EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, jr.rnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTrnMichael WashburnrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnGONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O./. Brown, Katherine Dalton,rnSamuel Francis, George Garrett,rnChristine Haynes, E. Christian Kopff,rn].0. Tate, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, John Shelton Reed,rnMomcilo SelicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnPRODLICTION SECRETARYrnAnita CandyrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices;rn934 North Main Street, Rockford, IL 61103.rnEditorial Phone: (815)964-5054.rnAdvertising Phone: (815)964-5811.rnSubscription Department: P.O. Box 800,rnMount Morns, IL 61054. Call 1-800-877-5459.rnFor information on advertising in Chronicles,rnplease call Rochelle Frank at (815) 964-5811.rnU.S.A. Newsstand Distribution by Eastern NewsrnDistributors, Inc., 1130 Cleveland Road,rnSandusky, OH 44870.rnCopyright © 1996 by The Rockford Institute.rnAll rights reserved.rnChmmdes (ISSN 0887-5731) is publishedrnmonthly for $39.00 per year by The RockfordrnInstitute, 934 North Main Street, Rockford,rnIL 61103-7061. Second-class postage paidrnat Rockford, IL and additional mailing offices.rnPOSTMASTER: Send address changes tornChronicles, P.O. Box 800, Mount Morris,rnIL 61054.rnThe views expressed in Chronicles are thernauthors’ alone and do not necessarily reflectrnthe views of The Rockford Institute or of itsrndirectors, ilnsolicitcd manuscripts cannot bernreturned unless accompanied by a self-addressedrnstamped envelope.rnChroniclesrnVol. 20, No, 6 June 1996rnPrinted in the United States of AmericarnPOLEMICS & EXCHANGESrnOn the HundredthrnMeridianrnCome on now, Chilton, you can fool thernreaders of Chronicles who have never cutrnthe scent pads off a mule deer buck orrnpried the “ivories” out of an elk’s jaw, butrnfor those of us who have, your hyperbole,rnespecially in your February columnrn(“Hunters and Gatherers”), sometimesrnreaches the point where a response is required.rnI have killed several dozen elk in placesrnranging from the Bitterroots in Montanarnto the Uintas and Sunshine Basin inrnWyoming and never, ever, did I see orrnhear of a 700-pound spike bull elk. Yourndidn’t have him in your corral for a yearrnand force feed him, did you? Or maybernthere was a little Jack Daniels consumedrnover the carcass. Then there is the littlernmatter of the “gastric juices and contentsrnof the maw.” Ain’t no such things in thernabdominal cavity of an eviscerated animalrnunless it has been gut shot. Are yourntelling us in a roundabout way that yourrnmarksmanship that day warn’t so hot?rnOr maybe it truly was a case of the JackrnDaniels shakes.rnOf all the critters I have been luckyrnenough to kill and dress out, I can’t thinkrnof an instance where I was “covered inrnblood, hair, and tissue almost to thernshoulders.” My hunting partners and Irnalways took pride in not looking likernworkers in some abattoir after either therngutting out or boning process. But thenrnwe saved the Jack Daniels for a braggingrnsession at Zampedries in Fort Bridger.rnThere are a couple of other parts ofrnyour account that deserve scrutiny, butrnwe’ll forgive you this time on the groundsrnof artistic license. Just remember thatrnyou ain’t the only one living or who hasrnlived in the West who can read an eruditernpublication like Chronicles and understandrnit.rn—Alton WindsorrnAppleton, WlrnChilton WilHamsonrnRepHes:rnOf course there are no gastric juices inrnthe abdominal cavity of an elk, thoughrnthere mav be bile in Alton Windsor’s.rnAfter removing the stomach from thernvery distended paunch, I opened it in anrnattempt to learn how recently the animalrnhad been feeding.rnAs for weight, since I do not carry arnscales with me into the mountains, myrnestimates are based on, one, the acknowledgedrnmaximum weight of a maturernbull (a six-year-old typically exceedsrn1,000 pounds); two, a visual comparisonrnwith my small Arab mare, whose weightrnI do know; and three, the opinion ofrnwhatever partner I happen to be huntingrnwith. Some years ago, when writingrnabout an elk kill, I took the trouble tornconsult my copy of Elk of North America:rnEcology and Management, compiled andrnedited by Jack Ward Thomas and DalernE. Toweill, for typical weights of elk ofrnboth sexes and progressive stages of physicalrndevelopment, without success.rnBy writing that I was covered in bloodrnand hair to the shoulders, I did not ofrncourse mean from boots to shoulders,rnbut from the hands up to the shouldersrn—an unavoidable result of reachingrninto the body cavity, grappling with therncarcass to shift it on extremely steep andrnprecarious terrain, and carrying the meatrnto the pack horse. Mangas Coloradasrnwould have understood.rnFinally, contrary to Alton Windsor’srnspeculations, I rarely take a drink beforernsundown, and never before handlingrneither guns or horses. Certainly I don’trndrink when I have a job of writing torndo—a rule that Mr. Windsor, to judgernfrom his strangely excited letter, may orrnmay not follow.rnOn NationahsmrnThough current discussions of nationalismrnare incredibly confused and WaynernAllensworth in “The Nationalist Imperative”rn(February 1996) does a pretty goodrnjob in showing the fragility of the modernistrnversion, what he proposes as thern”primordial” counterpart is ridiculous.rnLet me register a few objections.rnThe Bowie anecdote is amusing butrnhighly misleading. What follows fromrnAllensworth’s claim that “Bowie, likernmost Americans of the first half ofrnthe 19th century, did not think of hisrnAmericanness as a mutable quality”?rnWas Bowie confused, or is “American-rn4/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn