386 
POOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 20, 1899. 
In the Rockies.— L 
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? 
And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools — 
Being native burghers of this desert city- 
Should, in their own confines, with forked heads, 
Have their rottild haurich^es igored-" 
— ^As You Like It. 
The point of view has much to do with a man's en- 
joyment of a spectacle. This trite aphorism occurred to 
me a few da,vs ago, when comfortably seated in a "Wild 
West" ampitheater, watching the antics of the bucking 
broncos. It brought back a similar scene just one year 
before. Then I was an actor instead of a spectator. 
The amphitheater was of nature's architecture. 
Around us arose in serried masses, tier above tier, 
shoulder to shoulder, forming a perfect amphitheater, 
some of the grandest and most mountainous masses that 
form the great chain of the Rockies. The arena was a 
little mountain park, high on the headwaters of the Snake 
River, in which we had encamped the night before, our 
first night out. We had staged it from the railroad, Dan 
and I, to a far interior mining town, where we out- 
fitted, and getting an early start pushed the pack train 
for twelve good hours without a stop, until at nightfall 
we had camped in this little park. Another such day 
would land us in the promised land, the Mecca of our 
hopes, a land of scarfed, ^cy-scraping pinnacles, where 
the bands of big game awaited our coming. 
But, alas! for the plans of mice and men. The blankets 
we had taken from under the saddles the evening be- 
fore had been saturated with perspiration, the chill night 
air of that dizzy elevation had done the rest, and they 
were frozen as stiff as boards. As a consequence there 
was some spectacular bucking that morning in that little 
park, beside which the performance of Buffalo Bill's 
bronchos was a very one-horse affair, Dan did some 
ground and lofty tumbling, which I was not in a position 
to appreciate at the time, being absorbed in an attempt 
to pick out a soft place to land on. Dan said I succeeded, 
inasmuch as I landed on my head. The first thing I 
distinctly remember when I cleared away the various con- 
stellations that presented themselves to my vision was the 
spectacle of Dan seated On the ground with his coat 
split up the back, totally unconcerned about his mount, 
which, having bucked him off, was endeavoring to per- 
form the same office for the saddle, but wildly waving 
his arms toward one of the pack horses, andj^elling to the 
packers, "Stop that pinto! Stop that piebald son of a 
gun!" 
As every other pack horse in the train was bucking as 
hard as the pinto, I was at a loss to understand his in- 
terest in this particular animal until, having mastered it, 
Dan dived into one of the side packs, and with a coun- 
tenance and a voice that betokened the depth of his 
misfortune, he told us that the worst was realized, that 
those great necessaries of life which he had brought all 
the way from the East — the mustard, the jam and the 
pickles — had formed a triple alliance. They were joined 
beyond power of divorce. The side pack was simply a 
mess of broken jars and badly mixed contents. I never 
was so glad in my life. Jam for Big Horn hunters — 
think of it! As one of the packers remarked to Dan, 
consolingly, "Jam may be a good thing back East,, but 
it don't climb these hills worth a cent!" My tenderfoot 
companion found before he had gone far that he didn't 
need any condiments to make his food palatable. 
We had calculated upon getting off by sun up, but 
it was 10 o'clock before we got that pack train straight- 
ened out, and when we did get it to moving we were 
too thankful to think of stopping for dinner. We had 
eaten all the cooked food the day before, so bacon — and 
raw bacon at that — with bread straight, was the menu 
for dinner that day, served al la saddle. Dan bolted his 
bread and bacon with the appetite of an Esquimo, aiid 
swore it had a flavor that John Chamberlain's terrapin 
wouldn't compare with, an opinion in which John would 
undoubtedly concur. 
Despite our expedition we made poor progress. 
Everything went wrong. The packs kept slipping, neces- 
sitating numerous delays, and finally in crossing a stream 
the pony with the bedding on its back slipped, and soused 
under its precious burden. This was the last straw. 
Although it was only 2 o'clock, we gave up and made 
camp right there on the banks of the stream. There 
was plenty of wood at hand, and the guide and packer 
soon had a big bonfire ablaze.- With their lariats they 
dragged up and piled together huge logs, and around the 
fire on a scaffolding of poles arranged the wet blankets. 
