FOREST AND STREAM. 



121 



PRUSSIAN HORSES. 



■ ♦ 



QUESTIONS of cavalry remounts, considered entirely 

 aside from their military bearing, are interesting, in- 

 asmuch as they show us any particular system adopted by 

 a government or people in propagating useful breeds of 

 horses. Though railroads, in a strategical point of view, 

 may be supposed to have somewhat diminished the want 

 for horses used for hauling stores for armies, nevertheless, 

 in the late Prussian and French war, an enormous number 

 of heavy draught horses were employed. Prussia's suprem- 

 acy in the military art makes these questions of her cavalry 

 remount quite worthy of examination. With a population 

 proper of 21,971,000 inhabitants, she has at present about 

 2,313,817 horses. Of this quite large number, 381,000 are 

 horses under three years old, and she has no less than 8,817 

 horses used alone for breeding. The Government has thir- 

 teen depots, which cost about $300,000 to maintain, and 

 horses of three and four years old are purchased by com- 

 misions of officers and veterinary surgeons, and sent to 

 these depots. At the various depots they are generally 

 kept for a year, and the horses cost, when laid down, about 

 $100. Before the horse reaches his regiment he is sup- 

 posed to be worth $65 or more. With respect to sex of 

 horses, the sales of mares is by no means encouraged by 

 the commission, so that the proportion of male animals is 

 the greater in actual service. The price of horses during 

 the last twenty-five years has more than doubled; in 1845 a 

 good horse could have been bought for $65 or $70. 



In 1870, a careful comparison was instituted between the 

 value of the Prussian army remounts and the French 

 horses, and the superior excellence of the German horse, 

 for general work, was quite evident, Prussian horses 

 which went through the fatigues of the campaign, returned 

 in better condition than when they started, and the period 

 of greatest utility proved to be between seven and four- 

 teen years of age. The system of raising horses in Prussia 

 seems, then, to develope the powers of the animal later, 

 which may be due to lighter feeding, or a disinclination to 

 force the horse when too young. The best, staunchest, 

 and most lasting animal was a particular race — a 

 cross between a singularly sturdy animal of Eastern Prus- 

 sia and the true Arab. As to weight of load carried by 

 the Prussian cavalry horse, it is about the same as in the 

 English service; but there can be no doubt but that the en- 

 durance of the Prussian horse considerably exceeds, at 

 present, that of the English steed. 



• ♦♦♦ 



BADEN-BADEN GONE TO THE DOGS. 



♦ 



IF the last breath of the suicide, if the wail of children 

 left starving, if all the curses, deep and loud, which 

 have been showered by fathers, mothers, husbands and 

 wives, on Baden-Baden had been effective, long before to- 

 day this Paradise of gambling would have Q been;;consumed 

 like Belshazzar's palace. 



But no denouement, taken from melodramatic sources, has 

 burnt up the Kursaal, nor have the tables of rouge and noir 

 sunk into the bowels of the earth. There has come on 

 Baden a wasting away — a kind or moral dry rot. Gambling 

 abolished, Baden is fast dwindling away into insignificance. 

 From 70,000 people, allured by the magic wand of the 

 croupier, drawn in by the roulette wheel, now but a sparse 

 15,000 have visited it. Flown away to more congenial 

 climes, Dukes Benazet and Dupressoir still rope in (we 

 know of no better word) pigeons at Monaco. Possibly next 

 steamer will bring us notice of a feeble shooting [match 

 there, under the patronage of a sporting Duke or so, or of 

 some circus-like steeple-chase. 



The intrigue, the shame, the scandal, the flaunting vice, 

 the immorality of sometimes almost two continents, will no 

 longer be concentrated there. The Americans are essentially 



a moral people at home, but when abroad well, the best 



thing we can do will be to say as little as we can on this 

 subject. 



Doubtless many of our fast men will miss the feverish 

 charm Baden had, and sneer at the furtive attempts made 

 at Saratoga in the same line of business. Who knows but 

 that in a few years we may not, in our progressive age, 

 make Saratoga just such a hell as Baden was. We are 

 fearfully imitative, sometimes too much so for our own 

 good. 



