Nov. 12, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
383 
the day's sport is recalled by each bird. "Gawge," for 
so he called himself, promised to send over one of his 
boys to show us a marsh where the ducks came to 
feed before sundown, and we camped, got dinner and 
waited for the sun to get into the west, and for young 
Gawge to appear and sIioav us the marsh. 
[to be continued.] 
Extracts from Letters. 
The Ascent of the Grand Teton. 
St. Paul, Minn., Oct. 31. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Henry Gannett, of the United States Geological 
Survey, whom Mr. Owen quotes, has written a letter 
to the New York Herald, of which that paper published 
but a few lines. As Mr. Gannett is a disinterested party, 
what he says is more to the point than anything that may 
be written by an interested man; and the testimony will 
not be complete without his letter. Therefore I ask you 
to publish his letter, for it shows that he believes that we 
got to the top of the Teton, and that he had confidence 
in Mr, Stevenson's statement. 
One very important point that he makes is that the 
aneroid computations, made by himself, and which 
Stevenson and I did not know Iioav to make, showed 
that we reached the height that Mr. Owen did. 
N. P. Langford. 
Washington, Oct. 14. — Editor New York Herald — 
Dear Sir: Having been, until recently, out of the world, 
it was only yesterday that I had the pleasure of reading 
Mr. W. O. Owen's account of his ascent of the' Grand 
Teton, in Wyoming, as published in the Herald of Sept. 
iS. He is to be congratulated upon his success. Al- 
though he quotes me in support of his position that he is 
the first to reach the summit of the mountain, I can- 
not agree with him, having, as I believe, good reasons 
for my conclusion that Messrs. Langford and Stevenson 
succeeded in reaching the actual summit. The story of 
this climb was told by Mr. Langford in the pages of 
Scribner's Magazine of June, 1873. In the Annual Re- 
port of the Hayden Survey for the year 1872, Dr. F. V. 
Hayden speaks of this ascent and decribes a stone circle, 
evidently built by man, which, as he stated, was found 
upon the summit of the mountain. In 1878 Mr. A. D. 
Wilson, who was at that time carrying on the primary 
triangulation of the Hayden Survey, attempted to reach 
the summit with the large theodolite used for the trian- 
gulation, but found himself unable to do so. He, how- 
ever, reached a point very close to the summit, both in 
altitude and distance, upon which he found an artificial 
stone circle, presumably the same mentioned by Hay- 
den as having been found by Messrs. Langford and 
Stevenson. This point Mr. Wilson occupied as a sta- 
tion. Its position and height relative to the summit of 
the mountain have been computed from his observa- 
tions. It was practically, although not literally, the sum- 
mit. Putting these things together I assumed that this 
was the highest point reached by the Langford-Stevenson 
party, and in that belief I wrote Mr. Owen on Oct. 19, 
1896, the paragraph which he quotes in the article in 
question. 
Subsequent correspondence with Mr. Langford, now 
living in St. Paul, Minn., satisfied me that Dr. Hayden 
made a mistake in stating that the stone circle in ques- 
tion was upon the summit; and also that Messrs. Lang- 
ford and Stevenson went beyond the point upon which 
the circle stood and reached the literal summit. Act- 
ing upon this, I wrote to Mr. Owen on May 5, 1897, as 
follows: 
"Since writing you I have had a little correspondence 
with my friend, Mr. N. P. Langford, now living in St. 
Paul, Minn., regarding his and Stevenson's climb. of the 
Grand Teton. In response to my request he has sent 
me two copies of the article which he published in 
Scribner's Magazine, one of' which he desired to be 
sent to you, and it is forwarded, under separate cover, by 
this mail. Within the cover he encloses a copy of a let- 
ter to me concerning the climb, which contains certain 
matters not found in the article. A perusal of this 
article, which I had not seen for nearly a quarter of a 
century, together with Mr. Langford's letter, convinces 
me that beyond any question he and Stevenson suc- 
ceeded in reaching the summit of the mountain." 
Mr. Owen, in quoting me, should have told not only 
the truth, but the whole truth. He should not have 
quoted the first letter and omitted the second. So much 
for my own connection with the matter. 
Now I will proceed to the evidence upon the main 
question. That Messrs. Langford and Stevenson did 
reach the summit of the mountain is, to my mind, proven 
by the following evidence: 
First, the statements of the two men, both in public 
and private. Mr. Stevenson is now dead, but Mr. Lang- 
ford is one of the most prominent and respected citizens 
of St. Paul. 
Second, the first measurement of the height of the 
mountain was made by Mr. Langford by an aneroid 
barometer, which he carried with him on this ascent. 
The resulting height, which was computed by myself, was 
13,762ft., which is a very close approximation to the true 
height of the mountain. As neither Stevenson nor 
Langford knew enough about barometric work to manu- 
facture a reading which would fit this altitude, this bit of 
evidence in itself, and without regard to the character of 
the gentlemen, seems to be conclusive. 
