I iNov. 11, 1893. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



408 



our bread and bologna he registered his disapproval in 

 such marked language that there were smothered mur- 

 murs of revolt. Onions are to Brigga as the red rag is to 

 the warlike bull. 



The buckboard rattled along ahead, and our driver was 

 busily engaged watching the movements of the roan's tail 

 to see that no skip in the usual proceeding was made as 

 said tail took its periodical flirt. Far down the valley to 

 our right, a full grown wolf started from a clump of 

 weeds, and trotted away over the plain. Briggs wears 

 colored glasses when out in the sun. He is not far-sighted, 

 and I know he bad not seen the wolf; and was equally 

 certain that it was so far away he could not see it if I 

 pointed it out. Very naturally, I called attention to it 

 about as follows: "Boys, look at that big wolf down 

 there;" and instantly, "it's not a big wolf, it's a little wolf" 

 came from Briggs. The Judge saw it in the distance, and 

 turned and looked at the occupant of the rear seat for an 

 instant in astonishment, and then opened on our cranky 

 friend. "You ornery contrary cuss. You have done 

 nothing but dispute the words of gentlemen all morning; 

 and if you don't own up instantly that you haven't even 

 been able to see the wolf, much less tell whether it's big 

 or little, we'll stop right here, and wait for the provision 

 wagon to come up, and put you in it with Harrison." It 

 was so ridiculous that we both laughed till we ached. The 

 poor victim saw he had slippery ground to stand on, but 

 would not recede from the assertion that it was a little 

 wolf. "How do you know it's a big wolf?" he argued. 

 "It is a httle wolf, I say." I think he saw himself "as in 

 a looking-glass," and was quite decent for the rest of the 

 time; but, whenever one of his spells seemed to be coming 

 on, some one would say, "Well, it was a little wolf, any- 

 how," and Briggs would subside. At home the story was 

 told to some of his near and appreciative friends, so that 

 he goes by the name of Little Wolf, especially to the 

 pedro players at the club. 



We arrived at Indian Springs just before dusk, found the 

 ranch house at the bottom of the hill still deserted, and 

 made camp again in the old place. Some of the boys 

 went down into the little marshy spot around the spring 

 hole to shoot Wilson snipe. Two or three of the others 

 wandered off over the hills after grouse, returning with 

 two or three. No snow yet, but a very windy night, and 

 occasional gusts of rain. 



Wednesday, Oct. 12, we broke camp at seven in the 

 morning and were off on the home stretch. We know 

 that the train going east arrives at Dickinson about 2 

 o'clock and have plenty of time to make it unless some- 

 thing unforeseen haiJX^ens. We, in the buckboard, take 

 the lead, and arrive at the station about 12 o'clock, the 

 others stringing in at intervals of haK an hour later. We 

 find that the train is two hours late, so we have time to 

 shave and clean up generally. The Judge is much disap- 

 pointed that he does not find half a dozen letters from his 

 wife, and immediately keeps the wires hot telegraphing 

 to find out whether his better half still thinks of him, and 

 whether the children are well. Not getting an answer 

 before leaving Dickinson, he determines to keep on the 

 train and go home, for he is cei-tain that all sorts of things 

 have happened. He receives a good deal of sympathy 

 from the old bachelors in the party. Is in excellent 

 spirits a,gain when, on arriving at Flint, Bob comes aboard 

 and hands him half a dozen letters that tell him that 

 everything is lovely at home. 



