The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-11


stripped Of their buffalo; by striking ten to
twenty miles into the mountains at any
point the sportsman would find abundance
of white and black tail deer; the elk still
loamed over the mountains in large bands:
the parks high up in the hills were filled
with antelopes; the mountain sheep tbig
horns were still u be found on the fiat
tops Of the high mountains; and even an
occasional mountain goat could be shot on
the Hottest and most inaccessible peaks:
while. Of course. then g now, the black
aud the grizzly bear roamed at his sweet
pleasure over mour tain and dale alike.
But T. go still further back: There
came to Colorado in Is 5 an Irish
peer. named Sir George Gore with "a
great retinue Of servants. secretaries. horses,
dog and guns bent upon protractsd
hunt IN the f ecky mountains. Securing
the services Of Jim Bridger, a noted guide
and hunter, lie was led into the region OF
ouadruped game. Sir George posse ssed g
rent roll Of S2uJ.O a year, a magHi ficent
house and estate, with al that vast wealth
aud iord.y position could command Not
content with the ordinary sports
Of his native country, be felt i'm
PEELED - do smething that would
out-nlmrod Nlmrod himself. in
the Untrodden fields Of the new west. where
everything was nude and wild, and where
buffalo and antelope. big horns and deer
boundless plain for the chase. He brought
DO less than fifty servants, scores of dogs,
bundles of fishl8g rods, the latest I'M proved
firearms anu thirty wagons loaded with
commlSsarv stores sufficient for an army
He renamed two years, harraSSed alI the
famous game parks OF the state and most
Of the country between the Platte aud Col
umbia rivers. 1t was from him the Gore
range derived its name Well, the note
book of this unprecedented excursion re-
cords the slaughter Of forty grizzlies,
nearly coo buffAloes. and thousands of
antelope. elk and deer This shows what
could be done IN Colorado in game way
twenty or thirty years ago. and probably
with very much less physical exertlon and
fatigue than much smaller results are
obtained now.
A RECENT HUNTING TRIP.
lam in possession of note book Of
recent hunting trip which will serve to de-
scribe the results that may be reasonably
counted upon in a mordern expedition, and
will show the steady diminution of the
big game. searched and hunted for with
considerable physical fatigue. After mu CHI
study and debate the Cochetopa range,
the widest part of the Rockies, lying across
the great continental divide on the Pacific
slope. was settled upon as offering the great
est inducements in the way of elk and bear.
Indeed, it is hard to find any SPOT in Colo
RADIO where grass grows into which cattle,
sheep and horses have not been punched
by the enterprising cowboy. 1t was said
that Poison gulch, gully where
the poisonous delphinun, or iarkspur, grows
in abundance, acted as the gate TO Cochetopa,
through whose dangerous portals no cow
boy would venture to drive his herd; and
that, therefore. Cochetopa was free from
lowing cattle and ba-ba-lng sheep, sounds
liable 10 disturb the peaceful EXAMINATIONS of
quadruped gamel So TO the point whore
Cochetopa issues from the snowy peaks of
the continental divide was the expedition
pitched. Three days were consumed in
bringing the outfit, which consisted
OF two nimrods and two camp
boys, to the desired spot-days of
hard climbing over mountains that
had no tops peak after peak was always in
reserve) and pralries that had 10 end; but
finally at the mouth of a gulch, where
further progress was impossible to the
camp-wagons, and where a snow-Stream
forced its way down a mighty canyon, the
tents were pitched, and future work was
left to foot or ssddle. Six hundred and
forty miles were traversed in the hunting
and four weeks of time consumed. And
now for the results, as contained in this
veracious notebook. And first, the streams
of Colorado are even yet full of the speckled
trout in spite of irrigation and giant pow
der. Irrigation divides the main streams
into dozens of little branchlets that pour
over the parched fields and carry the young
front down so that you see them floating by
the hundreds over the meadows, where they
perish as soon as the water is sucked up by
the lhirstv ground this is the great cause
of ruin to the trout streams. And then
giant powder used to be the main
article of miners fishing tackle;
a piece Of 1t exploded in a big hole sent the
water sky high, and the dead bodies of the
specklsd beauties, big and little, to the
surface. Irrigation is now legal, but giant
powder In a trout stream is a penitentiary
otfense. High up as the expedition was,
1000 feet in altitude, in sight of snow line,
irrigation didn't operate, so the trout, from
halves to Founders, were plentiful Reach
ing camp by the side of the CochetOpa
creek on Saturday after loon, trout
was vociferously demanded for the
Sabbath menu, SO, while the tents were
being pitched, one man took to the
stream and brought in seventeen. This was
a matter of an hours fishing. When tired
of venison and elk, and fish was demanded
for change, the camp boy could easily
secure twenty-five big fellows by a few
hours fishing. On large occasions, when
company was coming to dinner, or presents
were being exchanged, the two nimrods
turned Isaac Waltons, and by a mornings
whipping of the stream, secured once n
once 6S, once 81, and SO Ga, the largest catch
being ll9. These trout, while none of them
were large enough to fulfill the Puritsn's i'm
precatlon on Isaac Walton
B hold old Isaac with his bated hook
How treacaerously he prowls along the brook.
Avauut! thou wicked man of sin.
May God then grant thee strength thou little
trout.
When he, with cruel haste would pull thee ont
That thou may'st pull him in
they were yet those which would be con-
sidered of respectable size-above the aver
age-in the Adirondacks or Green noun
tains. So much, then. will do for the fishing.
which really was only an incidental feature.
and not the main object of the expedition.
which was-big game.
SOME LITTLE GAME.
OF little game there was more than alum
dance. If one could be content and care
only for the game of the shotgun, such as
doves, ducks, grouse (both sharp-tail and
rutt1edl, prairie chicken, sage hen and quail,
be could find in almost any spot Of the
plains and black timber of the mountains
enough TO fill his bag on any mornings
hunt; for these species have rather in
creased than diminished in the last ten
years. found no one shooting doves: as to
ducks, the ponds were black with them. IT
Icing their breeding season out here:
the little ones could be scared off the water
into the tall grass in brOois of seventy or
eighty at time The grouse were every
where in the open" near the "Guaking
ASH with their VOuner feedjDu and "a bi1a no