Deo. 11, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
46S 
VISITORS AT MY CAMP. 
These are notes of a trip m the Forest Reservation, in Wyomine. 
east of tlie National ParJc. 
f 
At one of our camps, where we were located for forty 
days, the small animal life was most interesting. In nnm- 
hers the little chipmunk was first, the wee ones of the 
Rockies. Others were the pine squirrels, campbirds (gray 
jays), Clark's crows, a bluejay (once we had two), mice, 
mountain rats, wrens, woodpeckers and other visiting 
birds, ^d at night a few owls. We had a large camp, with 
a camp-fire — not the cooks — and Eome seven tents and a 
lodge up. The dining room was very comfortable, with 
benches and a slab table. 
The squirrels were everywhere in the trees after pine 
nuts, working from early morn until almost dark. The 
chipmunks were not as hard workers, but were very busy 
while they were at it, and so tame that at times they 
would come up on the table when only one or two were 
eating there. They would sample everything. Once there 
was a four-quart pan half full of stewed raspberries there. 
A chipmunk got on the edge of the pan, reached down in 
the juice and got a berry. After tasting it he concluded it 
was good, and just the thing he was looking for. It was 
not long tjefore a dozen were at it, dipping down and fish- 
ing oiit the berries, the dark juice wetting their arms and 
bodies. Soon, with their running back and forth, they 
had the table so stained that it had to be cleaned with an 
axe, and such a dirty lot of chipmunks I never saw 
before. 
The place where the cook threw the slops and garbage 
was alive with them. It was fun to see one get a large piece 
of apricot and sample it, turning it round and round. A 
piece the size of a half-dollar was nothing for them to 
handle, but they were sure to sample the whole edge. I 
saw them hide a few things in trees, but usually they took 
them to their nests. The pine squirrels and birds used to 
come to the dump too, and all were very busy taking what 
they liked away. After that they would steal from each 
.other's caches. Quite a distance from the fire, where we 
had it under netting, the cook used to trim the meat, 
throwing the waste on the ground. This the birds and 
squirrels used to eat and cache. I have often seen a squir- 
rels carry a piece weighing 1 or 2ozs. and cache it out on 
a limb. He would have to watch it though, as the birds 
would steal it. I have watched them, and as soon as a 
bird came near if the squirrel saw it he would hurry to his 
cache and drive the bird away, scolding and chattering all 
the time. Usually the Clark's crows would carry the meat 
off. ^ ■ 
I often watched to tty to determine how long the squir- 
rels left the meat in the trees. I think only long enough 
to dry fit to take to their stores. It is a very common 
thing for them to dry mushrooms and other fufigi. Once 
we watched a squiri'el digging in the stiiooth ground about 
20ft. l^om the caitip-fire, Soon We saw him get something 
white, eat a little and carry some up a tree. Investigating, 
1 found part of what we call a devil's snuff-box. It had 
not broken ground, yet the squirrel found it. I saw the 
chipmunk<s eat some of the very dry meat, but did not see 
them carry off any large pieces. One squirrel usfed to have 
vegular fights With ttiir netting. In his attenlpts to get at 
the ineat he would rltsh at it, try it time and again, then 
Would tiy to get a nloUthful of netting and carry it off, get- 
ting tangled up and scolding away at a great rate. I think 
he swore some when he was baffled at last, muttering and 
talkine very earnestly about it, 
The bluejay was the meanest thief about the camp. He 
seldom gathered for himself, but stole the camp bu-d's 
caches. The bluejay and the Clark's crows carried their 
plunder further from camp than the other birds. It was 
amusing to see the birds trying to protect theit stores 
and at the same time taking advantage of other birds, and 
putting in all the time possible adding to them. At first 
all the chipmunks looked alike, but after a while we could 
see quite a difference between them. One little fellow 
Used to visit my lodge. One day I was reading, while he 
was helping himself to a few oats I had scattered for him. 
Just then the cook came in. The chipmunk ran all over 
me without showing any fear, but being pressed hid be- 
tween our beds. The cook caught him and put him inside 
his shirt, where he stayed for two hours, sometimes peek- 
ing out from a hole in the elbow, or another on the shoul- 
der, from the neck and waist. Only when the cook bent 
over did he appear to be uncomfortable. Finally I had 
to help get him out, when he ran off chattering, but came 
back the next hour. 
The birds a-nd squirrels would carry off every bit of 
cloth they could get hold of. Once they took all Mr. R. 's 
gun cleaners — square pieces of cloth he had for wiping 
his rifle. He left the box open one day for a short time, 
but long enough for the squirrels to cache it up in a nest, 
where one . of the men found it with a few other little 
' things missed from camp. 
