_r 



I'Ul.iLJl li'lfflF«W »» 



horns were saved. We were close to the Wiad River, and 

 after an hour's ride wo put our camp up on the bank of the 

 stream at last, having crossed the dreaded Bad Lands. Now, 

 being in a country where the Indians, both peaceable and hos : 

 tile, roam around, wo had to be careful and on the lookout; 

 still we slept through the night quietly. 



V2ik. Moved camp ten miles to the head of the Big Horn 

 Canyon, where the stream ceases to carry the name Wind 

 River. ' Here the Cheyennes killed, sixteen monthB ago, 

 eight trappers. After dinner we had a rest, and then walked 

 down the canyon one and a half miles. 



13th. Started at 8 o'clock a. m.; tried to follow the river, 

 but when we had made about five miles we had to stop ; 

 there were on both aides almost perpendicular rocks 800 or 

 900 feet high. The stream was narrowed by them to about 

 fifty feet, and had a considerable fall. Here we found an old 

 camp and two flatboats in good condition, left here, very like- 

 ly, by an exploriug party from Camp Brown. We had to 

 turn to the right and eastward, following a deep canyon, 

 which was about the roughest part of our trip. When we 

 had reached the summit we followed a game trail leading 

 northwest. At three o'clock in the afternoon we stopped for 

 this day near a nice little stream, but without any kind of fish 

 in it. We saw to-day two herds of buffalo— one band of about 

 sixty elk and two sheep ; we tried to kill one or the other, 

 being short of meat, but did not get a shot. After dinner 

 every one of us went on his own hook to bring some game 

 home, but without, any result, except that Frank reported to 

 have killed a buffalo, but did not save any meat or trophies. 

 I saw a large band of sixty-tour elk, but could not get near 

 enough to kill. 



142S.. Had a foggy morning ; wind easterly ; moved at, 

 eight, and riding 12 miles, we arrived at the Big Horn Basin 

 at the foot of the Big Horn Canyon. This canyon, from 16 

 to 18 miles long, runs from south to north. On'both sides it 

 is lined by rocks from 500 to 1,000 feet high, in some places 

 almost perpendicular. This was the first great canyon I saw, 

 and I must confess that I was astonished at its grandeur. To 

 describe it is an impossibility for me ; one must go end see. 

 The fall of the river is only 300 feet from head to foot, there- 

 fore I believe it is navigable for small boats. On account of 

 possible Indians we agreed that only one party would hunt 

 while the others had to remain at camp. Jack and I stayed at 

 home, while Frank and Lancken went out hunting, without 

 killing anything; but they discovered a hot sulphur spring 

 four miles north of our camp. When they saw the smoke they 

 took it for an Indian camp-fire, but coming near thpy smelled 

 the sulphur-hydrogenous gas and found the spring. The 

 basin, which appeared to boil, was estimated to be 25 feet in 

 diameter and from 50 to 60 feet deep. The water was so hot 

 that they could not hold the hand in it over a second. The 

 spring was so powerful that it formed a stream of Bis feel 

 wide and two feet deep. During their ahsencel tried fishing, 

 and landed two three-pound cat-fish, which were delicious. 



loth. This was my day, so Jack and I went out together, 

 but soon separated, and I killed two buck antelopes, wounded 

 another, and Jack killed another one. Coming back, we 

 found that the other party had also shot a buck antelope. In 

 the afternoon I fished with grasshoppers and caught several 

 fish that looked like large salt water herring, but with sharp 

 teeth. 



ltith. At ten o'clock left this place, where we had such 

 poor shooting, bound homeward. A heavy rain shower of 

 half an hour made our traveling unpleasant. A 16-miles ride 

 was enough for to-day, and, looking out for a good camping 

 ground, we saw some buck elks at a distance. I shot one of 

 them and Jack wounded another. The horns were not large, 

 but the meat was fine. We saved both tender and sirloins 

 and a good deal of tallow. Frank killed on this day's trip an 

 antelope fawn and buck. 



17th. F. and L. left camp early. F. shot two antelope 

 bucks. In the afternoon I succeeded in bagging two pair of 

 antelope horn, and toward evening 1 jumped a large mule- 

 deer buck. I got off my pony and advanced, the buck stand- 

 ing 60 or 70 yards away, broadside toward me. I thought he 

 was mine, but, trying to cock my rifle, it would not go off. 1 

 tried it again and again, and found that there was something 

 broken inside. The old buck did not move, always looking 

 at the pony. I rested the rifle on my left knee, took sight, 

 pulled the cock and let go ; buck ran only about 50 yards ; 

 tie same experiment with the same result ; never saw him 

 again. When I had climbed the hill I saw a large antelope 

 buck just below me within 80 yards; fixed my rifle between 

 rocks and killed him without trigger. It was nearly dark 

 when 1 arrived in camp. 



