810 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural 
History, Fish culture, the Protection op Game, Preserva¬ 
tion of Forests, and the Inculcation in Men and Women of 
a Healthy Interest in Out-Door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
—AT— 
NO. Ill FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 
[Post Office Box 2832.1 
TERMS, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR, STRICTLY IN ADVANCE. 
Advertising Bates. 
Inside pages, nonparicl type, 25 cents per lino; outside page, 40 
cents. Special rates lor three, six and twelve months. Notices In 
editorial column, 50 cents per line—eight words to the line, and 
twelve lines to one inch. 
Advertisements should ho sent In hy Saturday of each week, if 
possible, , . 
All transient advertisements must be aocompanled with the 
money or they will not he inserted. 
j\'o advertisement or business notice of an immoral character 
tflll bo received on any terms. 
**»Anvpublisherinsertingourprospectusa8 above onetime, with 
brief editorial notice calling attention tliereto,and sending marked 
c*py to us, will receive the Forest and Stream for one year. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1879. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, lntendedforpubllcatlon, must be 
accompanied with real name of the writer as aguaranty of good 
faith and be addressed to Forest and Stream Publihhxnq Com¬ 
pany. Names will not be published if objection be made. Anony¬ 
mous communications will not be regarded. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Secretaries of Clubs and Associations areurged to favor ua wtih 
brief notes of their movements and transactions. 
Nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 
may not be read with propriety In the home circle. 
a We cannot be rcsponslbleforderellctlon of mail servlcoif money 
romited to us is lost. 
jay Trade supplied by American News Company. 
Autumn Flowers. —Ouv chief editor pirouetted into 
hia sanctum two days ago with his face beaming, and 
wearing a pretty button-hole sprig of open air llowers 
which he had plucked from his garden on the 11th day of 
November. One blossom was a monthly rose, diminu¬ 
tive, it is true, and pinched by the cold, but still fragrant; 
the other a sprig of cerulean larkspur. Very pretty ! but 
who will accept these as infallible tokens of ethereal 
mildness for the “ ’ember” days to come ? Shall, we not 
rather mistrust tlieir enchanting odors and captivating 
colors for siren devices to lure us into wayside paths, cer¬ 
tain to be obliterated soon by driving snows? Or shall 
we prefer to consider them as poor foolish things, which 
either have the hardihood to brave the rigors of the 
frost-grip, or who do not know enough to come in out of 
the cold? Either way, we are not to bo humbugged ! 
When we go out into the field, or down by the sea, we 
shall take our warmest woollens and our most impervious 
rubbers all the same as if to-morrow were to he Arctic 
weather, with the Polar light snapping in the frosty air, 
instead of the lingering, unseasonable, almost summer 
weather which is now intruding upon the domain and 
prerogatives of December. Let sportsmen all be careful 
to wear sufficient clothing and avoid exposure. - 
Swindlers. —We regret exceedingly that the advertise¬ 
ment of a party of land swindlers should have found its 
way into our columns. But we were only one of some 
eight hundred papers which inserted the schemes of the 
Denver Land Company, the originators of which having- 
turned out to be frauds have been promptly caged in jail. 
We hope this notice may not be too late to prevent, in a 
measure at least, our readers from replying to the adver¬ 
tisement. It is impossible for editors to always discrimi¬ 
nate, and in this particular case, we were-deceived by 
what was speciously represented to be straight. 
—The young Ladies Classical and Bible College Bing- 
iiamton, New York, is making arrangements for the free 
home and education of one hundred more approved can¬ 
didates for missionary and temperance work, and for the 
daughters of deceased and disabled pastors, missionaries 
and evangelists. The curriculum consists of a regular 
course at the Binghamton College witli an added course of 
theology, medioine and music. 
—Fifteen years ago there were only 2,000 miles of sub¬ 
marine, cable in existence, and that was of a very im¬ 
perfect nature. There are at this day about 66,000 miles 
of submarine cable, representing a capital of $125,000,000 
or about two-thirds of the cost of the land line. 
^POISONED ARROW HEADS. 
M OST savage tribes who have used the bow and ar¬ 
row have used poison upon their arrow heads. 
