April 7, 1887.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



227 



paddle, keeping the «anoe headed straight against the 

 current, and when the depth of water will permit holding 

 her there, while the. pole man shifts his pole for another 

 shove. Tt is in these rapids that the skill of the canoe 

 man is most required, but more in descending, for then 

 the force of the current will carry you down with irre- 

 sistible speed, although even then the skilled canoe 

 men will hold and control their light boat in a wonderful 

 manner impossible in any other kind of craft. 



We got off Monday about eight and continued our as- 

 cent of the river until noon, when we stopped for an hour 

 for dinner. While waiting here, we put together our fly- 

 rods and took 36 trout, weighing about a' quarter of a 

 pound, a welcome addition to om larder. We also saw 

 on the river bank the tracks of a large bear which had 

 come down to the shore and crossed the river. After 

 dinner we continued on until we came to the foot of the 

 third falls, and then went into camp on the portage just 

 above them. 



The following day we went into camp at sundown, on 

 the river bank, having arrived at the hunting grounds of 

 the Indians with whom our treaty was made. As we 

 smoke our pipes after supper there is some little excite- 

 ment manifested as to what the next day may bring forth; 

 bear stories are in order, reminiscences of natural history 

 and hunting adventures are discussed, rifles are carefully 

 examined, and cribbage is not as engrossing as it was 

 last night. My rifle was a .44-caliber Winchester repeater, 

 the Colonel's a Winchester express, and his was altogether 

 the best weapon for heavy game, mine being altogether 

 too light, as I found to my eost, for as the sequel will show, 

 it cost me my first bear. We went to hunt on different 

 sides of the river, the Colonel crossing to the north shore 

 with Leon and EJward's son, Joseph and Charles and my 

 Joseph going with me on the side where our camp stood. 

 Leon and Charles were armed with double-barreled 

 smoothbore guns, purchased from the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, carrying round balls an'd not to be depended on, 

 except at short range. The stars were shining brightly 

 when we turned in, and at daylight we were delighted 

 to rind that the day promised to lie all that could be 

 desired, with a light northwest wind, and a perfectly 

 clear blue sky. Breakfast was soon dispatched and then- 

 after a hearty hand shake and mutual wishes for success, 

 the Colonel went off in bis canoe and I started on my 

 tramp. Charles led the way, myself next, and Joseph 

 bringing up the rear, with my rifle and bunting coat and 

 a bag containing flask, biscuit, chocolate sticks for lunch 

 — a capital thing by the way — and a cardigan jacket. 

 While struggling up the steep hill Charles stopped and 

 showed me where a bear had slept not long before, the 

 grass being still pressed down flat, where he had coiled 

 himself up: this was encouraging. Not far from there he 

 stopped at a large tree, the bark, from about the height 

 of a man's throat down, torn into strips, and the wood 

 gouged out by the bear's strength and the sharpness of 

 his razor-like claws. He had been sharpening them for 

 fun or business, there could be no doubt about that. "We 

 pushed on, mounting up and up, sometimes over table 

 land, blueberry bushes in flne fruitage everywhere, until 

 at last we came out on a bare rock on the top of a mount- 

 ain, a, least a thousand feet high, and there the 

 Indians deposited their loads, got out their pipes set them- 

 selves down and began to look around, apparently at the 

 view. A magnificent panorama of mountain," valley 

 and river lay stretched out around us for miles. But was 

 this what we had come so;far and climbed so high to see 

 — wait. An exclamation from Charles, an outstretched 

 arm, and Joseph's riveted gaze at the opposite mountain 

 — what is it they see? ''A bear," exclaims Joseph. I look 

 with all my eyes. I see nothing, but Charles, whose eye- 

 sight is something marvellous, has detected a small black 

 spot on the opposite mountain, and Joseph, who is now 

 all excitement, tries to point out the spot to me; I got out : 

 my glass, and after some time, I too see the black spot, j 

 which otherwise I should have taken for a rock or a j 

 burned stump. But is it a bear? Charles saw it at once 

 and it has moved, therefore it was not a stone or a stump, ! 

