Feb. 7, 1903.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
109 
Treiben in the forests. In the latter the guns assume 
a fixed position in or outside the forest, and the beaters 
drive toward them. In the former a big sort of circle 
is made by the guns and beaters taking up ground to 
the right and left in a circular direction from the start- 
ing point, and, when the circle is joined, advancing 
toward the center. When they have approached to 
within a certain distance from one another a horn is 
blown^ whereupon the guns remain standing and the 
beaters advance. From this moment no hare may be 
shot within the circle. Where there are plenty of 
hares this circular driving is very amusing sport, either 
in November, when the weather is generally pretty 
open, or in December, when there ought to be snow 
on the ground and some degrees of frost in the air. 
In the dark December mornings shortly before 
Christmas, it is a treat to be a member of a party 
about to enjoy a day's hare shooting. The proper way 
is for all the guns to arrive at the country house or 
the village inn the night before, so as to start out in 
the field not later than eight o'clock in the morning, 
but, of course, it often happens that people with town 
occupations cannot get away till the morning of the 
shoot, in which case they must leave by an early train 
for the rendezvous. Many Germans turn out in cos- 
tumes that are fearfully and wonderfully made, so 
that at the railway station they look in the early dawn 
more like brigands than sportsmen. 
The Magdeburg district is well stocked with hares, 
vyhile in the march of Brandenburg, where the land is 
light and sandy, there are relatively fewer. In the Pala- 
tinate, on the banks of the Rhine, the shooting is let 
out on lease by the peasant holders, and very often 
the bag consists of from 600 to 1,000 hares in a day, 
and even more. I can record one of 1,600 with thirty 
guns. The peasant holder in the Palatinate and Hesse 
is a born sportsman, and a good man of business to 
boot, not like those skin-flint and slim chaps in Bran- 
denburg and other northeim Prussian provinces. He 
clearly comprehends that the commune can get more 
rent for the shooting if there are plenty of hares, and 
he feels real pride when he hears that the sportsmen 
have had a good day over his lands. "We should be 
ashamed," they say, "if we were no longer in a position 
to feed a few hares." One must not forget, however, 
that these men are well-to-do yeomen, who would pass 
in the north as country gentlemen and lords of manors. 
In the neighborhood of the German capital — say, a 
distance of an hour or two by rail — there is plenty of 
fun to be had in good company out hare driving, and 
here, too, tbe greater part of the shooting is in the 
hands of the communes and let on lease. With some 
twenty guns and about eighty to a hundred beaters the 
bag may, perhaps, not exceed a couple of hundred 
head, but you often get an exciting camionade at rabbits 
as a piece de resistance. Shooting f;-om a country 
house in Pomerania is entertaining, and if chance 
should lead one to West Prussia, where one gets 
among a Polish population, a foreigner may carry away 
with him recollections of sport and customs that he 
will not easily forget. Plere is a specimen. Some six 
country wagons start off with the men and women 
beaters — it is not at all uncommon for women to join 
the gathering with big baskets strapped on their backs. 
Then follow the conveyances with the guns and a 
long, big wagon for the game. Some of them are 
drawn by four horses, and the coachmen are first-rate 
drivers. The forests are taken, and the bag consists 
of foxes, pheasants, woodcock and hares. Foxes are 
shot in Germany; it is only possible in very few dis- 
tricts to hunt them with hounds, and a Teuton sports- 
man is very proud if he can account for a fox, which 
is as good in his eyes as half a dozen hares in his bag. 
Among the women beaters will often be found very 
smart-looking girls, graceful as Polish women general- 
ly are, wearing stout wooden sabots and rough gray 
woolen stockings, but Avith pretty red kid gloves on 
their hands. The men are fond of sport, and in former 
times the foresters had a good deal of trouble with the 
laboring population, for no sooner had a young fel- 
low saved enough money for the purpose than he 
showed himself even more ready to purchase a gun for 
the nefarious practice of poaching than to furnish a 
house for a bride. 
In Germany it is hardly feasible to shoot hares, ex- 
cept by driving them. The country is open, as there 
are no hedges. In the early part of the season, that 
is to say, when one is out partridge shooting, it would 
be possible to kill as many hares almost as one saw; 
but, as said above, it is too earlj' to shoot hares then. 
