Forest and stream, 



3 



"Now," says the driver— who, by- the- way, is as fine a 

 driver as I ever saw, and one that equals the famous Hank 

 Monk, of Greeley notoriety— "every one hold on;" and 

 drawing his long whip from the socket he stirs up the lead- 

 ers as a gentle reminder that Jean Bowers has them in 

 hand, and that a fault or misstep will he met with sure 

 punishment. This road on the mountain cannot be walked 

 down, but with a terrific rush off jumps the team along a 

 narrow, thread-like road, with high walls of stone on one 

 side, and on the other, within a distance of three feet, a 

 declivity, almost perpendicular, to the depth of a thousand 

 feet. Down, down rushes the team, while with bated 

 breath 1 hold on, and scarcely seem to breathe. Then, 

 too, the scenery is so awfully grand and sublime that you 

 do not wish any one else to speak— to break the spell, as it 

 were, for spell-bound you seem to be. On the seat above 

 us, rigid as a marble pillar, with eyes fixed and teeth set, 

 towered the man who held our destinies in his hand. 

 Tims down, down we rushed until, just round a sudden 

 bend, we brought up in the corral of the Mountain Spring 

 House, having accomplished, in a very short space of time, 

 a descent of about 4,500 feet. 



The wild yell of Jean Bowers broke the spell; then the 

 clenched hands unloosed their hold, the blood began to 

 move, and again we drew a natural breath. And now fear 

 begins to creep, or rather rush upon me. Suppose one of 

 the leaders, by a misstep, had fallen, nothing could have 

 saved us from rushing clown that awful precipice to cer- 

 tain destruction. We here again replenish our water and 

 horses, for not another drop will we find for sixteen or 

 eighteen miles. To get out of this basin, we wind along 

 over broken rocks through a narrow defile, walled up to an 

 immense distance on either side by rocks and boulders, 

 burnt black by the sun's rays, with not a spear of vegeta- 

 tion to be seen save a few bunches of cactus, and after 

 some eight miles we open upon the white and burning 

 sands of the great desert, so deep that we cannot get off a 

 slow walk, and oh, how hot! The reflected rays of the 

 burning sun upon this white sand is perfectly terrific. 

 Alter wading some nine miles we approach a station, called 

 Coyote Wells, named from the fact that a coyote, or prai- 

 rie wolf, had found water by digging, and this stage com- 

 pany have improved upon Mr. Lupus, and sunk a splendid 

 well, so that plenty of water can be had for the stock. 

 And here we leave our four-in-hand and the visage of the 

 joyous Frenchman, Jean Bowers. 



All day long and the following night was spent in toil- 

 ing over this great desert; but the dawn of morning 

 brought us to the stream which has rushed through the 

 mighty Colorado canon, now as gentle as a lamb. We 

 cross by a ferry some six miles below Yuma, and are soon 

 at the place noted as being the hottest place on the Ameri- 

 can continent. It is certainly the most barren, forsaken 

 place that the sun has ever shone upon. I don't wonder 

 now why Charley Fisher, after a residence here of a few 

 years, can settle down in Washington and be contented, 

 for I think a man must have a residence of this kind some- 

 where to be contented to reside in Washington, D. C. At 

 Yuma we changed not only horses, but for our compara- 

 tively comfortable stage took a hack, which had only room 

 inside for two persons, and what with mails, blankets, etc., 

 the position was anything but pleasant, yet I got through 

 with less fatigue than I imagined. 



After leaving Yuma, we followed up the valley of the 

 Gila, and this location would be a perfect paradise for 

 Squire S. or Theodore, for on every hand can be seen hun- 

 dreds of quail, jack rabbits and cotton tails, while in the 

 mountains several kinds of deer, bear, and wild turkeys 

 abound in the greatest profusion. About 100 miles from 

 Yuma, on the left of the road, and within a stone's throw 

 of it, rises a mass of boulders to the height of some 200 

 feet, all engraved in hieroglyphics, done by some race of 

 beings of which we have no knowledge. They are called 

 the Scriptural, or Fainted Rocks. At midnight we arrived 

 at Gila Bend, where we again took on water for ourselves, 

 and brought four pailsful in a keg for our horses, as we 

 start to cross a desert where for forty-five miles not a drop 

 can be had. About night we reached Maracopa Springs, 

 and had an excellent dinner served, which was presided 

 over by our host, and what did me the most good, in fact, 

 it was really refreshing, for there immediately opposite me 

 sat his wife, dressed in white, which I can assure you was a 

 real luxury, for this was the first female, civilized, that I 

 had cast my eyes upon since leaving the sea coast. God 

 bless her, may she always be there to cheer by her presence 

 the dust-begrimed and way-worn traveler. On the after- 

 noon of the fifth day we reined up in Tucson,.not halfas 

 tired as I thought. 

