 nose and spread of antlers. I eat as motionless as possi- 

 ble for many moments, but the black nose maintained its 

 altitude and the antlers were rigidly stationary. Finally, 

 half in soliloquy. I muttered, "Well, my fine fellow, you 

 are safe enough, but I wish you would step out and show 

 yourself." To my astonishment the deer Sprang to the 

 top of the ridge and stood defiantly upon my own level, 

 and not beyond ten steps from me. And what a deer he 

 he was! With the eye of a sportsman X guessed him at 

 SOOlbs. as he stood; ten prongs, but a hundred small, 

 thornlike points; his back straight as a line; every limb 

 ready to leave the ground at the turn of a leaf ; every 

 muscle strung for action. His eyes big, bright and round 

 as a dollar, but a dark green, in the intensity of their gaze 

 caught every object; his pointed ears shifted with every 

 chirp of bird or insect— in all he was so formidable a 

 specimen of instinct and power that to lack reason made 

 him the more wondrous. His head, black except a silvery 

 crescent above his ebon nose, mounted with his wonderful 

 antlers, was a pietui'e of such exceptionable majesty as to 

 be indescribable; his whole coat glistened as if bronzed, 

 while his limbs tapered in unmatched proportions to his 

 polished, dart-shaped hoofs. 



Ah! here was the Big Buck; I knew the tracks njade 

 by those hoofs. Ev^ery old hunter has seen Ihem, and 

 many a shot had been fired at his ever- vanishing form. 

 Many an eye has been fired with anticipation at a glimpse 

 of those mighty antlers! While many a foot has sped at 

 dawn or dusk in vain pursuit of the intangible shape and 

 followed like shadows in quest of a phantom. Having 

 so fair an opportunity I inspected his majesty minutely 

 and was trying to calculate the distance those polished 

 hoofs must have covered in the cojirse of, his life, when, 

 to my further wdndemdent', the Big Sufek spokfe! In a 



matter of fact air his buokship, regardless of my start of 

 surprise at his fluent English, remarked, "But for the 

 fact, sir, that I am scarcely the intruder, I should ask 

 pardon for my unannounced appearance. It is becoming 

 so nowadays, however, that I come upon your people in 

 every quarter; there must be a vast number of your 

 kind, for the woods seem full of them." 



The Big Deer had assumed an attitude aggressive, and 

 spoke as though, having me at a disadvantage, he would 

 revenge on me some of the wrongs his race had long 

 suffered. 



I replied in as bland a tone as I could that I asked par- 

 don for intruding if I was doing so, that I was peaceably , 

 disposed, and wasn't anybody especially, myself; Ifurther 

 added that I was on the point of retracing my tracks 

 down the stream. 



"Oh," he interposed, "I know you. You are well 

 enough in your way, but you are but a pioneer of others 

 less harmless! Sir, you are pi'obably aware that you are 

 making tracks in one of the last undisturbed nooks of 

 refuge we deer have on your continent — one of the last 

 of our favorite places of refuge in the world! From 

 every direction there comes the reports of your rifles 

 and the villainous smell of gunpowder! The ruin and 

 devastation of forests follow your rifles, axes and mills 

 and towns! Why, sir, what do you think is to become of 

 us? Where shall we look in a few years for pasture, 

 range or refuge?" 



He paused for my reply; but not having yet recovered 

 my astonishment at hearing him speak, I could form no 

 answer, besides the question would require a diplomatic 

 answer, 



"The world," resumed the Big Buck, "seems not prop- 

 erly made up for your race, and you are constantly striv- 

 ing at improvement! I fear you will never pause until 

 the last plain is fenced and plowed, the last stream 

 drained and muddied, the forests felled and destroyed, 

 and possibly the mountains leveled. But, sir, and my 

 observation extends over the world, I believe it little 

 improved by your transformations. And if it were, does 

 it not seem to you as selfishness and ingratitude that man 

 should take all creation for himself? We deer have been 

 so long accustomed to persecution yet never have com- 

 plained! We have never asked for quarter until it is 

 become so sadly evident that if some concession is not 

 made us we will become extinct." 



Here he stamped his sharp feet and shook his great 

 antlers until 1 could not refrain from looking about for 

 some quick way of exit from the ravine. If I had had 

 my rifle in hand I should have felt more composed, but, 

 on reflection, I could not recall to mind any instance of 

 deer being dangerously vicious, so I suggested mildly 

 that we had provided to protect his kind and other game. 