Dan got out his bamboo, and said he guessed he would 
cast a fly or two. He would have fared better if he had 
cast a stone or two. The stream was clear as crystal, 
cold as ice, swift as a mill race, and literally alive with 
trout. But they did not know that Dan was harmless, 
so when he went through a few wild gyrations in the 
endeavor to cast a fly they must have construed them 
into overt acts of hostility. I was an interested, the 
packer an amused, spectator. Suspicious sounds eman- 
ated from behind the blanket, and glancing back with 
an expression of uneasy distrust Dan said he thought he 
would try a pool around the bend which looked better. 
Shouldering my rifle, I struck up stream, and when I 
got back that night Dan had a big tale to tell of a 
monster trout that had taken his leader and flies. Next 
morning the packer, while out after the horses, rescued 
the leader from the top of an aspen. He said the trout 
must have been a high jumper to have left it in a tree 
"^^For a while after leaving camp I threaded through^ 
the willow flats that bordered the stream m the hope 
of jumping whitetail deer, which use in them. But the 
noise necessarily made forcing my way through the 
thick clumps precluded any hope of stalking so wary 
an animal, and I struck up the mountain. The ascent 
was gradual, plateaus and mesas and little parks alter- 
nating with some stiff steeps. Tracks were abundant, 
but my hunt was unrewarded with even a disappearance 
of deer. I stayed out later than I thought, and was sit- 
ting on a log in a little park high on the mountain side 
enjoying the serenity of the evening, when I chanced to 
turn and gaze back down the mountain. Evening had 
already fallen upon the stream beside which we were 
camped, and up out of the darkness the sound of its 
waters rushing through their rocky channel seemed to 
strike far and faint, from the shore of another world. 
1 started up and hastened down, little relisliing the idea 
of having to spend the night on the mountain side, or the 
chance of breaking a leg if not a neck in the dark. As 
1 sped noiselessly over the spongy turf that carpeted a 
gentle descent, I thought I saw some objects move in 
the edge of the trees, and stopped, when they seemed 
to suddenly disappear. Again I started, and again some 
thing seemed to move, and again I stopped. Brushing 
my hand across my eyes I started again, convinced that 
a cobweb or something else moving as I moved had 
tricked me, when out from the trees, hardly a hundred 
yards away, walked a big doe. I dropped as if stricken 
with paralysis. In the half light as I raised my rifle, and 
trained the sights upon her a strange transformation took 
place. As the doe walked she seemed to lengthen out 
longer and longer, and suddenly I saw with the sensa- 
tions that only a victim of the mirage can appreciate — 
I plainly saw a third pair of legs outlined beneath this 
monstrously elongated deer. 
I do not know whether ray hat lifted or not as my at- 
tention was concentrated upon the mystery that was 
evolving itself before me, but I do know that the rifle 
barrel was wabbling about in a circle, for it was in the 
direct Hne of my vision. Like a flash occurred to nie all 
those fairy tales of nursery days, of bewitched huntsmen, 
of the phantom deer that only a silver bullet could kill, 
and the Lord only knows what I would have done next 
had nut this modern .spook dissolved itself. It seemed 
to part in the middle, and metamorphose itself into a doe 
followed by her full-grown fawn. The fawn had been at 
her side when she first came into view, and gradually 
dropping behind had effected the illusion in the uncertain 
light. I drew a free breath, and saw what I could not 
see while my gaze was concentrated on that strange 
sight — a big blacktail buck standing at gaze with lifted 
head and titillating nostrils. He seemed suspicious, 
Beyond him quietly feeding were two more does. As I 
looked and listened I could hear them crop the luxuriant 
herbage. 
Stretched out flat upon the ground, with my elboAV at 
rest, I trained my rifle at the fawn with that painstaking 
particularity that only a man who is shooting for his 
supper can take. It wilted, in its tracks like a wet rag. 
At the report the startled deer ran together, and then 
with long leaps went crashing into the woods. Here was 
meat aplenty, wood at hand and water near — I was fixed 
for the night. The fawn was nearly grown, weighing 
perhaps loolbs. I went deliberately to work disembowel- 
ing it. When I raised up from my bloody task I was sur- 
prised to see a long shadow fall upon the ground, and 
glancing quickly behind me beheld the great full moon 
with its golden rim resting upon the mountain's crest 
and flooding the scene with its silvery light. I no 
longer thought of staying out on the mountain, but 
shouldering the best of the fawn struck off down to 
camp. " I located it while still high on the mountain 
side by the blazing fire, but was compelled to go down 
into the valley some distance above it. Once in the 
canon, I could no longer see the fire, but concluded some 
intervening mound or rocks cut off the sight. 
