^46 
living if I seed him fust. Wall, jest as I came up that 
gulch, jest a mile to the right in the open, I see twelve 
of the biggest bucks I ever seen in this State. They was 
bunchedf and I blazed away, and thought I would git 
one— maybe two — of them, and I guess I fired ten tim.es 
When the smoke cleared up I couldn't see no deer 
moving, so I went over, and may I be tarnally honi- 
swaggled to glory if I hadn't plugged the whole of 
'em— twelve deer, sir! They wa'n't all dead, but I fin- 
ished 'em with my knife. One of 'em put up some fight 
and I clean forgot all about the Injuns. They was a 
dirty black lot in them days, though they do seem so 
tame now. Wall, sir, I sensed a something behind 
me-." 
But I went to sleep somewhere about here in the tale, 
so I missed the best of it. However, as Sure Shot is still 
alive to tell about it I venture to opine that he killed the 
entire band. Between 8 and 9 o'clock next morning we 
were eating breakfast, when the hunters returned laden 
only with hunger and directions to Minnie and me as to 
the surest way to bring down four-point bucks. 
Toward noon we two went to "stake out" our hunting 
ground. Neither of us said much in public about the 
four-pointer we were determined to have, but we were 
chatting about it and making ourselves happy in a rasp- 
berry patch beside a brook, I heard a crackling in the 
bushes and then a splash in the water about 30yds. away, 
and a great tawny buck was standing in the brook, with 
his head up scentmg the air. Beyond him a yearling and 
two does were drinking. A slight breeze was blowing 
from them toward us, and we were quite concealed by the 
berry bushes, but the beautiful animal seemed to know 
instinctively that some intruder was near. 
He need have had no fear, for I stood petrified, and 
my heart was in my throat. We must have made some 
sound, for they bounded away up the hill and were lost 
in the heavy woods. I turned to Minnie; she was as 
white as her collar and said I had even less color. 
Then we sat down and had a good laugh. We did not 
tell what we had seen when we returned to camp, but the 
lust of the chase grew in us every hour. We merely said 
we had chosen that side of the mountain for our morn- 
ing's hunt. 
"All right, you shall have that whole mountain for 
your own. Don't tire yourselves too much though, and 
I would not get up till it is quite light if I were you. 
There are plenty of berries up that way, but don't get 
frightened at the deer, and don't lose yourselves." 
It was Minnie's brother. He had been hunting before. 
The nights are very cold upon Bald Mountain. 
Very early next morning when Minnie whispered to 
me that she believed it was time to get up nothing but 
those deer we had actually seen could have moved me. 
It was quite dark, but along the line of the east was a 
promise that it would be light some time. 
The men were still sleeping, so we had the first 
chance at the cold coffee before we started over the hill, 
which had been so generously given to us. 
I carried the rifle and Minnie a pair of fl:eld glasses 
to distinguish between rabbits and doe when they were 
feeding in canons. 
Something was moving on the next ridge, but after 
straining our ears and eyes we found it was only Sure 
Shot's wandering buckskin mule trying to keep up his 
meek spirits on the blue bunch grass, with one flopping 
ear forward and one aft listening for Injuns of Sure 
Shot's tales. 
Our berry patch was about a mile from camp, over 
the ridge of Bald Mountain, and half-way down into the 
canon. The heavy silence and the clammy wind of 
early dawn made us keep close together. The snapping 
of dead leaves and twigs under our feet seemed loud 
enough to frighten the game for miles. When we had 
to pass under a madrone tree our treading on tiptoe 
the dry yellow teaves seemed to call an echo from every 
peak. We had come too early, but that was so much 
better than being too late, and you are in another world 
when abroad at 3 A. M. We crept cautiously up to the 
top of the ridge bevond the brook and sat down to wait. 
It was growing 'light, and the fog clouds in the upper 
cation were rosy. We heard several distinct shots. Squir- 
rels were scolding, and a brood ol quail fluttered and 
called. Watching in every direction, we fell to wondering 
if we would have to go home without so much as a 
sight of deer. . , r 
A strained intent look came into Mmnie s face, and 
her eyes were fastened on a spot back of my shoulder. 
Following the direction of her eyes, I saw a buck feed- 
ing in the shadow of the tan barks which skirted the 
opening we were watching. 