As for Mr. Cooper's statement, I can only say that he- 
was not employed by the Survey in 1872. In 1877 he 
was employed as a packer in the party of the Hayden 
Survey, working in that region, and in that year he at- 
icmpted to climb the mountain and failed. The fact 
that Mr. Owen found no monument upon the summit 
is no evidence whatever that the mountain had not been 
climbed. Does he imagine for a moment that men who 
were in the habit of climbing high mountains in the 
course of their work nearly every day exhausted them- 
selves by building cairns of rock upon every summit 
reached? Very respectfully. 
Henry Gannett. 
Last evening I got to the barn at 5 P, M., and shut 
it up for the night. It might have been some time 
last night or early this morning, a chipmunk came 
in through the window, ran along the shafts, and climbed 
upon the cushion of the wagon. There was a horse 
blanket folded upon the Cushion. 
This morning Frank backed the wagon out to wash 
it, but seeing what he thought were my shucked beech- 
nuts in a neat pile on the cushion be laid cushion and all 
upon the fire clay pipe, where I found it, and asked him 
where he got his beechnuts. 
He said lie thought they were mine. They are all (about 
one hundred kernels) nicely shelled, and I will send you 
some. 
I put just fifty back, and am going to see if he con- 
tinues to carry his store there. He is an enterprising 
'munk, for all the beechnuts I have found this year have 
been empty. 
I looked overhead to see it by any possibility they 
could have been dropped through a hole, but no. 
To-day I went again to the barn to see if the pile 
of nuts had been increased, but not one was to be 
seen. Mr. Chipmunk had been there last night and car- 
ried away every kernel ! 
There was just one that had not been shucked. He 
had left, of all that had been there, just that shell on the 
seat! 
So I was outwitted by so small a creature, and in- 
stead of having more to send you, I have oniy half of 
what he first piled there. 
at the West, where there was not a drop of water within 
miles — not one of our party being able to give a guess 
as to where they came from. They don't confine them- 
selves to their birthplace, but go on marauding ex- 
peditions. 
My good, intelligent friend knows very well that bull 
bats are not game birds, and the only argument he can 
use in support of his position is that he wants the 
sport of shooting them. I. advise him to go into mis- 
sionary work and try to stop the slaughter of robins, 
for as it is the Northern States are simply protecting 
them for the benefit of pot-hunters at the South. 
Didymus. 
St. Augustine, Fla., Oct. SO. 
This evening two of the fallow deer of the park, one 
pure white and the other brown and white, spotted, 
came out of the timber to the clearing about the 
camp. It was getting dark, and the wind was fresh. All 
animals seem so much wilder on a windy day. 
They came out to feed on the fungus you saw before 
you left, that sprang up so suddenly during those two 
warm, muggy nights! 
The deer looked awfully pretty, starting constantly as 
some slight noise, and being ever on the alert, sometimes 
holding pieces of the brittle fungus in their mouths 
while they cast furtive glances back toward the forest. 
Suddenly their attention was attracted by some 
Angora goats that showed up white against a dark 
ground, and they seemed riveted to the spot for a mo- 
ment, holding a half-eaten bit of the fungus in one side 
of the mouth. 
Then, as if impelled from a catapult, they bounded 
away, fleeing from some imaginary bugaboo, conjured 
up in their active brains and made real by some sound 
in the wind. 
The baby moose stays at the cottage all the time, and 
now eats everything, and drinks all the dish water. Salt 
pork he likes very much, probably because of the salt. 
Tobacco also. It is all grist that comes to his mill. He 
hates to be touched, and when he is not wanted we 
catch him by the hump over his shoulder, and he 
skedaddles. 
I never was more amused at the Little Mammoth's 
antics than when watching him drink salty water from 
the bottom of a boat. 
The boat was one of those very tippy Saranac Lake 
style of 'boats. It was drawn up part way on the beach, 
and lay pretty well on its beam. 
The awkward little thing would gingerly climb into it, 
steadying himself as the skiff rocked. The place he 
wanted to reach was down hill, and you know he can't 
touch the ground with his nose, anyway, without bend- 
ing one knee, and generally he goes down on both 
knees, like a goat. 
We had been carrying rock salt in the boat, and the 
water leaking in had become salty. I think he must 
have drank at least two quarts in all, going along on 
his knees from one boat-rib to the next, and his hind 
part absurdly elevated, until he had her completely bailed 
out, salt water, mud and all. Heathcote. 
The AlDIrondacks. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach ua at the 
latest by Monday, and as much earliei us practicable. 
Are Bull Bats Game? 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
If my friend Coahoma were a good Christian, as I 
am, he would look upon it as a duty to resist the 
temptations that the devil is placing constantly before 
us in the shape of night hawks and things. He's a 
very intelligent man and knows that the aforesaid bird 
is a fluffy little bundle of feathers and wings, with a 
body so small that it would take at least two dozen to 
fill a hungry man, and he knows at the same time that 
it's a harmless and purely insectivorous bird that the 
law protects in the Northern States, whatever it may do 
or not do in the South. Two or three years ago the 
.Rev. Thos. Dixon paid two or three hundred dollars duty 
on a bag of robins, which, though protected as insectiv- 
orous, are guilty of many little thieving operations, 
which sins cannot be laid to the door of the innocent 
cattse of our dispute. Now as the Rev. Dixon was fresh 
from the South, where the robin is looked upon as game, 
it seems to me that a little clemency might have come 
in play, whereas none should be shown toward a night- 
hawk shooter. Here is what that inexhaustible source 
of interesting knowledge, Fred Mather, says: "The bull 
bat, the whippoorwill and the bat keep down the in- 
numerable hordes of insects which make life a torment 
for us but for their unceasing work." I feel proud of 
being supported by such an authority as that — though 
he did, in a Aveak, unguarded moment, oppose me once! 
