Jan. 2, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
7 
Antelope and the Great Storm. 
We are permitted to print some extracts from a private 
letter written by Dr. Edward L. Munaon, of Fort Aasin- 
Aboine, Montana, which show, among other things, how 
the bitter cold weather of the autumn and early winter 
has affected the antelope in northern Montana. 
Dr. Munson says: "Tbe snow and intensely cold 
weather have made antelope — ^never seen here in years — 
a drug on the market, A competent observer told me 
that between Havre and Glasgow, 135 miles, there were 
probably 40,000 antelope in Mild River bottom alone, a 
bunch every half mile. Every ranch has two or three 
banging up, and in Havre they were stacked up in front 
of the market like cord wood. One man killed fifteen in 
tenlminutee; another got twenty-seven in a morning; an- 
other, twenty-two in a day. The Indians are killing- 
them by the thousands over the Fort Beck and Fort Bel- 
knap reservations to the east of here. They have evi- 
dently drifted south from a long distance, probably from 
the Sascatchewan country, and few would have gone 
back had not the weather become warmer. Nothing like 
this has ever been known here. There are plenty of deer 
within reach of the post, but no one has gone for them." 
^^^^ und 0mu 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
A Question in Cookery. 
Chicago, IU., DcC. 19. — To night about 10 o'clock, 
when I went down to my club, I asked the cook, or rather 
tbe oookess, for it was a girl, to broil me a chop. As I 
leaned carelessly over the counter I noticed the cook, 
cookee or cookess, whatever title suits her, put the chop 
on top of a long iron slab which rested over the gasoline 
fire and which served as a stove top to carry all sorts of 
cooking vessels, from a frying-pan to a tea kettle. I 
asiied the girl whether that was going to be a broiled 
chop or a fried chop, and she seemed to be puzzled by 
my question, 
"Oh, I guess it's a broil," said she. "Anyhow, that's 
the way we make a broil." 
"But the fire never touched it," said I. 
"That's so," said she, "I guess it must be a fry." 
"But no butter ever touched it," said I. 
"That's so," said she, "I never thought of that. I don't 
know what it is." 
I have been thinking it over since then, and I can't tell 
what it was either. But it reminds me of all sorts of 
good chops, different from this one, which I have seen 
cooked flat down on the coals out of doors. And think- 
ing of those makes me rebellious. Somttimts I almost 
think I would rather live where they cook things flat 
down on the coals than at my club. 
A Sporting Mayor. 
Mayor Swift, of Chicago, is a red-hot sport. He goes to 
Wisconsin and Florida, and all sorts of places, and comes 
back and tells bigger stories than anybody about fish and 
game. His honor is just hack from East Florida, where 
he had a succepsful trip after alligators and other shell- 
fish. Others of the party, all of whom are of Chicago, 
were: Judge Kohlsaat, Corporation Counsel Beale, Health 
Commissioner Kerr, G. H. Wheeler, S. B. Eaymond, John 
C. Spry, Clay Mark and D. F. Flannery, and Assistant 
Chief of Police Ross. 
Mortality among Smajl Fish, 
Thpre was this week a singular instance of the fatality 
which sometimes attends small fish. The whole shore of 
Lake Michigan for nearly half a mile just off Lincoln 
Park was lined with dead minnows, which appeared to 
have died in untold thousands, from cause unknown, 
though probably from getting too near the Chicago River. 
Thousands and thousands of sea gulls came in upon the 
shore and fed upon the dead fish, making a wild and up- 
roarious scene of it all. 
Ptarmigan in Chicago. 
I append from a local daily paper a review of the South 
Water street game market, from which it appears that 
ptarmigan are among the delicacies of the season, though 
we may be allowed to doubt whether they came from 
Nova Scotia, 
"White ptarmigan or grouse from Nova Scotia, and 
imountain quail from the Rockiea, are among the Christ- 
mas novelties in the game line which South Water street 
men have on sale this year. The ptarmigan are a rarity, 
and only one importation will be made this season. The 
'birds are plump and beautiful from their diet of spruce 
buds and tender pine shoots, and their flesh is regarded 
as a great dainty. The mountain quail is a trifle smaller 
than his brother of the Mississippi Valley, and is crested, 
but not so beautifully marked,* The difficulty in getting 
them here in good marketable condition makes tiiem 
scarce. The English pheasant ia the handsomest bird in 
market, but he has ceased to be a novelty. Next to the 
wild turkey, he is the largest game bird outside of water- 
fowl that reaches this market. Wild turkeys sold at 
wholesale yesterday at 11 to 13 cents a pound, while Eng- 
lish pheasants brought $13 per dozen, Njva Scotia ptar- 
migan $5 per dozen, and mountain quail $1 per dozen." 
