FOREST ANJD . STHEAM. 
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Do Bears Destroy Game? 
Jackson, Wyo., March 30. — Editor Forest and Stream. 
—Do bears kill game? I have been in a country for 
twenty years where there are plenty of bears, black, brown 
or silver tips. I have hunted them a great deal, having 
killed, and been the cause of killing, 100 in that time, 
and I have yet to find the first instance where a bear has 
killed a game animal of any kind, yet thejr like mealt and 
no matter how well fed they are they will go a long 
■*v'ays out of their way to feed upon the carcass of any 
game animal killed by a huhter, aiid this has been the 
undoing of a great many bears. The huntet, by taking 
advantage of this weak point and setting a steel trap 
properly, is almost sure to get bruin, as after he has 
once found a carcass he will invariably return to it time 
and time again. It is true bears will sometimes pfey 
upon domestic stock. In fact, I once saw, while travel- 
ing with a pack outfit upon a wagon road just after a 
heavy rain, where a large grizzly bear had been upon 
the road. His long claws had sunk deep in the moist 
earth, and upon investigating and following the bear's 
track a short distance I came to where there had been a 
struggle and something had been dragged away. I fol- 
lowed the trail for about a mile, and there at the foot of 
the mountain I came upon a three-year-old cow that the 
bear had killed and dragged away. 
I think that such cases are rare, and I consider the 
bear one of our best game animals, and I am glad that 
in place of Wyoming paying a bounty upon each bear 
killed they are now protected for ten months of the year 
upon all timber reservations of the State, and I trust the 
time is not far distant when they will be afforded the 
same protection as all other game animals. I agree with 
Mr. Long that nearly all the stories about the bear are 
not written from personal observation, and believe bis 
reputation for doing harm is greatly exaggerated. Bears 
are very sly, and in some cases might be able to conceal 
the fact that they do harm to game of any kind ; but, as 
I said, in all my experience in hunting them, I have yet 
to see a single instance where I thpught they had harmed 
any game animal; yet in this same time I h,ave been where 
mountain lions, wolves, coyotes and other animals h^d 
killed hundreds of game animals. 
A bear's food seems to be nearly entirely vegeta,ble; 
they eat grass, weeds and roots, nuts and insects. They 
seem to take special delight in digging out squirrels and 
mice, not to get the animals, but to rob their cache of 
nuts or grass roots. 
We are told that bears den up fat and come out m the 
spring poor ; now the fattest bears I ever saw was in the 
spring, just after they came out of their dens, which, in 
this country, is usually in May. Their first food seems 
to be the young grass, just starting, but if they can get 
at some carcass containing fairly good meat they don't 
seem to care for anything else. A short time after they 
come out all their fat disappears. Their food up to the 
berry season is grass, weeds and roots, with some ants, 
grasshoppers and grubs as a relish; then berries and 
last nuts. A bear knows where every old carcass in the 
country is, and if you track him he will take you to one 
after the other, even after they are all consumed, but if 
he finds a good fresh carcass in dark heavy woods, he 
will often lay by it for days, and in some cases he will 
bury it completely. He holes up in November, high up 
in heavy timber, usually where the snow will lie till 
June. ' S- N. Leek. 
Wild Ducks and Marsh Lands. 
Fort Atkinson, Wis., April i.— Editor Forest 
Stream: It has come to be generally recognized that 
the scarcity of wild ducks in this region, where formerly 
there^ were many thousands, is due to the draining of 
marshes that formerly afforded them protection and feed. 
There has been no general slaughter of ducks, like that 
of buffalo, and the introduction of smokeless powder 
and repeating shotguns has simply made the birds more 
wary, and when driven from the large lakes m this 
vicinity, if there are no pools or Wet marshes in which 
they can pass the night they fly' to Lake Michigan and 
often forget to come back. , , , 
If shotguns could be made that would shoot fine shot at 
all distances, from four rods to a mile, and make a 
30-inch pattern at all ranges, there would be danger of 
wiping out the ducks, but none of us will ever see that 
day. However, while the ducks can not be wiped out 
by improving the firearms under present restrictions for 
hunting, they can most assuredly be driven out by drain- 
ing the marshes, and this, in time, will produce the effect 
feared— their extinction. . , , 
The wisdom of the State in preserving wild ducks 
may be somewhat from poetic reasons, illustrated _ m the 
love of even non-hunters, to see these beautiful birds of 
passage flying northward in spring to their mysterious 
homes and southward again in the fall, but the mam 
reason is to promote the sport of hunting, because a 
close acquaintance with the woods and fields is needed 
by thousands of the State's hardest workers, in order to 
keep them in good health. . 
