]vhv I, 1899.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
7 
chicks, some of which he set at large, and others he 
kept inclosed. In 1898 he had two fine broods, both of 
which, however, were accidentally killed. Mr. Wallace 
continually hears of farmers, living in the neighborhood 
where the pheasants were put out, having seen them, and 
he has every reason to believe that the birds- ate doing 
well. 
The sharp-tailed grouse imported by Mr. E. Longard 
lEtve increased wonderfully. Now that it has been satis- 
factorily proved that these birds are well adapted to our 
;limate, and that they feed on precisely the same food as 
3Ur ruffed grouse, I lie Game Society should lose no time 
n procuring a nnml>er to be put out early next spring. 
;f the Society cannot import them, let the sportsmen do so 
ly subscription. 
Native Bifds. 
The three years' close season for partridges has been 
generally welcomed, and has been Avell observed in the city 
md throughout the Province. I have not heard of any 
lirds ha^ang been ofl'ered for sale in the cit>^ Several of 
he leading victualers told me they had not seen a single 
lartridge this season. There have been a few violations of 
he law in different parts of the countr}\ but in most 
ases the guilty parties have had to pay dearly for their 
port, as well as those who purchased the birds. No doubt 
lumbers have been killed in snares, but that will be the 
ase as long as rabbit snaring is allowed, the wire being 
nuch more destructive to the partridges than the gun is. 
)Aving to the close season, the birds have had opportunity 
0 multiply, and they have done so notwithstanding the 
iliprecedentedly wet spring and ?timmer. I have had 
everal complaints from different parts of the country, to 
he effect that the partridges injure the apple trees by 
ceding on the buds. I am aware that they feed largely 
n the apple leaves late in the fall, but cannot understand 
ow it is that thej- injure the bearing of the trees, as it is a 
'^ell-known fact that apple trees growing near the woods 
nd in coverts, where they are never pruned or other- 
'ise cared for. are always well laden with fruit; and 
lese are the trees, if any, that would be most injured by 
le partridges. I am, therefore, inclined to think that the 
irds have been blamed undeservedly. 
There was good promise of woodcock in the early spring 
nd summer, but before the season opened for shooting 
lem the majority had taken their departure, and so the 
igs made were very small. 
Snipe were scattered in numbers all over the country, 
id were to be found on the high grounds, as well as in 
le low, owing to the very wet weather that prevailed 
'om spring to fall. 
In the Rockies*— V* 
"A poor sequestered stag, 
That from the hunter's aim had la'en a hurt. 
Did come to languish." 
—As Yoii Like It. 
One such night sufficed to dishearten Dan, and when 
set out the following evening upon another nocturnal 
gil, he characterized my persistency as pure "cussed- 
tess." Again I spent the night upon the lalce in vain, 
l-though I found in the morning that the moose had 
jain visited its shores. 
' I know that some sportsmen would never have wasted 
) much time looking for their game, but with birch-bark 
prn would have decoyed him to his fate and long ere 
lis have dipped their facile pens in his blood. But some- 
□W I never found in the Rockies a man who had mas- 
red the idioms of the moose tongue. I am constrained 
believe that thfe moose of the North Woods possesses 
guileless and confiding dispositiion entirely foreign to 
is brother of the Rockies, who seems to have such a 
:nsitive regard for the solecisms of grammar and the 
Tors of pronunciation committed by the most accom- 
hshed caller as to turn a deaf ear to the voice of the 
larmer, charm he never so wisely. ' 
Another favorite method of killing the moose in print, 
id which has been graphically portrayed by Frost in one 
• his inimitable hunting scenes, is to cruise down upon 
m in a ca.noe, while he is feeding on a dark night, and 
Lsh the jack light upon him and kill him while he 
xommodatingly stands in the glare of the lantern. At 
ast, that is my information. My experience is that he 
tires with precipitate haste, night or day, at the ap- 
'oach of the enemy. The insuperable objection to this 
genious method is that the Rocky Mountain moose 
m see a great deal better at night than a man, and with 
perversity that is discouraging refuses to wait while 
)u paddle down within the very short range essential 
I kill him by lamp-light. I imagine an electric search- 
iht such as our war ships use would alone be adequate 
I this task. I was denied the pleasure of bagging my 
oose in any such romantic manner, but only did so by 
ire accident, after abandoning the attempt in defeat. 
