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FOREST AND StREAM/ 
CDsc. 7, tgol. 
Diabolo with all the forequarters we had in camp that 
were cut out and not needed for our own use. and went 
down to the Mexican plaza and traded them for various 
things; and then made a dance. Thompson seemed to 
think It was very hmny. W. and X. did not go. X. 
asked me the next day how many of the deer Miguel 
killed. I told him two. and he told me that he believed 
I could hunt, but that there was something queer about 
It, for the boys laughed when they talked about it, and 
that Dearden said that I was a Yankee and then grunted 
and wouldn't talk. 
The next evening Don Jesus Perea came into camp in 
his ambulance on the road to Walsenburg from Berna- 
lillo. He had heard I was up there hunting and knew 
he was always welcome at my camp. We had quite a 
seance that night. We had a nice breakfast next morn- 
ing and the Don went north with our good wishes, de- 
claring that he would stay right the-e with us till we 
quit if he could, but that he had to go. He and his 
family have many thousand sheep and cattle and horses 
on a hundred hills. He was a fat, jolly Mexican gentle- 
man, but has gone before. God bless him; he was as good 
a man as they make. 
The next morning we decided to oull for Trinidad. 
We tore up camo and started the wagons for Trinidad, 
driven by Miguel and York; and the rest of us saddled up 
and drove Miguels jack ahead of us as hard as we could 
tear for Tnnidad, and got in a little after dark. The 
wagons came in next day all right. We had quite a time 
with the jack going down. He went everywhere that he 
ought not to and got the whole pack off once. We had 
some grub and a cooking kit on him, also a few other 
things. 
The night we got in Mr. X. told me that he thought 
$5 a^day for me was abotit right, and I told him that I 
didn't want pay; that I never guided anyone for pay; 
and that I just went for mountain air and a change of 
scenery. He then told me that if he had known that he 
wouldn't have been so dictatorial, as he thought that I 
was hired by Mr. W. He then warmed up and said that 
he would hke to go out and see my ranch. So he and 
I rode out home the next morning. We went out that 
afternoon on fresh horses, looked over the cattle and 
then went hunting, and he killed a whitetail at 250 yards. 
The next day we went out again and X. almost walked 
me down. He was as strong as a horse and a good man 
but as stubborn as Miguel's jack, and the worst of it was,' 
to tell the truth, always in the right. 
But I wouldn't go hunting with him again for $25 a day. 
He is too much inclined to make work of play. He 
went back to Trinidad next day in my buckboard, and I 
have never seen him since. There, I haven't half told 
you the story. I meant to when I started, but my heart 
has failed me. We all tried to be as mean as possible 
to tease X., and we were rather worthless. If I told you 
who X. was this would perhaps interest you more than 
it does; but I won't. W. J. D, 
Grouse Shooting on the Manistee. 
On the morning of Nov. 11 Verne Moore and wife and 
myself took the 3:18 train for Wellston, Manistee countJ^ 
to shoot quail and grouse and take a casual glance at deer 
tracks. No railroad in Michigan extends greater courtesy 
to hunters than the Pere Marquette. Arriving at Baldwin 
the train made a twenty-minute stop, and we took supper 
with our old friend, H. C. Crosby, who is a great lover 
of the dog and gun. and a first-class shot. After leaving 
Baldwin we changed our minds about our stop and con- 
cluded to get off at a little station called Bretheren. 
Leaving the car at 9:10, looking m every direction for a 
light, we saw one in the distance, and found that it came 
from a house recently built by an enterprising man by 
the name of May. who is preparing to keep all comers. 
