FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



279 



a grammar school? Not so much to im- 

 prove his grammar, which Heaven knows 

 is poor enough, but to give him just a lit- 

 tle common sense and decency? 



I want to write a bit of my appreciation 

 of " Birds that Hunt and are Hunted." The 

 illustrations are marvelous, the natural 

 colors of birds' plumage certainly never 

 could have been more faithfully rendered, 

 even by the immortal Audobon himself. 

 As a handbook of identification it should 

 be on every sportsman's desk, and in every 

 club library. The text, by Neltje Blanchan, 

 has such an original and attractive style that 

 I am induced to read for the mere pleasure 

 of reading what ordinarily would be dry 

 and prosy identification data. This book is 

 worth much more than is asked for it, and 

 with Recreation, at $2.50, the combina- 

 tion is really a hard one to beat. 



I want to buy a good, reliable but cheap 

 breech loading gun, but am undecided 

 as to what it shall be. The gun made by 

 N. R. Davis & Sons, Assonett, Mass., has 

 been highly recommended to me. 



Will readers of Recreation who have 

 used this gun kindly tell me, through the 

 magazine, what they think of it. 



S. D. Ledyard, St. Louis, Mo. 



THEY DON'T DROP. 



Greenville, Mich. 



Editor Recreation: The more I read of 

 shots through the heart, that drop deer 

 dead in their tracks, the more I think. For 

 years I have been trying to meet with that 

 kind of a deer. Every one I have plugged 

 in this way has steadfastly refused to be- 

 have thusly. No matter whether it be a 

 standing or a running shot, the deer always 

 " gets " and rarely drops within 8 or 10 

 rods. Without exception this has been my 

 experience and it is also that of those with 

 whom I have hunted. I don't recollect a 

 hunting trip on which some plugged hearts 

 have not been brought in to fry, and the 

 account is always the same. Of course I am 

 alluding to shots made by ordinary leaden 

 or practically all leaden bullets, and not 

 •30-30 smokeless express shells or other 

 atrocities, for as such I have come to regard 

 them. Dangerous to other hunters and 

 merciless to beast, they should have no 

 place in the equipment of the hunter, ex- 

 cept for dangerous game; certainly not — 

 for example — in the Michigan woods. 



My little .45-60 Winchester carbine, I 

 have found answer all needs, and though 

 the boys used to dub it a toy, I no longer 

 hear any disparaging remarks. It cuts off 

 grouse heads just as neatly as it drops deer 

 in their tracks, provided the bullet catches 

 them in the brain pan or the spinal column. 



I can't see why, when a man has a tried 

 and trusty weapon, he must be so anxious 



to procure one just a shade more deadly. 

 A new rifle even if made to measurement, 

 won't come up on a hurried shot like the 

 one you have been used to. These are of- 

 ten the critical shots, the ones which try a 

 man's nerves, and need that confidence in 

 the riile, which means so much. If any- 

 thing happens to my .45-60, I shall get an- 

 other rifle; or if I find myself again in 

 regions where a more powerful arm is ad- 

 visable, I shall have one along. But for 

 deer and such the .45 suits me. 



All the same I wish I could get just one 

 heart shot at a deer and* see the animal lie 

 down and die there and then; if only to be 

 able to say I had seen it. After that, I don't 

 care a continental; all the rest can run on 

 in the same old way. Percy Selous. 



A SCOURGE OF SHEEP. 



Visalia. Cal. 



Editor Recreation: I spent the early 

 part of last summer in the Sequoia National 

 Park, as a special agent of the Interior 

 Department, driving out what Muir terms 

 the " hoofed locusts." Later I was em- 

 ployed as guide for the troop of cavalry 

 sent to do that duty. 



The destruction wrought by sheep in the 

 higher altitudes must be seen to be under- 

 stood. Hillsides are denuded of brush and 

 grasses, and tramped into dust inches deep; 

 meadows packed and dried out; grasses 

 killed on them and the meadows later cov- 

 ered with sand from the hillsides and 

 changed to sandbars so steep that the shift- 

 ing sand makes them nearly impassable. 

 Before this last stage is reached there are 

 many phases; one of the first being the 

 overcoming of the valuable natural grass 

 by noxious weeds. This state of affairs 

 makes it hard for game even to exist and 

 nearly impossible for men and horses to 

 pass through the country, owing to lack 

 of forage. I saw deer in only favored 

 localities, where sheep could riot go, and 

 killed — none. Forest fires did considerable 

 damage in many parts of the Park, but 

 fortunately did not reach the " giant for- 

 est " of Sequoias, the show place of the 

 Park. Even these fires are caused in gen- 

 eral by sheepmen, either careless of camp- 

 fires or desirous of a pasture the next year 

 clear of large brush, trees and fallen timber. 



M. L. Weaver. 



The picture drawn by Mr. Weaver is in- 

 deed a sad one. Of course, the sheep in- 

 dustry is important to the country at large, 

 and we could not live without it. but it is a 

 national calamity that the " hoofed locusts " 

 should be permitted to overrun and dese- 

 crate the most beautiful mountain ranges in 

 the West. Sheep should be grown only on 

 farms, under fences, or on the desert plains, 

 where they could not destroy and desecrate 

 the most beautiful works of Nature.— 

 Editor. 



