184 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
March 9, 1895. 
Do-ka-batl went on and soon saw a medicine naau'who 
had his hair tied in bunch on top of his head and was 
dancing around much. Do-ka-batl thought this man 
would look better some other way. so he changed him 
into a blue jay, and he flew away in the woods. " That 
is why the blue jay weats his hair pompadour and jumps 
around so much yet. 
> Old John was started, and that meant talk until the 
fire went out, so he told me about the humming bird. 
' ' Do-ka-batl went on until he saw a Siawash who was out 
in the rain, and throwing his hands about his head to 
keep the rain from falling on him. He thought that a 
Siawash who was afraid of getting wet was very foolish, 
so he changed him into a humming bird, and he still 
throws his wings about very fast and is afraid of the 
rain. That taught all Indians not to be afraid of 
rain; and now they don't care a bit whether they get 
wet or not. 
"Now, a little boy had heard of Do-ka-batl and was 
afraid of him, but he left his mother's house a little 
ways and Do-ka-batl came along. When the boy saw him 
he was badly scared and called, ' Boo ! boo !' to his mother. 
Do-ka-batl got angry and changed him into a dove and 
sent him into the woods to call for his mother all the 
rest of his life. ' ' 
The old man went on to tell me how Too-lux, the 
South wind, and Quoots-hoi, a witch, were responsible 
for the birth of the thunderbird, who makes the rain, 
the lightning and the thunder, and by the time the tale 
was finished, for it was a long story, the fire was down 
to a bed of coals, and I knew the old man was through 
for that night, so I gave him a bit of tobacco, said 
"Klook-wa, tilicum" and rolled up in my blanket to 
dreain of all sorts of Skal-lal-aye. 
EL COMANCHO. 
Seattle, Washington. 
A WASATCH BUDGET. 
" The year just closed has been illustrious to the sports- 
men of Utah from the fact that it marks the first strong 
and successful effort to enforce local game laws. This 
happy result has been effected, not by the farmers and 
land owners—they have not yet imbibed the protective 
spirit, except for "home industry. It has been brought 
about by a unity of action on the part of sportsmen's 
clubs and by the trying of cases for violation before 
magistrates who cared more for the law than for the 
good will of the offender, 
Utah Lake, concerning which I have often written 
Forest and Stream, is a body of fresh water, 30 miles in 
length by 13 miles in width and fringed by numerous 
shallow bays and indentations. It is fed by cold moun- 
tain streams, all of which are famous for their trout. The 
lake trout, too, are large and ganiey. 
All of the bays of Utah Lake are shallow and over- 
grown with tules. Feed is excellent — or was before the 
confounded carp commenced to clean it out— conse- 
quently we have enjoyed excellent duck shooting. Sur- 
rounding the lake are six large settlements, Provo with a 
population of 5,000 and the others averaging 2,000 each. 
Add to the sportsmen of these towns the sportsmen of 
Salt Lake and the rural population immediately adjacent 
to the lake, and yc-u can see that a continuance of good 
shooting and fishing depends upon rigid protection. I 
have taken pains to examine the records of the justice of 
the peace for Provo precinct for the past six months, 
and find the following case of game law violation with 
the disposition made of the same: 
Aug. 21, P. P. Hiiidmarsh, illegal possession of trout, fined §35; 
Aug. 31, IS. Madsenet al, illegal possession of trout, fined $50; Sept. 
6, Oliris. Jensen, seininer, fined 815; Sept. 6, Kelsey Bird, seining, 
fined S15; Serjt. 10, (jr. W. Tibbets, shooting ducks after sunset, 
fined $1; Oct. £3, Parley Swenson, shooting dunks after sunset, 
fined 815; Oct. 12, Walter Smith, shootint; ducks after sunset, fined 
S3; Oct. 12, Hymen Jensen, shooting k ducks after sunset, pending; 
Oct. 12, Neils Hanson et al. shooting sea-gulls, pending: Oct. 2T, P. 
P. Hindmarsh, shooting ducks after hours, fined §51.80; Oct. 27, 
John Clark, shooting ducks after hours, fined $5; Oct: 27. John 
Taylor, shooting birds after hours, acquitted; Oct, 27, Barker, 
shooting ducks after hours, pending; Oct. 29, Jos. Springer, shoot- 
ing ducks after hours, pending: Dec. 11. Wm. Roth well, shooting 
ducks after hours, fined 85; Dee. 11, J. H. Evart, shooting ducks 
after hours, fined 85; Dec. 11, Chester Hutchings, shooting ducks 
after hours, fined 85; Dec. 11, Truman Hutchings, shooting ducks 
after hours, fined 85. Total fines, 8203.80. 
