284 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June, 1921 
‘ ‘ The Greatest Sporting 
Goods Store in the World ” 
Two New 
Tents for 
Sportsmen 
Hikelite Tent, as shown above 
— the lightest, most practical two- 
men tent for canoeists, hikers, 
hunters and fishermen — 5x7x6 feet 
high, made of Tanalite. Weight 
4% pounds. Ground cloth sewn in. 
Price, $25. 
Marquee Tent, 8x8x 8/^ feet 
high, made of Shelter Tent Duck. 
Packed in bag — weight complete, 
with jointed poles, 35 pounds. 
Price, $50. 
Wanderlust Ruck Sack, shown 
above $2.00 
Nessmuck Pack 4.75 
Canvas Water Buckets 80 
Armorsteel Cooking Outfit — 
Complete 4 People 11.85 
Arizona Folding Camp Grate . 
1.05, 1.50 
Combination Folding Camp Grate 
and Oven 7.00 
Canvas Duffle Bags: 
10x24 with handle 1.90 
12x36 with handle 2.50 
15x36 with handle 3.10 
18x36 with handle 3.80 
Canoe Rugs, Braided Felt, 
18x70 inches 4.50 
Army & Navy Combination Knife — 
2 Blades, Screw Driver, Bottle 
Opener, Can Opener, Leather 
Punch and Corkscrew . . . 3.00 
Abercrombie 
L Fitch Co* 
EZRA H. FITCH, President 
Madison Avenue and 45th Street 
New York 
“ Where the Blazed Trail 
Crosses the Boulevard ” 
line I decided that I would try to shoot 
one. The boys I had sent to look for 
the crocodile earlier in the morning 
had said that one of these animals had 
crawled out on the beach near the mouth 
of the river, for they had seen the 
tracks in the sand. At, the mouth of 
the river there were some large trees 
growing in the water. Monkeys some- 
times came from the jungle and visited 
these trees in search of food. With my 
gun and binoculars I crossed the river 
in a canoe and walked along the south 
bank to the mouth. The crocodile could 
still be seen some distance off shore 
from the mouth of the river. 
Climbing the tree nearest to the 
place where I saw the tracks in the 
sand, I hung my Winchester about ten 
feet above the ground on a snag that 
protruded from the trunk, then as- 
cended some fifteen or twenty feet 
higher and seated myself in a crotch. 
With the binoculars it was easy to see 
the head and most of the upper part of 
the reptile that floated quietly off the 
mouth of the river. It occasionally 
went down, sometimes for several min- 
utes. Finally it went down and I wait- 
ed and waited but it did not come up, so 
I decided that it must have gone away 
swimming under water, when glancing 
down towards the base of the tree I saw 
the crocodile not more than twenty feet 
from the trunk. 
It was close to the shore; only the 
upper surface of the head was above 
the water; the forelimbs and half the 
body could be seen, the rest was hidden 
in the deeper and discolored water from 
the river. At first I was afraid to move 
for fear that the animal would go away 
before I could get my rifle. Carefully 
hanging my binoculars on a branch, 
and finding that this apparently caused 
no alarm, I descended with the utmost 
deliberation to my rifle. To my sur- 
prise, instead of being alarmed, the 
crocodile came nearer the tree. It was 
plain that it considered me its prey. 
With the rifle I climbed to my former 
position, where I could sit at ease in 
the crotch, and sat watching, admiring 
the irregular pattern and somber col- 
ors, olivaceous-greens, browns and 
black with yellow and creamy white be- 
low. The eye was catlike with a nar- 
row pupil, and two of the lower front 
teeth protruded through perforations in 
the upper jaw. 
The clicking of the lever of the rifle 
when I opened and closed it did not dis- 
turb the crocodile. The bullet struck it 
in the neck just behind the head. I 
had expected a great splashing but 
there was not even a quiver. I saw the 
animal begin to sink and tried to get 
down from my perch in time to pull it 
out of the water, but I was too late 
The shot had attracted the attention of 
the Malays on my boat and when I 
waved to them they jumped in a canoe 
and came. 
We prodded the bottom and drew 
with a seine, but apparently the current 
had carried my prize away, so we hunt- 
ed for it in vain until late in the after- 
noon. However, during the night that 
followed there was a hard storm and 
to my delight the waves caused thereby 
rolled the large corpse upon the beach; 
a fine specimen a little over thirteen 
feet in length. In dissecting this speci- 
men I found in its stomach the re- 
mains of the monkeys with which I had 
baited the hook. 
THE MOOSE BOOK 
N O American game animal seems to 
be so little understood by the pub- 
lic at large as the greatest and 
most important of them all, the moose. 
This animal is constantly being repre- 
sented as rapidly following the buffalo 
on the road to practical extinction. 
To disprove this, Samuel Merrill, of the 
Boston Globe, has gathered from official 
sources all available data regarding the 
numbers of moose now to be found in 
the forests of the United States and of 
Canada, and regarding the measures 
which have been taken to safeguard the 
future of the species. This he has done 
in the second edition of “The Moose 
Book,” recently published by E. P. Dut- 
ton & Co., of New York. 
The discouraging tales of the “van- 
ishing moose” are vigorously disputed 
by the author of the book. He even in- 
sists that moose are increasing great- 
ly in numbers in many portions of their 
range. In this connection he quotes 
George Shiras, 3d, a member of the Ad- 
visory Board of Forest and Stream, 
who has for many years been making 
extended trips into widely scattered sec- 
tions of the northern wilderness, and 
endorses the opinion of Mr. Shiras that 
the moose “is now more abundant and 
more widely distributed on this contin- 
ent than at any previous period with 
which a comparison can be made.” 
“When I first visited Lake Superior 
in 1870,” writes Mr. Shiras, “moose 
were practically unknown on the south- 
ern or northern shores of this lake, and 
the same was true of a large area north 
of Lake Huron, for the larger portion 
of Western Ontario was occupied only 
by the caribou. Now moose are present 
by thousands in the country north of 
these two great lakes, and to the west- 
ern end of Ontario. 
“This increase would have been im 
possible were it not that the food condi- 
tions have been improved ten-fold in the 
past fifty years by cutting down the 
pine, and by forest fires, followed by 
a second growth of poplar, cherry, birch, 
beech, maple and mountain ash, besides 
ground vegetation. . . . 
“Another remarkable increase of 
moose,” says Mr. Shiras, “is found far- 
ther north, where they have taken pos- 
session of much of the wooded winter 
range of the barren-ground caribou. 
They have occupied the valley of the 
Mackenzie River, from its source to its 
mouth, besides new ground east and 
west of James Bay. In British Colum- 
bia, the Yukon, and much of Alaska 
there is also a steady increase. 
“In New Brunswick moose had be- 
come extremely scarce prior to 1885, 
and were limited to a few scattered in- 
dividuals in remote districts, but the 
protection of the females, and the en- 
forcement of other wise laws, have led 
to a remarkable improvement.” 
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