May I, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
go along and see one of us kill a pheasant on 
the wing, we climbed the ridge again where we 
had found the birds the first day near the or¬ 
chard. Daddy, while off at one side, flushed two 
grouse, but failed to connect with them. At 
last we heard him calling to us, and soon 
learned that he had found birds. Taking the 
direction that the birds had flown, the dog soon 
pointed after jumping over the rail fence. One 
of us made some noise while getting over the 
fence which caused the birds to flush. I suc¬ 
ceeded in stopping one of them, which fell to 
the bottom of the deep gulley. The dog soon 
brought our seventh bird. It was near noon, 
and we returned to the house for dinner before 
starting for home. 
Robert had great tales to tell when we 
reached the house. Another boy had become an 
enthusiast, and Daddy contributed a two-dollar 
bill toward the new shotgun which he longed 
for. A. C. K. 
New York Legislature. 
Bills have been introduced in the Assembly 
as follows: 
By Mr. Walters — Relating to nets in certain 
waters. 
By Mr. Phillips — Relating to strawberry bass 
in Oil Creek reservoir in Alleghany county. 
Third reading. 
By Mr. Wood—Relating to stream pollution 
by sewage. Third reading. 
In the Senate Mr. Hamilton’s bill to amend 
the game law generally is up for third reading. 
It increases the salary of the forest, fish and 
game commissioner from $5,000 to $6,000 per 
annum. It provides for five more protectors, 
a fifth assistant chief game protector at $1,200 
and four division chiefs at $1,000 per annum 
each. Civil service examinations for protectors 
to be confined to counties. Protectors to have 
power to seize illegal game or fish, but to be 
prohibited from settling cases out of court. The 
bill makes it a misdemeanor to cut coniferous 
trees without removing all the branches, except 
when such trees are to be sold or used with the 
branches intact. It provides for an auditor of 
fire accounts and fire inspectors, salary $1,800 
per annum and expenses. Section 68 is stricken 
out and instead there is a new section relating 
to fire patrolling by railway men. Section 69 
is also stricken out and a new section inserted 
relative to fire districts and patrols. New Sec¬ 
tion 70 defines duties of fire superintendents, and 
new Section 71 relates to compensation for fire 
patrolmen, etc. New Section 74 provides penal¬ 
ties for persons who carelessly set or neglect to 
quench forest fires. 
Section 75a authorizes the governor to post¬ 
pone or close an open season if drouth or other 
exigencies make such action advisable. 
Section 76 makes the open season for all deer 
Sept. i6-Oct. 31, both inclusive, and for bucks 
Sept. 16-N0V. 15 in the Adirondack counties; 
possession to Nov. 5, but bucks with heads at¬ 
tached can be possessed until Nov. 20; this sec¬ 
tion not to apply to domesticated deer propa¬ 
gated in inclosed parks, when shipped under 
permit. Amended section 92 permits the pos¬ 
session and sale of grouse, woodcock and quail 
from outside the State under bond. 
The trout section is slightly changed as to 
local waters. The salmon section is deleted. 
Other changes are local. 
With Gaats and Sheep in British 
Columbia.—IV. 
The next morning we started soon after sun¬ 
rise to climb the hills. We left Baptiste in camp 
to look after the horses and generally to watch 
things. Although so far as known no people 
were in the country, still one could not be sure 
just what would happen. Prospectors, packers, 
halfbreeds or Indians might come along, and 
while most of these people would be excellent, 
friendly and honest, they were after all a more 
or less mixed lot, and you could not be certain 
that the tenth rascal would not come to your 
camp and do some damage, while the nine 
honest men would miss it and go off in another 
direction. 
We had little trouble in getting our horses 
up over the steepest part of the mountainside, 
and then mounting, rode easily along over a 
rolling plateau which constantly ascended. Now 
and then we could see far off spots on the 
bare hillside, which might be sheep or might 
be deer; all of them were too distant to be in¬ 
vestigated. On one nearby hill, above where we 
were riding, a little band of eight sheep were 
seen, all ewes and lambs. They did not appear 
to notice us, but marched along in single file 
as if they were going somewhere on a journey. 
We kept edging up the hill all the time and 
at last reached a place so steep and rocky that 
it seemed best to leave the horses there. A few 
windswept spruces grew near a ravine and 
to them we tied up the animals and thencefor¬ 
ward took it on foot. The way up, though 
steep and in fact impracticable for the horses, 
offered no obstacles to an active climber, and 
we went ahead at good speed. 
