Aug, 2$, 1900. j 
F6flEST_ AMD STREAM. 
146 
lu)ms. We were not even envious of the bear hunters. 
We suuply went back to camp and proceeded to extract 
honey by the most primitive method. Two flour sacks 
were filled with comb and hung in the stiti. The honey 
that dripped into the vessels beneath was clear and of a 
rich amber color. It was much more fragraint than any 
honey that we had seen before, and the five gallons that 
we carried were as acceptable to us as anything in the 
provision line that could have been purchased. Supper 
was over. The day's work was done. Bees and birds had 
alike gone to rest. The last rays of the sun were yet 
playing in the walnut leaves overhead as though rehictant 
to give the new moon a chance to show herself. As 
we were sitting, half-dreaming, at our tent doors, there 
came from the caiion the sound of a rifle shot, and then 
another. It was not like the boys to shoot simply to let 
us know that they were nearly home, and they Avould not 
waste their ammunition on small game. While we were 
yet wondering, Will staggered into camp under as pretty 
a load of game as one would want to see. Over one 
shoulder hung a bear cub, and over the other a-deer that 
was yet almost smoking hot. We relieved him of the 
task of skinning and dressing, as well as of getting his 
own supper, and soon his comrade, Talton, came in, and 
as the two sat by the camp-fire they told the story of the 
day's adventures. 
They had gone about two miles from camp, follow- 
ing up the creek, when they jumped a deer. The boys 
greeted it with a fusillade, but apparently it got away un- 
hurt. The boys didn't care very much, and besides it 
was bear that they were after. A deer was only good to 
practice on for elevation. An hour more of stiff walking 
and the sun was beginning to beat down very hot upon 
them. Hughes and Hanson were in the lead, and at the 
same time that they were endeavoring to locate some 
carrion of which they had just got a sniff an old she-bear 
with two cubs sprang up in the very direction in which 
they were looking. Over a little hill and down into a 
cafion before the two H.'s had fairly gained their senses 
bruin jogged. Then the lead commenced to fly. Others 
of the party came tip, and a great butte, a mass of caves 
and cliffs, was surrounded. The report was — and it has 
since proved true — that there were lion dens galore as 
well as bear dens in that rocky fortress. However, the 
boys tracked and scoured the region for the rest of the 
day and not a sight of the old bear did they catch, though 
they killed both of the cubs. Four of them agreed to 
stay out all night for a possible morning shot. Will and 
Talton were to come in and tell us, so that there would 
be no cause for anxiety in camp, and they had jumped up 
the deer that Will brought in, Talton waiting to get a 
shot at its mate. 
It was the next night before all the boys came in, and 
they brought more venison, the other cub, two foxes and 
a few pigeons. Almost a week has passed, but the old 
she-bear cometh not to bag. Almost every morning 
we see her fresh tracks within a quarter of a mile of 
camp, and the horse wranglers get daily shots at the 
brown, unwieldy mass that hides among the cliffs. Even 
as I have been writing the report has come that she has 
taken refuge on a ledge from which she may be easily 
dislodged. Five of the boys have gone to get her, but 
I have lost no she-bears. I prefer just now to watch the 
sunlight in the walnitt leaves, to listen to the creek, to 
smell the jasmine. When the game comes in I like to 
hurrah mth the boys and to eat my share. 
The deer that we get are much smaUer than the black- 
tail. They dress from 50 to 60 pounds. Our cubs dressed 
about 40 pounds each. Have not yet seen a sign of a 
rabbit on this side of the line. One little 
pest visits us nightly.* The little skunk is alto- 
gether too common for pleasure. He is smaller, 
slimmer and varies some in his markings from the North- 
ern skunk. Withal he is inclined to be vicious, and will 
often use his teeth in preference to his natural mode of 
defense. The Mexicans are more afraid of him than they 
are of snakes or lions, claiming that a skunk bite in- 
variably produces hydrophobia. But I doubt it there is 
any kind of a bite that the Mexican and Yaquis cannot 
cure with ,the herbs of this land. The Yaquis especially 
have a most wonderful pharmacopoeia, and I believe that 
some day they will add greatly to our materia medica. 
