FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. a 1899. 
/ The Ethics of Shikar. 
From the Asian, Calcutta, 
The :necessity for- a system of ethics is evident through- 
out all the various conditions of life, and is so indissoluMy 
inseparable from a satisfactory state of society that it may 
almost be said to have become a law of nature. In all 
things 'appertaining to sport, of whatever description, the 
indispensabiliy of some recognized standard of morality, 
enabling one at once to distinguish between right and 
wrong, between good form and bad form, as well as ab- 
solute criminality, is a matter of common consent. The 
morality of each kind of sport has its special pecujliaiilies ; 
in racing, for instance, practices appear to be legitifh'ate 
which are quite unintelligible to the outsider, who is ig- 
norant of the ethics of the sport of kings. But in all 
things the fundamental rule is that the elements of eti- 
quette should rest on the basis of the requirements of the 
good of the community, and this may be broadly taken 
as the standard by which to judge of the soundness of 
moral laws. 
Perhaps there is no sport in which this element is more 
subtle or which involves finer 'distinctions than that of 
shikar. To the primitive hunter the sole object is to ob- 
tain his quarry, irrespective of any consideration of the 
methods by which its destrufctionoi® encompassed, so long 
gi's' thdse methods are swift afAtivsire. And this can be 
■ e^'^ly understood in "cases whei^^teanting affords a means 
' of ' existence, and especially '-^WSTyre weapons are limited 
' to snares, bows and arrows, Shears, and such like imple- 
' ments. But in civilized societies the chase has lost- its 
original significance as a means of existence, and has be- 
come a pastime; hence a system of ethics has arisen, based 
partly on the necessity of ■ preserving game from total 
extermination, and partly on a natural or acquired sense 
of fair play inherent in 'civilized man, and has given rise 
to a distinction befiv^Yi' sportsmen and professional 
hunters. . i ■ ! 
For instance, the true sportsman will not indulge in 
' unlimited slaughter, nor will he, when once he has learned 
the morality of the chase, drive for deer or antelope or 
,.i]-|ill animals, or in fact any game that can be stalked. 
Siich a method of procedure is not considered legitimate 
according to the unwritten code of sport, and the man who 
drives for deer when he should stalk them is very properly 
■regarded as having violated' one of the futidamental laws 
of thiat code. In this country, for instance, the only wild 
beasts that, should 'be driven are tigers, panthers, and in 
some cases' bears, and to beat for other game is consid- 
ered unsporting:. We refer, of course, to the larger kinds 
pf/ganie,. and' not to birds. 
Again, with regard to night shooting, and in fact to all 
shooting under the system which is commonly called 
■ "sitting upj" it is, we believe, generally conceded that.it 
' is l.egitimate to sit up ov^r a kill for tigers and panthers, 
although we know that many sportsmen will not employ 
' this "method, if it' can possibly be avoided, regarding it" as 
not quite fair on the game, especially in the case of the 
larger feliiies. " But to shoot deer over a pool of water, 
either by daylight or by moonlight, is to commit a, most 
flagrant act of poaching, even vi'orse than dl-iving for 
such animals. Then, as regards the sex of game. Hei-e 
' there can be no-mistake. The males in the case of the 
Ungulata must alone be shot, and the females must be 
left unmolested. But the weaker sex in the case of dan- 
gerous animals, sucli as tigers, panthers and bears, even 
where it is possible' to distinguish them, enjoys no such 
immunity; although some very strict and self-denying 
sportsrnen will allow an animal with young ones to es- 
cape. Similar rules apply to the killing of the young of 
wild beasts. It may be said that no immature anmials 
should be shot, except in the case of dangerous game; 
arid even here \ye c^ime to debatable ground, for the spar- 
ing of the young of tigers and bears, undej- certain cir- 
cumstances, has, lately been advocated in more than one 
quarter, and is doubtless a-theOretically correct principle 
• from the s'portsman's point of view, although contrary to 
that of the philanthropist. 
' Although trophies do not' constitute the main object £>f 
sportsmen, yet they .have their value in connection with 
the chase, and it' is partly owing-to this fact, and partly by 
' reascif'n*^^3'f 'the 'unsophisticated ways of young animals, 
that these latter,-are -spared; and it may be stated as an 
j',a3iJonfi'"thaf 'ho animal should' be shot unless it bears a 
'"'^'ttb^Ky'Avoi-'tlliteeping. But her-e we come to a question 
.^^whl^Ii'Vv'i^-.fh'ijStile-ave our readers to answer for themselves. 
^ f^h^t 'sized trep^hy, is- worth keeping? 
