[April i, i&g^. 
244 
The Vefraont Animal not an Elk. 
Sheldon, Vt., March 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have received a number of replies to inquiries made 
concerning the moose, caribou or elk that passed near 
here in December, 1897, and one of them — from an ob- 
serving hunter and reliable man — 1 consider of value, 
though it is quite different from other letters received. 
Mr. Kittell first thought that the animal was a hybrid, but 
the description given in his letter is decidedly moosey. 
Stan stead. 
Fairfield, March 11. — ^The animal you mention I will 
try to describe -as nearly as I can remember it. I should 
think tltat it was as tall at the shoulders as a good sized 
horse, say fifteen hands, but not so high at the hips.- In 
color the back and upper part of the body were dark, with 
legs and lower parts a fawn color. The horns were .large 
and as nearly as I could judge were not round. I tracked 
the animal for several rods in the soft earth. It had 
rather a pointed toe with a very long and pointed dew 
claw and stepped along with a swinging gait. 
J. W. Kittell. 
[We print this, as it seems to pretty well show that the 
mysterious animal about which so much conjecture arose 
was nothing more than a wandering moose.] 
The Wild Animals of Wyoming;. 
A LANTERN lectute on the wild animals of Wyoming 
will be given at the Carnegie Lyceum, April 4, at 11.*. 
M., by Mr. Ernest Seton Thompson, in aid of theEdwiiia 
Free Kindergarten. The talk will be on the lines of Mr. 
Thompson's well-known book, "Wild Animals I Have 
Known," and will be fully illustrated with sketches and 
photographs of the wild animals themselves and the places 
they inhabit. The entertainment is especially interesting 
to boys. Tickets, 75 cents, may be had of Miss J. Lewis, 
35 Gramercy Park, city. 
'^//(^ md 0m. 
Game Laws in Brief and Woodcraft Magazine. 
See announcement elsewhere. As the April issue will be gov- 
erned by the advance orders, it is requested that subscribers will 
order now either for the year or for the April number. 
On Kansas Prairies. 
Lost Springs, Kan. March 17. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: This town is situated on the old Santa Fe trail. 
It received its name from some springs of water bubbling 
up Iiere on the prairie. In the freighting days this was 
the only water to be obtained along the route for (as near 
as I can learn) about forty miles. It was of such value 
that the springs were kept under lock and key, and the 
water was sold as called for. A saloon was also estab- 
lished here and a gentleman of my acquaintance has a .44 
revolver bullet he picked up where the saloon stood. 
What stories that bit of lead could tell if only it might 
speak. The town lot was originally laid out around these 
springs, but with the coming of the railroad was moved 
three miles eastward and with their abandonment the 
springs for some cause, probably from the tramping of 
the great herds of cattle, ceased to flow. Hence the name. 
They have since come to the surface and flow steadily. 
But it was to speak of the rabbit and his interests that 
I began to write. The rabbit season is over so far as 
their" use for the table is concerned, although here they 
are shot the year through. I have been figuring a little 
about the number of rabbits killed in this section and 
am simply astonished at the result. Six hundred and 
seventy-five rabbits were, in a few days, shipped from 
the little town of Ramona, and I think this vvas not one- 
tenth part of the number killed in that vicinity. Two 
hundred and fifty of these (part jack rabbits, but mostly 
cottontails) weighed i,ioolbs., giving an average of over 
4 i-3lbs. per rabbit; this multiplied by 675, would give an 
aggregate of over fourteen tons of rabbit meat raised in 
that one town. Multiply this" by the hundreds of small 
towns in the State, and it reaches a total simply astound- 
ing and yet this is the true state of affairs. Yet bunny 
holds his own and if the season is any way favorable will 
be ready for next winter's sport. 
Western-like, much of this supply of meat is wasted. 
Many of the cottontails are thrown away, and as most 
of the people here are prejudiced against their use, the 
greater part of the jacks are left where they fell, or 
fed to the hogs or chickens. One young man of my 
acquaintance kept a bunch of hogs several weeks mainly 
on jacks he shot and bought. As he could buy them for 
3 and 4 cents each, they were cheap feed, but it looked 
too bad to one who loves the wild creatures for their 
very wildness to put them to such an ignoble use. 
