^6 
FOREST AND _ STREAM; 
[ JtJtY' 14/ 1900. ' 
Fur and Venison. 
Being a lever of the woods and brooks, I try to enjoy 
a few weeks of the spring and fall fishing, gunning and 
trap-ping. 
Last fall., as in the year before, I left my work Oct._ 2, 
picked up my old corduroys, greased up the .38 Win- 
chester, put some fifty traps in order and started for 
home, a small village in Cumberland county, Me. After 
spending a few days with my parents chasing the grouse 
and gray squirrels, I started for Abbot, a little village 
some eiehtv miles irom Bangor on the Greenville 
Division'"of the B. & A. R. R. 
After an all-night^ride I was met at the station by the 
smiling face of jmy3|'i4J;de Jlussey, with whom I had made 
acquaintanc.e ■ ijiJ., i8#: ;;' .■fc'ijaditig my.itraps; and other, lug- 
gage on to a carf drawn by a handsome gray horse, we 
started forrcainp,- some .fofir miles; from the station, reach- 
ing camp at noon with excellent appetites for the nice 
dinner his;,wjLfe- had prepared. In the afternoon I rnoyed 
into 'my apartment,' which was an addition to the original 
camp, built- expressly for me, and by night had a perfect 
palace. . . , , - , . ■ . .. 
The next day was spent in and around camp, cutting 
a little wood and catching a few minnows for baiting- 
traps. The third day I began putting out traps — some 
Nb. 3 Blak'e'for foxes and a few smaller ones for mink, 
i continued putting out. a few every second day until I 
had out some thirty, visiting those that I had set four 
times a week and ahvays bringing in something in the fur 
After getting the line fixed up I took my time getting 
around to them, sleeping quite late in the morning, then 
cutting wood, lugging wash water and rowing around 
the pond just to gain the strength 1 lose while at work 
in the city. About it o'clock I would start around to 
the traps, going in one direction one day and the oppo- 
site the next. I always intended to get to them all every 
other day,,so as not to lose any game nor hold the neigh- 
bors' cats : over one day. 
I continued in this, way for five weeks, bringing in 
something every time, until I had sixteen foxes, thirteen 
mink, thirteen skunks and two coons. The sheep I let 
go, and all skunks with too strong perfume were counted 
out. All work trai>ping was done in six days a week, 
Sunday being spent around camp, fitting wood for the 
stove, trying out fat from the skunks and visiting neigh- 
boring camps. 
As my vacation drew near its end I thought I would 
like to hunt deer for a few days before going home, so 
making arrangements with Hussey we decided to go to 
Moosehead. I hustled around and picked up my traps, 
and Hussey got an extra move on and drove the nails 
a little faster in the new house he was building, that we 
might be able to take the vSaturday morning train for 
Greenville, it now being the middle of the week. I packed 
my clothing, all but my hunting clothes, and had a friend 
take them to his home in Guilford, where we were to 
stop on our way back. 
Our plans worked to a T, and we were on tl'je way 
bright and early Saturday. We arrived' at Greenville 
about noon. There we had to wait two hours, so we 
spent most' of the time in Frazer's store, looking at the 
many specimens of bird, deer and moose and wondering 
if we would run up against anything as nice as those we 
saw. At 2:15 we were on the boat Henry M., headed for 
Lily Bay. The boat was small and was run at about the 
speed of a country pig race. We got to Lily Bay a little 
after 4 o'clock and took the buckboard for Roach River 
House, a distance of seven miles, arriving there about 6:30 
frozen, but weix soon thawed out by the big open fire. 
The next morning we awoke at daj'break to find it 
snowing. This gave use new courag'e. and soon after 
breakfast we were on our way to Roach Shanty (a camp 
near the foot of big Spencer Mountain), a distance of 
five miles, made on foot. We got there at noon" and 
found a party just coming out; and a more discouraged 
lot I have never seen. They had been there some three 
or four days and hadn't got the first thing. Thej^ said 
the animals were too wild for them and that they were 
going home and would never go in the woods again so 
long as God let them live. We tried to persuade them 
to stay, for we had seen some fifty new tracks coming 
in, but it was no use. 
We spent the afternoon in cleaning camp and getting 
ready for the morrow. A little later the guide of the 
former party came in, aii^ being a friend of Hvissey's 
concluded to &ta.y. 
