Stalks abroad : being some account of the sport obtained during a two years' tour of the world

Front matter

BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE SPORT OBTAINED DURING A TWO YEARS' TOUR OF THE WORLD. BY HAROLD FRANK WALLACE, F.Z.S.

WITH A FRONTISPIECE, NINE FULL-PAGE AND EIGHTEEN HALF-PAGE ILLUSTRA- TIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR AND FIFTY-SIX PHOTOGRAPHS

" 'Send your way lies clear before you when the old Spring fret comes o'er you, And the Red Gods call for you"

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE YELLOWSTONE PARK 1

II. BEYOND THE TETONS 25

Chapter I The Yellowstone Park With Some Notes On The Pronghorn Antelope

When, as a small, shy, bespectacled boy at Eton, tiring occasionally of the paths of learning, which in this particular case led, or were supposed to lead, to a thorough knowledge of the French language, I would beguile the time by surreptitiously perusing the short paragraphs contained in my exercise book.

There was one whose stilted language never failed to conjure up before my youthful mind glorious visions of the might-have-been. Headed " The Yellowstone Park," it read as follows : " Within its confines roam great herds of game, living amicably together, undisturbed by man. Here one may still see the shaggy bison ; vast herds of wapiti ; bands of antelope ; mountain sheep ; bears ; and a host of other strange creatures. Knowing that they are safe they allow the visitor to approach within a few yards of them." That was nearly all, but it was enough for me. In thought I left the dingy classroom and wandered free as air over those vast mountain ranges, watching the sunHt glades for the lordly wapiti, coursing the plains after antelope, or climbing dizzy heights for bighorn. I longed, oh how I longed ! to take an active part in all the glorious pursuits which my mind conceived, never dreaming that one day I should indeed fulfil my desires. From fancies such as these I would be aroused by the voice of

the long-suffering M. B protesting that "he,

M. B de Paree, would not be bamboozle by ze

leetle English fourth form caad," that " Wallass would proceed to write out the lesson word for word three times" ("0 sir!" from Wallass), concluding his remarks with the plaintive and somewhat paradoxical statement, "Ven I turn my back, you laff in my faice ! "

Others perhaps, as I did, may wonder what that huge playground of the American people is like, and though if they expect scientific explanations of the formation of geysers or the elaborate colouring of the Grand Canyon they will be disappointed, a few notes on the fauna to be found there may prove of interest.

The Park is about 60 miles long by 50 miles wide, with an average elevation of 7500 feet. It was established by the Government as a National Park in 1872, and though I suppose that the geysers and other natural malformations of nature, if I may so term them, are the principal attractions for tourists, I went there chiefly in the hope of seeing the larger mammals of North America under unique conditions. I confess that I was disappointed. The animals are there all right, but it is, practically speaking, hopeless, when one's time is limited, to attempt to see much of them in August and September. The best season would undoubtedly be the winter, but it would be necessary to obtain special permission to visit the Park then. It is possible to stay at the Mammoth Hot Springs for a few weeks after the season closes (about the third week in September) or before it commences (1st June) ; and this latter would be the better of the two, as the animals would not have gone back to the hills after wintering in the valleys.

Nearly every species of American game is represented, with the exception of the Pocky Mountain goat, the caribou, and the musk-ox. Wapiti (or, as they are universally misnamed in America, elk) are the most plentiful, though owing to the nature of the ground they do not winter here but go south, through the timber reserve, into the Jackson's Hole country. I only saw one unenclosed wapiti all the time I was in the Park, and that was a two-year-old bull in the Hayden Valley.

The first animals which we came across were a little bunch of antelope feeding close to the entrance of the Park at Gardiner. Although very interested in seeing them, I did not at the time pay them the attention I found out afterwards they deserved ; for the pronghorn is one of the most sporting little beasts alive, and his head a trophy of which any hunter may be proud ; however, I shall have something to say about hhn at the end of the present chapter.

