378 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 5, 1910. 
“When Beaver Skins Were Money.” 
Laclede, Idaho, Feb. 19.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Reading in Forest and Stream the 
article entitled ‘‘When Beaver Skins Were 
Money” calls up old memories. 
In i860 I wintered near old Fort Bent. I 
worked for Sam Hicklin, a brother-in-law of 
the Thomas Boggs and Maxwell, of whom it 
speaks. I made a trip with Boggs from Denver 
to the Cimarron. 
Hicklin lived on the Greenhorn, on one of 
the big ranches owned by Maxwell and Boggs. 
They owned an'immense grant. I think it was 
twelve miles by forty. I worked on the ranch 
as hunter. The boss, Jake Betts, hired me. As 
soon as he learned that I could sight and repair 
rifles and revolvers, he had me fix up many 
that had long lain out of repair. 
When Hicklin returned from Santa Fe, he 
brought Kit Carson, Baker, Hank Hall, a noted 
gambler, Dave Quinn, and a hunter named Bob 
Fox. Hicklin was a Missourian, and, it was re¬ 
ported, had killed several greasers. After I 
had cleaned, repaired and resighted all of their 
revolvers, one evening Hicklin came to 0111 
quarters and said, “Boys, I have no use for 
more than one hunter. Atchison, you and Bob 
can hunt to-morrow, and the one that brings 
in most game can hunt from now on; and the 
other can go to work on the ranch.” He called 
me Atchison, that being from where I hailed. 
Next morning early Bob and I started out. 
Bob had the reputation of being a great ante¬ 
lope hunter, while deer was my favorite game. 
We hunted together until noon, and up to that 
time neither had got a shot. 
I said to him, “I’d rather hunt deer.” 
“Well,” said Bob, “you can hunt deer, but I 
am going out on the plains for antelope. 
As far as I could see there were antelope, 
some bunches of thousands, some of dozens. 
After we had separated, I could hear Bob’s 
rifle once in a while. 
Never did I hunt so carefully, and never did 
deer break so badly. It seemed as though it 
was impossible for me to get a shot. I saw 
lots of deer, turkeys and a band of elk. I 
could not get a shot. Just before sundown, as 
I was on my way home, I saw three deer feed¬ 
ing at the foot of a small butte. By making 
quite a detour I could reach the butte. I did 
so unobserved, tied my mustang and very 
carefully crept up to the-top of the butte. I 
got a shot at one deer at about eighty yards 
and killed it dead. I reloaded and killed an¬ 
other. The third ran off ai short distance, and 
when the others did not come, it waited until 
I killed it. I was feeling fine. I was not long 
in dressing my deer and packing them on my 
horse. It was after dark when I got in. I led 
my horse up to the kitchen, where I unloaded 
them; then put up my horse and went to our 
quarters. Bob had not yet put in an appear¬ 
ance. I ate my supper. Soon Bob rode up. 
The first thing he said was, “Has Atchison got 
in?” One of the boys said. “Yes.” Then Bob 
said, “Did he kill anything?” and was answered, 
*No!” “Bully!” he replied, “neither did I.” 
When Hicklin and some of his friends came 
round to learn how the hunt had terminated, 
Hicklin said, “Well, Bob, you can help the 
boys with the corn to-morrow. “Not much,” 
said Bob; “I came up here to hunt, and if I 
can’t hunt here, I will start for Cimarron to¬ 
morrow.” 
Mr. Boggs once told me that he was up on 
the creek about two miles above the ranch one 
day hunting turkeys, when he saw a flock of 
turkeys start in to a trail. He ran up and took 
a shot with a No. 14 double-barrel shotgun and 
got thirty-nine turkeys. He shot at their heads. 
He said he never saw such fluttering in his life. 
* Others may not believe this, but from what 
I know of “Tomas,” as the greasers called him, 
I do. Lew Wilmot. 
Hunting in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., Feb. 21.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The duck season was brought to 
a close on Feb. 15 and the closing days, perfect 
weather prevailing, were taken advantage of by 
a great army of hunters who visited all of the 
hunting districts within easy reach of San Fran¬ 
cisco. The season has been one'of the best ex¬ 
perienced in many years and sport has been good 
almost all of the time since the season opened, 
due to the fact that there were no very severe 
storms, and those that did come lasted but a 
short time. This is particularly true of the 
Suisun marshes, where until last year there has 
been but little shooting for a number of sea¬ 
sons. Formerly this district was one of the best 
in the State and many clubs shot there, but a 
few years ago the scarcity of ducks forced many 
of them to move to other grounds. Last fal', 
however, the birds began to arrive there again 
in their old time numbers and some very fine 
sport has been experienced. 
