FO^fiST ANf) STREAM, 
^^5 
to an Eskimo baby, as the opportunity offers. Three 
years ago in Hopedale, wg were told, an Eskimo baby 
became separated from its mother, and happening to fall 
was pounced upon by a pack of dogs, and before assist- 
ance could reach it was torn to pieces. 
Observation during our stay among them justified this 
reputation. Some of them show much intelligence, how- 
ever, and they form a most important part of the estab- 
lishment of an inhabitant of "the Labrador." During the 
summer they find plenty of food among the refuse of 
the fishing, and save the continual fighting among them- 
selves spend most of the time in sleeping. Winter is 
their busy season, as they furnish the only means of 
locomotion for the missionaries, natives and settlers. 
Exercised continually in drawing tlie "'comitek," with 
only such food at hand as can be carried or may be 
killed en route, at the end of a day's run they are indeed 
ravenous. 
Mr. Stecker, a missionary, who has made many long 
trips during the winter among the Eskimois around 
Nachrak and Cape Chidley, told us of the absolute need 
that upon stopping at night for camp, while one man 
built the snow house and another gathered material for 
a fire, a third should watch the dogs lest they eat the 
seal skin harness in which they are driven, or fall upon 
and devour one another. Under good condition a daj^'s 
run of from fifty to seventy-five miles is not unusual, 
and there is a tale about a team of twelve dogs having 
made the distance between Hopedale and Nain, 114 miles, 
in one day. 
The first attempt to start a missionary station on the 
'Labrador coast was at Cape Aillik, in 1751, and resulted 
in the death of the missionaries and their companions 
at the hands of the natives. Nain was founded in 1770, 
1 and is the oldest station on the coast. The Eskimos at 
Nain number at present 280. About Nain, which is in 
iDtitude 56, there is a sufficient growth of trees to supply 
all the wants for building purposes and for fuel, so, as at: 
Hopedale, the Eskimos live in wooden huts adjoining the 
missionary house and chapel. C. S. Hawkins, 
[to be continued.] 
Potholes and Sport* 
Charlestown, N. H., Sept. 9. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: It was very sad news to hear from Kelpie a 
week since that Old Hickory had been obliged to leave 
camp under the care of a physician. We can only hope 
[for the best, and that he may yet be restored to chronicle 
more "Camps of the Kingfishers." Sorrow as we may, 
the old ranks are thinning, and though fresh recruits, and 
good sportsmen, too, fall into line, they can never fill 
gaps in the hearts of the veterans, though they may 
close the ranks. 
I am sorry Mr. Stewart misunderstood me in regard to 
the glacial theory concerning potholes, I did not mean 
to accuse him of holding it, but merely quoted it as he 
•did himself, to show that those which he has found in 
North Carolina were entirely out of the reach of the 
supposed glacial action. I should like to see one of the 
garnets which he says served as "drills" ; all the holes 
that I have been able to examine have been either partly 
filled with quartz gravel, or empty, as if subsequent 
freshets had washed them out. I never found any large 
stones in them, as is sometimes said to be the cause of 
them. All that I have seen have been in the primitive 
granite, and all with the exception of the "Devil's Pulpit," 
quoted in my last, have been in the site of present water- 
falls, but that one is so high on a hillside that it was 
evidently ground out in some early geological period, 
since which the Merrimac Valley has undergone great 
changes, for the present falls at Amoskeag are four 
u'liles east of the said potholes. 
I have been amused as well as interested in the de- 
scriptions on "sport" which have been going on _ in 
Forest and Stream the last few weeks, and in noting 
the different views expressed, and I think Webster gives 
the explanation very simply, when he describes "sport" 
as a name for all amusement, backed by Dryden, Mil- 
ton and Shakespeare, and "sportsman" as a term applied 
•especially to the devotees of "field sports" — hunting, 
shooting and fishing. I agree with Coahoma in the main, 
though I find the name of the author of the dictionary 
as far back in Scripture as the Flood, instead of dating 
fi'om Belshazar's Feast! 
I think we may safely leave the designation to Webster 
and follow the classification according to English cus- 
tom, whence the turfman, the golfer and the cricketer, 
although all indulging in recreations classed as "sport" 
by Strutt, in his "Old English Sports and Pastimes," are 
distinctly differentiated from the "sportsman" "par ex- 
cellence" who follows the rod and gun. Bear and bull 
baiting, dog fighting and various other old pastimes have 
either become extinct, or relegated to the control of the 
criminal courts, and maybe excluded from any lists of sport. 
