Dec, 14, 1901. J 
cool breeze blowing and the morning pleasant and com- 
fortable. About II o'clock we reached what is called 
Elm Creek. While this is geographically a water course 
beyond all question, it nevertheless bears so little resem- 
blaiice to olir ordinarily accepted ideas of a creek that 
iitiiess otte Was well-ififoftHed ill stich matters he might, 
vvh'le looking fof this particulai' stfeiim, cross it arid go 
on his Wky Withotit kriowirtg: it — indeed, We did this our- 
selves on oUr return trip at another part of the stream. 
Elm Cteek Cotisists of i chain of disconnected water holes 
tlstiftlly friflged with bUshes. or at least having sedgy 
batiks, which afford good covet to the approaching gun- 
Hef i it appears also to abound iti dilck food, and altogether 
forms a stopping place for the ducks. which they afe loath 
to leave, as well as. an ideal place for the sportsman to 
hunt them, as under the fftA^oring screen of . btish of 
sedge he can approach each pool qUite boldly, and m 
most cases easily reach a position from which ne can, as 
they take wing, use his right and left to advantage. At 
this creek I gave my horse to a trooper to lead alottg 
with the advancing column, and getting into the wagon 
drove up the stream on a prospecting tour. I approached 
quite a number of holes cautiously, dismounting from 
the wagon for this purpose, without seeing any duck, and 
becoming discouraged with the prospect, and concluding 
that it was still too early for them, I approached the 
next good pool without getting out of the wagon. As ill 
luck would have it, there was a large flock of widgeon 
on this pool. 1 fired at them from the wagon as they 
flew, but of course got none at that long range. I then 
resumed my previous caution, and soon came upon a 
small flock of teal, and gave them a right and left as they 
rose within what I considered easy range. To my sur- 
prise they all flew away. As teal in the act of rising from 
the wate'r are a most difficult target, I concluded I had 
missed them clean, and thought no more about it. Soon 
a small flock of widgeon on the wing came within range, 
out of which I helped myself to one. I had now ex- 
plored the creek sufficiently to enable me to report that the 
ducks had certainly come down from the north, or, at 
least, were on hand in good numbers. They may have 
bred there for all I know, so I turned back to overtake the 
column. As I followed down the creek I espied a small 
bunch of bluewing on a hole a little distance ahead, and, 
approaching cautiously, fired with each barrel as they 
rose. Each bird covered fell at the shot, but before I 
could cross the stream and pick them up one of them 
again rose and flew away. I was somewhat surprised at 
this, and began to .suspect my new brand of powder of 
being weak. I then set out to overtake the column, which 
I soon succeeded in doing, for Capt. K.. on hearing my 
first shot, had halted for a few minutes in order to enable 
me to explore further without getting too far behind. I 
also found on joining the column that the duck I had 
shot and which had again taken wing, had fallen a sec- 
ond time within sight of the command, and one of the 
enlisted men had ridden out on his horse while they were 
waiting for me and found it. It was a spoonbill. 
About 2:30 P. M. we reached the ranch on Coyote 
Creek that we were in search of, and went into camp 
about a half-mile above the house. This ranch was in- 
habited only bv two boys, aged about fourteen and six- 
teen respectively, sons of a ranchman by the name of 
Keffeler, whom we had seen on the further side of the 
Belle and who had recommended us to come by the way 
of this place. They were good boys, and very glad to 
see us, insisted on furnishing us twice as much hay as 
our horses could consume, and refused to take any com- 
pensation whatever for it until we fully explained to them 
that it was the U. S. Government that was receiving this 
forage, and that favors of this kind were wasted on it, 
and in reply to our inquiries as to whether there were any 
chickens about there, replied that there were lots of them 
—that they had. indeed, iust seen as many as fifty not 
far from the house. This was certainly encouraging. We 
were too old hands at bird shooting to believe that the 
boys had really seen that number of birds. To one un- 
accustomed to accuracy in such matters, a good-sized 
bunch of sav fifteen appears like forty or fifty, but we 
realized that there were some, and that they were near at 
hand, and that was all that we wanted to know. Lieut. K. 
and i took our shotguns and Yacoob, and with one of 
the boys as a guide set forth. We soon came upon a 
fine bunch of chickens— i. e., sharptail— near a dense 
plum thicket— their ideal cover. As they flushed I got 
in both my right and left, and saw both birds fall, but 
before I could pick them up one of them rose and flew 
off, and I lost him. I was now beginning to lose all 
faith in my ammunition for long shots. This covey had 
succeeded in getting in such thick cover that we couldn't 
get it up again. Yacoob was also fresh and headstrong 
from his long ride, and managed to flush what birds he 
found at so long a range that we could do nothing with 
them, so as we were both exceedingly hungry we went 
back to camp and had dinner. After that Capt. K. and I 
again took Yacoob and went out. We failed to find 
our original covey, but by beating the ground faithfully 
we got up nine singles and bagged eight of them, he 
killing five, I two, and both of us firing at the eighth. We 
returned to camp about dark. Score for the day, three 
ducks and ten chickens. 
