196 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



An Attractive Fish Farm.— B. B. Porter, of Oakland, 

 Bergen County, New Jersey, has a very pleasant fish farm, 

 in the Ramapo Valley, where the scenery, historical rem- 

 iniscences and healthfulness is unsurpassed. From New 

 York City it is thirty-one miles, via the New Jersey Mid- 

 land Railroad to Oakland Station. From Paterson, New 

 Jersey, by wagon road eight miles. The spring is located 

 in a beautiful grove, one mile from Oakland, and is one of 

 the largest and finest springs in the United States. It has 

 an immense flow of water, from 1,500 to 2,000 gallons per 

 minute. A severe drouth does not diminish it, or a very 

 wet season increase it. The temperature does not vary 

 but one degree, viz : 53 degrees in winter, and 52 in 

 summer. All the natural advantages are combined in and 

 about this remarkable spring for the propagation and rais- 

 ing of brook out, viz: 1st. A large and constant flow of 

 pure water. 2d. Uniformity of temperature during the 

 whole year. 3d. A fall of nearly 40 feet in 600, a gradual 

 descent. 4th. No liability of being washed out by floods. 

 5th. By having been a natural stream for trout. 6th. By 

 being located in a fine grove of trees from two one-half 

 feet in diameter down to the smallest ^shrub. In June, 

 1873, Mr. B. B. Porter commenced operations at this 

 spring, for the purpose of fish culture, and making the 

 grove a permanent and attractive place of public resort. 

 Since then the place has been visited by thousands of per- 

 sons from nearly every State, besides many from foreign 

 countries, who so far have pronounced it the most perfect 

 establishment of the kind they had ever visited, and the 

 most beautiful. A circular which Mr. Porter has sent us 

 says: 



" We beg leave to inform the public that we open the 

 grounds as a place of resort, believing there is no place of 

 the kind now open to the public ^during the whole year, 

 where they can see all the modus operandi of fi3h culture, 

 during all the stages of propagation, taking the spawn, 

 watching the development of the embryo in the egg, see- 

 ing the lish hatch, how they look after they are hatched, 

 how soon and how large they are when they begin to feed, 

 etc., etc. All of which can be seen and will be explained 

 to visitors in a few hours for the nominal sum of twenty- 

 five cents. 



At present there are twenty-five ponds of all sizes, with 

 several more in process of ' construction, stocked with all 

 sizes of fish, from those of an inch to 18 inches in length, 

 comprising salt water salmon {salmo sala?') salmon trout 

 {salmo eonfinis) and brook trout {sddmo fontinalis) native, and 

 species from different parts of the country, to the number 

 at present of seventy -jive tho-usand large and small, in ponds 

 where the fish can be clearly seen, (not in ponds where you 

 cannot see where they are). The grove in which the ponds 

 and springs are located, comprises between five and six 

 acres of ground. Our buildings are sufficient to shelter a 

 thousand people, in case of storm during their visit." 



^*» — 



Fish Culture in Kentucky. — A short time since the 

 Executive Committee of the "Fish Commissioners of Ken- 

 tucky" met, and resolved to build a hatching-house near 

 Louisville to commence artificial propagation of fish in that 

 State. 



A neat frame building, 22 by 25 feet, has been erected 

 upon the handsome farm of Mr. Allen Polk, three miles 

 from the city, to whose generous liberality the commission 

 are indebted for the free use of ground and spring. 



It is expected that the young fry will begin to come out 

 from the 5th to 15th of November. As soon as the sac is 

 absorbed they are ready for plauting in the various streams 

 of the State. The commission will probably put down a 

 few thousand trout and land locked salmon as an experi- 

 ment, and it is believed will succeed in many Kentucky 

 streams. 



The new enterprise is of no little importance to our 

 people, and it is earnestly hoped that the fish law enacted 

 by the last Legislature will be faithfully observed by every 

 citizen of the State, otherwise the most earnest endeavors 

 of the Fish Commission will amount to nothing. — Ken- 

 tucky Paper. 



tnml l§wtoT%> 



For Forest and fttream. 

 FIELD NOTES ON THE NATURAL HIS- 

 TORY OF THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS. 



