574 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[May 5, 1882, 



ray son on a stretcher, and I accompanied them to the nearest station. 

 My son was totally unconscious, and his countenance had the pale- 

 ness of death. His limbs were flaccid ; his breathing slow, regular, 

 and performed without effort ; his |)ulse was soft and slow. 



The report to mo by the constables was, that they had found him 

 in this state, seated on the pavement, propped up against a wall. 

 The impromptu and inevitable verdict of most of (he police was 

 " Drunk." There was, however, no smell of alcoholic liqnor in his 

 breath ; neither was his physical state like that of a man " in 

 drink." One of the constables, more intelligent and cautious than 

 his fellows, pointed out these features, and said " He is not drunk, 

 but he's drugged." I hesitated to accept this explanation, since he, 

 being a medical student, I thought, would not easily bo " hocusscd " 

 in that manner. Nevertheless, the sequel proved the man was right 

 in his diagnosis. 



As I was well-known in my professional character at the station, 

 I was .allowed to remove my son home. He was placed in bed and 

 kept quiet. In the course of about eight or nine hours he woke up, 

 and was at first quite at a loss as to his " whereabouts." After an 

 attack of vomiting, he recovered his faculties, and gave the following 

 account of his illness. 



He and a fellow-student, discussing the subject of opium-smoking, 

 in a thoughtless moment agreed to experimentalise upon themselves. 

 They were both tobacco-smokers. They placed each a small pinch 

 of powdered opium in their pipes with the tobacco and smoked 

 away for a short time, when they began to feel agreeably in- 

 toxicated. They went to an adjacent tavern and asked for coffee ; 

 ■whilst this was being prepared they fell asleep on sofas. After 

 gome time they were ejected from the inn as being the worse for 

 liqnor. They wandered out iu the street ; my son remembered 

 getting into an omnibus, but forgot everything afterwards until he 

 came to himself at three o'clock in the morning. Upon close 

 inquiry, I learnt that the conductor of the omnibus when he got to 

 his journey's end turned his passenger out, and saw no more of 

 him. His fellow-smoker could give no account whatever of liis 

 doings until he found himself in bed, in his lodgings, the next 

 morning. In these two young men the effect of the inspiration of 

 opium fumes was a dreamless sleep, -with some of the phenomena 

 of somnambulism. A slightly stronger dose would, doubtless, have 

 Bent them into that sleep from which there is no waking. 



The narrative here given may, perhaps, warn others from such 

 experimenting, and it should also serve as a caution against opium 

 smoking to any extent at all. 



SEAL "FISHERIES." 



A LARGE part of the world's supply of seal-skins for furs comes 

 from the Prybilov Islands, off the coast of Alaska. On two 

 of these islands the seals congregate in vast numbers early in spring, 

 and remain for three months. With the exception, I understand, of 

 one island off the coast of Japan, the fur seal is nowhere else seen in 

 the North Pacific, and it is said that the seals on the coast of Alaska 

 are colonies which migrated suddenly froni the other island. Be 

 this as it may, the habits of the seal prove that it has a remarkable 

 attachment to localities. The sealing is farmed by the United 

 States Government for, I think, £'50,000 a year to the Alaska 

 Commercial Company ; and an agent of tho United States resides 

 on the principal island and sui>erintends the annual slaughter of a 

 stipulated and selected number of \-ictims. By this precaution there 

 is little danger, from man's inconsiderate rapacity, of the fui- seal 

 being exterminated in the North Pacific. Some years ago I heard 

 Mr. Bryan, the Government agent, describe to the California 

 Academy of Sciences, the fur seal trade carried on under his super- 

 vision. With only a variation of a few days in point of time, the 

 males arrive in a great shoal that agitates the sea as far as the 

 eye can scan, and, hobbling across the beach, establish themselves 

 at "home" on the ledges of rock, the strongest males always 

 taking possession of the best places. Next day, or, at the outside, 

 on the second day after the arrival of the males, the females are 

 discerned on the horizon, and ere they have emerged from the 

 waves, the males have rashed down to tho beach to welcome them, 

 which they do with much roaring and quarrellinjr among themselves. 

 Fighting for possession of the females is legitimate warfare, and 

 in such a contest the greatest number of females fall to the most 

 powerful males, some of which secure five or six companions. A day 

 after the female lands, she gives birth to her young (one or two), and 

 hardly have tho offspring begun lo suckle when she receives the em- 

 braces of the male. During their stay on the islands, combats of great 

 ferocity occur among the males, and the older animals exhibit scars 

 and gashes which render their pelts of little value to the furrier. 