 Tucson. Auaust Sti 



ffett {feultuq*. 



Cucson, August Qth, 1875. 



—Among the articles of interest to our readers in the 

 Popular Science Monthly for February, will be a long ac- 

 count of the natural history of the kangaroo by Lieut. Geo. 

 Mivart. It is copiously illustrated, and discusses the char- 

 acteristics of the whole of this interesting and little known 

 family, of which we have a distant relative in the opos- 

 sum. "Life in Greenland," "Plasticity of Instinct," and 

 the Miscellany will also be read with peculiar interest by 

 zoologists . 



—The "Florida Pathfinder," published by Mr. J. P. 

 Whitney, editor of the St. Augustione Press, is a most valu- 

 able little hand-book for the Florida traveler. In addition 

 to an itinerary of points of interest to be visited, it con- 

 tains a list of hotels, the latest schedule of routes, and a 

 variety of other information useful to the tourist. The 

 pamphlet is distributed free atJSTo. 60 John street, and com- 

 prises some seventy pages. 



_ ■*+*** ~ 



—At the last meeting of the French Academy of Scien- 

 ces, M. Lortel read a paper on a fish, of the Lake of Ti- 

 berias, the Chrornis pateramilias, which incubates its eggs 

 in the cheek cavity. The male fish sucks in the eggs from 

 a sandy hollow (where the female has deposited them) and 

 passes them in among the folds of his gills where they go 

 through the usual stages. 



M »,»i. 



—London Garden says that geraniums and calcerlarias 

 set in the windows will keep flies out of a room. 



—Our abstracts of Fish Commissioners' reports are 

 made from personal and careful examination of the text 

 as we receive it in the pamphlets sent to us. Much labor 

 and attentive study is bestowed upon these, and we are, 

 therefore, fain to renew our request to the Fish Commis- 

 sioners of the several States to forward to us their reports 

 as soon as printed. We have already received and re- 

 viewed those for Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and California. 



— Mushroons weighing from six ounces to two pounds 

 each are a staple article in the Bakersfield (Cal.j market; 



New England Fish Commission.— The New England 

 Fish Commissioners met on the 19th inst., at the State 

 House, Boston. It was voted to continue the Penobscot 

 salmon at Bucksport, Me., and land-locked salmon at 

 Grand Lake stream. 



♦•^ 



—Mr. W. H. Crowell &Co., of Ludlow, McKeon County, 

 Pa., have about 10,000 fine trout to send to market this 

 season, which indicates that fish culture is not altogether a 

 failure, by any means. 



Trout as Vegetarians.— Dr. W. A. Pratt, State Fish 

 Commissioner, of Illinois, and one of the most intelligent 

 fish culturists in the country, doesn't believe that trout pre- 

 fer buckwheat cakes to beef and liver hash. In a letter 

 to the Oermantown Telegraph he says; — 



"I saw only a few weeks ago, copied from Forest and 

 Stream, that trout would eat bread and vegetable food, 

 and grow and fatten faster than on animal matter. This 

 is very contrary to my belief, and I would like to know if 

 my old friend Collins takes any stock in that idea, or if 

 there is any practical fish culturist in the East believes 

 that trout will grow faster and fatten better on buckwheat 

 cakes than on animal matter, as this correspondent claims. 

 I know that you can throw into a pond anything you wish 

 and the trout will take it into their mouths, but will throw 

 it out again. They will jump after a clover-blossom, will 

 take bread, or a stone into their mouths, but only to throw 

 it out immediately. I would like to hear from more on 

 this subject." 



As analogies are traced through all species in nature, 

 those who favor the vegetarian side of the question may 

 argue that the Trout Tribe is divided into bread eaters and 

 meat eaters, just as the proclivities of men lead them to 

 the diet of Dio Lewis, on the one hand, or of Sir Jack 

 Falstaff, on the other. Personally we incline to the belief 

 that meat (which, of course, includes worms, grubs, flies, 

 and the like) is the natural diet of trout. We know that 

 they are cannibals, which is a strong point in the argument; 

 and, besides, cooked food is a luxury that was not attain- 

 able by primitive trout in the early periods. No doubt 

 trout can be taught to eat bread and buckwheat cakes just 

 as dogs can be taught to eat Indian meal, or as Gen John 

 C. Fremont learned to eat grasshoppers and mule meat. 

 It is quite likely that they will grow fat on it and improve 

 in condition. Yet we don't imagine that they "hanker" 

 after it any more than an Alderman does after "hard-tack." 

