426 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



tMAT 18, 1898. 



"Game Laws in Brief," United States amd Canada, 

 illustrated, S5 cents. "Book of the Game Laws" (full 

 teact), SO cents. 



WINTER HOME OF GAME. 



Lake Bahrows, April 18— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 It is generallj^ believed that tlie higher the altitude in the 

 mountains the more snow there will be in the winter and 

 the more severe the weather, I have camped for the 

 greater part of two winters above what i • called the Big 

 Bend of Green River, near its headwaters. Petween the 

 bend— up the river— and the first lake the-e is a strip of 

 open country on or near the river which is 10 or 12 miles 

 long and from 3 to 5 wide. Here large game, such as elk 

 and deer, remains every winter — and this season a small 

 bunch of antelope had the impudence to try it— while 

 from the bend down the river, for 20 or 25 miles, it is 

 almost impossible for any animals to remain on account 

 of snow. At the lake the altitude is 8,000ft., and when 

 the snow is from 15 to ISin. deep on the ground there it 

 is from 3 to 3-Jft. deep 18 or 20 miles below. 



When you stand at the lake you can look up a,nd 

 plainly see the country above timber line on three sides 

 of your position. That country you can reach in one or 

 two hours good climbing, though it may take you a little 

 longer if the day is warm. Now, how is it that a locality 

 so high up in th'c mountains is ao much more favorable 

 to game in winter than neighboring sections wMch are 

 lower down? 



In order to prove that game has not suffered for want 

 of feed this winter, I shot and killed a mountain sheep 

 on March 10. Its kidneys were entirely covered with 

 tallow, a,nd its haras and ribs were fat enough for any 

 one to eat. 



The sheep range above timber line most of the time, 

 but some days when I am out I see, feeding near together 

 and low down, elk, deer and sheep. They look full and 

 contented. 



One day last February I worked my way on snowshoes 

 above timber line and found there a bunch of about fifty 

 elk, cows and calves. I was greatly surprised to see them, 

 and tliey seemed equally so at my appearance. The 

 mountains near by were quite bald, and the wind blows 

 great guns most of the time and sweeps the snow off acres 

 of ground, leaving a short, thick grass exposed. The elk 

 appear to think that the sheep were not going to get all 

 of this. If the climate satisfied them, it did not me, and I 

 was not long in coming down from these heights. 



I have been ^vaiting• for the bear to wake up, but April 

 has been pi'etty cold so far, and they seem to be over- 

 sleeping themselves. This locality is a few miles north of 

 where Mr. Ira Dodge had his bear fight last November, of 

 which he gave an account some time after in FOEEST and 

 Stream. I saw in one of the March issues of Forest 

 AND Stream that Mr. Dodge refers to his fight again, and 

 threatens to retaliate on the grizzly kings of the moun- 

 tains; but when he claims that he will do it with that 

 little 6-pound gim he left standing against the fir tree, I 

 am afraid he will himself get left at a fir ti-ee or some 

 other tree. The gun that would serve me such a trick as 

 that I would have no further use for. Fighting a grizzly in 

 reality is not much fvm sometimes. You have to do some 

 tail thinking when he comes your way with blood in his 

 eye, and you have to do it quickly. MOUXTAINBER. 



[It is not easy to explain why the snow lies deeper in 

 one i^lace than it does in the other. The exposure, the 

 widtli of the vaUey, its direction or a dozen other condi- 

 tions might cause the snow to accumxdate lower down. 

 Our correspondent himself states that the high bald hiUs 

 are swept bare by the winds. This snow must go some- 

 where. Is it pUed up in the valley lower down the 

 stream?] 



ON A SYCAMORE ROOT. 



I WONDER if readers of Forest and Stream ever think 

 of the Indian Territory as a game country. The best part 

 for hunters of all kinds of game is the central portion. 

 Oklahoma on the west, settling rip so rapidly, has driven 

 the game back east toward the M. K. & T. E. R., thus 

 making the western part of the Creek Nation a capital 

 region for shooters of f oavI and larger game. Shall I tell 

 you of the great bags of prairie chicken, quail, ducks and 

 turkeys? No. I wiU speak of them some other time, 

 and instead will teU you of a panther hunt which occm-red 

 not long ago. 



One evening I went after quail in the little glades and 

 brush patches on a large creek, a tributary of the Cana- 

 dian River. I had fairly good sport and had quite a 

 large bag (quail being in abundance here) when the sun 

 began to sink in the distant treetops, hxit being like all 

 other shooters, I suppose, I could not go so long as it 

 was light enough to shoot. 



