136 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 16, 1898. 



'mt(e ^itq md ^tttj* 



"Game Lams in Brief," United States and Canada, 

 illustrated, 25 cents. "Bonh of the Game Laws" (full 

 text), 50 cmts. 



TOLD IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND. 



Kansas City, Mo. — Dear Murray: If you had only 

 been with, me my hunting trip would have been perfect. 

 I have been very impatient siace my return for a chance 

 to write you all about it. You know how all our lives we 

 have had such fun talking, reading and planning about 

 hunting, and had never a. chance to enjoy the reality. 

 Well, I just tell you, it even goes way beyond my dreams. 

 Three lumdred and fifty miles may seem a long way to go 

 for a day's hunt, but it was more convenient for me than 

 fifty. 



I started Wednesday at 9 P. M. and reached Mammoth 

 Springs, Ark., at 10 Tuesday. Mr. Ford gave me a letter 

 to the president of the Mammoth Springs Bank, which I 

 presented. The president said that his cashier was quite a 

 hunter and knew all the ground, and that he might have 

 Friday to go off with me. This greatly pleased me, of 

 coui-se, the more sn as everybody was off that day and had 

 all the dogs of the town with them, thus leaving me prac- 

 tically "in the soup" for Thursday, as I did not have any 

 idea where I could find any game near the town. In com- 

 pany with a freind and a.n old codger we knocked about the 

 woods, enjoyed the warm air, shot a couple of quail, saw 

 three wild turkeys which I would have chased for three or 

 four counties but the other fellows said it was no use. 



Friday was the great and glorious day. At 9 o'clock 

 the cashier and I with three dogs (rather we had two and 

 the young village smithy who joined us an hour later 

 brought one) jmnped a local freight and went down tlie 

 road eight miles to a one-house city. We walked a few 

 steps from the station, and letting the dogs loose stood on 

 the hillside a few moments to watch them. It was a sight 

 that sent a thriU of pleasure through my whole being; to 

 think that I was actually out for a hunt and to see the 

 dogs, if possible more pleased and interested than we, 

 trailing about in the cornfield below us. After standing 

 a minute we started on into the corn. I took pains to be 

 a few steps behind my companion, also to note carefully 

 all his moves, for I had not given away the fact that I had 

 never shot a quail or in fact even shot over a dog, 

 for fear that I would not be considered a desirable com- 

 panion. We had walked a couple of rods into the corn, 

 when a covey of about ten birds rose and flew off in front 

 of us, only giving a very poor shot to the cashier, which 

 he missed. We marked them down in some very thick 

 scrub oak, when a hawk scared them in different direc- 

 tions, some three settling in a cotton field. After these 

 we scrambled, and in a few minutes the cashier said, 

 "Here is a point," and sure enough there stood old Raven, 

 a piece of black statuary with its head turned to one side 

 and his eyes fixed on something on the ground near him. 

 We soon came up and flushed the bird, which, rising on 

 the cashier's side, obeyed the loud call of his hammerless. 

 One quail bagged, a starter made, and now for business, 

 for I was ' 'on to" the ways now. 



On recrossing the cotton Don (a pup, but a good blooded 

 animal) flushed a big covey, which divided, part settling 

 in the scrub oak and part on the hillside. On the hiUside 

 the cashier got another bird, and then I got my first. 

 Responding to my whistle old Raven came running down 

 a wagon road, when, quick as if by air brakes, he stopped, 

 turned his head to one side almost at right angles witli his 

 body and pointed a bird. This bird flushed and the back 

 pocket of my hunting coat had a nest egg. By this time 

 the south-bound passenger had come and we were joined 

 by the young blacksmith with Snap, the oldest and best 

 dog. A few birds were next flushed in the thick scrub 

 oak; this was mighty hard shooting, but as the shots for- 

 tunately fell to the experienced ones, the cashier and the 

 smithy, each bagged one. 



After we had walked a short distance down the corn 

 double reports from the cashier told that something was 

 up. Responding to his call and listening to his instruc- 

 tions, we foimd that a covey had settled on hillside near 

 us, a,nd right here luck helped me by establishing for me 

 a little reputation. Old Snap made a point. It was a 

 sure thing. You could tell by his absolute motionlessness 

 and by the fixedness of his gaze. As we all came up to 

 it smithy said, "Gamsey must take this one" (it usually 

 depended which side it flew toward who took it). I said, 

 "Yes," but inwardly doubted whether I would or not. 