He was partly facing us, and much lower down, not 
loovds. away, and in his feeding moving slowly nearer 
and out into the better light of the opening. I was 
almost afraid to turn and raise my rifle into position lest 
his keen senses should be aware of us. I took a long 
careful aim at the point of his shoulder where the light 
struck it and fired. 
When the startling noise and the slight smoke of the 
nitro powder had cleared away no buck lay on the 
ground. We ran down the hill to where he had stood, 
and there was a great smear of dark blood and on the 
grass plashes of blood a few feet apart leading back into 
the woods and over a fallen trimk of huge tan bark. 
There in the brush lay my buck. He was a four-^pointer, 
just what I had promised myself. The small head on the 
long, slender neck stretched on the dead leaves, the great 
brown eyes still soft and unglazed, and the free, wild 
grace of the body and delicately slender legs made me 
feel like a murderess as I trembingly stooped to feel if 
there was any life. I wonder if men who kill deer feel 
as I did. After all the trouble, packing over the moun- 
tains, walking for miles and miles, all the heat and rough 
living, I would have given a great deal to have been able 
to give back to my first deer the power to bound away in 
God's green woods. 
As we started back the sun had turned the fog a shiny 
white in the lower valleys, and the whole mountainside 
was alive and awake with a thousand voices. 
It seemed hours since we had picked our way over that 
trail through the deathlike silence and chilly gloom. 
Sure Shot came in soon with no game and a wondrous 
story and Peter the dog close at his heels, one eye closed 
and his pinky white hide frescoed by tarweed, which he 
decently tried to wash oft in our spring set aside for 
drinking. I asked how Peter had hurt his eye. 
" 'Tain't hurt; all them well-bred dogs have that way 
of looking," answered Sure Shot, as he wiped his pocket 
knife on the rear of his trousers preparatory to eating 
breakfast. He was very deliberate, but at last got his 
mule and the rope to go out to bring in my deer. 
The vultures were circling around and around the 
spot, and the yellowjackets were humming and buzzing 
eager to dispute Sure Shot's right to fasten the buck on to 
the mule with what he explained was a "hog thief hitch." 
He was not half so patronizing when he found that the 
one shot from my little Winchester had gone through the 
heart and out through the short ribs. 
He stepped off the distance from where the buck lay 
to the first stain of blood, and it was 87yds. The buck 
had traveled that distance and jumped a great fallen tree 
after the bullet had torn through its heart. 
Helen Grey. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST, 
Movements of Western Sportsmen. 
Chicago, 111., Sept. 15.— Mr. Byron E. Veatch, member 
of the Chicago Fly-Casting Club, returned this week 
from a trip of some duration at the Mason chain of lakes 
accessible from the town of Fifield on the Wisconsin Cen- 
tral Railroad. Mr. Veatch fished in all five of the lakes 
of this chain — Mason, Long, Connors, Pickerel and 
Price lakes — and also in the Flambeau River, and he is 
so infatuated with that country that he has purchased a 
building site there and will put up a summer place next 
season, building a log house after a design that he has 
seen elsewhere, and which will make a very commodious 
and handsome camp. Mr. Veatch brought home a splen- 
did lot of fish with him, the largest muscallunge weigh- 
ing 2Tlbs. and measuring 44in. During his trip he took 
many other muscallunge, and on last Tuesday was so 
lucky as to kill sixteen nice fish to his own rod. He 
had several fish in the neighborhood of lolbs., and re- 
turned a great many muscallunge of smaller weights, 
Mr. Veatch tells me that on this trip he saw fiftj'^-five 
deer, and believes that neighborhood to be one of the 
best deer countries in the fall. He reports partridges 
also abundant. As to bass and wall-eyed pike fishing, he 
says there is all of it that one could want. After travel- 
ing over a great deal of the Northern country, Mr. 
Veatch has settled on this spot as the best fishing place 
he has yet discovered. He speaks with especial praise 
of the gamy qualities of the muscallunge of that country, 
citing one islb. fish that sprang clear of the water six 
different times before being brought to boat. As to the 
edible qualities of these fish I can speak very intelligently 
and sympathetically. Mr. Veatch sent me out a muscal- 
lunge which weighed nibs., and I ate it for breakfast 
this morning with other things, and enjoyed it very much. 
This has been rather an off year for muscallunge in the 
West, and I believe that Mr. Veatch's catch is about the 
best that I have heard of this season. 
