The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1888-10-20
THE BUCK FEVER.
Old sportsmen Not Exempt From the
Peculiar Affection.
London Telegraph.

Of Portland's forest, in Caithness
is said by the correspondent of
contemporary to have died Of "bucl
fever" which, he obligingly adds
sis an American word, though O
German origin" Whether the well
known malady-if malady it car
be called-which unnerves and de
moralizes the sportsman who, rife
in hand, is suddenly brought face
to face with a royal hart or 6
"muckle stag of Benmore," be orig
inally German or not we cannot
say; but it is certain, at any rate
that buck fever was a familiar
phrase in Scotland long before the
United States came into existence
as an independent nation. Sir Wal.
ter Scott puts substantially the
same phrase into the mouth OF
Donald Bean Lean, when that High.
land robber receives Waverly on
his way to Glennaquoich, the home
of Feargus M'Ivor; and it may
safely be predicted that when the
Hon. George Duff, uncle to the
present Earl of Fife, and one of the
best eer-stalkers in Scotland, kill
ed his first stag in Mar Forest more
than half a century since, he suf-
fered from the same complaint, ac-
companied, doubtless, by palpita-
ton Of the heart and tremulous-
ness of the hand, which his grand
father may have experienced when
George III. was still a young man.
Buck fever or buck ague is by no
means confined to sportsmen who,
like Sir John Rose, have long been
in the habit of spending ten or
eleven months of each successive
year in their city offices and devot-
ing the rest of their twelvemonth
to sport, or what they call sport.
1t has often been asserted that of
those who habitually go out fox
hunting, mounted on peerless horses
and attired in faultless boots and
breeches, at least two in every three
rejoice unfeignedly in their secret
heart over the occurrence of blank
day. Foxhunting, grouse shoot
ing and deer stalking are unmis-
takably the fashion, and many
''cit" takes part in all three without
deriving an atom of real enjoyment
from any of them. AS a rule no
one can be proficient in welding
the breech-loader, be it gun or rife,
unless, in DR.. Johnson's phrase, he
has been caught young" and
trained to the deft use of the weap-
on while he was still a plastic boy.
Among Englishmen who still repair
to the Highlands in August and
September. and are old enough to
remember the time when Lord John
Russell was Prime Minister, few
can have failed to hear the story
which relates how the great Whig
statesman was sent home year after
year by his hospitable entertainer,
Mr.. Fox Maule, afterwards Lord
Panmure, under the impression that
. dozen or more stays had fallen
before his unerring rifle. AS mat
Ter of fact, Lord John Russell was
about as bad shot as ever put gun
Dr. rifle to shoulder, and, after a
short experience of his poor mark
nanship, Mr.. Fox Maule deter
mined to have recourse to strata
gem in order to make his distin-
yuished guest regard himself as a
leer-stalker of whom Scrope, or st.
[obn, or Horatio Ross need not
nave been ashamed. Lord John
vas accordingly placed in a noun
ain pass through which the stays
we're driven, and, when he fired, an
experienced gamekeeper, posted
;lose by, discharged his piece stimuli
aneously at the same deer. Thus
Lord John got credit for killing
What had really fallen to another
mans rifle.
Bankers, members of Parliament
md dwellers in popular cities are
lot the sole sufferers from the ner-
'ous excitement which often over
axes experienced hunters of big
Jane when, after days and nights
# labor, hardship, and exposure,
hey suddenly have q chance, in
american phrase, of drawing a
'ead" upon a mountain sheep, an
TX weighing 500 pounds, cinna-
non bear, or, rarest of all, wild
mountain goat. Last year two mag
ificent stuffed specimens of the
asst named animal were displayed
o view at the "Wild West Exhibi-
ion," but the English hunter who
epairs nowadays to the most mac
essible crags of the Rockies or the
Indes in pursuit of this shy quarry
nay safely reckon on coming back
mpty-handed. The only chance
f securing shot at a mountain
oat is by getting above him-no
asy matter to accomplish-as he
lmost invariably occupies the
ighest peak, or crag, in sight. His
'ild.congeners, the mountain sheep,
re also rapidly disappearing, and
sw Englishmen have ever killed