CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
77 
from some of his practices, but such fact would not worry him 
in the slightest. When he suffers a gunshot wound, he simply 
pounds black mud from the bottom of some lagoon into the 
ugly wound. This, it is claimed, stops the flow of blood and 
cools the fever. A hunter returning from the great Okefenokee 
Swamp relates having killed a bear which had been suffering 
from gunshot wounds, which had later become infected with 
the larvae of the dread “screw-worm fly.” This, incidentally, 
was a new pest which the bear had never before encountered, 
a pest which attacks the living as well as the dead. Instinct 
would have failed him had such been the only guiding influ¬ 
ence. He had resorted to a remedy wholly new in the jungle 
hospital—he had simply pounded the wound full of fresh tur¬ 
pentine gum obtained from trees men had been working. 
Every living larvae had been destroyed and the wound was all 
but healed. Thus his skill compared favorably with that of 
the average veterinarian. 
The following brief story from the pen of a gentleman who 
had spent much time in the wild, gunning for both birds and 
small game, deserves to be related and pondered well. This 
man was more than a hunter; he was an ornithologist of note, 
interesting himself as much in the life and habits of game birds 
as he did in bagging them. With dog and gun he had gone 
out for quail on the day the incident occurred. He had en¬ 
tered a pine thicket by the side of a cultivated field feeling that 
his chances of flushing a covey of quail were very favorable in 
the particular locality being hunted out. At the time he entered 
the wooded spot he had taken notice of a flock of crows on 
the farther side of the field. He was positive that they had 
taken notice of himself, inasmuch as he had been walking in 
plain view of them, and anyone accustomed to outdoor life 
will testify that they do not pass anything by unnoticed. To 
his amazement, a single member of the flock followed him into 
the timbered spot, and when the bird came within firing range 
he opened up with his shotgun, firing two or three times before 
fatal wounds were finally inflicted upon him. He was amazed 
at the queer behavior of the bird, taking notice at the same 
time that other members comprising the flock had remained at 
