FOREST AND STREAM. 



183 



tt(%Blt(({8. 



THE MOORISH COFFEE HOUSE. 



RICKING our way through the little c:owd outside, we 

 enter a Ions: room, and are struck by the contrast be- 

 tween it and the French cafe, but not so much on account 

 of the simplicity of the interior as from the kind of life 

 within. As one passes through the doorway no jingle of 

 dominoes, no sound of billiard, balls striking together, no 

 clinking of glasses, no hubbub of voices, no triumphal cries 

 of the man with a good hand at piquet greet the air. There 

 are no waiters in clean white aprons and short black jackets, 

 moving with extraordinary nimbler ess and rapidity among 

 small marble tables, no dame de comptoir seated sedately 

 behind a rosewood tribune; but in lieu of these quietness 

 and peacefulness reign over everything. At the end of the 

 room the Kahouadji or master, who is generally a Moor or a 

 Koulouglis, is standing before his stove, where water is 

 always on the bubble and coffee continually, simmering. 

 As the water boils he places five or six tea spoonsful of 

 coffee into a tin pot containing about two tumblers of 

 water, and carefully removes the scum as it rises to the top; 

 after allowing it to simmer for a few secouds he pours the 

 coffee several times from one pot to another, reminding one 

 of an American preparing a brandy-cocktail, and finally 

 empties it into small cups — sometimes fitting into metal 

 stands resembling egg-cups, but n.ore frequently being 

 ordinary European coffee cups — which the thefel or waiter 

 hands round to the customers. In some cafes the coffee is 

 roasted daily and pounded on the premises, as it is gen- 

 erally considered that it gradually loses its flavor when 

 onCe cooked, but there are also shops where the process of 

 crushing is carried on ss a trade. In these establishments 

 you see bent over a long stone trough, resembling a man- 

 ger, three or four half naked men, who stand there from 

 morn till sundown, with a rest of about a couple of hours 

 in the middle of the day, crushing the coffee with a huge 

 iron pestle. The Arabs never mix milk with their coffee; 

 they take it lukewarm, and sip it, stopping from time to 

 to time draw a whiff of smoke from their pipes, or to make 

 an observation to a neighbor. — Qenilema^s Magazine. 

 ***+» 



WAVE ACTION OF THE PACIFIC. 



NOTHING can be mqre tumultuous or less pacific than 

 the waters of the Pacific Ocean along the Mendocino 

 coast. Where there is a sandy beach, which is not often, it is 

 pleasant to watch the incoming waves, and to compare them 

 with those of the Atlantic. We at once perceive that there 

 is a great difference. In the Atlantic the surf is seldom 

 more than six feet high, and the serried line of waters that 

 comes dashing onward is rarely more than two hundred 

 yards long. In fact, gazing at the sea that breaks upon the 

 Long Branch shore, or upon the sands of Cape May, or 

 upon the western side of Martha's Vineyard, or upon the 

 petrified beach of Santo Domingo, one can see without 

 difficulty ten or a dozen waves breaking on the shore or ad- 

 vancing in line, all within the field of vision afforded by one 

 glance. It is not so here. The waves, hi the first place, 

 are not so frequent Accustomed to are Atlantic quick 

 pulsation, the traveler waits with impatience, even with a 

 degree of pain, for the roar of the breakers on the Pacific 

 coast, and has about concluded that the sea has given the 

 thing up as a bad job, when the 'remendous boom bursts 

 suddenly and unexpectedly upon his ear. Then the waves 

 are twelve feet high and a mile in length, and advance with 

 a solemnity ot motion which words cannot describe. The 

 curves described by the crests of such waves are infinitely 

 finer than anything which the Atlantic presents; and the 

 boiling fury, with which they crash upon the beach and 

 churn the sands is at first sight appalling. Around iso- 

 lated rocks they rage 'and raven, like the dogs which the 

 poets fabled around Scylla. :"*;A11 along the Mendocino coast 

 they have worn the cliffs into strange and wondrous forms, 

 beating out caverns where the lower part is conglomerate 

 rock, and series of arched cellars, into which tons of sea- 

 weed and debris are thrown. The basalt, which is the lead- 

 ing character of the crust, is not uniform ' in texture, some 

 parts being very much softer than others. Wherever this 

 occurs in the proximity of the waters, they have invariably 

 scooped out the soft rock, makmg all kinds of mystic arches, 

 siren rings, and gateways of Poseidon. This is not in- 

 frequent, and occasionally happens in spots accessible to the 

 human foot, sometimes even in close neighborhood to 

 the stage road. The surface is covered with a rank, coarse 

 grass, which even mules disdain, and which the wandering- 

 goat will not even look at. Sometimes a cactus will bloom 

 along the cliffs, and there is a species of thistle with very 

 handsome bluish-green leaves and a large yellow flower. — 

 AppUtorCs Journal. 