THE larger mammals peculiar o the Rocky mountain 

 region are all found here in abundance. The Big 

 Horn {Ovis montana), is found in large flocks throughout 

 the range, and is here more common than in any other part 

 of the United States. The great northern buffalo herd lives 

 here, and as it is only molested by the Indians, will un- 

 doubtedly last much longer than the southern herd of Col- 

 orado and Kansas, which is being rapidly exterminated by 

 white hunters who kill them solely for their hides. Dur- 

 ing the battle of the Rose Bud river, July 17th, 1876, a herd 

 of buffalo'ran through the Sioux line of battle, and after 

 remaining for some time between the lines, appar- 

 ently much bewildered by the heavy firing, finally charged 

 down upon us, and passed within one hundred yards of our 

 left flank. The elk range throughout the mountains in im- 

 mense numbers. A band of from five hundred to twelve 

 hundred is not uncommon in the winter. A party of six 

 recently went out for a five days hunt, and bagged two 

 mountain sheep, two buffalo, four black-tailed deer, and 

 sixteen elk. It took forty pack-mules to pack out our game 

 bag, which was enough to feed twelve hundred hungry sol- 

 diers several days. 



The black-tailed deer {Cervus macrotis) abounds in the 



mountains,, while in the foot hills and eastern plains it is 



replaced by the white-tailed deer {Germs leucurus). The 



-^antelope is quits rare near the mountains. Beaver, otter, 



*and mink are as common as the fur bearing animals appear 



to be in any region, Tongue river is an especially good otter 



range. The grey wolf and coyote are numerous ; and the 

 foxes, including the valuable silver grey, are to be found. 

 The panther occasionally makes his presence known at 

 night by a dismal moaning; the wild cat, and two species 

 of lynx also occur. The black, cinnamon, and grizzly bear 

 are found here, the latter unusually abundant and ferocious. 



The ornithology of this region does not appear to present 

 any remarkable variation from the avi-fauna of the range 

 north and south. It might be interesting to some to men- 

 tion that the ptarmigan was not observed here. I do not 

 say that it does not occur in the mountains, but that I sev- 

 eral times looked for it closely at an elevation of twelve 

 thousand feet, and could never find the slightest trace of 

 its existence. Its neighbors, the tit-lark, and a species of 

 Leucosticte {L. aiibtralis?) which always accompany it in 

 Colorado, were here present, but quite rare and very shy. 

 The dusky grouse {Tetrao obscurus) occurs scatteringly ; while 

 Tetrao Richardsonii is abundant in the pine timber in the 

 elevated regions, being replaced by the southern Sharp- 

 tailed grouse on the streams below their debouchure from 

 the mountains. The sage cock is quite common in the 

 surrounding plains wherever its favorite food, the Artemisia, 

 is to be found. The water fowl and waders are extremely 

 rare in the mountains, and even on the adjacent plains an 

 occasional kill-deer and up land plover were all that could 

 be seen, with the exception of the long-billed curlew which 

 nests here in some numbers. 



The insect- fauna bears a close resemblance to that of the 

 Colorado mountains. Every species of butterfly, moth, 

 and bee observed, also occurs in the Alpine insect-fauna of 

 the southern mountains; the flowers and lichens are also 

 identical. The swarming grasshopper' {Caloptenus spretus) 

 was hatched out here in June, grew to maturity early in 

 August, and moved southeast in swarms which obscured 

 the sun. During this period they covered the earth and 

 floated down the streams in immense numbers affording 

 abundance of food for the fish which were gorged to the 

 gullet with them. 



The Big Horn, Little Horn, and Tongue rivers, are full 

 of splendid trout, and also contain a small species of white 

 fish which rises to a fly and affords good sport. The trout- 

 ing in Tongue river is as fine as this continent affords. One 

 who should see the mouth of Tongue river where it 

 empties into the Missouri, would scarcely believe that such 

 a muddy, sluggish stream could be the home of a trout. 

 Yet a visit to the head waters where it is known as Goose 

 Creek, would certainly surprise anyone not familiar with 

 the facts. Here it is a large, swift, cold mountain stream, 

 filled with trout which range from half to two and a half 

 pounds. It is seldom that a small one is caught as they do 

 not appear to take the hook, or perhaps are driven away by 

 the larger ones. They take a fly tolerably well for "uned- 

 ucated fish," but if rations are short and one is fishing for 

 the frying pan, a grasshopper is the thing. It is no unusual 

 feat for one to calch in five or six hours fishing, from sixty 

 to one hundred pounds of trout. 



The general aspect of the fauna of this region is similar 

 to that of Wyoming and Northern Colorado, with an 

 unusual abundance of some species which we would natur- 

 ally expect to find common in a region of such wilderness. 

 The mountains are densely timbered with pine and spruce. 

 Their elevation is about thirteen thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea, and they are covered with snow in sum- 

 mer. They contain innumerable beautiful lakes, one of 

 which was covered with a foot of ice on the fourth day of 

 July, and present a view of rugged grandeur unsurpassed 

 by any other part of the Rocky .Mountain chain. 



Fort Laramie, Wyoming Ter., Oct. (5th. W. L. C. 



«♦♦«*- 



THE MAMMALS OF SCANDINAVIA AND 

 NORTH AMERICA. 



