Oct. 21, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



339 



narrow escape from going over the ledge, and taking a fall 

 of several hundred feet. Ferd was driving then, and the 

 wagon was heavily loaded; and we were strung out be- 

 hind pulling back. Somehow or other it got the best of 

 us, and though we hung on like grim death, in making a. 

 sharp turn, the marks in the dirt in the road showed 

 where the wheel had missed by about 2 or Sin, the edge 

 of the cliff. 



This year we were better prepared, oui wagons had 

 breaks that would hold; and though the descent is very 

 steep and risky, yet we made it in safety; but it was 

 dark by the time we reached the fringe of cottonwoods 

 by the riverside. We had marked about the spot we 

 had wished to camp, but it was some time before we 

 could find the right place; for we wanted to be where we 

 could get water for the camp easily, have plenty of wood, 

 and at the same time find a spot well shaded where it 

 would be clean. This country is regularly overflowed in 

 the spi-ing, and it leaves a slimy deposit, that on drying 

 makes a palpable powder that is most disagreeable in 

 camp. We found a place at last that was fairly satisfac- 

 tory, and kindling a fire for light, we set to work es- 

 tablishing our camj). 



Henry, Paddock and the Kid took the horses to water, 

 and then back into the hills to look for good pasturage, 

 where they could be picketed until morning. Sorhe 

 gathered wood, Harrison began to get supper for the 

 hungry crowd; and antelope steak was soon sizzling over 

 the coals. Tents arranged in a semi-circle the right way 

 of the wind from the fire soon completed camping ar- 

 rangements. What scene is finer than the white tents be- 

 foi-e a camp-fire on a codl October evening? The crackling 

 fire and the shower of sparks shooting up into the moving 

 leaves above, coupled with the sounds one always hears 

 in a new country, make a quiet, picturesque scene, that 

 to me is the ideal of a sportsman's life. The first night in 

 camp in a strange country, and after the evening smoke 

 has been regaled by stories of Indians, bears and moun- 

 tain lions, does not produce the soundest sleep. 



Finally our preparations were made for sleeping. Judge 

 and Jack had the little tent all to themselves, and kindly 

 consented to give the Kid sleeping room at the tent door; 

 I found a good place for my sleeping-bag near the fire, 

 while the others, with the exception of Seib, had the large 

 tent. Seib was bound to sleep outdoors, the starry heavens 

 above and wrapped in the stillness of the night — that was 



"there at our feet shone the little MISS0T3HI." 



all he cared for. Before morning he changed his tune. 

 Whenever I awakened he was up building a fire and stamp- 

 ing around to keep himself warm, for it had grown cold 

 and his bed evidently \vas hard. In the morning he had 

 great stories to teU of a screaming mountain lion some- 

 where back of the camp. Ferd too had heard it and said 

 it was a most unearthly sound, and whether it was a lion 

 or a she wolf with a litter of young pups out for a moon- 

 light frolic we never knew. I have strong suspicions 

 though that it was the wolf, yet lion tracks were seen 

 every day somewhere on the soft sand by the river bed. 



Before going to bed that night I had whispered in the 

 Judge's ear that I Avould call him before daylight and 

 we would sUp down the river about a mile to a spot I 

 knew we could reach before the deer had gone back into 

 the woods, and we would be sure of getting a shot at 

 something. He was agreeable, and as the stars began to 

 pale I patted him on the shoulder and without disturbing 

 any one in camp hut Harrison (who Avas already putting 

 over the kettle) we slipped down the winding trail, passing 

 the deserted Indian camp, and came out at a big bend of 

 the river, facing high bluffs on the one side and flanked 

 witli a heavy growth of cottonwoods on the other. Deer 

 tracks were seen at every step, and at one place the deer 

 had worn a i-unway wliere they had crossed and then 

 gone up the steep bank on the opposite side, which told 

 us we were in a game country and that hundreds of them 

 must have crossed there recently. Dividing our forces, I 

 took the lower bend and he the upper one, and hiding 

 ourselves in the thicket patiently awaited the expected 

 game. It was not our morning though, for nothing 

 showed up, and after waiting for an hour after sunrise 

 we went back to the camp, where breakfast was ready. 

 A lone wolf howled in the distance as we neared camp, 

 and the Kid and Henry told of running on to three or 

 four when they went after the horses to bring them to 

 water. 



The river is crooked, and at each sharp bend, between 

 the bank and where the clay cliffs tower hundreds of 

 feet high, is a strip of level bottom, anywhere from 500 

 to 1.000yds. in width, which for two-thirds of its width 

 on the river side is covered with thickets and open tim- 

 ber; and between that and the cliffs is nothing but sage- 

 brush or prairie. Our idea was, that by posting some of 

 the party on the river edge, the others starting in from 

 the lower side would breast the thicket, and drive the 

 deer across the river, and some one would sirrely get a 

 shot. Our experience before had been that these thickets 

 were full of white-tailed deer, and it was simply a ques- 

 tion of marksmanship as to whether we were successful 

 or not. Stretching out in line we entered the brush. 



