46 
FOREST ANrf STREAM. 
[Jan. 16, 1897. 
again. The yelping was too imp^tfect and would not 
entice themi I consumed so much time that night 
caught me halfway of the "blaze," and morniag might 
have found me still hunting for camp but for the Captain 
and the horn. 
Clouds wpre gathering, and there was lightning and 
thunder in the distance. Late in the night the rain came 
in avalanches, and next day we had to strike camp and 
move back to the house. The same story again: flat 
woods, no drainage, big rain — you, O knights of chase 
and reel, know of rainy nights and ditchlesa tents! 
After that night Mr. Stanford, like the illustrious cook, 
said, "I believe I'll quit the drive." And he was soon 
homeward bound, after we had reluctantly bidden him 
farewell and called the roll to see how many of us were 
left. 
A drove of five deer had been seen near our last camp, 
where sign was plenty. We decided to hunt this ground, 
going from the lodge on horseback. The day after camp 
was moved in, the Captain and I went out in that direc- 
tion after a flock of turkeys he had scattered late the 
evening before. He bagged one before the rest of them 
got together and stopped rpsponding to our calls — this 
time on good box callers. With his yelper on one side of 
them, and mine away off in the other direction, four or 
five young gobblers were thrown into such a state of ex- 
citement that they gobbled vigorously, though it was a 
freezing November day. Later on we had met and sep- 
arated again to circumvent another scattered flock. I 
got an answer to my yelp — a gobble. The turkey came 
nearly within sight, then turned back again to join sev- 
eral more that were answering. Creeping in the direc- 
tion he had gone, I discovered that there were a number 
of them together, and that they were no longer heeding 
my calls. The only chance was to crawl and get a shot if 
possible, or shoot anyhow to scatter them. 
A carefully executed stalk brought me within 50yd8., 
and down came the gobbler. A chance bullet went after 
one of the retreaters, scoring a miss. 
"You took that bird right out of my mouth!" said a 
voice, as I was retrieving him. There st^od the Captain 
as near the turkey as I bad been. "I called and they 
wouldn't come. Finally I decided to sneak up. I was 
drawing a bead when you fired, and had selected a sec- 
ond choice when your next shot scared him off. But I 
got another back yonder. Come, let's go to the house. 
We've got meat enough to last for a week." 
That evening we rested from our labors and cleaned 
guns. 
Two deer had been seen during the day. Next morn- 
ing two hvmters sallied forth with firm set lips and a 
grim look of venison in their faces. Half a mile from 
the deserted camp ground the Captain dismounted. "My 
horse will follow yo-u, Tripod. Hitch both horses at the 
old camp and hunt from there." 
But I met him before I got there. He looked as big as 
an old ox as he rapidly walked through the bushes 
toward me, with his nose stuck forward on a level with 
his back, and looking neither to right nor left, I had 
barely time to dismount and step in front of the horse, 
while he was passing behind some trees. An instant 
later and he sank to the ground — my first deer! 
His struggles to rise reminded me that bucks sometimes 
get up and depart after they are dead, and I poured a 
volley at him which caused him to gather himself to- 
gether and flounder off through the woods, for none of 
the bullets took effect. It must have been the ague that 
came on. I gave chase and soon came upon him, where 
he was lying down to rest. A careful shot at his head 
secured my title, and I called the Captain. 
"Was all that shooting at one deer. Tripod? I thought 
you had a whole drove!" Then he told me what a big 
one it was. Arch had to be brought out to help before 
we swung him high enough to a limb to get him on the 
horse. 
Liver, heart, kidneys, brains and tenderloins of venison 
in a stew, with "put in some of everything you've got" 
as a last direction, and you forget that the cabbage burned 
up one day. 
It was on the next morning but one that we found 
four deer, fired five shots in all and came home without 
a feather. Arch's gun was destined to be ornamented 
with the next notch, coming by it honestly on a succeed- 
ing morning. One shot did the work, and a buck was 
down almost in his tracks. 
But the buck with the big horns was yet to come. He 
came one morning a little after sunrise. 
We were out three strong that day, stationed in the 
feeding grounds, about SOOfds. apart. A crisp, frosty 
morning, sitting on a log like a statue was a cool occupa- 
tion. So still was it that cow bells two miles away were 
distinctly heard. A thrush came very near me in its 
search for a morning meal, and worked vigorously at 
tearing away the leaves which were matted together by 
the frost. Same jaybirds jayed. a squirrel ran up a tree 
with a big leaf, intended no doubt as a bay window to his 
parlor, and a scratching of bark overhead had drawn my 
attention to a big coon, when bang! went Arch's gun, 
and bang! again, then again. The coon went in a hole 
and I devoted all attention to scanning the woods for 
d^er daring the next hour, to try and get even with 
Arch. 
