June 25, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
B07 
a big shark hook attached to 2ft. of chain, a stout line 
and a couple of pounds of salt pork for bait. 
"We cast the bait twice before the sharks saw it, 
for they can't see far, and had sheered off by accident 
each time that we tried to get the bait in front of their 
noses. At the third cast it was seized, swallowed, and 
the tussle btgan. Quartermaster Rogers gave us a 
hand, and we had tbe best end of the string. 
"Midshipman Tillotson came along and said: 'Save 
that shark, because Lieut. Gansevoort Avants the oil 
from its liver for his boots, and some of the rest of us 
may want soniCj hang on to him until I get an order 
from the lieutenant to lower a boat and secure the 
fish.' 
"He got the order, and Surgeon Leecock joined us 
and down we went in the boat. We hauled the big shark 
alongside, considerably weakened by his struggle, and I 
struck an axe into its brain and settled his accounts with 
this world. 'Get a hitch around his tail,' said the purser, 
'and then slip a line about his waist and we'll get him in 
the boat, where we can open him and get the liver and 
let Dr. Leecock examine his other combinations, as he 
is always doing with beasts and fishes.' 
"That shark was fully loft. long, gauged by the length 
of the boat, and it had a fine big liver, which was good 
for a gallon of oil of the best kind for shoes, which are 
so often wet with salt water. 
" 'Roll him overboard,' said Purser Heiskel. 
" 'Hold on a bit,' said Dr. Leecock, "let's see what 
the beast has in its stomach, it appears to t)e full.' 
"The doctor cut away in surgeon's fashion through the 
thick stomach, and after he had laid it open to his satis- 
faction there were the bones of a man's leg from the 
knee down, the flesh and some of the smaller bones of 
the toes gone in the process of digestion. The doctor 
put the bones together and said: 'It's the left leg of a 
man, that is a thing which an unprofessional eye can see, 
but if you will look closely at the bones you will 
see that there are bones missing on the outside of this 
foot which cannot be laid to the digestive organs of 
the shark. If you will remember that a man's foot was 
crushed when we left Norfolk, and I took ofT two of his 
toes and some metatarsal bones, you will agree with me 
that the leg now before us in the leg of ordinary sea- 
man Elisha Small, who was hanged a few dags ago. 
His hammock must have been improperly sewed or was 
ripped open in some way which we cannot account 
for, but here we have his leg and foot, which I identify 
as a bit of my own surgery.' 
"We boxed those bones and had them buried over in 
Hoboken, after we arrived in New York, for many of 
us believed, with the press of that day, that the execu- 
tion of these men at sea was not a necessity, since they 
were in irons wthin a few days' sail of New York." 
The paymaster had exhibited signs of fatigue while 
telling this storj' of his j'ounger life, every word of which 
is true, as may be attested by any .of the older naval 
officers, Piseco, and others, but when his narration was 
done he flopped down exhausted between the 
president and Frank, as if he should say: "There, I've 
told my story and am tired.' 
The Major's Stofy* 
Perhaps the major had been dozing, for the evening 
was getting late, but he roused up when the paymaster 
had finished his yarn, j^awned and remarked; "It was 
about the middle of June, 1864, when our division, the 
First Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, 
reached Harrison's Landing on the James River. I was 
a first lieutenant then, and was officer of the guard. My 
regiment was larger than many of the old brigades, and 
we had to cross on several boats at night by embarking 
by the light of 'jacks' or cressets. 
'About 10 P. M. I took my relief from one transport to 
the next, and observed a man sneaking between the 
steamers. After halting my men and sending one back 
for a lantern, I hailed the man, who replied: T'se a 
colo'd man, sah, an' I'se a fishin' fo' to get a brakfus fo' 
de ole massa an' his fam'ly. Doan shoot me. pleas', 
'cause I'se on'y fishin' fo' fish.' 
"I went down between the steamers and saw that he 
was harmless, took twenty perch "^rom his string and 
gave him a dollar, and sent the fish 1 ack to be served for 
breakfast. A shell from the enen-i], upset that pan of 
fish in the morning, and we had to fall back on the 
army ration, but about a week afterward — " 
At this time Frank raised up and remarked: "Are 
you talking j'-et; all the rest are snoring and I only just 
woke up. You had better turn in and we'll all' go to 
sleep." 
A Story of Fate* 
A chapter from Podgers' forthcoming "Book on Yachts, Yacht- 
ing and Yarns Below Deck." 
