FOREST AND STREAM 
271 
i^Sept. 30, 1905.] 
>4 ^ 
jvlr. George L. Peabody, president of the Rockland 
i)j h, Game and Gun Club, wjites that his club is taking 
Md of the work of stocking the covers with game and 
I5I streams with 6sh with the intention of making a de- 
filed improvement in present conditions, 
t jdr. W. H. Hill, of Waltham, says there are fine game 
; 'ers in the vicinity, but he has heard only one Bob 
lite whistle this season. He emphasizes the need of a 
1 re effective warden service and a bounty on owls, 
1 , ;vks, crows and such animals as destroy young birds 
Ik il rob nests of eggs. 
•iji )r. W. S. Burt, of Beacon, Vt., has had the good for- 
y :e to bag a good number of shore birds since the first 
6;|the month, and Mr. H. P. Andrews, of Hudson, tells 
V he is planning to visit Washington county. Me., early 
*ij;t month for a few days’ bird shooting. 
H. H. Kimball. 
[pan from a Sporting Point of View 
Ien often ask me about the sport obtainable in Japan, 
. so with respect to this it may not come amiss if I 
e explain. Hunting, such as the people of England 
Ireland understand it by that term, is absolutely non- 
stent in the land of the Mikado. Foxes, deer and hares 
plentiful enough, but Japan’s natural features and the 
hods of agriculture followed by its farming classes 
all, and most uncompromisingly too, against it. 
•f hawking in Japan I cannot write with much knowl- 
e, for, let alone my want of experience of that sport, 
ive never seen it practiced there. That it is pursued 
isionally, or, rather, was in the not very remote past, 
lowver, amply borne out by the fact that quite an ex- 
jive vocabulary relating to it forms a by no means in- 
lificant part of the language. Many of the older 
urai, those gentlemen of old Japan, still keep hawks; 
more, I think, because of the atmosphere of romance 
i chivalry encircling the bird than for any more prac- 
1 purpose. One such old friend of mine, who went in 
■T extensively for rock-work in his garden, used to 
) a magnificent specimen of a large fishhawk, or 
■'ey, fettered to a huge boulder of granite that pro- 
ed oyer his ornamental waters. The effect, especially. 
:n his tame carp and tortoise were driven past the 
; of the rock, was really superb. The fierce excite- 
it of the bird and the attitudes that excitement in- 
2d him to strike were a fruitful source of interest and 
ipation to the dear old man, for, though more than 
narily well off, he was an artist, and one who devoted 
whole time and attention to the depicting of hawks 
eagles alone. Seated in his little studio, the most 
orately rustic affair imaginable, he would study, brush 
kand, every move of the bird, and when something 
icularly striking took his fancy it was immediately, 
with rare skill and rapidity, transferred to his 
mcse equivalent of canvas. The result was, as will 
inderstood by anyone posse.ssing the slightest knowl- 
: of Far Eastern art, that my old friend’s hawks and 
es simply lived upon his canvase,s, and, though I often 
nined his sketches, I ne\-er saw two of them repre- 
ing a hawk in exactly the same position ; and yet one 
n hears people declare that Japanese art is conven- 
|.ial and untrue to nature. 
"f candidates for the rifle Japan possesses quite a re- 
dtable number, among them being three species of 
i s, the wolf, a species of stag, another of antelope, and, 
^ is permissible for an old Anglo-Indian to place him 
he same category, the wild boar. All are, however, 
ce, and getting scarcer yearly,' and it certainly would 
pay onyone to make extensive preparations for going 
earch of any of them, for, though the Aino, that ex- 
lely hairy aborigine of japan, hunts them all most 
dt’ousTy, he will render no assistance to a stranger to 
ikewise, and as for the Japanese hunter he is the most 
jul of shikaris. And then, again, the slightest devia- 
ij by a foreigner off the beaten tracks of foreign travel 
dapan is'mofe likely than not to lead to unpleasantness 
ijhnn, for suspicion of foreigners and their motives is 
of the leading and worst traits in the Japanese char- 
r. Not being sportsmen or travelers in the same 
e and from the same motives as the English-speaking 
'e are, they cannot understand why anyone should 
*1 
)le 
id his time in the pursuit of objects which — to them 
.^ast— bring no tangible results. To travel they have 
)bjection, but only do so to see places of interest and 
some very definite object in view, such as for the 
ng out of a foreign land or for the gaining of knowl- 
1 upon a special subject, but never for sport. Of the 
ireds of Japanese who travel westward quite ninety 
cent, do so at their Government’s expense and in its 
ice. 
