FOREST AND STREAM. 
167 
the Confederates, from whom the herd received scant 
attention, being allowed to pick up its own living by 
grazing. Naturally, some of the animals wandered 
away. Of these there is an official account of at least 
three. These were captured in Arkansas by the Union 
forces and "sent to Mr. Paden, near the Des Moines 
River, in Iowa, for the benefit of his care and econ- 
omy in their support." In June, 1863, Lieut. J. Grayler, 
from the headquarters of the Department of the Mis- 
souri, at St. Louis, asked the Department what he 
should do with them; the quartermaster-general, on the 
ground that the number was too small for use, recom- 
mending that they be sold at public auction, which 
action was accordingly ordered by Secretary Stanton. 
Doubtless others of the herd during this period of 
loose discipline wandered off from Camp Verde and 
found their way westward to the deserts and mountains 
of the Texas Panhandle, of New Mexico and of Anzoagk 
where they lived free and half wild, the prey of hunteW 
both wite and red. There are numerous recorded in- 
stances where soldiers or hunters have seen the animals 1 
and pursued them. These instances occur with decreas- 
ing frequency down to within the past ten years. 
When at the close of the Civil War the Federal 
Government was again in charge of Camp Verde, all 
thought of making practical use of the camels was 
abandoned. The number was now forty-four, and in 
March, 1866, sealed proposals to buy them were invited. 
The bids were opened at New Orleans, at the office 
of the chief quartermaster, Col. E. G. Sawtelle. Three 
persons were willing to buy: Horace Bell offered $5 
each; Joseph Hallam, $10 each; while Col. Bethel 
Coopwood's bid was $31 each. Gen. M. C. Meigs, 
Quartermaster-General at Washington, reluctantly gave 
the order to sell at $31 each, expressing at the same 
rime his belief that private enterprise would better de- 
velop the animal in this country and his regret that the 
experiment had failed. 
The animals were delivered to Col. Coopwood at 
San Antonio, Texas, and kept by him in that vicinity 
until December, 1866, when they were driven into 
Mexico. In January, 1867, twelve of them were sold 
to the proprietor of a "circus and caravan," and the re- 
mainder appear to have been, during the next fifteen 
years, disposed of in the same manner. As late as 
May, 1903, the Express, of San Antonio, speaks of hav- 
ing observed in one of the midway shows which had 
exhibited in that city a camel with the United States 
brand on it and the counterbrand of a subsequent pur- 
chaser. No doubt a search through the many menag- 
eries, traveling shows, and the zoological gardens of 
the country would reveal other survivors of the Gov- 
ernment camels, although their number is likely to be 
few, as it is now more than thirty-five years since they 
passed from Government ownership, and the camel does 
not often, even with the best treatment, attain to more 
than forty years. 
Thus, after a checkered official life of eleven years, 
the camels passed finally into the hands of private 
owners. Of the two shiploads of animals, the Gov- 
ernment retains nothing except the bones of one of the 
beasts, which stand in a case at the National Museum 
at Washington and perform the duty of illustrating to 
students the peculiar skeleton framework of the "ship 
of the desert," besides serving as a souvenir to those 
acquainted with the story of the attempt to transplant 
these ancient drudges from their homes in Africa and 
Asia to the Western World. The camel in question, 
while at Fort Tenjon, Cal., was killed by one of its 
mates that had gotten loose during the night. The 
animals were rutting and consequently intractable. The 
soldiers relate that the combat was most furious, the 
beasts striking each other resounding blows with their 
ponderous feet, while the drivers dared not interfere. 
The bones of the defeated animal were forwarded by 
Lieut. Sylvester Mowry to the Smithsonian Institution. 
