Pbb. i6, 1901.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
125 
a cub of the female, about full-grown, but still with her. 
This was another casus belli, for "they say" whenever a 
' female has her young with her she will attack any living 
» thing in sight, like a hen with her chicks. So you sec the 
conditions were against me. 
Had the guide turned back when he found I was not 
following him, the chances are that both of us would 
have been killed. I think he did perfectly right. 
We went in via the Park, camping two nights in. the 
Park. It is a very pleasant route, but rather aggravating, 
as we saw much game, and. of course, our guns were 
sealed. Once before I had been in the same country, but 
then we went in via Bozeman, skirting the Park on its 
west side, via Lake Henry'. Going this way we had some 
fine bird shooting en route. I have a three-barreled gim. 
28-inch barrels, 12-gauge shot, with .40-70 rifle barrel 
under the shot barrels, 7^ pounds weight, made for me 
by Kirkwood, of Boston, and it is a most serviceable 
gun for such trips. The rifle barrel is perfectly accurate. 
Then I carry a five-jointed fishing rod, that I strap to my 
saddle; so I am always ready for anything that turns up. 
On one trip we found a stream full of fine grayling. T 
did not believe any were in the West until I found this 
stream. On my first trip West, in 1864, I saw thousands 
of buffalo, and killed all I cared to, generally running 
them down on horseback. I have always used the .45-90 
since it was made, but if I make any trips in the future I 
shall use the ..30-30 Winchester. This year I have only 
had bird shooting. 
I send you a pencil sketch, of my match box. I am no 
artist, as you can readily see; but from it you may gain 
some idea of how it is. I have not detailed the reason 
why the old bear hunter told me no one part of what 
happened could be left out, and I come out alive, as it 
would take up too much space; but, as I have some left, 
I will give you one of them. For instance, had I con- 
tinued to run, and not turned to shoot, I would liaA-e been 
knocked over forwards, and my hands would have pro- 
tected my head, and I would not have been knocked out. 
I would naturally have put my hands up to save my neck, 
and as long as I moved they would bite and tear like a 
terrier with a rat. When the rat is dead, he leaves it. 
Even had I shot and killed a male before it started for 
me, he says the female would not have let up while there 
was anything left of me to tear up. Or, had I wounded 
the male I tried to shoot, and so on through the chapter 
— I certainly would have had the hide of the male had he 
been alone. It is very uncommon to run on three such 
specimens at once, and, as a Helena, Mont., paper put 
it, it takes a tenderfoot from Ohio to do in this line what 
half a dozen mountaineers could not expect to find in a 
ten-years' tramp. I have an idea that the three bears I 
saw were raised within the Park limits, where they were 
unmolested, and then they wandered outside to get at me. 
W. 
The gentleman who wrote the above letter is at the head 
of one of Cleveland's largest and best known wholesale 
establishments, and, while he has alwaj^s had large busi- 
ness interests under his care, he has been one of Ohio's 
most enthusiastic sportsmen. He is fifty-nine years old. 
but says he feels only thirty, and that a man never gets 
any older than he feels. He still carries with him tlie 
marks of the three grizzlies, although not now sufficient 
to cause him any inconvenience. M. 
JOHNSTawN, Pa., January. 
The Doom of the Big Game* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have just been reading Mr. Beaman's letter on Colo- 
rado's big game., 
I thoroughly agree with Mr, Beaman in all that he 
says, but I am afraid that the conditions are such, not 
only in Colorado, but in all the game country of the 
Rocky Mountains, that the preservation of any large pro- 
portion of the game now left is impossible. 
The main cause of decrease of big game is the settle- 
ment of the game fields. For instance, fifteen years ago 
the winter range of the game in northwestern Colorado 
comprised at least 5,000 square miles," and one could 
count every man, woman and child living thereon and 
not overtax one's memory. 
When I left there in 1897 the game still had at least 
2,000 square miles of winter range, and was not molested 
to any great extent. At that time the deer were still so 
plentiful that two or three hundred could be seen in a 
day's ride, and it was impossible to stack hay anywhere 
out of gunshot from the ranch building or the deer would 
destroy the stack. Now, Mr. Beamam says, the range is 
restricted to about 400 square miles, and that about 1,000 
hunters are after them in that small space during the 
open season. This tells the story. 
In the effort to protect the big game of the West we 
are face to face with certain conditions, and these condi- 
tions must be taken into account in anj' laws that are 
passed for game protection, or these laws will be of little 
value. 