Early in the season mountain sheep may be seen quite close to the road at this point, but they were all away up on Mount Washburn during our stay, and though we rode up the mountain we never saw them.

The herd of bison at the Mammoth Hot Springs, under the care of Buffalo Jones, is interesting from many points of view.

Buffalo Jones and his brother imported the original eighteen animals from Texas ; they are doing well and have now increased in numbers to fifty-seven. There are two fine old bulls in the herd. We had rather an amusing adventure with one of them. I was anxious to get a photograph of some wapiti which were in the bison enclosure, and Jones said the best chance would be when the bison were being fed, about three o'clock, and the wapiti down near a little pool out of sight of the herd. As soon, therefore, as the bison, among them the biggest bull, began to dawdle up at feeding time, Burton and I slipped through the wires, out of their sight, and cautiously approached the pool. As we drew near, sure enough we saw a wapiti cow standing near the pool a couple of hundred yards ofi*. Simultaneously we also spotted a dark mass lying underneath a dead tree about the same distance to our left. A second glance was unnecessary. It was the other old bull — the redoubtable "Teddy"

himself — taking his afternoon siesta. I snapped him with a telephoto lens, but the photograph was not sharp. Then as he got ponderously on to his thick hairy legs and turned a shaggy front in our direction we made a bolt for the fence, a quarter of a mile or so distant, and left the wapiti to look after themselves. Jones told us afterwards that our haste was unnecessary, as the veteran had a game leg, but we were not taking any chances.

The destruction of so fine an animal as the American bison makes pitiable reading ; but however much we may deplore their extermination we cannot but see that it was unavoidable. The land covered in the early part of the nineteenth century by their vast herds, whose primitive numbers are estimated by some authorities as 50,000,000, and by others at double that figure, was also the land best adapted for cultivation and the land most needed by an advancing civilisation. It was the same old story which is being repeated even in our own day in those parts of the world which the all-conquering white is engaged in occupying. Natural conditions had to give way to artificial. Those vast herds have shrunk now to a miserable 1500 or 1600 individuals which linger on in private preserves and zoological gardens. The only animals still existing in their natural state are the small herd, seldom seen, which live in the thick timber near the Yellowstone Lake ; and the herd of wood bison which hide themselves in the woods and plains of Athabasca. Caught when young the wild bison thrives in captivity, and a Society has been formed called "The American Bison Society," for the permanent preservation and increase of the American bison. There seems to be no reason why their undertaking should not succeed.

Attempts have been, and are being made, with more or less success, to cross bison with common cattle ; the hybrid being known as a " catalo." They are very hardy and can live where ordinary cattle would starve, besides producing very superior hides.

Jones and his brother, as I have said, caught the progenitors of the Mammoth Hot Springs herd in Texas. They were all roped as calves ; for it was found that when a two-year-old beast was captured he invariably died in a short time, Jones said of a broken heart.

These two men also supplied the Duke of Bedford at Woburn with seven bison in 1896. In spite of eleven deaths they have increased to twenty-five in ten years.

The bison furnishes a very interesting illustration, as supplied to me by an old hunter, of the natural adaptation of an animal to suit its surroundings. It exemplifies, too, the rapidity with which such a change may take place.

The straggling remnants of the bison which were left in the late seventies and early eighties had, so my informant said, changed noticeably from their original prototypes. The plains bison was a thick-

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Some Inhabitants cf the Yellowstone Park set heavy beast, wonderfully quick and active for his size, but not adapted for speed. This at first was not necessary ; but with the advent of hunters mounted on fast horses the case altered and the bison of which I am speaking were longer in the leg and slighter in the body, so that they could run faster and thus escape the danger which threatened them. There is a big bull bison on Buffalo Island in Lake Yellowstone, supposed to be the largest in existence, for whom when dead his owner told me he had been offered $1600 (£320). He is a savage old beast and killed four cows before his evil deeds were discovered. He now lives alone in solitary grandeur, whilst the heads of his victims are exposed for sale in a local store at S300 apiece. Later on, when hunting antelope on the plains, I saw hundreds of shallow depressions in the ground ; sometimes a few isolated ones, sometimes dozens close together. Here they were but a few inches in depth ; there as much as a foot. At first I could not imagine what they were. Then it dawned on me. They were the old buffalo wallows rubbed bare generations ago when their makers wanted a dust bath. How has their glory departed !

