19$ 



RECREATION. 



one that makes possession a crime and that 

 will give no recourse to the game hog but 

 to pay and leave. 



I read every issue of Recreation and 

 always shall as long as you keep up your 

 present course of action. 



E. H. Kern, Grand Junction, Colo. 



GRIZZLIES AND GAME HOGS. 



I can give Mr. Wright some of the infor- 

 mation he asks for in his letter published on 

 page 284 of your April issue. In 1889 I was 

 detailed to catch a grizzly, and after a hunt 

 of 5 months in the mountains of Southern 

 California I returned to San Francisco 

 with "Monarch," the bear that is now in 

 the Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The 

 story of the capture of Monarch was stolen 

 recently by one Gosman, alias Kemble, and 

 told by him to the Youth's Companion as 

 an account of his own adventures. For 

 publishing his fraudulent stuff the editor 

 of Youth's Companion has written to me an 

 expression of his regrets and an explana- 

 tion of the manner in which the thief took 

 him in. 



So much by way of introduction, to show 

 that I am qualified to give the required in- 

 formation. Monarch was full grown when 

 captured, but he was lean and hungry. He 

 has not increased in height since, but is 

 much broader and heavier. His pres- 

 ent dimensions, taken by Louis Ohnimus, 

 who had charge of him for several years, 

 and who is now employed in Golden Gate 

 Park, are as follows : Length from tip to 

 tip, while standing naturally, 6 feet 6 inches ; 

 'height at shoulder, 45 inches ; breadth" of 

 head between ears, 12 inches ; length of 

 •head from ear to tip of nose, 18 inches ; 

 breadth across chest, outside to outside of 

 shoulder, 3 feet ; length of track, 8^2 

 inches ; width of sole, 6 inches. 



Monarch never has been weighed accur- 

 ately, but many estimates of his weight 

 have been made by persons accustomed to 

 guessing the weight of cattle, horses, etc. 

 These estimates vary greatly. Mr. Ohni- 

 mus, an expert menagerie man and an old- 

 time vaquero, writes me that he believes 

 Monarch's weight to be 1,800 pounds. This 

 may be correct, but I have doubts and do 

 not adopt the figures as my own. I al- 

 ways have discounted about 20 per cent, the 

 highest guesses at the weight of Monarch, 

 and I am inclined to believe that the scales 

 would bear me out. I am skeptical about 

 1,800 pound bears. Monarch probably is 

 the largest bear in captivity and a good 

 specimen of the largest California grizzly, 

 and if he weighs 1,400 pounds I am no 

 guesser. Yet I may be wrong and Ohni- 

 mus, with his wider experience, may be 

 right. 



A word about bear tracks, at the risk of 



using too much space. I have heard of 14- 

 inch tracks, and have measured footprints 

 of that apparent size on mountain trails, 

 but I think I know how an error is made. 

 A bear generally places his hind foot in 

 the track of his fore foot and a little in ad- 

 vance. The hind foot obliterates the claw- 

 marks of the fore foot and lengthens the 

 imprint, and the double track is mistaken 

 lor the print of a single foot. The appar- 

 ent width is similarly increased. Some old 

 trackers may be able to verify or disprove 

 this. 



On exhibition in this city are the skins 

 of 2 Alaskan grizzlies. The stretched 

 hides are 10 feet long, 6 feet 3 inches wide. 

 The heads are about the size of Monarch's. 

 Whether the animals were larger is a ques- 

 tion. I think not. 



Your roast of Coronado game hogs was 

 deserved and just. It is not true that all 

 the ducks killed on False bay were re- 

 trieved and used. For 2 or 3 days 

 after the slaughter boasted of by Mr. Bab- 

 cock dead ducks were blown ashore. Bab- 

 cock and his friends tried to justify them- 

 selves by asserting that all the birds were 

 shot on the wing. 



The same gang went down into Mexico 

 and slaughtered quails in the same way 

 and bragged of the enormous number they 

 killed. One Captain Sedam, a visitor, 

 seems to be the boss killer of the outfit. 

 He claims to be champion wing shot of all 

 creation. Babcock encourages this sort of 

 thing because it attracts people to his ho- 



At Catalina fishing for record is preva- 

 lent, and tons of fish are thrown on the 

 beach to spoil. The game hogs get all 4 

 feet into Southern California's trough, and 

 the time will come when nothing else will 

 be found in the trough. 



Allen Kelly, Los Angeles, Cal. 



PROHIBIT THE SALE OF GAME. 



Mr. Boswell's discussion of the game sell- 

 ing question in a recent issue of Recreation 

 doubtless appears sound to the casual read- 

 er, but it will not bear close inspection by 

 careful thinkers. 



He bases his argument on the hypothesis 

 that absolute prohibition of game selling 

 would mean a deprivation to 99 per cent, 

 of our people. As such prohibition can 

 prove a deprivation only to those who now 

 buy and eat game, leaving the dealers out 

 of the discussion, it follows, from his hy- 

 pothesis, that all but one per cent, of our 

 people are game eaters. 



This is not a fact, as everyone knows. 

 That class of the people which Mr. B. des- 

 ignates as the most numerous — tradesmen, 

 mechanics, artisans and laborers — seldom or 

 never buy and eat game, owing to its pres- 

 ent high price. Any money which remains 

 after the beef and other domestic meats are 



