April 2, iSgS.] 
FOREST AND, STREAM. 
to do is to gfet mad; you mustn't get scared — ^Just rriad. 
I'll tell yoti Avhen I seen one. It was when I was courts 
ing "my present wjie Eliza, just early in last year. 'Twas 
one Saturday night, and after I got paid oiif I start to 
the island to see Eliza. 'Twas a little cloudy and a 
new moon, and that's just the time for 'em. New 
moon and a cloudy evening is what they likes. As I 
come along there where the eight-foot ditch joins on 
to the pine land I see something like a calf coming 
up on my left-hand side. That's tlieni. They always 
got to come up on your left-hand side. Soon aS I 
.see him I know him, and I know what to do. I just got 
So mad nothing couldn't hold me. I jitst throwed my- 
self flat down on niy face on the ground, and I put iny 
hands over my ej^es, and I tell you, sir, I was mad 
through. And as I laid there I got madder and mad- 
der. Then, after some good little time, I didn't hear 
nothing, so I look up, and, sir, he done gone. He 
know he couldn't make nothing projecting around a 
man mad like me, so he go oflf somewhere else. Then 
I get up, and I done lost so much time I has to hurry 
to get to sec Eliza." 
As before stated, Adalix ia- s.fiast master in the wiles 
of all varmints. If he sets a trap in a ten-acre field 
no fojc. coon or possum can get through the fence and 
keep his foot out of the trap. A cow-pen lull of Sher- 
lock Holmeses could not penetrate a ten-year-old pick- 
pocket in a month as well as Adam will in a minute 
the innermost soul of anything that travels by night, 
from a hoodoo to a house cat, let him find hide, hair or 
hackle of it. So if any reader is approached on the left 
Side by any appearance looking as if it might have busi- 
ness with him, when the moon is young and the even- 
ing cloudy, he will make no mistake if he permits his 
angry passions to rise. And the higher the better. And 
for a furious and enraged altitude, one calculated to 
terrify even a supernatural, flat on one's face seems to 
be what will take the cake. Jack HiLr>.iGO. 
Some Yukon Notes,— II* 
(Continued from ^a.ge 242). 
In the latter part of September a great many ptami- 
gan were killed on the summit of White Pass. The 
first heavy snow falls brought them down from the neigh- 
boring peaks and highlands. They were very tame, and 
easily shot with a revolver. In fact I know of cases 
where they were killed with stones. They were fat and 
plump from their rich feed of berries and a delicious 
change from the coarse food of the trail. 
One morning at Summit Lake as I came out ot the 
tent I noticed fifteen or twenty ptarmigan squatting 
in the snow on a little ridge a few rods away., .1 bor- 
rowed a rifle, and in company with another man who 
had a shotgun we killed eight in a few minutes. _ Am- 
munition was scarce or we would have taken in the 
entire flock. 
Before the snow came whistlers and gophers, so called, 
were plenty about the summit. The whistler resembled 
a large woodchuck and the gopher was very similar 
to other gophers, except that it was larger than any 
I had previously seen. Whistlers and gophers were 
both good eating, and I managed to pick up quite a few 
along the trail. One day Avhile portaging from Sum- 
mit to Middle Lake I killed two gophers on the same 
rock near the height of land. Returning a little later I 
saw two more at identically the same spot,, and killed 
both. , . 
Ducks were numerous in the chain of lakes neEfr the 
summit, and from time to time geese also made their 
appearance for short periods. 
All night long while camped at the head of Summit 
Lake in September one could hear the whistle of ducks' 
wings as they flew low down through the narrow cleft 
of the pass. On foggy days and in the evenings or 
mornings one could get very good flight shooting at 
this- point, and the tents of the little encampment were 
frequently bombarded with dead ducks. Fogs in Sep- 
tember are the rule at Summit Lake, as any one who 
has been there will testify. Up to the time of the river 
closing in November the ducks were also very numer- 
ous along the Lewis and Yukon. A friend of mine 
picked up six mallards and two canvasbacks in half a 
day's run above White Horse Rapids. The duck shoot- 
ing at Dawson was said to be good. For a run down 
the river in the fall months a shotgun should be carried 
rather than a rifle. 