 We put up the bird , which whirred straight away till 

 about shooting distance and then suddenly jerked to the 

 left (very unusual move) and was about to pass behind a 

 tree, when I shot. The dog brought me the bird, and the 

 ca.shier, who had his gun all ready for it when it should 

 come by the tree after my shot, was pleased and sur- 

 prised. So was I. It was simply and solely a lucky 

 chance shot, but Was very fortunate for me, as my com- 

 panions took it more for skill, and therefore early in the 

 day put me on the list as a shot. 



By this time it was the dinner hour and our good appe- 

 tite made the corn-dodger and sorgum and chicken and 

 hot biscuits, which were ready for us at the house, taste 

 mighty fine. 



After dinner we came on a nice covey, but, making 

 some very poor shots, did not get a bird out of it. Then 

 we went some distance up the valley to another cornfield, 

 out of which we got some, and from which we marked 

 down a few that we aU started for, all three walking to- 

 gether and the dogs behind us working in the corn. We 

 came to a rail fence and from just the other side a covey 

 of at least thirty quail rose and scattered off on the bank 

 near by. At the first rise, as bad luck would have it, my 

 left barrel failed me and the cashier and I each took the 

 same Isird. We got three out of it and could see the fun 

 ahead. Here came the best shooting of the day. The 

 birds had settled all along the hfllside and one by one the 

 dogs pointed them and rapidly our coats grew heavy. 

 Smithy turned to the left and had the best of it, but we 

 were all a little rattled and did not do first-rate work, al- 

 though the fun was perfect. 



Just ia the midst of this we found it was ten minutes of 

 train time, so we were obliged, though reluctantly, to 

 stop. We reached the station just in time, and at 5:30 a 

 tired but happy fellow walked iato the hotel perfectly 

 happy to lay off his hunting coat, heavy with part of the 

 thurty-two quail; and to sit before the open wood fire and 

 think the matter all over till he was called to supi^er. I 



We covdd have gotten any amount of cottontails, but 

 would not shoot them on account of the dogs. They 

 never do when the bird dogs are along, as it would make 

 them feel that they had a right to run them, I never saw 

 so many rabbits though; every ten minutes one would 

 jump up from under our feet. 



The pup made one of the prettiest stands of the day; he 

 was rmming over a fallen tree and had his front feet on 

 the ground and his hind feet on the tree; and there he 

 stood and made a point. The habits of the birds and the 

 intelligence of the dogs were all so interesting that I love 

 to talk and think it over. 



Some time we will be able to have one of these great 

 times together. Yours affectionately, 



OLD DAYS IN THE BACKWOODS. 



I WAS born in Franklin county. Massachusetts, January, 

 1812, and in the month of May" following ray father and 

 mother emigrated to Erie county, New York, and as I 

 was too young to leave, they decided that I should be 

 taken along. It required thirty days of hard travel with 

 an ox team to make the journey. Perhaps the same dis- 

 tance could be made now in sixteen hours. 



About the first of my recollections takes in the logcabm 

 with a bark roof ; and 1 remember my grandfather leading 

 me out in the evening by candlehght to view a dead bear, 

 which an old Inmter had just hauled into the dooiyard. 

 The appearance of the claws, head and ears is indelibly 

 stamped on my memory yet. The next that I can remem- 

 ber distinctly is of my mother feeding me bear's grease as 

 an antidote for croui?; it was hinted in after years that 

 bear's grease was the remedy that saved me. Is it a won- 

 der that I took to the woods early? 



While I was in my fifth year my fatlier moved a Uttle 

 further into the woods where some new settlers had lately 

 come in. Here a substitute for a district school was estab- 

 lished. At that early period the educational advantages 

 of this portion of the State were extremely Kmited, schools 

 of any description were scarcely known, and the instruc- 

 tion of children was mostly confined to such information 

 as the parents were able to impart, or as might be secured 

 by their own unaided efforts. In the little school I went 

 to reading and spelling were taught, also the names of 

 New York State ofilcials. I learned that Daniel D. Tomp- 

 kins was Governor; and the next term of school it was 

 DeWitt Clinton. The third term of school ended with the 

 winter of my seventh birthday and also ended the most of 

 my school privileges. Later on, hoAvever, I think that I 

 studied old Murray's Grammar the bigger part of one 

 evening. 



In the month of May, 1819, our provisions and house- 

 hold goods were packed into two ox wagons and we 

 started through the woods thirty miles to the Allegany, 

 where we arrived on the fifth day of the start. The AUe- 

 gany Indian Reservation was represented by a strip of 

 land forty miles in length, averaging a mile in width, in- 

 cluding each side of the Allegany River, consequently 

 following the devious course of the stream. The Corn- 

 planter tract, a sort of individual reserve, lay also on the 

 river a short distance below in the State of Pennsylvania. 