By far the most amusing animals in the Park are the bears. They frequent the garbage heaps of nearly every hotel, and one evening at the Grand Canyon there were twenty-three silver tips enjoying their dinner at once. I went up as soon as I heard of their party, but by the time I reached the scene of the debauch, half of them had disappeared to fulfil after-dinner engagements elsewhere.

At one time the tourists were allowed to feed these animals, and the hotel employes made great pets of them. This practice, however, was very wisely put a stop to, as sooner or later a serious accident would be bound to have occurred.

One amusing incident happened which might have had a tragic ending, also whilst we were at the Canyon. A large female silver tip in the neighbourhood, frenzied at the loss of her cubs, or for some other reason, suddenly ran amuck. She started operations by robbing a lumber camp. Some unfortunate female domestics, whom she scared out of their wits, were her next victims. She then sighted two lumbermen one evening and bore down on them with many growls. They fled to a fir tree with the bear close behind. The tree was small and the branches slender, but one of the men found a refuge half-way up the trunk. The bear, thinking no doubt that its hindmost victim would be unable to find a seat, as he swung himself into safety thoughtfully deprived him of that portion of his clothing of which he would least stand in need. Thoroughly pleased with her latest exploit she proceeded to romp about the foot of the tree uttering horrible noises until the corporal of the troop of U.S. cavalry stationed close by came to the rescue. His horse, a noted bear-fighter, went straight for the beast, while he emptied four barrels of his six-shooter at it at close quarters. The bear, at that, disappeared into the woods, and though subsequently there were various false alarms she had not l^een seen again when we left the Park. Late one night, when we were staying at "Old Faithful" Inn, I got the guide to turn the searchlight on to a garbage heap. There we saw a fat little black bear, alone and unmolested by tourists, having the time of his life. As we looked, however, a great dark mass loomed up out of the shadows, and the next instant the youngster was scuttling away as fast as his legs would carry him before the advent of an enormous silver tip who proceeded to take entire charge of the proceedings. We were fully six hundred yards off, but, as dazzled by the strong light he turned his head in our direction, we could plainly see his little piglike eyes flashing with the brilliancy of a couple of enormous emeralds. Poor little Johnnie bear was "dimly to be descried" in the gloom of the fir wood, sitting upright on his little haunches waiting until the coast was clear before he dared venture forth to complete his meal.

Sutton, one of the troopers, told me that these animals will run from anything red, and that if a lady in a red dress appeared near a garbage heap, any bears who happened to be there would bolt like rabbits.

The horses in the Park seemed to have no fear of the bears at all. I saw a large black bear walk within ten yards of a dozen of them, and beyond raising their heads they paid no attention to him at all.

I spent one most amusing afternoon trying to photograph some black bears, and though I only got one good result out of about a dozen, I felt more than repaid. Sutton was with us. He was a most intelligent observer and took great interest in the animals. I hoped to get some good photographs of live bears and sheep which he had taken, but part of Fort Yellowstone was destroyed by fire, and in it all his negatives and pictures, so I had to go without.