Ravens, or crows, as they are commonly called, are 
very numerous along the river. These birds attain a 
very large size. One killed by a Mr. Lamothe at the foot 
of Lake Lebarge measured 4ft. 2111. from tip to tip. This 
Lamothe, by the way, is the man who found Colgate's 
bones on the Bitter Root the summer after the Carlin ex- 
pedition. His description of the discovery is one of the 
most gruesome pieces of realism I ever listened to. He 
chanced to pick up in the sand drift from the river 
which covered the old camp site the two bones of a 
human leg and remarked:- 'T have killed all kinds of an- 
imals- — moose, caribou, deer — but I never see two bones 
sticket together before like this." And then he entered 
into a minute description of the ligaments attached and 
the evidence that bears had dismembered the corpse, 
and wound up by showing Colgate's gun with two empty 
shells in it to corroborate a theory of suicide, which he 
advanced, en passant, in conclusion of the whole ghastly 
affair. 
To return to the subject, the ravens are found along 
the river all winter. At the very summit of Chilcoot 
Pass one of the coldest days of the winter (Feb. 3), while 
the wind was blowing strong men off their feet and freez- 
ing others to death, I saw a raven battling the gale. 
North of the summit, where there was comparative calm 
and only 30° below zero, we had passed a gorged raven 
hopping along the hard snow trail, and avoiding tdl 
the last moment the necessity of taking to wing. 
At Fort Selkirk the ravens quarrel with the dogs for 
the beef heads, %vhich are daily thrown to the latter for 
food. \ Thejr fly up and down the course of the frozen 
riveir, looking for the refuse of sledding parties, and at 
Five .Finger Rapids I saw the ribs and the upper portion 
of 'what looked remarkably like a human trunk picked 
clean by these same scavengers. 
They have great powerful beaks, built tip, oh top in 
s^ich a way as to give the raven an overwise ■expression. 
It seems as though they were looking over spectacles. 
Incidentally it seems next to impossible to poison these 
birds. They will take all the strychnine you can feed 
them, and seem to thrive on the diet. I put out twelve 
baits one evening on the snow-covered surface of a slough 
intended for foxes or wolves, each containing a pretty 
stiff dose of poison. I took the precaution to kick a 
little snow over the baits to keep the ravens from finding 
them, but my trouble was without avail. The next morn- 
dug a raven came along, and alighting at each spot de- 
voured the poisoned morsel. An uncanny intuition, 
guided by a marvelous .sense of ej'esight, had directed 
him to each spot where a bait was hidden, and I could 
not see that he had alighted once on my trail where 
there was no bait. As a matter of fact only Gtle bait 
at the extreme end of the line had escaped him. 
And yet I could not find any evidence to indicate that 
he had succumbed to the poison he had taken — enough 
to have killed a dozen wolves. 
As luck would have it. the one bait which escaped the 
raven was taken by a fox a few days later. The first 
intiination of this fact came to ji-i,y partner, who was 
cutting logs near the river for our cabin. lie reported 
that he had seen several ravens alight on a sandbar a 
.short distance away, and I told him he had better go up 
there and see what they had. When he returned he 
was carrying the fox, a red, or rather lemon yellow 
specimen. Iri its side was. an ugly wound made by the 
rayens. The fox was still warm, and had apparently 
only been dead a few minutes. 
In all, we saw seven or eight foxes While going Up 
and down the river. Theyr seemed to us to be very plen- 
tiful, but the Indians say it is an off year with them, 
owing to the scarcity of rabbits. The varieties are the 
red, cross, black and silver gray. The Indians say they 
get $56 to $i7S for the skins of the latter. 
Rabbits at tlie Pelly were almost as rare as snakes in 
Ireland. One of the periodical pIagues--or migrations, 
whichever it is — had carried them off, and one could 
travel for miles without seeing a track. Above the 
Thirty-Mile River, however, they were more common. 
A man camped about the middle of Lake Marsh, on the 
west shore, told me he had snared seven. lie said they 
were pure white and very small. 
At Tagish Inspector Strickland told me last fall that 
he had killed several. 
It is said that it will take four or five years to restore 
them to their maximum numbers on the Ipwer river. 
Red squirrels, are very abundant along the whole river. 
A man with a .22cal. rifle and a few thousand rounds, 
of ammunition could easily support himself on red. squir-' 
rels alone. They evince no tendency to hibernate, and 
may be seen feeding at their favorite pile of spruce cones 
when the thermometer stands at 50' or 60'' below zero. 
•Several species of .grouse are found along the river, 
but as far as my observations go they are nowhere 
plentiful. The Indians call them indiscriminately 
chickens, and I believe they also include ptarmigan in 
this term. 
