FOREST AND STREAM, 
had been emptying had nothing but BBs in it. L said 
Jthing, but promised myself I would fool the next 
ick that came within range, and the guide also, who, 
r that time, must have wondered how in the world 
happened to hit that turkey, 1 threw all the BB shells 
) in the bow of the boat where they would do no more 
ischief, and opened up a box of sixes and loaded the 
in. Directly down the river came a lone mallard, 
lich passed too far to one side for a shot; then turn- 
g suddenly he cams ba'ck without seeming to notice 
e boat and flew directly over us, and just as he passed 
gave him the proper lead and fired. 
Blankity-blank-blank!! You shore did soak him good 
id plenty!" said the guide. 
"Yes, if I get the shots' you will get good and busy 
fore dark," I replied. He took the hint and began to 
ish on in the smartweed and soon had as fine a green- 
:ad as one would care to see. Arriving at the blind, 
; hid our boat and were waiting for the evening flight 
len a hunter came down the river with, a bunch of 
e decoys, and I was glad when he anchored them in 
e channel and took a stand on the opposite side. I 
d the extreme pleasure of "wiping his eye" later, on 
fast mallard, after he had fired four shots from his 
mp gun at him, which did me nearly as much good as 
ling the turkey. Out of a dozen or more shots that 
ening I think I missed but two birds; bagging eight 
e mallards. Then having convinced the guide I could 
t)Ot a little, we pushed out for the club house thor- 
ghly satisfied with the fine day's sport. 
.n the language of Fra Elburtus, of the "Philistine," 
:se "little journeys" are "hot stuff," but all too short 
■ the fellow who only has ten days' vacation and a com- 
ssion from the "Uneasy Club," which is just as im- 
rtant in a way as "A message to Garcia." 
summing up the result of the club's second outing, 
ind one member has developed a huge appetite and a 
le of honest tan which will not wear off before Christ- 
5, to say nothing of pleasant memories to store up 
that time when "The frost is on the ppmpkin" and 
cannot chase the ducks or the turkeys except at the 
le, and then without the aforesaid appetite. 
\t the annual business meeting this winter, in all 
)bability it will be decided that the club must get a 
ir next season, and if my motion prevails, your read- 
may run whh some of us after the bear "is sighted. 
; may also increase the membership. The only ques- 
n to be settled will be the proof that the applicant 
a sportsman, not a "sport," mind you. 
Bill, 
0 the Snow Line of the Himalayas 
{Concluded from page 506.) 
Ve were told of a bear at a place some miles distant, 
lost a v;hole day by going in search of him. On 
iving at the place we found two native hunters who 
shot him the same morning and had just finished 
ing off the skin, which they showed us. 
n order to have a better foothold in going over bad 
>und than could be obtained with English shooting 
3ts,_ we had bought some native-made shoes at one of 
1 villages. These had their upper parts formed of 
ting made with strong cord, a leather band across- 
toes and a stiff piece of leather at the heel helping 
ceep the feet in position. The soles were of leather 
ched across wath strong hide thongs. These shoes 
'e a great grip on rocky ground, and I found it easy 
mn without slipping, even over water-worn boulders 
the banks of streams, but in the pine forests they were 
good. On steep slopes covered with the dead needles 
troo and the coolies frequently slipped down when 
and I were walking securely with our English boots, 
'he native ' shoes assisted in walking without noise 
jn stalking game, but ordinary shooting boots are 
d for this purpose if made with very low heel and 
soles studded with brads instead of hob-nails. I 
e frequently, when wearing such boots, walked 
3Ugh thick bushes to within ten or fifteen yards of 
.r, in places where the ground was gravel or clav 
ed hard by the sun. Perhaps the easiest of all shoes 
walking silently with are those made for lawn ten- 
with fluted soles of vulcanized India rubber. 
