Journal kept by Bailey on field trip to Wyoming and New Mexico, March 15-June 1906

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Abstract

This item accompanies the field book contained in Box 2 Folder 3 of the same collection. The journal provides dated narrative entries regarding the activities and events of Bailey's trip to Wyoming and New Mexico to study the methods of exterminating wolves. This research was conducted in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. While the main purpose of Bailey's trip through Wyoming and New Mexico was to study wolves, diary entries also include observations of other species of plants and animals described primarily by their scientific names and occasionally by their common names.

Date Range

1906

Start Date

Mar 15, 1906

End Date

Jun 03, 1906

Access Information

Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu.

Topic

  • Animals
  • Wolves
  • Birds
  • Mammalogy
  • Animal tracks
  • Plants
  • Mammologists
  • Botany
  • Ornithology

Place

  • Silver City
  • United States
  • New Mexico
  • Wyoming
  • Rock Springs
  • Jackson Hole

Form/Genre

  • Fieldbook record
  • Field notes
  • Diary

Accession #

SIA RU007267

Collection name

Vernon Bailey Papers, 1889-1941 and undated, field notes and journals, 1889-1941

Physical Description

1 field book

Physical Location

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Sublocation

Box 2 Folder 4

JOURNAL Vernon Bailey 1906 March 15. Packed up and took midnight train on B. + O. for Opal Wyoming via St. Louis, Kansa City, Denver + Cheyenne to study methods of exterminating wolves. Acting in cooperation with Forest Service. A 3 days snow + rain storm has coered most of the U.S. Beginning to snow as I left Washington. March 16. Woke up near Cumberland, train late. Snowing fast, about 3 inches on ground. About 6 inches at Deer Park. Only about 1 inch at Grafton + the rest of the way to Cincinnati where it got dark.
[[underlined]] Journal [[/underlined]] 2 [[underlined]] March 17. [[/underlined]] Daylight as we came near St. Louis. Cold & clear, snow about one inch. [[?]] ice in river. Arrived St. Louis 7:30 A.M. Left for Kansas City 9 A.M. Warming up. snow disappearing on warm slopes. A few meadowlarks, [[flislars?]] & robins seen. Two bobwhites were very conspicuous standing on snow among weeds under R.R. fence. Stood very still as the train went by. Lots of ducks in Mo. R. but could not identify them. A few gulls seen. Lots of crows. One sparrow hawk. Sparrows in weeds not identified. Reached Kansas City at 5:15 & left at 6:20 on U.P. for Denver. Soon dark. [[underlined]] March 18. [[/underlined]] Woke upon open plains - nothing but snow in sight on all sides. apparently 3 or 4 inches deep - cold, wind blowing, air full of fine snow, blown up from surface, seems like cloud or fog.
[[underline]] 3. Journal [[/underline]] Reached Cheyenne Wells about 8 A.M. for breakfast. A few rabbit & coyote tracks, lots of horned larks. Fences full of tumble weeds. Cattle drifted into humped-up bunches along fence toward wind, hair full of snow, tails to wind, heads down & backs up looks lonely and sad. [[image - ink drawing of cow in position described in previous text]]. Prairie dog holes full of snow but the mounds show plainly. None of the PDs have been out since the snow. No tracks or signs. Lots of [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] [[?]] kills & some pretty fresh ones apparently made while it was snowing. At Kit Carson saw one jack rabbit but was not sure whether [[underline]] campestris [[/underline ]] or [[underline]] melanotis [[/underline]]. It was light but not white & probably was [[underline]] melanotis [[/underline]]. Ran into a weed patch near a ranch & not far from [[brambly?]] [[cottons?]]. Coyotes are reported by the [[?]] as common along here. [[underline]] Hugo - Colorado [[/underline]] - snow getting deeper, 5 or 6 inches on a [[?]] &
[[underline]] 4. Journal [[/underline]] drifted to top of snow fences in places. Air thick with snow. Can't tell whether it is snowing down or blowing up. Horned larks are the only live and happy things to be seen. They run over the snow or snuggle up behind a weed & puff their feathers till they look like snowballs. Lots of flocks, large & small, go bobbing along with a jolly swing to their flight. In every way they seem happy. There is said to be a herd of antelope in the big pasture north of Hugo. The train runs smoothly & noiselessly - with only a muffled purr, there is no dust or dirt. the air outside is purity itself, in the car clean but a little too warm. The car is only half filled, so I have a section to myself. I never enjoyed such luxurious travelling. Just for comfort travel in winter. If you have seen all the country in summer go over it again in winter & you will see a new world.
[[underline]] 5. Journal. [[/underline]] Near Denver a fine old golden eagle sat on the snow fence & quietly watched the train go by. Reached Denver at 1 P.M. an hour & a half late, train doesn't leave till 6:10. Spent several hours trying to find Mr. Woodard, Game Warden, & his attorney Mr. Sackett, [[strikethrough]] but [[/strikethrough]] only & find they were both out of town for several days. Was tired & wet from tramping in the snow & snow drifting inside of my clothes so went back to depot & waited for train. Heard a flock of evening grosbeaks near the capitol, saw lots of Otoeoris & english sparrows in town. Still snowing & blowing when I left Denver at dark
[[underline]] 6. Journal. [[/underline]] [[underline]] March 19. [[underline]] Woke up at Hanna, west of Laramie. Clear & cold. Snow much blown but apparently 8 or 10 inches deep. covers the sage brush in places, all blown off from smooth ground, drifted over fences & rocks. Otoeoris abundant & happy. Cottontail tracks numerous [[underline]] Rawlins [[/underline]] - 7:30 While at breakfast some herds of sheep were passed & many dead sheep seen along fences. Some had been partly eaten. Saw lots of coyote tracks & two coyotes standing 20 rods from R.R. They looked big & fluffy & well fed. One trotted over & began eating a dead sheep. Cotton tails seem happy, sitting on sunny slope in the snow nibbling bushes. They are fluffed up in furry balls. Saw one [[underline]] Lepus Campestris [[/underline]] sitting by a sagebush - looked like a snowball. Saw another running & a good many tracks. Prairie dog mounds are all filled with snow.
7 [[strikethrough]] 8 [[/strikethrough]].[[underline]] Journal. [[/underline]] Creston - Some sheep near station. Wamsutter - About a 100 sheep skins on corral & sheds. Unloading baled hay from cars. Sheep wagons out over valley & teams hauling hay. In next 10 miles, to Red Desert, a dozen herds of sheep seen, apparently 1000 in each, usually a wagon & herder. No shelter, open valley country, wading in snow.
[[underline]] 8. Journal [[/underline]] [[underline]] Rock Springs [[/underline]] - saw the first junipers, a few scrubby trees along high slope south of R.R. Saw Ephedra along base of cliff. Farther along saw several miles of junipers along high cliff on the north nearly to Green River. [[underline]] Eutamias minimus [[/underline]], lots of little tracks, evidently of this little chipmunk along cliffs & ledges between Rock Springs & Green River. Reached Green River at 11 & had to wait till 3 P.M. Went up to store and talked with freighters & sheep men & got some good notes. The river is frozen over & covered with snow. It was 10 below zero here this morning [[strikethrough]] last night [[/strikethrough]] 17 below [[strikethrough]] night before [[/strikethrough]] yesterday morning and 20 below the day before. Otoeoris are very numerous all over town & you almost step on them in the streets. They are also abundant all along the way, often in flocks of 50 or more. Green river is as desolate in winter as in summer. It couldnt be more so.
[[underline]] 9. Journal [[/underline]] Between Green River & Granger saw 2 [[underline]] Falco Mexicanus [[/underline]] and an owl, apparently a short eared flying over the snow at 5PM. Near Granger saw 3 White tailed prairie-dogs out on the snow near their holes & saw several other holes where they had been out. This was near 5P.M. clear & still but no signs of thawing - temperature probably near zero, as was 18 below at Opal this morning. Saw dozens of cottontails sitting on the snow - all seemed to be long eared - probably [[L. baileyi?]]. [[underline]] Opal [[/underline]] Reached Opal at 6P.M. and got my baggage over to little hotel & sorted for starting on stage trip at 8.A.M. Tomorrow for Big Piney and Cora. Road said to be bad & it may take several days to get through. Said to have been 18 below zero here this morning. Clear & beautiful weather.
[[underline ]] 10. Journal [[/underline]] [[underline]] March 20. [[/underline]] Left Opal at 8AM on the Big Piney stage. Clear and cold, 22 below [[strikethrough]] below [[/strikethrough]] zero, snow ranging from 4 to 12 inches, road severely broken & very poor. Climbed to top of mesa and then struck north over open desert slopes. Reached the Graham Ranch at 1:30 - 17 miles - got dinner, changed trains & went on to Fontenelle for the night, 30 miles north of Opal. Opal is 6675 feet, Grahams Ranch 6750, Fontinell 6800. The snow has increased in depth to one and two feet, roads bad. Country barren & sheeped to death. Short sage brush, no grass, no timber in sight except black patches said to be pines on the range of high hills to the west. A few willow bushes along creeks.
[[underline]] 11. Journal. [[/underline]] [[underline]] Cynomys leucurus [[/underline] - Common out on the snow. Said to have been out all the time for 2 weeks & seen on coldest days. Not barking - very tame. 2 killed, both males in fine fur with big bushy pure white tails. Moderately fat, stomachs contained a little yellow vegetation. That seems to be twigs of sage or atriplex or some of the little bushes. [[underline]] Peromyscus [[/underline]]. One caught in road on 2 feet of snow. Tracks seen all along. [[underline]] Citellus elegans [[/underline]] - Said to be common but not out yet. [[underline]] Citelleus t. parvus [[/underline]] - Said to be common but not out yet. [[underline]] Eutamias minimus [[/underline]]. Said to be common but not out yet. [[underline]] Lepus baileyi [[/underline]] - Very abundant, hundreds seen sitting in the snow, often sit within 10 feet as we go by. seen nibbling bush & weed tips, one killed was very poor but very heavily furred. They sit near holes & tracks run into holes & rocks & under snow in sagebrush. Bigelovia eaten.
[[underline]] 12. Journal [[/underline]] [[underline]] Lepus campestris. [[/underline]] Very common & often seen sitting in the snow close by as we passed. Tracks numerous. Most of those seen are gray. One shot pure white. Usually sitting in deep depression so back level with top of snow. They also have burrows deep into snow under the sagebrush. [[underline]] Canis griseus [[/underline]] - pack of apparently 3 or 4 big wolves seen on the ridge a few miles north of Opal - no more seen. Said to be fairly common. [[underline]] Canis latrans nebraremsis [[/underline]] Numerous all the way but most so near the ranches. About 12 seen and numerous tracks. One bunch of 4 seen together. In another place two seen together, one ^[seen] carrying something the size of a jack rabbit & its mate trotting along at a respectful distance on our side. [[underline]] Taxidea taxus [[/underline]] One mound of earth. This [[strikethrough]]?[[/stikethrough]] out before the snow - no fresh tracks - said to kill some lambs & many lambs fall in their burrows & die.
[[underlined]] 13 Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] Lutreola [[lutreocephala?]] [[/underlined]]- Tracks of a large mink are fresh in the snow along the creek at Fontenelle. Mink are said to be common here. [[underlined]] Lutra hudsonica [/underlined]] - Mr. Holden says he has never know of an otter here on Fontenelle Creek but has seen their tracks & slides over on Birch Creek, a few miles north of here. [[underlined]] Lynx baileyi [[/underlined]] - Bobcats are said to be common here and to kill a few sheep.
[[underline]] 14. Journal [[/underline]] [[underline]] Aquila chrysaetos [[/underline]] - At last 6 and probably more golden eagles were seen on the way from Opal & Foutinelle sitting on rocks, bare peaks, telephone poles [[strikethrough]] or on [[/strikethrough]] the snow or flying overhead. They were usually seen in the neighbourhood of prairie dogs and one was eating something on the ground (or snow) that probably was a P.D. Jack rabbits & cottontails & sage grouse were also numerous but the sage grouse seemed to pay no attention to the eagles, which were stupid & seemed to be stuffed full of something. Several let us come close enough for a shot but I only cut a bunch of feathers off of one.