All we can wish of Baden is, that in time it may settle 

 down, under its august Duke, to be a quiet, wholesome 

 Tillage, as gay as most German brunnen generally are, only 

 " aleajacta sunt" seems in this case to partake rather more 

 of a prophesy, for here by the pitching of dice and by the 

 turn of a card, has all the glory of Baden departed. 



THE WASTE OF TIMBER. 



A PARAGRAPH floating around states that the Indians 

 upon the Leech Lake Reservation, in Minnesota, have 

 become so enraged at the destruction of timber on their 

 lands that they have taken the war path, and are burning 

 the lumbermen's hay by way of reprisal. 



Here is a lesson for the Hon. Joel T. Headley and those 

 very few other gentlemen who deny that cutting away our 

 forests will diminish our water supply, or work out cli- 

 matic and organic changes that must prove detrimental. 

 Even the untutored savage can appreciate the value of our 

 forests to the extent that, he not only implores that the 

 "woodman spare that tree," but absolutely insists upon it 

 in a way that is neither gentle nor kind. He realizes that 

 the denudation of the earth is extermination to the red 

 man, and that with the deep damnation of the taking off 

 of its timber, food, fuel, shelter, navigable waters, and 

 means of transportation all vanish. 



Geology tells us that the mosses and ferns were the first 

 vegetable products that grew upon the surface of the earth, 

 and that, the pines and then the deciduous forest trees suc- 

 ceeded; and after them came animal life. By inversion, 

 it is easy to determine that animal life must perish after 

 the trees are destroyed. 



It is the duty of man, by what he owes to his fellows, if 

 not by the universal law of self-preservation, to prevent so 

 sweeping a calamity. And man, when impelled to that 

 sterner mood which horrible conviction brings, will not 

 stop to "argify" the question with the Hon. J. T. Headley, 

 et al, but, taking the ounce of prevention in his hands, 

 make the advocates and defenders of timber-cutting "cut 

 stick" in a fashion which will throw all the devices of the 

 Minnesota redskins far in the shade. 



-*♦+» — 



PENETRATION OF RIFLE BALLS. 



IN" the sixth number of Forest and Stream, in an article 

 entitled "Killing a grizzly bear," we mentioned the fact 

 that a number of balls from a sporting Remington rifle 

 had not penetrated, and some of our readers manifested a 

 suprise at the fact. Since writing the article we have seen 

 the balls and have had the matter explained to us by a 

 naturalist who was present at the killing of the bear, and 

 by whose skill the remains of bruin now neatly dressed, 

 will shortly be made presentable at the Smithsonian Mu- 

 seum. He has explained to us, that the ball happened to 

 strike in a peculiar muscle, some four inches in thickness, 

 which he informed us was of the density and elasticity of 

 india-rubber, and assured us that according to his belief, 

 for he is a thorough sportsman, that no balls from any rifle 

 would have penetrated it. On examining the balls in ques- 

 tion, we found them very little off shape, and presenting 

 exactly the form which would occur when any projectile 

 fired at a high velocity would meet with resistance from a 

 dense and elastic substance. The gentleman also mentioned 

 that where these balls struck might be considered as 

 chance shots, as the grizzly could be, though not easily 

 killed by a single ball, frequently touched in a vital spot by 

 a ball from a Remington rifle. 



In a prior number, when we treated the subject of explo- 

 sive projectiles and penetration, we stated the many dif- 

 ficulties which surrounded this most interesting subject- 

 In a late number of the London Field, we find an admira- 

 ble article on this subject of penetration, from an able cor- 

 respondent. Shooting Indian game, the writer says. " I 

 have no hesitation in saying that in rifles I have seen (and 

 many of them are by first-class English gunmakers) the 

 penetration is insufficient. I am well aware that if I use a 

 solid bullet with the Express rifle it will go through any- 

 thing, and equally so that such penetration is not only un- 

 desirable but positively objectionable, as the probability of 

 bagging an animal with such a bullet unless hit in a vital part 

 is very remote indeed." In a case like this the shock on 

 the animal might be immense, but no vital part may be 

 touched, and though the animal is certain to perish, yet he 

 may die miles away from the spot where the shot was re- 

 ceived. This same authority when explaining the fact, 

 which all buffalo hunters so well know, that no matter what 

 may be the penetration of a ball through wood, when shoot- 

 ing at an animal, the penetration of the ball is comparatively 

 slight in proportion, replies to it in this way. He is writ- 

 ing about hollow bullets: 



