■ 4, 1899.1 
i Mr. Thorne jumping up on a log got a running 
;t catching the bear squarely through the heart. He 
it made quite a fuss in the thicket for a while, but 
111 only a few steps from where it was shot. He used 
30-30, and in this case that weapon proved good enough 
:i bear. 1 have been talking with a good many hunters 
ciy who have been out after big game with the small- 
it rifles, and I think the general agreement among them 
luit the .30-40 is a better weapon for very large game 
: the .30-30. For instance, Mr. Jenkins, of Bingham- 
iells me that he killed two moose in two shots with 
,30-40. Indeed, I am not sure but it was three moose 
chiee shots. Nearly all agree that the .30-40 is a terrible 
apon, I have never shot the .30-40 myself, and have 
ly to say regarding the .30-30 that it is the sweetest 
3oting weapon I ever put to my face, 
Speaking of bears naturallj' reminds one of our old 
end Capt. Bobo, of Mississippi, the man who out of all 
nerica is best entitled to wear the name of the Big Bear 
lief. I wish I might give only the best reports of 
pt. Bobo's health and happiness, but I am told to-day 
It he is having very bad trouble with his right eye, which 
3 become involved with inflammation from a little 
nor. It is sad to think of Bobo not hunting bear, but I 
nk he is not hunting this fall. There never was a 
;ger-hearted man than this same Bobo, and his like in 
; canebrake never crossed a saddle, 
jen. Nelson A. Miles, Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. 
my, was in Chicago this week on his way West for a 
:le hunting trip near the ranch of Buffalo Bill. It 
ght be supposed by some that during these days of war 
n. Miles would be chained to business at Washington, 
t he knows very well that the boys can take care of this 
o-for-a-nickel war, and meantime he can take a little 
:ation on his own hook. Our war does not seem to be 
^ery big one compared to the one in South Africa, at 
f rate. 
speaking of wars and rumors of wars reminds one that 
ne awfully good fellows turn up in the Army in the 
hting times. Here was Johnnj' Roberts, who used to 
1 the Roberts Resort up at Neenah, on Lake Winnc- 
;o. Johnny had all kinds of monej'. and he devoted 
nself seriously to having a good time. He was over 
Cuba last year knocking arotmd, and he spent some time 
Florida in one place or another since then. Then lu- 
ms to have suddenly concluded that times were dull 
this country, and I have just heard that he has enlisted 
1 gone to Manila. 
The Gaylofd Club. 
The Gaylord Club, of Wisconsin, is one of the pros- 
■ous sporting institutions of the Western country.^ In 
president, Mr. Fred M. Stephenson, of Menominee, 
ch., it has a typical Western sportsman, though I might 
i that the type sets a rather hard pace to follow. Mr. 
;phenson is a splendid shot wnth rifle or gun, a skilled 
iter with bait-reel or fly-rod, a fiend to walk, and a 
;se student of the things of the outdoor air. He has 
veled pretty much everywhere, owns pine lands in 
chigan, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Texas, is a coffee 
nter and vanila grower in Mexico, and for all I know 
5 a cucumber garden in the Arctic Circle. Moreover, he 
an epicure as may classify under the definition of our 
end Bill Werner, the chef, "An epicure is a man who 
n eat anything without getting sick." But what I 
irted out to say was that the Gaylord Club is carrying 
t its plans in very sane and generous fashion. Situated 
ar some very good trout streams, it has established a 
mt hatchery of its own, which is rapidly developing into 
e of the best in the State. Deer and trout bid fair to be 
undant for a long time around the Gaylord Club, 
E. Hot-GH. 
so Caxton Btjilding, Chtcago,' HI. 
The Coon Season is On. 
Boston, Oct. 28.— A. W. Hayford is another success- 
l Boston gunner. He has been on a trip after liig game 
Millinocket and the lakes and waters above. He saw 
great many deer, and could have obtained a number of 
es. but waited till the day before his departing for 
me, when he killed two handsome bucks. Partridge 
ooting was excellent. He met another hunter, who had 
en still further up the line of the railroad after moose, 
i had seen a very l^rgc number— eighteen or twentj'— 
t all cows. Another hunter, who has been into the 
me section after moose, was rewarded by his gxiide get- 
ig an answer to a call, after the fourth night at that 
jst thrilling amusement. The bull came dowm bellowing 
d grouting, and the hunter was ready. The water 
lashed and the bushes opened on the bank. The hunter 
d his rifle at his shoulder, with trigger-finger strained 
most to pulling, as a big animal hove in ditn sight. 