In the winter time — in November and December — it is 
not easy to get at them behind a dog or by beating 
them up singly. The tendency is to have large parties 
of guns for the circular drives. No doubt a good old 
steady shot does not like this. He naturally prefers 
a small and select company of sportsmen upon whom 
he can rely; but, after all, no strict rule can be laid 
down. The number of guns must in any case be regu- 
lated by the nature, the size, and lay of the "slioot," 
December is the real season for hare shooting in Ger- 
many. Those who are in the swim receive then more 
invitations for hare drives than an ordinary society 
dame obtains in the course of a London season. A 
friend of mine at the bcgining of this last December 
had to issue sixty invitations for his annual drive be- 
fore he could get together even eighteen guns, and 
this was over a very pleasant terrain, where we had 
good walking and a very fair bag. 
Some people insist that circular driving injures the 
stock of hares. This is one of those general statements 
that are not quite accurate. It depends upon circum- 
stances. Other kinds of driving can, for the same rea- 
sons, be deleterious to the stock. By careful observa- 
tion, it is possible to watch how the stock is and to 
omit the drive for one year. One often hears that the 
right remedy against the falling off of the stock is to 
shoot only the buck hares and to let the does alone. 
This sounds very well, but few who talk like this know 
the difference. A story is told of one of these wise- 
acres who was loudly giving advice of this kind. He 
shouted out, "buck," "doe," as the hares got up, and 
(:hen shot them both to prove his theory. This done, 
he could not even tell the difiference. 
Circular driving is dangerous if the guns are inex- 
perienced or careless. One only has to collect the ac- 
counts of accidents among sportsmen in the course of 
a year to see how important it is to be strictly prudent 
as to the way to carry and handle a gun. German in- 
surance companies have taken note of this, and send 
round to every known sportsman an appeal to insure 
his life against accidents with the gun. One generally 
hears at the commencement of the day an appeal to 
the assembled company at a circular drive to be care- 
ful to observe certain well-known rules. Some people 
go so far as to inflict money fines for any breach of 
these rules. In such cases, a gun leaving his place 
without unloading has to pay Ss.; if he fires into the 
circle after the horn has been blown he must pay iqs., 
etc. By the new German Civil Code the responsibility 
incurred both by a person wounding or killing a per- 
son out shooting and by his host is very great. In 
ordinaiT cases the man who inflicts the wound pays, 
but in the event of his being impecunious his host is 
responsible. 
A hare in Germany is one of the most useful of four- 
footed animals. Take his scut, which the Germans call 
Blume (flower). It is very much in demand in the 
country, especially among the beaters, who put it in 
their stockings, in order that their feet may be warmer. 
Here, as elsewhere, the skin is used by hatters. This 
year a hare skin fetches 6d., being specially high in 
price. A hare's liver when fried is a great delicacy, and 
a dish called Hasenpfeffer, is made out of the lower 
ribs, the head, the runners (claws), the heart and lungs, 
while the entrails are given to the dog. Roast hare 
comes on to table larded, without its head and lying 
quite flat in the dish, and is served with cream sauce. 
The price of a hare abont Christmas time was from 
SS. gd. to 4s. Among the country people roast hare 
is the traditional New Year's dish. Those who have 
done anA^thing special for the preservation of the game 
generally get a present of a hare after a drive about 
the middle of the month, which is allowed to hang till 
New Year's Day. 
Even in the case of a hare German sportsmen are 
very particular as to the terms they use. His eyes 
are called "optics or seers" (Seher) ; his ears, "spoons" 
(Loffel); his legs, "runners" (Laufe); his scut, "flower" 
(Blume); his hide, "Balg." The nickname of a hare is 
"Lampe"; he is mixed up also with the ancient lore 
of the land. Cotton or linen, if dipped in the blood of 
a hare shot on the first Friday in March, is said to 
have healing powers, a tradition still believed in by 
many foresters. J- L. B. 
Taking Aim* 
The communication of Mr. Wm. Wade, of Oakmont, 
Pa., published in Forest and Stream of January 17, con- 
tains a subject of more than passing interest. The in- 
quiry contained in it is far reaching. To reply properly, 
one needs to go thoroughly into an analysis of the shoot- 
ing art. All the essentials of it are involved in a reply to 
that query. 
