gl2 
arrested, and that fourteen of them unanimously 
identified the fifteenth as the one who struck 
the blow. 
“And now,” said the Governor, “before we 
send for the prisoners, it will be as well to de- 
cide on the sentence. What does his Excellency 
wish done to them?” 
The Idle man was puzzled. How could he 
offer an opinion, being ignorant of the Egyptian 
civil code? And how could the sentence be de- 
cided upon before the trial? 
The Governor smiled serenely. 
“But,” he said, “this is the trial.” 
Being an Englishman, it necessarily cost the 
Idle Man an effort to realize the full force of this 
explanation—an explanation which in its sub- 
lime simplicity, epitomized the whole system 
of the judicial administration of the Egyptian 
law. He hastened, however, to explain that he 
cherished no resentment against the culprit or 
the villagers, and that his only wish was to 
frighten them into a due respect for travelers in 
general. 
The Governor hereupon invited the Mudir to 
suggest a sentence, and the. Mudir, taking into 
consideration, as he said, his Excellency’s lenient 
disposition, proposed to award the fourteen in- 
nocent men one month’s imprisonment each, and 
to the real offender two months’ imprisonment 
with a hundred and fifty blows of the bastinado. 
Shocked at the mere idea of such a sentence, 
the Idle Man declared that he must have the in- 
nocent set at liberty; but consented that the 
culprit, for the sake of example, should be sen- 
tenced to the one hundred and fifty blows— 
the punishment to be remitted after the first few 
strokes had been dealt. Word was now given 
for the prisoners to be brought in. 
The gaoler marched first, followed by two 
soldiers. Then came the fifteen prisoners—I am 
ashamed to write it!—chained neck to neck in 
single file. 
One can imagine how the Idle Man felt at that 
moment. 
Sentence being pronounced, the fourteen 
looked as if they could hardly believe their ears, 
while the fifteenth, though condemned to his 
one hundred and fifty strokes (“‘seventy-five to 
each foot,” specified the Governor), was over- 
joyed to be let off so easily. He was then flung 
down; his feet were fastened soles uppermost, 
and two soldiers proceeded to execute the sen- 
tence. As each blow fell, he cried, “God save 
the Governor God save the Mudir! God save 
the Howadji!” 
When the sixtieth stroke had been dealt, the 
Idle Man turned to the Governor, and formally 
interceded for the remission of the rest of the 
sentence. The Governor, as formally, granted 
the request, and the prisoners, weeping for joy, 
were set at liberty. 
The Governor, the Mudir, and the Idle Man 
then parted with a profusion of compliments, 
the Governor protesting that his only wish was 
to be agreeable to the English, and that the 
whole village should have been bastinadoed, had 
his Excellency desired it. 


Some Camp-Fire Dont’s. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Fire every summer plays havoc in our moun- 
tain forests, due, in most eases, to neglected 
camp-fires. By the exercise of reasonable care, 
much of this annual waste of timber could be 
prevented. 
To aid in the work of prevention the Great 
Northern Railway Company is sending out to 
the press a short article, which is inclosed. 
The question of forestry is one of the most 
important now before the country. Many States 
nay bounties for planting trees, and the general 
Government is beginning to give the matter of 
forestry the deep attention it deserves. A fire 
started from the camp of some careless hunter 
will do more damage in a day or two than a 
whole State can repair in years of time, labor 
and expense. é 
Commissioner W. A. Richards, of the General 
Land Office, has issued circulars warning the 
public against carelessness, inasmuch as many 
BOREST AWDASTREAWIS 
[JUNE 9, 1906. 


fires start from neglected camp-fires, and makes 
the following requests: 
1. Do not build a larger fire than you need. 
2. Do not build your fires in dense masses of 
pine leaves, duff and other combustible material, © 
where the fire is sure to spread. 
3. Do not build your fire against large logs, 
especially rotten logs, where it requires much 
more work and time to put the fire out than 
you are willing to expend, and where you are 
rarely quite certain that the fire is really and 
completely extinguished. 
4. In windy weather and in dangerous places, 
dig a fire-hole, and clear off a place to secure 
your fire. You will save wood and trouble. 
5. Every camp-fire should be completely put 
out before leaving the camp. 
6. Do not build fires to clear off land, and 
for other similar purposes, without informing 
the nearest ranger or the supervisor, so that he 
may assist you. F. I. WHITNEY. 
Yellowstone Park Game. 
MammMotH Hort Sprincs, Wyo., May 18.— 
Editor Forest and Stream: We have had an ex- 
ceedingly hard winter, but the greater part of the 
large game has pulled through in fine shape. The 
percentage of loss on account of the deep snows 
was very small indeed. The alfalfa field at 
Gardiner proved to be the salvation of the ante- 
lope herd. About roo tons of hay was cut from 
this field last summer, and when the snow fell 
deeply this hay was judiciously fed out to the 
antelope. Over 1,000 of these beautiful animals 
could be seen any day last winter on or near 
their feeding ground near Gardiner. 
The elk also took advantage of the feed that 
was put out for the antelope, and one day during 
the winter I,200 were counted on the flat near 
Gardiner feeding on the alfalfa that had not been 
eaten by the antelope. If the Government would 
permit the superintendent to purchase a few hun- 
dred tons of alfalfa over 1,000 elk could be fed 
at any point in this vicinity, and thus could be 
kept where they could be readily seen at any 
time during the winter by the people who are 
interested in large game.. 