*»**, 



A Plea for Sueep. — Lately, visiting some of the sheep 

 farms of Lincolnshire, I noticed that while the Midland 

 farmer talked to his horse, and even petted his oxen, he 

 treated his sheep as an animal peculiarly devoid of intelli- 

 gence. Now, I noticed among my agricultural friends this 

 general sentiment in practice, a sort of general disregard 

 for the intelligence or feelings of sheep, though to me there 

 is as much sad pitiful intelligence in the eye of a sheep as 

 there is in the "patient melancholy" face of a cow. While 

 the farmer lias brought sheep to the perfection of size and 

 shape and profit, that, sort of mutual regard which anima- 

 ted sheep, shepherds, and shepherdesses in the olden days 

 seems to have died out. St. John says, "To him the por- 

 ter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth 

 his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when 

 he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and 

 the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." On these 

 wcrds Dr. Hammond observes that the shepherds of Judea 

 knew every sheep separately, and that "shepherds of that 

 country had a distinct name for every sheep, which each 

 sheep knew and answered by obediential coming or follow- 

 ing to that call." Moreover, they trained up the ram to 

 collect the flock, a far better device than t.liaf of the sheep- 

 dog. Homer endorses this in his simile of Ulysses draw- 

 ing up his men to a rarn ordering the flock. On the au- 

 thority of Philo Judseus, a philosophic Jew, born and bred 

 in Egypt, in his first chapter concerning the Creation says: 

 "Woolly rams laden with thick fleeces in spring season, 

 being ordered by their shepherd, stand without "moving, 

 and, silently stooping a little, put themselves into his hand 

 to have their wool shorn; being accustomed, as cities are, 

 to pay their yearly tribute to man, their king by nature. " — 

 Gentleman? s Magasi-ne. 



— Preservation op Human Remains. — In the Italian 

 section of the Vienna Exhibition, Dr. Marini exhibits, 

 among an assortment of human feet, hands, legs, arms, and 

 busts of shrivelled proportions and deep-brown color, a 

 large, round plateau, evidently of hard and polished 

 material, which has been likened to stale gelatine or potted 

 boar's head. It is a conglomerate of specimens, illustrative 

 of an art invented by him— the petrification and mummifi- 

 cation of human corpses. It was this Dr. Marini who pet- 

 rified Mazzini, and executed the work so well that the ad- 

 mirers of the arch-conspirator proposed to set up the corpse 

 in the Capitol and save economical Italy the expense of a 

 statue, The doctor's preparations are weather-proof, and 

 will not only stand wear, but take on a high degree of 

 polish. His mummified specimens, by a process known to 

 him alone, can be restored to their original size and elastic- 

 ity; while the petrified ones are as hard, and possibly as 

 durable, as granite. The top slab of the table is composed 

 of muscles, fat, sinews, and glandular substance — all petri- 

 fied together in a block, the surface of which has been 

 planed and polished till its face resembles marble. Certifi- 

 cates from Nelaton and others are attached to the specimen 

 limbs, setting forth that the limbs in question had, for the 

 satisfaction of the certifiers, been restored to their pristine 

 softness and pliability by Dr. Marini. — The Lancet. 



*»♦<•>■ 



— The Common Frog. — What is a frog V At first, almost 

 all will think, on meeting with this question, that they can 

 answer it readily and easily. Second thoughts, however, 

 will show to most that such is by no means the case. In- 

 deed many a man of education and culture will find him- 

 self entirely at a loss, if suddenly called upon for a reply to 

 what is in fact a problem by' no means easy of solution. 

