Nov. 19, 1904.3 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
429 
to have been seen lying in a sweet potato field outside 
the house during the beat, and sure enough, there were 
his tracks. 
Night after night the two sat up in various trees 
over dogs, pigs and goats, but, although the tiger was 
seen on several occasions at some distance, no shot 
was possible. On one occasion fresh tracks were found 
in the morning, showing that he had come straight up 
from behind in the shadow to the tree in which the 
two sportsmen were presumably asleep, and had stayed 
there within a very few feet; and, probably, there was 
a smile on the face of the tiger. 
This was a very big male, and must have been nearly, 
if not quite, ten feet from tip to tip. He was obviously 
not accustomed to be crossed, and prowled at first 
very openly by day and night. He avoided Europeans, 
but paid little attention to the natives who frequently 
met him. He did not seem to be a confirmed man- 
eater, as he had had many chances of carrying off the 
villagers. 
After a few days he became very wary; wherever the 
sportsmen sat up, tracks were found somewhere else, 
and frequently the pad-marks were so fresh that he 
must have been about a few minutes before they were 
seen. On one occasion they watched till sunset and 
went home for dinner, intending to return when the 
moon rose, leaving heavy impedimenta, spare rifles, 
ropes, etc., under guard of a shikar in the tree. Hardly 
were they out of sight when Mr. Tiger appeared, and 
the coolie fired and missed him. 
Meanwhile the tracks became more numerous and of 
various sizes till it was quite evident that there were 
at least four or five tigers in the neighborhood, two 
being cubs, and one apparently a medium-sized tigress. 
On Sunday, Aug. 7, at dawn, B. was watching in a tree 
alone, when the biggest tiger emerged from cover and 
gave him a fair chance. B. gave him* two bullets, and 
he bounded off into cover, leaving traces of blood. 
B. then organized a beat, going through the cover him- 
self at the head, the only possible way of keeping the 
men at all in order. Presently, with a growl, the beast 
turned like lightning from deep cover, and mauled a 
beater slightly, clawing his heel badly; B. followed him 
up, and presently got a broadside shot into his ribs 
at ten feet with a single-shot .44 rifle. 
The tiger luckily did not charge, for on B. turning 
to his carrier for his second rifle, he saw him in full 
flight howling. A. then arrived, and they ascended two 
trees at the extremes of the bit of cover, where the 
tiger obviously was lying. Hardly was he up, when 
B. heard panting underneath him and saw the brute. 
He fired, and the tiger rushed forward with a terrify- 
ing growl right through the bushes under A.'s tree, 
reaching thick cover, where he hid. A. could see a 
section of ribs between the boughs, and lodged a Dura 
Dum bullet where he judged the shoulder to be. The 
wounded beast turned a somersault backward and made 
a convulsive rush back toward B. 
Thinking him finished now, the beaters were called 
back, and he was left awhile to stiffen or die, and 
later B. went into the cover to find him. Hardly had 
he gone twenty yards when a second and smaller tiger 
sprang at him. B. tripped and was helpless, and in 
a moment the brute was biting his legs. He instinc- 
tively drew his legs up to protect his head and neck, 
and succeeded, for after biting his ankles and calves, 
the beast sheered off. B. managed to crawl out of 
cover, and then collapsed after a most marvelous es- 
cape. Whether it was the tigress or a well grown cub. 
it is impossible to say. B. was carried back to Pakhoi 
in great pain; but now, we are pleased to learn, he is 
doing well. He is to be greatly congratulated on such 
a comparatively easy escape from his encounter with 
a beast which could, with one blow, have thoroughly 
avenged the four bullets in her lord and master. 
The villagers report many stories of these tigers 
within the last few days. It is said that every even- 
ing the wounded old male drags himself on his fore- 
paws to some stream or other to drink, bleeding and 
partly paralyzed. Moreover, six tigers are now seen, 
some of them foraging for their wounded father, whom, 
the Chinese say, they actually have been seen to drag 
to and from the water. On the 9th inst. no less than 
three parties of foreigners were waiting in trees in the 
vicinity, but did not see any tiger, though the villagers 
say that next morning two, one wounded and another, 
came to water. While the former drank, the other 
stayed on a small hill hard by, watching, eventually 
chasing a woman who passed, but doing her no harm, 
returning to his drinking friend, and they disappeared 
together in to cover. 