The moose possesses in a measure the homing instinct, 
nlike that cervine tramp, the caribou, whose comings 
id goings are a mystery, where all signs and prophets 
il, and who, with no guide but the caprice of the mo- 
ent, is on the mountains to-day, in the valley to-morrow, 
e moose shows a fondness for a fixed locality. In this re- 
lect the hunter has a decided advantage. Locating 
■etty accurately by the sign the general direction in 
hich he came and went, I determined at last to hunt 
tn where, high on the mountain side, he dozed away 
e day, and for the first time in several nights I went to 
eep in camp. 
The great Dipper had turned its circle in the northern 
:y and the morning star glittered blue above the snowy 
immits when I awoke. The great log heap that burned 
• fiercely when I went to sleep was now reduced to a 
le of smoldering embers, and the haunch of venison that 
mg over it had slowly cooked through the night, basted 
•own in its own oozing juices. I was the first awake, 
id put the coffee pot on the coals, and when I came 
ick from the lake after performing my ablutions it was 
)ihng. With the fragrant mocha I washed down great 
mks of juicy venison slashed off the haunch, which, as 
iual, was barbecued to satisfy any taste, from being 
irned black on one side, through all the degrees of rare- 
ss to blood raw on the other. I started before day while 
e others were still asleep. Pushing out upon the black 
ater, I wielded the paddle, and soon the camp-fire was 
duced to a tiny point of flame in the darkness behind 
me. Somewhere in the blackness before me there was 
a sudden splash, and then the hiss of wings whose tips 
touched the surface as a flock of wildfowl skittered along 
the water before me. 
The paleness of the dawn was slowly spreading as the 
prow ran rustlingly into the reeds and beached at the 
flat. It grew rapidly lighter as I paced the shore, and at 
last found what I was searching for — the fresh trail of 
the big moose. It led away in the same general direc- 
tion, but an Indian could not have carried it after it 
struck up the mountain side, leaving no trace on the 
hard ground and over the rocks. 
Carefully and cautiously I hunted all that mountain 
side, pausing to sweep all within range with my glasses 
at frequent intervals, and working my way upward, grad- 
ually higher and higher, hour after hour. At last I came 
out upon the open meadow above the timber line. Above 
that were the bare rocks and snow fields. It was after 
noon, and tired, hungry and thoroughly discouraged, I 
sat down and ate my lunch. The way in which that 
moose usurped the prerogative of ghosts was discourag- 
ing. He had vanished as if by magic. I was ready to 
give up the hunt. 
I rested and ate my lunch, and afterward felt refreshed 
but thirsty. I could not recall having lately passed a 
sprmg, and with my glasses I swept the mountain side 
in vain for the shimmer of water. My glasses rested idly 
upon a short, bare ridge, or hog-back, that put out lat- 
erally from the mountain side like a bastion. I remem- 
bered that just beyond it was a little basin scooped out 
of the mountain side, and shut in between it and the 
ridge. In the basin there was a little copse of aspens 
perhaps looyds. across. I had not gone through the 
copse, but skirted around it to avoid climbing the steep 
ridge: but I was satisfied there must be a spring some- 
where to support the growth of aspens. - The ridge and 
mountain side about it were rocky and nude of vegeta- 
tion. 
I walked over to the abutting ridge and looked down 
into the little cove below me. The rocky sides, in their 
cold grayness, offered a marked contrast to the verdure 
of the copse at the bottom of the basin. Peering into 
its recesses, I finally discovered its central well spring, 
fed from the melting snows on the summits above, clear 
and cold, with watercresses about its margin, and the 
blue of the sky mirrored within. 
I took one step toward it, and stopped. I thought I 
detected a movement in the edge of the aspens beside the 
spring. It was probably a porcupine or a fool-hen, or 
something else equally insignificant, but in the moun- 
tains every movement excites the suspicion of the hunter, 
and I focused mj^ glasses upon it. Under their mag- 
nifying power I could see the rough carnelian, and jasper 
pebbles which surrounded the margin of the spring, and 
just within the edge of the brush one broad, palmated 
antler 'was clearly visible, while through the concealing 
aspens I descried an indistinguishable bulk, so closel}^ 
assimilating the color of the yellow foliage above and the 
bunch grass about it that the outlines were indeter- 
minate. 
