312 



FOEEST AND STREAM. 



A PLEA. FOR THE SEA. SERPENT. 



THE VALUE OF IRRIGATION. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 

 D footed to Field and Aquatic Spobts, Practical Nattjbai- Sis-toby, 



iTlBH^OUIiTUBE, THE PROTECTION OF GAME, PRESERVATION OP FORESTS, 

 AKI> THE iKOUIiOATION INMEN AND WOMEN OF A HEALTHY INTEREST 



m Out-doob Becbbation and Studt : 



PUBLISHED BY 



$en%t md Jf/tatu? publishing ^Qm$m\$, 



17 CHATHAM STKSET, (CITY HALL SQUABS) NEW YORE, 



[Post Office Box 2832.] 



♦ 



Terms, Four Dollars a Year, Strictly In Advanee, 



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



Advertising Kates. 



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

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

 columns, 40 cents per line. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1876. 



To Correspondents. 



♦ ■ 



All communications whatever, whether relating to ousiness or literary 

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

 lishing 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 Names will not be published 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 fro-o one end of the country to the other ; and they wil 1 

 And our columns a u.usirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Foitest 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 

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

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

 ' Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHARLES HALLOCH, 



Editor and Business Manager. 



CHRISTMAS. 



C^ HRISTMAS comes but once a year, and here it i.«. 

 ' At least Monday is but a few day's off, and then 

 Christmas trees and the giving and receiving of presents is 

 in order. Now do the little ones put on their best behavior 

 and look anxiously at the chimneys, wondering what old 

 Santa Claus will bring them; and paterfamilias, as he walks 

 up town in the evening, while the shops are all aglow with 

 bright lights, and he recognizes the toys which once made 

 his own heart beat, thinks of those at home and the last 

 fall iu stocks, and sighs at the hard times. But in spite 

 of stocks and hard times, many a heart will throb joyously 

 on Monday morning as the stockings are removed from 

 the mantel shelf, for Christmas is essentially the gala day 

 of the little ones, and it is fit that it should be so, for is it 

 not also the birth day of Him who said, "Suffer them to 

 come unto me"? and he who giveth even a cup of cold 

 water to one of these in His name shall be blessed a thou- 

 sand fold. Merry Christmas to you, reader, and God bless 



you all, great and small. 



, -♦♦-•*■ 



Cold Weather in Florida. — The mean midday tem- 

 perature at New Smyrna, Florida, for the month of No- 

 vember as furnished us by Major Geo. J. Alden, was 68 

 degrees; at 7 a. m., 57; at 9 d. m., 60. Highest for the 

 month 80; lowest 42. The temperature stood as follows 

 on the days indicated : — 



7 a. m. 2 p.m. 9 p. m. 



Dec. 1 33 43 SB 



Dec. 2 29 43 34 



Dec. 3 30 43 38 



Dec.4 34 50 40 



At St. Augustine the weather was the coldest known for 



years. Ice formed* daily for six days, and vegetation was 



greatly injured. There have been a large number of 



oranges frozen . 



— <*♦*»■ 



A.KT. — Now is the time to select articles of vertu and 

 bric-a-brac. Messrs. Leavitt hold another mammoth sale, 

 comprising the Gates collection, at the art ©ooms, No. 817 

 Broadway, to day and to-morrow. See their advertise- 

 ment. 



. ■*►*-»- 



—There will be five eclipses in 1877, viz.: A total 

 eclipse of the moon on February 27, visible in the United 

 States; a partial eclipse of the sun on March 14, visible in 

 Western Asia; a partial eclipse of the sun on August 8, 

 visible in Alaska, Kamschatka and the North Pacific Ocean ; 

 a total eclipse of the moon on August 23, partly visible in 

 the Eastern and Southern States, and a partial eclipse of 

 the sun on September 7, visible in South America. 1 



OUR last advices from the sea serpeat came from a ves. 

 sel bound for Melbourne, and the account was fur- 

 nished by a clergyman. We have also heard of him quite 

 recently near this city, off Coney Island in fact, where he 

 is said to have done good service during the garbage war 

 by devouring a considerable portion of the casus belli. 

 Where he will next appear we will not venture to predict, 

 but we have sufficient faith in his methodical habits to feel 

 reasonably confident tint before the next summer is passed 

 this interesting but slippery animal will have furnished a 

 dozen paragraphs for the newspapers. 



Does it not seem almost time to look for the capture of 

 this individual or some one of his race? There is really no 

 reason in the uncompromising disbelief with which the 

 name of our friend is always met. ' It is but a few years 

 since the sea serpent and the Kraken, the giant cephalapod 

 of the north were classed together, and the two are equal- 

 ly the subjects of pert scoffs and sneers. Now, however, 

 we know all about the latter animal, and half a dozen 

 specimens are at present in our museums, yet for hundreds 

 of years the Kraken was unknown except from an old 

 print and its accompanying description, while almost every 

 summer tourist to Europe has seen, or has had an opportu- 

 nity of seeing, the great sea snake. We have never had 

 the latter ashore, it is true, but we take it that this fact 

 alone would be regarded by scientific men as a very poor 

 reason for disbelieving its existence. 