In addition a number of cases have been tried, with 
similar results before the U. S. Commissioners at Provo 
and before each of the other seven precinct justices that 
have jurisdiction about the lake. 
The introduced fish in Utah La"ke are carp, striped bass 
and black bass. Their introduction has been detrimental 
to the increase of trout, and as a game fish the black bass 
has already taken the place of the lake trout. The carp 
are an unmitigated nuisance save as the small fry serve 
as food for their more worthy competitors. It would 
almost rival brother Greene's bull dog story if I told of 
the way in which those overgrown carp, that have fat- 
tened on good duck feed, lie in the shallow bays, too lazy 
to move out of the way of the boat and suffer themselves 
to be prodded with our oars before they will allow us to 
pass out to our blinds. 
The black bass is beginning to beautifully adapt itself 
to its environment. The streams that empty into the 
lake bring from the Wasatch an immense amount of 
detritus and are constantly delta forming. It, is where 
these delta streams, with a comparatively rapid current, 
cut their channels through the stagnant water of the 
tules that the black bass lie. They are as greedy as they 
are obstinate, and our local fishermen have great sport 
with the fly. To be candid, I have not yet caught on to 
what I consider the correct bass fly for these waters, so I 
use a spoon with entirely satisfactory results. 
Anent this subject 1 learn that the lake white fish 
(coregomis clupeiforrnis) is to be placed in Utah Lale 
within a short time. The*following letter is self-explan- 
atory; "Washington, D. C, Jan. 22, 1895. A. Milton 
Musser, Esq., Fish and Game Commissioner, Salt Lake 
City, Utah: Dear Sir— Replying to your letter of the 14th 
inst., I think it will be practicable to send you a carload 
of white fish fry or eggs to be hatched on the car en 
route if you can arrange the transportation from Chicago 
to the destination. It will be best to place the fry into 
Utah Lake as it would not be advisable to attempt trans- 
porting the fry pighteen miles by wagon after so long 
a trip. It is impossible to say definitely when the ship- 
ment can be made, but I suppo°e it will teave Alpena or 
Sandusky in February or March. The car has a regu- 
lar crew of five men including the cook. Yours truly, 
W. de C'Ravenel." 
Through the courtesy of local railway authorities, free 
transportation for car and crew has. at the request of 
Commissioner Musser, been secured from Chicago to Utah. 
It was originally intended to plant a part of the fry in 
Bear Lake, and to that the "eighteen miles by wagon" 
refers. As a food fish there is no doubt of the value of 
this species, but I am ignorant of its game qualities and 
shall watch with interest the fight for life and the sur- 
vival of the fittest in the contest that is bound to take 
place in L T tah Lake. 
fin October I reported at some length the violations of 
law T at Fish Lake. It was the opinion of the people 
about the lake that the Fish and Game Commissioner 
of Sevier county was culpably negligent or else person- 
ally interested in the matter of trout-catching. I made 
a stay of one week at Fish Lake, and that week com- 
menced on the day that the law was off (June 15.) I saw, 
before ten o'clock on the morning of June 15 a large farm 
wagon leave the lake, loaded as full as the bed would hold 
with trout. I knew of trout being peddled in Sevier 
county for a week before this time. I saw three fish 
traps (each used before the 15th) and each surrounded by 
piles of roes and offal. I saw boards removed from the 
dam of the Rabbit Valley Irrigation Company and wool- 
sacks he'd beneath the flow until they were filled with 
trout. When I expostulated, I was informed that the 
commissioner (B. Carter) dare not arrest them, as he in- 
dulged in the same practice himself. In view of these 
facts, let me insert Mr. Carter's own report of the season's 
work: 
"There is little to look after in this county in the way 
of fish and game. As to fish, I will say the Sevier River 
is converted into canals. There are eight ditches taken 
out of the river in this county. Fish Lake is the main 
fishing place, and the Rabbit Valley Irrigation Company 
has that shut off all winter and until June, when they 
open the lake and destroy large numbers of fish. Fish 
Lake is about thirty-seven miles from here, and it would 
take one man all his time to look after that part of the 
county alone. The county only allows $75 per year to its 
fish and game commissioner. There were two arrests 
made at the lake last summer. We don't have many deer 
to look after and there is not much hunting going on as 
far as T am able to learn." 
I did not have much sympathy for Mr. Carter until I 
learned the amount of his salary. Seventy-five dollars 
for the work that should be done would make a preacher 
turn poacher. Concerning the deer, I shall have more to 
say later on, having had some sport with them just oyer 
the line from Sevier county, in the new county of 
Wayne. A number of our local market hunters (natives 
not sportsmen) have made their annual trip into the 
White River region and report deer as being unusually 
abundant. As they shipped their game to Salt Lake by 
the carload, I am bound to believe their reports. The In- 
dians about Provo have brought in less venison this win- 
ter than ever before, but from other parts of the territory 
reports are excellent. The grouse and chicken shooting 
during the fall was fully up to the average. As yet, no 
Mongolian pheasants have wandered hither from those 
wonderful Oregon preserves. When they get here, the 
sportsman's cup of happiness will certainly overflow. 