 A short time before tho seals go to sea again, the males and females 

 separate, and are to be seen extended in long lines apart from each 

 other along the beach. The young stay with the females, and go 



to sea with them. It is a most curious fact that, during the whole 

 of the three months on the islands, neither male nor female enters 

 the water. They abstain entirely from f(x)d throughout the whole 

 of the period, and it is almost unnecessary to say that, althongk 

 they arrive in plump condition, they return to their fishing very 

 lean. The animals are killed, and not skinned alive. Males alone 

 are killed, and these only at three years of age. After that age, 

 their combats materially reduce the value of their skins. As soon 

 as tho males have separated from the females, the for-provideraf 

 ojierations begin. Day after day, groups of the males are snr- 

 rounded and cut off from their comi)anions, and a grand drive of 

 the game takes place towards the curing establishments. On the way 

 thither, the males which are unsuitable are allowed to slip seaward 

 between the ranks of the drivers. On reaching the slaughtering- 

 ground, a blow or two from a club on the head kills tho animal. The 

 skins are removed with the gi'catcst care, in one particular way, and 

 are given to the dressers, who scrape and rub down tho inner parts, 

 leaving them soft, and remove also the outer rough hair, which com- 

 pletely covers the inner fur. Some precautions of curing having 

 been taken, the skins are periodically shipped by the company's 

 steamer to San Francisco. There they remain some time in the 

 company's warehouse in Sansome-street, but are all ultimately sent 

 to London to be dyed ; and, as I have been informed by the ofiicials 

 of the company, the dyeing operations are a secret in the posses- 

 sion of one family iu London. It thus happens that seal-.skins in 

 the United States, on re-admission to the country, have to pay duty 

 as a manufactured article, and are much more costly than in 

 England. Occasionally, dyers in San Francisco experiment to get 

 at the secret of the dyeing iu London, but no one has succeeded. 

 Some dyeing, I believe, is performed in Germany, but it is possibly 

 by a branch of the London establishment. D. J. McB. 



A DOG GOES OVER NIAGARA FALLS ALIVE. 



ALAEGE dog lately survived the passage over Niagara Falls 

 aBd through the rapids to the whirlpool. He was first 

 noticed while he was within the influence of the upper rapids. As 

 he was whirled rapidly down over the falls, r*^ '^"« imagined but 

 that that was the last of him. Shortly afterwards, however, he was 

 discovered in the gorge below the falls vainly endeavouring to 

 clamber up upon some of the debris from the remains of the 

 great ice bridge which recently covered the water at this point, 

 but which had nearly all gone down the river. The news spread 

 rapidly through the viUage, and a large crowd gathered on the 

 shore. Strenuous efforts were made to get the struggling animal 

 on shore, for an animal which had gone safely over the falls wonld 

 be a prize worth having, but without success. Finally the dog 

 succeeded in getting upon a large cake of ice, and floated off 

 u]3on it down towards Suspension Bridge and the terrible ■ 

 whirlpool rapids. Information of the dog's coming was tele- 

 phoned to Suspension Bridge village, and a largo crowd 

 collected on the bridge to watch for the coming wonder. In 

 due time the poor fellow appeared upon his ice-cake, howling dis- 

 mally the while, as if he apijreciated the terrors of his situation. Afl. 

 express train crossing the bridge at the time stopped in order to 

 let the passengers witness the unusual spectacle. Bound and round 

 whirled the cake, in a dizzy way, and louder and more prolonged 

 grew the howls of the poor deg. As the influence of the whirlpool 

 rapids began to be felt, the oake increased in speed, whirled suddenly 

 into the air, broke into two, and the dog disappeared from view. 

 No one thought that he could possibly survive the wild rush 

 through the rapids. When, therefore, word was received that the 

 dog was in the whirlpool, still living, and onco more struggling 

 vainly to swim to land, it was received with marked incredulity. 

 This story was substantiated by several trustworthy witnesses. 

 It seems incredible that an animal could go through the upper 

 rapids, over the falls, through the gorge, through the whirlpool 

 rapids, and into the whirlpool itself, a distance of scvei-al miles, 

 and still be alive. The poor animal perished in the whirlpool. — 

 Scientific American. 



" In two instances dogs have been sent over tho Falls and sur- 

 vived the plunge. In November, 1836, a troublesome female bull 

 terrier was put in a coffee sack by a conple of men who had de- 

 termined to get rid of her, and thrown off from the middle of Great 

 Island Bridge. In the following spring she was found alive and 

 well about sixty rods below the Ferry, having lived through the 

 winter on a deceased cow that was thrown over the bank the 

 ]irevious fall. In 185S, another dog, a male of the same breed, was 

 thrown into the rapids, also near the middle of the bridge. In less 

 than an hour ho came up the Ferry st-iirs, veiy wet and not at all 

 gav. He was ever after a sadder if not a better dog." 



"NiAGAEA." — By Geohgk W. Holley. 