)on't fire !" whispered the guide. "It is a cow !" That 
t hunter was disgusted goes without saying. But after 
he was grateful to the guide, who had saved him from 
e heavy fine attached to the killing of a cow moose at 
y time in Maine. Mr. Walker, of Boston, has suc- 
eded in getting a fine moose in the neighborhood of 
ihland. He say/ others, including a great many cows, 
is idea is that moose have increased; cow moose 
pecially. Messrs. A. L. Belcher, C. C. Stanchfieid and 
T. Prescott. of Boston, are out of the woods with six 
indsome buck deer, taken in the vicinity of Lobster 
tke. They speak in the highest terms of the hunting m 
at vicinity. Thev met a moose hunter who was very 
dignant at what he considers the height of hunting im- 
idence and unfairness. His guide had industriously 
lied and called for moose till at last a bull came down, 
id the hunter was about to fire, when bang went the rifle 
another hunter, not far away. He did not mt the 
oose but scared him away. With his guide paddling as 
St as possible, the first hunter pursued the other canoe, 
ith the intention of giving the second hunter a piece of 
s mmd. But the pair di.«appeared in the darkness. 
Coon hunting is good in Maine this fall. A peculiar 
ature is that one does not have to go back into the big 
ime reeions to hunt cooti. They are more abundant m 
e farming regions in Androscoggin and lower Oxford 
lunties. A Boston drumm.er, on a business trip, stopped 
Lewiston the other day, and had an invitation to join 
a cpon hunt that night. The temptation was too great. 
h>^v ■W'ent db'wn tb a farming s^fctic?^ vM^x .?3-b"3'-is. wn»=^p. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
the coons had been feeding on sweet corn all the fall. 
They had a dog with them noted for finding and treeing 
coons. They wandered over stubble fields and through 
patches of wood for an hour or so, when at last the dog 
harked and went for a big oak not far away. The hunters 
made for the same tree, and it was plain, from the antics 
of the dog, that the game was in it. The tree was too big 
to fell, and there was nothing to do but to wait till day- 
light, to see to shoot. A big fire was built, and the hunters 
disposed of their tired limbs around it as best they could. 
Somewhere near morning the Boston drummer says that 
he had fallen partly asleep, when thud went something to 
the ground. It was the coon, tired of waiting for the 
hunters to depart. The dog was after him and soon had 
him up another tree, where, with one of the hunters, he 
stood guard till morning. At daylight the coon was 
shot But the first tree had not been deserted, and three 
other coons were shot from it. The drummer did his 
part, bringing down one of the coons with a shotgun. He 
says that waiting all night at the foot of a big oak tree 
in an open pasture is cool and dewy — no pun on the 
Admiral intended — work, but somewhat exciting when it 
gets light enough to see the little, bright eyes through the 
branches. Boston markets are receiving an untisual num- 
ber of raccoons this fall. 
Boston, Oct. 30. — Again the newspaper reports are not- 
ing more sportsmen than ever before in Maine, and the 
amount of game sectu-ed is greater than last year. Every 
year the same story is told, and it may be true and it may 
not. It certainly comes from sources that take httle pains 
to be accurate, and have no interest except to boom the 
regions about which they write. It is claimed, however, 
that statistics compiled by the railroads show that the 
month of October, up to and including last Friday, in- 
cluded shipments of deer into and through Bangor to the 
number of 1,034, with 53 moose. This number is con- 
siderably greater than for the same period last j'ear. 
The deer are reported to have generally been of medium 
size, and largely does, though a few fine bttcks have been 
seen among the number. This is not unusual, the big 
bucks coming after the snow falls, when it is easier to 
find them. The moose are running about up to the aver- 
age, none being booked a.bove Soolbs. Special. 
Slaughter vs. Sport. 
From the Pittsburg Daily News, Oct. 21, 
Now that the hunting season in this State has been 
opened with so much vigor and enthusiasm, the pros- 
pects for "big bags" never having been better in late 
years, a country editor who is in a position to judge calls 
attention to a perversion of the sport, which, if persisted 
in, can have but one effect: the depopulation of our woods 
and forests of almost all kinds of game. Hunting 
matches, in which the participants take sides to see which 
can slaughter the greater quantity of game in a given 
time, are now "all the rage." To add zest to the sport, 
after the butchery is finished the contesting teams sit 
down to a supper paid for by the losers. These matches 
have become very common, especially up in the north- 
western region of the State, and reports of the whole- 
sale killings of game aire frequently chronicled in the 
country press. 
