FOREST AND STREAM. 



233 



LAKE OKEECHOBEE. 



SOME time this winter our Florida correspondent will 

 revisit and thoroughly explore this almost unknown 

 lake, and we hope then to give our readers a minute de- 

 scription of it and the surrounding country. Meantime we 

 are pleased to be informed through the New York Herald 

 of the discoveries made there by C. K. Allen, of St Mary's, 

 Florida, and four companions. The letters of our own 

 correspondent have already brought us to within one mile 

 of its shores, where, entangled in the cypress swamps and 

 deserted by his Indian guide, he was persistently pushing 

 his way through, guided by the sound of waves beating on 

 its shore after a storm. 



To reach this point he had travelled forty-five miles from 

 Indian river, an inlet on the Atlantic coast two hundred 

 miles south of St. Augustine, floundering through swamps 

 and quicksands, and meeting no human habitation. Just 

 here we take up the narrative of Mr. Allen, who reports 

 that after encountering the like difficulties, his party finally 

 gained the edge of a bayou which floated them to the lake; 

 and once upon its bosom, no farther obstacles to progress 

 were encountered. 



From the first two or three miles out from the shore, 

 they were terribly annoyed by mosquitoes and flies of var- 

 ious kinds, from which they could only in part protect them- 

 selves by thick veils over faces and hands. But at eight 

 miles distance the insects were no longer troublesome. 

 Three miles from the shore they found shallow water — five 

 feet — and sundry low islands inhabited by immense alliga- 

 tors. At a distance of eighteen miles from the shore, 

 the water became clear and bottom was found at 170 feet, 

 Here they discovered a group of three islands; the largest 

 about six miles long, and four miles wide. The northern 

 portion of this island was a barren, rock} r waste, which ex- 

 tended back from the shore nearly a mile and a half, to the 

 base of a line of rocky cliffs, about one hundred and fifty 

 feet high, which extended across the whole width of the 

 island. To the south of these cliffs is a magnificent forest, 

 composed chiefly of large mahogany, palmetto and laurel 

 magnolia. Many of the latter trees, being in full bloom, 

 presented an enchanting scene. This forest extends over 

 the whole of the southern portion of the island, except to 

 within a few hundred yards of the shore, which at every 

 point is sandy and covered with rocks. 



In the forest spiders of a gigantic species were found. 

 One was seen which was fully two feet long. It had long 

 and very strong looking limbs, and would have weighed 

 three or four pounds. In its head, which was jet black, 

 were several eyes, each surrounded by a bright yellow and 

 scarlet circle. The body was encircled by bands of scarlet, 

 yellow and black. Altogether the spider presented a very 

 brilliant appearance. 



Upon the largest island, north of the cliffs, the explorers 

 were surprised to find heaps of stones, lying in such a posi- 

 tion as to resemble ruins of some kind of structures. None 

 of the ruins w r ere extensive, and the structures must, there- 

 fore, have been of small dimensions Similar ruins, if 

 such they were, were found in great numbers upon the 

 small islaad, north of this one. Upon the summit of a cliff 

 which stands upon the eastern shore of the large island, 

 the party found a large heap of stones lying in a semicircu- 

 lar form, and facing to the east. 



The length of these ruins was nearly two hundred feet. 

 In front of this semicircle, and about fifty feet from it, was 

 a large heap of stones, nearly twenty feet square. The 

 ruins found on the plain below, and upon the small island, 

 were much smaller than those found upon the cliff, being 

 only from five to ten feet square. 



-*-.♦ 



Salmon in the Hudson.— It will be gratifying to those 

 gentlemen who have pressed the matter of stocking the 

 upper waters of the Hudson with salmon upon the atten- 

 tion of the United States Fishery Commission, through the 

 columns of Forest and Stream, to learn by the subjoined 

 letter that their wishes have been cheerfully acceded to : — 

 United States Commission, Fish and Fisheries, ) 

 Washington, November 11th, 1873. f 

 Editor Forest and Stream: — 



I am perfectly willing to place a good lot of Sacramento 

 salmon in the Hudson River. Seth Green has 250,000, and 

 I will tell him to so dispose of a portion. 

 Very truly yours, 



Spencer W. Baird, Commissioner. 

 «»»»» 



— Sir Samuel Baker was announced as ready to appear 

 before the English Geographical Society sometime about 

 the beginning of this month. It is to be* regretted that* on 

 account of his illness— an inflammation of the lungs he was 

 prevented. After Sir Samuel, a*s far as regards learning 

 something about Africa goes, we think we should like to 

 hear Lady Baker. 



««»- — 



—We thankfully acknowledge the receipt of a valuable 

 paper from Prof. Gill, of the Smithsonian Institute, which, 

 together with other deferred contributions will appear in 

 our next, Our friends are making earnest, and we think 

 very succesful endeavors, to make this paper a valuable 

 one. We could not anticipate such generous aid. 