18lh. We started pretty early, and after a tiresome tramp of 

 about 25 miles or more we arrived at our old camping ground 

 on Wind River. In the evening we saw lightning in the east, 

 a bad sign for the next day : and so it was. 



19th. It rained all day, and we could not move on — a nasty 

 day. 



20th. A cloudy morning ; doubtful about rain ; still we 

 started back through the Bad Lands, hoping to make it in 

 four days. A 20-miles ride brought us to an old Indian en- 

 campment, where we found good water. The night was cold 

 and we found ice half an inch thick in the morning, 



21st, Was a very hot day ; rode only 16 miles, and camped a 

 second time near the duck pond. In the evening 1 shot seven 

 gray ducks, which weTe very tender and nice. 



2iid. Cloudy morning, sharp wind, at noon rising to a gale. 

 At three r. m. we camped at B little creek. 



23d. Cold, icy morning, with sunshine; wind blowing up to 

 a gale again. In the afternoon we found ourselves in the 

 old camp of Rattlesnake Mountains. When we left this camp 

 we put several of our canned fruits, condensed milk and other 

 provisions in a bag and hung it pretty high up in a tree ; we 

 did the same with some antelope, elk and deer horns ; 

 but now we found all the things spread on the ground ; 

 the bag was torn to pieces, the fruit cans, milk cans and 

 the cans with coffee extracts were all perforated and all almost 

 empty. TJncle grizzly had paid a vist to our camp and sucked 

 the sweet juice. This time we made our camp up a little 

 nearer to the spring. After dinner every one on his own 

 hook went out hunting. I killed a very large elk buck that had 

 the largest pair of antlers of all we shot on the trip. Lancken 

 supplied our camp with a fat saddle of a young mule deer, 

 while Frank came in with fur, a coyote around his neck, and 

 covered with lots of little jumpers belonging to the pulex 

 family. 



21th. Windy but not cold. Our grub is going to an end, and 

 meals nearly reduced to meat, very little bread, thin coffee 

 without milk. Id the same condition was the quantity of our 

 tobacco. To-day Fred killed an antelope. I saw different 

 kinds of game, one of which was an old she bear with two 

 cubs, but did not get a chance to shoot. 



2sfk. We tried all our skill to kill as much game as possible 

 to get enough meat to last us till Rawlins, having little chanoe 



to shoot something after we left the Rattlesnake Mountains. 

 Jack and I were successful, I killed an elk buck and one mule- 

 deer doe, and Jack another one. Our ponies were so heavily 

 loaded with the elk horn and the meat that we could not ride 

 fast, and it was late when we reached camp. 



20th. We left the Rattlesnake Mountains, and about noon we 

 saw at Horse Creek four buck elks, of which Frank and 1 

 killed one and F. ;wounded another one. That nieht we camped 

 at Sage Creek. 



27th. About noon wc reached Lancken'a ranch, having saved 

 our scalp. Here I have to mention that coming back through 

 the Bad Lands one morning we found three large fresh 

 trails running parallel and made by ponies of Indians on the 

 warpath (no lodge poles dragging behind). The guides 

 thought that they 'crossed here only one or two hours before 

 us. At the ranch we heard that" the Bannocks had killed 

 several white people on the Wind River the same time. 



28il/i. I did not like to tit all day long in the log house, and 

 with Jack tried my last hunt, but didnotget a shot, although 

 a number of sheep and two big rams were seen by us. 



29th. Leaving our ponies at Lancken's ranch, L. drove us 

 with a team of four to Rawlins. Jack, who was riding a pony, 

 killed one antelope. This was the last piece of game we 

 killed on our trip. I have nothing more to tell, only that we 

 arrived at Rawlins the first of October, but half frozen to 

 death. 



After we had taken our mail we went to Fred Wolf's cosy 

 little place where we had a glass or more of fine Rhine wine 

 and a long talk with the kind-hearted and good humored land- 

 lord, Fred. The afternoon we were busy to pack cur trunks, 

 order boxes for our trophies, packed and shipped them. On 

 the 



we found ourselves in a car of TJ. P. E. R. Jack 

 and I stopped at Chicago, while Frank went right through to 

 New York. I stayed four days in Chicago and two days at 

 Fort Wayne to see some friends. 



Sportsmen intending to hunt in that part of the Rocky 

 Mountains I advise to write to Gus Lancken, care of Fred. 

 Wolf, Rawlins. He is certainly one ot the best guides around 

 there, and is reasonable in his charges. He supplies a party 

 of two or three with himself and another as guides, four 

 or five saddle horses, as many pack horses, all the saddles, 

 etc., and tents, for §12 to §14 a day; grub and bedding is not 

 included— it does not amount to much. H he should be en- 

 gaged, take " Tom Gun." 