 We don't agree with Dr. Pratt that the trout merely mumbles 

 the bread crumbs, and spit them out. Not a bit of it. 

 They swallow them, Doctor, and no mistake. Just starve 

 your trout for a fortnight, and try it. 



* Protection of Spawning Trout-— It is well known 

 that trout in the fall go up as far as they can possibly go to 

 spawn. They always choose gravelly spots, if to be found. 

 We frequently see them spawning with their backs out of 

 the water. It is a very easy thing to catch them at this 

 time. In order to protect them at this period I use the 

 following improved self-protecting spawning race. I be- 

 lieve it is original with me, but any one is authorized to 

 use it: — 



1st. To clear a stream from all enemies to young trout, 

 such as pike, eels, etc., the only sure way is to dig a canal 

 from the source of the stream-dam as near the old channel 

 as possible and turn in the water through screens. I dig 

 my canals twelve feet wide, nearly level, so as to have the 

 trout jump up at the lower end, a feat they can well per- 

 form if six feet high. It is necessary to dig to a giavel or 

 sandv bottom, or else draw gravel or sand and put it in. 

 Now", lay green oak or pine, or almost any boards will do 

 if green, say four feet apart, imbedded below the surface 

 of the water. If you want a board-race flatten two feet of 

 the center of each on top, bore largs holes two feet apart 

 on a line; nail on your bottom boards, also one board on 

 each side; cut holes, say four feet apart, on each side for 

 the trout to go through to hide. Now, lay a long log, say 

 six inches in diameter, on each side of the boards; also 

 one of the same size against each bank; put on poles all 

 over; then put on sods, turf, or something to prevent the 

 dirt going through; then cover with earth. 



I forgot to say you must cut holes through the top of 

 the logs. This is a sure protection. You can dispense 

 with boards altogether by having a board race. After the 

 trout get through spawning you can nail up the holes and 

 keep the trout out. If you use a board race put in four to 

 six inches of fine and coarse gravel, but no sand, as it will 

 pack so that the young fry cannot get out, as the sac is 

 fast to the abdomen a week or so after hatching. Trout 

 will spawn in sand, and they will come out, but only where 

 it is a springy bottom so as to keep the sand loose. 



It will do no harm to cover the race with boards tight; 

 the fish need no light. 



In planting eggs, cover two inches of gravel on board- 

 race; and if you have no old trout you can dispense with 

 the logs, or cover the eggs in sand or gravel as in natural 

 streams. Put in above as mentioned.— A. J. Kinds, in 

 Oermantown Telegraph. 



____ — -»»»■ 



Icthyocide. — At the last meeting of the American Fish 

 Culturists' Association, we read a paper before them on the 

 murder of the fishes, by poisoning the waters, which at- 

 tracted some little attention at the time and was widely 



copied. This subject is one of vital importance to fish 

 culture; and the past summer, while at Holy oke, Mass., 

 we learned that there are sixteen papermills there, and two 

 across the river at South Hadley Falls. These mills have 

 from one to three machines in each— probably thirty ma- 

 chines in all— which use on an average 600 pounds of lime 

 and 300 pounds of chloride of lime per day— making 18,- 

 000 pounds of the former and 9,000 pounds of the latter— 

 in addition to 10,000 pounds of lime and chemicals from 

 the cotton factories and the three wrapping mills, which 

 will foot up nearly 40,000 pounds, or twenty tons of fish 

 poison thrown into the Connecticut at one point, six days 

 in the week! A letter from a gentleman who visited Holy 

 oke this fall, says: — 



"Our angling for striped bass this season has been the 

 poorest I have experienced. I do not think that there has 

 been over a dozen taken. The largest weighed thirteen 

 pounds and the rest averaged about three. Sport has been 

 better with the black bass; but they, too, have become 

 scarce — seem to be driven away. Very few young shad 

 of this years' catch are to be seen. I visited the south 

 side of the river on the 17th of of September, and such a 

 sight! The water-line was one string of dead fish of all 

 kinds indigenous to the river— mostly fry from half an 

 inch to two inches long. It must be from the poisons 

 thrown in by the mills. I had a collection of them, in- 

 tending to send to you, but lost them." 



The writer of the above is a gentleman such as Isaac 

 Walton describes with his maximum term, "an honest 

 man, and a good angler." 



