Nov. 30, 1901.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
427 
B. C. 4004. The human race is much older than that, 
but how much older nobody knows. But even back of 
the date of the story, no matter what its date may be, 
many centuries must be allowed for the conception and 
jslow evolution of the ideas involved (i) that animals can 
talk at allj (2) that they can talk intelligibly with each 
•other, (3) that they understand and can use human 
speech and talk intelligibly with men, and (4) that they 
excel men in a knowledge of human affairs. Allow a 
reasonable time for each of these and count back of any 
date which can possibly be assigned to the Adamic story, 
or back of the date at which a somewhat similar story 
appears in the old records of ancient Babylon, and it 
will be found that we are dealing with something which 
must greatly antedate any known existing human record 
or any extant historical tradition — and antedate, too, by 
years which in number must be counted by the thousand. 
In a general way I would conclude, at least tentatively, 
as respects the evolution of the relations of animals and 
men : 
First. That there was originally a state of nonnal 
hostility. 
Second. That this was followed by the domestication 
of our home and farm domestic animals. 
Third. That the supposed or imaginary talkability of 
animals as an evolutionary step came next. 
Fourth. That through or along with domestication, and 
the evolution of talkability, friendly relations were estab- 
lished between man and the domestic animals, and in 
the course of time such friendly relations came to be 
conceived of as possible and as sometimes existing with 
wild animals also. 
Fifth. Out of these conditions and relations and the 
facts incident thereto, there was evolved the further idea 
that animalsj or at least some of them, possessed a wis- 
dom that was super-human. 
From a belief in the super-human wisdom of animals 
there was evolved: 
Sixth. Totemism, and, 
Seventh. Animal sacrifices. 
The last two, however, representing and following 
diverging lines of thought. 
Eighth. That totemism, in so far as the lower animals 
are included as parts or elements of its cultus, repre- 
sents a degeneracy of the system. And, 
Ninth. That all this antedated any known human 
records or extant traditions; and while not capable of 
proof or disproof, may be accepted as probably true, at 
least until some theory more perfectly consonant with 
known facts is submitted. George H. Christy,, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 
A.ntlefs Locked in Death Sttugglc* 
W.'VNANisH, N. C, Nov 18. — Deer are fairly plentiful 
in this section. Lands are generally posted. Myself and 
party of iive killed four on the 14th, isth and i6th. While 
following the hounds on the i6th I found two large bucks 
with their horns locked, one of wliich had apparently just 
died, while the other had the appearance of having been 
dead a few days. The backs of their necks were to- 
gether, with noses pointed in opposite directions. 
J. P. Council, Jr. 
mid ^nn. 
— <?> — 
Fixtures. 
March 5-19, 1902.— Eighth Annual Show of the National Sports- 
men's -Association at Madison Square Garden, New York. 
The Safe Use of Arms, 
Portland, Ind., Nov. 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
This shooting of men for animals is a terrible thing to 
contemplate, and to one who loves to tramp the woods 
in quest of game, and who has taken and continues_ to 
take his chances for life or death, it becomes a burning 
question. 
One of your contributors suggests that hunters wear 
red hats. I am acquainted with a party who goes him one 
better. They all wear red shirts over their other apparel. 
They admit that a deer can see them more readily, but 
as a preventive against being mistaken for a wild animal 
it is the best thing conceivable. 
As for being hit by stray bullets, all colors must take 
their chances, and so far I have escaped in a green coat. 
But it makes one feel a little nervous when he reads of 
the many accidents that are happening to those who go 
into the woods. Greater caution would curtail the death 
list measurably. No person is justified in carrying a gun 
at full cock, nor in any manner that it could injure any- 
one should it be discharged by accident; nor in leaving 
a cartridge in the chamber for any great length of time, 
especially if he has occasion to cock and uncock his gun 
a number of times, as the continued touching of the 
primer may have it on the point of explosion. 