I^o'\Voiirid'ed animal, dangerous or otherwise, should be 
'"'reft to perish miserably so long as there is a reasonable 
hope "of recovering it. And in this connection it may be 
remarked that beaters should, i^ever be made to drive for 
wounded animals of a dangerous nature. The sportsman 
should himself follow up such a beast;. nor do we think 
the fnethod, recommended ip-, the ■ Badminton Library 
volume on "Big Game Shooting," of following up a 
Avounded tiger, is quite in consonance with the morality pf 
the chase. - . , 
The ethics 'as regards weapons to be .used . is one that 
has a certain ' fundamental principle. The main point is 
that the arm should be an efficient one, the best obtainable 
for the purpose of killing an animal outright.- so jas 'to 
. avoid "inflicting unnecessary suffering. Correspondence 
in-oiir columns regarding the respective merits of large 
a'lld.sman- bores should supply food for reflection on this 
; point. Long arid uncertain shots., by which animals are 
likely to be wounded, should be avoided. For, paradox- 
' ical^'as it may appear,* the man who. indulges in. the chase 
shouM be at leas-t- as humane as' other •■people.. In fact, 
cnteiltyMv-duM head the list of crimes-^chargeable under 
the la\v;s of the subje.ct with which we are dealing. There- 
fore sportsmen should exercise great circumspection in 
the-' choice of weapons and ammunition. It is, perhaps, 
needless to <say that a- bullet, and not a charge of shot, 
• is the only legitimate -pro.iectile for use against all animals 
(Jiares excepted) of the chase inhabiting- this country, ex- 
cepj: tha^t it may be considered permissible to slay a pan- 
ther with" a charge of buckshot. -. * 
From the morality of sport as it concerns the game, we 
may pass to the etiquette with regard to shooting rights 
— a burning question which has given rise to frequent un- 
plftasantness and a considerable amount af . difference of 
opinion. In the first place, sportsmen should banish from 
their minds all ideas of competftioii, and should divest 
themselves of all feelings of jealousy and selfishness siich 
as are too frequently in evidence, as we have previously 
had occasion to remark. Hunters should be brethren — 
and indeed are proverbially so. And the better class of 
sportsman is always willing and ready to help others and 
to give advice and assistance to those who are in search 
of information. There should be a system of give and 
take for the good of the community, and no dog-in-the- 
manger policy, no jealous concealment or subterfuge, no 
placing of obstacles in the way of others, but a recogni- 
tion of the rights of all, which are presumably equal on 
public. shooting grounds. Certain recognized rules, like 
those which for years have obtained in Kashmir, give pri- 
ority of claim where necessary, and if all sportsmen would 
. act fairly and reasonably toward each other there would 
be jio*further trouble, and no occasion for an acrimonious 
exchange of personalities in the columns of our news- 
papers. ~ - 1 
All that is required for the attainment of this desirable 
but, we fear, somewhat Utopian end, is good feeling, and 
the recognition of certain elementary principles of ethics 
based on the necessity for maintaining the equal interests 
of all. , 
Maine Woods. 
Bemis, Me., Dec. 2. — ^Not the slightest trace of the lost 
Richard M. Knight has yet been found. He went into 
the woods from this place Oct: 24 with a companion to 
hunt deer, but has never returned. His hunting C9m- 
panion got in in due season. As has already been ex- 
plained, he has been hunted for by almost armies of men, 
over 500 having hunted in line one day. As is well 
known, he went into the woods to the east of Lake Moose- 
lucmaguntic, and the men have been formed in line up the 
lake from this point and the line has moved eastward 
under the direction of guides and woodsmen, with a 
director to every squad of fifteen or twenty men. The 
guides or directors blazed or spotted a line of trees as 
the line of searchers progressed. These blazed lines can 
easily be followed up to the top of the mountain ridges 
a couple of miles or more, and the wonder is that young 
Knight or his dead body has not been found. Still, most 
of the country is very thickly wooded and sorne of it very 
rough and almost impenetrable by reason of jagged logs, 
tree tops and "blow downs." "With Prof. J. F. Moody, of 
Auburn, Me., and Mr. J. H. Jones, of Boston, I have 
been deer hunting over the same ground for a couple of 
days. A crusted snow has prevented our getting deer, 
but the signs show them to be very plenty. The wonder 
is that the lines of searchers for young Knight have not 
driven them out of the country. They seem even more 
plenty than a year ago, when we hunted over the same 
ground. Some of the searchers say that deer were very 
frequently started, but that they would actually dodge 
back between the men after starting ahead of the line a 
few times. It would seem that they do not care to be 
driven from their haunts. 