We found the family had just moved in, and were ill pre- 
pared to entertain strangers, but they gave us a hearty 
welcome and the best accommodations they had. I slept 
on a cot with an open wire mattress, covered by a blanket, 
my only cover being another blanket folded. The wind 
was blowing a perfect gale from the northwest, and bring- 
ing snow with it. My weight took the cot down about 
four inches in the center and left the cover resting on 
the edge. It made the most perfect ventilation for sleep- 
ing that r ve ever found inside a house. The people were 
astir early in the morning, and at 7 o'clock we sat down 
to a good substantial breakfast. After breakfast Mrs; 
Moore donned her short skirt and full hunting outfit, and 
we started for a cedar swamp, which was plainly visible 
three-quarters of a mile away. When we reached the 
swamp we turned neither to the right nor the left, but 
plunged into its dark, mysterious depth, expecting every 
minute to hear murmuring or expressions of disgust from 
the lady. But not a single complaint did she make, no 
hanging back from climbing over logs or brush, but a 
merry laugh when some roguish branch snatched of¥ her 
hunting cap. For two hours we kept up our line of 
march, going as near southeast as we could judge, and at 
last came out of the swamp where the ground was dry 
and the burnt pine stumps were thick, and where poplar 
and white oak brush were scattered. We were making 
our %vay toward the home of Frank Hendricks, an old 
acquaintance, who has a log house and barn on the north 
side of the Big Manistee River, and in sight of that 
crooked and muddy stream, on an eminence 200 feet 
above the water. To the east and northeast from this 
place we could see the clusters of jack pines and the roofs 
of the houses of settlers six and seven miles away. We 
could also see from his home the bare bluff where the 
Pine River, or what is there called the South Branch, 
whose waters are full of trout and clear as crystal. It 
almost seems to hesitate to mingle its bright and sparkling 
waters with the muddy Manistee. Frank Hendricks and 
his good wife Netta gave us a hearty welcome. At din- 
ner tlie son, Alpha, came in. He said he was glad we 
came, because there were so many partridge and quail 
around there they were a nuisance. 
As soon as dinner was over, Verne and I took our 
guns and started afield, thinking that Nina would want 
to rest after the long walk of tb? morning, but not so. 
We were not fifteen rods from the house wheti the old 
do'g, Krankie. by motions we understood, told us there 
were bir<Js very near. Within fifteen rods of the bam she 
anchjored, inimovable as a statue. We walked up to her 
side, and with 2 roar up went twenty or thirty quail. 
There were five quick reports and five beautiful birds lying 
in the stubble. We followed them a short distance and 
got six more; then thinking of what our friend Hendricks 
had said, that he "hoped we'd leave enough for seed," we 
desisted from an attempt to kill any more that day. Mak- 
inga short detour through the woods adjacent to the field, 
we flushed several grouse without getting a shot at them. 
The dog in trying to locate the grouse raised a large 
white rabbit, which we shot as it ran by us. It was a 
novelty to my companions, who had never seen one 
before. 
The next morning bright and early we started out. The 
ground was covered by an inch of damp snow, sufficient 
for tracking partridge, quail or rabbits. Following the 
directions of Alpha, who told us there were plenty of 
grouse in the thick timber a mile to the north, we" had 
not gone far along an old trail among pine stumps and 
logs before the dog said there were grouse very near, and 
he came to a point but a few feet from the wagon track 
among some sweet fern and burnt chunks. The boy Alpha 
said: "I see her. Shall I shoot?" He had never shot 
on the wing, and did not have much chance among so 
many guns, so I told him to hold high and "let her have 
it." He barely raked the top of her head. It did the boy 
more good than it would have done an old hunter to kill 
a dozen. We then went on to the body of heavy timber, 
consisting of beech, elm, basswood and an occasional 
hemlock. We had barely entered the timber before Nina 
— Mrs. Moore—said she could hear a partridge flying 
ahead, so we went in the direction she gave and there 
the tracks showed that they had been feeding and running 
in every direction. I told them the birds had in all prob- 
ability taken refuge in the scattered hemlocks, and if 
so, none but the keenest eye could detect their where- 
abouts. While discussing the matter, Whirr! right above 
our heads, went two or three of the swift-flying beauties. 
Verne has eyes as black as coal and bright as stars, and 
he said he believed he could find them, knowing where 
to look, and that he and Nina were not so proud but they 
would shoot at a standing bird. After looking for a 
short time, Verne said: "Hold on" (we were all look- 
ing up into the thick tops of the hemlocks), "I beheve 
I see one." Bringing his Marl in pump gun quickly to his 
shoulder, the sharp ring of the nitro powder had hardly 
reached our ears before we saw tumbling from the top 
of a near-by hemlock one of those wary birds, and Verne 
and Nina never desisted from scanning those dark, mys- 
terious-looking trees till they had eight grouse in their 
hunting coats. 
