854 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 30, 1894. 



Minnesota and "Wisconsin, In sM-jumping the jumper 

 does not carry his pole, as he wotuld almost certainly 

 injure himself in landing after the jump if he kept hold 

 of his pole. It is a matter of nerve and equilibrium. 

 Most of us seemed a little shy on the latter, but we kept 

 on jumping till we were all in coats of white and a glow 

 of heat from head to foot. Then we went home and ate 

 John Folsom out of the place. 



Off for a Camp on the Valley. 



The next morning, Wednesday, March 21, was keen and 

 cold, below zero. We all joined forces and started for the 

 Hayden VaMey, feeling that it would be better to get 

 closer to the game, in order to take advantage at once of 

 any bright weather suitable for photographing. (The 

 light in that country at that altitude and in winter, is 

 about 20 per cent, "faster" than in this, and is fine for 

 instantaneous work on any clear day. Such a day is, 

 however, rare in winter, and when the snow is falling 

 and the clouds are dense, the light grows too dim for one 

 to think of photographing, as at best one could not get a 

 picture with any shaspness or "distance" in it). We con- 

 cluded to make a camp somewhere on the Hayden Valley, 

 and to act from there as headquarters. 



It was with feelings of the liveliast interest, one may be 

 sure, that after the sharp five miles or more of slci work 

 across the hills between the Cation and the Valley, I turned 

 from the Yellowstone with the party, crossed Alum Creek, 

 and made out toward the middle of the broad, white, 

 dazzling expanse of the Hayden Valley. Here we were 

 no doubt to determine the success or failure of an import- 

 ant part of out work. Somewhere, behind some of those 

 long tongues of timber which pierced the five miles square 

 or more of open whiteness, there were without doubt 

 numbers of the greatest and the rarest game of the Ameri- 

 can continent, which we had come so far to see at home 

 on the winter range, and to enable others to see, if we 

 might be so fortunate. 



Billy and I went on up to the point of timber toward the 

 middle of the valley, where he had cached his camera two 

 days before. The. rest of the party kept on up Alum Creek 

 a little further, it being the understanding that they were 

 to make as good a camp as they could in the timber or 

 some one of the slopes making down to that stream. It 

 was still early in the morning of what was to prove a 

 very eventful day, followed by a night not less so. 



E. Hough. 



909 Skcuiuty Building, Chicago. 



STORIES OF EZRA. — IV. 



A Yankee Trick. 

 One Sunday Ezra proposed that we go and spend the 

 day with John and Mac. They lived on Baby Ridge, 

 some three miles west from town, and as we walked 

 through the woods Ezra said he was going out there to 

 get even with Mac for "ruing" him so last fall down in 

 Adair county. He had formed no plan for getting even, 

 but was confident that he would find some opportunity. 

 Thero was no one home but Mac, and Ezra told him we 



118,(1 COU-ie l/U gt.-fe-i.lLU aucl Jaixa. -bo join no oli a Balling 



trip to Spirit Lake. Mac said he could not go, because 

 he had to work. 



"What has work got to do with it," said Ezra. "TMe 

 ohief end of man is to shoot and fish. It's all well 

 enough for a man to take a little recreation at work when 

 there's no shooting or fishing, but the man who neglects 

 to improve opportunities for enjoying either of them 

 don't live up to his privileges." 



"I have to work for a living," said Mac, "and don't see 

 how it is that you fellows get along without working 

 more than you do." 



"Make it by practicing Yankee tricks," said Eara. 

 "Well, if there is any money in it I'd like to know a 

 few such tricks myself," said Mac. 



"I'll teach you a good one if you will promise to go 

 with us to Spirit Lake," said Ezra. 



Mac promised to go if in his judgment the trick was a 

 good one, but Ezra declined to teach him the trick till 

 after we returned from the trip. This did not suit Mac 

 and they argued the matter until the consuming desire of 

 Mac's mind was to know the mysterious trick. Finally, 

 Ezra agreed to teach him the trick before we went horne^ 

 and bound him with many solemn promises never to 

 divulge the secret, nor even to let any one know he was 

 in possession of it. 



After everything was arranged Ezra still hesitated, 

 saying he feared to let such an important secret go from 

 his possession, but Mac by this time felt that he could 

 not five another hour without knowing the mystery and 

 begged so hard that Ezra relented. He asked Mac if they 

 had a barrel of vinegar in the cellar. Mac said they had. 

 And a small auger? Yes, there was one in the woodshed. 

 "Get it and we will go to the cellar," said Ezra. 