The prevailing opinion here is that Knight hurt himself 
in some way after separation from his hunting companion, 
and that his dead body lies in the woods not very far from 
this point. Capt. F. C. Barker, proprietor here and very 
well known to everybody interested in fishing and shoot- 
ing in this section, gave hira instructions before he started 
for the woods — told him about the tote road running 
northeast to Rangeley and about the many logging roads, 
• all leading to the lake. Then, when it was found that he 
was lost, one of Capt. Barker's little steamers was fired 
up and sent up and down the lake to whistle every few 
minutes. This was kept up for several days. This whis- 
tle and that also of the railway trains — four of them a 
day — in and out from here, can be heard six or eight miles 
into the woods. We have heard them each day that we 
have been out, and the direction of the sound has been 
perfect. Some of the guides are still searching for 
Knight's body — we met one to-day — as a reward of $400 
for the recovery of the body is still out, and will remain 
in force till June i, 1900, if necessary. The reward is 
pffered by J. E. Knight, the young man's father; Arthur 
"Wilson and Hiram Ricker & Sons, of Poland Springs, 
where young Knight was clerk before starting on his 
doubtless fatal hunting trip. The guides have a theory 
that the foxes and bob cats may aid them to find the body 
as soon as snows come'deep enough to shut off the food 
of these animals, They will dig down through the snow 
lor the bodies of- animals' on which to feed, and the guides 
believe that a human body will share the same fate. Fox 
tracks and cat tracks will be carefully followed by guides 
and woodsmen, We have followed some to-day, but they 
have led us to no important conclusions. 
Mr. J, Parker Whitney and Sam Parker passed through 
here yesterday, going to Boston, from Mr. Whitney's 
cam'ps at Mosquito Brook, Richardson Lake. They had 
one very fine deer head. 
Boston. Dec. 4, — ^The open season on moose in Maine 
ended Thursday, Nov. 30. It is certain that the number 
falls a good deal behind a year ago. The number recorded 
as passing through Bangor was 134 — 74 in October and 
60 in November. For some reason not yet explained 
the number for the whole month of November was less 
than for the sixteen days of open season in October. 
One moose hunter suggests the reason for the greater 
number taken in October was that the guides had a good 
many moose located ready for the coming of the hunters. 
The rain of Friday night removed the snow from the 
Maine hunting grounds in most sections or left it in a 
State so crusted as to make deer hunting exceedingly dif- 
ficylt. This is good' for the deer and will help to carry 
more of them over for breeding stock another year than 
wotrld otherwise have been the case, for although the vis- 
iting sportsmen are generally done for the season, the 
resident 'hunters Were, after the deer in great numbers. 
The number of these hunters is greater than those most 
inte'^ested in the welfare of the game in that- State seem 
to comprehend, and the interest is increasing very rapidly. 
Every man and boy in the big game sections owns a 
rifle. Many of them guide till -cold "weather, and snows 
drive the soortsraen home, then they "go in for their own 
meat." The number of deer killed by this late hunting, 
often on snowshoes, is enormous — believe much greater 
than the number shipoed out by sportsmen, though the 
record of shipments through Bangor and other outlets !s 
generally taken as an index of the number of moose and 
deer killed in Maine. If the buyers of deerskins would 
speak out, they could tell a story. One instance will give 
some idea of what I mean. The wardens seized one day 
last week 100 deer skinS. They were in a freight car con- 
signed to C. E. Robinson, of Boston. They were shipped 
from Crystal, a station on the Bangor & Aroostook road 
— 100 ■ deer skins from a station from which sportsmen 
haVe not shipped half that number. Sportsmen do not 
leave their deer skins behind. Hence these skins must: 
have been taken from deer killed by local hiinters. Mr. 
Robinson holds a license to buy deer skins in Maine, but 
the wardens claim that this license does not permit him 
to ship them out of the State. The case is exciting a 
good deal of interest, and the courts will have to settle it. 
Mr, Robinson buys deer skins for a Plymouth glove 
concern. The open season on deer in Maine closes Dec. 
IS this year, and this will shut off sixteen days of the 
worst of the killing of deer by local gunners under the 
old law, which closed the season Dec. 31. Boston sports- 
men have brought home for the week about thirty deer 
and no moose. ' Special. 
Reported Hunting Grounds* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Often reports from various hunting grounds are some- 
what misleading. Owners of camps, guides and others 
interested often spread reports of the amount of game 
to be easily found, which visiting sportsmen fail to verify. 
