130 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[July 23, 1910. 
plaint that he had had a much better time than 
they had. 
A little later as we were approaching the 
houses I asked Don Pacho if the late incident 
was a proof and demonstration that the alliga¬ 
tors and crocodiles were not so dangerous as re¬ 
ported. It is said that if one is so unfortunate 
as to fall into the waters of the Magdalena or 
the lower Cauca River, it is certain death, and 
rarely indeed will a body rise to the surface. 
Generally when a person falls overboard it is 
claimed that nothing will be seen but a blood 
stain in the water. Don Pacho said this was 
true, but the crocodiles did not like rum, and 
that was one reason why it was best for the men 
to drink freely. 
That night we slept more comfortably, and the 
next morning were off in good season, gratified 
that we had reached a more pleasant country 
and were making good progress. The sun was 
warm, but the air was not so damp as formerly, 
so we enjoyed a thorough drying out. As we 
proceeded gravel bars were seen from time to 
time, and these were pointed out by Don Pacho, 
who told me that in every one gold would be 
found, and that when the river went down great 
numbers of people would visit the locality to 
wash gold in their rough, wooden “bateas,” in 
handling which all were skilled, especially the 
women, who could work vigorously all day and 
usually made good wages; that is, good for 
them where so little is required, and a small 
quantity of gold will provide for their wants 
during several months. Tobacco, rum, a little 
calico for their clothes, these were their needs. 
Food is supplied almost spontaneously. 
Moose of the Upper Yellowstone 
Valley. 
Last year I described my canoe trip, the previ¬ 
ous season, on the Upper Yellowstone River. Al¬ 
though, owing to the unexpected swiftness of the 
the stream and inadequate outfit, the destination, 
Bridger Lake, Wyoming, was not reached, yet 
the trip was made interesting by the several en¬ 
counters with grizzly bears, and was of some 
scientific value through the discovery of moose 
along the entire valley of the Upper Yellowstone. 
Shortly after the article was written I made 
another effort to reach the headwaters of this 
river. The results of the second trip verified 
the first impression that not only was the coun¬ 
try lying between the south end of Yellowstone 
Lake and the source of the river, the wildest 
area of equal size, but that it contained a greater 
abundance and variety of animal life, wholly un¬ 
influenced in the slightest degree by the presence 
of man than probably any other locality on the 
continent. 
I was accompanied as usual by my Lake Su¬ 
perior guide, John Hamner, and in place of 
Farrell, then occupied in caring for the buffalo 
herd, I took with me Tom Pearson as a second 
guide—one of Billy Hofer’s most experienced 
men. 
We camped for several days in the southeast 
arm of the lake, and at the exact spot where the 
marauding grizzly of the year before had seized 
a heavily charged flashlight machine on top of 
the provision box, probably under the impres¬ 
sion that it contained more of the deviled ham 
or strawberry jam, which had so favorably im¬ 
pressed him on the previous night’s raid. The 
quaking asp, laid low by the bear in his first 
rush following the explosion, was examined with 
much interest by the new guide, who remarked 
that this animal would probably lay claim to 
having discovered a fifty-eighth variety of can¬ 
ned goods. 
Before the trip was finished I had occasion to 
modify some of my former views, and for this 
and other reasons I take the liberty of quoting 
from the first article: 
“When substituting the camera for the gun I had no 
idea of following any other ethics of sportsmanship than 
the hunting of wild life under conditions precisely 
similar to those pursued in hunting with firearms. To 
be sure, one might photograph game out of season or 
train his lenses upon rare birds and animals not ordi¬ 
narily classed as game, but in most other respects the 
rules of the contest should be the same. Therefore, I 
had always avoided photographing animals in zoos, 
private game preserves, national or state parks, what¬ 
ever the area, or however wild the animals. * * * 
“As we tossed our stuff ashore I was surprised to 
hear Sargent say that, so far as he knew, we were the 
first party to come by boat into the southeastern corner 
of the lake for a period of fourteen years, and that the 
only time this portion of the lake now came under the 
eye of man was when park scouts occasionally traveled 
the trail skirting the eastern shore, and followed the 
foothills up the valley toward Two Ocean Pass. During 
the trip I found that this condition of perfect wildness 
was apparently true; for beyond the faint traces of 
Government survey camps, there was no evidence of 
former occupation. * * * 
“Before we reached the lake on the return trip I saw 
six more bulls and another cow, making a total of 
eleven moose seen during the daytime along the swift 
waters of the Upper Yellowstone. Doubtless had we 
gone to some of the small pools and lakes in the valley 
of the river, many more would have been seen, for the 
well-beaten trails indicated moose in abundance. 