I was standing in a little glade, with my gun in readi- 

 ness, while my dog (a large English pointer-) was beating 

 out the edges of the brush for scattered quail. Just as 

 the dog was passing on the lower side of the glade, which 

 Avas between me and the dense heavy timber of a deep 

 bottom beyond, I heard a screech or yell over in the bot- 

 tom, not 200yds. aAvay, which T would have taken to be 

 the hoot of a great owl had it not been for the dog. He 

 was hunting intently when lie heard the outcry but 

 stopped short, with his hindquarters dropping doAvn in 

 the grass and head raised, smrffing the air as if in doubt 

 whence the sound came. Again that pecnliar cry came 

 on the still evening au-, re-echoing through the bottom 

 and glades. That settled it for the dog. He left that 

 side of tiie glade and came creeping towai'd me. turning 

 his head from side to side to snuff and look back. When 

 he got to where I stood he turned about and sat down, 

 ooking first into the bottom and then up into my face as 

 if to ask an explanation. I reached down and patted him 

 and spoke to him, which seemed to re-assm-e him some- 

 what, but he did not offer to move out again. 



Slipping a heavy charge of buckshot in the left barrel 

 alongside a cha,rge of eights in the other barrel, I went 

 into another glade higher up to see if I might not get an- 

 other bird. But it was of no use. That dog would not 

 go six feet away from me, although he is a keen hunter. 

 Shouldering my gun, I started for the ranch house, and 

 the dog, walking a little in advance, kept continually 

 looking behind us. 



I never like to be the first to start a panther scare, so I 



said nothing to the folks at the house about my adven- 

 ture until one of the boys, who had been turkey hunting, 

 reported panther tracks in the bottom not a half-mile 

 from the house. Then I told them of my adventm-e, and 

 just as we were speculating concerning it, an Indian came 

 in and said he had seen a "posee lonnee" (big yellow cat) 

 as he came through the bottom. 



A hunt was immediately planned, and Winchesters, 

 six-shooters and shotguns were put in good working 

 trim. A hog was kiUed and dressed, the liver and 

 lights carefully wrapped up and put by till evening. 



After a hearty supper that evening men, dogs and 

 horses were gathered at the ford of the creek. After a 

 consultation it was agreed to send two Indians about a 

 mile up the creek with the hog liver and drag it down 

 the bottom to a point about two miles below the ford. 

 The hunters were stationed along the track or line where 

 the liver was to be dragged to watch for the big cat, 

 which, when he got a scent of the bloody liver, would 

 very naturally follow the ti-ack of it. The dogs and 

 mounted men were stationed on a point about midway of 

 the drag to be in readiness to charge to the signal at any 

 point along the line. It was understood that when the 

 beast was sighted it was to be fired upon and the Mus- 

 kogee war-whoop sounded, and that would be the signal 

 for a charge by the mounted men, dogs and hunters to 

 that point. 



I had first choice of positions because I had been the first 

 to discover the presence of the panther in the vicinity, so 

 selecting a point where the creek ran near the bluff I 

 seated myself as comfortably as possible and prepared to 

 watch. Pretty soon the Indians came past my stand 

 dragging the bait or liver. 



As soon as the rustle of their feet in the dry leaves died 

 away in the distance down the bottom a feeling of lone- 

 line^ and an indescribable dread took possession of me, 

 and I almost wished I had not selected so good a place to 

 see a panther. The stars shone over the top of the cliBf 

 with a cold metallic glitter, the advancing night grew 

 colder, and with every sense painfully on the alert, the 

 stillness, unbroken Save by the sounds common in a deep 

 bottom on a stiU, frosty night,^ecame horribly oppressive. 



Sitting there, at the i-oot of a huge sycamore, with gun 

 across knee, I began whihng the time away by imagining 

 all sorts of shadowy, indistinct forms in the bottom 

 around me. While thus engaged I bethought myself to 

 look back on my right when, ugh, there was a great 

 vellowish bulk crouching not ten yards away ! 



How in the world such a large creature could creep up 

 so near without so much as cracking a twig or stirring a 

 leaf is more than I can tell. 



AU my blood seemed to settle right down and stop. 

 But for a fleeting moment only. With a convulsive 

 movement gun came to shoulder, and both barrels of the 

 heavy piece went with a lurid blaze in the darkness, and 

 a crashing report which reverberated, echoed and re- 

 bounded along the beetling chffs for miles up and down 

 the deep bottom. 



Springing to my feet I let a yell out of me that, stim- 

 ulated by fear and ti-iumph all at once, would have done 

 credit to any Indian in the territory. It brought the rest 

 of the hunt about me, almost before I had time to reload 

 my gun and examine my victim. 



But when the dogs and the rest of the party came up 

 there was nothing more to be done. I had by a lucky 

 shot literally blown the head ofl: the savage midnight 

 prowler. ' Bar Look. 



NOTABLE SHOTS.— XI. 



