Jan. -j, 1905.] 
7 
of the party drank heartily, but the missionary and 
Townshend declined it with disgust. However, before 
they had left this animal, Townshend was induced to 
drink the blood from the heart, which he did to his own 
great relief, and to the great amusement of the mis- 
sionary who accompanied him. 
George Bird Grinnell. 
[to BE CONCLUDED.] 
. ^ « 
Sport and Work. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Many lessons may be learned in the_ woods life which 
may well be applied to the business life, and the same 
traits in a man which bring success to the hunter will 
usually bring success in business. In both lives there 
are discouraging and depressing times as well as bright 
and hopeful tirnes, and our success often depends upon 
our conduct in times of depression. 
We have been out several hours, tramping through the 
snqw on a deer trail, straining our eyes until they fairly 
ache, and using all the caution and strategy known to 
us to outwit the wily game and see them before they are 
off. After all our efforts we hear a slight rustling in the 
brush, a very faint and muffled "thud, thud" in the snow, 
but we see nothing. Quickening our pace a little, we soon 
come to where our game has jumped out of their beds 
.and plowed up the snow as they went off by great leaps. 
This, then, is one of the depressing times in the woods 
life, and the time which is to determine the general 
make-up of the man. He is tired; he has done his very 
best, and the case was in his favor, inasmuch as the deer 
were not aware of being followed, and he was counting 
on their first meeting to be a surprise for them and suc- 
cess for himself. Now they are gone and know they are 
being followed, and the natural summing up of the case 
would be, "It's no use to follow ! They have outgeneraled 
.us when the odds were in our favor, and how much more 
certainly will they be able to do so now that they are 
warned of our presence!" Then the average man will 
either give it up and go home, or if he does follow, will 
hasten on at a careless, blundering gait, thinking, "It's 
no use looking for them within a mile or two, anyhow." 
Not so with the one who has the rare quality of never 
giving up. He is the one who will succeed because he 
only redoubles his vigilance and determination, and pro- 
ceeds with a faith that something will turn up in his 
favor ; for the unexpected is nea^j^ sure to happen to the 
hunter, and all kinds of game do most unaccountable 
things at the most unexpected times. The above illus- 
tration of following deer is an exact description of an 
experience of the writer, and within less than one hun- 
dred yards of their beds which they had left a fine buck 
was seen standing, having come back to investigate, and 
afforded a fine shot. So it is in the business life; when 
financial reverses or misfortune overtakes us, it is the 
sarne dogged tenacity and firmness of purpose which will 
ultimately bring reward and success. 
Again the hunter goes forth to hunt, and, if hunting in 
a strange place, a careful note must be made mentally of 
the general topography of the country, course of streams, 
direction and distances traveled, etc., if he would not get 
lost. So the business man going into new ventures must 
study the nature of the business and get his bearings if 
he would not get bewildered and finally lost. If in 
familiar territory, these precautions can be dispensed 
with, but the hunter must exercise all his faculties toward 
the accomplishment of his purpose by noting the direc- 
tion of the wind, the nature of the surroundings in re- 
gard to growth, etc., and be able to determine by the way 
the game travels and the kind of places it is leading to, 
as to when it is most likely to stop; and above all, he 
must have that rare faculty of knowing just what to do 
and how to do it when the critical moment arrives in 
which prompt action is required. 
There come moments both in the woods and business 
life which determine the success or failure of carefully 
laid plans which have been brought to the point of 
rnaterializing. The trail has been followed through all 
discouragements until the game is in sight and within 
gunshot; nothing is left for the hunter to do but shoot. 
It is only" for an instant that the opportunity is open; 
he has carelessly allowed the sights to become filled with 
snow, or he goes to step to one side for a better aim, 
or he gets "buck fever" and hesitates, and his one, and 
perhaps only, chance for that day is gone. So with the 
business man. He follows up his business carefully, 
watching for his opportunity, and happy is he if he can 
see it while it is yet in reach, and knowing what to do 
and hb\v to do it, acts promptly and succeeds. 
The man who goes out to- hunt cannot reasonably ex- 
pect much success if he has no other knowledge of hunt- 
ing than that gained by reading and studying the nature 
of his game in books, no matter how thorough that study 
may have been. So with business ; practical experience 
is necessary tO' the best results, notwithstanding the ex- 
ceptions where the "tenderfoot" has a streak of rare good 
luck, or the inexperienced may make a hit in the busi- 
ness world simply by some lucky chance. Even in the 
cost of engaging in the pursuits of hunting and business 
there is a similarity. We may go to some uninviting 
place where there is little or no game to hunt and the 
hunting is free; but go to the great hunting grounds of 
our country, and you may take well filled pocketbooks. 
So in business ; we can operate a business in a little coun- 
try village at a small cost compared with the cost of 
operating the same in a city, because everybody wants to 
go to the city, where the business can succeed. The 
owners of the city know that, and make them pay well 
for the privilege of doing business in a good place. 
Emerson Carney. 
MoRGANTOWN, W. Va., Dec. 1904. 
