FOREST AND STREAM. 



215 



wgamtiqz. 



AN OTAHJTIAN ROMANCE. 



IN Le Tour du MondeM. de Varigny, in his travels in the 

 Pacific tells this pretty story: " "Fatigued with the day's 

 travel, we sought a pleasant grove, and were all just taking 

 a half hour's rest, when our quiet was broken into by a 

 troup of mounted ladies going towards Honolulu. In the 

 lead there rode a young woman, and beside her gal- 

 loped some ten Kanakas. She was some petty Princess 

 just returning from a visit to her plantation. The 

 gentleman who directed the movements of our party intro- 

 duced me to the young lady with all the forms of English 

 etiquette. She was exceedingly handsome, beautifully form - 

 ed, with a certain marked air of distinction. What was 

 most remarkable about her was her hair, which was massed 

 in luxuriant folds around her head, though strangely 

 enough there was a tress of pure flaxen colored hair mixed 

 with it, which stood out in contrast. 



The young lady observed that I noticed it, and pleasantly 

 asked "if there was anything extraordinary about her hair?" 

 Driven to confess what had attracted my attention, I stated 

 to her the charming effect the flaxen hair produced when 

 seen in the midst of such raven tresses. Not a bit disturbed, 

 laughing at my astonishment, in a trice she unloosed her 

 flowing locks, as if to show me that all her hair was her 

 own. " The story of • my hair is curious," she said, "and 

 providing you have an}' faith in our legends I will tell you 

 all about it. When Keallikoloa reigned, that was the 

 thirteenth grand chief, counting backwards from the ar- 

 rival of Captain Cook, which according to our present com- 

 putation of time was at the beginning'of the 17th Century, 

 a strange ship ran on the coral reefs near Pale on the Island 

 of Havai'i. All the crew were drowned, save a woman. As 

 soon as she had struggled to shore, overcome with fatigue, 

 she sank to the ground, and knelt and prayed. At Pale, 

 near a big rock, which is called Kulon to-day, was where it 

 all happened. The natives treated her kindly, gave her a 

 cabin, brought bread and fruit and fish, and showed the 

 woman all respect. Some of the goods from the vessel 

 floated on shore, and these were kept by the natives for the 

 use of the stranger. Little by little the poor lady acquired 

 our language. There was a noble young Chieftain who 

 used to come after .fishing and talk with the strange woman. 

 He was amazed at her beauty and wondered at the pale 

 color of her hair, for she had blue eyes, so says the story, 

 and a skin as white as milk. There is still an old native 

 ballad that tells all about this and sings her charms. Need 

 I say that the chief loved the pale woman with the light 

 hair? They were wedded, and soon two children blessed 

 their union. The chief loved his wife dearly, but this wife 

 — she went to the sea-side and passed hours on hours there, 

 gazing on the rippling waves, I, brim full of sadness and 

 woe, and as if searching for something far beyond the 

 ocean. Little by little she wasted away, until at last, sadly 

 and mournfully she passed away. Before her death she 

 had made her husband swear that he would make no 

 human sacrifices over her tomb, and he solemnly kept his 

 promise. Of his two children, they were both girls, one 

 died very young, but the other lived, and in time became 

 the wife of a chief. Her hair was as black as mine, but 

 like mine, there was a flaxen strand in it. Her children — 

 only the girls, all have this peculiar mark of their mother. 

 That pale woman with the blue eyes and the locks of golden 

 hair was my great-great grandmother. I don't know how 

 many removes back, say fully two hundred and seventy -five 

 years ago." " This story," says M. deVangny, "has been 

 embodied in quite a charming native romance, called 

 Kiana, the name given to the foreign woman, and Kiana is 



the Hawaiian for Jane. 



♦.*. 



D'Orsay's Wit. — "The wit of Count d'Orsay was more 

 quaint than any thing I have heard from Frenchmen (there 

 are touches of like quality in Rabelais) — more airy than the 

 brightest London wit of my time, those of Sydney Smith 

 and Mr. Fonblanque not excepted. It was an artist's wit, 

 capable of touching off a character by one trait told in a 

 few old words. 



