.P UKJ^& 1 AIM V JM jkh; AM 



145 



hunting and gathering natural specimens, and there I heard 

 i he Oarib Indians, and the more I heard the more I de- 

 termined to visit them. I had secured a guide (a half-breed 

 Oarib), the must faithful servant 1 ever had, averse to work 

 and to manual exertion of every kind, hut, nevertheless he al- 

 ways secured the performance of his duties and satisfied my 

 wants by getting some one to do the work for him. 



In this connection the lecturer told an amusing story of how 

 the native girl employed to cook for them left one morning, 

 and when he came back from the forest to breakfast there 

 was none prepared. His servant disappeared in a short time, 

 and about nine o'clock in the evening returned with a 

 friend, both uproariously drunk and dragging between them a 

 young Indian girl about eighteen years old. They had been 

 to the settlement to get a cook, but could not find one, and the 

 wild and lawless savage had lighted upon the girl wandering 

 in the forest, and with the help" of his friend had captured 

 her, tied her securely, and brought her in triumph to his 

 master for a cook. The '•sweet doing of nothing," is the 

 philosophy of the lives of these children of nature, and so 

 long as their few and simple wants are supplied they do not 

 caro how life goes on. They arc kindly and hospitable, and 

 When a native puts his hut at your disposal it is no figure of 

 speech, but he means what he says— wife, children, furniture 

 and everything are at your service. The ancient Caribs were, 

 ot course, very superstitious, and they seemed to have had 

 some vague idea of a future state. They believed that the 

 brave would be rewarded with some happy hereafter, and 

 that cowards would be banished beyond the mountains to 

 some unknown region. They had also a vague idea of some 

 supreme divinity, whom they worshiped, and to whom they 

 made offerings. Their descendants are nominally Catholics, 

 ami are very observant of the rites of the Church, but are 

 still full of their old-time superstition and belief in the evil 

 spirits. Formerly the Caribs buried their dead in a sitting 

 posture that they might be ready to jump up when the time 

 came, and with their faces toward the east that they might 

 see the light of the morning when the time came for arising. 

 The laBt Carib buried in this position, according to tratiition, 

 was some time during the last century. Eight months after the 

 visit paid to the Carib Indians of Dominica the lecturer was 

 in St. Vicent Island, where there exists another remnant of 

 the Carib tribe. In the former island they spoke a broken 

 Prencti, in the latter, broken English. In the Island of Do- 

 mmica there were only twenty families of pure blooded Canbs; 

 acent less than sis. A few more generations and 

 they will have disappeared entirely. 



The Carib language is fast disappearing, and in a short 

 time it will be lost like the tribe that speaks it. The lecturer 

 made a vocabulary of Carib words, but found very few natives 

 that could speak it, and his main source of information was 

 an old Oarib woman. The. tongue spoken by most of them is a 

 jargon of broken English or French, mixed with some of 

 their native words. He noticed that in some respects the 

 women used a different dialect from the men ; that there were 

 some phrases used by the women that were never made use of 

 by the men, and vice versa. The difference consisted, mainly, 

 apparently in the structure of the sentences, and each was 

 perfectly intelligible to the other. The origin of this peculiar 

 distinction is traced to a time when a neighboring tribe was 

 overthrown and the women incorporated as wives into the 

 tribe of the conquerors. They spoke a somewhat different 

 dialect, and when the children were under the care of the 

 mothers they spoke the dialect used by the women, but as 

 they grew up and passed into the society of the men and war- 

 riors, they dropped the women's dialect and spoke that of the 

 men. The girls, however, of course preserved the dialect of 

 their mothers, and thus it was handed down. The ancient 

 Caribs could not count beyond twenty, and used their fingers 

 and toes in their enumeration. The name Carib is from a 

 native source and is also from the same root as the word can- 

 nibal, and means bravery and valor. In color the pure Caribs 

 are a yellowish brown, and the distinguishing name between 

 those of pure blood and those who have an admixture of negro 

 blood is yellow Carib ana black Carib. The hair of the pure 

 blood is long and straight, and in youth they are well formed, 

 but tend to corpulency as they grow older. The women 

 many very young, and grow wrinkled and old at an early 

 period. 



Mr. Oner showed a number of portraits and groups of the 

 Carib Indians, and also a number of tropical scenes, illustra- 

 tive of their life. 



THE REPRODUCTIVE HABITS OF EELS. 



X — 



Bv Hon. Kobt. B. Rooskvelt. 



