S86 



FOREST AND STR-EAM. 



[Hoy. 4, 1893. 



A Tragedy of the Bowstring. 



RiBELY has the wilderness outing of a party of sports- 

 men ended in a more deplorable tragedy, than that in 

 which Maj. C. W. Wells, of S:iginaw, Mich., lost his life 

 in the Bowstring country of Minnesota. The party con- 

 sisted of Maj. Wells and Mr. C. H. Davis, of Saginaw, 

 Mr. R. H. Bennett, of Minneapolis and Mr. Michael Kelly, 

 of Duluth. The story of Maj. Wells's death is contained 

 in a letter we have received from his friend Mr. W. B. 

 Mershon, of Saginaw, who writes: Mr. Wells was with 

 an old and experienced canoeman, who had been with 

 bim on these trips a number of years. They were return- 

 ing to their camp on the Big Bowstring Lake, and either 

 the guide was not looking or something was wrong, for 

 Mr. Wells fired at a passing duck and the boat capsized 

 and remained bottom side up. The guide told Mr. Wells 

 to keep perfectly quiet and rest lightly on the bottom of 

 the canoe, and he could work them to the shore, about 

 300ft. distant. After going about three boat lengths, Mr, 

 Wells threw up his hands and died, as the newspaper 

 clipping states. At that time they were just able to 

 touch bottom with their feet. I learned from one of the 

 party whom I have seen to-day, that Mcintosh placed a 

 paddle under each of the arms of h^ dead companion. 

 He then worked the boat to shore in the icy cold water, 

 emptied it and went back in the dark and succeeded in 

 getting the body, unaided and alone, into a Peterboro 

 canoe. How he did it, without capsizing and in his 

 exhausted condition, only he can tell. He then paddled to 

 camp and fell exhausted on the shore. Kelly, another 

 member of the party was the only one in camp and was 

 horrified at discovering his companions in this condition. 

 Mcintosh could not speak above a whisper. 



The death of Mr. Wells has cast a gloom over us all, as 

 he was an old friend of ours, one of the nicest men in the 

 world, a thorough sportsman and one of the original 

 owners of our car, "City of Saginaw." In the old days, 

 the Wells-Birney deer hunting party was well known 

 when Michigan was fiiU of deer, and hunters came from 

 the neighboring States. They, all of them, have heard of 

 the exploits and perfect camps of the Wells party. 

 There is no doubt that he died of heart failure, for at no 

 time was he under water, but became thoroughly chilled 

 and this caused his death. 



Grinning Experience. 



Hartford, Conn.— Editor Forest and Stream: This 

 is the month that all lovers of dog and gun are out af t^r 

 the wily grouse, quaU and woodcock, and much experi- 

 menting is being done with the different kinds of powder 

 now in the market. I have tried three kinds of the nitro 

 powders, and while they are very pleasant to shoot, some- 

 how I do not get the birds with them that I do with the 

 old black powder, and wonder why this is so. Am using 

 the E.G. this fall. This powder makes more noise than 

 the American wood or Schultze, but after all it does not 

 seem to get there like my old Hazard powder. I presume 

 I do not load it right; but I try hard to follow the manu- 

 facturers' directions. I notice one writer says of Ameri- 

 can wood powder, that the wadding should be driven 

 down with two smart blows of a two-pound hammer to 

 get good results, although the manufacturex-s give no such 

 instructions. I wish the brethren would send in to For- 

 est AND Stream their experiences with these powders, as 

 many of us like to load our own shells rather than buy 

 those already loaded, and in fact those I bought loaded in 

 New York last fall were not satisfactory, 



I was out one afternoon last week after partridge (I 

 notice that Charles Hallock calls them timber grouse) and 

 did not succeed in stopping a couple of grouse I fired at 

 and thought should stop, and both d^g and myself were 

 disappointed, as my old pointer feels fully as badly as I 

 do if the bird don't come down when I fire with a reason- 

 able chance of getting him. Just then I saw a chestnut 

 plank lying on the ground, which I set up against a fence 

 post and paced off forty paces, and fired a charge of No. 7 

 shot fi-om shell loaded with 2|dr8. E. C. powder, one No. 

 12 white felt wad and one No. 12 pink-edge wad on pow- 

 der, and the shot barely stuck into the plank. I then 

 turned the plank around and fired a charge (Sdrs.) black 

 powder, same size shot, and they were all buried deeply 

 into the wood. 



The only partridge I brought home that afternoon was 

 brought down at long range with a load of black powder. 