There is but one way for those interested in this matter, 



that is to agitate it. "The more you stir it," the sooner its 



odor will arouse the apathetic to ask for an abatement of 



this great evil. Cannot chemistry precipitate these poisons, 



and make fertilizers or something else out of ihem?— Live 



/Stock Journal. 



, — i ****• ■ 



Trout Culture in Illinois. — Many of our trout 

 brooks, made by springs, are just the home for trout, and 

 we have several fisheries and more being established along 

 the valleys of the Fox river. We have fine lakes and 

 rivers, and some very fine trout brooks in Illinois, and the 

 day is not distant when they will be stocked up with the 

 best varieties of game and food-fish. Our Legislature has 

 been very backward in making laws for the protection of 

 fish and fisheries in this State, and making appropriations; 

 but I think there will be less reformers in our next Legisla- 

 ture, and men who are alive to the interests of the State. 



The fish and spawn which were received by me from the 

 General Government have been disposed of, the spawn 

 having been hatched and the fish all distributed in our 

 lakes and rivers. We also expect soon to receive some of 

 the spawn of the land-lock salmon, which, when hatched, 

 will be turned out in our small lakes supplied by our 

 spring brooks. 



The spawing season of the trout closes in this State 

 about the first of January, and the spawn first taken has 

 already commenced to hatch. — Fish Commissioner Pratt, 

 in Qermantown Telegraph. 



As -*♦*■ 1 



T Fish Culture in Virginia. — Col. Marshall McDonald, 

 who has had sole charge of the hatching house connected 

 with the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, has made 

 a report of the result of his work to the State Fish Com- 

 missioners. From it we note that after it was definitely 

 determined to establish a hatching house at that place, a 

 site was selected easy of access from the Virginia Military- 

 Institute and Washington and Lee University, where is a 

 spring having a temperature of 53° Far., and water enough 

 for 200,000 eggs of the California salmon, and double that 

 number of brook trout. The house, having been con- 

 structed in accordance with specifications furnished by the 

 commissioners, was completed, and the first eggs placed in 

 the troughs, six in number, on the 24th of October; on the 

 evening of the 26th all were in. Three of the boxes were 

 opened, and the eggs transferred by Mr. Mather, who had 

 been ordered there from Blacksburg for the purpose. 



The contents of the fourth box were transferred by Mr. 

 McDonald in person, Mr. Mather having been ordered back 

 to Blacksburg. The eggs in this had begun to hatch in 

 the box, and the hatching went on rapidly, all of this box 

 hatching before some of the trays first placed in the 

 troughs showed a single fish. By the 8th of November all 

 had hatched, and the accumulation of dead matter was so 

 rapid that Mr. McDonald found he could not maintain 

 healthy conditions in the troughs with the inexperienced 

 labor at his command, and he was compelled to call Mr. 

 Mather back from Blacksburg to assist. He reports that 

 the troughs are now clean, the fish apparently very healthy 

 and vigorous, and growing rapidly. They were ready for 

 removal to the springs before Christmas. Unless some un- 

 expected casualty occurs, they will have fully 120,000 sal- 

 mon fry as the result of the first experiment. . 



The total number of eggs received was 160,000. Of these 

 3,500 were dead when the boxes were opened, 4,000 failed 

 to hatch, 1,500 were malformations, 5,000 were killed by 

 rock thrown through roof by blast, 6,000 have died since 

 hatching, and about 140,000 are now in the troughs. 



In conclusion, Mr. McDonald says: — 



"I have not lost sight of the fact that a prime object in 

 establishing a hatching-house in connection with the Insti- 

 tute was to furnish facilities for training experts in the im- 

 portant art of pisciculture, but the press of construction 

 and handling has not allowed time for instruction as yet. 

 If the commission proposes to send eggs of the brook trout 

 to be hatched this Winter, I will be able to begin formally 

 the work of instruction and experiment." 



— : -*►»-#■ — ■ 



Fish Culture in Pennsylvania.— In his annual mes- 

 sage, Gov. Hartranft, of Pennsylvania, touches upon the 

 question of fish culture, and urges upon the Legislature 

 the necessity of strengthening the hands of the commis- 

 sioners by giving them a larger control over the streams. 

 His remarks, although brief, are sensible and pointed, and 

 will unojiestionably carry great weight with those to whom 

 they are addressed. He says: — "It is is to be regretted 

 that the labors of the fish commissioners have been, in 

 some respects, almost fruitless, because the Legislature 

 has left them to their unaided exertions to procure pro- 

 tection to the fish, while the various processes for supply- 

 ing our rivers are on trial. If authority is not given to the 



