HUNTING IN MANY LANDS.* OUR kinsmen across the Atlantic have
given plenty of proof of a love of sport fully equal to our own, and, though the North American Nimrod has not yet, perhaps, achieved the reputation of his British cousin as a mighty hunter in every land between the two poles, he has at least evinced the spirit of a true sportsman in giving some practical proof of his anxiety to distinguish between sport and aim- less butchery. The Boone and Crockett Club, which has now been nearly ten years in existence, has done much to encourage the first and discourage the second ; and not the least interesting of the records which are published in this volume is the account of its successful campaign in passing an Act of Congress for the preservation of game in the Yellowstone National Park. Upon the subject of big-game hunting in America it has already published a book some two years ago. The volume now before us deals principally with the prowess of its members in
other parts of the globe, and offers a collection of bunters' tales as varied as those of Baron Munchausen, though, we would fain believe, a good deal more veracious. Mr. W. Chanler opens the series with the shooting of hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, elephants, and other small fry in East Africa ; Mr. George Gould takes us to the Gulf of Cortez in pursuit of the mountain-sheep, and, what is more, proves a very interesting guide and most sympathetic companion ; Mr. Madison Grant and Mr. D. M. Barringer both dilate on the pleasures—rather mixed pleasures—of the Canadian moose hunt, a chase which they followed in different ways, that of Mr. Barringer being eminently the most sportsmanlike; Mr. Elliot Roosevelt poaches—the word is not used in an in- sidious sense—upon our preserves in India, where he seems to have been more than usually fortunate, not only among the tigers, but also among the big game of the Himalayas and Cashmere; Mr. W. W. Rockill ventures further afield into Mongolia and Thibet ; and other writers describe wolf- hunting in Russia and in the States, as well as bear-hunting in the Sierras and other less-known varieties of sport. Last, but not the least interesting, is an account of the game preserves
of Yellowstone National Park furnished by its curator, Captain G. S. Anderson.
With one exception—Mr. Chanler's narrative of his doings in East Africa—these tales are told by true sportsmen, men who waste neither ammunition nor animal life with- out some definite object in view, who do not kill simply for killing's sake, and preserve a becoming modesty with regard to their courage and skill. And even Mr. Chanler may plead extreme youth—and, perhaps, some measure of youthful exaggeration—in palliation of the slaughter which lie fancies that he succeeded in inflicting upon the hippos and rhinoceroses of East Africa. From a literary point of view, Mr. Gould's experiences upon the Gulf of Cortez make the most pleasant reading ; especially his description of his guide, Anaatasio by name, a relic of some departed Indian tribe. Bit by bit, the sportsman got from this man his family history :—
"His tribe, which he called the Kil-ee-on, must have been very restricted in numbers at best. His territory was a few leagues of desert, or almost desert, mountains, every yard of which he 'knew by heart, while just over the ridge dwelt the Cocopahs, his mortal enemies. Sometimes a score of men armed with bows would start a tribal hunt for deer, though the sheep were beyond their moans of attack. Sometimes they journeyed a few leagues to the gulf to eat mussels But a few deer and mussels and .half a dozen hills of squashes could not fill the abyss of the Indian appetite. The stand-by was roasted mescal. These plants grow in great numbers in the country adjoining the desert, and at every season there are some just right for roasting. The Indians selected them and cooked them two or three days in a hole in the ground, by a process called tatema, similar in principle to a clam-bake. This roasting converts the starchy 'leaves and heart into a sugary mass, so that the resulting food is something like a sweet fibrous beet. The Indian's life really lay in gathering and roasting mescal. And when a storm pre- vented the necessary fires, the tribe passed days, often many days, without food."
'Certainly the problem of how human life contrived to exist at all in the barren wastes of Lower California needed some explanation. A spirited account of wolf-hunting in Russia is followed by another of wolf-coursing in the Rocky Mountains, —the writer of the latter claiming superiority for the home
• Hunting in Many Lands : tS. Book of the Boons ad Crockitt Clith. Ed t. by Taeo. 11,osovelt and G. B. Gr:nnall. Ednburghz David Douglas.
sport. The two are really too different for comparison. Long use and custom has not only made wolf-hunting in Russia a kind of national sport, but has also taught the hunters how to pursue it at the least risk to their hounds and the greatest pleasure—if excitement and the exercise of courage and skill be pleasure—to themselves. The Russian has far too much love for his hounds to allow them to be out- matched, if he can help it, and at the same time shows con- siderably less care for his own skin than the American sports- man. According to the latter : "The principal drawback to the pleasure of wolf-coursing is the danger to a good horse from bad footing, and the possible mutilation and death of a favourite dog,—death and destruction of hounds being often attendant upon the capture and death of a full-grown wolf." Here is the bill for one day's sport and the death of a single wolf :—One dog killed, two seriously torn, one permanently maimed, and one horse so injured as to necessitate its being shot. The accident to the horse might have happened anywhere—in the hunting-field in England, for instance—and should not be counted; but the injury to the dogs was inevitable, and, in our opinion, the sport, as far as the man is concerned, is no more worthy to be called sport or less cruel than the old pastime of bear-baiting. But how is one to define sport and cruelty ? Here we have a book describing very nearly every form of the chase, written by men who are all anxious to prove the reasonable humanity of their pleasures, and yet no kind of distinctive definition can be drawn from its pages ; indeed, its perusal leaves the question even more confused than before.
The protection of Yellowstone Park by the American Legislature, and the formation therein of a huge game preserve, in the literal sense of the word—a kind of sanctuary for the hardly pressed wild animals of North America—is an experiment of great interest to all naturalists. It was some time before the benevolent intentions of the country could be really carried into effect, before even it was found possible to protect the natural beauties of the scenery from the wantonly sacrilegious hand of the American tourist. But now, with the help of a permanent military occupation, both objects have been fairly attained. The reservation altogether embraces an area of some five thousand six hundred square miles. The game is said to have increased largely :—
" Competent authority has estimated the number of elk as high as twenty thousand, though this is probably too large a figure. Moose are frequently encountered. Mountain-sheep and antelope are found in goodly numbers. It is doubtful now whether there are over two hundred buffalo left. Bears of the different varieties are very plentiful, and deer are also quite abundant. The animals thoroughly appreciate their security. They have largely lost their fear of man. Antelope and sheep can be seen in the vicinity of the stage roads, and are not disturbed by constant travel. Wild geese, ducks, and other birds refuse to rise from the water near which men pass. But bears show the most in- difference for human presence. Attracted by the food obtained they frequent the neighbourhood of the Hotels in the Park."
The writer goes on to describe how he himself witnessed the visit, regularly made at the same hour every day, of a
bear to the refuse-heap of the Lake Hotel. In fact, bears, both grizzlies and others, seem to have been changed by immunity from pursuit into scavengers. It should be interesting to see what other development may be the outcome of this meeting between human and animal life on terms of peace.
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