Chicago an Opossum Center. 
A Chicago hotel keeper had four fat possums sent to 
him this week, and one of them got away and ran down 
the alley. As the possums were intended for the Sunday 
dinner of the hotel (the Auditorium), the escape created 
great excitement. It chanced that the animal was seen 
by several colored men. From that moment the case was 
hopeless for the Auditorium. 
Ethics, 
Last week I mentioned the fox hunt of the Germania 
Club, which was to occur to-day. The agent of the Hu- 
mane Society says: "If it is a drag hunt, that is, if the 
hounds only chase foxes already killed and dragged by 
horses, we shall not interfere. But if there is any chas- 
ing of live animals we will enter the hunt ourselves and 
be in at the finish with warrants for the whole party. 
We have been assured that it will be a drag hunt, but we 
will take no chances and will be present with our depu- 
ties," If I were a fox I would rather have a run for my 
life than to bo clubbed to death and then dragged, yritix^ 
jao chance for my life, after I was 4ead, as it were. 
How Wild Turkeys Peed. 
A friend who is an old turkey hunter tells me some- 
thing which may not be familiar to all hunters of that 
matchless game bird. He says that during the day the 
gobblers and hens never feed together. They all roosfc 
together at night, but soon after they fly out from the 
roost and go to feeding, say after 10 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, the hens and gobblers straggle apart and remain sep- 
arated till evening. This is their habit from the month of 
October on through the winter. 
From Florida. 
Mr. Byron S. Swearingen, of Tallahassee, Fla., is good 
enough to write as below in regard to the sport in his sec- 
tion of tbe world. A great many sportsmen go to Florida 
each winter from Chicago, and all speak of it as a land of 
beauty, peace and loveliness, Mr. Swearingen says: 
' Sportsmen in this vicinity are hunting a great deal, 
with splendid success. Quail, woodcock, snipe and doves 
are very plentiful this year, and ducks are abundant on 
the many beautiful lakes in thS surrounding country, A 
two hours' drive will take one to good turkey shooting, 
and at a distance of twenty miles deer are easily found. 
There are a great many splendid dogs owned here, and 
they are not only good show dogs, but good, hard 
workers. There are a number of Northern sportsmen 
here, and a good many more are expected after the holi- 
days." 
The Fox was Dead. 
Deo. SO. — The IVibune, of Chicago, prints this morning 
the following description of the fox hunt of the Germania 
Club, to which earlier reference has been made. The re- 
port shows alike the humaneness of some humanity and 
the sportsmanlikeness of some sport: 
"At 2:30 P, M, the Germania Riding CJub, the Garfield 
Park Equestrian Club, the Chicago Hussars, and other 
riding organizations in uniform, left the Sheridan Drive 
club house at North Clark street and started for Dymond 
Farm, west on Montrose Boulevard about a mile. Ray- 
nard was carried in a cage in the band wagon, and the 
thirty hounds kept up an eager barking from an adjoining 
wagon, 
"At North Leavitt street the progress of the cavalcade 
was interrupted by an accident. W, C, Mortimer, of the 
Germania Club, lost control of his horse. Two bicycles 
were run into and their riders thrown, one of whom, J. I. 
Smith, No. 1744 North Halsted street, was picked up in an 
unconscious condition and taken to a neighboring house. 
The horse then dashed into a carriage and threw the rider 
into a ditch. The horseman, however, sustained no in- 
jury' 
"On arriving at Dymond Farm reynard was taken 
from his cage and the hundreds of people who had assem- 
bled waited breathlessly for the start. But what was 
their surprise and disappointment on seeing the little ani- 
mal quickly dispatched with a blow on the head from a 
club, the Humane Society deputies critically watching 
the operation. As the dead fox was tied to the tail of a 
horse and eralloped across the prairies a derisive shout was 
sent up. The hounds were set loose a moment later, but 
did not take the scent. They ran in all directions and 
dodged the riders as they came on eager for the glory of 
winning the brush. The horse, with its dead fox attach- 
ment, made a circuit of about two miles, the riders fol- 
lowing far behind, being delayed by their efforts to coax 
the hounds to keep the scent. Only two dogs out of the 
pack were found near the finish, and as no one had 
caught up with the fox a controversy arose as to who 
should have the brush. It was finally awarded to A. M. 