The moose had allowed me to pass within looyds. a.s 
I came up the mountain, and although I am now satisfied 
he saw me again upon my first reappearance, he lay all 
the closer, hugging equally tight the ground and the de- 
lusion that he was undiscovered, 
I started back in the surprise of this discovery, and 
dropped behind the ridge. Running quickly along its 
side to a point about opposite, and closer to the game, 
I slowly and cautiously peered over the bare ridge. 
Through the concealing brush I saw vaguely that his 
head was lifted, striving for sight or scent, and knew 
then 'that he had seen me. The next moment, before I 
could bring the rifle to bear, he sprang up and plunged 
into_ the engulfing aspens. I had but a- fleeting, discon- 
certing glimpse of a great, yellowish body and a pair of 
immense, palmated antlers. Oh ! for another glimpse. 
I sprang to my feet, and started to fire into the swaying 
bushes which betrayed his progress, my anxieti' almost 
amounting to buck ague. But I had sense enough left to 
see that in my excitement I was about to lose my nerve, 
and that the moose could not leave that copse without 
giving me a fair shot in the open, and I deliberately 
dropped on one knee to steady myself. 
The next moment the big bull brokfe cover at: the head 
of the copse, and bounded hghtly up the declivity, his 
head held high, looking sidewise at me, and his huge 
antlers balanced back over his hips. The spectacle 
steeled my nerves. The rifle came to my shoulder, the 
sight through the buck-horn notch showed fine on his 
shoulder, and I touched the trigger. 
At the crack of the rifle he performed a very strange 
and disconcerting evolution, and quick as I was at work- 
ing the lever,_I was unable to give him another shot. He 
reared up with his front feet, and whirling completely 
around on his hind legs, dived sidewise head foremost 
back into the aspens, with a peculiar grunting bark, not 
unlike that of a dog, the only sound I ever heard from 
a moose, and a most singular one for such a large animal. 
Very foolishly I sprang up in the excitement of the mo- 
ment, and started down the steep slope, satisfied that he 
was down, but the next instant I stopped as suddenly as 
if stricken with paralysis, as I saw the bull again break 
from the brush and again strike up the hill, but this time 
straight toward me. It was an unexpected movement, 
and for a moment rattled me, and I fired off-hand. He 
.stopped at the shot, and stood with his head down, his 
broad, shovel-like antlers sweeping back and completely 
covering the neck and shoulders, the long hair on his 
spine erect and bristling. It was an uncouth attitude for 
the most uncouth beast in the world, and resembled notli - 
ing I had ever seen or imagined. I paused, irresolute, 
and it was well, for the big antlers protected the body, 
and the great, bladder-like nose protected the brain. 
I am satisfied that the bull never designed charging 
me, btit was completely staggered by the first shot, 
which, instead of striking the shoulder, ase I intended, was 
placed too far back for a vital point. Had the bullet 
been a solid ball instead of the express, with its terrible 
shocking power, it would never have stopped him. There 
are few animals that can stand up before that fearful 
shock of the express, and it had completely staggered the 
bull, who, upon plunging to his feet again, sprang for- 
ward the way he was headed, straight toward me. My 
second shot missed him, but it .^topped bim as- I have 
said, and for a moment he stood as dazed. I had dropped 
and rested my elbow on my knee, and now as he 
wheeled I fired again at his shoulder, the most deadly 
-shot for any species of big game. This time the bullet 
found its mark, and his long brown legs, shapely and 
strong as steel, shook, and for the first time failed to 
sustain the great weight tliey had so lightly carried over 
mountain and vale, through deepest snow and moi,\: 
treacherous bog, and slowly the big moose sank to the 
earth. For a few moments I stood with the rifle al 
ready, but this time the monarch of the mountains had 
gone down tieyer to rifie again. 
Francis J. Hac.ak. 
[tb BE CONC'LUDJSD.] 
A Memory of Scouting Days. 
We were camped on the South Saskatchewan, and 
had been eating canned corned beef, pork and very hard 
biscuit for much too long a period, when one fine morn- 
ing the adjutant announced that last night's pickets 
had seen a herd of antelope feeding below the bluffs at 
the west end of the long valley which marks the river's 
course. The scouts attached to my little force had fre- 
quently assured me that we were in the enemy's country, 
and that officers and men who prized their scalps should 
avoid straggling; but as the country on oxir side of ttie 
river was flat as a pancake, and the enemy being ap- 
parently of a very retiring character, I was not much 
disturbed by these warnings, although I had all along 
taken the usual precautions incidental to Indian warfare. 