Before long we caught glimpses of deer breaking cover, 

 and going in the direction where some of the boys were 

 stationed, an occasional snap shot was made by the beat- 

 frs, but with poor success. They would run around 



behind us instead of crossing the river; and none of those 

 stationed at the water had a shot, though we started a 

 dozen or more deer. The thicket where they were rest- 

 ing was very dense; and, though we could hear the 

 startled animal spring from its grassy bed in front of us, 

 possibly not 50ft. away, yet nine times out of ten we 

 could not even get a glimpse of it, much less a shot. 

 Some of the more fortunate, in the open parts of the 

 woods, caught distant views of the fleeting forms; but it 

 was a morning of disappointments. Briggs wounded one, 

 but did not get it. If we had only had a slow old hound, 

 the wounded deer could not have escaped ; and it would 



A BUCKING BRONCHO AT H. A. RANCH. 



have been a much more humane way of hunting, and at. 

 the same time have been easier for us. The bullberry 

 bushes and thorns were almost impenetrable; and, when 

 we emerged in the open glade beyond, we were a tired 

 and hot crowd, with scratched and bleeding hands and 

 faces. 



After resting we concluded to beat back over the same 

 ground. On the start, I got out of line and was afraid to 

 follow, for the arrangement was that we should all keep 

 in line to avoid accidents in shooting at anything that 

 might come up in front of us. I heard a fusilade from 

 those ahead, and, taking a stand by a large Cottonwood, 

 saw a doe coming full tilt from the cover, about 200yds, 

 off. I took careful aim and knocked her down, breaking 

 the right foreleg. She whirled and flew away from me. 

 I again shot, and the animal disappeared entirely. I 

 hunted the ground high and low, but could not find her. 

 I am glad to say, though, that we found her the next 

 day, and Jack was fortunate enough to put a bullet in the 

 right place. 



We saw many bear tracks; in fact, they seemed to be 

 every^vhere, denoting that there were lots of silver-tips in 

 that country, and that the Judge would have a chance to 

 use his trap, which he had lugged from home with him. 

 In the afternoon the Kid went back to camp and brought 

 the trap on horseback, and we, following along the bar to 

 Bend No. 2, came upon tracks so large that the Judge 

 gave up in disgust, and said he would have to have a trap 

 made to fit that kind of a bear. Measurements taken of 

 one impression showed that the wearer of that moccasin 

 had a foot 13in. long and Sin. wide. Just think of it, he 

 must have weighed nearly a ton. We were none of us 

 such ardent bear hunters after that time. Places where 

 they had been breaking through brush and trees and pull- 

 ing down buUberries showed that the reach of some of 

 them was very high, and that a tough withe, the size of a 

 man's arm, was no obstruction to them, for these were 

 broken 10ft. high and pulled down in every direction. 



We were tired out that night on i-eaching camp. The 

 Judge had forded the river two or three times with the 

 Doctor on his shoulders, to avoid his getting wet. The 

 rest of us were not so tender-footed, and did not object to 

 wading the stream, which was not over six to eight inches 

 deep at the fording places. We were disappointed in not 

 getting deer, of course; but we had seen lots of them, and 

 knew better how to get at them next time, and all of us 

 resolved to shoot better at the next opportunity. 



Paddock proved to be a brick, and thoroughly under- 

 stood the country and its game. He was willing to go 



"JUDGE AND JACK HAD THE LITTLE TENT ALL TO THEMSELVES." 



through the thickest brush and stir them up for us; and 

 we were confident that when it did come his time to shoot 

 something would drop. In this we were not mistaken, 

 for later on we found him to be a most unerring rifle shot, 

 and on the two deer he killed during our stay but three 

 cartridges were used. 



After stripping and bathing in the clear stream and par- 

 taking of a good square supper that Harrison had ready 

 for us, the programme of the night before was repeated. 

 Of course the usual batch of stories was told as we sat 

 around the camp-fire. 1 remember one I told about 

 Charlie Bellinger and his spittoons. Poor Charlie was 

 one of those fellows who, no matter how hard he worked, 

 never seemed to get ahead. He had a shiftless, good-for- 

 nothing wife, who probably used up what money he earned 

 as fast as it was paid him. Something wes wrong, any- 

 how, for Charlie worked hard and bad good steady work; 



at least he had had for a number of years. He spoke 

 with a drawl and a distinct nasal twang 'that heightened 

 the interest of his narrative. In his palmy days, before 

 he was married, he had invested in a muzzleloading 

 shotgun, which cost him $45; for Charlie was a sports- 

 man, or at least he liked to shoot; and whenever 

 he could get away for a day, or a Sunday morn- 

 ing in pigeon time, he used to whack away at 

 thern with as much spirit as the rest of us. Through 

 all his stages of poverty and misfortune he had hung on 

 to his shotgun. It was before the breechloader had come 

 into general use, and was a prettyjgood gun of its kind. 