[[underline]] 15 Journal. [[/underline]] [[underline]] Archibuteo s. ferrugineous [[/underline]] - Rough legged hawks were about as common as the eagles & were usually seen in the prairie dog towns. One [[symbol indicating female]] shot [[strikethrough]] lat [[/strikethrough]] at 6P.M. had both stomach & crop stuffed with [[underline]] Cynomys leuceurus [[/underline]] & [[underline]] Lepus baileyi [[/underline]] in about equal quantities. I saw a bunch of sage hens fly up as one of the hawks passed over them, but the hawk paid no attention to them. [[underline]] Centrocercus urophasianus [[/underline]] - Sage grouse are numerous all the way in flocks of 5 to 20. They walk about on top of the snow and can be seen nearly a mile away, look almost as big as coyotes. They are very tame & twice let me photograph them at 40 feet distant. A boy got out of the sleigh & threw stones into the midst of one bunch. [[strikethrough]] but [[/strikethrough]] As the stones
[[underline]] 16. Journal [[/underline]] struck close to them they would raise & spread their tails but would not fly. They were often seen pecking leaves from the bushes & apparently feed exclusively on leaves of sage brush. The excrement lying on the snow is apparently all of one material & smells strongly of sage. The old cocks are in fine plumage. [[underline]] Anas boschas [[/underline]] Mallards were seen flying out of & into holes in the snow at Grahams where a little spring brook keeps open. They are said to stay there all winter. I saw only 3 at a time. Part of the time they were sitting on the snow. [[underline]] Otoearis [[/underline]] A few seen at each of the two ranches, none between. [[underline]] Agelaius phoeniceus [[/underline]] Half a dozen redwings are singing around the ranch at Fontenelle & roosting in the willows.
[[underline]] 17 Journal. [[/underline]] Warmer, 32 above at 7 A.M. minimum thermometer read 18 above. Remained at the ranch, made a pair of skies, skinned hawk & prairie dog & Peromyscus. Talked wolves & other animals with the ranch men & got lots of good notes. In P.M. went 5 or 6 miles over ridges on skies, saw two coyotes together but the snow has settled & they could run on the crust, so I did not follow them. They kept close together & evidently were a pair. A warm west wind has cut the snow down rapidly today & made a fairly good crust.
18. [[underline]] March 22 [[/underline]] 30° above zero at 8 A.M. 10 above by minimum. Clear & pleasant. Started about 8 & reached La Barge at 12 & stopped for dinner, photographed the ranch & valley & a wolf scarecrow on the fence. Several scarecrows of old clothes on a cross pole were [[strikethrough]] put [[/strikethrough]] on the fence and one on the house to keep wolves from the cattle in the pasture. Had a good dinner with a nice Mormon family & started on at 1 oclock. Snowed for an hour or so, having a half inch of fine tracking snow on the crust. Made leather & wooden glasses to protect my eyes from the glare. Saw no game except one P.D. Reached Midway at 5 P.M. & stopped for the night. Have come 24 miles & it is 17 from here to Big Piney. Stopped with Mr. Bird who runs the stage line.
19. Had been in the house only a few minutes when a rosy finch flew in the open door. Mrs. Bird & a boy caught it and put it out the door before I could get more than a glimpse of it. I was provoked that they were in such a hurry, but afterward Mrs. Bird said they had heard that I was collecting specimens and were afraid I would want to kill it. It sat on the bare earth roof of the bunk house & I watched it through the glass at 20 feet as long as I wanted to. Then went out to the barn & found 2 more, male & female, sitting on the poles of the shed roof with feathers fluffed up sunning themselves. The boy said there were big flocks of them down at the straw stack in the pasture where the cattle were fed, & that flocks came around the barn & house. {Next morning found 6 eating seeds out of hay in stack yard. Another on barn at Big Piney , even later in day -23d-
20. I am not sure of the species but the males have dark brown breast blackish forehead and a broad hood of ashy gray covering top & back of head and sides down onto cheeks. The bill is light, whitish or gray. The female is paler. Horned larks are also abundant at the ranches, but not one have we seen between ranches. They are unusually tame here, hardly get out of the path for you to pass. Mrs. Bird is daughter of the Holdens, where I staid yesterday & is typical of the ranch women [[strikethrough]] in [[/strikethrough]] probably 30, naturally strong & fine looking, but tired & worn. Has 5 bouncing children, the oldest a girl of 7 & the youngest about a year. Does all the work & has been washing today. Have 2 or 3 hired
21. men & keeps stage station with usually one or two or three or more [[strikethrough]] to [[/strikethrough]] passengers to meals & to stay over night. The snow has settled so the sage brush comes up through it in places. Both [[underline]] Artemisia tridentata [[/underline]] and [[underline]] cana [[/underline]] are fully evergreen as also [[underline]] Atriplex confertifolia [[/underline]]. The tips of [[underline]] Bigelovia [[/underline]] are covered with evergreen bark that the rabbits eat extensively. [[underline]] March 23. [[/underline]] A moderately cold morning, probably about zero. Drove on to Big Piney - 18 miles- and located at hotel. Got mail, wrote letters Warmed up and thawed through middle of day. Saw coyote tracks in pairs 3 or 4 pairs. A big dog at ranch caught a coyote, an old [[symbol for female]] containing 9 half developed embryos. Snow about 2 feet deep.
22. [[underline]] March 24. [[/underline]] Warm & snowing in morning. Bubo hooting, Otoeoris common 6 snow buntings on fence, 2 longspurs, Golden eagle down in pasture & later a rough legged hawk. Started on skies for the hills east of Big Piney, followed 2 coyotes onto the hills & found an old lobo on top of butte. He barked and howled till I was near enough to see his eyes, then I sat on the snow & watched him for half an hour. Saw lots of tracks. Shot 5 jack rabbits for bait. Saw one prairie dog. Cleared off about 10 & warmed up so the snow stuck to my skies & nearly wore out.
[[underlined]] 23 Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] March 25. [[/underlined]]. Sunday. Took a run on skies before breakfast but it was snowing so fast I could not see anything and all the tracks were covered up. Came back and staid in house the rest of day to let my face get well. My nose, ears & lips are badly blistered and swollen from the sun on the snow. Most of the men here wear black [[reile?]] and all are more or less burned. The stage driver's faces are in bad shape. Saw a ^[great northern] shrike & 3 [[funeas?]], the first Ive seen of either.
[[underline]] 24 Journal. [[/underline]] [[underline]] March 26. [[/underline]] Crust hard enough to hold me most of the way. Good for skies. Started right after breakfast & did not get back till 5 P.M. Went over the buttes east of Piney, then across Green River and back several miles over the high mesa. Found my lobo at his old quarters and followed him around for some time at moderate rifle range. He trotted around watching me & following me when I got out of sight. I left him on the next ridge but found his track with that of a mate going to the butte where he started, which probably means
25 a pair and a litter of pups. [[strikethrough]] Saw one coyote [[/strikethrough]] Found fresh droppings on their trail made up of jack rabbit fur & bones & teeth. Saw one coyote & many tracks, mostly in pairs. Followed 4 fresh coyote tracks & a Lynx track as long as they went my way, then as I turned back homeward saw the Lynx under a tree & shot him. He had eaten a jack rabbit and I found the fur of a cottontail that he had made a previous meal on. Saw one lepus [[baileyi?]] and lots of campestris. Lots of old & one fresh [[?]] kills on the mesa where the snow has blown off. Saw old but no fresh porcupine [[growings?]] on the [[?]] [[?]],
26. which is coming along the high cliffs across Green River. Saw 9 Rough legged hawks, that were feeding on the jack rabbits I had shot for coyote bait. Saw 2 golden eagles, heard sparrow hawks in the cottonwoods, lots of magpies, saw 2 ravens, lots of bluebirds (aretica) 2 redwing blackbirds at the ranch, lots of Otoeoris. Found plenty of sage grouse tracks & one sage grouse that had been eaten all but its feathers & crop had the crop enormously distended with leaves of Artemisia tridentata & nothing else. Was as large as my two fists. Saw numerous badger tracks, the first I have seen on the snow. Saw plenty of prairie dogs and heard them bark as usual.
[[underline]] 27. Journal [[/underline]] [[underline]] March 27. [[/underline]] Went up to Mr. Blades place & got some wolf bait for scenting traps, then to Mr. Swans & got the forequarters of a dead horse & hauled it over east of Piney where the wolves are & left it on the mesa & a piece on the river flats. Saw fresh wolf tracks & 3 coyotes [[strikethrough]] if they were not wolves. [[/strikethrough]] Saw 5 meadow larks & heard them sing - the first. Saw plenty of rough leg hawks. Did no hunting.
[[underline]] 28. March 28. [[/underline]] Went on skies to my wolf bait and found where both coyotes & lobos had circled around it at a distance but of course had not touched it. Went quarter of a mile from it & began putting out poisoned baits, along general runways where the coyotes & wolves pass from one ridge to another or along the crest of the highest ridge. Carried slices of the horse's heart & without touching it cut a hole into each piece & put a [[underline]] sure death capsule [[/underline]] into it, then buried it in the snow. Put Galloway's wolf decoy on sagebrush, not near but between the poisoned baits.
29 Put out 6 poisons along a line of a mile in length. Where the 2 lobos cross the ridge I put 2 poisons about 20 rods apart so each can have one. Didn't set any traps. One experiment at a time is enough & this is the best one. Didn't work my baits but can find them all if it doesn't snow. Didn't have any red cloth along to mask them with but have some my pocket now. One of the lobo tracks is much longer than the other. Most of the pairs of coyote tracks are too. I kept well back & did not [[scare?]] up the lobo, but heard him howl. Saw 2 big coyotes & heard others
30. Killed only a cottontail, [[underline]] L. baileyi [[/underline]] which I intended to make up, but a cat got it in my room and spoiled it. I skinned it to eat and was going to save the skull, but laid it down while I carried in the meat & as I turned around a stray gray hound grabbed the head & ran. Got back at 1P.M. & didn't go out again. Wrote on my reports which I keep bringing up to date as fast as I can. Got my poison & bait from the Northwestern Hide & Fur Co. but my castoreum from St. Louis has not come. A cold morning but warm day & thawing fast in P.M. Snow about a foot deep. Bare patches coming through on ridges & sidehills.
[[underlined]] 30 \2/ Journal. [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] March 29. [[/underlined]] Found one of my baits gone and coyote tracks around where it had been but no dead coyotes. This was one of McCalls sure death capsules in a piece of horse heart. The coyotes dug up and ate the remains of a sage grouse & cottontail that had been partly eating before, and came to about 20 feet of my horse meat. Saw 4 sitting on the side hill & [[strikethrough]] my [[/strikethrough]] when my friend the lobo trotted into the bunch they scattered & gave him plenty of room but barked & howled at him and in concert with him. Found an old dead horse that the coyotes & lobos have been feeding on for a long time.
31. The coyotes had eaten some of my jack rabbits and scattered the fur around. Shot another jack & left him on the ice. The creeks are all running and the water spreads out over the flats, making a good deal of ice. The river has not yet begun to rise over the ice & the best roads are on the river. [[underlined]] March 30 [[/underlined]] - Got up early & started to my baits before daylight while the crust was hard & the glare on the snow less severe on the eyes. Got back at 8 oclock for breakfast after an 8 mile run. Found only one bait gone & it was taken by a hawk or raven. Plenty of fresh lobo & coyote tracks. One of my eyes has become inflamed so I have to stay in during the day & can not write or read much.
[[underlined]] 32 Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] March 31 [[/underlined]] - Started before daylight for my line of wolf baits but found none of them touched. Put out more and used McCalls Decoy. Found my old lobo at his regular stand on the point of mesa above the gulch where the den is. He loaped away & howled to get me to follow him off. Found lots of coyote tracks but they had not been nearer than 10 feet of my horse bait. Heard wild geese - the first, and killdeer. Saw redtailed hawk, the first I have seen but one was killed 2 days ago & brought in. Meadowlarks are abundant & singing over the bare patches where the cattle have been fed.
