Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 3903 by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, ^ a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 1 
Six Months, $2. J 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1903. 
j VOL. LX.— No. 25. 
I No. 846 Broadway, New York. 
We, who were with blessed Francis, and have written these 
things, bear testimony that many times we have heard him say: 
"If I were to speak to the Emperor, I would, supplicating and 
persuading him, tell him for the love of God and me to make a 
spedial law that no man should take of kill sistef Larks, nor do 
them any harm. Likewise, that all the Podestas of the towns, 
and the Lords of castles and villages, should be bound evefy yeat* 
oH Chfistrnas day to compel men to thtow wheat ahd othef gfairts 
outside the cities arid castles, that ouf sistet Lafks may have 
something to eat, and also the other birds, on a day of sUch 
solemnity."— The Mirror of Perfection. 
A BLOODHOUND EPISODE. 
The current discussion of the use of bloodhounds ns 
man-trackers recalls a bloodhound episode of American 
history, which at the time commanded wide attention and 
aroused intense feeling. This was the employment of 
bloodhounds for trailing Indians in the Seminole War. 
It was in July of 1838, when the war had been in 
progress for four years, and to the bafHed troops appeared 
likely to continue along the same lines for 400 years 
longer. Gen. Zachary Taylor, in command of the army, 
wrote to the Secretary of War a letter favoring the use 
of bloodhounds. The dogs, he said, would afford "the 
only means of ridding the country of the Indians, who 
are now broken up into small parties that take shelter in 
swamp and hammocks as the army approaches, making it 
impossible for us to follow or overtake them without 
the aid of such auxiliaries. I wish it distinctly under- 
stood," he added, "that my object in employing dogs is 
only to ascertain where the Indians can be found, not to 
worry them." 
Secretary Poinsett approved the plan, saying in his 
indorsement: "I have always been of opinion that dogs 
ought to be employed in this warfare to protect the army 
from surprises and ambuscades and to track the Indian 
to his lurking place; but supposed if the General believed 
them to be necessary he would not hesitate to take 
measures to procure them. The cold-blooded and inhu- 
man murders lately perpetrated upon helpless men and 
children by these ruthless savages render it expedient that 
every possible means should be resorted to in order to 
protect the people of Florida, and to enable the United 
States forces to follow and capture or destroy the savage 
and unrelenting foe." Gen. Taylor was therefore 
authorized to procure such numbers of dogs as he might 
judge necessary, it being expressly understood that they 
were to be "employed to track and discover the Indians, 
not to worry or destroy them." 
Action on the part of the Government went no further 
than this. Gen. Taylor took no steps to provide himself 
with the dogs. In the meanwhile, however, the people of 
Florida had determined to make use of bloodhounds. The 
popular feeling of the Territory was that the Indians were 
deserving of extermination, and any possible means to 
achieve this end might be legitimately employed. The 
Florida Legislature authorized the importtition of a pack 
of bloodhounds from Cuba. In such a resort to the 
Spaniard for man-tracking dogs, history was repeating 
itself. A half century before, in 1795, the British authorities 
in Jamaica had introduced from Cuba into that island a 
large number of these dogs to hunt down the Maroons, 
who for a century and a half had been carrying on a 
guerilla warfare. The Spanish dogs had a reputation for 
ferocity all through the West Indian islands, and the 
Maroons were so terrified by the menace of them that 
they lost no time in coming to terms. The Cuban dogs 
had promptly ended the war in Jamaica, but this was a 
part of history which was not to repeat itself in Florida. 
Col. Fitzpatrick, of the Florida militia, was dispatched 
to Havana and thence returned to St. Augustine, in Jan- 
uary of 1840, bringing a kennel of thirty-three blood- 
hounds which he had procured at a cost of $5,226.76, or 
$151.72 for each dog. These certainly were war prices for 
hounds. With the dogs came five experienced Spaniards 
engaged to handle them in the field, for they did not 
understand commands given in the English language. 
