Jan. 17, i903.j 
FOHES't AND STREAM, 
46 
lave iiked to have been any place in the world but 
here, and I have an idea that Carl wished any other 
fllow in the Country had been there instead of me; 
lut gradually our spirits arose, and we turned our 
nindS to expectancy of the next day, and subsequent 
vehts proved it^ to be a big day. 
We were up at daybreak^ and after a breakfast of 
riscuit, butter and colTee, we again hit the trail for Bald 
(lountain, still some four miles distant. Up to this 
^tiie we had been in camp ten days, and with the ex- 
eptidfi of some trout, some grouse and one meal of 
polled ham, we had not a bite of meat. 
We had left our main camp with a very Hght pro- 
ision supply, feeling certain that it was time for our 
ick to again change and bring us some fresh 
leat. 
On our arrival at the foot of Bald Mountain we sat 
own on a ridge overlooking the first open country I 
ad seen since coming into the forest. We soon saw 
young bull caribou pass along the side of the moun- 
jin" some eight hundred yards distant; but he was too 
ir away to try to get him, and was traveling pretty 
ist; so we concluded to let him go. 
After watching him until he disappeared, we again 
)aded up our packs and passed down the side of this 
nail ridge, across the divide and up the side of the 
lountain. We got to the top, which was not ovei 
000 yards from where we had first stopped, and from 
ere we could see a big lot of country, most of it open 
lid mountainous. While there, we discovered a cow 
cose some two miles distant, passing along the edge 
f some timber. 
After a stop of perhaps ten minutes we took up our 
icks and started down the side of the mountain to our 
arposed camping place, which was not more than 1,000 
irds from where we then were. When perhaps one- 
ird of the way down, I stopped and said to Carl, "See 
iiere, I believe that is a deer." He said, "1 can't see 
aytln'ng." But drawing him to one side, he saw it, 
id . said, "No, I believe it's a young caribou. Take 
xir glass and look." I took my glass, and at once saw 
iat.it was a young deer. Carl said, "Take him, quick, 
r meat," and I fired. The deer jumped and disap- 
;ared behind a couple of small pines, and I thought I 
id! missed him. We ran down, and perhaps when 
)out one-half the distance to where the deer had 
ppped, I saw another standing slightly to one side. I 
•ed at it, and it dropped, and I said, "Well, we have at 
St gotten some fresh meat." 
We walked down to where the deer lay, and laying 
Avn our packs prepared to take a snap shot of it. 
^hen just in the act of doing so, I looked up and saw 
cow caribou coming up the hill right towards us. I 
id to Carl, "Look there!" He took his horn and 
ve a couple of caribou calls, and I ran down with my 
jdak, and suceeded in getting a couple of snap shots 
her as she ran by. I then ran back to where the 
;er,lay, and was just in the act of pressing the button 
hen Carl said, "Look there!" I looked and saw a 
ill caribou coming toward us. I threw down the 
Ddak and grabbed my gun. He continued to come on 
itil without about 125 yards of us, and then stopped, 
fired a couple of shots at him, but they did not seem 
hit him. One shot, Carl told me, went between his 
re and hind legs, and kicked up the dirt behind him, 
id he then started to run, circling around us. 
As soon as he started, Carl said, "Let him go; he 
is only a small head." So I dropped my gun and took 
the kodak, and as he circled around us, I got a 
)Uple of snap shot pictures of him. 
When he had gotten up on a level with us and in the 
jen, I got a better view of his head, and saw, that 
hile' small, it was very finely proportioned; so I ran 
ick ^d again grabbed up my gun and fired twice, and 
; dropped. Just after he fell Carl called to me, 
rher-e's your other deer!" I turned, and sure enough- 
ere lay the two deer and the one caribou, all three ii. 
rowj the two furthest not more than 150 yards apart, 
seems I had hit the first deer, not knowing it, and he 
d nin behind the trees before dropping, so that I did 
>t see him after first shooting. 
Thig all took place in less time than it takes tc write 
as .r do not suppose there was an interval of more 
an five minutes between the first and last shot. 