THE same similarity which we have noticed to exist 

 between the fishes of Norway and those of our 

 Northwestern States, is also found between the mammals 

 of these countries. 



The elk of Norway {Cervus alces) is believed to be the 

 same animal as the moose of North America {Alces ameri- 

 cana); and the reindeer of Norway {C. tarandus) the same 

 as the caribou of America {Rangifer oaribou); also the red 

 deer of Europe {O. elaphus) is found to be identical in 

 structure with our elk or wapiti {Cervus canadensis). This 

 has hitherto been generally believed by naturalists, and 

 Judge Caton of Illinois, in a late work on Scandinavia, 

 has confirmed the opinion as the result of his investiga- 

 tions of the cervidse of both countries. According to 

 Judge Caton the American forms are larger than the Eu- 

 ropean, but the difference is not so great as that between 

 the Virginia deer of our Northern and Southern States. 



A common error among sporting writers is to call our 

 Virginia deer a red deer, which name belongs to the Euro- 

 pean stag and hind {Cervus elaphus). The male of the 

 American deer is properly a buck and the female a doe. 

 If our elk or wapiti is the same as the red deer of Europe, 

 then the sexes should be distinguished as the stag and 

 hind. Among American hunters the male moose is known 

 as a "bull" and the female as a "cow." The black bear, 

 the wolf, the lynx, the badger, the red fox, the glutton, or 

 wolverine, the hare, weasel, squirrel, and beaver also oc- 

 cur in Norway analagous to those forms in America. 



If the birds of both countries are not specifically alike, 

 the forms are analagous, and in the case of the geese and 

 ducks appear to be the same. Judge Caton gives an inter- 

 esting account of the eider duck, and the method of tak- 

 ing its down from the nest, but does not mention the fact 

 that this bird is also found in North America, both on the 

 sea coast and on the great lakes. 



Of the salmon fishing of Norway this writer says that it 

 is the finest in the world ; yet he goes on to tell us that the 

 summer he was there (that of 1874) he only heard of four 

 fish being taken with the fly among the host of English 

 anglers on those rivers, and estimates that they cost $10,- 

 000 each. If he had said "formerly afforded the finest 

 fishing," he would have been nearer the fact. For some 

 years past, owing to overfishing in Norway, much larger 



takes have been made in the Canadian rivers than those of 

 the former country. S. C. C. 



[Two English gentlemen sportsmen, of wealth and 

 leisure, now at our elbow, confirm the high praise given to 

 the salmon streams of Norway, which they prefer to snch 

 waters of Canada as they had opportunity to visit last sum- 

 mer.— Ed. F. and S.] 



Pet Prairie-dogs. — Those who have read with interest 

 our contributions of late to the history of the prairie-dog, 

 will be glad to see the following letter from Julia S. Gillisj 

 of Cheyenne Depot, W. T., dated August 14th, which we 

 take from Rod and Gun: — 



This morning we had a great frolic with our little prairie- 

 dogs. One village, which was started by the introduction 

 of six or eight in our front yard, now consists of more than 

 twenty funny little creatures, whose antics and gambols are 

 equal to those of our household pet, the kitten. They still 

 fear strangers, and always seem to keep out a picket guard 

 to warn of the approach of a foe. This guard changes, but 

 is always one of the old dogs. He remains upright, watch- 

 ing while the others are playing or feeding, ana sounds his 

 note of warning by the utterance of a succession of rapid 

 squeaks or ba^ks. At the first sound the others immediately 

 scamper like mice down their holes, where they remain 

 until the barking ceases, when they timidly venture forth 

 again. Having habitually fed them, they regard me as a 

 constant friend, and my approach is the signal for the 

 rallying of their forces around my feet. They climb in my 

 lap, up on my shoulder, impudently nibble my buttons or 

 fingers, while their inquisitive little noses are sniffing vigor- 

 orously for the cake or cracker which they know I have 

 somewhere concealed for them. The latter they are very 

 fond of, and one of the liveliest frolics was caused by giv- 

 ing them some ginger schnaps, which they ale eagerly at 

 first, but were qcite disgusted at the burning sensation pro- 

 duced by the ginger. They scolded and chattered, struck 

 at their noses with the hands which they use so cleverly, 

 and utterly refused to eat any more, though they were very 

 hungry. One of them has been named liilly, and will al- 

 ways come when called, even from the depths of his hole; 

 consequently he gets the first bite, and is at once attacked 

 by all the others to take it from him. They scramble and 

 tumble over and over, five or six after the same morsel, 

 chattering all the time like so many monkeys. The young- 

 er ones are generally driven off first by a sharp cuff on the 

 ear from one of the old ones. They are indefatigable in 

 their efforts to keep the holes open, and have been a scource 

 ot annoyance by this persistence. One opening, which they 

 made near the hitching post, was considered dangerous for 

 the horse's feet. Numerous efforts have been made to close 

 it up, but without success. Water was turned in, and a 

 steady stream mantained all day. In the evening a load of 

 stones, gravel and sand was put in, and thoroughly packed 

 by the water. Next morning a heap surrounded the hole in 

 which the victorious dogs were still working like beavers 

 at the last few stones. Next we took heavy wires, bent in 

 various shapes and coils, which were fitted in first, and 

 then sand and gravel pounded in, but with the same result. 

