AND 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. J 
Six Months, $2. J 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1904 
J VOL. LXIII.-No. 10. 
1 No. 346 Broadway, Nbw York. 
THE FIRST BITE. 
The commonly accepted legal principle that a dog is not 
to be condemned as vicious on the evidence of one bite, 
has been perverted into a claim that a dog is entitled to 
his first bite. In a New York case last week, a dog hav- 
ing attacked a nine-year-old child, biting him on the legs 
and causing severe wounds, the counsel for the dog put 
in the one bite plea, as reported in the Evening Post : 
"You know it is a principle of law that a dog is entitled to his 
first bite," replied the lawyer. "It requires more than one bite to 
prove that he is vicious." 
"Not in this court," said the magistrate. "And you can tell 
your client that if the facts alleged are proved I will fine him 
$10 for each day he keeps the dog after the day of the assault." 
"But the dog is licensed, your honor." 
"Not to run about the streets and bite little children," was the 
answer. 
This first bite privilege given to dogs is one of the 
curiosities of legal practice. No such grace is extended to 
the vicious human. If a man seizes a child on the street 
and bites it, his counsel does not dream of putting in as 
a defense the proposition that every man is entitled to a 
first bite, and that he must have bitten two children before 
he can be adjudged vicious. There may have been some 
good reason for the first bite concession when the prece- 
dent was established, but the modern common sense view 
expressed by the magistrate is the more sensible one, and 
should be the ruling guide in dog bite cases. 
EPHRAIM IN THE TIMBER. 
The remarkable portrait of a grizzly bear which we 
print this week is neither a fake picture nor a picture of 
one of the domesticated bears of the Yellowstone National 
Park. Instead, it is the photograph of a live wild grizzly 
of the southern Rocky Mountains, taken by Mr. Frederick 
K. Vreeland, who, with rare skill and patience, circum- 
vented the bear and secured his likeness. A second or 
two after the picture was taken, all that was seen of the 
placid, sleepy beast figured in our pages, was a dissolv- 
ing view of flying fur among the tall, straight trunks of 
the distant forest. The click- of the shutter had projected 
the thousand pounds of bear meat as if it had been shot 
out of a gun. So, great results arise from small causes, 
and the pressure of a finger on a telegraph key may put 
in motion the wheels of a great engine. 
We call the picture "Ephraim in the Timber," for 
"Ephraim," according to the books of old, was the 
familiar title of the grizzly among the early trappers. Yet 
he had another name, for Catlin, in the passage quoted 
on another page, states that "Caleb," or "Cale" for short, 
was a common term applied to the grizzly in the Rocky 
Mountains in his time. 
All the world over, the bear, of whatever name he may 
be, is regarded with respect and reverence — admired for his 
astuteness and his supposed power. Among the Ainos of 
Japan the bear is worshipped, and this general sentiment 
of reverence is almost universal among the people of the 
North. 
The Russians call the bear "Little Father." The Scan- 
dinavians say that he has "the strength of ten men and 
the wisdom of twelve," and refer to him always with the 
greatest respect. They do not speak of him familiarly 
as the bear, but call him "the old man with the fur coat," 
or "the dog of God." The red Indian, though killing the 
bear when he could, always apologized to the dead for 
having done so, calling the animal grandfather and rela- 
tion, and expressing bitter regret that he had been forced 
to perform the act. Our readers will remember the ac- 
count of this propitiatory ceremony, as described by that 
fine old fur trader, the elder Henry, printed in Forest 
and Stream last spring. 
The Indians of the plains, besides believing in the great ' 
wisdom of the bear, believed also— of course as a result 
of their experience in hunting it with their primitive 
weapons — that it was hard to kill. If wounded it could 
heal itself, and its power was such that it could transfer 
others its wisdom, its toughness, and its power to heal 
wounds. 