"Ah," he continued fluently, "so you have. We are 

 deluded for a few months to make our destruction more 

 complete. Of what benefit to us will be your laws when 

 we have no place of refuge or habitation? I say, sir, 

 there is no gratitude or mercy evident in man when he 

 offers no better return for benefits derived. We have 

 been, sir, at the cost of our lives, from times lost in the 

 obscurity of the past, sport, diversion and food for kings 

 and noblemen, for all the best of the race of men down to 

 this day; we have furnished food and raiment to your 

 hardy pioneers — for your Robin Hoods, Davy Orocketts 

 and Daniel Boones — ^food, sport, the very clothes they 

 wore! Ah," sighed the Big Deer, and he looked very 

 sad, "the brightest days have gone. It was glorious, 

 even fleeing for life, to lead, kings and. nobles a gallant 

 and dangerous chase! There was some glory when we 

 baffled theh* best breed of hounds or horses! There was 

 something heroic, too, in being on guard for your daring 

 pioneers in past days; how softly they trod, and how un- 

 erring their long rifles were! Even in those days safety was 

 not found in their vicinity. And to think we fed and 

 clothed them, furnished the moccasins they wore, even 

 the patches for their leaden bullets to such effect as we 

 now complain of!" 



I again glanced about uneasily as the Big Buck com- 

 menced a tale of the present troubles of deer and the 

 many fatal abuses of them. He fiercely denounced the 

 deadly modern arms, saying a deer never knew himself 

 out of range, and that a party of our modem hunters 

 could so fill the air with bullets that there was little 

 chance of escape without serious injury. He claimed 

 that more of his fellows were crippled and limped away 

 to die in far thickets than were obtained by enthusiastic 

 but reckless nimrods. His main complaint, however, 

 was that all his haunts were being intruded upon, his 

 forests destroyed, that he had now but few places of 

 refuge, rendering hopeless his single defense of^ evading 

 multiplying foes. I had begun to feel much sympathy 

 for the big fellow when he told of the great herds of his 

 kindred that have forever gone, or when he described the 

 1 beauties of his natural haunts before the advent of his 

 mighty enemy, man. I was on the point of informing 

 him of the recent law in California to prohibit the killing 

 of his friends for two years (it should have been for five), 

 when there came to our ears the distant baying of a 

 hound and the rapid reports of rifles. Witli a mighty 

 bound the buck sprang up the ridge, evidently to lead 

 some troop of his kmd from danger, the fawns being yet 

 so young as to require careful hiding to tremble in the 

 deepest thickets. 



I was so surprised at his tremendous leap and the 

 activity with which he ascended the mountain that I 

 awoke from a slight doze I had gone into. I would have 

 thought the entire interview with the Big Buck a dream, 

 hut that I saw the tips of antlers disappear beyond the 

 ridge and in the soft sand near the water found tracks of 

 sharp hoofs. 



I must, however, have been greatly absorbed with my 

 adventure, for it had grown late and past my time to 

 make my lair bj^ dark. 



On my returning over the old trail I thought with how 

 much justice the Indian could complain, and next him 

 perhapi the deer; and of what a benefit it would be if 

 parts of our magnificent country could be preserved for- 

 ever in their natural stale, not only as refuge for deer, 

 but the thousand smaller animals and birds that so 

 quickly vanish from our populated centers. And then, 

 too, what pleasure can be derived by some people by re- 

 sorting to obscure and natural regions filled with the 

 wonders of creation. Why should not each of our greater 

 States have a reservation of some miles in extent given 

 over to natural wilderness and forest to remain forever 

 unmolested? Why could not enough sportsmen, in our 

 more faVor^d Sta,te8, unite in an effort to tma end? 



Future generations will certainly have cause to feel the 

 utmost gratitude toward those making so beneficial an 

 effort for after times, and a true sportsman could ask no 

 more than that his name should be among the number to 

 descend to posterity as one of the patrons or originators 



of State Natural Reserve or Park. His fame. I am 



inclined to believe, would live longer than that of most 

 statesmen, and the benefits resulting be fully as great to 

 posterity, C. L. P. 



Northern Cai,ifohnia,J891; 



A LONELY PILGRIM IN THE ROCKIES.-I. 



FROM my earliest boyhood a desire to go to the Rock- 

 ies and bunt for gold and game has been the one 

 predominant above all others. Eleven years' confinement 

 ja a dental room, with but one month's vacation worth 

 mentioning, has only had a tendency to increase that 

 desire. 



But to begin my subject. July 1,5 found me aboard the 

 cars in Buffalo, ticketed for Helena, Montana, with neces- 

 sary outfit for fishing andhvmting, a lonely pilgrim bound 

 for a strange land. 



Nothing worth mentioning happened till we reached 

 Indiana. Two men boarded the train equipped for bass 

 fishing. They were the hearty, happy type of hospitable 

 Hoosiers that no sportsman could resist scraping ac- 

 quaintance with, and a good visit and urgent invitation 

 to atop off and go fishing was the result. I shall not for- 

 get the following remarks that Mr. G. W. Whittaker, of 

 Huntington, made on trolling for bass. He said: "The 

 old. mother bass first clears away the debris from a circle 

 on the bottom about 2ft. in diameter, deposits her spawn, 

 and with a mother's care guards it until the little ones 

 come forth and are able to feed themselves, and woe be 

 xmto the fish that dares intrude. Seeing the spoon of the 

 festive angler she makes a dash to kill it or drive it away, 

 and is snaked into the boat and the little onrs are left to 

 perish. It is much more sport to take a Henshall rod 

 and good reel and cast a lively frog about 50ft. and give 

 your bass a chance to get mad after getting his mouth- 

 ful." 