On the banks of one of the northern tributaries, three 

 miles from the mouth, was .the place selected for a per- 

 manent home. It was then a comparative wildnerness, 

 whose pruneval beauty of hills and valleys and heavy 

 forest, with its miobstructed water courses, had suffered 

 but httle waste from the hands of men. The surface of 

 the countxy was dotted liere and there with occasional 

 clearings, but in general, nature reigned in undisputed 

 sway. 



Here the Indians were living very much in. the manner 

 of their ancestors. Their wants were few and were easily 

 and abimdantly supplied. At that early day they had not 

 cotne into contact with the white people very much and 

 the cm-se of intemperance had not blighted their prosper- 

 ity nor decimated their numbers as it did in after years. 

 Their temporary camps that were near our dwelling I 

 visited quite often, and was frequently loaded with 

 venison, which I packed home with immense satisfaction. 



Later hi life I hunted deer for myself, and had eaten 

 venison until I might safely say that it had been a leading 

 factor in the making up of my bone and muscle; yet the 

 peculiar rich flavors of those first venison stews and juicy 

 broiled steaks were never forgotten. 



It was in the beginning of the second winter of our 

 residence here that twenty-four deer and three bears were 

 killed near our cabin by a half dozen Indians, the result of 

 two or three days' himting, during a light October snow. 

 They made a temfjoraiy camp a half-mile from oiu- place 

 on a small brook, near where it emptied into the main 

 stream. The camp consisted only of a pile of hemlock 

 boughs, which were spread at the foot of a large hemlock 

 tree, whose limbs branched out with a slant downward 

 instead of upward. Such camps make a good shelter 

 against ordinary light storms of rain or snow, The morn- 

 ing after their three days' hunt the snow wa.s mostly gone 

 and the squaws and superannuated old Indians from the 

 Reservation were passing up the trail. I knew by this 

 that the hunt was ended, and that they were after meat. 

 I could wait no longer, so I started along up the trail, to 

 the camp, where I ^remained through the day watching 

 the process of skinning, cutting up and packing. It ap- 

 peared that they hsud killed all the deer and the bears not 

 very far from camp and had dragged the entire lot into 

 camp, whole except for the entrails, which were left in the 

 woods. There was a medley of hoofs, heads and horns, 

 which were promiscuously lying around the camp ground. 

 More Indians from the river arrived during the day, and 

 the skinning and packing went on hke clock work, each 

 making up his or her own pack, and stai-ting back down 

 the trail. By sundown the meat, heads, horns, hoofs and f 

 claws were "gone, and a dog could not have satisfied liis 

 hunger around that camp. 



At the time of which I Avrite it was said that the In- 

 dians on the Allegany Reservation numbered 1,500, old 

 and yomig, 300 of whom were adult males, mostly heads 

 of famfiies. Now at the lowest estimate those 300 killed 

 fifteen deer each every year, some more, some less, 

 amounting to 4,500 deer killed annually. It is not im- 

 hkely that twenty deer to each man would be nearer the 

 mark. How long this had been going on no one knew. 

 There was no perceptible decrease in the number of deer 

 killed during the next three or fom- years. When the set- 

 tlers began to come in the deer began to disappear, and i 

 they decreased in the same ratio to the increase of popu- | 

 lation, and the settling up of the surrcuncliQg country by ' 

 the white people. AJ'TLEEy ! 



A NIGHT IN PINOS ALTOS. 



Yes, we came near freezing to death in camp, right at 

 om- very doors, said my friend, Joe Schlosser, one evening 

 as we were relating oxn- experiences and adventures, at 

 Georgetown, New Mexico. 



It was near Christmas, and all of us miners wanted a 

 taste of fresh meat, but didn't know just where to get it. 



My friend. Jack, came to me about noon one day, and 

 aske'd if I didn't wish to go out hunting Avild turkeys with 

 him that evening; he knew where there was a fine turkey 

 roost, among the taU pines at the head of a branch of Shin- 

 gle Canon, in Pinos Altos Mountains, about six miles north- 

 west from Georgetown. Shortly before sundown, we 

 shouldered our rifles, and started "up the canon. 



The altitude here being high, the air was very cold, and 

 the surrotmding moimtain peaks and the higher portions 

 of the valleys and gulches were covered with snow. 



As we hastened along the canon, stumbling over rocks 

 and fallen tress. Jack assured me that we were destined 

 to meet with great success, in capturing the turkeys; as 

 the recently f aUen snow would drive them all out of the 

 surrounding mountains and cause them to seek their 

 roosts among the pines. 



Finallv about dusk, we reached a heavy growth of these 

 trees way up at the head of the gulch; and I was informed 

 that this was "the place." We cautiously approached, 

 craning our necks, and straining our eyes in the gather- 

 ing dusk to peer up into the tall tree tops for the turkeys. 