It certainly did make things lively for a while. I, 
jwever, regretted killing both the deer, as I should 
>t have. shot the last one had I known I had gotten the 
st, as the meat from one of them was as much as 
1 could use. Again, had I known we would get the 
ribou" so "soon, I would not have shot either of the 
er. . . 
We .found the caribou head to be a very choice one, 
ough small, but the meat was unfit for eating; so after 
I, we' made good use of the deer. We took them to 
mp, and the remainder of our trip we enjoyed as fine 
eat as one could wish. What a dift'erence a few hours' 
ne had made. The night before we had no meat in 
mp, both of us wore a disgusted look, and we were 
3t about ready to turn back and go home. This night 
had two kinds of meat, three nice skins for rugs, 
le small but beautiful caribou head with nineteen 
tints, and one fine buck deer head, all as souvenirs of 
e of the most exciting day's hunts one could im- 
iiie. During the afternoon two other hunters with 
o guides passing through that section went by our 
mp, and they were the only persons we saw on our 
p while in the forest. 
The next day we returned to Clearwater Camp, get- 
ig some more grouse on the way in, We also saw 
ore caribou, and w^ere able to secure snap shots of 
me of them before they ran away. 
We saw a big cow and calf moose, and succeeded in 
llowing them some little distance. When we came up 
thin 40 yards of them we found them looking our 
:iy. We could see the nose of the cow turned up as 
e sniffed the air, trying to get our wind, with ears 
awn forward and standing in a close, watchful and 
ixious attitude. As I looked, I could not help but 
ink what a magnificent picture it would have made; 
t the underbrush was too dense for us to attempt a 
;ture. The calf stood just behind her, and looked 
Tiodt as big. - They soon became startled, however, 
d ran away, the cow leading, and as they passed an 
opening some 80 yards to our teft, we got another good 
view of them. 
One sees lots of interesting sights when traveling 
through a good game country, and while always anx- 
ious to secure some nice specimens as trophies of a 
hunt, yet these sights are not the- least interesting part 
of the trip. 
The weather thus far had been very cloudy and heavy, 
and the high winds doubtless interfered with success- 
ful moose calling. Then again, there had been no snow, 
making still-hunting very uncertain. 
I understand that the snow gets very deep all through 
that section during the middle of the winter, some- 
times as much as three to four feet deep on the level. 
After a few more days of still-hunting, Carl and I 
moved our temporary camp up Clearwater Brook to 
what he called Christmas Pond, some four miles away. 
We went into camp about a mile from the pond, and 
spent considerable time calling moose at that place; 
and it was there, I might add, that the greater portion 
of this was written, 
I remember one evening of sitting on a log behind 
some bushes with my sweater and heavy coat on and a 
blanket wrapped around me. Carl stood near by, every 
few moments giving the challenge call of the bull 
moose. I had heard this call so often that I sure did 
wish some old bull would answer, so that I could hear 
the original. We watched till almost dark, and then 
trudged back to our little camp, made a fire and cooked 
supper, sat around the camp-fire until about half-past 
eight, and then crawled into our sleeping bags, only to 
get out again the next morning, and try it again. Often- 
times, when on these hunting trips, when cold and tired, 
I wonder what ever possesses a fellow to leave civiliza- 
tion, families and all his home comforts to tramp out 
into the wilderness, and live the life of a savage as a 
rnatter of choice for a period of two to four weeks at a 
time. But, unfortunate]}^, after the return from a suc- 
.cessful hunt a fellow forgets the days when he tramped 
through mud and water, and was wet and cold from 
early morning until late. at night, and came in disap- 
pointed; he forgets the nights he lay and rolled from 
side to side inside his narrow sleeping bag, almost 
frozen and longing for morning to come; he forgets 
getting up on a cold and frosty morning, .sometimes 
without a tent and sometirnes- in- snow; he forgets the 
time he sat down to burned meals cooked over a camp- 
fire, everything seasoned with ashes, and all thoroughly 
flavored with caiiip smoke; and he only keeps in mind 
the day of success when he returned to the camp with 
sorne nice trophies, with his mind still filled with the 
excitement of the chase, and with visions of the fine 
ornaments he has for his den, and of the stories he will 
have to relate to his hunting friends during the long 
winter evenings that follow. 
