FOREST AND STREAM. 



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hind the American vessels in improvements and fittings. 

 The provisionment of the men was also much better on the 

 Yankee crafts. All this led the Nova Scotia men to seek 

 employment on board of our vessels, and a great propor- 

 tion of these men number to-day among the most thriving 

 and energetic of our Gloucester citizens. The Portuguese 

 too form no small percentage of our northern fishermen. 

 They are natives of the Western Islands, are quite clannish, 

 devout catholics, and are prudent and industrious. Then, 

 too, comes a sprinkling of those rovers of the sea, the 

 Swedes and Norwegians, and the Danes and Finns, who 

 soon merge their nationality into that of the universal 

 Yankee fishermen, and when sailing into our harbors, for- 

 get their fiords and estuaries. 



The enterprise of a single fishing town of Massachusetts, 

 Gloucester, which represented in 1872 no less than $3,414- 

 335 as the result of its fishing industry, is worth recording, 

 and evidence of material success is shown, when last year 

 the increase of tonnage was 16,982 tons over that of the 

 previous year. For these and many other interesting facts 

 recorded by us, we are indebted to Mr. Proctor's Book of 

 Gloucester fishermen. 



THE PHILADELPHIA 

 SOCIETY. 



ZOOLOGICAL 



THERE is every reason to suppose that under later 

 energetic management, this most commendable 

 enterprise, the Zoological Society, of Philadelphia, will 

 shortly be put in thorough working order, and that before 

 six months are over, the elegant grounds, especially 

 planned for the exhibition and study of wild animals and 

 rare birds will be thrown open to the public, 



Zoological collections are from the nature of things, 

 among the most difficult to manage, and any idea of arriv- 

 ing at even a moderate degree of perfection, before a long 

 series of years have elapsed, is almost impossible. Such 

 institutions are necessarily of very slow T growth, and re- 

 quire at the outset a large capital and constant care. 



It may be positively asserted that prior to the organiza- 

 tion of this Zoological Society in our sister city, there never 

 has been conceived in the United States a plan for the col- 

 lection or exhibition of animals in any respect equal to those 

 originated abroad. Our own Zoological department at the 

 Park, though quite good of its kind, and reflecting great 

 credit on its most intelligent director Mr. Conklin, occupies 

 but a second or third position in the Park itself. Instead 

 of being the prominent feature, an institution by itself, it, 

 is simply subsidiary, an adjunct to the Park; and in one of 

 the late reports of the Park Commissioners, the Commis- 

 sioners themselves stated, substantially, the impossibility 

 of giving the Menagerie greater prominence without inter- 

 fering with some of the main features of the Park itself. In 

 fact, as was fully appreciated by Messrs. Vaux and 

 Olmstead, to construct and carry out a Park, such as our 

 Central Park, is one thing, and to manage and develop a 

 Zoological collection quite another, and that, to build 

 up and manage one alone well, was sufficient occupation 

 for any single board of officers. 



Zoological collections and the results to be derived from 

 them, are very much more complex than they were thirty 

 years ago. If public curiosity alone was to be gratified, a 

 circus show might suffice. Opportunities for study in all 

 the branches of comparative Natural History must be 

 afforded, and in addition, certain utilitarian claims must 

 be attended to. Acclimatization, how to take animals com- 

 ing from other countries, and to adapt them to our own 

 purposes and uses, must be thought of. We are only too 

 pleased to state that it is exactly with such ideas, to advance 

 science and to utilize nature's resources, that the Philadel- 

 phia Society has been founded. 



From the Commissioners of the Fairmount Park, the 

 Philadelphia Society have obtained thirty-five acres of 

 ground at the Thirty-Fifth Street entrance of the Philadel- 

 phia Park, and they are now improving ten acres of this 

 space by laying it out and constructing walks, buildings, 

 cages, houses, and preparing for the proposed collection of 

 the Society. 



Of course the expense of an undertaking of this character 

 is great; but it is believed that the necessary means to ac- 

 complish the object proposed, can readily be obtained. 

