3^4 
FOREST AND STREAM: 
In Cat Claw Park. 
It was Nov. 7th, at 7 A. M., when Miguel knocked at 
my door at the hotel in Ratan, New Mexico, and told 
me that he could see the smoke of the train from the 
East coming down the mountains. Harry and Al. are on 
that train coming to meet me here for a hunt in the 
Ratan Mountains and thereabouts, and I came yesterday 
to meet them in response to a telegram. 
So I went out on to the platform of the depot hotel 
to meet the boys. When the train stopped Harry 
jumped out and Al. followed more calmly. After him 
came a colored gentleman, arrayed in gorgeous apparel 
and loaded down with parcels— two guncases, two grip- 
sacks, a roll of blankets and a few other things. He 
sailed into the hotel with a lordly air and said: "We have 
come," to the clerk, who gazed at him with respect. 
From Ratan we drove over to Mat's ranch in Cat Claw 
Park. Mat and I are partners in a bunch of horses. 
I come down here to see the liorses, as I usually do 
twice a year, and Mat had told me to get Harry and Al. 
to come down when I did, so I invited them. Harry and 
I have hunted together for the past fifteen years. The 
park is in the heart of the Ratan Mountains, and is a 
beautiful oval valley five miles long and three vvide, su'- 
rounded by lovely ritouiitains that glow with the dull red 
of the mountain oak and the bright green of the spruce 
pine. In the centre of the valley, on a little knoll, is 
Mat's ranch, a big adobe house of many rooms. It is of 
one story and looks like a big mud turtle. Twenty feet 
from the door bubbles up a strong ice-cold spring, which 
runs on a little rill down into the creek 200 yards away. 
Behind the main house is a motley collection of buildings 
— ^Mat's old cabin, where he used to live when he was a 
bachelor. It's the harness and saddle-room now. Car- 
riage houses, hen house, stables, coral, cow house, smoke 
house, and two jacals full of Mexican herders and women 
and fieas and dogs and children. 
That afternoon we planned a little hunt over into Colo- 
rado, and started two wagons around by the road. Al. 
dug Up a lot of things for Mrs. Mat out of one of his 
trimks. She told him that she hated to take such valu- 
able presents, but that she couldn't help it, for they were 
just what she wanted, and Mat looked wise and said 
nothing— he had sent a list of things to Al. two weeks 
before accompanied by a check. Al. had added a few 
things on his own account. That evening Al. owned up 
to Mrs. Nell how the things were so well selected, and 
she sat down very close to Mat, and without looking pt 
him patted him on the knee, and the rest of us made be- 
lieve we didn't see it, and I thought of a young woman 
300 miles away that is just as good-looking as she is, and 
felt a trifle lonesome for a few minutes. 
The next morning at daybreak Al. and I got mto a 
strong buckboard, and Harry and Mat mounted their 
horses and we went over the mountain, over a most 
villainous trail for a wagon. Up the worst places Al. and 
I had to walk, and occasionally hold on to the buck- 
board to keep it right side up. We went eight miles 
across a beautiful rolling prairie on top of the mountain, 
and then down over big rocks and through quaking asp 
thickets, till we landed on a good road at the fountam 
head of the Trinchard. Three miles down the stream an J 
twenty miles over rolling prairie guiltless of road or 
trail except the track of our baggage wagons, which we 
had sent on ahead, and at last we went down a very rough 
little hill, and there was camp, looking very home-like. 
It was in a little routid valley, with a few cedars and one 
big Cottonwood by a low cliff on the north side of the 
valley. A large water hole was close by the tree at the 
foot of the cliff. Al.'s new tent and my old dmgy one 
were set up facing the south, and as we came down the 
hill Miguel and Roque were cooking supper at a big open 
fire, the four horses were feeding near the tents, and the 
wagons were each beside its own tent. The horses 
stopped grazing and whinied at us as we came in, and 
the Mexicans went on cooking with Indian stolidity and 
hardly looked up when we stopped. 
Al.'s tent had a floor cloth of heavy canvass stretched 
tight, a wire mattress on a cot bed, with new California 
blankets, a rubber pillow and white sheets, a tin fixing 
with- a tank and a wash bowl combined with a look- 
ing-glass; two camp chairs and a folding table, a swing 
lamp and his trunk. My tent was furnished with three 
rolls of rather ragged blankets, wrapped up in old wagon 
sheets and tied up with a rope, all thrown down on the 
ground. We also had a tin pail full of water, a tm wash- 
basin and a lantern for furniture. 