Medicine in Camp* 
Santa Claus brought me the cutest little leather case, 
containing eleven phials with screw-off tops and a 
graduated glass about the same capacity as the phials, 
which I judge to be one-half ounce each. The phials 
each have a label for the placing thereon the name of the 
medicine and the dose to be given, and the case also 
has ■ a pocket for court plaster, etc. Looking at it, I 
observed, "There are bottles enough there, and more, to 
contain about all of the medicines in use by the modern 
physician," and this, I believe, is true. But just what 
those medicines are, and what the dose of each, are 
things I do not know. I anticipate a certain sort of 
pleasure in having these bottles filled and of satisfaction 
in taking the case with me when I go camping, as I do 
from time to time. It occurs to me there are some physi- 
cians on the Forest and Stream staff, or at least among 
its constant readers and occasional contributors, who might 
make up some very interesting and instructive literature 
therein on this subject. For instance, three of these 
phials might well be made to contain, one permanganate 
of potash, one strychnia, and the third the small hypo- 
dermic syringe needful in administering the remedies for 
treating poison from snake bite and tiding the patient 
over the effects. Of course these remedies are ticklish 
things to use ; but snake bite is itself a ticklish thing, de- 
manding heroic measures. I have in mind a trip that I 
just missed taking at the last moment; one of those who 
did take it being bitten by a cottonmouth moccasin, and 
who came very near dying. On another occasion, only a 
year ago, when hunting and staying at a farmhouse miles 
away from a doctor, a man staying at the house had a 
very severe attack of appendicitis. It was the second 
attack of the kind with him, and, as the doctor wlio at- 
tended him on the previous occasion had predicted, he 
had a pretty close call. There were certain remedies, I 
suppose, which would have been helpful in that emer- 
gency. _ Suppose we ask that some good doctor who reads 
this will write us an article about "The Camp Doctor and 
His Kit." George Kennedy. 
Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse. 
Years ago, long before the mantle of Esculapius had 
fallen upon my shoulders, I was engaged in chasing 
the elusive bovine around a whole township of one of 
our western territories, mounted upon a pinto cayuse, 
and bedecked in all the toggery of a Wild West show. 
The occupation at its best was a lonely one, and any- 
thing to vary the monotony was hailed with delight by 
the "cow punchers." The most popular form of amuse- 
ment was trying to convince your opponent seated on 
the other side of the mess chest that your two jacks 
wer-e a great deal larger than his three queens. It was 
quite early in life that I learned that either I was not 
a success as a convincer, or that my supply of the coin 
of the realm was too brief. This bit of knowledge came 
to me quite forcibly one morning after an all-night ses- 
sion, in which I saw all of my surplus, including my 
saddle, bridle, chaps, spurs and quirt gradually trans- 
. ferred from my side of the box to the other fellow's. 
That morning I wandered out in a very pensive mood 
and was struck by the beauty of everything that I saw. 
While cursing my poor judgment, I could not help 
but feel the harmony of the nature world spread out at 
my feet. At that time I resolved to abandon the study 
of the History of the Four Kings, complete in fifty- 
two pages, and take up the study of the Infinite as 
written upon the manifold pages of this world. Though 
as yet I am still plodding along in the first part of 
Chapter I, I have never regretted the resolution of that 
morning. Often in the still of midnight, while riding 
here, I have gazed upon the silent shining spheres, as 
in unerring, glittering cycles they float like silver barks 
upon the azure sea of heaven, and have said with one 
of. old, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" 
Things of this planet, though, have always had a great 
fascination for me, and many silent hours have I spent 
in study of the doings of the wild things of wood and 
field and stream. It's a standing joke on the cattle 
range that once a Britisher, fresh from Merrie Eng- 
land, saw an owl sitting contemplatively, as owls will, 
beside a badger's burrow. He noticed as he rode 
around that the bird kept its face toward him, but he 
could never see it move the body. It entered his brain 
that if he should ride around the owl enough times that 
the bird would surely twist its head off. One of the 
cowboys discovered him and rescued him, or else he 
might have been still riding around that owl. I have 
always had a sort of sneaking respect for that Brit- 
isher. His desire to learn something about owls was 
certainly commendable whatever we may say about his 
judgment. Then his judgment was not much worse 
than those scientists who so sagely insist that they 
have seen an owl, a rattlesnake and a prairie dog living 
harmoniously in one burrow. 
All this has very little to do with study of the sharp- 
tail grouse as the caption of this letter would suggest. 
I merely threw the foregoing in as a sort of grace be- 
fore meat Not that it meant anything at all, but 
merely to put you in a good humor. Rather in the 
hopes that I might induce you to follow me through the 
whole article. What I do know about the bird in 
subject is a great deal less than what I do not know. That 
is a rather strange assertion now, isn't it? Strange that 
a writer on birds should admit his ignorance. That's 
where I am an oddity. I want to be a little out of the 
ordinary, so I hit upon the scheme of admitting that 
there were a few things that I had not yet found out. 