While he doubtless returns every year with the de- 
termination that he will now rest on his laurels and 
lay aside for some long future year all his camping 
and hunting outfit, yet the next spring usually finds 
him looking around for some place to go for his next 
fall's hunt. 
And now you have the story of my moose hunt with- 
out the moose. I was absent from home about three 
weeks, and secured in all one caribou, two deer and 
one bear, to say nothing of having plenty of trout fish- 
ing and grouse shooting. 
Perhaps I may be permitted to return to that section 
next year, and if I do, maybe I can give you a moose 
story with a moose. . . J. M. Murdock. 
J Johnstown, Pa. 
Buffalo Domestication. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I was very much interested in the report of the 
superintendent of the Yellowstone Park as given in the 
current number of the Forest and Stream, particu- 
^^^^ °^ it relating to the buffalo. The facts 
that he gives about the black bear onli" -'-ved to amuse 
me. 
Those fellows are easily made pets of; and when the 
job IS finished there is probably only one other animal 
that we are likely to make a pet of that will turn out 
to be a greater nuisance than the bear, and that is a 
pig. Either of them, when he is made a pet of, can 
always be found just where he is not wanted, and can 
be depended on to be found back there just as often 
as he IS clubbed out of it. 
The Park superintendent seems to think that after 
he has raised these buffalo in captivitj^, they may be 
turned out to be made pets of. The cows might be, 
but I should not care to be found in close neighbor- 
hood to a three-year-old bull unless I were mounted. 
He may be all right one minute and all wrong the next 
and when he is offended— and it don't take him a year 
to get offended af some trifle, either— then the further 
you can keep away from him the safer you are. 
U those Park buffalo are not kept under fence and 
watched the time will come, and it won't be one hun- 
dred years in coming, either, when there won't be any 
of them left; for, as long as a man can be found who 
is willing to pay several hundred dollars for one of their 
heads, just so long will some one be found who is will- 
ing to risk being shot to get that head. 
When the Forest and Stream gave its accoimt of 
those private buffalo herds some months ago, I missed 
Charley Goodnight's herd among them, and thought 
that probably he had abandoned it years ago, for his 
was one of the first to be got together and he did not 
begin it any too soon; but on writing to a friend of 
mine, who has the W, H. S. Ranch in Hemphill Coun- 
ty, Texas, he told me that the herd was still there. 
The buffalo were getting to be very scarce when Good- 
night formed his herd. The year 1879 saw the last of 
them in that country, the Texas Panhandle, at least. 
The last bnffalo I have ever seen, except in a park, 
was shot by a Comanche chief and myself in Novem-^ 
ber 1879, at what is called the Adobe Walls, at the head 
01 the Canadian River. 
Years before Goodnight began to get his herd to- 
gether, he probably meant to cross the buffalo with 
domestic cattle. When he formed that herd, I had 
been thinking of trying to get some cattlemen to 
do just what he did; for all of us who gave the 
matter a thought could see that the buffalo would be 
gone m a very few years. A herd could easily have 
been formed then just as he no doubt formed his; the 
calves could be got then without any trouble. When 
our cavalry would be scouting in the buffalo country 
early m the spring, we Avould often surprise a bunch 
of cows and their calves grazing; the cows would run 
off, leaving the calves, which were too young yet to 
be able to keep up with them. Then the calves would 
often follow our horses all the afternoon, and when we 
camped they would remain with us and hang around 
our horses all night; the- horses were used to buffalo 
and would not try to hurt them. 
We could handle these calves; they were only a few 
weeks old and had no fear of us. 
I often spent an hour working with them. I would 
first offer one of them salt, and after it had licked up 
the last grain it would next try to swallow my hand. 
They would eat bread out of my hand, and follow me 
for more of it, and they no doubt could soon be taught 
to eat corn. We did not have any corn with us or I 
should have tried them with it, also. 
When we would be leaving in the morning, a man 
would have to be left back there to keep the little 
calves from following us. 
