FOREST AND STREAM. 



115 



life." Hotel accommodations here are good; men who 

 know the country can he engaged as guides, hark canoes 

 can be hired or bought, and next season boats will be for 

 hire on Serpent and Agate lakes; and the sportsman who 

 wants fun at a moderate cost need look no further. So we 

 say, and we "know whereof we speak"— having " been 

 there." Haviland. 



. 4**» 



EPH. MUGGINS' STEEPLE CHASE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: — 



I'm not in the fast boss business now. It's plade. Fast 

 bosses are good to look at, but they're bad to own. I had 

 one once, and I don't want no more. I bought him to ride 

 a steeple chase. I thought I had a soft thing. Nobody 

 knowed I had a high-flyer, and so I tho't I'd lay low an' let 

 out on em' on the day of the race, and sweep the field and 

 make my pyle— but I didn't. When the day cum, I saunt- 

 ered up to the field with the crowd on my boss; he was the 

 ornerest looking plug you ever see, but he could jest go 

 like litenin' streeks. I crowded in with the oilier fellers, 

 when a boss chap spoke up, an' sez he : — 



"Now keep out o' the way, young man, the race is goin' 

 to begin." 



"Well," says I, "I'm goin' to run my boss, too." 



"Have you entered?" sez he. 



"I jest have that, boss," sez I. 



The crowd begun to gether round then, an' some on 'em 

 was mity tickled; but. thinks I, 'let them laf that win.' So 

 the feller looked in his book, an' when he found my name 

 thare he grinned a grin an' sez : — 



"All right boss; you kin travel." 



So when the word "go!" avuz given, away we all went, 

 hickety goose-paster. 



I never rode a steeple chase afore, an' in fact, I never rode 

 a hossback much any way. It alius a kinder galled my 

 feelings, and doubled up my stomick to ride in that kind o' 

 way; but I wuz in the fast boss business now, and wuz 

 ridin' for stakes and not for plezher; so I dug in my heels 

 and gripped hold of the main, and mashed my hat down on 

 my head and switched my whip and hollered an' shet my 

 eyes and pitched ahead regardless. 



At first, two or three fellers got the start o' me, but I 

 sailed by 'em pretty lively as we went over the first field. 

 My old scrub was ahead anyways then, an' we begun to 

 feel our otes. Across the field, as we come to a hi fens, I 

 cracked my whip an' dug in my heels, an' we went at it an' 

 cleared it in tip-top stile. 



The crowd cheered like mad, an' I stratened up my stom- 

 ick as best I cud, and off we went agin. Whew! how we 

 did go. Thinks I, guess they don't laf so much now! Di- 

 rectly I cum to a ditch. Probly, if the ditch ed been maid 

 for steeple chasin', they would'nt a maid it so wide, but 

 they engineered the thing rong, and when my boss cum up 

 to it, he sort o' backed up, and then he maid a dive and 

 landed his fore feet across, but be couldn't fetch his hind 

 feet, an' there he stood, like a spenshun bridge, with me on 

 his back. 



It wasn't so cheerful as if it had been some other boss, 

 with some other man on his back. What to do I didn't 

 no. I looked round an' see the bull crowd comin' over the 

 fense. I wanted to git off, but if I got off there I should 

 drop in the ditch, so I turneu round and made for the rear 

 intending to drop to the ground on the north bank of the 



ditch. 



Just then the racers all cum up. and when they see me 

 clamberin' down the back end of my boss, and him bridgin' 

 over the ditch in that way, they all bust out lafiin as if 

 they'd got fits. One feller rolled off his boss and fell in the 

 ditch, he was so tickled about it. I let him lay there. An- 

 other feller let go his grip an' went off jest afore he got to 

 the ditch. I let him lay. One hoss went down in the 

 ditch long side of the feller. I let him lay. The rest went 

 over an' rushed on to glory an' to victory. 



In the meen time, soon as my hoss felt his cargo litened, 

 be gathered up his heels an' got over all rite. By hook an' 

 crook I got over too, an' mounted, an' off I went agin. You 

 bet I dug in to make up for lost time. I swung my whip, 

 an' hollered, an' clung on with hands an' heels and begun 

 to gain on 'em in good stile. There was a big old fense 

 ahead, an' the first hoss that went for it fell back discour- 

 aged. The next hoss smashed through, but broke the top 

 rale. The next hoss tried twice before be got over, and 

 when I cum up I maid for the spot where the top rail was 

 off an' I cleared it as easy as a grasshopper would a punkin 

 vine, and then I give a yell that maid the fellers ahead look 

 round, an' they wan't so much ahead eether. 