He first referred to the discovery of the eggs of eels, and 

 quoted a statement of Professor Baird to the effect that they 

 matured their spawn in winter, when they are dormant and 

 imbedded in the mud, and when they could not tmite with the 

 male. It subsequently appeared that the parent eeis had been 

 caught in the fall of the year, when they were in full activity 

 and in the fresh water preparatory to spawning. Mr. Roose- 

 velt expressed an opinion that they were part of those taken 

 by Mr. Aitkyns, in Maine— a locality in which it was probable 

 that the eggs would mature more early thuu with us, and at 

 present there is no doubt about the truth of the discovery. 

 The action of this society and the discussion before it at- 

 tracted public attention to these fish, which for two thousand 

 years had been a stumbling block to the physiologists. In- 

 formation came pouring in from all quarters, and' although 

 there was, as there always bad been, much contradiction "as 

 to fact and opinion, important progress was made in our 

 The received theories of the descent of the 

 mature fish to the sea in autumn to spawn, and the 

 the young in the spring to the fresh waters were discredited, 

 and if not disproved are now shown to be at least ei oeedi igl; 

 doubtful, while their entire method of reproduction is freed 

 from the strange theories which surrounded it. It is no longer 

 supposed that eels are hermaphrodite— the two sexes united in 

 one fish occurs only in the lower form of animal life— nor that 

 they produce their young alive, nor that they have more than 

 one heart in their bodies, although we have not ascertained ac- 

 curately where and when they spawn, nor has an impregnated 



egg nor a living Bperaatozc ea stained. The presence 



o'i the eggs in the spawning fish was so apparent when the 

 proper part was examined, that, it, seemed impossible any 

 difficulty could have ever arisen about it, and it now appeal's 

 that many investigators knew of the existence of the eggs and 

 had Been them frequently. 



Notwithstanding these posthumous discoveries and asser- 

 tions, to Sir. Aitkynes, Professor Baird, and especially to 

 Mr. Eugene G. Blackford — who popularized the discovery tn 



such a way that no one could doubt it— is due the credit of 

 being tho first persons who, in the course of two thousand 

 years of experiment, discovered the true proereativo methods 

 and organs of the eel. It is gratifying to think that so de- 

 sirable a result is largely due to the action of this society. 

 [Applause.] In my paper of last year I suggested a proba- 

 bility that spawn would be found, if at all, in the fall mouths, 

 just previous to the time when the eels hide themselves in 

 the mud in the process of hibernation. Not that this is hiber- 

 nation in the broadest sense of the word, as the fish are in all 

 of it not in the least torpid, but perfectly capable of motion if 

 disturbed, and I have seen them when driven from one locality 

 swim rapidly against a strong current with as much apparent 

 ease as in summer. But in winter eels lie dormant and un- 

 disturbed, and conceal themselves in the mud whether they 

 happen to be. in salt water or in fresh. Of this there is no 

 question, and this hibernation commences in this neighbor- 

 hood in November and continues until April. My pond on 

 Long Island has been drawn off three succeeding winters for 

 the purpose of digging out the muck which had accumulated 

 on the bottom, and many grown eels are found in it and are 

 dug up with the muck. 



Mr. Roosevelt quoted several newspaper authorities on this 

 point, and in continuing said ! In Bait water eels are not 

 taken in pots after the fall months, but are often speared in 

 considerable numbers through the mud. This is done with a 

 broad spear, which is thrust into the bottom without special 

 direction, but in such localities as the fish are in the habit of 

 seeking for hibernation. These places are springy with the 

 fresh water oozing from the bottom and percolating upward 

 through the mud. It seems that, the habits of eels in Eng- 

 land are about the same as they arc in this country. Here, 

 while the young make their appearance in large bodies by 

 April 1, the mature eels do not feed and are not taken iB eel- 

 pots until later, and probably when they have left their Win- 

 ter quarters. So it would seem either that the eggs are de- 

 posited in the autumn, which is probably the fact, or that 

 impregnation takes place not in the ordinary way, but by 

 bodily connection. In suggesting the possibilities I do not 

 mean to say that eels do not breed in the salt water. I do 

 know also that they breed in fresh water, and that on Long 

 Island the young go down the stream in spring as soon as 

 they are hatched. Absolutely mature eggs are yet to be 

 found, for, although Mr. Blackford has found them in vari- 

 ous conditions of maturity, and those first discovered by Pro- 

 fessor Baird, were far advanced, none, I believe, were actu- 

 ally ripe for emission, and until eggs are discovered we shall 

 he in the dark as to the exact time of spawning. Bearing 

 closely upon this question is the contingency that there may 

 be connection between the sexes of eels instead of the fecun- 

 dation of the eggs after their extrusion. There is certainly 

 considerable evidence on one side of this question, and as yet 

 none on the other. Mr. A. S. Fuller is reported in a recent, 

 interview to have said that " the researches of naturalists 

 have not yet thrown light upon what are known as eel balls. 

