New-York tribune., 1902-01-07
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
SPORT INDEED-THE LAND OF THE
AMAZONS-A BOOK OF THE Me-
TROPOLIs-FOR SCIENTISTS.

"Boasting," says Mr.. Thomas Martindale. in
his entertaining account Of sporting adventures,
Sport Indeed" George w. Jacobs & Co. Phila-
delphia), lis the badge of the fool" No dyed In
the wool sportsman will use it, for he knows too
well that his exploits are not due solely to his
skill, and Mr.. Martndale is surely a sportsman
dyed in the wool He tells of adventures in the
Maine woods, in New Brunswick, in Quebec. in
the British Northwest Territory in North Da-
kota and other hunting grounds in the North
and South; he tells them as a good hunter tells
his stories, with plenty of good humor and
little philosophy, plenty of picturesque detail
and with a zest that makes his stories savory-
and without any boasting. His kind Of hunting
Is rougk.ng Il with a vengeance: and the rougher
II is he assures the better ii is a cure for
lUmbago. The moose is a capricious beast and
requires much waiting for-often in most un-
comfortable positions:
He IS full of suspicion, ever on the alert for
danger, and governed by a disposition stuffed
with caprice. What you most expect him to do
when you are after him he is apt not to do at
all, and what your experience tells you he will
never do he often astOnishes you by doing in
the most provoking manner. He is enormous
eater. a great traveller and something of a
Lothario in his relish for courtship
And this relish for courtship is an important
factor in the calculations of the shrewd hunts
man. The birchbark horn. TO initiate the amor
Gus note of the bull. is one of the indispensable
parts OF the guides outfit. And the uncertainty
OF the moose makes the hunting OF them a most
exciting and captivating sport. Nr. Martindale
omits none OF the points of suspense and
citement in his tales of notable captures. The
caribou is a somewhat different creature. He
can. owing to the formation of his hoofs travel
over the snow 'as glibly and tirelessly if
shod with snOwshoes."
The hunter may and often does run down the
moose in the snow, but if he attempts it with
the caribou-well. in the pitfly vernacular of the
street arab he will bite off con nSiderably more
than he can chew"
Everybody has heard of the buck fever" and
Mr.. Martindale gives a graphic account of the
once, like the measles:
In it's mysterious attack 1t gets entire control
of his nerves, and at a most inopportune time.
He may have been standing for hour
more with rife cooked waiting eagerly for the
coming OF a buck that in doubling his tracks
will be sure TO approach within easy reach of
his shot. The buck does approach, bOuding
toward him with such rapidity that the very
sight upsets the nerves of the green hunter and
throws his anatomy out or gear. his eyes
bulge, his teeth chatter. his knees knock to-
gether, and even his memory is so far dethroned
that he forgets he has a rife. If he does remem
Der It. and attempts TO raise the weapon to his
shoulder there is nothing in 1t that is likely to
do any damage TO the buck. for its wabbling
muzzle sends the ball either into the earth or
among the clouds.
Thoreau, in 1853 and 1857, saw few moose in
the Maine woods, and no deer. In recent years
the latter have become so numerous to
cite little comment. Mr.. Martindale believes
that the moose are also increasing in numbers.
but the caribou are becoming extinct, or are
perhaps departing because their food, the black
moss growing on the juniper trees, is becoming
scarcer.