B04 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
LJtmE 36, 1897. 
no shoe tie is good which fastens the foot tight to the show- 
shoe so that it cannot he detached instantly. If I had my 
toe fast by the toe strap I had either to take off my moc- 
casin with the snowshoe, or to stop to unbuckle the toe 
strap every time I took off the shoes. This I remedied by 
using a big over-moccasin, which I left attached to the 
snowshoe all the time, slipping my foot, cl^d in a smaller 
moccasin, into this big moccabin when I put on the shoes. 
Some such rig as this, I believe, is as good as any I know 
for moccasin work on ordinary snowshoeing, and it was 
the one decided upon by all our party at the time when 
we arrived at the agency, though we had all decided not to 
try the moccasin, but to use instead the low rubbor shoe, 
which we learned to be necessary in that damp snow at 
that season of the year — late winter. Of course, it may be 
observed from all this that we were not to use the skii at 
all, the long shoes being out of the question in the continu- 
ous climbing and wallowing about in deep and steep places 
which lay before us. 
At the agency we met the issue clerk, Mr. Parsons, a 
gentleman of an original and inventive turn of mind, and 
to Mr. Parsons we owe a debt of gratitude greater than any 
novice of the party can ever understand; for had a novice 
undertaken our trip with a snowshoe tie such as those pre- 
scribed by the sporting goods clerk, he simplj'- could not 
have made the trip. As it was, Mr. Parsons fixed us all up 
with a snowshoe rig of his own invention, which brought 
us all through safely, and which I do not hesitate to call 
the one and only tie for that rough mountain work. It is 
not really a tie, but a harness, like that of a skate strap. 
The toe piece was about an inch' wide, with a soft bit of 
leather under it to protect the toe against chafing by the 
buckle which regulated the strap. This toe strap passed 
entirely under the shoe, and was continuous, thus stiffen- 
ing the shoe very much at a point where the weight 
causes the most sagging. Back from the toe on each side, 
and riveted to the strap on each side, ran a single wide 
strap, which passed back of the heel and buckled at one 
side. This strap could, of course, be regulated as easily as 
a skate strap. It was kept from falling down too low at 
the heel by means of a light strap which crossed over the 
instep, and which was riveted to the heel strap 
on each side. In putting on the shoe, one sim- 
.ply kicked his toe into the toe strap, and buckled 
the heel strap, and there he was! The leather 
was good stout harness leather from Uncle Sam's shop, 
and hence much less liable to stretch with a wetting than 
would be any flimsy thong. It did not punish the foot in 
the least, and of course, as it was not fast in any way at 
the heel, it played as freely as though it were made of the 
softest thongs, though it held the foot from forward or 
backward slip as though with a hand of iron. Mr. Par- 
sons had been in these mountains on the shoes, and said 
he had found this the best rig he could get. In this he 
was surely right. He was good enough to fix up all our 
shoes for us in this way, and only those of us who had 
gone through the misery of thong ties before then knew 
how great a boon he thus conferred on us. The thong 
and the rag strine will do all right for the flat woods, 
where one can scuffle along almost any way on the shoes; 
but when it comes to going up and down mountains as 
steep as the roof of a house, the tie must be something a 
lot more effectual and permanent. I have never seen 
the Parsons harness on any snowshoe before, but no other 
fastening will ever again go on any snowshces of mine. 
The only bad feature about it is the disillusionment it 
Implies. Most people who go on snowshoes like to write 
about the dreaded mal de mcquette. With this harness 
there is no such thing, Not to have mal de racqmtte, or 
any other highly correct ailment, will perhaps deprive the 
sport of some of its charm to many persons. 
After fixing up the Parson's harness, we irnproved the 
Montreal shoes by weighting the heels with lead, thns 
altering the hang of them so they would not flap up at 
every step and continually threaten their wearer with a 
tumble. 
In the matter of clothing, as I have said, there was the 
usual personal latitude. We none of us used the moccasin 
except about the camp, but preferred the rubber shoe, low 
and soft and waterproof. We all wore the heavy German 
sock, over one or two pairs of thinner woolen socks. 
McChesney found his trousers too tight to allow in their 
compass all the shirts he wanted to wear, so he just let 
one or two shirts hang down outside, and found a heavy 
woolen shirt in this way as good as a sweater. Schultz 
wore a heavy sweater under his corduroy coat. Billy 
Jackson showed up in a regular Hudson Bay outfit, 
blanket coat, blanket breeches, long woolen stockings, and 
blanket hood or "capshaw" attached to his coat so that he 
could completely cover his head. Sometimes he found 
this too warm, and then reverted to a soft, wide hat. 
O-to-ko-mi, our Indian hunter, clung to the white man's 
dress of many shirts and woolen outer garments. I used 
the buckskin shirt over a woolen shirt, and wore no 
waistcoat, and I think a good skin shirt is the best and 
warmest garment for its weight that a man can put on. 
