84 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
axTii^ 31, 1897. 
expected every moment to jump the cat, but it seemed that 
the latter had never stopped at all, but had swung right on 
back up the mountain. To make a long trail short, we 
came out again right at the carcass from which we had 
started, and there lost our trail in a confusion of cat trails 
which seemed to be the result of general cat carnival the 
night before. Once or twice the dog made as though to 
run the trail, but we did not let him go, as we wanted as 
close a start as possible. He was unable to hit off any trail 
at the carcass, and we concluded that probably the animal, 
whatever it was, had gone up over the bare country into 
the rocks above us. We thus had three hours of the hard- 
est sort of climbing for nothing. "Talk about your evil 
spirit " said Schultz, "«do you know what we've been follow- 
ing all day? It's not any cat, but o' d Pah-kuk-kus himself, 
that we're trailing. We might as well quit and go home." 
So we did quit and go home, with no results except a 
splendid day in the mountains, which were luminous all 
day long and very beautiful to look upon. 
When we started down the mountain we took along 
both quarters of the ram, Schultz packing these slung 
across his shoulders. Long before we got into the well- 
beaten trail w^hich we had now beaten down for nearly two 
miles, the weight of so much meat began to make itself 
felt, and Schultz was very tired as well as myself, so we 
cached one hindquarter in a tree near the trail and only 
took one into camp. There was no fresh meat killed that 
day, but we still had enough left to make a good supper. 
Billy Jackson, having spent the day in camp, and not hav- 
ing had the pleasure of chasing Pali-kuhlcm over the 
hills and far away, or of climbing the ice peaks after sheep 
to no avail, was unanimously voted cook for the evening. 
He got out his trusty Dutch oven, and constructed one of 
his noblest stews, from the bottom up, putting in beef, 
sheep, tomatoes, macaroni and beans in quantity sufficient 
to feed a dozen men of ordinary appetite, though it did not 
last long when we got at it. I should think we each ate 
about 31bs. of stew, to say nothing of a dozen or two cakes 
of the sort composed by Schultz in his happiest moments 
at the fireside. We did not bake any bread, but after our 
pilot bread gave out made c^kes fresh each meal. As 
Schultz was the cake artist, he rarely got to eat anything 
for an hour or so, the others kept him so busy; but under 
this tribulation he was very patient and good-natured. 
We had a splendid grub list along on this trip, and surely 
lived high, considering our unpromising - surroundings. 
We had a keg of good butter, all the tinned vegetables we 
wanted, some cans of maple syrup, and everything one 
could ask for a camp menu of more than usual ambitious- 
ness. McChesney and I. who had come expecting to rough 
it to far greater extent, often commented on our outfit, and 
we still time and again asked ourselves whether it was 
really true that we were out in the Eockies in the winter, 
with snow and ice and storm all about us, while we were 
so warm and comfortable and well fed all the time. 
We passed another night of Indian talk and Western 
stories and sign language. My friends were very patient 
-with my clumsy efforts with the Piegan tongue. There is 
a difference between the white man and the Indian in 
linguistic matters. The white man will make a bluff at 
speaking what few words he knows, or thinks he knows, 
of the Indian language, often making himself very ridicul- 
ous; on the other hand, the Indian may know a great deal 
more of the white man's language than he lets on, but he 
will not speak in any tongue but his own, being much 
afraid of making a mistake, at which he would be very 
much ashamed. I found evidence at times that O-to-ko- 
mi understood a good many English words, but it was very 
rarely he ever tried to say one, though he would take any 
pains to repeat words for me, and explain their meanings. 
Thus we came to know the words for "gun," "knife," 
"meat," "sheep." "ram," "big," "little," "good," "bad," etc., 
etc. As for thei:heory of the Piegan tongue, the forms of 
its declensions, its grammar, or anything of that sort, I 
could not get a trace. It seems to me that a man in learn- 
ing Piegan must learn each word all by itself, and not ex- 
pect to meet it again in disguised form. But this I say 
from the standpoint of one but very slightly advanced in 
the tongue, as I think I know only nine words of Piegan in 
all, and I sometimes get them mixed. 
It being now accepted as a fact that we were being per- 
secuted bv evil spirits, as proved by the actual footprints 
of Pall ktik-kus himself, we all now began to ascribe any 
unusual or unpleasant incident to such agencies. If a man 
lost his cap or his gloves, some one would sing out, "Pah- 
kuk-kus has got them," and Pah-kuk km was made subject 
to more than one uncomplimentary remark. McChesney 
still denied that his umbrella had anything to do with the 
condition of the weather or the hunting, but in this he was 
obviously wrong, and we deplored this evident bias in his 
beliefs. When O-to-ko-mi went to bed, he shook his head 
and muttered yet again his dismal word of "■Al-m-poin- 
sianV E. Hough. 