 The following morning revealed the dogs at the mouth of 

 the already cleared-out hole, practicing calisthenics with 

 the wires. A third attempt was made with jagged tin cans 

 and blocks of wood, but all to no purpose. Tney still rule 

 supreme, and so far have proved ttie futility of intelligence 

 against instinct. Even in the winter they work with the 

 same industry to clear away the snow from their doors, and 

 very few days were sufficiently stormy to keep them in, 

 thus proving the fallacy of the belief (at least in their tamed 



condition) that they are hyberuating animals. 







A Novel Fish. — Yesterday one of the oddest and ugliest 

 specimens we have even seen was caught in the trap of 

 Wm. Weaver, off Taylor's Point, Canonicut Island. It is 

 about three and a half feet in length, by about one and a 

 half feet in breadth in its widest part, with skin like that 

 of a shark; an ugly mouth, with four rows of teeth, and its 

 shape is something like that of a bellows fish. Its mouth 

 is on the head extremity, and not at all underneath, while 

 its side fins are more like the clipped wings of a fowl. It 

 was very savage, and when an attempt was made to take it 

 from the trap with a large iron- rimmed scoop net, it sprang 

 forward like a snapping turtle and seized the rim of the 

 net, and hung to it until it was placed in the boat. One of 

 the fishermen afterward attempted to poke him with a short 

 stick, and the fish seemingly contracted his body, and then 

 sprang savagely forward, "seizing the man's finger, and 

 lacerating it severely. The nondescript weighs over thirty 

 pounds, and is now packed in ice awaiting the arrival of 

 Hon. Samuel Powell, who takes charge of ail novelties 

 taken from the waters of our part of Narragansett Bay. 

 None of our fishermen have even seen anything like it.— 

 Providence Journal. 



Arrivals at the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens Oct. 25th. 

 —One macaque monkey (Hacacus cynomologus), presented by Gen. A. 

 T. Torbet, Miiford, Del.; two young prong-born antelopes (Antilocapra 

 americana 1 *, purchased ;oue snort-eared owl (Bracyhoti(spalustris)iJ), pre- 

 sented by Jobn Pearsall, Philadelphia; two blue headed ground doves 

 (3ta?'ncena$ cyanoceplmla), one Key West pigeon (Qdotrygon martinica), 

 two Carolina doves, from Cuba, (Zenceduara carolinensis). two Zenaida 



doves (Zenceda amabilis) (?), one ground dove ( ), two Cuban quails 



(Ortyx cubanensis), presented by E. F. Cabada, Esq., Philadelphia; one 

 bittern (Ardetta exiiis), (?) presented by Geo. Deliaven, Jr., Philadel- 

 phia; one ring dove (Turtur resorius), presented by Dr. Noah Martin, 

 Philadelphia; one rhesns monkey (Macacus erythraem), presented by 

 Moses Johnson, Yardleyville, Mercer county, N.J. 



Arthur E. Brown, Gen'ISupt, 



Arrivals at the Central Park Menagerie Oct. 21 to Oct. 28.— 

 One grey squirrel (Sciurius carolinensis), presented by Master Edward 

 Bacon, two by Master Lee Clements, New York City; one deer {Cariacus 

 virginianus), presented by Rev. M. J. Kirwan, Guttenburg, N. J.; one 

 orjx (Oryx leueoryx), one short-eared owl (Otus brachyotus) , presented 

 by Mr. Joseph H. Batty, New Utrecht, N. Y. ; ten eider ducks (Somate- 

 ria mollissima), bred on Grand Menan Island last May; two Passerine 

 parrakeets (Psittaculapaeserina), presented by Mr. I. B. Brice, New 

 York City ; one red and yellow macaw ( Ara chloroptera) presented by 

 Mrs. E. H. Woolton, New York City; one alligator (Alligator mississip- 

 plensis) . W. A. Conklin, Director. 

 «**, 



— When fowls appear out of order and lose appetite, the 

 food should be mixed with a little linseed meal and small 

 quantity of pepper and a small piece of copperas dissolved 

 in their drinking water would be useful. 