Mr. J. Edmond Strong, of this city, came into my 
office to-d?y, asking for an itinerary for a good canoe 
tripj along in October, stating that he and a friend wished 
to find a country where they can get some good boating, 
shooting and fishing. They thought that they might like 
to try some Southern river, and I suggested the St. 
Francis River as a good place for fishing and wildfowl 
shooting. A friend who was present advised a trial of 
the upper Mississippi River, and to this seeming good 
counsel we at length settled upon Lake Itasca for the 
starting point. Mr. Strong and his companion will prob- 
ably take "canoes from this point and go in at Walker, 
Minn., portaging from the railway to Lake Itasca, and 
thence descending the Mississippi River for perhaps 200 
miles, and crossing the verj-- country which is so much 
in public view just now as part of the tract sought to be 
set aside as the National Park. Mr. Strong is one of our 
most genuine Chicago anglers, and he will have grand 
sport in the Minnesota wilderness at the time of his visit. 
There will also be abundance of wildfowl in that region 
iu October, and on the whole these gentlemen should 
have a .splendid time. 
To-day Mr. W. B. Mershon, of Saginaw, Mich., came 
into my office, and as usual when I see him coming I 
closed my desk, not because I fear he will take anything 
cut of the desk, but in order that I might show him about 
the town, with which he is but partially acquainted. Mr. 
Mershon is just back with his private car from a busi- 
ness trip in Arizona, and was accompanied by his friend 
Mr. Watts Humphreys, one of the best lawyers and trout 
fishermen of Michigan. Both Mr. Mershon and Mr. 
Humphreys I have met on divers occasions in the Wol- 
verine territory. With them were Messrs. E. R. Wheeler, 
William S. Baker and W. R. Thorsen, all of Manistee, 
Mich. These gentlemen have been out in the mountains of 
Arizona, not far from the Grand Cafion, and they report 
a very pleasant, though very hurried, trip. They saw 
plenty of deer and antelope, and contemplate some sport- 
ing experiences in that region later. 
Messrs. Mershon and a few friends have been having 
some great fishing on Mr. Mershon's leasehold along the 
Cascapedia River. They made a hurried trip in August, 
after the close of the salmon season, and had magnificent 
sport with the smaller, but no less gamy, trout. In six 
days Messrs. Mershon and Flumphreys, with their 
friends W. A. Avery and J, F. Keena, of Detroit, killed 
1,276 trout. In one day Mr. Mershon had twenty-three 
trout ranging in weight from 2 to 2}i\hs. He took one 
which weighed 4Mlbs, Every member of the party had 
good success, and for once in a way the natives of that 
region, who are barred out from the fishing, got all the 
trout they wanted to eat. 
My Michigan friends tell me that the wonderful Kinne 
Creek preserve yielded over 3,000 trout to the club mem- 
bers this season. The heaviest fish taken this summer 
was albs., though a great many were taken of i to i^lbs. 
GfayUog. 
We are in the habit of supposing that the grayling is 
about extinct, yet to-day Mr. Mershon told me that he 
knew of one man who cought fifty-seven grayling in one 
day this summer, and they were very large, hardly any 
running below loin, My informant would not tell me 
where this good thing Was, eJccept on Condition tJ! 
would go with him on a trip there next season. ' 
Lockwood, general passenger agent of the G., R. t 
has often told me that he could assure me grayling 01 
upper waters of the upper Manistee, not far from 
kaska. To-day Mr. Wheeler told me that he was pi 
sure one could take grayling on the Manistee in 
neighborhood. I am glad also to state that the 
of quail and ruffed grouse in lower Michigan is rept 
to be generally good. 
At St. Louis. 
When I was a youngster I always used to thmk I v, 
like to go "out West," and see the country. We al 
do whatever we really want to do in life, so part o, 
early dreams come true. Later on in life, when I bl 
to write about "Chicago and the West," 1 thoug 
would like to learn all about the Western regions tj' 
could. From the West of the present to the bigger 
bolder West of the past is but a step, so recently I 
begun to have a kind of hankering to learn somet^ 
about the old West that existed before our times. ■ 
means that one must read books, and until one begii 
look into the subject he can have no idea whai 
of the great numbers of such books which exist to-d 
books dating back twenty-five, fifty or more than 
hundred years in their time of printing. 
