Not. 27, 1897.] 
CONCERNING SPORT. 
New YoBK, Nov. 1— Editor Parest md Stream: It -was 
Willi DO thought of being drawn into a controversy that 1 
penned ray modest remonstrance against "fun" (issue Oct. 
9), but as Mr. W Wade has filed frieudlv objections in gen- 
eral to my brief expressions therein (issue Oct. 23), 1 assume 
that a few words more clearly defining my position, may, 
not be out of place. 
While Mr. Wade closes his remarks with the statement 
tbat he is "not a sportsman in the least degree," I wish to 
record right here that I am a sportsman in the strongest de- 
gree, and I think I know what that implies. 
Born within the very district made notable by the Modoc 
incident to which he refers, reared in the shadow of many . 
snow-capped peaks, and with a large portion of my time 
since early youth passed in the game^stocked mountain wil- 
dernesses of the Northwest in quest of health, sport and, in- 
cidentally the elusive nugget, and with Forest and Stream 
as my infallible and constant criterion, I feel that when 1 
express my opinions on the subject 1 am not "measuring 
others' corn in my half bushel." 
All mankind is possessed of a natural instinct for the chase, 
inherited from our ancestors ' of the ages when they had 
nothing else to do but hunt, and no other way of providing 
themselves with a living; and I rtaiize the impossibility of 
this instinct being Overcome, to much extent, by sentiment 
— though it remains latent in some cjises. Thus— being only 
human — I love the chase and the free life il involves, and 
can see only pure sport in that phase of it in which the rea- 
soning intelligence of man is pitted against the instinctive 
intelligence of the game; but in that phase in which the 
hunter brings to his aid the animal instinct in the form of 
trained hounds, who do the work while he sits on a log and 
smokes his pipe, the flavor of sport is well-nigh eliminated, 
and is lost entirely when the run is for a varmint and ends 
in a fight. It is inconceivalile to me that any true sports- 
man or h imane person can find enjojonent in witnessing the 
j^wafe when the pack has run a "criltor" to his last stand, 
and the inevitable "gallant fight'' ensues which can have 
but one termination — the most horrible death and mutilation 
of the many times overmatched victim. 
Ire assert, then, that there is no excuse for applying the 
term "sport" to any kind of a fight lietween animals — 
human or otherwise— which is all I was kicking about in the 
first place. 
To be sure, such a spectacle is exciting and stirs the blood 
of the beholder — even in the recollection — who lauds the 
victor, and in some instances sympathizes with the van 
quished. Fighting and killing may have been sport of the 
moBt elevating nature at one time, and may now be con- 
sidered so by that class of persons who constitute the patron- 
age of the bull-ring, cockpit, prize-ring and other kindred 
amusement enterprises, but true sport certainly ends when 
blood begins to flow. 
AH sportsmen know right well that the charm of hunting 
is not in the slaughter, but in the hours aiid days spent in 
earnest effort amid novel and multi-varied conditions and 
surroundings, which may finally lead up to that point. 
Anyone who has ever hunted with the camera will cheer- 
fully testify that the mental exhilaration, the enjoyment, the 
sport, is just as satisfying as hunting with the gun. In fact, 
they will undoubtedly, in their enthusiasm tell you it is in- 
fiuitely more so, and there is no denying that for this work 
the patience, cunning and all other requisities of the sports- 
man is needed twofold and of extra quality. Toe results, if 
successful, are proportionately more gratifying, though few. 
precious few are they who have succeeded, and few indeed^ 
1 fear, are they who will ever care to take up a branch of 
sport in which the odds are so great against them. 
But to return to the subject. The fact that tender-hearted 
men, though brave, enjoy the sport of hunting, is so evident 
that-I require no convincing argument; but that they are 
often deeply affected by the killing itself is quite as evident, 
for I've seen the silent tear dim the eye of the veteran hunter 
and trapper— bronzed and gray from expoHure and hard- 
ships -when, pausing at close range to deliver the death shot 
to a wounded buck, he was met with that never- forgotten 
expression of agony and pleading despair in the deep, round 
eyes. And I've seen the brave old scout, for whom no war 
whoop or signal fire evc-r had terrors, return from his morning 
hunt after the death of his quarry, and, flinging himself on 
his blanket, cry himself to sleep. 
These men were arJent sportsmen. Would they enjoy a 
cat fight? Would Mr. Brunot have enjoyed a cat tight? I 
don't think? Louib Bensok Akin. 
THE KANSAS MYSTERY. 