At times a heavy snow would wet it a little, but, barring 
this disadvantage, this garment is perfect. No one can 
know how piercing a Hocky Mountain wind can get who 
has not tried it, and I found that buckskin stopped it 
better than any fabric. As I cannot wear a cap, it seem- 
ing too warm when on the march, I stuck to the broad 
hat, but wore under it a yarn toque to keep my ears from 
freezing, if the weather got very cold. McChesney also 
sported a toque, of brilliant red, but preferred a cap to the 
Western hat. 
Knives. 
There is no article of the hunter's outfit more abused 
than the knife in its shapes as offered a long-suffering pub- 
lic. There was no one of our party who had not gotten 
far beyond the stage where one carries one of those long, 
sharp-pointed abominations sold in the stores as "hunting 
knives." Just who buys these things I never could see. 
Yet we had diverse tastes in knives in our party. Billy 
Jackson had the great original grandpapa of all the knives, 
an old, old Hudson Bay cleaver of the type which was 
once issued by that company to all its men. This knife is 
much like a Bobo bear knife. It weighs about 41bs., and 
has a blade about Sin. wide, so it can be used as an axe, as 
a meat axe, as a knife, a hammer, or several other tools. 
The steel in this blade was the best I ever saw. We 
chopped down trees with this knife, cut tin cans in two 
with it, split sheep along the back bone with it, and used 
it with the least of care; yet while my own little trapping 
^e came out nicked and dull, and my knives needed many 
sharpenings, as did those of all the others, Billy's big knife 
was fresh as a daisy at the end of that trip. He gave it to 
McChesney, I believe, and wherever it is it should be pre- 
served as a valuable relic of the past. It has split many a 
buffalo in its day.* 
Schultz used the knife commonly used by old- time guides 
and trappers, and really about as sensible a knife as one 
can take— a good big jackknife, which is good enough to 
cut, skin or whittle with. McChesney had a couple of 
straight-bladed knives made according to his notion. I 
had a short, rubber-handled sheath-knife with a good 
blade, and also a short skinning knife. I nearlj^ always 
carry a light axe when I am on a woods tramp, as it comes 
very useful if you miss connections on getting into camp 
any night, and is moreover handy in a dozen ways during 
the day. 
Rifles. 
Of rifles we had two kinds, both good. McChesney had 
a half-magazine Winchester, .45-70, with which he had 
killed a number of caribou in Newfoundland, and which 
was of course a good gun for big game. I had along two 
rifles, one a .45-70, which I intended to use, and one a 
.30-30 nitro Winchester, which I did not intend to use (but 
which I really did use all the time). This latter gun was 
very much lighter, of course, than the big .45-70, but to the 
latter I held to the last moment, knowing how reliable is 
the .45-70 on heavy game — far more so, of course, as all the 
mountain men will tell you, than the .45-90, which theoret- 
ically should be good but isn't, albeit much exploited in its 
day. Of course, a .45-90 will kill game, and has killed a lot 
of it. So will a .44-40, and the latter has killed more game 
than all the other rifles of the country together, but I 
wouldn't care for one very rnuch now. Indeed, T don't 
know that I dare care very much any longer for even the 
old .45-70 on any game smaller than big bear, or perhaps 
moose or elk. On sheep or goats — but I am about to 
digress again. 
The way I happened to take along the little Winchester 
was this: Mr. Hirth, of Spaldings, had this gun, all done 
up in a beautiful fancy gun case and wrapped in tissue 
paper. He never shot it, and never would have shot it, 
but he came to me and said he heard I had no confidence 
in the small-bore nitro rifles on game, and he wanted to 
show me I didn't know anything much anyhow. He in- 
sisted I take his rifle along' and kill him a sheep with it, 
and to oblige him I took it, not intending to risk much 
with it. He had it fitted with Lyman sights, front and 
rear. I tried the rifle forty shots with this outfit of sights, 
down at the Calumet Heights Club one day before I 
started, and I never did hit a single thing with it, or even 
learn where the bullets went. I figured I would do well 
if I shot that way in the mountains. Then I remembered 
that maybe the Lyman front sight was not the same 
height as the front sight issued by the Winchester people 
when they put out the gun. I hammered out the Lyman 
front sight and hammered in the plain sight that origin- 
ally came on the gun; and just then the train whistled 
and I had to start for Montana without ever trying the 
gun in that way. At the agency we had the first chance 
to do this, and improved the opportunity during the 
afternoon. 
