AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



167 



other substances are likewise thrown out. Innumerable fish, as Eels, Pike, Tench, 

 Perch, &c., inhabits its waters. The fishery is, however, comparatively little pro- 

 ductive, on account of the great depth of the lake. Pikes of the enormous weight of 

 50lb., and Eels of 15lb., are not unfrequently caught. 



DEER HUNTING IX THE TEXAS. 



We have been favoured by a friend, who has recently visited Texas, with the follow- 

 in"' notice respecting or-» of its principal islands, and the habits of a species of Deer 

 found there. 



It has seldom happened to me to see a more interesting island than that named Gal- 

 veston, which lies in the inner curvature of the Bay of Mexico. It is flat, somewhat, 

 sandy, in places cut up by numerous diverfring bayous, between which are marshes of 

 a brackish nature. Its sandy shores produce perhaps the best Oysters in the world, 

 while around it, in the deep waters of Galveston Bay, are found numerous species of 

 fish, not less pleasing to the palate of the epicure, than interesting to the curious ich- 

 thyologist. There too are Prawns of finer quality than any found along the Atlantic 

 Coast of North America. 



This island, besides being celebrated for Oysters, Prawns, and fine fish, in which 

 respect, however, it does not differ from many others in the same country, is still more 

 so on account of its having been the great place of rendezvous of the rufBans com- 

 manded by the famous Pirate Lafitte, a man who, twenty years ago, was looked upon 

 with terror even by the superior authorities of the countries around. There was & 

 time, indeed, when this reprobate had entire possession of Galveston Island, on which 

 he erected his fortresses, raised iiis numerous huts, and could conceal within the har- 

 bour the whole of his curious fleet in the most perfect state of security, for as I can 

 well assure you, the entrance of Galveston Harbour or Bay is most intricate and diffi- 

 cult of access. However, this atrocious villain was at last secured, and, I believe, 

 suffered the punishment which his vile deeds so much merited. 



If ever there was a spot where game might be found in abundance, it is Galveston 

 Island. There the common American Deer, Cervus virginianus, or perhaps a species 

 not yet pourtrayed or described, exists, not as Deer are seen in the parks of England, 

 by hundreds, but by thousands. Leave your grassy couch at dawn, see that your 

 xifle is in good order, that your pouch contains fifty bullets, and your horn a sufficient 

 quantity of powder, be a good marksman, calm, steady, and perfectly adept in the 

 work of destruction, and then tell me, when you return towards the setting of the 

 sun, if you' have not procured more venison than would suffice for a hundred of the 

 most hungry and voracious flesh-caters. 



Methinks now I am on that loved spot, that I have risen a little before the appear- 

 ance of the orb of day, that, clothed hke a true hunter, I stand in the midst of my 

 companions, who are similarly equipped. We are landed from our vessel at the distance 

 of some eight or ten miles from the Town of Galveston, say, if you choose, at the 

 " Eagle's Nest." Then here we all are, quite ready for a frolic. Our guns are in 

 trim, our sailors, as sailors generally are, gay and sprightly, and towards yon cover of 

 small bushes we proceed with some caution. The shooters take their stations at 

 pretty regular distances, under the lee of the thicket, and at such spots as we conceive 

 to be those at which the game will probably issue. Our sailors, now well trained, 

 for we have no dogs, enter the bush windward, and now their loud shrieks announce 

 to us their wiUingness to perform their duty faithfully. " Halloo ! Halloo ! Halloo !'* 

 these sounds come pleasantly on our ears, however much terror they may inspire in 

 the timid deer. Up starts, — not a Stag, but a Galveston Owl. *' Quite a stranger 1" 

 quoth the sportsman in advance ; but, as it proves somewhat of a curiosity, in the 

 way of feathers and flesh, no sooner has it come within range of my " Long Tom," 

 than aim I take, pull the slick trigger, and down to the earth falls the bird. Think 

 not that such an incident tends to mar the main sport. No ; Deer, such at least as 

 those of Galveston Island, on such occasions shrink into their form, lay down their 

 ears, and perhaps, for aught I know, indulge in the thought of their being quite safe. 

