June 8, 1895.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
468 
seen two wolves pull down a mare and colt, and kill them 
both. He said that in attacking, the lead wolf sprang 
at the throat of the horse, catching the throat on the 
lower side as it sprang. This it did by turning down its 
jaws as it went on over the top of the horse's neck. The 
wolf sprang on over the. neck in the same leap in which 
it caught the throat, and the weight of its body and tho 
force of the spring, as it went on across the neck on to 
the other side of the horse, pulled the latter right over on 
its back. As quick as it fell the other wolf sprang in and 
caught it by the throat, and then it was all over. Mr. 
Phillip3 says he has seen the cougar (mountain lion) seize 
a heifer the same way, only sometimes the cougar, in- 
stead of jumping on over and so turning its quarry on its 
back, will squat low down and tug at the throat, throw- 
ing its victim in that way. 
From the Far North. 
The letter-box— that most useful adjunct for one seek- 
ing news of the sporting country — brings this morning 
word all the way from the Far North, the writer, Mr. J. 
H. Mcllree, of the Northwest mounted police, dating his 
communication from Regina, N. W. Territory, up in the 
British possessions. He speaks in regard to the game of 
that region as below: 
"I notice in Forest and Stream of April 20 a notice 
from you about Mr. Munn's trip to the far North for 
musk ox. Mention is made of some legislation to pro- 
tect the wild animals in the regions partly traversed by 
him. You will observe that this act is not yet in force. 
No doubt, as Mr. Munn states, it will be pretty hard to 
enforce the provisions of this act, but yet a good deal can 
be done. People coming from the far North must come 
to certain points to ship their trophies and that is where 
We will get them. The natives if left alone will not ex- 
terminate the game. They have lived in the country for 
how long we do not know and the game still survives in 
large numbers— that is, the species really indigenous to 
that region. The buffalo I think are comparative 
strangers. The skin and the trophy hunters are the ones 
that do the harm, and the ones that can and will be 
caught. I came to this country, Northwest Terri- 
tory, twenty-one years ago and have seen many changes 
in the' wild game supply. I still read Forest and Stream 
religiously. I started taking it in its infancy, when Mr. 
Hailock was at the helm, and always find it full of 
interest. It grieves me to see the slaughter of ducks 
recorded in Forest and Stream. They are very scarce 
up this way this spring. With kind regards, J. H. 
MclLLREE." 
And still our laws hang fire. And still the spring 
shooters say there are as many ducks as ever. And still. 
And then — . 
Elk Catching and Indians. 
Again the letter-box, and this time something of in- 
terest from "Guide," who lives at Cameron, Mont., and 
writes as follows: 
"I see an account in Forest and Stream written to 
you from Cora, Wyo., by 'Mountaineer,' about the 
Indians killing the elk for the hides. If he will do as we 
did here in Montana and Idaho the Indians will be kept 
out. We were bothered with the Indians for a long time 
till forbearance ceased to be a virtue, and then we wrote 
to the agent to keep his Indians at home. He paid no at- 
tention to us until he got a letter signed by nearly all of 
the settlers in the country, stating if he did not take care 
of his Indians we would for him. I am happy to say we 
are not bothered any more with Indians. 
' 'We have had a very easy winter here for the big game, 
no snow in the mountains to speak of, and if it wasn't for 
the elk catchers the game would be on the increase. This 
last winter there were forty-five elk caught in the Madi- 
son Basin, with five killed for every one caught, and the 
same kind of work has been going on for the last six 
years, but with a larger percentage killed heretofore. 
The same party has killed over fifty moose in the same 
time without saving any. 
"The sportsmen of the East are kicking that the game is 
being killed off at a terrible rate in the mountains, and 
still they will buy the captured game and encourage the 
slaughter. Five years ago this spring I counted seventy- 
two dead elk in the Madison River, inside of two miles, 
that had been run to death by the slaughterer and not 
even the tongue or hide taken. It is safe to say that there 
have been over 2,000 head of elk run to death in the last 
six years by this same party, and mostly cows and calves. 
"I have been a guide for the last twenty-three years 
and you can bet I hate to see the game slaughtered this 
■ way." 
There certainly seems to be justice in the conclusions of 
the writer of the above, and no reasons appear for believ- 
ing him mistaken in his facts. 
Dangerous Game In Chicago. 