The most potent cause of the failure of the camel ex- 
periment was its interruption by the Civil War. Had 
Major Wayne been left in control of the camels which 
were imported under his supervision, and supplied with 
sufficient money to breed and increase them, as he so 
well knew was necessary, and had he been free to 
familiarize the teamsters and drivers with their man- 
agement, there appears to be no particular reason why 
they should not have been of as much use in parts of 
this country as they were and are in the countries of 
the East. They were easily and quickly acclimatized 
and they performed with success their tasks in the in- 
itial experiments; indeed, so long as Major Wayne re- 
mained with them. But few officers understood their 
management, and they found in the mule driver an in- 
veterate enemy. To secure their general use, a long 
course of experimentation, as well as teaching, was 
required. The beginning of the Civil War removed 
Major Wayne to the South, and during the succeeding 
years the camels were exposed to capture and recapture > 
by the contending forces, neither of which had much 
time to devote to experiment. The construction of 
railways between the east and west, of course, limited 
the field in which it was proposed to use the camels,; 
but they might still have been employed to advantage 
had anyone been found with the enthusiasm and in- 
formation on the subject possessed by Major Wayne 
to collect and care for the scattered remnants of the 
herd and increase it to such numbers as might be of 
some real use. In idleness they were merely a useless 
expense to the Government and were very properly sold; 
but, as in the case of any unfinished experiment, it is 
to be regretted that the trial of the camel in the Western 
world was not carried to conclusive results. 
Cabia Blanco's Experience with a Camel. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
' I have taken an interest in Mr. Charles C. Carroll's re- 
port that is being reproduced in the Forest and Stream, 
from the fact that I came in contact with one of these 
camels. It was one of the original importation, I was 
told, and seemed to be old enough to have been one of 
them. 
Three of the troops of our regiment, the Fourth 
Cavalry, were sent up from San Antonio to Camp Verde, 
Texas, in the fall of 1866. Verde Was away out on the 
frontier then; the towns of Kerrville and Bandera were 
out here on each side of it, only a few miles away, but 
they could hardly be called towns then; neither of them 
had a post-office. Our nearest post-office was down at 
Boerne, forty miles away, and I was detailed to carry 
the mail from there, making two trips a week. I used my 
horse to carry -the mail. This is what the camel had been 
brought here for, but he never carried any mail, and un- 
less he "met up" with someone who knew more about 
camels than I did, he never carried anything else any- 
where. 
After I had been given an introduction to him by our 
quartermaster, I put in half a day in trying to get him to 
kneel. He would neither do that nor anything else. I 
could mount him — he did not seem to know nor care 
whether I was on his back or not — but I could not move 
him out of his tracks. The quartermaster wanted me to 
use a blacksnake whip on him. 
"No sir," I told him, "he seems to me to be too inno- 
cent to be whipped, or else too stupid. If he were only a 
mule, now, I would make him obey me or kill him; but 
I guess I don't need a camel; a horse suits me well 
enough." 
The camel stood in the corral a week eating hay. That 
is all that we could get him to eat. I tried to force both 
corn and oats down his throat, but he refused both, and 
finally he was taken out to where he had been got and 
turned loose again. 
There was quite a number of those camels running 
loose somewhere west of Kerrville then; they had been 
there since i860. 
There are still several of these camels, or _ their 
descendants, rather, in western New Mexico and Arizona. 
I met them there as late as 1884. Mexicans had them and 
used them as pack animals. They seemed to have no 
trouble in handling them. I was told by Mexicans that 
there was quite a number of these camels running wild in 
the Colorado desert, California. This is where those that 
were brought by Lieutenant Porter in the Supply were 
finally taken to. 
It is amusing to watch a horse act the first time he 
sees one of these camels. There is no animal — not even 
a bear— that will frighten a horse so badly as a camel 
will Cabia Blanco. 
Birds in California. 
As an humble disciple of California ornithology, let me 
take some of the kinks out of Coahoma's tale. In your 
issue of November 19 he gives the result of some obser- 
vations made in our State in the previous three months, 
and comments upon the paucity of bird life observed. 
Now, Coahoma, just remember that you visited us at a 
time of year when resident birds have finished the cares 
of paternity, and winter visitors have not yet put in an 
appearance! California is rich in bird life at all seasons, 
but the months spoken of are the ones when our birds are 
most silent. Worn out with family cares that have wasted 
the energies of the breeding species, they are silent and 
shy. And it is these birds that constitute the bird 
orchestra in all lands. 
From the first of February until the first of August is 
the time to hear the birds' songs, and to admire the beau- 
tiful plumage of our residents. From November 1 
throughout the winter months is the time to observe our 
winter visitors. 
