Sept. 25, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
497 
Torn by a Bear. 
Recently we printed an account of the maim¬ 
ing of a Montana ranchman by a grizzly bear, 
and a correspondent has sent us fuller details, 
which appeared in a Montana paper in the shape 
of a dispatch from Nyack, Mont. It follows: 
“News reached this place this afternoon of 
the probably fatal encounter with a grizzly bear 
of a homesteader named James Doolittle, living, 
with his wife and four-year-old daughter, about 
four miles north of here. The child was play¬ 
ing a short distance from the house about 9 
o’clock this morning when her mother was 
startled by cries coming from a thicket close 
to where she had seen the child a few minutes 
before. Mrs. Doolittle ran in the direction of 
the cries and saw a bear carrying the youngster 
away. Doolittle was working close by clearing 
and also heard the cries. When he reached the 
spot from whence the screams came the bear 
had carried the baby 200 yards and was mak¬ 
ing for the mountains. Doolittle got on a horse 
and, armed with a rifle, started in pursuit with 
two dogs. 
“The timber is very thick at the place of the 
encounter. The father dared not shoot for fear 
of injuring the baby. The dogs soon drew close 
to the bear and the beast dropped the little girl 
and started for the dogs. He killed one of them 
in a few minutes and soon put the other one 
to flight. Doolittle’s horse became unmanage¬ 
able at the sight of the beast and threw the 
ranchman against a tree, breaking his leg in 
the fall. 
“The bear turned on the ranchman and was 
soon on top of him. He clawed and tore him 
in a frightful manner. The flesh from the shoul¬ 
der down the right side to the lower abdomen 
was torn to shreds, almost disemboweling him. 
In addition to this the bear chewed both arms 
and legs in a frightful manner. The barking 
of the dogs and screams of the frantic mother 
attracted a woodcutter close by who succeeded 
in shooting and killing the bear. It is thought 
Doolittle cannot survive his injuries. Aside from 
a few slight scratches the baby was unharmed. 
“The forest fires in this vicinity of late have 
driven the wild animals from the hills, and 
numerous bears, mountain lions and deer have 
been seen within the last ten days along the 
banks of the Flathead River, and pigs, sheep and 
other things have been carried away. Eight 
deer have been killed by passenger trains near 
here within a few weeks.” 
Measures to Prevent Forest Fires. 
Utica, N. Y., Sept. 16.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: State Superintendent of Forests M. 
C. Hutchins, together with several division 
superintendents, inspectors, patrolmen and an 
expert on locomotive construction connected 
with the Public Service Commission, were in 
Utica recently to learn about spark arresters, 
ash pans and other features of locomotives. 
Archibald Buchanan was the commission’s ex¬ 
pert who showed the superintendents and patrol¬ 
men how these things should be built to pre¬ 
vent fires in the woods. The members of the 
)arty in overalls examined the locomotives in 
he roundhouse of the New York Central rail¬ 
way. Superintendent Hutchins said he wanted 
ds men to learn all about locomotives in so far 
as they related to fire protection. Under the 
piesent law the commission is responsible for 
the inspection of locomotives running through 
the woods, but the superintendent said that the 
responsibility may be shifted this winter to the 
Forest, Fish and Game Commission, and he 
wants his men trained for the duties. The 
forestry commission, however, is responsible for 
certain roads. Superintendent Hutchins pur¬ 
poses to bring another lot of division superin¬ 
tendents, inspectors and patrolmen to place them 
under instructor Buchanan for a couple of days. 
The inspection of the engines used in the 
Adirondacks is under Mr. Buchanan. He made 
an inspection last spring and periodic inspections 
since to see that the railroad companies are ful¬ 
filling the requirements of the law. The roads 
in the Adirondacks under the jurisdiction of the 
Public Service Commission in the matter of 
proper fire protection appliances are the Malone 
& Montreal, the Delaware & Hudson, Carthage 
& Adirondack and the New York & Ottawa rail¬ 
roads. In other parts of the State the forestry 
commission inspects the engines. 
Those in the party visiting Utica were State 
Superintendent M. C. Hutchins, Archibald 
Buchanan, of the Public Service Commission; 
Division Superintendents Austin Cary, of Lake 
Placid; James D. McBride, of Old Forge, and 
S. D. Todd, of Arkville; Inspectors S. B. Kel¬ 
logg, of Adams; A. B. Bruce, of Walton; 
Patrolman P. W. Collins, of Tupper Lake, W. 