The fact is that the ocean and its inhabitants are as yet 

 but very little known, and there are vast possibilities in 

 the wide extent of waters that surround us. Where there 

 is so much smoke there must be it least a little fire, for it 

 is scarcely to be believed that all those who profess to 

 have seen the monster have been deceivers or deceived. 

 We know that in the distant past, during the cretaceous 

 epoch, giant reptiles of various kinds inhabited the ocean 

 in vast numbers. Some of these, the Mosasaurs, were 

 snake like in form, but possessed fore and hind limbs in 

 the shape of paddles not unlike a whale's fin, and some- 

 times attained a length of from sixty to seventy feet; oth- 

 ers, the Plesiosaurs, were more lizard-like in appearance, 

 but had a long, swan-like neck and a small head. These 

 latter could no doubt have raised head and neck high 

 above the water without showing any part of the body, ex- 

 cept perhaps the back just flush with the waves. 



Now why is it not possible that some of these animals 

 may have continued to exist either in the same or in some 

 modified form until the present lime? We know of no 

 reason for supposing that the conditions of marine life 

 were any more favorable to the existence af such animals 

 in the past than they are at present, unless possibly food 

 may have been somewhat more abundant then than now. 

 Their enormous abundance in the cretaceous of the west 

 warrants us in believing that during that period they were 

 among the most numerous of all the strange forms that in- 

 habited the sea. Dreadful creatures they must have been 

 and terribly destructive to their neighbors in this ancient 

 ocean. 



That sea serpents exist at present is a well known fact, 

 but they are pigmies beside the monster which causes the 

 periodical sensations of which We have spoken. About 

 the islands of the Indian Ocean there are &everal species 

 of marine snakes, characterized by flat tails and a veno- 

 mous bite, but which never attains to a greater length 

 than eight or ten feet. They are an interesting class of 

 ophidians, and with their rough and barnacle-covered skins 

 would, except in the matter of size, answer very well to 

 the description ordinarily given of the sea serpent. 



But this unknown monster, or others of his class, do not 

 seem to be confined to the ocean. We hear of them from 

 other sources . It is not long since that in conversation with 

 one of the most intelligent as well as most influential of 

 the citizens of Utah, we were informed of the probable ex- 

 istence in Bear River Lake of a monster, which yields only 

 to his oceanic rival in size, and not even to him in ferocity 

 and general uncouthness. This remarkable creature dif- 

 fers from the average sea serpent in appearing not always 

 singly, but often in companies of from two to half a dozen in- 

 dividuals. Though sometimes seen alone they have been 

 ordiuarily observed in what are apparently families— that 

 is in groups consisting of individuals of different sizes. 

 The marvellous stories that are told of their deeds, the at- 

 tacks which they are said to have made upon Indians, and 

 the unsuccessful attempts made to capture them, must be 

 passed over; but in the light of the evidence furnished by 

 the testimony of reliable witnesses we are forced to ac- 

 knowledge that there is probably something in this lake 

 widely different from anything with which we are at pres- 

 ent acquainted. 



All our accounts of these strange creatures do not, how- 

 ever, come from a distance. In another column will be 

 found a letter from our friend Mr. A. W. Hubbard, giving 

 an account of a serpent or monster said to have been seen 

 at various times in Lake Memphremagog. What this can 

 be, if anything, we are at a loss to conjecture. We have 

 heard of individuals of the genus Tropidonotus, under fa- 

 vorable circumstances, growing to a length of eleven feet, 

 although we must acknowledge that we have never seen 

 one much over five. It seems hardly probable, however, 

 that a giant water snake of even that size could be taken 

 for a monster thirty feet long with a head like a horse, 

 and we think dn the whole that we will wait until we have 

 ourselves seen |he animal before pronouncing on him. 



IF there is a lesson which should have been brought 

 home to the agriculturist of this country by the severe 

 drought of the past season it is in the value of irrigation; 

 or at least in the necessity of being prepared to supply, 

 certainly their corn and garden crops with that moisture 

 which Nature, from some unknown cause, has failed to 

 send to them. The traveler through Colorado, Utah, and 

 California can not fail to be impressed with the important 

 part played by water in the agricultural system of those 

 parts, where summer rains are almost unknown and where, 

 without a resort to artificial means, fruits, flowers, and 

 vegetables would be wanting save in exceptionally favored 

 spots, for half the year. The ease with which water is 

 handled and controlled, as well as the results which follow 

 its judicious application, seem alike remarkable; and yet 

 the slightest knowledge of the principles of hydraulics, the 

 fact that water will run down hill, is all that is possessed by 

 the inhabitants of these countries wherein irrigation has 

 been practiced for centuries, if not for ages. 