The idea of setting out as one of a party of hunters 
whose avowed objeet is to slaughter more game than 
another party for the purpose of avoiding payment for a 
supper is abhorrent to the instincts of every true sports- 
man. The man whose object in hunting is simply to 
kill every wild thing in sight is a butcher, not a sports- 
tnan. Wise laws for the preservation of game in Penn- 
sylvania have been passed by the Legislature, but they 
will be of little effect if these disgraceful hunting matches 
are to continue. Go into a piece of woodland where one 
of these hunting matches has recently been conducted, 
and you find yourself in a silent region from which birds 
and animals have fled. Those not laid low by the bullets 
of the wholesale hunters have been frightened away by 
the shouts and bombarding, and may never return. 
Thoughtlessness is respon.sible in great measure for this 
deplorable condition of affairs, but the carelessness of 
some hunters is no less than criminal. Any gentleman 
whose attention is called to the mischief he is working 
would doubtless be considerate enough to give up this 
kind of sport, but sterner measures may be necessary with 
some of the others. For it is apparent that among 
lhe.se wholesale hunters there can be very few real gen- 
tlemen and genuine sportsmen. 
An Indiana Patty m the Rockies. 
PoRTL.'VND, Tnd., Oct. 28. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The party of nineteen that went from here the first of 
the month to hunt near the Yellowstone National Park re- 
turned on the 24th inst. They made a tour of the Park 
by stage coach, then undertook to reach the elk in the 
mountains. They got near enough to see a very large 
herd moving about in the timber some miles above them, 
but a snowstorm caught them and they were compelled to 
retrace their steps. Dr. Mackey says they shoveled snow 
2ft. deep to pitch their tent, and at times were in snow to 
their shoulders. An old scout undertook to break a trail 
for some of the boys, but his pack mule got into snow to 
his neck and refused to go further. They got two antelope 
and some small game, attd say that the sight-seeing paid 
them well for the trip. G. W. CuNNiNGHAjr. 
A Tame Deer Chase in New Jersey. 
The village school at Holmdel, near Matawan. was dis- 
turbed and broken up Thursday morning by the sudden 
appearance of a deer. The deer jumped through a side 
window of the schoolhouse and landed in front of the 
teacher's de.sk. All the pupils ran for the doors and win- 
dows, making a hasty exit.. The deer stood in wonder- 
ment and waited for an opening through which to leap. 
Outside could be heard the baying of a pack of hounds, 
and as the deer listened he darted about the room. Sev- 
eral hunters in scarlet coats came into the room and drove 
the deer out This animal was the property of P. F. 
867 
The Mind and the Trigger Finger. 
One hears, or has heard, a great deal about the physical 
side of shooting; the other side, the psychological, is far 
less frequently touched upon, either in print or in the 
conversation of shooting men, for the average shooting 
man is not much given to introspection with regard to the 
mental and instructive forces which are called into action 
during an ordinary day's sport with the gun. In dealing 
with a purely subjective matter, such as that embraced 
by the title, one must perforce assume a certain position of 
dogmatism, and thus leave one's self open to the criticism 
of those who chance to take different views. 
Shooting, to be dogmatic from the first, makes ei far 
greater call upon the collective faculties than any ordinary 
occupation, and, more than this, a greater call than that 
which is necessary successfully to pursue any other kind 
of sport. Any one who masters the manipulation of a fly 
rod and has made himself familiar, by hearsay or reading 
merely, with the tactics essential to success, can go to the 
water and not only hook his fish, but land them as well. 
When doing this he exercises the senses of sight and 
touch, the mechanical function of casting the fly, and the 
judgment which prompts him to play and land his cap- 
tives. Again, any one who masters the physical art of 
sticking in the saddle, both on the flat and over his 
fences, and has sufficient nerve to ride across country, 
possesses all the acquirements necessary to ride to houndSi^ 
The hunting man exercises the senses of sight, hearing,, 
and touch, the quality of pluck, and, if if he is to be any- 
where near at the kill, judgment. Though he needs 
pluck or nerve, which the fisherman does without, the tax 
upon his senses and his judgment is inferior to that which 
is imposed upon the judgment and the senses of the 
angler. The latter's whole mind is centered upon fly or 
float. He holds himself, by continuous sense-concentra- 
tion, ever ready for instant action — on a decision to be 
made in a fraction of a second may depend the hooking or 
the loss of a fish. The hunting man when exercising his 
judgment has time tp deliberate; the fisherman seldom 
has. 