Billy Jackson, McChesney and myself all took a hand 
at sighting this little rifle, and we used the plain front 
sight, the flat bar rear sight and the Lyman rear sight, all 
three of them in a line, the Lyman sight being screwed 
down till the front sight looked just fine enough in the bar 
notch of the rear sight. Then we knew the alignment 
was all right, and it was only a question of elevation. All 
the guides insisted on using the Lyman rear sight and 
taking off the rear bar with which the gun was fitted as 
sent from the factory. I have never used a Lyman sight, 
and was afraid to risk learning it at the time. I was 
trained by my old father on open sights, on the old Ken- 
tucky rifle, and didn't know how to shoot any other kind. 
Schultz told me that the common fault of over-shooting on 
game was not so apt to occur with the Lyman sight, so I 
• went so far as to leave the Lyman rear on the gun while 
we were sighting it, valuing 'the certainty it thus gave us 
of always keeping that little fine front sight just so full in 
the center of the hind sight bar. 
We made an effort to shoot a shot or so, but as the sun- 
light was blindiug (we all wore smoked glasses while not 
actually shooting) we found it necessary to smoke the 
front sight of the rifle. It was astonishing what a difier- 
ence this made. The white metal front sight, which had 
been dancing and glimmering, was now steady and keenly 
clear to the eye. AVe began our sighting practice at about 
25yds,, using .a rest, and the three of us, firing one shot 
each at an inch bull, put three shots at the top edge of it, 
all so close that the end of a finger would cover them. 
That satisfied us for that range, and we advanced to 50yds. 
Here we found the rifle was perfect, putting all the shots 
on a Sin, black spot, or so close that we were satisfied it 
was in the holding. At 60yds. we found the practice 
harder of course, but could always call the shot. There 
were no wild shots. At 75 Billy fell out of the game, as he 
made one or two misses, so we set him to tending target. 
Then we put the pasteboard, with a black spot on it about 
4in. or so marked in its center, off at about 90 or lOOyds., 
as nearly as we could tell the distance. Here I fired a half 
dozen shots, and to my great surprise got one or two right 
on the black and all the others so near that I knew the 
gun would do far better shooting than lay in my eyes and 
hands to do. We did not change the elevation of sights 
at all, but at lOOyds. I held full on the mark. I saw at 
once that I haS never fired a rifle that needed so little 
nursing on the elevation question, and I could not see how 
it would be possible to miss a sheep at say 200yds. if one 
held between the top and the middle of the body with any 
* June 5,— Tbis Is a very small world. Mr. McChesney writes me 
from Troy incidentally as below: "Thui'sday eveninsr Mr Fred 
Farmer, of Tbree Bivers. Quebec, was at the club, and for a couple 
of hours we hunted moo?e and caribou, and caught trout all through 
the country where he is lumbering. He said that a week ago last 
Wednesday, while some.logs were being brought through some of the 
small lakes, the biggest moose he ever saw came down on the shore, 
looked ac them for a moment and then swam across, passing within 
about iCOft. of the men on the logs. A few minutes after he disap- 
peared in the woods, he came back again and swam back across the 
lake. 
'■While speaking of my big knife presented to me by Billy Jackson, 
Mr Farmer said that his brother George Farmer, now of Chicago, 
some years ago brought a similar one down from York factory, where 
he had been connected with the Hudson Bay Co," 
1 know Mr. George Farmer, of Obicago. very well, and have heard 
him speak of the old Hudson Bay koife which he used to see In the fur- 
trading days, this being, as I take it. identical with the big knife which 
Billy gave Mr. McChesney. Those were very honest knives, 00(; 
built for a few idle moments of whittling ob a store box. 
kind of sight at all, fine, medium fine or full, not using any 
change at all in the lOOyds. sights. Billy said we wonld be 
apt to get our shots closer than that. : " 
All at once I gained a great confidence in the shooting 
of this little gun, seeing that the early bad practice with it 
was entirely due to the fact that the front sight had not 
been left on as the factory placed it. With the full set of 
Lyman sights, this gun needs an entire resighting With 
the front sight left alone, the Lyman sight or the Lyman 
rear with the plain bar back sight can be used all right, 
and will give beautiful results, as we proved very clearly. 
Moreover, we were startled to see that the soft-nosed bul- 
lets smashed entirely through the Sin. cedar post against 
which our target was leaning, and drove splinters 30ft. be- 
yond it. Billy Jackson said I would be foolish if I did not 
use that rifle and lay aside the .45-70, and I admitted so 
much as to say I would tr^ it once on big game if I had the 
chance. The lightness of the gun was a great advantage 
in the hard mountain-climbing on the snowshoes, where 
every ounce of weight counts so much in the day. As I 
took the little beauty into the house after our tests of it I 
felt acloud lift from my my mind, for I knew I had a gun 
with which I could at least hit something, and that my 
earlier judgment was wrong through my own lault in using 
the gun. The story of this little rifle shall follow; at pres- 
ent I need only say that I had a big war with Mr. Hirth 
when I got home, he claiming that I had borrowed his 
favorite gun from him and would have to return it, and I 
claiming that I had bought the gun of and neglected to pay 
for it. The end of the war was that he never got his gun 
back again at all, though I had to plead a long time before 
he would accept money instead of the gun. But it's my 
gun now. 