Shoshone. 
Provo, Utah, Feb. 7, 1895. 
THE SUNNY SOUTH.— III. 
IN THE CANE BRAKES. 
Chicago, 111., Jan. 31.— On the morning after our arri- 
val at the timber camp on the Sunflower, we made an 
early start on the hunt, and the sun was hardly over the 
edge of the earth before our cavalcade was winding out 
over the fowl trail, the mellow voices of the horns calling 
the pack together. I found that the horn of the humble 
cow constitutes a large factor in the science of bear- 
hunting. By its means the woods may have a language, 
so that the master of the hunt can tell what is going on 
at a distance of half a mile or more. The notes of the 
horn could be heard a mile, no doubt, in open country, 
but so dense and stiffling is the cover of a heavy cane- 
brake that a horn is faint at half a mile, and often at a 
range of 200 or 1300 yds. seems half a mile away. As the 
skilled hunter knows the voice of each member of his 
pack, so the dogs know the sound of each horn of the 
hunters. Mr. Bobo's dogs would come only to his horn. 
All the hunters know the note of each hunter's hom, and 
could tell who was calling when the sound of a horn came. 
All were advised to use the horn as little as possible, that 
being left to the master of the hunt, who called together 
or laid on the dogs. A brief code of signals was used. 
Thus, two short and a long note of the horn was the call 
to bring the dogs together. A single loud and long note 
indicated a query, "where are you?" Three long notes 
at intervals, meant, "come to me." Continued blowing 
of the horn meant a kill and assemblage after the 
chase. 
(3 Our hunt of the day was to be toward the breast of 
Surveyor's lake, over in the thick cane country, and to 
reach our point we had to travel over what was called 
"Tom's hack," meaning a trail cut through the cane by 
Tom, the negro. A section of this country was then pro- 
vided with these "hacks" for the convenience of the hun- 
ters, a success in the hunt meant an intimate acquain- 
tance with all these trails, so that we could ride in ahead 
of the dogs. To ride "cross country" to the dogs was an 
impossibility. The strongest horse could not force his way 
fifty-feet into the heaviest cane, and a man on foot would 
be helpless. To be lost in a cane-brake is a thousand 
times more awful than to be lost in the mountains One 
might know his direction perfectly, but not knowing the 
trail cut to it would be as badly off as though he were 
utterly at fault. I made careful estimates of one's ability 
to get through such brake on foot, and I do not think 
a man could go over a mile in a. whole day of hard work, 
unless he had a cane-knife (a heavy-bladed knife, 
about 2 ft. long and weight 8 lbs., used by all brake turn- 
ers). I made up my mind that if I should be cut off 
from the others in any way, I should leave the matter of 
getting home entirely to Coleman, my horse, which I dis- 
covered to be a trained bear hunter and an expert at tak- 
ing cane. Even in riding along the "hacks", the brake- 
hunter needs all his pluck and patience, for the hack is 
merely a slit, in the wall of L green, which closes and 
pinches in on the hunter. A thousand malicious fingers •] 
pluck at the horsemen. His horse rises and leaps under j 
him, to take a log the rider can m>t see, and at the leap 
the out-reached arm of a tree also unseen may crush his , 
shoulder seriously. The shaking and switching and cut- i 
ting of the cane on the face and body is continuous and I 
painful, and one's legs soon get badly braised by frequent , 
grinding against the trees and shrubs that grow in the ■ 
•heart of the luxuriant green. It is impossible to see i 
twenty feet ahead, even on the line of the "hack." One J 
follows his leader closely, his horse, from long experience, J 
knows it useless to breast the cane. He ducks his head j 
and crawls under the overhanging cane. The rider, I 
almost swept from his saddle by the rush of interlocked 
stems, bends low on his horse's neck, keeps his rifle low j 
down and endwise with the path, and plunges through the j 
best he can. This is how you ride to hounds— until you ' 
hear the strike and the fighting roar of the dogs. Then ■ 
you just ride — you forget how. The magnificence of the \ 
game is its atonement. 
ACCIDENT IN THE CANE, 
In one of these narrow, choked-up hacks, Horace Bobo J 
was riding ahead, and all at once we saw him stop and j 
dismount, holding his hand to his head. 
"Tell Papa to come here," he said, and we all pulled ■ 
out the best we could to let Mr. Bobo by. 
"What is it, son?" he asked. "Have you got a cane in j 
your nose?" 