Booth, who bid $30 for it. 
"For several hours the country was sceured for the scat- 
tered hounds. When they were brought in all the party 
rode back to the Sheridan Drive club house and ban- 
queted in hunters' style, 
"J. M, McGarigle declared to a Tribune reporter that 
the party had had more fun than if a live fox had been 
chased, 'We now have a brush to show for the chase,' 
he said, 'but if the fox had been alive he would have run 
into tbe woods, where we never could have caught him,' " 
St. Paul Wolf Hunt. 
Sportsmen of St, Paul, Minn., are making plans for 
their annual wolf hunt, and a local paper of St. Paul 
says: 
"A party of gentlemen interested in getting up a 
wolf hunt for this season had a meeting at Kennedy's 
yesterday afternoon, R, G, Brooks, one of the bast 
known deer hunters in the city, is taking a lively inter- 
est in the matter, and interested with him are W. H. 
Ebner, Captain Gibbs and several other equally well- 
known shots. Letters have been received from several 
points in this State and Wisconsin requesting the hunters 
to visit these points for the hunt. The last of these came 
to-day from Ernest Reinins, State game warden at Aitkin, 
Minn, 
"Reinins begins by assuring the projectors of the wolf 
hunt that they will get all the game tney want by hold- 
ing their big hunt in Aitkin county, He says that in the 
great swamp wilderness, on range 83 of that county, and 
about twenty miles west of Moose Lake, the wolvps are so 
thick that it is hardly safe for a human being to travel 
the territory in daylight, and at night parties caught in 
the strip are comp lied to light fires all round them to 
keep the timber wolves away." E. HouGH. 
1206 BoYCE Building, Chicago. 
The Falling Game Supply. 
COMOS, B. C, Nov. 30, — Editor Forest and Stream: 1 
have been so much occupied by official duties of late years 
that I really have almost forgotten how to shoot the old 
rifle. I was up among the Islands of the Gulf a short 
time ago, but Ine weather had been so fearfully dry that 
hunting was paralyzed quite, 
I got a couple of small deer, very poor. Grouse were 
scarce, and what with the dry weather, duties and being 
restricted to time I did not have any sport to speak of. 
Neither did I come across any live mastodons, which I 
notice Mr, Hallock claims still exist in Alaska. Would 
not mythadons be a better name for the beast? 
I have read with great interest the efforts at game pro- 
tection in the United States in Forest and Stream. How 
important this is we can jud^e out herein the f artnest 
if not the woolliest West. Here, where shooters are few 
indeed compared with the hordes of the effete EiSt, game 
of all kinds is getting alarmingly scarce. Geese and 
ducks, it|L localities which ^ half iiomn years ago fairlv 
swarmed with them, are now exceedingly scarce and be- 
coming scarcer every year. 
The ruff'^'d grouse a few years ago were as plentiful 
here as chicks in a barnyard. Lucky the man who gets 
six couple nowadays under the most favorable of circum- 
stances and in the very best and least hunted ground. 
Deer of course still hold their own, having the gireat 
ranges of hills as reserves to draw from. Coons don*t 
count. Cross ring-neck pheasants we introduced here 
some years ago are doing remarkably well. California 
Valley quail we tried, but they did not succeed. 
I hope the foreign birds introduced in the United 
States, capercailzie, black game, etc., will succeed. It 
seems that our poor ruffed grouse are doomed. Let us 
hope that they may be replaced by some worthy species, 
though from a gastronomic point of view that is impossi- 
ble. W. B. A. 
BOSTON NOTES. 
Boston, Dec. 19 — Messrs. Walter L. Hill and James 
Bailey have gone on a duck shooting trip to the home of 
the Ragged Island Club in Old Virginia. They are the 
guests of Mr, Wbodward, a prominent friend and member 
of the club, and several years its president. 
E. M, Gillam and Frank W. Hallowell were out in the 
woods of Reading Friday forenodn after partridges. They 
had remarkably good success, securing four birds. They 
were back in Boston again by noon. 
The Wayne H. North party, including Dr. Frederick 
Freeman, Bert Atkins and IVI. D. Cressey, is back in Bos- 
ton after a successful big-game hunt in Maine, Their 
camp was at Big Fish Lake, Aroostook county. They 
secured seven deer and three caribou, Mr. North, who 
had the misfortune to badly strain the ligaments of his 
knee the first day he hunted, is very enthusiastic concern- 
ing the game in that section. He says that it is no trick 
at all to get deer, while the caribou are very plenty. They 
also located moose several times, but were prevented 
from securing therp. bv snows coming in the night, fol' 
lowed by crusts, Mr. North's hunting trip was completely 
ruined by his accident. He could scarcely step at all, but 
would not permit of the party breaking up to get him out. 