Far from being the savages that newspapers represent 
the Yaquis, they are more intelligent and more honest 
than the average Mexican, and an American can travel . 
among them without the least fear of molestation. 
Shoshone. 
Rto Santa Cruz, Sonora, Mexico, Aug. 6, 
What Cows Were These? 
100 Spommen's finds. 
Some ol the Queer Discoveries Made by Those Who Arc 
Looking for Game or Fish, 
13 
Two bo3^s— Jerry Coons and Frank Lyons — while trout 
fishing" in Black Creek, near Coalton, Pa., found the 
skeleton of a man in a hollow tree at -the foot of Roar- 
ing Falls. A tin box, 6 inches square, lay by the side 
of the skeleton, which was standing erect in the hollow 
trnk; The box contained $135 in gold coin, the latest 
date being 1855. There was nothing in the box or any- 
where about the skeleton that threw any light on the 
identity of the remains. The boys divided the money 
between them and the bones Were buried in the Method- 
ist graveyard. The old hollow oak has been known 
for many years. It is a gigantic one and it was known 
to have been hollow, but was never explored. There is 
no possible' way of determining who it was wlto chose 
this grave or how he died. 
14 
A cave was found by some hunters, who accidentally 
discovered it while chasing a wounded wildcat near Red 
Bud, 111. The cave is situated in the region known as 
the "Sinkholes,"" which is eight miles west of Red Bud. 
The, entrance to the cave is about 7 feet in diameter, but 
aft'^y^ntfe^iilg; th'e's^^ varies, it beitig io to 25 feet to ^:■hc 
ceiling in sprrte places. In the center 'o;f this c'ay<i flows 
a stream of clear water, which contams numerous small, 
eyeless fish. A number of them were caiight and placed 
upon exihibition, but they lived only a few days. 
In my capacity of cowpath inspector, 1 have usually 
been able to recogiiize all the quadrupeds I met with. 
Just now, however, in an excursion into colonial history 
i have come upon the trail of some herds of uncertain 
breed. I have been reading extracts from the reports 
which the French Jesuits stationed among the Indians 
of central New ^Vork sent to their superiors. The 
"Jesuit Relations," to use their own title, arc a mine of 
r,atural history as well as of ecclesiastical, political and 
ethnical history. Readers of Parkman's works will re- 
member how deeply he delved among them. 
These^ missionaries to the Five Nations were sent from 
lower Canada, and, excepting those going to the Mo- 
hawks, they commonly went by the St. Lawrence River, 
Lake Ontario and Oswego River. The journals of their 
voyages abound in interesting incidents and observations. 
Simon Lemoine with a companion went from Montreal 
to the Onondaga village, near the site of Syracuse, in the 
summer of 1654, when northern New York was an un- 
■broken wilderness, with no white inhabitants. He re- 
peatedly mentions encountering herds of "cows" or 
"cattle," as the French word is translated, and it is not 
quite clear what animal is meant. Perhaps some reader 
of Forest and Stream has considered the question and 
is prepared to answer it. 
Five days out from Montreal, and beyond all settle- 
ments, Lemoine made this entry: "July 22. — The rapids, 
which for a season are not navigable, compelled us to 
carry our luggage and canoe on our shoulders. On 
the opposite side I perceived a herd of cattle [wild cows, 
another translation words it] grazing at their ease in per- 
fect security. Four or five hundred are sometimes seen 
in this region in one drove." 
Having completed his errand at Onondaga and re- 
turned to Lake Ontario by the Oswego River, whh an 
Indian escort, he notes: 'Aug. 22. — Coasting quietly 
along the shores of this great lake, my sailors kill with 
a shot from a gun a large stag. My companion and I 
content ourselves with looking at them broiling their 
steaks, it being Saturdaj^ a day of abstinence for us. 
"28 and 29. — The chase stops our sailors, who are in 
the best possible humor, for flesh is the paradise of the 
man of flesh." 
The Frenchman's "stag" may well enough have been 
a Virginia deer, and offers no puzzle. Two days later 
Lemoine writes: "First day of September. — I never saw 
.-jO many deer, but we had no inclination to hunt. My 
companion killed three, as if against his will. What a 
pity, for we left all the venison there, reserving the 
hides and some of the most delicate morsels." 