Upon their arrival the dogs were divided into smaller 
packs and assigned to various army posts. Calves were 
procured and driven along on the scouting expeditions, to 
be slaughtered on the spot in order that the dogs might 
have the fresh blood and meat which were as essential 
to their interior economy as is water to the boiler of a 
locomotive. 
The employment of the dogs aroused intense excite- 
ment, and the Northern and Southern papers alike were 
filled with denunciations of the Government. The matter 
was brought before Congress and the Hon. Henry A. 
Wise, then a Representative from Virginia (afterward 
Governor), introduced a resolution in Congress demand- 
ing to know Avhether "the general Government had been 
a participator in so infamous a mode of exterminating 
human creatures." 
In response, Secretary Poinsett transmitted the corre- 
spondence with Gen. Taylor already quoted, and stated 
that the General had taken no measures to carry into 
effect his own recommendation, and the department had 
never since renewed the subject. Shortly afterward he 
wrote to General Taylor noting the importation of the 
bloodhounds by the Florida authorities, and again enjoin- 
ing : "In the event of these dogs being employed by any 
officer under your command that their use be confined 
altogether to tracking the Indians; and in order to in- 
sure this and to prevent the possibility of their injuring 
any person whatever, that they be muzzled when in 
the field and held with a leash while following the track 
of the enemy." 
Any solicitude as to the safety of the Seminoles at the 
fangs of the bloodhounds appears to have been uncalled 
for. The late Major Merrill, who served in the Seminole 
War, has more than once told us that while the Cuban 
dogs were valiant trencher-hounds and performed a use- 
ful service as camp sc:ivengers, they were entirely useless 
as Seminole trackers. They had been trained to trail 
negroes in Cuba, but refused to take any notice of the 
tracks of the Indians ; and the fugitive negroes, who con- 
stituted so large a part of the people the troops were 
hunting, having been apprised of the use of the hounds, 
took good care to keep out of that part of Florida. 
There were, it is true, various newspaper items which, 
by mention of the dogs, fomented the popular clamor 
against them as allies in war. It was reported, for in- 
stance, that Lieut. Sanderson's scouting party had been 
surrounded and among the killed were three of the dogs 
and their trainer. Then the New York Herald reported 
"the bloodhounds lately received from Cuba have been 
subjected to many experiments, the results of which have 
been very satisfactory. They follow a trail twenty-four 
hours old with rapidity and accuracy." Despite this the 
dogs were useless ; the sole authentic record of their hav- 
ing accomplished anything being contained in a report by 
Maj. Bailey, who, with a party of dragoons and one 
bloodhound "scented out forty Indians" and killed six of 
them. The contingents of Cuban bloodhounds, Spanish 
dog trainers and commissary calves accomplished nothing ; 
the Cuban man-tracker episode ended irt a fiasco. The 
Seminole War went on for years afterward ; when it was 
eventually brought to a close the bloodhounds had no part 
in the result. 
A HUNDRED YEARS. 
The Hundred Year Club of this city held its annual 
dinner last week. The club's purpose is to devise ways 
and means by which its members may live to the ripe old 
age of one hundred years. Among the speakers at the 
dinner who celebrated the therapeutic value and the de- 
light of vacations as elements of modern life, Mr. L. F. 
Brown discoursed of vacations in a tent. From the stand- 
point of a long and rich experience as a nature lover and 
practical camper, he spoke so pleasingly and eloquently 
as to carry the conviction that if tent life by the rivers 
and in the mountains may not insure the extreme 
longevity desired by the club, it is yet certain to enhance 
the joy of living for whatever term of life each one may. 
be allotted. And to live happily while we do live is much 
more to be desired than to achieve the centenarian mark. 
