FOHfi&T AND STREAM. 
2S7 
The door that leads from the cage into their house or 
kennel is hinged at the top, and therefore it swings out- 
ward and upward and can be fastened at any angle. One 
day this was fastened up at right angles to the wall, and 
the first thing the foxes did was to climb up on to it. 
Now whenever we go to see the foxes a mass of gray 
fur is usually visible quietly sleeping in the last place in 
the world that a wild fox would choose for his slumbers. 
They are still as active and well as ever, and as playful and 
as tame. If one goes to the cage and puts the finger 
through the meshes, a fox will come up, smell the finger, 
and then, taking it in his mouth, will bite on it very 
gently. Sometimes still, they run three or four feet up the 
wire netting and hang there, and in this position sccui lo 
like to have the belly scratched. 
F. L. G. AND R. Pace. 
Maa and the Brute. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your old-time correspondent, Hermit, in a recent issue 
.of your treasured paper, arraigns me before the tribunal 
of your readers as a seeming offender against reasou aud 
common sense, and I therefore plead for a hearing in my 
defense. He characterizes as "impossible science" my 
assertion that "the boxer has no time lo think, and, like 
the animal, depends upon the operation of habit." and 
-further adds that it seems to him impossible to put more 
error in the same number of Avord''. T apprehend that, 
in this instance, bis impulse has ouirun his judgment and 
hastened him into sweeping generalizations that he can- 
not sustain. Regretting, however, my compulsion to 
elaborate what appears to me and, not unlikely, to most 
of your intelligent readers, to be a self-evident, proposi- 
.lion, 1 have to state that, in order to acquire the art of 
boxing, or any feat of dexterity, every movement must, 
in the beginning, be studied or thought out, and the ap- 
propriate action repeated again and again, until, with 
constant practice, it becomes automatic, almost a reflec- 
tion, into which thouglit or reason does not enter. An 
-animal may be taught a simple trick, but with far greater 
difficulty than a human being, for the latter may revolve 
in his mind the various steps of his performance and 
thereby expedite its acomplishment. Constant repetition 
educates the animal's nerve-centres into a prompt 
obedience to the proper stimulus, but I hold that thought 
is not associated with any stage of its perforniance. 
Walking with man is an acquired feat; but, with its full 
accomplishment, he does not think, now I must advance 
my right foot, and now rny left foot; on the contrary, the 
locomotive and various coordinating muscles that propel 
and balance the body perform their functions automatical- 
ly, and so also, in my view, does the expert boxer, fencer, 
rope-dancer, or other proficient performer of a feat of 
dexterity. A man with full consciousness of his danger 
may walk along the edge of a precipice, and the sudden 
blowing off of his hat, or other stimulus, may impel him 
to perform some irrational action resulting in the loss of 
his balance and his life, and many a mountaineering 
fatality has, in some such manner, been caused. There 
are ample reasons for believing that when nerve-centers 
are fully educated to execute certain movements they may 
act in entire independence of the brain, and inasmuch as 
this assumption may impress Hermit as "impossible 
science," I will adduce an illustration or two in its sup- 
port : 
In the Paris Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for 
1869 may be found a report of an experiment performed 
on the headless body of a criminal shortly after execution. 
The skin around the nipple being scratched the arrns 
and hands of the still warm corpse described certain 
movements narrated in detail, which were assumed by 
some to be of a defensive character, but by others to be 
of the same nature as those performed by a decapitated 
frog, which latter, upon the application of acid to a 
portion of its skin, will scratch the affected part with its 
hind leg. The frog experiment has been repeatedly per- 
formed, so that there can be no doubt on the subject, and 
our intimate relationship to animals, our similarity of 
bodily structure, is suggestive of a like localized intelli- 
gence in various portions of our nervous systems, ordi- 
narily under control of the brain, but exceptionally other- 
wise. 
Hermit intimates that I am "playing double;" that I 
am on both sides of the question, and quotes fragmentary 
statements that need explanation. I took it for granted 
that he, in common with all intelligent readers of this 
paper, is aware that there is no dividing line between in- 
stinct and reason, and that what some would maintain is 
the former, others would insist is the latter. In my arti- 
cle I denied that, as a rule, animals possessed reasoning 
power, "that they deliberate in the true sense of the 
term," or that they studied causes and eflfects, as Mr. 