 I prefer to use the nitro powder but I want to stop the 

 birds I hit, as I am never overloaded when I come home, 

 even with the best make of black powder. Am using 

 shells with strong primers. Tatters, 



for him great fame in the country where it was made. But India is 

 not America. The conditions are different here. No one in the 

 United States to-day may count on winning enviable renown by an 

 unconscionable slaughter of wild animals. The prevailing and grow- 

 ing sentiment is for moderation in the taking of game. This senti- 

 ment is shared by most men who claim recognition as sportsmen. It 

 is the sentiment which pervades the volume put forth by the Boone 

 and Crockett Club. 



"Another means by which the Club hopes to bring about a proper 

 spirit for the preservation of our big game," write the editors, Messrs. 

 Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell, in their introduction, 

 "is by frowning on and discouraging among sportsmen themselves all 

 unsiiortsmanlike proceedings and needless slaughter. The Club has 

 persistently discouraged anything tending to glorify the making of 

 tjig bags of game." 



That is fine for sentiment and well enough for profession. Bu^ how 

 does the practice of the Club members in the field accord with the 

 sentiment and bear out the profession? If for answer we shall turn 

 to the pages of this "Book" where are recorded their hunting chron- 

 icles, we shall find that far from being the subject of insincere cant 

 and simply profession of principle, this spirit of moderation has force 

 in the wilderness and is a controlling factor in detprmining conduct. 

 In this respect the "Book" is a credit to the members of the Boone 

 and Crockett. In a larger sense— for a club numbering seventy odd 

 members, from various sections of the country, may rightly claim to 

 be representative— it does credit to the American sportsmanship of 

 the day. And as the novice may not read these chapters without 

 learning from them something new in practical hunting lore, so 

 too he may not read them without learning the manliness of foregoing 

 wanton killing. Moreover, the stories are well told; the first one is 

 likely to lure the reader to a second, and that to a third. 



Relations of big game hunting in the West must of necessity have a 

 historical significance, for they deal with coQditioQS of nature and 

 stages of civilization which are rapidly changing; many of which, in- 

 deed, as here printed, are already of the past. Thus Capt. George S. 

 Anderson, now in charge of the Yellowstone National Park, writes of 

 the time when his command rode for day after day in sight of hun- 

 dreds of thousands of buffalo, and the particular "Buff.alo Story" he 

 tells is of an ancient bull which, fleeing before a snowstorm, early one 

 morning, invaded the inclosure of old Fort Lyon, so that "Capt. 

 Anderson, having been awakened by his servant, and without 

 rising from his bed. took aim through the opened window and 

 "scored a record of buffalo killing rarely or never equalled." Col. 

 Roger D. Williams in turn writes of "Old Times in the Black Hills," 

 and relates how in 1876, when the presence of gold was as yet hardly 

 known in that country, he engaged in a hunting and prospecting trip 

 under the direction of "California Joe," long famous as a Cu.ster scout. 

 The old West, too, the West of yesterday, with its game herds and its 

 Indians, figures largely in Mr, Grinneirs chapter, "In Buffalo Days," 

 here reprinted from Scribner's Magazine. This paper, by the way, 

 because of its comprehensive scope and the thoroughness and intelii 

 gence of treatment, is likely to hold a permanent place as altogether 

 our most satisfactory popular account of the American buffalo. 



There is in these stories aboundiag humor, some taste of which the 

 readers of Forest and Stream have already been given in Mr. Owen 

 Wister's "VVhite Goat and His Country."- Not without relaxing the 

 wrinkles which time is bringing to us all. may one read Col. Williams's 

 description of his heroic pack horse Coffee making a bee line for camp 

 to be relieved of the giant def»r carcass he had bravely carried almost 

 24 hours; or Mr. F. C. Crocker's story in the chapter "After Wapiti 

 in Wyoming" of how the "Pilgrim" gave the mountain-man a lesson 

 in trout fishing, and with it gave him the sulks for all day Sunday; or 

 Mr. Bronson Rumsey's story of "Blacktails in the Bad Lands," and 

 how he trapped the ranch foreman into a contract to pack in the 

 game, and saddled him with five deer carcasses to be carried five 

 miles. Going to Idaho in search of big game in 1890, Mr. Dean Sage 

 found an odd character in one Lanahan, a plausible individual, who 

 was engaged for guide and packer, and is here described, in a chapter 

 overrunning with humor, as "A Mountain Fraud." 