Monday. Sept. 10.— Last night was frosty and sharp, 
and not having prepared ourselves for it before going 
to bed. neither Capt. K. nor myself slept warm. We 
were sleeping on folding cots, and the sharp air got at 
us all around. Not so Lieut. K., for he was sleeping in a 
sleeping bag on the ground, and did not know what it 
was to be cold at night on the entire trip. We had this 
morning our favorite camping breakfast of broiled duck, 
and from this on we had to eat but little bacon. Of 
course, being soldiers, we have all due respect for bacon, 
yet on a trip-like this there is nothing that will appeal to a 
sportsman's gustatory taste as a bluewing split and 
broiled over the coals by means of a few green withes 
as a holder, and eaten sizzling hot from the embers on a 
sharp frostv morning — potatoes, bread and butter and 
coffee may help it out a little, but it is a delightful meal 
all by itself. We left camp about 7:15, and continued 
northeast. After about seven miles had been marched 
we came across a small flock of chickens. I called Lieut. 
K.'s attention to it, and thinking there might be a fair 
number about there, we dismounted and flushed them. 
There proved to be but three in the bunch, of which he 
^ot one gncj I ont, while the third fleyr away. We 
Forest and stream 
went into camp on Sulphur Creek about 11:15 A, M. 
This is a mtiddy, naffow creek, with high, steep banks 
covered with brush and tfees, and gave little promise of 
sport with ducks as we approached it. Nevertheless, while 
we were seeking a place to water the hof sea, we scared up 
two good-sized flocks of widgeon, which served to en- 
courage us greatly for the afternoon sport. As soon as 
we had watered the horses which we did by carrying 
water up the steep banks in buckets and pouring it into 
the wagon feed troughs, covered with a wagon sheet, we 
all got iftto the hunting wagon and set forth. We worked 
till nearly dark with but Httle success. There were no 
coveys of chickens, only here and there a scattered one, 
generally old ones, and quite difficult to manage. Lieut. 
K. killed four chickens and one duck, Capt. K. three 
chickens, and I none, having had but three shots that 
afternoon, and all long ones. Total score for the day, 
ten chickens and one duck. There was a kind of rude 
habitation near where we camped, but during the daytime 
it had appeared to be deserted, but after dark a man 
came into our camp, giving his name as Welsh, and said 
that he lived in the building near by. He spent the even- 
ing with us, and was quite entertaining, though the in- 
formation he gave us about the country afterward proved 
so erroneous that it greatly shook our faith in what he 
told Us about other things. He was generous, though ; 
gave us all the hay we could use, and offered to kill a 
beef for us if we wanted it, and all without compensation. 
We were now almost on the edge of the great Cheyenne 
River Indian Reservation, and Mr. Welsh told us that he 
rarely saw any one in that vicinity but Indians, and that 
it was a great pleasure to him to see soldiers for a change. 
I may be mistaken, but I have always fancied that he was 
engaged in some illicit commerce with the Indians, and 
that he suspected that the object of our visit was to look 
into the matter. 
Tuesday, Sept. ii.— We left camp at about 7 o'clock 
after an exceedingly sharp, cool night. I had slept with 
my clothes, shoes' and legging all on to keep warm. Mr. 
Welsh accompanied us a few- miles on his horse to put 
us on the right course, as there was no trail at all and the 
country was difficult. He told us that we must certainly 
find a particular pass in the hills about fifteen miles "td the 
north, or else we would never get through with our 
wagons. He finally got us through some swampy bottoms 
near by and fairly headed for the pass and then took his 
departure. We made the pass without any great difficulty, 
and continued on our course in good spirits, noticing now 
and then a bunch of chickens along the way, but not stop- 
ping to shoot any, as we desired, if possible, to reach the 
Moreau River that night, and. as Welsh had told us that 
it was at least forty miles, and probably more, by the 
way that we would' have to go. not knowing the short 
cuts, we deemed it best not to waste any time by shooting 
along the road. The day was exceedingly hot, notwith- 
standing the cold of the night before, and as we supposed 
we should have to march late to reach the river, we began 
to be on the lookout for an opportunity to water our 
animals. Welsh had told us that once we had gotten into 
the open country beyond the hills we would find an abun- 
dance of water. In point of fact, we found none at all, 
and were beginning to be quite uneasy on the subject, 
when about 2 o'clock I disco\ ered a small habitation at 
some distance off the road, and hastened over there to 
make inquiries. I found a woman at the house, and on 
asking her how far it was to the Moreau, was pleasantly 
surprised to have her answer. "Only about four miles." 