These poisons are of the most deadly nature, causing 
almost immediate death to the human foe or wild beast 
Btruck, Such implements were not used for the capture 
of game to be eaten, but in warfare against man and nox¬ 
ious beasts, the arrow heads being so slightly affixed to 
the shafts that they were easily detached and remained in 
the body of the victim: while the heads of the hunting 
arrows, on the contrary, were securely fastened and could 
be drawn out with the shaft. 
The secret of compounding these poisons has long been 
a baffling study among chemists. The most skillful ex¬ 
pert has as yet failed to analyze them : nor can the com¬ 
position of their ingredients or their preparation be 
learned from the rude men who possess the secret. There 
is something very suggestive in the possession by savage 
men of methods at which science cannot attato. Whether 
these poisons were discovered by seeming accident, as so 
many of the inventions and appliances of civilization 
have been, or whether they were the fruit of savage sag¬ 
acity and intimate knowledge of nature’s secrets, is at 
present a matter of conjecture, In either ease, a study 
of the subject of arrow toxicology is interesting and in¬ 
structive, 
Among the best known of these preparations are the 
Urari, of South America, the Upas poison obtained from 
a tree, Anti arts toxicana, in the East: and the horrible 
fluid employed by the Narringeyis, of the lower Murray 
District of Australia, which consists of a preparation 
made from decomposing human bodies. 
The Urari poison is prepared from the bark of a woody 
vine or liana, growing in the Guianas and the valley of 
the Amazons. This vine, the StrychnOs toxifera, is 
closely related to the plants from which are prepared the 
well-known drugs strychnine, hux vomica and brucia. 
The arrow poison, though the deadliest of known blood 
poisons, may be swallowed without serious inconvenience, 
thus resembling the animal rather than the vegetable 
poisons. Hence it was for a long time supposed that it 
derived its properties from the serpent venom and the 
stinging ants, used by tbe Indians in compounding it. 
Sir Richard Schomburgh prepared it by concentrating 
an infusion of tbe bark collected in his presence, thus 
proving beyond a doubt its true origin ; the poison thus 
prepared, though n%t sufficiently concentrated, killed a 
fowl in twenty-seven minutes. 
The peculiar properties of the Urari poison are due 
to the presence of the Alkaloid Urari poison or 
Curaiin, discovered hy Boussignault in 1828, but first 
produced in a pure crystalized state by Dr. Preyer, 
of Bonn, in 1S65. Many eminent physiologists have 
studied its effects but their experiments have not 
yet dispelled the mystery which lias always attended 
it. It appears to act upon the muscles, causing death 
by paralyzing the heart or the muscles of respiration. 
Animals on receiving it into their blood soon fall in a 
stupor, the pulse becomes strong and rapid, the breath 
hard and accelerated, the muscles after a convulsive mo¬ 
tion are paralyzed, the body becomes cold and death en- 
suesin five to thirty minutes according to the size of the 
animal and the strength of the poison. According to the 
experiments of M. Goudot birds seem most susceptible to 
its effects, then mammals, then reptiles. The experi¬ 
ments of Prof. Wm. North Rico, made in connection with 
last summer’s work of the United States Fish Commis¬ 
sion, show that mollusks are not in the least affected 
by it, 
Urari has been employed in medicine as a specific for 
epilepsy, but the success of the experiments was not such 
as to commend its general use. We have frequently Been 
it used to paralyse a frog, preparatory to placing it under 
the lecturer’s microscope to demonstrate the circulation 
of the blood. 
The Indian arrow poison is known by various names; 
that prepared on the Orinoco as Urari or Curari, that from 
the Guianas as Urali, that from the Amazons as Ticunas. 
The usage of different writers and the interchange of r 
and l, practised by the South American Indians have 
given rise to multitudinous variations, such as Urari, 
Woorari, Woorara, Oorara, Urali Wourali, Ulari, Curare, 
Curari, and Yoorari. Some fixed orthography seems em¬ 
inently desirable, and Urari seems to havo the sanction of 
the best authorities. 