And now, "with these few remarks," Coahoma, let me 
take up your trail and help you straighten out those 
"kinks." At the time you visited our valleys there was 
no doubt a paucity of bird life observable to the passing 
traveler. If you had had time to investigate a little closer, 
however, you would have found a fair amount of bird 
life. This you would have found in the orchards and 
groves surrounding the homes of the valley farmers, in 
the groves of oaks that are found scattered throughout 
the Sacramento Valley, and in the willows and cotton- 
woods that line the banks of all the streams, sloughs, and 
lagoons found in those localities. 
Here you would have found housefinches and Arkansas 
goldfinches by the thousand, with many bullocks* orioles, 
land black-headed grosbeaks- — all goon singers. You 
would also have found, in fair number, many' kinds of 
flycatchers, chipping sparrows, horned larks, purple mar- 
tins, swallows and swifts, bluebirds, and many other 
varieties in diminishing numbers. You were unfortunate 
in your observation of blackbirds, as there is no country 
richer in this variety of bird life than California. Be- 
sides the allied species of the cowbird and the variety you 
mention, there are the following varieties: The yellow- 
headed blackbird, three kinds of the red-winged black- 
bird, and the bi- and tri-colored blackbirds. As to the 
jays, I agree with you about their sly and secretive 
habits, and their raucous voices, but you must have been 
r&uite a distance from them when in flight, or you would 
have seen that their underparts are almost entirely white. 
The bird that went flitting from post to post ahead 
of you as you drove along the highway, was undoubtedly 
the Arkansas flycatcher {T yr annus ;verticalis) . The owl 
which you think might be termed "hawk-owl" was the 
ordinary burrowing Owl which is found throughout the 
valleys of our State. Your "gray squirrels" were not 
squirrels at all, but spermophiles. They are pests of the 
first degree; useless as food, unless a man was starving, 
and very destructive in wheatfields. One family of sper- 
mophiles will destroy as much wheat as would be neces- 
sary for the existence of half as many human beings an- 
nually. They are warred upon unintermittingly by trap 
and poison throughout the wheat-growing sections of the 
State, and still they multiply. 
But, brother Coahoma, this was what aroused me, and 
started me in the notion of straightening out your 
"kinks." Toward the close of your article you state "the 
California meadowlark is certainly entitled to all the 
honors of a 'song bird' in an otherzvise songless region. 
Songless region, indeed ! Why, that is rank slander ! All 
the world knows that California has the finest climate, the 
finest fruit and flowers, the largest trees, the tallest moun- 
tains, the deepest canons, the richest soil, the handsomest 
women, and the fastest horses in all the world. Such be- 
ing the case, do you think we will stand for a black eye 
on our birds? Perish the thought. 
No, ho, Coahoma, come out here in our spring and 
early summer months and I will introduce yon to some 
of the sweetest singers in all birdland. I will take you to 
the high sierra, where you can listen to Townsend's 
solitaire, the sierra hermit thrush, , and the American 
dipper, in their native haunts, where the mountain tor- 
rents sing their songs to the everlasting peaks. 1 will 
send you into the canons to listen to the weirdly beautiful, 
notes of the rock and canon wrens. I will take you 
further down the sierran slopes and introduce you to the 
California thrasher, the black-headed grosbeak, and the 
long-tailed chat, and let them charm your heart with 
their unique and entrancing songs. I will take you where 
you will hear many varieties of song sparrows; where the 
goldfinches mil their sweet lays, where the housefinch 
sings his artless roundelay throughout the year, and 
where many varieties of the warblers lisp their sweet 
numbers while searching the foliage of our fruit trees 
for the noxious insects that nest there. 
Songless, indeed! Nowhere on this great green earth 
of ours can a greater variety of song birds be found 
than in our glorious State. I have not enumerated half 
of them, and have left the mockingbird out entirely, as 
being too common to mention. 
Arefar, 1 
Auburn, California. 
"Monarch, the Big Bear/' 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Dr. Morris's letter on the subject of Mr. Seton, Mr. 
Kelly and Monarch, does more credit to his genial cheer- 
fulness of nature and his tolerance of human frailty than 
it does to his ethical sense. Putting aside for a moment 
the question of Mr. Seton's culpability in using _ Mr. 