First, the bulk of the population of the Rockj^ Moun- 
tains is of men with absolutely no sentiment as regards 
the game. These men have taken part in the settlement 
of the West, and big game is to them simply a cheap 
food supply to be used as long as it lasts, and then, when 
the country is settled, to be replaced by domestic cattle 
and sheep. Many of them believe that the sooner the big 
.game is killed off the better for the country. They argue 
ihat as long as the big game is plentiful there will be a 
class of shiftless people who will live off the game, sup- 
plemented by a little horse stealing or cattle killing at 
odd times. As long as the game lasts, they say, this 
class of people will remain and, by holding ranches that 
would otherwise be occupied by more thrifty settlers, re- 
tard the settlement of the country. 
They also say that the income to the people of the 
State from the game is not one-quarter what it would be 
were the country settled and the game ranges used to 
support cattle. 
And in this they are right. Here in Northwestern 
Wyoming there are about 5,000 square miles of country 
that is pxacticaUy unsettled: on this tract there are 50,000 
or 60.000 elk and perhaps half as many sheep, deer and 
antelope. Perhaps 20Q guides, packers and cooks are 
employed by sportsmen each fall, receiving on an average 
$150 each for six weeks' work, and $50,000 is a fair esti- 
mate of the total amolmt of inoney left in this tract of 
the State by sportsmen each year. This same section is 
capable of supporting, when settled, a population of sev- 
eral thousand, and of turning off several hundred thou- 
sand dollars' worth of live stock each year. Therefore, 
when it conies to a question of dollars and cents — and the 
dollar rules nowadays — the game has got to go. 
Mr. Beaman would like to see the game laws enforced 
with the same severity as Uncle Sam cnfarces his revenue 
laws. This is an impossibility, and must be dismissed 
from consideration. The people of the Rocky Moun- 
tains believe that they have a right to kill game for food 
purposes at any time, they propose to enjoy that right, 
and they cannot be stopped. However much we may 
wish to protect what big game we have left, we here butt 
our heads against a solid wall. As long as violations of 
the game law, when such violations consist of killing 
game for food purposes, are tried in the local courts, it 
will be impossible to convict. And because of this, and 
of the feeling that the game is of little real benefit to the 
State, any. laws made for the protection of game are apt 
to fail of their purpose. Over-protection does not pro- 
tect. In 1896 Colorado put a close season on elk. The 
only result was to prevent the lavv-ab -ling sportsman 
from hunting, while the killing for food ' v ranchmen and 
settlers went on unchecked. 
Here in V/yoming no one pays an} attention to the 
close season when food is wanted. Am the wardens are 
compelled to recognize this state of affairs. As maimers 
arc noAv, this does not affect the game, as the iftisettled 
country is so great in extent, and the game so plentiful, 
that what game is killed in this waj' makes no apparent 
inroads on the herds. 
But the time is fast coming when every acre of avail- 
able land will be cultivated and every bit of grazing land 
in the mountains will be required lor summer range for 
live stock. I think that ten years will see the big game 
of the mountains practicalh^ gone. Conditions as regards 
food for game are not the same here as in Maine and the 
Adirondacks. There the game stays on the same ground 
sununer and winter. Here the game must come down 
out of the mountains in the winter, or starve, as the 
snowfall is such that nothing can live. And the winter 
ranges of the game are fast going. Every year sees new 
ranches opened in the valleys, and the grass on the foot- 
hills, on which the elk depend for food, is cropped closer 
each year by stock. Here in Wyoming it is probable 
that starvation .will kill more elk in the next ten years 
than bullets. In Colorado, which has had a large increase 
in population in the past ten. years, the bullet did the 
work. But in both cases the settlement of the game 
ranges was. and will be, responsible for the decrease of 
game. If the game ranges are settled and the game cut 
off from their feed ng grounds, it makes little difference 
whether an an'mal be shot or doe from lack of food — the 
result is the same. 
After the mountains are settled to the limit, there will 
still remain small tracts of rough and rugged country in 
which a few elk, deer and sheep will still exist. By "that 
time the need of a food supply from the game will be 
over and we will always have some game with us. The 
overflow from the Park will help out this section. 
Wolves, cougar, b'nx, wildcats, coyotes and bear will in- 
crease, as the domestic stock will furnish an abundance of 
food for the first five, and bear can never be cleaned out 
of a countrj' as rough as this. 
