The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 14, 1898, Page 25

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 1598. 'un in water and on land.* “And,” he continued, * just traded my watch for him that Mr. Jacobs gave me for trapping 183 coyotes in three months. It was a good watch, but what do I want with a watch? I know When it's daylight and I know when it's dark, and I know when I'm hungry. But that dorg—well, wait till I git him trained and he'll beat any dog in Cali- fornia for ‘denning’ coyotes.” It was a long, rough trail to our camping place, a surveyor's deserted hut, on the top of the mountain, and most of the way was too steep for rid- ing with not a fence or a human being or any sign of habitation. Tracks of bear, wildcats, coyotes, foxes and coons and countless traces of deer we saw, and just before night- where 1 _the ot shoot a t&ll at the bottom" of a cool, deep ave her C2aD¥on, I thought I saw a rabbit feed- 8 ing, but they told me it was a doe. to -the in tangled manzanita thickets the hen of the mountain quail fussed and called to her half-fledged brood, tempt- ing Providence with her noisy scolding. Doves and grouse and squirrels invited shots, but the law protected the grouse and we did not want the others badly enough to shoot and scare the deer. It was quite dark when we sat down by our camp fire to our beans, bread and butter and coffee. I was too tired to ¥ long away from my bed of fra- grant spruce browse in the tent which had been pitched for Minnie and me. The last I heard was the voice of “Sure Shot: “You ought to have been here twenty years ago, the first trip I ever of Jim White, 1 string har made on this here mountain. Do you see that gulch over thar Wall, I was all tuckered out and hungry enough to eat raw rattlesnake my moc- es, but at casins was e from s above his walking. I wanted tc up here ut my and camp, where I could k my eye r Injuns. ssedest Injun livin' Wall, just as I came up that , Just a mite to the right on that for the 2 twelve of the biggest b ever seen in this State. They bunched and I blazed away and thought I would get two or three of 1, and I guess I fired ten shots. nt over there and may 1 be tarnal- orn aggled to glory if T hadn't plugged the whole twelve of ’em. Four sn’t dead, but I finished them ife. One of 'em"— pack sadd 1 asleep. LR n 8 and 9 o'clock next morning eating breakfast when the hitched on into a returned laden with only hun- nd directions to Minnie and me to the surest way to bring down four-point bucks. n 1 could vonders of Toward noon we too went to “stake out” our ground. We were chatting , cross-b and making ourselves happy in a ra berry ch beside a brook. I heard ked in my crackling in the bushes and then a in the water about thirt Peter sorter and a great tav bu > he’s a good 1ding in the brook w BN % % NN AR R 3 RUARBURRIRE R HOW ONE z the anni- | the recommendation of the local engin- panish fleet at San- rs having them in charge. This vir- leaving the Dons but | y left the removal of the mines op- nt of a once powerful | tional with the engineers. This action nnounced in the press | on the part of the War Department was hington and rivers of | the Eastern shippers and Atlantic nav- es might be taken up on | igators, whose business was greatly de- LY f 1 a that | Gue to the pressure brought to bear by | /O DOLLARS IS BEING SPENT IN up scenting the air. Further down a yearling and & doe were drinking. A slight breeze was blowing from them toward us and we were concealed by the berry bushes, but the beautiful ani- mal s-emed to know inst.actively that some danger was near. He need have had no fear for I stood petrifi:d and my heart was in my throat. We must have made some nd, however, for they bounded away the hill. I turned to Minnie, she W as white as her collar and said I ad even less color. Then we sat down and had a good laugh. When we returned to camp we did not tell the others what we had seen though the lust of the cha in us every hour. We merely s chosen the side of the mountain for the morrow’s hunting. “‘All right, you shall have that whole mountain for your own. Don't tire yourselves too much though, and I would not get up till it is quite light if I were you. Don’t get frightened at buckskin mule trying to keep up his meek spirits on the blue bunch grass. Our Ty patch was about a mile from camp over a long ridge of Bald Mountain and half way down into the canyon. The heavy silence and the clammy wind of early dawn made us keep v