Like gossip or a bad habit, fishing misses some 
men and makes captives of others. This intangible 
lure selects men who are apart. Look upon a true 
fisherman—he looks not as other men. Nothing 
favors men in the play and capture of a fish. In 
the hooking of a splendid trout, the boy with a 
birch pole lives in a few minutes all the romance 
of a crowded hour, and his adventure is the pin- 
nacle of adolescent days. He stands on equal foot- 
ing with Walton the prophet or the greatest of 
living anglers or the hired-man hero of boyhood 
time, and is moved with the same sympathetic 
chords and whipped with identical memories. Fish- 
ing makes men one and brothers. 
Angling literature speaks of the gentle angler. 
No other word can describe man in his piscatorial 
play, for it is praise carried to finality. It has a 
lyric quality utterly in harmony with the move- 
ment of waters, the rhythm of winds. It is the 
temperament always associated with men who fish 
with the worm or fly or artificial bait. Fishermen 
do not know why they love to loaf along streams, 
yet the instincts deep in the breast send them to a 
day’s foray, and thus they are pacified and soothed. 
Once an angler always an angler. No man can 
escape the wild control of the mysterious recrea- 
tion. 
HOW DO YOU CLOSE A SHOTGUN? 
F the many accidents that have been caused 
() in the shooting field by rank carelessness or 
simply want of thought, not a few have been 
due to that reprehensible practice of bringing the 
barrels up to the stock when in the act of reclosing 
the gun after reloading. One supposes that there 
are thousands of persons who have never given so 
much as a single thought to this matter; they have 
never seen a gun go off through the striker being 
pushed forward on to a sensitive cartridge cap, 
owing to there not being sufficient clearance be- 
tween the striker and the cap, or owing to the 
former getting jammed. 
gested to them that such happenings, even if of 
rare occurrence, are at least possible, so that this 
hidden source of danger has never so much as 0¢- 
curred to them. When a gun is closed in the man- 
ner indicated, it means that the barrels are raised 
to a point some feet above the ground, and if the 
gun goes off in that position the charge may hit 
somebody and so cause a more or less serious 
accident according to the distance. 
The right way to close a gun is to bring the stock 
up to the barrels, so that the latter are naturally 
inclined downwards instead of upwards. Even 
then, of course, one must take care that there is 
nothing in the way—somebody’s feet, for example; 
but the risk of accident, in the case of discharge, 
is thereby much reduced, and nothing more will 
happen, as a rule, than that the charge buries itself 
harmlessly in the ground. This method of closing 
the gun, with the left hand gripping the fore-end 
and barrels and right hand holding the ‘‘toe” of 
the stock, soon becomes a habit, and it is one of the 
first things to impress upon the beginner. There 
are those, too, of long shooting experience who, 
though probably not knowing in the least how they 
close their guns, might just make a note of how they 
do it next time and perhaps profit by taking these 
remarks to heart. 
Page 21 Z 
No one has even sug- | 
VALUABLE FURS SHIPPED FROM ALASKA 
HE value of pelts of land fur-bearing animals 
shipped out of Alaska, as reported to the 
Biological Survey of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, during the year 1923 
was $1,794,159.85, the total number exported be- 
ing 397,287. While this number exceeds that of 
the previous year by 2,040, the value is $5,127.55 
less, because of the lower prices paid for some 
kinds of furs. As usual, the muskrat exceeded all 
others, both in numbers and in total value of skins, 
319,611 of these, having a value of $367,552, being 
the year’s export. Next in order come the white 
fox, numbering 7,939, with a value of $297,476; 
the beaver, with 14,341 skins, worth $258,138; 
and the red fox, with 10,787 skins, valued at $215,- 
740. The most notable decrease, as compared with 
1922, is the mink, 31,983 of these skins being 
shipped that year and 20,668 in 1923. The most 
notable increase is the red fox, 5,979 skins being 
exported in 1922 and 10,787 in 1923. 
BIRD VALOR 
HE fight between a wild swan and a sixteen- 
Jb pound salmon in the neighborhood of Crieff 
is only one of many instances in which the 
noble bird has proved itself to be possessed of 
much prowess and courage. In this case it im- 
paled the fish on its mandibles at the second attack, 
throwing it on to the grassy bank with a torn flank 
and as good as dead. Curiously enough, it made 
no attempt to feed on its prey, and did not offer 
any objection when the salmon was carried away 
by a stray dog. For its size and appearance the 
swan is possessed of extraordinary strength, and 
it has been said that a kick from its webbed foot 
is sufficient to break a man’s thigh. It is particu- 
lary truculent in the breeding season, and will not 
scruple to bar the way against human beings bent 
on visiting its squalid domicile. 
SEASONAL COLOR CHANGE IN WILD LIFE 
ROTECTIVE coloring is generally assumed to 
be such that an animal takes that of its sur- 
roundings and is thereby rendered less con- 
spicuous, says the Shooting Times and British 
Sportsman. But a correspondent of an Aberdeen 
journal writes that he has always understood that 
the Scottish hare changed coior from blue in sum- 
mer to white in winter on account of the latter 
being warmer; and that the game applies to the 
stoat. “Inquiry has settled conclusively that col- 
ors vary in yielding heat or cold. There can be no 
doubt that the idea of white color being of value 
to elude enemies is erroneous. In the former case, 
even on the snow-clad hills, any known enemies 
work decidedly by scent, direct or indirect; the 
eagle and other birds of prey have instinctive no- 
tions of the hare’s haunts. The white color is 
conspicuous on heather moors and on much arable 
or other low ground. The stoat has no enemies for 
which white color would form an antidote. As 
to the ptarmigan or white grouse, the same ap. 
plies.’ We understand the letter perfectly, but 
think that scientists would object to the phrase, 
_ “yielding heat or cold.” 