<'How many did you get?" I called, when we finally 
met. 
"Oh, I'm bewitched! I'm going to quit! I wouldn't 
Jiave shot again if he had been in 10ft. of me!" 
"What's the matter with you? What was it?" 
"I'm plum bewitched! The biggest deer I ever saw in 
my life! And he's got the biggpst horns! I'm clean 
done on that deer! He wasn't 70yds, away, standing 
broadside. I Sat on the log just this way, as composed as 
I am right noW; and pulled down on him. He didn't 
piove out of his tracks, only put up his head to see 
what made the noise. Then I got on my feet and shot 
again. Then I moved two or three steps up to a tree-— 
just so— and shot the third time, and that deer stood 
there long enough for me to have shot three more times 
before he moved off." 
Arch found out how the witches had worked him; his 
sight was raised for SOQyds., and he overshot 2ft. That 
night the three of us constituted a committee on resolu- 
tions against that horned deer, and next day two notches 
pidled up to the big bear notch. 
The Captain told ua how it was; "I saw them feeding 
toward me from a long way off and waited quietly. I 
could see his big horns in the bushes aod knew he was 
smoke; but soon I heard a crash and knew that he had 
fallen dead. The bullet was in the right place. The doe 
had run off some distance, but I kept my seat, and finally 
she turned back to look for the buck. When she got 
where I wanted her I gave her a center shot. She ran 
75yd8. and fell." 
The pair were hauled up in the wagon and the buck 
skinned for the taxidermist, for he and my buck will 
right nobly grace an 'alcove in Capt. Bradford's home, 
"Give me another cup of coffee, Mrs. MoMannus — this 
one has worn out," and then the Captain put on bis town 
overcoat, and we turned our faces toward the setting sun. 
Buck Ranch rests in peaceful solitude, and we dream of 
bucks with big antlers, and of the sunrise of an April 
day, of a gentle call and of answers from many gallant 
gobblers. Tripod. 
HUNTING. 
Under this title Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons have 
published in their Out-of-Door Library a volume con- 
sisting of a number of articles printed at different times in 
Scribner's Magazine. These ehapters have been revised 
by their authors and are published now in book form fpr 
the first time. 
There are eight of these sketches, written at various 
times and covering a wide range of subjects and of terri- 
tory. Five of them treat of hunting on the plains or in 
the Western mountains, one of Canada, one of Australia 
and one of the far north, Also, as was to be expected in 
view of the variety of authorship, the chapters vary a 
good deal in quality. Some of them are written by old 
campaigners, who have the faculty of telling their stories 
in a straightforward fashion and often with a consider- 
able degree of literary skill; others are not so well told 
either from the literary or the sportsman's point of 
view. 
"Hunting American Big Game" is too broad a title for 
Mr. Archibald R^gprs's capital chapter on Western bunt- 
ing, which covers elk and mountain sbpep bunting, but is 
devoted chiefiy to bears, of which Mr. Rogers is a mighty 
hunter. Besides being an excellent shot and a successful 
hunter, the author is a close observer and recounts his 
adventures in a simple and pleasing style which is very 
attractive. 
"Camping and Hunting in the Shoshone" is the title of 
Dr. W. S. Rxinsford's contribution. By Shoshone is here 
meant the Sierra Shoshone, sometimes known as the 
Absaroka Range, which lies east of the Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park, Dr, Rainsford's memories of the West go 
back to buffalo days, but it is not of these he writes here, 
but of later hunts, some of them made from Sunlight 
Basin into the mountains just beyond it, and of further 
journeys into the National Park, However much we may 
disagree with some of Mr. Rainsford's statements, and 
little as we can sympathize with him in his shooting of 
trapped bears, it cannot be denied that he tells his story 
charmingly, nor that in many respects he gives very ex- 
cellent advice to those unacquainted with travel in the 
mountains. His article is one of the best, as it is one of 
the longest, chapters in the volume. It is to be noted that 
while Dr. Rainsford intends to give Col. W. D. Pickett 
full credit for his wonderful bear-hunting record, he 
really deprives him of it by spelling his name Pigot. 
Such is fame. 
"Climbing for White Goats" is a 'short chapter by Mr. 
