Atril 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
655 
- 0 » 
1908.] 
Wild Cattle in Florida. 
St. Vincent Island, Fla., April 17. —Editor 
Forest and Stream: As an illustration of how 
wild and unapproachable domestic horned 
cattle may become from running wild in the 
woods, I want to say that on this island, which 
contains about twelve thousand acres of woods, 
marshes, ponds and savannahs, there are a great 
many cattle which have received no care or 
attention for the past eighteen or twenty years, 
except when a beef animal has now and then 
been shot from among them. 
I have hunted and shot several of them dur¬ 
ing the past few months, and I find them much 
more elusive and difficult to approach than are 
the deer which are very numerous and not ex¬ 
cessively wild, not having been hounded and 
only occasionally one of their number shot— 
and always with a rifle, so that none are maimed. 
A man who, some years ago, had a large ex¬ 
perience in “hunting wild beef’’ on this island 
for the Apalachicola market, declares that the 
wild cattle can scent a man a mile away when 
the air and breeze are just right. While he 
may somewhat over-state the facts, I am con¬ 
fident in the belief that they do sometimes 
“wind” a man over one-half a mile distant, and 
it is a curious fact that when they discover their 
pursuer from scenting him they seem to be 
much more frightened than when they catch 
sight of him. In fact, when one is on the lee 
of them, they will often stop and stand for 
some seconds, not many rods away, viewing 
their pursuer in an inquiring way, as much as 
to say, “What do you want of us?” But the 
moment they catch scent of a man, they are 
instantly on the run. 
One day last week I sent out two experienced 
“beef hunters” to kill an animal for food, and 
although they soon found a bunch of thirty 
head or more, they allowed the animals to scent 
them and away they went, through jungle, 
over ridges and through marshes and across 
ponds and creeks for several hours. Although 
they were followed for a long time very care¬ 
fully, they did not stop long enough to allow 
their pursuers to come up or to afford a fair 
shot. The hunt had to be abandoned without 
securing beef. 
There is, however, a large element of luck in 
hunting beef on this island, for only yesterday 
I was out not three-fourths of a mile from our 
bungalow hunting camp, when all at once I saw 
an old cow a few rods away standing and look¬ 
ing me over, and just beyond stood a large 
black bull, and soon I discovered and counted 
seventeen head of all ages and sizes, one being 
a young calf. Having my three-barreled gun 
along, and seeing a fine, fat heifer standing 
further off than the main herd—fully two hun¬ 
dred yards, I should say—and the rest of them 
being by this time bunched; so I could not 
pick one off without the probability of wound¬ 
ing others, I quickly decided to let go at her 
with my .32-40 rifle barrel. I aimed high pur¬ 
posely and broke her* back just behind the 
shoulders. When she fell, the herd were off 
like the wind, but ran only a few rods before 
stopping and looking back, and in coming to 
camp I passed them in the brush, where I could 
easily have killed another had I wanted it. All 
this time they had not once scented me, I 
keeping on the lee of them. 
After I had returned home and sent out men 
with a mule and wagon to dress and haul home 
the meat, the herd were seen in the woods near 
where 1 had last noticed them on my way home. 
This and the previous experience of the men 
sent in quest of beef, is a fair illustration of how 
wonderfully the sense of smell is developed in 
these wild cattle and how easy it is to approach 
them if one does not give them a chance to 
wind him. 
These wild cattle are a remnant of a herd of 
several hundred head of tame cattle which were 
formerly kept on this island and which were 
allowed to go wild for lack of attention. They 
are not the little piney woods cattle so common 
in this and other Southern States, but have a 
good percentage of Devon blood in them and 
are fine, large cattle, generally all red or pure 
black in color, and they make fine beef, being 
well nourished by the fine, nutritious, wild 
grasses of the woods and savannahs. 
The hunting of them is, so far as my expeiT 
ence goes, about as good sport as hunting 
moose in the great Northern forests, for they 
are far more difficult of approach, and quite as 
much skill is required to kill one of them as is 
required to stalk and kill the moose, many of 
which I have approached quite closely without 
much difficulty in the Canadian forests. 
