14 FALCONRY. 
profitable for more than two or three hunters, and we believe 
of late, some seasons have passed without any one engaging 
in the enterprise; notwithstanding off Point Granville, 
which is an old hunting ground, sixty otters were taken by 
only three hunters during the summer of 1868, a great an- 
nual increase over many past years. 
It is said that the Russian American Company restricted 
the number taken yearly by the Aleutian Islanders — from 
whom the chief supply was obtained —in order to perpetuate 
the stock. Furthermore may it not be that these sagacious 
animals have fled from those places on the coasts of the 
Californias, where they were so constantly pursued, to some 
more isolated haunt, and now remain unmolested. 
FALCONRY. 
BY WILLAM WOOD, M.D. 
As Falconry, before the discovery of gunpowder and fire- 
arms, was a favorite amusement of the kings and nobles all 
over Europe, and as it is even to the present day among the 
Turks in some parts of Asia Minor; among the Persians, 
the Cireassians, the wandering hordes of Tartars and Tur- 
comans, and as it forms one of the chief sports of some of 
the native princes of India, and is not unknown in the 
northern provinces of China, and among several other bar- 
bárous or half-civilized countries, it may not be uninterest- 
ing to my readers to know in what estimation it has been 
held. I will not in this article give any account of the 
manner of training falcons; suffice it to say that they were 
taught to fly at the game and capture it, and come at call. 
It required months, and sometimes years, to train them 
properly. 
Hawking was not unknown to the Romans in the early 