Hallock contended. I fully concede that animals have 
glimmerings of reason, but cannot subscribe to Mr. Hal- 
lock's assumption that they are rational beings. The 
radicle or root tip of a plant manifests a certain amount 
of intelligence; it will, in its advance, avoid obstacles, 
seek out hidden streams of water, etc., and, while credit- 
ing animals with a much higher endowment, I hold that 
it is not comparable with our own. I believe that the 
mental operations of even the most intelligent animals are 
confined to the simplest deductive processes. For in- 
staiice, take the well-knowH story of the crows that, ob- 
serving' five gunners secrete themselves,' kept out of range 
until four had successively quitted their Covert, when, in 
their miscalculation they swooped down to become 'the vic- 
tims of the fifth. In this case I hold that the cro\vs did not 
count in the proper sense of' the term, for I cannot credit 
them with the invention of the 'requisite numerals. I 
do believe, however, that in the corvine tirain there was 
formed k visual picture akin to the Roman numerals, one 
to four, upon a watch face. The ancients resorted to an 
arbitrary sign, V, when they reached the limit of con- 
venience in the repetition of units; the crows, however, 
found themselves utterly balked in their endeavor to form 
a mental picture of five separate integers. Let some 
reader try for himself and he will find that he cannot 
materially exceed the crow's effort. Without numerals 
or signs man would be unable to perform any but the 
jnost simple of minor calculations, and just as numerals 
are essential factors of mental computation, so also are 
words of thought. 
My contention that without words complex mental 
processes are impossible, PTermit maintains cannot stand 
the light of scientific investigation. Of all the differences 
fhat distinguish man from the brute, verbal language is 
the most marked, and while the sounds made by animals 
form a language, they are incapable of expressing shades 
of meaning, abstract ideas, or of giving free access to 
the realms of thought, which word Webster defines as a 
"capacity for the very highest intellectual functions, espe- 
cially those comprehended under judgment." This ob- 
viously implies a study of causes and effects, as Mr. Hal- 
lock asserts, an operation that without words, I claim, is 
impossible, for they are the weights in our scales of judg- 
ment, the stepping stones over which we bound in our 
imaginative flights. A dog may think of a buried bone, 
and forthwith proceed to exhume the treasured morsel ; 
he does not picture to himself gastronomic delights 
that are in store for him, nor does he defer the gratifica- 
tion of his palate for the sake of indulging in such gusta- 
tory visions, as might an epicurean biped. For such idea- 
lion words are indispensable. We seldom think of an 
object without an association of the word that expresses 
it, and the great majority of persons carry on their men- 
ial processes by the use of woi'ds. They may not garb 
these processes' in full dress, as in speech, but the verbal 
framework is formed ready to launch the unspoken 
thought. Some there, doubtless, are who largely depend 
upon mental pictures in their thought formations, to 
which latter method animals must seemingly be restricted. 
Nevertheless, even (hose persons who believe themselves 
dependent upon mental images may be mistaken, for the 
mind has signs, not only for single thoughts, but for en- 
tire chains of thought that may be as representative of 
words as the stenographic characters that could embody 
iheir utterance. 
Hermit falls aioiil of ttiy belief that animals do not 
project themselves into the future, that they have no 
thought of the morrow, nor contemplate future joys or 
past sorrows, and intimates that I will be called to ac- 
count by dog lovers. The inner life of animals is to me 
a sealed book. I do not pretend to have had a glimpse 
of a single page. I have an open mind upon the subject, 
and if my inferences are at fault, I shall be glad to be 
made aware of it. A conception of futurity involves the 
employment of a word or sign for that state of being, 
another for its opposite, the past, still others for the 
various actions associated in the thinker's mind with those 
conditions. I do not believe that a dog employs verbs or 
signs implying future action, much less terms necessary 
to form the various links in the connecting train of 
thought. Visual pictures doubtless present themselves in 
abundance, but they are of the past, and are not, for the 
reasons stated, predicated of the future. 