Mr. Theodore Roosevelt has a spirited account of "Coursing the 

 Prongbuck," in which is illustrated anew the divergence of hunting 

 ethics in America from those in foreign countries, where as sports 

 are more highly developed the rules which govern them are more 

 strictly defined. Mr. Roosevelt relates that when the dogs could not 

 overtake the flj'ing game it was the practice of the huntsmen to shoot 

 it with their riiies. This will likely be scoffed at by a certain breed of 

 tiritish readers; no doubt it is contrary to the canons of highly 

 organized coursing. Let them say what they will, it is t he sport of 

 the open nd is followed in the game's own country. Thank heaven, 

 we have not yet come down to hallooing after carted stags. Last week, 

 t,o be sure, some "hunt" in New Jersey did attempt to take a buck 

 out of a pen to be run with hounds: but the creature went on a ram- 

 page and they were glad to kill him on the safe side of the fence. 

 Slore power to the antlers of all deer in such extremity. 



Other chapters are Col W. I) Pickett's "Nights with the Grizzlies," 

 reprinted from Forest and Stream, and Mr. Archibald Rogers's "Big 

 Game from the Rockies," originally printed in S<yribner\'i. The allure- 

 ments, bafllements and triumphs of "Photographing Big Game" are 

 set forth by Mr. W. B. Devereux; and there is an intelligent and in- 

 structive jjresentation of the value of "The Yellowstone Park as a 

 Game Reservation," by Mr. Arnold Hague, supplemented with a sum- 

 mary by the Editors of what has ttius far been accomplished with 

 "Our Forest Reservations." Other editorial contributions review 

 "The Literature of American Big-Game Hunting;" and describe the 

 Club exhibit at the World's Fair. The Club's constitution and the list 

 of members follow. 



Doubtless the reception accorded the first volume issued by the Club 

 will be such as to encourage other "Books.'' In the next one we shall 

 look for something treating of big game in the East. Although in the 

 introduction of the present volume the Editors single out Maine as the 

 most notable example of a State's successful care for its game supply, 

 the subject matter of the book itself relates wholly to the West. New 

 England surely deserves representation in a Boone and Crockett Club 

 book on "American Big-Game Hunting;" for the preservation of the 

 stock of game in the East is due to the practical application of that 

 very principle of moderation advocated by the Club. Without such 

 moderation in the hunting of deer, moose and caribou- a moderation 

 provided for and enforced by intelligent law— these races would long 

 since have been exterminated. 



The volume ia from the famous De"Vfinne Press; its handsome 

 typography, paper and illustrations are very attractive, and it is in 

 every way a creditable piece of bookmaking. R. 



ill done by any species of rapacious bird. To arrive at 

 conclusions which should be of any value required the 

 examination of a great deal of material, and many stom- 

 achs of each species of hawk and owl had to be inspected 

 and studied before the observer could satisfy himself as to 

 the actual facts, and announce the results of his investiga- 

 tions. When Dr. C. H. Merriam, chief of the Division of 

 Ornithology and Mammalogy, who was much interested 

 in this subject, determined to investigate this subject, be 

 made a fortunate choice in selecting Dr. A. K. Fisher, the 

 assistant ornithologist of the Bureau, as the gentleman 

 who should conduct the investigation. The results of his 

 studies have recently made then- appeai'ance as Bulletin 

 No. 3 of the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy 

 of the XJ. S. Department of Agriculture. Its full title is 

 "The Hawks and Owls of the United States in their Rela- 

 tion to Agriculture." 



It is often a difficult matter to say that a species of bird 

 is entirely beneficial or entirely harmful. The line is 

 seldom drawn so closely as this. Most birds perhaps 

 do some little harm and much good, or perhaps a 

 great deal of harm and only a little good. For example, 

 the bobolink of the North, while with us here in summer 

 is a useful and beautiful bird, doing little or no harm, 

 and giving much pleasure, while, after its southern migrar 

 tion, when it has reached the rice fields of Georgia, it does 

 damage to the growing crop, which is estimated to 

 amount to a million dollars a year. In like manner the 

 crow, most unpopular of our birds in spring, pulls up the 

 sprouting corn and is cursed by the farmer, but as soon 

 as the yoimg plants have reached an age when they are 

 no longer attractive to the crow, he ceases his depreda- 

 tions and becomes one our most useful birds, destroying 

 vast numbers of insects which would otherwise feed on 

 the farmer's growing crops. 