The real reason was the blankets which still shrouded 
it. While above it I could look down and see it, but 
when on the level it was hidden. I passed it. but getting 
to windward smelt the smoke and so located it. The logs 
had burned to an immense mass of glowing embers, giv- 
ing off steady heat with little smoke, just the fire for a 
barbecue. Cutting green boughs we made an immense 
broiler, and splitting the fawn, suspended the two halves 
over the coals. The others had eaten one supper, but 
that makes no difference in the mountains. In that 
high, thin air your appetite is always on edge, your di- 
gestion in order, and you can eat as many meals a day as 
you can prevail upon your men to cook. It was nearly 
midnight when, wearied with story-telling and gorged 
with barbecued venison, we crawled into our blankets. 
In the stilly watches of the night the slaughtered deer 
had its revenge. For the first and only time in the 
mountains my slumbers were far from dreamless. The 
peculiar experience with the doe, together with a surfeit 
of fawn, colored my dreams, and all night I suffered 
untold afflictions from phantom deer. 
Francis J. Hoagan. 
Kentucky. 
[to EE CONTINUED.] 
Virginia's Eastern Shore. 
Bklle Haven, Va., May s— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Having not seen anything from the eastern shore of Vir- 
ginia in your valuable columns this spring, I thought I 
would respond to a feeling that has long been prompting 
me to represent our lovely section occasionally in your 
paper, provided you find anything worthy of acceptance. 
Accomac county, on the eastern shore of Virginia, like 
all other sections of our coast, has donned its spring 
colors, and shore-bird shooting and fishing have supple- 
mented duck shooting and field sporting, A bushel of 
fine trout at a tide now. is a fair catch for two men. Cur- 
lew shooting is at its height, and will remain so till about 
the 20th inst., when they will start northward to nest. 
Smaller birds, viz., dowich, plover, calico back, yellow 
leg, etc., will be here in maximum quantities about the 
loth to 20th. 
There are three clubs located on the ocean side of Ac- 
comac, one on Wallops Beach, composed principally of 
Pennsylvanians; one on Revels Island and one of Wach- 
apneague. Members of the latter are down and enjoying 
the first of the season's sport. This club are New York- 
ers, and have demonstrated considerable liberality among 
our people, and in return are much liked and heartily wel- 
comed by the people. They are always prornpt in paying 
their dues and non-resident fees, thus giving the war- 
dens no trouble. The club has been holding annual re- 
gattas, awarding valuable/pfizes to successful competitors 
in boat races, and settinl^'put at their cornmodious club 
house a genuine feast during the day, inviting the ashore 
county citizens to participate, several hundi-eds of them 
accepting. To describe the luxuries and entertainment 
afforded by these regattas would take too much of your 
space. 
Our game laws are reasonable. All non-residents must 
become a member of the Game Association, which costs 
him $3, and $2 annual dues. But as low as the cost is, 
now and then some repugnant non-residents are inclined 
to "kick"; yet we cannot think that any true sportsmen 
would refuse to pay the fee, all of which is expended to- 
ward the protection of our game. 
Drum-fishing is coming on at the north end of Hog 
Island, between the locations of Revel's Island and Broad- 
water Club, the latter in Northampton county. Drum 
fish weighing from 25lbs. to 75lbs. are caught in great 
abundance in the latter part of May and first few days of 
June. Last year one boat would often bring up forty to 
sixty, the result of one day's fishing. It is a common 
thing for two or three men to be hung to different drums 
on the same boat at the same time, cutting and sheering 
tlie boat in all directions. As a food fish for immediate 
eating the drum is fine. 
All of the sites suited to the location of clubs on the 
eastern shore of Virginia seem taken up. In fact, clubs 
have had considerable to do with reducing the sport of 
shooting, especially on our coast, from the fact that they 
usually locate in lands and near waters where wildfowl 
use most, the club habitations driving the fowl off and 
eventually breaking up the sport altogether in that sec- 
tion. The best way to preserve good shooting is sport- 
ing on the yacht system, or to go and come from the 
shore to the hunting grounds every day in smaller crafts. 
John H. Johnson. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The Minnesota Forest Reserve. 