The next morning we started to hunt deer, and at 3 
P. M. had two beauties. We thought that enough for the 
first day. The next day brought us a nice buck, and the 
day following we finished our number by bringing in 
three nice bucks. All of the deer were taken within a 
half mile of camp and the smallest one (a doe) weighed 
when dressed 110 pounds. We gunned only through the 
warmest part of the day, spending the morning and even- 
ing in camp cooking, telling stories and playing a very 
peculiar trick on some of the birds around the door 
known as the meat bird. When we were ready for home 
Hussey went to Roach River for a team, getting back to 
camp at ix o'clock. After leading our luggage and deer 
we ate the remnants of our food and turned our faces 
toward the river again, leaving a pair of tame birds to 
keep house. 
We got to the Roach River House the middle of the 
afternoon, and as it rained hard and the snow was most 
all gone we thought we would not try to make the bay 
that night, as we would have to shift our load from the 
sled to the wagon before making the rest of the journey. 
Upon going into the house we were informed that the 
boat had been taken out of the pond and there was no 
connection with the train at Greenville and the mail was 
brought overland horseback. Our feathers dropped on 
hearing this, but knowing that a party of five from Lynn 
had gone to the bay ahead of us, we concluded that they 
would get through some Avay, so we decided to start 
early next day and join them; then if they got through 
we would be with them. This we did and had the bucks 
loaded on the big wagon at 7 o'clock. We arrived at 
the bay at 9 and found the party straining their eyes up 
the pond to see if there was anything that looked like 
a boat, 
They told us that they had started a man at 5 o'clock 
for Greenville and thought they would soon get a boat. 
At 12:30 a boat rounded the point and a more pleasant 
look came over our faces. At i we had the deer, sixteen 
in all^ and luggage on board readj^ to put out to sea. 
The boat was a fine one and made good time, so we got 
to Greenville in time to get the deer ready for shipping 
on the afternoon train. As the train pulled in we turned 
once more to take a farewell look at the beautiful lake 
and Big Spencer Mountain in the distance. 
The ride to Guilford, where I was to stop, passed very 
quickly, as we could not say enough about our trip; and 
as the train pulled into the station we said, "Goodby 
Lynn"; and the answer came back, 'Will see you at the 
Hub." I stayed one day with the editor of the Guilford 
Recorder and enjoyed it more than I can tell. 
In, the evening, while walking through the village, T 
saw a sign reading. "Hair cut and shave wliile you wait," 
so, I ventured in and had some of the brush combed out 
of, my locks and a shave, so that the kids would not 
cr}^ "Whiskers" when I came into town.- I y 
The next morning .1 was' out early and took the first 
train for' the city, bidding my guide and other friends 
farewell and hoping to meet them another fall and live 
the good time over again. 
I changed at Dover and came by the way of Newport 
rather than be chased around Bangor by the man Avho 
is sore on the B. & A. for running down moose with 
engiiies. I arrived at Portland at noon, where I met my 
wife and mother and spent a very pleasant afternoon. 
After having lun(;h and filling mother's pockets with 
spruce gum, we left her vtith a goodby till" spring, and 
making our way to the boat Bay State were soon rocked 
to sleep by the white-capped waves, being wakened in 
the morning by the sound of "Hack! Have a hack?" 
In addition, a word about Hussey. He is an American 
and lives in the town of Abbot, on the shore of Piper 
Pond, three mil'es from the railroad station on the B. & A. 
.Pie guides < around home; also the Moosehead region; 
and any party wishing a lot of brook or ;pond trout or 
white perch in the spring or deer in the: fall will be satis- 
fied with their trip and his prices. W. A. F. 
BOSTO.N. 
The Future of the Wyoming Elk 
Herds. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
As the abiding place of the last of the great elk herds 
of the United States, northwestern Wyommg, which also 
includes the Yellowstone Park, is a region of considerable 
interest to sportsmen. 
All estimates of the amount of game in any country are, 
of course, more or less guesswork, but in all likelihood the 
elk in the section referred to number between 40,000 and 
60,000, and as things are now, stand a fair chance to hold 
l:heir own. The radical game law which Wyoming put in 
force a year and a half ago, which imposed a license of 
$40 on non-resident sportsmen, licenses all guides and de- 
votes the money so obtained to the payment of wardens 
and protection of the game, is already having its effect. 
