WIND AND FOG IN BERING SEA 55 



prospect the ground; Dr. Young and "Professor" Kusche 

 landed, taking lunch, butterfly nets and bottles to 

 gather msects and bu-ds, for which purpose the latter 

 carried a walking-stick cane. 



Kusche had this weapon made for him by a gun- 

 smith in Los Angeles in 1892. It consisted of an out- 

 side barrel, of steel which was originally Damascus 

 swords, to shoot .55-90 shells loaded with birdshot. 

 Inside of this fitted a .38-55 Winchester barrel, turned 

 down to sUp in, and within this a brass tube for firing 

 .22 cartridges. The small right-angle handle contained a 

 trigger and folding hammer. It was necessary to un- 

 screw the handle from the barrel to load or to slide out 

 what barrels were not to be used. The steel was wrapped 

 with black tape to disguise its object. "The gun was 

 originally as long as a walking stick," explained the 

 Professor, "and I carried an oak plug in it to keep out 

 dirt when in use as a cane. One day, however, I fired 

 it off hastily, without removing the plug and several 

 inches burst off the end of the barrel. It got damaged 

 again in the canyons near Los Angeles when my burro 

 kicked up a wild cat and the beast got me by the leg 

 before I could pull the cork out of the gun. I hit the cat 

 a blow with it; the gun went off and killed it, but blew 

 several more inches off the barrel. Another time I got 

 into a lot of rattlesnakes. After shooting two in the 

 head, a third appeared and I said to myseh, 'there's too 

 many of them,' so I clubbed that one with the gun, and 

 one after another until I had killed six. The barrel was 

 considerably bent by this, but I put it through the fork 

 of a tree and straightened it out and it shot as true as 

 ever." Kusche used the weapon for getting birds, and 

 could hit remarkably well with it. He said he had killed 