"Yes, said Horace." 
^ "Have you got the piece out?" 
' I don't know, but I think it's all out. Here's quite a 
piece of it." His nose was running blood. 
"Well, jump up and go ahead, son," said his father.! 
"I've had a hundred canes in my nose I expect." And j 
this Avas all that was done, except that Horace got a roll ] 
of leaf tobacco front Mr. Payne, and plugged up his nose ] 
with it. The next day the boy coughed up out of his J 
throat, a piece of cane nearly as large as a lead pencil,and | 
about half an inch long. It had been driven entirely! 
through the nasal passages into the throat. Such may j 
be one of the incidents of this rather stern so t of sport. 
It is a rule of the hunt that no man shall carry his riflej 
loaded, that is, well — a shell in the chamber of the gun, I 
because that would be highly dangerous in such riding. I 
Short Winchester carbines, .41 and .38, are the guns used. I 
Of course a rifle must be short and light to be used in such ] 
riding, where it is carried o xr er the saddle in a broad path,! 
in the hand at the side or before the face in close coverJl 
Mr. Bobo had a trick of carrying his rifle stock upward ml 
his bridle hand in riding through vines and bushbS. 
Usually he could break through a tangle, but if it was too, 
tough the pull on the rifle stock would stop the horse 
by pulling on the bridle, before the vines got back so far, 
as his face. In the cane riding, experience is everything 
of course, " Mr. Bobo told me that most new men that hfij 
took in hunting were unable to keep up, but were contin- 
ually getting lost and requiring a search party, to the 
delay of the hunt. He was good to compliment me on mj 
deviation from the usual rule in this matter, but I neve 
told him why I kept so close up — I was afraid of getting) 
lost if I didn't! I wouldn't be lost in that country for a : 
hundred dollars a minute. And beside, I always thought 
my horse had a great deal more to do with it than I had* 
I just staid with the horse. 
BEAR, THIS TIME. 
Well, we went on about a mile from the camp, past an 
old beaver-dam which lay up in the dry ground in thq 
woods, and followed Tom's track into the thick cane 
about half a mile or so, trying all the time to keep the 
young dogs together till we got a bear trail. There was a 
great deal of other game in that country, and several 
times the youngsters opened and a number of them 
passed out of hearing in the distance' Still, we had no 
word from the old bear dogs. 
At length one of the foxhounds ran up on top of a log\ 
snuffed, whimpered and gave voices to a loud, deep cryl 
Old Henry jumped also, and at once added the appro- 
bation of his gruff bark. Then every dog left near ui 
broke in, swarmed around the spot and at once began to 
give tongue. The chorus became a savage, roaring chaos 
of fierce and angry voices, more thrilling than any music) 
of hounds I had ever heard. The notes of a pack trailing 
bear is more one of anger and ferocity — than the musica 
call of dogs running a smaller animal. The man can not 
hear it and sit still. The dogs of war are loose in the air 
and he must ride, he must act. 
The pack gathered and lead out and swept away, the 
sound coming hack loud, then faint, fainter, very faint. 
"That's bear, this time, for a thousand dollars!" said 1 
Mr. Bobo. "Get back to the cross trail and walk over t( 
the right! "As he spoke he crashed through the cane and 
back he went over the trail, every horse following, as 
eager as the dogs. 
I will not weary readers with the story of the rest oi 
the hunt. It was wait, and ride' and wait again, and 
listen and call, and all the while there were three 
distinct chases on, only one of which was bear. Foi 
once in a way Mr. Bobo was at fault, and was puzzled 
to know why the bear dogs didn't come the way he had 
figured. He and I kept close together, and I suppose 
traveled several miles through the cane, unable to mak< 
out where the bear had gone or what had become of all 
the other hunters. Puzzled and perplexed, after a long 
listening wait in the heart of a dense brake. Mr. Bobo at 
length crowded through the cane at the end of the fain 
"hack" we were following, ' and we came out on the 
banks of a shallow dry bayou. Here we sent a lusty blast 
of the horn out through the woods, and at length fancied 
there was a distant answer. Toward this we crowded, 
and soon caught the horn's note more clearly, and finally 
heard the shouts of other hunters coming toward us. 
"Come this way," called Mr. Bobo, and in answei 
some one called, apparently asking: "Did you see tin- 
bear?" 
BRINGING IN THE BEARS. 
In the dense cane the voices seemed to be three hundred 
yards away, but almost before we knew it, a little pro- 
cession came filing out of the brake, Horace Bobo, Fran k 
Harris and the colored boys Tom and Peter. And .be- 
hind the saddle of the last, flopping and swaying, and 
dangling far down on either side, was a limp, black, furry 
object. 
We had our bear. Only a cub, of about one hundred 
