July 22, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



47 



prejudiced appeals or unreasoning denunciation. Patient investi- 

 gation, l<eeping in view all circumstances of the question, and 

 avoiding all one-sidedness in considering the matter, will alone 

 bring about the object desired. Personally I at present occupy the 

 same stand-point as Professor Armsby (Science, x. p. 4), " Much 

 of the common prejudice against the use of distillery-slops appears 

 to be occasioned by their irrational application, and frequently by 

 the filthy surroundings of the animals, rather than by any thing 

 injurious in the feeding-stuff itself." GEORGE H. RoHfi. 



Baltimore, July 15. 



The Hudson Bay Route. 



In your article on ' The New Route from England to Eastern 

 Asia, and the Hudson Bay Route ' (Vol. x. No. 231), you show the 

 advantages offered by the Hudson Bay route, as the most direct 

 available line between Yokohama and Liverpool in connection with 

 the Canadian Pacific Railway and their line of steamers between 

 Yokohama and Vancouver. I should like to add a few remarks on 

 that part of it known as the Hudson Bay route. 



The Canadian Government decided, that, before any such line was 

 encouraged by subsidy, it would be advisable to determine by 

 actual observation what difficulties were likely to be met with ; and, 

 with this object in view, established several observing stations in the 

 Strait and Bay, with men and material sufficient for continuous 

 residence there during 1884-6. Complete details of these obser- 

 vations are published in the annual reports of the Marine Depart- 

 ment. 



A fact well established by these observations was that naviga- 

 tion was limited in these years to three months for the ordinary 

 ocean-steamer ; and that for a class of steamer specially con- 

 structed to withstand the lateral thrust of the ice, and to push her 

 way amidst the outflowing arctic ice, four, or at most five months 

 would be the limit, depending on whether the season was a late or 

 early one. We must not forget, however, that in the earlier days 

 at least of this route, before the telegraph and cable will have 

 reached these waters, steamers will not attempt the passage at these 

 earlier dates, fearing an arrival off the mouth of the Strait and an 

 inactive wait for a late season's opening, so that practically such an 

 advantage would be lost, and two months and a half become the 

 period over which a steamer could be certain of making an un- 

 interrupted passage during any season. 



In considering the possibility of the route being equipped with a 

 special class of steamer, we will have to remember that the required 

 conditions will be strength and power rather than speed, and that 

 therefore their field for employment outside of these few months' 

 service would be of very limited extent. 



The special objection I would point out as to this route, apart 

 from the ice-question, is the difficulty of the passage itself : an un- 

 known, an unlighted coast-line, with very few harbors of refuge, or 

 none at all, and very little room to ride out a gale ; extreme depths 

 of water, one hundred fathoms being often found right up to the 

 shore, with generally very foul holding-gro\md where the depths are 

 more moderate. In foul weather, no sounding being possible that 

 would be of value, a vessel would receive no warning of her prox- 

 imity to the coast until the information would be of little or no 

 avail. 



Although fogs are of less frequent occurrence than off the New- 

 foundland coast, where the necessary conditions are most favorable, 

 they are not infrequent during the season of navigation, Belle-Isle 

 having an average of 1,600 hours fog during the year, as compared 

 with 420 for the Strait during the same period. On the other 

 hand, although the total amount of precipitation, in the Strait, was 

 not great, rain or snow fell on an average of a little more than every 

 other day, with its attendant thick weather. 



In addition to and connection with these difficulties, we must not 

 forget that the proximity of the Strait to the Magnetic Pole results 

 in the horizontal, or directive, force of the magnetic-needle being 

 so diminished that the common compass is perfectly useless ; and 

 even in the case of the Thomson compass, disturbing elements on 

 ship-board have, in consequence, their values so increased (relative- 

 ly) that sources of error might arise, the effects of which could not 

 be counted on during thick weather. 