When they seed me a cumin' down on 'em, like an ava- 

 lanche on a fiock of sheep, they looked kinder supprized. 

 I kept a gamin' on 'em, an' directly I tore by 'em yellin' an' 

 shoutin' like a demon of fury on a streak o' chain litenin. 



Phew! how our bosses' bpofs clattered over the ground. 

 How we all shouted and screamed and lashed our nags and 

 dug in our heels and tore over the ground! Every man an' 

 every hoss had bis blood up to bilin' pint. Every mussel 

 an' every nerve was strung as tite as a bo string. I never 

 felt so excited in my life. I felt shure I should win the 

 pyle, when all to once I spied an obsticle of interest afore 

 me in the shape of a liege fense. This hege fense was orig- 

 inally a desent sized consarn, but had growed to a mo.it 

 outrageous bite and widht, and I couldn't see no soft spot 

 nowhere to git through. For once I wuz sorry I wuz 

 ahead, but urgin' on my firey steed, I made for the lowest 

 spot an' went at it. 



He jumped well, but be maid bis calculation rong, for he 

 landed plump in the middle of the hege, an' there he stuck, 

 like a rat iu a trap. 



My gallant steed maid furious efforts to ecktrakate bis- 

 self, but be couldn't ecktrakate. It was too much hege 

 for him, and so he rezined hisself to his fate and stood 

 stock still. I dismounted in my usual graceful stile, by 

 the rear exit, an' got out of the brambles a a' took an obser- 

 vation of the situation. The fellers behind me wuz comin' 

 on like mad, an' every blessed one of 'em went clear over 

 the hege as slick as grees. 



I reckoned it wuz about three miles on to the grand stand, 

 and so I kalkulated that if I could ecktracate my hoss I mite 

 cum in ahead yet. Besides that it would be a mercy to the 

 animal to git him out of the hege, where the brambles wuz 

 prickin' him to deth. So I got under his lea hind-quarters 

 and give him a boost, thinking to cast him heels over lied 

 into the field beyond; bull mite as well tride to boost a 

 meetin' house. The hoss seamed to dislike my medlin' 

 with his legs in that way, so he give hisself a histe, and 

 planted his hoofs in my stomick.kind of abruptly, and the 

 next I know about things I wuz tryin' to unroll myself in 

 the middle of the field, about five rods from the last scene 

 of action. I feared I could not live always, for about five 

 minutes. This wuz hoss gratitude. My angry passions 

 roze. I let 'em rize. I stripped off the saddle and bridle 

 and left $500 worth of fast boss-flesh where I hoped it 

 would be fast forever. I wuz mad. I didn't go back to 

 the grand stand, but I sloped for home. I wuz scratched 

 and bruzed and soar and bilin' mad. 



I never tride no fast hoss steeple-chase bizness no more. 

 I had enuff. Yours emphatically, 



Ephraim Muggins. 



THE DECREASE OF EDIBLE FISHES 

 ON THE JERSEY COAST. 



oy Philadelphia, September 19th, 1873. 



Editor op Forest and Stream : — 



The first number of Forest and Stream (No. 6), it has 

 been my good fortune to see, and I must now tell you that 

 its racy contents were perused with a feeling of decided in- 

 terest. To my mind it fills an aching void, and cannot 

 fail to prove a success. 



Among many other interesting articles, my attention was 

 specially drawn to the communication of F. Mather on 

 "Bass in Trout Waters," not because of any familiarity 

 with, or special interest in the controversy, but from the 

 fact that it led my thoughts from fresh to salt water, and 

 from trout to sea fishes. 



Prof. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institute, as is well 

 known, has been deputed by the Government to investigate 

 the causes which have led to the marked decline in the 

 number of edible coast fishes. Inklings only of the result 

 of his investigations have been obtained, but sufficient to 

 determine that among the destructive causes are the large 

 and continued use of the seine, and other devices for the 

 wholesale- capture of fishes ; interference with them dur- 

 ing the spawning season, and the large increased number of 

 persons who with hook and line are almost continually en- 

 gaged in a warfare against them. 