33. Sage grouse were strutting & crowing on the crest soon after sunrise. I could hear only a chuckle, somewhat like that of a sharp tailed grouse, but suspect they have not got fairly started, as this is the first time I have seen them even strutting. About an hour after sunrise I saw ten on top of a ridge against the sky & thought it was a drove of horses, but the glass showed sage grouse. These were part cocks & part hens and on another ridge not far away was one old cock with 2 hens. He was spreading & strutting to "bust" but the 2 hens paid no attention to him. He would stand up straight, erect & spread his tail to a wheel, ^[drag his wings], raise
[[image - pencil drawing of male sage grouse strutting]]
34 his side crests, puff out his big white muffler, bring his head back till nearly touching his tail, then make a pumping motion with his neck & emit a chuckling sound. His strutting was much like that of a gobbler. [[image - pen sketch of a male grouse strutting as two female grouse look on]] This one with the 2 hens was the best, but several in the other flock were going through the same antics. I have found where 2 sage hens were eaten by coyotes. Both had crops stuffed with leaves of A. tridentata.
[[underline]] 35 Journal [[/underline]] [[underline]] April 1 [[/underline]] - started before daylight in a snowstorm, but warm & no crust & bad snowskeing. Went to my wolf den for the fist time and for the fist time saw Mrs. Lobo as she sneaked out and glided over the ridges out of sight. Mr. Lobo was as usual on his butte, doing picket duty & he evidently warned her as she was out watching & they sneaked off in the same line, around the sides of the badland slope, not over the top of the mesa as he usually does. I found the baby wolves in a little cave back 4 or 5 feet under a shelf of sandstone & in easy reach of my arm by poking my head into the cave. They were
36. whimpering & crying at being left by their mother, or else at the sound of my footsteps which they mistook for their mothers. They were in plain view and [[strikethrough]] there [[/strikethrough]] were piled up, about half a bushel of them, of the size of prairie dogs. There were nine - as many as I could count [[strikethrough]] fully [[/strikethrough]] funny little puppies with their eyes just open, almost black in colour tho both parents are light gray. I left them undisturbed and set traps for the old wolves. Photographed the den & the gulch & tracks. Well worn trails follow the ridges out onto the mesa & the place could easily [[strikethrough]] by [[/strikethrough]] be found even if there was no snow.
[[underline]] 37. Journal [[/underline]] [[underline]] April 3. [[/underline]] Started at daylight taking E.C Carrington, a forest ranger with me. Went to the wolf den that the old wolves had not gone to the den or near the traps. Stationed Carrington on a line of buttes with a rifle & tried to drive the wolves to him but the evidently knew he was there & would not drive. I followed them for miles but they kept well out of reach. Would stop and sit down and howl when they got well ahead. They went our way so we followed them over to the antelope country about 6 miles east of their den & then gave
37. Remains of food, mainly jack rabbits & cottontails are scattered over the snow banks in front of the den and half a cottontail was in the den with the cubs. A piece of skull of a young [[strikethrough]] animal [[/strikethrough]] calf, freshly killed was lying just below. [[strikethrough]] It seemed to be a young sheep or antelope, & in this case must have been brought 6 or 8 miles. [[/strikethrough]] The question comes up whether the male has been bringing food to his wife while the puppies were small and I am inclined to believe he has. He has certainly for the past 9 days that I have know him been a very watchful parent & has risked his life many times to draw me away and has even thought strongly
38. of eating me up to get rid of me. I hate to kill them, but may not be able to as they have refused all of my baits so far, & paid little attention to the scents used. Will probably catch the female but have little expectation of getting the male. Mr. Charles Budd telephoned down yesterday that he had caught 10 young wolves & had 4 of them alive. I heard that there were 2 old wolves which they did not get but will find out the details later. [[underline]] April 2 [[/underline]] The wolves came back near the den but did not go to it. Will have the traps out another night & see if I do not catch one or both.
38. then up and followed the tracks of about 20 or 30 antelope for a long distances over the ridges to see if any had been killed by the wolves. Found no signs of dead antelope, but a [[strikethrough]] skul [[/strikethrough]] piece of skull picked up at the wolf den looks like that of a very young antelope [[underline]] but [[/underline]] proves to be a calf. The antelopes follow bare slopes of ridges, but go across snow country, wading when it is thawed or going on the crust when it is frozen. They can get plenty of grass. Saw two very large coyotes & lots of tracks. Saw 3 ravens, one eagle, lots of sage grouse, some jack rabbits & many Cynomys.
39. Bought home 7 of the wolf pups, left 2 in den to try and catch the old one. Photographed them all at den. The old one had not been to them for 2 days & nights & they were very hungry. We fed them milk & they ate ravenously & went to sleep in their barrel with a gunny-sack for a bed. We were pretty tired after a 20 mile run on skies, but for most of the time the crust was good. Stopped at noon & built a fire of sage brush & melted the candle grease on the skies to make them slip. They ran much easier for it. Had some good long slides. Saw the first [[underline]] Eutamias minimus [[/underline]] I have seen. It was on the nodes near the wolf den.
40. [[underlined]] April 4. [[/underlined]] Went to my wolf den but the old wolves had not come to the young, tho tracks were all around near the den. Fed the young milk from a bottle & put them back. Put strychnine in 6 pieces of cottontail & placed them around where the wolves came. Photographed tracks of lobo, coyote, jack rabbit & sage grouse. Saw the first tracks of a Citellus(probably elegans) that I have been sure of. Saw a fine male marsh hawk & a rough leg. Saw a tiny weasel track that must be of a P. rixosus - Sent expenses account & wrote Pinchot & other letters. A cold morning & bright warm day; thawing fast.
[[underlined]] 40 Journal [[underlined]] [[underlined]] April 6 [[/underlined]] - Took up my line of poisoned baits and put them on the creek so they will wash away as soon as the ice breaks. Meanwhile they may get a coyote. The lobos had not been back to their den. Saw a few [[underlined]] Citellus elegans [[/underlined]] out on the snow. Caught one and made it up. Made up the ^ [northern] shrike I killed yesterday & found a [[underlined]] peromyscus [[/underlined]] in its stomach. It was shot soon after sunrise in the morning & had eaten nothing else. Packed up some specimens & got ready to leave on stage in morning for Cora & Pinedale. A cold morning & hard crust. Thawed rapidly during day.
[[underlined]] 41 Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] April 7 [[/underlined]] - Left Big Piney on the stage about 11 A.M. and reached Cora at dark, then drove down to Pinedale and had a 10 oclock supper. A very chilly wind blew most of the P.M. - it was cold in evening. Roads bad most of way and slow travelling. Saw little sign of game, some old wolf tracks, plenty of sage grouse in fine long plumes, lots of prairie dogs & some C. elegans. Saw one sharptailed grouse along the creek a Burns, lots of old hawk & blue heron nest in the cottonwood trees along the river [[strikethrough]] at [[/strikethrough]] where we crossed at Burns. The snow was soft and thawing fast most of the way and fresh tracks did not show. Some old wolf tracks seen. Snow about a foot deep on starting but full 2 feet deep on an average between Burns & Cora and down the New Fork Valley to Pinedale. This is a broad willow valley with numerous ranches & lots of hay. Burns is a miserable little ranch.
[[underlined]] 42 [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] April 8 [[/underlined]] - Woke up late Sunday morning ^ [at Pinedale] & had breakfast at 8, after refusing a cordial invitation to go over to the saloon & take a drink with the proprietor, Mr. Rede, and chief ranger Gro. Glover. Took a walk the whole length of Main St. instead and sized up the town. On one side of the street a log residence, the hotel (part boards), the printing office, Woodmans Hall (both log) and school house. On the other side of the street a saloon, a residence & the store. But the log houses are well built, & the town has a beautiful location at the edge of broad valley close to Pine Creek and at edge of a long strip of murry pine that follows down the creek bottoms from the Mts. The creek is a beautiful stream, drawing Fremont lake with unlimited supply of water and power. It has approximately more than 100 feet fall in the 3 miles from the lake to town. Large [[ditches?]] have been taken out & carried over beautiful sage brush mesas of good soil. Good grass &
[[underlined]] 43. [[/underlined]] hardy crops do well but it is close to edge of Canadian zone, as shown by P. murryana & Populus tremuloides along the stream. The barometer read only a hundred feet higher than at Big Piney, making it approximately 7200 feet. The ranchers depend mainly on cattle & these have to be fed hay for a large part of the winter. Still enormous quantities of good wild hay is cut along the valley & cattle look well. Just back of Pinedale the foothill ridges begin, steep boulder heaped morains with 2 lines of direction, the lower parallel with the valley, the higher plowed out of the canyons at right angles to it. Back of these the Windriver Mts. rise steep and grand, far above timberline with a broad black belt of timbers along the side the middle slope. Fremont Peak, the highest in the range is a little to the north. Had a talk with Mr Brandon, secretary of the wolf bounty association & Geo. [[abbr. for George]] Glover, chairman then went over & talked with Zeph Jones.
44. Supervisor, who wants the forest service to pay a bounty on wolves on the reserves. Geo. Glover know where young wolves were caught last year in Soda Lake basin so I persuaded him to go there with me tomorrow & secured a team to take us to his ranch tonight, a mile N.E. of Cora. Got to the ranch a little before dark & planned for an early start in the morning. [[underline]] April 9 [[/underline]] Had breakfast at 4 and started before daylight with skies & snowshoes on a hard crust that held us perfectly. Struck a fresh wolf track about a mile from the ranch heading for Soda Lake basin. [[strikethrough]] and cam [[/strikethrough]] The wolf was carrying something that dragged on the snow and making a bee line. We followed the track past Soda Lake into a rough basin of glacial dump near the N.E corner of Fremont Lake & found the den of 8 pups under a huge boulder half way up a steep, warm south slope ^[in Bastard Basin] where the
[[underlined]] 45. [[/underlined]] snow had been gone for some time & the ground was dry & grass starting. We had no trouble in locating the den by the numerous tracks on the bare ground, but both old wolves had seen us come over the ridge and skipped out before we saw them. Their tracks went off side by side over the snow toward the head of Fremont Lake. The den was a natural cavity under two rocks as big as a small house. It was a flat & wide cavity but not deep enough for me to crawl in until we dug a new entrance at back of rock & enlarged it by scraping out dirt till I could squeeze in flat ways. The pups were back in the far corner packed in a shallow plane & with the candle I cold see their eyes shine - & [[strikethrough]] be [[/strikethrough]] could hear them growl & snarl. By stretching I reached the hind foot of one & pulled him out till I could let go and grab his neck. Then passed him
[[underlined]] 46 [[/underlined]]. out to Glover who killed him. The next one was a scrapper & got me by the thumb & nearly made holes through my buckskin gloves before I could get him by the neck. Two others got hold of my hand & bit pretty hard but did not get through the glove. Their little teeth are very sharp & pretty long, but the muscles of their jaws are not very strong. They were the size of big cats & later were found to weigh 6 1/4 lbs to about 7 lbs apiece. Were probably 6 weeks old at best. We each took 4 on our backs & started for Pinedale. Had come about 8 miles in finding the den & it was about 11 to Pinedale so we started went there with them. Struck out Fremont Lake & made a sledge of my skies & trotted down the lake on the ice about 6 miles then had 3 miles of rough ridges, soft snow & slow hard work to town. Got in a 3 P.M. skinned 4 of the wolves & started back to ranch with mail carrier part way. Walked about 2 miles.
