36 



FOREST AND STREAM 



For Forest and Stream. 

 TROPICAL HUNTING SCENES. 



GRAND are the woods, and clear the bubbling Streams 

 In Asiatic realms, where Ganges sweeps 

 Thro' green savannahs and embowering groves. 

 Until it mingles with the Bengal tides. 

 Behold, far down the mountain slopes, 

 Beneath the realm of snow, the spreading woods 

 Rustling their foliage of eternal green. 

 The teak tree, the brown chestnut and the oak, 

 Kissed by the sunset, glow like golden crowns,' 

 While the black hemlock and the spiring pine 

 Thrust up their spear-like points and pennoned shaft a 

 Like hosts embattled. Par beyond, the plains 

 Of verdurous Thibet spread their level floor. 

 Enchanting pictures of serenest bloom 

 Burst on the vision ; oranges in groves 

 Citrons and yellow lemons, glow like gold • 

 The ripe pomegranate droops its juicy fruit, 

 Red cherries hang their clusters o'er the trees, 

 Luxuriant mangoes swing their ruddy globes, 

 While strawberries paint with crimson all the ground. 

 Green, gadding vines their tendrils interweave, 

 And loftiest trees with flowery festoons drape ; 

 Peacocks display their gaudy plumes around. 

 And birds of paradise their mottled dyes. 

 And here the royal tiger of the wild 

 Ranges supreme and guards his noonday haunt. 

 And in the glooms of night devours his prey. 

 The ami deer and the brindled antelope 

 Tremble in bosky coverts, or at speed 

 Stretch forth in flight across the open plain. 

 'Tis a fair scene, where gently peace drops down. 

 Folds like a bird her pinions on her breast, 

 And all the glimmering shades at twilight's hour 

 Their silvery veils and vapors interweave. 



Fair, flowery scenes o'er Afric's mystic land 

 Since the creation morn have bloom'd and smiTd 

 In lavish beauty. All the varied forma 

 Of Nature, fresh from the Creator's hand, 

 Are here commingled in transcendent pomp ; 

 Soft plain and placid stream, and mountain range. 

 Here glows the fruitful plain, or frowns the waste. 

 Here flow majestic rivers to the sea, 

 Or spread the limpid lakes their glassy sheets 

 VaBt lakes whose marge by savage herds is trod. 

 Whose waves are only crossed by frail qanoe, 

 Or haunted by the screaming waterfowl. 

 Here desert moors extend their arid space, 

 Here mountains soar in grandeur to the skies, 

 Forests immense, illimitable spread, 

 Fair, flowering groves and natural gardens bloom. 



Tli' exploring stranger from remotest lands 

 Crossing these waters drops the listless oar 

 To view the wondrous scene. Far, far extends 

 The reedy shore with endless meadows hemnvd, 

 Or fring'd with woods of tamerind and palm ; 

 < :harnvd with the view, Eden-like, his soul 

 Drinks in the entrancing splendor of the scene. 



Far spread the shores, now rough with beetling clitls, 

 Now smooth with waving grass and unknown shrubs ; 

 Far stretch the lakes, undimple.d in their sheets, 

 While far in distance float the mountains blue. 

 Here a white sand-beach spreads its shelly road, 

 Back'd by the cocoa-palm trees and the huts 

 Of villages in green plantations hid. 

 Above some granite bluff the eagle swings, 

 And fish-hawks clamor, and in groves around, 

 Where the oil-palms their yellow nuts display, 

 Cooes the green pigeon ; chattering squirrels leap, 

 The gay-hued parrots glance like living flames 

 And the red trogan tunes his mellow lyre. 

 Around the shores the sacred ibis flits, 

 The snowy pelicans their flies extend, 

 The stilted avoset that wades the shoals, 

 The black geese and the gray-hued spoon-bi'l tribes 

 And all the gorgeous fowl that haunt the wave. 



High beats the hunter's heart, when all the night. 



Hid in some gloomy copse, at edge of wood, 



He watches the dim plain for wandering game. 



Calm sleeps the forest, save when swells the voice 



Of prowling lion or hyena's howl, 



Or cracks the twig beneath some trampling hoof. 