If any man was to accuse me of being superstitious 
I should indignantly deny it, but at the same time I 
have my beliefs and opinions on boats and vessels be- 
ing lucky or unlucky, and from many years' observa- 
tions that "There is a divinity that shapes their ends, 
rough hew them as we will," as Shakespeare says, al- 
though he may not have had boats and ships in his 
mind, nor did the divinity refer to a ship carpenter. 
Be that as it may, there is a coincidence in the ill luck 
that names seem to bring to a vessel, or an accident on 
launching. There seems to be a fatality in- certain 
names that has followed such vessels. 
Take for instance that of "President" and "Henry 
Clay." One of our earUest steamships of the former 
name, on her voyage across the Atlantic, sailed with a 
full list of passengers and was- never heard of. She 
was supposed to have struck an iceberg and gone to 
the bottom, every soul on board being lost; and every 
subsequent vessel of that name has been lost, wrecked 
or burned. 
Then again, every vessel named Henry Clay has 
met a similar fate. A fine packet ship built in New 
York was noted from the remarkable fact that she was 
taken from her dock at sunrise, put into dry dock, cop- 
pered, and brought back to her berth at sundown, the 
entire work being done in one day. She sailed for a 
port in Ireland, took on board 600 emigrants, ran on 
the rocks on that coast, and nearly every soul perished. 
A North River steamboat running between that city 
and West Point took fire, burned, and a large number 
of her passengers were lost. Another steamer of the 
name came to California and was put on the route be- 
tween San Francisco and Sacramento. She never made 
a trip that some accident did not happen to her, and 
finally took fire and burned. A fine schooner of the 
name, built • on the Pacific Coast, was lost on her 
second voyage. The fatality of the name is so prov- 
erbial, and also that of the "President," that they are 
no longer used, being considered a hoo-doo. 
A friend of mine, to show the folly of the sailors' 
superstition about sailing on a Friday, had three fine 
lumber schooners built. The contracts were made on 
a Friday, they were begun on a Friday, launched on 
a Friday, sailed on three successive Fridays. The two 
first were lost on their first voyages, the third on her 
third voyage. A 35ft. yacht was built tt Benicia and 
launched on a Friday. She tumbled off the ways in 
launching. On her trial trip she capsized and drowned 
one man. On her second ti"ial trip she again capsized 
and drowned two men. She was raised and sold to a 
fisherman. Sailing up the bay on a foggy 4th of July 
morning, we discovered what we at first took for a 
buoy we were looking for, but with the glass saw it 
was a iTian clinging to a topmast, and beating up to it 
we, with great difficulty, rescued him in an exhausted 
condition. The boat proved to be this same unfortu- 
nate craft, and she was left to her fate. No one would 
accept her as a gift. 
Let any ill luck attend the launching of a craft, and 
it is proverbial that she is never a successful vessel. 
I had a small yacht built which fell off the ways in 
launching. On her trial trip the tiller broke in a squall, 
she luffed up, ran into a ship, carried awav her bow- 
sprit and topmast, tore the mainsail, and nearly wrecked 
herself. In repairing her, the man setting up her top- 
mast lost his footing and came tumbling down on 
deck, breaking two ribs, costing me a four weeks' hos- 
pital bill for repairs. I loaned her one 4th of July to a 
party of foui' to go out to witness the Master Mariners 
regatta. It was a blowy day, and the party being full 
they capsized her, and she went to the bottom. For- 
tunately the crew were so full of beer there was no 
room for water, and all were rescued, but we never saw 
the boat again. It is one of the peculiarities of San 
Francisco harbor that no vessel sinking in mid-channel 
is ever heard of again, as was instanced in a case of a 
bark that, capsized and water-logged, was turned on 
the mud flats just at low tide and left over night. The 
next morning she was gone, and neither hide nor hair 
of her was ever seen again. The heavy undertow of the 
ebb tide probably swept her out to sea and no vestige 
of her was ever found. 
I have ocf-asionally come in for a little experience 
-in the bad luck that follows a bad start on a duck shoot- 
ing expedition. As an instance I had invited four friends 
to a cruise up the bay to the shooting grounds on one 
occasion. Our cook had been sent to the market for 
a supply of good things, and we were impatiently await- 
ing him. He at last made his appearance, puffing and 
blowing as only a fat darky can. The yawl brought 
bim alongside, but in his efforts to get aboard with a 
heavy basket he pvit one foot on the gunwale, cap- 
sized the boat, and disappeared, market basket and 
all. When he rose to the surface the boat hook was 
hooked on his collar and he was retrieved, but all our 
nice prog was gone, involving a delay to replenish that 
lost us the favorable tide and left us to beat against 
a flood all night. 
