Jan. 5, 1907 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
■7 
We had one “personally conducted” shooting 
party this season. Sportsmen with whom I 
have discussed the new departure, do not look 
on it favorably. Somehow it is not in ac¬ 
cordance with the traditions of the sport to 
gather together a heterogeneous rabble and dump 
them down on the caribou barrens. It 
looks too much like organized butchery—like 
a war of extermination. As long as the hunter 
came by his “lonesome” or with a trusted cluim 
or two to stalk the caribou, he was made heartily 
welcome, but when they descend in swarms 
new legislation must be made to fit the new 
conditions. At one time within the memory of 
many living men, penguins were so plentiful 
around the Island, that boats’ crews used to 
knock them down with sticks, pick the feathers, 
and then burn the bodies. Wild birds’ eggs, 
especially murres’ and terns’, used to literally 
cover the islets that abound along the coast. 
Crews of fishing schooners used to land, sweep 
a large space of eggs a few days, old, and then 
board their vessels and wait. Next morning 
they would go ashore and collect boat-loads 
of fresh eggs. These used to be brought to 
St. Johns and sold for a few cents per dozen, 
until the practice was stopped. Now there is 
not a single penguin left on the island. They 
have long ago been exterminated. The eggs 
of wild birds are nearly as scarce; in fact, it 
is only in some out of the way places they 
are found in small numbers. The “personally 
conducted” hunting expeditions of to-dav bring 
back the memories of other days, and i hope 
we are not as ignorant and indifferent as our 
forefathers, to permit history to repeat itself 
in connection with our caribou. 
' The need of a good game commission and 
a live, intelligent game commissioner, be¬ 
comes more apparent day by day. I believe 
the next session of the legislature will deal 
with these matters, and it is high time. 
Up to date we have had the best specimens 
of American sportsmen, but of late we have 
had some visitors that remind one of the ac¬ 
counts of the “dago” hunters in New York. 
The fact that an American judge, in open 
violation of the law, “pumped” twenty shots 
into a herd of does while swimming, is not 
calculated to give the conservative local 
sportsman an exalted idea of American citi¬ 
zens. It is reported that these does were shot 
at in the reservation, and in spite of the re¬ 
monstrances of the guide. I wonder what 
President Roosevelt, that prince of big game 
hunters, would think of one of his judges who 
would commit such an outrage on American 
territory? If men of light and leading be 
guilty of such an atrocious act, an offense 
% against the laws of God and man, what are 
1 we to expect from the rag, tag, and bobtail? 
It is very evident that the time has arrived 
when the law must be fitted to meet men of 
that ilk; but fortunately we have very few 
American sportsmen of that breed, as yet, 
and we do not want them. Our American 
visitors have proved that they are genuine 
sportsmen, and they are welcomed with good 
fellowship by all local' men. The average 
is high, and the general impression is that 
they are “good fellows.” W. J. Carroll. 
Conditions in the Northwest. 
Wilmington, N. C., Dec. 20. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: In regard to shooting in the North- 
West Territories, I hunted almost continuously 
from the opening of the season, Aug. 23 to Oct. 
1, in the vicinity of Saskatoon and Duck Lake. 
The duck shooting around Saskatoon is all 
slough shooting, is hard work and at best only 
fair. The chicken shooting is poor. At Duck 
Lake very good duck* shooting can be had, but 
the chicken shooting is poor. Around Hague 
friends told me that there was good chicken 
shooting, fair duck shooting and good goose 
shooting. Hague and the Doukobor settlements 
west of Hague are the mecca of goose shooters 
in that country. Theo. G. Empie. 
Bluff House, Milford, Pike County, Pa., Dec. 30 , 
1906.—I wish to congratulate you on the very clean and 
in every way desirable paper that you publish. Keep 
up the good work.—P. N. Bournique. 
Pointed Big Game. 
The following incident is perfectly true and 
absolutely unique: 
As a member of a colonial mounted corps, the 
British South Africa Police, of Mashonaland, 
Rhodesia, S. A., it fell to my lot in April, I 9 ° 3 > 
to enumerate for official statistics the white resi¬ 
dents of Rusapi district which is 180 miles south¬ 
east of Salisbury, the capital, and 64 miles west 
of Umtali near the Portuguese border. It was 
upon my return journey to the main camp that 
the following dog incident occurred. 
On the 18th day of April, about 4 P. M., I 
reached an outlying farm house close to the rail¬ 
way and in the vicinity of very suggestive look¬ 
ing hills. As I knew the owner, I decided to 
outspan there for the night. Mv horse having 
been sent to water with a native boy the farmer 
and I entered the house. In a few moments a 
Mashona herd boy dashed in unceremoniously 
crying: “Baas! baas! a lion is down near the 
cattle.” After questioning the boy, who was 
much excited, we set off, accompanied by a fox 
terrier, and upon arriving where the cattle were 
grazing, we at once found his majesty’s spoor, 
[track] which we followed until lost on the hard 
.ground. 
After searching the most likely places we gave 
up hope of finding him and turning about, headed 
for home. After crossing a vlei—open grass land 
—we entered a thick bush and proceeded a short 
distance. Then I missed the dog and looking 
back descried'him pointing in the orthodox style, 
the hair on his back fiercely bristling and body 
as rigid as a statue. Retracing my footsteps and 
looking over the bushes where he was, imagine, 
my complete surprise to behold a magnificent 
lion, full length with face toward me, barely 
fifteen paces "off. At sight of me he growled 
softly and then I shouted, “There he is,” but by 
the time my friends had run up and I had re¬ 
covered from my surprise, the lion was bound¬ 
ing off, much to the chagrin of my friend. The 
bush was thick and we had to fire at random, 
and he got clean away. 