Soft fails the moonlight, filtering through the roof 



Of the dense-matted foliage ; soft gilds 



With shimmering glory all the desert spaces, 



Shining on island groves and grassy slopes. 



From time to time like drifting shadows pass 



In lengthed files the browsing buffalo, 



The eland, gnu and the black antelope 



Glide past ; the bulky elephant 



Swaying his tushes crushes thro' the glade : 



The black rhinoceros stalks unwieldy by, 



7. eektng seqnesiter'tl marsh or deep lagoon. 



Isaac McLellan. 



— Ground Quassia wood is highly recommended as an insect 

 destroyer, in the high authority of M. Cloez of the Jardin 

 ties Plantes. Will some of our readers use it, and give 



results V 



—In England, the aggregate income of 5, 000, 000 families 

 employed in manual labor is about $1,500,000,000. Of 

 this sum $450,000,000 is wasted in excessive drink and to- 

 bacco, in buying at small retail stores instead of wholesale 

 stores, but quite the larger proportion in unskillful or care- 

 less . marketing, housekeeping and cooking, and in the 



mulcts of trades-unions. 



♦ 



— The red blood corpuscules of the Salmonidm are the 

 largest found in osseous fishes, the blood disks of the 

 Sakno Fonti/uMs— American brook trout, measuring 1-1455 

 of an inch. 



— A plaid and a tartain have two entirely different mean- 

 ings. The plaid is the name of a garment without refer- 

 ence to color or material, the word tartan meaning the parti 

 colored pattern. Somehow the two words have got very 

 much mixed. 



A "LAMENT FROM GAY HEAD. 



Off Martha's Vineyard, August 23, 1873. 

 Editor Forest and Stream : 



That a yacht owner should know how to take his 

 trick at the helm and negotiate railroad bonds, should be 

 able to reef a halliard and financier, is perhaps asking too 

 much of ordinary human nature. We cannot all be jour- 

 nalists and fishermen, any more than we can combine the 

 skipper and banker together. Yet I feel sure you will allow 

 me to remark that among our yacht owners we have quite 

 a number of Admirable Crichtons. 



I notice a good deal of censorious writing indulged in at 

 times in regard to the incompetency of our yacht owners, 

 and the frequent attempts made, I think in the worst taste, 

 to ridicule certain gentlemen on account of their ignorance 

 in sailing. Of course, some men affect an excessive nauti- 

 cal style, and are all prone to assume a commodore's man- 

 ners without even that general acquaintance with seaman- 

 ship which would render them capable of commanding a 

 cock -boat. True gentlemen, I believe, always detest shams, 

 and I ha? e generally found that any false assumption of 

 this character was met by such roars of laughter on the 

 part of fellow yachtmen as to make the pseudo skippers 

 haul down their colors. The best thing a yacht owner can 

 do, if he is ignorant of sailing, is to say so, and there is a 

 frank, honest way of stating such want of acquaintance 

 which precludes ridicule. I write this, because after a 

 pretty heavy blow yesterday, when it looked quite ugly for 

 • a time, in the coolest kind of a way my host, the owner of 



the yacht I am now on, said to me : ' ' My dear Mr. , if 



you get drowned, I trust you will not put the blame on me, 

 for really, I would not know how to manage her now any 

 more than would my wife, who by the way, is very sick 

 below. Of course, I know the yacht's stem from her stern, 

 but I should be an idiot, though I have had a yacht for 

 fourteen years, to say that I know anything about seaman- 

 ship, and what is more, I never expect to en compass its 

 mysteries. Fatigued with business, the hours of quiet I 

 spend on my yacht are the most pleasant of the ivhole year. 

