Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Bis Months, |2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1896 
VOL. XLVI.— No. 19, 
No. 346 Broadway, New "Xork. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page viii. 
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THE DECLINE OF ANTELOPE HUNTING. 
It is not so many years since the antelope was the most 
abundant game animal of the plains and the Western 
mountains. This was immediately after the extinction of 
the buffalo, and it is perhaps true to-day. The reduction in 
numbers of the species has come more from tbe contrac- 
tion of its range than from actual destruction of individ- 
uals. The time was — and men whose hair is not yet gray 
can remember it — when the antelope ranged in vast num- 
bers over both the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian 
Territory, Texas, and to the west to and beyond the 
Rocky Mountains and to the Pacific coast, and their num- 
bers were so great that it may even be questioned whether 
the buffalo greatly exceeded them for multitude. As the 
traveler rode along, the prairie as far' as he could see was 
dotted with the white patches of the feeding animals, and 
only those immediately in his way moved off to some 
nearby rise of ground and stamped and whistled at him as 
he passed. 
Over all the summer range the species was very abun- 
dant and very evenly distributed, If the buffalo covered 
the face of the plain, antelope were to be seen mingled 
with them, feeding among the great beasts; if there were 
no buffalo in the country, the antelope were still there in 
the same numbers. Hundreds and thousands of them 
might be seen in a day, not bunched up together, but 
sometimes singly or in loose herds of from three to fifty. 
If frightened and started to running, these herds would 
mingle for a while; but after the alarm was over they 
would separate again into smaller groups. 
At the approach of winter the antelope changed their 
ground, migrating in loose, straggling columns from 
summer to winter range. They traveled by established 
routes, crossing rivers at certain well-known points and 
using the same passes between mountain ranges year after 
year. At such special points they were killed in great 
numbers by hunters. On the winter range, after the cold 
set in, the antelope congregated in herds of thousands, 
and these herds kept together until the approach of 
spring. Hunters used to kill many of them in winter by 
shooting into the close mass of fleeing beasts so long as 
they were within range. Of course they wounded as 
many as they killed. At that season the antelope often 
perished from cold. If a cold winter rain came on, 
gradually changing to sleet and then to snow with bitter 
cold, the animals sometimes became coated with ice and 
either perished from cold or were so chilled that they fell 
an easy prey to the hunter on two legs or four. 
In the olden time the white-tail deer was the only ani- 
mal that was harder to kill than the antelope. Perhaps 
now there are two, the mountain sheep having received 
an education. The difficulty encountered in killing ante- 
lope arose in part from the animal's keenness of sense 
and its alertness and also largely from the character of 
the country which it inhabited. This, on the plains, was 
usually gently rolling and often absolutely flat, so that it 
was quite impossible to approach the game unseen, and, 
eyes, nose or ears having told them of the hunter's pres- 
ence, they were off at once. In the rough foothills of 
the mountains and the much broken country of the cen- 
tral plateau the task of securing antelope meat becomes 
much simplified. 
It is commonly stated in books that the antelope never 
ventures into the timber and that it dreads the forest. 
This is far from true. They are frequently to be found 
in little mountain parks, and we have seen them feeding 
among the pines and underbrush of the lofty plateaus of. 
the mountains and among the thick willows that clothed 
the stream bottoms of tributaries of the North Platte 
River in northern Colorado. You may find them in such 
places, but ypu will try in vain to drive them into the 
timber. If an enemy is seen they seek the open, where 
their eyes can be used, for on these they chiefly depend. 
And yet they are simple, too, these fleet, wary beasts, 
and the tales told of their coming to a flag in the early 
days were true enough. We have seen their inquisitive- 
ness bring them up almost to the tent door in the morn- 
ing and to within thirty or forty steps of a fire, where a 
couple of men were cooking coffee at noon. If you were 
approaching an unsuspicious feeding group and they 
caught a glimpse of the top of your head, they were 
likely, if you ducked down quickly and kept still, 
to trot cheerfully up to the muzzle of your 
rifle. But those which did this were the young and the 
simple-minded. An old buck or doe, the leader of a 
small bunch, was seldom guilty of this conduct. Such 
a leader at the least warning of danger gave the alarm 
cry, and bolted seventy-five or one hundred yards to the 
top of the nearest rise. Here, perhaps, was made the 
brief pause for a look back which was the only inter- 
ruption to the rapid flight to distance and safety; but if 
the first glimpse had really showed danger, there was no 
pause in the headlong rush. The family scuttled over the 
innocent hill Uke so many rabbits — literally ventre a terre 
On the other hand, a young buck would stand about at 
seventy-five or a hundred yards, and let the tyro pierce 
the air all about him with harmless bullets, stamping 
and snorting unterrified, until some ball whistled too 
close to his ear, when he trotted off over the hill, a little 
uneasy. There is nothing so foolish as a yearling buck 
antelope; nothing so alert and wary as an old one. 
The sport of antelope hunting seems to be passing out of 
existence; or if it is still practiced, we hear but little of it. 
Perhaps most men choose for the objects of their pursuit 
the larger animals, like elk, moose and caribou — animals 
which, though larger, are not so keen and wary as the 
little white and yellow beast whose twinkling feet and 
long, easy stride so swiftly carry him beyond the range of 
the modern rifle. Certainly the decay of antelope hunt- 
ing is not due to the lack of game, for though exterminat- 
ed over a vast territory which was once their range, 
they are still found in goodly numbers along the flants 
of the mountains and in much of the country grazed over 
by cattle and horses. In this cattle country we are glad 
to believe public sentiment now protects these animals, 
and the females and young are killed only when meat is 
absolutely needed. 