47. Fremont lake is a glacial trough one to 2 miles wide & 12 miles long, reaching back into the Mts. between great lateral morains 1000 feet high in places & farther back with rock walls. It offers superb camping grounds toward the upper end. Elk tracks were fresh all around the wolf den and Glover showed me [[strikethrough]] base [[/strikethrough]] steep rocky slopes on both sides of the lake where elk winter and find good feed out of reach of stock. The grass on these steep slopes of morains was abundant and is [[strikethrough]] already [[/strikethrough]] becoming green from this years growth. A few bones in the wolf den may have been of elk, but the hair composing the old wolf droppings seemed all to be of horses & cattle. The old wolf caught & ate a rough grouse on her way in to the den. She had eaten a jack rabbit on the trail at a previous meal. Some old feathers of a bluegrouse were found in the den.
48. As we came near Pinedale, very tired from our loads of wolves & sat down on a stone to rest. Glover remarked that he was sorry I didn't drink, because if I did we'd have a "half of a drink of whisky when we got in". He did have with the rest of the boys while I was skinning my wolves. [[underlined]] April 10 [[/underlined]] - Started from Glovers ranch, near Cora, at sunrise on a hard crust (too hard for good tracking), picked up Mr. Borum, another ranger at Bennings ranch - 3 miles above - & went up to the sawmill 15 miles north of Cora on Willow Creek. Here the rangers have a cabin in the aspens & murry pines on the side of the mts. with a beautiful body of timber around them. The cabin is just within the lower edge of the timber which extends back up the slope in a dense growth of Murry Pine scattered P. flexilis , Pseudotsuga, Pinea pungens, Abies concolor ? & aspens
[[underlined]] 49 [[/underlined]] The snow measured 29 inches in the woods at the cabin and the crust held all day under the trees. Found lots of Pine squirrels but no chipmunks out. Porcupines have gnawed and seriously injured or killed thousands of trees of P. murryana. Snowshoe rabbit tracks were common. Old beaver dams were numerous, we counted 12 dams in succession within 300 yards along Willow Creek. Flying squirrels are said to be common. Several [[underlined]] Peromyscus Leucopus [[/underlined]] were caught in the camp bed where they had cut the blankets into mats besides cutting a big hole in the flour sack. A Lynx canadensis had crossed the meadow just above camp the day before. Coyote tracks are common & the coyotes were howling above camp in the evening, a fine serenade. Mr. Glover estimates 125 to 150 Marten caught in the range during the winter & Mr. Benins at Cora says he has sold about 2000 dollars worth of Marten fur this season, also a few cross & red foxes. Went to bed under a load of blankets after a good camp supper of potatoes, beans, bacon, biscuits & coffee.
[[underline]] 50 [[/underline]] [[underline]] April 11 [[/underline]] - Got up before daylight & found half an inch of fresh snow but much to our disappointment found [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] it had not frozen & the old snow was ^[too] soft for good snowshoeing. The rangers decided not to leave camp so I started alone for Alexanders ranch, over on Green River. 6 miles N.W. found it slow travelling & reached the ranch about 10 A.M. Staid to dinner & talked wolves & examined 3 beautiful kins the boys had taken during the winter. They had followed them up & and had shot them, but at Charles & Frank Alexanders ranches lower down the valley I found 5 more [[strikethrough]] wolf [[/strikethrough]] skins of wolves shot or run down on horses. Unlike most of the ranchers the Alexander boys are energetic, intelligent fellows & they get more wolves than any one else in the country. The old people at the upper ranch are fine types of intelligent frontier people. Their youngest son, Will, is still with them. The boys have lots of fine photos & many interesting specimens of heads & skins.
[[underlined]] 51 [[/underlined]] Bought 2 wolf & a panther skin of Frank Alexander & started from his place to Cora - 7 miles - on foot with about 40 lbs on my back besides gun & skies. The snow was so soft I could scarcely use the skies & followed an old sleigh track on foot most of the way down to the Clarks ranch. There got a boy to take me the remaining 5 miles to Cora on horseback with my packs. Reached Cora at 8 P.M. tired & chilly & went to bed at the little ranch hotel. A hard days work, but I learned much of wolves & wolf hunting, got some good specimens saw a lot of interesting county, met several well informed people and consider the day well spent. [[underlined]] April 12 [[/underlined]] - took stage at 7 A.M for Big Piney & arrived there at 4 p.m. Roads bad, Green river high, a cold wind blew all day, got chilly. used wagon for last 8 miles. Found lots of mail at Big Piney.
[[underlined]] 52 Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] April 12 [[/underlined]] - Visited my wolf den and found fresh tracks near it but the den had not been entered nor the trap touched. The snow is nearly gone here now so I go on horseback instead of skies. Ducks and geese are numerous. Saw a pair of Mountain Plovers & killed one. [[underlined]] April 13 [[/underlined]] - Rode horse & went over into dry Piney Basin but found no tracks of wolves. Saw 118 antelope in one bunch and another small herd of 6 or 8. Saw a big [[underlined]] Lynx baileyi [[/underlined]] & got 3 [[underlined]] Eutamias minimus [[/underlined]]. Ground wet & muddy except on dry south slopes. Travelling slow & hard. Grass starting on warm slopes & stock is being turned out.
[[underlined]] 53 Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] April 15 [[/underlined]] - Sunday - Wrote reports and packed up part of my specimens. [[underlined]] April 16 [[/underlined]] - Finished packing and my normal report. Took stage for Opal at 3 P.M. and came as far as Birds ranch near Midway - 12 miles. Ground drying off rapidly & roads good. Snow on the north slopes only. Lots of Citellus elegans out. Shot 3 for the wolf pups, also shot a big white jack rabbit. [[underlined]] April 17 [[/underlined]] - Reached La Barge at 9:30 but the trapper I wanted to see, Hal Gibbs, was 8 miles up the creek so I decided to lay over a day & try to get beaver castor from him. Got a horse & started
54. for Gibb's camp but met him about a mile from the ranch. He was on his way down to a beaver trap and agreed to send me the castor if he caught it and sent it up before dark In afternoon I went back 3 miles on the stage road to try and get photograph of a flock of about a dozen sage grouse seen crowing on a flat as we came by in the morning but they had gone. It was interesting to watch the old males puff up their big white mufflers spread their tail and drag their wings and then get down on their crop & slide. I could have no sound at a distance of 40 rods.
55. Saw lots of sawbills & mallards & 3 female buffleheads on La Barge. Saw two antelope halfway from Midway to La Barge. Gibbs says there are more beaver on South Piney than on La Barge Creek. He is catching them right along and is going to South Piney soon to trap for them. Found a few Betula occidentala among the willows on La Barge cr. Artemesia tridentata - cana, arbuscula & pedatifida are common. Tetradymia spineseus, Atriplex confertifolia, nuttalli, and Grayia? grow on south slopes. Sarcobatus is the principal alkali valley plant. The meadows are largely salt grass & tuli.
56. [[underlined]] April 18 [[/underlined] - Stage came along at 9 and put me at Fontenelle at 12. Shot 2 chipmunks & a lepus baileyi & a prairie dog. Left Fontenelle at 1 P.M. & reached Opal at sundown. Roads good but a chilly wind blowing. Got 3 prairie dogs & killed others that slid down the burrows. Country alive with sheep, saw numerous large herds and sheep wagons dot the valleys. The ground is eaten and trampled bare and most of the bushes eaten except sagebrush. Grass is just beginning to start. About 10 percent of the sheep were lost during the late storm. Hay or grain was fed where ever it could be procured.
57. Used up the forenoon boxing and shipping my young wolves & other specimens, writing a few letters & talking with the ranchmen. In P.M. got a saddle horse and followed the long mesa east of Opal, looking for wolf tracks. Found none but found two dens of young coyotes, which I did no disturb as I had no shovel. Saw both old coyotes at one den and fresh tracks of both at the other. One was carrying a muskrat which it dropped and I skinned. It was a [[symbol for female]], not yet with young & must have been caught in Hams Fork, 2 or 3 miles distant. Could tell long before I reached a den by the abundance of tracks of coyotes.
58. Found fresh tracks of 5 or 6 deer along the foot of the mesa slope. Saw lots of Lynx tracks & some in caves, where the lynx are probably breeding. The slope is steep and full of holes & hollows and caves. It is a typical badland slope, bare & either adobe or sandstone. The mesa is 200 or 300 feet high and extends for many miles. I followed about 5 miles and hope to go farther tomorrow. Saw one jack rabbit, still mainly white, but turning yellow to match the soil. Saw great numbers of Lepus baileyi both along the cliff and out in the sagebrush where they run to badger holes. Saw lots of Eutamias minimus & a few Citellus elegans, some prairie dog holes, lots of gopher hills, plenty of [[Zeanona?]] nests in cliffs. Saw 4 Sayornis, the first.
[[underlined]] 59. Journal [[/underlined]] April 20. Took a team and driver & went after my coyotes. Crawled into the first den without digging at all but found only 2 young. They were back about 12 feet in a hole washed out of the side of a badland butte, were on a bed of soft sand. Their eyes were not yet open & they probably were a week old. I think the old coyote had taken away the rest of the pups after I scared her out of the den the night before. Photographed the den & the pups & the side hill. Then went to the other den and had to dig a hole through the side of the bank to get in.
66. Found 5 pups back at end of a badgers hold in a sand bed. Opened the hole so I could crawl in my length and reach them. They did not try to bite tho probably a month old, with teeth coming through & bright eyes. I photographed them & the den. Made specimens of the two little ones & 2 of the larger litter. Kept three alive to send to the zoo. Got back at 1P.M. & then hunted chipmunks. Killed a few & also found a colony of [[underline]] Citellus [[armotus?]] [[/underline]] on the meadow. C. elegans is abundant on the uplands, just as I found them at Ft. Bridges in 1888.
61. [[underline]] April 21. [[/underline]] Shipped my young coyotes and made up skins. In P.M. went down by the river & shot a muskrat & caught a [[underline]] [[Thouomysocapus?]] [[/underline]] both good specimens to have. [[underline]] April 22 [[/underline]] - Packed up box of 20 coyote skulls, box of specimens, roll of skins, box of cactus & mailed reports & 2 doz negatives. Packed my baggage & took train at 12:40 for Green River. Got there at 3 & started after topotypes of Eutamias minimus - Got 5, but found them scarce & wild. Country very barren & eaten up by sheep. Nothing left for chipmunks.
62. Journal [[underline]] April 23 [[/underline]] Woke up in the Ferris Hotel at [[Roseline?]] & found myself in very comfortable quarters. Made up my 5 chipmunks, pinned them down in a box and nailed them. Wrote Green River Valley [[bird?]] report, letters and journal notes up to date, got ammunition, negatives and supplies for the trip, sorted ^ [baggage] and packed my duffle bag ready to take the stage for Lander in the morning. [[underline]] April 24 [[/underline]] Left Rawlins at 7:30A.M. on a cold, wet, windy morning and drove 45 miles over sage plains long ridges and alkaline lake basins to Lost Soldier, the stage station at the base of the Lost Soldier Mts., or Green Mts., at 5 oclock. Changed horses twice and got dinner at a state station. Passed only one poor ranch, but many sheep wagons with herds of sheep.
63. At Lost Soldier we changed horses & started without waiting for supper. Climbed up a long slope & in about 9 miles crossed the summit of the [[strikethrough]] divide [[/strikethrough]] range in a low pass not 1000 feet above the plain. No timber except a few scrubby junipers and on rock rims a few [[underlined]] Pinus flexilis [[/underlined]], but the Ferris & Seminole Mts., to the east are covered with black, solid forest that ought to be worked. Went through Crooks Pass. Changed horses and got a cold supper at Burnt Ranch ([[Rongis ?]]) at 10 P.M. Continued down grade till we struck the Sweetwater River and followed up it to Myersville where we changed horses & drivers. the next morning at daylight. A chilly nights ride. Frosty morning.