Other causes have been cited, and it needs little argu- 

 ment to convince even the most casual thinker on the sub- 

 ject, that all of them combined have had the effect of de- 

 pleting to a large extent waters which like those of the Adi- 

 rondacks once teemed with food fishes. An illustration of 

 the correctness of these views will be found in the growing 

 scarcity of edible fishes in the waters adjacent to Atlantic 

 cities, where the depleting causes referred to haye largely 

 prevailed for a number of years past, so that what were 

 once the best fishing grounds on the Jersey coast, have be- 

 come comparatively barren of finny inhabitants. Whether 

 stringent general and State laws should be enacted for the 

 protection of coast fishes is a question which admits of no 

 debate. 



Let me in addition to the destructive causes cited by 

 Prof. Baird, refer to another formidable enemy — predaioiy 

 fishes which so largely abound along the coast. Among them 

 the bluefish of course stands prominent, but there is 

 still another, and to this one I desire to direct -attention. 

 All the bays, inlets and thoroughfares along the coast, and 

 in addition the waters of the ocean itself near the shore, 

 swarm with sharks of large and small size. These Ish- 

 maelites of the salt water are, as you know, insatiable. 

 Their cruel maws are ever craving for, and their more 

 cruel jaws continually employed in the destruction of edible 

 fishes. The fact that sharks are rarely captured and less 

 frequently seen in the water, is to most persons prima facie 

 evidence that their number is insignificant. This is an 

 error. My own experience and observation warrant me in 

 making the assertion. For some twelve years, I have each 

 summer spent a week in Delaware bay, fishing for 

 sharks only, and with catches varying from thirt}^ to forty, 

 and ranging from five to eleven feet in length, each trip. 

 One of these days, if acceptible, it will give me pleasure to 

 give your readers an idea of what regular fishing of this 

 character is. 



What is true of Delaware bay in regard to sharks, is ap- 

 plicable to the bays, inlets, and thoroughfares along the 

 coast, only in a larger sense, and such being the fact, it is 

 not difficult to understand bow greatly these hungry mon- 

 sters are annually assisting in lessening the supply of coast 

 fishes. In connection with this, it deserves to be borne in 

 mind, that while men and sharks are waging an incessant 

 warfare against the edible fishes, very few sharks com- 

 paratively are taken. 



Some of your readers will doubtless ask, what are you 

 going to do about it? My reply is; go for the sharks. Cm 

 bo/to/ First for tiie protection of the good fishes; second 



for sport, and lastly for profit. Sport! What sport can 

 there be. in capturing a shark? The same query might 

 be proposed in regard to trout, bass, bluefish, weakfish, or 

 any other. There is genuine sport in it, and of the most 

 exciting kind. There is a fascination about it, which to he 

 appreciated must be practically enjoyed. If it be sport to 

 land a three pound trout, a twelve pound bluefish or a six 

 pound bass, what must it be to hook, play and land a 

 three foot shark weighing forty oivjfifty pounds? But I will 

 tell you all about it one of these days. Profit! What 

 profit can there be in catching sharks? As much as in any 

 other kind of fishing. First, the liver yields a large 

 quantity of oil, valuable for a good many purposes. I have 

 known ten gallons of oil to be taken from a single liver, 

 though this was an exceptionable case. From two to four 

 gallons is the average. The carcass is valuable for manu- 

 rial purposes, when composted with earth. I estimate the 

 value of a ten foot shark, when used as above, at not less 

 than three dollars, provided of course appliances were at 

 band for the utilization of the carcass, and the "trying" 

 of the liver. Such appliances would speedily present 

 themselves, if shark capture were made a business, or if 

 those who indulged it for mere sport, would turn over 

 their catches to the manufactories. But whether for sport 

 or profit, a warfare, in my opinion, should be inaugurated 

 against these "sea lawj^ers," who make it a point, as law- 

 yers generally do, to swallow their clients. When the 

 wiin ts of men did not require so much fish food, the shark 

 was indispensible for the purpose of keeping down the too 

 rapid multiplication of smaller fishes. Those days have 

 passed, so far at least as the waters of the Jersey coast, 

 and those immediately adjacent are concerned, and the 

 time has come when in self-defence a vigorous raid should 

 be made upon these voracious monsters. 



A. M. 'S. 



THE DHOLE OF INDIA. 



