Av&. 15, 1889.]' 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



67 



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BEAR HUNTING IN NEW MEXICO. 



TIERRA AMAEILLA, Rio Arriba County, New Mexi- 

 co. June. —Editor Forest and Stream: _ It is quite a 

 long time since I gave you any information about the 

 hunting in this vicinity, the fact is that we were * 'holed 

 up" during the winter, only going out occasionally when 

 ft fresh track had been seen near camp, or for a deer or 

 tlirkey; of which latter there are plenty. Deer were 

 somewhat scarce oh aCcoiint of the numerous bands of 

 Apaches who camped quite close; My horses and btifroe 

 were so poor, owing to the amount of snow and want of 

 grass, that wo did not unearth our camp till the begin- 

 ning of May. A nice little run ending in a kill is the 

 cause of this epistle, so I will proceed to give you the de- 

 tails. 



About 4:30 A. M., one morning toward the end of May. 

 one of the Mexicans in my employ came into camp and 

 told us that the horses would not be driven past a little 

 spot near camp, and of course we concluded that they 

 had seen a bear or mountain lion near that spot. Ac- 

 cordingly we set forth as soon as breakfast was 

 The MfcxiCan (£eriiande»), a Pueblo Indian, Andres 

 took four couples Of dogs arid left damp on horse 

 the other two preferred going on foot,- thinking the; 

 a better ChanCe of heading the bear by taking a short Cut. 

 where horses could not go. We met" with a Slight delay 

 at tile first which might have given our quarry d good 

 start, if was thus: I had with me two puppies totally 

 unbroken; no soon er did they smell the track than off 

 they bolted, dragging the old dogs with them and howl- 

 ing at the top of their voices: being all coupled, however; 

 they could not make very rapid headway. Quick as 

 thought Andres jumped from his horse, which by the 

 way immediately left him and had to be caught." He 

 secured one bunch of dogs and I the other. They had 

 made such a noise that I decided to loose them at" once, 

 although I was not sure whether they had scented the 

 bear or a passing deer. This was certain, that whatever 

 it was, they must have startled it, and knowing only too 

 well how soon both dogs and bear will run out of hearing 

 jti these mountains, when an animal gets a long start, I 

 lbst hO tinie in rinbouplifig therm and away they went at 

 racing pace and full cry, rip the mesa.; dowh into the 

 wide valley in which is our Carrip, and up the opposite 

 side; we could just hear the direction in which they had 

 gone by an occasional faint yell in the distance. We got 

 to the top very much out of breath, having led our pant- 

 ing plugs over the steep and rocky side. 



Here the dogs would undoubtedly have been lost for a 

 time had it not been for an old hound who came waddling 

 along in the rear, with her nose on the ground and mak- 

 ing no end of noise. This one we followed and soon came 

 in hearing of the pack still going down the canon at the 

 back of the camp, We had a rough old ride after them 

 over logs, holes, rooks, etc., for about a mile, when we 

 dismounted, tied our horses and went down the side op- 

 posite to the one which we came up Here at the bottom 

 of another canon was the sight that always tickles me 

 most. At the top of a large pine sat a fine brown bear, 

 looking down with evident concern at the dogs below, 

 who uli appeared to have gone mad, jumping, howding 

 and biting the roots of the tree. Andres, who had been 

 left bp-hind, had taken a short out and got ahead of us, 

 nothing unusual, for that wily Indian does not seem to 

 exert himself much, but nevertheless he invariably gets 

 there all the same. Being there first, he got first shot, 

 but. although an excellent hunter in the way of finding 

 gaine, he is no marksmani and he promptly put a bullet 

 in the old boar's foot, which made him loosen his hold, 

 and down he came "thump." When you hear this thump 

 there is always a decided sensation that you have shot 

 something. The dogs seized him on all sides, but he not 

 being at all dead, rose up and dispersed them without 

 Ceremony; but being unnecessarily closo we were not 

 desirous of witnessing any more fighting and lost no time 

 in filling him full of express bullets. 



He was a very short, stubby bear, weighing about oOOlbs. , 

 and the cook rendered 851bs/of lard from his carcass, a 

 very unusual amount of fat for the time of year, most 

 bears being so thin now that the dogs stand a poor show 

 of catching them; The fur was a beautiful dark brown 

 about 7in. long. We have every prospect of a good 

 spring, for the bears a few miles off have killed lots of 

 cattle and some horses. 



N. B. — Since I wrote this we have killed seven more 

 bears, two silvertips, two blacks and three cinnamons, 

 also three bey lynx. At present we are fishing for the 

 wily trout, which fishing, by the way, is hard to beat. 