 With one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the Society 

 will be enabled to place the Garden upon a solid and per- 

 manent basis, and permit it to be opened to the public in the 

 spring of this year. We think that little anxiety should .be 

 felt by the management as to its success, as there has never 

 been a Zoological Society of any merit founded in a large 

 city, where "the receipts did not exceed the expenditures. 

 Such has been the example furnished in London, Paris, 

 Berlin, Bremen, Vienna, and Amsterdam. In London, 

 alone, 600,000 persons visited the " Zoo" last .year. 



When the Centennial Exhibition draws to Philadelphia 

 the whole people of the United States, few will fail to visit 

 the Zoological collection. 



To show that a commencement has been made, the Super- 

 intendent of the Garden is now in the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and will return by the way of Calcutta with a ship load of 

 curiosities for the Society, and to-day the donations of 

 animals of our own country destined for the Philadelphia 

 Zoological Society are largely in excess of the present ac- 

 commodations. One excellent feature of the Society, and 

 which we trust will be carried out, will be to inaugurate a 

 course of lectures, with publications by the Society, which 

 will make the Garden not only a source of amusement but 

 of education. 



To start such an enterprise, and keep the collecting 



grounds in a thoroughly perfect order, the Society, though 

 not soliciting pecuniary donations, would be happy to re- 

 ceive them. What they ask is that persons interested in such 

 subjects should subscribe to the stock, which with every 

 prospect of success, would seem to be able to earn readily a 

 dividend of six per cent, in cash, per annum, besides giving 

 to the holder of such stock a certain number of free admis- 

 sions, For each fifty dollars of stock a subscriber is to re- 

 ceive five single admission tickets worth twenty-five cents 

 each, in addition to six per cent., or in place of these tickets 

 an annual ticket for every two hundred dollars subscribed, 

 admitting at all times during the year, any person the stock- 

 holder may name. 



The plan of the Garden submitted to our notice, seems to 

 be clearly conceived in every way, and with ample room 

 and accommodation for all the birds and beasts, and with 

 aquaria for the fish. 



We trust that some of our citizens will aid our Philadel- 

 phia friends in their efforts, in a work which must reflect 

 credit on the whole country. 



That a commencement has been made, is ver}*- certain ; 

 for, but yesterday, we saw the following from an ex- 

 change: — 



" A car load of wild animals from the Rocky Mountains, 

 for the Zoological Gardens of Philadelphia, arrived at Oma- 

 ha Saturday.' 



The management is composed of Dr. W. Camac, Presi- 

 dent; James C. Hand, Esq., and J. G. Fell, Esq., Vice- 

 Presidents; F. H. Clark, Esq., Treasurer; John J. Ridg 

 way, Esq., and Dr. J. L. Leconte, are the Secretaries; and 

 among the managers we see the names of such well-known 

 Philadelphians, of Messrs. Graff. Vaux, Wistar, Childs, 

 and Drexel. 



OUR LADY SPORTSMEN. 



A NEW WAY TO COLLECT DEBTS. 



THAT our American Indian is endowed with a peculiar 

 originality, even his most bitter enemies must allow. 

 Civilized man when he sheds blood, does it in an approved 

 manner, undoubtedly owing to that superior culture ac- 

 quired by years of patient practice. If the Spanish Volun- 

 teer, naturally excited by the contest, after wounding the 

 Cuban rebel,, jabs his bayonet through and through his 

 fallen foe, there are precedents for such things; but for the 

 Comanchee to plunge an ugly butcher knife into one's vitals, 

 and then to end the performance by a thorough yet curious 

 tonsorial process, shows in the Indian a fine perception of 

 ,the bizarre, which is unique in character. 



It is by no means the aboriginal male alone who has these 

 idiosyncracies. The squaw has quite as much originality 

 as the brave. A number of bonnets having been sent out 

 to the female portion of a tribe, and the Ottoe ladies, not 

 knowing how to wear them, is not to be judged as 

 showing any peculiarities of the kind we would describe, 

 nor the fact of their having had the bonnets put on their 

 heads properly by their more intelligent white sister, and 

 when the bonnet got displaced, the perfect inability on the 

 part of the Ottoe squaws to determine which was the front 

 or which was the back of it. 