 Eels, like snakes, link and twist themselves together, forming 

 large clusters or balls. These balls are frequently found in 

 the streams during the fall. The clusters are sometimes so 

 large that they roll into mill races and clog the wheels." 



The creatures referred to above may not be eels, but the ex- 

 planation would seem to be that intimated by Mr. Fuller — a 

 sexual act. I have never seen this operation and cannot 

 vouch for it, but other persons, even in this country, have as- 

 serted it in the course of the discussions brought out by the 

 Fish Cultural Associations. No male eels have yet been dis- 

 covered, that is, no eels containing milt. It has been sug- 

 gested that the males may be much smaller than the females, 

 and not caught or marketed, and even a difference is sup- 

 posed to exist in their appearances. But these assertions are 

 not borne out by proof, and eelB are found in the fall with 

 neither milt nor spawn. These may be barren or spent, but 

 they may also be males, and should be examined anatomically 

 under the microscope, to see whether traces can be found of 

 genital organs. This is entirely a suggestion, as I have no 

 opinion to offer on so curious a question, but as it is a possi- 

 bility it should not be neglected. But leaving anatomical 

 questions to he settled by others, as fish culturi&ts we know 

 that eels containing ripe milt have never been seen, and until 

 we can get the mUt in that condition it is of no value to ue. 

 For our own purposes one of the first things to do is to study 

 these fish more carefully at night, which is the time they seem 

 to prefer for many of their movements. There is one curious 

 inconsistency about them. Mature eels can be transported 

 readily, packed in barrels, and will live twenty-four to for- 

 ty-eight hours without water. They are capable of great en- 

 durance treated in this way, although they do not live in stag- 

 nant ponds, but the young are exceedingly delicate and can- 

 not be carried any distance without frequent changes of water. 

 From my experience I should say they would die as quickly 

 as young trout. They grow rapidly and feed freely on one 

 another. I have Men salmon fry choked by trying to swallow 

 an eel of two inches in length, and I have opened an eel of 

 nine inches whose stomach was swelled into a round protu- 

 erance by the number of little eels which it contained. They 

 eat all manner of little fish, and almost any sort of food. The 

 fry when they first appear are like white threads on the water, 

 but in a few weeks they are dark on the back and yellowish 

 on the belly. 



The run of the fry on Long Island begins on April 1 and 

 closes entirely by May 24. So far as I have considered the 

 question of the procreative habits of eels, on the theory 

 that the eggs are deposited whether previously impregnated or 

 not, and that they hatch after extrusion, I believe this to be 

 the most, natural and altogether tho most probable theory, but 

 I cannot ignore a considerable mass of testimony sustaining 

 the idea that the young are born alive. There is nothing 

 really incredible in the theory when tested by the facts which 

 we can regard as established," although for my part I am not 

 ready to place faith in it. In support of the theory, President 

 Roosevelt read a letter from Mr. James N. Wells, of River- 

 head, Long Island, and in conclusion he expressed the belief 

 they would soon have the necessary facts about these curious 

 creatures. 



Another Compliment ebom Abroad.— Mr. Fred Mather, 

 who so successfully superintended the transportation of the 

 Salrno quinnat, presented by the United States to Holland last 

 year, has received from the King of Holland a gift of two 

 hundred and fifty guilders in recognition of his services. 



Wisconsin — Madimn, Mareh 20. — There seems to be some 

 trouble at the State Fish Hatchery, near our city. It is re- 

 ported that the young trout are dying off by the thou- 

 sands; that there will be none for distribution this season. 

 This is sad news. Rove*. 



'' Small Mackerel. — A very pertinent commentary upon 

 the principle of cause and effect, as applied to our fisheries, 

 is found in a note from Seth Green, who writes : 



I have 'made inquiries of our salt mackerel dealers, and 

 they tell me that for the last few years they have not been 

 able to get any No. 1 mackerel. The cause is that as the fish 

 become scarce, the fishermen make the mesh of their nets 

 smaller, and consequently they catch the fish one and two 

 years before they ought to be caught. 



— One million young whitefish have recently been distribut- 

 ed at points on the Detroit, Eansing and Northern Railroad, 

 the Fleur and Pere Marquette Railroad and the Detroit River. 