 -*♦+» 



—There is a monthly journal published in Chicago de- 

 voted exclusively to bee culture. It is called the "Bee 

 Journal." 



«♦*♦■ 



—The Assiniboine River is frozen over— so are parts of 

 the Red River. 



■#»»■ ■ 



—A pair of skates for Christmas and New Year's, with a 

 copy of Forest and Stream, can be had by every sub- 

 scriber. See advertisement. 



THE SCOTCH HERRING FISHERY. 



X 



THAT gifted stonemason Hugh Miller, who was not 

 only observant of stones and strata, but looked at 

 men, manners, and Customs — at birds, beasts, and fishes, 

 and w T rote wonderfully about them', has left us a charming 

 narrative of the Scotch herring fishery; and his chapters are 

 vividly recalled by hearing of the late great haul of her- 

 rings made from Ross, Argyle, and Inverness, on the coast 

 of Scotland. The total yield this year will be no less than 

 700,000,000 of herrings, worth to the fishermen some 

 $7,500,000. It has been a year of blessing to these hardy 

 toilers of the sea. 



No light work is it to catch herrings. The Scotch coast, 

 with all its nooks and indentations, its locks and friths, is 

 a dangerous coast, and often precipitous cliffs overlook the 

 sea. Squalls, driving storms, blown from the German sea, 

 often dash the frail fishers' crafts to pieces, and many a 

 brave and honest man is shrouded in the seething waves. 

 Even in quiet weather there is constant danger of sudden 

 storms, which burst on the sea without a moment's warn- 

 ing. A fishing fleet may quietly glide out of the harbor, 

 the brown sails tinged with the warm color of the setting- 

 sun, and before midnight may be scurrying along under 

 the black sky, with a howling sea behind them, their only 

 safety lying in making some distant harbor. 



The clangers of herring fishing are increased by the fact 

 that it must be mainly prosecuted at night time, the fisher- 

 man being then forced to meet the storm in the dark. In 

 a second a boat may 'be swamped, or maybe driven against 

 an iron bound coast. A brave, manly set are they, these 

 Scotch fishermen, and accustomed to brave dangers. He 

 has been brought up — 



' Where the Northern Ocean, in vant whirls, 

 Boils round the naked melancholy isles 

 Of farthest Thule, and th' Atlantic surge 



^ Pours in among the stormy Hebrides." 



It is now twenty-.six years since one fair day, from a sin- 

 gle village, there started out a fleet just about this season. 

 The boats went out with a gentle breeze, nor had there 

 been any warning of bad weather; but before morning on 

 the coast more than one hundred of these fishermen, from 

 a single little place, were drowned. Some of the details of 

 this sad event are most touching. Out at sea one fisherman, 

 when the storm had spent its force, picked up fifteen blue 

 bonnets floating on the water, the owners of which must 

 have all perished near the same spot. 



This is the gloomy side of the fishing question ; but it 

 has a more cheerful one. When the pale grey light rises 

 over the east and steals over the seas there is a mass of 

 silver lying at the bottom of the fisher V boats, and as they 

 near the shore on the shingle stand the wives and bairns, 

 expectant of their husbands' coming. Nonchalant and 

 possibly tired, too, is the fisherman. But up there in the 

 cottage there is breakfast for him, and there, too, is his 

 welcome bed, on which he stretches his tired limbs and 

 dreams of wondrous hauls of fisnes. 



St. John, in his "Field Notes and Tour in the Suther- 

 lands" says, describing the scenes of herring fishing: — "Sea 

 birds innumerable attend on the herring boats, finding it 

 easier to pick up the dead fish, whether whole or in pieces, 

 which fall into the water, than to dive after the living ones. 

 All these flocks of birds enliven the scene — some, like the 

 gannets, dashing down from a height into calm water, 

 and almost invariably catching a herring; others attacking 

 and diving into shoals far down beneath the surface, while 

 the gulls, for the most part, feed on maimed and broken 

 fish. Every bird, too, seems to be trying to scream louder 

 than the rest, and such a Babel-like mixture of sounds can 

 scarcely be heard anywhere else. Altogether it is a most 

 interesting and animated scene, and to see it in perfection 

 it is well worth while to take the trouble of passing a night 

 in a herring boat instead of in one's bed. In fact, I can 

 truly assert that two nights spent many years ago in her- 

 ring fishing have kept an honored place in my memory, 

 and are looked back to as among the most amusing of my 

 outdoor adventures." 



Whence the herring comes from, and its habits, are every 

 day better understood. Formerly, these fish were supposed 

 to have inhabited the *great Polar Basin, and that from 

 thence issued annually as bees swarm from a hive, and that 

 once touching the northern shores of Scotland and Sweden 

 they went back again to their icy home. Now, it is pretty 

 well proven that the herring never travels very far; that, 

 for instance, those which spawn on the shores of the Baltic 

 or on the Scotch coasts never leave those seas. This view 

 is strengthened by the fact that the herrings on the several 

 coasts, differing more or less in appearance and size, never 

 intermingle much, each colony or school having its appro- 

 priate station. 