Hermit wonders how I dispose of those born deaf and 
dumb, observing that my theory would deprive them of 
the power to think. I must remind him that siich unfor- 
tunates are the descendants of thousands of language- 
speaking ancestors who have bequeathed them a speech- 
center, a special department of the brain dealing with 
words and vocal sounds. The deaf and dumb therefore 
possess an aptitude for the formation of sounds or signs 
expressive of meaning, whereby reasoning processes may 
be facilitated. All who have raised children are aware of 
the readiness with. which they coin words, the eager per- 
sistence with which they repeat them and strive to en- 
large their vocabulary. Relative to this faculty I have 
to refer to the numerous .instances of children making 
a language of their own in which they conversed to the 
bewilderment of their elders. 
Hermit catechizes me concerning my allusion to real 
or affected anger in animals, and says that he cannot 
understand what I am driving at. Let me further remind 
him that animals, like children, will often simulate anger, 
kittens will erect their backs and flatten their ears ; horses 
when curried will playfully retract their auditory promi- 
nences, etc. I do, however, most emphatically dissent 
from Hermit as to his theory that cats may colloquially 
express a negation and an affirmation by opposite posi- 
tions of their ears. I have endeavored to meet all his 
criticisms and objections, but probably not to his satisfac- 
tion, nor to that of dissenting readers. The subject is 
heavy, but, unlike my interlocutor, I cannot be charged 
with weighting it down with a "medulla oblongator^^( ?)," 
"efferent impulses emanating from brain cortexes," etc., 
all of which, as science, he complacently pronounces "the 
pure article." A. H. Gouraud. 
B=OOKI.VN. 
0^//?^ B^s 
— ♦ — 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Tublishmg Co., 
Kew York, and not to any individual connected with the paper. 
The Gams Laws in Brief 
i>? the standard authority of fish and game laws of the United 
States and Canada. It tells everything and gives it correctly. 
See in advertising pages list of. some of the dealers who handle 
the Brief. - 
Life in the Rockies. — IL 
(Continued Jrom i>age 197 ) 
The early autumn found the deer deserting the 
meadows and open grounds, as is their custom, and going 
into thickets of jack-piiies, and in the woods, making 
them bard to find. L'uke, Bob and Bert loaded up 
their camp outfit and w^nt off into the mountains to 
trap some for bear and feet some meat, and left mc to 
take care of the ranch, -with very little important work 
to do. I had discovered a raspberry patch about four 
miles distant, and as berries and fruits were very rare 
about there, I thought to gather some berries. For 
four days I made a trip each day on horseback, riding 
within 100 rods of the patch, then picketing ray horse, 
would fill my bucket with berries. I had left enough 
to iill my bucket again, and went back for my last 
bucket full the next day, and found that a bear had 
been there ahead of me, and left nothing for me but 
a desire to put a hole through his hide. I was trying 
all this time at intervals to get meat, as we were en- 
tirely out, but nothing afforded me a good chance. 
They finally came home with plenty of venison, three 
bear and a wolverine, which they caught. They 
caught an old female black bear in their trap, and there 
were two cubs with her: one a beautiful dark brown 
and the other a light cimiamon; showing conclusively 
that the dift'erent species of bear, in their wild state, 
will inter-breed. There were said to be five distinct 
species of bear in that locality: the black, brown, cinna- 
mon, grizzly and silvertip, the silvertip being the 
largest. The grizzlies were termed by the old hunters 
there "Rocky Mountain grizzly," and were not the im- 
mense size which are reported of the California grizzly. 
The silvertip grew to a great size. There were many 
wild stories of the weight of bears killed about there, 
but saying what a bear will weigh simply by guessing 
at it is very unsatisfactory. I helped my near neigh- 
bor, Cooke Rlica, to weigh a silvertip the same day 
he killed it, which was killed rather early in the season, 
before it had taken on nearly all the fat that it would 
have had later, and the meat and hide weighed 783 
pounds, and it certainly was a monster. 
One of the things (hat was novel to me was the method 
cf keeping fresh meat in the sununer time. 
A pole about seventy-five feet high was planted in the 
ground, at the top of which was attached a pulley; a 
rope ran through this so that both ends would come to 
the ground. A deer, after being skinned, would be tied 
to one end of this rope and pulled to the top of the pole, 
where, on account of the very high altitude, it was en- 
tirely out of reach of the flies. When it would start up 
it would be covered with flies, but gradually they would 
drop off as they ascended, and before it reached the lop 
the last one would be off. The air was so pure that meat 
would keep that way, hanging in the sun in warm sum- 
mer weather for ten days without spoiling. While the 
sun would shine it would get quite hot during the day, 
but frost appeared every month in the year, and the 
nights were always cool enough for fire. 