This is what took place at the parting between a bear 
and a young Pawnee whom it had pitied and restored to 
life after he had been killed in battle, as the folk tale runs : 
"When they were about to part, the bear came up to 
him, and put his arms about him, and hugged him, and 
put his mouth against the man's mouth and said, 'As the 
fur that I am in has touched you, it will make you great, 
and this will be a blessing to you.' His paws were around 
the young man's shoulders, and he drew them down his 
arms until they came to his hands, and he held them, and 
said, 'As my hands have touched your hands, they are 
made great, not to fear anything. I have rubbed my hands 
down over you, so that you shall be as tough as I am. 
Because my mouth has touched your mouth, you shall be 
made wise.' Then he left him and went away." 
CAMPS AND CAMPS. 
A hunting or wilderness camp, according to the gen- 
eral and accepted mental conception of it, is a primitive, 
relatively diminutive; inexpensive structure, more or less 
ramshackle, constructed perhaps of the odds and ends of 
dead wood and shrubbery, and barren of all but the most 
simple conveniences of life and living. It is a temporary 
abode apart from the homes of mankind. It is the make- 
shift of emergency. 
It is supposed to furnish a temporary domicile to the 
hunter, miner, prospector, angler, canoeist, tourist, timber 
looker ; serving as a shelter and dormitory. It can be con- 
structed quickly by anyone, however unskilled in mechan- 
ical ability, be the owner poor or rich, and it can be 
abandoned at any time without financial loss. 
The material of a camp may be the brush and bark 
available in the woodland, or rough logs worked into a 
still rougher cabin. Again, it may be a tent, which is 
classed as baggage during the journeyings by day, and as 
a camp when pitched for purposes of transient accommo- 
dation by night. 
Concerning a camp, the conventions impose no restric- 
tions as to shape, size, material or ownership. Its 
essentials are simplicity and roughness. It may be a sim- 
ple lean-to, a teepee, a wall without a roof, or a roof with- 
out a wall. It may have any form or no form. Any- 
thing extemporized as a house for the moment fills the 
. popular ideal of a camp. 
It is commonly supposed to be a makeshift to meet the 
requirements of the straggler, the wanderer, the sports- 
man, the pioneer, or the laborer without the borders of the 
settlements. No ordinary person would imagine it to be a 
luxurious permanency. 
At the present day the term camp has a much broader 
significance. It may comprehend a structure made of a 
few boughs, or a palace designed by a skillful architect, 
constructed by the most skillful mechanics, and furnished 
and embellished by the most fashionable upholsterers and 
decorators. In short, the modern camp may be primitive 
or it may be a luxurious city home transplanted into the 
camp area. 
In respect to the latter, all that now remains of the true 
camp is the natural setting of field and forest, though 
. these are largely shorn of their primeval roughness, and 
therefore of their primeval beauties, by the work of im- 
provement. 
This wide transition from the makeshift domicile of the 
individual to the palatial city home where families and 
• guests gather in wild surroundings, has been brought 
conspicuously and sadly to public notice by the grievous 
and regrettable misfortunes of some camp owners whose 
properties are situated in the Adirondacks. 
Recent press dispatches narrate the burning of Fish 
Rock Camp, on the upper Saranac Lake, owned by Mr. 
Isaac Seligman, of New York. The loss in buildings, 
furnishings, and personal property, is estimated at $100,000. 
The calamity occurred on August 19. Later reports stated 
that Mrs. Lowengard, one of many guests at the camp, 
lost $140,000 worth of jewelry, $40,000 of which was re- 
covered. The diamonds were uninjured, though melted 
out of their settings. 
On August 28, the daily press recounted that, on upper 
Saranac Lake, a robber invaded the camp of Dr. E. L. 
Holt and stole silverware and much jewelry. The rob- 
ber's next visit was to the recently burned camp of Mr. 
Seligman, where he searched the tents and took a num- 
ber of trinkets, but missed the strong box in which were 
many valuables worth $40,000. He next searched the 
camps on Doctor's Island, but secured little, the dwellers 
having taken the precaution to keep their valuables with 
them while on the lake. The losses by this robbery are 
said to exceed $10,000. 