Mr. W. A. Hillis is visiting in Indiana, and he wants 
to know, you know. He says: 
'•I have been a reader of Forest and Stream for 
many years. What I write you for is this: I live in 
Montana, and I have bearded the grizzly in his den with 
the rifle, and I sometimes use a smooth-bore. Having 
read so much about John Watson's hard pigeons in 
Forest and Stream, I thought if an outsider could get a 
try at them during the Illinois State shoot I would come 
up. Please send or have sent a programme when issued." 
I beg to assure Mr. Hillis that he can have a try next 
week, but would caution him that he will find the J. Wat- 
son birds harder and more dangerous game than the 
grizzlies. 
Bachelor and the Market Reports. 
Again the letter-box, and this time something curious, 
no less than a clipping from the market reports of a daily 
newspaper, although I think we shall find it pertinent. 
Mr. A. H. Chapman, of Pewaukee, Wis., writes in regard 
ta it: 
"I inclose a clipping from the market report of the 
Times-Herald of this date. It simply confirms your 
views as to the open-hear tedness of tue Southern sports- 
men as a class, as set forth in your recent articles in the 
Forest and Stream. 
"Having been confined to my room for the past thir- 
teen months with rheumatism, the arrival of the Forest 
and Stream at my house each week is the one important 
event." 
The clipping in question has to do with a plain business 
question, but it is curious in some of its phases. It speaks 
best for itself: 
"Commission men, as a rule, will not accept discretion- 
ary orders. Their risk is great enough when directions 
are explicit. The following is the eloquent plea made, 
in a letter to a private- wire house, by a Southerner: 
" 'Gentlemen: Herein I hand you a draft for $ — to be 
used according to your best judgment. I am aware that 
this is not your usual way of doing business, but being so 
remote from the markets, receiving reports two or three 
days after they are sent out, makes it impossible for me to 
instruct you intelligently. 
'"In order to help you out I make a suggestion. In 
your large establishment you doubtless have some respon- 
sible, level-headed man who is fond of a dog and a gun. 
Select him and call him my man, place this $ — in his 
hands and tell him to use it as he would if it were his own; 
if he loses, well and good ; but if he makes good money for 
me I want it understood that he is to have a vacation 
some time in November, December, January or February, 
and that he is to come to and spend at least ten 
days with me in the woods, his expenses to be borne by 
the writer. I will promise to let him kill as many quail, 
deer and turkey as he cares to shoot at. This, I feel sure, 
will be an inspiration to bim to keep my interests before 
his mind. I have the dogs, guns and ammunition, so he 
need not trouble about bringing anything with him. Now, 
what do you say? 
" 'If it should happen that you haven't a man who is 
fond of field sports, then select the man possessing the 
greatest musical talent, and when he makes his visit to 
1 will show him one of the handsomest, sweetest 
and best little sopranos that he ever saw or heard, and if 
he is not married I will promise to do all in my power to 
help him secure her as his prize in case his fancy should 
lead him in that direction.' " 
After reading the above, who could blame any bachelor 
man for going into the commission business! And where 
has more unique literature ever crept into the dull market 
page? 
Who's Going to Pardon Altgeld? 
A statistician has learned that John Peter Altgeld, the 
Governor of IllinoiSj who Vetoed the Mongolian pheasant 
law, and who "doesn't believe in game laws, anyhow," 
has in the course of the last two years pardoned out of 
the penitentiary 121 criminals of all sorts of crimes and 
sentences. This is a little more than one a week. _ Last 
week some Illinois citizens lynched a couple of criminals, 
and said they did so because Altgeld would pardon them 
out if they were sent to Joliet. It is probably fair and 
just to state that a Governor who "doesn't believe in game 
laws, anyhow," is not apt to be a good Governor. For 
anarchism and ignorance such as he has shown, who is 
going to pardon Altgeld? 
Happenings. 
Ground squirrels are reported to be eating up the State 
of Washington in some sections, and farmers are using 
all sorts of means for exterminating them. 
Horicon Shooting Club of Wisconsin elected as officers: 
President, A. R. Keating; Vice-President, R. Rom; Man- 
ager, William Kleifoth; Treasurer, Dr. J. W. Burns; 
Secretary, P. F. Stone. 
Mr. Frank Mason, advertising manager of the Mayfloioer, 
New York city, has spent the past week in Chicago on 
business connected with his paper, incidentally meeting 
many old friends in this city. 
Mr. E. H. Short, of Van Wert, O., is among those call- 
ing at the Forest and Stream office this week. 