Now, to turn to another of the various questions dis- 
cussed under this head, it may be safely said, that the 
primitive sportsman was purely and simply a "pot- 
hunter" ! The meat of all the game he captured went to 
the larder, the hides to the tanner, while the horns and 
heads, or other uneatable portions, were used to decorate 
his dwelling, be it hunting lodge or baronial hall. In 
the old feudal times, all the game was considered the 
property of the king, but as the power of the people in- 
creased, it became in Europe transferred to the land- 
holders, where it now remains, while, when this new 
country was settled, following, but reversing the cele- 
brated dictum of Louis XIV., "I'Etat, c'est moi" or "I am 
the State," the State became the king, and the prop- 
erty in the game is held as being vested in it. 
The European sportsman is also, to some extent, legi- 
timately a "market-hunter." The game "belongs to him, 
it is raised on his own estate at his own expense. He 
pays for gamekeepers, shelter and winter food, and com- 
pensates his tenant farmers for any damage done to 
their crops in the summer, and it is considered as proper 
for him to sell any surplus not consumed by himself and 
his guests, as for any farmer to raise and sell chickens 
or turkeys ! With us the case is very different, the 
market-hunter pays for nothing but the powder and 
shot which he uses to destroy the property of the State, 
or in other words, of his fellow citizens at large, that he 
may fill his own pockets with the proceeds. Pastime 
plays no part in the incident. 
T must confess myself to having been all my life to 
sorne extent a "pot-hunter." That is tO' say, all the game 
which I ever captured or destroyed, whether fur, fin or 
feather, has at once found its way to my table for con- 
sumption, or to those of one or two near neighbors ; none 
has ever been wasted. Like Didymus, I know nothing of 
big-game hunting; I never had a chance, but I think I 
should have enjoyed it when I was young and able, and 
I have no slurs to throw on those who do, provided they 
make a legitimate use of their game. The Creator gave 
us the good things of this world to use, and not to waste, 
and I have no patience with those who slaughter a lordly 
elk or moose for the sake of his teeth or horns, and leave 
the carcass rotting in the woods ; or with the taxidermists 
who aid and abet them, for by the help of these same 
taxidermists the herd of buft'alo in the Yellowstone Park 
has been nearly destroyed. The biggest animal I ever 
shot was a twenty-five-pound porcupine, which I dropped 
from "a tall tree, thinking it was a raccoon, and I have 
been sorrjf for it ever since. I have seen deer, at Diamond 
Ponds and Connecticut lakes, when trout fishing, but was 
never there in the open season. I think my youthful 
experience in "stalking" gray squirrels might turn to 
some use in deer hunting. Game was never plenty 
enough in New England for me to find any to spare, 
though I have provided many a good family dinner in the 
course of sixty-five years, but I have often reeled uf) my 
hne and unjointed my rod long before dark while the 
trout were still biting, when the weight of my creel told 
me that I had enough for breakfast or dinner, as the 
case might be, and had had a delightful afternoon in the 
fields and woods. Enough for the present. 
Von W. 
The Nature of Sport* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
When I read Coahoma's latest contribution to the dis- 
cussion of sport, my first thought was that I could well 
afford to let it go unanswered-, for he appeals for a 
decision of the issue between us to a court which has 
already decided that issue in a manner that is entirely 
satisfactory to me : Witness the increase of laws which 
restrain the pot-hunter, and the rapid increase in num- 
bers of that class of sportsmen who practice field sports 
in accordance with Webster's definition of the word 
sport. However, my second thought is that it would be 
a courtesy on my part to correct a few false impres- 
sions which Coahoma seems to be laboring under, and 
therefore I will reply briefly. 
Our personal feelings are not germane to the question 
which we are discussing, and quite likely are sub- 
jects of no great interest to the readers of Forest and 
Stream, still, as Coahoma appears to be concerned about 
mine, I would assure him that our pleasant little debate 
has afforded me some amusement, but has excited no 
indignation within me. Therefore, it will be apparent 
to him that he has wasted considerable effort in his 
"endeavor to mollify" a phantom of his own imagination. 