We had a big supper as soon as possible, and then all 
but Roque struck out for meat. Al. and Harry went to- 
gether. Each had a new .30 calibre Winchester and a new 
belt, and the cartridges looked very small to me. I use 
a 35.90. Miguel and I each went alone. I wandered oft 
about a mile and sat down on the brink of the Purga- 
toire canon, and sat there till after dark watching and 
waiting near a deer trail for the deer that did not come. 
I heard two shots not far from camp that I thought were 
fired by Al. and Harry, and finally the darkness came and 
I went back to camp. A big fire was burning in front 
of my old tent and the boys were all there. 
Roque was broiling deer ribs on the coals, Al. anfj 
Harry were in Al.'s tent, that was so brilliantly lighted 
that it looked as if it were afire, and Miguel was just in. 
Al had killed a yearling buck and had carried it into 
camp on his back, while Harry had toted the guns. 
Miguel smiled an expansive smile when he saw me, and 
said- "Senor Dick, I saw a big flock of turkeys, and fol- 
lowed them till they went to roost in some pmes down in 
the Purgatoire canon. We will go down and get some 
pretty soon; but first I am going to eat some ribs." 
In a few minutes we were eating ribs and tortillas and 
drinking strong black coffee, for it's a tough trip down 
into the cafion at night, and one' needs to be reinforced. 
Also, let me inform you folks, deer ribs, as they roast 
sputtering and popping before an open fire, smell very 
good, and taste as good as they smell. 
Al. concl^ded that he wouldn't go two miles, and down 
into a caiion 2,000ft. deep in a dark night to km 
turkey, so he told Roque to take his shotgun and he 
would keep camp in our absence. It was very dark, and 
crawling down into the gloomy cafion, down a deer 
trail part way, and then down the side canon along the- 
side hill through a very poky bear and mountain-lionish 
hole would not have been nice alone; but the five of us 
were perfectly satisfied, and we finally reached the trees 
and got under the turkeys and located them. I had a 
shotgun — 12 Winchester lever gun — and missed with the 
first barrel. I shot where I thought the turkey's head 
ought to be, and shot over him, and hit him at the 
second shot. So down he came almost at my feet, and 
went fluttering and rolling down the hill. I finally heard 
him stop away below me and followed his trail down by 
lighting matches and seeing a little blood and an occa- 
sional feather, till I found him stone dead in a hole under 
a big x'ock tliat looked like a bear den. 
We finally all came together down on the flat in the 
cafion. We had only three turkeys, but it was very 
dark and we had had bad luck, that's all. Mat had a 
notion to stay till morning and call them, but I didn't 
feel like playing freeze-out around a fire all night with- 
out blankets; so we finally started for camp, and got 
there about 11 o'clock very tired and hungry again. 1 am 
ashamed to tell so much about eating, and yet I must 
plead guilty to eating five big meals that day. 
We sat around the fire a long time, and Roque told of 
the Thing that came down from the mountain and killed 
his dogs and made him hole up in the house after dark, 
and hung around just out of sight, and whined and 
moaned as if it wanted to eat him and Luce, his wife. 
He said it was a demon animal and a bad spirit, but when 
he wound up the tale by telling how he finally got it to 
take a bait of liver with half a bottle of strychnine, and 
that it went away and never returned we all breathed 
easier, and Miguel said that he would like the demon'.s 
skin tanned right now, as he was short of bedding. Mat 
and I immediately responded, and lent him and Roque 
two blankets and a heavy quilt. 
Mexicans and old mountain men have lots of queer 
and grizzly stories of things — things that are seldom seen 
but often heard; that kill men and defile their corpse?. 
But Miguel is intensely practical and as brave a little man 
as ever lived; besides he has a witch for a mother-in-law, 
who worries him greatly monkeying with spirits and plain- 
ing solos on her medicine drum at unseasonable hours of 
the night, and that makes him very uncharitable. The 
old lady is a Navajoe Indian, and I am very fond of her; 
but she is a great trial to Miguel. I once offered to take 
her home with me and keep her, but Miguel said she 
would drive my wife crazy with her drum and her ghosts; 
that besides she would wear men's pants and ride a horse 
(como un hombre) like a man, and that finally she was 
a cross he had to bear, and that he hoped to be forgiven 
all his sins if he stood all her capers, and I concluded he 
was right both ways. Mrs. _D. said Miguel had good 
sense when I told her about it. 