The Hunter Arms Co,, of Fulton, N. Y., has put out a 
handsome new catalogue, of which they speak with 
pardonable pride. "We have spent," they say, "a good 
deal of money and time to get out something that we 
think will please the eye of the average sportsman. It is 
our aim in putting out a catalogue to have it so attractive 
that, even if anyone should happen to get hold of it who 
is not particularly interested in guns, he will not throw it 
away, but will lay it aside where it may prove beneficial. 
You will also find in the catalogue a little booklet which 
we are distributing promiscuously among the trade. 
"We are pleased to state that the New York Exposition 
was a decided success so far as the Smith gun was con- 
cerned." 
June 1. — Mr. H. R. Wills, of Alton, 111., a shooter from 
Shootersville, paid this office a visit during my absence 
from the city. He takes this method of getting away 
with a challenge, knowing he has to shoot when I am 
home. 
Col. A. G. Courtney, of the Lefever gun, called this 
week in company with a handsome Lefever ejector. He 
will probably attend the Illinois tournament next week. 
E. Hough. 
909 Security Building, Chicago. 
FEVER AND AGUE. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Buck fever or buck ague, the effect is all the same. I'm 
inclined to think that both names are appropriate for the 
hunter's sickness when he sees big and sometimes small 
game. The blood rushes to his face hot as a desert wind, 
then his muscles twitch and jerk in a way to shake the 
front sight all over a big maple treetop at 30yds. He 
bangs away, and then when the game gets out of sight, 
or down, he wilts with a sickly grin on his face, or jumps 
up and down with whoops for guides or companions to 
come, or just to let out his feelings. When shooting he 
goes under high pressure, but after the safety valve 
couldn't be weighted enough to keep his mouth shut. At 
least that is the way I felt when I was killing or trying to 
kill game. 
I don't believe anyone ever gets entirely over having 
the buck fever, that being the expression I was brought 
up to here, in northern Herkimer county. I've seen a 
man who has killed deer, bears, rabbits and partridges in 
profusion shake like a running brook when his gun 
missed fire at a partridge. I never saw a deer yet that 
didn't give me a thrill, and it takes about two shots to 
steady my nerves, usually. 
I shot at a deer once when it was 10 rods away, and hit 
it hard, but missed the same beast when it wasn't more 
that 15ft. from me. I had a rifle. I've missed a partridge 
with the first barrel when it was sitting still, but brought 
the same bird down from among the second growth 
spruces. 
I don't get all the game that I shoot at, but just the 
same I woulda't take a heap for that same buc£ fever. 
There isn't anything equal to a good strong attack to my 
mind. It's a pleasure. Then, too, if you bring down 
your game it is worth a good deal more just because of 
the association. A man don't seem so much like a cold- 
blooded butcher to himself or to the rest of the region, 
Of course some people would — and do — kick themselves 
for having lost control of themselves at the decisive mo- 
ment, and thus not getting so many pounds of meat worth 
so much per pound. 
I have a four-point deer head down stairs hanging over 
the dining-room mantle. It is worth just seventeen times 
as much to me as it would have been had I not run and 
needlessly danced about while I was shooting, and after 
the beast was down, wading across Moose River when it 
was cold. 
Buck fever, or what you will, has a good many strong 
points. It preserves the game, first of all. Then, too, it 
makes the old young again for a time, and brings color to 
pale cheeks, and is about the best restorer of tired and 
sickly persons there ever was. It never needs doctors to 
cure it. Raymond S. Spears. 
Northwood, N. Y. 
A THIEVING LION TAKEN IN. 
About three weeks ago I saw in the San Francisco 
dailies an account of the killing of a large mountain lion 
(Felis concoles) near Campo, in San Diego county. The 
item stated that after destroying considerable stock, in- 
cluding several valuable Angora goats belonging to Mr. 
Silas Gaskill, he was finally killed in the night by a couple 
of charges of fine shot, and that he measured 9ft. in 
length. 
The last three statements particularly attracted my 
attention. Darkness and bird shot are not usually selected 
for enterprises of this description, and the length of the 
animal, as given, was at least a foot longer than that of 
any authentic account with which I was familiar. 
Mr. Gaskill is an old friend of mine, and more than 
twenty-five years ago we hunted together in the moun- 
tains about El Campo. I knew him to be perfectly reli- 
able, and that a line dropped to him would settle, to my 
satisfaction at least, a few points about which, from the 
newspaper accounts, I was naturally a little skeptical. 