I found by watching them that the older ones at least 
would eat grass. There is no doubt that these calves 
if put under fence, would have got along all right, 
Cabia Blanco. 
Erie, Pa. 
Capturing Alaskan White Sheep. 
A Narrative of the Expedition Sent to Alaska by the New 
York Zoological Society* By J. Alden Loringt Field 
Agent to the Zoological Society. 
Since the eminent naturalist, Mr. E. W. Nelson, in 
1884,^ discovered and described the Alaskan white, or 
Ball's mountain sheep (Ovis dalli) they have been eag- 
erly sought by the museums and sportsmen of the 
world, but owing to. the great expense and difficulty of 
penetrating the country they inhabit, it is only within 
the last few years that naturalists have been able to 
secure groups for mounting. The distribution of the 
white sheep as far as known, extends over most of the 
mountain region of Alaska and extreme northwest 
British America. The mountains along the Knik 
River where I found them, rise abruptly from the river 
bottoms and are heavily timbered with birch, balsam, 
poplar, spruce and hemlock. This gives way to a thick 
growth of alder which terminates at timber-line. Be- 
tween here and the rocks occurs a steep grassy slope 
of about two thousand feet, while the tops of the moun- 
tams are a mass of rocky crags. These slopes and 
crags are the home of the sheep. 
Once in the heart of the sheep country, the collector 
faces danger and hardship before he succeeds in pack- 
ing the speimens on his back, from the rugged moun- 
tain peaks down to the coast. To collect their skins 
for mounting was thought difficult enough, and the 
idea of capturing them alive for zoological parks had 
probably never been seriously considered until the 
spring of 1901, when the New York Zoological So- 
ciety sent an expedition to Alaska, one of its objects 
being to attempt to capture Iambs of the species under 
consideration. 
Securing the adult animals with a lasso, while not im- 
possible, was impracticable, for aside from the hazard 
of the undertaking, the chances of their surviving 
both the rough mode of capture, and the excitement 
of being transported from above timber-line to tide- 
water, were small. For this and other reaspns, it was 
thought best that the expedition should attempt to cap- 
ture the lambs only. 
It was known that the "bighorn" of the Rocky 
Mountains, a species allied to the white sheep, was ex- 
tremely difficult to rear in captivity, but owing to the 
latter species living in a moist climate, somewhat sim- 
ilar to that of the east, it was hoped that if they could 
be successfully transported to New York, their pros- 
pects of surviving would be more favorable than in the 
case of the Rocky Mountain animal. 
Upon neai-ing my destination, the encouragement I 
received was far from satisfactory. While a few per- 
sons "thought it likely" the expedition would be suc- 
cessful, the majority were of the opinion that owing 
to the almost inaccessible places which the white sheep 
inhabit, and the strength and agility of the young when 
born, It would be impossible to capture the lambs. 
Others maintained that it was too late, as the lambing 
season was already at its height. 
On April 24 the Alaska Commercial Company's 
steamship "Bertha," on which I was a passenger, 
poked her nose into the mud opposite the Indian vil- 
lage of Tyonook, near the head of Cook Inlet, and my 
outfit was soon unloaded upon the beach. Through 
the kindness of Mr. Thomas W. Hanmore, the "com- 
pany's" agent, who, with his assistant, Mr. Finch, were 
the only white persons living there, I fvas comfortably 
quartered in a large log cabin. 
I soon made the acquaintance of Mr. H. H. Hicks 
who had just come out from the mountains where he 
had spent the winter. He had been in Alaska pro- 
specting, trapping and trading with the Indians fof' 
several years. He knew the country thoroughly and 
could speak the natives' language fluently, so I engaged 
him to accompany me on the trip, and here I wish to 
say that I found his advice and good judgment invalu- 
able. After several hours of conference with him re- 
garding the locality we should visit, during Avhich the 
advantages and disadvantages of many places were 
considered, we decided that the Knik Mountains at 
the head of Knik Arm, an extension of Cook Inlet 
were the most advantageous. By boat up the Knik 
River we could penetrate the mountains and would not 