My thanks are due Coahoma for his allusion to the 
domestic dog which hunts solely for diversion, though 
I scarcely expected his aid in substantiating my side of 
this controversy. It is not my intention to combat 
Coahoma's theories, for they are of such a nature that 
they can be neither proved or disproved. But when he 
makes a deduction from those theories, and tells us 
"that the procurement of something useful as a result 
of the chase is an essential element of true sport," 
neither his theories nor facts sustain him, and even the 
dogs which he invokes refuse to do so. 
1 have been taught that dictionaries were created to 
give us correct definitions of words, but since Coahoma's 
ipse dixit, what must we believe? He not only dis- 
credits Webster's unabridged, but he also assigns its 
authorship to "Uncle Daniel." In the latest revision of 
this work great effort and large sums of money were 
expended to secure the services of the greatest living 
lexicographers, men eminent as specialists in the de- 
partments which they were to edit. If Coahoma's claims 
to superior wisdom and power are well founded, how did 
it happen that he was not selected to perform this great 
work ? 
If Coahoma will take the trouble to read my original 
article on the subject of sport carefully, he may dis- 
cover that I made no attempt to establish kinship be- 
tween athletic games and field sports, and that what he 
has said in regard to this is simply another case in 
which he has "mollified" another phantom of his imagina- 
tion. 
There certainly is diversion in these games, and there- 
fore I can see no impropriety in referring to them as 
sports,_ at least until Coahoma, is recognized as supreme 
authority and our dictionaries are revised in accordance 
with his dictum. 
I have always believed that sportsmen as a class are 
possessed of a fair share of philanthropy, .but Coahoma 
"puts me to shame," for we must infer from what he 
says that he believes that sportsmen are so philanthropic 
that their sport in killing "predatory animals" is de- 
rived from their consciousness of having performed an 
act of kindness to their fellow men. Just imagine, if 
possible, a sportsman so imbued with philanthropic im- 
pulses that he will travel, say from England to the Rocky 
Mountains, to kill a lion solely for the purpose of pre- 
venting that lion from preying upon domestic creatures 
which perhaps belong to some person whom this sports- 
man never even heard of. When the imagination is 
trained so it can perform this feat, just to try to imagine a 
fox hunter riding pell mell through a farmer's crops and 
knocking down fences right and left in his efforts to 
catch a fox, solely for the purpose of preventing said 
fox from catching the farmer's chickens. 
I dislike very much to disturb such sublime faith in 
the innate goodness of mankind, but truth compels me 
to point out to Coahoma that sportsmen sometimes rear 
predatory animals artificially, and turn them loose to 
prey upon man's domestic creatures, and even get laws 
enacted to protect them, so that sport may be enhanced. 
[ have heard of professional exterminators of predatory 
animals, but such men are usually influenced neither 
by sport nor philanthropy, but work for pelts and bounty 
money. 
I have read of the doings of sportsmen of the past 
centuries. I do not know whether Christopher North 
was ®ne of these sportsmen or not, but if he was, it is 
not a fact to brag about. 
If what I have read is true, it was quite a common 
practice "in ye olden time" for the lord of the baronial 
hall to send forth an army of retainers to herd game in 
a small inclosure, where it could be speared ad libitum 
ttntil the sportsmen's lust for blood was glutted. This 
sport was usually followed by feast and revelry, and this 
latter part of the programme was considered a success 
when the entire company lay gorged and beastly drunk 
upon the baronial floor. When we turn from such a 
spectacle and view field sports as they are practiced to- 
day, I think it will be conceded that some progress in 
the right direction has been made, and that the typical 
.sportsman of the present time operates upon a higher 
plane than did those of "ye olden time." 
In the affairs of life it is often the case that persons 
who have the accident of wealth at command, buy honors 
and distinction and parade them as something to which 
they are justly entitled. 
Our sense of justice and our obligations to real merit 
should prompt us to rebuke such practices whenever and 
Av'herever they occur. 
In field sports this propensity of man to appropriate 
something which he is not entitled to is illustrated by 
that class of sportsmen who pose as mighty hunters, and 
in proof thereof point proudly to the game heads which 
they have either bought outright, or which have been 
secured for them, as Coahoma says, by paid experts. 
It gives me great pleasure to assure Coahoma that I 
am in full .sympathy with him in his denunciation of this 
class of head hunters. 