We never attempted to kill anything about camp except 
I mice and a mountain rat. They would not only steal 
from us, but cut our clothing, blankets, saddles and shoes, 
if anything was left for any length of time in the same 
I place. Once I found a nest under my saddle made from 
the fringe of some of my towels, wool from my blankets 
and cotton from a comfort. One night I was startled by 
having something large run across my face. Getting up, I 
could hear the peculiar noise made by a rat when he gives 
warning by stamping his foot. I lit a candle and found 
him in my pack. I did not kill him, but hit him with a 
rock as he went under the lodge door. I never saw him 
afterward. Mr. Roosevelt calls these pack rats. Well, 
they won't pack off' anything they can't move, but that's 
all that's safe where they are. 
There are many little things one sees around camps like 
ours that one would like to tell about, but at the same time 
it seems trifling, I suppose, to others. For instance, I 
was cleaning a bear hide, throwing bits of meat in the 
camp-fire; some of the pieces,ifalling in the hot ashe?, were 
frying. The birds could not only see but smell this, and 
for a time thought they must have it. They did get some, 
but must have burned themselves a bit. 'fhey would dive 
down and try to take some of the large pieces, fluttering 
in the hot ashes and smoke and scolding about it, until I 
threw the pieces out where they could get them without 
I did not want to see them cremated, still the 
whole thing was of interest only to one who loves to watch 
the animal life in the woods. I suppose you like to have 
mice run over your tent in the night- I don't. I often 
used to hit at the place they were with a stick, and once 
heard one strike the ground several feet away after a 
blow. I wonder what it thought about it. Possibly it 
concluded there was an earth or tent quake about then. 
We made many side trips from our main camp. Saw 
some very rough country, grand and interesting, but noth- 
ing grander than the Tetons. 
Have you heard the story about the cat putting a black 
bear up a tree at the Fountain Hotel, Lower Geyer Basin? 
I won't swear to it, but believe it. A cat had some kittens 
near by, and objected to one of the bears coming too close, 
humping her back and showing cat anger. The bear saw 
the cat, but did not fear so small a thing; but the cat was 
brave. It made for the bear, who sat up to fight it; but the 
eat was too much for the bear, and it turned tail, when the 
cat landed on its back, where it stayed until bruin went up 
a tree. _ Here the bear watched the cat parade around, 
daring it to come down, but the bear concluded it was 
better off sitting on a limb 20ft. from the ground than 
down there where that combination of claws was. I give 
you the story as I learned it. I believe it. I saw snme 
pictures Mr. Thompson drew to illustrate it, and had all I 
could do to keep from stealing them. The pictures were 
drawn from imagination. I don't think the story was. 
It's been quite warm here this fall, so warm that there 
is very little snow on the lower levels, although consider- 
able has fallen. 
I have seen several mule deer along the Gardiner River, 
but no sheep as yet. They won't come down until there is 
more snow. E. Hot-ee. 
Does the Red Squirrel Store Food? 
.jACOBSTAf'Ti' says of the red squirrel : "He lays up noth- 
ing." I take it that Jacohstall means that he does not 
store his food for winter. 
We do not have the blacks and grays With us anymore, 
yet no liter than the middle of October, when in the woods 
on the shore of Lake Ontario, fifteen miles north of this city, 
I found in a hollow black walnut tree nearly half a bushel 
of the nuts, and those that I examined showed marks of the 
teeth of some animal; my companion took everyone of 
those nuts, as he had brought a bag for that very purpose. 
The hollow of the trpe was large enough for a person to 
stand in and extended into the roots; the nuls were stored 
as far into the roots as possible. A week later I was passing 
the same tree and thought I would examine to see if more 
nuts had been stored; and 1 found just one lying in about 
the center of the tree, but noticed that every inch of space 
had been dug up, as if the owner of the pile of nuts had 
been looking for them, and, becoming disheartened at not 
finding them, had left the one he had brought to add to 
them; this nut also showed teeth marks. 
STow, my conscience troubled me a little for being an 
accessory to the taking of that half a bushel of nuts (I held 
the bag), and as there were as many or more on the ground 
Under that Very tree, I gathered and placed them as nearly 
in the same place as those taken; and to make sure that no 
human eye would see them, I covered them with the yellow 
leaves from the tree, and sprinkled the rotten wood over 
all. 
