Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER u, 1909 . 
VOL. LXXIIINo. 24. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE AEROPLANE AND THE SPORTSMAN 
Only a little while ago we were all laughing 
at the attempts to fly made here and in France 
by men who, as it seemed then, were literally 
taking their lives in their hands. 
During the past few years, however, Wilbur 
and Orville Wright and a few intrepid Euro- 
! peans have demonstrated the fact that flying will 
in the future become a pastime or a profession 
of serious men. A number of aviators have 
made long flights; a few have attained great 
heights, one has crossed wide waters; another 
has raced with the gulls along the Hudson 
River; the Wrights have carried passengers with 
them; governments have in a substantial man¬ 
ner demonstrated their faith in the practicability 
of the flying machines of the present and the 
future. 
Knowing these things we can calmly contem¬ 
plate the changes that will be brought about 
when aeroplanes become more or less popular 
with the leisure class. Mainly these specula¬ 
tions are confined to the subject of national 
safety in war time, though it is admitted that 
aeroplanes may be employed by sportsmen; in- 
f deed, have been so used within a fortnight, as 
we will mention further on. But one question 
deserving attention and comment now is the 
effect of flying machines on game. The German 
Hunters’ News says: 
A landowner walking over his property saw two black 
storks by the side of a lake well stocked with ducks. 
Suddenly they took flight, without any apparent cause, 
and then the ducks began to quack loudly, rose from the 
water, and were soon out of sight. While the observer 
was considering what could have frightened the birds, he 
saw a dirigible balloon approaching, and this had been 
probably perceived by the birds before he caught sight 
of it. He heard later that the roe in the fields were 
terrified at the sight of the machine or the noise of the 
propellers, and fled for safety to the woods. 
I Another German writer has said of flying 
machines that all animals show fear at their ap¬ 
proach ; partridges, quail and other game birds 
cower and hide themselves and domestic cocks 
utter warning cries as if they perceived some 
gigantic bird of prey. Von Hoffken, the Swed¬ 
ish aeronaut, when at a moderate height, watched 
elk, foxes, hares and other animals take to flight, 
and dogs rushed howling into the houses. When 
Zeppelin III. made the flight from Diisseldorf 
to Essen, horses and cattle ran wildly about the 
meadows as it approached and sheep crowded 
with loud bleatings round their shepherd. From 
these facts he concludes that the employment 
of airships of whatever type will have a disas¬ 
trous effect on furred and feathered game. 
Perhaps Rowland Ward, the famous taxider¬ 
mist, was first to call the attention of the British 
sportsmen to this matter. The Field says that 
he supported his views by reference to state¬ 
ments made by Lord Walsingham on the em¬ 
ployment of kites in partridge shooting. Lord 
Walsingham said the belief was very prevalent 
that where kites were too constantly employed 
they had the effect of driving the game to other 
ground, and in his view the balance of evidence 
did not favor the use of kites; but kites pro¬ 
duce no sound and are therefore less likely 
than the noisy airships to frighten game, while 
their size is insignificant. 
The sensation of the century, so far as sports¬ 
men are concerned, appears to have been caused 
by a Frenchman, for when one of them sets 
his heart on a thing he strives earnestly at the 
risk of life and limb to accomplish it, and dis¬ 
regards some dangers that would deter other 
men. It was Llerbert Latham who, with an 
invitation in his pocket to take part in an after¬ 
noon’s shoot, accepted, put in an appearance, and 
ere nightfall returned home with a bag of game 
and the honor of being the pioneer aviator- 
sportsman. In his aeroplane he flew from 
Chalons to Berru, eighteen miles, in half an 
hour, shot with a party over the preserves of 
the Marquis de Polignac, and flew back to 
Chalons at nightfall with his gun and a bag of 
pheasants he had shot. 
What one man has done others can do, and 
when aeroplanes are to be had in the open mar¬ 
ket, it may come to pass that our own sports¬ 
men who are chained to business will close their 
desks and with gun and cartridge bag, will fly 
over the housetops and fields to some favorite 
spot for an afternoon’s shooting. 
The importance of our fish hatcheries is shown 
in the records of the Federal Fisheries Bureau. 
During the fiscal year nearly three and a quarter 
billions of fish and fish eggs have been hatched 
and distributed or made ready for distribution. 
While commercial fishes are in the greatest 
numbers, the increase in the output of game 
fishes is marked. It has been a favorable sea¬ 
son for fish hatching, though not so favorable 
in many States for the young fish planted last 
year. At present a great many streams are 
lower than they were during last autumn, as 
little rain has fallen since last May. 
•S 
Two important meetings are being held this 
week. The American Ornithologists’ Union is 
in session in the American Museum of Natural 
History in this city, and the New York State 
Fish, Game and Forest League is holding its 
annual convention in Syracuse. 
BENT’S FORT. 
In books of travel in the Southwest, written 
seventy-five years ago, no place was more fre¬ 
quently mentioned than Bent’s Fort, known also 
as Fort William, later as' Bent’s Old Fort, and 
among the Indians of the plains as the Earth 
House. 
William W. Bent was the first white settler 
in that Southwest which now teems with popu¬ 
lation, and his fort was the first large perma¬ 
nent building erected in all that region north 
and east of the Mexican settlements. Yet, al¬ 
though until after the close of the Civil War 
Bent’s Fort was one of the best known places 
in the Southwest, little or nothing that is defi¬ 
nite has been told about it. Travelers mention 
it, but it seems to have been too well known to 
require description, and to-day it is little more 
than a name, while scarcely anything has been 
written of the active life that once went on be¬ 
neath the shadow of its walls. 
The great building from whose flagstaff the 
American ensign streamed forth when General 
Kearney’s great army—of 1,700 men—marched 
by it to enter Mexico from the north, long ago 
fell to ruin, and it may be that to-day even its 
precise site is unknown. Of those who saw 
Bent’s Fort in anything like the heyday of its 
glory, but few are left alive, and most of these 
few are the red men who traded there. Even 
to-day, if you visit certain Indian camps in the 
West, you may hear low-voiced, slow-speaking 
old men tell of the glories of the Earth House 
which, to the wondering eyes of their boyhood, 
represented everything that was grand and 
beautiful of the white man’s architecture and 
civilization. 
We shall soon begin the publication of a series 
of articles treating of this historic building and 
of those who occupied it in those early days, 
when the Santa Fe trade flourished, when beaver 
was the currency of the mountains, and when the 
Mexican war began and ended. The material 
for these articles has been gathered chiefly from 
a single survivor of those who were dwellers in 
the old fort, familiar with the daily operations 
of its trade and its traffic, and who journeyed 
east or west with the slow-moving bull trains 
that carried its furs to St. Louis, or its trade 
goods back to the Arkansas. Much of the inti¬ 
mate detail of this life has been saved through 
the extraordinary memory of George Bent, the 
only surviving son of William Bent, who was 
born in the fort and lived there so long as it 
was occupied by his father. Other material 
comes from Indians who traded there, and in 
addition there has been brought together much 
of what has been published about it in early 
books of travel. 
All persons who live west of the Mississippi, 
and who are interested in the history of our 
country, will be glad to read a connected story 
of Bent’s Old Fort. 
