Caribou for Caribou Island. 
aribou Island, in Lake Superior, has been 
ked with caribou, six animals having been 
ight thither from Newfoundland. Thus are 
returned to this island animals that many, 
y years ago made it their home. 
'hat is now known as Caribou Island used 
e spoken of as the island of the Yellow Sands 
has an interesting history, which goes back 
he very early days of exploration in the 
thwest. Captain Jonathan Carver, who 
ed Lake Superior about the year 1766, heard 
n island on which were said to be quantities 
! teavy yellow sand, which he conjectured was 
dust. This story of the island and its 
; ious sands had come down to the Indians 
;radition. 
iptain Carver says: “One of the Chipeways 
me that some of their people were once 
en on the island de Maurepas, which lies in 
northeast part of the lake, and found on it 
j ’ quantities of heavy shining yellow sand 
from their description must have been gold 
Being struck with the beautiful appear- 
of it, in the morning when they re-entered 
• canoe, they attempted to bring some away; 
a spirit of amazing size, according to their 
unt, sixty feet in height, strode into the 
T after them and commanded them to de- 
back what they had taken away. Terrified 
is gigantic stature and seeing that he had 
| ly overtaken them, they were glad to re- 
[2 their shining treasure, on which they were 
! ‘ r ed to depart without further molestation, 
f e this incident no Indian that has ever heard 
will venture near the same haunted coast.” 
the spring of 1769 Alexander Henry, the 
r, one of the early fur traders of the North- 
—whose most interesting volume was re- 
I e d some years ago in Forest and Stream 
j he course of a series of articles entitled, 
bis of the Pathfinders”—found Michipicoten 
2 land called Island de Maurepas by Carver— 
I ‘ge island, a solid rock thinly covered with 
1 and about twelve leagues in circumference, 
failed to find here the treasure which he 
! ht. Henry also believed the heavy yellow 
s, told of by the Indians, to be gold dust, 
report of the island and its treasure given 
by the Indians was likewise a tradition of 
ancestors. The story was that long ago 
■ of their people had been blown ashore on 
island and had found it tenanted by enor- 
!; snakes which were the guardians of the 
w sands. 
j ' r o years later, in 1771, Henry again set out 
J-arch of the island of the Yellow Sands, 
j determined that no serpent should keep 
from making his fortune.. At length, after 
days’ search, the island was discovered, and 
nding was made early in the afternoon, 
ler the serpents nor the yellow sands were 
but at a little distance from the water’s 
rose a forest, and as Henry went forward 
iscovered the tracks of caribou. Not long 
he had entered the woods, he saw three 
caribou which looked at him with surprise and 
curiosity, but showed no fear. He killed one 
and a little further on a second, and compares 
them in size to “a three-year-old heifer.” The 
next day he killed three more. 
The island was much smaller than he had 
been given to understand, for its circumference 
did not exceed twelve miles. It contained many 
small lakes which he supposed had been made 
by the damming of the streams by beaver, though 
no beaver were seen. Henry and his party re¬ 
mained there three days, but found neither gold 
nor yellow sands nor any snakes, large or small. 
Hawks, however, were abundant there and 
seemed to object to the presence of the visitors. 
“They hovered around us and appeared even 
angry at our intrusion, pecking at us and keep¬ 
ing us in continued alarm for our faces. One of 
them actually picked my cap from off my head.” 
On one of the lakes, geese were found and 
a few pigeons were seen, but the only four- 
footed animal was the caribou, and this Henry 
conjectures was first conveyed to the island on 
some mass of drifting ice. The caribou had 
been there, however, for a long time, for in 
many cases the bones were found, apparently 
complete skeletons and sometimes with only the 
tops of the horns showing above the surface of 
the ground. Skeletons were so abundant as to 
suggest that at times the caribou might have 
starved to death. On the other hand the fact 
that there were no beasts of prey might per¬ 
haps be the cause of the abundance of the re¬ 
mains, since in a situation where the animals 
had no natural enemies they would die of old 
age and their remains would be undisturbed. 