For mountain climbing I like very light foot¬ 
wear, and when I can do so usually wear moc¬ 
casins. If the country is rough and stony and 
I have not been wearing moccasins, so that my 
feet are tender, I try to put a piece of blanket 
between the soles of the moccasins and my own, 
and this is what I had done to-day. This made 
my feet seem large in size, but they felt light, 
and I was able to ascend the slopes with a 
minimum of effort. 
When we reached a high point and carefully 
looked over it, I saw, lying on the bare hill¬ 
side, remote from any possible cover, a little 
group of sheep, ewes and lambs, peacefully 
chewing the cud. I studied the situation care¬ 
fully with the glasses, but could devise no 
means of getting near them. The only possible 
cover by which they might be approached with¬ 
in shot was a rocky ravine seemingly more than 
two hundred yards behind them, and unfortu¬ 
nately the wind, which was now strong, blew 
from this ravine to the sheep. To attempt to 
approach them from that direction would be 
merely to frighten them and to frighten also 
anything that might see them as they were run¬ 
ning away. Instead of alarming them, there¬ 
fore, we drew back and went quite a long way 
around so as to wholly avoid them. While 
doing this, however, some whiff of our scent 
must have reached them, for presently they all 
got up, and after taking a long look in our 
direction moved slowly off down the hill. It 
is quite certain that they did not see or hear 
us, but they may have smelt us. 
The top of the mountain that we were on 
was quite flat and here and there lay snow¬ 
drifts of some depth. Here, too, the wind blew 
hard, sometimes picking up the loose dry snow 
which had fallen during the night, whirling it 
about and then again suddenly throwing it on 
the ground in one place where it continued to 
gather until the snow bank might be six or 
eight inches deep, while a little further away 
there was perhaps no snow at all. Walking 
over to the edge of this plateau I cautiously 
looked down into a ravine, seemingly caused 
by the sliding away of one side of the moun¬ 
tain, and saw there such a sight as I do not 
expect again to witness. Down in the bottom 
of the ravine was a beautiful blue lake, from 
whose sides the steep rocks rose roughly. Be¬ 
hind it was a little beach and a level spot 
clothed with bright green—whether grass or 
willows, I could not tell. About the lake, and 
on the little meadow near it, were gathered 
many sheep. I could not say how many, for 
I forgot to count them in my admiration for 
one great ram that seemed to be the patriarch 
of the flock. He stood at the edge of the water 
gazing thoughtfully down the ravine, but his 
distance from me was five or six hundred yards, 
much too far to risk a shot. 
I stepped back from the edge of the ravine 
and beckoned the Youngster, and then after 
looking about a little we found a break in the 
edge of the plateau into which we both could 
creep and be out of the wind, and at the same 
time could watch the sheep below. These now 
all seemed to have slaked their thirst, and one 
by one they began to draw away toward the 
hills, the big ram accompanying a little group 
of ewes, yearlings and lambs which began to 
ascend our side of the mountain. It was not 
to be supposed that he would come up to us, 
yet it was possible that he might do so, and 
the very thought of this sent thrills of excite¬ 
ment along the Youngster’s spine, and I con¬ 
fess made me a little bit anxious as well. In 
a whisper I explained to the Youngster that 
at best it would be a long time before the 
sheep got up to our neighborhood; that he must 
be perfectly quiet, so far as speaking went, and 
must not make any movement of his body. He 
seemed to understand and nodded, while his 
eyes roved constantly over the. rocky fragments 
before us, below which the great ram was pre¬ 
sumably making his way up the hill. 
That was one of the longest half hours that 
I ever spent, and it required some will power 
to sit still and await events. However, I did 
succeed in keeping quiet. If it was hard for 
me, I believe the strain on. the Youngster 
must have been much greater, but he en¬ 
dured it like a man, and at length we both of 
us heard the fall of a stone, and then a little 
later the sound was repeated. This happened 
more and more frequently and the noises kept 
getting louder, so that presently we were both 
confident that the sheep were coming. I put 
out my hand and grasped the Youngster’s arm 
and gave it a squeeze, motioning with my head 
that he should be patient and when the time 
came should make a sure shot. He was ready 
enough in all conscience and had been for half 
an hour. 
Presently a rounded gray back showed itself 
over the rocks and a moment later a ram with 
curving horns sprang into sight. The Young¬ 
ster’s . stock touched his shoulder and the rifle 
cracked, and at the sound the herd of sheep 