 "The frog is a small saltatory reptile" will probably be the 

 reply of the majority. But as it a reptile? At any rate it 

 begins life (in its Tadpole stage) like a fish! By the great 

 Olivier, however, as by very many naturalists since, it has 

 been regarded as a reptile and classed with lizards, croco- 

 diles and serpents; and yet it may be a question whether 

 the marine affinity connubially assigned to it in the nursery 

 tale, be not the lesser error of the two. If the frog was 

 only known by certain fossil remains it would be consider- 

 ed one of the most anomalous of animals. Many persons 

 are accustomed to make much of the distinctive peculiar- 

 ities of the human frame. In fact, however, man's bodily 

 structure is far less exceptional in the animal series, is far 

 less peculiar and isolated than that which is common to 

 frogs and toads. 



The frog is the never-failing resource for the physiological 

 experimenter. It would be long indeed to tell the suffer- 

 ings of much-enduring frogs in the cause of science! What 

 frogs can do without their heads'? What their legs can do 

 without their bodies? What their arms can do without 

 either head or trunk? What is the effect of the removal of 

 their brains ? How they can manage without their eyes and ' 

 without their ears? What effects result from all kinds of 

 local irritations, from checkings, from poisonings, from 

 mutilations the most varied? These are the questions again 

 and again addressed to the little animal which perhaps more 

 than any other deserves the title of "the Martyr of Science." 

 — Nature. 



-♦♦♦- 



x The Beaver. — Beaver have their young about the first 

 of June, and breed but once a year; these number from one 

 to eight ; very old beaver having but one or two at a time. 

 They are pretty little things, about the size of a rat, and 

 are easily tamed, but, on account of their mischievous pro- 

 pensities, are not favorite pets. One pair of young ones 

 that I know of being put in a tub of water, and thinking 

 doubtless that their "lake " should have a creek, proceeded 

 to gnaw the sides till they had made a hole in one of the 

 staves, when they gathered together all kinds of rubbish, 

 consisting of I loots, slippers, &c. with which they attempt- 

 ed to make a dam. As it did not answer, they were very 

 much cast down, crying and rolling themselves about like 

 children in a pet. 



There are various ways of trapping these sagacious ani- 

 mals adopted by professional hunters and trappers. In the 

 fall and spring, the chief method is, to make a small open- 

 ing in the dam, ahd set the trap in such a manner that they 

 will get caught when repairing the mischief. The traps 

 should be fastened by several feet of chain to a dry pole, 

 driven firmly at full length of the chain into the mud at the 

 bottom of the lake ; no marks must be left. Should the 

 chain be slack, the beaver is almost sure to leave a toe or 

 paw in the trap. Since he has a chance of resting on the 

 dam, and by twisting and using his teeth, will set himself 

 free, it is then a labor of much ingenuity to catch him. 

 The presence of beaver and their size are judged by the 

 freshness of the sticks and the size of the teeth-marks on 

 them, as well as the general appearance of the works. — 

 Chamber* Magazine. 



Anecdote of Lord Palmerston. — Gordon, the Scottish 

 painter, used to tell this story: "I had exhibited for sev- 

 eral years, but without success. One year, however — the 

 year before I painted 'the Corsicans' — Lord Palmerston 

 took a sudden fancy to my picture, called 'Summer in the 

 Lowlands,' and bought it. His lordship made inquiries 

 after the artist, and invited me to call upon him. I waited 

 upon his lordship accordingly. He complimented me upon 

 the picture, but there was one thing about it he could not 

 understand. 'What is that, my Lord ?' I asked. 'That 

 there should be such long grass in a field where there are 

 so many sheep,' said his lordship promptly, and with a 

 merry twinkle in his eye. It was a decided, hit, this; and 

 having bought the picture and paid for it he was entitled 

 to his joke. 'How do you account for it ?' he went on. 

 'Those sheep, my lord,' I replied, 'were only turned into 

 that field the night before I finisliedthe picture.' His lord- 

 ship laughed heartily, and said 'Bravo' at my reply, and 

 gave me a commission for two more pictures; I have cashed 

 since then some very notable checks of his — dear old boy!" 