1206 Boscffi BtjUiDikg, Chicago. 
Why Has the Fishiag: Changed? 
Hackensack, K. J.—E(li(o7' Forest and Stream: Can you 
or any of your readers explain why It is so many of our 
fishing grounds, after years of good sport, seem so suddenly 
to give out without any apparent good reason? 
To illustrate: In 1885 1 visited Brandreth Lake, Hamilton 
county, N. Y. This superb httle lake at that time was an 
ideal spot for anglers. The water was cold and deep; the 
forest, yet untouched, grew down to the water's edge; and 
all along its shaded shores good-sized speckled trout fairly 
swarmed, while in the deeper waters lake trout were easily 
caught at all seasons, some of them of great siz?. With the 
exception of suckers and a few shiners, these were the only 
fish known. Now this lake was strictly preserved and com- 
paratively few fish killed in it, yet I noticed on subsequent 
visits that the stock of both brook and lake trout was 
rapidly decreasing, and at the present time it is very poor. 
The only possible reason I can see is that the suckers, which 
are on the increase, may destroy the spawn, but that hardly 
seems sufficient cause. Again, when I first visited Lake 
Konkonkoma down on Long Island, black bass of the large- 
mouth variety could be caught in great numbers, even on 
the artificial fly, as most anglers know. Now it is impossible 
m find anv sport even with bait, much less with the fly. The 
sudden failure of the fishing at this favorite resort is utterly 
without any apparent cause. I could go on and multiply 
jpstances of this kind without end. 
"^AKEJilAH HOLBEKTO^f. 
WHITE AND WOOD BUFFALO. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Having noticed a discussion in your columns of late con- 
cerning white buffalo, I beg leave to contribute my mite to 
the elucidation of a subject so interesting to both sportsman 
and naturalist. 
Having spent some years, the earlier portion of my life, 
upon the frontier of our country, I passed much of my time 
both in hunting and in listening to the lore and narratives of 
those who were hunters and trappers by profession. 
During the years 1857-8 I was stationed at Fort Aber- 
crombie, on the Red River of the North, and during my 
residence at that place was presented with a white buffalo 
robe by a Yankton Sioux Indian, on account of some pro- 
fessional services I had rendered him. This robe was not 
entirely white, lut showed here and there some reddish- 
Ijrown" spots. The hair was much finer and softer than 
usual. I was told by those well acquainted with the Indian 
character that this was considered a valuable present, and 
was certainly "a mark of his most distinguished regard," 
to use the language of the diplomatists. If my memory 
serves me aright, after the lapse of so many years, I gave 
this robe to Anson Northrop, of Minneapolis, he who 
plac'd the first steamboat on the Red River of the North, 
Although I have hunted the common prairie buffalo from 
the borders of Texas to northern Dakota, I have never met 
with the wood buffalo, so that all my knowledge of that 
animal is derived from hearsay only, though from the fre- 
quent allusions to it made to me by trappers, hunters and 
myageurs, I have no doubt of its former existence in the 
wooded parts of the far Northwest. The wyagevrs always 
alluded to it as the bof^vf du hoia, whereas they termed 
the common buffalo the loeuf de la frairie. 
During my military service in the region in question 1 was 
stationed, in the years 1860-1, at Fort Ripley, on the upper 
Mississippi, about six miles from the Indian village of Crow 
Wing, At this village dwelt an old hunter and trapper 
named Morrison, who was, by the by, one of the most worthy 
men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. In our fre- 
quent conversations about matters pertaining to the chase, 
Mr. M. often alluded to the wood buffalo, and said that it 
was a much fiercer and more sagacious animal than the com- 
mon buffalo of the prairie. 
To conclude, and to change the subject somewhat, I will 
state, as a matter of some interest, that Mr. Morrison once 
informed me that his brother was Schoolcraft's guide when 
that explorer visited the head . of the Mississippi ; and that 
Lake Iiasca was not the true source of the river in question, 
but another smaller lake in the vicinity was the real source. 
He also assured me— he spoke the Chippewa language per- 
fectly—that the term "Father of Waters," applied by the 
whites to the Mississippi River, was a misnomer, and that the 
true meaning of the word was the "Eudless River," so 
called by the Chippewas, who, on account of the extreme 
length of the river and the numerous tribes of hostile Indians 
who dwelt upon its banks, were never able to ascertain where 
it ended. 