Comparing the higher camp life, as it now is, with the 
primitive camp life as it was some years ago, it will be 
readily discerned that the term camp has acquired an en<; 
larged meaning. It may denote a tent pitched on a city 
lot, or a city palace erected somewhere in the country 
out of the view of the next domicile. A camper may sig- 
nify a person who is living a primitive life in the primeval 
wilderness, or a person who is living with his family and 
guests in a commodious mansion, with all the accessories 
of stables, launches, stage service, mail service, and all 
the table luxuries, domestic and foreign, instantly avail- 
able as essential factors of a life in camp. 
The American black bass has been introduced into 
French waters, and the result of the experiment is such 
as to warrant further enterprise in the same direction. 
In December of 1902, Mr. E. Roger received from the 
Prussian fish breeding establishment at Berner.chen a con- 
signment of 200 large-mouthed black bass fry. which were 
put into a pond at his country home near Paris. The 
fry were about 2 : /> inches in length when put out. In 
March of 1903 he received, and deposited in the same 
pond, twenty-two fish which were about 7 inches in length. 
The pond, of some two acres, contained roach, bream, 
' eels, and a stock of American sunfish, a species which has 
been extensively introduced in France, where it is re- 
garded as something of a pest, because, while without 
value as food or for sport, it is believed to devour the 
spawn and fry of other species. The bass thrived in their 
new home; and this year in June it was discovered that 
thej' had spawned, "myriads" of fry being observed; and 
in July Mr. Roger, with a black bass fly imported from 
New York, succeeded in catching a fish of 9 inches, which 
was presented to a friend in Paris as "the first black bass 
ever served on a French breakfast table." Later in the 
same month the Parisian friend, with an American rod 
and reel, and an American "yellow-kid" bait, took a num- 
ber of the American fish. 
In this age of international exchange of fish and game, 
we might well consider the importation of the partridge. 
The rearing of the bird in captivity is practicable ; we 
print on another page an account of how it is done in 
France. The same system might be followed in the 
United States. Now that the foolish customs prohibition 
of the bringing in of game birds' eggs' has been repealed, 
the introduction of partridge eggs is only a question of 
someone having interest enough to: import a stock. It is 
a foregone conclusion that the game preserve with its 
artificially bred supplies of birds must provide much of 
the shooting in this country in the not far distant future. 
The imported pheasant and the imported partridge will 
some day be counted among our chief game birds. 
* 
Mr. Hardy's notes on the old-time bullet molds will 
carry many a memory back to the days of their use. In 
common with the other implements of firearms, the bullet 
mold has undergone many changes; and from the simple 
form shown by Mr. Hardy has developed into a tool 
which casts grooved bullets, and is so adjustable as to give 
various lengths of bullet and various numbers of grooves. 
A study of the gun implement and reloading tool cata- 
logues shows that the rifleman of to-day is by no means 
contented with the simple outfit of his forebears ; but 
there are provided for him many inviting facilities for ex- 
periment and test of theories. Possibly he may not, after 
all, get so much game after he has cast his bullets, but 
then game is scarce, while the theories and crotchets of 
the rifle shooter are never ending, and not to be solved in 
the life of anv one man. 
, M ' 
We print elsewhere from a circular of the Agricultural 
Department a consideration of the phraseology adopted in 
the definition, or want of definition, of the open and close 
seasons, as intended to be designated in the laws. The 
ambiguities arising from these defects of legal phrase- 
ology are often confusing and extremely vexatious ; and 
there is the less excuse for them, since the remedy is so 
simple and ready to hand. To specify, as the New York 
law does, that the dates named are inclusive, leaves no. 
room for uncertainty as to the precise days of opening and 
closing; and this is a formula Which might with advantage 
be adopted universally. 
*5 
From a canning establishment of the Northwest come 
_eomplaints of salmon scarcity like those which have been 
the rule on Canadian salmon angling rivers this year, 
The pack will not W more than half the usual amount ; 