Easton, Md.— Several years ago my neighbor, Capt. M., 

 and I were shooting partridges (quail). We had flushed a 

 covey that scattered along the edge of a wood. There 

 was a thicket of saplings and undergrowth along the 

 field before coming to the large timber, and the birds 

 had pitched in this undergrowth. We approached the 

 edge some 40yds. apart, following different birds we had 

 marked down. My dogs overran a bird in front of me 

 that rose out of shot and flew to my left along the top of 

 the undergrowth. An instant after, Capt. M. , who was on 

 my left, flushed a bird that flew straight from him toward 

 the large timber. This bird he shot at but missed and, 

 without knowing it, killed the bird that rose in front of 

 me. His dog did not retrieve, so I Avalked up to him and 

 ordered my dog to "fetch dead." M. remarked, "You 

 need not send your dog in for I missed that bird." I re- 

 phed, "I know you did, but nevertheless you killed a 

 bird." He had to believe it as the dog soon brought the 

 bird to me, but he could not understand how it happened 

 uutn I explained that the bii'd that rose in front of me 

 had intersected the line of flight of his bird almost at 

 right angles at the moment he fired. Taking all the cir- 

 cumstances of the case it was the most remarkable shot I 

 can remember in a long experience in shooting 



Sink-Boat. 



LiNDENViLLE, O., May 3.— In reading under "Notable 

 Shots" in Forest and Stream of April 6, I see an account 

 of two deer being kiUed at one shot. That reminds me 

 of a shot I made in Otsego county, Mich., in '87. After 

 crossing a cedar swamp one day I sat down on a log to 

 watch a runway. After sitting about five minutes 1 

 heard a noise back of me, and on turning around saw 

 thi'ee deer about 100yds. off coming toward me. When 

 they were about 50yds. from me a large doe which was 

 in the lead stopped, and the second, which was a yearling 

 doe, walked up on the opposite side of the first and stopped 

 when its head was about the middle of the first one's neck. 

 The third deer, a fawn, stopped about I3iree rods behind 

 the first two. I raised my .45 Winchester to my shoulder 

 and shot. The bullet struck the first in the neck — break- 

 ing it, and then sti'iking the second went through its 

 shoulders and down they both went without making a 

 jump. Throwing in another cartridge I held it on the 

 two that were down for fear one or both might jump up. 

 While in this position the third came running in between 

 us, and I think I could have shot that if I ti-ied. After 

 waiting a few momente I went up to them and found 

 them both dead. K. D. 



Manchester, Iowa. — Speaking of notable shots, one 

 day out duck shooting this spring, and when I was going 

 round a large marshy pond, I flushed three jack snipe in 

 very heavy grass. I fired one barrel, and to my surprise 

 dropped all three snipe. I had three drams of Schultze 

 powder and one ounce of No. 8 shot. H, S. T. 



, was hunting deer in the foothills several years ago. 



' While resting on my way to camp I noticed a flock of 

 California quail feeding in an open spot of loose gravel 



I some 200yds. down the trail. Thinking to give them a 

 fright I fired a ball from my rifle into the midst of them. 

 Three of the birds were left fluttering on the ground, and 

 upon picking them up I found that not one of them had 

 been hit by the ball. Evidently they aU had died froin a 



' .sudden attack of "gi'avel." A. J. C. 



VENTURAj Oal., April 27.— Speaking of notable shots, I 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[JVoni a Staff Correspondent] 

 Between Seasons. 



Chicago, lU., May 6. — ^There is some slight indication 

 that a thaw may set in here by August if we have luck, 

 l3ut the rinfavorable weather has kept every one indoors 

 for the past week. Two weeks more and the fishing for 

 '93 should begin. The wafers aU over this section continue 

 very high. We are between the seasons now. 



One of the most fortunate of our snipe shootere this sea- 

 son was Mr. Frank E. Lawrence, who bagged eighty jacks 

 at Wilcox's, four miles this side of Koutts. This, however, 

 was eaiiier. The birds are gone now, or so far along in 

 their mating that few would care to shoot them so late. 



One Does Not Equal Three. 



Grradually I have personally come to believe that one 

 ought not to shoot ducks in the spring. That is also the 

 belief of Forest akd Stream, though that paper is catho- 

 lic, and not rabidly intolerant in its positions. For that 

 erratic, deijraved and unprincipled bird, the jacksnipe, I 

 confess my sympathy is more reluctant, but when you 

 come to figure it all out, the principle of shooting snipe in 

 the spring is much the same as that of shooting ducks in 

 the spring — indeed, Warden Bortree tliinks it is exactly 

 the same. On the whole, I believe I will not go out after 

 snipe next spring. Some one else can have my snipe, and 

 if it be true, as the great American logicians have it, that 

 some one will kill anyhow ah the birds I don't kill. The 

 ti'uth or reasonableness of this supposition 1 really cannot 

 see, but whether it be true or not, I'm going to chance it, 

 and let my birds go for my logical friends to kill. 



