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FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports. "Practical Natural 
Histokv, Fish Culture, the Protection ok g ame, Preserva- 
tion or Forests, and the Inculcation in Mf.n and Women of 
a. Healthy Interest in Out-Door Recreation and Study' : 
PUBLISHED BY 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
—AT— 
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copy to us, will receive the Fouest and Stream for one year. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1879. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, intended forpublication, mustbe 
ncoompanied with real name of the writer as a guaranty of good 
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Trade supplied by American News Company. 
The "Three Fishers” and its Mutilators.— There is 
in the English language no more pathetic, ballad than 
Charles Kingsley's exquisite verses of the “Three Fishers.” 
Nor has the wondrous power of the union of poetry and 
music ever been more touchingly exemplified than in this 
song, which has subdued to tears audiences of thousands. 
A beautiful story is told of Kingsley ; how one of our 
American singers visited him in his rectory and sang to 
him his own ballad, wliile the preacher-poet’s eyes filled 
with tears. Kingsley had a wonderful sympathy for the 
working classes. It led him into some mistakes in his 
early days, but his soul never grew weary of doing for 
the poor. His love for the sea drew him especially into 
co mm union with the hearts of its toilers. He understood 
the English sailors as few but themselves have ever known 
them or ever will know them. " Westward Ho! ” besides 
being a marvellous historical study is the best novel of 
the sea ever written. His “ Three Fishers ” tells the story 
of seashore toil, hardship, weary watching, death and 
sorrow, as few other men ever pictured it. Because the 
soul of humanity recognizes in these verses the pathos of 
human toil, it will preserve the poem. Of our shorter 
nineteenth century poems this will he long and justly 
cherished. 
Because Kingsley’s poem is of such a character, which 
should insure its protection from thoughtless newspaper 
scribblers, we regret to see it unscrupulously parodied by 
weak-brained idiots. It takes a true poet to Yvrite a good 
parody, No dabbler in ink but thinks himself smart 
enough to turu a poem into ridicule. Of literary diver¬ 
sions this is one of the most pernicious and reprehensible. 
As soon make a leering-faced daub and call it a Raphael; 
dig up a planted Muldoon and label it an Apollo. The 
man who perpetrates a wretched parody on a good poem 
is guilty of a desecration. We have no sympathy with 
the person who annually starts the slangy, senseless, 
twaddling parody upon the • ‘ Three Fishers ” on its travels 
through the press. We have no tolerance towards the 
editors who copy the senseless lines into their columns. 
It betrays lack of taste; a blunted state of the finer feel¬ 
ings. Wo do have some sympathy for any true poet who 
must be thoroughly and righteously disgusted to see his 
inspirations thus maltreated. 
— The National Rifle Association Directors at their 
monthly meeting on Tuesday last arranged for the fall 
meeting, and so modified the general rules that a big 
step was made towards a go-as-you-please system in range 
practice. 
Our second Alaska letter will appeal’ next week. 
Drowning Accidents. — Last Thursday’s morning 
papers contained particulars of the drowning on the pre¬ 
vious day, of no less than ten persons. One of these was 
a young man whose strength and skill tempted him to 
disregard the cautionary signals posted up for the safety 
of bathers at a New Jersey seaside resort; he swam be¬ 
yond the ropes out into the ocean, and, his strength sud¬ 
denly deserting him, was drowned within sight of eight 
thousand people, powerless to save him. Two men were 
drowned by the capsizing of small boats; the other cases 
reported were those of bathers. All these casualties were 
placed under the general heading “ Drowning Accidents,” 
That heading is kept standing in newspaper offices, and 
during the summer months it is brought into requisition 
nearly every day in the week. The aggregate of deaths 
by drowning in the course of a year assumes frightful 
proportions. Not all of these deaths, but many of them, 
are the result of sheer carelessness. Many people perish 
needlessly, simply because they have followed the foolish 
adage “ Don’t go into the water before you have learned 
to swim.” Newspapers tire of repeating annually their 
sapient cautions to bathers and rowers and sailors to ex¬ 
ercise groat care when there is the slighest possibility of 
danger. And there are always plenty of people around, 
when a man is drowned, to observe, with a shake of the 
head and a Blight accent of blame, that the unfortunate 
Ydetiru “ ought to have been more careful.” So long as 
the globe is composed two-thirds of water, a certain pro¬ 
portion of its inhabitants will walk off, or fall off, from 
the one-third of dry land; and drown themselves. To 
caution them is of no avail. It would be very wrong, 
hOYvever, to infer that people who are drowned because 
of carelessness are as a rule any more careless than thou¬ 
sands of people who are not drowned. Not a day passes 
but* that scores of people put themselves into positions 
where only the special providence, which is said to watch 
over children, blind men and fools, preserves them among 
the living. 