We hastened on and reached it about 3 o'clock, having 
made not over twenty-eight miles that day, in place of 
the forty that Welsh assured us that we should have to 
make. Lieut. K. and I at once went out to shoot some 
chickens that we had seen near by on our march in. We 
soon found them, and got two apiece, I securing mine on 
such a beautiful double as to almost restore confidence in 
my powder. After we had been out some time, Capt. K. 
followed Us out and also shot two, thus making a total of 
six for the day's score. I had walked so much in the 
last two days that my feet were becoming blistered on the 
soles, which tended to take away some of the pleasure of 
the sport, as well as to cause me to avoid long reaches on 
foot. 
Wednesday, Sept. 12. — Last night was quite mild and 
comfortable, and this morning was fairly hot. Finding 
one of the wagon mules sick. Capt. K. decided to lie over 
one day in this camp and give him a chance to recover, if 
possible. About 8 o'clock we hitched up the hunting 
wagon and all three set forth, expecting to do great things, 
as ever since we had been in Dakota we had always heard 
the Moreau spoken of as the Mecca of chicken and duck 
hunters. The river was a disappointment in appearance 
as far as ducks were concerned. Instead of open pools 
with low sedgy banks, as we expected to find it. we found 
high, vertical banks with a rock bottom, and an utter 
absence of aquatic vegetation. We consequently aban- 
doned the attempt to find ducks, and concluded to devote 
ourselves to the chickens. These we fancied might be 
found in abundance, and indeed we did find them fairly 
abundant, though quite disappointing, as instead of find- 
ing them in nice bunches of from eight to ten that would 
hide in the cover and lie to the dog, they were generally 
found in sipgles and twos and threes, walking about in 
plain view in the open country, and quickly taking to wing 
if the dog came anywhere near them. We could readily 
understand, though, why it was so famed as a chicken 
country, as all along in the river bottom there was a fringe 
of small Cottonwood bushes a few feet high, in which the 
chickens stayed during the heat of the day. Here a pot- 
hunter could secrete himself, and by watching underneath 
these bushes could shoot quite a number of chickens as 
they walked about. Indeed, on our return to camp we 
found that the enlisted men with two single-barreled shot- 
guns in addition to their carbines, had succeeded in secur- 
ing some twenty-five or thirty in this manner, and were 
in high praise of the Moreau Valley as a chicken country. 
We hunted for about three hours, and as it was pretty 
hot, gave it up then, and returned to camp, Capt. K. hav- 
ing killed ten, I seven and Lieut. K. two. I should have 
had three or four more, but my powder was too weak to 
kilf at anv distance at all — ^that is, to kill clean — and with 
these particular birds all the shots were pretty long. I 
was also at considerable disadvantage in having no dog, 
for though the birds behaved badly as regards the dog,^ 
nevertheless he was occasionally a great assistance, and" 
as Yacoob was Ca|>t, IC/s dog, of ggurse he nattjrally 
469 
devoted his efforts mainly to K. After dinner it was so. 
hot and uncomfortable itt, the tent that Capt. K. and I 
went out and tried the fish in the stream. We caught 
three, one cat and two skipjacks, all small ones. We 
had brought our towels with us and finished the day by 
a refreshing bath, which greatly relieved our blistered 
feet. We returned to camp and had supper about dark. 
Thursday, Sept. 13. — This morning we pulled out of 
camp at about 7 o'clock, and followed up the south bank 
of the Moreau; there was a kind of road or cattle trail 
leading in that direction. After journeying for two or 
three miles we came to a ranch called Norine's ranch, 
where we made inquiries concerning the country and 
route. We then came to the conclusion to head for 
Antelope Creek about twelve mUes to the north, as this 
man assured us that there was plenty of water in it and 
good duck pools. There was no road whatever, and we 
found many deep ravines, but our wagoners had become 
quite skillful in avqiding them, so we got along pretty 
well. We saw a small herd of antelope on our way, and 
also one deer. This Capt. K. tried to kill, dismount- 
ing and creeping up toward it for awhile, but did not 
succeed in getting near enough, although he took a 
chance shot without effect. We reached the Antelope 
about r o'clock. It was an excellent stream for duck, 
to all appearances, and Capt. K. and I at once set out 
with our shotguns to reconnoitre it. We were gone 
about an hour and saw nothing except one small flock 
flying about high in the air. After dinner we all three 
set out and walked a long distance down the stream with- 
out seeing anything, till finally we discovered a large flock 
of teal on the water. I held back the dog, as my pow- 
der was so poor and the rest stole up and fired at the 
ducks on the water. As they rose I let go of the dog 
and rushing forward fired into the rising flock. We all 
reloaded as soon as possible, and as they swung around 
in the air they gave us another opportunity for a shot. 