The vitality of this tiger is marvelous. He is bleed- 
ing continually, carries four or five bullets and howls 
with pain at night. The villagers' stories are to be 
taken not too literally, but it seems extraordinary that 
a small village so close to Pakhoi should be infested 
with these brutes. 
The nature of the country presents great diffi- 
culty for their extinction, as the cover, though not 
large, is very dense, in some places almost impene- 
trable and straggling in many directions. Beating is 
almost impossible, accidents being almost inevitable 
owing to the lack of pluck and discipline in the men 
which can be employed; but we hope greatly that one 
day soon the tigers will be bagged. The accident and 
the pluck which occasioned it have made every one 
eager for veng eance. 
Currituck Duck Shooting 1 . 
Reports of the duck shooting at the opening of the 
season on Currituck Sound indicate an abundance of 
birds. Fc^d is abundant, and already the ducks and geese 
have made their appearance in large numbers. It is 
understood that at the Narrows Island Club, where six 
members were present, the first day's shooting yielded 
146 birds, and the second daly 193. Geese, as usual in that 
favored wintering ground, are very plenty. 
It seems altogether probable that the results of the 
abolition of spring duck shooting oyer a considerable 
portion of Canada and the northern United States are 
already being felt, and in the course of a few years the 
observance of the law may result in a great increase in 
the number of bir ds. 
IniNew] England. 
Boston, Nov. 12. — Editor Forest and Stream: The 
regular November meeting of the State Association was 
held on Thursday evening, November 10, with President 
Hinman in the chair. There was a good attendance, and 
twelve new members were elected. A vote of thanks was 
tendered Messrs. C. W. Dimick and O. R. Dickey for the 
assistance rendered by them last spring in obtaining and 
distributing quail. A nominating committee, of which the 
librarian, Dr. E. W. Branigan, is chairman, was named 
by the president to present a list of officers for the com- 
ing year at the December meeting and which will come 
up for final action on the second Wednesday in January, 
the date of the annual meeting. 
Several members spoke of the scarcity of quail _ and 
partridges in their respective localities. Ex-President 
Reed, recently returned from Princeton, tells me he saw 
very few birds, securing only a few woodcock. In that 
section the ruffed grouse are almost extinct. Mr. A. B. 
F. Kinney says a similar condition exists in the whole 
region about Worcester. Mr. Herbert E. Tuck, of 
Haverhill, reports that he has been out but did not take 
his gun ; instead he took a camera with his dog. Most of 
the gunners there, he says, are exercising praiseworthy 
restraint, but "of course we have a few that would shoot 
the last bird if they could, and they are of the kind that 
would not give a cent toward restocking, and then will 
kick because the birds are all gone." He reports that 
some of the quail have bred this season and a "few flocks 
are seen." His friends who have been in the brush say 
partridges are scarce. He has done some hunting in 
New Hampshire, but did not find birds numerous there. 
I hope soon to secure information regarding conditions 
in the. western part of our State. 
Messrs. Dimick and Dickey returned a week ago from 
the east central part of Vermont, where they were out 
for a couple of days and did not meet with their usual 
success. From Maine come many reports of excellent 
bird shooting. One friend, just back from Nova Scotia, 
says "We got a good number of birds, but had to work 
hard for them, some of the time wading in water several 
inches deep." Three Hyde Park sportsmen who have a 
stand a few miles out got ten out of a flock of twelve 
geese. 
The Vermont Legislature at last accounts were still 
wrestling with the deer question, some members working 
to abolish the open season, others to- shorten it one-half — 
to five days. One member characterizes the deer shooting 
of this season as merely "a slaughter of pet animals" that 
had become a part of the farm stock as much so as the 
cattle. He calls it unmanly slaughter, declaring there is 
room for "ten times their present number" without caus- 
ing material damage to offset the charm which their 
presence gives our State. 
