Feb. 16, 1893.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



137 



NATIONAL PARK GAME. 



Yellowstone National Park, Jan. 2<6.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream: A few days ago a snowshoe scouting party 

 returned to Fort Yellowstone from a six days' ti-ip looking 

 up the Iraffalo in Hayden Valley. The party consisted of 

 Elnier Lindsley, Second Lieutenant Sixth C'tivalry; Scout 

 Felix Burges, and Privates Crisman and Mcn-rison of I 

 Troop. Sixth Ca vab'y. The party started from the Mam- 

 moth Hot Springs on Monday the 16th and made Norris 

 Station the first day, 23 miles. 



Elk. 



Tliey saw a large number of elk in the Swaii Lake coun- 

 try, and a few scattered along the upper Gardiner Eiver. 

 They found elk wintering along the road by Obsidian CliiT, 

 Twin Lakes and about the Geyser Basin. From Norris 

 to the Grand Cafion, tJiey saw elk on the Gibbon above the 

 Vu-ginia Cascade, and sign in several ijlaces from there to 

 the hotel. The country nbout the hotel and Canon is pawed 

 over by the large bands wintering about there. From the 

 Canon, the party went up Alum 

 Creek and across country to the 

 'Scont's Cabin" on what is known 

 as Little Trout Creek. They found 

 buffalo scattered all tlirough the 

 valley, in bands large and small, 

 the largest band contained fifty ani- 

 niaLs. They did not see any large 

 bands of elk. The snow not being 

 very deep, the elk are scattered out 

 , over the country, and are not herded 

 • ill the open valleys by deep snow as 

 tJiey were last year. 



Buffalo. 



From the cabin Lieut. Lindsley 

 and one man went over Mary's 

 Hill down Nez Perce Creek to the 

 Lower Geyser Basin. Bm-ges and 

 the other man spent a wliole day 

 in the valley, hunting \vp bands of 

 buffalo and countmg them. Once 

 they met with an adventure. See- 

 ing a band of about fifty, and in the 

 direction they wished to travel, 

 they continued on, thinking the 

 buffalo would get out of the way, 

 they did go some distance down 

 the gulch, but soon came charging 

 back, for they had run into deep 

 drifts, and did not want to be 

 cornered there. Fortunately there 

 was a small gi'ove of ti"ees close by, 



and Burges and the soldier lost no time getting up out of 

 the way, just as the animals passed under them, running 

 as only bufl'alo can, and m a way that makes it best for a 

 man afoot to politely give way, unless he thinks he can 

 stand a shock from a 2,0001bs. animal going at something 

 less than a mile a minute. Burges counted twenty calves 

 in this bunch. The buffalo ran only to a hill and then 

 stopped. Once, while in sight of the Violet Creek section, 

 the men saw several small bands of buffalo, all traveling 

 over the same trail. As they passed one point Burges 

 counted 150, it was too far to' tell just how many calves 

 there were in the whole string. He was sure only of 

 thirty. In all he counted 275 buf- 

 falo, this in Hayden Valley alone. 

 A number of buffalo have been 

 Seen, and are wintering on Sho- 

 shone Creek. These are seen by 

 scouts and soldiers passing from 

 the Ujiper Geyser Basin to the 

 winter camp on Pole Cat Creek, 

 wliere Captain Anderson has sta- 

 tioned three men to look after the 

 Southern part of the Park. The 

 men who travel between stations 

 strike across country in place of 

 trying to ti-avel the long way by 

 trail. 



Besides the buffalo mentioned 

 above there is a large band that is 

 known to x^dnter in tlie country 

 •east of the Yellowstone Eiver and 

 Grand Cafion. These have not 

 been seen as yet this season. No 

 snowshoe parties have been in 

 there. There is no doubt of there 

 being at least 400 buffalo in the 

 Park, even allowing for all those 

 rejjorted to have been killed along 

 the borders. The buffalo in the 

 Park at this time are well toward 

 the center, and with the men sta- 

 tioned at Pole Cat Creek to the 

 south, Riverside on the west, Soda 

 iButte on the north, impassable 

 mountains on the east, and scout- 

 ing parties out very often along 

 the border, I believe they are as 

 M'eU protected as possible. All the 



officers and men stationed in the Park take great interest 

 in preserving these buffalo. Very few outside of the 

 mountams know of the trouble, work, and exposure 

 necessary to keep track of the game in the Park and 

 ■watch the poachers. 