I WAS sitting in my office, feeling rather blue, one day 
when a big buckboard rattled up to the door, with two 
good-looking horses hitched to it, and another following 
that looked as like the span as if they had been painted. I 
went out and there were Mat King, his wife and a three- 
year-old little Mat. Down the road came a Government 
ambulance driven by Mat's pet Mexican, Juan, and pulled 
by two big mules, Mat does not like to go anywhere on the 
cars when he can drive, and so he had driven 350 miles over 
prairie to let Nell s-how her mother the new boy, and to 
visit me himself. The Cooks, Nell's parents, live about 
twenty-five miles north of here on the Pawnee. I promised 
to come over in a few days and hunt antelope at Cook's 
ranch. I wanted to trot Mat's horses against a bunch of an- 
telope that were out there and I knew that the horses would 
be better for three days during which th<iy could rest and 
only be driven a few miles a day, just to limber them up 
Mat promised to save the antelope for me, and away went 
the outfit for the North. 
The next Monday 1 drove over accompanied by my boy 
Will, who is fifteen years old. I had to take him out of 
school and his mother objectod some to that, but I convinctd 
her that Will wouldn't study worth a cent if I went hunting 
without him. With lots of bedding and a barrel of apples 
as a peace offering for Mrs, Cook, we landed at the Cook 
ranch just before dark. Juan had Mat's tent up near Cook's 
house and was sleeping in it, for the house has only two 
rooms, so Will and 1 put our blankets into the tent and were 
soon eating supper. Juan had a mysterious stew that smelt 
good ; he had cooked it down in the tent on the camp stove 
and brought it up to the house in a camp kettle, Mrs. Cook 
and N'-l] did not seem inclined to taste it, but the rest of us 
did not eat much of anything else. It was prairie dog- 
young ones— dressed, frozen over night and then cooked as 
squirrels are with potatoes, onions and chili (red pepper?). I 
have eaten prairie dog before and cannot say that 1 banker 
after it, but this dish was almost as good as squirrel. Mrs. 
Cook said she believed that Mat and I would eat anything 
that Mexican cooked and would say it was good. Her son 
Harry and Will were mightily pleased with the stew and 
had several more in the tent during our visit. Cook en- 
couraged the boys to kill prairie dogs and said he hoped they 
would kill all on the ranch. Will did thin them out pretty 
well with my .45 90. I know he used up about 100 cartridges 
for me. 
After supper we drew up around the fire, and Cook told 
us that he was glad we had come to hunt, for we might kill 
the thing that was killing his calves and colts. It was a 
mysterious animal that had never been seen, and could not 
be traced to its den. It had been heard howling, nights 
sometimes, for the last two years. It made a noise some- 
thing like a big wolf, but coarser, and said Ooh ooli-ooh at 
the end of the howl. It didn't stay around al] the time; 
would kill a calf or a yearling or a colt for him, eat what 
it wanted, and then perhaps be heard of ten miles down 
the creek killiug something for some other man; and just 
about the time that they hoped it was gone, they would 
find another calf killed. 
People had got so that they did not like to be out after 
dark; and he disliked to go away from home and leave 
Mrs. Cook and Harry alone over night at the ranch. He 
had seen its track once about a mile down the creek in a 
soft place, a big, round track. 
Mat said that we would try to find it, and Cook said he 
would get the man that killed it |50 
Will and I had heard of the animal often before during 
the last four years, and Will said he would rather kill the 
thing than have the $50 
It seemed that it was always heard down the creek; that it 
generally came from down there when it killed anything, 
and that above the ranch it had killed only one animal— a 
colt. Mat and I concluded that it must be a panther or 
mountain lion. 
That night I lay awake in the tent and listened half the 
night, hoping to hear it yell, but it didn't, and the very next 
morning Will and Harry found where it had killed a calf 
during (he night about a mile below the ranch. Mat and I 
went down and hunted for tracks, but could not find any 
distinct ones. That night we set out four baits of strychnine 
around the carcass big enough to kill four, lions every one of 
them. We got two coyotes next morning and saw no sign 
of the animal. Juan fooled around all that day down the 
creek trying to track it, and found some sign several miles 
below, but could not follow it. The track that he found 
was not round, however, and he said it was of a big wolf. 
That night there was snow and we were out early next 
day horse-back. We found a big wolf track leading from 
the carcass down the creek, and then four miles north and 
under a big ledge of rock in a low cafion. I stayed at the 
hole and Mat went six miles and got a big trap. We set it 
in the mouth of the hole with a light log attached to it, and 
went over there every morning for four days, and then one 
day the trap was gone. We followed the track of wolf and 
trap about six miles and Mat shot her, a big she wolf, old, 
gray and lank. Cook was very much pleased and said that 
he would get us the $50. I had to come home next day. 
Now here comes in the funny part. 