Of course, everybody really knows that it is all non- 

 sense to say that "Someone else will kill them if we 

 don't." Everybody knows it is nonsense. There is a 

 crooked streak in liuman nature, whereby a fellow loves 

 wondrous to tiy to fool himself — he can't really fool him- 

 self and it would be the poorest business in the world for 

 him if he could, but he loves to try to fool himself and 

 finds, oh! so easily, excuses for doing just what he wants 

 to do. Now let us see. Suppose I stop shooting ducks and 

 snipe in the spring and say so out loud. My voice is no more 

 important than any one's else and I don't know any more 

 about these things than anybody else. Yet it is almost a 

 certainty that somewhere, among my acquaintances or 

 out of my circle, either to my knowledge or without my 

 knowledge, there wiU be some one person Avho will fol- 

 low an example even so hiimble and unpretentious as my 

 own. There will be some one, out of all the world full 

 of men, who wiU stop shooting in the spring because I do. 



NoAv, this tmknown friend of mine, who after a while 

 is going to come and stand by my side, has just as many 

 friends as I have, and probably a good many more. Out 

 of ail his friends there will be one who will come up and 

 stand by his side. I beg my first friend, the great 

 American logician, to note that there are three of us now 

 and not one. By the terms of his proposition, he must 

 kill not only all the snipe 1 don't kill, but all those which 

 all three of us don't kiU. I don't believe he's going to do 

 it. I don't believe that one is equal to three or to the 

 multiples of three, to which an intelligent movement 

 might finally amount. I don't believe the great Ameri- 

 can logician is going to believe, either, that one is the 

 equal of three, and I just take this method of trj^ing to 

 make it harder for him to fool himself, as he does when 

 he says that the way to keep birds alive is to shoot them. 



But, it may be said, there is no certainty that my con- 

 vert is going to materiaUze. Oh, yes, he is. He wiU ap- 

 pear. I know how this is, by my own case. For a long 

 time 1 have had an uneasy conscience about shooting in 

 the spring. Since I have been connected with Forest 

 AND Stream I have shot ducks in the spring, though not 

 for a long time now. I never knowingly have violated a 

 State law, but even this spring I have broken down the 

 belief of my own conscience as to natural law, and have 

 gone gunning after that ancient enemy, the jacksnipe, 

 killing in all about a dozen, I believe. In short, although 

 a widening knowledge of the game supply of the countiy 

 taught me that the game birds of aU kinds are passing 

 swiftly away forever, and although I presume I am as 

 open to conviction as the average man, I never did yield 

 to the bare logic and plain good sense of the situation, 

 and let go of my gun very reluctantly. Of course, I 

 wouldn't shoot snipe and try to cover up the fact, and I 

 wouldn't do one thing and pretend to do another. That 

 seems to me a very unmanly form of spring shooting, or 

 of any other delinquency. On the whole, though 1 knew 

 the facts well enough, 1 don't, but I would have shot 

 some snipe next spring, if I had luck, had I not received 

 a personal letter, directed not against my actual shor - 

 comings, but those of my friends. A little thing some- 

 times sets one thinking This letter happened to come 

 from Mr. Thos. Johnson, of Winnipeg, Manitoba. For 

 the purposes here, it doesn't make any difference who it 

 came from, or might have come from. It reads as fol- 

 lows: 



Mat 2, 1893.— Mv Dear Sir: I flrst intended to bluntly leave out any- 

 friendly heading and say "Hough, I am ashamed ofyoul^' This re- 

 mark woxild have been occasioned by reading your "heavy flight" 

 story in the issue of Forest and Stream of April 27. You are bewail- 

 ing the fate of some friends of yours who could not keep on slaughter- 

 ing snipe, in consequence of heavy weather. If I had the power I 

 would express a Manitoba blizzard to you every day to protect the 

 snipe from the spring shooter. "Wretched bUzzard," you say. "Glo- 

 rious blizzard," say I. I have only one wish, and it is this: When- 

 ever the spring shooter goes out after any kind of game birds that are 

 just preparing to multiply, Ibope a blizzard wiU appear and make his 

 fingers so numb that they cannot pull the trigger. 



I"U forgive you this time, but for the sake of true sportsmanship, 

 never again uphold spring shooting. 



There are two Avays of taking a letter like that. I 

 could receive as many will receive this open letter of 

 mine, and say: "It is" none of your blame business, Mr, 

 Johnsing, you lemme alone;" or I could sit down and do 

 a little thinking of a sort more direct than that inspired 

 by the generalities of right, and logic and good sense. 

 I preferred to take that letter in the latter way. The 

 same choice offers to any reader of this letter, which I 