64. [[underlined]] April 25 [[/underlined]] Left Myersville at sunrise on a frosty, cold, raw, windy morning and after crossing the river climbed steadily up grade till we reached the top of Beaver Hill, where a fierce wind swept us from the snow covered Wind River Mts. and where patches of old snow were still lying on cold or drifted slopes. Then down a steep slope of 300 or 400 feet & warmer valleys below and at 8AM reached Hailey, on Beaver creek where we got breakfast at the ranch post office & "road house". A good breakfast & a good ranch. Then we crossed ridge after ridge & valley after valley till we reached Lander at 5 P.M., each valley getting lower and greener as we descend into the Wind River Valley and occupied by good little ranches.
65. From Hailey to Lander junipers cover the rocky rims of the valleys in places mixed with [[underlined]] Pinus flexilis [[/underlined]] on north rims. A few cottonwoods & many willows grow along the streams and good crops are raised including grains, vegetables and some varieties of apples on ranches where trees have been put out. Grass & alfalfa are getting well up so the meadows are green and the [[strikethrough]] wild [[/strikethrough]] bush grass is up big enough for a good bite by cows or horses. A few flowers are out mainly [[underlined]] Phlox longifolia [[/underlined]] in little white cushions, a little yellow [[underlined]] Cymopterus [[/underlined]], a few [[underlined]] Viola nuttallii [[/underlined]], and that is about all. Sage brush is almost a tree along the creek valleys, often 8 feet high. The soil is good and streams for irrigation numerous & full of snow water.
66. I should place the valleys around Lander as Transition with probably a trace of upper Sonoran on warm slopes, but our notes for 1894 will give a better index to zones & plants than I can get now. Went to Fremont Hotel and spent the evening discussing wolf and game problems with Mr K .C Nowlin, state game warden. [[underlined]] April 26 [[/underlined]] - Snowing fast when I woke up at 7, & snowed most of forenoon till 2 inches lay on the ground. Then got warmer & all melted leaving mud & slush. Was hoping for a tracking snow but did not get it. Wrote notes & letters & talked wolves & game protection with Mr. Knowlin & arranged for team to start for Circle in morning.
[[underlined]] 67. Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] April 27 [[/underlined]] Got a team & man and left Lander at 7 A.M. for Circle - 75 miles up the Wind River. Found the roads so muddy and sticky that we could only walk the team and did not reach Ft. Washakie till noon - 16 miles. Lunched by the river & went on with better roads, patches of sandy soil, and the mud drying up. Crossed several broad, smooth mesas and interesting valleys of scattered sage brush, good soil and abundant grass. Much country that is readily put under irrigation, while the water supply is going to waste. Finally pitched down a long hill into Wind River Valley just below Bull Lake, and instead of stopping at the Stagnes Ranch on the River, followed 10 miles farther up the valley to the J.K. Ranch for night.
68. Found a nice place to stay with the Kirklands. Came 45 miles, over open country with little of interest to be seen. Was pleased to find that only that part of the Shoshone 2nd Res. north of Wind River is to opened for settlement. This is the poorest part, including the Owl Mts. and rough country generally while that remaining is beautiful grazing & farming land. Far more than the indians can use. The broad valley at Washakie is scattered over with tepes, and some indian or halfbreed ranches occupy the best part of the Wind River Valley. The J K Ranch where we stop for the night is leased from the son of Old Chief Washakie & is one of the best ranches on the river, with extensive meadowland, good flats for irrigation, and the best of grazing "benchland" on both sides of the river.
69. [[underlined]] Zones [[/underlined]] - Apparently the whole country travelled from Lander to the J.K Ranch is Transition zone. Sagebrush & Sarcobatus are the dominant plains plants while along the streams Populus angustifolia, Salix (of many species), Betula occidentala, Shepherdia argentea, Ribes d. irrigeum ?, Clematis, Rosa etc are the common vegetation. [[strikethrough]] Near Lander [[/strikethrough]] There seems to be nothing to suggest upper Sonoran except junipers along the cliffs and these are mixed with Pinus flexilis and farther up the river extend to and among the aspens, indicating a transition zone species. Nor do any Canadian zone species come down into this part of the valley, even on north slopes. At Lander most of the ordinary garden vegetables are raised and there is at best one good bearing apple orchard.
70. [[underlined]] Birds [[/underlined]] - [[underlined]] Parus a. septentrionalis [[/underlined]], saw two in the willows near Lander, Pica p. hudsonia, common along all the streams. [[underlined]] Agelaius phoeniceus [[/underlined]], common at Lander + Ft. Washakie. Near the port a thick bunch of Bull berry bushes was alive and squawking with [[underlined]] redwings [[/underlined]], [[underlined]] yellowheads [[/underlined]], [[undderlined]] brewers [[/underlined]], [[/underlined]] and [[underlined]] cowbirds [[/underlined]]. [[underlined]] Sturnella m. neglecta [[/underlined]], meadowlarks are abundant on the bottom lands and often seen or heard out in the sagebrush. [[underlined]] [[Pooceets q. conpius?]] [[/underlined]] a few grassfinches seen all along. [[underlined]] Junco [[/underlined]] common in brushy places. [[underlined]] Corvus amerieanus [[/underlined]], a few crows were seen at Ft. Washakie and others along Wind River. [[underlined]] Falco sparverius [[/underlined]], common all along. [[underlined]] Ceryle alcyon [[/underlined]], are seen by the creek at Ft. Washakie, ^[the first seen.] [[underlined]] Anthus ludovieianus [[/underlined]], two were seen at Ft. Washakie, the first I have seen this year. [[underlined]] Colaptes c. collaris [[/underlined]], a few seen along Wind River. [[underlined]] Merula m. propinqua [[/underlined]], common along Wind River. [[underlined]] Myadestes townsendi [[/underlined]], one seen at Wind River - the first of the season.
71. [[underlined]] Mammals [[/underlined]] - [[underlined]] Eutamias minimus [[/underlined]] - One seen at Bull Lake Creek was the pale, yellow tailed form, quite different from the Green River City species. [[underlined]] Citellus t. pallidus [[/underlined]], a little striped groundsquirrel on the plot near Lander was very pale and small. - possibly a [[underlined]] Parvus Thomomys [[/underlined]], gopher hills are scattered here & there all along, both on the mesa & on the creek bottoms. [[underlined]] lepus baileyi [[/underlined]] - A few long eared cottontails were seen. [[underlined]] Cynomys leucurus [[/underlined]], a few prairie dogs were seen but they are rather scarce. [[underlined]] Citellus elegans [[/underlined]], a few seen near Lander & Washakie. [[underlined]] Fiber zibethicus [[/underlined]] - a muskrat house stands in a pond near the Indian Agency.
72. [[underline]] April 28 [[/underline]] Left the J K Ranch at 6:30 and reached the Circle Ranch, 30 miles above, at noon. In afternoon went 6 miles farther up to Mr. Carsons ranch and talked wolves with the nephew of Kit Carson, who has had considerable experience in finding wolf dens. He showed me a strip of rocky foothills back of his ranch where he had found 11 wolf dens. I photographed the sections of mountains & foothills and also the badlands across the Wind River from his house, yellow & brick red walls, curiously carved by the water. Mr. Carson says he has found from 5 to 9 wolf pups in a den, usually in natural cavities under ledges or big boulders, but some in burrows he thinks the wolves have dug. Some of the dens were up at the edge of the timber on the mountain slopes.
73. On the Circle ranch Mr Landis says considerable stock is lost by wolves & a few wolves are killed each year. Mr Bick, his foreman, knows of 8 that have been caught on the ranch the past year, mainly in traps. On the J.K. ranch Mr. [[strikethrough]] A.R. [[/strikethrough]] Kirkland says 5 wolves have been killed during the past year, all but one poisoned & this one killed by an Indian & he does not know how it was secured. The number of cattle killed in a year is not easily estimated as the calves are picked up on the range and rarely even the remains found. Mr. Carson thinks the wolves kill a great many deer & elk & mountain sheep but he seems to have no data to back his assumption. He also says the bear kill many cattle for him. He says the mountain sheep are now on the ridges down close to his ranch & showed me a point where one was shot. Some old horns seen.
74. Saw a few wolf tracks & several coyote tracks on the flat at fork of river below Circle. [[underlined]] Eutamias minimus [[/underlined]] saw one near the J.K. ranch and one above Circle. [[underlined]] Cynomys leucurus [[/underlined]], a few seen up to Forks of Wind River & some holes above Circle. [[underlined]] Thomonys [[/underlined]] hills seen all along, both on mesa & on flats. [[underlined]] Lepus baileyi [[/underlined]] a few seen all along to Circle. [[underlined]] Neotona [[/underlined]] Woodrats nests were seen in the rocks where ever we were near enough to see them. The Wind River Valley narrows as we go up to a small canyon below the forks, then widens out again into good flats for farms. The Circle ranch is the best of all, with a fine bottomland expanse for hay & grain, and excellent range on the ranches both sides of the river.
[[underline]] 75. [[/underline]] After leaving the indian reservation [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] we found the range overstocked & the grass badly eaten off, especially upon steep slopes. The tops of mesas have better grass. At Circle Mr. Landis says he raises good potatoes and most hardy vegetables with no trouble from frost. [[underline]] Zone [[/underline]] As far up the valley as we went, 6 miles below Dubois, transition zone predominated, with populus angustifolia along the rivers, Junipers & Pinus flexilis on the ridges. Near Torrey Lake where a N.E. slope reaches to the river bottom, Canadian zone comes down with aspens & a few Picea pungens, [[strikethrough]] to [[/strikethrough]] but the junipers reach to and mingle with the aspens. Saw a fish hawk catch a fine trout and later saw one at a huge nest on a cliff.
76. [[underline]] April 29. [[/underline]] Left the Circle ranch at 6:45 & reached the J.K. at noon, returning over the same road we went up. Just below the fork of Wind River is a flat where Larkspur is unusually abundant & where cattle are often poisoned by it. Three old carcasses, one cow almost dead and another evidently sick were lying on this flat. Many cattle are lost each spring by the larkspur and more are said to die each summer in the Mts. from larkspur poison, but I suspect really from Aconitum. Windy & cloudy & began to rain just as we reached the ranch at noon. Gave up the wolf hunt & staid indoors writing up notes. Set a few traps. Rained by spells all of P.M. Crowheart Butte is just across the river, east of J.K. Ranch. Chief Washakie is said to have killed a Crow Indian there & eaten his heart.
77. [[underlined]] April 30[[/underlined]] - A warm, damp night but no tracking snow in morning, so we gave up the wolf hunt and came back to Lander. Roads fairly good and we reached Lander at 5 P.M. - 45 miles. Damp & raw with squalls of rain & snow all day. in our faces. Took a few photographs but in poor light. Couldnt get a clear view of Crowheart Butte, so did not take it. Took the Wind River & Washakie valleys. Shot a swainsons hawk that had eaten a prairie dog, saw 2 more, saw several kingfishers & plenty of Otoeoris & a Myiadestes & 4 Zenaidura, the first. Caught one Thomomys talpoides & 6 Peromyscus nebrascensis at the J.K. Ranch. Peronysecus sprung all of my [Neotoma?]] traps. Saw a few wolf tracks.
[[underlined]] 78. May 1. [[/underlined]] Worked all of forenoon making out my April expense account - $102. In afternoon got a saddle horse & rode 6 or 8 miles east to row of rocky hills and followed crests of ridges for wolf tracks. Found none nor any signs of wolves, but drove an old coyote from his den & could have found it if I had taken time to hunt for it. [[strikethrough]] It was [[/strikethrough]] Country all sheeped over, on a section leased from Indian Reserve. Grass good. Sagebrush plains & ridges. Found a golden eagle, dead, shot or poisoned. Saw lots of Salpinctes - the first for this spring. A few Sialia arctica, mourning doves and Sayornis.
[[underline]] 79. May 2. [[/underline]]. Got a saddle horse and went with Mr. Nowlin for an all days wolf hunt toward head of North Fork, and on Sorel Creek, in the foothills 15 miles N.W of Lander. Found lots of snow up along edge of timber where many old wolf dens were located, but found no wolf tracks. A 17 year old son of Mr. Meridith went with us & showed us all the old dens he knew and then we found the forest ranger, Arthur Roberts, who has taken many wolf pups & who told us where the dens were and all about each. He is a keen, reliable observer & has lived among the wolves for all or most of his life. I got much valuable information from him & see how he can be used to advantage by the Forest Service in destroying wolves.
