SEPT. 14, 1907.] 
ROREST AND STREAM. 
415 


Game Along the Mexicala River. 
Some local hunters think they are having 
great sport when they can ride off into the 
mountains and find dove, quail, rabbits and deer, 
but what would they think if they could find 
a paradise where there are lions, tigers, alliga- 
tors, leopards, deer, tarantulas as large as a 
crab, wild pigs, scorpions and parrots? These 
things would be something very novel to the 
local bunches that go out hunting simply to see 
how many beer bottles they can break, after 
they get the beer out of them. 
There is such a paradise in the wilds of Old 
Mexico, and the most extravagant tales of its 
richness in game have been brought back by C. 
C. Bancroft, an engineer and explorer of Sac- 
ramento, Cal., who has just returned from a five- 
months’ trip through the southern part of the 
southern republic. 
According to the story told by Mr. Bancroft 
to a Sacramento Union reporter, he shot five 
or six alligators and a number of lions and 
tigers, in addition to the other varieties of game 
that abound in that country, and has a number 
of skins to show for his marksmanship. 
Gator shooting is really the most difficult of 
all the sport in Old Mexico, for the reason that 
these beasts must be shot in the eye to kill them. 
They lie in the water of the rivers with the end 
of the nose, the eye, and the end of the tail 
sticking out, and while they are brave enough 
to attack a person, they are shy enough some- 
times to dive under water and save the eye 
when one is about with a gun bent on slaughter. 
The largest alligator that Bancroft killed was 
about sixteen feet long, weighed 700 pounds, 
and after it was dragged up on the bank six 
men stood in a row beside it and there was 
plenty of room at each end for three more. 
This beast was shot near Ferreria on the Mexi- 
cala River. It had a reputation of having eaten 
three persons. About a year ago an old 
Mexican woman was washing clothes on the 
bank of the river and with her was her grand- 
daughter, a child of three or four years. Sud- 
denly the ’gator came out of the water near the 
woman, and lunging to the shore, seized the 
child and started into the water. The old 
woman immediately began pelting the beast 
with rocks and it dropped the child and pur- 
sued the woman, grabbing her, pulling her under 
the water and drowning her and later eating 
the body. 
The horrible catastrophe was seen from a 
distance and the alarm given, but no trace was 
ever found of either the woman or the child. 
When Bancroft went to that part of the country 
he heard about the ’gator. After several at- 
tempts he shot it and the Mexican servants He 
had with him dragged the dead beast to shore. 
While it was being skinned, a delegation of peo- 
ple living at Ferreria asked permission to take the 
carcass and when this was granted they carried 
it to the principal street, put it on a funeral pyre 
and after saturating the ’gator with oil, burned it, 
the population of the entire town turning out in 
honor of the event. In the stomach of the 
beast were found two Catholic ornaments and 
a narrow silver ring, which the old woman is 
said to have worn. Bancroft carries the ring 
as a souvenir. 
The Mexican lions are of the same species as 
the California lion, but a litle larger, and the 
tigers are striped like a Bengal, but are spotted 
like a fawn on the belly. The lion, tiger and 
leopard are pursued in the same manner, and at 
night time, but they are not “hunted” in the 
manner of other game. When the tracks show 
_where the game makes its haunts, an open place 
in the forest is selected, and this spot is thickly 
covered with lime for a space of about twenty- 
five feet square. In the center of the space a 
stake is driven, and to this stake a sheep or 
dog is tied. Then the hunter climbs into the 
fork of a nearby tree after dark, and awaits de- 
velopments. The hired man, or “beater,” as 
he might be termed, then “calls” the lion, using 
a small drum-like contrivance with a string 
through the center. By putting resin on the 
string and pulling it through the fingers, a good 
“call” can be made. When the lion or tiger 
enters the clearing and walks on the lime- 
strewn ground he may easily be seen and shot. 
Another favorite animal for hunters is the 
wild pig, or peccary, and he also is “hunted” 
from a tree, for he is just as dangerous as the 
lion or tiger, and really more so, for he often 
will charge one in the daytime. The easiest 
way to shoot the beasts is to wound a sow with 
little pigs. When they begin to squeal, the other 
pigs for blocks around will come charging 
through the brush, and the wise hunter will do 
well to find the high places when this charge 
begins. Of course, after the pigs arrive, it is 
easy work to pick them off with a rifle. 
Speaking of wild pigs and ’gators, Bancroft 
relates a rather exciting incident. While float- 
ing down the river Mexicala he came one day 
to the little town of La Luz, which is about 
100 miles south of Morelia, in the State of 
Michoacan. He landed to buy provisions, and 
casually asked if there were any pigs around. 
As it happened, within five minutes after he 
asked the question, two large wild pigs came 
tearing around a bend of land about 200 yards 
distant, pursued by a number of Mexicans. 
Without hesitation the pigs jumped into the 
river and started to swim across. When half 
way over a big ’gator showed his head above 
the water and grabbed the largest pig. There 
was a hard struggle, but the pig was pulled 
under, and within three minutes the ’gator arose 
near the bank where the pigs had jumped in 
and dragged the dead pig ashore. Bancroft had 
run down near the spot when the fight in the 
water commenced and was easily able to kill 
the ’gator when he came to land. 
Alligators serve no good purpose except to 
furnish fine skins for purses and suitcases, but 
Bancroft struck one place where they are other- 
wise utilized. He accidentally stopped at a town 
called Muerto, which is about twenty-five miles 
east of La Union, in the State of Guerrero, and 
probably 100 miles northwest along the coast 
from Acapulco. He noticed large red spots 
and sores on the armes and bodies of a few 
people he saw there, but thought little of it. 
When he had reached Ferreri and killed the 
’eator that had eaten the old woman and child, 
some of the people who came to get the carcass 
to burn asked that they might cut some of the 
meat from the ’gator’s jaw. This favor was 
granted, but when asked for an explanation they 
said they wanted to take the meat back to La 
Union, where the leper camp was. This is the 
place where Bancroft had seen the big red spots 
on the people’s arms, and he then realized he 
had hob-nobbed with real lepers. The poor 
creatures take the meat from the jaw of the 
’sator and bind it on their sores, which heal up 
and disappear for four or five months, but break 
out again. 
Wild pigs. lions, tigers and “gators are but a 
few of the dangerous things one will find in 
Old Mexico. There are wildcats, rattlesnakes, 
scorpions, poisonous bats, ant-like flies that bore 
holes into one’s body and then crawl in and 
die, mosquitoes, boa constrictors, and various 
other shines that tend to keep a man awake at 
night. Gila monsters and side-winders keep one 
stepping lively in the daytime. and, altogether, 
a hunter’s life in Old Mexico is one great con- 
tinuous performance of stepping high in the 
grass and being careful. 
Bancroft says, however, that the climte is 
as delightful as it is in Los Angeles, and that 
the common people, or what one would call 
“cholos” here, are hospitable and courteous to 
a marked degree. 
Utah Bench Show. 
T. L. Hansinc, show secretary and superin- 
tendent, writes us that the Utah State Fair As- 