Billy Jackson took with him another nitro small-bore 
rifle, a Winchester box-magazine. Government model, a 
still harder hitting gun than mine, though not so hand- 
some we thought. It was arranged that O-to-ko-mi should 
shoot whichever one of my guns I did not care to use. 
Schultz did not want any gun, as he said he would not 
hunt any how. So much for our battery and our outfit. I 
should not omit to mention as one of our party our dog 
Shep, a wooly canine, warranted to run cats or mountain 
lions, and of long experience with a fellow dog, Patty, on 
the trapper's trail at the summit of the range, where 
Boak's partner, Scott, was at that time operating. 
[to be contikued.] 
GIANT MOOSE HEADS. 
Tub two great Alaska moose heads illustrated and de- 
scribed in our issues of Jan. 23 and 30 and March 6 have 
both been sold. Mr. W. W. Hart sold his recently to a gen- 
tleman whose name is not stated, and the head belonging 
to Mr. W. F. Shcard, of Tacoma, Wash,, has been gold to 
Sir Bache Cuuard. of Eogland 
Through the courtesy of Mr. L. G. Bigelow, to whom tbis 
latter head was consigned in New York prior to shipment to 
England, a Eokest and Stream, representative saw it at the 
Erie freight station last week. The measurement of 73^in. 
spread, as given by Mr, Sheard, was confirmed, but though 
this head has the greatest spread of any heretofore recorded, 
it is not nearly so fine in other respects as that secured and 
mounted by Mr. Hart, The palms are not by any means so 
broad nor have they anything to approach the lineal area 
of the latter. In fact, aside from its unprecedented spread, 
the head is a veiy ordinary one. 
The head was found at Pier 31, North River, crated and 
piled high up on a pyramid'of tea boxes. Instead of coming 
through as ordinary freight from Tacoma, it had been shipped 
by the tea train which meets the JSIorthexn Pacific Chmese 
steamers. The freight hands thought it came from China, 
and called it the "Chinese deer." 
It was shipped in a slatted crate, which permitted meas- 
urements to be taken of the horns, though the head itself was 
wrapped in burlaps. 
The right horn is larger in every respect than the left, 
though it has only seventeen points, while the left has 
twenty-two. Three of the latter are underneath the horn, 
however, including one stub 6iti. in length, so that in tbis 
respect to all appearances the horns balance very well. 
The right horn has about 4sq. ft. of linear surface, and the 
left about 3|sq ft. Both horns are doubly palmated, and in 
both the extreme width of the front part, exclusive of points, 
is lt)in. The minimum width df ihe palm itself, measured a 
third of the way up, is lli'in. for the right horn nd 11 in. 
for the left. The maximum width of the upper palms 
(exclusive of points) is 15in, for the right horn and 14in for 
the left. The average width of the right palm is about 13in. 
and of the left about 13in. The extreme length of palms 
from extremity of points is iii'm. for the right and 43iin. 
for the left. These measurements, it must be noted, are 
taken in the shortest direction and do not fo'low the curva- 
ture of the horn, and such being the case, Ihey do not, of 
course, give the exact extent of the horns. They will 
serve, however, to convey an approximate idea of the size. 
As the right horn is very muqh more deeply hollowed than 
the left, its actual surface is slifl greater in proportion to the 
other than the figures indicate, The horns are fluted more 
than is common in Eastern specimens, and both are dented 
on top in several places ia a way that is bard to account for. 
The curved outside edge of the right horn has a hole running 
entirely through that looks as if it might have been made by 
a bullet, and in line with it on the other horn is a scar that 
might also have been due to the same cause. 
While we have no exactly corresponding figures relative to 
the moose head secured by Mr. Hart on which to base a 
comparison, some general measurements taken by Forest 
AND Stream will serve to indicate the superiority of this 
latter specimen aside from spread. 
"The length of right horn, measmed from the brow antler 
to the most distant prong of the palm on the posterior side 
of the horn, is boi'io.; the length of the palm measured along 
the curve is 41in., and a straight line drawn from the burr 
to the most distant point of the palm is 40in. The width of 
the palm, measured along its posterior side following the 
curve, is 43in." The spread is 70Jin., and the maximum 
width of palm exclusive of points 29in. From these figures 
it would appear that the superficial horn area of this speci- 
men is nearly twice as great as that of the other. Wiile, 
therefore, the Sheard head, with it^ 73^in., has undoubtedly 
the greatest spread, it is hardly correct to call it the largesti 
bead in the world, or fpr that matter the finest. 