P. S.— On this trip I took the elevations as well as on the 

 first trip, but did not mention it, the average being only 6,000 

 feet, and highest point in Rattlesnake Mountains^ 8,100 feel. 

 In all, we hunted as gentlemanly as possible; we could have 

 killed perhaps ten times as much. 



Yours truly, BohMasb. 



$$1] gttttttto 



Calii-orota Salmon tn Holland.— Capt. J. H. Taat, of 

 the Netherlands and American Steam Navigation Co., made 

 usa sociable visit last week, bringing from Prof. A. J. Botte- 

 mann, the eminent fish culturist of Holland, the information 

 that of the 100,000 California salmon ova recently consigned 

 to him at Berzenopzoom by Prof. Baird, of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, 70,000 have hatched out fine young fish. This is 

 subject for congratulation, and we hope to hear of further 

 results as satisfactory. The ova were sent out by the Nether- 

 lands steamer Oalland. 



Saimon-Bbkbdihg is Fuesh Water— Editor Forest and 

 St/ream : One or more fish breeders have reported through 

 your paper the hatcning of the eggB of the trout impregnated 

 by the milt of the salmon. Would like them report their suc- 

 cess in raising them, and to start the ball rolling, will give 

 my experience with them, as also with three different kinds 

 I have the hybrids, two years old. They have 

 not made the growth that, trout of the same age have. The 

 male parents were California salmon. They show no signs 

 of spawning, and as they are now as old as their parents 

 were when they were bred, think they are going to be barren. 

 Am now hatching eggs taken from the California salmon in 

 this only as an experiment, for I no longer prize 

 either them, the Atlantic or land-locked salmon (have all 

 ponds. Think the same food will 

 raise double I he number of pounds of trout ; and while I sell 

 them for half the price of trout, seldom get a second order 

 from the same customer. Our Atlantic and land-locked 

 salmon are now four years old, and but little larger than 

 trout of two years. The California salmon made fine growth, 

 and a large bill at the butcher's for offal to feed them on. 

 Have not eaten of the land-locked. Think the flesh of the 

 pickerel equally as good as the otheT two. A. Paimeb. 



Bnsoobel, Wis. 



Sobbens fob Outlets. — Forked Rhv.r, A r . J., Ike. 18.— 

 Mr. Editor : In your journal of 25th ult. I observe an articl 

 in regard to erecting screens at the outlet of lakes which hav 

 been stocked the past few years. It is a well known fact tha 

 fish of the salmon species "(which includes brook trout, lake 

 tTout, California and land locked salmon) are fond of running 

 water. If lakes which contain this species have not a proper 

 screen at the outlet, they will to a great extent escape the 

 second year. A law should be enacted by each Slate com- 

 pelling every township to have screens erected where such 

 lakes "exist." The article by Mr. Porter on this subject was 

 very timely, and should be enforced. It is a subject which 

 all fish commissioners of the several States have neglected. 



0. A. Smith. 



Icb.— Them need be no fear about the supply of ice this 

 season. There was a jam over twenty feet high on the Pen 

 obscot at Bangor, Me., the other day, 



—Mr. Robt. Bonner, of this city, has in his stables ten 

 horses, each of which, with one exception, has trotted its 

 mile in 2:20 or better. 



—With each recurring New Years we all resolve to keep a 

 diary, and generally go so far in the very commendable deter- 

 mination as to purchase the diary. More people would perse- 

 vere in the task if they used the spring back books made by 

 Francis & Loutrell, 45 Maiden Lane, New York. 



^mtorg< 



AN ESSAY UPON RABBITS. 



By Jamks S. Bailey, M. D. 



THE domestic rabbit is undoubtedly descended from the 

 wild breed. Although familiarly known from time 

 immemorial, its origin is shrouded in mystery. It seems to 

 have been a native of portions of Africa nnd Europe, but was 

 not known in America until introduced by Europeans. In 

 our earliest records it is called cony, a name probably derived 

 from some root common to most European languages. Varro 

 says that his countrymen named it thus on account of its 

 dwelling in burrows. The name rabbit was undoubtedly de- 

 rived from the Gaelic word rabaid, signifying fruitful. Pliny 

 Bpeaks of their multiplying so rapidly in Spain that the inhab- 

 itants were obliged to destroy them in order to protect their 

 harvest fields, and to prevent them from burrowing and 

 undermining their dwellings. They became so great a. pest 

 that Roman soldiers were sent with ferrets to destroy them 

 In England the name rabbit was employed in the translation 

 of the Bible before the reign of James I. In the "Privy 

 Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York" (p. 13), May 24, 1502, 

 is entered the payment of two shillings " to a servant of the 

 Abbase of Lyonin, reward for bringing a present of Rabbittes 

 and Quayles to the Queeneat Richemont." During the reign 

 of Philip Augustus and Louis Yin., in the early part of the 

 Thirteenth Century, some French nobles devoted certain 

 localities to the breeding of wild rabbits. These places they 

 called varennes, which in English means warrens, the name 

 now employed to designate the place where rabbits are bred 

 in an inclosure. 