Among the smaller birds noted in the neighborhood 
of the Pelly in midwinter may be mentioned Canada 
jaj's (moose birds), magpies, hairy woodpeckers, snow 
buntings and chickadees. 
As a curious instance of the temerity of the jays 
may be mentioned the fact that when coming down the 
Thirty-Mile River one flew out from shore and alighted 
on my partner's yellow slicker hat as he was rowing 
his boat in mid-stream. Some fresh meat in the stern 
of the boat probably attracted the bird. 
At the lowest estimate 4,000 rifles were taken into the 
Yukon country last fall by white men, and yet, aside 
from the mention of caribou, which I shall make a little 
later, I only heard of one instance where these weapons 
were profitably employed on members of the deer tribe. 
This was by Mr. Curtis, before mentioned, who killed 
a bull caribou weighing 35olbs. while prospecting on the 
upper McClintook River. Moose and caribou are no 
longer found in the immediate neighborhood of the 
main river. The Indians, who rely for their support 
in winter mainly upon this game, go back three or four 
"sleeps" to reach their hunting grounds. A "sleep" 
Avith these Indians is anywhere from six to ten miles. 
They are slow travelers, making camp early and breaking 
it late. It takes them three or four hours to erect their 
bough wind-break, roofed with drilling on the plan of 
a_ lean-to camp, and get in a supply of firewood for the 
night. Their clothing is generally insufficient, and some 
of the little ones may be seen around the camp-fire in 
midwinter bare-legged and almost naked. This neces- 
sitates keeping the fire going all night, and as their axes 
are generally small it takes time to get the necessary 
supply of fuel. On such trips the actual hunters are in 
the background, the spectacular effect centering in the 
dogs, women and children. 
Last November when we had our boats carried away by 
an ice jam we thought for a while we should have to 
adopt the Indian's mode of life, but fortunately after 
a two weeks' search we succeeded in recovering our 
boats and supplies fifteen miles below the point where 
they had disappeared in the grinding floe which throttled 
the river. This obviated the necessity of locating a cari- 
bou herd and following it up all winter along with the 
wolves and ravens — amethodof earning a livehhood which 
did not appeal very .'jtrongly to our imaginations. It is 
just as well that we escaped this necessity, for caribou 
are nowhere found in their accustomed haunts this win- 
ter, and the Indians at the Pelly, Nordenskold, Big and 
Little Salmon, and elsewhere all claim that they are 
starving. 
North of Dawson, however, a great herd of barren 
ground caribou has recently appeared. My informant, 
who left Dawson shortly after the new year, says that the 
herd was estimated to number 10,000. It was last seen 
near the head of Twelve-Mile Creek, on the divide 
above the timber line, heading west toward a range of 
rocky, snow-clad mountains. Jim Taylor, of Seattle, is 
reported to have killed forty-five caribou from this herd, 
and my informant helped to pack the carcasses into Daw- 
son. The best looking hunting country for moose or 
woodland caribou that I saw is that lying along the 
Lewis, between the Big and Little Salmon Rivers. Here 
the hills are wooded from base to summit with an ever- 
green growth, while summer feed is furnished by wil- 
low copses and a bench growth of poplar and deciduou.< 
undergrowth. Lower down the river there is a vast 
extent of absolutely b,arfen cotmtry — a desolate waste 
of stone and sand that offers no rest to the eye, because 
utterly lacking in lines of repose. The prospect away 
from the river is a jumble of angles, unbroken by grace- 
full curves or suggestive horizontal masses. Aside from 
the islands in the river and the shore immcdiatelj'' con- 
tiguous there is no timber worthy of the name. 
The land away from the river is too poor and cold, 
and geographically too much on edge, to rear anything 
but a scrub growth, and even that is lacking in many 
places. Nor is there anything grand or sublime in the 
scenery of the Yukon above Dawson. The great snow- 
capped and glacier-clothed pinnacles of the coast range 
have disappeared altogether, and a petty, good-for-noth- 
ing upheaval of the earth's crust is all that remains. 
Game never coidd have been abundant in such a coun- 
tiy, and it is not therefore surprising to find it such an 
uncertain quantity at tlie present time. 