 and as I am intently watching it, it disappears behind j 

 some bushes. It is now eleven o'clock, and while the 

 Indians have gone to another lookout point on the other ! 

 side of our mountain, I see another moving object which j 

 the glass discloses clearly to be a large bear, with two 

 small ones, walking along the crest of a ridge on the same : 

 mountain, evidently a mother and her cubs. A call I 

 brings the Indians, and I point to the bears; they see them I 

 at once, and Joseph also points out to me another bear, j 

 sitting up on his haunches on the top of a large conical j 

 rock, and evidently sunning himself after his morning's j 

 meal. Here then, in plain light, and not two miles from 

 as, are certainly four, and perhaps five, bears. 



Just here came my first mistake, which I should not ! 

 have made had I not set up my own judgment against i 

 that of my reserved and experienced guide. One diffi- j 

 oulty was that Charles did not speak a word of French, j 

 and Joseph had to act as interpreter between us. I there- j 

 fore could not get at Charles's ideas, except through Jo- j 

 seph, and he, from having been with me so long, had 

 fallen in the habit of acquiescing in any thing I suggested, j 

 One must guard against this amiable defect in dealing j 

 with the Indians, as a mere suggestion will often be taken 

 as a command, and they will readily yield their own judg- 1 

 ment to what they believe to be your wishes. 



The bears were there. Why not stalk them? I saw by | 

 Charles's manner that he had no idea of moving then ; he 

 sat quietly smoking his pipe. Joseph was picking blue \ 

 berries. I kept my glass on the bears. All at once the 

 one on the rock disappeared. I called Joseph and asked . 

 him whether we should not try to stalk them. He talked 

 some time with Charles, and it was evident that a discus- j 

 sion was going on between them. If only I could have I 

 understood their language, I should probably have let ' 

 Charles manage as he pleased ; but I did not f and I still 

 let Joseph see that my voice was for action : this brought 

 him over to my side and Charles yielding. He knew that ! 

 it was about time for the bears to retire" to the woods for i 

 their siesta, and remain there until the afternoon, and J 

 then return to their feeding grounds. He would have : 

 waited quietly and watched for then- reappearance, and ! 

 then made his mark. But he yieldei to my impatience 

 and inexperience, and being a man of few words, picked 

 up his gun and led the way down the mountain. 



Reaching the valley, we had about half a mile to 

 traverse, and here the walking was very bad. with dead 

 trees scattered in every direction, their branches as dry 

 and brittle as glass. The Indians would thread their way 

 over and through these obstructions with wonderful ease ; 



running along the trunks and never losing their balance ; 

 but for me the task was much more difficult, and I could 

 not pretend to keep pace with them. However, we 

 reached at last the foot of the opposite mountain. We 

 had been keeping to leeward ; the Indians do not seem to 

 fear the eyesight of the bear as much as they do his keen- 

 ness of hearing and smell ; the slightest noise or taint in 

 the wind will be detected by them at an incredible dis- 

 tance, and then you will have your labor for your pains. 