And now another word on the mosquito question. 
My friend asserts that the home of the little pest is in the 
swamps, and that the night hawk gets very little chance 
to feed on him in the open country. I have been two 
or three times to South America, have traveled all over 
the West, and have seen specimens of the insect on 
the fag end of Staten Island, but I have never seen any 
approach to the swarms that I found on the open prairies 
The Lmnaean Society of New York. 
A regular meeting of the Society will be held in the 
American Museum of Natural History, on Tuesday even- 
ing, Nov. 22, at 8 o'clock. Subject: "The Warblers of 
North America." Exhibition of specimens of Bach- 
man's, the blue-winged, the golden-winged, Brewster's 
and Lawrence's warblers, with discussion of distribu- 
tion, habits, etc. Walter W. Granger, Sec'y. 
Fresh-Water Pearls. 
. We have received from the United States Fish Com- 
mission the paper on "Fresh-Water Pearls and Pearl 
Fisheries," by Mr. George F. Kunz, a part of which has 
been printed in our columns. As published by the Com- 
mission, it has added interest and worth in the admirable 
illustrations. 
j§zg md %nn. 
Proprietors of fishing and hunting resorts will find it profitable 
to advertise them in Forest and Stream. 
The "BriePs" Pictures. 
The illustrations in the current edition of Game Laws in Brief, 
Mr. Charles Hallock says, well represent America's wilderness 
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 unassailable 
accuracy. Forest and Stream Pub. Co. sends it postpaid for 25 
cents, or your dealer will supply you. 
Gun Licenses. 
Toronto, Nov. 3. — Editor Forest and Stream: It must 
be gratifying to you and the many able contributors to 
Forest and Stream to notice the growing interest in 
game and fish protection in the United States and Can- 
ada. It has been uphill work to educate the would-be 
sportsmen to understand the unwise and destructive re- 
sults of spring shooting. An account of a spring snipe 
shooting trip by a Chicago sportsman appeared in an 
early number of Forest and Stream of the present 
year that should have had the effect of converting all 
spring shooters who had the pleasure of reading it. 
It was to the effect that a Mr. Watson, of Chicago, 
when snipe shooting in the vicinity of that city, after 
having killed a number of snipe, found one sitting on a 
nest of eggs, which, if it had flushed, would no doubt 
have gone into the bag with others killed in the act 
of propagating the species. This experience should re- 
sult in the reformation of at least one advocate of 
spring shooting. 
Much remains to be done under existing circum- 
stances if the pleasure and benefits derived from shoot- 
ing and fishing are to be perpetuated on this continent. 
When we take into consideration the great improvement 
in guns, and the immense increase in the number using 
them, in most instances not wisely, but too well, it ap- 
pears to me that the time has arrived for some restric- 
tion to be placed on the guns, or on those using them, if 
the extermination of game is to be prevented. The true 
basis of taxation is to tax the luxuries and not the neces- 
saries of life. Shooting game is, or should be, a luxury 
connected with recreation and health-giving exercise. 
While a tax on guns, however small, would be ob- 
jected to by the general public as being too much of an 
Old Country innovation, there should be no objection to 
a general license being required from all persons killing- 
game of any description, one-half of such license fee to 
be paid to municipalities, the other half to the respective 
States to be applied for the sole purpose of game and 
fish protection. 
Game dealers ought to be licensed, and their establish- 
ments open to inspection at any time by the officer in- 
terested in enforcing the game laws. These are a few 
of the practical measures that would do much to protect 
game, and would also have a tendency to reduce the 
number of accidents caused by guns in the hands of small 
boys. The licensing of and open inspection of game 
dealers' establishments would also do much^ in pre- 
venting the recurrence of a transaction brought to my 
notice during the fall of 1897, Adz., a shipment of 112 
dozens of quail made from St. Louis to a foreign country. 
Ranger. 
Maine Game Records. 
The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad has sent out a 
tabulation of its game shipments for October, which 
shows the following comparison with the statistics of 
former years : 
Deer. Moose. Caribou. 
Total shipped, 1894 479 2 4 10 
Total shipped, 1895 669 53 37 
Total shipped, 1896 1,029 79 57 
Total shipped, 1897 1,246 55 20 
Total shipped, 1898 1,348 71 22 
In 1897 the moose shipments were from Oct. 15 to 
Dec. 1 only. 
In 1898 the moose shipments were from Oct. 15 to 
Oct. 31 only. 
The above statement, compiled from records kept by 
station agents, comprises only game shipped by visitinK 
sportsmen, and does not include that killed by native 
hunters, nor the large quantity consumed in camps. 
