Camera shots at big game

Introduction

TT is a pleasure to write an introduction to Mr. Wallihan's really noteworthy book, for his photographs of wild game possess such peculiar value that all lovers, whether of hunting or of natural history, should be glad to see them preserved in permanent form. The art and practice of photographing wild animals in their native haunts has made great progress in recent years. It is itself a branch of sport, and hunting with the camera has many points of superiority when compared to hunting with the rifle. But, even under favorable conditions, very few men have the skill, the patience, the woodcraft and plainscraft which enabled Mr. Wallihan to accomplish so much; and, moreover, the conditions as regards most of our big game animals are continually changing for the worse. The difficulties of getting really good and characteristic photographs are such as to be practically insuperable where game is very scarce and very shy, and throughout most of the United States game is steadily growing scarcer and shyer. Photographs in a game preserve, no matter how large this preserve, are, of course, not quite the same thing.

The elk have now almost everywhere diminished in numbers so that it would be very difficult indeed to get pictures like some of Mr. Wallihan's, and though the blacktail and the antelope last better, yet they, too, can nowhere be found as they were but a dozen years ago. The cougar pictures have an especial value. Where cougars are plentiful it is easier to take their photographs than in the case of deer, and there are a number of localities in the Rockies where they are still fairly abundant ; but they are steadily growing scarcer, and where they have become really scarce the work of the photographer becomes one of such hopeless labor, the chance for success is so very small, as to be practically prohibitive. There are still cougars east of the Mississippi, but nowadays it would be a simple impossibility for any man to take of them such pictures as Mr. Wallihan has taken of the Colorado cougars. Moreover, even where cougars are plentiful, the photographer might work a lifetime before getting such a remarkable picture as that of the cougar jumping in mid-air. As I know from practical experience, it is exceedingly difficult, even when the cougar has been treed, to get a really fine photograph, as it is not possible to choose the conditions of ground and light in advance.

Mr. Wallihan's hunting was in northwestern Colorado and western Wyoming — regions where I have often followed the game he describes. There are no whitetail deer in the country he covered, the buffalo were extinct before he began work with his camera, and he never had luck with bears. But his series of elk, antelope, blacktail and mountain lion pictures leave little to be desired. It is, by the way, difficult to determine whether to use the ordinary vernacular names of these

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C«Pf light, b; A. G. Wallihau.

" I caught them strung out clear across the river. (Deer IS)

INTRODUCTION 7

animals, or their book names, which are better in themselves, but which unfortunately have not been popularly adopted. The elk, for instance, has no resemblance to the animal properly called the elk in the Old World, which is the blood brother of the moose, nor yet to the other animals improperly called elk in Asia and Africa. The blacktail of the Rocky Mountains is not the true blacktail of the Pacific coast. The antelope is not an antelope at all, occupying an entirely unique position as the only hollow-horned ruminant which annually sheds its horns. It would be far better if the three could be known as wapiti, mule-deer and prong-buck. But unfortunately they are rarely known by these titles in common speech. With the cougar the case is a little different. It is sometimes called cougar among the ranchmen, and the names of panther and mountain lion, by which it is known respectively in the East and in the West, are so misleading that it is best to drop them and give it the proper title.

The elk, or wapiti, were still plentiful in northwestern Colorado a decade ago, going in large herds. The merciless persecution they have suffered for the sake of their flesh, hide, antlers and teeth has resulted in the species being reduced to a few hundred individuals. The Wyoming elk are travelling the same path, although the existence of the great protected nursery and breeding-ground in the Yellowstone National Park has delayed the process and gives us reasonable hope that the animals will never become entirely extinct. The part played by true sportsmen, worthy of the name, in this extinction has been nil, and indeed very little appreciable harm has been done by any men who have merely hunted in season for trophies. The real damage has come from the professional hunters and their patrons. In a wild frontier country it is too much to expect that the settlers will not occasionally kill meat for their own use, though every effort should be made to educate them to the knowledge that a wapiti or deer free in the woods will, by attracting tourists, bring into the neighborhood many times as much money as the dead carcass would represent. The professional game butchers, however, have no excuse of any kind. They kill the animal for the hide and for the flesh. Moreover, the horns are strikingly ornamental and are freely purchased by a certain class of wealthy people who wholly lack the skill and hardihood necessary to those who would themselves be hunters, and who have not the good taste to see that antlers properly have their chief value as trophies. Nothing adds more to a hall or a room than fine antlers when they have been shot by the owner, but there is always an element of the absurd in a room furnished with trophies of the chase which the owner has acquired by purchase. Even less defensible is it either to kill or to put a premium upon the killing of this noble and beautiful creature for the sake of its teeth. Yet the habit of wearing elk's teeth on watch-chains and the like has been responsible for no small amount of slaughter. The Audubon societies have done useful work in trying to prevent the destruction of song-birds and waders for millinery purposes. It would be well if some

