The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-05
BES|EG|NG THE BADGER,
The Hill Tribes of SauSalito
Have Found a New
Amusement.
A Practical Genius Advises Smoking
Out, and the Result Is
Depressing.

On windy hillside north of Hurricane
Gulch in Sausalito, is village of badgers,
sagacious, crafty and cautious badgers, who
will not be taken by net or lure. No man
who has real good dog of the bull family
and who is thoroughly saturated with the
sporty spirit is content until he has pitted
his pup against the proves of the badger
He is tough customer, the Jim Corbett
of the Plantigrade Carnivora, with tooth
which can penetrate the thickest hide of
armor that bulldog ever wore, and lower
jaw so articulated to the upper that it can
hold on with an unbreakable grip.
The badger community was discovered
by Ernest, the steward of the Pacific Yacht
Club, who is quite naturalist in his way,
and has been collecting and maintaining
small menagerie at the club. The pride
OF the specimens was big coon, which
fraternized with ferocious American
eagle. The bird of freedom would attack
anything that approached it with the ex-
ception Of the coon, for which it appeared
to have sentimental regard. When the
eagle screamed the coon used to stand on
its hind legs and regard the enormous
bird with look of admiration. Possibly
the eagles vanity led it to first endure and
has departed, chain, collar and all, and
Ernest thinks he is visiting his cousins,
the badgers, in the windy hillside.
When the idea of making wholesale
capture of the inhabitants of this village
was first suggested, prominent citizens
with game proclivities were consulted. A
leading Councilman recommended smok-
ing out but was seoffed at by military
man, who had seen much service in the
Sacramento WI m hot 1Vr
declared that large figure 4 trap was
the only way to take the badgers into
camp.
Another advised simple wire snare,
but as that would strangle the badger, and
as the object was to take them alive and
have some fun with them, the snare mo-
ton was rejected. The smoking out, how
ever, appeared feasible, and committee,
amply provided with sacks, nets and sui
phur, proceeded against the badgers.
10 successfully smoke out q badger re-
quires keen geographical knowledge of the
wlndings and angles of the streets of his
subterraneous village. A badger is dig
ger from base and could give Mayor Sutro
points in tunneling. He is built to dig
and steal, for the badgers real luck is
when he drops i'll upon a nesting hen,
drives her away, or kills her if she annoys
him, and then settles down to feast of
partially Matched eggs. He is partial to
eggs, and their freshness is of no conse-
quence to him, much preferring, like the
glutton that he is, quantity to quality. He
is also fond of frogs, and will sneak upon
sleeping bull and nab him with his bear
like claws and end his koplunking for ever.
When Ernest and his friends kindled a
fire before badger hole that seemed an
entrance to the main street of the village
they felt morally certain of capturing at
least one badger. They brought bull
along to worry him for bit if he did not
60 straight into the sack They piled up
brush and turned the flames directly into
the hole. They knew that badgers slept
i'll the daytime and prowled at night, and
they almost felt forty to disturb the bad
gers siesta by thus destroying his ozone.
The hours crept on more brush and
more sulphur were consumed, but still the
badgers failed to respond. Then one of
the party suggested that the villagers
might have gone down to the pond at
Horseshoe Bend on picnic and frog hunt,
but a man who had been reading up on
badgers declared this impossible, as the
badger considered it bad form to be seen
away from home in the daytime The fog
crept in through the Golden Gate and stole !
over the hills and enveloped the besiegers
as garment or a-layer of wet towels-and
took walk to get the chill out of his bones,
and returned in ten minutes with most
wrathful expression OF countenance, well
seasoned with disgust.
Don't you know, you - he said
holly, that there are dozen holes on the |
other side of this mound, and that this vii
lage is perfectly ventilated, and that all
the badgers in California might have
marched in procession out of it while we
are perishing on this side and wasting
matches and sulphur"
1t was even so. And whether the Mayor
of Badgertown, in consultation with
Ernest's coon, advised retreat or whether
they enjoyed the ozone-diluted sulphur
fumes is one of the mysteries of the expe.
dition.