 We circled around and in and out for some time among 

 the pines in search of the birds. But none were there; 

 they had sought some other roost in the mountain, the 

 location of which we did not know. 



We had circled around under the trees so long that we 

 discovered, on our abandoning the search to return home, 

 that we had entirely lost our bearings, or at least Jack 

 had. I was about to return down the cafion by the way 

 we had come: but Jack would have it that the right way 

 lay up the canon to the west, instead of to the southeast, 

 which it really did. 



So in spite of my remonstrance, he started up this canon. 

 For a long time we f oUowed it in the darkness and the 

 snow, stumbling over rocks and stumps, and occasionally 

 running into a tree, which would bring us up "standing." 



After we had traveled about three or four miles in this 

 direction, we concluded that we were on the ' ' wrong 

 scent;" and then turned around and trudged back to the 

 tm-key roost. 



I again insisted on our taking the back track toward 

 home, by the route over which we had come; but Jack 

 was sure' that the right direction lay up another side canon 

 which extended off among the mountains to the south- 

 west. So I finally accompanied him, although not with- 

 out strong protestation. 



For at least three miles we kept on up this caflon, which 

 proved rougher and more difficult to cHmb, if anything, 

 than the first we had been. After we had nearly reached 

 the end of this rough gulch. Jack came to the conclusion 

 that we were again on the wrong trail; and so we trudged 

 back again, as we had done before, to the turkey roost: "the 

 location of which we were becoming quite familiar with. 



I made up my mind that I would let Jack do as he had 

 a mind to, and run off up as many side canons as he saw 

 fit; for I felt quite confident that I could stand as much 

 hard mountain climbing and cold weather as he could. 

 Jack now thought that the only way to reach home was 

 to "cut straight across the mountains," and " cross at 

 right angles " every gulch and canon we came to. I de- 

 termined to let him have his own way; and so we struck 

 out through the timber and over the mountain to the 

 south. 



A person who has never traveled over a region like this 

 at night when the snow loosely covers every stray stick 

 and stone, so as to make the footing the most uncertain 

 possible, can at all appreciate the diflaculties we encoun- 

 tered. 



We traveled on in this way until we were completely 

 exhausted and tired out. 



A little after midnight we reached the top of a high and 

 bleak mountain; and after traveling around here for a lit- 

 tle while, came out on the brink of a great deep gulch, 

 which yawned black and forbidding below us. Jack was 

 sure we were on the Rio Sapillo, twenty-five miles north- 

 west from Georgetown; and now became thoroughly dis- 

 couraged and disheartened, and thought that we were 

 " going to die." Having followed Jack's "lead" so long, 

 I was myself now also thoroughly "txu-ned around" and 

 lost. We concluded that the best thing for us would be 

 to camp here until morning. So we secured a small sup- 

 ply of branches and twigs from imder the snow, as we 

 had no ax with which to chop wood, and soon had a little 

 fire blazing. 



But we were unable to find a sufficient amount of 

 "doAvn stuff'" to keep the fire going well. The night was 

 bitter cold, and biting wind, sweeping over the Conti- 

 nental Divide from the northwest, struck ils fair and 

 square in our rude camp, and made it very difficult for us 

 to keep the fire burning. It was the worst and most dis- 

 agreeable night I ever experienced. While our faces and 

 hands were scorching, our feet were freezing; and so it 

 was with the opposite side of our bodies, which kept us 

 continually turning, like a pancake on a griddle. This 

 condition of things had perhaps this advantage about it, 

 that our blood was kept in healthy circulation through 

 our own exertions, even though the fire did not help us 

 much. 



Jack was very glum, and said but little. 



After what appeared like an age to us, the first gray 

 streaks of dawn appeared in the east. I clianced to 

 glance down into the gulch below us, and there, in the 

 dim shadow of the early morning, I saw that which of 

 aU things else in the world I had least expected to see 

 here. , , 



There Georgetown lay at our very feet, and here we 

 were nearly freezmg to death in camp at our very doors. 



I called jack's attention to it, who, on his part, was too 

 sm-prised to utter a word. -r , 



We hastened down to town as soon as possible. Jack 

 was for not "letting the story out," but it was too good to 

 keep, and so it went all over town next day. 



But Jack, who was a better talker than I, got out of it, 

 a,nd laid it all on to me, and, what was more, they all be- 

 lieved him. Jack said that he on pm-pose led me all over 

 the mountains, "just to take the conceit out of the Dutch- 

 man." 



We were greatly laughed at because of our adventare, 

 and in fact we haven't ,yet hefird the last regarding our 

 "ttiTkey hunt." ' 