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INTRODUCTION 9

similar society would wage war against the senseless fashion of wearing elk's teeth when the wearer has not shot the animal ; for such a fashion simply becomes one cause of extermination. The mule, or Rocky Mountain blacktail, deer is in some localities migratory. This is the case in Colorado, where the winter and summer ranges of the deer are wholly distinct, and where during the migrations the animals follow well-established trails leading over and among the mountains and across the streams. Some of Mr. Wallihan's most beautiful pictures are those taken of deer crossing a stream. In dealing with the prong-horn antelope, on the other hand, a shy and farsighted creature of the dry, open prairie, almost the only chance consisted in catching the game when it came to drink. Incidentally it will be seen that Mr. Wallihan in his description lays stress upon the superior keenness of vision of the antelope as compared to the deer. Mr. Wallihan is a very close and accurate observer, as indeed it was necessary he should be in order to obtain such results as he has obtained. His remarks on the comparative dullness of the deer's eyesight are in accord not only with my experience, but with those of almost every first-class hunter whom I have met. Yet I have known book authorities to assert the contrary. Of course it is all a matter of comparison. A deer's vision is better than that of a buffalo, and, I believe, better than that of a bear, and a motion catches its eye at once. But the antelope has better sight by far than any other game, and will be brought to a condition of alert suspicion by the sight of a man at a distance so great that he lo CAMERA SHOTS AT BIG GAME

would be practically certain to escape observation from a deer.

In Mr. Wallihan's cougar hunting he had the good fortune to be associated with Mr. Frank Wells, a first-class hunter with an excellent pack of hounds. Mr. Wells is not only a good hunter, but a good observer. He has written two or three pieces about cougars and cougar hunting which are filled with refreshing common sense, in striking contrast to the average tales on the subject. More nonsense has been talked and written about the cougar than about any other American beast. Even experienced hunters often gravely talk of cougars ten and eleven feet long. As Mr. Wells has pointed out, these figures are never even approximated. The animal is variable in size, and very rarely a monster old male will reach the length of eight feet ; but by no system of fair measurement will any cougar ever be found to go more than a very few inches over this limit, and even an eight-foot cougar is a giant of its kind. Hardly one in a hundred reaches such a length. The cougar is very destructive to deer and colts as well as calves, sheep, young elk, etc. When pressed by hunger, big cougars will kill full-grown elk, horses and cattle ; but they are cowardly beasts, and not only is it a wholly exceptional circumstance for them to attack any human being unprovoked, but they do not even make an effective fight against man when cornered. They rarely charge, and, as far as I know, never from any distance. A small number of really good fighting dogs can kill a cougar, and it readily trees even before dogs

Copjright, 18&4, by A. G. WttUihao.

" A herd crossing to the opposite slope."

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INTRODUCTION 1 1

that would be quite incapable of mastering it. If man or dog comes close up, there is of course danger from the formidable jaws and sharp claws; but commonly the danger is only to the pack. Only in very rare cases is there any to the hunter. Owing to the cougar's habits, the only method of pursuing it which offers any reasonable chance of success is with hounds. It is occasionally killed by accident without hounds, but under such circumstances the chances of success are so small as not to warrant even the most skilful hunter making a practice of pursuing it in this manner.

Mr. Wallihan is not only a good photographer, but a lover of nature and of the wild life of the wilderness. His pictures and his descriptions are good in themselves as records of a fascinating form of life which is passing away. Moreover, they should act as spurs to all of us to try to see that this life does not wholly vanish. It will be a real misfortune if our wild animals disappear from mountain, plain and forest, to be found only, if at all, in great game preserves. It is to the interest of all of us to see that there is ample and real protection for our game as for our woodlands. A true democracy, really alive to its opportunities, will insist upon such game preservation, for it is to the interest of our people as a whole. More and more, as it becomes necessary to preserve the game, let us hope that the camera will largely supplant the rifle. It is an excellent thing to have a nation proficient in marksmanship, and it is highly undesirable that the rifle should be wholly laid by. But the shot is, after all, only a small part of the free life of the wilderness.

The chief attractions lie in the physical hardihood for which

the life calls, the sense of limitless freedom which it brings, and

the remoteness and wild charm and beauty of primitive nature.