P revert, however, to the wild game of Japan, it is a 
indeed that matters are as described, for the bear.s 
le land are unique, as well from the point of view of 
enormous size, strength and fierceness of one species 
'rom the diminutiveness of another. The first is a 
t carnivorous brute, a sort of grizzly, who makes 
ing of killing and carrying off a fourteen-hand pony, 
t to him comes a black beast very much like the sloth 
of India, and last of all a diminutive little brute 
:e larger than a good-sized spaniel, exceedingly shy, 
® seldom seen. The wolves of Japan are scarce, cow- 
and of little account, and found now only in the 
erne northern parts of the empire. The stag is about 
size of and in make and shape and habits, too, like 
fallow deer of England and Scotland. The little 
nese antelope must be a very near relative indeed of 
iungle bakri of India, possessing as he does the same 
ral appearance and shy habits. The wild pig of Japan 
ars to be a domestic pig run wild ; indeed, I have 
herds of Manchurian and Mongolian swine, great, 
<, hairy beasts, driven through the streets of Peking 
‘far wilder and fiercer breed than any Wild pig I have 
; across in Japan. The boars there are, however, of a 
size, but never so tall on the legs nor with such fine 
as the jungly sooar of India. To ride one. of them 
i'fn, as we do his brother of Inde, would be an impossi- 
Ify. for, as it would be the case in hunting, so, too. in 
fjl sport, the nature of the country would be all against 
)l)ne attempting to do so. 
;side the above mentioned and described game beasts 
I'! apan, seals and sea otters offer chances of no end of 
fun to a really keen sportsman, But then he must 
iti 
possess a yacht — say, a schooner from sixty to eighty 
tons — and not only be ready to live on it for weeks, if 
not months, at a stretch, but also to put up with many 
inconveniences in the way of decks hampered with boats 
and their gear. An old-time eighty-ton sealing and otter 
hunting schooner, such a one that among the many of 
fifteen or twenty years ago made Yokohama its head- 
quarters, would have carried at least eight boats, and 
probably more. To each boat there would have been at- 
tached a hunter and two boat pullers, as the men manning 
the boats were termed. With these men on board the 
schooner, in addition to the cook and his assistant, a pos- 
sible cabin boy or extra hand, and with skipper and mate, 
the sleeping and living quarters were decidelly cramped. 
But arrived on the sealing ground, or, rather, waters, the 
schooner was hove to, and the boats launched first thing 
every morning. The result was that the men got a thor- 
ough airing, and the boat pullers more especially a con- 
siderable amount of exercise. Just how the life agreed 
with them was shown in the condition they returned to 
port after a five or six months’ cruise, for, taking them as 
a lot, it would have been difficult to find anywhere a more 
bronzed and toughened lot of men. 
In the early and paying days of the pelagic sealing in- 
dustry the boat pullers were mostly whites — British, 
Americans and Scandinavians — and the hunters the same. 
Later on, however, as the industry became a less profit- 
able one, Japanese boat pullers were engaged in the place 
of the whites, the hunters remaining as before. Unfortu- 
nately, these last and the skippers of the schooners were 
a somewhat lawless lot, given to raiding the rookeries or 
breeding places of the seals. As the breeding places were 
mostly situated in Russian waters, and very loosely 
guarded, there arose at times a good deal of trouble be- 
tween the sealers and the supposed guards. Shots would 
be exchan.ged and men killed on both sides. Anxious to 
avoid diplomatic complications which might arise as the 
result of such a state of affairs, the Japanese authorities 
then commenced to place all sorts of obstacles in the way 
of Japanese subjects shipping on sealing schooners. This 
forced the skippers to ship Chinese, and later on Kana- 
kas, or South Pacific Islanders, in lieu of the Japanese. 
But, though bigger and heavier men than the little island- 
ers. their substitutes were far less satisfactory in every 
way. This, coupled with the fact that sealskins went out 
of fashion just about this time, soon gave the pelagic 
sealing industry its death blow — that is, at least, so far as 
the whites were concerned. The Japanese, however, with 
little or no experience of the industry, then took it up, 
and, with their lower standard of living, are managing to 
make it pay. But even for them the day cannot be far 
distant when it will be completely and effectually done for 
as a paying venture, and in the interests of humanity the 
quicker that day comes the better, for, unless bagged at 
once, a wounded seal is seldom followed up, and simply 
because such a proceeding would mean the possible and 
probable^ scaring away of other seals in the vicinity of the 
boat. The seals are, it may here be added, always shot 
with small-sized buckshot, and generally so when lying 
asleep on the surface of the waters. Those, however, that 
were killed on the rookeries were rounded up and clubbed 
to death, the whole crew of the schooner landing for that 
purpose; but so well guarded are those rookeries now 
that this wholesale clubbing of seals is fast becoming a 
thing of the past. 