There comes to us from California a most curious and 

 original method of collecting debts, practiced by the red- 

 skin there, which is wonderfully suggestive. To dun is 

 brutal. Everybody knows that, and has felt the humilia- 

 tion of dunning or being dunned. The Indian, desirous of 

 collecting his small bill, has too much dignity, is too high 

 toned a gentleman, with his native nobility, to bother the 

 debtor for his small balance of account. Oh tailors and 

 bootmakers ! what an example there is for you to be taken 

 from the much despised savage ! 



Pey-yoh-gash or the "Lone Hand," is indebted to Hey- 

 ya-mush or "Nimble Fingers," to the amount of seven 

 beaver skins and a deer hide. The Lone Hand is slow of 

 payment. What does Hey-ya-mush do? He simply pre- 

 pares a stick — not to wail his debtor with — but a little stick. 

 He decorates this stick in a peculiar way, paints a ring or 

 so of gaudy color round it at each end, then he carries it, 

 and tosses it without uttering a sjdlable into his debtor's 

 wigwam, simply as a gentle reminder. The delinquent 

 Indian sees it, is struck with remorse, takes the hint, and 

 getting together the peltries, liquidates his debt on the 

 spot. Strange people ! It is a terrible stigma on any Indian 

 to have these sticks cast up before him, and it is rarely 

 ever resorted to. 



Fancy such a method employed for the collection of 

 debts with us. Why it seems to us that it would be almost 

 an incentive to get over head and ears in debt. The 

 weather, say,is cold, and a man owes money pretty generally 

 all around. His creditors might commence by pitching in- 

 to his house logs of wood, as reminders, until he had 

 acquired a measured cord of sound hickory logs for his 

 drawing-room fire, with no end of kindling material for the 

 kitchen ; enough fuel in fact to keep himself warm with for 

 the rigors of the whole winter season, and still leave his 

 debts unpaid. 



Certainly we have not the nobility of the Indian. Nor 

 would we advise at least in New York, that parties about 

 the first of the year, who are owed money, should imitate 

 the savage.. Very certainly, if they did, the debt to the 

 wood yards would be veiy heavy and the price of 

 coal would rapidly decline. 



— A pack of wolves in Sherbourne County, Minnesota- 

 chased a couple of lawyers five miles, and the New Orleans 

 Republican tlrnks it showed a lack of professional courtesy. 



IT is gratifying to note the growing interest taken in out- 

 door recreation by our ladies. Forest and Stream 

 has no less than six upon its list of contributors, and two 

 of these write as intelligibly of the art of fly-fishing as do 

 the gentlemen experts themselves. We count among our 

 female acquaintances many who handle a pair of sculls 

 most deftly, and there is the wife of a certain clergyman, 

 himself famous as a student of Nature, "who is equally 

 handy with rod, gun, and oar, besides being a masterly 

 whip. Another lady who is now dead, the wife of an ac- 

 complished author and journalist, spent several years upon 

 the Nile in company with her husband, and became noted 

 among the boatmen all along the river as an extraordinary 

 pistol shot. She used to hit birds on the wing with her 

 ivory-handled revolver. One summer's day. a year ago, a 

 gentleman of our acquaintance bantered a married lady to 

 shoot a pistol, and put up his felt hat at twenty paces, ex- 

 pecting a little shriek when the report followed. The next 

 day he was looking over a hatter's collection, and mourn- 

 fully exhibiting his own tile with seven bullet holes in it. 

 Equestrianism is a more common accomplishment, while 

 archery is indulged in by ladies in many localities. Of 

 accomplished lady skaters there is no end. Nothing is 

 more charming than a lady suitably attired for the proper 

 and untrammelled enjoyment of these out-door pastimes, 

 her cheeks rosy with the exercise, and her movements as 

 lithe and agile as a fawn's. Many ladies of the Blooming- 

 Grove Park Association two years ago adopted the practice 

 of wearing what they call "mountain suits," which are 

 made of bloomer trowsers, a blouse belted at the waist, 

 high boots, and felt hat or jaunty velvet cap with plume. 