 We had struck the mountain at least half a mile to the 

 southward of a direct approach. The mountain we had 

 to scale was steep and precipitous, and we had at least a 

 thousand feet to climb. Up we went, the Indians appa- 

 rently as fresh as when we started, but I will confess that 

 I was not in the same condition : the rarity of the air is 

 felt here very perceptibly, and I was obliged to stop half 

 a dozen times to get my' wind and allow the palpitation 

 of my heart to subside/ It was a terrible climb ; but at 

 last we stood upon the ridge. A short halt, and Charles 

 again led on. Joseph here cautioned me to avoid making 

 any noise and to follow in Charles's steps, and this I did 

 to the best of my ability. Charles's progress seemed to me 

 to be absolutely noiseless; mine, although I have had some 

 practice, could not compare with it. He seemed to glide 

 along and through the bushes and over and through dense 

 branches without a sound. Soon we recognized the rock 

 upon which we had seen the bears. Joseph handed me my 

 rifle, with a renewed caution as to my steps. Charles's 

 advance became more cautious, but not a bear was to be 

 seen. We went on and on with the same caution, but it 

 was evident that the bears had vanished, and then for the 

 first time I noticed that the wind had changed since we 

 had started, and that a slight current of air was then 

 blowing from the south. Whether Charles had noticed 

 this before we scaled the moun tain, or only afterward, 

 when it was too late, I never found out ; but had the 

 bears remained where we had seen them, which was not 

 probable, this change of wind would have sent them off 

 long before our arrival. It was now about an hour and 

 a half since we left our lookout. Our hunt had been un- 

 successful, it is true, and from my own fault, but I had 

 gained the experience I stood in need of. We went on 

 about a mile and from there watched another part of the 

 mountain until sundown. Then having seen nothing, we 

 made our way to camp, where I found the Colonel just 

 returned, having had some fearful climbing and tough 

 work, but not having seen anything. That evening, af- 

 ter supper, I gave the Colonel the benefit of my experi- 

 ence and fairly confessed my sin ; the only consolation I 

 received was that he had done just what his Indian had 

 told him and that I should have done the same. N. P. E, 



THE SPORTING MANIA. 



f A paper read before tiiv Shemian Ohm Club, of Columbus, 

 Ohio, by Colop.fi Horace Parle] 



MMAN by the mstinets of his nature is a destructive, 

 warlike being. Civilization and education materi- 

 ally modified nearly all of bis aboriginal nature, in fact 

 it is through education alone that civilization is possible ; 

 the more educated people become the more civilized, yet 

 behind all this man's nature crops out in some way or 

 other. Field sports with rod and gun are probably nearer 

 mans instincts than any other style of sport, this ap- 

 pears to be easily accounted for from' the fact that 

 wherever man is found in his normal condition, as the 

 aborigines of this country or any other, -when not actu- 

 ally engaged in war with some neighboring tribe, he de- 

 voted his time to the chase. This latter in eLviliaea times 

 we call field sports. So true were the Indians to these in- 

 stincts that iu the effort of the government to civilize 

 them it became necessary to feed them. For their meat, 

 cattle on foot were issued. Common sense evolved by 

 civilization would advise that the cattle be slaughtered 

 and neatly dressed. Not so with the noble red man. He 

 must turn the cattle loose on the prairie, mount his cay- 

 use and limit them down very much after the style of the 

 buffalo chase, before they became extinct. Often in these 

 mimic chases the cattle were killed many miles from 

 camp. However, this is only part of the chase ; the 

 dressing and getting the meat to camp is left to their 

 squaws. The noble red man has some of the notions of 

 modern civilization. He is one of the lords of creation ; 

 it is beneath his dignity to skin the game or pack the 

 meat to camp. It is astonishing to see with what com- 

 placency and lordly strides he strolls along with nothing 

 but his rifle or bow and cirrows, or if mounted he lazily 

 rides his lank caylise, followed by bis little bowleg dam- 

 sel on foot, staggering- along xuider a hundred pounds of 

 bloody-, dirty meat. This is not the case with some mod- 

 ern hunters, if the truth is told, for at times they are so 

 anxious to carry home a load of game that if they stum- 

 ble on a mossback hunter they are ready to part with the 

 almighty dollar for the privilege of loading themselves 

 down with game, and as sportsmen are known for their 

 veracity they would not be suspected of claiming that 

 they killed all the game. The astonishing part of it is 

 the wonderful amount of game a true modern hunter is 

 willing to carry home, no matter how he procured it. 