Unlike sealing, sea otter hunting or shooting affords a 
considerable amount of real sport, and the dangers at- 
tending it add a no mean amount of zest to it, for, while 
sealing operations are carried out in mid-ocean, the sea 
otter has to be searched for close in shore, and, as he 
dearly loves a rock-bound coastline, the hunter’s boat is 
very liable to be stove in. His habitat, so far as the 
Asiatic side of the Pacific is concerned, is among the 
Kuriles and along the coasts of Saghalien and Kamat- 
-schatka — places where the tide rips have to be seen to be 
appreciated. For these tide rips and the extraordinary 
commotion they create in the waters the hunters have to 
keep a sharp lookout, for a boat caught in one of them 
i.s more likely to get swamped than otherwise, and should 
this happen his chance of escaping a watery grave is small 
indeed. There are two methods of hunting the sea otter, 
which, it may here be added, is a remarkably wary brute, 
and, anything from six to ten times as large as a land 
otter. The first method is for three hunters to work to- 
gether, two, one following the other at a distance of half 
a mile or so, keeping close in shore, either sailing or 
.sculling along parallel to it ; and the third well out and as 
nearly as possible at an equal distance from them both. 
Upon sighting their quarry the hunters endeavor to cut 
him off from the shore and away from any rocks that 
might afford him shelter. Keeping him well between 
them, they fire at him from every side and every time he 
shows his nose above water, and as the bullets from the 
hunters’ rifles strike the water near him the poor brute 
dives and dives again. His first dives are generally long 
and in the direction of the shore, but as he gets winded 
his dives become shorter and more erratic, and then the 
boats close in upon him and hustle him about, until he 
can be knocked on the head or shot without fear of 
damaging his skin, for a sea otter’s pelt is one of the 
most valuable of furs. Sometimes, however, a hunter 
will take up his position upon a rock and lie in wait for 
otters to come within range of his rifle, but only so when 
he knows there is extra good feeding ground around. 
Even here, with the firm ground under him, he must be 
a quick and first-class rifle shot to enable him to bag his 
otter as it should be bagged, for while swimming about 
and on the move the brute affords but a very small and 
difficult target.— F. J. N., in London Field. 
Voices of the Night. 
Watertown, N. Y.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Through the Forest and Stream “Question Box” I 
would ask some of the readers that are posted in that line 
the names of birds with the clear and distinct whistle that 
are migrating nightly. The volume and tone would in- 
dicate bobolink or oriole, but it is a difficult matter to 
identify them. These, return voices begin in early August 
and continue through September, and the number must 
be very great, although there is evidently a lessened 'num- 
ber the present season. Inquirer. 
THE ONLY MANY-USE OIL 
It oils gun locks, revolvers, reels, cylinders, valves. Just right. 
Some Fellows I Have Met* 
When I Had My Gon. 
When Hans Ohlschmidt drove his prairie schooner up 
the Platte River valley, some thirty years ago, and finally 
settled on the banks of that broad be-sandbarred stream, 
wild geese were so plentiful that they were a nuisance to 
the scattered settlers, who actually had to drive them from 
the fields. 
1 his fact was made known to me on a late trip to the 
Platte when I met Hans, who, by way of comparison I 
presume, became reminiscent; my small string of white 
brant evidently impressing him as insignificant. 
While seated on a truck at the railway station waiting 
for a train which was hours late, to take me home, the 
old German, who has lost none of the Fatherland charac- 
teristics nor improved his English greatly since he came 
out of the East, joined me, and we soon were talking 
together. 
It was after I learned he was an old settler that I got 
him started on the subject of goose shooting, which had 
certainly earlier been good in the locality but was now; 
quite indifferent, as my small bag attested. 
“I presume you have shot a great many geese since you 
came here?” I remarked. 
“Ach, Gott im Himmel,” he replied, “von tousand, 
more as dat, fife huntered yet.” 
“Is that so ?” said I, passing him a cigar, and he sat on 
the truck beside me. 
“Yah,” and he puffed and puffed to get a good light, 
“das ist recht. I kills me ein und zwanzig mit twO' shoots 
vonce.” 
“On the same day?” I inquired. 