"I have heard the count tell how, when he was in Eng- 

 land for the first time (very young, very handsome, and not 

 abashed), he was placed, at some dinner-party, next the 

 late Lady Holland. That singular woman, who adroitly 

 succeeded in ruling and retaining a distinguished circle 

 longer than either fascination or tyranny might singly have 

 accomplished, chanced that day to be in one of her imperi- 

 ous humors. She dropped her napkin; the count picked it 

 up gallantly; then her fan, then her fork, then her spoon, 

 then her glass; and as often her neighbor stooped and 

 restored the lost article. At last, however, the patience of 

 the youth gave way, and, on dropping her napkin again, he 

 turned and called one of the footmen behind him. "Put 

 my convert on the floor," said he. "I will finish my dinner 

 there ; it will be so much more convenient- to my Lady Hol- 

 land !" — Charley's Autobiography. 



— -*~»- 



The want of a Microscope.— In 1383, when Heinreich 

 von Bulow destroyed the village and church of Wilsnach, 

 drops of blood were found eight days afterwards on the 

 Host placed on the altar. But the victims of superstition 

 have the bump of causality remarkably developed; and in 

 1510, thirty-eight Jews were burnt to ashes because thev 

 had tortured the consecrated Host until it bled. Again, 

 the sight was seen on the Moselle in 1824; and in 1848 the 

 famous Ehrenberg analysed the terrible portent. After 

 stooping with his microscope over the red stains on bread, 

 cheese, and potatoes, this savant declared that they are 

 caused by small monads or vibrios, which have a red color, 

 and are so minute that from 46,656,000,000 to 884,736,000- 

 000,000 distinct beings adoin the space of one cubic inch. 

 Unfortunately, when, in 1510, thirty-eight Israelites, as we 

 bave seen, were burnt to ashes, no scientific Ehrenberg ex- 

 isted to point out to their superstitious butchers that what 

 jhey called a proof of the consecrated Host being tortured 

 until it bled, was merely due to aggregation of hun-j-rv red 

 insects. 



Doctors Ought to Drive.— We look upon sport rather 

 as a means of preserving health than of restoring it when 

 lost, and we think that professional and business men in 

 town are far too prone to disregard healthful recreation. 

 It is not the three weeks' shooting or fishing to which we 

 allude, but the oft-recurring weekly "outing" to which all 

 who have wisdom and the necessary means treat them- 

 selves. The man of business, or the barrister or doctor, 

 who is able to get a day's hunting once a week more than 

 makes up for his lost time by "the additional vigor with 



which he prosecutes his labors on the remaining five or 

 six. Many of the foremost men of our own profession 

 have been and are noted for ardor in the prosecution of 

 field sports. There is a kind of mild sport which is open 

 to many of our profession, viz: driving; and there are sev- 

 eral of our foremost! London ^practitioners who are noted 

 for the dexterity with Which they drive their mail-phaetons. 

 We have always admired the wisdom of these medical 

 Jehus. When a doctor leaves the harrapsin'g* case, over 

 which perhaps he has been sorely anxious, and takes the 

 ribbons to drive to his next patient, he must, willy-nilly, 

 get his nose off the grindstone, and the excitement of 

 threading his way through the London thoroughfares must 

 for the time drive away the cares, of practice. His anima- 

 ted countenance is generally a striking contrast to that of 

 his professional brother whom we see boxed in his brougham 

 poring over his morning paper or his visiting list. — The 

 Lancet. 



— The first day of the extra trotting meeting at Fleetwood 

 Park, Westchester County N. Y., took place on November 

 5th. The first event was for horses that had never beaten 

 2 :32. Five horses came to the post. Joe Clark won the 

 three last heats. The second event was for the 2 :42 class. 

 Nine horses started. Ledger Girl won. In the match for 

 $200 mile heats, best three in five, in harness, Fred. Tyler 

 won. There were two other matches on the programme 

 and in both cases forfeit was paid. The second day was 

 largely attended by friends in the interest of trotting. The 

 gentleman's race to road wagons had eight entries, six of 

 which started. Buffalo Dick won, Rosie second, all the 

 others being distanced. The next event was the 2:38 class. 