We picked up our ducks and then, following up and 
down the stream, found quite a number of scattered ones 
which we usually got as they rose. We had a long 
walk back to camp at night, but the breeze was blowing 
fresh and cool so we didn't mind it; our feet were also 
much better to-day from our bath of the day before. 
We counted our ducks and found an even twenty-five 
(mostly greenwing) for the day's score. 
Friday, Sept. 14. — This morning it was quite cool and 
cloudy. We left camp about 7 o'clock and moved about 
eight miles up the Antelope and again went into camp. 
I left my horse after a little and taking the wagon to fol- 
low after me, footed it up the stream in the hope of bag- 
ging some ducks. I found one lone teal and got him as 
he rose. I also scared up a good flock of mallard, but 
these were out of range. I got into a good flock of 
chickens, but owing partly to my poor ammunition, and 
riiore to my poorer shooting, I got but one where T 
should have had three. On this morning's march the 
men found a porcupine, and one of the troop dogs at- 
tacked it as he did everything else. On this occasion, 
however, he made a blunder, as he got his mouth and 
throat so filled with the quills that the men had to shoot 
him to relieve his misery. ^ 
Quite a number of antelope were seen on the day's 
march, and after dinner several of the enlisted men went 
out to hunt them. On reaching camp we three officers 
set out a-foot down stream, Capt. K. killing one duck — 
the only one ^e saw. We then left the stream and fol- 
lowed up a small wooded ravine toward camp and se- 
cured four chickens on it. We ate dinner and then set 
out up stream in the wagon. After driving for several 
mdes,"we all got out and sent the wagon back to camp, 
while we hunted along down on foot. We found no 
ducks, as there was scarcely any water in this part of the 
creek, but the chicken shooting was the best we had seen 
on the entire trip, almost every little clump of brush had 
one or two in it, and they all lay well; while the damp, 
cool atmosphere developed the scent and favored the 
'dog. We killed twelve and got tired of it--'twas too 
easy. Score for the day: Capt. K. 7, I 9, Lieut. K. 4. 
We strolled leisurely back to camp, and had a delightful 
supper of broiled teal, plum jelly, potatoes, and hot bis- 
cuits. Taking it all around, it was doubtless the best 
day of the entire trip. As two of the enlisted men who 
went out after antelope were still out after dark we 
built a beacon light on a neighboring hill, and the trum- 
peter sounded calls on his trumpet. The harvest moon 
rose at its full to-night and made a magnificent spectacle 
in this broad and silent valley. 
Saturday, Sept. 15.— This morning it was pretty cool. 
No news from the lost hunters. Capt. K. sent three 
parties out to seek for them, and provided each with a 
rude pencil sketch of the country in order that they 
might not get lost themselves, for we were now entirely 
beyond the reach of either roads or habitations, and in 
whatever direction one looked the country presented 
practically the same appearance, so it was not a difficult 
thing by any means to lose the camp. While waiting for 
these parties to search for the lost men, we three officers 
took our shotguns and strolled down the stream. We 
found one flock of bluewing that had evidently come in 
during the night, out of which we eventually succeeded 
in securing nine birds; we also shot one chicken. I 
contributed but little myself toward these results, as my 
poor ammunition had gotten me completely under hack 
as far as long shots were concerned, and I no longer at- 
tempted any over twenty-five yards or such a matter. To 
be limited to so narrow a field as this is pretty dis- 
heartening. We returned to camp about 10:30 that 
morning. The lost men had just gotten in They had 
gone hunting to the north of the Antelope the day be- 
fore, and in attempting to return to camp, had crossed 
the stream in some of its dry reaches without knowing 
it, and thus kept on in search of it till they struck the 
Moreau. They found the ranch on that stream and 
stayed all night there. We now had to wait to get back 
our searching parties. We scanned the distant horizon 
for glimpses of them, and finally succeeded in detecting 
them wending their several ways back to camp. They 
were observed at a much longer distance away from 
camp than persons in civil life would readily believe 
on being at first told of it. This was due to the fact that 
the Ordnance Department bedecks each horse's head 
with a pair of metallic mirrors in the form of brass 
bridle rosettes, mi the Inspector Gewr^l's Department 