The next night another calf was killed, and the "thing" is 
still doing business at the old stand. 
Mat has gone to Kansas City on business, and I expect his 
wife and the Cooks don't dare to go out to get a bucket of 
water after dark. I am going to try again after the next 
snow. I think that it is a cougar, for the carcasses are bit 
in the neck and throat— though I have heard of some that 
were bit in the flank and rump, but that was before we got 
the wolf. 
There! This is not much of a story, but if you heard the 
people out there talk of "the thing" as I have it would inter- 
est you. The average man out there, if he told the truth, 
would say that he thought it was an evil spirit, and that he 
was rather afraid that it would catch him some time. 1 
have heard some very queer tales of "things" that are seen 
on the prairies, and will tell you about that in another story. 
W. J. D. 
A Firm -with a History. 
A EECENT issue of our London contemporary. Land and 
Water, gives an interesting sketch of the history of the well- 
known gunmaking firm of W. W. Greener, of Birmingham. 
Tne dates go back to 1829, when the late W. Greener, hav- 
ing learned his trade of the famous master, John Manton, 
established himself in Newcastle. Six years later he pub- 
lished his first volume, "The Gun," dealing with small-arms 
and containing many ideas then new, and deductions from 
his numerous experiments. Then he wrote "The Science of 
Gunnery," and after removing to Birmingham he put out 
in 1845 the pamphlet on the Proof House, which was the 
chief means of promoting the Gun Proof Act of 1855. ' 'Mr. 
Greener was the first to discard vent holes in the breeches,' 
relics of the old flmt lock gun. His greatest achievement in 
guonery was the discovery of the expanding principle fox 
muzzle loading rifle bullets. The method used was that of 
a plug driven by the powder gas into the base of the bullet. 
As a sporting gunmaker, W" Greener arrived at a very high 
position. In the palmy days of the Southern States of 
America before the war, very highly finished weapons were 
sent there, as much as £75 being paid for a gun of W 
Greener's make. Though he lived until 1869, he never took 
kindly to the breech-loaders, and died in the faith in which 
he had lived. His son differed from him m this respect, and 
struck out a line of his own in breech loaders, producing in 
1864 his first patent, an under lever pin-fire half-cocker, with 
a top bolt entering the barrels underneath the top rib. 
"After the death of W. Greener the two businesses were 
amalgamated and carried on by W. W. Greener, whose next 
patent was the self-acting striker— a method only superseded 
by the rebounding lock. This was not of so much import- 
ance as the patent that followed it, the famous cross bolt 
produced as a single top bolt in 1865, In 1873 this was com- 
bined with the bottom holding down bolts to form 'the 
treble wedge fast,' one of the strongest breech actions ever 
invented, and one that has become much used of late where- 
ever an extended rib is thought to be necessary. W W 
Greener having written five books, of which two have 
reached a sixth edition, has emulated his father in author- 
ship. His first effort was the 'Modern Breechloaders ' in 
1871. 
"The introduction of choke boring may be regarded as 
W. W Greener's greatest achievement; his previous inven- 
tions had showed his cleverness; this one made him famous 
throughout the world, Choke-boring, as brought out by 
Greener in 1874, altered the whole system of gun boring 
and made close shooting the servant of the gunmaker where 
before, it had been his WiU o' the Wisp. Mr Greener makes 
no claim to be the inventor of choke- boring; what he claims 
is that he improved an American invention." 
Monomoy Coots. 
Boston, Nov. 20.— Returned Boston gunners say that coot 
shooting off Monomoy has not been very satisfactory of late. 
The winds and tides have not served, and at that famous shoot- 
ing resort much depends on wind and tide. W. B. Ellms, 
of the Pullman Palace Car Co., and Capt. W. E. Gould, of 
the Chatham Beach Hotel, killed sixty-seven coot at Mono- 
moy last Friday, and they are also reported to have suggested 
that under proper weather conditions this remarkable shoot- 
ing could be duplicated almost any day. Mr. Frank Nick- 
erson took six black ducks at Hammond's Meadows, 
Chatham, recently. A Chatham dispatch says that Messrs. 
Joseph Dawson, Mark Watson, John Bannister, B. F. Da- 
hill, F. A Cummings, Dick Barstow and N A, Whalen, of 
New Bedford, members of the Chatham Shooting Club, are 
in camp at Inward Point, and are finding game plenty. Mr. 
Dawson bagged a magnificent specimen of brant the first day 
out, and the first one of the season there. Special. 
"Forest and Stream" Luck. 
In the Fredericton correspondence of the St. John (N. B ) 
Telegrapli of the 15ih inst., appears the following item: 
"The light fall of snow yesterday started the deer hunters 
on the path in full force. As usual, Aid F. H. Risteen 
came out ahead, having succeeded in shooting a magnificent 
buck in the Hanwell woods, near the city." 