The matter of aiming a shotgun or rifle at a moving ob- 
ject is not analogous to the use of the bow and arrow 
at all, other than "in a few remote general principles. The 
matter is peculiarly mystified by a reference to a boy 
throwing a stone without taking aim, or revolver shoot- 
ing from the pocket, or gun shooting from the hip, or in 
hitting balls thrown in the air. 
Let us dispose of these matters first before consider- 
ing the matter of taking aim. The boy attains skill in 
throwing a stone in the same manner that a writer attains 
skill in using a pen and ink — by practice. The hand 
acquires a certain subordinate intelligence of its own 
which in the medical or psychological world is called re- 
flex action. The same labored and awkward first attempts 
of the student in penmanship embarrass the first attempts 
of the student in the art of shooting. _ The right hand 
of most men, by constant practice, to which niay be added 
the predisposition imposed b}' inheritance, is the master 
hand. Let any right-handed man attempt to throw a stone 
with his left hand, or to write a line, or in fact attempt 
anifthing with it which requires manual dexterity, and the 
result will be puerile and ridiculous in nine cases out of 
ten. In short, ihe left hand, holding and guiding the 
gun barrel, is the hand which has nearly all the responsi- 
bilities in assisting the eye in taking aim. From its utter 
inefficiency it cannot respond with any degree of accuracy 
ir' the first attempts at shooting, hence the first attempts 
of the shooter are not devoted so much to the art of 
shooting as to the development of manual dexterity in a 
weak and awkward limb. The shooter in nearly all cases 
is unconscious of the real reason oi his poor success. 
Shooting a revolver from the pocket is generally done 
at close quarters, and requires only an ordinary sense of 
direction, just as one standing close to a barn door could 
kick it to a certainty at every trial. 
Shooting from the hip is another misleading compari- 
son, for the reason that a very open gun is always used 
in game shooting, and the distances are in most instances 
very short. Shooting objects in the air is largely a repe- 
tition of the same shot over and over again to infinity. 
There is the same flight, the same speed, etc., so that it 
in time becomes almost a muscular act. 
There are so many abstruse problems involved in game 
or trap shooting that the ordinary shooter doesn't know 
what causes his ill success. He cannot see the load of 
shot as the boy can see the stone, or the archer the arrow, 
so he is ever groping in the dark. 
The gun does not become a part of the body, in a shoot- 
ing sense, as stated by one of your correspondents. The 
body swings right and left, up and down, and to a certain 
degree may act as if they were a whole, but there is al- 
ways a large field of accommodation in which the hands 
and eye take part independent of the movement of the 
body. The gun and body may move in unison till the 
muzzle covers the target or moving body, then, if the 
muzzle does not point right there is an instantaneous 
readjustment in which the eye, hands and shoulders all 
t;.ke an intelligent part. This is illustrated in a way by 
the use of the eyes. The head turns on the neck and the 
eyes turn on their sockets, thus, while they are a part of 
the body, they have powers of accommodation inde- 
pendent of it. 
Now, in shooting at moving objects, there is no arbi- 
trary rule which governs how to shoot right, left, up, 
down and straight-away. The shooter may take some 
shots in which gun and body move as a whole, while other 
shots are made with a rapid readjustment with the hands 
and eye. Neither is shooting at a moving object a me- 
chanical act. A shooter may go quickly after a flying bird 
and discover that his gun is out of proper alignment. He 
glances along the barrel, readjusts it instantly and cor- 
rectly, and points it anew. It is all done so quickly and 
delicately that an ordinary onlooker would not discover 
that anything went wrong at all. The gun, by habit, is 
placed to the shoulder, cheek and hands in the same posi- 
tion every time, by tlie skilled shooter, and he becomes 
habituated to certain fixed points of contact with it. Let 
any one of these get out of adjustment and he feels it in- 
stantly. Thus the sense of touch in time becomes quite as 
much of a factor as the sense of sight. The shooter 
knows where the muzzle of the gun is pointing whichever 
way it may be swinging, both from a subconsciousness, 
from the sense of sight, and a consciousness from the 
sense of touch. Some men never become skillful shots 
at moving objects because they never develop the left 
hand to any degree of skillfulness, or because they never 
develop either hand to any degree of skillfulness, because 
they have defective eyesight, or because they never can 
work hands, shoulder, eyes and body in proper combina- 
tion and co-ordination. Experte Credo. 
Report of the New York Commis- 
sion. 
From advance sheets of the report of the New York Forest, Fish 
and Game Commission to the Legislature. 