The largest and most complete collection . of b 
on the early West is that contained in the Merca 
Library of St. Louis, Mo., and this collection is dt 
the work of the librarian, Mr. Horace Kephart, 
r^ever hears of any book on the West without sen 
tor it and buying it. Mr. Kephart is to-day, wit 
doubt, the best posted man in America on early Wei> 
life and history, and one of these days I hope he 
write a book on the actual West which shall b 
thoughtful and authentic as he alone can make i\ 
suppose it was a matter of course that I should evt< 
ally drift down to St. Louis and meet Mr. Kephart, 
as I am always meeting the nicest people in the W' 
It was he who got for me my old "Great West" boo; 
replace the one I read to pieces when I M'as a boy. 
a matter of fact, I ncA^er met Mr. Kephart until 
week, and when I did meet him and saw him surroui 
by all these books on the early days — from 1600 d 
T thought his lines were surety cast in pleasant plac< 
I should say, if it were necessary for the reader of 
sportsman's journal to have it said, that Mr. Kepha 
not only an authority on rifles and rifle shooting, b' 
himself a rattling good rifle shot. He brought out 
me his collection of rifles, a whole armful of tl 
apologizing because he could not carry any n' 
Among his target rifles, hunting rifles, nitro rifles, sr 
bore and all other sorts of rifles, there were two whic 
handled with especial fondness, an old, old squirrel ' 
and a genuine old Hawken rifle, the latter in almost, 
feet preservation, although it dates back to the early i 
tier days west of the Missouri River. Veritable treas 
these, and fit to belong to the man who has at his finj 
ends more actual information about the glorious 
time West than any other man you shall find. 
Mr. Kephart has to do with books, yet he gat 
not all his lore from books, but on the contrary 
hunter of the most practical sort, and delights in notl 
more than a solitary camping trip. He is thoroUj 
posted on the deer and turkey country of Missouri, 
tells me that any time I want to get a turkey he can 
sure me of a successful trip within 150 miles of 
Louis. He says that he has known wild turkeys tc 
killed within fifteen miles of St. Louis, less than ' 
years ago. It is his custom each fall to take a mc 
in the wild regions of the Ozarks, the St. Francis 
other good parts of the Southwest, and he usually 
meat. He tells me an odd incident of one of his camjl 
trips. He and his party had gotten into a part of 
country where they were not wanted, and all at once 
woods were 5et on fire at several points not far f 
their camp, this fact being charged to their party 
some of the settlers who were injured by the fire. '' 
might easily prove the touchy situation in that com' 
and Mr. Kephart admits that when a certain long-ge; 
stranger rode up to the camp he was a trifle une 
"Look here, man!" said the native, as he got dj 
from his horse. "I declah, you all have plum' rui 
me! Weuns has to raise our hogs on the mast, and 
all done burned up the mast. I reckon I'm plum ruii 
What kind of a gun is that you got, man? Let me se 
Mr. Kephart, as it chanced, had in his hand a rifle \\ 
a telescope sight. The native had never dreamed of s 
an object, and he spent an hour or two looking it f, 
and apparently entirely forgot the fact that he 
"plum ruined" by the fire. He went away expressing, 
wonder at such a singular looking gun, but saying n( 
ing more about his hogs. 
Speaking of old Western days, the city of St. 
was once the very heart of the wilder West, and it is 
full of traditions of those early days. Mi*. Kephart • 
his friend Mr. Lehman took me to see the old Fre 
Cathedral, which was built in St. Louis in 1834, and wl 
still stands in good preservation, bearing proudly 
inscription "Ad Honorem S. Ludovici." This was c 
the greatest building west of the Alleghanies. St. L« 
is talking about holding a world's exposition wl 
shall show fitly h er commercial prominence, and' 
doubt this exposition will have features showing 
early life and customs when St. Louis was the outfiti 
point for the fur trade of the entire Northwest. That 
the day of the voyageur, the fur merchant, the hun 
the trapper, and when the old Louisiana Purchase ■ 
still in doubt whether it was French, Spanish or Am 
can. They tell me that at St. Genevieve, not far fi 
St. Louis, the old French methods of life exist as t 
did fifty years ago. The bankers will lock the front d 
of the bank any time to engage in a game of poker in 1 
back room with a_ neighbor, and if a customer coil 
into town after business hours either merchant or ban 
will open his shop for his accommodation. 
■Wanted a Chofch. 
Speaking of the old French Cathedral reminds me 
another sort of church, of which I heard to-day. ', 
Mershon is a member of the firm of Mershon & Mor 
who make the portable houses advertised in the For^ 
AND Stream, and he tells me they have had inquiries fr 