In trying to save any amount of the elk, deer or ante- 
lope we are fighting a losing battle. The' United States, 
land laws are such that it is impossible for large preserves, 
as in Canada, to be formed, and the formation of such 
preserves would be the only solution of the problem. 
WAt. Wells. 
Eating Musfcrat. 
Essex. N. Y. — Editor Forest and Stream: With re- 
gard to the muskrat question, some reader of Forest .-vnd 
Stream should suggest a receipt for removing the musky 
taste. Musk is one of the most powerful and penetrating 
not to say indestructible odors known, and its taste is al- 
most equally persistent. We have a girl in the kitchen 
who has eaten skunk, but she draws the line at inuskrat. 
Just before Christmas I shot a muskrat and had it pre- 
pared for the table-. I was the only one who took more 
than one taste, and after the first two or three morsels I 
did not fancy the rat as much as I had expected. The 
hired girl turned up her nose at it. comparing it unfavor- 
ably with mephitis, and even the cat refused to eat it. 
The members of the household saw a joke in the affair, 
and for the next week I got the renmants of that muskrat 
in all possible shapes and forms, served alone or with 
other meats, till I became as suspicious of my food as the 
Eastern po.entate who knew there were designs on his 
life. At Christmas, when the presents were distributed 
from the children's tree, the muskrat turned up in one of 
Tiffany's silver boxes, and I should probably be having 
it }'et at periodica! intervals if I had not incinerated the 
remains in the stove. 
In the markets in Wilmington. Del., nniskrats are sold 
skinned as "marsh rabbits."' and considerable numbers arc 
eaten by the poorer classes. These muskrats come from 
the marshy shores of the salt-water creeks of the lower 
part of Delaware, where they are captured by wholesale 
by professional trappers. ' Owners of the marshes farm 
out the privilege of trapping the rats, and so may be said 
to conduct muskrat farms. Aside from the rats, their only 
other crop is salt hay. John B. Burxh.vtm. 
Brewer, Me. — Editor Forest and Stream : By a curious 
coincidence your issue of Jan. 26 contains an article on 
the "Toothsome Muskrat." and Mr. Robinson's "Remi- 
nescences" also speaks of eating them. As some Avhn 
read these articles may wish to try for themselves. I will 
give them a little instruction as to how the muskrat 
should be prepared for cooking. While I know nothing 
which is more cleanly fed than a muskrat. still a novice is 
likely to render one unfit for food in preparing it. 
First, in skinning be sure not to let the fur touch the 
meat, as this, especially in the spring time, causes a musky 
taste. Indians, although not over neat in many things, 
are very careful when skinning muskrats for food. They 
usually use a "skinning stick." This is a stick some 18 
inches long, with a fork at one end; one of the forks is 
sharpened and the stick is set upright in the jjfrouiid. A 
slit is cut near the gambrel cord and the muskrat is sus- 
pended from the fork with its nose just clear of the 
ground. The operator sits flat on the ground with legs ex- 
tended on each side of the muskrat, and as he turns the 
skin down like a stocking, there is no possibility of the 
hair coming in contact with the meat. While it may not 
always he needful to follow this method, it is positively 
necessary that the hair should never be allowed to touch 
the meat. 
Next, one must remove all portions which contain musk. 
Many suppose that when the musk sack has been removed 
the work is done, but you will find that there is in the 
inside of each thigh, and also on the inside of the upper 
part of the foreleg, a small whitish substance closely re- 
semliling what is called the "treadle" in a hen's egg, which 
can oifly be reached by a deep cut. Unless all these are 
carefully removed, the meat will taste musky, no matter 
how carefully it is cooked. 
If these precautions are ta^ken, it is almost impossible 
to tell muskrats from ducks, whether broiled, fried or 
stewed. I once saw a curious proof of this. 
In 1861 the Maine State Scientific Survey, a party 
consisting of eleven men, and of which I was a member, 
stopped several days at Himt's, on the East Branch of the 
Penobscot, while a party consisting of Professors C. H, 
Hitchcock, George L. Goodale and Alpheus S. Packard 
and two other of our men ascended Katahdin. While they 
were gone. Dr. Ezekiel Holmes, who had charge of our 
party, remarked that when he was on a geological sur- 
vey in 1837 with Dr. Charles T. Jackson, they had had a 
muskrat stew prepared by their Indian guide, Joe Tomah, 
and that he wished he could have another. As Louis 
Ketchem and myself had nothing in particular to do, we 
volunteered to procure the rats and make the stew, if Dr. 
