Aug. II, 1900.} 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
107 
its soft shades of brown, harmonizes with the ground. 
"Dem snipes shorely twisses when dey flies/ remarks 
the darky in his most sententious manner. 
Among the charred stumps of the old cattails, where the 
young growth is beginning to show, the snipe are thick. 
They get up in wisps, and the repeating shotgun is kept 
busy. How the shells disappear and, alas, how many 
misses there are ! The snipe swing into the sky. They 
quarter it, far in the haze, as if in cloudland, until the 
eyes grow watery with watching as we crouch and wait. 
Some are gone, some return and are marked down. One 
alights not 30 feet away. His actions are as described. 
He turns his head, with an incredibly swift movement, 
and his beady eyes are seen to glitter. Then he is ob- 
served as he springs against the air and with a cut of 
the wing turns into the willows so abruptly that he strikes 
a limb and makes it tremble. 
The snipe are plentiful ; here in marsh knee deep, here 
in soft grass as dainty as spring itself, here in ditches and 
here in a field plowed for the first time in many years 
and in long-abandoned clay pits drained for the first time. 
"Dey gits up onexpected," says the darky. One cries and 
repeats his cry, which a lucky shot stops with startling 
suddenness. "IDat shut off his valve," the negro remarks 
with a wide grin at his own humor. 
A big "drove of blackbirds," as the darky terms them, 
rises, led by the males with gorgeous wing ornaments of 
scarlet and gold. With them are seen robins and several 
)fellowhammers. The latter are in this latitude ex- 
tremely sociable, and associate with other birds, abandon- 
ing trees quite largely and getting food out of the ground. 
They are always spoken of as the yellowhammer here. 
The national woodpecker, with his red. white and blue 
plumage, is termed the shirt tail, while the great wood- 
pecker is called the log cock or the good god. The darky 
gives him the latter name, and says it is what the bird 
says in his strident call, which can be heard a great dis- 
tance. Two of these big birds are heard in some heavy 
timber on the skirt of the marsh. Several bitterns are 
seen. They are not eaten here. 
Spring birds come early here, and along the waterway 
are observed the bluebird, the indigo bird flycatchers and 
the shrike or butcher bird. The really sweet notes of the 
catbird are heard. He is a sort of "poor relation" of the 
prince of songsters, the mockingbird. One of the latter 
swings on the top limb of a water oak, and with an air 
well worthy of_ Jean de Reszke himself, literally sings 
frxim his soul, imitating everything in feathers, running 
the scale and then dashing off into staccato passages and 
all manner of brilliant improvisations. 
Fred A. Olds. 
ff 
Concerning the Term Sportsmen. 
Hamlet— Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in the shape of 
a camel? 
Polonius — ^By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. 
Hamlet — Methinks it is like a weasel. 
Polonius — It is backed like a weasel. 
Hamlet — Or like a whale. 
Polonius— Ve-ry like a whale. 
There is an old saying about several blind men who, 
by the sense, of touch, examined an elephant. If my 
memory serves, one reported the animal to resemble a 
serpent, another that it was like a tree, and yet another 
that it was like the side of a house. This might be 
pardoned in blind men, but a more unanimous opinion 
M'ould be expected of men blessed with sight. 
Written with the best intentions, an article of mine in 
Forest and Stream has aroused contention as to the 
attributes that should characterize or distinguish sports- 
men. I find that, from the several individual comments 
upon the subject, there is much the same unanimity 
among us as existed in the opinions of the blind men 
about the elephant — that is to say, none whatever. More 
than this, my assertions were misunderstood and mis- 
construed; this with notable unanimity. Shakespeare 
is always pat, and 1 quote, "There is something in this 
more than natural, if philosophy could find it out." 
There appears to be no good reason why sportsmen 
may not be distinguished as clearly as are lawyers, 
doctors, journalists, divines or any other school of 
men other than specialists. There are many and diverse 
kinds of lawyers, etc., just as there are of sportsmen. 
This, however, is not pertinent to my objection to the 
word sportsmen. My assertion plainly stated was and is 
that the term is misleading and morally pernicious as ap- 
plied to the class of persons comprehended under the 
phrase "American sportsmen"; and that the constituency 
of Forest and Stream is not notably made up of sports- 
men the specific meaning of the word. I submitted 
Webster's definition of the word sportsman, viz., "One 
who pursues the sports of the field; one who hunts, 
fishes and fowls; one skilled in the sports of the field." 