The next morning while the snow was soft, as I was 
hunting alone, for I prefer shooting on the wing, I counted 
forty-three grouse tracks crossing the track I was fol- 
lowing in going sixty rods. As it had snowed until day- 
light, and it was now 8:30, the tracks must all have been 
made that morning. We hunted in this locality from 
Monday noon until Saturday night, and the next day 
Verne and Nina wanted to go and look for the light- 
footed deer. Bright and early Alpha had their sleek team 
hitched to the double wagon with a good supply of hay 
and corn in the box, and all taking our dinners in our 
pockets we climbed into the wagon, and arriving at our 
destination, a deserted lumber camp, put the team into a 
small log stable. We started out through a beautiful 
two-inch tracking snow, and had not gone far when we 
came upon the track of a small deer. Following this for 
a short distance, we came upon the track of a much 
larger deer, which we judged by the track had been gone 
but a short time. Following the newly made track a 
short distance, we came upon the tracks of three, more. 
Alpha and I told Nina and Verne we would make a short 
detour and try to drive one by them if they would remain 
there. We started out, and returning after a two hours" 
tramp, we found them pretty well chilled. We were all 
tired and sick of tramping except Nina, and so concluded 
to make back tracks for home. Going the mile back to 
the team, we crossed several deer tracks made since we 
had been over the route. It was about 3 P. M. when we 
left the barn, where we had put the team, and we arrived 
home before dark, after a good day's sport. In going 
over the route in the morning we started a grouse every 
now and then, and went on telling them we would "see 
you later." 
As Verne had put in all his vacation, he and his wife 
started for home the next morning, but I stayed and 
hunted a couple of days longer. They brought with them 
forty-one birds. 
That the readers of the Forest and Stream may know 
something of grouse shooting on the Manistee, let me 
say we shot away almost 300 cartridges, and with the 
exception of four rabbits and twenty quail, were all used 
for grouse. I would say to any one who wishes to shoot 
grouse to their heart's content, although the bird is wild 
and wary, and will often lie close to the dog, there is no 
better sport than grouse shooting in Manistee and Wex- 
ford counties. We have engaged board and lodging for 
next season. We came home on the train with a party of 
five hunters from New Buffalo, who had seven deer. They 
were, so they said, readers of the Forest and Stream. 
The largest ones weighed 305. 265 and 220. They were a 
nice lot, and were killed in the Upper Peninsula. 
Sul livan Cook. 
Providence Sportsmen. 
Prqvidence, R. I., Nov. 24. — ^The new line of cars be- 
tween Providence, R. I., and Danielson, Conn., has 
opened up some new hunting and fishing ground to our 
sportsmen, and each Sunday a special car is run for their 
convenience, and it goes out and comes in crowded 
with men, guns and dogs, and some game, too. But not 
every one who hunts gets game; it is just like fishing, 
the more some people fish a place the better it is for some 
others, as some go just to feed them. 
Birds seem to be scarce up that way, but a few foxes, 
a good many rabbits and quite a number of coons have 
been shot. A man showed me two pheasants which 
came_ from Narragansett Pier way a week ago. The 
law is not off them until 1903. Game wardens, keep 
your eyes open; the gunners are shooting your close- 
season birds. 
A man told me a short time ago of his getting four- 
teen trout, the largest 11 inches long, down in the vicin- 
ity of Wood River Janction. I suppose it is every 
one's duty to make trouble for this illegal poaching, but 
one hates to get his friends in tronble. Seldom. 
Experience with Big Game. 
MoRGANTOWN, W, Va„ Nov. 22.~Mhitor Forest and 
Stream; It is little wonder that heated discussions so 
often arise in regard to wild animal life, hunting, etc., 
when the experiences of different people, of equally good 
authority, have such a wide range of variation. 
Only recently I read the writing of one of our very 
best authorities on big game and its pursuit, and one 
whose experience has in a general way come nearer to 
harmonizing with that of my own than any one whose 
writings I have ever read. 
In speaking of deer, he said that deer, when startled., 
would frequently run twenty miles before they would 
stop. Now, to me this seemed ridiculous, as in all the 
hundreds of deer which I have followed after they have 
been startled, none ever went half of that distance, and 
I dare say very few have gone a fourth of that distance. 
It is hard for us sometimes to even conjecture how 
people who are perhaps much more experienced than 
we, can arrive at a positive conclusion and assert the 
fact, where to us it may seem an utter impossibility for 
such to be correct, according to our observations. 
Where distance is one of the factors coming into dis- 
pute, it might be accounted for largely by the great 
elasticity of hunters' miles, which, we may safely say, 
range in distance from 100 rods to 500 rods to the mile, 
varying according to grade, growth of timber and 
bushes, absence or presence of rocks, logs, etc., kind of 
^yeather, condition of the stomach, mental and phy- 
sical condition generally, and many other environments. 