 There were eighteen entries, ten of which started. Fred. 

 Tyler won in three straight heats. In the 2:29 class, eight 

 horses came to the post. Spotted Colt Avon in three straight 

 heats. The third day of the meeting, notwithstanding the 

 unpleasant weather, brought a fair attendance. The first 

 event was the unfinished match between Tanner Boy and 

 Ella Millard. The former won. The second event was for 

 horses of the 2:26 class, which was finished November 8th. 

 Charley Green won. 



— The match at Dext er Park, Chicago, between Lady 

 Mac and Nourmahal, five miles in harness, came oil' on 

 November 6th. J. C. Simpson's Nourmahal won in 13:39. 



A Corner in the Country. — Poor dear Peggy was a 

 pony. She died thirty-four years old, two Sundays ago, at 

 about half past eleven. She simply lay down and died. 

 The day before, she was quite well. Many a time I have 

 driven her over to our neighboring town, between four and 

 five miles off, in twenty minutes, without touching her with 

 the whip. She won trotting-matches in her youth; and my 

 father, who had a Avonderful eye for horses, bought her, 

 promiscuously, out of a common cart in London, having 

 seen how she was stepping out. Now she is dead; and I 

 pray the Royal Commission on horses to tell me where I 

 can find such another. She is buried on the common — a 

 field so called from the date of the Inclosure Act — and is 

 buried where she lay down and died. I wish I had been 

 here to have saved one of her hoofs for a snuff-box. She 

 dies lamented, having done her duty well through a long- 

 life. Ned, I expect, "will never die. Donkeys never do, 

 they say. Ned is really a she, but has somehow come to 

 be called Ned. She hunts me to sniff my pockets for a bit 

 of bread ; but though docile, is hard to ride. I tried her 

 the first evening of my arrival from town. I had given her 

 slices of our loaf, and she stood with her soft nose under 

 my elbow. My wife was close by, and I said: "I'll see 

 now if I can ride her a few yards." So I threw my leg over 

 her, and in less than a minute was flat on my spine in the 

 carriage-road. Up went her back, like a dish-cover, down 

 went her head between her fore-legs, and I was floored. 

 Talking of falling! I had another spill that evening. In 

 that hot July afternoon i hung my South American grass 

 hammock in the shade between two beech trees on the 

 border of the lawn, I had not the proper rope to sling it, 

 but what I had I thought would do. So, after dinner, I 

 lay in my hammock, perfectly still, gazing up into ten 

 thousand million leaves, when all at once the temporary 

 rope broke, and I fell whop on my back, like Newton's 

 apple. The laws of gravitation! If Newton had only so 

 fallen himself, he would have unravelled the still hidden 

 secrets of the cosmos. — Chambers' Jour rial. 



Hunting. — Forward riding, to a man who means to 

 ride at all, is decidedly the best method of crossing a 

 country, both on the considerations of pleasure and profit. 

 Horses take their leaps in a more collected form when they 

 see none of their own species in front of them ; the hounds 

 create quite excitement enough in a hunter to make him 

 do his utmost, while the emulation he conceives of 

 his own kind is apt to degenerate into jealousy, that 

 makes him foolhardy and careless. Also a great amount of 

 unnecessary exertion is entailed upon him, by being pulled 

 off and set going again, which must be done repeatedly 

 in a run by a man who follows another, however straight 

 and well his leader may ride. _ Also, the sportsman's nerves 

 are spared much needless anxiety and misgiving. Can any 

 thing be more distressing than to see our front rank man 

 fall, in the uncertainity he-has attained on the further side 

 of a thick fence, or cover it with an obvious effort and strug- 

 gle? Caution whispers we had better decline. Shame 

 urges that "what one horse can do another can." Self-es- 

 teem implores us not to fall back into "the ruck" behind. 