That the people of Manitoba are seemingly satisfied with the 

 feasibility of this route, there can be no doubt, if we may judge 

 from the advance they have made with the construction of the rail- 

 way from Winnipeg to Churchill ; but, in face of the facts obtained 

 from the observations made in the Strait, one must conclude that 

 the resources of Hudson Bay itself and the country intervening are 

 looked upon as reason sufficient for the construction, independently 

 of the value of the road as a connecting link to the Hudson Bay 

 route. 



In conclusion, although it would be difficult to say that, with the 

 appliances science is constantly developing to meet particular cases 

 of difficulty, the navigation of Hudson Strait will not be pos- 

 sible for five or six months when the necessity arises, we cannot 

 but conclude that, with the means at our disposal to-day, the navi- 

 gation of Hudson Strait is possible for such a limited period, and 

 under such serious disadvantages, that as a development of the 

 ' New Route from England to Eastern Asia ' we need not consider 

 it as an immediate probability. W. A. Ashe. 



The Observatory, Quebec, July i6. 



The Wanton Destruction of the Florida Heronries. 



Cannot general legislation, cannot State legislation, or cannot 

 somebody raise a hand to stay the terrible, the shameless extermi- 

 nation of the herons at their breeding-grounds in the south-western 

 parts of the State of Florida ? 



As I pen these lines this murderous work is being actively carried 

 on, and apparently in the most lawless and reckless manner possi- 

 ble, — a disgrace to the entire country, — for one of America's 

 grandest and most interesting natural features, her heronries, are 

 simply, and without a check of any kind, being ruthlessly wiped 

 out of existence. Prompted by an insatiable greed for gain, the 

 ' plume-traders ' of the markets are upon their grounds in numbers,, 

 and hundreds of these birds are now daily falling to their unceasing 

 fire, simply that they may have their backs robbed of a few feathers 

 to gratify a passing fashion. The Auk is now publishing an ad- 

 mirable series of articles on this subject from the able pen of Mr. 

 W. E. D. Scott, at present on a scientific expedition in Florida, and 

 I have just read his contribution to the July number of that journal. 

 Mr. Scott has very recently made camp at a number of these 

 heronries, and I quote a few of his words in order to show what 

 work is going on there. At Matlacha Pass, near Charlotte Harbor, 

 Pine Island has a heronry, and here one Johnson was at work. 

 " A few herons were to be seen from time to time flying to the 

 island, and presently I took the small boat, and went ashore to 

 reconnoitre. This had evidently been only a short time before a 

 large rookery. The trees were full of nests, some of which still 

 contained eggs, and hundreds of broken eggs strewed the ground 

 everywhere. Fish-crows and both kinds of buzzards were present 

 in great numbers, and were rapidly destroying the remaining eggs. 

 I found a huge pile of dead, half-decayed birds, lying on the 

 ground, which had apparently been killed for a day or two. All of 

 them had the ' plumes ' taken, with a patch of the skin from the 

 back, and some had the wings cut off ; otherwise they were un- 

 injured. I counted over two hundred birds treated in this way." 

 In some places, Mr. Scott found hundreds of the young herons just 

 starving in their nests ; in others, the gunners beneath the trees 

 shooting down the magnificent birds in hundreds, stripping their 

 backs, and leaving their carcases to rot upon the ground. Instances 

 were noted without number where, during the breeding-season, the 

 poor, affrighted survivors were driven to strange islands, dropping 

 their eggs in quantities from the trees where they fearfully roosted 

 for the night. A few more years, one or two at the most, 

 and this disgraceful murder will cease, for the simple reason that 

 there will no more victims for the murderers to prey upon, — and in 

 the name of nature, and in the name of the shadows of the sweet 

 old romances that have come down to us of the heronries of his- 

 tory, are these timid, and most engaging of all our larger water- 

 fowl, our own American herons, to be destroyed in this manner ! 



Twenty years ago southern Florida was the site of the grandest 

 heronries in all the world, and to-day this State is making enviable 

 progress, and many cultured people are flocking to her for a per- 

 manent home : is she to stand idly by and watch what will surely 