Geo. Bird Grinnell, which deals in part with the natural 
history and in part with the hunting of the so-called white 
goat of the Western mountains, which of course is not 
really a goat at all, but an antelope. This hunting, 
which is diflScult only on account of the altitude at 
which the species lives, combines mountain climbing 
with hunting, and so has a double atti'action. The chap- 
ter is interesting also for the faith fulneps of Mr, Thomp- 
son's illustrations, which give an excellent notion of the 
surroundings of this alpine antelope. 
"Sport in an Untouched American WilderneFs," by Mr. 
Frederic Irland, gives an account of trips made in New 
Brunswick for moose, and with the hunting there is not 
a little fishing. The pictures painted are pleasant ones, 
for Mr. Irland er joys his outing and tells his storv grace- 
fully. The illustrations of this chapter are chif fly half 
tones from photographs and one — of a salmon leaping — is 
very interesting. 
It is a far cry from the Canadian wilderness to the sheep 
ranges of Australia, of which Mr. Birgo Harrison tells us- 
in "A Kangaroo Hunt." The sketch has the attraction 
which always attaches to accounts of places and doings of 
which we know little, but aside from that, it is excellently 
conceived, well proportioned and well told. Because 
men are hunters, or love to read of hunting, it does not 
follow that they are necessarily bloody-minded, nor that 
they care to be told how a rifle ball smashed this bone or 
that, or what a beast seemed to suffer in its dying strug- 
gles Mr. Harrison saw his kangaroos at home, and not 
his kangaroos only, but other birds and beasts which in- 
habit that home; he tells us too of the sheep ranges and 
the way in which the kangaroos have been destroyed to 
make room for the sheep, whose pasture they devoured. 
An avenger for the almost exterminated kangaroo has 
been found, however, in the introduced English rabbit, 
The illustrations of the chapter are very interesting, but 
we are moved to ask whether there is not an error in the 
caption which reads, "An 'Old Man' under a Fir Tree." 
Should it not read "An 'Old Man' under a Tree Fern?" 
"The Last of the Buffalo" is a title which has been used 
too often, yet Mr. Grinnell's account of this species as it 
was in the old days is not without real interest. It is not 
surprising that people who never saw the old buffalo 
plains should imagine exaggerated the stories of the 
species' former abundance, which are given here, as they 
have often before been told by others. Stories of buffalo 
hunting by white men are common enough too, but in 
this article they are brought into contrast with aboriginal 
methods, to which considerable space is devoted. Much 
odd and unusual information about buffalo is given, 
knowledge picked up no doubt through years of residence 
on the old buffalo range. The pictures are excellent, Mr. 
Thompson's sketch, "Going to Water," being a vivid re- 
minder of the days of buffalo plenty and the Blackfoot 
piskun, being the only accurate pictorial representation 
of this device that we have ever seen. 
"At St. Mary's," by Harry C. Hale, deals with that 
beautiful region in northwestern Montana which has of 
late years become so well known to a few New York 
sporteimen. The sketch tells in a light and pleasing way 
9t tk^ ^iYmm^^. ef Wq jqw^ QWim^ wfeo west tbf 
St. Mary's Lakes in command of an escort for a party of 
West Point instructors, and while there hunted sheepi 
with ultimate success. It is perhaps not generally known' 
that the S^. Mary's Lakes are those visited by Mr. James- 
Doty in 1856, and by him called Chief Mountain Lake and 
Bow Lake. Later these lakes were lost, and for many 
years now the name Chief Mountain Lakes has been ap-^ 
plied to two connecting bodies of water lying in the moun- 
tains to the north and west, which should be known as: 
Watertown Lakes. The name St. Mary's was given the- 
lakes nearly fifty years ago by old Hugh Monroe. 
"Hunting Musk-Ox with the Dog Ribs," by Mr. Frank- 
Russell, is an extremely interesting account of a spring- 
hunting trip from Fort Rae, on Great Slave Lake, to a 
point within the Arctic Circle, near the head of Bathurst 
Inlet. The sketch is much condensed, yet in the light of 
what we know of the Barren Grounds and the hardships* 
of travel over them it gives a clear notion of the suffer-'- 
ing endured on the hunt, which lasted about a month,, 
and on which Mr. Russell secured all the skins that he- 
could haul on his sledge. Among the int resting points< 
incidentally touched on is the fact that many of the male 
Barren Ground caribou seen and killed were yet carryings 
their horns in April. The conduct of Mr. Russell's Indian' 
companions was identical with that of those who accom- 
panied Mr. Whitney on his trip. Every man raced aS' 
hard as he could to get ahead of his fellows. It was such 
an exhibition of natural selfishness as one sometimes reads; 
of. but seldom sees. 
