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RECREATION. 



THE KIND THEY HAVE IN THE 

 PECOS VALLEY. 



Charles Dudley Warner says : 



The signs of a coming dust-storm are many. 

 The air is electric, a feather will cling to the 

 fingers, the sky is oftimes gray and streaked, 

 the children in the schools, even the prima- 

 ries are nervous. Suddenly the bits of paper 

 in the streets begin to whirl; soon you will 

 see the dust coming like a rolling storm 

 cloud; the sky is obscured; everything out 

 of doors is "on the fly;" the slim branches 

 of the scant cottonwoods slash the air, and 

 if you are unfortunate enough to be out of 

 doors, your eyes, nose and mouth will be 

 filled with alkali dust while you are striving 

 to make headway against a whirlwind. If 

 you are under cover you will hasten to drop 

 windows and shades; but the dust is so fine 

 it will penetrate wherever air can. The pat- 

 tern of the carpet maybe obliterated, and in 

 some of the worst ones in New Mexico drifts 

 are formed on the floor several inches in 

 depth. 



How long does a storm last ? 



Sometimes an hour, sometimes three days 

 —coming with great violence at intervals. 

 We have known one that continued a week, 

 with the exception of one day for a recess. 

 The effect upon a nervous temperament is 

 distressing. There is a desire to hide the 

 head, like an ostrich; to creep into some 

 hole, to cover the face so as not to see the 

 wild turmoil of whirling things. The irrita- 

 bility is so great with some persons as to 

 culminate in fits of weeping. This is fol- 

 lowed by exhaustion. 



A dust storm may occur at anytime of the 

 year, but the spring is especially prolific. 

 When the " Kamsin," the wind from the des- 

 ert, "blows in," be it summer or winter, the 

 worst kind of a storm may ride on its wings. 



The huge, cone-shaped mounds of ossified 

 structure, which stretch for miles here on the 

 plains, testify to the whirling winds that over 

 a thousand leagues of desert have had their 

 mad sweep for centuries. 



"THE LADY OF THE LAKE." 

 Editor Recreation : 



In a recent number of Recreation Mr. 

 W. A. Wheatley claims to have discovered 

 errors of forestry in Scott's "Lady of the 

 Lake." The memory of Sir Walter is sacred to 

 all lovers of nature, and his wizard note has 

 notbeen touched in vain. More than one heart 

 has throbbed higher at its sway. Even were 

 Mr. W. right and Sir Walter wrong, the for- 

 mer should seek another theme for his pen 

 rather than attack the " Wizard of the North," 

 the beloved of all sportsmen. 



First — Mr. W. has discovered that "deer 

 feed all night and lie in lairs during the day 

 only." It is a fact well known to all practi- 

 cal hunters that the deer's feeding time is 

 governed, more or less, by the light and dark 

 of the moon, and I have often found deer 

 feeding in midday. 



Second — " Deer are never hunted with 



blood-hounds," says Mr. Wheatley. " Dogs 

 bay only at end of a chase, when attacking 

 wounded deer." At present blood-hounds 

 are not used for chasing deer; but during 

 the period referred to by Sir Walter they 

 were used for strike dogs or cold trackers, 

 being the keenest-scented dogs then known. 

 They delight in following a cold track, bay- 

 ing deep and long. As to hounds baying 

 only at " end of chase, when attacking 

 wounded deer," such are entirely different 

 from any variety of fox or deer hounds used 

 on the Pacific coast. The hounds used here 

 give tongue freely while cold tracking and 

 during the entire chase from start to finish. 



Third — "Winding the horn calls the 

 hounds back and is to stop the chase." I 

 have hunted with many hounds and good 

 ones, too, that, once in full cry, all the horns 

 in Christendom would fail to stop or call 

 them back. Its blasts would only cheer them 

 on; yet these same hounds would come read- 

 ily to the horn the chase once ended. 



Fourth — "And it is the hound that snuffs 

 the tainted gale." 



The tainted gale presumably referred to 

 by Mr. W., and which the "hounds snuffed," 

 must have been the scent of the deer left by 

 his hoofs on the ground, or by his legs brush- 

 ing by the grass or heather. If one deer in 

 in repose would " taint the morning gale," 

 one hundred men, one hundred horses, and 

 one hundred hounds in the excitement of 

 the chase would be more apt to do so. Men 

 and dogs are the natural enemies of the deer, 

 and a deer's scent is keen. 



Fifth — " So these blood-hounds were in full 

 cry and chase before the stag had left his 

 heathery bed of the previous eve." 



There is no reason why they should not 

 be, as many hounds give tongue, freely, too, 

 while cold tracking, and get over the ground 

 rapidly. As to the matter referred to by Mr. 

 W., I venture to say that they are visible to 

 no other eyes than his own. 



L. L. Bales, Everett, W^ash. 



Readers of Recreation have long 

 since learned that it can be depended on to 

 bring them a feast of good stories and beau- 

 tiful pictures each month. The November 

 number will be fully up to the standard. 



It will contain a thrilling story of "A 

 Mountain Lion Hunt," by Dr. Robert Mead 

 Smith ; another of " Pheasant Shooting in 

 Oregon," by Thomas G. Farrell ; " Trouting 

 on Clark's Fork," by Gen. F. W. Benteen, 

 U.S.A.; "Sitting Bull's Last Medicine," by 

 Margaret Gray Brooks ; " Crossing the Plains 

 30 Years Ago," by Gen. John Gibbon ; 

 " Ducking off Machipongo," by W. J. Bogert ; 

 and the continuation of Doctor Tucker's 

 story; a delightful poem by J. B. Lozier, 

 entitled "Autumn Days," and another by 

 S. N. McAdoo, telling a humorous but 

 pathetic story of "Hans the Wolf-Hunter." 

 All these will be handsomely illustrated, 

 and the departments will be brim-full of 

 news notes relating to shooting, fishing, 

 wheeling, photography, etc. 