As regards edible varieties of fish the region in the 
neighborhood of the White and Chilcoot passes is well 
supplied, and the same is probably true of the lower river, 
A trout resembling the Dolly Varden was common in 
the Skagway River, and just over the divide at Sum- 
mit, Middle and Shallow lakes trout and grayling were 
taken on bait and fly in considerable numbers almost 
up to the time of the lakes freezing. 
A gentleman, who said that he was collecting speci- 
mens for the Smithsonian Institution, caught several large 
trout by wading out on the bar where the stream comes 
in at the bend of Middle Lake, using a fly. The largest 
of these weighed 81bs. and was identified as a Bailey- 
Grohman trout — a new species named after the English 
sportsman Avho first brought it to the notice of the 
public a few years since. It was one of the silvery gray 
class, a rather coarse-looking fish, with large head and 
crocodile jaws. 
At White H orse Rapids Mr. Kline, file engineer in 
charge of the construction of one of the tramways, told 
me that the Indians get trout weighing 25lbs. all winter. 
The water is open at the present time, and the Indians 
get their fish with lures and spears, as well as by netting 
them. 
In the big lakes — Bennett, Tagish, Marsh and Lebarge 
— large pike are common, while whitefish are very nu- 
merous. This applies especially to lakes Marsh and 
Lebarge. Probably Marsh is the best fish lake of the 
lot, as it is the shallowest and has the best feeding 
grounds. The white colony at the foot of this lake have 
all the fish they can eat from a few 40ft. gill nets 
stretched between two holes in the ice. 
Dog salmon rujti up the river in the fall as far as 
White Horse Rapids, but they are unfit for human food, 
as a result of their long journey from salt water. There 
is said to be an early run of king salmon almost to 
the same point, and the Indians preserve these for food. 
I saw a number of grajding or arctic trout, as they are 
called, caught in the rapids at the head of Shallow Lake. 
They ran in weight, I should judge, from 6oz. to i^lbs. 
They preferred a modest colored fly to any other bait, 
natural or artificial. Home-made flies, manufactured 
from grouse feathers, seemed to be particularly killing. 
J. B. BURNHAM. 
East African Mammals, 
BY D. G. ELLIOT, F,R.'S>E,- 
(Contiimed from />age 224.) 
.SoKMMiCRiNc's Gazki.lk {GazfMf soemmeringii), N.vriVK 
This fine animal has become scarce in most parts of 
Cuban. A few years ago it was very plentiful in the 
Maritime Plain, but was so persecuted by hunters of 
every degree that at the present day it has retired into 
the interior, and is not met with in any numbers until 
the country south of the Golis Range is reached. The 
aoul is not a graceful animal, nor is it built on fine lines, 
the short neck, rather clumsy head and heavy body giv- 
ing it a very dift'erent appearance from the idea generally 
entertained of the light-footed gazelle. This species goes 
in herds, sometimes several hundred are seen together, 
and naturally it is not particularly suspicious or wild, 
but of course when much persecuted the animals become 
very wary. They are apparently independent of water, 
and are frequently met with many miles from the place 
where it might be obtained. The entire country is so 
destitute of water that under the most favorable circum- 
stances the wild animals must have difficulty in procuring 
it, and as there are no rivers between the Shebeyleh and 
the sea, the natives get their supply by digging in the 
dry beds of the tugs, or rivers. Of course the animals 
cannot do this, and they must depend upon the chance 
pools they meet with, left by the rains, and are easy 
to approach even on the open plains; that is, close 
enough for a fairly near shot, something over looyds. 
Of course many times it will be necessaiy to shoot at 
much greater distances than this. Among bushes it is 
not difficult to get very near one of these animals if 
stalked with knowledge and judgment. 
It does not seem to make much difference to this ga- 
zelle -what kind of country it dwells in, whether thickly 
covered with trees and bushes, or on bare plains; but 
I think it prefers the latter, and congregates in much 
larger herds in such a locality than in any other. But 
it cannot be considered as distinctly an animal of the 
plains, as for instance the hartebeest is. Aoul can be 
distinguished for a long distance, the large white patch 
on the hindquarters always showing very distinctly and 
causing them to be recognized from the other animals 
associated with them without difficulty. They are al- 
most always seen with the herds of hartebeest, or oryx 
when these last are out on the plains in any numbers. 
This gazelle runs with great speed and has the habit 
of jumping often to a considerable height and for long 
di.stances when in full flight. 
Possessed of considerable curiosity, aoul will always 
stop after going a short distance, and turn to look at the 