During the summer I made a filing on a piece of land 
about three miles from Wheeler's, in a neck of the park 
where no one could get in between me and the mountains. 
It was bounded on three sides by the timbered mountains, 
and was an ideal location from a hunter's standpoint. 
That was a favorite section for sportsmen from the 
Eastern cities and from abroad, to come for big-game 
hunting, and Luke secured a party of Englishmen for a 
hunt early in the fall, and went after them to the nearest 
railroad point, Laramie, Wyo. 1 was cutting fencing 
poles while he was gone, always taking my gun with me 
Avhen I went out. The evening that he was due to be 
home with his party, I left my work about four o'clock 
and took a jaunt through the woods, thinking to see a 
deer. I was going along a steep mountain side when I 
saw a spike-buck_ coming down the hill directly toward 
me on the run. The deer flies were very bad just then, 
and he was going for the creek bottom where he couKl 
get in the willows away from the flies. He was shaking 
his head vigorously to fight off the flies, and was heedless 
of other and more serious trouble which was awaiting 
him. I whistled at him when he was about seventy- 
five yards away, thinking to stop him, but he paid no 
attention, but kept right on. I whistled again and again, 
each time louder, and still he came on. I did not want 
to take chances on a running shot, with my inexperience, 
and in my desperation I yelled at him when he was not 
more than thirty feet away, and still coming straight to- 
v/ard me. He bunched his front feet in the ground like 
a bucking bronco, wheeled about, and went a few jumps 
back up the hill and stopped directly behind a little pine 
bush. I shot as nearly as I could tell where his shoul- 
ders were, and he went tearing off through the woods out 
of sight. Having no experience I could not tell whether 
he was hit or not, biit as soon as I went and saw where 
he had run I saw plenty of blood, and after following 
it a short distance, I saw him standing, looking back. I 
was quite close and thought to save all the meat I could, 
and shot at his head. Away he went down over the 
hill and out of sight, but I soon found him lying in the 
grass at the foot of the hill, dead. My second shot went 
through the butt of his ear. It was a yearling buck, and 
represented my first black-tail deer. He was about two 
miles from the ranch, and in a place where I had never 
been, but I took a good look around and thought I could 
find it again. When I got to the ranch Luke Avas home 
Vv'ivh his outfit, and was preparing to start for the moun- 
tains the next morning. As he wanted mc to go along 
to bring some of the horses back, I knew my deer would 
have to come in that night, else the flies would have it 
spoiled before I could get after it. About two hours after 
dark I started out in _the moonlight with an old pack- 
horse after my venison, and succeeded in bringing it in 
with very little difficulty, considering ever3'thing. I now 
felt initiated : felt that I had "ridden the goat," and was 
ready for any emergency. 
Luke's next hunting party consisted of Dr. Job and 
George Scott, both of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; the former was 
an expert rifle shot and experienced hunter, who some 
years later met a sad death by the acidental discharge of 
his own gun. It was late in the season when they came; 
the ground was covered with snow, and it was very cold. 
My employment with Luke was ended, but as a con- 
venience both to him and myself I engaged to stay on his 
ranch and do the few chores necessary while he was gone 
on his last trip, and employed myself building a cabin 
on my ranch, in which I might learn the art of baching 
and comply with the law in living on my ranch. I bouglit 
a horse and saddle and rode to my place in the morning, 
worked all day at my cabin, and went back to Luke's 
at night. My horse was young and only partially broken; 
T secured it while I was at work by tying the end of the 
picket rope to a heavy clog, which I could drag about 
from place to place that the horse might be within reach 
of feed. One day at noon I took my lunch bo:?c in my 
hand and while down to the creek to eat my lunch, took 
hold of the picket rope and gave it a wrap around my 
hand to drag the clog to better feeding ground for the 
horse. It was scared at the moving clog, and quick as a 
flash, and before I could get ray hand out of the rope, tl^e 