Elk are A\'intering on Shoshone Creek with the buffalo, 

 and along the Upper Firehole, in the hUls east of the Yel- 

 lowstone, and hundreds of places where snow was too 

 deep for them last year. The scouting party returned via 

 SNorris Basin. They saw a number of foxes and other 

 small anmials along the trail. Thev report the snow not 

 over two feet deep in the timber around Hayden Vallev 

 a htt-le deeper west of the Canon. This makes it easy for 

 the game to live, as no snow has fallen to speak of since 



tendent of the Park, road around Mt. Everts with Scout 

 Burges. Without going out of tlie road, and passing 

 through valleys where one could not see all the game, he 

 saw seventeen elk, several mule deer, hundreds of ante- 

 lope and a band of mountain sheep. Just before reaching 

 home he saw three deer close by the transportation com- 

 pany's stal:.les. Elk and deer travel all over the Hot 

 Spring formation. 



Tracks in the Snow. 



In a recent snowshoe trip of three hoiu-s over the Hot 

 Springs Terraces with Captain Scott, we saw elk and deer 

 beds within 800yds of the old troop quarters.. Game trails 

 were everywhere, snow was pawed over where there was 

 any grass under it. Beside the large game trails, tracks 

 of small animals form a network of trails over the country 

 about the springs. One can easily distinguish the tracks 

 of rabbits, porcupine, foxes, squirrels and other small an- 

 imals. Several people living at the Mammoth Hot 

 Springs and Fort Yellowstone claim to have seen white 



national pakk buffalo.—]. 



wolves. One man says he saw a pack of seven ^ery early 

 in the morning. 



Fearless Mountain Sheep. 



I was riding up through the Gardiner Canon last 

 Wednesday on the stage, and at a narrow place we saw 

 five mountain sheep. Two large rams were close down 

 by the river bank. We passed within 60ft. of them. The 

 others were higher up, under the Eagles' Nest. As the 

 stage was jjassing, a, fotu- horse freight team came do\^'n 

 past. The sheep paid no attention to us. Later, a party 

 walked out from Gardiner to see the sheep. They were 



netore ( hnstmas, whde the old snow is settling every day. 

 They frjund tlie .snow rather hard in the open country 

 and "shoeing" good. 



Foxes and Coyotes. 



Foxes are quite numerous; coyotes, two to one fox 

 |hey are very thick, especially abbut the Mammoth Hot 

 feprmgs. I saw nine in one pack a few days ago. They 

 KVGve very iarge, fat and quite light-colored. 



A Morning Ride. 



-A.bout two weeks ago Captain Anderson, the superin- 



j-vATIONAL P.VftK BUFFALC'.— II. 



still feeding when the people returned to town. They are 

 remarkably indifferent, caring nothing for the sight of 

 men, dogs or teams. 



One can ride closely by the large bands of antelope on 

 the flat east of the Gardiner River. They watch one 

 pretty sharp, but usually do not run off more than a short 

 distance. One, two, or even three hundred can be seen 

 within less than a mile and a half of the town of Gar- 

 diner. 



The Line Repairer's Adventures. 



Peter Nelson, "Snowshoe Pete," who has charge of the 

 telephone lines in the Park, and who is often over the 

 roads between stations, tells of anadventine with a moun- 

 tain lion a few davs ago. He says he was coming down 

 from Norris, when, along by the Soda Spring in W^illow 

 Park, ho heard an awful noise like a cat spitting. Look- 

 ing to Ms right he saw not over ten feet away a large 

 mountain lion and two young ones, about the size of a 

 :J01bs. dog. The old one was si)itting. gi-owling and lash- 

 ing its tail about. Pete lost no time in getting to the other 

 side of the road and worked his way sideways along a 

 log with his snowshoes. As they were fastened to his 

 feet he dared not take time to loosen them, but got out 

 his Norwegian knife, and holding on to a tree with one 

 hand watched the Hon. She walked back and forth along 



the snowshoe trail, growled, hissed, swung her tail about, 

 walked to a tree, reached up it as far as she could, and at 

 last, much to Pete's relief, walked off with her young out 

 of sight into the heavy timber. Pete started on, but had 

 only gone a short distance along the road and was watch- 

 ing back, wlien the big cat made a rush at him along the 

 trail, getting chjse to his snowshoes. She then went back 

 a httle way, while Pete got to a tree, but could only use 

 it to hold to. He says he was wanting to settle the thing 

 there; if she was going to fight him to come on or leave 

 him alone. She soon went off a,gain, while Peter hast- 

 ened away from such unpleasant company. 