When we got down the cellar Mac was again sworn to 

 eternal secrecy, and was then told to roll the barrel out 

 into the middle of the cellar. Then Ezra bored a hole in 

 the end of the barrel and told Mac to put his finger over 

 it to keep the vinegar in. Boring a hole in the other end 

 of the barrel, he told Mac to put a finger over it too, while 

 he went up and got a couple of plugs to put in the holes. 

 Leaving Mac stooped over the barrel, with a finger of each 

 hand closing a hole, we went up-stairs and home. Ezra 

 said, "I've never known Mac to keep a secret for ten min- 

 utes after he found somebody he could tell it to, but I 

 think he will probably keep his promises this time." And 

 it was evident he did keep it, for, a few days later, Mac's 

 father met Ezra and me on the road and asked whether 

 we had noticed anything unusual about Mac. We told 

 him no, and asked what was the matter. 



"Well," said the old gentleman, "last Sunday all of us 

 but Mac were away from home; and when I came back 

 about) four o'clock, Mac was down the cellar holding his 

 fingers over a hole bored in each end of a barrel of vinegar; 

 and not a word would he say about it, except that if I 

 ever mentioned ifcto anybody, he would go where none of 

 us could ever see him again." 



Of course we expressed surprise, and asked a number of 

 questions that might be supposed to bear upon the case 

 finally suggesting that it might be best not to mention it 

 to any one. Mac never .mentioned it to us, nor we to him 

 but it was noticed that his curiosity was harder to arouse' 

 than it used to be. OH. Hampton. 



The Forest and Stream t's put to press each week on Tues- 

 day. Correspondence intended for puhli cation shordd reach 

 usatjhe latest by Monday, andfis much earlier as practicabl 



AN ADVENTURE WITH A SQUIRREL. 



Shasta Mountains, California.— In my mountainous 

 realm I have a small garden and a colony of ground 

 squirrels occupy premises adjoining it. The rodents 

 reside in a pile of saw logs, and have been so prosperous 

 and thrifty as to increase both in numbers and energy 

 until it is now a crisis. It must be either fewer squirrels 

 or no garden. The fittest must survive and I am the 

 court. I say cabbage, peas, corn and potatoes. 1 enforce 

 my judgment with ordinance, and this morning I popped 

 over the most opulent and defiant rodent I could -select. 



The squirrel was sitting upright on the end of a log 

 when I blazed away, and with a last defiant quitcliet he 

 kicked up his heels. I proceeded to get him for the cat, 

 and thought as I went that he was so fat I would quarter 

 him and give my dog a portion also. The log was nearly 

 covered with ferns and I looked around the end of it for 

 some time without finding my victim. 



I reached down at my feet, and bending some ferns 

 aside almost grasped a huge rattlesnake. He was coiled 

 in a snug coil, and although I had stepped close to him 

 number of times, he gave no warning nor moved away 

 his head was raised and he was in a "striking*' attitude. 

 He was so near the color of the ground I might not have 

 noticed him but for the white line beneath his jaws and 

 throat. As it was, I was about to reach for him, thinking 

 he was the squirrel. 



As soon as I realized where I was and what he was our 

 sociability ended. I still held my gun, and at the distance 

 of a few feet, I immediately fired upon his works. The 

 shot severed his head with about 5in. of his person a,ttached 

 to it. To show that be was lively and not either asleep 

 or dreaming, the head, with the fragment attached, actu- 

 ally squirmed along 4ft. and got under the log, while the 

 other portion writhed very actively, but did not rattle. 

 After some moments I got a stick and drawing out the 

 main part of the reptile, cut off the rattles, 13 in number. 

 As I did so the headless body reared, coiled and uncoiled 

 as it tried to strike. I got the head from under the log 

 and noticed that it became motionless in a few minutes, 

 while the other portion continued to squirm until I left. 



The dart-shaped head was evidently supplied with all 

 the appliances of a well-equipped rattler. I noticed that 

 the eyes were unusually bright and clear, and that the 

 pupils of the eyes resembled very much those of the cat, 

 their centers being oval and perpendicularly placed. The 

 fangs were also in proper trim and clung to the stick with 

 which 1 investigated. 