The Commission in presenting its final report as at 
present constituted has the pleasant satisfaction of know- 
ing that its work has had the commendation of the public, 
and that the value of what has been done_ for the protec- 
tion of fish and game and the reforestation of denuded 
woodlands in the Adirondack and Catskill regions has 
been recognized both at home and abroad. 
Standards of comparison are not as well established as 
yet in our own countiy as they are in other parts of the 
civilized world for such matters, and an occasional criti- 
cism is consequently to be expected either from the unin- 
formed or the unthinking. But it is certain that, dollar 
for dollar, the State of New York is getting more for its 
expenditure for the business which_ the Commission has 
had in charge than any other locality at present known. 
The work of the forestry department has developed in 
value to the extent that its success is frequently com- 
mended and its documents are considered very desirable 
for public distribution. Advice on important questions 
is sought from our Department of Fisheries by the ex- 
perts of other countries, and the game laws of this State 
are frequently used as models by otlier lawmakers. 
The sagacious editor of the London Spectator, in re- 
viewing a recent report of this Commission, after paying 
a high tribute to the wisdom shown hy the State of New 
York in providing adequately for the preservation of 
its forests and the increase of its fish and game supply, 
says : 
Omitting moneys spent on purchasing' land and maintaining 
forests tlie total cost of fish propagation, fish and game protection, 
the shell fish department and taking deer to the forests, with some 
items for printing was about £30,COO. The fish cost a little over 
£11,000, the game keeping generally £10,000 and the shell fish (a 
remunerative item) £2,CC0. In return for this the public had free 
fishing of every kind over a vast territory, and killed deer to an 
amount which, at the ordinary rate reckoned per stag in Scotland 
(£40), virould represent a sporting rental in this country of 
£169,000! 
Iti the same line of testimony is the following quotation 
from a scientific monograph produced in our own State 
by an expert of well established reputation. In a recent 
Bulletin on "The Clam and Scallop Industries," issued by 
the State Museum, Dr. J. L. Kellogg says : 
Every one is familiar with the extensive and remarkably success- 
ful work of the United States and the various State Fish Commis- 
sions in the propagation of marine and fresh-water market fish. 
In many cases the continued supply is probably directly and entirely 
due to the artificial hatching and judicious distribution of the young 
fish. These institutions have made it vei"y clear that public moneys 
could not be better expended for the benefit of all classes of 
people than in their support. * * * jf the fact were only 
recognized that this extinction of forms really is occurring, these 
Commissions and similar institutions would receive much greater 
support in the form of legislative appropriations. _ * * * It is 
money most profitably invested for rich and poor alike. 
Such testimony and approval of the work that is being 
done could be continued at length, but the facts are for 
the most part known to your honorable body and to the 
well informed taxpayers of the State at large. The value 
of the Adirondacks as a wealth producing element in the 
State is properly shown in one of the appended reports, 
and the figures given indicate that millions of dollars 
are annually spent 1)ecause of the attractions of the woods 
and waters for heallh and pleasure seekers and sportsmen. 
To preserve and build up the forests has been the constant 
care of the Comtnission, and many members of the Legis- 
lature can testify from actual knowledge as to what has 
been done toward providing trees to fill out the denuded 
places. The nurseries for producing the young trees are 
Avell established, and Avill increase steadily in value as the 
work advances. In time the State Avill be able to provide 
from them not only all the trees necessary for use in the 
forests, but also for beautifying roadsides and the streets 
of oiu- cities, as well as for renewing the old and neglected 
Avoodlots of our farms. 
Attention is also called with pride to the work done in 
protecting the forests from fire. The State now has a 
most excellent organization for this purpose, and the re- 
sult is readily seen from the fact that our forests have 
practically escaped damage from this source. Reports 
from other States do not show such immunity. The 
statements in detail in the reports of the Superintendent 
of Forests, the Chief Protector and the Superintendent of 
Shellfisheries, which follow, are well worth the attention 
of every sportsman and every taxpayer as well. Therein 
Avill be found ample evidence that the money appropriated 
for the propagation of fish and the protection of game 
has been well expended, and that the result secured has 
merited the favorable comment already quoted. Com- 
munications received from time to time bear winess to 
the fact that line fishing in the waters of the State was 
never better, while the returns from the net fishermen 
prove that a far greater variety of cheap food fish of the 
