Dec. 30, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



Then one lonely bird came sailing over my head from 

 behind, and as it started to turn in toward the decoys I 

 met it with a charge of No. 6. When the dog brought it 

 ashore I was puzzled to know what kind of a duck it was, 

 its bill was broad and yellow, of soft, flabby material, and 

 it had a smile like an Irish comedian. George called it a 

 spoonbill — my first acquaintance with that species. 



George found his mallard, and also the one that had 

 been wounded out of the first flock. I stopped the latter 

 as it was skimming across the pond. 



All was quiet, I could hear George splashing arotmd in 

 the swale behind the willows and the drip, drip of the 

 rain from the branches over my head. The bobbing 

 decoys amused me. Suddenly I realized there were 

 seven; I had only counted six before, so I counted again. 

 Yes, there were seven, and not until one of the seven 

 started to swim across the pond did I realize it was a 

 genuine, real live bird, a big green-headed drake, and he 

 came swimming along so close to the blind that I could 

 have shied a stone with a fair chance of hitting him. As 

 I rose he followed suit; I hit him with the right barrel, 

 but he kept on flying until I sent the contents of the left 

 after him, and down he came like a spent shot. 



George returned with a mallard and a pair of butter- 

 balls he had killeil in the neighboring pond, and we were 

 just preparing to take a "wee nippie" when a couple of 

 big ducks entered the pond. Down went the flask and 

 up went the gun; three shots and we had the brace — 

 canvasbacks and as plump as partridges. 



Later in the morning a large flock of geese went over, 

 but, although we fired, they were too high up, and we 

 never even disturbed them. Some of the boys below us 

 were more fortunate, however, and managed to secure 

 three. Shortly after we had a call from a few butter- 

 balls, and some of them remained with us. In the after- 

 noon shoot we managed to add three more canvasbacks, 

 five teal and twelve mallards to our string. 



As our little steamer pushed her way down the river 

 through the dusk we counted twenty-three mallards, three 

 teal, one spoonbill, eight butterballs and five canvasbacks. 

 The other gunners had fared even better, and we eyed the 

 geese with envious longings. 



Nearly a year has passed sirKie that day. My business 

 has called me to the East, and George — well, I suppose he 

 still plays his fiddle in the West, where game is plenty. 

 If this should meet his eye, perhaps he will be glad to 

 know that he is not forgotten; and the vandal Time can 

 never efface the memory of that day with the ducks in 

 Oregon. The General. 



HUNTING WITH A CAMERAf 



CConcluded from page 539.') 



The next day we packed up all our outfit and started 

 for the northern edge of the valley, where 1 had seen the 

 first large band. The day was very favorable for pictures, 

 but the snow was crusted and rough, and nur snowshoes 

 made a great noise. We saw several bands of elk and 

 bunches of buffalo at a distance. We were getting down 

 to Alum Creek, when, turning a point, I saw eight buffalo 

 moving away at a walk. I am not sure whether they 

 had our wind or heard the scraping of our snowshoes on 

 the crust. I took two shots at tliem at 150yds., as they 

 turned a point going dovpn hill they commenced to run 

 We waited for a while thinking- tliat possibly they would 

 stop on the creek further down. Soon we saw a long 

 line o£ buffalo following a trail through the deep snow up 

 and over a hill toward the hot country on Violet Creek. 

 We counted eighty-five as they passed over the hill out of 



BUFFALO CikLB-. 

 Photographed by Jolm Fossom. 



sight. To the east of Violet Creek, we saw a band of five 

 hundred elk or more, making for higher ground and the 

 same section of hot country. All these animals had been 

 started up by the first eight buffalo. They had not seen 

 us, but were alarmed by the movements of a few animals 

 running. 



Crossing Alum Creek and keeping to the west, we 

 came to a high knoll, overlooking a hot creek basin. In 

 the bottom I saw twelve large bull elk and three buffalo. 

 We worked down as carefully as possible, but the elk saw 

 us and left before I could get a picture. We got to the 

 bottom and behind a grove of scrub pines without alarm- 

 ing the buffalo. There was no snow here except in the 

 pines; I left my pack and shoes and walked out among 

 some hot springs; two of the buffalo were rolling in 

 the dust. Walking away from the steam I took three 

 shots before they saw me. At first when they started 

 I certainly thought that thry were coming my way; 

 they stood for a few seconds looking, while I walked 

 slowly toward them. I wanted to get within 30ft. for a 

 picture, and was willing to take chances on their charg- 

 ing me. Suddenly they broke into a run, crossed the hot 

 creek, and were on their way up a hiU in no time. I 

 toQk |» ghot witih snpw f pr a ^ack ground at JoOft., getting 



a better picture than when they were close by with bare 

 ground all around. They ran to the top o^ the hill and 

 camped. They stood there for hours, and were lying 

 down when I saw them last. Every animal I had s°en 

 so far, ran to some knoll or bare ground when disturbed, 

 taking up a position where it could defend itself without 

 being hindered by deep snow. They all seemed to fear 

 being cornered on a side hill under a drift, or where they 

 could not move about readily. I think too that they 

 thought we were mountain lions. 