close together. The snap- the deer and don't lose yourselves.” The nights are very cold up on Bald Mountain. Very early next morning when Minnie whispered to me that she believed it was time to get up nothing but those deer we had actually seen could have moved me. It was very dark, but along the line of the east was =HOW [ KILLED= MY FIRST dering if we without so much as tiously up to the top of the ridge be- the brook and sat down to we It was fas and we had i Watch- fell to won- 0 home direction we would b a ined intent look came into M a promise that it might be light some ping of dead leaves and twigs under face. Following her eyes I time. our feet seemed loud enough to fright- a hundred yards away a buck feeding The men were still sleeping so we en the game for miles, and when we in the shadow of the tanbark oaks had the first chance at the cold coffee had ta pass under a madrone which skirted the opening. He was before we started over the hill which treading on the dry yellow leav partly facing us and much lower down. had been so generously given to us. ed to call an ec I was almost afraid to raise my rifle I carried the rifle and Minnie a pair We had come too early, into position lest he should hear us. I but that was so much better than being too Jate and you are In another world when abroad at 3 a. m. We crept cau- B R NN RERN NN R NERNRRRR of field gla ing on the next ridge, but after strain- ing our ears and eyes it was only our ses. Something was mov- so far not disturbed the na | the harbor in the least, but if the e field is laid according to the plan layed by the extreme caution necessary gation of | for the masters of vessels to exercise in entering and leaving port which the MINES TO PROTECT ntire | them, apparatus at the shors and th took a long, careful aim at the point of his shoulder, where the light struck it, and fired. KRR BAYN Major Heuer, if ordered to remove would® disconnect the electrical grap- & network might interfere to some extent | ple for the mines, picking them up foui0 By done onyidixing the QEVHEDCH BN the Exhpeuortation Iaters: A |ome by one. The cable would te cut With the destruction of so many of | Vessel passing over the mine fleld | immediately beneath, and then undflt Spain’s warships and crulsers at Ma- | Might strike a mine and cause an ex- ‘{;:n n{:tl' rl*cl‘r-dk unp,qz‘?e“prn’}.)i.-n‘flhmr;. F: a Y = us being take: away. e ATgC |nila and Santlago de Cuba there re- | Plosion. would then be taken out of the mine " HOW THE ONE THOUSAND MINES, COSTING The mines are so arranged that any | particular one can be exploded at the | will of the operator stationed on the shore; but if touched by a vessel the mine by means of an ingenious device turbed unless positive orders are issued | announces the fact to the operator and to take them up. So says Major Wm. | | at the same time automatically throws G. Heuer of the Engineer Corps, who | the firing battery into cireuit, causing as yet has received no 1 structions |an explosion. from General Wilson, chief of the Uni- [ 1t has been stated in the newspaper ted States Engineer Corps at Washing- | gjspatches that the harbor mines if re- ton. | moved would either be taken up or Soon after the breaking out of the | plown off. Major Heuer, however, says war with Spain, Major Heuer was or- | that there would be no blowing off of dered to lay in the harbor of San Fran- | the mines as they are too expensive to cisco a complete stem of mines, ac- | he converted into a mere fireworks dis- cording to the plans provided for every play. harbor of importance in the United | The mines in the harbor of San Fran- States. jclsco so far have cost over $500,000. This work Major Heuer proceeded to | The plan for completely mining the perform as rapidly as possible. It is a harbog calls for 1000 mines, the cost of little more than half completed, and he | which will be over $1,000,000. proposes to carry out his original in- The mine cases are made of steel, structions and finish the job, unless | six feet long, thirty-two inches diame- otherwise directed. These mines have mained little or no fear of an attack on our seacoast cities, and hence the mines were permitted to be removed. However, the mines in the harbor of Ban Francisco are to remain undis- ter and containing from 100 to 500 pounds of dynamite. |and stored away for future wars, as the material will last, tion, for many years. | wires is about two 3 of which period they replaced. in good condi- The life of the