 «**4H 



Oriental Ease. — Kief means, firstly, to do nothing more 

 fatiguing than to lie down upon cushions smoking a hookah 

 or a chibouck filled with the finest tobacco, which a young 

 Arab lights with a piece _ of perfumed tinder; then to sip 

 coffee drop by drop, or violet, orange, or rose sherbets, and 

 to listen to that peculiar music which, although dull and 

 monotonous to us Europeans, is delicious to an Oriental 

 ear. Add to this a beautiful site, which is indispensable, 

 a warm atmosphere, inspiring people with, an inclination 

 for repose, shady trees, and, above all, water — if only a 

 corner of the Bosphorus in the distance — and you will have 

 the principal elements of kief. — Gentleman's Magazine. 



[We shall endeavor in this department to impart and hope to receive 

 such information as may be of service to amateur and professional sports- 

 men We vjill cheerfully answer all reasonable questions that fall within 

 the scope of this paper, designating loalities for good hunting, fish 

 ing. and trapping, and giving advice and instructions as to outfits, im- 

 nlements, routes? distances, seasons, expenses, remedies, traits, species, 

 governing rules, etc. All branches of the sportsman's craft will receive 

 attention. Anonymous communications not noticed.l 

 *. 



James Hobson.— Alaim; 1 min., 42|- sec. 



Old Pop.— Write to Thad. Norris, West Logan Square, Philadelphia. 



DeB., Wheeling, Va.— Your deer hound is a fair dog. About thirty- 

 two inches at the shoulder is a handsome dog. 



D. S. and L.-We believe the decision to he absurd, though final. 

 Change the rules next year. 



J. Q,. A. Jr., South Orange.— The female is much smaller than the 

 male, both in the tame and wild species. In some fancy breeds it is 

 marked by the plumage, also by the strut. 



Clip. Club.— Six hundred yards a minute and twenty-five seconds is very 

 creditable. An amateur has lately made this distance in seventy-five 

 seconds. 



M. S.— Legbyeswm^bc called aloud by the scorers and by the um- 

 pire to decide. "Arm before wicket" is a proper decision, and puts a 

 man out. Glad to have your scores. 



Richmond, Va.— A pair of beagles will cost in this city from $50 to $75 

 If you wish to give us the order, we will import for yon one pair of pure 

 red rabbbit beagles, the cost not exceeding $35 in currency. 



B., Whitehall, "N. J.— Will take the subject up shortly and treat it in 

 full. We send you to-day last report of the National Rifle Association. 

 Address in the meantime the secretary. 



Piscator.— Will our correspondent "Piscator," whose article is noticed 

 by Mr. Mather in this day's issue of our paper, be kind enough to send us 

 his address? 



On as. II qngerford, Kansas City.— For ordinary shooting, 3| ounces 

 of powder. Don't ram your shot. Take it to a practical gunsmith; it may 

 be leaded. 



Abraham X)., Charleston, S. C. — A little Column's mustard sprinkled 

 in the box kills insects for the purposes of the naturalist, very quickly, 

 and is always to be found. 



H. L. N., Boston.— Would be exceedingly obliged for photograph. We 

 think there is no doubt about the King Charles spaniel being derived 

 from Japan. 



Graves.— To ask if contributions to this paper would be acceptable to 

 its editors is superfluous. We are always anxious for favors of this sort. 

 Send them in. 



H. L. O., Hoboken.— 1. Use any clear dry varnish or copal varnish for 

 your fish specimens. Much better to preserve the whole fish than the 

 half. 3. Use arsenical soap. 4. For your reptiles, suspend by means of 

 string through the cork. 



G. D. — The dog puzzle-peg is out of use. We never knew it to be 

 used in the United States, and though spoken of in English books, we 

 think it worthless. Only "slow or low bred dogs are given to the faults 

 you speak of. 



Namby, Hartford.— Brown paper test the only one to ascertain penetra- 

 tion of shot; the tin canister method unsatisfactory. To send shot, No. 

 5 or 6, through 28 sheets of thick paper is creditable, though 39 thick- 

 nesses have been penetrated at 40 yards. Of course the centre shots 

 show the best penetration. 



J. The best plan would be for three or four of you to club together 

 and buy a small skin, which would cost $5; any country shoemaker will 

 make them for you, according to our instructions. Mr Kaiser, furrier, 

 Granville street, Halifax, N. S., will supply the skin. 



H. U.— 1. Barrels were first rilled about 1498. The spiral turn belongs 

 to the eighteenth century. 2. Express rifle said to have a point blank 

 range, with four drams of powder, at 130 yards. Weights and 9 pounds. 