He stayed the whole ten days in camp, with nothing t© 
enjoy but the pain in his knee. It was all done by step- 
ping over a log on to what looked like firm snow, but was 
in reality but the covering of one of those treacherous 
holes the hunter has to avoid It is about three daysfrom 
Boston to that favored bunting ground. 
The Magaguadavic Fish and Game Club gave a recep- 
tion and dinner to Thomas A Sullivan, their superin- 
tendent and general manager, who is in Boston on a 
visit, Mr, Geo. D Loud is secretary and treasurer. The 
club is popular, with its list of membership about full, 
Dec. — Mr, Walter L. Hill is back from his shooting 
trip to the home of the Ragged Island Club, He was ac- 
companied by James A. Bailey, Jr., late Senator-elect. 
Mr. Hill was the guest of C. A. Woodward, formerly 
president of the club, and Mr. Biiley, though invited at 
the suggestion of Mr. Woodward, was taken in hand by 
Mr, Davis, the present president of the club. That the 
Boston gentlemen enjoyed the shoot thoroughly goes 
without saying. They got six or seven csmvasbacks and 
other ducks without number. They shot four days in all. 
Wednesday is a closed day to all shooting — a "rest day" it 
is termed there — according to the laws of Virginia, and 
also Saturday and Sunday. This gives the birds time to 
rest. It seems that wild goose shooting is not considered 
quite up to the mark by the sportsmen of Currituck 
Sound, but tbe geese were remarkably plenty, Mr, Hill 
remarks that a boy was out in a boat just below them and 
in less than half a day he had twenty-one geese, loading 
the boat almost full. Mr. Bailey desired to shoot a goose 
or two and Mr. Da'vis fixed him out with decoys. In half 
a day he got seven geese. This he considers remarkable 
shooting for a Boston sportsman. Both gentlemen are 
greatly pleased with the shooting and the courtesies of 
the Ragged Island Club. President Cleveland was shoot- 
ing not far below them a part of the time, 
I hear a great deal of dissatisfaction expressed among 
sportsmen in this vicinity at the bare thought that the 
Maine Commissioners suggest, according to reports, the 
changing of the legal open season on deer to from 
Sept, 15 to Nov. 15, Such a law will leave no chance 
whatever for deer hunting on snow, since there rarely is 
any snow in that State before Nov. 15. Sportsmen say 
that if deer were scarce and on the decrease there would 
be good reason for such a law, but so long as the reverse 
is true there is no need of shutting off the last of Novem- 
ber. Making the open season end withD^c. 1 would be 
far better and would seem to afford the deer ample pro- 
tection. The opening of the last of September is looked 
upon as a very safe move, so far as the deer are con- 
cerned. So dense is the folia^n all through September 
and well into October there ia little chance of finding 
deer. Water hunting is forbidden in that State, and 
hence few deer would be taken in September, provided 
the laws are enforced. 
Mr. J, S, Clarke, Jr., is bick from Billy Soule's Pleas- 
ant Island campa. He is much pleased with that region, 
though not particularly successful in getting big game^ 
Active measures are being taken to remove the deai trees 
from the shores of the lake there. Special. 
Effect of the Game Laws in Michigan. 
A CORRESPONDENT in D ^troit, Mich. , says in a recent let- 
ter: ' Parcridge and qutil shooting has been very good 
and the birds are on the morease, thanks to the good Jaw 
that prohibits their sale. This law has been in force two 
years. I went north of Bi,y City the week after election 
and bagged sixty-eight partridges and thirty quail; and 
you must bear in mind that that is not a quail country. 
I have never seen quail in that section before. I had one 
dog, a young pointer, that had never worked on partridges 
before; but he did fairly well. I had a finp shoot, but 
being alone did not enjoy myself as well as if I had a good 
companion along with me," 
Louisiana Quail. 
OPELOUSAS,La., DiC 6 — The fields are alive with quail. 
NtVer before in tue history of the country has there been 
such an abundance of them. The open season began on 
Nov. 1, but the cover was then too rank to permit of nice 
shooting. The cattle are now in most ftcldp, and it is 
much more pleasant now to hunt. We are enjoying fine 
weather, njild and pleasant. Last week we were treated 
lo severe freezes, ih% ftrst of the ae&eoii, T. A, ^5 