All of this we get exactly as much in hunting with the camera

as in hunting with the rifle ; and of the two, the former is the

kind of sport which calls for the higher degree of skill, patience,

resolution, and knowledge of the life history of the animal

sought.

Theodore Roosevelt.

Dated Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, N. Y., May thirty-first, nineteen hundred and one.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PHOTOGRAVURES

A Surprised Band. -^

Deer Drinking.

Bucks and Does.

Deer Crossing the River at Night.

A Fawn, hiding.

Startled Does.

A Pair of Elk.

Antelope and Badger.

A Bunch of Antelope.

A Band of Mountain Sheep.

An Old Ram.

Ducks in the River

In the Snow. '^

Leaping Cougar.

An Anxious Cougar Hound.

An Ugly Customer.

14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

At Bay.

Hound and Treed Wildcat.

Jack-rabbit, Resting and on the Jump.

A Black Bear.

A Coyote.

HALF-TONE PLATES

" I caught them strung clear across the river."

A herd crossing to the opposite slope.

" The main part of the band was to the left of the view."

"They were at 'attention' instantly."

"They evidently suspected something."

"With every sense alert for danger."

"He is not frightened, but stops short."

"The old doe looked back to see if there really was any danger."

"So I exposed on this spike at thirty feet."

"He was beautiful, standing amid the flowers and grasses."

"This time he stood facing me."

" I caught a fine picture at the short distance of twenty-four steps."

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 15

A frightened fawn, hiding.

Six hundred Elk in one picture. •

" ' Boston ' winded him and brought him to bay."

"I made exposures in different poses."

"This one led us a merry chase."

A bull Elk at close range.

"Just as they began to go out of sight I caught them." .^

"The last one of a small herd." ^

"As they would not come closer, I took them." -^

"As they stood alert I caught them." "'

A close view of Antelope and fawn.

Antelope crossing a dry gulch.

"Unsuspecting of any danger."

'The Eagle went down off the nest, so the view is of her back."

Two views of Snow-shoe Rabbit in summer coat.

" The Duck waked and started for the water instantly." ^'

A blue Grouse at close range. -■

"Her face framed in piiion boughs."

"A very wild female : with much care I was able to get a view of her head."

1 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Sprawled from limb to limb in as awkward a pose as she could get."

"With a telephoto lens at thirty feet."

A magnificent view at twenty-five feet.

"Once or twice I approached within twenty feet, but he made ready to spring at me, so I retreated."

"A very vicious-looking view, as close as I dared."

"The Lion had crawled around in a crevice, and was lying - there very quietly."

"I approached within fifteen feet and took my last snap."

"At this tree I got within fifteen feet." "A big one, that treed in a very low cedar."

A near view of a Bear.

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Preface

)HE material has been obtained for this volume under the deep blue of Colorado skies while the summer sun beat fiercely, or when the winter cold was so intense as to interfere with handling the camera. The pictures have been made in the open country, outwitting the far-seeing antelope, or by riversides, while the author awaited with bated breath the near approach of a bunch of deer. Again, the work has been done in the mountains where the fawns lay hidden, their mothers bounding away upon approach, where the fat bucks sought the shelter of the oak brush or lay out in a point of aspens that the sun might harden their horns, where the streams were filled with lusty trout ; or, following the hounds in winter on the trail of a cougar over the hills and canons of White River, or on into the bleak, wind-swept ranges of Wyoming, matching skill with the bighorn or (on skis) the lordly elk. The intense fascination of our study of game has taught patience and demanded perseverance without limit. Privation and hardship have been mitigated by the pleasures obtained from hunting and fishing, and in greater measure from the study of the game. The first attempt made was in the autumn of 1889, but the only result was to learn some of the difficulties and necessities.

Very little of the work has been done by hand-camera, this being used only where the tripod was impossible. At the commencement no hand-camera at all was available, and since then none has been used. Consequently, the work has been more laborious as well as less speedy, and occasional chances have been lost through the time taken to set up the camera. Up to 1894 Carbutt's cut films were principally used, but finding greater speed in Cramer's Crown plates, these have been employed since that time. The short-focussed and convenient hand-camera would have been worthless for most of the work, as the size of the resultant image would have been too small for value. A Gundlach Rectigraphic lens was used for several years. This gave a focus of 8j^ inches, while the back lens, used alone, o-ave a focus of \ 7,14 inches, and the front lens 18 inches. In 1894 a Zeiss series II lens was added for greater speed and found to be very satisfactory, and while a telephoto lens was attached to the Zeiss in 1895, it has proved to be too slow for very effective work. Of all the shutters, the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.'s diaphragm shutter has turned out to be the best. So much for mechanical outfit.