/e would have been more successful in killing large 
le if we had remained a week or two in some likely 
:, so as to become acquainted with the surrounding 
mtains, but then we would not have had time to go 
he snow-line, and that was of more consequence than 
dng a large bag. The scenery repaid for all. There 
e mountainsides covered with miles of forests, bathed 
;he brilliant sunshine and glittering with a million 
Its of light and color that, merely to gaze at, caused 
lis of ecstasy along the nerves to the ends of one's 
ers, 
here were valleys miles in width and many thou- 
is of feet in depth, and so long that neither of the 
emities could be seen; their sides and bottoms cov- 
with forests or large patches of grassland, 
he sides of the mountains below our paths often 
led to such an immense depth that large pieces of 
z, rolled down them, could be heard bounding from 
e to ledge for two or three minutes before they rested 
he torrent at the bottom. Jahtroo sometimes tried 
plan to startle any game that might be hidden 
ng the trees and rocks. 
e succeeded only once, when an antelope called 
w (of the chamois tribe) rushed away, giving me 
a momentary glimpse of hini. 
was strolling alone one day along the edge of a 
ly the sides of which were so steep that it looked like 
incient bed of an enormous river. Far in the dis- 
e a lammergeyer {Gypaetos barbatus) was sailing 
the side in my direction. Thinking there would be 
lance of obtaining his skin for stuffing, I quickly 
drew the charge of No. S shot from one barrel of my 
and substituted an ounce of BB. When gliding past 
the bird appeared so large and distinct in the clear 
intain air that -I though he was only 40 yards away, 
passed calmly by, without a flap of the wings, and 
ag no notice whatever of the shot. There is no 
Jt but that the immense depth of the valley under 
and the clearness of the atmosphere, had deceived 
me as to the distance. He was probably more than 70 
yards _away, so that the charge of shot had dropped be- 
low him. 
As we approached near the snow line, the way became 
more difficult, and in one part I narrowly escaped being 
killed. The path sloped up the side of a mountain to a 
sharp corner, and there, for a length of 50 or 60 yards, it 
had broken away and fallen into the valley below. We 
managed to pass around with the help of our.alpen-: 
stocks, by stepping on projecting pieces of rock, and 
grasping with our left hands the plants or rocks that 
were level with our shoulders. At the extreme point of 
the corner there was a rocky shelf about 18 inches wide, 
where I stopped to say something to S., and carelessly 
let go my hold with the left hand, 
All at once I lost my balance and felt myself falling 
backward. On the impulse of the moment I twisted 
round, and seeing a little piece of rock jutting out a 
fe\y inches below that on which I stood, jammed the 
point of the alpenstock in it and gripped the upper end 
wdth both hands. The bamboo bent for a moment like 
a bow, and then sprang straight. Had it not done so, I 
must have dropped about 200 feet on to the rocks below, 
for there was nothing to break the fall. 
On the road back to one of our camps when looking- 
for game, I saw a gooral on the side of the mountain 
above me, only 70 yards away, and presenting an easy 
shot. I was carrying the Purvey rifle, which could be 
depended upon to hit anything as small as the palm of 
a man's hand at 100 yards. I took a careful, steady aim 
and missed altogether. It seemed that I was fated never 
to kill a gooral. I did so once, and only onc^ during 
an excursion into another part of the mountains tive years 
afterward. 
Our path went for some days through great forests of 
fir and pine, until we reached the mountains immediately 
below the snow line, and from which the snow had 
melted not long before. The ground was covered with 
short, rich grass, and here and there patches of rho- 
dodendron bushes, with blossoms white or of a light 
rose color. None of them was large enough to be called 
a tree — like those at a lower altitude. There were shep- 
herds with flocks of sheep, brought for the summer sea- 
son from the villages below. They had several large 
dogs with long hair, of the Thibetan breed, for protect- 
ing the sheep from leopards and other wild animals. 
We pitched our tents on some level ground close to 
the steep side of an immense valley which sloped down 
abruptly several thousand feet below us. Its end could 
not be seen, and the opposite ridge was four of five, 
miles distant. The bottom and sides were covered with 
great forests. From the side, about half a mile to the 
left of our tents, an immense spur of dark rocks jutted 
out into the valley, so that its extremity was exactly op- 
posite where wc stood. It rose like a wall from a depth 
of at least 1,000 feet, with its top some hundreds of eet> 
above our level and not more than 400 yards away in a 
straight line. From the valley behind the base of this 
spur, rose the snow-covered peak of Mount Kedarnath, 
soaring to a height of more than 24,000 feet above the 
sea. 