The conclusions announced in Dr. Fisher's report are 

 based on the critical examination by competent experts 

 of the contents of about 2,700 stomachs of hawks and 

 owls, a number so great as to give us a fair showing of 

 the average food of each species which came under ob- 

 servation. The result of these examinations will surprise 

 those who have never paid any attention to this subject, 

 and prove very clearly that a class of birds commonly 

 regarded as enemies to the farmer and indiscriminately 

 destroyed on all occasions are really his best friends, and 

 should with very few exceptions be preserved and encour- 

 aged to live about his home. The conclusions reached by 

 Dr. Fisher are given substantially as follows: 



First— That owls are among the most beneficial of all 

 birds, inflicting very little damage upon the poulterer and 

 conferring vast benefits upon the farmer. The relations 

 which owls bear to agriculture are peculiar and import- 

 ant. Their eyesight is by no means so defective in day- 

 light as is popularly supposed, but is keenest in the early 

 hours of evening and morning. Hunting thus in dim 

 light their food consists largely of those animals which 

 hawks donottroubleatall or destroy only insmall numbers. 

 The work of owls thus supplements that of hawks and ma- 

 terially assists in preventing an undue increase of many 

 noxious rodents. Besides this, though owls are to some 

 extent migratory, they are, as a class, less so than the 

 hawks, and so in winter, when the hawks have left the 

 Northern States, the owls remain here and continue their 

 warfare against the injurious rodents. 



Second — All hawks, with perhaps one or two excep- 

 tions, are to some extent beneficial to the farmer, 



Dr. Fisher divides the 49 species and 24 sub-species of 

 rapacious birds which he is considering into four classes: 

 those wholly beneficial or wholly harmless, those which 

 are in the main beneficial, those in which the beneficial" 

 and harmful qualities about balance each other, and those 

 which are positively injurious. The first of these classes 

 includes the rough-legged and squirrel hawks and the 

 swallow-tailed, white- tailed, Mississippi and everglade 

 kite. The second class includes a much larger number of 

 species, among which are many of the commonest of our 

 hawks. Such are the marsh, Harris's, red-tail, red- 

 shouldered, short-tailed, white-tailed, Swainson's, short- 

 winged, Mexican black hawk, Mexican goshawk, sparrow 

 hawk and all the owls except the great horned owl. The 

 third class includes the golden and bald eagles, the pigeon 

 hawk, Richardson's hawk, the prairie falcon and the 

 aplomado falcon. The last class, including those species 

 which feed chiefly on animals useful to man, is smaU, 

 and contains only the shai-p-shbmed hawk, Cooper's 

 hawk, the goshawk, duck hawk, the gyrfalcons and the 

 osprey. These last, with the exception of the fish hawk, 

 whose only harmful quality is that it eats fish and so 

 sometimes interferes with the labors of the fish farmer, 

 are all hunters of game or poultry, and are really the only 

 species that should imder any circumstances be destroyed. 



Of the 2,690 stomachs examined in the preparation of 

 Dr. Fisher's report, 169 contained the remains of poultry 

 and game birds, 463 the remains of other birds, 966 those 

 of mice, 397 those of other mammals, and 633 those of 

 insects. 



Dr. Fisher's report of something over 200 pages is 

 crammed with facts interesting to the ornithologist and to 

 the farmer. It is for the latter that it has been especially 

 prepared, and it is for him that it ought to have the great- 

 est interest, because it gives him some entirely novel and 

 extremely useful information as to how he may best carry 

 on the unceasing war that he has to wage with the powers 

 of nature. The sportsman, too, may with great advantage 

 study the interesting pages of this most valuable httle 

 volume, and he will be wise if, abandoning the precon- 

 ceived notions which he has with regard to the injury 

 which most birds of prey do to the game, he shall hold his 

 hand when he sees a hawk or an owl fly by, recognizing 

 that in the vast majority of cases the services performed 

 by these birds far outweigh the harm that they do. We 

 are all of us far too eager to destroy life, and too glad of 

 an excuse which may seem to justify such destruction. 

 Dr. Fisher's volume gives an excuse for refraining from 

 this killing, which ought to be acted on by many thought- 

 ful people. 



Dr. Fisher's report is beautifully illustrated by twenty- 

 six full-page colored plates drawn by J. L. Ridgway and 

 Robert Ridgway. 



Summer Homes. 



A BKATJTiFtJLLY Illustrated book; list of over 3,000 summer hotels 

 emd boarding houses in Catskill Mountaina and central New York. 