 My friend caught one of 41bs. yesterday, and on a good 

 day over a hundred fish can easily be caught if necessary. 

 The new law prohibiting the sale of trout from the Chama 

 and other rivers has already done much to improve the 

 fishing. A. P. F. Coape. 



GEN. HENRY DU PONT. 



G.EN. HENRY DtT PONT, the venerable head of the 

 extensive powder manufacturing firm of E. I. Du 

 Pont de Nemours & Co., died Aug. 8. Gen. Du Pont was 

 born Aug. 8, 1812, in the family homestead where his 

 long and useful career ended. He was the second son 

 of Eleuthere Irenee Du Pont de Nemours, a distinguished 

 Frenchman, who in 1800 sought asylum in this country 

 from Jacobin persecution, and founded the famous pow- 

 der works on the banks of the Brandy wine River, Dela- 

 ware. A t seventeen he was appointed a cadet at the United 

 States Military Academy at West Point, graduated in 

 1838, and on July 1 of that year was ordered to duty with 

 the Fourth United States Artillery, at Fortress Monroe, 

 as Brevet Second Lieutenant. During the succeeding 

 fall and winter he performed frontier service with his 

 command at Fort Mitchell, on the Creek Indian Reserva- 

 tion, Alabama. Resigning his commission at the request 

 of his father July 15, ISM, he returned to Wilmington to 

 assist the latter and his elder brother in the manufacture 

 of gunpowder. The sudden death of the elder Du Pont 

 in Philadelphia from cholera the foil swing October made 

 Iris connection with the firm continuous and important. 

 At that time the powder works on the Brandy wine were 

 the most extensive in the country, and on the death of 

 his father Henry Du Pont at once assumed a large share 

 of the responsibility of the enterprise. In 1850 he under- 

 took the chief direction, and from that year until the 

 present his was the directing and decisive mind. From 

 a capacity of 2,000 pounds a day during the second war 

 with Great Britain, <it which period they were the sole 

 source of supply of the American Army, the daily output 



was enlarged to fully twenty times that amount. The 

 ! prodtiot of the Brandy wine mills has been an important 

 i factor in every American war since the Revolution, and 

 | likewise in several European conflicts, notably the for- 

 midable struggle in the Crimean, when large cargoes of 

 Du Pont powder were shipped for the use of the allied 

 armies. During the war of the rebellion the company, 

 I at the request of President Lincoln, sent one of its mem- 

 bers to Europe to make purchases for the Union Army, 

 The firm kept abreast of the powder manufacturing of 

 the world, and in all its enterprises Gen. Du Pont was 

 the dominating spirit. He proved equal to every haz- 

 ardous demand of his business, and it is said of him that 

 no man, perhaps, ever accomplished more for himself 

 and his associates with less business exaction. Enter- 

 prise, courage, fair dealing and liberality were the char- 

 acteristics of his business life. 



Gen. Du Pont's diversion was agriculture. He was 

 probably the most extensive land owner in Delaware, and 

 his holding was the most valuable in the State. During 

 the later years of his life his recreation consisted almost 

 entirely in driving over his vast estate, inspecting crops 

 and stock and planning improvements. The miles of 

 well cultivated fields along the banks of the Brandywine 

 were his pride and pleasure, and he spent thousands of 

 dollars in enriching and improving them. Gen. DuPont's 

 personal estate is Valued at $15,000,000. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



{CHICAGO, 111., Aug. &. --Following is the assembly 

 \J call for what will probably be the most important 

 movement in fish protection in the State of Illinois. The 

 Fox River Association has already drawn about it a con- 

 siderable following of ths angling clubs of Illinois, and 

 there is little question that this movement will grow un- 

 til it can assume a political importance which will enable 

 it to dictate to some of our weak-kneed legislators. In a 

 late letter to Mr. Geo. E. Cole, secretary of the Fox River 

 Association, Commissioner Bartlett says that he has 

 already received a large number of letters in regard to 

 the proposed State organization, and is notified of the 

 organization of two local clubs for the express purpose of 

 joining the State movement. The State convention will 

 in all probability be held here about next October, and it 

 is iri every way desirable that so worthy a movemen t should 

 have the backing of every angler of this State. Some- 

 thing should be done,' and it will be done. The call reads: 

 "To Whom it may Concerns It is proposed by parties 

 interested in the ' preservation and propagation of the 

 fishes in the State of Illinois to form a State organization. 

 In connection with above proposition, S, P. Bartlett, sec- 

 retary of the Board of Fish Commissioners of this State, 

 has suggested to the Fox River Fish and Game Associ- 

 ation to issue a call for a conventiqn for the purpose of 

 forming such organization. Complying with the sugges- 

 tion, tne Fox River Fish and Game Association hereby 

 calls on all fishing clubs, and all those interested, to cor- 

 respond with John Wilkinson, 150 Kinzig street, Chicago, 

 respecting the time and place for such convention; and, 

 also, all other germane matters which might properly be 

 of interest before such convention." E. Hough. 