At the first arrival of the party the caribou 
showed only surprise, running off to a little dis¬ 
tance and then returning as if curious to know 
more about the strangers. They soon learned, 
however, that the strangers were dangerous to 
them and ran from place to place on the slightest 
alarm. During the stay of three days the party 
killed thirteen, and then having completed the 
drying of their caribou meat, set sail, disap¬ 
pointed in their hope of a fortune. 
It is probable that the report which Henry 
brought back gave its name to this island. What 
foundation the Indian tradition rested on we 
cannot know, but it is probable that it had some¬ 
thing to do with the deposits of copper on the 
shores of Lake Superior. 
Grouse Eggs in a Snake. 
Buffalo, N. Y., June 28.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: A friend of mine, who has a country 
place about twenty miles from this city, was out 
walking in the woods recently when he came 
across a black snake which he killed. On look¬ 
ing it over he discovered a bunch on the snake, 
so he cut it open to see what it had swallowed. 
He found three ruffed grouse eggs inside the 
black rascal. They had evidently been taken by 
the snake a short time before. On breaking the 
eggs they were found to contain nearly de¬ 
veloped chicks. E. P. R. 
Notes on the Golden Eagle. 
In recent numbers of the Auk, Mr. E. S. 
Cameron, of Montana, has published a number 
of extremely interesting observations on the 
golden eagle, which is not uncommon in Mon¬ 
tana and which regularly nests in two or three 
places near Mr. Cameron’s ranch, and so has 
given him rare opportunities for observation. 
Like most other wild creatures, these eagles, 
having learned that Mr. Cameron has no hostile 
designs on them, permit his close approach and 
commonly do not greatly regard him while he 
is watching them, photographing them and in 
other ways collecting information as to their 
habits. Some observations which he has made 
about the food of the birds are very interesting. 
Some time ago Mr. H. C. Oberholser, in a 
paper published by the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, made an estimate of the probable number 
of sharptail grouse destroyed by golden eagles 
in Montana. He assumed that a pair of eagles 
was found to every hundred square miles in 
Montana, which would give 1,450 pairs to the 
State; that each one of these pairs would kill 
one grouse per day for the three months dur¬ 
ing which the young eagles remained in the 
nest, giving a total of 130,500 grouse; and since 
the grouse themselves have young at this season 
of the year, he assumes that the death of each 
adult grouse would mean also the death of two 
young, giving a total of 391,500 sharptail grouse 
killed in Montana by golden eagles alone. Like 
many sets of estimates, Mr. Oberholser’s re¬ 
sults are not infallible. In the first place, dur¬ 
ing the time specified, a certain number of old, 
sick or slow flying grouse would die anyhow, 
and their destruction is probably a good thing, 
as upholding the vigor of the race; then there 
are many localities where eagles do not feed on 
grouse at all, but confine themselves very largely 
to prairie dogs and rabbits. Nests, which Mr. 
Cameron used to visit at frequent intervals, al¬ 
ways contained one and sometimes two prairie 
dogs and never grouse. Other nests always con¬ 
tained grouse. This was before the young were 
hatched. In Scotland the mountain hare is a 
favorite prey, but grouse are sometimes taken. 
When they can get it the eagles live largely on 
the flesh and offal of dead animals. 
Mr. Cameron gives an account of the killing 
of an adult buck antelope during the winter of 
1906-07 by three golden eagles. The actual kill¬ 
ing was not seen, but Mr. R. L. Anderson came 
upon the dead, warm and limber carcass of the 
animal, and found by it three eagles so gorged 
that they were unable to fly. They had killed 
the antelope by tearing a great hole in its back, 
and were feeding on the kidneys and entrails. 
The snow which lay on the ground told clearly 
the story of what had hapened. The eagles had 
come upon a herd of antelope which had run 
away, and then the birds had cut out one of its 
number. The buck had tried to run down a 
small gulch, but had been headed and qjgiven 
back by the eagles, which were attacking it all 
the time. “Altogether the antelope could barely 
1 
1 