Now, this snake was probably lying in wait for a squir- 

 rel, but I believe he was ready to strike me, and I know 

 he did not once sound his rattle. I might take a selfish 

 view of the value of snakes from the fact that this one 

 was trying to decimate the enemies of my garden. I will 

 not, however, form any alliance with rattlesnakes for that 

 reason. I will continue to smite them and bruise their 

 keado. I would uao my influence to offer bounty for rat- 

 tlesnake scalps. I believe it would be a relief to many 

 people if they were extinct. I have killed many of them 

 about my immediate premises when in the mountains, 

 and have found them in the house. They are a constant 

 menace to life and a constant source of fear to many 

 people in summer. Hardly a summer passes in this State 

 without recorded deaths from rattlesnake bites. Many 

 would find more pleasure and benefit in outings if not for 

 rattlesnakes. Eansacker. 



SANCHO, THE CULPRIT. 



"Please stop a minute, auntie," piped five-year old 

 Alice from the shade of the cherry trees near the farm- 

 house, "I want to show you something. Be careful when 

 you lift the cover and don't let him jump out. He pi 

 tends to be asleep, but he is just as alive as he can be." 



"What can it be, a bird or a kitten?" asked auntie, 

 reaching down from the low phaeton and taking a small 

 covered basket from the wee girl's chubby hand. 

 "Won't you guess and see if you guess right, auntie?' 

 "Oh what a funny little pointed-nosed creature Is it 

 a bright-eyed fairy in black kid gloves and fur cap and 

 cape?" 



"I didn't believe you could guess. Cousin Frank says 

 it is a baby woodchuck. He caught its mother in a trap 

 to-day, and this little thing had five brothers and sisters 

 all following their mother through the clover; just think 

 of that." 



"What a pity to kill the mother of such an interesting 

 family," & 

 "Yes, only you see, auntie, she was so fond of beans and 

 lettuce and sweet peas, too, she ate them as fast as 

 they came up. Cousin Frank is up in the clover field 

 now looking for the rest of the family; he wants to adopt 

 them all." 



"Can a woodchuck be tamed? 



"I dare say not," replied Alice's father who had strolled 

 out and stood with his elbow upon the gate post, "and 

 they would be even more objectionable than rabbits as 

 pets, but everything in the way of fur is desirable these 

 days, and much of the trimmings, called by fancy names 

 was once the property of little kid-gloved fairies like the 

 one in the basket." 



"That is a new fact in natural history as well as in 

 popular fashion. I was not aware thai the woodchuck 

 was so' dark-colored or that he had so many black hairs 

 in his coat." 



"That is the very thing that makes the young ones 

 worth saving, although I suspect not many experiments 

 in this direction are made by amateurs, but my father 

 having been a practical tanner and dresser of hides, I in- 

 tend, another winter, to clothe my family in real Arctic 

 style if I have good success with the skunks and weasels 

 and fox pelts I have already, and with those whose 

 habitats I have spotted, and shall secure at a seasonable 

 time. To be honest, this idea opened itself up to me last 

 winter, when my women folks were paying exorbitant 

 prices per yard for little strips of skunk skin; I told them 

 to wait a year and we would have all our garments, even 

 the buttons of my Sunday trousers trimmed with fur. ~ 



desirable marmot, you will think of this gratuitous 

 lecture and, perhaps, be able to profit by it." 



"No doubt. Please accept my thanks, I have been very 

 much interested, at least, but what is Sancho doing out 

 there in the tall grass, what has he in his mouth?" 



"He is solving the problem of supply and demand by 

 taking a beeline for home with that woodchuck. Sere 

 Sancho, you rascal!" 



"Isn't he a picture now, going stealthily and holding his 

 head high so the basket shall not drag?" 



And isn't he a picture now, as the slim, trim 

 beagle finding himself detected, dropped the basket an 

 skulking back to the carriage with an injured a i 

 stretched himself again by the horse's feet to listen to the 

 conversation? 



"Are those baby woodchucks up at your house, auntie?" 

 asked little Alice the next morning, running out as the 

 familiar horse and carriage were driving past to the post- 

 office. 



"Cousin Frank had all six of' them in a box together 

 when I went to bed, but this morning they are all 

 gone. I thought, perhaps, Sancho wanted to adopt them 

 and came after them in the night." 



Auntie glanced inquiringly at cousin Frank, Who was 

 smoking under the cherry tree, and he replied* "If the 

 pelts of certain animals are soaked in a certain chemical 

 solution, it fastens in the fur and toughens the tender 

 skin. Is there any harm in alio wing it to be tacitly Under- 

 stood that your little dumb friend and constant companion 

 is the culprit?" 



"What is a culprit?" asked Alice, curiously. 



"A dog who steals a baby woodchuck and carries it 

 away in a basket." 



"Oh, that was Sancho," nodding her curly head compla- 

 cently. "I saw him myself." AMiE A. Preston. 



Wellington, Contt. 



