The Weights of Big Bears 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
N page 164 of your March issue 
you have a photo and printed be- 
low it is a caption concerning a 1,000- 
pound bear. Also on the same page 
Eric W. Lytle tells of a bear he killed 
which weighed nearly 900 pounds. 
Some years ago, a great deal was 
published in some of the outdoor maga- 
zines relative to the actual weight of 
large Alaska brown and grizzly bear. 
The discussion centered around speci- 
mens taken from one of our Alaska 
islands or mainland which presumably 
is the home of the largest bears. We 
read and hear of the 14-foot hide and 
2,000 pound, or more often 1,800 
pound, bear. One instance I recall of 
a bear said to have been killed, and 
actually weighed in the presence of 
witnesses on Unimak Island, tipped 
the scales at 1,325 pounds. When the 
truth came out it was found that the 
weight was the result of a guess or 
estimate based on some measurements. 
I have been unable to find the rec- 
ord of a case of weighing the carcass 
of a large bear killed in the woods. 
About the best we could find some few 
years back, after much letter writing 
to outdoor and other magazines, was 
the fact that a bear in captivity actu- 
ally weighed at that time approxi- 
mately 1,200 pounds as I now recall. 
No doubt it will be of interest to 
many of your readers if Mr. Lytle will 
tell us how he managed to weigh the 
bear to which he refers. 
I think it is true that many of our 
Alaskans believe our big specimens of 
brown and grizzly exceed 1,000 pounds 
in weight, but at the same time they 
wink the other eye when they hear or 
read of the huge man-eating planti- 
gredes that weigh 2,000 pounds or 
nigh about. 
If a way has been discovered to 
weigh the carcass of a big bear in the 
game fields, is it to be hoped some one 
will turn the trick here in Alaska. 
HERBERT LEE, Teuakee, Alaska. 
672 

An hour’s catch of small-mouthed bass in Spednee Lake, N. B. 
On Instructing Boys in Sports- 
manship 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
AM confident every true fisherman 
will be interested in the following 
comment by Mr. Kenneth Chisholm, 
Jr., president of the Sportmen’s Con- 
servation Club of Ridgewood, N. J., and 
vice-president of the New Jersey Fish 
and Game Conservation League, in a 
recent chat with me on the subject of 
sportsmanship in its application to 
angling. 
“In our efforts to promote a keener 
interest in the conservation of fish and 
game,” Mr. Chisholm said, “we older 
sportsmen should endeavor to reach the 
boy in his teens. We should encourage 
boys to fish and hunt, the most health- 
ful and finest recreation in the world, 
but at the same time we should teach 
them what true sportsmanship and real 
conservation mean. 
“My friend, James W. Sawyer of 
Glen Rock, a mighty good fisherman 
and a true sportsman, and I went to 
Lake Pennesseewasee, Norway, Maine, 
last year, hoping to catch some small 
mouth bass and forget our troubles. 
There were a lot of small boys among 
the campers on the lake. One after- 
noon we went still-fishing and in the 
course of a few hours caught twenty- 
eight of the finest bass I have ever 
seen. Some were big fellows, good 
enough to mount. A number of fisher- 
men in nearby boats were not as for- 
tunate and we had much fun at their 
expense. But what seemed to interest 
our gallery most was the fact that as 
soon aS we netted a bass, we dipped 
a hand in the water, carefully removed 
the hook and then slipped the fish over- 
board. Some of the fishermen, par- 
ticularly the boys, thought we were 
crazy and did not hesitate to tell us 
so. 
we meant by our foolish conduct, and 
we replied: 
“We do not need the fish, but we do 
enjoy catching them. It is sport for 
Several demanded to know what 
the gods We are getting the fun for 
which we came up to Maine. We are 
returning the bass to the water, prac- 
tically unharmed, so that other people 
later may enjoy the sport of catching 
them. It is one thing to catch enough 
fish for your dinner, but we believe it 
is wrong to destroy a lot of game fish 
for which you have no immediate need. 
“The observers of our unintentional 
demonstration of sportsmanship caught 
the idea at once. By the end of the 
week most of the campers on Lake 
Pennesseewasee, men and boys, were 
throwing back all the black bass they 
caught, keeping only the unprotected 
fish for food purposes. Many of them 
confessed to us that they enjoyed the 
experience and were sorry that they 
had not thought of it before. 
“7 
‘ 
| 
“Encourage your boy, or your neigh- ' 
bor’s boy, to fish for sport and recrea- 
tion. Explain to him the reasons why 
a law provides that a game fish must 
be returned to the water if it is not of 
a certain length. Tell him why there 
are statutes to protect fishing during 
their spawning season. Teach him 
that it is just as wrong to catch a fish 
and not use it as it is to shoot a bird 
or a rabbit and throw it away. Show 
him the selfishness and waste in tak- 
ing more fish than the cook ean use. 
Advise him that fish are ineluded 
among the Nation’s natural resources 
and then read to him Funk & Wagnalls’” 
definition of conservation, as borrowed 
from an address of Chief Justice Wil- 
liam H. Taft: ‘Conservation as an 
economic and political term has come 
to mean the preservation of our na- 
tural resources for economical use, so 
as to secure the greatest good for the 
greatest number.’ 
“Instruct boys in true sportsmanship 
when they are of real sportsmanship 
age and there will be fish and game for 
everyboy long before they are as old 
as we are.” 
Frep A. Hoar, Ridgewood, N. J. 
Wants Information on Trapping 
Woodchucks 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
| HAVE been a reader of your maga- 
zine for many years and think it 
the best printed. I have read from 
time to time articles on the woodchuck; 
what I wish to know from some brother 
reader is the method of trapping said 
animal, viz., the traps used, best bait 
and to what use the fur is put (if any). 
CONSTANT READER, 
Montreal, P. Q. 