In that regard I have made a radical departure from 
the beaten paths of bird writers and for that departure 
I deserve to be recognized. The things that I shall 
attempt to set down came to me, you might say, spon- 
taneously. They were gathered up in the intervals be- 
tween yanking" some bogged yearling out of a spring 
hole by means of a lariat and the pulling powers of a 
cow pony, and running the three-circle brand on some- 
body's "slick ear," presumably my boss's. As such, it 
is very apt to smack more of the green fields and run- 
ning brooks than it does of the midnight oil and the 
musty 'library. At one time in the historj' of the great 
West, it was a vast bunch-grass region, as yet un- 
touched by the hand of civilization. Not a farm nor 
an acre of grain in whole counties. Merely a little 
ranch-house upon some stream, and thousands upon 
thousands of head of cattle upon the hills. At that 
lime the bunch-grass hills were alive with sharptail 
grouse. They spent the summer on the upland, and in 
winter descended to the alder-bordered streams, where 
they' spent the winter feeding upon the buds. Now, 
alas! the once grass-covered hills are fields of waving 
grain, and the alder-bordered stream is an irrigation 
ditch. Where once sounded the cackle of the startled 
grouse as she rose from beneath your horse's feet, 
may be heard only the rattle of the harvester or the hum 
of the threshing machine. Instead of the long-horned 
range cattle, fleet as elk and almost as untamable, may 
be seen only the sleek, well-favored kine of the wheat 
farmer, browsing in the pasture. 
In that elder day the sharptail grouse spent the sum- 
mer upon the grassy upland, where they reared their 
young and wandered at will over the grassy slopes, at 
winter seeking the streams. With the first bursting of 
the springtime buds they abandoned the alders and 
again sought the higher ground for mating and nest- 
ing. The ceremony of mating is carried on with every 
ceiremony of courtship and each act of it seems to be 
essential to the complete whole. Usually the conical 
top of some smair knoll is chosen for a theater, and in 
the gray, of dawning may be heard the whirr of count- 
less wings and seen the darting of dark bodies as they 
hurry in direction of the trysting place. With a sharp 
downward dip of wings the birds all alight in a wide 
circle .about : the central stage and sit demurely in regu- 
lar, rows.-. The performance is begun by some cock, 
more; I9:v'e-l6rn than his mates, springing into the arena 
and, engst'ging' in the wildest dance possible. The famous 
whirBflg;derYish is a child's toy compared to one of 
these.- Sfobi^ the other cocks are excited by the per- 
formance, and one by one rapidly they join the first 
until the knoll is alive with gyrating birds. Faster and 
faster they whirl round and round, cackling in unison, 
their air sacks inflated until they protrude like oranges 
upon their necks. Back and forth with wings out- 
spread like turkey cocks, jerking their heads about as 
though afflicted with some form of ornithological St. 
Vitus dance, their whole being quivering with excite- 
ment. At last, overcome by passion, one vaults fifteen 
feet into the air and falls senseless to the ground,where he 
lies until his little gray mate comes and escorts him 
away to their nesting place. 
By the time the sun has gotten well over the distant 
hill-top, they have all gone through the same ceremony, 
and the knoll is deserted until the following morning, 
when the ceremony is repeated, and so through the 
entire laying season. Many mornings have I lain se- 
curely hidden behind some convienent tussock of rye 
grass and spied upon this love-making scene. So long 
as I remained perfectly quiet they were seemingly ob- 
livious of my presence. Should I move, however, the 
entire covey would take flight, only to return when the 
disturbance was over. The nesting sites are usually 
not far from the stamping ground, and almost any tim.e 
until late in the afternoon you may see the mated birds 
feeding near their nests. 
At this time the female retires for a time, and I am 
of the opinion that this is when she deposits her egg. 
This, I am well aware, is not the opinion of many 
writers; but I am not quoting writers now. The clutch 
of eggs varies somewhat; nine is the usual number, 
though I have seen as high as fourteen. The protective 
coloration of these birds is another wise provision of 
our Mother Nature. The soft gray of their plumage 
so harmoniously blends with the alkali soil and the 
color of the bunch-grass and sage that it is indeed a 
sharp eye that can see them when they are sitting per- 
fectly still, and they do sit still as a general thing. 
When the bird leaves the nest, the eggs are so nearly 
the color of the surroundings, that they are well-nigh 
invisible. The nest itself is a very primitive bit of 
architecture. Merely a depression in the soil at the 
foot of some tussock of rye sage, lined with a few 
wisps of dry sage or grass. These wisps of straw are 
seemingly not calculated as a bed for the clutch but 
merely as an additional protection from the prying 
eyes of her enemies. The period of incubation is as 
usual m birds of this class, and varies from twenlv-one 
to twenty-six days. The little chicks are a soft yellow 
when first hatched, but soon become gray-spotted, ?ind 
are the prettiest little chaps that you can imagine. Dur- 
ing the period of incubation the cock may be'ever found 
hovering near the nest, keeping a jealous eye upon the 
dame, ever ready to lure away from bis home any in- 
quisitive marauder who ventures too near. The mother 
leads her brood out upon the hills and guards themi 
carefully from the great brown hawks that may be seen 
constantly wheeling in the vast blue with a sharp glance 
kept upon the earth below. If one of these sails too 