Holmes could borrow some tools for us to dig with. He 
could not get a hoe, but he got an adze, and with this and 
an_ axe we dug out six, all fully grown. These were 
skinned and made into a stew in a kettle holding nearly a 
pailful. Just as those of us who were in camp were finish- 
ing dinner, one of the other party arrived, who reported 
the remainder near at hand, and extremely hungry. Some 
one said. "None of those fellows will eat muskrats if they 
know it." But it was muskrat stew or nothing, so the 
skins were laid out of sight and on their arrival they 
were bountifully helped. "What is this?" said Goodale. 
"Ducks," said Louis. No more questions were asked, and 
they all ate as only hungry men in the woods c»m eat. 
When they were nearly done, I began stretching the 
.skins on some squaw bush (red osier) .sticks I had cut 
for the purpose. Goodale happened to look round, and 
seeing what I was doing, said to Louis, "Where did you 
get those muskrat skins.?" 
"Oh, they_ came off from those ducks you have just 
been eating," was the answer. ' M. H.-vrdy. 
A ''mid Goose^' Trapping Ex- 
pedition. — I. 
It was in the spring of 1882 when I formed the ac- 
quaintance of Edward Robbins. I admired and respected 
him. Not only could he and I discuss the heroic virtues 
of "Deadwood Dick," "Calamity Jane," "Old Avalanche" 
and many other impossible heroes and heroines of the 
trashy dime novel of that time (we firmly believed these 
characters were living people then), but Ed had seen 
some of the West, and he gave glowing descriptions of 
countless ducks and geese which had fallen to his gun on 
the plains of Iowa. Like my own was Ed's liking for 
guns, boats, rods, dogs, and the free outdoors, natural. 
He had hunted in the woods, and fished some of the 
streams of southern Canada and northern York State. 
"We have been friends quite a while," said Ed, one 
day, "and I've a secret for you. I'm going trapping for 
the winter. My uncle, Cad Ives, wrote me that he's going 
into the Fifty-Mile Forest on a trapping expedition and 
invited me along. The forest is partly in Canada and 
partly in York State. Cad has been there before, and 
made it pay, too. Say, you dassen't go with us!" 
This invitation-challenge came like a shot. I wanted 
to go badly enough, but feared my parents would not 
consent. I thought a while before answering. "I'll ask 
my folks to-night, and let you know to-morrow," said 
1 finally. 
I met Ed with a long face the next night. I had asked 
permission and had been refused. Ed and I talked the 
matter over for a long time. His parents were dead, and 
he did as he liked in such matters. He thought it tough 
not to be able to "go when and where a fellow liked." 
"Nobodj' holds me." said he. "and I'm sorry for you. 
You'll miss a pile of fun, and I'll think of you shut up in 
a greasy shop while I'm hustling around in the. woods 
on snowshoes, and as free as a deer." 
Ed watched the effect of this shot out of the corner 
of his eye. 'He had made a bullseyc, and I am sure he 
knew it. I whistled softly a moment and my eyes were 
on the ground. Suddenly I looked at Ed, straight in 
his eyes. "They can kick or not, just as the}'- like," I 
said. "I'm going, anyhow!" 
"Good boy! That's what I like to hear. Shake! You'd 
never catch a boy like Deadwood Dick staying home 
just because his folks might be afraid that something 
might eat him up. Shake again!" We shook, and the 
thing was settled. 
Owing to Ed's description of him, his uncle, Cad 
Ives, was already established in my estimation as an 
all-round hero. He had not only sailed every briny sea. 
but a number of years had been passed aboard vessels on 
the Great Lakes. He had trapped, hunted, fished and 
camped over much of southern Canada, and knew every 
foot of the Adirondacks. Ed wrote him that we would 
join him at Chateaugay, N. Y.. in the early part of 
September. 
"Now," said Ed, "it costs too much for steel traps, and. 
I've decided on a trap that we can make ourselves, and 
it will cost very little. Besides, it will help pass the 
time until we're ready to start." 
"That's all right." said I, "but where, and how are 
\\j,e going to make these traps? You know I'll have to lay 
pretty low until we are ready to start. It won't do to 
have my parents suspect — '.hat might kill the whole 
business." 
"Don't let that worry you. We'll make the traps in 
