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The National Geographic Magazine 



the dogs for the work. They have a 

 surprisingly good nose — good enough to 

 run a trail themselves if it is warm — 

 and are therefore interested before the 

 bear is jumped. They will stay all day 

 with the hounds, and instinctively they 

 seem to know just exactly how to fight 

 a bear to get the best results with the 

 least damage to themselves. Added to 

 this, they are as game as a dog can be 

 and are pleasant to have about. 



A brown bear which we ran into a 

 hole, where the dogs followed her, pun- 

 ished the dogs severely. There were only 

 eight dogs in at the finish, and every 

 one of them was badly bitten or clawed, 

 except Old Captain, the lead hound of 

 the pack, who wisely would not go in 

 the hole ; yet every one of them, after 

 comins" out and lickinsr his wounds for 



a few minutes, went back for more, and 

 after we had finally smoked out the bear, 

 again brought her to bay in the bed of a 

 stream, where Mrs Wilson killed her. 



I am sorry that I have no good photo- 

 graph of the fighting pack, and espe- 

 cially of Don, the little cross between a 

 fox terrier and a shepherd. He looked 

 less like a bear dog than any animal I 

 ever saw, but his courage was really 

 pathetic, for he was sick and miserable 

 from his wounds, but could not be kept 

 at home, and when he got close to a 

 bear, it was perfectly evident that he was 

 seeing "red." Any game looked good to 

 him, however, for on the way home from 

 killing a bear he would joyfully tree 

 squirrels, and then put in the night 

 hunting pack rats and mice. 



PERSIA: THE AWAKENING EAST 



By W. P. Cresson 



The following article is abstracted from a new book on Persia just pub- 

 lished by Messrs J. B. Lippincott Company, of Philadelphia, entitled "Persia, 

 the Awakening East," by IV. P. Cresson* Persia, one of the oldest kingdoms in 

 the world, is now undergoing a complete transformation in administration and 

 in commercial life, so that this admirable volume is particularly useful at the 

 present time. The author recently spent several months in Persia, being the 

 guest of the American Minister to Teheran, and had exceptional opportunities for 

 seeing the country. Particularly good chapters are: The Religions of Persia; 

 A Visit to the Sacred City of Kum; Hawking in Persia; Bagdad of Today; A 

 Pilgrimage to Kerbela; The Persian Gulf. The article is copyrighted by J. B. 

 Lippincott Co. 



WE entered Persia by way of 

 the Caspian, stopping first, 

 however, at the wonderful 

 Russian oil-fields at Baku, near the Per- 

 sian frontier. Marco Polo, in his fasci- 

 nating book of travels, speaks of them as 

 follows : 



"On the confines towards Georgianna 

 there is a fountain from which oil 

 springs in great abundance, insomuch 

 that a hundred ship-loads might be taken 

 from it at one time. This oil is not good 

 to use with food, but it is good to burn, 



and is also used to anoint camels that 

 have the mange. People come from vast 

 distances to fetch it, for in all countries 

 around have they no other oil." 



The oil-fields were exploited many 

 centuries before the arrival of the Rus- 

 sians, but it is only within the last twenty 

 years that the commerce in naphtha has 

 become the most important industry of 

 the Caucasus. Good Sir Marco would 

 have been surprised to know that future 

 generations would find in his "burning 

 spring" a mine of riches compared to 



* Pp. 300. Illustrated. $.3.50. 