Shooting, unless it be of the tamest kind, exercises the 
senses in a high degree. Hearing is a sense dispensed 
with by the angler — that is to say, he puts no tax upon 
it. On the other hand, the shooting man's sense of hear- 
ing is continuously strained to catch the slightest sound 
which may tell of a coming or a rising bird. That in- 
stant, instinctive jump of the gun — it seems almost as 
though the volition which causes it is in the gun itself — 
which greets a sudden sound tells of the high state of 
tension to which this particular sense is subjected. No 
less a strain is placed ttpon the sense of sight. Taking 
sight and hearing together, then, the tax made upon the 
senses of the shooter is far greater, as well as more con- 
tinuous, than that made upon the senses of the hunting 
man or the angler. In the matter of touch the gunner 
requires ''hands" quite as much as the rider or the fisher- 
man ; in the matter of jtidgment he makes fully as large a 
draft upon his calculating faculties as does either of his 
fellow sportsmen — probably larger. And beyond this he 
exercises yet a further faculty, as, dogmatically, we shall 
see. 
A novice capable of sticking on can ride to hounds ; the 
same novice, having made himself conversant with the or- 
dinary procedure of the angler, can go to the stream or 
the river and catch fish, though he may never before have 
caught one in his life ; the sam.e novice may make himself 
at hom.e with the handling of a gun, and m.ay read ever3' 
word that has ever been written on the subject of shoot- 
ing, yet let him go into the field for the first time, and he 
probably will not be able to stop one driven partridge in 
fift}^, or perhaps one rocketing pheasant in a hundred. 
And this brings us at last to the purely psychological side 
of shooting. At first glance it would seem as though the 
only things necessary to make a man a good shot are prac- 
tice and simple judgment; but this is not the case. One 
sees a large ntmi'ber of men who have shot for many years, 
and j^et are rank bad shots at the best. Their faculties 
are fully developed; they m^y excel perhaps in things 
other than shooting; they may even have shot all their 
lives; and yet they have never been able to acquire the 
power of stopping their bird.s. 
The shooting tyro begins by missing bird after bird. 
Before very long he can, we will say, kill one bird in three 
flying straight away from him. But though he can do 
this, he may not be able to stop one crossing bird in a 
score. Shooting at the bird going away frorn him he ex- 
ercises a simple mechanical function; he raises the gun, 
covers thd bird with the sight, pulls the trigger, and the 
bird drops. Shooting at a crossing bird he must use judg- 
ment, and straightway he endeavors by the use of judg- 
ment to find out what particular allowances are neces- 
sary to meet that ever-varying quantity, the sum of the 
speed, distance, and angle presented b" the different in- 
dividual birds which come within range. Judgment, or 
rather conscious calculation, of the sum of distance, ve- 
locity, and angle is, however, only exercised in the early 
stages of the gunner's career, if he has in him the making 
of a good shot. Before long he begins to feel, to appre- 
ciate instinctively as it were, the point at which his charge 
must be placed in order to stop the bird, just as he can 
feel that he has shot behind a bird, or over it, or under 
it. as the case may be. In short, he crosses the line which 
divides conscious from unconscious calculation. This- 
unconscious calculation is, to all intents and purposes, a 
latent instinct roused into being and quickly developed by 
a special call imposed upon the m.ental faculties to make 
extremelv rapid calculations in order to bring about a 
special result. Though the result one aims to achieve is 
constant in itself, the means necessary to bring it about 
vary with each particular bird shot at, and the variation 
is wellnigh infinite. In a day's partridge driving seldom 
do two birds present the same combination of speed, angle 
,and range, before the sportsman's aim. , "„ 
We hear it said of a good shot that he has got th<^ 
knack of stopping his birds." But what gives him the 
power of stooping them is something more than mere 
knack. It is knack that enables him to bring his gun to 
bear like lightning when taking a snap shot, Anv one can 
acquire the knack of rapidly handling a gnn. With the 
physical act of instantaneous sighting knack ends. In the 
moment of time which is allowed for a_ snap sltot the 
giijn'T^r'B mtttd yncbnscicislr calttifarttefe distaw* ana 
