Feb. 23, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
297 
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Hunting in Africa. 
New Florence, Pa., Feb. 8.— Editor Forest 
’■ and Stream: Your last week’s number con¬ 
i' lained an article by Mr. Bryden, entitled ‘‘Gor¬ 
don Gumming in Africa.” I look up to my 
bookcase and there side by side with Gordon 
Cumming’s “Hunter’s Life in Africa” are Ander¬ 
son’s, “The Lion and the Elephant,” “Okavango 
River,” “Lake N’gami,” and best of all Drum¬ 
mond’s “Large Game and Natural History of 
South and Southeast Africa.” 
This calls to my mind that the Boone and 
Crockett Club should look after the preservation 
of some of these old hunting narratives which 
are now out of print. Drummond’s work is be¬ 
yond question the best written and most valu¬ 
able work on African hunting and big game 
ever published. This book was published by 
Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh, 1875, and 
I do not recall any later edition. The treatment 
of the different subjects, namely, buffalo, rhi¬ 
noceros, eland, elephant, lion, leopard, antelope, 
etc., is done in a most admirable manner. It is 
not merely an account of a hunter going out 
and killing so many head of game each hunt, 
but the habits and disposition of the different 
subjects are treated upon in such a manner that 
the work becomes one of instruction and there¬ 
fore all the more valuable; the narrative of a 
hunter with an open eye and ear to note every 
condition and situation. 
Gordon Cumming’s description of the man- 
eater’s carrying away Hendrick is vivid, but 
pales when we read Drummond’s description of 
the lions’ attack on his camp on the Pongolo 
River. 
Mr. Bryden, however, makes one mistake by 
calling attention to the inferiority of the weapons 
used by Cumming. While it is true the weapons 
were inferior in that they were muzzleloaders, 
they were not inferior in power. The smallest 
bore gun used by Cumming was a double 16 
gauge, the largest a double 8 gauge. The only 
single gun that I recall he mentions using was 
the Dutch rifle which burst while he was shoot- 
| ing an elephant with it. Because these guns 
were muzzleloaders your readers should not in¬ 
fer that they were deficient in power. The 
greatest knock-down argument to be presented 
to a charging elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo' or 
lion is none other than a 10 or 12 bore ball, 
gun or rifle, no matter whether muzzle or breech¬ 
loader. 
The elephant was practically exterminated in 
Ceylon and east Africa with none other than 
cheap Belgian shotguns 10 and 12 bore loaded 
i with spherical balls, and muzzleloaders at that. 
The advantage possessed by these weapons, pro- 
1 vided they were of sufficient weight, was that an 
almost unlimited charge of powder could be 
used, limited only by the weight and strength of 
; the gun and the shooter’s capacity to stand the 
recoil. A cylinder bore shotgun of good weight, 
muzzle or breechloader, loaded with a round 
j ball and a heavy charge of powder at fifty yards 
or under will beat any of the so-called high 
power small bore express rifles. 
Read the account of the killing of the man- 
eating lions along the East African railway, 
Uganda district. The .30 caliber high power 
guns with both soft point and full metal patched 
bullets proving worthless against charging lions, 
and to save the day they had to fall back on 
the big 10 and 12 bore double guns, some of 
the same kind used by Gordon Cumming. 
Now, Mr. Editor, these are the days when the 
hunter sits by the fire and looks back on the 
good days gone by, years ago .when the sky was 
darkened bv the countless millions of wild 
pigeons in their fall and spring flights, and the 
wildfowl were equally plentiful; when every 
field held a covey of quail and from every copse 
sprang the whirring grouse; but those days are 
long gone by and we do not even have an Uncle 
Lisha’s shop here where we can congregate and 
tell our experiences. So I pick up the book or 
maybe “Sam Lovel’s Camps” or some other one 
of Mr. Robinson’s and read until it seems I am 
breathing the pine-laden air of that quaint cor¬ 
ner of Yankee land; or maybe pick up Drum¬ 
mond and go to bed and dream I am being 
1 charged by a bull elephant. 
Every week I get Forest and Stream as I 
have for the past twenty-five years, and many 
numbers are worth more than the entire year’s 
cost. And here’s to you, Mr. Editor, that many 
many years shall roll by before you make the 
last camp-fire. J. N. Crossland. 
Winter in Yellowstone Park. 
Yellowstone Park, Feb. 11 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: This is a hard winter in the moun¬ 
tains and on the plains. Conditions for game 
in Montana and the northern part of the Yellow¬ 
stone National Park are not favorable, unless 
the weather should soon change. Elk are sure 
to die by hundreds from simple starvation. In 
Jackson’s Hole Ihey are breaking into haystacks 
and fenced pastures as is shown by the follow¬ 
ing dispatch from Cheyenne, Wyo.: 
“S. N. Leek, of Jackson, has received a letter 
from a ranchman of the Jackson Hole district, 
in which the statement is made that there are 
ten thousand elk in the valley surrounding the 
writer’s ranch, and that some five or six hun¬ 
dred have invaded his property and attacked 
his haystacks. The animals either jumped the 
fences or broke them down. At points the elk 
massed against the fences and pushed them down 
for distances of from one hundred yards to a 
quarter of a mile.” 
Here in the park the antelope, mule deer and 
whitetail deer are being fed, as are also the 
mountain sheep. These animals will pull through 
this unusually hard winter. 
In front of the town of Gardiner the antelope 
are becoming very tame. The team that hauls 
alfalfa to them is seen as soon as it leaves the 
stack, and the antelope come loping in from all 
directions. Some follow the wagon so closely 
as to have alfalfa thrown on their backs by the 
soldier who is unloading the feed. The elk 
are very numerous and as there is only feed 
enough to carry through the antelope, deer and 
sheep, the elk are not expected to get much. 