Pete tells of another adventure. While going down 

 Alum Creek on his way to the Canon Hotel, he started up 

 a band of about forty buffalo. He paid no attention to 

 them until he noticed that one was very lame; he could 

 not use one of his front legs. The other buffalo were 

 leaving him behind, and Pete was getting closer, when 

 whirling around, he started back for Pete, shaking his 

 head and hobbling along at his best pace. Pete got out of 

 the way by running over the deep 

 snow on the side hills. The buf- 

 falo stopped, looked at fiim awhile, 

 shook his head and snorted a few 

 times, and then turned and limped 

 off a,f ter the others. Pete gave him 

 time to get out of the way, and 

 then proceeded, the buffalo going 

 over a hill out of sight. 



Three mountain lions have been 

 killed on Bear and Crevice creeks, 

 only a short distance north of the 

 Park line. One of these had just 

 killed a large blacktail buck when 

 Mr. George Phelps came on it. The 

 Hon ran off. The deer was dressed 

 by the man, and later the Hon was 

 shot when coming back after his 

 meat. 



Parties traveling between Cooke 

 City and Gardiner report the East 

 Fork VaUey and country about 

 there as full of elk. From a letter 

 received from Jackson HoU, Wy- 

 oming (south of the Park), I learn 

 that there is very little snow down 

 there, that the great bands of elk 

 are still back in the moimtains, the 

 snow not being deep enough to 

 drive them to the lower valleys. 



Thi past month has been very 

 pleasant, with so many bright, 

 warm days that the fishing has 

 been veiy good in Gardiner Pdver. ,Fifty-four trout is 

 the largest number taken in one day by one man. Most 

 of the fish are taken with flies, those anglers whose use 

 bait use what is known as "devil scratchers" in this 

 country. 



Mr. George Gray caught in the Yellowstone, at the 

 mouth of Gardiner Eiver, a brook trout, the fii-st ever 

 taken out of Gardiner Eiver or the Yellowstone. It was 

 lain, long and weighed S^oz. The red spots were very 

 bright. This fish must be from the plant made by the 

 U. S. Fish Commission in the waters of the Upper 

 Gardiner Eiver. It must have come down over the falls 

 of either Glenn Creek or the Mid- 

 dle Gardiner, and worked down 

 through a mass of rock under 



which this creek is lost for 100yds., 



I or over the Middle Gardiner Falls 

 which is a fall of 150ft. There is 

 I no doubt about where the fish 

 ! came from except as to the partic- 

 ! ular stream. I think it came down 

 the Middle Gardiner from the plant 

 made at Indian or WiUow Creek, 

 ten miles from where it was cap- 

 tured. 2!. 



Colorado's Keeds. 



We are making strenuous efforts 

 to get a good game and fish law 

 through the present Legislature, 

 the time seems to be right for it. 

 There were a dozen members at 

 least from the House and the Sen- 

 ate in attendance at the last meet- 

 ing of the League, and they mani- 

 fested no little interest, even tak- 

 ing part in the discussions and 

 openly favoring the efforts of the 

 League. It is qiute time. Eoutt 

 county, for instance, is two hundred 

 miles long by eighty miles wide, 

 and the finest game district in the 

 State. It is hard to protect from 

 both Indians and market-hunters 

 because of its vast area. The Indi- 

 ans destroy the game (elk, deer and 

 antelope) away up to the thousands, 

 for hides alone. They do not save 

 half the meat. We have satisfactoiy evidence that meat 

 has been shipped out by way of Wyoming, directly into 

 Denver, by the thousand pounds. One shipment of be- 

 tween eight and nine thousand pounds alone, and from 

 that down to three and four hujidred pounds a month. 

 AU this in dnect violation of the law, consisting mainly 

 of saddles, the remainder of the carcass being left for 

 coyotes and other wild beasts. The same slaughter has 

 been maintained all over the western part of the State, 

 from the north line to the south. The Indians come off 

 their reservation after the game, and I presume that 

 nothing short of taking the scalps of the geniuses in 

 Washington, who can stop the destruction, will avail. If 

 the Interior Department would control its agents and 

 wards, the State could, and I believe will, cheerfully look 

 after the market-hunters and bring them to book. F. 



"Nessmuk." 



We are glad to contribute our mite in memoiy of one 

 whose writmgs had more individuality, and a deeper 

 charm and insight in nature and man than any I ever 

 knew. He was one of naiTure's truest noblemen. X/et us 

 keep his memory green; he has done a gTeat deal of good 

 in the world in his own pecuUar way. 



JtTLTOS THB FoX HUNTER. 