O. O’Brien, of Piercefield; C. C. Brundage, of 
Oswegatchie, and A. I. Vosburg, of Lake Clear. 
E. A. Spears. 
Prairie Chicken Shooting. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 18.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: To Itaska Park, the State forest 
reservation at the headwaters of the Mississippi, 
nature has contributed her full quota, and the 
State board of forestry at a recent meeting 
agreed to do its share. A total of $2,000 has 
been expended upon the reserve of 2,100 acres 
this summer and the State board authorized the 
expenditure of $2,000 more in improvements. 
The construction of new fire breaks will take 
part of this amount and the work will be started 
at once. 
Thomas J. Davis, of Duluth, who represents 
the game and fish commission on the board, gave 
notice of his resignation and Z. D. Scott, of 
Duluth, will be recommended for the vacancy. 
The hunters who have returned from the 
fields after indulging in a day’s hunt report 
plenty of game and good shooting. Most of 
the hunters returned with a large bag of 
chickens, but few ducks have been bagged. The 
fall flight of ducks has not yet commenced. 
Joseph Jackman, a farmer living near Fergus 
Falls, threatens to sue the State for damages 
to the grain on his farm by prairie chickens. 
Caribou still exist in Minnesota in the swampy 
region north of Red Lake, according to infor¬ 
mation secured by Carlos Avery, of the game 
and fish commission, who has just returned from 
that country. A trapper informed him that he 
had seen caribou on numerous occasions and 
once as many as nineteen in a bunch. Mr. Avery 
himself saw numerous caribou signs. “I am 
well satisfied there are caribou there,” said Mr. 
Avery, “but I am going back this winter to in¬ 
vestigate. I want to see them. There are none 
in other parts of Minnesota, as far as we know, 
not even in the forests where moose and deer 
are so plentiful.” 
Carlos Avery says reports show that there are 
plenty of birds this year for everybody. Only 
ten arrests for hunting out of season have been 
reported.. 
F. L. Washburn, State entomologist, is in¬ 
vestigating a parasite that is eating the bark 
of white birch trees in Northern Minne¬ 
sota. The insect is a large white louse, samples 
of which were taken by Frank Moe near the 
Rainey River, and sent to C. C. Andrews, State 
forestry commissioner, who turned them over to 
Prof. Washburn. Mr. Moe says the leaves of 
the trees are turning yellow and the attacks of 
these insects will probably kill them. 
Reports from the bottom lands in the neigh¬ 
borhood of Red Wing are that the woodduck is 
more plentiful than for several years past. 
Owing to the lack of feed, as the wild rice 
seems to be a thing of the past in the swamps 
nearby, duck shooting has been rather tame for 
several seasons except the few days the flight 
is on in the late fall. R. p. Lincoln. 
Arkansas Shooting Prospects. 
Alma, Ark., Sept. 15.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Quail are more numerous than for a 
number of years. The dry season and the 
game law being enforced the quail are every¬ 
where. Our open season does not begin until 
November and by then they will be full grown. 
Ihere will be good sport then for all those who 
want to follow the brown beauties. 
Alma will soon contain a fine lot of fox¬ 
hounds. T. H. R. Johnson, who is the owner 
of one of the finest plantations in the county, 
has just received from the kennels at Gasgow, 
Ky., five fine hounds. He and some of his 
friends in Ft. Smith own a good pack. I have 
a pack of as good as there is in this country 
which have been kept in Brentwood, in the 
Ozark Mountains, for years, but will be brought 
here to hunt part of the season. 
James A. Pitcoll owns another good pack of 
hounds. All these combined will make fox 
hunting as entertaining as it can be made. 
This county is filling up with red foxes in 
abundance, and as soon as the fall rains come 
the fun will begin. J. E. Loudon. 
Duck Prospects. 
Pasadena, Cal., Sept. 13.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Duck shooters here in Southern Cali¬ 
fornia are getting ready to do business Oct. 1 
with a limit of twenty-five birds a day. At the 
club grounds water is being let into the ponds, 
dykes repaired, shooting boxes cleaned out and 
club houses renovated, etc. 
Thousands of Northern ducks have already 
arrived, mostly sprigtail. At this date it looks 
as though both duck and quail shooting would 
be very good in this vicinity, though there can 
be no denying but that in some localities hun¬ 
dreds of quail have already been killed by dove 
and rabbit hunters. The only remedy for this 
kind of crime is to have a close season on all 
kinds of game until Oct. 1, except deer, which 
should be hunted only with a single bullet gun. 
Let the scatter gun be used those close season 
months on artificial targets. Stanstead. 
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