X. 
Legislation at Albany. 
The following bills have been introduced in 
the Assembly: 
No. 691, by Mr. Mills, relating to season for 
hares and rabbits in Fulton county. 
No. 702, by Mr. Lewis, relates to nets, pounds, 
etc., in the waters of Oneida county. 
No. 205, by Mr. Draper, relates to spearing 
fish in certain tributaries of Lake Ontario. 
No. 245, by Mr. Merritt, relates to resident 
and nonresident licenses. 
No. 74 (623), by Mr. Hastings, relates to 
hares and rabbits in Orange and Dutchess 
counties. 
No. 144 (619), by Mr. Mills, defines meaning 
of terms, pickerel and pike. 
No. 358, by Mr. Cobb, relates to the trans¬ 
portation of deer and venison. 
No. 357, by Mr. Cobb, relates to trout close 
seasons in certain counties. 
No. 147 (621), by Mr. Mills, relates to pike. 
No. 383, by Mr. Raines, relates to mink, 
skunk and muskrat in Ontario county. 
No. 370, by Mr. McCarren, relates to Mon¬ 
golian ring-necked and English pheasants in 
Dutchess county. 
Quail in Hard Weather. 
Greenwich, Conn., Feb. 11. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: While out driving on Friday, the 8th 
inst, I came across a flock of quail in an apple 
tree which stood close to the road, and they 
paid scarcely any attention to me as I drove by 
within about fifteen feet of some of them. 
Being in the same neighborhood the following 
day with a camera, I located the flock in another 
apple tree about seventy-five yards from the first 
tree, but in a difficult place to photograph, as 
I had to go around them to have the light right 
and the tree was at the top of a steep hill. I 
made one exposure at about one hundred feet, 
and while trying to make another at about fifty 
feet the flock flew. J. E. W. 
Ducking in Washington. 
Seattle, Wash., Feb. 7. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Rain and warm winds swept away the 
snow, but did not spoil the duck shooting. 
Good bags made during the week on all the 
down-sound flats. Teal were not so much in 
evidence as during the cold weather, but sprigs 
and widgeon were plentiful enough to make 
up for the deficiency. 
Inland shooting improved with the moving of 
the ice. Something was doing on Squak slough, 
and although it was not in the same class with 
Swinomish and Skagit flats, yet it was worth 
looking after. D. A. Upper had fair luck at the 
Green Wing preserve. 
John L. Kahaley and Peter Woeck were 
among the lucky hunters at the Skagit flats re¬ 
cently. They were out several days and came 
in with' something like sixty, all big ducks, and 
a few geese. Some of the mallards' weighed ap¬ 
proximately four pounds. In walking up-town 
Kahaley, who is a large and very powerful man, 
had to rest twice. 
The killing of some snow geese on Hood 
Canal recently aroused the curiosity of sports¬ 
men. It is unusual. As a rule, the snow geese 
cling to the coast line on their annual flight, 
avoiding Washington but swinging inland some¬ 
where along the California coast. It is prob¬ 
able that the severe weather outside the cape 
drove them into Puget Sound and they happened 
to wing their way up the canal. 
The Oregon Journal states that the National 
Audubon Society has contributed to the local 
branch a good portion of a $200,000 bequest 
for the purpose of suppressing the traffic in the 
plumage of birds. Oregon will make a special 
effort, with the money, to stop the slaughter of 
grebes, which are plentiful in the Klamath Lakes 
district. The grebe is only valuable as a mil¬ 
linery decoration at one time of the year, the 
nesting season. A small part of the down on the 
breast, which the bird does not develop at any 
other time, is taken from the female, and the 
operation not only kills the bird, but all the 
young. The grebes are found in flocks and the 
slaughter is comparatively easy. Thousands are 
being shipped to New York, it is said, and other 
eastern points yearly. At one time the traffic 
was under control, but it has broken out again. 
In the current number of a San Francisco 
paper M. Kelly has something to say of the 
game situation in British Columbia that is in¬ 
teresting, and controverts the idea that the laws 
are enforced there better than elsewhere. “It 
is bad, the game situation in British Columbia,” 
writes Mr. Kelly, “and steadily growing worse. 
Not that we lack an abundance of game, but be¬ 
cause of the fact that in certain sections of the 
province, owing to existing conditions, it seems 
impossible to regulate the illegitimate yearly 
slaughter of our wild life. For this state of 
affairs the government is mainly responsible. 
We have laws, ’tis true; but they are hardly 
adequate; certainly not far-reaching enough. If 
enforced, however, they would help the situa¬ 
tion considerably. The government pleads poverty; 
in other words, it cannot pay to have the laws it 
makes enforced.” This “poverty” excuse is a slur 
on the wealth of this province. Mr. Kelly says 
that if it is true that there is a lack of funds, 
the government can create a fund by taxing 
every gun in the province. He claims that a 
party of eastern sportsmen came out of the 
Cassiar country during the past season with 
something like five crates of -caribou, moose, 
sheep and goat heads, and that they openly 
boasted of having evaded the payment of any 
license. Northern British Columbia is still 
strong in big game, according to Mr. Kelly, the 
greatest game district in America to-day, but 
southern British Columbia is barren. 
It is something of a coincidence that at about 
the same time a white squirrel was reported as 
having been caught in Oregon, a similar one, if 
description may be relied upon, was observed 
in one of the public parks at Washington, D. C. 
Portus Baxter. 
GREAT! 
Alva, Fla., Nov. 1, 1906 .—Forest and Stream:r It is a 
great paper.— W. H. Watkins. 