 So we first of all check our horses from hesitation, and then 

 hurry him from nervousness. The probable result is a 

 "cropper" with the additional disgrace of having been in- 

 curred at a place which the Pioneer cleared easily, and as- 

 sumption, as unjust as it is unwelcome, that our horse is 

 not so good as his. Now, in riding for himself, a man pre- 

 serves Ids confidence till he is in the air. Should he be 

 luckless enough to light in a chasm, he lias at least the ad- 

 vantage of not being irightened to death in advance, and I 

 am convinced ^hat all the extraordinary leaps on record 

 have thus been made by these forward horse-men, who, 

 trusting Dame Fortune implicitly, find that she nearly 

 always' pulls them through. Willi regard to the distance a 

 horse can cover when going a fair pace and leaping from 

 sound ground, even with thirteen or fourteen stone on his 

 back, ii id scarcely credible to tiiose who nave not. witnessed 



it. Two and three and thirty feet from footmark to loot- 

 mark, and on a dead level, have often been measured off. 

 There are few fences in any country that would let us in, 

 if we could trust to such a bound as this; and the activity 

 displayed by a good horse when he finds the ditch on the 

 landing side wider than he calculated, is perhaps the 

 noblest effort of the bodily powers of the animal. In the 

 blank forest in Germany there are two stones standing to 

 this day, sixtv feet apart, to commemorate the leap made 

 across a chasm by a hunted deer.— Whyte Melville, 



$nmvm$ §a §art[e^ondmf^ 



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

 such information as may be of service to. amateur and prof essional sports- 

 men. We mill cheerfully answer all reasonable questions that fall within 

 lli'-. scope of this paper, designating localities for good hunting, fish- 

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

 plements, routes, distances, seasons, expenses, remedies, traits, species 9 

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

 attention. Anonymous communications not noticed.} 



Alfred G.— Kule XXII of the game laws of the Marylebone club says 

 '•the striker is out if any part, of his dress knocks down the wicket." 



Amateur Only.— Address Mr. Bethel Burton, Brooklyn, L. I., the in- 

 ventor of the gun. 



Clubs.— Write to I. H. Stead, Esq., No. SOBeekman street, New York, 

 Secretary of the New York Athletic Club. 



T. O. and N.— Blondeau is the best reference on the influence of elec- 

 tricity on plants. It is an intricate but beautiful subject. 



Brunge, Philadelphia. Albino squirrrels are rare though there was a 

 notice of one in the New York Times a year or so ago. 



<Ji:eedmoor.— Hall's breech loading rifle was in actual service in the 

 United States army in 1845. Consult General Norton's book on American 

 breech loading small arms. 



Sometime ago a correspondent asked us who sold us a Lafancheux gun, 

 and we replied that we did not know. We find since.that Schuyler, Har- 

 ley ito Graham have them. 



Amateur, Brooklyn. —Ducks are here to-day, and gone to-morrow. On 

 some points around Fort Schuyler you might kill a few ducks and wil- 

 lets. 



Hackle, N. Y— Any respectable, gun house will furnish you with the 

 pistol requisite for the game you mention. We have our opinion, but 

 decline to give it. Almost any one carrying a heavy ball would do. 



Sauorl's.— According to Dalton, the dew deposited on the soil in aver- 

 aye localities is fully five inches pel annum, or about live hundred tons 

 of water per acre. Dew follows, even in India, the banks of streams. 



N. S. L., Brooklyn. — Think you are correct. Madler, who measured 

 tlie mountains of the moon with Boss' telescope, declared that if a body 

 of men or mass of troops were to march together on the moon's surface, 

 they would be discoverable with this telescope. 



Tbotjt FisKiNG— There are a few black bass in the Susquehanna. 

 Moat of the streams which empty into the Susquehanna contain more or 

 less brook trout, but there are many places preferable, such as Tobyhan- 

 na, on the Del. & Lack. E. R., and in the counties of Elk, McKean, Pot- 

 ter, and Wan-en, Pa. In the mountains you speak of, ruffed grouse are 

 plentiful; also, squirrels and the white hare. 



Header, New Britain. Keep your trout line always straight by the 

 motion of the hand, and your fly will keep to the surface whether in still 

 or quick water. In a running stream draw your fly up and athwart the 

 current, sometimes letting it drop down a little. What you want in fly 

 fishing is motion, always motion; but it may take a dozen years to learn 

 all the niceties of the art, and some persons never learn. 



Nimrod Shooting Club.— For regular shooting, one pink edged wad. 