Evidently the game hog of lo-day is the same old game 
hog. It is pleasing to find that in old times, as in our 
times, his witless slaughtering was reported with a pro- 
test. 
Again the missionary meets with the questionable 
"cows." It is is Sept. 2, and apparently back in the St. 
Lawrence again, that he writes: "Traveling through vast 
prairies, we saw in divers quarters immense herds of wild 
bulls and cows. Their horns resemble in some respects 
the antlers of the stag. 
"3d and 4th. — Our game does not leave us; it seems 
that venison and game follow us everywhere. Droves of 
twenty cows plunge into the water as if to meet us. 
Some are killed for sake of amusement by blows of an 
axe." 
A certain idea of amusement is always to be expected 
in a certain class of persons. These savages who pre- 
ferred to amuse themselves with the vivisection of their 
prisoners had on this peaceful occasion to content them- 
selves with knocking down cows too unsophisticated and 
tame to escape them. Their lineal descendant mentally 
and morally is the "sportsman" who hammers a swini- 
ming deer's skull with an oar in default of chance of 
ability to kill one legitimately. 
In 1655 the Jesuit Francis le Mercier with others made 
the trip to Onondaga. The party ran out of provisions 
on the way up the St. Lawrence, found poor hunting for 
a time and was reduced to straits. "At this jtmcture," 
writes Mercier, "we made prize of a wild cow. The 
poor beast had been drowned; its flesh was already in a 
state of decay, but appetite being a superior cook, with- 
out salt or spices, we still found this meat not only very 
acceptable, but exceedingly well flavored." In short, it 
was "high," skyhigh perhaps, but high and appropriate 
to the most aristocratic palate. The missionary con- 
timies: 
"On the 15th [October] God caused us to pass from 
destitution to abundance. Eight bears had fallen into 
the hands of our hunters. Immediately all our people 
became butchers and cooks. Nothing was seen but flesh 
and grease and skins. Four pots boiled continually^ and 
when it came to the knives and teeth no one asked for 
bread, wine, salt or sauce. It was most excellent, with- 
out seasoning. 
"On the 17th the .abundance continues; our people 
killed tliirty bears. One man killed ten for his single 
portion. A singular ceremony followed this great 
carnage, which was to drink the grease of these bears 
after a meal, as we drink hypocras in France. Afterward 
every individual rubbed himself from head to foot with 
this oil. 
"24th.— We arrived at Lake Ontario, a very beautiful 
lake, Five stags were killed this evening at the entrance 
of the lake. The incident was sufiicient to stop our 
party. * * * It is pleasant to witness the swimming 
of herds of cows from island to island. Our hunters 
often intercept their path as they return to firm land 
and place themselves at the landing placeSj conducting 
them to death at the most desirable spot." 
Now what were the animals that these educated men 
agreed to call by a name which other educated men 
agreed to translate "cows"? It would hardh^ have been 
natural lo apply such a name to the small common deer, 
and they seem to have used the word stags for these and 
to have distinguished them from the "wild bulls" hy 
saying that the horns of the latter resembled the antlers 
of the former. The moose roamed northern New York 
and the females might naturally enough have been called 
cows, hut neither they nor the deer collld have been ex- 
pected in droves of hundreds. Some of the Jesuits' 
references suggest the buffalo, but did they ever throng 
these dense eastern forests? And how could their horns 
be said even to "resemble in some respects the antlers 
of the stag"? 
Should we not conclude that these wilds of New York 
were stocked in that earlier century with the elk, now 
so long unknown in the East? The language of the 
tiavelers seems to fit the appearance, the gregarious 
habit and the comparative tamcness of that animal. What 
is known as to their former existence in our North 
Woods? And as to tlteir •disappearance if they once 
were here? 
Leaving the "cows," whatevjpr they were, whether 
elk, moose, buffalo or caribou, we find in the Jesuits' 
reports frequent mention of more familiar denizens of the 
•woods and waters. In the summer of 1656 a company of 
French went f rom Canada to Onondaga Lake to make 
a permanent settlement. The priest who reported the 
trip wrote that on the shoals of the Oswego River "our 
people took while journeying thirty-four salmon, spear- 
ing them with their swords and striking them with their 
oars. They are so numerous that we could strike them 
without difficulty." • 
It is Avel! known how the salmon swarmed in these 
streanis before their passage was blocked by dams and 
the forest which had shaded their spawning grounds 
was turned into sawdust to pollute the \yater. Their 
capture was an important industry on the Onondaga 
River after tite settlement began. 