A sad accident occurred to a party that went from here 
to near Brownsville, Me., this season. Five of the party 
met by appointment about a mile from camp, reported 
their luck and separated. Two of the men struck into 
the woods, leaving the other three discussing the plan for 
a return hunt toward camp. One of the three was hold- 
ing his gun under his right arm, the muzzle pointing 
downward. He chanced to be standing directly in the 
rear of a smaller man, and as he made a move to turn to 
one side the muzzle of his rifle struck the leg of the man 
in front of him and was discharged, the ball, a large ex- 
plosive one, going through the leg of his unfortunate 
friend above the knee. Luckily the bones were not in- 
jured, and the man was brought home, and is now on 
the road to recovery, but the accident ended the hunt 
prematurely, and it was a sad party that returned. The 
immediate cause of the cartridge exploding is still a mys- 
tery. Possibly the hammer caught under the hunter's 
belt, was pulled part way back and then released. And 
again, the hammer may have been let down on the 
plunger or firing pin a number of times with such force 
that the jar caused the gun %q be 4ischarge4. Wliile this 
case was purely an accident, there was a lack of caution. 
As for mistaking a man for something else and shoot- 
ing him intentionally, tbere is certainly no excuse. I 
see no grounds on which I could possibly acquit a person 
of the criminal charge of manslaughter. The rule should 
be, and is with me, shoot at nothing without first seeing 
the object distinctly and knowing just what it is. This 
extreme caution saved the life of my hunting companion 
two years ago, and I would much prefer to lose all the 
game in the woods than kill a human being by mistake. 
No animal in the game woods looks like a human be- 
ing. If you see a man sitting on a log and he looks like 
the bear you would give a piece of money to get to kill, 
watch him until he changes his position a few times; he 
will look different when he gets on his feet and begins 
to move away. If j'ou see a fur cap that looks like a 
lynx, coon, turkey or anything your excited imagination 
pictures, wait; don't be in a hurry; let it show its shape; 
it may be a part of a human being. 
If you saw the weeds or bushes moving you would show 
yourself to be a very poor hunter if you pulled up your 
gun and emptied it in that direction. If you saw some- 
thing just the color of a deer, and making just about the 
noise a deer would make, moving along on the other side 
of some brush, and you felt almost certain it was a buck, 
and you would get him sure if he kept on coming, and for 
fear he might change his course and escape you caught 
a bead on him through one of the thinnest spots and 
dropped him, you would have done the reverse of what I 
did, and you would have killed a man. 
Two friends were hunting ten miles southeast of Re- 
public, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, two years ago this 
month, and became separated. One was sitting down and 
saw his friend draw his gun to his face and fire; the ball 
whistling by or the fact of the gun being pointed toward 
him caused him to spring to his feet and throw up his 
arms as a signal to his friend. The friend, however, for 
reasons known only to himself, quickly fired a second 
shot with fatal aim. What excuse could he possibly have 
- had for such a deed? 
As to certain guns being outlawed, it would not be a 
bad thing if they could be. The poorest are deadly 
enough. A poor workman finds fault with his tools, and 
a poor hunter, or poor marksman, will charge his failures 
to his gun. It doesn't take the hardest hitting gun to 
stop the game, if the ball is properly placed. I have 
tried them from .32-20 to .45-90 on deer, and dropped 
them with the pop-gun, as the boys called it, and I found 
I could not kill them any deader with the big gun. If 
hunters would make it a point to hit their game in a 
fatal spot it would necessitate their seeing the game, and 
they would not shoot into moving bushes or at indistinct 
objects. Accidents may happen, but there is no necessity 
for looking into the muzzle of a gun or pistol, or pulling 
a gun through the fence or brush, carrying it full cock, 
setting the breach on a log or stump, much less point- 
ing it at a human being, or shooting at an indistinct 
object. 
The man behind the gun in a game country will get 
game to his credit. ■ The fool behind the gun is liable to 
kill anything, to his discredit. 
G. W. Cunningham. 
Boston, Nov. 21. — Editor Forest and Stream: The 
hunting season of 1901, which is drawing near to its 
close, seems to have been a most successful one, so far as 
game is concerned, but a decidedly unfortunate season, 
when we stop to contemplate the many accidents causing 
injitry and death to human beings. Probably the so-called 
accident list for the year is not yet complete, but enough 
have been reported to convince everybody that fear of 
Maine's new law makes no difference with reckless men. 