sociation will hold its second annual bench 
show on Oct. 1-4. Mr. James Cole, of Kansas 
City, will judge all breeds. Entries close on 
Sept. 24. 

Motor Boat Show. 
The fourteenth annual Motor Boat and Sports- 
man’s Show opens February 20th and _ closes 
March 7, 1908, and will be held in Madison 
Square Garden, New York City. 
in Tennessee. 
Acklen, 
Game Protection 
[From the Report for 1907-8 of Col. J. H. 
Warden of Tennessee.] 
State 
Tue first legislative movement made in Ten- 
nessee for the protection of game by general 
legislation under the warden. and license system 
was the act passed by the Fifty-third General 
Assembly, known as the general game law. 
(Chapter 169, Acts 1903.) 
In 1905 the General Assembly created the De- 
partment of Game, Fish and Forestry as one of 
the State departments (Chapter 455, Acts 1905), 
placing under a general system the protection 
of the game, fish and forests of the State. Un- 
fortunately, a number of counties were exempted 
from the benefits accruing under the provisions 
of this Act, and the delay incident to its late 
passage rendered it impracticable to pass a gen- 
eral fish law at that session. 
Through the efforts of the Tennessee Game 
and Fish Protective Association, public senti- 
ment became aroused, and when in 1906 the 
leading political parties met in State convention, 
both adopted planks in their respective plat- 
forms strongly advocating general eo a 
only for the protection of game and fish. The 
plank in the Democratic platform ciaoe even 
further and called attention to the importance 
of some legislation for the protection of our 
forests. It was as follows: 
“The game, the birds and the fish are 
property of the people of the State, and should 
be protected by general legislation only and for 
the common use and benefit of all Tennesseans. 
Experience has demonstrated the inadequacy of 
protection by local legislation and of the benefits 
arising from the judicious administration, under 
general laws, of the Department of Game, Fish 
and Forestry. Those who derive a pleasure in 
shooting or a profit in handling our game or 
fish should bear in part the financial burden of 
its protection rather than the people at large, 
and all legislation on these subjects should 
strictly safeguard the rights of all the people in 
our game and fish. Some legislation is de- 
manded out of which may be evolved a plan to 
preserve our forests from destruction and to 
educate our people to the necessity and duty 
which they owe themselves and coming genera- 
tions to replenish denuded forests and to protect 
those we now have.” 
In response to this voice of the people the 
Fifty-fifth General Assembly enacted certain 
amendments to the general game law (Chapter 
185), a general fish law (Chapter 489), and a 
general forestry law (Chapter 397). No county 
was exempted from the provisions of either of 
these three acts. So that to-day Tennessee for 
the first time in the history of the State has 
general laws on all these subjects. The warden 
and license system is no longer an experiment; 
our experience has been the experience in other 
States where it has been successfully tried and 
proven to be the only effective system for the 
protection of game, fish and forests. 
One feature of the present game laws that will 
commend itself most strongly in its practical 
workings is the “optional license.” Sportsmen 
had seriously complained of the burdens im- 
posed upon them under the “written permission 
law,” and vainly sought for some method by 
which they might find relief without depriving 
the farmers and landowners of the benefits and 
protection afforded them by this law. The solu- 
tion of this difficulty is found in the “optional 
license.” This enables the sportsman to shoot 
on the verbal permission of the landowner, and 
at the same time it affords the farmer additional 
protection in this way: Under the former law 
a warden could not make an arrest unless he 
caught the trespasser shooting on some one’s 
inclosed lands without the owner’s written per- 
mission. Now all lands, whether inclosed or 
uninclosed, are protected, and a warden can de- 
mand the inspection of licenses, and if the per- 
son has neither license nor written permission 
he will necessarily violate the law the moment 
he leaves the public highway. As _ worthless 
characters are not likely to take out this license, 
and as they cannot procure the required “written 
permission,” the farmers will soon be relieved 
from their depredations and the consequent loss 
the 