The coyotes laughed and squealed and howled over on 
the hill where the deer offal lay, and a big owl sat on a 
tree nearby and occasionally said "Whoo-whoo" in a 
bass voice, as if he had a bad cold. Miguel growled and 
said, "There's nez's owl taking care of us," and we all 
turned in. It didn't seem as if I had been asleep more 
than five minutes when Mat pulled Roque out, and they 
both went to cooking brealcfast and rattling pots and 
pans. Al. finally woke me up and asked if I was going 
to hunt this morning, and I said, "No; lemme be," and 
promptly went to sleep again, and woke up at 10 when 
the boys came in. Al. and Harry had seen several deer, 
but failed to get a shot. Miguel had killed a big wildcat, 
which, he said, was a small lion, and Roque had stayed 
at home and cooked more deer meat. We hunted, played 
whist, told stories and got several deer and more turkeys, 
and finally went home to Mat's ranch, and Al. and 
Harry started for the railroad and went home. In a few 
days I rolled out for Kansas, and here I am. 
W. J. D. 
Buck Ranch. 
The silent forest beside Buck Ranch still stretches 
away to the north and the east, beyond where we have 
yet wandered. Past Buck Ranch, the deserted remnant 
of a timber camp or two, and then only the wide forest, 
with its giants of sweet gum, oak and elm, o'erspread- 
ing the groves of green holly which close in on either 
side the winding course of the bayou, 
"At the Place of the Oaks" Mr. Hough's two friends 
bowed the head, and no one would scoff. It would 
have been so at Buck Ranch. Thought is nobler in the 
lonely forest. 
It was nightfall when I reached the lodge, after a 
day's ride over frozen roads, but within the great wood 
fires seemed to sputter and glow more warmly than fires 
are wont, and fatigue was soon forgotten, and plans 
making to find the party (who were in camp seven 
miles away), or stories telling of past exploits. 
Next morning, on foot, I took the trail over to Big 
Possum Bayou, thence five miles up and across to dis- 
cover the camp ground deserted. An almost untrace- 
able wagon trail over leaves, twigs and switch cane 
led nearly a mile inland to where I found the tent, 
guarded by the two new hound pups. Several deer and 
parts of deer were swinging from limbs, and it was a 
small matter to find a piece of tenderloin about the right 
size and drop it among the live coals. 
Soon Parker strolled in, and after a greeting said he 
needed help to get in the last kill— a small buck. This 
task was accomplished before the Captain, Mr. Stan- 
ford and Arch came in from their morning hunt. The 
• Captain said he had been unsuccessful, but when he 
found time and wasn't hungry he would tell us about 
the one he got yesterday morning, and the two that he 
didn't get. 1. j ^t, 
"Oh, but there are some big ones here! and the 
tracks that we saw as we hunted away the evening and 
studied the woods verified the assertion. 
The log fire in front of the little A tent must be 
piled up ampiv on that cold November night, and then 
the Captain to'ld about the big deer that he did get, and 
the ones that he didn't get. 
"It was so cold yesterday morning that they were not 
feeding much, and I had wandered a long way down 
the open ridge before I ' finally saw several does away 
ahead of me. - , ^ «• • 
"Getting a bunch of trges on them, I was shppmg 
nearer, when my attention was drawn to a moving ob- 
ject off to the right, and there I discovered a large 
buck loping along a course parallel to my own. I 
thought at first that he had not seen me, and 'bleated 
to stop him, but he kept on, and when he came up with 
the does they all disappeared. 
"I had followed on for a while in the direction they 
had taken, when all at once I heard the quick striking 
together of the horns of bucks fighting. I had never 
seen a combat of the kind, though having made fre- 
quent efforts before. So I was anxious to come within 
sight of them. This I succeeded in doing, by using 
great caution, but just as I first saw them they stopped 
fighting, and one deliberately walked toward where I 
stood concealed and stopped when within 70 or 8oyds. 
His breast was toward me, but I was afraid to wait 
for a side shot, and pulled trigger. Instantly he wheeled 
and ran a short distance, then fell. I heard him get up, 
run and fall again, and repeat the maneuver several 
times before he finally fell with a heavier crash than 
before, after which all was quiet, and I knew that he was 
dead. 
"When the smoke cleared, here came the other buck 
along the trail of the first, this one approaching within 
35yds. and stopping broadside. What was my chagrin, 
then, to find that my lever had gotten caught and would 
not reload. I had been warned of this fault in the style 
of gun that I was using, and had seen symptoms in this 
gun before, but had trusted to its finding a more op- 
portune time to misbehave. 
