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2S0 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



THE BRITISH ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



® ^T n ' ,,no " r> TO F™uo anp Aquatic Sports, FfaoticalNatueai. History, 

 Fish"Cot,turb, the PROT-Br«r TOKO j, Gamb,± > re8eb.vation of Forests, 



AtfD THE IHCTILOATION IN MBN ANB WOMEN OF A DLEAI/THY IBTEKK9T 



ns Out-boob Rsorkatioh and Study: 



PUBLISHED BY 



JSonnt mti ^trmrq gubitehing f$om$inig, 



1? CHATHAM STKEET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YOHK, 

 [1»obt Office Box 2832.] 



Terms, Four Dollars a Year, Strictly 1b AsSv&hc*> 



' » 

 Twenty-five per cent, off for Clubs of Three or more, 



— ^g»» ■■ • 



Advertising Hates. 



Inside pages, nonpareil type, 20 cents per line: outside page, SO cents. 

 Special rates for three, six, and twelve months. Notices in editorial 

 columns, 40 cents per line. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1876. 



To Correspondents. 



» - 



All ommunications whatever, whether relating to ousinesa or literary 

 Correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub- 

 i,iWiN» Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 

 real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published 

 Objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regaraed. 



Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited 



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 

 notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle 

 men sportsmen froTD one end of the country to the other ; and they wiF 

 And our columns a uusirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 

 tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 

 may not be read with propriety in the home circle 



We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 

 money remitted to us is lost. 



Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 

 ' Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHARLES HALLOCK, 



Editor and Business Manager. 



""Routes of Southern Travel with Flotiida Connec- 

 tions. — The visitor to Florida is now provided with a direct 

 mr>ans for reaching his destination from almost every port 

 of the United States. First, from this port, we have the 

 two great steamship lines; one starling vessels on Tuesdays 

 and Thursdays for Savannah, where connection is made 

 with the Central Railroad of Georgia and Atlantic and 

 Gulf Railroad, and the other sailing on Wednesdays and 

 Saturdays for Charleston, where connection is made with 

 the Florida packets for Fernandina, Jacksonville, St. Au- 

 gustine, Palatka, Enterprise, and all points in Florida. 

 The advertisement of both these lines will be found in oui 

 colamns. But the western sportsman or traveler, particularly 

 if he dislikes a sea voyage, has an advantage over his eastern 

 brother. The Louisville and Great Southern Railway line 

 13 now running Pullman sleeping cars through from Louis 

 ville to Jacksonville without change, the day line passing 

 through Montgomery, Eufaula, Albany and Live Oak, and 

 the night line via Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Macon, 

 Jesup, etc. Tourists tickets are sold at three cents per 

 mile, good going and returning by a different route. This 

 is a most luxurious and direct way of reaching Florida, 

 and one that will be largely availed of, the enterprise of the 

 Louisville and Great Southern Railroad Line, bringing the 

 "Italy of America" in direct communication with the west. 



. ~*-*-9» 



Obituary.— Michael Schweyer departed this life No- 

 vember 29th, 1876, in^the seventy-fourth year of his age. 

 He was one of those who from early age entered into the 

 pursuit of field sports with all the vim and esprit of a 

 true and noble sportsman, and even but a few days before 

 his death he was engaged on Long Island at his favorite 

 pastime that he followed so enthusiastically for sixty 

 years. This notice is specially intended for his numerous 

 old sporting friends all over the country, who will indeed 

 miss hie pleasant, kindly words and advice. As tranquil 

 and as pleasant as he lived so passed away his spirit to the 



happy hunting grounds. 



u. — .**»*» 



A national contention of whip manufacturers at 



Westfall, Mass., have advanced the price of common 

 goods 30per cent., and of fine goods 50 per cent.— Ex. 



Is it that whips have been ''placed into every honest 

 man's hand, to whip the rascals through the world?" Then, 



indeed, there is hope of a millenium. 



* »»»■ — 



Target Shooting is now in vogue, and the man with 



the big auger who heads the column of sharpshooters, 



will henceforth prove himself a . steady bore. The amply 



. perforated buUseye is a riddle that lion© can better $oive 



% ton he* 



OUR English exchanges are full of accounts of the 

 memorable undertaking apropos of the recent re- 

 turn of the explorers. The articles in most of the papers 

 are highly gratifying, the London Times, perhaps, alone 

 assuming a lugubrious tone, and lamenting the "failure" of 

 the expedition, simply because it did not reach the pole, 

 as if that were the sole object in view. The Times article 

 is severely denounced by Nature, which calls it "simply 

 an impertinence" resulting from sheer ignorance, real or 

 feigned. The instructions to the leaders of the expedition 

 were in substance to reach the pole if possible, but in any 

 event make all possible observations in the light of modern 

 science upon the physical phenomena of the Arctic re- 

 gions. The papers pay the highest tribute, no doubt de- 

 served, to the intrepidity and fidelity of the personnel of the 

 exhibition, as well as to the manner in which the scientific 

 duties devolving upon the leaders and staff were performed, 

 and we may expect a rich harvest of information when the 

 observations in the various departments of science co me 

 to be worked up by the specialists engaged for such ser- 

 vice, since it is claimed that an "unprecedentedly rich" 