His reply reached me on the 16th insfc., and the portion 
referring to the incident in question I send you, transcribed 
exactly as it was written. He says: 
"In reply will say, as to the lion, it is correct. He 
killed fifteen fine Angora goats for me. Some of them 
cost me $250 apiece; they were thoroughbreds and very 
fine. They were running around loose herein the moun- 
tains, and I did not notice that the lion was killing them 
until he had them nearly all. He did not get any after I 
found out he was killing them. He was a very large, 
powerful animal, quite old and very fat. Mr. Hubs got 
25lbs. of fat out of him. 
"The way Mr. Hubs came to kill him was this: He had 
three good dogs, and in the night his little boy heard the 
dogs after something, and got up and went out. The dogs 
had the lion up a tree, but the boy could not see what it 
was, so he went back and called his father, who got up, 
took his double-barreled shotgun and went out. Looking 
up into the tree, he saw what he took to be a lynx or wild- 
cat and blazed away with a charge of No. 8 shot, which 
hit the lion in the face and knocked him out of the tree, 
putting out both of his eyes. When he struck the ground 
the dogs bounced him, and he reached out and grabbed 
one and killed it. While he was doing that Mr. Hubs ran 
up, placed the muzzle of the gun against his side back of 
the shoulder, and killed him with the other barrel. The 
other two dogs were also badly hurt in the fight. 
"They stretched him out while he was warm and meas- 
ured him with a pole. He measured 8ft. llfin., so near 
9ft. that they called it that." 
Some of your older readers may remember that in the 
number commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 
Forest and Stream I gave an account of a desperate 
battle that took place in Campo between the two Gaskill 
boys, Silas and Henry, and six Mexican outlaws, who at- 
tempted to rob their store, in which the former, although 
taken completely by surprise, made such a gallant defense 
that they not only frustrated the ruffians, but killed three 
and badly wounded a fourth. Henry Gaskill also was so 
seriously wounded that for many days his life was 
despaired of, but Silas escaped without a scratch. 
It may be of interest to add that the troes in the imme- 
diate vicinity of Campo are mostly a low growth of large- 
limbed oaks, and it is probable that the panther had . 
sought refuge in one of these. Forked Deer. 
Oakland, Cal. ' 
Commissioner Collins, Please Take Notice. 
Preston, Conn,, May 30.— Recently W. Virwes, a 
blacksmith, living within the city limits, shot in the 
meadow back of his shop what is supposed to be a clapper 
rail (Rallus crepitans). The bird measured from tip of bill 
to end of tail about 15in. and weighed over lib.; it was 
in spring plumage, the olive brown sides having lighter 
and darker stripes. Fifty years ago rail shooting in the 
lower Connecticut valley was a very enjoyable sport, the 
birds being very plenty. The larger varieties are now 
very scarce, but the smaller kinds still furnish good 
shooting. . E. M. Brown. 
Michigan Reform Not Reached. 
Saginaw, Mich., May 31.— I understand our Legisla- 
ture has adjourned without passing eitherthe general fish 
or game law. Thus we will still have spring shooting, 
still have selling of game, and will have to struggle along 
for two. years more, at least, with everyone doing alt 
they can to exterminate the few game birds left in our 
State. w - B - Mershon. 
North Dakota Game Abundant. 
Galesbtjrg, N. D.— Game prospects are very fine for 
this year. I never saw bird life more abundant in the 
twelve years I have been here. Chickens are especially 
numerous. More geese here this spring than in many 
years; gone north to breed now. Water is very scarce in 
the sloughs, and ducks are not as plenty as other game. 
J. P. W. 
The Page Woven Wire Fence Company, of Adrian, Mich., have 
closed a contract with Mr. Edward H. Litchfield tor fencing Litchfield 
Park, in the Adirondack^. Last fall they put in 2*4 miles of fencing 
as a "ame enclosure. The new fence will tie independent of this and 
will enclose the entire tract of 9,300 acres. It will be 93in. high and 
will contain twenty horizontal strands, varying in space from 3in. at 
the bottom to Sin. at the top. The vertical tie wires will be 12in. apart. 
The fence has proved extremely satisfactory for game preserves. 
It is extremely elastic and tougb, and where trees have fallen on it 
has straightened up at once when they were removed. The top wires 
will resist a breaking strain of 3,3O0ibs. Another advantage of its 
elasticity is the fact that growing trees can be used for posts, thus 
doing away with one great item of expense in the construction of such 
fences. 