Mr. Morrison had an Indian wife, and was a fur trader by 
calling. He was well acquainted with nearly all of the 
famous hunters, trappers, warriors and fur traders of the 
Northwest, and his life was full of thrilling incidents. I was 
engaged in writing a narrative of his adventures when the 
civil commotions of the country, soon to be followed by 
"grim visaged war," put an end to my praiseworthy project 
forever. Ds. A. Wall. 
Soldiers' Home, EichmoDd, Va. 
A MOCKINGBIRD IN VERMONT. 
Feheisbuhgh, Vt., July 19. — ^The mockingbird reported 
in Massachusetts reminds nae of one that appeared in this 
township in I860, I think. My attention was drawn to it 
by hearing the scream of a hawk and the notes of several 
song birds coming in rapid succession from the same 
point. A cautious approach enabled me to get a good 
view of the singer of many songs, who proved to be a 
genuine Southern mockingbhd. His presence became 
known to some bird catchers, whose persistent efforts to 
snare him soon drove him from that locality. A few days 
later I heard the same bird, as I supposed, for the vocal 
performance was the same, in a part of the town at least 
three miles as the crow flies from the place where I first 
heard him. I never heard him nor heard of him again, 
and as there were fortunately no bird catchers nor collec- 
tors to molest him there, I conclude that he went his way 
in peace. 
1 would be glad to enter into the partnership proposed 
by my good friend Yon W., or if it were possible, to swap 
a"fairly good ear for one of the sharp eyes which note so 
accurately the doings of Mother Nature and her children. 
May they be preserved for many a year to come. 
The English pheasants which began to scatter from Dr. 
Webb's Shelburne Farms a few years ago have increased in 
a way that is quite surprising, since they were supposed to 
be unable to take care of themselves in our severe winters. 
They congregate most in the neighborhood of woods where 
the button-bush abounds, upon the seeds of which they are 
said to subsist in a great measure during winter. Killing 
them at any time is prohibited by law, but it is pretty well 
known that some are shot or snared by pot-hunting poach- 
ers and by some who call themselves sportsmen. If these 
birds could have absolute protection, it looks as if they 
might become a valuable addition to our game supply in 
favorable localities. Perhaps they would then increase to 
an alarming extent, as the deer are said to have done, in 
the reports of the New York and Boston Sunday papers. 
Those who, believing these absurd, sensational stories, 
come to Vermont next October with the expectation of 
finding ideal deer hunting are doomed to disappointment. 
It is a wonder that the Sunday papers do not boom the 
seal 'hunting of Vermont, for there is authentic record of 
at least two seals having been killed in Lake Champlain, 
one about 1809, the other in 1846, according to my recol- 
lection of the dates. The last specimen was in the museum 
of the Vermont University at Burlington, and, I presume, 
may still be seen there, or in the State'Museum at Mont- 
pelier. Seals are not protected by our laws, and they have 
not become so plenty as to interfere with the navigation of 
the lake, but there is no telling what they might do with 
the help of the Sunday newspaper men. > . ^4>VAHSoos£i. 
The Birds of Riverside. 
JoHX E. Marshall, a Baltimore contractor and builder, 
and supetintendent of the Johns Hopkins, the Walters, and 
other buildings in Baltimore, owns a farm near St. Michaels, 
Talbot county, Md., on the banks of the Miles River, and on 
the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic railway. The farm 
it named Riverside, and so is the railroad station, at the 
front gate. Mr. Marshall bought this farm from the Tenant 
heirs several years ago. It had been in the Tenant family 
for several generations, and at one time more than one-half 
of the tract was heavily wooded white oak forest. In the 
woods the late Col. Edward Tenant met a tragic death. He 
was on horseback, overlooking men who were felling trees 
for lumber. In falling, a white oak struck a big limb of a 
sturdy pine, which broke off, and the fragment in the violent 
rebound struck Col. Tenant and knocked him from his horse. 
When picked up he was dead, with a fractured skull. In 
personal appearance Col. Tenant w^as the living ima^e, 
almost, of the pictures of Henry Clay at the same age. 
Mr. Marshall has many wild birds at Riverside. AVhen he 
first made a home there, he established a rule that no one, 
member of the family, guest, sportsman, pot hunter or farm 
hand, should shoot a gun on his place, and for fifteen years 
the rule has been observed. The result is that many of the 
wild birds of the woods and field have become quite tame, 
and some of them well domesticated. There are no par- 
tridges on Riverside now. These birds perished in the 
hard winter of 1894. 
But there are many singing mocking birds, so tame that 
they come around the yards and feed with the chickens. 
