HANK HOTCHKISS 185 



dropping to the bed of the North Fork for the final 

 spurt. We were visited here by Supervisor Johns 

 from Silver City, and Pooler, an Assistant District 

 Forester from Albuquerque, on a tour of inspection. 

 Eandolph, the ranger from Fierro, accompanied 

 them and stayed with us until we went in, but the 

 others only stopped over night. 



At " Meson 's" we ran across Hank Hotchkiss, a 

 former soldier and scout now well-known locally as 

 hunter and trapper. 



When we visited his camp for the first time we 

 found the old woodsman engaged in the novel pas- 

 time of teasing a huge Mexican eagle that had just 

 been caught, oddly enough, in one of his smaller 

 traps. The bird was tied to a tree with a rope 

 about five yards long, which gave it a chance to ex- 

 ercise after a fashion. 



We asked the trapper if he intended to tame his 

 pet, and he laughed. 



"It can't be did, not to my knowledge, leastways/ 7 

 he stated. "I kep' one once for five years an' he'd 

 fight me just as quick when I let him go as when 

 I caught him. They's queer critters, that's a fact. 

 Did you ever cut one of 'em up? No I Well, they 

 got an eye nigh as big as the rest of their head put 

 together, an' as for brains, they hain't got more'n 

 enough to fill a 22 cartridge. I don't believe they 

 got sense for anything but to fight. That's all they 

 is to them!" 



He tapped the captive eagle on the head as he 