At Sears Point snipe have been found in large 
numbers, but those who visited these grounds 
just before the close of the season returned 
empty handed. The Lincoln Gun Club was forced 
to close its grounds prior to the close of the 
season, as ducks were not in evidence there. In 
the San Joaquin Valley there were plenty of 
birds up to the close of the season and the in¬ 
dications are that more birds will remain there 
to breed during the summer months than has 
been the case in many years. Tulare Lake is 
now a large body of water again, and in this 
locality all kinds of waterfowl are again making 
their home. A. P. B. 
The Vienna Hunting Exhibition. 
The large piece of ground on which is located 
the First International Hunting and Field Sports 
Exhibition includes also the permanent Exhibi¬ 
tion of VI. Section of the Royal Agricultural 
Co. This extension of ground was necessary, as 
there was not sufficient room for all the numer¬ 
ous temporary exhibitions and events which had 
been arranged as a part of the hunting exhibi¬ 
tion. 
Special shooting stands will be put up for the 
ordinary shooting matches as well as for the clay 
pigeon shooting. These interesting competitions 
will be held from July 14 to 31. 
The hunting trophy competition, which will 
take place in the Trophy Hall in the Kaiserallee, 
has been fixed for June 1-21. One of the most 
interesting events will be the competition in 
hunting music and horn blowing. 
There will be an exhibition of dogs from June 
10-12 and June 18-20. Special interest will be 
caused by the competition of police dogs. 
New York Legislature. 
Assemblyman Merritt has introduced a con¬ 
current resolution proposing an amendment to 
the constitution (Section 7, Article 7) to permit 
the use of lands in the forest preserve, as fol¬ 
lows. In the forest preserve, under this bill, 
lands may be used for the storage of water and 
the development of water power and the trans¬ 
mission of electric current under State control, 
provided that the quantity of the land so used 
never exceeds three per cent, of the total area 
of the forest preserve; authorization of such use 
of forest preserve lands is to be given by the 
Legislature. Lands in the forest preserve may 
also be used for the construction of highways 
by and at the expense of the State. The forest, 
fish and game commissioner, with the approval 
of the Governor, may lease for periods not 
longer than ten years sites of not more than five 
acres each for camps; he may remove and dis¬ 
pose of dead and down timber in the forest pre¬ 
serve, and with the approval of the Governor he 
may sell and convey lands now owned or here¬ 
after acquired by the State which are situated 
wholly outside the boundaries of the Adiron- 
dacks and Catskill parks, as now defined by law, 
the proceeds from lands so sold and conveyed 
to be used by the State only in acquiring lands 
situated wholly within the boundaries of these 
parks. The present constitutional provision, 
without exceptions, is that the lands of the State 
now owned or hereafter acquired constituting the 
forest preserve as now fixed by law are to be 
forever kept as wild forest lands. They cannot 
be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any 
corporation, public or private, nor can timber 
thereon be sold, removed or destroyed. 
The Assembly forest, fish and game committee 
has reported favorably these bills: Assembly- 
man Howard’s, providing that hunting licenses 
issued to resident citizens shall be good for three 
years. Those issued to non-residents and aliens 
are to expire on Dec. 31 succeeding their issue, 
which is the present rule regarding all hunting 
licenses. Assemblyman Vosburgh’s, in relation 
to protection of fish and game in private parks. 
It subjects trespassing on such lands to exem¬ 
plary damages not to exceed $25 instead of 
being at that sum, besides the actual damages 
sustained. 
BILLS INTRODUCED. 
By Assemblyman Greenwood, of Cayuga 
county, relating to coarse fish in certain coun¬ 
ties.—Amending the forest, fish and game law 
by providing that suckers, bullheads and eels may 
be speared in the several creeks in Cayuga, 
Oswego and Wayne counties from March 1 to 
May 15, both inclusive, and that 'suckers, bull¬ 
heads, eels, dogfish and carp may be taken by 
hooking from Dec. 1 to May 15, both inclusive, 
in Delaware and Sullivan counties in the Dela¬ 
ware River, below Brookdale Bridge in the town 
of Roxbury on the east branch, and below Hoag’s 
Bridge in the town of Delhi on the west branch, 
and in the Charlotte River below the bridge in 
the village of Davenport. 
By Assemblyman Merritt, of St. Lawrence, 
amending the forest, fish and game law gener¬ 
ally. It increases the number of game protec¬ 
tors appointed by the forest, fish and game com¬ 
missioner from 85 to 105. It increases from four 
to five the number of fire districts into which the 
commissioner may divide lands in the forest pre- 