I said, "Boys, we have had bad luck at the outset, 
and mark my words, it will pursue, us the entire trip." 
I had hardly made the remark when plump we brought 
up hard and fast, having missed the channel in the 
darkness; and any yachtsman knows that to get aground 
in a heavy boat oft an ebb tide is a trial of patience. 
The almanac may tell you that it will be low water 
at 12, and flood begin to run at that hotit, but does it 
ever do so? Not a bit of it. If you turn out at i, 2 or 
3 you will find that devilish tide still running ebb, and 
your craft high and dry, and the flood never shows up 
until 6 in the morning, and then comes sauntering along 
at a provoking slowness, and the slow flood says: 
"Hello. You here? Not in a hurry, I hope?" You 
finally get off, but too late to reach the morning shoot- 
ing. Breakfast restores our equanimity somewhat, and 
just as you are settling down to a pipe there is a row 
forward, and the next thing the yacht is brought up all 
standing. One of the amateurs having gone forward 
conceives the idea that he can improve the look of the 
chaiti, turns around the bitts and sets to work to make 
it more shipshape, and loses the turns, the suspended 
anchor gets the start of him and drops, and 60 fathoms of 
chain run out, bringing the yacht to a sudden standstill. 
It is the big anchor and heaviest chain too, and a sus- 
picion of profanity follows. 
We finally get the anchor up, losing nearly an hour's 
favorable tide, the culprit causing the disaster mean- 
while seeking privacy with the cook. We at last reach 
our goal and get ready for a sundown shoot. Just as 
we reach the shore in the act of landing, a duck comes 
hurtling along. Stupid No. 2 stands up in the boat to 
get a shot overhead, the recoil of the gun throws him 
off his balance and overboard he goes, gun and all, 
dipping the boat half full of water, Avetting us all and 
soaking our cartridges. We go aboard* again to change 
our clothes and Stupid takes a grapnel and goes to 
grope for his gun. Sufficient for the day thereof, and 
we console ourselves with a good dinner, smoke, and 
turn in. 
In the morning we assay again, and just as we begin 
to shoot Stupid No. 3 wants to cross a slough, which 
he thinks he can jump; tries it, lands in the middle and 
goes under, another gun lost, and another victim of 
misplaced confidence to be taken aboard and dried, by 
which time the morning flight is over, and breakfast 
is in order. Stupid No. 3 explains at great length how 
it came about that he missed jumping the slough, when 
all his life he had been a noted jumper and won honors 
at the gymnasium. Number 4 suggested that there 
was nothing faulty about the jumping, the quality was 
all right, but the failure was a deficiency m the quantity 
— not enough of it. 
^oward evening we went ashore again, and our luck 
seemed to have changed, fdr we bagged several dozen 
mallards and canvasbacks, and a dozen English snipe,, 
and our old cook spread himself on a game dinner of 
the birds killed the previous day, (A duek is not fit 
to eat that has not been hung up in the Hgging for 
at least twenty-four hours.) The ordy happening for 
the day was the blowing a hole through one of the 
boats by Stupid No. i in clearing his gun, forgetting 
that he left a cartridge in it. 
The next morning we had a couple of hours' good 
shooting. The only accident that happened was the burst- 
ing of one gun in consequence of No. 3 falling, aaA 
pitching his gun into the mud, half filling the barrels 
and narrowly escaping blowing his own head off. 
The next day we started homeward and met a thick 
fog, and a steamboat that undertook to cross our bow 
carried away our bowsprit and brought down our top- 
mast, which ended the chapter of mishaps that followed 
as the result of an unhappy beginning, which never 
fails — verifying my theory that a bad beginning carries 
bad luck for the voyage, and in instances too numerous- 
to describe, hence my superstitions— pooh-pooh them 
as you may. 
Disbelievers doubtless will quote a hundred instances 
to the contrary, which reminds me of the case of the old- 
time minstrel Billy Birch, who in one of his plays is 
brought up before the court for stealing a pair of boots, 
and being convicted says to the judge: "I say, judge, 
you convict this nigger on the evidence of four wit- 
nesses that say they saw me steal de boots, when i 
can bring fifty men to swear they didn't see me take 
'em." , PoDCERS. 