The herd of mountain sheep was fed as usual 
at the time when they most needed assistance, 
and they have also pulled through the winter in 
fine shape. 
The buffalo herd has done finely during the last 
year, and at the present date we have eleven 
calves with a good prospect of three more. This 
makes the herd at the present time number fifty- 
four animals. As it started with twenty the in- 
crease 1s very encouraging, and the prospect of 
perpetuating the species is very good. Next year 
there seems a prospect of having at least twenty 
calves, and from now on the herd should increase 
very rapidly. YELLOWSTONE. 
Black Duck Shooting. 
SEVERAL years since the skipper and myself 
pulled down to Great Marsh before sundown to 
get a few shots at black duck, which were. strik- 
ing in quite plentifully. The skipper set the 
stools, while I busied myself in shoving my boat 
into the edge of the marsh and covering her with 
sedge, so that the birds might not sight me as 
I lay in her. As soon as he had finished the 
stools the skipper pulled away to a favorite 
blind, and by that time I was ready for busi- 
ness. 
The dusk was set in and we had had no shots, 
and I had been intently watching for any birds 
which might fly over, when I glanced at the de- 
coys end saw that the skipper had set more than 
he said he had. That is, I thought he said seven, 
and surely I counted eight. My first impulse 
was to cover that extra bird, and my gun was at 
my shoulder before I happened to think that pos- 
sibly it might be that he was mistaken, and that 
if I filled his decoys full of shot he might not be 
filled with happiness; and, besides, the laugh 
would never be over with the boys. 
I wavered a minute between an impulse to 
“turn her loose’ on the outside bird, but he was 
so quietly resting on the water without a quack 
or perceptible motion to be noticed through the 
dusk, that I had not the sand to take the chance 
of its not being a decoy. No duck had lit, and 
this extra one might easily be a decoy set by the 
shipper in excess of the seven he had told me he 
placed. To solve the problem, I gently rocked 
the boat in the marsh. Whir! Bang! Up got a 
black duck and off over the marsh he whistled, 
followed by my right barrel, but too late. The 
duck must have swam up from some distant part 
of the marsh, and so quietly that I had not seen 
him till he was among the decoys. I didn’t say 
anything about my brilliancy to the skipper. He 
had no delicacy of feeling, and would Bae 
Camp Tinware. 
My entire outfit for cooking and eating dishes 
comprises five pieces of tinware. This is when 
stopping in a permanent camp. When cruising or 
tramping, I take just two pieces in the knapsack. 
I get a skillful tinsmith to make one dish as 
follows: Six inches on bottom, 634 inches on 
top, side two inches high. The bottom is of the 
heaviest tin procurable, the sides of lighter tin, 
and seamed to be water-tight without solder. The 
top simply turned, without wire. The second 
dish to be made the same, but small enough to 
nest in the first, and also to fit into it when in- 
verted as a cover. Two other dishes made from 
common pressed tinware, with the tops cut off 
and turned, also without wire. They are fitted 
so that they all nest, taking no more room than 
the largest dish alone, and each of the three 
smaller dishes makes a perfect cover for the next 
larger. The other piece is a tin camp-kettle, also 
of the heaviest tin, and seamed water-tight. It 
holds two quarts, and the other dishes nest in it 
perfectly, so that when packed the whole take 
just as much room as the kettle alone. I should 
mention that the strong ears are set below the 
rim of the kettle, and the bale falls outside, so, 
as none of the dishes have any handle, there are 
no aggravating “stickouts’ to wear and abrade. 
The snug affair weighs, all told, two pounds. I 
have met parties in the North Woods whose one 
frying-pan weighed more—with its handle three 
feet long. How ever did they get through the 
brush with such a culinary terror? 
It is only when I go into a very accessible camp 
that I take so much as five pieces of tinware 
along. I once made a ten days’ tramp through 
an unbroken wilderness on foot, and all the dishes 
I took was a ten-cent tin; it was enough. I be- 
lieve I will tell the story of that tramp before I 
get through. For I saw more game in the ten 
days than I ever saw before or since in a season; 
and I am told that the whole region is now a 
thrifty farming country, with the deer nearly all 
gone. They were plenty enough thirty-nine years 
ago this very month.—‘‘Nessmuk” in Woodcraft. 
The Big Game Mailing Cards. 
PitTsFIELD, Mass., May 1.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The sets of big game mailing cards 
which I ordered have just come to hand, and I 
am greatly pleased with them. I do not know 
where else can be found such beautiful and nat- 
ural pictures of some of our great game animals 
as you have given us, and these mailing cards 
stand out so far in front of any others that I 
have ever seen that they are not to be mentioned 
in ‘the same month. 
I purpose to mail a number of these cards to 
my friends who are big game hunters and I shall 
be much surprised if you do not hear from some 
of them. Rocky MountTaIn HUNTER. 
The Desbarats Country. 
Mr. JoHN Rem, guide, is leaving Desbarats, 
Ont., to take a position as a railway brakeman. 
All letters about guides for the Desbarats coun- 
try should be sent to Mr. Y. D. Rose, manager 
of the Hiawatha Camp Hotel, Desbarats. John 
Reid will not be available. Fortunately, several 
good new guides will take his place there. 
. O. ARMSTRONG, 
Canadian Pacific Railway, Montreal, Que. 