Last Monday was the banner day for game receipts at 
Bangor — 137 deer, 8 moose and 4 bears (and a few more 
expected by a later train). E. D. Atherton, of Boston, 
got one of the moose, and John J. Warner, also of Bos- 
ton, secured one of the bears. Thirty heads went to 
Bangor and Portland taxidermists for mounting. Fully 
half the total were killed by Maine hunters. The receipts 
on Friday, November 11, were 84 deer, 3 moose, and 1 
bear. C. E. Vitter and another New York hunter, and 
one from Portland got moose. Half a dozen Boston men 
secured deer, among them W. A. Washburn and W. E. 
Wyman. A host of hunters are now on their way into 
the woods to be on hand when the snow comes to enable 
them to track the deer. Up to Friday night the Bangor 
receipts for the week were 494 deer and 19 moose, as 
against 670 deer and 20 moose in the corresponding time 
of 1903. An albino deer has been shot by Mr. Hedge, of 
Plymouth, near Eustis. Isaac Taylor, of Taunton, killed 
a loup cervier near Spotted Mountain. Central. 
Mr. Hallocfc is Out. 
Plainfield, Mass., Nov. 11. — I sold my only gun a day 
or two ago, and went out of business. It was a 2-shoot 
12 gauge "Bill Golcher" hammer gun, bought in St. Paul 
in 1880, and has done good service in a great part of the 
United States and Canada. I never moved anywhere 
across country without it. My last shot was fired October 
3 at a swinging target. Lieutenant Butler, of the Sons 
of Veterans Camp here in Plainfield, who purchased the 
gun, says it is a very good pattern of No. 7 shot evenly 
distributed. The distance of target from firing point was 
50 yards. That lets me out of the tournament at 70 
years of age with a tall feather, especially as I never was 
a crackerjack, don't you know. I used to have quite a 
variety of shooting irons when I was in my prime, but 
the arsenal was disbanded quite a while ago> and Bill 
Golcher has been my only companion since. 
Charles Hallock. 
"Where do the Little Ones Make Tracks? 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
While not a hunter of the deer, yet I have frequent 
occasion to invade the haunts of Cervus virginianus in 
search of the "small deer" of our fauna, in which I am 
somewhat interested. These trips are usually made in the 
company of a learned friend well versed in the ways of 
our larger mammalia, and we not infrequently run across 
deer signs, and the accompanying track of what is un- 
hesitatingly pronounced that of a buck — a big buck. So, 
too, I hear now and then of neighbors or acquaintances 
seeing the track of a "big buck." True 'tis that the tracks 
it has been my privilege to see do look big; and I find 
it no difficult task to descry in the mind's eye a lordly 
buck, adorned with a pair of regal antlers, proudly borne 
aloft as he pursues his stately, yet no doubt alert, way 
through the forest glens and upland meadows. Nilly- 
willy, the resonant lines from Sir Walter surge to mind, 
"The stag at eve had drunk his fill," 
as ws follow for a few rods along the trail writ plain in 
the ruck of autumn leaves turned slightly awry by the 
long dangling toes, punctured here and there by deep- 
sunk hoof marks which seem ever to just graze the pros- 
trate twigs which would crackle as they break were he 
|o step on and not beyond them. My friend finds it ng 
difficult matter to follow in his wake on such a tell-tale 
trail for great distances. 
But what I am driving at is, where, oh, where do the 
deer which are not "big bucks" walk abroad ? I am fully 
aware that the deer family is not composed wholly of 
these stately lords of the harem, and that somewhere in 
the dark recesses of the forest dwell the coy does, spry 
spikes and shy fawns. And yet it has never been my for- 
tune to have pointed out to me the trailing track of one 
of these lesser ones. From a nearer view I know some- 
thing of the biggest fish and why he inevitably gets away, 
and can readily make allowance for the "big buck" that 
the huntsman hit though it got away by reason of a de- 
fective shell or through being a mile or so distant when 
the shot offered. But for the life of me l am still un- 
able to_ fathom the mystery as to where the cunning does, 
the frisky young spikes, and the pretty spotted fawns 
walk when they go a-feeding or an airing. Will some 
mighty Nimrod from among your gentle readers, better 
versed in the wiles and the ways of the woods, rise to 
explain why 'tis only the tracks of the big bucks that we 
see? William Walters Champion. 
Williamsport, November. 
The Government's Importation of 
Camels. 
From the Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal 
Industry. 
BY CHARLES C. CARROLL, A.M. 