[[underscore]] 79. Journal [[/underscore]] May 3. Wrote reports till midnight last night and again from 5:30 to 9 this morning & mailed bid & warrant reports, packed up & took stage for Rawlins at 10. Roads bad and we lost time all day, reaching Hailey for supper. Then over Beaver hill with a 4 horse team and down to Myersville at midnight. Had Bob Hayes for driver from Hailey to Myersville. "Deaf Bob"-- one of the best drivers on the line. Clear & mild with a good moon. [[underscore]] May 4 [[/underscore]] Left Myersville left soon after midnight with 4 horse stage & young Lester for a driver. Made good time & reached Burnt Ranch at sunrise. From here on had only 2 poor horses & lost time, reaching Last Soldier at 9:30 for breakfast. There got a better team & a good driver -- Teddy Jones & made good time into Rawlins at 5:15. Little game or animal life seen. [[end page]]
[[underlined]] 79. Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] May 5. [[/underlined]] Left Rawlins at 8:30, & got to Laramie for dinner at 12. The cottonwood valleys of the North Platt & Laramie Rivers ought to be worked for upper sonoran species. Laramie plains are probably transition, tho there is little but grass to go by. At Sherman we found a little snow on the ground from the storm in the night and on the east slope of the Laramie Mts. it increased to a good tracking snow. Just at the lower edge of the snow the prairie mounds were very numerous & continuous where the snow had melted off the warm sides. They are the typical prairie mounds, one to two feet high & 20 to 30 feet wide [[crese?]] most numerous about 15 miles before we reached Cheyenne, but a few are scattered all along. [[end page]]
80. At Cheyenne went to the Inter Ocean Hotel & then to the Capitol. Called first on Gov. Brooks & talked over the wolf problems. Found him well informed on the subject & greatly interested. He has a cattle and sheep ranch near Casper & says he has paid our trappers $60.00 a piece for catching 50 wolves on his ranch. The trapper used scent, rancid fish oil & probably other things. Had a tame wolf & it would hunt for a bit of this scent & chew & paw & roll on it. The man had done a great deal to clean out wolves from Montana ranches & had a wide reputation, but was a very low down, disreputable character - a morphine fiend & all that was disgusting. The governor was sorry not to get hold of a newspaper man as he thought the people ought to know what we were doing. Said it would do much to remove predjudice against forest reserves & game protection. Personally the gov. is genial and entertaining.
80. I now have mapped 19 wolf dens and their distribution around the borders of the mountain ranges is very instructive. My visit with Mr. Nowlin, state game warden, was very pleasant and we had time to talk over many matters of mutual interest regarding game & animals in general. He is a native of Texas, and familiar with much of west Texas & of New Mexico. Was once a Texas Ranger, a sheriff in N.M., has been in the Wyo. state legislature and is a surveyor & engineer by profession, a ranchman by choice and is very earnestly intersted in preservation of Wyoming game. [[end page]]
81. Called on state auditor Grant next & got records of bounties paid by the state back to 1892. While waiting for these Prof Niswinds came in and greeted me like a long lost brother & we staid and talked till 5 oclock, an hour after closing time for the offices. On the way down town we met Tom Cooper, one of Haydens guides on the early surveys. He knows a lot of the survey men & said Shep Madera is on the police force at Boulder. Then I went to the famous old saddle maker - Meanea - & bought a pair of spurs & priced saddles at 25 to 80 dollars. He outfitted the Hayden party in 1872 & is said to sell $40000 worth of saddles a year now. They are famous from Montana to Texas and are fine saddles. Went back to hotel & enjoyed a good meal with plenty of time to eat it.
[[underlined]] 82. May 6. [[/underlined]] Left [[strikethrough]] Denver [[/strikethrough]] Cheyenne at 8 a.m. for Denver. A clear morning with frost on the sidewalk & mountains hidden in clouds. Smooth plains with short grass & only prairie dogs to be seen until we make [[Lueern?]]. These farms all along with green fields of Alfalfa & grain & many freshly plowed fields. At Greeley Plains trees in blossom, willows green & cottonwoods in blossom & showing a trace of green. Thomomys hills abundant all along. Yucca cover, tumble weeds abundant. Reached Denver at 11:30 after PO had closed & couldnt get my mail. Rode out to City Park & back & waited till 8 p.m. for train to Silver City, N.M. Lots of [[underlined]] carpodacus pontalis [[/underlined]] singing in park and among houses in town - a few English sparrows, Meadowlarks, & Robins common in park. Saw the first barn swallow near Greeley. Left Denver at 8 p.m.
83 Journal [[underlined]] May 7, 1906. [[/underlined]] Woke up an hour before reaching Trinidad on the Santa Fe on grass plains scattered over with [[underlined]] Opuntia arborescens [[/underlined]] just leaving out. Near Trinidad the valley is green with fields of alfalfa & grass & grain. Applle, plum & peach trees in blossom. Leaves well out on [[underlined]] Populus prunitis [[/underlined]], less adornment on [[underlined]] angustifolia [[/underlined]] Junipers & nutpines cover the hills around Trinidad. Got a good [[homey?]] breakfast at The Gardenias. Up canyon to edge of Transition zone about Morley - where Pinus ponderosa, Pseudotsuga, Quercus gambelii begin with Populus angustifolia following the streams. Transition continues over the pass & down halfway to Paton, then, nut pines & junipers begin & the valley below Paton is open & grassy. On the mesas west of [[Hibson?]] yellow pines are close enough to be recognized as also on the [[Zinaja?]] Hills east of Dorsey. Yellow pines appear again on the Gonzales Mesa, on the Canadian Hills, [[Luskey?]] Mts., and along both sides of the canyon at [[Watsons?]].
84. Along the canyons & edge of mesas the pine follows outcrops of rock, & goes lower on the limestone than on the lava. Wagon mound is a series of lava buttes & ridges. The valleys are covered with short grass & a few Yucca glauca. There are very few flowers & vegetation looks dry except in irrigated fields or on bottoms. Got dinner at Las Vegas at 1:30. Was sorry to see new farms opening up in the beautiful juniper orchards near Bernal Hill - for dry farming. At Ribera the peaks of the Pecos [[strikethrough]] River [[/strikethrough]] Mts. began to show. Santa Fe Baldy & behind it Pecos Baldy - well capped with snow which extends south over Lake Peak and a little beyond but does not reach to Glorieta Peak. The cottonwoods ^[([[underlined]] P. angustifolia [[/underlined]])] at Glorieta were only beginning to have out & not as beautiful as usual - The [[underlined]] Populus fremonti [[/underlined]] in the canyon near Canyoncita were much farther advanced and along the Rio Grande Valley in full leaf. Boxelders were in blossom at Canyoncita and in fruit & nearly full leaf at Lamy.
85. When we reached the Rio Grande river vegetation was well advanced. The Indians were planting & hoeing in their fields. Most of the trees are in full leaf, the grass on the bottom lands are a foot high & also the alfalfa. In places [[underlined]] Plantago potagonica [[/underlined]] [[?]] grows in fuzzy white carpets over the dry slopes. Reached Albuquerque just at dark & had to wait till 12 oclock for train south.
[[underlined]] 86. Journal [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] May 8 [[/underlined]] - Wake up at sunrise at Cutler, on the midst of the Jornada Del Muerta with creosote bushes, mesquite, & yuccas all around. The creosote full of flowers & the mesquite in full leaf & with [[strikethrough]] buds [[/strikethrough]] unopened [[catleus?]]. Several yellow flowers are common. Reached [[Riveas?]] for breakfast at 6:45 & found vegetation still farther advanced. The cottonwoods are in full leaf & many of the trees loaded with Phoradendron flavescens (mistletoe) creosote in full flower. Prosopis juliflora almost in flower, P. [[acehesems?]] leaved out. In the hotel yard a few trees of black mulberry are loaded with fruit, much of which is now ripe.
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
[[this page is written sideways on a sheet of letterhead, which reads as follows]] UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOREST SERVICE 87. [[underline]] [[Rivera?]] [[/Underline]] N.M. May 8. 1906. Populus fremonti & Phoradendron abn. Salix nigra along river & ditches Prosopis juliflora in bud & nearly in flower [[ditto marks directly under Prosopis, in line above]] pubescens in leaf Cavillea tridentata in flower Atriplex canescens in flower or bud. Rhus microphylla . Baccharis salicifolia ? abn. on flats Ephedra virida ? com on dry ground. Yucca radiosa - with flower stalks & buds Morus rubra - with ripe fruit at station. Peach trees Apple trees & all fruit trees}[[bracket to include Peach, Apple, and all lines]] in full leaf & past flowering [[underlined]] Tip mesa West of Rio Grande [[/underlined]] Chilopsis salegra com. in wash. [[Falbaqia paradofa?]] - in flower. [[Rimex?]] alata abn. Cucurbita [[neqoriza?]] Koeberlinia spinosa - com. Baccharis glutinosa ? - abn. on high flats. [[underline]] Nutt [[/underline]]
88. Near [[Glance ?]] I saw a white necked raven near the train. It lit on the stem of a Yucca Radiosa. Doves are common. At Rivera a Sayornis saya was calling. Saw one quail, a Californica or [[Cesipa?]] - on the Rio Grande flats and a cottontop on mesa west of valley. Saw two more cottontops near the Rio Mimbres north of Deming. Barn swallows have nests all along the edge of depot porch at Deming. Otoeoris common at Deming & north. Two turkey buzzards seen near Spalding.
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
89. [[underlined]] Dipodomys spectabilis [[/underlined]] mounds are common on the mesa west of Rivera. [[underlined]] Neotoma [[/underlined]]. Woodrat houses are numerous in mesquite bushes up slope west of Rivera & in places half or more of the surrounding bushes have been stripped of bark & killed. Mesquite, creosote, Rhus microphylla, & many other bushes are peeled. [[underlined]] Cynomys . [[/underlined]] Prairie dogs are abundant over the grassy plains an hour west of Rivera [[underlined]] Lepus arizonae [[/underlined]] Several seen up the slope west of Rivera [[underlined]] Lepus texianus [[/underlined]] - One seen near [[Gramma?]].
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
[[underlined]] 90. [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] At Nutt [[/underlined]] most of the shrubby vegetation has disappeared & the covering is mainly grass & in places a robe of golden composites, of mainly 2 species - the one wrongly called "Bigelovie ludoveiciana" ? & a smaller [[Hebinvillelle?]] like plant. But across the wide valley to the north I can see [[stretches?]] of bushes - apparently mesquite & creosote where the slope dips to the south. We seem to be on the edge of upper & lower Sonoran [[zones ?]] where a tilt to the north throws it in upper & to the south in Lower. West of Nutt we cross a wide plain and as we again strike a slope tilted slightly to the south mesquite, creosote, & [[Barebaris?]] become abundant, also Yucca radiosa Ephedra. [[underlined]] At Deming [[/underlined]] the whole set of lower Sonoran plants abundant. and on to Faywood, there they grow
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
91. scarce and mainly disappear before we reach Whitewater and are replaced by Opuntia arborescens, grass & various small plants. A few Yucca radiosa still scatter along & cling to south slopes up nearly to Silver City. Nolina and juniperus polyploid and oaks appear on the north slopes of the ridges. The break from lower to upper Sonoran comes between Faywood & White Water in the open valley, though the steep south slopes above carry traces of Lower Sonoran higher up.
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
92. Reached Silver City at noon & went to the Broadway Hotel. The town is in a barren gulch between barren hills, but with a south slope. Populus fremonti is full of ripe & bursting fruit, [[strikethrough]] yellow [[/strikethrough]] Juglans rupestris are in blossom. China berries in leaf - Boxelder in nearly ripe fruit, lilacs in fruit, apple ^[& peach] trees past flowering ^[& with fruit as big as marbles,] yellow & red roses & Iris in full flower. From the hill back of town the black timber of the Forest Reserve shows not far to the north. [[Vivas?]] are singing in the trees & house finches are numerous & eating seeds of cottonwood. [[Sapporus saya?]] & [[Tyramus raciperans?]] ^[& Salpinate] are common on the hill. Also spizella atrogularis & singing a pleasing little song [[image - small circles indicating notes of bird song: three notes at a midrange pitch followed by two notes at a lower pitch, then seven notes at a highest pitch]] of three parts ending in a real spizella trill.