"While the deer stood, I had to turn my back to him 
and pick out the eight cartridges from the magazine 
with my knife, consuming nearly ten minutes, during 
which time the buck, scrutinizing my back, had not 
made up his mind that I was an enemy. But when the 
magazine was empty and I closed the lever, the 'click' 
was too much for him, and he started off. I was quick 
enough to get a shot before he was entirely lost to view 
in the cane, but missed. 
"That isn't all of the story yet. One of the does came. 
She stood and looked while I tried again to reload, 
but the lever now got caught so badly that I could do 
absolutely nothing with it, and after giving the deer 
assurances of her safety, I carried my lame gun toward 
camp, being in no good humor toward the man that 
made it. 
"Parker went back with me to bring in the dead buck, 
which we were unable to lift on the horse, and had to 
drag to camp. This spoiled his hide, all but the head 
and neck, which I will mount." 
A charm protected the other big buck. Captain Brad- 
ford could not find him again, and when Mr. Stanford 
encountered him he, too, met with a disappointment. 
He said the old buck looked as big as a mule, and as 
if he was posing for a target, as he stopped at short 
range and turned his full side to him. But Mr. Stanford 
had a two-trigger gun, and a pair of thick-fingered 
gloves on, and as the gloves got mixed with the trig- 
gers that he was going to pull both at once, a pre- 
mature shot was fired and the big buck yet roams up 
and down in that locality. 
!|: * * * * * 
Snow clouds the next day decided ns to break camp 
after the morning's hunt. The party had secured a total 
of seven deer. 
After a rought trip in we reposed a night at Buck 
Lodge. In the morning I relocated a flock of turkeys 
that Mr. Stanford had kindly scattered the evening 
before and killed a portly bird. At noon the party had 
begun to disband, and I sadly turned from Buck Ranch 
and rode toward the realms of man., Tripod. 
Mississippi. 
The Changes of the Years. 
BucYEUS, Ohio, April to— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am in receipt of copies of your paper containing my 
article on "Dixie and Dan Emmett," and I was much 
gratified with the note thereto coritributed by Fred 
Mather. It also gratified me to keep up my friendly rela- 
tions with Forest and Stream. Over twenty years ago I 
sent you an occasional article, mostly descriptive of the 
prairies, streams and lakes, and sporting experiences of 
my own in northwestern Iowa, a new region which was 
just b^inning to attract settlers. I then owned and still 
own farm lands there, where I have been accustomed to 
spend my summer vacations as a relief from the active 
practice of my profession. The feathered game has most- 
ly disappeared before the march of civilization; and where 
I formerly looked over the vast stretch of prairies, 
bounded only by the horizon line like the open sea, we 
now see railroad trains, cultivated fields, harvesters, 
schoolhouses and comfortable dwellings, embowered amid 
planted trees. The beautiful lakes and running streams 
are still there, and you cannot find more attractive resorts 
than a cluster of lakes, like Okobogi, Spirit Lake, and 
other neighboring waters abounding with fish, in Dickin- 
son county, Iowa, and the neighboring portion of south- 
ern Minnesota. 
Nothing affords me greater pleasure than to find enough 
leisure to lay aside my legal papers, books and briefs, and 
employ my pen to communicate a hasty article to the 
Forest and Stream. 'Very cordially yours, 
S. R. Harris. 
A Mysterious Shadow. 
In the fall of 1897 I was trappmg and hunting on a small 
tributary of the Colorado River. My camp was situated 
on the west side of a large bluff. High up on this bluff 
was a large flat rock about 80 or 90ft. square. The face 
of the rock looked as smooth as if it had been dressed 
by the hand of man. On bright days the sun shone on the 
rock from a little after 12 o'clock until 3:30 m the evening. 
Exactly at 1:15 o'clock a shadow would make its appear- 
ance on this rock exactly like that of a hunter dressed in 
the garb usually worn by hunters of early times— fringed 
hunting shirt, cap, leggings, shot pouch and gun. The 
shadow appeared to be nearly 8 or oft. high ; and it was 
so plain in every detail that it was hard to believe that it 
was not painted by the hand of some skillful artist. Now 
the strange part of this apparition was that so far as I 
could discover there was no object on the sunward side of 
the bluff to cause the. appearance. Who can .give an ex- 
planation of this strange phenomenon? 
^ J. W. Drane, M. D. 