While we were reclining on the grass near our- tents 
shortly before sunset, we saw a tiger walking along the 
top of the rocky spur, exactly opposite us, his body 
showing clearly against the sky. There was barely time 
to examine him with the binocular glass before he 
disappeared. The next morning we sent Jahtroo and 
some of the men to look for his tracks, but they failed 
to discover any. The rocks over which he had gone 
were higher than some of the places where the snow 
was still vmmelted. 
There is a general idea that tigers are inhabitants of 
hot countries only. This is an error, for they are found 
in Tartary, a long way north of the Himalayas, where 
the winters are extremely cold. There their fur is much 
longer than that of Indian tigers. Atkinson, an English 
artist who traveled through Kirghis Tartary about fifty 
years ago, mentions the tigers there, and relates an in- 
stance where one of them killed a Tartar girl. We re- 
mained three days in the new camp, strolling over the 
neighboring hills without meeting any except small 
game. I found a beautiful flower like an orchid, having 
green petals with purple spots on them, and returned to 
the place on the following day with drawing materials 
in order to make a water color sketch of it, but I failed 
to find it or another specimen. The most common 
flower met with during our journey was the forget-me- 
not (Myosotis) which was growing in masses along the 
banks of the rivulets and bearing blossoms much larger 
than those of the European variety. 
S. was very anxious to obtain a skin of the cock 
monal, the largest pheasant of the Himalayas. (The 
hens were leading broods of young about the hills, so 
of course we would not shoot one of them.) As Jahtroo 
insisted that No. 5 shot was useless for bagging so large 
a bird, I loaded my i6-bore with BB, and sent him out 
on two different days to search for a cock monal. He 
failed to find one, but returned each day with a musk 
deer, the flesh of which we found yery palatable. This 
queer little animal (Moschus moschiferus) , whose native 
name is kustoora, is not more than two feet high. Its 
weight, as well as I could judge without scales, is about 
40 pounds. The color is a dark gray, with a brown tint, 
which becomes much lighter on the throat, abdomen 
and inside of the thighs and arms. The coat close to 
the skin is almost like wool, and outside this the hairs 
are two or three inches long. Each hair is so large 
that its tube-like structure can be seen with the naked 
eye, if it he cut across. They are very brittle, and it is 
impossible to take off the skin without breaking many 
of them. The tail is about one inch long. The deer has 
no horns, but the canine teeth of the male form sharp 
tusks, curving downward and backward, and three inches 
long. The musk, which is only found in the full-grown 
male, is secreted by a kind of hollow gland, having an 
external opening, and situated inside the skin behind the 
navel. The deer inhabit the forests close to the snow- 
line, and often sleep upon the snow. 
Our camp being at a height of 16,000 feet above the 
sea, the rarity of the air had a great effect upon our 
breathing. Walking quietly up a geqtle slope made me 
faint. We had only been affected in this way during 
about the last 3,000 feet of the ascent, and one day when 
I descended ^,000 or 4,000 feet into the great vallejr in 
front of our tents I found myself able to run up a sharp 
hdl without the least distress. While in the valley 1 
came across the tracks of a bear, and followed them for 
a ong distance up the side of a wooded hill, but eventu- 
ally lost them,, 
Each morning of our stay at the camp a curious 
phenomenon occurred At sunrise the sky was perfectly 
cJear. When the sun had been shining a few hours the 
vapor from the snow on the summit of Kedarnath con- 
densed so as to form a cylindrical column of enormous 
Height, with Its base resting on the peak. Gradually the 
vapor from the top of the column spread out horizon- 
tally unti It assumed the appearance of a gigantic dark 
gray mushroom. Lightning Hashed in various directions 
through this, and thunder rolled for an hour or two, 
when the who e cloud melted away; but whether it turned 
into ram, hail or snow could not be seen from where 
we stood. 
.}J'^^^ " regretted that I did not attempt to make 
some sketches of the scenery, yet the landscapes all 
around were so unspeakably grand, so gloriously beauti- 
iul, that even a great artist would have despaired of liv- 
ing more than a faint idea of their splendor 
1 know of^ nothing which draws the heart of man 
toward the Creator more than the sight of mountains 
covered with pure white snow, pointing upward into a 
sky of clear, deep blue. It fills the soul with emotions 
which cannot be expressed. 