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
[[underline]] 100 Journal [[/underline]] a gap in pages - forgot the last - VB [[underline]] May 11 [[/underline]] - Left Silver City for the GOS Ranch at 7:30, Raining & squally. Came through [[Autral?]], which is close to Ft. Baird, then through Santa Rita, then over the ridge and down onto the Mimbres at the old town of Mimbres, then about 11 miles up the river and over onto the head of [[Sappelo?]] creek and down at a few miles to the G.O.S. Ranch, a beautiful place in wide, park like valley. The [[Sappelo?]] is a branch of the Gila. Came 40 miles from Silver City, but in a round about way. The country is rough and [[roads?]] are scarce, steep and stony in places. Most of the country is dry but there is a little water in the creeks at Silver, Central, and Santa Rita and the Mimbres is a pretty little river too wide to jump across.
101. Most of the country is Upper Sonoran hills & ridges with a trace of Lower Sonoran. ( [[underlined]] Yucca radiosa [[/underlined]] ? [[underlined]] Dasylirion [[/underline]] & one little bunch of dwarf mesquite) up as far as Silver on steep [[hot ?]]slopes. Also a trace of transition zone (in yellow pine and [[underlined]] Agave applonata [[/underlined]] ) down ^[[nearly]] as low as Silver on steep north slopes. From near Santa Rita, up over the ridge and half way down the slope toward Mimbres transition zone with yellow pine and Agave in abundance prevails. Then the Mimbres valley is Upper Sonoran as far as we followed it and farther on south slopes. Over the ridge to [[Sappelo ?]] Creek & the GOS Ranch is mainly yellow pine [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] transition. while the ranch valley is open, grassy park & beautiful yellow pine groves. On the north side of the valley the steep
102 south slope is mainly Upper Sonoran with juniper & nut pine & [[underline]] Cercocarpus parvifolia [[/underline]]. Water begins & runs in the creek about 3 miles below the GOS ranch, but at the ranch a big, shallow well furnishes an abundance of good water. No attempt to crops or even garden is made but the cattle range is ideal, with abundance of grass for both winter & summer and rarely any snow. Most of the cattle are shipped when 2 & 3 year old to be fed on "beef range" in Colo. or Kansas, within easy reach of market. The distance & country between here & shipping points render shipment of beef cattle unprofitable. Found the GOS a typical, well to do ranch. Was taken in charge by the book keeper, Mr. Leavenworth, and made to feel at home.
[[underlined]] 103 May 12 [[/underlined]]. With Mr. Leavenworth, I rode down the canyon 4 or 5 miles to [[strikethrough]] see [[/strikethrough]] look for wolf tracks, but found only old tracks. Then returned & packed my outfit on Bighorse & with a nice little saddle horse we started for a camp on the Mimbres, at Lat 33, Lon. 108, some 10 miles from the actual source of the river & 7 miles from the GOS horse ranch. Followed up a dry canyon, then a long ridge onto the mesa separating the waters of the Gila & Mimbres. A little way up the mesa & then down into the Mimbres canyon where we found an unoccupied adobe house, used as a round up camp & here I unloaded bed, grub, traps & outfit. Mr. Leavenworth returned, leaving me me and my saddle horse in camp.
104. The canyon is here narrow with steep slopes probably 700 feet up on each side. The river is a beautiful stream of pure sparkling water rushing over a stony bed, now small enough to cross on a pole or jump from one stone to another in the rapids, but showing evidence of fierce torrents at times that tear up the banks & pile cords of wood and logs against trees. The flats are narrow strips on one side & then the other, covered with beautiful Populus angustifolia fine old yellow pines. The whole bottom of the canyon is pure transition zone as the frosty nights & cold canyon air would suggest. The side slopes are mainly transition except where they face the south & are then Upper Sonoran.
105. The clean open forests of yellow pines, the orchard like growth of junipers, nut pine and oaks & the graceful cottonwoods along the river make as delightful a combination as one could wish. The little roar of the creek. The numerous bird songs and abundance of animal life makes the spot a veritable campers paradise. Still few campers ever come this way - owing evidently to lack of trout in the streams. There is abundance of other game. Seen tracks all around, turkeys common, some bear & wolves, and abundance of abert squirrels. Spent the rest of the day fixing my gun, which some - had snapped & driven the plunger in, cleaning up the cabin, getting my outfit in shape for work and setting a few small traps around camp.
[[underline]] 106. May 13 [[/underline]] - Sunday morning - alone in camp except for my horse, a drove of 5 Abert squirrels in my door yard, a black phoebe's nest under my roof, lots of chipmunks & mice & birds all around. Made up my wolf scents, took a bag of traps, some old beef bones and climbed the hill to top of mesa. Found a big, fresh wolf track along the road made since we came down. Made a drag of my old bones & set traps along the drag and beside the road, using several kinds of scent, castoreum with assafoetida & salmon oil, castoreum with assafoetida [[strikethrough]] cut [[/strikethrough]] in alcohol, castoreum straight and some of Galloway's wolf bait. Set five wolf traps and in afternoon set 2 fox traps near the cabin.
[[underlined]] 107. May 14 [[/underlined]] - Found a Urocyon in each of my fox traps, which were baited with jack rabbit & scented with castoreum & assafoetida. No wolves had been along the road or near my traps. Made up a few mammal skins. [[underlined]] May 15. [[/underlined]] Caught a skunk in one of my fox traps. Found where a wolf had followed the road to near one of my traps & then turned & followed the scent back and forth along my drag work & tramped all around the traps which the cattle had previously stepped in & sprung. The cattle insist on pawing up my traps tho I run them off the ridge every day. My man, Hotchkiss, came this evening so I will now have all my time for work. Have lived alone & cooked for 3 days - long enough.
107. the cabin.
[[underline]] 108 [[/underline]] [[underline]] May 16 [[/Underline]] - No wolf tracks on the mesa this morning. Started for my traps first as the sun touched the hill tops & got back at 9 A.M. Didnt have to get breakfast. Afternoon went down the river about 3 miles and set 3 wolf traps, two in the main canyon and one up the Powderhorn Canyon. A wolf had followed the trail night before last. Found a Conepatus and saved skull. Juglans rupestris trees come up to a mile below the cabin. Yellow pines go down below where we were. The canyon walls are lava down as far as we went, but sandstone & conglomerate come in below the lava sheets. Canyon bottom mainly transition, south slopes Upper Sonoran.
[[underline]] 109 - May 17 [[/underline]] - Sent Hotchkiss down the canyon to the wolf traps while I went to those on mesa & then on down [[Terry?]] Canyon to the G.O.S Ranch. Got my mail & another saddle and got back to camp at 5 P.M. Caught only a gray fox. No wolves had been along either line of traps. Found a beautiful [[underline]] Cereus [[/underline]] in blossom on the canyon walls & humming birds around it. Saw [[underline]] Aimophila [[/underline]] in the canyon - one pair. A lot of good yellow pine timber has been cut and sawed in [[Terra?]] canyon, long ago but much young pine is coming up in its place. There is a little running water high up in the canyon & a windmill near its mouth, just below the GOS Ranch.
110; Journal [[underline]] May 18 [[/underline]] Two wolves, one very large & one smaller followed the road past one of my traps that was baited only with dry castoreum. The wolves followed out along the drag and stepped on both jaws of trap but missed the pan. Did not stay & tramp around enough. Then struck into the river valley & went along the trail past 2 other traps, both of which had been tramped out by the cattle and one spring. Walked by without stopping & went on down the canyon. Reset some of the traps & brought some in closer to road & trails, as the wolves stick to roads & trails almost entirely.
[[underline]] 111 - May 19 [[/underline]] Nothing had been along the trap lines & the traps were not disturbed. [[underline]] May 20 [[/underline]] - No wolf tracks, but Hotchkiss found a fresh panther track in canyon 3 miles below ranch. He saw 3 mule deer & I saw a little white tail - O.couesi - up in the canyon above camp. Rained a little in the night and a shower about noon. [[underline]] May 21 [[/underline]] - Nothing doing along the trap lines, so we had dinner early & I started up the Mts. on foot just after. Followed the ridge east of river until up where the Aspens begin & then went down into the canyon.
[[underline]] 112 [[/underline]] on both sides. Found a big bear track in one to east among the aspens, Abies, Pseudotsuga, & [[underline]] Pinus flexilis [[/underline]]. Beautiful canyon bottoms with cold streams & mountain plants of Canadian zone, steep, rocky slopes on both sides, Canadian timber on cold & Upper Sonoran on hot slopes opposite. Mesa tops very stony & not much grazed. Good short grass except where cattle can get along open slopes readily. Some of these grazed bare. Had no barometer, but went up probably 2000 feet above camp. Got back before dark very tired. Came down side canyon & found deer herd.
[[underlined]] 113 [[/underlined]] found a pair ^ [of] [[underlined]] Cyrtonyx mearusi [[/underlined]] on the high mesa - They had scratched up a lot of ground & I found [[underlined]] Cyperus [[/underlined]] bulbs & the coats of more they had eaten. Saved bulbs but couldn't find the grass they belonged to. Ate one & found it good, crisp & starchy & pleasant. Heard thrushes sing in canyon. Saw a few Juncos. Saw Coopers tanagers catching the moths in the cottonwoods. Found thomomys hills as high up as I went. Also Sigmodon & Mierotus runways. Saw one [[underlined]] Lepus pinetis [[/underlined]] ? on top of mesa but failed to get it. Saw lots of tracks of deer, little whitetails apparently & found a fine [[skull ?]] with horns near a salt lick.
[[underlined]] 114 [[/underlined]] [[underlined]] May 22 [[/underlined]] No wolf tracks & traps undisturbed, so I went over into Rocky Canyon - a beautiful canyon full of fine timber. [[underlined]] Pinus ponderosa [[/underlined]] & [[underlined]] flexilis [[/underlined]], [[underlined]] Abies [[/underlined]], [[underlined] Pseudotsuga [[/underlined]] - [[underlined]] Populus angustifolia [[/underlined]] & [[underlined]] tremuloides [[/underlined]], [[underlined]] Quercus gambeli [[/underlined]] ? & on hot slopes all the upper Sonoran trees. Fine water in pools & running part way. Beautiful camp spots & rough country to explore above & below. Thrushes & juncos & pigmy nuthatches, blue jays, warblers & tanagers in canyon. Martens ^[ & white bellied swallows] nesting in old pines. Aberts squirrels & graminacus & Callospermophilus, Eutamias dorsalis & cinereicollis abundant - saw one little white tail deer & picked up a skull.
[[underline]] 115. May 23 [[/underline]] - The same old pair of wolves, one very large & one small followed the road and trails past my whole line of traps. At the first trap, scented with Galloways wolf bait, the smaller wolf stopped, followed the drag mark across the road & 6 feet to the side and stepped all over my trap except on the pan. The big one walked right on looking neither to right nor left. At the next trap the both walked straight across the scented drag without stopping - this was also scented with Galloways. The next trap had a gray fox in it & the wolves stopped and tramped all around it, bit out a [[strikethrough]] buch [[/strikethrough]] bunch of hair from the fox & then went on. The next scent line they missed by about 10 feet, after turning out of the road to an old bone I had used
[[underlined]] 116 [[/underlined]] for a drag. This was Hotchkiss' scent, but they were close enough to have found it if they had cared to. They missed the next trap by 20 feet, turning out on a trail & then just missed the scent line of the kind given me by Mr. Culberson but close enough to either to have found them if they cared for the scent. The trap was scented with Galloways. The next line was straight musk, commercial & they crossed it without stopping. They missed the next two traps by turning out of the road for a dead cow on one side and a piece of old meat I had used for a drag on the other. Still they were not very far from either trap,
[[underlined]] 117 [[/underlined]] one of which was baited with dry castoreum, the other with, castoreum, assafoetida & oil of rhodeum. On the line down the river Hotchkiss says they came in below the first trap, passed close to 2 baited with Galloways without stopping & then past one baited with the scent given me by Mr Culberson without a pause. These three were set close to the trail & all in good condition, freshly scented yesterday & a fair test. Hotchkiss found a calf they had bitten a ham out of but had not killed. It would undoubtedly die. He also found an old cow bawling & refusing to be comforted because her calf was missing. She was also bawling in the same place the next day.