 Send sis cents in stamps to H. B. Jagoe, Gen'l Eastern Passenger 

 Agent, West Shore R. R,, 363 Broadway, New York, or free upou 

 application.— 



The Proposed National Association. 



The subjoined call was sent out last week for the organization of a 

 National Game and Bird Protective Association: 



"To all shooting clubs, game wardens, sportsmen and other persons 

 interested in the protection or game, birds and fish of the U. S. : 



"You are hereby notified that at a meeting held under the auspice.<i 

 of the Illinois State Sporting Association at Assembly Hall, Columbian 

 Exposition Grounds, Chicago, 111., on Sept. 31, 1893, a temporary or- 

 ganization was formed for ilae purpose of calling together at Chicago 

 at the close of the Fair officers and members of shooting clubs, game 

 wardens and other persons interested in game, birds and fish protec- 

 tion, to organize a national game, bird and fish protection association 

 throughout these United States. 



"The rapid destruction of uur game and song bird.s calls for immedi- 

 ate and united action by all lovers of the fur, feathered and finny 

 u-ibes; there is a demand for a njore uniform close season and better 

 enforcement of present laws. 



"Believing that a large atttendance could be secured at the close of 

 the Fair, the call has been made for all sporting clubs, game wardens, 

 sportsmen, and other persons interested, of the United .States, to meet 

 at the Sherman House club room, Chicago, 111., Nov. 2. 1893, ai 8 

 o'clock P. M., to organize. Every person interested in the subject 

 should be present and participate. Let us make this a national suc- 

 '^^S?; ^ WoLFRED N. Low, Temporary Chairman. 



"F. S. Baiud, Temporary Sec'y, 172 Washington street, rooms 1,007-9, 

 Chicago, IIL 



\0w ^nblicntian§. 



AMERICAN BIG-GAME HUNTING.* 



In a sheet of newspaper which happens to be wrapped about the 

 "Book of the Boone ana Crockett Club," which ha.H come to my desk 

 is a paragraph setting forth the hunting exploits of the Archduke 

 Frauz Ferdinand d'Kstes in India. His score for two months of this 

 j ear, it appears, comprised no less than j;,800 head of game the 

 list including one buffalo, Ave elephants, forty-three black bucks 

 thirty -nine wild boars, twenty tigers and seventeen jackals. The 

 Archduke is a mighty hunter, and without doubt such a record won 



*AMBRICAN Big Gaiie HUNTING. The Book of the Boone and Crockett 

 Club. Editors: Theodore Eoosevelt, George Bird Grinnell New 

 York. Forest and Stream Pub. Co. 1893. Pages 345. Illustrated 

 Price $2.50, 



HAWKS AND OWLS OF THE U. S. 



In the view of the vast majority of people, the birds in- 

 cluded in the great order Raptores are altogether injurious 

 and should be destroyed at every opportunity. The 

 farmer believes that hawks and owls destroy his poultry; 

 the sportsman, jealous of man's prerogative, declares that 

 these birds— big and little — make away with quail, par- 

 tridges and woodcock, and is ever ready to shoot the 

 hawk or owl which may unluckily fly near hicn while he 

 himself is engaged in his destruction of game bu-ds. The 

 feeling against the birds of prey is an old one and almost 

 as firmly fixed in the popular mind as the prejudice against 

 the serpent. It may be as difficult to remove as that one. 

 There can be little doubt, however, that this view of the 

 relation of rapacious birds to man is erroneous. The aver- 

 age man derives many of his opinions from impressions 

 gained from observations which are often hasty and ill- 

 foimded, If he sees a hawk descend into a poultry yard 

 or make a dash at a game bird, he is likely, without rea- 

 soning it out very closely, to come to believe that all 

 hawks spend aU their time trying to catch poultry and to 

 destroy feathered game. On the other hand, the natural- 

 ist who, when he kills birds, does it for the pm-pose of 

 learning all that he can about them, when he dissects a 

 hawk is likely to find in its stomach only the remains of 

 mice, snakes, frogs and insects, and he may examine hun- 

 dreds of specimens before detecting the remains of a game 

 bird or of a domestic fowl. 



It is a good many years since it was first suggested that 

 most of our hawks and owls were beneficial rather than 

 noxious, but it is only within a few years, that is to say 

 since the establishment of the Bureau of Economic Orni- 

 thology and Mammalogy in the Department of Agricul- 

 ture at Washington, that any systematic effort has been 

 made to absolutely determine the proportion of good or 