He looked at me in disgust, and went on with some 
warmth. “Vot you tink, I am shodding two days in vonce, 
yet? Not much, I guess not, I kills him von, two, eins, 
zwei, verstehst du, yes ?” 
“What ! You mean to tell me you killed twenty-one 
geese with two barrels ?” 
“Sure, like nuddings,” he replied. 
I lighted up a fresh cigar and begged him tO' tell me 
all about it, and he did ; and if I had got nothing but his 
story, and could half retell it, I would have been repaid 
for the trip. 
Joe, it seems, was a half-breed who had been working 
for Hans, and while he cared nothing more for goose or 
duck shooting than the average Indian, he could call the 
birds to perfection. 
Geese had been congregating on a bar near the house 
for days, and their continual honk and cackle as they 
stood by the thousar.d on the flat sands, was a din that 
Hans proposed to stop. 
.“Come, Joe, ve give it to dem Canadas to-day, yet.” 
And together they left the house, Hans carrying a heavy 
gun, a powder horn and a bottle of No. i shot. They 
were soon digging the sand on a towhead, while the last 
straggling geese left the river, just after daylight, to feed 
in the cornfields. 
“Make such a noise like de geeses ven he fly high over, 
but ven he light don’t make it some more,” were Hans’ 
instructions to Joe as they finished the pit in which they 
were to hide. 
Up to this point of his narrative it was extremely hard 
to keep from laughing at Hans’ construction of very 
broken English, as it would have made a sadder story 
nearly as cheerful; and I regret that I am compelled to 
omit certain adjectives which; to his notion, must have 
added force to his remarks. 
“Ve shust make a vade,” Hans continued,' “and by de 
towhedt und dot fool Joe, he step in queeksand and try 
to step queek oud and fall all over in, and I must to help 
him. I drops mine mussiling loatef in de vawter, und 
cetch Joe by de neck of de coat Und pull like plazes yet; 
but he don’t come oudt. 
‘T say to Joe, ‘et is to leave- your poofs in de sandt, yes-^' 
“Joe he say, ‘Tam de poots, you bring a pole und I 
climbs me like a monkey oudt’ ‘Yah, yah,’ I say, und I 
reach him such a der.dt trees, und he pooty queek pulls 
himself oudt. 
“Den I say. ‘Joe. de gun is loosed.’ und he make me 
rnadt when he say, ‘L give a two whoops I dondt own 
him,’ and he gives me such a laugh like a Injun horse, 
you know, yes? no? 
“Veil, I look me for de gun in de vawter for more as 
hour, vile Joe sits by de fire and swears yet, but I cares 
noddings, I find de gun und go und dry him by de fire 
oudt. I say to Joe und mine tog Schneider, ‘Come on, 
poys, ve now vill lay for de geeses.’ 
“Joe ese von deadt game sports, und he queek make 
such a teegoys mit cliarcoals and sticks to look like live 
geeses, und I loads me mine mussiling loater for such a 
bear shoodings., 
“Joe he make some foolishness mit me all time, und 
say, ‘Hans, vy you don’t git such a breeches loater und 
trow de blunderbuss in de rever?’ 
“Py golly, dat make me so madt I tink I cand’t shoot 
straight ,und I say, ‘I will queek show you ven I shoot de 
gun off,’ und he queek go behindt me and say, ‘Hans, look 
at de geeses.’ 
“Ve trow Schneider by the pit in, und I say to Joe if 
he shall talk some more I might by mistake shoodt him, 
yet, yes? 
“Joe never but von time make de noise like de geeses, 
und de flock come, und set on de sand und yust vash up 
und ta'lk like vomens. Joe say, ‘Vy de dunder you dondt 
shoot yet?’ I say in such a goose talk, ‘Shut opp und vait 
a minute,’ und I point de gun by his ear und he shuts 
■queek up. 
“More und more as dat some geeses comes by de sand 
bar, yet, and Joe he go crazy und pound his headt by de 
sand, und points his hand like a gun, but you bedt he 
dondt say sometings yet. 
“I guess was more as tousand geeses on sand bar, und 
I yust rest me mine mussiling loater on sand pile and took 
von long aim und pull de trigger— von, two, bang! bang! 
und, Gott im Himmel, souch a trouble broke loose. 
“I VOS kicked on Schneider, und he yelps, and Joe he 
swear some rfiore und rub his eyes de sand oudt. I queek 
got up and say, ‘Joe, you now can see vy I dondt need 
such a breeches loater,’ und I say to mine tog Schneider. 
‘Go fetch de geeses’ ; und he chases a cripple oudt of de 
rever und to de next county, yet. 