Now, we must wait and see if this law will be enforced 
as it should be, trusting it will lessen the danger in the 
future. 
Considerable has been said and written on this subject 
of late, and some of your correspondents seem inclined 
to sympathize with the careless hunters, because they 
have been in similar positions. In my opinion there are 
no words in the English language suitable for framing a 
reasonable excuse for the man who shoots another in the 
woods in the manner this shooting is usually done. 
Nearly every instance of fatal shooting in the woods of 
Maine comes to us tagged with the time-worn excuse, "I 
■ thought it was a deer." It is most strange how closely 
men resemble deer and bear in their movements, while 
there is not the least thing human about the moose or 
caribou. Of course, there is a reason for this distinction. 
Plunters must not kill caribou at any time, so this animal 
roams the woods in safety ; neither is he ever mistaken 
for deer. If a hunter kills a cow moose and is detected, 
the law says he must settle, and the law is enforced. This 
state of things is rather unfortunate for the man who 
goes into the- woods prepared to shoot everything that 
moves, for he finds his range of big game down, to a dis- 
agreeable limit — deer, bear and men. 
Now. if we accept the Darwin theory, that man de- 
scended from the monkey, we might assume that men, 
while in the woods, look and act like our ancestors. 
Then the hunter, wishing to add a head of this descrip- 
tion to his collection, might be excused for killing a human 
being. There certainly is no other plausible reason, but 
the monkey is usually at the safe end of the gun, and, with 
natural cunning, always avoids injury to himself. 
A man who does this kind of sight unseen shooting 
might reasonably be expected to fire the contents of his 
gun into the show window of a millinery store, thinking 
he saw a flock of birds. 
If there is anj-- one time in a man's life when he forfeits 
the right to think, it is when he raises his rifle to shoot 
at some moving object in the woods. That is the time he 
should know, and know for a certainty, what he is shoot- 
ing. Let the law be enforced in such, a manner that it 
will keep out of the woods, or severely punish, the man 
who can easily see all protected game, but readily kills a 
friend, rather than take a chance of losing what he thinks 
may be a deer. Roxbury. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Reading J A. Thompson's account of his narrow 
escape from shooting a friend, brings to mind something 
that happened in the Minnesota woods a few years ago, 
^Yhil§ I w?S3 hunting 4eer up there, I was stopping ^% 
the Lamere place in Aitkin county, Minn., during the 
open season on deer. Ben Lamere was the best still- 
hunter I ever knew, and could get three or four deer 
to my one, as it was my first effort at still-huntmg in 
the big woods. 
One day Ben came in from the hunt looking harried 
and ntrvous, but no one said anything until supper, 
when his dau.ghter asked what the matter was. "Well," 
said Ben, "I came very near to shooting Mr. J. (naming 
a neighbor) today," 
It had happened like this: Ben was following a deer 
track in the snow when the track led into a thicket. 
It was a Hkely looking place for a deer to lie in during 
the day and Ben made a complete circuit of the thicket, 
and, finding no track leading out, he started in to find 
the deer in its bed. When Ben found the thicket a 
deer was lying in, he carefully located and shot the deer 
in its bed without his own presence being detected by the 
deer. Peering this way and that, Ben soon saw the 
deer lying behind a fallen tree-top; watching it intently, 
to make sure he saw a slight movement, and throwing 
his rifle to his face pulled the trigger, and at the same 
instant the deer straightened into the form of a man. 
Ben just had time to tilt his rifle a trifle and sent the 
bullet whistling harmlessly through the woods; but it 
was a close call, and scared both pretty thoroughly. The 
man had crossed Lamere's track and entered the thicket 
after Ben had made part of his circle, and of course his 
track had not been seen by Ben. In the thicket he had 
stopped and stooped over to lace his boot, and was 
sighted in that position by Ben, It was a treacherous 
combination of circumstances, but hardly an excuse for 
shooting a man for a deer. 