There are exceptions to all general rules. This sport- 

 ing mania does nor always begin with childhood. In 

 this case, like the measles, if they don't get it until they 

 are quite old they have it very bad. The first symptom 

 to develop is an inclination to visit the gun and tackle 

 stores, subscribe for some sporting paper, study the adver- 

 tisements, examine the various hues and devices for the 

 decoying of the finny tribe, as well as the latest improve- 

 ment in guns ; inquire as to the fishing grounds, where 

 to go and the prospect of catching fish and bagging game 

 in unlimited quantities. At the gun stores they hear the 

 stories of the enormous fish and large bags of game, also 

 the great exploits of the experts and knowing ones. By 

 this time they get it very bad, and at once proceed to buy 

 an outfit— not an extravagant one in the start ; theu, of 

 coarse, they go a fishing, with various anticipations of 

 success. Then, after a hard clay's tramp up and down 

 some stream, with but a shiner or two to show, thej r at- 

 tribute then- failure to inexperience and lack of educa- 

 tion in the art. During the season, by perseverance, bet- 

 ter succsss will be met with. They by this time will con- 

 clude that they must have a better outfit in the tackle 

 line. The first outfit will be given to the boy, a new and 

 better rod and reel will be procured, a braided silk line, 

 gut-snooded hook and other paraphernalia in the tackle 

 line. They will not stop here with a little success occa- 

 sionally ; they become apt scholars and soon learn that it 

 is not all of fishing yish. The fact is, before the season 



is over they will have procured the most complete out- 

 fit, including the best split bamboo rod, Kentucky reel, 

 enameled line, gut leaders and an amply filled fly-book, 

 landing net and a pair of wading breeches ; nor is this 

 all ; you will also find that in fishing around a not stove 

 in midwinter that they will equal the oldest veterans in 

 the enormous size of the fish caught, to say notliing of 

 the larger ones that broke the tackle and escaped. The 

 proposition in the start was that man was warlike and 

 destructive by nature. To say, also, that he was a natu- 

 ral liar would probably be going too far, but it is won- 

 derful how soon talent in that direction will develop with 

 the fishing mania. 



However, it does almost appear that war is man's nor- 

 mal condition. It is this nature that divides comunities 

 where there are real natural boundaries. Take, for in- 

 stance, the Columbus and Franklinton boys thirty or 

 forty years ago. Some of the old members of the Sher- 

 man Gun Club will doubtless remember the many hard- 

 fought battles between the boys of Franklinton and 

 Columbus, the Scioto River being the natural boundary 

 line. Woe to the Columbus boy caught alone on the 

 other side, or the Franklinton boy on this 6ide. Frank- 

 linton was at that time called Sodom — hence the boys 

 were called Sodomites. The Sodomites called the Colum- 

 bus boys pinchguts. Just ask any of the men of Colum- 

 bus who were boys in those times; they will tell you they 

 had lots of fun in those fighting times. 



Only last week I met an old soldier of my regiment, 

 one I had not seen for years. I asked what he was driv- 

 ing at. He said he was with the engineer corps running 

 the Black Diamond railroad, and that they had just ship- 

 ped their camp equipage to the other end of the line. 