Market and hide hunting is practically stopped, very few 
Indians leave their reservations to hiint, and what little 
game is killed by sportsmen, and by settlers for food makes 
no impression on the herds. It is safe to say that at least 
10,000 elk calves are raised every year, and were it not for 
the ravages of coyotes and cougar on the elk, and were 
the winter range large enough to sustain the herds, which 
it is not, the increase would be very rapid. It is my 
opinion that, taking one year with another, 5,000 elk die 
of starvation each winter, and the coyotes and cougar 
account for between 2,000 and 3,000 more, these last being 
mainly calves and weak cows. Very few persons have any 
idea of the amount of game a cougar will kill. A single 
cougar will kill an elk, deer or sheep every week on an 
average, and a she cougar with a litter of cubs will kill 
every two or three days. So when the cougar are as 
plentiful as they now are, the amount of game they get 
away with is enormous. 
Ail decrease of the elk herds in the future will be by 
starvation in winter and by loss from beasts of prey, and 
of the two the loss by starvation will increasa year by year. 
Northwestern Wyoming is a country of great elevation. 
Only a small part of the valleys are under 6,000 feet above 
sea level, most of them are above, 7,000 feet, and the 
greater part of the country is between 8,000 and 10,000 
feet elevation. The first snows fall in October; by 
Jan. I nearly the entire country is under from 2 to 7 
feet of snow, which remains until April. Before the 
settlements began to crowd back into the mountains, the 
elk came down on to the sage brush deserts and foothills 
to winter, but that is fast becoming impossible. On all 
sides the ranches are pushing up the I river valleys, and 
already the grass on the winter ranges is eaten off by 
stock, leaving nothing for the winter "feed of the elk. 
Even now it is almost impossible for the outlying 
ranchmen to keep the starving elk from their haystacks, no 
fence being high or strong enough to stop a famished 
herd of elk. 
There seems to be no way to prevent the gradual extinc- 
tion of the elk herds through starvation. The only way 
would be to extend the Yellowstone and Teton Forest 
Reserves south for sixty or seventy-five miles, and for 
the Government to buy out all settlers and prohibit all 
grazing of stock in the entire reserve. But it is not likelv 
that any consideration, such as preserving the elk, would 
result in anything of that sort, and perhaps it is not 
right that it should. The pressure of population is too 
great for Uncle Sam to indulge in anything so senti- 
rnental as to keep a great tract of country a. wilderness 
simply for the sake of preserving a few thousands of 
wild game. It is like talking about the great crime of 
killing off the buffalo. The buffalo range was wanted by 
civilization, and the buffalo had to go. If they had not 
been killed off they would have starved to death for lack 
of food, and the result would have been the same. 
Suppose the buffalo herds could come to life and occupy 
their old stamping grounds. How long could they exist? 
And much as we may deplore it, the last of the great elk 
herds will in a few years follow the buffalo, not by the 
bullets of hunters, but simply because, as witli the 
Indians, the white man wants their country,, and nothing: 
can keep him out, . 
Of course, I do not mean to say that the elk will Vanish 
from the face- of the earth, or that there will be any great 
decrease in the next few years. Their extinction will be 
slow, and for a long time small bands can winter m 
sheltered valleys high up in the mountains. 
But in a few years it will no longer be possible, as it is 
now, to see the hills moving as the elk come down out 
of the mountains, or to be able to find the big bulls in 
every canon and the.cQws'and palyes on every ridge. 
Wm. Wells. 
With a Surveying Party, 
up a Tree with a Bear. 
[(^ur contributor continues his story of experiences witli a sur- 
veying party" in the Indian Territory.] 
Ok our' return from our fishitig trip on the Walnut, as. 
we • crossed ' the iCanadian, King called our attention tO' 
some immense bear tracks in the wet sand upon the 
north side of the river, and said, '''We'll find him in that 
canebrake when we want him,", pointing to a canc' 
thicket nearly a mile long a short distance from tht: 
crossing. The next morning we proceeded to the cane- 
brake, each one armed with his rifle and a long Colts 
navy revolver and knife attached to his belt, and each 
one took the station he was assigned -by King, L going to, 
the tipper end. Cap and the Judge by the side of the brake, 
while King, with his two mongrel dogs, went to the 
lower end. Before separating. King told us: to keep away 
from the dogs as long as we heard any signs of fighting, 
as it wotild keep the bear from treeing; but when the dogs 
began howling the bear would be found up a tree, and 
the first man who then got a shot should have the hide. 