Again, in early days, I was hunting elk in the Loup 
River country in Nebraska, There were four of us, and 
we halted one noon on the river bank near a small 
willow island or tow head. The day previous we had 
scared five elk from a similar island by shooting at some 
sandhill cranes sitting on a sand bar. At another time 
we had scared a deer from one while fooling round and 
not expecting any game. In this case I made up my 
mind to investigate and see if there was any game on 
the tow head. Taking my rifle I slipped away and made 
a circle round the thicket, using up some time in peering 
into the willows. At last I heard a crackling, as of 
something moving through the bushes. Later I saw the 
tops of the willows shake as though something moved 
along. It came toward and passed me. At one place, 
through a small opening, I saw something move along 
like the top of a deer's back. I waited with rifle at ready 
for the something to walk out on the bar. 
When it did, it proved to be one of the boys from 
camp. I was startled, but never thought of it as a close 
shave. The true hunter does not shoot at a deer, but 
at some vital spot of the deer's anatomy. Neither does 
the true sportsman shoot at a flock of ducks, but at 
some member of the flock. Anyone not having this 
quality stamped on the label should be shunned as a 
base imitation. 
At another time I was out with one companion; we 
had only a pack outfit, and camped at night in a deep 
washout or pocket in the edge of the hills, some hun- 
dred yards from the river. The deep pocket made a 
good wind-break, and there was no danger of rain. It 
was in a wild country, and we had been out for weeks 
without sighting strangers. My companion was a trap- 
per, and we had a few traps along. He was also cook, 
and after supper, while he was straightening up, I cut 
a dry, red willow stake and started out to set a trap on 
a beaver slide I had previously located. I had left my 
gun on the top of the bank above camp, and when I 
started out I climbed the bank to get it. When I 
reached the top I was surprised to see a hunter (a 
veritable Daniel Boone in a coon-skin cap) crouched 
almost astride my gun, with his own leveled at my head. 
He was fully as much startled as I was. He was hunt- 
ing, and as he came along the bank had heard me com- 
ing up, and, expecting some game animal, had crouched 
in waiting. The trap stake T_ was carrying with its 
prong made a very good imitation of an elk's horn, as 
they poked up ahead of me, but he did not shoot at the 
horn. When the head appeared it had a felt hat on it 
and he stayed his hand. Though almost astride my 
gun, he had not seen it, and did not know there was any- 
one else in the hills. 
He stayed all night with us, and kept us awake until 
near morning, telling some of the most outrageous hunt- 
ing and shooting stories I ever heard, and almost made 
me wish he had fired when he had jijess excruciating 
drop on me. . ' " 
Now. tliis is not intended as making any excuse for 
shooting a human being for a deer, but quite tjie con- 
trary. Had Mr. Thompson or any of the men in the 
cases I have cited, fired and killed their "man" it would 
surely have been murder. The man who fires at some- 
thing with intent to kill and said something proves to 
be a man and is killed, it is surely murder. It cannot 
fairly be classed as an accident, where the deed was done 
with full intent. Where a deer' is sighted and shot at 
and an unseen man is killed, it is pure accident, and the 
unfortunate one who did the shooting is entitled to full 
sympathy, though there is no reason why he should 
not pay the victim's heirs the value of an ordinary life 
insurance policy, just the .same as he might be expected 
to pay for a horse he had killed in the same waj'. 
No sympathy should go to the man, however, who 
allows his gun to "go off" by accident and kill someone, 
though such cases cannot be denied the privilege of be- 
ing classed as accidents. I have no love for the man 
who, while he frowns darkly at others, and accuses them 
of carelessness, leaves his own gun loaded about camp, 
or, after he has established a reputation by accusing 
others, forgets himself and swings his gun in all direc- 
tion.'5, and points at everything jn sight, animate or inani- 
mate. I like the man who studiously avoids allowing his 
gun to point at anyone, and says little. There are many 
men who would be safer companions afield if they would 
let their heads work more and their tongues less. 
I remember two cases, both of which I saw, where the 
man, who is careful with his mouth met reverses. One 
happened when I was sixteen years old. I was out 
hvinting with a mttszle-loader, when I met a party of 