I was passing there again a week ago, and on looking in 
the hollow tree found the nuts missing. There was about 
lin. of snoW, in which were the tracks of the red squirrel, 
and i do not doubt that he had removed them to a more safe 
place, notwithstanding .facobstaff's assertion that "he lays 
up nothing." I have also found the nest of the red eyed 
vireo nearly filled with beech nuts, aiid wmld ask Jacobstaff 
what animal other than the red squirrel would have put 
them there. J. L. Datison. 
LOCEPORT, iST. Y., Nov. St. 
The liinnsean Society of New York. 
Rehular meetings of the society will be. held iu the 
Ameri<'an Museum of Natural History, on Tuesday even- 
ings, Dfc. 14 and 28, at 8 o'clocK. The papers will be: 
• bee. 14— Edwin I, Haines. "The Nesting of BrunnicVs 
MuTie (,Una lovviifi) at New Roche) le, N. Y.'' Postponed 
from November meeting Ernest Seton Thompson, "The 
Mammals and Summer Birds of the Yellowstone National 
Park." Postponed from November meeting. 
Dec. 28— Frank M. Chapman, "An Exhibition of Lantern 
Slides of Birds in Nature." 
Walter W. Granger, Sec'y. 
AMEBicAN Museum of Natcrai, History. 
A White Meadow Lark. 
LoGKPORT, N. Y., Nov. 13.— Last month a Mr. Deibold, 
of this city, reported to me seeing a white meadow lark in 
the adjoining town of Pendleton, and said that be tried for 
three hours to shoot it. I informed him that it was against 
the law to kill meadow larks at any time. He said that he 
knew it, but would take the chances on that bird, and was 
going for it on Monday. (I presumed that he meant between 
Saturday and Monday ) I told him that he had better not 
let Dan Pomeroy, our efficient fish and game protector, 
know it if he succeeded in getting it. i also told him that I 
would go as far as Pendleton to see an albino meadow lark; 
but he would not give me the location. J. L. DAvrsoif. 
A Red English Sparrow. 
LociiPORT, N. Y., Nov, 12," — While walking down Locust 
street this afternoon I saw a bird fly across the street and 
alight among some English sparrows that were feeding in 
front of a grain store As it looked to light-colored for 
Passer^ dorimtkm, I crossed the street to examine it, and 
found that it was of that species, but of abnormal color; 
being about the color of the fox sparrow {Passerella iliam), 
I called the attention of a nunaber of people to it, who said 
that they had never seen the like of it before. As it was not 
white, 1 suppose it cannot be called an albino, but merely a 
freak in color. J, L. Davison. 
A White Deer. 
WiLLiAsrsFORT, Pa,, Nov. 27. — ^Mr. Geo. Lipp, of Hunl- 
ersville, Lycoming county, Pa., killed a white deer a 
few days ago. It was a spike buck, and weighed 108ibs. 
He wishes to dispose of the skin, which is pure while and 
very handsome. 8. W. Morse. 
The FoEEST Steeaii is put to press each week on iuesday 
Corresvondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
^test by MQriday, and as mucli, earlier as pTOcticable. 
}^trie mid ^un. 
The "Briers" Pictures. 
There are twenty -rine illustrations in the current edition of Game 
Laws in Brief, most of them full-page half-tones, and all admirably 
printed. The book is a beauty, and well worth having for the illus- 
trations which, Mr. Charles Hallock says, so well represent America's 
wilderaess sports. The Brief gives all the laws of the United States 
and Canada for the practical guidance of anglers and shooters. As 
an authority, it has a long record of unassailed and tmassailable ac- 
curaey. Forest and Stream Pub. Co. sends it postpaid for 25 cents, 
or your dealer will supply you. 
THE ROVING CARIBOU. 
The "roving caribou," truly. Well is he so called, as 
this account will prove. On Nov. 14, after many and 
grievous mishaps and delays, I managed to shake myself 
clear from the pleasures of business and, as another writer 
has pleasingly called it, the "debts, duns and deviltries" 
of civilization. With all my goods and chattels, weighing 
just 201bs. exactly, wrapped in a blanket, ready for carry- 
ing many a weary mile— the rifle, snowshoes, and last, but 
not least, the little camera — I took my seat in a sled such 
as is common to the North Woods, pulled by a fine, strong 
team of horses, and started out on a thirty-seven-mile 
drive. The portage road, though good in name, was cer- 
tainly very bad. We started at 11 o'clock at night, and by 
noon the following daj'^, in the midst of a driving rain- 
storm, arrived safely, though sore and aching in every 
joint, at Camp Pringle, where we found my guide waiting. 