We may in this connection suggest to the race of 
“ paragraphers ” who have of late years achieved such 
mushroom growth in the American press, that there are 
some things to joke about which displays very poor taste. 
If the witty writer of levities happens to stumble upon 
the report of a drowning accident it is exceedingly out of 
place for him to turn the occurrence into a butt for his 
unholy jesting. 
Antidotes for Rattlesnake Bites.— We have in our 
possession a parcel of a trailing weed, with very fine leaf, 
which was sent to us by mail by our valued correspond¬ 
ent Captain Charles Bendire, of 1st U. S. Cavalry, now 
stationed at Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory. 
Convinced as we are that this humble weed possesses the 
most extraordinary virtues, and that it renders the pos¬ 
sessor of it absolutely invulnerable to the bite of a rattle¬ 
snake, we cannot but regard it with absorbing interest. 
As long ago as we can remember we read of some me¬ 
dicinal herb known to the Indians as a valuable specific, 
and, indeed, there are ancient traditions pointing to the 
same. We are told that rattlesnake weed grows whom¬ 
ever rattlesnakes live, and that a gracious dispensation of 
nature has planted the antidote in juxtaposition with the 
bane; that the instinct of bitten animals carries them to 
the place where the remedy grows, which they eat of and 
are straightway cured. But all these are but mere hints, 
vague and intangible; and the identity and loeum tenens 
of such a magic cure seem to have been equally un¬ 
certain. In India, we know that that active little ani¬ 
mal, the mongoose, has frequent battles with the deadly 
cobra, and that as soon as bitten it hastens to a neighbor¬ 
ing weed, Aristolochia indica, eats thereof, and presently 
returns to a combat in which he is almost invariably vic¬ 
tor without serious personal injury. The fact is snffi- 
ctaitly well authenticated, while the identity of the weed 
has been long established. We have not been so sure of 
the vegetable antidotes in this country, though the Agave 
virgin ica, or false aloe, the nebvlus alba, and Eryngium 
(tijfuatieum, have all been credited with subtle powers. 
There is no doubt that a rattlesnake weed, which would 
cure the bite of the deadly “ Massasauga,” has long been 
known to a limited number of persons. That it has not 
found its way into the materia medicu, may possible lie 
explained On logical principles. That its identity has at 
last, if not heretofore, been fully established by a scien¬ 
tific gentleman most competent to determine, and mpst 
reliable to inform, there can be no doubt of; and that we 
are the happy possessors of some of this wonderful spe¬ 
cific we are equally positive. We will now bring forward 
such proof as we have had furnished us in the letter of 
Captain Bendire which accompanied his precious gift. 
It is dated Foi l Walla Walla, Washingjgn Territory, June 
18th. He says 
“ In a number of your paper, I see where a correspond¬ 
ent asks about the virtues of snakeroot (I presume he has 
reference to Sanguinnea canadensis). I never heard ot 
this plant possessing any virtues; but there is a small 
creeping weed that does, and 1 have b.ad occasion to try 
it myself on a horse bitten by a rattlesnake on the nose. 
I saw the. snake hanging on the horse’s nose myself. An 
Apache Indian whom I had with me, made a poultice of 
this weed, moistening the mass by his own urine and ty- 
ing the mass over the wound shortly afterward. It acted 
like a charm, the horses head swelled scarcely at all, and 
in a few days he was as well as ever. Some of this iden¬ 
tical weed grows on our drill ground, and I enclose sam¬ 
ple. I used to know the scientific name but can’t recall 
it. Dr. George Engelmann, 3,003 Locust Street, St. Louis, 
Mo., one of our best botanists, identified specimens for 
me, Yvhich I brought along at the time from Arizona, 
where the Indians used it in all such eases. A closely 
allied form grows in the Eastern States, and it is possible 
that the specimens I may send yon differ slightly from 
Arizona samples. They look alike, however.” 
Dr. Engelmann has answered our inquiries with the 
following letter, dated 
Editor Forest and Stream 
8t. LOUIS. Mo., July 28,1819. 