Needless to say, a few choice epithets were 
slung at me by the other fellow, but it all hap¬ 
pened very quickly and T was totally unprepat ed 
for such a close view. Moving round behind the 
bushes we found the skin and entrails of a sheep, 
which had been devoured, bearing out the state¬ 
ment that the lion will not eat the intestines, of 
his prey. All this time the dog was jumping 
round and at last started off on the trail, and _we 
had a hard job to get him back.. The evening 
was getting dark and we had no wish tO' meet the 
lion among bush in the dark. After. reaching 
home the farmer placed some strychnine on a 
piece of meat and placed it on the veldt, but our 
visitor did not return that night. 
It is not often a dog has the opportunity to 
point such royal game. . 
Talking about dogs I remember seeing an Irish 
terrier rout out a hedgehog and there ensued a 
terrific onslaught ending in the death of the 
spiney one and leaving Boxer, the terrier, full 
of quills, which I plucked, much to his discom¬ 
fort George W. Ball. 
News of the Grindell Party. 
Press dispatches from Douglas, Arizona, dated 
Dec. 26, make it possible to _write the closing 
chapter in the story of the Grindell exploring 
party. - . , „ , ^ 
In June, 1905, Prof. Thomas Grindell, of Doug¬ 
las, Arizona, organized a party to explore Tiburon 
Island T20 miles northwest of Guaymas, Mexico, 
in the’ Gulf of California. Among other things 
they carried a small still. As they approached 
the coast on their way to the island, fresh water 
failed, and on the beach opposite the. island they 
remained three days trvin" but failing because 
of the intense heat, to distill salt water. Mean¬ 
while, Olin Ralls was hunting inland for water 
Three davs later the partv started out to find 
him J F. Hoffman and Ingraham became too 
weak to follow Prof. Grindell.. Hoffman secured 
a shotgun and some ammunition and urged T11- 
graham to follow him back to the. coast.. Dit. 
latter, mad from the heat and thirst, tried to 
kill Hoffman, who returned alone to the coast, 
where he found the abandoned still and evi¬ 
dences that Ralls had returned after the party 
had gone. Evidently he wandered away again, 
for his burro’s body was afterward found. Hoff¬ 
man at last succeeded in distilling enough water 
at night to last him during the day, and started 
south alongshore; carrying the still a short dis¬ 
tance, then going back for the gun. Seven days 
after he left the party he found and ate some 
snails, then killed snakes and pelicans. The 
coast line is very crooked and the journey an 
inferno for a strong man, but Hoffman, alter¬ 
nately carrying gun and still until exhausted, 
went on. His ammunition running out, he threw 
the gun away. No doubt he covered 300 miles 
between the end of June and Oct. 25, when he 
appeared in Guaymas, burned black, covered with 
running sores, an animated skeleton. 
E. P. Grindell, a brother of the professor, there¬ 
upon organized a search party, but failed to find 
his brother’s body. In November, 1905, another 
party started from Guaymas in a launch. Both 
failed, as have other expeditions sent out since, 
although Hoffman the survivor, accompanied 
some of them. The work of the search parties 
showed that the professor’s party had not been 
on Tiburon Island at all. 
On Dec. 26, 1906, a party of prospectors, re¬ 
turning to Douglas from Lower California, re¬ 
ported the finding of the bodies of Prof. Thomas 
Grindell, Ingraham, Harry E. Miller and Capt. 
Olinder, identifying them by papers found in 
the vicinity. 
The Overland Stage Road. 
Michigan City, Ind., Dec. 26.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Can any of your readers tell me 
the route taken by the overland mail coaches 
from Cheyenne to Salt Lake City when the rail¬ 
way was completed as far as the former place? 
I took the stage coach at Cheyenne on the 27th 
of March, 1868, for Sacramento, Cal., having 
bought my ticket at Council Bluffs, Iowa, paying 
an even three hundred dollars for it. We crossed 
the Laramie River and the north fork of the 
Platte, traveled through the Bitter Creek Valley 
and the passengers were ferried over Green River. 
I remember we stopped at Fort Bridger for a 
couple of hours, while we had breakfast. Salt 
Lake was reached on the ninth day. 
We encountered a great deal of snow in the 
mountains which caused some delay, so that we 
laid up two nights at stations. The rest of the 
time we were going day and night as far as 
possible. I crossed what was said to be the sum¬ 
mit, with one of mv fellow passengers, on foot 
half a mile or so ahead of the sled which was 
then doing duty as a stage coach, at midnight of 
April 3- I kept no diary or memorandum of our 
various stopping places, for change of horses, 
meals, etc., but have many vivid recollections of 
incidents of the trip. 
In looking over the map of Wyoming 1 have 
often wondered how far from, the present line 
of the Union Pacific Railway the stage road was 
From Salt Lake to Virginia City, Nevada, I 
knew the route pretty well, having been one of 
those who pioneered in eastern Nevada, and 
visited various parts of it, where I have seen 
some of the old abandoned stage stations. 
Lexden. 
Stop the Sale of Game. 
Madison, Wis., Dec. 22.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Mr.. Shiras is working along the lines 
of what must be accomplished if our migratory 
birds are not soon to be annihilated. . Of what 
earthly use is it for us to prohibit, spring shoot¬ 
ing arid sales of the birds when Chicago commis¬ 
sion men have their agents out from the first of 
December to the first of March, and from the 
southern boundaries of Wisconsin to the Gulf of 
Mexico buying ducks and putting them in cold 
storage? I believe that a national law prohibit¬ 
ing shooting at Certain seasons everywhere and 
prohibiting the sale of game at all times and in 
all places! is the thing to work toward. 
Grant Thomas. 
Philadelphia, Pa.—Your good paper is always on the 
table in the smoking room, and is read with pleasure 
by many lovers of the rod and gun,—W m. R. Hallowell. 
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