The Indians pointed out to the Frenchmen the salt 
springs, which have figured so largely in the history 
of .Syracuse, and one of the Jesuits observed that "in 
spring there gather around these salt fountains so great 
a quantity of pigeons that thousands are caught in a 
morning." 
There were less desirable visitors also, which we rec- 
ognize easily enough from the description, though the 
Canadians had not met them in their more northern 
home, "There are found here," says the "Relation," 
"certain serpents, unseen elsewhere, which we call ser- 
pent a sonnettes. because in creeping they make a noise 
like a locust or grasshopper. They bear at the end of 
their tails certain round scales, connected with each 
other in such a manner that a simple motion produces 
this peculiar noise, which can be heard twenty paces off. 
These rattles continue to make a noise after the death of 
the serpent, though not so great as when alive. The 
inhabitants of the country say that the scales are an 
antidote to the poison, which is very virulent. The flesh 
is said to be as well 'tasted as that of the eel, and is 
efficacious in fevers; the flesh is much used for food. 
Its body is about 3 feet long, larger than a man's wrist 
and marked over the back with dark and yellows spots, 
except the tail, which is nearly black. It has four teeth, 
two above and two below, long and sharp like needles. 
They bite like a dog and cause the venom to flow into the 
bite through a little black spur, which they draw out of a 
sac in which the poison is inclosed. The person bitten 
presently swells and dies after a peculiar manner. We 
know not whether they are attracted by the salt; but this 
we know, that at our residence, surrounded by springs of 
fresh water, we are not troubled with them." 
Nor do I know whether the decline of the salt busi- 
ness at Syracuse is associated with the disappearance of 
the rattlesnakes, but to the best of my knowledge the 
snakes have gone with the pigeons. May the pigeons 
get back first. Bristol Hill. 
[The question asked by your correspondent is ansAvered 
by another extract from the "Jesuit Relations'' to which 
reference was made in Forest and Stream two months 
or more ago, and which we here reprint. It was written 
in the autumn of 1646 by the good Father Hierosme 
Lallement from Quebec. He says: 
"There is found here a speeies of deer different from 
the common ones of France. Our French call them 'wild 
cows,' but they are really deer; their branching horns 
have no likeness to the horns of our oxen, and their 
bodies are very dissimilar and of much greater height. 
These animals go in troops, but to assist one another 
during the winter they follow one after another, the 
first ones breaking the way for those that come after; and 
when the one which breaks and opens up the path is 
tired it places itself last in the beaten path. The deer 
in France do the same in crossing a river Avhen they 
happen to be in a herd. According to report, these ani- 
mals hardly stop in one place, continually traveling wdthin 
these great forests. The Elks do the contrary. Though 
they walk together, they observe no order, browsing here 
and there, without straying far from the same shelter. 
This is what prompted some days ago a Savage, who 
wished to become sedentary, to say that the Elks were 
French, and that other sort of roving deer Algonquins, 
because the latter go to seek their living hither and thither 
Avithin these great forests, and the French are stationary, 
tilling the earth at the place Avhere they make their 
abode. Besides these deer, there are two other species- 
one of which is similar or which has much likeness to our 
deer of France, the other of which is believed to be the 
Onager or wild ass of the Scripture. It would be using 
repetitions to a1;tempt to speak of them in this place." 
Here the "wild cows" are obviously what we to-day 
call elk; the "Elks," what we call moo.s"e ; the deer similar 
to tho.se of France, the Virginia deer; while "the Onager 
or wild ass of the Scripture." which. Father Hierosme 
uitimatcs, has been sufficiently described in the Good 
Book, is, of course, the caribou.] 
Forest Business Problems. 
-vT^^' '^^ '"^CUENCK, Forester to the BiUmore Estate, Biltmore, 
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of cases. The pamphlet is supplied for one dollar bv the FrptT^i^ 
Broad Press, Asheville, N. C. ' ^ ^"^ ^i-encb 
