RECREA TION, 



3 1 



CAPT. H. H. BELLAS, U. S. A. 



A NOTABLE RECORD. 



Captain Henry Hobart Bellas, 

 U. S. Army, whose portrait is 

 shown herewith, is *a native of 

 Pennsylvania, residing in Germantown, 

 near Philadelphia, and is descended from 

 several of the oldest and most aristocra- 

 tic families, of English and Scotch blood, 

 of that commonwealth; being a lineal 

 descendant of the celebrated Hon. Wil- 

 liam. Moore of " Moore Hall," in Chester 

 county, as well as of Rev. William Smith, 

 D.D., the first Provost of the University 

 of Pennsylvania. He is allied by descent 

 and marriage to the Cadwaladers, Ers- 

 kines, Bonds, Smiths, Whelens, Hille- 

 gases, Boudes, Anthonys and Rudolphs 

 of Pennsylvania; the Moores, Van Rens- 

 selaers,Livingstons and Pintards of New- 

 York; the Hobarts of New England; the 

 Duponts and Ridgelys of Delaware; the 

 Goldsboroughs of Maryland and the 

 Taliaferros of Virginia. Captain Bellas 

 served in the Union army in the last 

 year of the rebellion and assisted in the 

 defence of Washington against the rebel 

 raid under Early, in July, 1864. 



For services rendered, he was after- 

 wards appointed by President Grant in 

 the regular service as Second Lieutenant 

 of the Fourth regiment, U. S. Cavalry, 

 October 1, 1873 ; promoted First Lieu- 



tenant, April 2, 1879, and Captain, April 

 24, 1886. After a constant active service 

 on the western frontier of over twelve 

 years, he was finally placed on the re- 

 tired list of the army, October 2, 1890, 

 by special act of Congress, for disabil- 

 ity incurred in line of duty, with the 

 rank of captain of cavalry. 



Captain Bellas graduated from Har- 

 vard University in 1867, with the degree 

 of LL. B., and is a member of the Penn- 

 sylvania Historical and other societies, 

 besides being connected with nearly all 

 the various patriotic hereditary orders of 

 the United States. He is also associate 

 editor of the ** American Historical 

 Register," published in Philadelphia. 



Captain Bellas has kindly consented 

 to contribute a series of papers to 

 Recreation, narrating some of his ex- 

 periences on the frontier, in hunting, 

 scouting, Indian fighting, etc. His 

 marked ability as a descriptive writer 

 and a story teller is shown in his article 

 in this issue, entitled " A Winter with 

 the Chevennes." 



TWENTY ACRES OF CARIBOU. 



MR. J. B. Tyrrell, of the Canadian 

 Geological Survey, has lately 

 returned from the far north- 

 west, and tells of a wonderful herd 

 of caribou which he encountered. He 

 says : 



" When we reached the edge of the 

 woods on lake Athabasca, in the begin- 

 ning of August, we commenced to see 

 a few deer every day. One evening, as 

 we were paddling along the margin of a 

 large lake, one of my half-breeds called 

 my attention to what he thought to be 

 earth moving, some distance away, and 

 on looking through my glass I saw that 

 it was an immense herd of reindeer. 

 They were in bands of 200 or 300 each, 

 and crowded closely together. We ap- 

 proached, walked in among them and 

 opened fire on them, when they stam- 

 peded in every direction. We killed 

 70 of them and then went into camp. 

 During the next three days we dried 

 the meat of all that we had killed. The 

 great herd remained in our immediate 

 vicinity all the time we were there, and 

 at one time when closely massed, 

 covered about twenty acres of ground." 