This class is very large and takes in every man who 
owns or borrows a shotgun, while back of these is a 
large sympathetic class that would join m the sport if 
it could. These two classes, which include many of our 
foremost citizens, resent the growing tendency to drain 
every marsh in the State, though such draining may add 
a few dollars to the farm receipts for the year. Every 
extensive marsh drained not only encroaches upon sports 
afield but is a hindrance to the conservation of the_ water 
supply of the country to an extent that had been estimated 
at more than the cutting off of double that acreage of 
heavy forest. 
This last is a reason that appeals at once to every 
citizen, sportsman or not. 
One of the- reasons that have caused government for- 
est reserves to be made, has been to afford an opportunity 
to' the poor man to enjoy the sport of hunting, which,_in 
time, without this, would be narrowed down to the rich 
in protected reserves. , , , 
It is time that a general movement was made toward 
settino- apart worthless marsh lands as game preserves. 
Wh'en drained they are always subject to ruin by dis- 
astrous floods, and in a single wet season all that has 
been spent on them may be brought to naught. As gov- 
ernment game preserves, they would be a source of 
perennial enjoyment to even the poorest citizen of oui* 
land. 
For years past there has been a growirig feeling that 
wild ducks would soon become extinct. A few were 
seen here in the spring and fall, and only a few. The 
old time flight was gone. Large marshes hereabouts 
were dry and the streams low, on account of lack of 
spring freshets and heavy fall rains. The rainfall re- 
mained the same, but, owing to open winters, there was 
no accumulation of snow and ice to flood the marshes in 
April, 
This year all was changed. Heavy fall rains flooded 
the marshes. Heavy snow and twenty-four inches of ice 
covered land and watef up to the middle of March. 
Floods not seen since 1881 have made room for millions 
of wild ducks, and the ducks are here. They are feeding 
on submerged cornfields, turnips and other vegetation. 
Old hunters at Lake Koshkonong report that the air is 
full of ducks and that it "is just like old times." Thou- 
sands of acres of "State lands" are nothing but swamps 
and marshes that would be worth ten times as much to 
the State withdrawn from sale and kept as game pre- 
serves as they can ever bring if sold under the hammer. 
H. L. Hoard. 
A Pipe Full. 
Editor Porvxt and Stream: 
Perhaps one of the greatest pleasures incidental to 
the pursuit of game is that derived from a close ob- 
servation of the wild creatures themselves in their 
haunts. It is, I think, a pleasure more real than the 
actual killing of the game, though truly that part of 
it is, to most of us at least, a source of keen enjoy- 
ment. 
No one who has ever killed game will gainsay the 
delicious thrill of satisfaction and self-applause that 
follows the careful stalk and the successful shot. The 
picture of the buck lurching to< fall as venison — your 
vension, the cleanly killed quail falling like a plummet, 
the sudden wilting of the gaily plumaged drake or 
black-necked Canada goose, remains fixed in our mem- 
ory, to be recalled and, enjoyed again and again, long 
afterwards. 
For, whether we have to thank a whilom: savage an- 
cestry or the fact of our being carnivores, there re- 
mains in most of us enough of blood-lust to desire to 
slay in season game for the sake of the gamie itself. 
Even the pleasure that we derive from; studying our 
friends of fur and feather is not wholly free fromi a 
desire to kill. For, apart from those desiccated speci- 
mens of humanity whose sole purpose in studying any- 
thing animate is to catalogue it according to order, 
family genus and species, and juggle with its Latin 
name — is it not anticipation that makes it pleasurable 
to watch the wild fowl, for instance,, sporting about the 
marshes? Anticipation of what — why, doubtless, the 
shoot we will have on the morrow, or the next week, 
or next season. 