No more fitting or generally admitted definition can 
be desired for a very large class of persons. 
My assertion must now take the form of contention, 
and my contention is that this journal is not notably 
a sportsman's journal, as evidenced by its contents for a 
quarter of a century, but that it has fulfilled and is ful- 
filling a broader and higher place than a journal could 
devoted to real sportsmanship; and that it does not in 
fact commend nor support the sportsmanship defined by 
Webster, and as generally construed in America. 
Basing my judgment in the- selection upon Webster's 
definition, as well as upon the common acceptance of the 
word, sportsmen, I submit a list of sportsmen, viz.: 
Market hunters, pigeon shooters, trappers, snarers, de- 
coyers, ambushers, count-fishermen, pot-shooters, game 
butchers, poachers, trespassers, bird netters, fish seiners, 
explosive users in killing fish, plume hunters, robin 
shooters, and potentates skillful enough to slaughter 
game driven to shambles of their own designs. 
If' the above named are not in the aggregate sports- 
men, "there is no purchase in money." They pursue 
field sports, and they hunt fish and fowl, and they are all 
more Or less skillful in field sports. More than this, they 
may be said to comprise the great bulk of the family or 
c]as;s. 
Against the "little list" foregoing let us consider the 
Fo REST AND Stream family or fraternity — editors, con- 
tributors and friends. Does any one of a hundred of its 
popular and accepted contributors desire to be known 
particularly or generally as a pursuer of the sport's of the 
field, skillful at fishing, hunting and fowling? If so his 
ambition should be to distinguish himself by big counts 
and most, sport in successfully killing other creatures. 
No; they are lacking in the essential attributes of genu- 
ine sportsmen. Otherwise they would be fnonotonous 
people indeed. 
"Our wills and fates do so contrary run 
That our devices still are overtlirown ; 
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of Qur oyra." 
I do not wish to be understood as asserting that there 
are no sportsmen. On the contrary, I admit that sports- 
men are represented in and by Forest and Stream, and 
elsewhere in larger bodies; but my contention is set forth 
clearly now, certainly. 
"The unwritten laws governmg the matter of .sports- 
manship" are of the very essence of my objection to the 
word as generally applied. These unwritten laws are 
mysteries, or things unknown to the amateur or youthful 
seeker after out-of-door diversions; and if all sorts of 
depredators upon animal life are classed as sportsmen 
such guides afe valuless, where, if understood, they 
woidd be most valuable. The killing of fish and game, 
however skdlfvdly, is a small beginning in the genteel 
requirements that should be known to those who know 
least of the unwritten rules of httmane demeanor afield. 
Admitting that it would be impossible to define exactly 
to all minds the attributes of a gentleman, we could cer- 
tainly define them more accurately than to say, "A man 
who pursues social entertainment; a man skillful at social 
diversion at wining, dining and dancing." If that 
^vcre the definition of gentleman, given by Webster and 
commonly accepted, not many men would desire their 
sons to grow up with no clearer conception until they 
could learn unwritten laws known to men of experience. 
The proposition as to the word sportsman is almost 
as pertinent, and almost the same. If "in the discussion 
of particulars the tout ensemble would be lost," a clear, 
concise definition of the meaning and application of the 
word should be found. No English word is elastic 
enough to properly designate poachers, pot-hunters and 
game and fish killers of all kinds and also include the 
many talented, polished and refined men who grace the 
coluinns of this journal from year to year, with as manly 
and humane entertainment as can be foimd in the world. 
Their sport is not found to any marked extent in the 
mere accomplishments that imply sportsmanship. 
A missile came hurtling from St. Augustine, Fla., a 
town that is too antique and ancient for modern engines. 
The town, I think, was founded by Spaniards, and Didy- 
mus evidently fired from some old catapult loaded with 
junk by Christopher Columbus or Ponce de Leon. Has 
any one ever found out where Spanish missiles go to? 
It is no use to inquire of Admiral Dewey, or of the 
marines, is it? 
Didymus says the common definition of sportsman is 
"inen who shoot," and that he would let it go at that. 
Hitherto I confess to a kind of regard I had for him; but 
he says also that my experience qualified me "to define 
a bee hunter," alluding to minor points, of uncomfortable 
memory, and implying that sportsman was beyond me. 
Must I, like Sir John Falstaff, be "not only witty in 
myself, but be the cause that wit is in other men?" 
Zounds! "I will have my brains taken out and buttered, 
and give them to a dog for a New Year's gift!" Men 
who shoot, indeed! Why, he will have us all drafted for 
the army, that being our largest sporting organization. 