 "Well,"' I said, "you have not been camping out this 

 winter?'' "Yes," he said, "all winter, and I have not 

 had so much fun since I left the army at the close of the 

 war." It is to be seen that war partakes very much of 

 the nature of the chase, of field sports on a grand 

 scale, otherwise it would be difficult to raise volunteer 

 armies. When you combine patriotic duty with any- 

 thing that par'.akes of man's nature you make men effec- 

 tive in war as soldiers. You ask any old soldier who was 

 with. General Sherman in the march to the sea, and he 

 will tell you that it was one grand hunting spree, the 

 chase on a grand scale. Field sports combined with 

 patriotism, determined and desperate game, only adds 

 zest to the chase. Compare rabbit hunting in the pasture 

 fields of Ohio with the tiger and lion of the jungles of 

 Africa, or the wild boar of Arkansas. The fact that the 

 game sometimes hunts the hunter does not appear to 

 dampen man's ardor for the chase; in other words, the 

 chase is grander as the hazard is greater. How uiany 

 men in the Sherman Gun Club will tell that they have 

 suffered more from, cold in one day at the Licking reser- 

 voir, duck hunting in March, than all the balance of the 

 winter at home, besides paying $10 for the privilege, and 

 call it fun ? How many, also," have resolved at such time 

 that they will never go duck hunting again? Tin's is 

 nothing: with .the very next favorable report they are 

 again off for the pond. In the scarcity of living game 

 this sporting spirit in man naturally looks for soine sub- 

 stitute. Captain A. H. Bogardus was the first to intro- 

 duce inanimate game as a substitute for living— the glass 

 ball and trap— nearly twenty or more years ago. Since 

 then many r new devices have been invented; among 

 others was one called the gyro pigeon. This was a sheet 

 iron device painted white. Hits were counted by the shot 

 marks on the paint when the targets were gathered in. 

 These were no good; something had to be smashed, you 

 had to hear "something drop." Like the small boy when 

 he buys a .22-caliber revolver, the first question he asks is 

 how far it will kill — if it won't kill from fifty to one hun- 

 ched yards it is no good. So in the case of trap-shooting: 

 if notliing is really killed something must be smashed. 

 Glass balls filled the bill for a long time, but Yankee in- 

 genuity is never at a standstill; other devices were pro- 

 duced, like the clay -pigeon; they more nearly resembled 

 the flight of birds or something that was alive. 



As near as I can recollect, about 18C7 Josiah Sherman, 

 Charles McLeish, Dr. Shepard, John Gugle, WVB. Hay- 

 den, Dr. Flowers, Ed. Savage, John Flowers, George Bel- 

 lows and a few others first met together near the lailroad 

 bridge over Alum creek weekly and participated in the 

 sport of glass-ball shooting. At that time there were but 

 two breechloading shotguns in this county — one owned 

 by W. B. Hayden, a 16-bore, the other by Oeorge Bel- 

 lows, a 10-borc. In speaking of guns and shooting it mav 

 be well to say here that the progress and various degrees 

 in a case of the shooting mania would be only a repeti- 

 tion of the other branch of sporting, the fishing mania. 

 It will range from the cheap German breechloader to a 

 $200 fine hammerless with a complete outfit, consisting 

 of corduroy suit and from one to three dogs. Fashion 

 controls almost everything, just as much so in guns as 

 plug hats : hence no matter what kind of a gun a man 

 starts in with the finish will be a fashionable one. 



But this is a digression. The origin of the shooting 

 club is under consideration. The meetings at Alum 

 creek, without any special organization, were very pleas- 

 ant. Our glass balls at that time were very thick and 

 hard ; to break from four to six out of ten was considered 

 good. One rather laughable incident occurred at one of 

 these meetings : There were on the ground fifteen or 

 twenty shooters : I think it was in the fall of the year. 

 All hands were standing around with loaded guns wait- 

 ing for some adjustment of the trap, when a fine large 

 woodcock had the audacity to deliberately fly over the 

 entire party of shooters, not exceeding 80ft. high. Talk 

 about lively shooting ! Every gun on the grounds was 

 suddenly emptied at the vanishing woodcock without 

 ever disturbing him in the least ; at"least he moved on in 

 the even tenor of his way, merely thinking that it was 

 the Fourth of July and that the volley was simply a na- 

 tional salute for his benefit. After being handicapped 

 with thirty charges, representing two and a half pounds 

 of No. 8 shot, Mr. Woodcock was bagged by one of the 

 party following him to the neighborhood of the Water- 

 cure. There was no post-mortem held on the Avoodcock, 

 or it would probably have developed a case similar to the 

 one where a gentleman went frog shooting with a 22- 

 caliber rifle. After hunting some time he discovered a 

 very large frog sitting on a stump in the water. Our 

 hunter at once opened the battle. He shot Flobert's. At 

 every discharge the frog would hitch and jump spasmod- 

 ically, as though struck by the bullet. Our friend con- 

 tinued to fire at Mr. Frog some fifty or sixty times, when 

 from a shot fired with great deliberation the frog turn- 