Nor is it merely as an irrigant that water is valuable. 

 Its qualities as a fertilizer are, and were fully appreciated 

 by the Chinese, the Egyptians, the aboriginal inhabitants 

 of this hemisphere, and in all countries where other sub- 

 stances are had in insufficient quantities; and even in Cali- 

 fornia where the credit of unusual , production is generally 

 awarded to a virgin soil of unusual richness, the free use of 

 water in irrigation is undoubtedly entitled to a large share 

 of it. The peculiar properties of Nile water and the crops 

 raised on tfoe lands washed by it are so well known and 

 appreciated that the absence of the annual overflow is re- 

 garded in the light of a national calamity, and the most 

 familiar picture of Nile travel is what some one calls the 

 "retched fellah" toiling at the wheel which lifts the water 

 to the required level. The same scene is to be witnessed 

 in China— not in rice culture alone — where water is lifted 

 by means of a succession of wheels to the highest plateaus 

 and then distributed by means of long handled buckets, pos- 

 sibly with a slight addi ion of liquid manure, over the sur- 

 rounding crop. In portions of Peru, Chili, and Mexico, 

 the ruins of aqueducts used in times past to bring water 

 from the mountains are constantly met with, and the 

 Padres who founded the missions of California have left 

 similar monuments of their early labors. These last, how- 

 ever, are rapidly disappearing; the modern plough share is 

 fast leveling them, and the adobe bricks are crumbling back 

 to mingle with the soil from whence they come. The 

 Padres, indeed, found irrigation a necessity, and with the 

 immense amount of Indian labor at their command were 

 enabled to accomplish an amount of work which would 

 appal the modern agriculturist in a country where laborers 

 receive $30 per month. At the Mission of San Gabriel, in 

 the vicinity of Los Angeles can be seen and traced the 

 grass covered remains of an immense ditch or aqueduct 

 which brought the waters of the San Gabriel river, from 

 where it leaves the mountains some eight miles distant to 

 fertilize the' vineyards and orchards of the Mission. To- 

 day it is a common sight to witness one of the few remain- 

 ing native California cultivators with his heavy hoe irriga- 

 ting his field of barley or patch of wa'ermelons; the water a 

 mere ditch full procured probably through the grudging 

 assent of a detested Americano propiietor. But of late 

 years so fully impressed have the farmers of California be- 

 come with the value of irrigation to their lands from which 

 successive crops, principally of wheat without rotation 

 have been taken, that in the valleys watered by large rivers, 

 such as the San Joaquin and Sacramento, ditching com- 

 panies have been formed, with the object of irrigating 

 large bodies of land devoted to the cultivation of cereals. 

 Of course every one irrigates their orchards and it is question- 

 able whether the character of much of the fruit of Califor- 

 nia, magnificent in appearance but lacking in flavor, watery 

 and difficult to keep, is not owing to the too liberal use of 

 water. As most grain crops are planted in the fall, are 

 matured by the winter rains and harvested in the spring, 

 irrigation, until recently, was looked upon as not only su- 

 pererogatory but impracticable, but it has now been dis- 

 covered that by thoroughly irrigating laud in the fall before 

 the rain, not only is plowing and planting possible at a 

 much earlier day, and the harvest correspondingly early, 

 but the land is manured and also in much better condition 

 to stand a drought. For droughts are by no means uncom- 

 mon in California, and a drought there means no rain either 

 winter or summer. The writer had the misfortune to ex- 

 perience one of three years duration, when, except on wet 

 lands, grain scarcely headed, and barley hay, or rather 

 straw, was worth from thirty to forty dollars per ton. 



It is the experience gained at that time, in connection 

 with careful observation here, that has impressed us with 

 the idea that our farmers, or such of them as have running 

 water on or near their lands, might by the expenditure of 

 little labor at odd times, place themselves beyond the fear 

 of consequences of drought. That is, as regards certain 

 crops. A large field of wheat, oats, or rye, unless perhaps 

 the seed had been drilled in, could scarcely be irrigated, 

 unless it was so situated that it could be flooded, and the 

 baking of the soil afterwards would more than counter- 

 balance any good results; but corn could be irrigated with 

 the greatest ease; the furrows form the ditches and the 

 plow or cultivator would prevent bak'ng. Fruit trees and 

 vegetables could be irrigated without much trouble, and 

 as regards the former, if one tithe of the attention was paid 

 them that is given his trees by the California farmer, the 

 results would be larger crops, finer fruit, less disease and 

 longer lived trees. A few furrows on each side of the trees 