THE Dhole is of slighter make than the dingo, but like 

 the latter, he possesses erect ears ; pointed muzzle, and 

 a sparkling fearless eye. His chest is deep, and belly much 

 drawn up; the color is generally of a light brown, inclin- 

 ing to chestnut on the upper part of the body, fore part of 

 the legs, tips of the ears, muzzle and upper part of the 

 tail, which appendage is long, but not bushy, like that of 

 the Australian animal; and were it not for the slenderness 

 of the muzzle, and erect ears, he would bear a close resem- 

 blance to the African bloodhound. According to Colonel 

 Sykes, the wild dog of the Deccan, {Ganis Diikhunensi,^ 

 " kholsun" of the natives), is red on the upper part of the 

 body, but paler underneath; its bead is compressed and 

 elongated, its nose very sharp and the eyes oblique, the 

 pupils around tin hides 'light brown; the expression that of 

 a coarse, ill-natured Persian greyhound, without any resem- 

 bance to the wolf, the fox, or the jackal, and, in conse- 

 quence, utterly distinct from the Odnis guao\ or Stcmatren- 

 sis of Hardwicke; ears rather long, but erect, and slightly 

 rounded at the top; the limbs remarkably large and muscu- 

 lar compared with the bulk of the animal, which is of an 

 intermediate size between the wolf and the jackal. Its 

 neck and body are elongated, between the nose and eyes 

 the color is red; brown, and the brush, which is pendulous, 

 and about nine inches long, is tipped with black. The 

 length of the body irom the tip of the nose to the root of 

 the tail is about two feet nine inches, and the height at the 

 shoulder about sixteen and a half inches. Another variety 

 of the Dhoie is the wild dog of Nepaul. Although the 

 Dholes or wild dogs of India, according to various authori- 

 ties, differ in some minor respects, they all, both ancient 

 and modern, appear to agree on one important point, that 

 of excessive fierceness, which characterizes all varieties. 

 Like the dingo they hunt in packs, and, thus associated, 

 are very formidable, and, in fact, are the terror of the ani- 

 mals of the forest, not even excepting the elephant and 

 tiger. They hunt in silence, and as their powers of scent 

 are as exquisite as those of a sleutbound, there is little pos- 

 sibility of their missing the game they are in search for. 

 When close upon and certain of their prey, they utter a 

 sharp, shrill, clear cry which can be heard from a long dis- 

 tance, by others of their kind which understand the mean- 

 ing of the sound, and hasten in vast numbers from all di- 

 rections to join the already formidable pack. Their speed 

 is tremendous, almost incredible, and their powers of endu- 

 rance very great. Their pace, when in hot pursuit, is said to 

 be nearly equal to that which a pack of ferocious greyhounds 

 might be supposed capable of exerting; and as their won- 

 derful staying powers permit them to continue this speed 

 for an almost incredible time, it may be readily perceived 

 that the chances of any animal they may chose to pursue 

 are very meagre indeed ; in fact, if they are strong in num- 

 bers, not even the swiftest and most powerful of the deni- 

 zens of the forest and jungle can possibly evade them, and 

 the size, ferocity, and power of the tiger stand him in no 

 better need in saving bis life than does the deer's swift- 

 ness of foot, when a pack of these canine demons chose 

 to select either for their prey. Indeed the larger the game 

 they are in pursuit of, the greater eagerness do they dis- ' 

 play, and the natives assert that both the elephant and the 

 tiger manifest unmistakable signs of fear, and seem to have 

 an instinctive dread of such terrible enemies. The Dholes 

 do not run closefy together, but spread themselves over a 

 wide tuact of ground, so that their prey has little chance 

 of escape by doubling, or any similar expedient ; but should 

 their numbers not be great, this circumstance is favorable 

 to the escape of large animals, so. that when their game is 

 a tiger most of them are destroyed; but on the contrary 

 should they be in force, although forty or fifty of the fore- 

 most may be crumpled up by the powerful paws of the 

 prey, the quarry is, however, soon overpowered when 

 the main body of the pack closes in. Eichardson considers 

 them eminently useful in|India for keeping clown the breed of 

 tigers, "which but for them would be far more numerous 

 and troublesome." Doubtless, however, the scarcity of the 

 tigers in districts where Dholes are numerous is more fairly 

 attributed to their continually worrying the great striped 

 feline, and preventing it from obtaining any prey, as they 

 are most destructive to the game which forms the princi • 

 pal food of the former.— Land and Water. 