In the early " '50s" the Government was sorely beset 
with difficulties in protecting the vast frontiers of the 
country from ravages of hostile Indians. The transpor- 
tation of men and supplies over the great reaches of 
plain, mountain and desert that stretched between the 
Mississippi River and the Pacific coast was a problem 
that swallowed liberal appropriations of money and used 
up thousands of mules, and was in the end so poorly 
solved as to chafe and fret the spirits of successive com- 
manders. The roving Indian, with his agile pony that 
enabled him to make deadly swoops on isolated settle- 
ments and escape with ease, was a continual nightmare 
to the War Department; while the unprotected con- 
dition of the Pacific coast, so remote and so painful 
of access, disturbed it no less. Under these circum- 
stances it occurred to the military officials that the use 
of the camel might at least aid them in performing the 
difficult duties of protecting the expanding frontier and 
keeping open a line of communication between the 
Mississippi and the coast. 
The idea of translating this old servant of mankind 
from the East into America was not a new one. After 
the conquest of South America by the Spaniards, it 
is recorded that Juan de Reineza, a Biscayan, made an 
attempt to introduce camels into Peru, and toward the 
end of the sixteenth century camels were seen near the 
foot of the Andes by Jose Acosta, the Spanish mission- 
ary and writer. But the animals were not looked on with 
favor by the ruling Spaniards-, and they dwindled away. 
In 1701 a vessel, probably a slave trader, brought some 
camels from Guinea to Virginia, but no record remains 
of the enterprise except that it failed. In the early 
times camels were brought also to Jamaica and em- 
ployed there with success until a small insect, called 
the "chiqua," so we are told, got into their feet and 
ended their usefulness. 
Maj. George H. Crosman was the first of our military 
men to consider and advocate the use of the animal 
for military purposes in this country, the transporta- 
tion difficulties of our stubborn Indian war in Florida 
convincing him that camels might be used with effect. 
He made a study of the subject, and about 1836 brought 
it. to the attention of the authorities. His ideas were taken 
up by Maj. Henry C. Wayne, whose studies on the sub- 
ject were more complete, and who, as early as 1848, 
suggested to the War Department and to members of 
Congress the plan of a Government importation. At 
about the same time Jefferson Davis, then a United 
States Senator from Mississippi, was impressed with 
the desirability of; trying the animals, and, as chairman 
of the Committee on Military Affairs, labored until he 
left the Senate (in 1851) to secure some practical test 
by the Government. 
The suggestion that camels be used in this country 
for travel, for carrying the mails, and for transporting 
supplies is frequently met with in the newspapers of 
the " '40s." These suggestions were made both by 
tourists from other countries, surprised at the wide 
extent of our territory, and by observant Americans 
who had traveled in the Orient and had become ac- 
quainted with the universal use of the animal through- 
out all of the eastern countries. 
John Russell Bartlett, who was appointed in 1850 by 
President Taylor as a commissioner to run the bound- 
ary between this country and Mexico, on making the 
report of his three years' service in that work, strongly 
urged that camels be employed by the Government in 
the Southwest. At about this time, too, Prof. George 
P. Marsh, the philologist and diplomat, who served this 
country as minister to Turkey and to Italy, published 
an instructive book on the camel "considered with ref- 
erence to his introduction into the United States," 
faking the ground that an energetic attempt to import 
and use these animals could not but result in success. 
In the winter of 1852-53 the proposition was made 
to the Committee on Military Affairs in the Senate to 
authorize the Secretary of War to import thirty camels 
and ten dromedaries, together with ten Arabs to look 
after them, the proposal being supported by a paper 
of some length by Mr. George R. Gliddon, the arche- 
ologist, who had lived twenty-eight years in the Levant, 
and was, during eight years of that time, United States 
Consul at Cairo. No measures were taken, however, 
by that Congress to provide for the importation. 
When, in 1853, Jefferson Davis became Secretary of 
War in the_ Cabinet of President Pierce, he came more 
intimately into contact with the troubles of military 
transportation in our great West, and resolved to give 
the camel an opportunity to lessen these difficulties. 
Major Wayne was asked to prepare some remarks on 
the subject, to be used as the basis of an appeal to Con- 
gress, and he wrote a paper jn favor of the project 