My fishermen friends arrived at their stopping place, 

 bade me good-bye and a good time, and nothing more 

 happened until I reached Chicago. After changing cars 

 I began getting ready for a good night's sleep. One of 

 Chicago's 10,000 confidence men scraped acquaintance 

 and claimed to be bound for Helena. Entertained me 

 with a very plausible story and wanted to borrow |oO, 

 offering me a §1,000 Government bond for security until 

 the train got outside the city limits, so that he could get 

 into his baggage and get his money. I requested him to 

 bring in the conductor and identify himself as a bona 

 fide passenger; and he must be stCl hunting for the con- 

 ductor, for I saw no more of him. 



On arriving at St, Paul a very bad cold was considered 

 an indication that it was best to stop over a few days. 

 Visiting several brother dentists, I was advised to go 

 fishing in White Bear Lake; but as W. B, Anderson, a 

 friend of my boyhood, lived at Minneapolis, I concluded 

 to spend my time there ^nd look him up. Arriving in 

 MinneapoHs, I had no trouble in finding him enjoying 

 health and prosperity in a very pleasant part of that most 

 beautiful of all Western cities. He was the same boy 

 grown older that had waded the old spring brook with 

 me in pursuit of trout so many times in our boyhood 

 days, and his merry songs and calls to his flock of ducks 

 came floating over the old swamp to the ears of my recol- 

 lection as gayly as ever on seeing his face again. 



Several days were happily spent in driving to the beau- 

 tiful resorts and points of interest around the bustling 

 city, then a trip was planned toZumbro Heights, up Lake 

 Minnetonka, bass fishing. It was gratifyins: to see his 

 good wife hustle around packing a most substantial lunch 

 and assisting in every way possible to get us ready to en- 

 joy the trip. We boarded a street car and arrived at the 

 station just in time for the grand rush of fishermen and 

 campers for the smoker, I have never seen anything to 

 compare with a Minnesota crowd for health and "git 

 there." If an Eastern man ever gets into one he can make 

 up his mind to ti-ead lively or get trod on, but we got 

 there and got a good seat. Will fished, some fragrant 

 Havanas from a box in the lunch basket and we were soon 

 enjoying a good smoke and the charming scenery along 

 the beautiful Lake Minnetonka. What a place for a 

 vacation. Everybody told the same story without saying 

 a word. All along the road at every station were groups 

 of people, pictures of manly vigor and happiness. The 

 shore along the lake is dotted with pleasant cottages, 

 grand summer hotels, beautiful grounds, picturesque 

 groves and hills that look like paradise. Arriving at 

 Zumbro Station, we found a three- seated wagon in wait- 

 ing from the hotel, packed ourselves in with a load of 

 passengers and were driven at a Minnesota gait to mine 

 host Palmer's. The hotel was capable of accommodating 

 about 75 guests, and was full of people, some of whom 

 seemed to have an unlimited capacity for lemonade, pop 

 and crabapple cider, and they kept Mr. Palmer so busy 

 that it was a difficult matter to introduce the subject of 

 frogs for bait and a place to sleep. Frogs were scarce, 

 but we succeeded in getting a dozen, and tumbled our- 

 selves into a bed in a cottage and slept like "pigs in clover" 

 till morning. 



Early dawn found us in the boat rowing for an arm of 

 the lake south of the hotel. Anchoring among some lily- 

 pads near shore the temptation was about as strong to 

 gather the beautiful water lilies as to fish. We had 

 hardly got our hooks in, however, before a strike was 

 felt and a big bass was soon landed. How they did bite! 



We floated along the edge of the lake and caught bass, 

 pickerel and sunfish till our frogs were gone, ate our 

 lunch, went ashore and caught more frogs in the landing 

 net, then went back and fished again until 11 o'clock. 



We had throvvn back all the sunfish and all the baas 

 and pickerel under lib. in weight and found we had 

 sixteen bass and thirteen pickerel, and a finer lot of big- 

 mouth bass I never saw. We lugged them up to the 

 hotel, put them on ice, ate our dinner and lolled around 

 a while in the shade. Mine host came out and told ua 

 there was a good croppie bed at a point north of the hotel, 

 so we got a pail of minnows and started again. We 

 anchored our boat in front of a cottage a few rods from 

 shore and found we were in the right place, for we were 

 soon landing the beauties fast enough. But the fishing 

 was not all the interest there was in the scene. About 

 half a mile to the north was Crane Island. All the 

 noises I ever heard made by waterfowl the herons on 

 • that island couM discount. There eieemed to be thQue 