Those, then, are not soldiers in the Philippines, but 
sportsmen! Sampson, Schley, Dewey — the Olympia, 
Oregon, Vesuvius, etc., are a nice little outfit for sporting 
purposes! 
Why, each sA-llable he hath writ doth disavouch the 
other. He says, O Didymus the consistent, that 
sportsmen are men who shoot; and then he denies that 
market hunters and professional shooters — the very men 
who shoot most — are sportsmen. What about cowboys, 
desperadoes, minions of the moon? Ransacker. 
Shasta Mountain, Cal. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
News' from the Rocky Motintains. 
Chicago, 111,, Aug. 4. — I believe I mentioned last week 
that my old friend of the Two Medicine country. Black- 
foot Reservation, Crosby Boak, who drove team the 
time we went in there for a winter goat hunt, is for the 
present stopping here in Chicago, though he goes back 
as far west as Iowa before long, and will probably re- 
turn to the reservation, or rather to the Summit Station, 
near there, early this fall. Boak is getting over the ef- 
fects of a broken leg, which a mountain doctor set for 
him very clumsily, so that the ends lap and leave the 
limb shortened a little. He is thinking of getting it 
broken over and reset here in Chicago, as it troubles him 
a good deal even yet, a year after the accident. 
Boak tells me he has surely got my grizzly staked out 
this time and wants me to solemnly promise to come out 
and get him next spring. I am willing to promise to try 
to come, but that is about all a fellow can do. There is 
a Chicago gentleman here who wants to go along, and 
we both want to go in when it takes snowshoes to travel, 
and just about the time when the snowslides are ripe. 
It is some fun to hear and see a snowslide in the Rockies 
if it doesn't come your way. Also that is the best time 
and the best place to get a bear. Mr. Ephraim starts his 
spring travels pretty high up the mountain sides, and is 
dead willing then to eat anything he can get his feet on. 
When he strikes the first fresh earth left by a good big 
snowslide he is very apt to go nosing along the bank 
where the roots and bushes are torn loose, to see if he 
can pick up anything to eat. Put your bait, then, at the 
foot of the slide, where the nice aroma will waft up the 
mountain side. Put your blind also there and go into 
cold storage in the blind and stay there as long as you 
can._ Maybe you can stand it till a bear decoys in. There 
won't be any more slides come down where this one did, 
so j^ou are just as safe there as you are in camp, and 
maybe safer. 
I presume this is as sure a way to get a grizzly as any 
that can be devised. Boak and his partner Scott killed 
and trapped ninety-eight bears in seven years in the 
country he has in mind, and he says he can get me that 
grizzly all right if I can get away. ' I don't see why that 
wouldn't be a very decent trip, though it might be a 
trifle coolish and maybe a leetJe hungry, for we would 
have to pack in on our own backs all our camp outfit. 
The only thing that bothers me is how could we get 
our bear hides out? A good grizzly skin weighs mighty 
heavy. Boak said that in all his travels in the bear 
country they never got a decent bear story and never got 
but one really big bear out of the ninety-eight. That one 
had a hide that measured 9 feet one way and 10 feet the 
other a pretty good bear for these days. If my friend 
and I go in there that is the kind of hide we want. But how 
are we going to pack it out? Life is full of discourage- 
ments. 
I must give a letter which Boak lately received from his 
Rocky Mountain home, written by Henry Morrison, bet- 
ter known at the Summit as Slippery Bill, for what spe- 
cial reason deponent sayeth not. Slippery has been out 
trying to rope wild mountain goats, there being a very 
good chance for this not far from his place at the Sum- 
mit, a sort of high table land, with a little pinnacle on 
it, to which a goat or sheep will nearly always take when 
pushed by a dog. Writing July 8 Slippery goes on to 
say: 
."Friend Crosby: This is the earliest spring you ever 
saw in this country. Snow is all gone off the hills. You 
remember the outfit that stopped at McCarthysville from 
Great Falls? Morgan and they got two bear on Oly 
Creek, Well, two of them are come back this spring, and 
ihey have nine bears now and expect to get more. Billy 
Morgan, kids and all, have gone back on the reservation. 
McKay and V. have gone back too. I had a letter from 
Ally Goss and he says he has not seen the horse this 
spring. Willy Goss has married Louie Capell's girl Mag- 
gie. They had a big time. Billy Ellsworth has sold his 
part of the St. Mary's country and gone to Pennsylvania. 