These rather rambling and incoherent remarks are 
the substance of a thought brought to mind a short 
while ago, when the writer was whiling away an after- 
noon in the delightful occupation of tinkering with dle- 
coys and boats and other paraphernalia, and- preparing 
for a shoot on the morrow. 
I was hidden in some tules running out into the lake 
and forming a point on which a stand was locatedl 
There had not been a gun fired on the grounds for sev- 
eral days, and the birds were floating around in small 
rafts here and there, most of them apparently asleep, 
while the shores were the resting places of thousands 
of others basking in the warm rays of our midwinter 
sun. The day was ideal; a brisk breeze fromi the west 
hummed through the tules and whipped; up- miniature 
waves on the lake, and caused a sleepy lap lap of water 
against the rushes. 
Not more than a gunshot away 2^, flock of ten: white- 
fronted geese floated, occasionally preening their g;lossy 
plumage and now and then dipping, thirsty bills in the 
water, and then pointing them: straight at the sky, to 
let the drops trickle down their trim, necks. A band 
of shovelers, swimming along in, single file, their gaudy- 
red, white and blue contrasting, sharply with the modest 
gray and drab of the geese, were making voluble comr 
ments on the weather, and' theij- great pe^ce and'; con- 
tentment, one occasionally pausing, to tread: water and 
flap lazy wings in the breeze. Now and then; some 
swooping hawk would drop down and create consterna,- 
tion among the teal on the shore, causing, them; to take 
flight in a series of whirls and' evolutions, perfect as 
one bird, which no hawk could follow. Far down the 
lake numbers of white dots bobbing about, gleaming 
in the sunlight, marked a raft of pintails riding in the- 
open water. 
It made a satisfying picture, and as I sat there, blow- 
ing meditative rings from my pipe, I wondiered;: Is 
this what those chaps mean who advocate huating with 
a camera, and who preach a doctrine of bloodless 
sportsmanship? It was truly a beautiful picture^th? 
birds, the background of sunlit, breeze-kissed; water, 
and I was certainly very well conteiiit. without a gun.. 
But then' at that very moment was npt anticip action 
busily at work, weaving pictures i^]Qm, th^ past of what 
the morrow might have in storQ? And still; wonder- 
ing I walked back to the cabia to fiil my shell; ca;Se. 
Robert Erskine Ross. 
California. 
Paris, Saturday.— Spring fashions- for Parisian dogs 
include many novelties, such as colored cambric night 
shirts, rubbei: skpeSj thick, fluffy dressing gowns to \veai; 
after a, batli, straw and felt hats, ' special wicker sofas, 
cushioned- and bedecked with garlands and ribbons; naij: 
files, ear " pick's, powder boxes and vaporizers, 
At the dogs' dressmakers, in the Palais Royal', I 
noticed this week a white, hairy cloth, overcoat bordered 
with white, riiphair galons, a, red' velvet collar an/d a, 
pocket for the handker.chjef. — New York Herald;. 
"This race problem is a dreadful thing." "Yes," an- 
swered young Mrs. Torkins; "whenever I see Charley 
get a pencil and begin to figure on the entries in a race, 
I know there's going to be trouble."— Wa,shington Star. 
rlews from the Illinois. 
The ducks are flying north, blue-winged teal and mal- 
lard. But they do not make this State their rendezvous 
as in former times when blue ponds dotted the land- 
scape and little streams wandered like silver threads 
through the woof of copper-colored prairie grass. 
Along the rivers and lakes the wild orgies of the hardy 
feathered travelers are still held with all the old-time 
noise and chatter, but the rivulets have dried away and 
the ponds have been converted into good corn lands, by 
the aid of tilling. 
Howsomever, the hunter's fret gets into the veins of a 
few men and boys when the wild duck's cry is heard, 
and buff hunting coats and brown leggings go slipping 
away to dredge ditches which take the place of the ponds 
and streams of other days, for the ducks and geese must 
still find a few resting places on their way to the Labrador 
coast. 
But the game does not tarry now, as of old, a few days, 
a week at the most, and these doughty birds of passage 
have left us until the winter drives them south again. 