With the Kansas hunter the rabbit occupies a peculiar 
place. He is everj^where. I have seen his tracks leading 
under the platform at the railroad station; the school 
children have great fun chasing him from under the board 
walks about the schoolhouse; he investigates the cook 
shack each night; looks over the threshing machine, and we 
have even found him hid in the separator; hides under 
the barns and outhouses in the very faces of the dogs, 
springs out from the cornshocks and feed stacks, and even 
the feed racks of the cattle, is cursed for gnawing the 
young fruit trees, is anathemized for cutting the vmes 
and rose bushes, and shot, trapped and otherwise disposed 
of at any and all times, but in spite of .all, continues to 
increase, multiply and fill the land. 
I for one am glad of it, for he makes pleasant many an 
otherwise dull hunting day. But there are days Avhen, 
although the snow may be pressed solid all around you 
by his gambols of the preceding night, hours of tramping 
will not start a single rabbit. I thought I had his ways 
well learned, but either he is learning new tricks pr;,is fiot 
the simple creature I had thought. 
There are many ways of hunting practiced here. Maiiy 
prefer to take a team and driver, with from two to six 
hunters, and go through the cornfields, shooting from the 
wagon or spreading out on each side, in this way covering 
a large space in a day's shooting, or what is much more 
deadly when the snow first comes, and is well drifted, tak- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
ing a narrow unmowed slough. The rabbits at such times 
leave the cornfields and uplands and hide — in the daytime 
— under the slough grass, bent over by the snow. The 
team follows the center of the slough, and with the 
hunters on each side starts the rabbits, which are shot as 
they try to gain the cornfields on either hand. Others 
prefer to shoot from horseback, following much the same 
tactics, only that each hunter is mounted. Either way is 
very successful so far as numbers is concerned. The own- 
er of the threshing machine that I am with has a little ter- 
rier dog, no bigger than a cat, that delights in following 
the rabbits through their burrows under the snow and 
slough grass, and will, if they are plenty, keep two guns 
busy until she gets tired out. But I do not care to have a 
hand in such slaughter. 
1 usually prefer to hunt with no companj? but my gun. 
If the snow is drifted, I find my way down through the 
cornfields to where it has drifted into the slough. The 
corn is full of rabbit paths all leading to the nearest 
slough, but there is not a rabbit in sight. Soon on the 
sunny side of a drift there is a burrow where Bunny is 
enjoying himself in fancied security. Stepping back of 
this I stir him up with my foot— could often easily catch 
him with my hands, but that would not be any sport — ^let 
him get off three or four rods and then the old gun speaks 
out. Perhaps he turns a few somersaults and stops, or 
perhaps covered by the flying snow, keeps on; but if the 
cornfield is not too near, the second barrel usually stops 
hira. A little further on I kick one out from the grass 
and snow, only to see a bunch of bi-own hair and ears, or 
white tail and some paws disappear into the next bunch of 
grass. A little further and one has bored into a bunch 
of old hay. I stamp on this and there is another bit of fun. 
Again one has hid in a corn shock and I rattle and kick 
that until the game comes out running for dear life into 
what I suppose seems to him thunder, lightning and hail. 
And so I keep on until I have secured from three to six, 
when I think that is enough for once. But mixed in with 
this are the quail. Out from a bunch of unharvested cane 
or kafiir corn, or from the sunny side of the slough, with 
their quick whirr, so pleasant to us all, comes a bunch of 
these electrified muscles and feathers ; and a few of them 
stay with me. And then — usually out of gunsliot at this 
time of the year — occasionally there rises a few of the 
great brown-backed grouse of the prairies. I stop one if 
I can, but they are shot so close that (especially if it is 
some other spo'rtsman that starts them) I da not feel badly 
if they are cunning enough to get off unharmed. 
But what fills out the pleasure of the day are — if one has 
the eye to read them— the stories of the wild life written 
all around— stories of midnight tragedy or noonday 
comedy— revealed by the tracks of the untamed denizens 
of the prairies. I note here the track of the snowbird and 
lark, the quail and prairie chicken, the hawk and owl, and 
with them the track of the mouse and rat, and on up 
through the catalogue of the rabbit, skunk, mink, coon, 
coyote and very rarely the great timber wolf, each in its 
way revealing the character and life of its printer on the 
snow. May their numbers never grow less. 