When the former owner of this game pre¬ 
serve purchased it, there were several hundred 
head of cattle on it, but I have understood he 
thought they would interfere with the increase 
of deer, and so allowed a good many of them 
to be killed. I much doubt if a far larger 
number of cattle would interfere greatly with 
the deer, since the deer feed mostly on shrub¬ 
bery, leaves, acorns and palmetto berries, while 
the cattle feed almost exclusively on the wild 
grasses, of which there are many varieties that 
grow luxuriantly in the woods, marshes and 
savannahs of this island—some of which are 
very juicy and nutritious. 
It is my purpose to introduce some new blood 
to the herd the coming fall by turning loose 
several well bred bulls, but I shall first have to 
hunt out and kill the old patriarch bulls which 
abound or any newcomers would find life on 
the island anything but pleasant. 
While wild geese, duck and snipe shooting 
furnishes the chief sport to be had on this pie- 
serve, yet deer hunting may be indulged in 
with good prospect of success for a change, 
with occasional attention to the wild cattle and 
wild hogs which afford sport anything but tame, 
while alligators, which have for many years 
been protected, are both large and numerous 
and may be easily bagged if one cares for that 
kind of shooting. 
I heard it said recently that these saurians are 
about extinct in Florida, but I recently counted 
seventeen large ones showing up all at once in 
one of my fresh-water ponds, and some of them 
would measure twelve feet or more in length, 
I am quite sure. 
I am often asked if they do not capture a 
good many of the wild pigs and even oldei 
hogs. They certainly do. But then this only 
serves to keep up a desirable balance, for if it 
were not for their pork-eating proclivities, this 
island might become over-stocked with swine. 
No doubt, too many porkers would interfere 
with the abundance of the deer, inasmuch as 
both feed, to some extent, upon the same food. 
notably upon acorns which, most years, are 
very plentiful, and upon palmetto berries, of 
which there is an abundant crop each year, 
which serves to keep the swine in excellent con¬ 
dition all through the fall and winter months. 
R. V. Pierce. 
The Green Mountains. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
On the 18th of March I left New York for 
.a few days’ sojourn in Vermont. Entering 
Bennington with its famous revolutionary battle¬ 
ground and monument, the old familiar moun¬ 
tains gave continuous greeting as the train sped 
along the beautiful valley between them. The 
years have brought changes. Now villages have 
started, some old ones have grown, but few of 
the oldtime inhabitants remain. The mountains 
alone are unchanged. They are fixed in char¬ 
acter and appearance as in position. No; there 
is a difference. Time has put its mark on them 
as on the ancient dweller ’neath their shadow. 
Their features are furrowed. For miles, as 
seen from the car window, the mountains are 
almost entirely bare of evergreens. Lines run¬ 
ning diagonally down the mountainsides were 
the lumber roads, and those piles of soft wood 
near the railroad track—piles including every¬ 
thing down to about two inches in diameter— 
complete the story of devastation. Shoqld this 
destruction of evergreens continue for a few 
years at the recent rate, Vermont will lose the 
right to her long standing, proud and distinctive 
appellation, “The Green Mountain State.” That 
fate may be averted if her people wdll bestir 
themselves before it is too late. Let the friends 
of forest preservation within her borders be 
heard. Public sentiment is strong in the . dear 
old State. This is shown in the support of the 
game laws, and in general on all civic questions. 
Aroused, it will be effective for forest preserva¬ 
tion. 
Passing northward along the Otter Creek 
valley two beautiful deer were seen less than 
fifty yards from the train. Nor did they seem 
frightened. Reports in several places indicated 
deer so plentiful as to be frequently seen, and 
to interfere with crops. Partridges were also 
reported abundant last fall in the southern part 
of Rutland county. Also some gray squirrels 
in the same section. The trout streams are 
overworked. Denudation of forests lessens the 
amount of water and of feed, and overfishing 
gives little chance for trout to grow large. But 
if numbers satisfy, some brooks back in the 
mountains will yield satisfaction. To the ob¬ 
server, the fields bare of snow, the occasional 
flocks of crows, and the sap-buckets hanging on 
sugar maples, with columns of smoke and of 
fragrant steam ascending from sugar houses 
where sap was being converted into delicious 
syrup, were unfailing evidences of spring. 
Further observation showed that Vermont is 
still true to its traditions as “the home of pretty 
girls, morgan horses and maple sugar.’ 
Juvenal. 
April. 
Spring showers and heat will now cause things to sprout, 
And soon produce green leaflets on the tree; 
Ground hogs and snakes on sunny days come out. 
Serenely smile, and wag their tails in glee. 
A. L. L. 