 For wild fowl shooting you can use. two wads, or where great penetration 

 is required. The wads ought to be one size larger than the cartridge. 

 About three drams for ordinary shooting, increase the charge slightly 

 when shooting over water. Laflin & Hand, or Curtis & Harvey's.- 



Amateur, Hoboken. — To preserve insects we have found the following 

 useful: Quarter of an ounce of corrosive sublimate in one ounce of 

 water, and add three ounces of spirits of wine. Steep insects in this, 

 then dry; and especially if spider specimens be treated this way they 

 will be found to be pliable. 



E. S. Crosier, Custom House. Louisville, Ky.— For a Newfoundland 

 retriever write to Robert Bustin, St. John's, New Brunswick. The pure 

 breed of Water Spaniel is worn out in the United States. We can im - 

 port one for you through our London agent, H. Herbert. The price would 

 be somewhere about $50. 



Teacher, TJtica.— Ambergris, Tennant says somewhere, is always "an 

 ambiguous and exceptional substance." There is very little doubt but 

 that it is the foeces of the sperm whale. Word seems derived from gris 

 (gray) amber. Some years ago its value was calculated as being eight 

 times its actual weight in silver. 



Canter, N. J:— A recipe that we don't know the origin of says that 

 white marks caused by the friction of the saddle may sometimes be remov- 

 ed from a horse by applying, morning and night, an ointment made of lard 

 and tincture of cantharides or Spanish fly, made in the proportion of a 

 few drops of the latter to an ounce of the former. 



One Who Goes to Menageries.— Zoologists are quite in the dark 

 about it. The only known specimens were in China, and preserved 

 The name of Elaphurus Davidianus was given to it. It was a sta°- but 

 entirely unlike any. living species. We should like some information 

 about it ourselves. Can any of our readers give us a full description of it? 



George N, Washington, D. C—The bird you refer to must be we 

 think the Pt^edix Saxatilis Mayeri, or rock partridge. We should infer 

 this from the fact of your having shot it in the gnsons this summer It is 

 agenuine mountain bird, and unlike the gallinoidie, does not live in po- 

 lygamy. They are not found north of the Alps. 



Herman T., Sacramento.-All true carnivorous whales are distinguish- 

 able from the proportional size of the head. Best type of this Is the 

 bedoenoptera rosttrata. Biggest whale is the rorqual (Physalus Boons ) 

 One hundred and twenty feet long seems to be an absolute measure- 

 ment. There is a skeleton somewhere in England the bones of which 

 weigh thirty-five tons. 



Gusty Baines Providence.-Lammergeyer (Faleo. ox Gypmtm bar- 

 batus), called also Stemgeyer in the Grisons, and Barteyger in various 

 parts of Switzerland. Measurement, four and a half feet; ten feet, from 

 wing and wing, and will weigh from thirteen to twenty-one pounds 

 Other bird of the same region, golden eagle, (AquUa chrimtos ) He is 

 bolder and stronger than the lammergeyer. There are, we think three 

 other varieties of the eagle in Switzerland. 



S. L. Harvey.— The experiments tried by you this summer are indeed 

 interesting. We recollect to have seen somewhere an experiment of the 

 same kind tried with the flowers of the Dictamnm albv.s. When you ap- 

 ply a flame to them they apparently catch fire. The explanation is 

 that the flowers when fully developed contain some etheric oil which 

 burns. When you take a bit of fresh orange peel and press it in a candle 

 flame, the same phenomenon takes place. 



Experimenting. -The cartridge of the Prussian needle <nm differs 

 essentially from any other. It can only be used for the gun. "it consists 

 of four parts, enclosed in a paper cover. Parts ate, the powder the ful 

 minating cap, the carrier wad, and the bullet. Ball is an elongated ovoid 

 rather blnnt at point. The earner paper wad covers more than one half 

 of the ball; the fulminate is ahead of the powder, the powder behind it 

 The carrier wad is of paper made under pv^nre-papkr mache The 

 wad flies with the bullet, when it becomes detached at abont fiftv vaid<T 

 but at this distance the wad will hit heavily enough to kill a man ' Noth 

 ing is left in the gnu when it is fired. 