Pine Tree. 
Some West Virginia Game Notes. 
Just about a year ago a gentleman wrote to the For- 
est AND Stream an account of killing a fox with his 
cane It had been tired out by a hound which was walk- 
ing in behind the quarry. I do not remember who wrote 
it, but the incident impressed me. A short time since 
a similar occurrence was reported in this county. 
' A farmer living on the head of Williams River heard 
the cry of a hound coming into the river and supposed 
it was running a deer. He hurried down to the stream 
to take it off the trail, and saw it coming up the hill m 
his pasture. About 5yds. in front of the hound was a 
large red fox. They were both walking slowly. When 
they topped the hill they trotted down, but it was evi- 
dent that both were thoroughly tired out. 
A farm hand saw them about this time and tried to 
encourage the hound by cheering him on; but at the 
first yell the hound quit work and sat himself down on 
his hind-quarters. This is often the result of yelling at 
a young dog. . „ r 1 • 1 
No sooner had his pursuer given up than the iox laid 
down a few steps further on, in the open field, in plain 
view of his enemy. The two maintained their respective 
positions until the gentleman who had first noticed the 
hound came up and shot the fox with a rifle. 
He gave the hound (a noble-looking dog, with signs 
of blood in him), a good home. He docs not come from 
the immediate neighborhood, for no one knows him, 
and our people have good eyes for a dog. As near as 
can be ascertained, this same dog had been running the 
evening before on the opposite mountain, and probably 
had been on the trail many hours. Nemesis would be a 
good name for him. 
Yes, we shoot the fox here, and trap, and poison, and 
destroy him in any fell way, and we have no apologies 
to make for such practices. He is a destroyer of small 
game, to say nothing of lambs and chickens. An Eng- 
lishman once refused a good opportunity of killing a 
fox, and his reasons were a revelation to the people. 
There ought really to be a price put upon the fox's head. 
l\1y sympathies were aroused, though, at the miserable 
tale of the trapping of a fox on the mountain overlook- 
ing this village. A fox had been put in a hole in the 
rocks and a trap set for him. Fourteen days after that 
fox came out and submitted to his fate. When found he 
was nothing but a skeleton and was so weak that it 
showed no fear of the trapper, who put him out of his 
misery. A s'torv of such suffering is painful to consider. 
On Back Run a farmer found a fox in his barn the 
other day, just as it had killed the bunty hen. He went 
for it with 'a club and killed it. He considered it right 
remarkable that a fox should be so bold until it devel- 
oped that he had killed the pet of a neighbor's boy, who 
had refused $5 for it out of pure love and affection for 
the creature. A compromise was effected by the owner 
paying for the hen and taking the skin of the fox. 
Poison was put in the carcass of a dead sheep on 
Williams River and one of the victims was a raven. 
About a quarter of a mile from the bait the dead body 
was found in the snow. Its size was noted. The raven 
here is a remarkably shy bird, and they had been con- 
sidered about the size of a crow. But this bird would 
have weighed at least three times as much as a crow. 
In my last letter I spoke of a sheep which was par- 
alyzed by the effects of a little laurel which it had eaten 
and lying near the buzzard's nest, having its eyes eaten out 
by turkey buzzards, and afterwards recovering. I have 
been informed by competent authority that this was the 
fine Italian hand of a raven, and not of a turkey buz- 
zard, as some of us had arbitrarily decided. 
In the same article mention was made of the killin.9; 
of a black fox, an animal that inhabits trees, making 
its home in a hollow trunk and jumping from" branch to 
branch like a gray squirrel. It was once comparatively 
plentiful in this county. The female's maternal instincts 
are developed to a wonderful extent, and one of the 
wiles of the hunter was to pound on the trunk of the 
tree where one might be expected to have its abiding 
place, and if a mother fox was in the tree she would take 
a young one or two and try to escape by running from 
tree to tree. This looks like a pronounced case of nerves. 
A hunter saw such an animal jumping from bough to 
bough and shot it, as has been duly reported, but thereoy 
hangs a tale. 
The pelt was brought to a local merchant and it looked 
very valuable. After a good deal of bargaining it 
changed hands at the price of $5. It was sent to a com- 
mission merchant in Chicago as a part of a consignment 
of furs. The returns were satisfactory in the main, but 
where the black fox skin should have appeared in the 
list the anxious merchant read: "One cat skin, 15 cents." 
