55 ^ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 3, 1909. 
DOING 
— at — 
Decatur, 111., March 16 and 17 
PROFESSIONAL AVERAGES 
J. M. Hughes, using DUPONT, broke 384 out of 400—96 % 
F. H. Bills, “ “ “ 373 “ “ 400—93^% 
W. D. Stannard, “ “ “ 360 “ “ 400—90 % 
AMATEUR AVfcRAGES 
J. R. Graham, using DUPONT broke 370 out of 400—92^% 
A. P. Smith, using largely DUPONT loads, broke 360 out of 400—90% 
Tom Hall, “ DUPONT, broke 357 out of 400—89^% 
DUPONT SMOKELESS 
Makes and Breaks Records 
It will Always Help Yovi 
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E. 1. DU PONT DE NEMOURS POWDER COMPANY, 
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Established 1802 
We I nt) it e Correspondence 
■—Dixon's Graphite for Sportsmen—*; 
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Booklets “Graphite Afloat and Afield” and “Dizoa’t 
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JOSEPH DIXON CRUCIBLE CO.. • Jersei City. N. J. 
Uncle Lisha^s Shop. 
Life in a Corner of Yankeeland. By Rowland E. Robin¬ 
son. Cloth. 187 pages. Price, $1.25. 
The shop itself, the place of business of Uncle Lisha 
Peggs, bootmaker and repairer, was a sort of sportsman’s 
exchange, where, as one of the fraternity expressed it, 
the hunters and fishermen of the widely scattered neigh¬ 
borhood used to meet of evenings and dull outdoor days 
“to swap lies.” 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
Where, When and How to Catch 
Fish on the East Coast of Florida 
By Wm. H. Qregg, of St. Louis, Mo., assisted by Capt 
John Gardner, of Ponce Park, Mosquito Inlet, Fla 
With 100 engravings, and 12 colored illustrations 
Cloth. Illustrated. 268 pages. Map. Price, $4.00. 
A visitor to Florida can hardly make the trip withoui 
this book, if he is at all interested in angling. It gives a 
very complete list of the fishes of the East Coast oi 
Florida, and every species is illustrated by a cut taker 
from the best authorities. The cuts are thus of the mos) 
value to the angler who desires to identify the fish hr 
takes, while the colored plates of the tropical fish showt. 
in all their wonderful gorgeousness of coloring, are very 
beautiful. Besides the pictures of fish, there are cut? 
shoAving portions of the fishing tackle which the authoi 
uses. A good index completes the volume. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
MEDIAEVAL NATURAL HISTORY. 
It would be interesting to follow up the train 
of inquiry suggested by the query which appears 
in our correspondence columns, and try to dis¬ 
cover how many phrases current in the English 
language may be traced to old traditions and 
legends relating to the world of nature. Our 
correspondent has laid finger upon one of the 
most familiar and also one that can most easily 
be traced to its original source: reference to old 
books on natural history leaves no room for 
doubt on this score. “Licking a cub into shape” 
has about it a ring so modern, so redolent of 
the playground that it is difficult to believe at 
first sight that the phrase has any but a public 
school origin; but the English mediaeval natur¬ 
alists—if they may be called so—provide the 
true source which they found in the writings of 
one Avicenna, an Arab doctor who wrote early 
in the eleventh century. This authority left it 
on record that “the bear bringeth forth a piece 
of flesh imperfect and evil shapen, and the 
mother licketh the lump, and shapeth the mem¬ 
bers with licking.” Then, omitting some par¬ 
ticulars not very suitable for publication in any 
age, “and so this lump she licketh and shapeth 
a whelp with licking.” It will perhaps be con¬ 
ceded that if this be not the origin of onr com¬ 
mon expression, the coincidence is at least a 
very extraordinary one. 
Apart from their interest as a possible source 
of supply for current phrases, the writings of 
these old naturalists have an attraction of their 
own, by reason of their simple extravagance and 
the splendid credulity which accepted them. 
Pliny furnished the early naturalists of the 
Christian era with a good many sound facts; 
but Pliny belonged to a lost civilization, and his 
sound facts were not appreciated by scribes of 
a few centuries later who sought to illuminate 
the darkness of their own age by sensational 
narrative. 
It is curious to observe the industry with 
which the “doctors” of the thirteenth to the 
early seventeenth centuries searched the writ¬ 
ings of all ages and all countries for material 
appropriate to their purpose. They copied one 
another with freedom, and often without 
acknowledgment; but now and again there ap¬ 
peared one who for reason which seemed good 
to him elected to authenticate the marvels he 
retailed with the name of the sage, who, so far 
as could be traced, gave them currency. 'I'he 
compilation made by Bartholomew, a Eran- 
ciscan monk of the thirteenth century, is said 
to have been one of the most popular works of 
mediteval times. Originally written in Latin, it 
saw the light in England and during the ensuing 
century was translated into half a dozen 
European languages; and we need not doubt 
that the later editions owed not a little to the 
information which would be brought to the 
knowledge of the author’s successors who issued 
such new editions. PTowever this may be, the 
fact remains that the work was originally 
written with a religious object, to exolain 
allusions in Holy Writ; and as such was in the 
hands of the preaching friars who traveled 
Europe as missionaries. 
Open this book at any page and the eye is 
tolerably sure to rest upon some passage which 
recalls saying or tradition familiar to ns from 
onr nursery days. Thus “if the crocodile findeih 
a man by the brim of the water or by the cliff, 
he slayeth him if he may and then he weepeth 
upon him. and swalloweth him at the last.” 
There we have the genesis of “crocodile tears.” 
It is a pleasing picture this of the weeping 
crocodile, but let us turn to other animals. 
The wisdom of the elephant has supplied 
naturalists, of a sort, with a valuable source of 
anecdote down to our own time. Bartholomew 
does not give his authority for the stat'^ment 
that the elephant prays for the help of the Al¬ 
mighty “in a certain religion;” it was probably 
the Syriac compilation of the fourth century 
known as the Physiologus. but let that pass. In 
the good Franciscan’s wonderful chanter on this 
beast, he stumbles upon one fact at least, to wit 
that “a cave or ditch is made under the earth, 
as it were a nitfall in the elephant’s way, and 
unawares he falleth therein.” So far so good; 