In rny opinion a game head or trophy should always 
.symbolize sportsmanlike pursuit and capture, but should 
rever be displayed as a symbol of skill except by the 
person who so captured it; otherwise it is only sym- 
bolical of fraud and disgrace. 
It is always the genuine, the valuable, and the highest 
type of things which are counterfeited, and therefore our 
counterfeit sportsmen serve at least one good purpose in 
pointing out the genuine and highest type of sports- 
manship of the present day. 
Jos. W. Shurtes- 
Gansevoort, Sept. 6. 
The Law of Forest and Mountain. 
It is often said that there is no law -without a penalty. 
This maxim will not bear close scrutiny ; and it may not 
be unprofitable to examine a case in which a code depends 
absolutely upon the unforced assent of those to whom it 
applies. We speak of the code which regulates the use of 
private property by woodsmen and mountaineers. The 
mountain hut and the forest camp, although absolutely 
unpoliced and practically beyond the jurisdiction of statute 
law, are protected by a sentiment which amounts to law, 
and yet has no recourse against breaches of the custom 
of the region. You may leave your valuables on a trail in 
the Northwest secure of finding them again, and you may, 
under well-understood restrictions, use any camp in the 
v.'oods of Maine or Canada. Similarly the mountain shel- 
ters of the Appalachian or Alpine Clubs, or those erected 
at private expense, are free to all who traverse the moun- 
tains. And the rules for their use by the casual occupant 
are so explicit as to have the value of law. and as binding 
as if a thousand penalties and precedents enforced each' 
article. We are dealing with a very different code from 
Mr. Kipling's "law of the jungle"— the rule "of hoof and 
of claw"; we are examining the case of men free to be 
lawless, who, under a code of some complexity, are scrup- 
ulously a law unto themselves. 
The limits of mountain law have been recently illus- 
trated among the ice valleys of Mont Blanc. ' M. Joseph 
Vallot has for twelve years maintained a mountain ob- 
servatory near the summit of this great mountain. The 
building was supplied with the usual instruments, and was 
fully provisioned. Near at hand he had erected a moun- 
tain hut for the use of all climbers, which has frequently 
harbored bewildered wanderers on the upper reaches, and 
has undoubtedly been the means of saving many lives. 
This hut proved too narrow for two German tourists who 
decided to make a stay of several days under the Dome 
du Gouter. So, acting under mountain law as they sup- 
posed, they broke into the observatory, helped themselves 
to the pi'ovisions, and made themselves free of all its ac- 
commodations, offering on their return to repay the o\vner 
for the food actually consumed. M. Vallot, learning mean- 
while that his instruments had been disturbed, brought 
suit against the trespassers. 
How jealously mountain law is guarded is shown by 
the protests which everywhere arose in Switzerland. M. 
Vallot had no dilBcuIty in proving himself in the right, 
but the case brought out very clearly certain principles in 
mountaineering ethics. It was shown that the invaders 
were not storm-bound, but could at any time have de- 
scended to the valley. It was held that they entered the 
observatory, not in their need, but for their greater con- 
venience. Every one declared that thej- had no right 
merelj' to prolong a holiday in this fashion, and that 
mountain custom granted them only the occupancy of the 
hut, not the right to enter the larger building or to use 
the provisions. It might be added that the offer to reim- 
burse M. Vallot for the provisions was highly improper. 
They should have promptly replaced them after due notifi- 
cation. Thus, quite apart from the graver charge of van- 
dalism, these two climbers were found in contempt of 
mountain law. Henceforth their mountaineering reputa- 
tion, except in Coventry, will be of the worst. 
The principle involved is clearly that of reasonable use. 
Illustrations might be cited indefinitely. One- may not 
plan for a week in the woods, and then keep cn'from 
shelter to shelter for a month; yet if one, through an un- 
foreseen mishap, needs food and shelter, they arc his to 
take where he finds-them, and upon the sole condition that 
he respect the propery he uses and make good as socn as 
possible any impairment of its stores. Any Appalachian 
Club shelter in the White Mountains, with all its Utensils, 
U free to every pedestrian until the tiny building is fufl 
Beyond that point, members of the club justly require out- 
siders to give way; but the case almost never arises. In 
,STl' these matters a fine sense of delicacy is. shown by 
•filbse who do not always receive credit for that quality. 
No logging camp in the country would refuse its best to a 