Chicago^ 111., May 12. — I may state that progress is 
making in the matter of the proposed Minnesota forest 
reserve, which was taken up more fully in an earlier issue 
of Forest and Stream. Col. Cooper has held some con- 
ferences which are of importance in the preliminary 
part of the movement, and it is hoped that not a great 
deal of delay will ensue in the establishment of the pre- 
liminary body. The matter seems to meet with appro- 
bation. Among other letters I have one from Mr. 
Charles Cristadoro, of S. Paul. The latter says: "1 
am glad to see the good work going on as it is. Friend 
Mershon is stirring up the boys in great shape from 
Maine to California. We must win, but will not win 
without a fight. It is the chance of a century of centuries 
to secure, as long as water flows and grass grows, a 
monument of the piiie forests, a headstone at the graves 
of the departed forests." Mr. Cristadoro suggests that 
the following prominent gentlemen in different parts 
of the country are apt to be useful in this work, and are 
sure to be interested in the proposed movement: Hon.. 
Kjiute Nelson, Alexandria, Minn.; lion. Jas. A. Taw^ 
ney, Winona, Minn; Hon. Jolm J. Jenkins, Chippewa 
Falls, Wis. ; Hon. Page Morris, Duluth, Minn.; Hon. 
J. E. Carpenter, Minneapolis, Minn. ; Hon. John M. 
Thurston, Omaha, Neb. ; Hon. A. Y. Foster, Tacoma, 
Wash. ; Hon. I. V. Quarles, Milwaukee, Wis. ; Hon. 
Jas. Bixby, Muscogee, I. T.'; Hon. J. S. Sherman, Utica, 
N. Y. ; Hon. J. C. Spooner, Madison, Wis. ; Hon. Chas. 
Dick, Akron, Ohio; A. Cristadoro, 442 West Twenty- 
second street, New York City; W. F. Dermot, Trout 
Creek, Mich.; C. R. Summer, M. D. Rochester, N. Y. ; 
Hon. J. W. Fordney, Saginaw, Mich. ; Hon. C. D. Shel- 
ton, Houghton, Mich. ; R. D. Schultz^ Zanesville, Ohio. 
Another writer, Mr. LcRoy Lafe Smith, of LaPorte 
City, Iowa, sends some comment on the region con- 
cerned, which I append: 
"Your article in Forest and Stream, relative to the 
preservation of the lake region in northern Minnesota as 
a national park, has interested me greatly. Ever since 
my first visit to the region at the head of the Mis.sissippi 
River, I have hoped that something might be done to 
reserve this beautiful region from the encroachments of 
the timber thieves and relentless civilization. 
"I purpose taking another trip about June i to the 
head of the river — this time with the intention of making 
further observations as to the exact source of the river, 
and starting from there for a long boat ride down the 
river clear to the blue waters of the Gulf. I make the 
long trip to get material for a number of articles for 
certain magazines. I expect also to contribute frequently 
to several well-known newspapers. If I am not mistaken 
this is the first time such a trip has ever been attempted 
in an open boat. 
"Any suggestions you might make as to stirring up 
public interest in this Government park scheme, will be 
gladly received and acted upon." 
As has been stated, forestry agitation has been going 
on for some time in the State of Minnesota, the last word 
in this regard being given in the Cross forestry bill 
which was passed at the last session of the Legislature. 
This bill was originally introduced by J. N. Cross, of 
Minneapolis, president of the State Forestry Associa- 
tion. It was presented in 1897, but defeated. This year 
it was passed, and is now a law. _ Its terms create a 
forestry board and establish certain State forest re- 
serves, to consist of all such tracts of land as the State 
may choose to set apart, all lands which may be given 
to the State, all lands that may be donated f or _ forestry 
purposes in fee, and all lands that may be given to 
the State of Minnesota by the United States. Any 
person donating to the forestry board a tract of 1,000 
acres or more, will, under the law have this forest named 
after himself. It is thought that numbers of the timber 
kings of Minnesota will donate large bodies of denuded 
lands. Many lumbermen are paying heavy taxes on 
lands which they will be willing to surrender, there are 
large bodies of State swamp lands which will be apt to 
come in, and the United States Government is ex- 
pected to contribute largely. No existing agricultural 
or commercial interests may be disturbed. The forestry 
board will be composed of nine members. 
The above shows well-considered and determined effort 
on forestry lines in this State. I imagine that the action 
of the State of Minnesota would not interfere in that 
proposed in the National Forest Reserve. In the latter 
case there would be still larger donations of private land, 
and possibly the State of Minnesota would in turn con- 