 It is worth all it costs to be certain that no one can call on 

 me, save at my pleasure. To have somebody else to take 

 care of me, and good care of me, to throw off every respon- 

 sibility, is just what I want, aud I am sure my sailing mas- 

 ter is quite capable. Do our friends who run horses at 

 Fordham, or Saratoga, or at Long Branch, know much about 

 their animals? Could that distinguished banker, who 

 stands at the head of the patrons of the American turf, ride 

 his own horses ? Suppose he even did, somebody would 

 be found to abuse him because he could not groom his 

 racers. You must acknowledge that it is a hard thing in 

 this blessed country of ours, when a man can't keep a yacht 

 according to his own pleasure. Of course, if Iwere twenty 

 years old, perhaps I might find pleasure in tarring the rig- 

 ging, or scraping the yacht's bottom, or slushing the masts, 

 (if I have made any error in my nautical nomenclature I 

 hope you will correct me,) or going aloft. I only wish I 

 could do all these things. Well, if auy good fellows want 

 to do it they are quite welcome to try it. Corinthian sailors 

 — that is the name they give them, I believe— do they cook 

 for themselves ? Of course, there is no degradation about 

 that sort of thing, and as to cooking, I know I could do 

 that quite well; only this, that in just such a blow like we 

 have gone through,) for, by George, it did blow,) I feel a 

 great deal safer when I know the helm is in the master's 

 hands, and that the crew all were picked seamen, than had 

 the yacht been in charge of any Corinthians I ever heard 

 of." Of course this entire assumption of ignorance on the 

 part of my host in regard to sailing, was somewhat assumed, 

 but I think in the main he was right. We have had a suc- 

 cession of very bad days, with no end of dirty weather, and 



the capabilities of the good yacht as a seaboat have 



been tried to their utmost. " Gritting drowned for fun," as 

 the honest captain of a lumber schooner said to us the other 

 day, as we passed under his stern, "ain't no sense, mister; 

 why the deuce you smart chaps go kiting around in a nasty 

 blow like this, I can't find out. You'll be coming to grief 

 some o' these days." What more he said I do not know, 

 as we were soon clear of him, going head down and taking 

 plenty of green water. Bnt the good old skipper was right; 

 for an hour afterwards we were only too glad to find a berth 

 alongside of him. "It's a raal bucking agin Providence," 

 was his remark, as he sat down at our table, discussing a 

 glass of something warm ;" sailing and fooling don't jine 

 much; butef ever the man that managed that craft of yourn 

 wants a berth, send her to me and I'll give him a place." 



It may be some days before we are in sailing trim again, 

 as we have splintered our topmast, and things generally 

 want tautening alow and aloft. 



L. 



— The inhabitants of the Andaman island, have the high 

 privilege of squatting as the lowest type of the human race. 

 They wear no clothing, but plaster their bodies over with 

 mud. They are cunning and treacherous, and their antipa- 

 thy to strangers amounts to a passion. 



—Baker has positively determined that the Lakes Tan- 

 ganyika and Albert Nyanza are really one body of water, 

 not less than 700 miles long. If this is so it puts Lake Su- 

 perior's nose out of joint. 



— The total cost of all the railroads in the United States 

 amounts to $3,159,423,057. The gross earnings were 

 $473,241,055, net earnings about $165,754,373. 



twg Mrotn Mbrand. 



NOW from plantation, preserve and moor, from brae and 

 heather, throughout all England, Scotland, Ireland 

 and Wales, resounds the gun. The railroad porter awakenine 

 from his lethargy, carries under his arms the gun cases, and 

 stows away the pointers and setters in the vans, and earns 

 great harvest of shillings from the gentlemen who take the 

 " grouse trains." 



In certain sections of the country where game has been 

 thoroughly preserved, perhaps the sport may be considered 

 as a trifle unsportsmanlike, resembling a battue. Good old 

 authorities deprecate the grouse drives, and the indiscrim- 

 inate slaughter of the birds. If the younger school derides 

 the antiquated style of bagging the "birds one by one, the 

 fathers retort on their son's expression of "potterino" 

 after game, by leaving out one syllable of the epithet^ call- 

 ing it "potting" grouse. So far accounts differ as to tin- 

 quantity and condition of the birds. In England, though 

 the grouse are hearty, in Scotland, especially in Forfarshire, 

 grouse are said to have suffered from an epidemic of quite 

 a virulent type. Good authorities think game will not be 

 as plentiful as it has been for the last two seasons. 