The sketches contained in this volume are certainly- 
worth preserving in this permanent form, and the book- 
will be a welcome addition to the library of every big- 
game hunter. The mechanical part of the book is well' 
done. The binding is plain, but the page, with its large- 
type and odd, small type running heads, is very attractive.. 
ADIRONDACK DEER FACTS AND 
FIGURES. 
LFrom the report of Soperinterdent cf Forests William F. Fox, In th©! 
report for 1895 < f the CommissiorerR of Fisheries, Game 
and Forests, of New York ] 
In collecting the statistics submitted herewith, the vari- 
ous correspondents, representing every minor locality iw 
the Adirondacks, were requpsted to report also on the 
number of deer found dead in their respective districts 
during the previous winter. The large number thus re- 
ported, none of which had been killed or wounded, is a 
matter requiring serious consideration, Mr, Wellington' 
Kenwill, an intelligent and reliable guide who keeps a', 
hunter's hotel at the Indian Clparing on the headwaters of 
the South Branch of Moose River, reports ninety-three • 
dead deer found in that particular locality. It is within- 
a few years only that these stories of dead deer have been 
heard. During the last two years an increased number 
have been reported, and now information from the south 
part of St. Lawrence county indicates that a large num- 
hf^T died in that section during the winter of 1894r-95') 
Various reasons and theories have been advanced in ex- 
planation of this serious mortality among our largest andi 
best game. 
Deer Mortality. 
There seems to be a general belief among the guides and' 
hunters that the animal?) die of starvation; that, owing to 
the severe prolonged winter, the animals were unable to 
find a proper supply of food, or were powerless to travel! 
through the deep snow in search of browse; that in the 
vicinity where the carcasses were found all the foliage of 
the evergreens and buds of the hardwoods within reach 
had been entirely devoured; and that the deer, under the 
protection of the game law, had increased so rapidly" 
within a few years that there was no longer a sufficient- 
supply of food for them all during the winter season. In 
opposiHon to this explanation it is argued by others that 
the Adirondack winter is no longer or more severe, and 
the snow no deeper, than in Maine, Michigan and Canada, 
where no dead deer are found at this season; that the 
winters in the Adirondacks are no worse than years ago, 
when the deer wintered without any noticeable loss of 
this character; and that at the same time and under the 
same climatic conditions not one dead deer was observed 
in Essex county and other large areas of Adirondack ter- 
ritory. Deer have been closely observed in the vicinity of 
lumber camps, feeding on fallen tree tops, which were 
thin, weak and sickly in appearance, evidently suffering 
from some distemper; and it was noticed that these ani- 
mals died afterward, although an abundance of hay and 
other food was purposely placed within their reach. 
It has also been suggested that this great mortality 
among the deer in winter may be due to an epidemic, 
some kind of contagious distemper or epizootic. The 
deer are a species of ruminants so closely allied to certain 
of our domestic animals that there is nothing improbable 
in the idea that they may be affected with some cattle 
disease similar to that which often kills our cows and 
sheep. In reply it has been urged that the deer die 
only in winter, whereas if they perished from some 
form of cattle disease the epidemic would manifest it- 
self at other seasons as well as in winter; at least, its 
appearance would not be confined exclusively to that one 
season. 
Another theory, suggested probably by the restricted 
territory within which the deaths occurred, is that the 
deer have found there some noxious, deleterious weed 
or vegetable growth of a poisonous nature, which they 
eat, and which enfeebles them so that they die from its 
effects. The local character of the epidemic is advanced 
as warranting this idea. The indications of poison were 
so strong that It was broadly hinted in those localities that 
some guides, enraged at their exclusion from certain large 
preserves, had sought revenge by making salt licks on 
which Paris green had been sprinkled. There is no ground 
for the latter assumption, and it is an unwarranted impu- 
tation on the good reputation of the guides. If the death 
of these deer was caused by poison, it resulted from natural 
causes. 
Still another theory has been advanced by intelligent, 
observant residents in the forest — old, experienced hunt- 
ers—who assert that the deer which are found dead 
are animals that were hounded too hard; that these deer 
became overheated in some long race with the hounds, 
and then plunged into the cold waters of the lake to 
escape the dogs: and that they thereby contracted lung 
disease or some other serious ailment that either en- 
feebled them so that they were unable to withstand the 
winter, or else induced some form of acute disease that 
wa,a the direct cause of their death. But this plausible 
and reaBQoabl© explawatioa ii wesfe^Bed by the fagfe that 