' ' It has been asked why it is that a bullet will penetrate 

 planks and bones, and yet breaks up before going very far 

 into flesh. To explain what I believe is the reason of this 

 difference, I must refer to an old experiment of firing a bul- 

 let with a large charge of powder into a tub of water, in which 

 case it has been found that the bullet will not go through 

 the bottom of the tub, whilst the same bullet with a smaller 

 charge goes right through. The explanation is that the 

 particles of water will not part quickly enough to allow 

 the ball with the high velocity to go through them; whilst 

 on the other hand, the ball with less veiocit}' pushes as it 

 were the particles aside, and goes through the bottom of 

 the tub. Now in the case of an animal, the higher the ve- 

 locity with which the bullet is traveling when it strikes the 

 fleshy part, the quicker it expands, consequently the less it 

 will penetrate ; and if the velocity is very great and the 

 walls of the bullet thin, it may fly to pieces when scarcely 

 inside the skin. In case of a bone the velocity in which 

 the ball is traveling is sufficient to break the bone, because 

 the particles cannot move out of the way quickly enough. 

 I believe that this will be found to be a correct solution of 

 the different behavior of bullets when hitting flesh or intes- 

 tines on the one hand, and bone on the other." 



The English system of balls for rifle shooting when used 

 for animals employs a solid and a hollow ball. The great 

 difficulty seems to be to get at one and the same time a low 

 trajectory with crushing power of projectile. This they 

 are endeavoring to accomplish by means of lighter bul- 

 lets, and of hardened compositions. 



Obituary. — We have to record the death of Jean Jacques 

 Marie Cyprien Coste, born in Castries, France, in 1807, 

 and who died in Paris last month. To Coste is due the 

 distinguished merit of having elevated oology or embryo- 

 geny, from the condition of a vague and inaccurate study 

 to that of a precise and absolute science. The art of pisci- 

 culture, so flourishing to-day in the United States, is in- 

 debted to Coste for not only its birth, but its development. 

 Coste had not only the theory, which is inseparable with 

 the man of science, but he was fortunate enough to com- 

 bine with it the power of practical details which made his 

 observations useful to man. Coste it was who first erected 

 the basins in the College de France, the fish nursery of the 

 world, and who stocked the lake and river of the Bois de 

 Boulonge. From what was at first apparently but an ex- 

 periment, Coste had the immense satisfaction of seeing his 



efforts crowned with success, and soon his methods of pis- 

 ciculture were repeated in many countries. Coste has ad - 

 ded unknown wealth to the world. His fame will rest in 

 his works on Comparative Einbryogeny. 



SCIENCE SLIPSHOD. 



THE other day, Mr. Henry Lee, one of the most pleas- 

 ant contributors to Land and Water, wrote the fol- 

 lowing plain announcement :■ — "One of the funniest little 

 'cusses' ever turned out of Nature's workshop, in the shape 

 of a seal, made a bow to the public in the Brighton Aqua- 

 rium a few days ago." 



Now, that most excellent, staid, and trustworthy period- 

 ical called Nature seems to take serious exceptions to this 

 rather playful way of alluding to the seal; and evidently 

 regards it a flagrant case of lese majeste. It brusquely 

 stands up in defence of the infant Phoca vitulina, and in- 

 sists (funny though the seal may be) that he should not be 

 made to "to do duty as the but for a pun and a slang quo- 

 tation." 



Well, why not in this case "cuss?" Are we to be re- 

 stricted from all that is comical and amusing in Nature ? 

 Are we to look gravely at a monkey when he apes the man, 

 and ponder gloomily over the wise look of a jackass ? 

 Must human nature restrain all its bubbling over, and freeze 

 its running words into solid ice ? Shall we write that 

 Jones, our faithful correspondent, killed five brace of Picus 

 principallis, and would have had an odd bird if it had not 

 been for a rascally Pandion Halmtns, who gobbled it up ? 