Many men, perhaps most men, would not wish to live 
one hundred years. The impressions gathered from ob- 
servation of the extremely aged are not as a rule cheerful 
nor alluring. It was only a day or two after the Hundred 
Year Club's banquet that a feeble and tottering old man, 
brought before one of the city magistrates on a charge of 
vagrancy, declared to the judge that he was 106 years old, 
and had no home nor anyone to care for him, and could 
only beg to be committed to the workhouse, where he had 
already spent many terms. We do not suppose that the 
average valetudinarian, in the Hundred Year Club or out 
of it, is apprehensive that a hundred years of life may 
bring to him any such measure of deprivation and help- 
lessness. Most men who are ambitious to live one hun- 
dred years have no thought of poverty to terrify them; 
but there are other features of the centenarian's lot against 
which the rnost ample means and the most careful fore- 
thought cannot make provision. As the span of human 
life is now measured, he who attains a hundred years is 
an exception to the rule and long outlives his fellows. 
Old age means isolation, and isolation means loneliness. 
Relatives, friends, associates have passed on. The rela- 
tionships which make life worth living have been sun- 
dered by the inexorable hand of time. ■ 
The mossy marbles rest 
On the lips that he has prest ^ 
In their bloom, 
And the names he loved to hear 
Have been carved for many a year 
On the tomb. 
The prospect is not alluring. Much more sensible than 
striving for the attainment of the hundredth year is to 
make our own the old motto Dtim vivimus vivamus — to 
live while we live; and to get the most of life as we go 
along, doing the work at hand, meeting the duties of the 
hour and not neglecting Mr. Brown's injunction to get 
our share of the joys of vacations in a tent. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The notes by Coahoma on the use of man-tracking 
dogs, the memory of "A Day at Waverly," signed Hie-on, 
and the record of "Three Hunts" by Tripod, are three 
papers in this number which have added interest because 
of a circumstance of their authorship. Coahoma, it need 
not be said, is one of our oldest contributors, and the 
other writers are his sons. This representation of two 
generations of a family of sportsmen in a single number 
of a sportsmen's journal is a happy conjunction well de- 
serving of note. It illustrates not only the enduring 
qualities of those field recreations which are shared by 
generation after generation, but as well the continued 
favor in which the Forest and Stream is held, and the 
secure place it holds. 
•6 
The American team to compete for the Palma trophy 
at Bisley sailed for England last week. Capt. Bruce re- 
ports that the marksmen are in much better form than the 
team of last year, who were defeated by a narrow mar- 
gin, and he expresses confidence that the United States 
may receive back again the coveted emblem. The contest 
will take place at Bisley on July 11, and so many com- 
petitors will participate that the winning of the trophy 
will mean an extremely creditable performance. 
The death of Salem George Le Valley, of Buffalo, re- 
moves one of the best known and most highly regarded 
business men in western New York, and one who for 
nearly a quarter century had held a popular place among 
sportsmen. Mr. Le Valley's sporting goods store in Buf- 
falo was a favorite gathering place for shooters and 
fishermen, and Mr. Le Valley's winning personality won 
for him the close friendship of an ever-widening circle. 
The imported Adirondack moose are showing a quite 
unexpected tameness and confidence in the midst of the 
encroaching civilization of the North Woods. The moose, 
in fact, are not nearly so particular as were the conven- 
tional pioneers of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone type, 
who moved on when other settlers trespassed within ten 
miles of them. This tameness is an admirable quality o£ 
moose in the Adirondacks, where the race is destined not 
to afford sport for the hunter, but interest and entertain- 
ment for the summer visitor. The North Woods moose, 
as an ornamental adjunct of the forest, will fill a sphere 
iri life entirely different from that of its fellows in Maine 
and Canada. 
The report of the Rensselaer County Rod and Gun 
Club, on another page, is an admirable demonstration of 
the benefits to the community which may be secured by an 
association of sportsmen who are in earnest. President 
McLaren and his fellow members have taken practical steps 
to better the local fish and game conditions, and the re- 
sults are substantial. Hardly second in importance to 
the actual restocking of fields and waters is the improved 
public sentiment in support of the right use of game and 
fish resources. The Rensselaer Club manifestly has the 
merited support of the commtmity. It is a pleasure t© 
print such a showing. 