At first there was nothing to be seen in the wood. We spotted the wrong end of one black bear in the distance, but he very rapidly vanished. About half a mile farther on we discovered another, and started to surround him. On getting closer, the whole of the little glade in which we had disturbed him seemed literally alive with bears. There must have been at least seven, scuttling over the fallen timber like enormous black beetles. Two got up trees in their first fright, but one of these, as I tried to get closer, slid to the ground and made ofi*. Burton, however, succeeded in chasing the other to the top of a fir by a well-directed volley of fir cones and sticks. There he stayed in a very bad temper, and spat and growled most indignantly whilst we sat round the bottom of the tree and made preparations to snap him. It was then that we made the discovery that all our films

Black Bear up a Tree

Dick Rock, near Henry's Lake, Idaho He was killed by the bison on which he is sitting half-an-hour after the photograph was taken.

but one had been used ! Burton rose nobly to the occasion, and volunteered to return for more films if we would keep the bear treed. This we did, and that unfortunate beast must have spent one of the most trying afternoons of his life judging by his expression. He kept continually changing his position as far as his limited quarters allowed, and hid his face behind the trunk, just like a child who is unwilling to be photographed. Then he peered round the corner with one eye to see if we were still looking, and finding that we were, opened his mouth, elongated his tongue, and sighed deeply. Finally he put his head on his arm and looked at us as much as to say, " Do for goodness' sake go away and let me get down from this beastly tree ; I can't imagine what pleasure it gives you 'to keep me up here in this uncomfy position all the afternoon ! " Whilst we were watching him another bear came up within ten yards of us, and lay down behind a log without detecting our presence. He was just below the treed bear, but so far as I could detect they seemed to take no notice of each other. After about half-an-hour Burton came back with the films, and the newcomer hearing him moved off before we could take his picture. In ten minutes or so our original friend's troubles came to an end, but the light was bad and our efforts mostly failures. That same evening I saw a very fine mule deer stag, with, at least, seventeen points. They are graceful animals, about the size of a fallow deer, and in colour rather like a roe in his winter coat.

A couple of days later a bear with an explorative bent decided to see what the bottom of the Grand Canyon was like ; but, as many another before him, he found the downward road the easier, and had to spend twenty-four hours meditating on his humiliating position before being able to regain his original status.

Though I came across but few wapiti myself in the Park, it was here that old Yarnall, of whom I shall speak again, noticed a curious incident. He was camped in Hayden Valley, a favourite place for these animals, and one evening, about a mile distant saw fifteen full-grown bulls. He watched them for some time and noticed that they were all in the velvet. The next morning they were still there, but six of the biggest bulls had lost their velvet, and it was the white flashing horns which first caught his eye. Curiosity prompting him, he rode over to the spot where they had been standing, but no trace of any velvet could he find, and he declares that they must have eaten it. To support this statement he instanced the case of a blacktail buck which a friend of his kept in confinement. He too got rid of his velvet one night, and not a strip of it was discovered in the small paddock where he lived. Unless he really did eat it, its disappearance is something of a mystery. Like most tame deer he finally turned savage and had to be killed.

I have already alluded to the pronghorn. After leaving the Park, we fitted out at Jackson's Hole and hunted wapiti. Then, having no time to go after mountain sheep, we went in pursuit of antelope.

Though, with the exception of the Rocky Mountain goat, he bequeaths to his slayer the least imposing trophy of any of the big game of North America, he is such a fine little animal, and so well able to take the best possible care of himself, that he deserves a foremost place in a list of beasts of the chase, and holds a prominent position in the affections of any sportsman w^ho has hunted him. This is an entirely different matter to the pursuit of the wapiti, and in my opinion a vastly superior form of sport.

