An Impromptu Trout Lure 
Dear Forest & STREAM: 
OME years ago upon my return 
from the Upper Dam to Andover I 
put my Leonard fly rod together and as 
my flies were not available, I took the 
red ribbon of the sweatband of my hat 
and cut it to put it on our ordinary 
hook. I then went over the Black 
Brook, a stream running parallel with 
the road through the woods to Andover. 
I made one cast down some ten or more 
feet from the bank to the river, and as 
soon as the makeshift lure alighted on 
the water, a ten-inch trout took it and 
I took it back and had him for break- 
fast the following morning at John 
Frenche’s Hotel, where we used to put 
up on our annual spring and fall fish- 
ing. He was a beauty, dark of body 
with lovely spots on him or her (I for- 
got which). 
C. J. BATEMAN, 
Boston, Mass. 
The Moose’s Dental Formula 
DEAR FOREST & STREAM: 
S a subscriber of ForEST & STREAM 
I feel it my duty to correct an er- 
ror in Dr. Travis’ statement regarding 
teeth in moose. Moose are the largest 
of “Cervidae.” This family of animals 
has this dental formula— 
OSCOROTR mare 
3.1.3.3 
They have six incisor teeth on the 
lower jaw. These come in apposition 
with the dental pad of the upper jaw. 
This dental pad is an extension of the 
hard palate and is composed of a thick 
layer of dense connective tissue, which 
has a covering of thick epithelial cells. 
Dr. Travis expounds the following 
theory: “Now, did you ever hear of any 
animal having teeth in one jaw and no 
teeth in the other to meet them? Either 
he must have a horny or bony surface 
to meet them, which must be as for- 
midable as teeth, or he could not use 
them.” He also states that he could 
not understand how they “browse on 
twigs and lily pads without the upper 
incisor teeth.” 
I disagree with Dr. Travis’ theory. 
The lower incisor teeth are somewhat 
loosely imbedded in the lower jaw, and 
in this way, injury to the dental pad, 
which is not a “bony or horny sub- 
stance,” is prevented. 
If Dr. Travis would examine the 
family cow (bovine) he would find simi- 
lar dental characteristics as found in 
the moose. This is also true of sheep 
and deer, and these animals browse on 
twigs and plant growth, which would 
be harder to grasp than lily pads. Of 
288 
course, you have to keep in mind that 
these animals, as well as the moose, use 
their lips and tongue in the act of pre- 
hension. 
These statements are not meant to 
criticise the author’s article, but to in- 
form brother sportsmen of some of the 
peculiar characteristics found in ani- 
mal life. 
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dr. 
Travis’ article on moose riding in a 
previous number of this journal. 
J. A. HOWARTH, 
BS.ACA.H> DVM 
Pullman, Wash. 

An Ontario red fox. 
From an Ontario Fox Hunter 
DEAR ForEST & STREAM: 
AY I say a few words to Mr. B. S. 
Searcy regarding the cover of your 
January number and the insinuations 
the same contains toward northern fox 
hunters? In the first place, your south- 
ern readers seem unable to grasp the 
fact that we have a real life-sized fox 
here in the north and not a little parlor 
variety. 
We have good dogs and some of the 
hunters I know have the beautiful 
Walker hounds your’ correspondent 
speaks about and yet they never catch 
a fox. Why? Because, in the first place, 
the northern fox is large and strong and 
has more endurance than his little 
southern cousin, and secondly, because 
the rugged hills and dense swamps in 
which he makes his home give h'm a big 
advantage over the dogs that have to 
unravel his trail. In the accompanying 
snap will be seen a northern fox that is 
of medium size for this district and this 
fox was started at daybreak of the 12th 
of December and killed by me at 4:00 
P. M. on the following day. Would the 
little southern fellow have lasted that 
long? In the winter of 1922 I ran a fox 
a distance of fifteen miles in one gen- 
eral direction, then lost the trail when 
the fox took to the windswept ice of the 
Humber River. If our southern friend 
could go on just one of these hunts he 
would see where the need of shooting 
foxes comes in. 
Now just a word as to the sportsman- 
ship part of the thing. A true sports- 
man is as merciful as is possible in kill- 
ing the game he takes. Now which 
would you prefer, Mr. Southerner, if 
you had to be put to death? To be 
killed quickly by a gunshot when you 
were not expecting it or to see a pack of 
dogs closing in upon you when your 
strength was gone and you could run 
no farther and finally to tear you limb 
from limb while still alive and con- 
scious to pain? To my mind here is no 
comparison. 
GEO. HULL, 
Downsview, Ont., Canada. 
How the Forest Turned Traitor 
to One of Its Denizens 
DEAR FOREST & STREAM: 
JHILE visiting the White Deer 
Hunting Lodge by several mem- 
bers of the club there was revealed one 
of those strange forest tragedies that 
must forcefully appeal to any person 
whose heart sympathy has not been 
dwarfed by life’s sordid and material 
pursuits. This was a tragedy involving 
a double death, in which through the 
strangest of accidents not only a mo- 
ther creature was instantly killed, but 
also the new-born life of her progeny 
was sacrificed through the distressing 
process of slow starvation. 
Dr. R. F. Beatty, Robert S. Clark, of 
the county farm bureau, and C. Fred 
Bell were the club members to whom 
this truly pathetic and remarkably sin- 
gular woods tragedy was unfolded. On 
a recreation trip to their hunting lodge 
and while exploring the heavily wooded 
game region in that vicinity these gen- 
tlemen were arrested in their progress 
by the spectacle of a dead doe deer 
whose lifeblood was still flowing from a 
deep wound in her side over her heart 
and in whose body a natural heat was 
yet perceptible. It was disclosed from 
an inspection of her course through the 
timber and brush that the doe had been 
running rapidly when she met her 
death. The hole in her side resembled 
a bullet wound so closely that the club- 
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