In times past ,!, have been taken in by such glowing re- 
ports, and have spent some months in certain places which 
were claimed to be "the home of the moose, caribou, deer 
and beaver." , I was not looking after the last named, but 
if the region I spent so much time in had ever been the 
home of the first three, they certainly had left their home, 
and to all appearances, for good, when I called. For six 
weeks on one of my first trips after large game I hunted 
over miles of very wild ground near the Canadian 
boundary. I had as good a guide and woodsman as there 
was in that region. Frequent- light falls of snow made the 
best conditions, for still-hunting I have ever experienced. 
All that was lacking was the game, and of that there were 
not, even old signs. Day after day we cruised over miles 
of good-looking ground. My guide had promised to find 
both moose and caribou if I would stick to it, and he 
certainly tried' his best. I stuck for six weeks, and at 
last the guide said it was no use. There was certainly one 
advantage in hunting the above region — I did not have to 
carry many cartridges. One cartridge was all I used, 
killing a caribou with it, which was the only animal I 
saw on the trip larger than a rabbit. 
Recently I saw an account of the number of deer killed 
this season in a certain locality in this State. According 
. to the account it would seem that about every one who 
went out with a rifle got one or more deer. I have been 
three times to this place during the fishing season and it 
certainly looked as though there might be deer there. I 
had half made up my mind to go there and try some still- 
hunting. I can get to the place in a few hours. 
I know a man living quite near the hunting grounds, 
and I consider him reliable in every way. I wrote 
him, and his reply is as follows (and he was interested in 
. a pecuniary way to some extent in my making the trip) : 
"As to deer, there have been quite a number killed, but 
not one to every twenty-five men who have been after 
thehi. If you could have any part of the places you 
speak of to yourself on a good snow you would stand 
good chances of getting shots, but when snow comes 
those hills will be half-covered with hunters. I have been 
intending to, go, but knowing there were so many other 
hunters out, has taken all the courage out of me." 
My correspondent has certainly taken all desire out of 
me for still-hunting in his region. I am not in the least 
afraid of shooting some other fellow, as I have always 
stuck to the rule of never shooting until I was sure of 
what I was shooting at, and I have been quite successful 
in stilt-hunting moose, caribou, bears and deer. Stick- 
ing to my rule, however, has lost me a few shots on deer 
in places where I was almost sure there were no other 
hunters in the woods. It is the shooting of the other 
fellows I am- afraid of, and when the woods are full of 
local hunters always ready to shoot at anything that 
moves, I prefer to keep out. C. M, Stark. 
DUNBABTON, N. H,, Nov. 29. 
"Hounding Decf." 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Forest and Stream being one of the few journals de- 
, voted to field sports that endeavors to keep "sport" re- 
I spectable, a story of deer hounding that came to my 
k;nowledge to-day seems worth repeating. 
Some friends of.'mine have just returned from a trip 
"after deer" and frankly admit that they ran the deer with 
hounds, there being "no law there." The one deer they 
got had its leg so broken by shot that it hung useless, yet 
it ran at least 'five miles through the worst of country 
before it was caught, the hound in full chase, and holding 
it several ' times, enabling the hunters to put several rifle 
balls into it. ' - 
Now, had there been no hound to run it, that deer would 
certainly have been lost, and lingered on in misery for a 
considerable time. Yet a certain set of hunters snort about 
hounding -being "beastly," "unsportsmanlike." etc.. and cry 
"game hog" and similar rot. Now who is the "hog^'? 
The man who wounds a deer, leaving it to suffer agonies 
for an indefinite period, or the one who uses the self- 
evident -means -of re.ally getting that deer? As far as re- 
. suits go, the^former enjoys the- infliction of pain for the- 
fun- of shooting, and the' latter shoots a deer to kill, and 
- get it: A dertain'- Western journal did more in its day 
to encourage that pestiferous- rot about, "true sportsman- 
ship" -aftd '"manly sportsrnen" than years of sense will 
drive out of;' the, heads of a class of hunters who have 
no' sense';- and I well "rernember of one individual, just 
about the most emphatic "bad egg" among dog men. whose 
ofFer to make a bet was lauded "manly .sportsmanship." 
I have no personal feeling in this matter. I would far 
rather eat good -mutton- than venison, and see no fun in 
standing on a' "stand'* h©lding a gun on a cold day, nor 
creeping under bushes laden with snow, trying to shoot 
a deer; but I do kno:^ plenty of men to whom just swch 
work is the Rfeatest delight, and know that there are no 
better men than just those rhose enjoyments would be 