Before leaving Dickinson, Paddock comes in the car, 

 dressed in his Sunday clothes and cleanly shaved, so that 

 we could hardly recognize him. He, as well as the rest of 

 us, has had a good time; and he allows that we are not the 

 tenderf eet he feared we were at the outset. He said that 

 usually, when he took a party from the East on a trip of 

 this kind, he had to put up the tents, attend to the horses, 

 etc. ; and that ours was the easiest crowd to get along with 

 that he had ever piloted. He wanted us to promise we 

 would come again. I sincerely hope we may. May his 

 shadow never grow less; for in aU my experience I never 

 fell in with a man that improved more on acquaintance, 

 or was "aU wool and a yai"d wide" to any greater extent 

 than our good friend Paddock, 



We pulled into Flint at 8:52 Wednesday night, only 

 twenty minutes late. As Bob's smihng face is seen at the 

 door the musician that grinds the herophone puts in his 

 best licks, Jack's mouth organ, with an empty tmnbler for 

 a sovmding board, strikes up a lively gait, and the rest of 

 the paxty go through an Indian war dance. Bob reported 

 having missed us wonderfully; at the same time he had 

 been driving around the country very thoroughly with 

 Lee, and had had some shooting; but said it was no fun 

 without the boys. He had killed about 100 ducks and 

 geese and grouse since we had gone, and reported lots of 

 ducks and grouse, but very few geese. We stayed up quite 

 late that night and fewapjjed stories and made plans for 

 the morrow. 



I shall not go into details of our hunting at FUnt; it is a 

 repetition almost of many of those of previous years, only 

 that we did not find as many geese as usual, but plenty of 

 ducks, snipe and grouse. Whether it was not cold enough 

 to bring the geese southward we could not say, but my 

 opinion is that there was so much water all through 

 North Dakota that they did not congregate in the lakes 

 around Flint as much as in previous years; and, there 

 being lots of grain to be had in any direction, they were 

 feeding undistm-bed in the northern part of the State. 



Thursday morning we were up fairly early, but did not 

 leave the car till about 9 o'clock. We were getting lazy 

 in our old age, and while before this we had attempted to 

 take a morning shoot, and also one in the evening, we 

 are now satisfied to take it easy, and only take in the 

 evening flight. Bob, the Doctor and Ferd went north to 

 Scott's, about eighteen miles, and thought they had 

 picked out a good location. A heavy thunder shower 

 came on, which interfered with their sport somewhat, but 

 they came back with fom-teen geese, seven grouse and 

 four jack rabbits. Briggs, the Judge and myself started 

 south for the sand hills after grouse, but it was so stormy 

 that we gave it up as a bad job, and returned to Lake 

 Isabel, meeting the rest of the party, bringing in that 

 night sixty-three ducks. 



Friday, all went north, looking for a good location for 

 geese. Six stayed on John Goodman's place, but the 

 bu-ds came in high and shooting was poor. At the same 

 time we got twenty-five geese, nine ducks, five cranes 

 and two grouse. The other three located at some dis- 

 tance from the balance of the party; but the geese would 

 not decoy, and they only got three or four. 

 I I Saturday we put in hunting grouse and ducks. Two of 

 the^boys went off for geesCj but had poor luck. The fol- 



lowing four days were put in in about the same manner. 



The Judge was not feeling well. He had gone on a 

 long drive without taking his overcoat; and, becoming 

 heated from tramping, got thoroughly chflled through on 

 the drive homeward, and came near having an attack of 

 pneumonia. The Doctor took good care of him; and I 

 can yet see Judge's attempt to smile as he thanked the 

 Doctor for saving his life. 



One afternoon Bigelow and myself, after being skimked 

 on a little trip we had taken to the north, and loafing 

 around the car until 3 o'clock, concluded we would drive 

 down to some little lakes thi-ee miles away, and see if we 

 could not get some duck shooting. As we stai'ted out the 

 wind was blowing quite strong from the west, and it in- 



THE WAY JACK CARBIBD DEEB. 



creased as the afternoon went on till it was a stiff gale. 

 We selected a point on the little sand bar between two of 

 the small lakes, one taking each side, and, lying down 

 on our backs, we would rise to a sitting position as the 

 ducks passed over and give it to them. The widgeon 

 were passing in countless numbei-s. They would go down 

 the wind like buUets, and it was as much as we could do 

 to kill them. It was gi-eat fun, even though we missed 

 so many, for when we did tumble one over he fell with a 

 thud and a bound on the bare sand bar, and was easily 

 retrieved. The little 16-gauge and the smokeless powder 

 soon began to get in their deadly work. Bigelow, with 

 his big gun, had been beating me for some time, but 

 when we counted birds at dusk he had 22 and I had 21. 