Twenty years ago it was no uncommon thing to be 
able to find a dozen nests of wild goose and duck in a 
five minutes' walk. To-day not one duck will be found 
nesting in the old haunts. 
Of prairie chicken and quail there are scarcely any to be 
found in the middle portion of the State. What a change 
man has wrought in a few years; time was when, as a 
little child, I counted daily, when the weather was cool, 
or during the winter months, strings of both quail and 
grouse hanging up on my father's back porch, ready 
alike to make a meal for friend or stranger. Now one 
must go far afield for the chickens, and be invited by a 
farmer to his fields at that. 
Yes, the ducks are flying northward, blue-winged teal 
and mallard, but for sport one must pack his grip and go 
after them, to Newfoundland and Labrador. 
Meanwhile the hunter has nothing left in the way of 
game, if game it may be called, save the timid rabbit and 
the noisy sparrow. But the coming youth clings to a 
gun quite as tenaciously as ever did his father, and now 
and then kills one of his companions by way of careless- 
ness . Mrs. James Edwin. Morris. 
Subsistence in the Wildetness. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The lamented death of Mr. Leonidas Hubbard must 
cause profound sorrow to all your readers, and the state- 
ment that Mr. Hubbard was inadequately equipped and 
not sufficiently experienced in woodcraft should add to 
that sorrow. Any information regarding the natural re- 
sources to be found in an uninhabited country and the 
best means of utilizing them must be of very great value 
to all who undertake such trips, but unless we are in a 
position to give such information and do so, let us re- 
frain from telling the public how much better we could 
have made the trip and how much we should enjoy doing 
so. 
Let us rather pay an affectionate tribute to the memory 
of one whose writings were so entertaining, instructive 
and free from self-glory. 
It is the experience of some persons who have traveled 
in the north country that a gill net is easily transported 
and will furnish many times its own weight of food for a 
long period ; that fish traps can be made from willows, 
brush, etc. ; that the inner bark of willows, alders, ete., 
can be twisted into lines and made into nets; but this is 
a slow and tedious process. 
All these facts, and many others, are known to the 
Indians of the north country, and the fact that one of the 
party was an Indian would indicate that unusual con- 
ditions were encountered which overtaxed their resources. 
When animal life is scarce in the north land it is very 
scarce indeed. In spruce timber a few squirrels can. 
almost always be depended on. Rabbits may be plentiful 
for a few years and then almost entirely disappear. Cari- 
bou are constantly on the move and may be beyond reach. 
Ptarmigan may be found most unexpectedly when not 
needed and be conspicuous by their absence in time of 
want. Blueberries and cranberries are generally abun- 
dant, but what an unsatisfying substitute to digestive 
organs accustomed for generations to more nourishing 
food. 
It would certainly be the part of wisdom for anyone 
venturing into the "Land of Little Sticks" to take a 
reasonable supply of light nutritious food and not trust 
entirely to the resources of the country. 
E. Frey Ball. 
Tirails of the Pathfinders. 
MoiNROE, Neb.,, March 6. — Editor Forest and Stream.-^ 
I am much interested in the articles now appearing in 
Forest and Stream, called "Trails of the Pathfinders/' 
and shall look for the coming of Forest and Stream 
with unusual pleasure as long as they last. 
L. H. North, 
Washington^ D. C, March 10. — I am' exceedingly glad 
you are publishing this series of articles on early ex- 
ploration in. North America. The books are so rare, and 
the privilege of consulting them so restricted, that your 
publication of the most important matter must be a 
aourqe of information and delight to a great many people. 
C. Hart Merriam. 
Reller, Wash,, March 9. — ^I am reading your articles- 
on the frontier with great pleasure. Having spent the 
greater part, of my life on the frontier, such articles seemi 
to. become a parlj of my nature. Lew Wilmot.. 
New YoR;Kj March 21. — I take this opportunity to^ 
thank you for- the pleasure and interest with, which I ami 
reading "Tales, of thie Patlifinders." 
L. F. Brown: 
Mr., Plane (who is fond of dtogs) — "Miss Waitte, don''tt: 
you think you ought to have an intelligent animal about 
the house that would protect you and"^ 
Miss Waite— "Oh, Mr. Plane! This is so sudden."— 
Philadelphia Press. 