 We think heavier guns are being made. Your third question we will re- 

 ply to shortly in extenso. 



Practical, Savannah.— Box-wood for wood engravers comes princi- 

 pally from Odessa and Smyrna, and from Soukonn Kail, Russia. To try 

 whether wood grown with you is fit for engraving purposes, send us a 

 piece and we will have it tested. There is no substitute for boxwood. It 

 is not the hardness which makes it excellent for wood engravers, but the 

 evenege of the structure. 



Experiment. Concord.— Your idea is a very pretty one, the only pity 

 is that it has been anticipated. The Chinese have for centuries attached 

 such little Whistles as you describe to their pigeons. They put them to 

 their tails and not to their legs as you propose. The Chinese, like the Ja- 

 panese, are full of tricks. 



Miss H. and Girls, Rochester.— Of course sun-fish must have some- 

 thing to eat; give them a few crumbs of bread, and occasional grains of 

 soft-boiled rice, a fly or so occasionally. But do not let the food taint the 

 water. Do not use rain water in your little aquarium, and wait patiently 

 until your plants exercise their power of purifying the water. 



Jallabad.— You are right in your dispute as to the size of the elephant 

 People are prone to exaggerate his size. See informer number an an- 

 swer to this question. Ordinary height of Asiatic elephant is 8 feet. 

 In the East India commissariat k 7 feet is the minimum height required. 

 When an elephant in India is 12 feet tall he is a curiosity. 



A. S. N.— Nature seems to have been quite prolific in her varieties of the 

 kangaroo or inacropidse. There is the macropus major, the macropus 

 Laniger, the whallabee (Halmaturus tvalatratus), the rock kangaroo 

 (Petrogaleperrictilata), and the smaller kinds, as the brush-tailed bettong, 

 the kangaroo rat and the kangaroo hare. 



Campists.— For comfort and convenience the Adirondacks are prefer. 

 able to any other hunting ground in the country, and there is no pleasure 

 more enjoyable than a fortnight spent there in camping out. Some of 

 the guides are very intelligent and obliging, and will take good care of 

 young novices and amateurs who are without experience in out door life. 

 Go to Paul Smith's, Bartlett's or Martins. 



Demar.— To dress your cat skin, take, after well cleaning and scrap- 

 ing, and steep in sumac decoction, letting it stay in ten days. Then wash 

 thoroughly in cold water. Dry then pretty well, and nail skin on a 

 board, hair dowu, and while moist rub in oil and tallow mixed. Then 

 let it dry. A good rubbing with a flat stone helps to make it soft. in fin- 

 ishing. Have seen skins of even such small animals as rats moles 

 and squirrels made very pretty and serviceable this way. 



H. B, P., Boston, Mass.— For ordinary shoe packs and moccasins 

 Messrs. H. and H. Merrill, 290 Notre Dame street, Montreal. The best 

 plan, however, would be to buy a small caribou skin, and get any good 

 shoemaker to make them according to instructions, page 89, Forest and 

 Stream. Any of your friends would be glad to have a pair, if the skin 

 should be too large. Address for skin, J. Kaiser, Furrier. Granville st., 

 Halifax. 



G. L. Eddy, Racine, Wis.— The only work on birds and their eggs 

 which has appeared lately is Dr. Ed. A. Samuel's "Ornithology and 

 Oology of New England," pnblished by Nichols and Noyes, Boston, 1867, 

 in octavo; 583 pages, with some colored plates, many cuts and full notices 

 of each bird and its habits. This work will be found to contain most all 

 the birds of the northern Atlantic States. The publishing price was 

 $15. The best way to procure it is to address a letter to the American 

 Naturalist, Salem, Mass., who will also furnish any other books on natu- 

 ral history at short notice, and also lists of naturalists and dealers, with 

 their addresses, and their special branch of study or business. This 

 magazine will be found very interesting to all who cultivate these studies. 

 The Smithsonian Institution has published two editions of Dr. Thomas 

 N. Brewer's North American Oology, in quarto, 1857 and 1869, with 

 colored plates. We believe that this work only includes the Raptores and 

 Fissirostres. It can be had by direct application to Prof. S. F. Baird 

 assistant secretary of the Institute. The price the 1857 edition was 

 five dollars, with colored plates . 