Pleased as we were to see him, we were infinitely more 
pleased to see and taste the tip-top dinner he had ready 
waiting for us. 
Taking into consideration the rain, which was coming 
down in torrents, and the fact that the frozen river pre- 
cluded any attempt at canoeing, we gave up our plan of 
proceeding to Camp Crawford that afternoon. The morn- 
ing broke fine and clear, with about Sin. of fine snow on 
the ground— too light for the snowshoes, and enough to 
make the walking, especially to the greenhorn, beastly 
bad. However, after a hearty breakfast we got away on 
our fifteen-mile tramp to Camp Crawford, and before long 
the inevitable annoyances of a first day in the woods be- 
came apparent one by one. The carrying strap would not 
sit right; the bundle would hang low; a year's sojourn up 
in the den at home had put some kinks in the straps; and 
a fellow's shoulders anyway have to get used to the thing. 
It is amusing how quickly you can get out of practice; and 
again, if yoti are strong, how soon you can carry a load 
which would a few days before have fairly killed you. 
Then the moccasins were new and had not the set of* the 
foot, consequently a slippery place on the ground meant a 
sore place on one's body, and so on ad infinitum. But 
finally about 4 P. M. we arrived, tired and bruised, 
scratched and torn, at Camp Crawford, very prettily situ- 
ated on the left bank of the Northwest Miramichi Eiver. 
It is a fishing camp, owned by a New York gentleman, 
who spends a week or so here every summer salmon fish- 
ing; and, unless having seen it, one can scarcely under- 
stand the peculiarity of finding a nice little frame house 
planted there in the midst of nature and so far from 
human habitation. 
Having spent the night here, the next morning we 
started off into the wilderness proper, and had gone but a 
short distance when we came upon the tracks of a very 
large moose, not more than a day old. However, our 
game was caribou, not moose, and we kept on. We 
lunched on the side of a small lake, which, my guide told 
me, contained some monster trout; as the previous spring, 
while passing that way just after a violent storm, which 
had piled the ice all up on one shore, he found hundreds 
of dead trout of immense size strewn along the shore. I 
wanted to see some such trout, and after a voyage of dis- 
covery among my pockets found a big hook and bit of 
line, which, baited with a piece of fat pork, succeeded in 
dragging two fish in quick succession through a hole cut 
in the ice for that purpose. We quickly photographed 
them in two positions and returned them tn the water, as 
it was close season and at least one of the fish was full of 
spawn. I am sure the biggest one weighed 51bs.; he was a 
perfect beauty. 
After lunch we kept on and shortly came upon two 
fresh tracks of caribou, the first we had seen. Another 
hour's traveling brought us out on barren ground, and 
good feeding ground also, and here the tracks became so 
numerous as to excite no attention. About dark we ar- 
rived, leg-weary, it is true, but not very tired, at Smoky 
Camp. About this camp hangs a tale. It was put up 
some eight years ago by those veteran trappers Pringle 
and Braithwaite, and owing to its unexcelled ability to 
smoke out any tenderfoot it was dubbed "Smoky Camp." 
However, years of use and abuse have so altered it that 
it smokes no longer, and henceforth shotfld be called 
Camp Lonesome, for a more desolate spot would be hard 
to find. Immense somber pines surround it in every di- 
rection — nothing but a gloomy forest, with not a place for 
a beam of sunshine. 
It was indeed a fit place for the tragedy we read on the 
snow at our camp 4001""^ bits of rabbit fur, some 
bones, the snow stained red, and leaving on its truthful 
surface the marks of rabbit and sable tracks. A short 
distance tip the line is a sable trap; let us look into it. 
Ha! there he is, and a beauty too; retribution in this case 
came sure and swift. His furry coat, it may be, is destined 
to adorn the neck of some city belle, who will little know or 
dream of the tragedy there so plainly pictured to a woods- 
man's eyes on the snow. 
'I'o this camp, one night in the early spring on his first 
trip for the year, Braithwaite had come, utterly tired out, 
just at nightfall; and fatigue caused him to lie down with- 
out fire and without supper. In the night something 
pulling at his blanket roused him to a semiconscious con- 
dition, and he gave utterance to several "eheu's" and again 
went sound asleep. Next morning on waking, to his utter 
and unbounded astonishment, he saw leading from the 
circle of woods to the carnp door a bear track; and going 
back was another. But in place of having retired, as a 
bear ought to retire from a nocturnal raid, it made away 
with a succession of tremendous leaps. Investigation re- 
vealed the fact that the bear had cleaned out every par- 
ticle of grub and gear which had been stored all winter at 