Another local paper mentions that Mr. Eisteen's deer was 
a ten- point buck, which, after being bled and brought into 
town, tipped the beam at 2601bs. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will fi/iid it profitable to advertise 
t hem in Forkst and Stbeam. 
The "Game Laws in Brief." 
The current edition of the Game Laws in Brief (index page dated 
Aug. 1) contains the fish and game laws for 1897, with a few excep- 
tions, as they will continue in force during the year. As about forty 
States and Provinces have amended their laws this year, the Brief 
has been practically done over new. Sent postpaid by the Forest 
and Stream Pub. Co. on receipt of price, 25 cents. All dealers sell it 
BLACK BASS DEPLETION. 
Editor Fm'est and Stream: 
As I remarked the other day, it is only through observation 
that we can see the defects in the law. For several years it 
has be( n quite apparent to sportsmen, and also to the Board 
of Commissioners and all others interested in the matter that 
our waters were becoming depleted of small-mouthed bass, 
and the calls for bass fry for planting and re-stocking have 
been far beyond the supply. 
It has been well understood that this has not arisen from 
rod and line fishing, but from netting, mostly done during 
the open season. - 
The game law has— perhaps inadvertently but most cer- 
tainly—been constructed and maintained in favor of netting. 
Last winter a determined effort was made to change the date 
of the opening of the season, in order to protect the spawn- 
ing fish 1 learned of a curious and novel fact about basa 
last week, illustrating a new way of conveying them to 
market, and this article is the result thereof. 
It is well known that the farmers whose lands border on 
Oneida Lake cultiyate both the land out of the water and 
the adjoining land under the water. Nature furnishes the 
crop under the water> the farmer being only obliged to go to 
the trouble of harvesting the crop without planting any seed; 
and nature is so generous that he can go out harvesting al- 
most every day in the year, as the crop is a continually, 
growing one, and not annual but perennial. 
This fall the farmer is harvesting potatoes on land out of 
water and bass from that under water, principally rocky, 
so that it would not raise even potatoes, but producing a 
more valuable crop because so well watered. He puts his pota- 
toes into bags of two bushels each for protection from the 
sun, the storm, and the weather. At the same time, for 
uniformity, he puts his crop of bass from under the water 
into one, two, or even three bags of the same size, loads his 
wagon with both crops, starts up his horses, and his double 
crop is hauled to the market, all protected from too curious 
eyes, and much better for him than to expose them openly. 
Under the law these bass thus inclosed are amply and ab- 
solutely protected against any fish and game protector, who 
has no authority to even untie the bag string of a single bag 
to take observations of its contents, no matter how suspi. 
cious he may be, nor what he may believe, nor even what he 
may know. He has no right of search. 
Then the farmer bags the bass upon the land under the 
water and again bags them upon the land, and conveys his 
potato-fish securely to the dealer. Arriving at the store, he 
shoulders his bag or bags of bass, and the ordinary observer 
beJieves they are potatoes, and the law protects him in so 
doing by limiting and restrictiBg the powers of a protector 
during the open season. 
As stated above, part of the law aims to protect the bass 
while spawning. This is all right as far as it goes, but it 
does not go far enough for full protection. The adult fish 
need more protection than thi?, more than that also afforded 
by the excellent 8in provision. 
So to speak, the law now protects one end only of the sea- 
son. Very few sportsmen take any bass after Nov. 1 or 15 
In the greater part of the State of New York the weather is 
too cold for rod and line fishing, to sit out in a boat waiting 
for a bite. Pew people would care to sit there and shiver, 
and expose themselves in that way; even for the sport de- 
rived trom the handling of a few nice bass. It is apt to be 
too long between bites. Consequently the water farmer has 
it all to himself; he is hardy, and accustomed to it by his 
regular duties and dual avocation. It is this water-farming 
which depletes our waters of adult bass, and reduces the 
number of spawners in the spring; not the rod and line fish- 
ing. There is no necessity whatever for the open season for 
bass to extend to Jan. 1 each year. It should close earlier 
certainly not later than Nov. 15. We should protect the 
adult fish in the fall, in order to ensure spawners to be pro- 
tected in the spring; and the only way to do it is to shorten 
the season by cutting off that part of it when there is very 
little, if any, rod and line fishing. We shorten a setter's tail 
for protection. I think I can safely predict, that the tail- 
end shortening of the season will give more protection to in- 
crease the bass than anything which has been done during 
the last twenty years. c. W. Smith, 
SvRACusE, Not. 13. 