So there must still be antelope hunters, even though 
they no longer tell us of their exploits. The sport is one 
that calls for good judgment, hunting sense, patience and 
skill with the rifle. It should not die out. 
BUFFALO FOR NEW YORK. 
New York, it appears, is to have in one of its new 
parks in the immediate future a herd of buffalo. When 
we say a herd we do not mean two or three or half a dozen 
scrubby animals, confined in a tiny pen which barely 
affords them room to turn without touching each other, 
but the third largest collection of buffalo in this country, 
kept in a pasture 150 acres in extent — nearly a quarter 
section of land. There is here given a remarkable exhi- 
bition of public spirit by one of New York's most success- 
ful citizens, Mr. Austin Corbin, the president of the Long 
Island Railroad, who proposes to loan this herd to this 
city. The herd numbers, we believe, more than fifty. 
On Monday last the Park Commissioners of New York 
city accepted Mr. Corbin's offer and approved a contract 
to that end. The park department will inclose 150 acres 
in one of the new parks for the accommodation of the 
buffalo, and will provide feed for them, reserving the 
right to introduce deer into the inclosure; the keepers will 
be provided by Mr. Corbin. Twenty-five per cent, of the 
ncrease is to become the property of the park. 
The results of the work of the New York Legislature 
with respect to game and fish interests are given else- 
where. The chief points to be noted are the failure of 
the State Association bill and the neglect to repeal Section 
249, which permits the sale of game the year around. 
NEW YORK INDIANS AND THE GAME LAWS. 
An interesting game law case tried at Salamanca, in 
this State, the other day, turned upon the application of 
the fish and game laws to the Indian reservation. It 
appears that on one occasion last winter a Seneca Indian 
was spearing pickerel on the reservation, when he wa 
threatened by a white man with shooting if he persisted 
in the spearing; another Indian thereupon drew his pistol 
and threatened to shoot the white if the white shot the 
spearer. The diplomatic incident was concluded without 
shooting, but bad blood was engendered, and a question 
was raised as to what the Indians had always considered 
their inalienable right of hunting and fishing on their 
own reservations without regard to the laws of the State 
To make a test of this question, James Pierce, an Indian 
of the tribe, offered his friendly services, and dynamited 
a stream flowing through the reservation. He was prose- 
cuted for the act by Game Protector Salisbury, and the 
case was tried at Salamanca before County Judge O. S. 
Vreeland. Counsellor D. C. Reilly, in defense of Pierce, 
contended that while the State exercised jurisdiction 
over the Indian reservations in criminal matters, it had 
no authority with respect to misdemeanors, the class of 
offenses in which violations of the game laws belong. 
Judge Vreeland, however, in an elaborate opinion, over- 
ruled this contention, and asserted that the State game 
and fish laws must be held to apply to the reservations. 
Pierce was found guilty and was find $40, with thirty 
days' imprisonment. 
The Senecas are dissatisfied with this finding. They 
contend that their treaties reserved to them the right of 
hunting and fishing on their own reservations so long 
as the sun should shine and the rivers run. It was pointed 
out by the court in the case at bar that to kill fish by 
dynamiting is not fishing. Chief John, of the Senecas, 
has gone to Washington to lay the case before the Indian 
Bureau, 
SNAP SHOTS. * 
We had a pleasant bit of biography in one of our Feb- 
ruary numbers recording the angling life of Isaac McClel- 
lan, of Long Island, and his cousin, S. C. Clarke, of 
Georgia, both 90 years old and still fond of fishing. A 
fortnight ago we printed a portrait giving the intelligent 
and kindly countenance of Mr. C. L. Stratton, of Tennes- 
see, our long-time contributor Antler, more than 84 years 
of age, and still a mountain climber. In this present 
number are printed notes from another correspondent of 
many years' standing, Mr. J. H. Dudley, of Poughkeepsie, 
who, if we do not err, is on the further side of 80. . In 
another column is a story of his salmon fishing written 
for us by Mr. John Mowat, of New Brunswick, whose 
accounts of handling paddle and rod, canoe and salmon, 
alone and unassisted by canoemen, are all the more inter - 
esting when we remember that the work recounted is that 
of a veteran 75 years of age. These instances— and we 
might cull many others from the records of Forest and 
Stream's columns — illustrate the truth that a love for 
field and the stream and the pursuits of outdoor life is not 
a brief and transitory fad, but a deeply imbedded senti- 
ment which does not diminish with the years. 
British anglers are competing to-day, May t 9, in their 
ninth international fly and' bait casting competition, on 
Wimbledon Lake. There is an elaborate programme of 
twenty-five events for amateurs, tackle makers and pro- 
fessionals, the three classes being kept strictly separate. 
Amateur classes exclude any person "who has ever fished 
for his living, who has been a paid river keeper, guide, 
gillie, instructor of fishing, or any person connected with 
the fishing tackle trade." The event appears to have a 
secure place in the calendar of the United Kingdom; but 
on this side of the water interest in angling tournaments 
has practically died out with the passing away of most of 
the school of fishermen who promoted the Central Park 
meets of the '80s. 
We referred recently to the demoralizing effects of ver- 
min bounty laws upon the morals of the community, and 
a new instance has just come to light in an Illinois case, 
where, as is told in our game columns, certain sparrow 
killers were convicted of obtaining money from the 
county treasury on bogus warrants, and the county clerk 
under indictment for complicity fled to Mexico. The rule 
appears to be well established that an offer of reward for 
scalps or tails of vermin sets in operation ingenious 
schemes of amateur thieves for getting something fcr 
nothing, on a scale limited only by the gullibility or the 
guilty conspiracy of public officials. 