We are pleased to notice that a change has come slowly, 

 it is true, but certainly, over the Scotch fisherman. From 

 a creature a slave to drink, whose existence was marred by 

 the use of whiskey, whose boat loads of fish were always 

 at the mercy of some creditor, dating from the last ten 

 years, he has become more careful of his own health and of 

 his means. He has now learned to save money, to keep 

 his fishing smack in good order, to care for his garden, to 

 improve his cottage, and he sends his children to school of 

 weekdays; and when the fish do not call him to sea goes 

 with his lads and lassies of a Sunday to the kirk on the 

 sea cliff. To-day the pounds and shillings wrung from the 

 stormy North Sea at the peril of his life are no longer 

 wasted at the tippling house over rummers of usquebaugh, 

 for he is reclaimed. Who would not wish such a fisher- 

 man, and all other fishermen, luck? 



— A finished gentleman : a dead man. 



LAST RIFLE MATCH OF THE SEASON. 



THE first competition for the Remington Diamond 

 Badge lor long range firing, presented by Messrs. E. 

 Remington & Sons, took place at Creedmoor on Saturday, 

 November 15th, under the following conditions : 



Open only to members of the National Rifle Association; 

 weapon, any breech-loader not over 10 pounds in weight, 

 trigger not less than 3 pounds test pull; telescopic sights 

 excluded. 



Distances, 500, 800 and 1,000. Position, any. Rounds, 

 7 at each distance, with privilege of two sighting shots. 

 The twenty highest scores at 500 yards alone, to compete 

 at 800, and the ten highest at the distance, to compete at 

 1,000. 



Entrance fee, $1. The badge to become the personal 

 property of any member winning it three times. 



This very elegant badge, a cut of which we give, was 

 made expressly for the Messrs. Remington & Son by 

 Messrs. Kellogg & Decker, of No. 28 Bond street, and was 

 designed by Mr. Decker. The badge is of Roman gold, 

 is in fact a perfect target. The bull's eye is a single hand- 

 some diamond. The Centre and Outer are shown by del - 

 icately enamelled lines, and a laurel wreath gracefully sur- 

 rounds the whole. Above it, as supporters, are two Reming- 

 ton rifles crossed, accurately modelled after the originals, and 

 fieatly dssilled in the best jeweler's art. A scroll surmounts 

 the whole with the inscription "Remimiton Badge." The 

 whole decoration is suspended by a gold chain of the finest 

 links. The badge does credit to the good taste of the 

 Messrs. Remington, of Mr. Afford, and to the skill of 

 Messrs. Kellogg & Decker, the jewelers. 



The day was dull and overcast, consequently at 1,000 

 yards a much less elevation was required than had been 

 found necessary during practice, when the sun shone 

 brightly, a fact which some competitors did not observe in 

 time to redeem their scores. 



The effect of light wind atmospheric pressure upon the 

 elevation required to be given upon a rifle is one to which 

 sufficient attention has not been paid by either rifle manu- 

 facturers or members of the National Rifle Association. 

 The latter are rapidly finding the necessity of understand- 

 ing the subject, but are hampered, however, in their efforts 

 to improve themselves, from the fact that their rifles are 

 not sighted in such a manner as to enable them to form any 

 definite theories. Many of our best rifles "are sold without 

 any distance being marked upon the rear sight at all, an! 

 those that are marked are simply divided into divisions of 

 1,000 yards— divisions, too, which are not adapted to the 

 conformation of the ground at Creedmoor, and the only way 

 of moving the sight being by slipping it up and down with the 

 fingers. This, of course, makes any change in the elevation 

 to a great extent a matter of guess work, and prevents any 

 accurate record being kept by the firer, without which he 

 will always be more or less in the dark. What is wanted 

 is a sight divided into minute divisions and sub-divisions, 

 plainly marked by either fractions of an inch, or degrees 

 and minutes, and the sight moving with a screw, so that it 

 can be set as desired. It is understood that Messrs. E. 

 Remington & Sons have decided to manufacture some im- 

 proved sights for long range firing, which will be ready by 

 spring, and it is to be hoped that they will produce some- 

 thing which will supply the existing deficiency. 



Among the competitors at the match several had spirit 

 levels across the barrels of their rifles, just behind the fore- 

 sight. The effect of allowing the sight to deviate from the 

 perpendicular is very great, but it would seem as if some 

 better way could be accomplished than by a glass level 

 which is objectionable from its liability to fracture, as well 

 as from the still greater fault that in using it the eye is" 

 obliged to watch more objects than can well be kept in 

 focus. In conversation among the experts at Creedmoor 

 yesterday, it was suggested that a small pendulum having 

 a moveable bar with an aperture, the pendulum being hung 



