372 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 5, 1910. 
historic violence. A friendly traveler told us 
the exact way to reach the heart of this once 
strangely disturbed land. 
So while we traveled and looked on profile 
and contour our vision suddenly swept down¬ 
ward and lo, before and below us great depths 
wherein a modest stream was to be seen pass¬ 
ing pleasantly over its gravelly bed. 
The whole panorama was before us. High 
cliffs stood grave and silent, while sparkling 
waters tickled their bases. With little trouble 
we found our way to the bottom of this famous 
canon. Hundreds of clean pebbles, white and 
gold and green, yellow, purple, lavender and red 
showed up through the clear running waters. 
Over shoals of rich brown the water spread and 
glistened like rich silken garments. Tempting 
beds of deep white sands lay in occasional 
places. Trees were growing here, the tall and 
stately cottonwoods standing as sentinels guard¬ 
ing the virgin beauty of the solitude. Christmas 
cedars stood about or hung tenaciously to caving 
cliffs. In some nooks summer’s day seemed to 
hold carnival, while hard by in shadow of cold 
cliff hoar winter held sway. 
We drank of this portion until we were filled 
with the spirit of scenic grandeur. We lived 
in the past, saw in imagination the Indian vil¬ 
lage covering the valley spaces, the wigwams 
standing side by side, the faithful squaw filling 
her waterpots; the procession of lusty braves re¬ 
turning from the quest of the buffalo. We could 
see the hurried departure of the drudging wives 
repairing to the place of slaughter to lay by the 
camp supply of meats. As the evening camp¬ 
fires loomed upward and the weird dancers be¬ 
gun their revels, we saw their strange perform¬ 
ance with a new interest and noted the prophet 
casting upward the feather to determine to-mor¬ 
row’s goings. 
As we sat. thus around our little camp-fire in 
the cedars in this strange and lovely land where 
once the red man made his home, we passed 
backward through the ages when nature was 
alone with the wild peoples that knew not the 
ways of the Anglo-Saxon. But we awoke from 
our day’s musings, and after a sumptuous lunch 
turned again to the realities of our lives, back 
to the comfortable things of modern civilization. 
O. P. Riker. 
The Eskimo Curlew or Doughbird. 
Since reading Dr. Morris’ interesting notes on 
this bird, I have made some inquiries. The con¬ 
sensus of opinion seems to lead to the regret¬ 
table conclusion that the “dough-bird,” like the 
American passenger pigeon, is very nearly, if 
not quite, extinct. 
I am indebted to F. C. Berteau, I. P., comp¬ 
troller and auditor-general, for the following in¬ 
teresting facts concerning those birds. Mr. Ber¬ 
teau spent several years on the Labrador coast 
and therefore talks with authority. He is not 
only a keen sportsman, but also a close observer. 
Though a very busy man just at this season, he 
managed to make time at my request to jot 
down a few interesting notes for the Forest 
and Stream family, which I append. Mr. Ber¬ 
teau says: “Up to 1889 dough-birds or eskimo 
curlew were very numerous in Labrador from 
late in August to the end of September. They 
frequented the southern part of the coast only, 
never appearing north of Indian Harbor at the 
northern entrance to Hamilton Inlet. 
“Year in and year out, about the same day 
in each year—usually the 23d of August—they 
put in an appearance and always at the same 
place, both sides of the entrance to Hamilton 
Inlet. Thence they gradually moved as the sea¬ 
son advanced south to the straits and northern 
shores of Newfoundland, leaving those locali¬ 
ties bound west in early October if the season 
was open; if not, then about the last week in 
September. 
“During the first four or five of the ten years, 
during which I was collector of customs on 
Labrador, they were very numerous indeed, fly¬ 
ing from the hills to the shore and vice versa 
in flocks numbering from fifty to two or three 
hundred. During the last years of my collector- 
ship they gradually diminished in numbers, until 
in 1890 or thereabouts they entirely disappeared, 
and save for a few seen on one or two occas¬ 
ions, have never returned to the coast. 
“In the 60’s and 70's of the last century they 
were fairly numerous along the eastern and 
southeastern seaboard of Newfoundland, and 
good bags were frequently obtained by sports¬ 
men. 
“They fed almost exclusively on a small black 
berry, which grew on a dwarf plant very much 
like the Scotch heather, and on the sea lice and 
infusoria found on the sandy beaches at low 
tide. 
“The inhabitants, transient and permanent, of 
that part of the coast, which these birds fre¬ 
quented, killed them in very large numbers. 
They preserved them for winter use by parboil¬ 
ing them and packing them in tins or jars and 
covering them with melted butter or lard. 
“The Hudson Bay Company’s people at Cart¬ 
wright annually put up large numbers in her¬ 
metically sealed tins for the use of the com-s 
pany’s officials in London and Montreal. I have 
seen as many as two thousand birds hung up in 
their store as the result of one day’s shooting 
by some twenty-five or thirty guns. A fairly 
accurate idea of the plentifulness of these birds 
will be obtained from an account of my own 
experience. 
“During the season I used to leave the cruiser 
at 6 a. m. and return at 9 for breakfast. I do 
not remember ever getting less than thirty to 
forty brace during the two hours or so that I 
was shooting. 
“I have heard of extraordinary ‘kills’ having 
been made, going as high as twenty-six birds 
for a single barrel. I cannot vouch for this of 
course, but I can for my own record of twenty- 
seven for two barrels. Like most gregarious 
birds, curlew cluster together when alighting, 
and a well directed shot into the flock when they 
are in the act of pitching cannot but prove very 
destructive. Then again, when wheeling in flock 
they close up, offering a splendid opportunity 
for a big ‘kill’ to the sportsman who may hap¬ 
pen to be on the spot at the opportune moment. 
“Quite a lot of speculation as to whence these 
birds came and whither they went was indulged 
in by Labradoreans. The generally accepted 
theory was to the effect that when they left the 
coast they traveled via the Dakotas and along 
the parallel of those States to the Rockies where 
they wintered, moving thence in the early sum¬ 
mer to the tundras of Northwestern Canada and 
thence via Hudson Bay to the Labrador. They 
always stayed out on the seashore, never mov¬ 
ing inland beyond a mile or two from the coast. 
I am inclined to believe that these birds win¬ 
tered in the sheltered foothill valleys of the 
Southern Rockies, and moving north and east 
with the retreat of winter spent the months of 
July and August on the plains of the far north¬ 
west, thence with the return of winter they 
moved by easy stages to Labrador.” 
I may add that occasionally “jack” curlew 
were to be seen mingling with the “Eskimo” 
curlew, while too frequently for the success of 
the pot-hunter (for they are a particularly shy 
bird and make the curlew correspondingly shy) 
small flocks of plover accompanied the larger 
flocks of “dough” birds. W. J. Carroll. 
[The Eskimo curlew did not winter in the 
Rockies, of course. —Editor.] 
Antelope in Colorado. 
Denver, Colo., Feb. 22.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: An antelope will jump a wire fence. 
Two years ago while we were after coyotes we 
came upon a large male. The dogs rushed for¬ 
ward to attack it and it easily cleared a five 
strand fence. The dogs were pressing it closely, 
so maybe that explains why it did not crawl 
through. H. P. -C. 
Ramah, Colo., Feb. 22.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have been taking your paper since 
Jan. 1 and like it fine. 
Last winter the snows were so bad in the 
mountains here that it drove the antelope down 
by the hundreds. Once the passenger train ran 
into a bunch here and killed six of them. There 
were a great many of them shot by hunters re¬ 
gardless of the law. E. L. 