For me, at least, there is a charm about the blacktail, or mule-deer, that no other game possesses. Barring the bighorn, their meat is the best, their hide tans into the best buckskin, and you turn from the larger elk or the agile antelope to the graceful beauty of a blacktail buck, and find there the greater satisfaction. The head of the bighorn is a finer trophy, no doubt, and you are led to grand scenery in pursuit of him, but ri^ht, bv \, li \\ii

' With every sense alert for danger,'

Copyright, 1890, by A. G, Wallih

'He is not frightened, but stops short." (Deer 56)

PREFACE 19

it is heart-breaking work. Where you find the blacktail you will find other pleasures, for he delights in the most charming bits of country to be found. He will jump up from the tall weeds and grass among the aspens, so close as to startle you as you ride through them, or will leap into view from the shade of a deep washout far in the desert, where he finds in the feed and surroundings something to suit his taste. He is crafty, also; for if he thinks he is hidden I have known him to lie in thick brush until almost kicked out, after all sorts of expedients to drive him out had failed. He has, perhaps, the keenest scent and the best hearing of all the deer tribe, although an elk matches him very closely. He cannot see as well as the antelope, for I have stood within ten or twenty feet of several passing bands which failed to distinguish me from a stump or rock. Antelope will approach very closely, occasionally, out of pure inquisitiveness, but never a deer. If anything moves, a deer sees it instantly, but he cannot tell what a still object is, and the elk and bighorn are the same. I have exposed myself with impunity to bighorn where antelope would have laughed me to scorn. The antelope is, without doubt, the most active of the four game animals under discussion. I have seen them, when chasing each other at full speed, turn instantly in the reverse direction, without any check or curve.

To Mr. William Wells is due the credit for planning the mountain-lion, wildcat, and bear hunts, and selecting many of the views of this volume. The manner of hunting them is with foxhounds specially trained for the purpose. They must be trained to cross deer and elk trails, and even run through herds of these animals, without leaving the lion's trail, or the work will be well-nigh useless; for where the game winter, there the cougar will be found. All the lion-hunters I know estimate that every lion kills fifty deer every year after he is grown, and that he is destructive to other game in like proportion. He is the wariest and most skulking animal of which I know anything. In thirty years in the Rockies I have seen (excepting those treed by dogs) but one wild one.

The chances for a camera shot at a wild bear were not to be thought of, so the views shown are of trapped bear. I have met but six in my wanderings. As with the lion hunts, Mr. William Wells planned the bear hunt, and to his skill as a trapper is due our success. The bear were caught on Slate Creek, near Pagoda Peak, in Colorado.

William Wells, the noted guide then of Marvine Lodge in Colorado, proposed that we try for pictures of mountain lion, which he hunted in winter with a pack of hounds; so, after a month spent the first winter in which two good negatives were obtained, we started in the second winter better prepared. Wells had a splendid pack and much experience; and as he had a large outfit of horses, we had good saddle- and pack-horses. We generally hunted from Wells's winter camp, but occasionally made side trips, being welcome at almost any ranchman's, as the lions are very destructive to colts and the stock-raisers were glad to help exterminate them.

A. G. Wallihan.

Vi Q

Chapter I

^N October, 1890, I placed myself and camera on a ridge that runs at a right angle with the course of the great deer trail from Black Mountain (the westerly end of the Elkhead Range in northwest Colorado) to Coyote Basin, in the valley of the White River, where the deer winter. I had examined the trails and selected the one with the most tracks in it, and going to one side about forty yards, I placed the camera and tripod as low as possible behind rabbitweed. When all was ready I walked to the hilltop and peered over to see if any deer were coming. Just over the next ridge a little band was headed in my direction, and my heart beat faster at the prospect of shooting game with a new "gun" — the camera.

I watched them come down the hill and across the little valley, until they were at the foot of the hill whereon I stood, then slipped back to the camera, drew the slide, set the shutter, and, crouching behind the brush, awaited their coming. Suddenly the head and ears of a doe came in sight, and the others rapidly crowded along until they were out in front, just where I desired them. I gave a low whistle. Instantly they were still, every eye and ear alert. (No. i.) The click of the shutter was so faint that they did not hear it, and after a moment or two they passed on down the trail, unaware of their proximity to mankind. After waiting an hour or two longer, I returned home, and upon developing the negative was elated to find it a good one — the first successful exposure I had ever made in my game series.