ars, at the end will have to be To the casual observer it would seem that the Golden Gate would have been the proper location : mines, as it is only about a mile wide, and would require the placing of about fifty-three torpedoes, i {s that the Golden Gate is too deep, and too rapid. f and-the current at times is eight miles an hour. prevents the use of ground mines, as it would interfere with the destructive force of the explosive, and the strong for the harbor but the trouble It is 320 feet deep The depth of the Golden Gate 88N ON THE \WAY TO THE CAMP, deer feel as I did. After all the trouble, packing over the mountains, walking for miles, all the heat and rough living, I would have given a great deal to be able to give back to my first deer the power to bound away into God's green woods. As we started back the sun was lighting the fog in the lower valleys and the whole mountain side was awake and alive. It seemed hours since we had picked our way over that trail through the deathlike silence and chilly gloom. “Sure Shot” came in soon with no game, but a wondrous story, and Peter, the dog, close at his heels, one eye closed and his pinky white hide frescoed with tar weed which he de- cently tried to wash off in our spring set aside for drinking. I asked how Peter had hurt his eye. “’Tain’t hurt; all them well-bred dorgs have that way of looking,” answered “Sure Shot,” as he wiped his knife on his trousers, preparatory to eating his Z) ¢ “l TOOK A LONG AND CAREFUL AIM AT THE POINT OF HIS SHOULDER WHERE THE LIGHT STRUCK IT AND FIRED.” breakfast. The vultures were circling around and around the spot where my deer lay and yellow jackets were hum- ming and buzzing, eager to dispute “Sure Shot's” right to fasten the buck onto the mule with what he called a “hog-thief's hiteh.” He was not half so patronizing when he found that the one shot from my little Winchester had gone through the heart and out through the short ribs. He stepped off the distance from where the buck lay to the first stain of blood, and-it was eighty-seven yards. The buck had traveled that distance and to see if there was any life. jumped a great fallen tree after a bul- I wonder if ‘men who have killed a let had torn through his heart. BRI N NS RV URELNEI SAN FRANCISCO HARBOR. Shunk, the officer in charge of the mines, “the propeller of a steamer cut the cable holding a torpedo, which floated out beyond the heads and was brought back by some fishermen. If a vessel had struck it there mi¢ht have been a repetition of the Maine disas- ter. Two weeks ago four lads from San Francisco hired a boat and went rov ing. They pulled their boat alongside a torpedo buoy and began to poke it with their oars, evidently unaware of Its dangerous nature. A guard rushed down to the shore and shouted to the boys, who yelled back yncomplimentary remarks and tried to pull the buoy from its moorings. At this four rifle balls were sent over their heads, where= upon they rowed back to Sausalito. When the slight smoke of the nitro- powder had cleared away no buck lay on the ground. We ran down the hill to where he had stood and there was a great smear of dark blood and on the grass plashes of blood a few feet apart, leading back into the woods, and there over a fallen trunk the bu He was a “four-pointer,” just what I had promised myself. The small head on the long slender neck stretched on the dead leaves, the great brown eyes still soft and unglazed and the free, wild grace of the bedy and del- icately shi d legs, made me feel like & murder: as I, trembling, stooped R8N current makes it difficult for the plac- ing of buoyant mines. The min now dotting part of San Francisco Bay are of the buoyant type, their buoyancy being due to a large air chamber. They are anchored so that they float only a few feet beneath the surface of the water. The buoyant torpedo being nearer the object of at- tack does not require nearly so large a charge of explosive as the ground mine. The submarine mines in the harbor of San Francisco, so far as the system is completed, are placed within an area embraced within lines drawn from Sau- salito to a green buoy south of Belve- dere, and Angel Island, thence to Shag Rock, and thence to Point Cavallo, as shown by the accompanying drawing. “Very recently,” stated Lieutenant %! ANCEL 1 DIAGRAM SHOWING THE MINE SECTION OF THE BAY OFF THE SAUSALITO SHORE. $ ONE MILLION DOLLARS, ARE BEING DISTRIBUTED ALONG THE MARIN COUNTY SHORE OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY.