American Big Game in Its Haunts | Page 3

and
dog, his interest in fisheries, and especially his fondness for horse and
hound, in the chase of the red fox, have furnished the theme for many a
writer; and recently Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Harrison have been more or
less celebrated in the newspapers, Mr. Harrison as a gunner, and Mr.
Cleveland for his angling, as well as his duck shooting proclivities.
It is not too much to say, however, that the chair of the chief magistrate
has never been occupied by a sportsman whose range of interests was
so wide, and so actively manifested, as in the case of Mr. Roosevelt. It
is true that Mr. Harrison, Mr. Cleveland, and Mr. McKinley did much
in the way of setting aside forest reservations, but chiefly from
economic motives; because they believed that the forests should be
preserved, both for the timber that they might yield, if wisely exploited,
and for their value as storage reservoirs for the waters of our rivers.
The view taken by Mr. Roosevelt is quite different. To him the
economics of the case appeal with the same force that they might have
for any hard-headed, common sense business American; but beyond
this, and perhaps, if the secrets of his heart were known, more than this,
Mr. Roosevelt is influenced by a love of nature, which, though
considered sentimental by some, is, in fact, nothing more than a
far-sightedness, which looks toward the health, happiness, and general
well-being of the American race for the future.

As a boy Mr. Roosevelt was fortunate in having a strong love for nature
and for outdoor life, and, as in the case of so many boys, this love took
the form of an interest in birds, which found its outlet in studying and
collecting them. He published, in 1877, a list of the summer birds of the
Adirondacks, in Franklin county, New York, and also did more or less
collecting of birds on Long Island. The result of all this was the
acquiring of some knowledge of the birds of eastern North America,
and, what was far more important, a knowledge of how to observe, and
an appreciation of the fact that observations, to be of any scientific
value, must be definite and precise.
In the many hunting tales that we have had from his pen in recent years,
it is seen that these two pieces of most important instruction acquired
by the boy have always been remembered, and for this reason his books
of hunting and adventure have a real value--a worth not shared by
many of those published on similar subjects. His hunting adventures
have not been mere pleasure excursions. They have been of service to
science. On one of his hunts, perhaps his earliest trip after white goats,
he secured a second specimen of a certain tiny shrew, of which, up to
that time, only the type was known. Much more recently, during a
declared hunting trip in Colorado, he collected the best series of skins
of the American panther, with the measurements taken in the flesh, that
has ever been gathered from one locality by a single individual.
Mr. Roosevelt's hunting experiences have been so wide as to have
covered almost every species of North American big game found
within the temperate zone. Except such Arctic forms as the white and
the Alaska bears, and the muskox, there is, perhaps, no species of North
American game that he has not killed; and his chapter on the mountain
sheep, in his book, "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail," is confessedly
the best published account of that species.
During the years that Mr. Roosevelt was actually engaged in the cattle
business in North Dakota, his everyday life led him constantly to the
haunts of big game, and, almost in spite of himself, gave him constant
hunting opportunities. Besides that, during dull seasons of the year, he
made trips to more or less distant localities in search of the species of
big game not found immediately about his ranch. His mode of hunting
and of traveling was quite different from that now in vogue among
big-game hunters. His knowledge of the West was early enough to

touch upon the time when each man was as good as his neighbor, and
the mere fact that a man was paid wages to perform certain acts for you
did not in any degree lower his position in the world, nor elevate yours.
In those days, if one started out with a companion, hired or otherwise,
to go to a certain place, or to do a certain piece of work, each man was
expected to perform his share of the labor.
This fact Mr. Roosevelt recognized as soon as he went West, and,
acting upon it, he made for himself a position as a man,