536 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. i, 1910. 
looking a long valley, largely cultivated land, 
though a narrow belt of timber marked the 
course of a creek, while here and there an area 
of wire grass and cat-tails indicated the presence 
of water. Taken all in all, it was an a.most 
ideal country for my purpose, and I set out with 
a light heart. One item in my favor was that 
I was familiar with the cover. Being anxious 
to get beyond the reach of my companion’s ban¬ 
ter, I swung away at a good pace, gun on shoul¬ 
der, not expecting birds so near the edge of the 
cover. 
"There they go; look to your right!” shouted 
William. "Run, old man; run, and put salt on 
their tails. Oh, birds will lie before you, ali 
right.” 
Half a mile away a dozen chickens, their 
wings flashing like burnished silver in the morn¬ 
ing sun, were adding to the distance between 
us. I paused to mark their flight. When almost 
lost in the distance they veered, swung back 
down the valley and disappeared in one of the 
little patches of marsh land. I waited a moment, 
and as the birds did not rise again, set off down 
the valley. Now, in approaching birds under 
such circumstances, the wise hunter does not 
walk directly toward them, for that would be 
to flush them beyond shooting distance, but acts 
as though he planned to pass to the right or 
left, as direction of the wind or lay of land 
would seem to advise. The hunter should not 
steal through the grass, but walk as though he 
were going somewhere and prairie chickens were 
not in his mind. Perhaps some nature student 
will say chickens are not so quick of perception ; 
that they cannot know what your slyness threat¬ 
ens. Be that as it may, I simply know that the 
former method fails and the latter succeeds. 
As I neared the bit of marsh I slipped back 
the safety catch of my gun. The grass swayed 
as though disturbed by a miniature whirlwind 
and three birds burst from cover, all beyond 
range. The wind bore the echo of a derisive 
yell, but I paid no attention, only pausing long 
enough to mark, them down in the next field 
before advancing upon the remainder of the 
flock. I had walked ten rods down the little run 
before another bird got up; then a cock burst 
from the grass and swung to the right until 
stopped by the charge of 7H chilled shot, driven 
by 3/4 drachms of nitro. Before the report of 
the gun reached the watcher on the hill, the 
other members of the flock rose, and though I 
fired again, they sped away in the wake of the 
first three birds. 
“Well, old man,” I remarked to myself, as I 
picked up the game, “that was not so tad ! I 
wonder what William thinks of jumping prairie 
chickens now?” But no word or sign came 
from the kopje. 
1 crawled under a wire fence and tramped 
off in the direction the birds had taken. Need¬ 
less to say, one element which makes for suc¬ 
cess is apparent lack of haste; so I wandered 
on, conscious of the somber beauty of the brown 
fields and the fall songs of the flocking meadow¬ 
larks, but with eyes that were alert for hint or 
sign of chickens. A boy crossing to his work 
amid the tented corn in a nearby field shouted: 
“Hey, mister, if you’re after that bunch of 
chickens which just came over here, you’ll find 
’em in the tall grass along the edge of dad’s 
cornfield. I saw ’em go in.” 
Thanking him for his welcome information, I 
changed my course so as to pass within range 
of the fringe of grass and weeds, the lad wait¬ 
ing to witness the result. All at once the now 
thoroughly alarmed birds rose. The little gun 
spoke twice, and though the last was a long 
shot, another bird joined the one in my bulging 
game pockets. 
“She’s a dandy!” shouted the boy in enthu¬ 
siastic commendation, but whether he referred 
to the gun or bird I am still in ignorance, though 
I am certain his words did not refer to the 
shooter. 
Knowing there was little use following the 
scattered flock. I struck out for a distant belt 
of timber, leaving my field officer to guard his 
kopje or make his way back to town as seemed 
to him good. He returned to town, said the 
"chicken jumper” had disappeared, and he added. 
"Oliver is the greatest fellow for luck I ever 
saw, and the supper is on me.” 
In the timber I found a few ruffed grouse that 
had fun with me, for there is no upland game 
bird capable of presenting more difficult shots 
than it. In a cornfield a woman and two bays, 
who were husking the golden ears, told me 
where a large flock of chickens was located, and 
by judicious stalking and good fortune I se¬ 
cured another brace of birds. 