The rabbits, in their wild state, form winding burrows, in 

 which they remain by day, and emerge in the morning and 

 evening to feed on vegetation. When domesticated, and they 

 regain their freedom, they return to their instinctive habits. 

 They are frequently taken in nets and traps ; also by ferrets 

 and dogs. Their flesh by some is much relished as food. 

 There is a strong resemblance between the rabbit and the 

 hare, although there are distinctive characteristics. Their 

 habits differ, and so does their flesh ; that of the rabbit is 

 white and delicate, while that of the hare is dark and highly 

 flavored. Domestication, however, makes a difference in this 

 respect . 

 . Rabbits are liable to produce varieties in color, in form, and 

 in the texture of the hair. It is supposed that the fancy rab- 

 bits of the present day originated in this way, and by contin- 

 ually mating such specimens, distinct varieties were estab- 

 lished. We gather the first account of breeding rabbits in a 

 domesticated state from the writings of Fusscr in 1580, in 

 "January's Husbandry," where this sentence occurs: 



"Let doe go to buck. 

 Wish cony gooil luck." 



In 1631, Gervase Markham writes of a Way to Get,, 

 Wealth." In this treatise the subject of rabbit keeping, feed- 

 ing and breeding is given, and in so clear a manner that but 

 few improvements have been made up to the present day. 

 According to M. Mariot Didieux, it was not until 1830 that, 

 in France, much attention was paid to the extension and 

 profitable breeding of rabbits. At first, fearing opposition, 

 the matter was conducted with secrecy, but this was soon dis- 

 pensed with, and rabbit culture has made great p; 

 only in France, but in Belgium and Holland. It is estimated 

 from the official returns of the Custom-house statistics that in 

 the Ostend market alone, 350,000 are disposed of in a single 

 week ; and notwithstanding this enormous consumption, thc 

 prices, instead of deteriorating, are constantly increasing. In 

 the markets of Troyes there are annually sold 150,000 francs' 

 worth of rabbits, which are used as an article of food, while 

 in other locations the entire object in breeding them is for the 

 profit from their fur. They have also been bred by cbarita- 

 able persons to furnish meat for the poor, as well as employ- 

 ment, the sale of the fur being quite sufficient, toy. 

 the selling of choice specimens for breeding, to pay the ex- 

 penses of the same. Among these may bj mentioned the 

 names of Count d' Albertas and Monsieur 1' Abbe Fisseause. 



The rearing of rabbits, to be successfully practiced, should 

 be thoroughly understood, as well as their peculiarities of 

 habits and constitution. 



The rabbit belongs to that order of the class Mammalia, or 

 Buck-giving animals, which is called Tneisores,* because they 

 cut their food with the front teeth of their upper and lower 

 jaws. Some of these " cutters" are carnivorous — or, rather, 

 omnivorous, like the rat ; others are herbivorous in general, 

 but occasionally insectivorous, like the Guinea-pig (which the 

 old French writers call ccrnnk d' Tilde, or Indian rabbit) ; 

 some, like the hare, feed exclusively on vegetables and grain; 

 and the rabbit, unless under exceptional circumstances, is in- 

 cluded in this latter category. The rabbit and the guinea-pig 

 arc- the only "cutters" that have been strictly domesticated 

 by man, though he has made pets of the squirre 1 , dormouse, 

 the marmot, the albino mouse, and one or two others. 



The male and the female are designated as the buck and 

 the doe. Rabbits are polygamous. One male is capable of 

 serving thirty does, though in warrens only one buck is al- 

 lowed to one hundred females. The American wild rabbit 

 bears more resemblance in color to the European burrowing 

 rabbit, except that the latter changes in color when domesti- 

 cated, which the American wild rabbit does not. It is also 

 a littie smaller and more slender. Then there is a striking 

 contrast between the American wild rabbit] and the cultivated 

 varieties. » 



* Note— The classification usually adopted tor 

 present places the rabbits ami barfc. in the family Leporiiie, which iu 

 the last of the several families with gnawing teeth— hedgehogs, rata 

 and mice gophers, prairie-dogs, squirrels, beaver:: 

 srouned together, form tbe well-defined order, B 

 rabbit of the plains, for example, wonl 



lammalia (DtHSotdea); ort : 

 (Lagomorphai; family, UptrrUa ; genm?, Lepui ; species 

 -the lack-IB i 



t Le-pm s." 