How I enjoyed those days with old Yarnall ! Dear old chap ! I can see him now in his overalls and blue jumper; a 28*35 Winchester hitched under his saddle flap ; a cartridge belt, from which was suspended a huge butcher's knife, around his waist ; his saddle hung with a miscellaneous collection of odds and ends, including an axe, a haunch of meat, and a lariat, looking in all like a reincarnation of the White Knight as he rode through the wood with Alice. He was always singing of some lady too, and seemed to have stated hours for their coming. Nancy was my favourite ; for, as he saddled the horses after an early breakfast, he would enlarge upon her charms ere we rode out across the plain in the hope of some big buck. And how I loved those rides ! What stories he told me of the days when he was an Indian scout, when the bison were in such numbers, that, in his own words, " the face of the earth moved." He and his type, like the bison of whom he loved to talk, are nearly gone. In a few short years there will be none left to charm camp-fire audiences with their simply- told tales of stirring scenes, long since buried in the grey mists of the advancing years. Yet those yarns as he told them were vivid enough ! Of Kit Carson and the arrow which brought him to his death ; of Buffalo Bill and the wager which gave him his name ; of Jim Beck with and his hundred mile race for life, accomplished between sunrise and sunset ; of Custer and that wound in the temple which some say no Indian gave ; of Drannan, the boy-scout ; and many another.

The exploit of which he was most proud occurred on 3rd July 1874. He was out scouting with his party of troops, who had run short of meat. There were Indians close by and hunting was forbidden. At last one morning a dark speck appeared on the distant horizon, which, as it came nearer, resolved itself into a big buffalo bull. Old Yarnall got leave to kill it provided he made no noise. Borrowing an Indian's bow and arrow he waited until the bull was near the camp, then riding out, killed it with a single arrow through the heart. This feat he declared had never been performed by any other white man, and was rare even among the Indians themselves.

Though short, almost squat, his deep chest and broad shoulders told of enormous strength as a young man ; and even now, with three-score years on the debit side of the ledger, he is one whom few would care to tackle. He had wonderful sight, and it was his boast that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he saw the game before it had seen him. Had it been otherwise I should never have got my big buck, for the pronghorn antelope is one of the most sharp-sighted animals living. He is absolutely thoroughbred from start to finish ; and his sight little short of marvellous. If once a suspicious object comes within his field of vision, unlike a deer, he takes no chances on a supposititious coyote ; but when there is any doubt about the matter, takes the benefit and removes both it and himself to a safe distance before stopping to consider. He is the swiftest animal on the continent — a racehorse alone excepted. As regards his power of scent I was unable to satisfy myself > Hardly as good as that of the deer, it is superior to that of the goat, with which I just now compared him, On one occasion a big bunch of antelope allowed me to approach within a hundred and twenty yards of them with the wind directly behind me, though of course an isolated instance of this kind proves nothing.

Formerly he had the reputation of being a very inquisitive little beast, and one hears numerous tales of this trait in his character proving his undoing, either through the prosaic medium of a piece of red flannel, or a hat waved on the end of a rifle barrel. Indeed, I have been told of old hunters who wore shirts of a scarlet hue for the express delectation of so curious a beast. Advancing civilisation has, however, cured him of any tendencies in this direction ; he found he had to pay too heavy a price for setting his mind at ease. His greatest safeguard lies in his power of vision, which is certainly equal if not superior to so keen-sighted an animal as the mountain sheep. I have seen the latter lay aside for the nonce his habitual watchfulness ; but never an antelope that was not on the alert and ready to fly at a moment's notice.

A full-grown buck will stand about 37 inches at the shoulder and can be easily distinguished from the females and smaller bucks by the dark line of hair across the forehead. This, with the patch under each ear and his black horns and eyes, gives him the appearance of having a very dark head. The illusion is heightened by a comparison with the light tones which prevail elsewhere. When an antelope faces you the noticeable features about him are the large prominent eyes, which are his most striking characteristic, and can be seen at a distance of two hundred yards ; his black nose ; the black tips to his ears ; the white bands on his neck, and white underparts.

It is an extremely difficult matter for a novice at antelope hunting to spot the game, either when there is no sun, or when the sun is at their backs. Their conspicuous colouring blends with the light and shadow of the sage, where they are chiefly to be found, in a most extraordinary manner. I watched a small buck one evening standing against a background of trees some hundred yards or so distant. Even though I knew his exact position I had continually to put my glass to my eyes to make sure that he was still there.