O. W. Smith. 
Opening Day. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 17 .-—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The season for lawfully shooting 
certain of the small game opened Sept. 7 and 
every train from town had its yellow-coated gun 
case carrying sportsmen bound for every part 
of the State where game is reported to be found 
in goodly numbers. Many hundreds of enthu¬ 
siasts were out on the stubble fields bright and 
early assured of bagging a nice bunch of prairie 
chickens. The offices of the county auditors in 
both this city and St. Paul were thronged with 
hunters after the necessary licenses. The great¬ 
est numbers of the outgoing sportsmen sought 
destinations in the western part of this State 
and North and South Dakota. In the Dakota 
hills chickens, grouse and ducks are always found 
in large numbers, especially in the district around 
Big Stone Lake and Lake Traverse, where many 
well-known Minneapolis men have in late years 
established hunting camps. 
Reports from the Red River val ey are that 
the chickens are quite plentiful, and hunters who 
go there this year are almost certain to be re¬ 
warded with good bags. Southern Minnesota 
has not been heard from as yet with many favor¬ 
able reports. Near Oslo, Minn., chickens are 
plentiful and the young are fairly well feathered. 
The dry spring and summer were conducive to 
the propagation of the birds, and the State game 
warden himself asserts that the birds are thick 
in the northern part of the State. 
Bags are limited to fifteen birds a day and no 
hunter is permitted to kill more than fifteen a 
day, or to have in his possession at any one time 
more than fifty game birds of all kinds includ¬ 
ing snipe, or more than forty-five if snipe are 
not included. The open season for quail, ruffed 
grouse and pheasants will not begin until Oct. 1. 
Robert Page Lincoln. 
All the game laics of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laius in Brief. See adv. 
In the Mackenzie Mountains. 
The Department of Mines of the Canadian 
Government has recently published an interest¬ 
ing paper entitled “A Reconnaissance Across the 
Mackenzie Mountains on the Pelly, Ross and 
Gravel Rivers, Yukon and Northwest Terri¬ 
tories,” by Joseph Keele. 
The Mackenzie Mountains lie in Northwestern 
Canada, just east of Southern Alaska between 
the Mackenzie and Yukon rivers, and the present 
report is based on investigations made during a 
portion of the years 1907-08 in those mountains 
lying between the Pelly and the Mackenzie 
rivers. Mr. Keele was accompanied by two resi¬ 
dents of the country, R. B. Riddell and J. M. 
Christie, both men of extraordinary efficiency. 
It was on this trip that Mr. Keele saw the at¬ 
tack on a moose by a wolverine which he re¬ 
ported in Forest and Stream. 
Much of the report is geological, but much of 
it has to do with the very interesting history, 
topography and fauna of the region. While the 
whole country is being run over by prospectors 
searching for precious metals, a considerable 
quantity of fur is taken from it by trappers. 
The country is rough and has not as yet yielded 
any great amount of gold, and to support life 
the prospectors are obliged, to spend not a little 
time in trapping and hunting. Mr. Riddell, who 
trapped for several years on the Macmillan 
River, estimates the value of furs taken on the 
Pelly and Macmillan as follows: In 1901, $7,000; 
in 1902. $15,000; in 1903. $20,000: all these chiefly 
marten; in 1904. $18,000. marten and lynx, and 
in 1905. $8,000, chiefly lynx. A small number of 
beaver, wolverine and fox are taken each year. 
In 1904, lynx invaded the Pelly region, coming 
from the south, and disappeared during 1907, 
moving northward. The movements of the lynx 
were probably governed by their food supply; 
rabbits having been extremely abundant in the 
Pelly country up to 1904. while their numbers 
declined after that, and in 1907 they disappeared. 
It is noted that the Indians—because they are 
obliged often to move their camps in search of 
game—trap only lightly over a large area, while 
the white man, bringing in provisions, makes a 
permanent camp with a number of outlying shel¬ 
ters and devotes all his time to trapping. As a 
result, in a few years the fur in his neighbor¬ 
hood so diminishes in quantity that he is obliged 
to select new ground, or seek a different employ-- 
ment. 
The chief game animal of this region is the 
moose. There are a few caribou in small bands 
occupying low mountains with large expanses of 
table land, and they do not as a rule leave a 
region where their favorite moss is plentiful, 
unless forced to do so. On the waters of the 
Pelly River there is seen no large migration 
such as is witnessed in the northern part of the 
Mackenzie Mountains. 
The mountain sheep are found in small scat¬ 
tered bands and occupy only a few selected 
mountain groups. They feed above timber line, 
where the wind blows the snow from the ground 
in winter, and where there are convenient crags 
to which they may retreat when pursued. Dur¬ 
ing the summer they venture down to the val¬ 
leys in search of alkaline clays which they lick. 
All these sheep are pure white. 
Black, brown and grizzly bears are more or 
less numerous, but are not often seen, except 