• During our march back S. killed a gooral and a bark- 
"ff ?u\ ^ ""^^^ ^''l^^ barking deer and lost an- 
other that was wounded. While walking over a moun- 
tain not far from the tent, I saw him in a deep valley 
150 yards distant, and fired with the Purdey rifle The 
bullet appeared to hit the top of the shoulder, and after 
staggering a little he ran away under the trees. I had 
iorgotten when raising the sight, to allow for his being 
very much down hill Jahtroo and I followed the tracks 
ior some distance, when we found that the bleeding had 
ceased, and gave up tlie search, as evening was comiair 
on, ^ 
_ We marched steadily every day, being unable to wait 
m any camp and search for game, for the time at which 
the monsoon might be expected was very near and we 
did not want to be drenched all day with torrents of 
ram. It burst two days affer we reached Mussourie with 
the most terrific thunderstorm I ever saw, lasting a 'great 
part of he night. For hours there were incessant 
flashes of yivid lightning so close overhead that the 
crashes ol thunder w'ere simultaneous. The station club 
house was on the side of the mountain about 80 yards 
above that m which I was staying, and an Englishman 
sleeping there had a narrow escape from being killed 
A large dog was lymg under his bed when a flash of 
iightnmg ran down the wall, passed through and killed 
the dog without touching his owner. 
The heavy rains caused a rapid growth of ferns, and 
m a lew days the trunks and branches of the rhododen- 
dron trees were covered with them, chiefly with hearts^ 
tongue. 
The views of the plains below us were unutterably 
grand. J^rom the crest of a mountain 7,000 feet high we 
could look down its steep sides into a valley called the 
JJoon, soo square miles in area, bounded at its north- 
west end by the Jumna,' and at its southeast by the 
LTdiiges, the Sewahk hills forming its southwest border 
bometimes, when the slcy above was clear, the whole 
valley was covered with masses of dense clouds thou- 
sands of feet below us, and glistening in the sunshine 
like a plam of the most brilliant snow. A large opening 
\vould forna m them, through which the forests and 
rivers could be seen like a painting framed with silver 
f 1^™/ weather troops of great dark clouds rolled 
from the Sewahk hills across the valley, the lightning 
flashing from one to the other until they struck the 
mountain and climbed up its side to where we stood, thea 
passed on over the higher peaks behind us 
1 he time of my leave was drawing to a close, and I 
was obliged to return to the hot, steaming plains When 
descending the mountain, I noticed that there was little 
difference m tlie temperature for the first 4,000 feet so 
that the stratum of heated air with which the plains w<»re 
covered was only about 3,000 feet thick. 
J. J. Meykick. 
England. 
Forest and Stream Day in St. Louis 
Mercantile Library, St. Louis, Mo., June 24 —To For- 
est and Stream: Thi,s is Forest and Stream day at the 
Mercantile Libi-ary. I was just thinking of answering a 
pleasant letter fro ni our friend E. Hough, of the-wlst- 
and-the-rest-of-Chicago, when who should drop in but 
Coahoma. I had noticed in the papers that the Mississippi 
Kiver Commission was m session here, and that the levee 
associations of the lower river had their representatives 
befoi e It, but I did not recognize in Col. T. G. Dabney of 
the Upper Yazoo, the kind-featured gentleman who 
stepped m this noon and introduced himself as Coahoma 
J every-day name, but his Forest anb 
Stream name that had sunk into my memory. 
We talked of snakes, of course, and of other things of 
course; but not of half the things that we will talk Ibout 
nm'Jh^V"''' ""l^?- i Commission would 
run the Yazpo up-hill and bring Coahoma and his coun- 
try gently with st. 
settled back when he had gone, to think of old- 
time talks with Coahoma and others around your weekly 
camp-fire, and— it was not five minutes before in came 
another contributor to Fore.st and Stream, Captain Flynn 
of the Eighth Cavalry. His salutation was.- "I don't 
want to talk business, but to talk Forest and Stream " 
And we did He said: "Hike Forest and Strm be- 
cause ,t tens the truth about things that are to 
know. That puts it m a nutshell. Captain Fljnn has 
been serving m Cuba, but was recently ordered with his 
command to Jefferson Barracks. I hope that he may stay 
with us a long time. ^ 
Forest and Stream, I thank you. Certainly I have 
never met more pleasant gentlemen than through vour 
introduction. Through you I became acquaiS with E 
Hough and with that charming rascal, George Kennedy 
and with many another good fellow who loves the clean 