 Toward the last, though, he had frequently threatened to 

 sell it, as he could not afford to go shooting, nor to own 

 so valuable a gun; and he vowed that the first chance he 

 had he would sell it and buy some furniture for his 

 house. _ But the months went by and Charlie did not part 

 with his treasure. Once or twice I asked him in a joking 

 way if he had sold his gnn yet, but he would drawl out 

 some excuse or other. Finally he came in smiling and 

 said: "Well, by gum, I have sold my gun. I made a 

 great trade for it." "Well, Charlie, what did you get?" 

 "Well, by gum," he said, "I went down to the second- 

 band store and got one of these here folding chairs and a 

 bed and two of the dandiest, nicest spittoons you oversee. 

 By gum, they set that high," and he made a motion with 

 his hand that would indicate that the new acquisitions 

 stood at least knee-high. He looked upon them as articles 

 of ornament rather than of use. Now, to think of his 

 swapping off a $15 shotgun for a second-hand chair and 

 bed that combined were worth about $2.50, and concen- 

 trating three-quarters of the value in these two useless 

 spittoons was laughable, knowing, as I did, the con- 

 tents of his house— a little shanty without lath or 

 plaster, consisting of one room and a woodshed, and 

 containing a tumble-down cook stove— not even a 

 piece of rag carpet on the floor. Old soap and candle 

 boxes constituted the chairs; and for a bed he had 

 constructed a rough box on four legs out of pine boards 

 he had taken from the mill. What possible use these two 

 ornamental spittoons, that stood 2ft. high, could be to 

 him the Lord only knows; but he had made the swap, the 

 shotgun was gone and also any hope he might ever have 

 of a day's outing or a chance to get away from the miser- 

 able, dirty, shiftless wife of his, and his entire hope of 



THE THICKETS WHEKE WE HL'NTED UliEli. 



the future was concentrated in these two ' 'dandiest, nicest 

 spittoons you ever see." Charlie's end was a tragic on«. 

 One day there was trouble in the fire room, where Charlie 

 was stoking the boiler, and he turned up his toes in an 

 apoplectic fit. Whatever became of the household orna-, 

 ments that he had set so much store by no one knows. 



About this same time, we had working for us here in 

 the mill a Dutch lumber sorter, who was a great philoso- 

 pher. He came down one day and told about painting 

 his hovise. In his broken English he said that it wasn't 

 exactly brown, or most any other color; it was just a sort 

 of a friendly color. He had a pretty good little place, and 

 wasn't afraid of burglars, for his wife was "the loosest 

 sleeper you ever see." 



He also had an old shotgun, and occasionally would go 

 down near the miUboom to shoot at the divers. He came 

 back all smiling one day, and told the boys at the 

 mill that he had shot two divers-to-hell (getting the cart 

 before the horse). In pigeon time he would use up quarts 

 of ammunition; but always said that they fiew so "sidling" 

 that he could not shoot them. 



A few more reminiscences of like nature put most of 

 the audience to sleep, and it was time to hunt cover. 



This time, Seib too concluded to sleep in the tent; and 

 we all slept the sleep of the tired and weary. No tuneful 

 lion distm-bed our slumbers, and at daybreak we were 

 ready for the second day with our deer. 



W. B . Meeshon. 



The Remington .40 Trajectory. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I was mtich interested in the report by your correspond- 

 ent "H.," in your issue of Sept 9, of the trajectory of the 

 .40-65-330 Remington rifle at a range of 500yds.; also the 

 remaining velocities at various points. Will your corre- 

 spondent kindly give us further information, and thus add 

 to oui- obligation to him, to Lieut-Col. Farley and toCapt. 

 Clark? Was the curve La the vertical plane estabhshed by- 

 actual measurements from a base line, or was it com- 

 puted from experimental velocities at different points? 

 If the latter, at what distance from the muzzle were the 

 times of flight taken? What is supposed to be the maxi- 

 mum error of the instrument used in measuring the times 

 of flight? Was the factor known as "vertical drift" taken 

 into consideration in making the calculations of ' 'drop" of 

 projectfle? If not, please state whether or not it has been 

 proven that, in cases similar to the one under discussion 

 the vertical drift is so small as to be of no practical im- 

 portance in the computation of a range table. 



Have any reliable experiments ever been made with a 

 view of establishing the character of the resistance of the 

 air with reference to "clipped point" bullets, such as are 

 ordinarily used in sporting and target rifles of small cali- 

 ber? E. A, Leopold, 



NpRBISTOW, Pa, 