176 Monroe Stkket. 



PATTERN AND PENETRATION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



V/ith interest I read of the trials made at your shot- 

 gun test, but I am not sure as to what conclusions you 

 expect to arrive that will be of practical use to every one 

 who uses a shotgun. Is it not about settled that no two 

 guns, no matter how costly, or by wdiom made, allowing 

 them to be as near as possible identical, will not vary in 

 their performance? For instance: The writer knows of 

 two made by an eminent firm — made of Damascus steel, 

 same gauge, but differing about 8oz. in weight. The 

 heavier gun, after years of trial, has been found to do its 

 best work with less powder and more shot than the 

 lighter one requires. That will do its best work with 

 more powder and less shot. Commonly we would expect 

 the heavier gun to require a larger load to excel. Again, 

 when finer shot are used, another alteration in loading 

 for each gun has been found best. It took a good deal 

 of shooting to ascertain those simple facts, and even yet 

 we are not fully settled as to a rule of exactly how hard 

 to compress the powder, or how best to confine the wad 

 on shot. Now if these guns, coming from same factory, 

 costing the same, will not render the same performance 

 -with the same loading, how shall any rule be established 

 for the thousands of shot-shooting guns except for each 

 one to march up to your place of trial and have its 

 weak and strong points brought out? Rifles of given 

 weight and bore may be more uniform in their work, 

 but of this I am not certain. We have watches which 

 cost alike, and made for all the eye can discover exactly 

 alike, but they will not keep time alike. I shall be sorry 

 if these exacting trials at your test do not establish some 

 fact or fauts which will apply to every gun in the land; 

 but my limited experience has caused me to regard our 

 multitude of shotguns as like so many fiddles ; can't tell 

 what they will do until each one is tried for itself under 

 varied circumstances. W. H. 



Shocking Treatment for Sparrows— The suggestion 

 of "Deacon" in last week's publication, to use uninsulated 

 electric light wires, was always a pet theory of mine. I 

 think it is the best way that has been as yet suggested. 

 Poisoning, trapping, shooting all have then* defects about 

 a town, and it is noticeable that where the wires are, so 

 are the sparrows, and vice versa. I originally thought of 

 it as a good way to obtain birds, unhurt for stuffing. — W. 

 C. C. 



To wanda, Pa., Aug. 12. — A few summer woodcock 

 hunters have been out in this neighborhood but report 

 birds scarce. One party brought in two, the only ones 

 that were seen or killed. Grouse and quail are reported 

 doing well, many large broods being seen; and the pros- 

 pects are that sportsmen will have fine sport when the 

 season opens. — D. 



Musket vs. Damascus.— While shooting at a target a 

 boy came along with a bored out musket, 19-gauge, 34in. 

 long. At five, rods he could put more shot into an en- 

 velope than I could with my fine Damascus 12-gauge 

 30in. long. We used No. 8 shot. Plow do you account 

 for this?— S. (Caledonia, N. Y.). 



"That reminds me." 

 272. 



FLICKERING No. 270 puts me in mind. Fred Fuller, a 

 cousin of the writer, was a most enthusiastic sports- 

 man, and for some years resided near Detroit, Mich., where 

 the extensive flats" gave him a fine opportunity to follow 

 his favorite pastime of duck shooting. He had a splen- 

 did set of decoys, and a number of half domesticated 

 wild ducks, which he also used for that purpose. His 

 guns and boats were the best of their kind, and his friends 

 understood that they were at liberty to borrow his outfit 

 when he did not use them. 



A certain small creek which found its way into the 

 fiats became known as Fuller's stand, and so frequently 

 was he found there, that gradually his fellow sportsmen 

 came to recognize it as his own rightful shooting ground. 



One morning Fred took gun, decoys and boat, and 

 started for a day's sport. Shortly afterward Tom B. , a 

 friend, sportsman, and great wag, came to borrow Fred's 

 decoys. Finding them gone he betook himself to his own 

 boat, and rowed on to the fiats. 



Duekg were scarce; and after several hours' waiting for 

 a shot, Tom picked up his oars and started for the afore- 

 said creek, in which Fuller's boat could be generally 

 found with decoys nicely anchored just outside its mouth. 

 Tom rowed carefully down to the spot, and peering 

 through the tall marsh grass, discovered the decoys close 

 at hand, bobbing serenely up and down, while an occa- 

 sional quack from a live duck made things more realistic. 