Two things were always apparent to me, when I talked 
to the natives of that healthy country, the first being that 
they lied naturally and withoVit effort, and for the rest 
regarded infantry soldiers as being little more useful to 
wipe out Indians than a Sunday-school picnic. 
However, mentally I was already feasting on antelope 
steak, and J noticed that my servant, who had got no 
orders, was busy oiling my Winchester, having evidently 
made up his mind as to the proper course of action. 
After the usual uninviting breakfast, I Avas soon astride 
of my stanch little Indian pony and riding rapidly up 
the valley to a point a little over three miles from the 
camp. From here I swept the curve beyond with my 
field glasses, and presently made out three antelope 
close to the bluff and feedin.g up wind toward me. By 
making a detour along the bank of the river, I was able 
to advance half a mile under cover, and s/Don was within 
less than that distance from my graceful little friends. 
Here I halted, unslung my rifle, dismounted, and care- 
fully took in the situation. Behind me was the swift- 
flowing stream; 900yds. in front rose the bluff, presenting 
in most places an insurmoimtable barrier, wh'le tor 
many miles east and west stretched a prairie of short 
grass, smooth and firm as a racecourse. My time had 
come; and as I tightened Billy's girths that good little 
beast seemed to say, "Come on, master; I'll help you 
all I can." I rode for the first 200yd 5. at a .sharp gal- 
lop, heading obliquely for the antelope, which did not 
see me until I was within rather less than sooyds. As 
they started up wind their first bolt brought them ratfier 
nearer to me, and the bluff barred all chances of flighf 
to the southward. I was now advancing at a brcak-ncok 
pace, and soon I would reach the nearest point I could 
hope for. Already I was within long range; but the 
sights were set at 200yds, and Billy's pace was rapidly 
bearing nie to that crested range. It was an anxious 
time, and I was tiot unmindful of the possibility of 
badger holes, though so far the ground had been per- 
fect. 
Dashing through some light sage brush, I halted and 
fired my first shot out of the saddle. That time I think 
I hit the bluff, for neither Billy nor his rider was qiiite 
at his steadiest. 
Then 1 dismounted, and my second bullet seemed to 
have no other effect than to increase the already frantic 
speed of the antelope. 
Almost as I pressed the trigger for the third time I 
was keenly conscious that only two antelope were forg- 
ing madly ahead, and my next sensation was the un- 
comfortable one of trying to explode an empty car- 
tridge at the fast diminishing form of the one healthy ani- 
mal remaining, I had exhausted my magazine. At this 
stage I patted Billy and lit my pipe. The first antelope 
was dead, shot just behind the heart. The second, with 
a broken shoulder, was rather feebly m.aking a painful 
journey up a dry watercourse forming a slight ravine 
in the bluff. Even here the path was nearly per- 
pendicular; but reloading, I leisurely m.ade my way to 
where the poor beast had disappeared, knowing well that 
its wound and the discouraging geography of the country 
would render its journey a short one. It was the work 
of a moment to cut the dead antelope's throat, and then 
began such a climb that even at this date 1 recall it with 
something like a shudder. Some scrub helped me a bit;, 
and in about twenty minutes I found I had climbed at 
least loyds. A few steps further brought me in sight of 
the wounded antelope's head and neck rising just above 
sorne boulders, and here, for all purposes of ascent, the 
ravine ended. The animal was not more than iSyds. 
from me, and a bullet through its head mercifully placed 
it beyond sensation. For some time I despaired of get- 
ting its body back to the plain, but after more than an 
hour's tedious exertion this task was at last accom- 
plished. 
The gentle readers of Forest and Stream will no 
doubt regard me as inordinately bloodthirsty and greedy 
when I say that my first reflection on reaching my horse 
was that with a little better management that third an- 
telope might also have been harvested; but perhaps this 
thought will be tempered by the fact that far down the 
valley there waited for me nearly a hundred hungry men, 
to whom fresh meat was fast becoming only a memory. 
« RiDEAU. 
Ottawa, Ganada, June 19. 
The Teton Guides* 
Jackson, Wyoming, June 20. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: At the last meeting of the Teton Guides' As- 
sociation Mr. William Wells, of Wells P. O., Wyoming, 
was unanimously selected a vice-president therein. 
W. L. Simpson. 