There was a good deal of gloom in the store that even- 
ing. 
An immense pulp mill is to be established on the beau- 
tiful Greenbrier River, about forty miles from its mouth, 
and all our people are in a state of exaltation over the 
matter, for the big industry, which was compelled to 
move on account of the pollution of the Potomac, was 
sought for by every section. This means much to the 
fishing below the mill, but there is plenty of room above. 
I wish some one would tell me, in case the washings 
from the mill cause the fish to leave the stream below it, 
whether the fish Avill be killed or simply driven to purer 
waters? The bass fishing in the Greenbrier is second to 
none. 
We got no mail one day. Business was badly tied 
up. Cause: The colored mail-carrier killed a big otter 
in the Greenbrier and had to attend to the skinning 
thereof. The people on his route, not being informed of 
his sufficient reason, were very indignant until he ex- 
plained. An otter skin is worth about $8. and tliat is 
no small matter. 
In Will Book No. i, of Pocahontas county, is a AviU 
containing a clause which is indicative of game conditions 
seventj^-five years ago: "Item. I will that my rifle gun 
remain at the homestead, to provide meat for the fam- 
ily." 
In the records of the same county, about the same year, 
is the levy laid for wolf scalps. The fiscal affairs were 
in a good shape. The honorable court found that $626 
were needed to liquidate the expenses incurred the year 
before, and there being 559 tithable persons in the county 
it was ordered that $1.10 be collected impartially from 
each. In looking over the items the greater part of the 
record is taken up with the allowing of bounties on 
wolf scalps at $4 each. The wolves have all been exter- 
minated, and gone are the days when the good wife 
would say, "John, the venison's out," and when John 
would take the rifle gun and hunt until he found a fat 
buck and killed it. In those days there was an iron- 
bound against the killing of mother deer, though 
there was no close season. The man who violated thi.s 
rule committed the unpardonable sin — it was decreed 
that he "should be a man abhorred!" ~ We need ethics 
or a system of moral principles in preserving game as 
well as law. Andrew Price. 
Marlinton, W. Va. 
Game in Jackson Hole. 
Jackson, Wyo., March 15. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
At this time it is evident that all the game in the Jackson 
Valley will survive the winter. About 5,000 head of 
elk are wintering among the settlements at Jackson and 
viciniti^ and about 10,000 are estimated as wintering on 
the Grosventre and tributaries, but among these there will 
be m.ore or less loss of calves. I have a letter from the 
upper Grosventre country, which indicates that the elk 
are playing havoc with the settlers' hay stacks, and that 
they have to watch them nightly; also that on Crystal 
Creek there are wintering about 400 head of ewes and 
3'earlings, with very few, if any, large rams. 
I have also reliable information that two different per- 
.sons are capturing elk calves on Pilgrim Creek, north of 
Jackson's Lake. Whether or not the State game warden 
will proceed with prosecutions remains to be seen. The 
law, however, refuses the right to capture for domestica- 
tion or speculative purposes; and the law being violated 
so early after its passage, we think bodes evil for the 
future. 
More or less game is being killed in different localities, 
we fear, in violation of law, but it is to be hoped that with 
the State game warden a resident of Jackson Valley, the 
slaughter will be nominal, if not entirely restricted. A 
great many elk are Icilled every spring by persons who 
go into the mountains to trap bear. An attempt was made 
two years ago to prohibit the trapping of bear, and using 
as bait the game animals. It unquestionably can be 
stopped at the present tiine if the law is enforced. It is the 
opinion of a great many that for every bear trapped or 
captured, ten head of elk are killed and wasted, hence 
many desire that in relation to this matter the executive 
officers having in hand the protection of the game will, 
from this time on, do something toward, at least placing a 
barrier against this unusual and unnecessary slaughter of 
game for bait. 
The appointment of the State game warden from among 
the residents of the Jackson Valley, was a just recognition 
by the Governor of Wyoming of the game interests of the 
State. We have no hesitancy in predicting that the 
game law will be enforced without fear or favor and with 
no discrimination as to persons; foi: certainly, it must be 
either enforced literally or it becomes null and void. 
Will L, Simpsox 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each weelc on Tuesday, 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
l&test by Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 