 He gave it up then as being too dark to shoot, but I am a 

 regiilar night hawk, and had great fun knocking down 

 four or five more that he could not even see as they 

 passed over. I would shoot; a streak of fire, and a thump 

 near by would j^be the result. Bigelow did the retrieving 



THE BOLD BAD BANDIT. 



in excellent shape. We felt quite jolly over om- Kttle 

 impromptu shoot. Many times, when not much is ex- 

 pected , it turns out in this way, and is all the more enjoy- 

 able in consequence. 



The cold nights had enabled us to keep our game in 

 splendid condition and we had given away to those that 

 wanted it. The conductors and trainmen on the passing 

 trains had begun to regularly stop off for their daily 

 supply of ducks and geese, and we were glad to give 

 them whatever they wanted. The people at Flint did not 

 esteem it much of a luxury, yet at the same time many 

 of them were glad of a nice btmch of ducks. The appe- 

 tite we brought with us from the Bad Lands also pre- 

 vented needless waste. I developed about as good hold- 

 ing room as Bigelow. I remember well one night when 

 we came in, Harrison had cooked two geese and roasted a 

 duck for each one. After the second goose had been 

 brought in, and I had carved every morsel from it, a 

 duck was passed to each hungry hunter; and hungry 

 they must have been, for it is an actual fact that three- 

 quarters of the plates contained nothing but bare bones 

 when we had finished. How good the cigai-s tasted! 

 Bigelow had a box for state occasions, great big La Rosa 

 de Santiagos, and on this night they were passed aroimd. 

 They were ordinarily strong enough to knock over an ox. 

 Tlie amount of tobacco one can use on a hunting trip is 

 enormous; in fact, I believe we all smoked too much. 

 No matter how many cigai-s you take with you you 

 always run out before coming home, and then resort to 

 the corn-cob pipe and the country tobacco, if you do not 

 happen to have taken some with you. After two or three 

 days' smoking a man who is not used to the pipe finds 

 the inside of his mouth feeling like the rind of an orange. 



The Saginaw Crowd are the best fellows in the world 

 to be off on a carousal of this kind — they never kick. No 

 matter what Harrison has to eat, it is always voted the 

 best meal we have ever eaten. iBriggs does object, as I 

 stated before, to the onions, but he is not as bad as he 

 used to be. May be the reason is that we have fewer 

 onions. Another thing from the kitchen that never went 

 begging was Harrison's good pancakes in the morning. 

 How he could bake them as fast and get up the quantity 

 of them he did on that little kitchen range was always a 

 conundrum; but plateful after plateful of the golden 

 brown cakes, steaming hot, came through the swinging 

 door and disappeared morning after morning. 



Finally the time comes for home. Some of us' begin to 

 think of wife and babies, friends at home, and not least, 

 though it does come last, the duties of business. I sup- 

 pose if we could hunt and shoot as much as we want to 

 do it would not taste half as good. Thursday night the 

 game is all packed, that is, what we want to use on the 

 way home and take to our friends. We are in St. Paul 

 the following noon, and in Chicago at 7:40 the next 

 morning. Through some blunder our car does not get 

 properly transferred from the Wisconsin Central to the 

 C. & G. T. It happens to be opening day at the World's 

 Fair, and we excuse the blunder on the ground that they 

 have a great deal to do of an unusual nature. Some of us 

 have tickets of admission to the opening, and the party 

 divides up to see the sights. Bob and Seib leave us here, 

 the latter to remain in Chicago a few days, Bob going 

 directly home. Bigelow remains to come with the car 

 on a later train; the rest of us take the regular train for 

 home. 



On Sunday morning, Oct. 22, the car arrives, Bigelow 

 having come through all by himself, and living like a 

 lord. Our truck is unpacked, and turned over to the man 

 to be cleaned. The ammunition, what there is left of it, 

 is carefully put away in the office for another year; and 

 the trip of the Saginaw Crowd for 1892 is at an end. 