 collection of observations has been obtained, including 

 many positive discoveries. The expedition met with ob- 

 stacles which seem to have been without precedent, and if 

 it did nothing else, it proved that the pole could not be 

 gained at the time it was sought from that quarter. Ice 100 

 and even 200 feet thick was encountered, more resembling 

 a collection of icebergs than ordinary floes. It was not to 

 be expected such an expedition should be free from casual- 

 ties, and four of the members perished — three from the 

 scourge of the Arctic regions, scurvy, and one from frost 

 bite — while on one occasion the Discovery was "within a 

 minute" of being crushed by a berg, and had it not been 

 for a providential accident to the Alert she would have 

 pushed into a position whence extrication would have been 

 impossible. 



Commander Markham's daring attempt to carry out his 

 instruclions to the letter by penetrating, led him to such 

 lengths that he found the ice piled so that progress at the 

 rate of more than a mile a day was impracticable, he 

 wisely returned, though not until he had splendidly 

 reached the highest authentic latitude ever yet attained, 

 85 deg. 20min. Ca.pt- Parry only made 82 deg. 45 min.; 

 the Austro-IIungarian expedition of 1872-4 reached 82 deg. 

 5 min, and saw 83 deg., while the Polaris sailed witkout 

 difficulty to 82 deg. 16 min., meeting no such ice barrier 

 as the English encountered. It is supposed that round the 

 poles lies a barrier of impenetrable ice, since such thick- 

 ness of ice as the English saw could not annually melt 

 and be reformed, the point being that in consequence of 

 an unusually cold season the barrier of ice was further 

 south than usual. A cold of 104 degrees of frcst was re- 

 corded. The dearth of animal life was a noticeable fea- 

 ture of the results of this expedition; it ceased altogether 

 at a short distance north of the Alert's quarters, while the 

 American (Polaris) and the Austro Hungarian expeditions 

 both saw the cliffs swa.raiing with life at their northermost 

 points. 



Among the positive additions to Arctic geography'may 

 be mentioned the mapping of the whole coast from Cape 

 Farwell to the northern end of Robeson Channel, except- 

 ing Hayes Inlet, and the advances made west along the 

 American coast to 86 deg. 30 min. longitude, and east along 

 the North Greenland coast to 48 deg. 33 min. W. longi- 

 tude. The so-called "President's Land" its said not to ex- 

 ist, no land having been seen north of Cape Columbia in 

 83 deg. 7 min. N. It is considered most probable that 

 Greenland is an island, not extending across to Wrangell 

 Land, as Petermann conjectured. In the selection of names 

 for points discovered, Capt. Nares is complimented upon 

 his graceful good taste, and reference to the map will show 

 how steadily the courtesy due Americans has been kept 

 in view. Capt. Nares also paid a deserved tribute to the 

 memory of the lamented Hall by affixing to his no loisger 

 lonely grave a commemorative brass tablet. 



Excellent results were obtained by the Naturalist of the 

 expedition, Capt. Fielden, whose exertions are spoken of 

 as "beyond all praise." Ancient Eskimo remains were 

 traced on the west side of Smith's Sound to lat. 81 deg. 52 

 min., where the people had evidently crossed the narrow- 

 est part of the channel to Greenland, as the most diligent 

 search further north revealed no trace of their former pres- 

 ence. A few musk oxen were shot at the Alert's winter 

 quarters, and over fifty at Discovery Bay. Ermines were 

 seen, and snowy owls found on the Greenland shore op- 

 posite the Discovery's quarters, the young being mostly 

 devoured by wolves(?). Game items from the Alert's list 

 at her northern station show a few hares, and about a hun- 

 dred birds of various kinds, the latter shot only in July. 

 The birds are said to certainly not migrate beyond Cape 

 Joseph Henry, at lat. 82 deg. 50 min. Very few seals were 

 seen north of Cape Union, and no bears, dovekies, or 

 loons, it is stated, ever reach the Polar Sea. The knots, a 

 species of sandpiper, Tringa canutus, are among the birds 

 that visit this country, but do not proceed beyond the point 

 mentioned; they breed there, young in all stages of growth 

 having been observed. Among the plants noticed by the 

 Alert were saxifrage, sorrel, dwarf oak, and a few pop- 

 pies late in the summer. Near the Discovery's winter 

 quarters' a good seam of coal, readily worked, was found, 

 but unfortunately too l»ate to be of any service during the 

 winter, when the supply was necessarily limited. Fosset 

 corals were procured from the extreme northern hills, and 

 assong the general natural, ktetory ^*®9®& those proce- 



ed from the sea by dredge and trawl seem likely to prove 

 of great interest. The cairns of the Polaris w T ere visited 

 and at the boat depot in Newman's Bay a chronometer was 

 found in perfect order after four years' exposure. Wheat 

 sent out to ascertain whether it would deteriorate with ihe 

 extreme cold, has been successfully grown under a glass 

 shade. 