Taking the station assigned me, I waited long enough 
as I' believed for the dogs to have hunted over three 
times the ground covered by the cane, and becoming' 
tired of the suspense I entered the cane and followed a 
beaten path a short distance, when I came to a grassy 
opening of about an acre in size, at the upper end of 
which was a large cottonwood tree. Hearing nothing of 
the hunt, I placed my rifle against its trunk and climbed; 
up nearly to the top of the tree to look the field over, 
and had just got nicely fixed in a crotch, when a large 
black bear and the two dogs came from the cane into 
the opening, and the battle began. One of the dogs 
rushed at the bear and bit him on a hind leg, exactly as 
a Scotch collie dog would catch a cow, and sprang 
back as the bear turned with a roar and rushed at the dog, 
when the second dog took his turn at nipping bruin. 
For a few moments it was so amusing to see the frantic 
rushes of the bear that I could hardly keep from shout- 
ing at the fun, and for the time forgot the position I was 
placed in. Btit just then, worn out by the baiting of 
the dogs, bruin rushed to the foot of my tree and began 
climbing it. Then I realized that, while the dogs had 
treed the bear, the bear had treed me, and my Win- 
chester w^as at the foot of the tree. Badly scared, I forgot 
I had a revolver, and added tny shouts to the barking of 
the dogs, only to cause bruin to ascend the tree, as if 
determined to form a closer acquaintance with me. As 
my shouting would not stop him, I left my crotch and 
climbed the tree as far as I could, and stopped when I 
could climb no higher, to find that bruin had stopped in the 
crotch I had left, and was looking down at the dogs. 
After a wait of what seemed to me to be a period of two' 
hours, there came a crashing in the cane, and King and! 
Cap and the Judge burst into the opening, with King; 
in the lead; and as he grasped the situation he roared, 
"Son and the bear are both treed," and then, as they 
saw the comic situation I was in, like three idiots they 
dropped their guns and fell upon the ground rolling and 
shouting and clapping their hands. Their mirth cured 
me of my fright, and so maddened me that I at once 
thought of shooting my revolver over their heads to scare 
them, and I then recollected that I had my revolver with 
me, and if I was quick enough "bruin's hide was mine," 
Drawing my navy, I pulled back the hammer. At 
the click, of the revolver lock bruin, angrily growling, 
raised his head as if inclined to come up to me, but taking 
aim at his left eye, not 10 feet from my hand, I fired, and 
the bear sunk his claws into the bark of the trde and 
hung quivering in the crotch. At the report of my re- 
volver King jumped to his feet, and as he looked at the 
tree he shouted, "Son's killed him," and as Cap and 
Judge rose to their feet bruin loosed his claws and 
tumbled lifeless to the ground, where I quickly followed 
him, to be greeted by the Judge with the question, "If 
you intended to kill the bear, why did you yell so? It 
scared us, and we thought the bear was eating you up, 
and we nearly killed ourselves rushing through the 
cane to save your life, only to find you treed by the bear 
and he treed by the dogs." 
My reply was that I was only calling for them to come 
to see me kill him, so that I would have proof that I 
killed him with my navy, and King then took a position 
by the tree, with both hands raised, as if grasping a 
limb above his head, with feet drawn up and hat off, 
saying, "This is how you waited," and I had to join in the 
mirth, while Cap and the Judge again rolled upon the 
ground and shouted until the tears rolled down their 
cheeks. When they quieted down I smiled and said, 
"Boys, you can laugh, but I got the bear, if you did 
think the bear had got rne." 
After firing three shots in succession, the signal agreed 
upon, for a teamster to come for our game, we filled our 
pipes and watched and slightly helped King as he dressed 
the bear. When I told how I got treed, and as I de- 
scribed the fight between the bear and the dogs, the 
Judge said, "King, I give up. Your dogs beat all the 
hounds I ever saw; but how did you train them?" King 
said it was done with a young tame cub when the dogs 
were young, and by this way "the dogs learned to keep 
out of the way of the bear's cuffs and claws. 
When our pipes were lighted after supper that night 
it would be mild to say that "the entire camp roared" 
as the judge described the situation I was found in, and 
not much stock was taken in my statement that I was 
only calling the rest of the hunters for my witnesses to 
see me kill the bear with a revolver, but the satisfaction 
of my kill helped me to turn their jokes aside, and all 