We found all the hot ground cleaned of everything in 

 the shape of grass or weeds that an animal could eat. 

 Usually there is considerable green stuff growing all win- 

 ter on these places, even to the edge of the hot water. 



We now went aroimd the hill, to Violet Creek Basin, 

 and looking down the hill, I saw a long string of elk fol- 

 lowing up the main branch. I ran through a clump of 



BULL ELK IN THE SSGVf. 



Photographed by Joha Fossom. 



timber and got within twenty feet of the passing elk. 

 Selecting an animal, I pressed the button. At the r-lick 

 of the shutter they saw me and jumped to one side. Those 

 coming up behind took to the deep snow to get past the 

 place where I was standing. When I started to turn in a 

 fresh section of film I discovered I had not removed the 

 stop. I had no time to swear, as the elk were going past 

 very fast. I got two shots in and secured two fine cows, 

 which repaid me for all my trouble. In one of the pic- 

 tures the cow was running, the other was a trotting ani- 

 mal. I felt very much disappointed to think I had failed 

 to get the fii-st shot in. It was something like not having 

 a cartridge in your gun when you puU the trigger for a 

 good easy shot. 



Dare and I put our shoes and packs in a tree and started 

 afoot to examine this queer section of the country. We 

 found the trail where all the buffalo and elk had gone 

 through the- basin, and on through other hot sections, 

 leaving deep trails through the strips of snow. Thinking 

 it useless to spend any more time here for a day or so, we 

 left the packs uj) a tree, and with nothing but our camera 

 and shoes struck out for the hotel. I expected the buffalo 

 to come out dui-ing the night to the open country. At the 

 hotel we found John Fossom with a new No. 4 Kodak. 



The next day we spent looking at the Grand Canon and 

 FiiUs of the Yellowstone. There was an ice bridge across 

 the canon, filling it to within 100ft. of the top of the falls. 

 Tlie frozen spray had covered all the rocks and trees with 

 beautiful ice formation. We could hear a muffled roar 

 from Lookout Point. Fossom took a few pictures with his 

 kodak to get the hang of the thing. Returning to the 

 hotel, we made a trip to the highest hill back of it for a 

 run down. Fossom shot down, while Dare and I slid 

 down. I am afraid to teU how fast he did go. I timed 

 him, and know that he went in half the time Dare and I 

 did, and I went so fast I could not see. It seemed just a 

 wild rush. I expected to get a fall and be mixed up with 

 my snowshoes, but did not. I have seen Fossom make 

 some wonderful jumps, something I have not had the 

 nerve to tryj 



Next day "the three of us started for Violet Creek. We 

 found our packs all right, where we had left them. See- 

 ing two buffalo on a ridge, Fossom and I went for a pic- 

 ture, while Dare made a fire to lunch by on our return. 

 We got pretty close to the buffalo. They were lying 

 down, and when the animals got up from their bed of 

 snow we shot. Great patches of snow were sticking to 

 them, which made rather odd-looking pictures. The 

 buffalo started off down-hill, and Fossom started first to 

 head them off in the deep snow, while I brought up the 

 rear. Fossom was soon near enough for an exposure, 

 while I was some distance behind. While Fossom was 

 looking on the finder for his buffalo. I made an exposure, 

 taking man and animals, hurried up and took another 

 picture, when Fossom was not over oOft. from the buft'alo. 

 I got two very interesting, pictures. 



Fossom and I then went to the top of the hill east of 

 where the buffalo had gone up, overlooking the Hot Creek 

 Basin, where I had the fun with the three bulls a few 

 days before. We saw a band of 25 buffalo, cows, calves 

 and buUs. The two bulls in rtmning across had started 

 them up and the band had made a run to get up on 

 the top of a hill. Half-way up they struck deep snow; 

 the leaders could not break through. They tried for a 

 while to go on, then stopped to rest, and seeing nothing 

 to alarm them, they stood around for about half an hour 

 and then moved to lower groxmd, where most of them 

 lay down where we could not get near them for a picture. 

 While I was looking in the finder to see how large the 



animals would look on the plate I heard the click of Fos- 

 som's shutter. He had shot me when I was not looking, 

 so I returned his fire. We thought that by letting the 

 animals alone we might get a good chance at them in the 

 morning or later in the day, so we returned to where we 

 had left Dare. 