<g£&ttiml §tetarg. 



Food or the Paddle Fish.— In Forest and Btream of 

 January 16 a correspondent called attention to the capture of 

 a paddle fish on a hook baited with a minnow, and we gave 

 at that time a short account of this curious fish and of some 

 of its habits. A paper by Mr. S. A. Forbes, in the Bulletin 

 of the Illinois State Laboratory, gives some further information 

 on this and kindred points, and, in view of the general igno- 

 rance as to what constitutes the food of fishes, it seems worth 

 while to notice some points brought out in this communica- 

 tion. 



The paddle fish, which is generally supposed by fisher- 

 men to feed on the slime and mud of the river 

 bottom, proves upon examination to depend for food 

 very largely on Kntamostraca, which are crustaceans 

 of low grade. It also lives to a considerable extent on 

 vegetable matter, fully one-fourth of the entire food being 

 of this character. Algse are largely eaten, and but little mud 

 was found in the stomach with the food. The interlacing 

 processes of the gills in this species, which are very numer- 

 ous and delicate, and are arranged in a double row on each 

 arch, apparently form a strainer which allows the mud of the 

 bottom to escape with the water, but arrest and retain any 

 object as large as a Cyclops. 



Besides the species ju3t referred to, no less than fifty-three 

 varieties of Illinois fish were examined ,by Mr. Forbes, some 

 of which were found to be wholly carnivorous and others 

 herbivorous, while some, like the catfish, are omnivorous. 



Fishes are notoriously voracious feeders, and the enormous 

 quantities of food devoured by certain of them, especially 

 among insect feeders, is very remarkable. As a very consid- 

 erable part of this food consists of land insects which have 

 fallen into the water, fishes and land birds are thusEbrought 

 directly into competition so far as food supply is concerned. 



It is remarked that some fishes, valuable tojman, are de- 

 pendent on food which is too liable to injury or destruction to 

 make it worth while to attempt to cultivate them successfully. 

 Others, however, equally valuable, subsist on food which is 

 absolutely indestructible. 



The subject of Mr. Forbes' paper is unquestionably of the 

 highest interest, not only to the student of science, but to the 

 practical fish-breeder as well. 



Nests and Eogs of American Birds.— It>ffords us great 

 pleasure to be able to call attention to Part I. of Mr. Inger- 

 soll's work with this title, and to be able to Bpeak of it in 

 terms of praise. This branch of ornithology has been too 

 much neglected in this country, and a work likejthe one pro- 

 posed has long been needed. It will be gladly welcomed by 

 all ornithologists as an important addition to the literature of 

 the subject, and will be of especial assistance to young work- 

 ers in this department of science. 



In the present work the author proposes to bring together, 

 from whatever sources, all that is known concerning the 

 breeding habits of North American birds, and wejunderstand 

 that he has been promised the valuable assistance of some of 

 the leading ornithologists of the country in his work. We 

 are told that Dr. Coues, Prof. Allen, Capt. Bendire, and 

 a number of other leading workers in this field, have offered 

 not only rare specimens for figuring, but valuable extracts 

 from journals and note-books for the text. 



The scheme of the work, which is devoted to North Ameri- 

 ca in the sense in which the term is usually employed by 

 ornithologists, is to inform the reader: First, as to the 

 region through which the species is known to breed; 

 second, as to date of arrival and preliminaries to nest building'; 

 third, all about the nest itself— its position, construction, etc.; 

 fourth, as to the eggs— their number, color, markings,' etc.] 

 to illustrate which colored figures of each species will tie 

 given; fifth, as to the young— their food, growth, time of 

 leaving the nest, and tho care which they receive from their 

 parents. It will readily he seen that a volume that gives us 

 all these details will be extremely valuable as>ell as inter- 

 esting. 



In Part I., which we have just received, are accounts of 

 ten species, in the order given j n ;Dr. Coues' "Key," and, in 

 the two plates which accompany it, one or more figures of 'the 

 eggs of each are given. The text] is interesting, and the 

 drawings of the plates excellent. The coloring of some of the 

 figures is not, we think, all that could be desired ; but, as is 

 well known, it is a matter of extreme difflculty.'to, get this 

 just right. No doubt subsequent numbers will beiin every 

 way satisfactory. 



We have no hesitation in stating that Mr. Ingersoll's work, 

 if successfully carried to completion, will be a very valuable 

 addition to the already large list of works which treat of the 

 the ornithology of North America. 