On the Continent the ubiquitous Englishman is seen cast- 

 ing his fly wherever the casual trout could have been sup- 

 posed to have found an existence. At home, by loch, mere 

 and tarn, by river, brook and rill, the eager fisherman put- 

 sues his. prey , There must he .so many fishing lines in the 

 streams, that one can almost fancy that the light of the sun 

 would be obscured. Think of " a Great All England Ang- 

 ling sweepstakes," fished for in Lincolnshire, of 420 con- 

 testants, of six miles of river bank umbrageous with fishing 

 poles, and of the scarcity of the fish, or the skill of the fish- 

 erman, when three pounds fourteen and a half ounces win 

 the prize. 



Athletic sports, save country cricket, are at a stand-still 

 for the nonce. Amateur experts a trifle seedy over the early 

 summBr work, are recuperating, and training again. 



The Paris savatte, or the French art of boxing, is being 

 recuscitated. At most this is a villanous game. To the play 

 of the fists, is added human mule kicking. An adept in 

 "la, boxe Franmise" may feint at you with his left, and in- 

 stead of hitting from the shoulder, plant his foot under 

 your jaw— or kick you in the pit of the stomach. What 

 says a grand old English authority of 1754 on this new sub- 

 ject V "The dexterous use of the fist* is a truly British exer- 

 cise, and the sturdy English have been as much renowned 

 for their boxing as their beef. To this nutriment and this 

 art is owing that long established maxim, that one English- 

 man can beat three Frenchmen, and from hence we may 

 conclude on the principal of philosophy, that the elastic 

 spring which darts from the knuckles of the Englishman, 

 falls into the heels of the Frenchman." 



On the 9th July, 1792, Mahommed Effendi, the secretary 

 of the Turkish embassy, exhibited his great strength by shoot- 

 ing an arrow 415 yards, partly against the wind, and 482 

 yards with the wind, in a field behind Bedford House, Lon- 

 don. He used a Turkish bow, drawing 160 pounds. The 

 arrow measured twenty-five and a half inches, which he 

 pulled three inches within the bow, so as to make the draught 

 twenty-eight inches. He said upon the ground that Selim, 

 the then Grand Signior, often shot 500 yards. That this 

 fact as stated was true, is proved by the testimony of Sir 

 Robert Anslie, ambassador at the Porte, who declares that 

 in 1798 Selim drove an arrow into the ground at a distance 

 of 972 yards, the British ambassador having measured the 

 flight of the arrow. It seems, then, that at one time the 

 arrow had almost the range of a rifle. 



In the New York Timsi Dr. Russell thus describes the 

 rooms of some hunting noble in Syria : — "Hence, there is 

 a long vista of rooms visible, opening one into the other, and 

 entering the first of these I was at once struck with the ec- 

 centric garniture and furnishing, which are continued room 

 after room for some twenty -five apartments. On the walls 

 were fixed in triple rows, the skulls and antlers of deer. 

 The chandelier was made of antlers of deer. The sofas, 

 chairs, and tables were supported by antlers, and the seats 

 were covered with* the skins of deer, red roe, and fallow. 

 In intervals of this forest of horns appeared ancestral por- 

 traits of the Lambergs and their relatives. " 



The pawn broking system it Scotland, is said to engen- 

 der vice, and misery. A curious calculation has been under- 

 taken to get at the total number of pledges made in the Uni- 

 ted Kingdom, It seems a pawn-broker must issue 40,000 

 tickets, in order to make money. In Scotland the whole 

 number of pawn tickets issued is about 18,720,000, and 

 in the United Kingdom, the number "f pledges at that ratio 

 would be 206,780,000. 



General Sir John Foster Fitzgerald is possibly the oldest 

 General in the world. His first commission dating back to 

 October, 1793, at Salamanca, in 1813 he was a colonel. 

 Eighty years of honorrble service must command respecct. 



The Register General's report in England seems to point 

 to the fact, that the average duration of human life is in- 

 creasing. Not many years ago it barely exceeded thirty 

 years, now it is within a small fraction of forty-one, 



There is somewhat of a growl heard at present, in re- 

 gard to a supposed disposition on the part of Germany to 

 get a permanent hold of Lower California, We are for the 

 Monroe doctrine every time. 



The use of an indicator on breech -loading fowling pieces, 

 to show whether they have a cartridge in them or not, seems 

 to be becoming quite universal in England, 