I wanted a good place to camp for the night and began 

 to hunt about for a sheltered spot. This I found over a 

 low ridge — a little basin, sheltered on all sides from the 

 wind, and where a camp-fire could not be seen. Noticing 

 a square pile of snow I went to it and found some one had 

 built a brush shelter, which was crushed down. On a 

 tree close by I found the names of Ed. Wilson, Govern- 

 ment scout, and two soldiers, members of K Troop, 1st 

 U. S. Cavalry. They had camped here one winter night 

 while on a snowshoe scout a few winters before. We left 

 Dare here to make some kind of a sheltered camp, while 

 Fossom and I took a trip through some of the hot 

 country. W^e found a great many elk. but no buffalo, got 

 one picture of a big elk, and walked about five miles. 

 Where the ground was not hot enough to keep the snow 

 melted off, we traveled along deep and well worn trails 

 tramped through the snow by game; in places they were 

 so deep that we could not see out over the snow. These 

 trails lead from one warm basin to another, so that we 

 had no trouble in getting about. 



We only saw a small part of the hot country, but 

 enough to know where the game gets part of its feed and 

 why we had not seen more buffalo in the open country. 

 The hot country is very extensive and is found all over 

 the National Park where the volcanic heat comes to the 

 surface. I wish I could describe the country for the ben- 

 efit of your readers. A picture can do it better, though. 

 If they will look at the photo by Fossom of the two buf- 

 falo cows and calves published in the Forest and Stream 

 a year ago they will see a bit of hot country. No matter 

 how much snow falls it melts on the gi ound. Only on 

 detached objects can it accumulate. In the picture it can 

 be seen piled up on rocks, logs and stumps. Where the 

 ground is not too warm, grass, moss and weeds grow all 

 winter. In othf-r parts this hot country is very much 

 broken, full of dirty sulphur springs, pools and lakes, 

 with ridges of burnt'lava rocks, weathered into all kinds 

 of queer shapes. Tourists going througli the Park see a 

 little bit of this at Sulphur Mountain and on the old road 

 over Marys Mountain about a mile west of "Larry's." It 

 was there that the picture of the buffalo cows and calves 

 was taken. 



In traveling about we found that so much game was 

 wintering in this section that they were hard pressed for 

 food. All the lowtr limbs of the fir trees were eaten off 

 as high up as an elk could reach; quaking asps were 

 stripped of their bark, even exposed sage brush was 

 browsed down to stumps. Along some of the deep trails 

 mentioned before we found patches of buffalo hair where 

 they had hooked one another; this hair was very long 

 and quite black. 



Returning to Dare, we found he had fixed up a brush 

 shelter, with a pile of boughs for a bed. We gathered a 

 lot of dry stumps and logs, fixed up our camp with what 

 little bedding we had, built a good fire, dried out our 

 ovtrshoes and leggins and used them for pillows. We 

 had to melt snow for water, for, although there were 

 several streams close by, they were full of sulphur, and 

 the water was not fit to drink. The night was very cold, 

 and we could hear trees popping in the timber. We had 

 to keep the fire going all the time, and every little whOe 

 one of us would be up putting on wood. We did not 

 sleep very nmch, but rested well, so that by daybreak we 

 were ready for another day's tramp. 



We were early after the twenty-five buffalo we had 

 seen the day before. Taking all our outfit with us, we 

 struck the trail of the bunch we were after, and followed 

 it carefully for about two miles, constantly expecting to 

 see them over the next hill. They took a roundabout way 

 to i-each Alum Creek, but followed ridges and country 

 where the snovv was not deep. When they reached the 



LTVK STOCK. 



Mammoth Hot Springs. 



creek they followed its bed most of the way, now and 

 then cutting off a bend. When they reached the timber, 

 they followed an old beaten trail to the hot country about 

 Mary's Mountain. We were walking carefully, looking 

 at some very large tracks recently made, when suddenly 

 three enormous bulls started through the timber close by. 

 F"Ssom and I had our cameras out as soon as one could a 

 rifle, taking a snap shot as they rushed back down Alum 

 Creek. This was the same place that, later in the season, 

 Fossom got the picture of the two cows and calves. We 

 were on the trail always used by the buffalo in moving 

 through the hot country from Alum Creek, Mary's Moun- 

 tain, down Nez Perce Creek to the Lower Geyser Basin, 

 The old Howard wagon road follows the same trail part 

 of the way. 



After our shot at the bulla we moved very carefully for 

 a mile, seeing fresh signs everywhere. We were on the 

 bare ground all along this trail, carrying our snowshoes 

 on our backs. When we crossed Alum Creek for the last 

 time we left Dare vt^ith the whole outfit and started out 

 for the high butte to the south of the road. We moved 

 carefuUy along the edge, expecting every moment to see 

 the buffalo, as they had gone along there only a short 

 time before, and from the sign we w?-re sure there weye 