 But hark!—" Watch I Watch 1 Watch!" Ah! how delightful the sound! The 

 Deer is a-coming ; the guns are all instantly cocked, and every shooter has crouched 

 close down. There I — the antlered, smooth, and sleek-skinned Buck emerges, bound- 

 ing violently at first, but now advancing timorously, for you sec it crouching almost 

 to the ground as it enters the plain ; its tail nevertheless goes this way and that way, 

 and again and again waves, like the flag of some party willing to come to a parley. 

 Bat, alas for thee, thou forlorn Buck ! I have heard the report of a gun. I see 

 the beautiful animal stagger ; his tongue is out, his eye becomes dim. There he lies 

 at our mercy extended on the ground ! The shouts of the sailors are repeated. All 

 the Deer in the thicket are now truly alarmed. Out and in again bound some of the 

 most timorous ; now they are hard pressed by the tars, and many are forced to 

 take to the open plain ; but before they have sped fifty yards toward another cover, 

 the agonised bleatings of several are heard amidst the noise of the shot?, 



'* Enough for a week's food," says one. *' Agreed," say all. And now the sailors 

 are called. " Bring yoar oars, brave fellows ;" these most useful implements have 

 been used in beating the bushes. The Deer are now fastened so as to swing by 

 their four feet, three or perhaps four on the same oar. Two sturdy fellows shoulder 

 the bending sticks ; others follow, laden in the same manner ; and toward the sandy 

 shore we return. 



Did you ever see a Deer skinned in a trice, and cooked in sixty minutes ? I have. 

 It is done thus. Imagine first that the game and all have reached the mner margin 

 of the bay, and that the venison ** in the skin" lies on the ground. Our encampment is 

 prepared, by which I mean you to understand, that four oars have been put up, and the 

 sail of our craft attached to them, so as to keep the sun's rays from parching our eyes. 

 A fire has been kindled, to chase away the myriads of mosquitoes, now fully as hungry 

 as ourselves. The Deer are dragged to the water, and there skinned sans cercmonie ; 

 that is to say, by cutting and tearing off their hide in a manner which an Edinburgh 

 *' flesher" would hold most unbutcherly. Then the carcase is washed in the brine, 

 partially salted, if you please to call it so, and hung in front of the augmented blaze. 

 There let it roast a while. " Turn it again, John." " Aye, aye, sir ;" and so it fizzes 

 and drips. Each hunter, who, in the meantime, has collected along the shore his 



hundred or so of Oysters, now watches them as they gasp in the agonies of death, 

 hissing and opening their shells wider and wider, in the midst of the burning embers, 

 *• Done, sir, quite done !" ** Thank you, John." Now, every man, his own carver, 

 cuts and slashes according to his own taste ; the juicy meat allays our hunger, the 

 Oysters follow as a dessert ; and should we apprehend an apoplectic attack, we guard 

 against it by washing all down with a glass of grog. 



IVIy opinion, that the Deer which are so abundant on Galveston Island, as well as 

 in all the maritime parts of the Texas, is different from the Virginian Deer, is found- 

 ed on the following facts. The latter, which is common and well-known, not only 

 in Virginia, but throughout the whole of our Atlantic states, from Maine to South 

 Carolina, is a much larger animal. It differs also materially in its general colour at 

 all seasons, being more red in summer, and of a darker grey in winter. Its average 

 weight, when in good condition, may be estimated at about a hundred and fifty pounds. 

 Its antlers are much larger, more bent forwards, and considerably less palmated 

 than those of the Texian or Floridan species. In its movements, the Virginian Deer, 

 though extremely swift and graceful, differs from the Deer of Galveston Island, in 

 exhibiting a ceTta\n je-ne-s^ai-qtwi in its bound, which resembles in this respect that 

 of the Roe-Buck of Scotland and of Europe generally. The Galveston Deer is also 

 wont to congregate in immense numbers at all limes, so much so, indeed, that I and. 

 my companions have passed through spaces on Galveston Island where their tracts 

 were as thick as those in a sheep-fold. In spring and summer, the general colour of 

 the pile is in some individuals almost white, and in winter red, instead of dark-^rey 

 or brown. Whether this may be owing to the influence of climate or not I cannot 

 positively say, although I think not. At Galveston, their principal enemy, besides 

 Man, is a small wolf, probably of a species yet unknown to NaturaUsts, which hunts 

 in packs, and has been known to chase the Deer even into the town. 