 What a sacreligious verse that must be which we are 

 forced to give in all its coarseness — 



" 'Possum up a gum tree"— 

 and how much finer and impressive it would have been if 

 rendered, "The Didelphys Virginiana betook him to the 

 Liquidamber. " 



The word "cuss," used by Mr. Lee, is an Americanism 

 pur sang, and in duty bound we must take up the cudgels 

 .for it. Webster may ignore it, even Roget may lock it out 

 of his Thesaurus; Grant White may cut it, but it is a sound 

 and lively word. Bret Harte found it, and put this word 

 "cuss" in such a charming setting in his "Luck of Roaring 

 Camp" that "the darned little cuss" had in itself, when de- 

 scriptive of the poor child of Cherokee Sal, a most won- 

 derful charm. Perhaps Mr. Henry Lee had just been read- 

 ing Mr. Harte's charming story, and for one in a million 

 of English readers, must have been able to appreciate it. 

 Applied to this little seal — fatherless, motherless, thrust 

 into the Brighton Aquarium, where lives the horrid Octo- 

 pus, there was a close resemblance of circumstances be- 

 tween him and the poor Luck who was "the darned little 

 cuss" of the story. 



But all jesting aside, there can be no possible harm in 

 using the most familiar terms, if they are adaptable to the 

 descriptiveness of animals. We cannot always employ the 

 stiff er phraseology of learned books in treating of the hab- 

 its or manners of natural objects. That a scientific nomen- 

 clature is of paramount necessity no one will deny. Be- 

 fore, however, we transport people into the higher, loftier 

 range of knowledge, we must make science adapted to the 

 grovelings. It may be pleasant to know that Agassiz has 

 found gasterpoids, shinoderus, euryale, ophiuranus, heli- 

 asters, and holostomata in quantity, though not one reader 

 in a thousand may know what they mean. 



We assert that just such writers as Mr. Frank Buckland 

 and Mr. Henry Lee have done more to popularize the study 

 of natural history, and engender a taste for it among both 

 young and old, than the works produced by perhaps much 

 more staid and philosophic compilers. Both Buffon and 

 Cuvier wrote in this popular vein, and Mr. Darwin's style 

 abounds with examples of this familiar language. The 

 temple of knowledge nowadays may be scaled not alone by 

 those clad in sombre tunics, each fold classically draped, 

 but even by those in their shirt sleeves. If it is rather a pe- 

 riod of scientific "free and easy" the world will be all the 

 better for it by and by. 



-**♦- 



Only a Tooth.— We have before us an alligator's tooth, 

 coming from Okefenokee Swamp, in Florida, which a 

 friend who is a naturalist has presented so us. There it 

 lies, a fearful fang-curved cimeter, sharp as a needle, and 

 fully three inches long. Shall we write sweet verses about 

 it, commencing: 



"O crocodilus, dreaded lizard!" 

 or shall we speculate on the number of creatures this self- 

 same crooked tooth has munched? The question with us 

 is, "What shall we do with it?" We can make a whistle 

 out of it to call our dog with, or even a charm to hang to 

 our breloqne. But stop! there is a fitness about all things. 

 We know of a friend who has a little child, whose pearly 

 teeth are just emerging from its gums. What better pur- 

 pose can we put our 'gator's fang to than to clean, file and 

 polish it, until it shines like ivory, and then give it to the 

 child's mother? The little one can use it as a coral to bite 

 on, and between the sweet innocence of the child and the 

 brutal instincts of the hideous reptile the most striking of 

 contrasts will be made. If the Florida State authorities were 

 not bankrupt, perhaps the method employed by the Eng- 

 lish Government at Malabar might thin out these crea- 

 tures. The English offer a reward for crocodiles at so 

 much a yard, two shillings being the price of such a meas- 

 ure of alligator. We are fearful, no matter how plethoric 

 the Florida coffers might be, that in a very short time the 

 general Floridian would become immensely rich, and the 

 individual resources of every citizen of that State be be- 

 yond the reach of a panic. 