Kelly's material, just how much of a sinner is he still in 
his relation to the reading public — the public that, believ- 
ing in his assumption of accurate knowledge and inti- 
mate acquaintance with the subjects of which . he writes, 
has bought his books, created his vogue, and made it 
possible for him to enjoy the pleasure of a country place 
next door to Dr. Morris? 
Mr. Seton poses as a scientific authority upon grizzly 
bears. Although he is one of those who break the loaf of 
science into small bits and soak it in sugar and water, 
nevertheless he sets himself forth as having, and is be- 
lieved to have, accurate and intimate and first-hand 
knowledge of the subject, and the people who read his 
books believe they can depend upen his statements. His 
publishers advertise this book as an intimate scientific 
study of the habits and characteristics of the grizzly. 
And yet it appears that he got nearly the whole of the 
material for that book from an acquaintance, either by 
listening to the other's bear yarns in a hotel parlor or by 
wholesale appropriation of his' printed work. And al- 
though those yarns had as their subjects bears, grizzly 
and brown and black, Mr. Seton shouldered them all 
upon a grizzly, not even knowing or caring, as long as 
they served his purpose, whether they were true or were 
mere camp-fire stories. 
Now, what is all this but a literary buncoing of the 
reading public? For my part, I am unable to see any 
difference, ethically considered, between it and certain 
methods of enriching one's self commonly called getting 
money under false pretenses. 
Dr. Morris's good-natured admission of the genesis of 
"Redruff" exposes another animal story in which Mr. 
Seton, instead of writing from that first-hand knowledge 
which he pretends to possess, merely helped himself to 
what he needed from another man's pages. It happened 
that the proceeding did not touch Dr. Morris in a sensi- 
tive place, and so he doesn't mind — he is even glad of it 
But suppose Mr. Seton had heard Dr. Morris give a de- 
tailed account of his treatment of a case of surgery, and 
had then set himself up asVa surgeon, and, by virtue of 
the copious notes he had taken, assumed to treat as a 
specialist other similar cases? Would not Dr. Morris 
then think him a, fake and a quack, and be ready to in- 
voke the law for his suppression? And if he should hap- 
pen to achieve brilliant success, would that make any 
difference with the doctor's convictions as to the moral 
status of the affair? 
Nor has Dr. Morris considered that the taking of other 
people's "lead" may become a serious practical question 
when lead means livelihood. Mr. Seton and Mr. Kelly 
both write for their living. To each these bear stories 
meant working capital, to be transmuted into income. 
Can Dr. Morris see any moral difference between helping 
one's self to capital of that sort and taking horses,, or 
land, or tools, or bottles of medicine out of a drugstore? 
It is not surprising that there should have been hazy 
notions about property in ideas in the days of Grub 
street, when a literary man's livelihood depended on the 
favor of a wealthy patron, and not on the market value 
of what he wrote. But in these later days, when ideas 
and knowledge and information and facility in dressing 
them up have come to have as distinctly a money value 
as wheat or hogs or cotton, it is surprising to find any 
law-abiding citizen attempting to justify a dealer in these 
things who takes that which belongs to another. 
Western. 
New York, Nov. 28 
. ^ „ , ." 
The Mockingbird Breeding: in Massachusetts. 
Providence, R. I. — Editor Forest and Stream: Early 
in October, while on a visit to Pasque Island, in the 
mouth of Buzzard's Bay, I saw two mockingbirds, and 
Captain Wilcox gave me some interesting information 
regarding them. In the spring he saw one flying about 
the garden, and even investigating the glass plant room 
or conservatory, as though it might have been at one time 
a captive bird. Soon it disappeared and was not seen 
for about two weeks, when it came back with a mate, and 
they proceeded to make themselves at home, and were 
frequently seen about the bushes and in the clumps of 
stunted pines on the hill, where the male sang splendidly 
all summer. 
As the season wore on the Captain counted six birds, 
and saw two of them feed the others, which would seem 
to indicate that they bred on the island. On the 29th of 
September four were seen, and after that they seemed 
to separate, only one or two being seen at a time. 
. S. S. B. 
+ * t The current number of Game Laws in Brief gives 
laws ii 9ll States and Provinces. Price 25 cents. 