THE HYDRA, OR FKESH-WATER POLYPUS, 



Leeuwenhozk discovered the Hydra in 1703, and the uncommon way its younf; are 

 produced ; and an anonymous correspondent of the Royal Society made the same dis- 

 covery in England about the same time, but it excited no particular notice until 

 Trembley made known its wonderful properties, about the year 1744, These were 

 50 contrary to all former experience, and so repugnant to every established notion of 

 animal life, that the scientific world were amazed ; and while the more cautious among 

 Naturalists set themselves to verify what it was difficult to believe, there were many 

 who looked upon the alleged facts as impossible fancies. The discoveries of Trembley 

 were, however, speedily confirmed; and we are now so familiar with the outlines of 

 the history of the Fresh-water Polype, and its marvellous reproductive powers, that we 

 can scarcely appreciate the vividness of the sensation felt when it was all novel and 

 strange ; when the leading men of our learned societies were daily experimenting upon 

 these poor worms, and transmitting them to one another from distant countries, by 

 careful posts, and as most precious gifts, and when even ambassadors interested them- 

 selves in sending early intelligence of the engrossing theme to their respective courts. 

 The HydrEB are found in fresh, and, perhaps, also in salt waters, but the former 

 species only have been examined with care, and are the objects of the following re- 

 marks. They prefer slowly running or almost still water, and fasten to the leaves 

 and stalks of submerged plants by their base, which seems to act as a sucker. The 

 body is exceedingly contractile, and hence liable to many changes of form. When 

 contracted it is like a tubercle, a minute top, or button, and when extended it becomes 

 a narrow cylinder, being ten or twelve times longer at one time than at another, the 

 tentacula suffering changes in their length and diameter equal to those of the body. 

 " It can lengthen out or shorten its arms, without extending or contracting its body ; 

 and can do the same by the body, without altering the length of its arms ; both, how- 

 ever, are usually moved together, at the same time and in the same direction," The 

 whole creature is apparently homogeneous, composed of minute pellucid grains coher- 

 ing by means of a transparent jelly, for, even with a high magnifier, no defined organiza- 

 tion of vessels and fibres can be detected. On the point opposite the base, and in the 

 centre of the tentacula, we observe an aperture or mouth which leads into a larger cavity, 

 excavated as it were in the midst of the jelly, and from which a narrow canal is con- 

 tinued down to the sucker. When contracted, and also when fully extended, the 

 body appears smooth and even, but ** in its middle degree of extension," the sides 

 seem to be minutely crenulated, an effect probably of a wrinkling of the surface, al- 

 though from this appearance Baker has concluded that the Hydra is annulose, or made 

 up of a number of rings capable of being folded together or evolved, and hence in 

 some measure its extraordinary ability of extending and contracting its parts. That 

 this view of the Hydra's structure is erroneous, Trembley has proved ; and the ex- 

 planation it afforded of the animal's contractility was obviously unsatisfactory, for it 

 was never pretended that such an anatomy could be detected in the tentacula, which, 

 however, are equally or more contractile. These organs encu-cle the mourh, and radi- 

 ate in a star-Uke fashion, but they seem to originate a little under the lip, for the 

 mouth is often protruded like a kind of small snout ; they are cylindrical, linear, or 

 very slightly tapered, hollow, and roughened, at short and regular intervals, with 

 whorls of tubercles which, under the microscope, form a very beautiful and interest- 

 ing object, and I have thought when viewing them, that every little tubercle might 

 be a cup or sucker similar to those which garnish the arms of the Cuttle-fish. 

 Trembley has shown us that this is a deception, and that there is really no exactness 

 in the comparison. The tentacula are amazingly extensible, from a line or less to 

 one, or, as in Hi/dra fusca, to more than eight inches ; and " another extraordinary 

 circumstance is, that a Polype can extend an arm in any part of its whole length, 

 without doing so throughout, and can swell or lessen its diameter, either at the root, at 

 the extremity, in the middle, or where it pleases ; which occasions a great variety of ap- 

 pearances, making it 'lometimes terminate with a sharp point, and at other times blunt, 

 knobbed, and thickest at the end, with the figure of a bobbin. We naturally inquire how 

 this wonderful extension is made, — by what power a part without muscularity is drawn 

 out until it exceeds by twenty or even by forty times the original length? The dis- 

 sections of Trembley have proved beyond all doubt that the body is a hollow cylinder 

 or bowel, and that the tentacula are tubular, and have a free communication with its 