Your rattlesnake weed is an Euphorbia, a genus of plants well 
known for the acrid milky juice of all the species. This specimen 
is E uplimbia dturptmp&rma, described by me in The Botany of the 
Mexican and Texas t'. S. Boundary," 1859, page 187. On the top of 
same page I stated that another species, E. cincrascas, was called 
Ycrba tie la Ooloildrinct by the Mexicans and “ believed to be " a 
certaiu ewe for the bite of rattlesnake and other poisonous ani¬ 
mals. 
We have in the eastern parts of the United States several allied 
species with simitar juice, especially Euphorbia maculata and E. 
hi/perrlifoUa. I understand that the names of “ milk purslane," or 
"spurge," or “ spotted spurge," Is given to them East. They are all 
certainly emetic aud purgative, but whelher an effective antidote 
to poisonous bites, is uncertain and rather doubtful. 
Yours truly, 
G. ENGELMAN2T. 
SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 
SIXTH PAPER, 
River Godbopt, Lower St. Lawrence, ) 
tX July, 1879. \ 
Editor Forest and Stream :— 
If this glorious “ Upper Pool ” which I am now casting 
over, were in Central Park, it would of itself constitute an 
attraction sufficient to make the Park famous. Were it 
accessible to any large city, it would make a watering 
place which would be forever popular. Every one of its 
virgin rocks&nd evergreens, and each drop of its pellucid, 
sparkling water, would be an inestimable component of 
the capital stock of a hotel company. 
Of course,while I am casting I am not observing scenery, 
except in a general way. A man’s thoughts must be on 
his business, as more than one good fish may stealthily 
come to his fly and depart while his attention has been 
momentarily diverted. 1 am conscious, however, of most 
congenial and delightful surroundings. I have that feel¬ 
ing of complete content and absence from care, which go 
to make up happiness ; and I presume I am as near perfect 
bliss as it is possible for a man to be on this earth. On a 
previous visit I noted all the features of this charming 
spot. Here is the oval basin at the foot of the mountains 
and the streams tumbling into it through the gorge, with 
a pitch of 60 feet to the 100 yards, leaping wildly over the 
boulders, and tossing up great volumes of foam and spray. 
Opposite is the cliff which abuts the mountain above it. 
On that side the water is very deep, and all that does not 
immediately pass off at the outflow into the rapids below 
is set back in a sweeping eddy, to be returned to the falls 
and again projected down stream. This restless motion, 
this inky hue, portentous of unknown depths, these mys¬ 
terious flecks and splashes of foam, this ceaseless din of 
the pouring, surging billoivs, are the features which ani¬ 
mate the picture and give it a charm to the lover of primi¬ 
tive nature. And this pool is primitive ! No tanbark or 
sawdust beclouding its waters ; no slabs, sidings, pieces of 
broken paddles, worn out baskets, and old straw hats 
drifting about in the eddy! Where I stand is a beach 
formed of pebbles and small boulders which have been 
scooped out from the bottom of the pool by the ice in 
spring, as it grinds and slowly works its way around. At 
highest water it is entirely covered, even to the foot of the 
ledge behind my back. Now it is fully three rods in 
width, shelving gradually into the pool, and projecting a 
long ridge or spit, with deeper water on either side. This 
spit is about midway of the pool, and is a favorite cast, 
though there is a bettor one at the tail of the pool below, 
Here, wading out to my waist, with that comfortable im¬ 
munity from wet which the Goodyear wading pants 
secure, I happened to hang a 13 pound salmon at the v ery 
first cast. It was not a> long cast, hut the fly was well de¬ 
livered, and I saw the fish very distinctly as he rose leis¬ 
urely from the bottom and fastened himself. He rolled 
up, broadside on, and took the fly just as daintily as if it 
had been fed to him with a spoon. The adventure was 
startling, and the issue unexpected by both of us. It took 
the salmon several seconds to comprehend that there was 
trouble : then he ran ! I had already elevated the point of 
my rod well toward the top of the opposite mountain, and 
Yvas prepared for him. 
Elevating the rod makes a yielding arch, which not only 
responds to the slightest strain, but gives you more power 
to hold the fish. You can at the outset discover- whether 
your fi§h be well fastened, or only slightly hooked. If the 
rod be held horizontally, the fish will be played by the 
line alone, of which the gut is the weakest portion; and 
a test at the scales has already shown that it will not 
stand a dead pull of more than six pounds. Well, my fish 
went off across the pool toward the swifter current and 
deeper water with a very pretty run of twenty yards or 
so ; but the tension of the elastic rod made it difficult for 
him, and so he turned with a wide sweep and ran up -the 