Mountain Goat Hunting. 
Hunters who are yet to have their first experience 
in the pursuit will find that it is not quite as eas.y as "roll- 
ing off a log" to Icill the white goat. They will find that 
the mountains the goat affects are not the easiest to 
climb, especially when one goes from sea level or near 
it; and they will also find that while not as wary as the 
bighorn the goat can hear you, all things being favorable, 
before you see the goat, and then the chances are you 
do not see the goat unless it is to catch a glimpse of his 
white coat as he skips round some rocky craig in the 
distance or goes over some ridge which is so far dis- 
tant from you that shooting is out of the question. The 
goat may not be Very rapid in his movements, but it 
will surprise any tenderfoot to see how much ground 
he can get over in a short space of time, and such 
ground! rocks, carious, and gullies, with an occasional 
precipice, or the next thing to it, thru'vn in for a change. 
There is one advantage one has in hunting the goat, and 
that is their fur or hair or wool — ^just as you please — ^is 
so white that they stand out very prominently against 
the dark background of rocks or earth, and one cati 
see them much more readily than any animal in the 
mountains. And while one might pass over a deer while 
scanning a mountain side they would not be apt to miss 
seeing a '^ozt And of course it is a great advantage to 
be able to discover your game. 
They have a way of seeking some high point, gener- 
ally the pinnacle of a steep, rocky mass of earth; and 
there, standing as if carved from stone, outlined against 
the sky like a statue. I recall several instances of this 
habit, one in particular, which illustrates also the faculty 
they have of getting out of sight quickly and disappear- 
ing as if the earth had swallowed them. I was returning 
to an Idaho camp one afternoon, ai.d when only a few 
hundred yards from it, walking slowly along an old 
Indian trail, I chanced to raise my eyes to a high rock 
which surmounted a small hill, which on the side toward 
me was nearly perpendicular, and there, standing on 
the highest point, and at the extreme edge, was a goat. 
I stopped suddenly and cogitated whether I should try 
a long shot, several hundred yards, or try to get down 
into the caiion and then flank the game. The goat evi- 
dently was cogitating too, but I did not seem to be the 
subject of its musings, as it still stood like a statue. I 
flattered myself I was unobserved, as a slight fringe 
of trees was between us, and I thought that by being 
careful I could gain the shelter of the hill. I walked 
silently along, and the last glimpse I had the goat was 
still standing unmoved. It only required a few mo- 
ments for me to climb up the opposite side of the peak, 
where I fullv expected to find the game within easy shot, 
but alas for human expectations! It was gone; and 
though I sat down on the point of vantage I had gained 
and scanned the mountain side, I did not again see it, 
This also illustrates the fact that they do not always go 
Up as I believe the sheep are nearly always apt to do.. 
The goat seems to go any way to get away._ I counted 
on their going up one day and waited patiently for a 
band to be driven up to me by a companion. Result: 
I was treated to the sight of one a half mile away on the 
mountain side, while my companion got three I think 
he had the best of the bargain, though I had the easiest 
time waiting for a shot I did not get. I would advise 
no one to wait for the goats to climb up. They may 
climb around, or possibly down; but that they are not 
apt to do if frightened. , , • a-i ' 
Now, regarding size and supply of specimens: there 
is no use in any one taking a decided stand in regard to 
the size of any wild animal. That is. withm certain 
limits From one experience I would not hesitate to say 
that there are goats weighing neariy if not quite 300lbs<, 
and an animal of that weight would appear much larger 
owing to the thickness and length of the hair. Your 
correfpondent F. Bt., of New York, has the head and 
hide of a male which would have caused some people 
to open their eyes had they seen it alive. And 1 saw 
another which at a little distance looked as if it was as 
large as a fair-sized cayuse pony. So much so indeed 
that as we had a white pony in the outfit I did not shoot 
at first sight thinking she must have strayed up tlie 
mountdn But because there are large goats it is mt 
To be Ttated as a fact that they all weighp300lbs^ 
The FOEEST Ato) STREAM is put to prm eaeh^eelcjm 
Tuesday. Corre^ondevec intended for vnUieation 
should reach us at the latest by Monda.y, and as much 
earUer as practicable. 