The rump is covered with fine white hairs. The outermost ones, four or five inches in length, can be erected at will ; at the base of these is a kind of oily secretion having a strong musky odour. It serves for purposes of communication, in the same manner as do the glands on the legs of a deer.

During the rutting season, which begins about the beginning of October, one may find here and there in little openings among the sage bush, flat dusty patches, heavily scored with the buck's sharp little hoofs. Here his lovesick passions break loose, though I have never seen one thrashing a bush with his horns as a stag will do. The bucks are determined fighters, and Williams, one of our guides, told me that the clash of their horns could be heard at a great distance.

When alarmed, they utter a kind of snort which can be heard four or five hundred yards ofi* on a still day. I have also heard does make a curious

B noise, between a squeak and a whistle ; though whether it was a signal of alarm to the band or a summons to their own particular offspring I was never able to determine.

They always make for the open when frightened, and are usually led by an old doe. The bucks carry their heads in a peculiar manner ; not held back like a deer's, but rather lurching forward.

They are subject to sudden impulses and will start off at their best pace for no apparent reason, and stop as abruptly. A large band will sometimes indulge in a game of general post ; and a very pretty sight it is. I once saw fifteen or twenty antelope, led by a big buck w^hich I had, alas ! missed, stop within a quarter of a mile of the place from which I had fired at them, and incidentally of our camp, and chase each other for a good twenty minutes. The big buck finally chased a smaller one right down the ridge which they had just left, and it was onl}^ the failing light which prevented my getting another shot. When walking slowly they have a somewhat stilted appearance, which entirely vanishes as they reach a gallop. The latter is beautifully easy and regular, carrying them over the ground at a great pace.

The bucks travel in the early mornings and late evenings when searching for the does, and keep quiet during the daytime. Like all animals they are more easily approached in the small hours than at any other time.

Mule Deer

The majority of Western hunters, Hke many men of their class of all nationalities, are ignorant of any facts which do not occur beneath their very noses. Questions on a subject which they had not troubled to probe were dismissed in the all-embracing formula " I don't know ! " Only two of those whom I met had any definite answer as to whether or no the bucks shed their horns, and on many other matters of a like nature they were hopelessly at sea. Old Yarnall was a pleasant change, though neither he nor another good hunter could tell me the exact time of year at which they shed. He inclined to the belief that they dropped about March, and was very firm on the point that they did not shed annually, but, in his opinion, once every second year. Dr. Canfield of Monterey declared as early as 1858 that they shed annually : the old bucks in October and the young ones earlier in the year. But few shed horns are found, for they rapidly disintegrate in the hot sun and are gnawed by coyotes and other beasts.

Yarnall told me that he once shot a buck, and taking the horns to pull him over on to his side for skinning, was surprised to find himself holding the two loose horns in his hands. They were just ready to fall off, and his grasp had detached them from the skull. The new horns which had formed beneath the cast-off shell were more or less soft, black and shiny to look at, and covered with short hairs something like the velvet which is found on the newly grown antlers of a stag. In his opinion the young horns of an antelope are always more or less smooth ; the beautiful rough excrescences which add so much to the appearance of a trophy forming later. He added that the old horns on a buck got very brown in the spring and never regained their colour ; consequently the black horns were always new. Whether this theory is correct I cannot say. Burton killed a fine buck with ivory-tipped horns, which are much prized in the States. The tip of each horn is quite white for a quarter of an inch or so, and if the old man's theory is correct, their infrequent appearance may be accounted for on the supposition that they are worn away on any but very new horns. Malformed heads are occasionally met with, the most usual, to employ a contradiction in terms, being droopers." The horns in heads of this sort droop outwards and are usually caused by the core from which the horn springs being damaged. I have, however, heard of heads where the horns took an outward curve above the guard. Old does are not infrequently found to have little nubbins of horns, but they seldom exceed three or four inches in length.