"By Jove, they look pretty!" said Tom. "I have a 

 great mind to let into 'em," he added, as he raised his 

 heavy muzzleloader to his shoulder. "How I could peck 

 that old drake that Fuller thinks so much of." And as a 

 bright idea struck him, Tom again raised his gun. "I'll 

 shoot -just over 'em! How mad Fuller '11 be. He'll think 

 some one is blowing his decoys out of water." And with 

 visions before his eyes of 6ft., and 2201bs. of excited 

 sportsman towering up over the grass in sublime passion, 

 and the subsequent hilarity of himself, Tom blazed away, 

 once, twice. "Whew! Holy Moses!" A furious quack- 

 ing, a mighty roar, and a hundred ducks rose from the 

 water, and put for a healthier place. When Tom had 

 angled for his gun some hours, and finally recovered it 

 from its resting place in the mud, where he had raptur- 

 ously thrown it, he started home, soliloquizing in a man- 

 ner which, revised, was as follows: "By thunder! if I 

 ever again shoot over a man's decoys, trying to be smart, 

 I hope some one will fill my hide full of BB's. Some men 

 are born asses." On that eventful morning my cousin 

 was not within three miles of his usual stand. 

 Oswego, N. Y. 



Ed. Noel. 



A BASS STAND. 



THE spot is frowned on by the highest and most inac- 

 cessible of a long line of cliff s. The matted turf has 

 ventured a little over the edge and descends among the 

 crevices toward a clump of weeds and scrub, but nothing 

 ventures lower save the swallows that frequent the damp, 

 rough-chiseled walls. The base is well buttressed against 

 the ocean by a confusion of huge boulders, with a line of 

 reefs extending out to break the attack. Here the un- 

 known angler was wont to clamber out to a precarious 

 footing, with his line reaching off beyond the breakers; 

 but nothing now remains of his handiwork save a line of 

 iron rods, well rusted and bent, that were drilled there 

 between tides. At low water, with a fog to help the illu- 

 sion, these boulders, half submerged, with their broad 

 backs covered with a tenacious sea growth, greenish 

 black, dripping and rank, appear a group of unclassified 

 marine monsters, well harpooned and stranded. 



The breakers that frequent this locality are mostly of a 

 rough, boisterous nature, but sometimes they are disposed, 

 to loll about in lazy attitudes. At times a massive wave, 

 with an indolent but irresistible movement, rises to en- 

 gulf a great, low-lying rock, then suddenly disappears 

 and a hundred rivulets are hurrying back, leaving the 

 rock all dripping from its bath, with an isolated pool on 

 top to simmer there until another tide. On sunny days 

 they all assume an aspect of peaceful accord, rolling 

 gently across the ocean in pursuit of curving lines of 

 foam to harvest in winrows on the beach; but in cloudy 

 times they come from the commotion at sea in a different 

 temper. The smaller, frothing waves are all absorbed, 

 and the advance is led by one, ponderous, opaque, mottled 

 with, seaweed and debris, and a presence like the front of 

 ocean. The outer reef, potent to disconcert an ordinary 

 breaker, only aggravates this into foam on the crest as 

 the monster, rounding the point wdth the precision of in- 

 fantry, sweeps on. preserving a perpendicular attitude, 

 with the crest impending over an abyss that yawns ahead 

 with rapidity. Destruction seems inevitable in its path, 

 but the course is shoaling rapidly, the footing becomes 

 insecure for one reared like this, beyond soundings, 

 there's a stooping in the posture, a moment of tottering, 

 a mighty roar and the giant expires in tons on the beach, 

 giving birth in its dissolution to a ravenous progeny, 

 springing far inland to return dragging back the reluctant 

 gravel in sounding remonstrance. 



But not all the breakers can thus pass the challenge of 

 the outer reef. Some are deflected toward the distant 

 shore; some collapse into seething maelstroms; others are 

 betrayed into misleading channels, a tortuous journey, 

 till, deprived of their headway, they all come together 

 again in a deep place near the shore and get to rearing 

 spires and steeples, till suddenly seized, drawn back and 

 landed among gloomy caverns with their trophies from 

 the deep: rare shells, curious bits of living things and 

 glistening flora. Jefferson Scrtbb. 



Pbovidence, R. I. 



A Minnow Life Preserver. — An ingenious contriv- 

 ance for aerating the minnow bucket consists of a rub- 

 ber tube with a, bulb. The end of the tube is inserted in 

 the water and the pressure of the bulb forces in the air, 

 which means life to the bait, and removes the necessity 

 of frequently changing the water. The life preserver is 

 manufactured by Messrs. A. B. Shipley & Son, of Phila* 

 delphia, 