I have yet to see the person who can hide on these trails and allow a band of deer to approach as close as they must to secure good negatives without becoming excited. Probably I am no better than the tenderest of tenderfeet. Some men will not admit their excitement, while others freely confess that they cannot command it. I could hear one man's heart beat as plainly as if he were striking his fist upon his chest, while a band of deer was passing close to our hiding-place.

The next good negative was obtained the following spring, when the deer were returning to their summer quarters. I was in Juniper Mountain canon, on Bear River, with a companion, when some deer came down to cross. We slipped behind a big boulder, as close as we could, and by carefully raising the camera until it peeped over the rock, I was able to catch them on the rocks at the water's edge. (No. 3.)

A year or two passed with but poor success, until, one morning in October, my wife and I arose to find about four inches of snow covering everything outside our tent. Hurriedly disposing of breakfast, we started down the canon, along the edge of the water, much of the way with barely room to pass at the foot of the rocky ledges which came right down to the river. Arriving at the deer trails, we found signs that sev-

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" He was beautiful standing amid the

flowers and grasses."

(Deer 61)

eral small bands had already crossed, so we quicky hid ourselves as best we could among the rocks along the water's edge. Away up yonder, another band was coming over the summit of the canon wall, and we were still as mice. Winding and twisting in single file, over small ledges and down long slopes they came on. Occasionally we could hear the fawns bleating in a pitiful, complaining way, as if tired or separated from the dams. I counted them as they scattered along the trail, and found that they numbered an even sixty. Now they were directly opposite, and without much ado the leaders marched straight in and waded across. When they had reached the rocks on the near side, I snapped the shutter and caught them strung out clear across the river. (No. 18.) We waited all the day, but no more appeared, so we returned to camp, hungry after our long wait in the cold, to enjoy a hearty supper.

Later in the month I got one more negative in the cedars near home. I had the camera peeping over the top of a cedar about three feet high, the low brush hiding me from sight. A doe and two fawns came leisurely along until within thirty feet, which was as near as I dared allow them. I made a very faint noise, which their big ears caught (No. 23), and they stopped instantly. The shutter snapped, and I cared not then how quickly they fled. A year passed, and with a large camera — 8 by 10 — I again took the trail. Just where it comes across a sage-brush park and skirts some cedars, and then dives into the cedars, I select a place, and on looking up the trail behold a swarm of deer coming over the hill. I must hurry, or they will be here before I am ready. The tripod is up as quick as a wink, and the camera follows, the lens is attached, plate-holder inserted, and, just as I draw the slide, they come out right in front of me, within twenty-five yards. I stand behind the camera, utterly motionless until they have strung out across the view in front, then I whistle sharply. (No. 27.) They are at "attention" instantly. I hear the click of the shutter and know I have them. They look a moment or more, but do not suspect anything dangerous, so they walk on.

Before the last of this bunch was out of sight, another small drove appeared, but farther from me. About the same number were in this bunch, but I could not move without scaring the last of those which had just passed, so had to gaze at them until the last one vanished. I made three more exposures that day on deer, very close, but did not cover the camera when drawing the slides, so of course they were all ruined. The deer were now traveling very thick, so I stationed myself nearer camp where they crossed a deep gulch fringed with heavy sage-brush. This stand had one important drawback, namely, that the deer came directly against the wind, and in spite of my efforts to get far enough to one side, the greater number would scent danger and run back or pass around. For a short time, however, the wind was right for me, and a bunch coming in, I let them approach quite close. Some were down drinking at a spring when I exposed. (No. 30.) The main part of the band was to the left of the view, so close that I could not shift the camera for fear of stampeding them, so I caught only part in the picture.

Copyright, IWW, hy A. G. Wallihan.

This time lie stood facing me.' iDeer 62)

Anxious to try the 8 by 10 camera in Juniper Canon, we moved over and camped at its head. Right near camp one trail crossed, and I spent several nights trying to get flash-light photos of the deer in passage. I made several exposures, but only one was successful. (No. 43.) The night was intensely dark, and to sit on the rocks for hours, with no sound but that of the river or of an occasional owl, was a peculiar sensation. There were fresh mountain-lion tracks along the water's edge, and, indeed, I saw one — a monster — as I went down to the trail one morning about sunrise. He was across the river upon the hillside about a hundred yards distant, walking leisurely to his den, — a cave in the ledges, — where he disappeared for the day. It was necessary to keep very quiet while waiting for the deer, as they would come to the hilltop across the river and stop every few yards, listening for any sign of danger. Then when they reached the river, many would go down-stream too far to reach. One night it was moonlight, and two came across, headed straight for me. I made the flash, but on they came, evidently thinking it was lightning. They came within ten feet, when I moved, so they saw me, and then there was a great splashing of water.