“With one exception, all the bulls were full-grown 
adults, and showed a remarkable uniformity in the 
size and symmetry of the horns, and had I not known, 
by reason of careful examination, that they were dif¬ 
ferent animals, it might have been supposed I had seen 
the same one a number of times. The spread of the 
antlers was small, ranging from thirty to forty inches, 
and the palmation did not seem to exceed four inches. 
“When General Young was told of our discovery, he 
seemed quite surprised, and was sorry that no photo¬ 
graphs had been taken, as the investigations of all his 
scouts, made not only during the summer, but on snow- 
shoes during the winter, had not disclosed the great 
abundance of moose in this locality, although a few had 
been seen in certain portions of the park.” 
Before leaving Mammoth Hot Springs I had a 
talk with Major Benson, successor to General 
Young as superintendent, and promised, in case 
we were unable to ascend the river into Wyo¬ 
ming that photographs should be taken of the 
moose. For we both agreed that these particular 
animals, however numerous they might become 
in remote portions of the park, were beyond the 
range of the tourist’s kodak or that class of 
photographers who, taking pictures of the semi- 
domesticated bears at the garbage piles, or elk, 
deer and antelope in the alfalfa fields, pass them 
off as pictures of wild animals taken in the re¬ 
mote portions of the country. 
The second trip was made considerably later 
in the season, in order not only to take advan¬ 
tage of the lower stage of water, but that we 
might see the fall migration of the elk, and 
perhaps witness the furious contests between the 
antlered animals, both elk and moose, during 
their respective rutting seasons. 
On Sept. 1 the start was made up the river in 
a rowboat and a large canvas canoe. A mile up 
the stream the rowboat was left for a future re¬ 
turn to the lake in case the canvas canoe should 
be irreparably damaged by snags in the deepef 
waters or by the treacherous rocks in the shallow 
portions of the upper stream. 
Our progress from the first was slow, and even 
with the aid of a tracking line we never ex¬ 
ceeded two miles an hour. Considerable time 
was devoted of course to the careful examina¬ 
tion of the surrounding country for the sight 
or signs of moose. 
The first six moose seen were all bulls and 
carried the long, narrow antlers of the kind 
noted the year before, so I had now little doubt 
that the moose of this country were unique in 
this particular. But on the third day, when 
slowly passing a long, sandy beach, I noticed 
projecting several inches above the surface the 
broad and well serrated top of what must neces¬ 
sarily be a moose antler of unusual size. 
With some effort it was finally drawn out of 
the well packed sand, and I then realized how 
unsafe it is to record definite contusions re¬ 
garding the physical characteristics of any ani¬ 
mal in a particular locality, without ample time 
to study the same. The trophy proved to be 
the right antler of a big bull, measuring nearly 
thirty inches in length and having a palmation 
exceeding fifteen inches, carrying a total of fif¬ 
teen points, and in every respect resembling' the 
normal growth of the larger bulls in lower 
Canada, Maine and Minnesota. Allowing seven 
inches for the skull between the burrs, this pair 
of antlers would range between fifty and sixty- 
four inches in spread, according to the angle of 
growth. The several injuries to the points were 
not the work of rodents, but were plainly breaks 
or fractures caused by contests with other bulls. 
Never before having found well preserved ant¬ 
lers in a wooded country abundant in rodent life, 
I assumed that this find was an exception and 
due to the antlers having been buried in the 
sand. 