The ice on the Polar Sea remained firm until July 20th 

 when there was a movement, increasing with each tide- 

 on the 31st the Alert left her winter quarters, and she 

 joined the Discovery August 12th. It was not, however, 

 until September 20th, after toilsome, tedious and uncertain 

 progress, that both ships gained "open water" past the 

 mouth of Hayes Sound, and hopes of ultimate safety were 

 converted into the glad reality. Both ships reached 

 Queenstown October 29 ih. 



, — ^*+* 



COCA. 



EVEN should coca possess the wonderful properties 

 claimed for it, it is questionable whether its invigora- 

 ting influence is more than temporary, and the after ef- 

 fects are very similar to those following the use of any 

 stimulant. Indeed, the letter which we print below points 

 directly to this conclusion. The results are the same as 

 those attending the use of opium or any of its kindred 

 drugs; a constantly recurring desire for increasing doses 

 until the whole system is disarranged and vitality kept up 

 only through its means. The effect of opium, after the 

 use of the drug has become established, is not, intoxicating, 

 nor does it produce immediate sleep. It is more like the 

 morning cocktail to the confirmed tippler; an^eye-opener, 

 which becomes a neccessity, before the machine can be gut 

 to work, and kept running only as long as its influence 

 lasts. The opium smoker satisfies a craving for stimulant 

 in the same manner as the drinker, with an increasing ap- 

 petite and more dreadful results. There is no conviviality 

 about opium smoking, and its effects become much more 

 apparent in the livid complexion and sunken eye. That 

 similar results would follow the habitual use of coca we do 

 not doubt. Our correspondent says that even so soon as 

 the third day he felt the want of it and longed for it as the 

 drunkard does for his dram. It stands to reason that this 

 is so. No artificial strength can be infused into the system 

 without a corresponding depression, and while the use of 

 coca might be perfectly justifiable under certain circum- 

 stances, we should deprecate its use as much we should 

 that of any deleterious drug or artificial stimulant. It is a 

 notable fact that the first use of coca produces totally dif- 

 ferent effects upon different persons; or rather on some it 

 produces none at all, while others are stimulated as describ- 

 ed below. Opium, when smoked, rarely affects the smoker 

 in any manner at first, unless an immoderate quantity is 

 consumed. We have tried it frequently without experi- 

 encing any unusual sensations whatever. It is the persis- 

 tent use which soon creates an appetite never satisfied, but 

 which, like the horse leech's daughter, cries conbtanthk 

 "more," "more":— w 



Philadelphia, Nov. 25th. 



Editor Forest and Stream:— 



"Seeing an account of the use of coca in your paper, and 

 being a very bad shot on account of my nerves, I concluded 

 to give it a trial. The first day I took one tea spoonful, 

 and it acted like a charm. I killed my birds right and left; 

 I was happy with the world, and proud of myself. As to 

 eating or fatigue, I did not know what they were. The 

 second day, 1 repeated the dose, with the same result, only 

 felt the need of it, with a slight giddiness, and no appe ice, 

 but no fatigue. 1 felt I could walk for ever. The third 

 day I repeated the dose with results the same, and felt the 

 want of the coca; it took the place of meat and driuk; 

 I depended upon it, and longed for it, as a drunkard looks 

 for his dram. I do not know the effects upon others, but 

 thought my experience might be of use to those who should 

 ba tempted to try it. 



Mose. 



WOLVBS 1JN RUSSIA. 



r "pO those who are familiar wiih the rapid extermination 

 1 of the wolf in this country, the account of the 

 ravages of this animal in Russia will be read with some in- 

 terest and surpise. Jl. pamphlet has been published by 

 Mr. Lazarewsky which contains some interesting and cu- 

 rious details in regard to the damage done recently by this 

 carnivore. According to this statement, of which the 

 Bulletin de la Societe cle Agnculteur de France gives an anal- 

 ysis, the wolves devoured during 1873, in forty-five prov- 

 inces of Russia, from which number Poland and the Bal- 

 tic provinces are excluded, 179,000 head of large domestia 

 animals, i, e., horses and horned cattle; and 662,900 sheep, 

 pigs, etc. This loss equals in money 7,573,000 roubles 

 (nearly $5,700,000) or nearly 2 roubles per hectare (2 47 

 acres). To this amount must be added the value of the 

 poultry and the dogs which have been devoured. We are 

 told that during the same t ear, in the province of Kalon- 

 ga alone, there were destroyed 8,200 geese, and more than . 

 2,00b dogs. For the fifty provinces of Russia this loss 

 alone amounts to nearly a million roubles, and the entire 

 tribute paid by the empire to the ravagers is not less than 

 15,000,000, leaving out. of account the men who have per- 

 ished from the same cause, the number of whom is be- 

 lieved to be at least 200 each year. 



Wolf hunting, practiced only by the wealthy elasse?, has 

 shown itself up to this time powerless to arrest the progress 

 of the evil, and to accomplish successful results. Mr. Laz- 

 arewsky proposes to replace the fire-arm by poison. He 

 places much confidence in the advantages of the latter 

 method, among which its cheapness occupies the firs 

 place. He asserts that the most simple and easy way ot 

 getting rid bi these animals js to poison the carpaseg Pf 