Horace Clark brought my horses up some time ago. I 
think you I^ad better come back to the mountains. A 
cyclone or something else will do you up in that flat 
country. It is not a safe place to live. Bring some of 
your friends out and show them some good hunting. 
I went up the mountain yesterday after goats. I wanted 
to catch a kid. The dogs got an old nanny with one 
kid on top of a rock and held her there. I had a %-mch. 
rope with me and I thought I would rope her. I could 
not get it over her head, but after missing her about a 
dozen times she stepped in the loop and I snatched it up 
on one forward leg. Say, she is gone with the rope. 
When I got stopped I was about 200 yards down the 
hill and glad to be there. I called off the dogs and came ■ 
home for fixing. I have not gone after the gun and- 
don't think I will for a few days. Guess I'll rope some'- 
more goats! How is you leg getting along? It ought to ■ 
be all right for the hills this fall. Try it, anyhow." 
Idaho. 
Mr, F. S. Thorndike and his friend Mr. Richard, of 
Paris, France, are in Chicago to-day outfitting for a trip, 
into the mountain regions of Idaho. They are interested, 
in mining properties some eighty miles north of 
Ketch um. Idaho, and have often been in there before. 
Mr. Thorndike tells me that the ranges of the Salmon 
River country, not very far from - their mines, are still 
completely wild and almost untraveled. They get very 
good sheep hunting, and Mr. Thorndike says that he 
took back to Paris a head which he calls "very valua- 
ble," a_ ram's head whose horns measured "just over 18 
inches." This is the nearest I have ever heard of an 
equal to the great head which Billy Jackson gave me 
some years ago. I should not be willing to think the 
Billy Jackson sot of horns less than any other pair on 
earth until I had actually seen and measured the others. 
Yet this head taken to Europe by Mr. Thorndike must 
have been a grand one. He did not kill it himself, but 
bought it. He says that there are very many bears all 
along the Salmon River, and indeed that game of all 
sorts is abundant in there yet. They have grand trout 
fishing near their mines, and both gentlemen are laying 
in abundant trout tackle of a very husky pattern, get- 
ting ready for the heavy fish of that region. Their lines 
seem surely cast in pleasant places. 
Billy Ho'er Back from Alaska. 
Billy Hofer, late of the Yellowstone Park at Gardiner, 
Mont.,, and still later of Alaska, is in Chicago this week 
and may be here for several days yet, visiting and en- 
joying himself, he calls it, though what there is here 
to enjoy just now is a puzzle to anybody who lives here. 
Billj^, whose reputation as a taker and tamer of wild ani- 
mals is second to none in the country, was appointed 
by the United States Government as a special commis- 
sioner to go up into Alaska and get specimens of the 
giant Kodiak bear— the sort you read about in books and 
sometimes see in the sportsmen's expositions. Billy 
took his old Yellowstone traps and cages and made quite 
a trip, getting as far north as latitude 63 degrees. He 
did not get his supplies in time for anvthing but a short 
season, but succeeded in getting four bears, one of them 
a brown fellow, young but very large, and which promises 
to make a good specimen when grown. The others were 
black bears, and for these he did not care so much. 
As to the Kodiak bear proper, Billy speaks rather dis- 
illusioningly. One has always heard that this is the bear 
which swims out to meet the boats, with blood red, rav- 
ening jaws, and fights anything that travels near it As 
a m.atter of fact. Billy says, this is the most cowardly 
bear on earth, the island bears especially so. So far 
from the natives being afraid of them, they kill them 
right along, sometimes killing them with a spear, which 
would seem a bit ticklish as a steady job. The Kodiak 
bear is deadly scared of a man and will leave the country 
if it smells a camp-fire. Billy hopes to negotiate these 
fellows all right the next time he goes up. He left some 
of his big traps— one side of these iron bound affairs 
weighs nearly a ton— in charge of local men, nicely set 
out in good country. He may get more bear than some 
of his men Avant. As a whole, Billy does not think much 
of his trip, but hopes to do better when he gets in there 
with more time on his hands. 
For Alaska itself Billy has nothing but praise. He ' 
says it is a prodigious country and the roughest he 
ever hunted In some places the bears have worn regu- 
lar trails, like elk trails in Wyoming, deep into the earth. ' 
Crossing these are fox trails, and sometimes the trails of 
the land otter. Each animal makes its own trail and 
does not use those of the others, perhaps for very good 
personal reasons sometimes. Red foxes he saw of great 