Charles Cristadoro, in a recent issue of Forest and 
Stream, in commenting on the portrait of an elk by 
Wallihan, says, "He stands there, an elk in all his 
grandeur and beauty, sleek and graceful." My imagina- 
tion can only see him as being anything but "sleek." 
He is certainly very poor, as the picture will Indicate, 
and, as would be the natural condition in midwinter, as 
this evidently is, his long coat of hair is rough and 
shaggy, and he has that far-away, dreamy look in his 
eyes which all elk have in midwinter, when they are 
poor — so different from the bright, alert look of the 
early fall, when they are fat, strong and vigorous. That 
is the feature of the picture which appealed to me most 
strongly; and had his eyes had that keen, alert look, and 
his coat been sleek and smooth, with the surroundings 
showing midwinter, all would have been unnatural. 
Truly, Mr. Cristadoro is justified in commenting on 
this picture, for no picture has ever come to my notice 
which so vividly and naturally shows the elk at home. 
It is a warrant of my appreciation of the picture to say 
that it occupies a conspicuous place in my scrap-book, 
which I have been working at for years, pasting therein 
only the very choicest of illustrations, and reading 
m^atter, all pertaining to .game and hunting; a large 
portion of it clippings from Forest and Stre.\m, starting 
v/ith E. Hough's "How Fur is Caught," in seven chap- 
ters. 
One who has hunted much and observed closely the 
hunted animal, will notice some striking peculiarity at 
a particular stage of the animal's contact with the hunter, 
and will learn to look for and expect to see that certain 
perculiarity until it becomes so common to him that he 
conies to regard it as one of the well-known character- 
istics of the animal, when perhaps not one in fifty hunters 
have ever noticed the same trait in the animal at all, 
while at the same time the others may have, during their 
experience, been attracted by some other just as notice- 
able peculiarities, which we have failed to notice. For 
instance, I noticed among the first deer I killed a certain 
little action which they performed when shot through 
the shoulders or heart, and I learned to watch for that, 
and if I sav/ it, I was as sure of that deer as if I had it 
already packed on my horse. It was a vicious bound 
in the air and kicking straight out behind with both 
hind feet; then of course always dashing off a few 
iurnps before fallin.g dead. While many may have 
noticed this action, I have never yet heard it spoken of, 
and yet a large percentage of the deer I have killed 
have gone through exactly the same performance. This 
experience only refers to black-tail. Hunters of white- 
tail tell me that a sure sign of one's being hit hard is 
for it to drop its tail Of course their big, white tail, 
being so conspicuous when they have it raised, would 
make it an easy matter to determine whether its tail 
was up or down; but the tail of a black-tail, not being 
noticeable, it would be hard to determine whether or 
not the carriage of their tail would indicate whether 
they M'ere or were not hit. 
A person may hunt for years and kill much game, and 
perhaps some one individual animal may "cut a caper" 
entirely different from all others. It would be hard to 
explain why. One- fall I was helping my near neighbor 
to do some work. His brother and Avife from the city 
came to visit him, and found us out of meat. One even- 
ing I suggested that I go over to my cabin, about eighty 
rods, and bring over my rifle and go out next morning at 
break of day and try for some ver'^i a. The city people 
thought it most remarkable to th;: of trying to kill a 
deer before breakfast. It was sui i'' -vn when I started 
over, and when I got my gun, an extra pair of boots 
and some other things and started back it was getting 
quite dusk. Looking across the meadow along the edge 
of the green timber, I saw three deer coming out into 
the pasture to feed. Dumping my duffle down in a pile. 
I lay down flat and started to crawl toward them, and 
they were coming toward me. By lying flat and keeping 
in the lowest places, I managed to keep out of their 
sight till I got within 50 yards of them — it was by that 
time getting so dark that I had to get close. 
Of course, I had to rise up in their sight to shoot, but 
had a good idea that they would tarry just about long 
enough in their astonishment to give me a quick shot. 
I cocked my rifle, got all ready, and then rose up in 
position for a knee rest. The nearest one to me was so 
startled at my sudden appearance in the very midst of 
them that it went off a few jumps, then stopped to look. 
As it turned around, facing me, I shot it in the breast; 
then it did what no other deer in all my hunting ex- 
perience ever did: It bounded high in the air; higher 
than I ever saw any deer juihp, and lit on the ground 
on its back, making the ground fairly quake. I thought 
the way it, sounded the critter had hurst wide open. It 
jumped to its feet, made, three or four bounds, and fell, 