The Rains and the Birds. 



Haines Falls, N. Y., June 15. — The long period of rain 

 which ended here a week ago, was very destructive to 

 young ruffed grouse, one single woodsman having discov- 

 ered three broods of dead chicks. There were two hatch- 

 ings of young ruffed grouse here — under domestic fowl — 

 one of 11 chicks and another of 5, but the continuous wet 

 weather killed them all. We all hoped better results 

 from Mr. Rusk's experiment, for the birds looked well. 



CfiARLES HALLOCK. 



' That reminds me." 



The Velocity of Shot. 



Quite an amusing little incident happened to a party 

 of hunting men in the fall of '92, while we were en route 

 to the "Meadows," a beautiful strip of land lying between 

 the Dan and Smith rivers o& the border of Virginia and 

 North Carolina. 



I had taken the only passenger coach which the little 

 narrow-gauge road carries between Danville and Martins- 

 ville, in Henry county. I thought for a time that I would 

 be the only occupant of this coach, which was partitioned 

 off in the middle and one end used for baggage; but just 

 before the time of departure arrived, there came a lot of 

 men with dogs, guns and a week's supply of ammunition, 

 As I looked at these men I thought to myself, Well, 1 

 many a bird will tumble during this oUting, for there 

 wasn't a "dude" sportsman in the lot. No fancy clothes, 

 but rough-looking, brier-scratched apparel which looked 

 like "business" and not "show.*' It did not take me long 

 to discover that the men inside of the frazzled garments 

 were gentlemen, and leading citizens of the thrifty tobacco 

 town in Virginia, and like all other good shots in our 

 cities were born and raised in the country, and had ' 'caught 

 de hang o" de thing" — shooting on the wing— in their boy- 

 hood. I am the president of the Virginia Field Sports 

 Association, and all of these men were on my "roll ' as 

 members, but they did not know me, while I knew them 

 from the manner in which they addressed each other by 

 their first names. The chief among them was Peyton 

 Gravely, and as soon as they addressed him as "Pate," I 

 had him spotted. A man who knows nothing about hunt' 

 ing (or the man who, like a great many people, thinks he 

 knows but does not), on hearing the marvelous stories told 

 by these men, would have pronounced th« whole party 

 "a gang of liars;" but an old stager like myself, who has 

 been shootingsince 1855 is something of a liar too, if the re- 

 markable things which in a shooting experience of 35 years 

 have happened to him are to be inquired into and voted 

 upon by the fellows whose knowledge of the sport afield 

 come from owning a high-priced gun, velvetine clothes, 

 a dog that drops to shot and fur, and was never known to 

 go out of sight or sound of whistle, a solid silver whisky 

 flask, consult their watch every ten minutes to see if it 

 ain't about time for lunch, and bathe their feet in whisky 

 if they should get wet, consider hunting "work," but 

 must go because "the doctor tells mu that I must take ex- 

 ercise." 



When I had enjoyed for a time the amusing stories 

 which one and another of these practical sportsmen had 

 told, much to my edification, I did what is characteristic 

 of Virginians when traveling among strangers— put in my ' 

 word too — and in two minutes every man of them wel- 

 comed me into the fold, and particularly were they 

 glad to meet their president, whose name was as familiar 

 to them as any other in the commonwealth, for the 

 annual dues were collected promptly and seemed (to them) 

 to come around several times during the year. 



There was a stranger in the car who had been a silent 

 listener to all of the wonderful feats of marksmanship, 

 exhibitions of dog sense, etc., as told by these sportsmen' 

 all of whom had once owned a dog, "the like of which 

 would never be seen again," and thinking this a good 

 chance to settle a question which had long been puzzling 

 him, he broke forth as follows: "Gentlemen, seeing that 

 I am in the midst of a lot of old veterans in the shooting 

 line, I want to ask you all a question. Do all the shot in 

 . load, when fired on a dead level, travel with the same 

 elocity?" 



«olvffV™n rJ to i"i lttle P eo P^ e ' however, to so early 



rht^JS? w °^ m °{ demand and supply; the sacrifice of "Yes, of course they do, if they are all of the same size "' 

 out ^x^^1^^ Yea ^ aX tend6r U F e hearts ' I Turnill S t0 me ' S0 ^ 6 °» e asb ed what I thought of ft I 



to £5bS Lord »S y ° U i ate Jo £ iB * at toM tbem that 1 had noticed ' whe » shoot ™£ at dud* on 



tur goods at Lord & Taylors, and are shown the very I the water, that although I aimed well, and the bulk of 