They have selected places for building. The old birds return 
to their last year's nest and the young songsters select with 
much care their nest sites. "This spring," says Mr. Marshall, 
"there comes an exquisitely tuned mocking bird about the 
first dawn of the day every morning. He selects the highest 
chimney of the house, and from that pinnacle pnurs forth 
his melody until nearly sunrise," There are "Kentucky 
cardinals," orioles, kildeers, robins, nuthatches, larks and 
other birds in Riverside, all of them tamer than guinea 
chicks are, because they are never alarmed, and are fed, 
protected and fondled. 
Mr. Marshall had no flickers oryellowhammers on his place, 
which w as a distress to him. These birds build in vertical 
hollows, like that in the top of a decayed post. Mr. Marshall 
was told that when his gate posts got old and the processes 
of time made holes in them, the beautiful yellowhammers 
would find these hollows and nest there. Therefore, to 
hurry up their coming, he had big auger holes bored up and 
down in the sound gate posts, and, sure enough, the 
flickers found them out and nest there now every season. 
Mr. Marshall has built a little roof over each post to keep 
the rain from the nests. 
"1 walk about the place," Mr. Marshall says, "I come to a 
gate post with a flicker's nest in it, and a ?reat outcry 
among the young and old birds is heard ia the hollow in the 
post. I tap with my pencil on the post, and instantly every 
noise is stilled and tiiere is absolute silence." 
There are many kildeer birds in the fields at Riverside, 
and even the plowman, turns his plowhorse aside and leaves 
the nest imdisturbed, because "the boss says so." 
The birds have a glorious time at Mr. Marshall's Riverside 
farm . — Baltimore Sun. 
Who Elee has Seen This? 
Edgab, Neb., July 31. — Editor Forest and Stream: In 
conversation with a gentleman who has just made a trip 
through western Indian Territory, yesterday, I picked up 
something new and interesting to me in regard to the habits 
of the prairie dog and rattlesnake. 
This party said that a few weeks ago, while resting 
under a tmall tree in the territory where there was a dog 
town, he noticed a commotion among some dogs near him; 
they would run up to a place and peep at something, ana 
then scamper off. Looking to see what was the matter, he 
saw that there were about fifteen to twenty dogs around a 
rattlesnake, which at length went into one of the dog holes. 
As soon as he had disappeared the little fellows began to push 
in dirt, evidently to fill the hole up, but about the lime they 
got enough dirt to cover the entrance, the snake stuck its 
head up through the dirt, and every dog scampered off to a 
safe distance, all the time keeping up an incessant barking. 
The snake slowly crawled to another hole about a rod dis- 
tant and went in, and then up came the dogs again and went 
to work to push dirt up before them to the hole. 
"This time they succeeded m their enterprise, and com- 
pletely covered the entrance to the hole, and then went to 
work, using their no&es to tamp with, and pounded the dirt 
down hard, after which they went away. My friend went 
to the place, and said he was surpri'ied to find they had 
packed the dirt in sohd with their noses, having sealed the 
snake well to the ground. 
I had never heard of anything of the kind being seen he- 
fore, and wxjuld like to know if it is something new in the 
dog and snake lore or not. 
The gentleman is perfectly reliable, and has spent many 
years in the West, but said he had never heard or seen any- 
thing of the kind before. H. 
Mrs. Bradford's "Audubon." 
Persons interested in birds and bird preservation will be 
gratified to learn of the remarkable success which has at- 
tended the publication of IVIrs. Bradford's sketch of Audu- 
bon, the naturalist. This charming volume has already 
passed to its second edition, and the receipts from this sale 
have all of them been turned over by the author to the 
Audubon Monument Association, of New Orleans, La , of 
which she Was the founder, and is the President. It is no 
small undertaking to attempt, with the point of a pen, to 
raise a monument to one long dead, but it is to be hoped that 
Mrs. Bradford will succeed in doing this. Certainly, her 
success up to the present time has been most encouraging. 
It is in New Orleans, not far from the birthplace of the 
naturalist, and in an Audubon Park named after him, that 
the New Orleans Monument Association hopes to erect its 
memorial. Mrs. Bradford says: 
"Here in New Orleans we have as yet only Vsur beautifu 
Audubon Park to perpetuate his name; but we trust the day 
is not far distant when among its grand old live oaks and 
near the mighty river he loved, patriotic hands will place a 
noble statue in'bronze of the great naturalist of Louisiana, a 
familiar figure, as he was in life, in hunter's dress, with dog 
and gun by his side. Let it be the pride of the women of 
New Orleans, with whom 'to will is to do,' both to under- 
take and to accomplish this long-delayed tribute to the naem- 
ory an4 genius of Audubon. '■'• 