[[underline]] 118. May 24 [[/underline]] - Went to my upper line of traps early on foot & brought in the horses on my return. Packed our beds & 2 days grub on old Sundown and Hotchkiss on John & I on Shorty went down the Mimbres about 3 miles to the Mouth of Powderhorn Canyon past all but one of the lower line of wolf traps, then up Powderhorn to near the head and not far from the main ridge of the Mimbres Mts. & camped. None of the wolf traps had been touched but a half grown mountain lion had dragged a calf that been killed apparently a week ago across the river valley
[[underlined]] 119 [[/underlined]] and well up into a rocky canyon and left it. The calf must have weighed 100 lbs. & very little had been eaten. I set a no 3 trap with stone drag by it in hopes the cat would return. Traveled fast & reached our camp place at 2 P.M. Had lunch & set out my traps & then started up the ridge for the summit of the range. With an easy climb of about 3 miles I was on the main summit, tho there were higher peaks to the south & north of me. The Mimbres circles around to the north & actually heads south of the head of the Powderhorn
[[underline]] 120 [[/underline]] So from the crest I looked down into the head basin of the Mimbres on the east & the head of Powderhorn on the west, two heavily timbered canyons, that of the Mimbres as rough & steep & jagged as the Seven Devils range, with a mixture of bare rocky & densely wooded slopes. I have no aneroid but should guess our camp to be 6000, lower end of powderhorn 5700, camp above at 8200, highest point reached 9500, highest in sight 10000. A fine little stream runs west of the way down Powderhorn, sinking in its stony bed & reappearing at intervals. The bottom is generally narrow, sometimes only a gulch, again a timbered valley.
[[underline]] 121 [[/underline]] with steep timbered, grassy or barren slopes 300 to 1000 feet high along each side. From our upper camp to the summits all the cold slopes are covered with Canadian zone timber. These are densely wooded with spruce & fir & aspens, & in many placed have deep, mellow, rich soil. Just over the crest aspens grow in clear forests of trees one, two & three feet in diameter & 70 to 80 feet high. Douglas spruce is often 5 feet in diameter & 100 feet high. Pinus flexilis? is abundant & often of good trunks 2 or 3 feet through & 80 feet high. Gooseberry bushes, Aeu globosum & willow grow along the streams & canyons.
122. Transition zone runs up on south slopes to within a few hundred feet of where I went, with yellow pine & bur oak - [[underline]] (Q.gambeli?) [[/underline]] on the slopes and [[underline]] Populus angustifolia [[/underline]] nearly up to our camp in the canyon bottoms. It also runs down on cold slopes and in the canyon bottom to below the mouth of Powderhorn, with much fine yellow pine timber in the wider parts of the canyons, both old, big trees ready for harvest, young timber & seedlings. It is generally open, clean forest, too closely grazed beneath it with many of the young trees bitten off by cattle.
[[underlined]] 123 [[/underlined]] Upper Sonoran zone runs up on steep, hot slopes as high as our camp, with [[underlined]] Juniperus pachypbloea & monosperma, Pinus edulis, quercus grisea + Cercocarpus parvifolius. [[/underlined]] Actually lapping past transition to a level with lower edge of Canadian on the cold slopes. Much of the mesa tops is Sonoran with scattered timber & short grass. Saw bear track & sign, lots of Deer tracks & 2 old does of the blacktail, but more of the tracks were of the little [[underlined]] couesi. [[/underlined]] Saw plenty of Sciurus aberti & Citellus [[glaucomys?]] on the way up. Saw 5 turkeys + heard them gobbling in evening, lots of tracks.
[[underlined]] 124. May 25 [[/underlined]] Caught Neotoma mexicana, Microtus m. monticola, Peromiscus rufinus. Shot Seiurus novelloracensis & got one Eutamias cinereocollis. Got 2 little red faced warblers that I do not know even the genus of. heard lots more. Thrushes were singing & nesting, Juncos also, & Zonotrichia, Humming birds, (platycercus) were numerous on the gooseberry bushes. A spotted owl tooted most of the night. An old gobbler woke us up before daylight & gobbled frequently from the spruce slope opposite our camp for half an hour. Blue Jays were common. Dryobates heard.
[[underlined]] 125 [[/underlined]] I took a tramp up gulch above camp about 2 miles, nearly to crest of ridge & found water all the way in places & good camp spots. Packed up & started at 9 A.M. for camp on the Mimbres, again, arriving at 2 P.M. Got lunch & went to my wolf traps on mesa & found that another wolf had been along. He is in size between the big one & small one of the pair that went along before. Is probably a last years male without a mate as he is not wary & takes any kind of scent readily. He came up the road from the south past my
126 line of traps & scents as follows :- 1. Muskrat scent (spoiled by alcohol), not noticed 2. Assafoetida - not noticed 3. Oil of Rhodium - " " 4. " Anise - " " 5. Trap scented with castoreum, assafoetida, & oil of Rhodium - tramped up and down trail & all around trap, dug up paper & tore it to bits & left trap pan bare & untouched. 6. Musk - commercial - Followed up the trial & tramped around scented place. 7. OBrians bait from GOS Ranch - followed up the trail to baited end. 8. Trap, baited with both Galloway's & N. Wn. Hide & Fur Co. Wolf bait, but a calf had got into trap & gone with it. The wolf tramped all over place where it had been. Wish he had killed the calf.
127. 9. Hotchkiss bait - the wolf turned out of road & went straight to scented end of trail & walked across it. 10. Trap baited with Galloways scent, had cause a Urocyon the day ^[or two] before & been reset. The wolf went around it. 11. Trap baited with Galloway & staked down. No.3 with flat , lapped steel chain. The wolf went past, then returned & got in trap, bit the chain in two about 5 inches from stake & went away with trap. The [[strikethrough]] cha [[/strikethrough]] end of chain had been wet in his mouth & was stuck over with sand, was dented & bent from his teeth & had evidentally been chewed till a link broke. Couldn't follow him far.
[[underline]] 128 [[/underline]] The last trap of the line was not visited except by the cattle, who had pawed it out. The big, branded calf in a 4 1/2 trap with stone drag had gone some 20 rods & I found him in a gulch. Was following the drag mark & expecting every minute a wolf to [[bounce?]] up but the calf was a more difficult & less satisfactory subject to handle. I caught him the chain of the trap & then by the ear when he began to bawl in terror. His terror was no greater than mine for there were some 20 cows & 2 old bulls just out on the mesa & my life
[[underline]] 129 [[/underline]] depended on keeping that calf still till I could get the trap off. I grabbed his nose with both hands & threw my whole weight against him & got him down, one knee on his neck, one hand hold of his nose & choked him till he gasped for just enough breath to keep alive without ^[wasting any in] bawling, then I worked at the trap with the other hand, but found one of the springs jammed down ^[& fast] over the crossbar. I couldn't budge it so got a stone & hammered till it came loose. Then found I couldn't open the trap with the calf down as his leg held it on the side & I had to get both feet on the two springs to open it.
[[underline]] 130 [[/underline]] Had to get the calf up, still holding his nose & mouth shut, & finally got the springs down & pulled out his foot. He was not much hurt & ran off to hunt his mother while I hustled for the nearest timber, more scratched & kicked & battered & scared than the calf. I felt in sympathy with my cook & trapper ^[Hank] Hotchkiss, who comes back from his line of traps after the cattle have tramped out the traps just before the wolves come along, cussing & growling & says he wishes the wolves would eat up all the d- cattle in the country.
[[underline]] 131 [[/underline]] [[underline]] May 26 [[/underline]]- No wolves along the line & nothing doing. [[underline]] May 27 [[/underline]] - Sunday morning, according to Mr. Leavenworth who came over from the GOS Ranch to see how we were getting along. The first white man besides ourselves we've seen for a week. The old pair of big wolf & & smaller bitch came up the road from the south, but not along the river valley. They went past two traps and two scent lines without much interest in any. 1. The GOS scented trail was followed by the smaller track but the big fellow went straight past it. 2. The next ^[was the] trap that caught the calf & was too freshly set for them to go near.
[[underline]] 132. [[/underline]] 3. They both turned out & went around Hotchkiss' scented line. 4. The trap that had a gray fox in when these wolves came along last stopped them & they tramped all around but not on the pan. The tracks seemed to be mainly of the smaller wolf. I could not be sure that the big one had even turned out of the road. 5. At the place where the wolf took the trap they turned out of the road & did not go to the scent nor came back to the road again. Hotchkiss caught a gray fox near camp. I took some photographs & a bath. Much warmer today, no frost in morning.
[[underline]] 133 May 28 [[/underline]] - Nothing doing along the trap line. No wolf tracks & not even a calf in sight. [[underline]] May 29 [[/underline]] - Packed up my stuff while Hotchkiss went down to the lower traps. He got a Urocyon in trap baited with his scent. A wolf had gone past 3 of the traps without stopping at any of them. He thinks it is a new wolf, not quite so big as the one with the small bitch. The track of the big one measures front foot 4 1/4 by 3 1/2. Ate an early lunch, broke camp, packed up & went over to the G.O.S Ranch. Found the same wolf had followed road on mesa past two of the traps without
[[underline]] 134 [[/underline]] stopping to investigate them. It is large & probably the big one of the pair that go by regularly. [[underline]] May 30 [[/underline]] - Packed over from GOS to Santa Rita - 25 miles. Found a fresh wolf track in road where we struck the Mimbres just below 3 Circle Ranch. Found cherries nearly ripe at Mimbres and ate excellent apples of last years crop. [[strikethough]] s [[/strikethrough]] The valley is good for fruit - apples, peaches, pears, apricots, plums, cherries [[strikethrough]] etc [[/strikethrough]] & grapes. The floods last year & year before carried away some of the best orchards & many good fields leaving boulder strewn washes in their place.
[[underlined]] 135 May 31 [[/underlined]] - Got the stage for Silver City at 8, passed through Central in full view of old Ft. Baird, [[?]] open ridges to Silver City at noon - 25 miles - Got mail, sent packages, wrote our reports till 11 P.M. [[underlined]] June 1 [[/underlined]] - Packed up baggage & wrote reports till train time & left for Deming at 6:45 P.M. Arrived at Deming about 9 P.M. & got a lovely clean room at the Wilder. [[underlined]] June 2 [[/underlined]] - Took a tramp around Deming & got notes on plants, birds etc - & took a few photographs. The town has grown & spreads over a lot of country, is a joust of windmills which yield good pure water. Yards full of trees & bushes Mesquite abundant & good sized, also Yucca radiosa. Lots of lizards & small mammals - even in town. Perognathus tracks along streets.
[[underline]] 136 [[/underline]] Left Deming at 11:30 on Rock Island over S.P. track. The vegetation around Deming is strongly lower Sonoran but after crossing the sandy bed of the Mimbres we cross open plains with mainly grass. Guterrizia & weeds that would indicate Upper Sonoran if anything until we begin to go down near the Rio Grande Valley, where for the first time we strike creosote & abundance of mesquite & other plants again. Lower Sonoran is much more evident along the Sante Fe trail along the S.P. from the Rio Grande to Deming. It must come all the way up the Rio Mimbres however from Lake [[Guzman?]]. Grass is good & new fields & ranches being opened near Deming. Reached El Paso at 1 P.M. Rio Grande high - New Union Depot. Yucca radiosa in flower.
[[underlined]] 137 [[/underlined]] Up through the Tularosa Valley the mesquite, creosote, Atriplex canescens, & Yucca radiosa are dominant plants as far as [[Osensa?]] & on south slopes a little beyond, then it is open grassy plains with nothing taller than Gutierrezia, past [[Careazaze?]] & the [[Capitan?]] hills. Broken country with junipers & nutpines continues to nearly [[Zarrevec?]] where I went to bed & asleep. [[underlined]] June 3 [[/underlined]] - Woke up at Dalbart, Tex., a rain has freshened the air & earth. The plains are green & grassy & constantly growing more green & grassy as we go east.