W. B, Mershon. 



Postcript. — Jack was anxious to make a good impression 

 as a thoroughly hardened Western hunter, and said it 

 would be necessary for him to have something to show 

 the family at home; for they might think he had not 

 kiUed a deer or undergone the hardships and fatigue of 

 camp life; so, rigged up in not only his own regalia, but 

 what he could borrow from Paddock and Henry, he 

 mounted his horse, and asked to have the deer thrown on 

 the saddle with him. The head and skin of the small doe, 

 the second he had shot, were handy by; so it was thrown 

 across his lap (as the picture will show), in a very natural 

 position, that is, it looked as if he had the deer with him 

 on the horse; but it was also not a very natural position 

 for a man with a lame knee to carry a deer. It did not 

 occur to him that he probably could not pack the animal 

 into camp, holding it on his lap. This fact, though, we 

 did not point out to him, the kodak was taken; and Jack 

 was proud of the picture. 



Then came Bigelow's turn. He wanted to see what he 

 looked like; and the contrast between this, and his usual 

 appearance when going down Fifth avenue on a Sunday 

 morning or stepping into Delmonico's after theater, is so 

 startling that we immediately christen it "The bold, bad 

 bandit." He had borrowed the Kid's shape, Henry's belt 

 and .44 revolver; and, putting on his pleasant smile, 

 added to our list of illustrations. 



I had this picture enlarged and framed, and expressed 

 to his wife; and, while she was very much pleased with 

 it, I am inclined to think it is one of the reasons that 

 prevent his going to the Bad Lands with us this year. He 

 was afraid the example would be bad for his children. 



W. B. M. 



Hard Times and the Game. 



Clearfield, Pa., Oct. 30. — I take advantage of your in- 

 vitation to send a few notes from the game fields of the 

 Alleghanies. The squirrel crop with us was an utter fail- 

 ure. Indeed, I do not suppose therfe have been a dozen 

 big squirrels killed by om- hunters this fall. I can't ac- 

 count for this as the crop of nuts is here to sustain them, 

 and our woods have always been the natural home of the 

 black and the gray squirrel. 



Grouse are fairly plenty notwithstanding the long, cold 

 winter of 1892-3, and the birds are large and in good con- 

 dition. 



I spent two days in the Green Woods some days ago, 

 looking for deer and deer signs with a view to pitching 

 our tent next month. I saw but one deer and but few 

 signs, though I walked over some of the best territory I 

 know of. I found more hunters and hounds than I have 

 ever seen so early in the season. All the old camps seem 

 to be full of hunters and many new ones are being built. 

 The hard times that have struck us have thrown many 

 men out of employment, and many of these have taken to 

 the woods with their guns and traps to hunt and trap for 

 a living. Indeed, several men whom I met in the moun- 

 tains told me they were there for the season and for the 

 money there is in it. This is a sad comment on the states- 

 manship of the times, and will eventually prove hard on 

 the game supply. 



After looking the ground over carefully I concluded to 

 give the Green Woods a wide birth this fall, and our party 

 will again occupy Camp Blue Dell in the mountains of 

 Himtington county, where our faithful guide, Harry 

 Hoffiey, writes me deer and bears are plenty. During the 

 past week I have noticed two bears and one deer hanging 

 in market, having been brought in by two market-hunters 

 who prefer to hunt for a scanty living than to work at 

 panic prices. 



I'm glad to notice a new correspondent from our town, 

 Capt. Thos. E. Clark. The Captain and Mrs. C. are very 

 successful in catching big salmon, and I'm sure ai-e a val- 

 uable acquisition to the great army of readere of the best 

 sportsmen's paper in the world. Frank G. Harris. 



Thanks^ving^ for Rain. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Burton Harris, of Pelan, Kittson county, Minn., writes 

 me under date of Oct. 9: "Messrs. Miller and Oppold, of 

 Sterling, 111., and Cltne, of Alexandria, Va., left here to- 

 day, having killed over 700 chickens in two weeks. The 

 rainy weather was against them. Had they not lost sev- 

 eral days in this way they would have killed at least 

 1,200 birds. 



All good Christians who read this will thank the good 

 Lord who sent the rain on these sinners, and I for one re- 

 gret that he did not give them several more days of it. 



Q, 0. Shiblds. 