 We have seen certain ladies among the Adirondacks that 

 wore very becoming plaids, with leathern waist belt. In 

 dresses of this description the limbs have full play. Briars 

 and brambles get little hold; flowing skirts do not impede 

 locomotion. Some weeks since some of our lady friends 

 wrote for this paper some designs for out-door costumes, 

 and when summer ccmes again we shall urge their adop- 

 tion by our fair readers. 



Herewith we publish a very fresh and breezy letter from 

 a lady in Indiana, which ought to make our languid city 

 belles sick with envy, or at least prompt their aspirations 

 and emulation. We wish our lady readers would oblige us 

 with their fishing, boating, and shooting experiences, what- 

 ever they may be. The records of some, we feel, would 

 put those of what are termed "lords of creation" to 

 blush: — 

 Editor Forest and Stream: — 



You extend a kind invitation to ladies to write for For- 

 est and Stream. But what can we say that will do for 

 the pages of a paper that seems almost entirely devoted to 

 sports pertaining to stream, field, and woodland? Gener- 

 ally speaking, we are not "much" as huntresses, and no 

 great adepts in the art piscatorial. 



I had not thought I could care at all for a publication so 

 essentially belonging to the "lords of creation," yet I find 

 myself strangely interested in almost every article. There 

 is so much fresh, out-door breeziness about them as to make 

 even us domestic goddesses long to desert our pedestals in 

 the kitchen and roam over the hills and clown the dales, 

 free as the wild Avinds around us. 



How delightful the "Autumn in Nova Scotia!" and I 

 trudged around after Fred Beverly through the swamps 

 and glades of Florida with a deal of enjoyment. Then 

 the boating, shooting, and fishing— especially the black 

 bass fishing in the Maumee — for haven't I waded the "rif- 

 fles" of that dear old stream many a time in the days of 

 my childhood, when the water rippled low over its rocky 

 bed ! And when it got higher have coasted along the shore 

 on "slabs" (got more than one ducking, too,) and rowed a 

 light skiff from shore to shore times without number. I 

 remember how jubilant I was, and how r I crowed over win- 

 ning a race, fairly and squarely, against a "chunk" of a 

 boy who bantered me for a row across the river. We each 

 had a skiff , light as a feather almost. Tie "Bald Eagle" 

 was the name of mine, and really it was worthy of the 

 name, for it skimmed over the sparkling waters like a bird, 

 and I experienced a thrill of delight as the prow touched 

 the grassy bank and I sprang lightly out, while my rival 

 was still a full boat's length behind. It is needless to say 

 "he wer' mad," and hurried off home to hide his head in 

 his mother's apron, I guess. 



"Pretty business" (do I hear you say), "Miss Prim, for a 

 twelve-year-old girl to be engaged in ! Better be in the 

 house learning to knit and- sew than being such a romp!" 

 Yes'm, I have no doubt, and I feel awful "sorry I was such 

 a Tom-boy. I suppose it was only because we were born 

 to be hung that whole swarms of us little Miltonvillains 

 were not drowned outright, But I often wonder if I do 

 not, in a great measure, owe the grand good health I have 

 enjoyed all my life to the boating exercise of those long 

 days ago. "Emily Jane." *" 



Wayne coanty, Indiana, January, 1874. 



—Portrait of "Belle."— The pair of portraits of 

 "Belle," champion pointer of England, will positively be 

 ready for mailing on January 20th. We have to apologize 

 to our subscribers and friends for the. delay. There has 

 been considerable difficulty in obtaining an artist who is 

 accustomed to draw highly bred pointers, and the rainy 

 weather has been much against us. 



-♦**- 



—Can the Grangers be politically honest if they have 

 oats to sell ? 