Below is given an account of the mode of preparation 
in the words of Charles Waterton, who early in the pre¬ 
sent century made a long and perilous journey into the 
interior of Guiana, expressly to collect the poison. Those 
-who are interested in a fuller account of the poison, its 
use and its effects, should not fail to read that most fas¬ 
cinating of all books of travel, “ Waterton’s Wanderings 
in South America — 
Wien the MrooubIu Indian prepares bis poison, lie 
scrapes the Wourali Vine, and a bitter root into their 
shavings, and puts them into a kind of colander made of 
leaves; this he holds over an earthen pot, and pours 
water on the shavings; the liquor which comes through 
has the appearance of coffee. When a sufficient quantity 
lias been procured the shavings are thrown aside. He 
then bruises some bulbous stalks which he lias gathered, 
and squeezes a proportionate quantity of their juice 
through liis hands into the pot. Then the pounded fangs 
of the Labarri and the Counacouchi snakes are added, 
a quantity of the strongest Indian pepper and of two 
species of ants are thrown into it. It is then placed on a 
slow fise, and as it boils more of the juice of the Wourali 
is added, according as it may be found neccessary, and 
the scum is taken off with a leaf ; it remains on the fire 
till reduced to a thick syrup of a deep brown color. As 
soon as it has arrived at this state a few arrows are 
poisoned with it, to try its strength. Tf it answers the 
expectations, it is poured out into a calabash, or little 
pot of Indian manufacture, which is carefully covered 
with a couple of leaves, and over them a piece of deer’s 
skin, tied round with a cord. They keep it in the most 
dry part of the hut: and from time to time suspend it 
over the fire to counteract the effects of dampness. 
It is interesting to know that some of the identical 
poison collected by Waterton in Guiana in 1818 was 
in existence in London, in good condition in 1864. 
Three Fatal Gun Accidents.— We might say thirty, 
and even more, did we industriously gather all that ap¬ 
pear in the newspapers. But we do not publish all that 
come under our notice. The list would become monoto¬ 
nous. There is a curious similarity between these cas¬ 
ualties. Of the three which came to us by one morning’s 
mail last week, no one is novel. Here they are : George 
Brake, the well-known St. Clair flats hunter and fisher¬ 
man, was instantly killed. He had loaded two guns and 
laid them upon the dock, muzzles pointing outward ; 
then jumping into his boat he tried to pull the guns in 
after him, catching them hy the muzzle. The hammer 
of one guri caught on the dook in a way to raise it just 
enough to explode the cap and discharge the load, which 
entered Brake’s abdomen, killing him instantly. 
This style of pulling a gun into a boat has caused a 
hundred deaths. One would think that a veteran gun¬ 
ner would know better than to handle his firearms in 
that way. 
The second was a case of “thought it wasn’t loaded 
and like all accidents of this particular kind was pecu¬ 
liarly distressing. Joseph Zengerle, of Germania, Pa,, 
tried one barrol of a double-barrelled gun, and without 
testing the other ban-el gave the gun to a little hoy to 
play with. The boy pointed it at Zengerle, snapped the 
trigger of the empty barrel, then the other one. The 
charge of fine shot lodged in the victim’s abdomen, and 
in two hours Mr. Zengerle was a dead man. This death 
was due to a violation of a gunning rule which is imper¬ 
ative and absolute, namely, “ Never under any circum¬ 
stances whatever point a gun at a Iranian being.” 
The precise nature of the third accident cannot he de¬ 
termined. Upon the opening day in New Jersey scores 
and scores of men went to the Orange Mountains. That 
morning reports of the guns were heard every minute, 
and the farmers were afraid to go into the fields. Mr. 
A. R. Hubbard, a resident of Montclair, was discovered 
dead in an orchard some four miles northwest of that town. 
His dog, a beautiful setter, was stretched across the body, 
and remained there during the five hours between the 
discovery and the arrival of the county physician, whin¬ 
ing piteously and allowing no one to touch his master’s 
corpse. The deceased had a terrible wound in the breast ; 
one barrel of his gun was discharged: the other-was loaded 
and the hammer at full cook. County Physician Hewlitt 
inferred that Mr. Hubbard must have been dragging the 
gun hy the muzzle through the underbrush, and that the 
hammer caught and so exploded it. Others reasoned that 
the death had been caused hy the random discharge of 
some other gun in the vicinity. 
Nothing is more ridiculous than the conduct of the 
sapient individual who always turns up just after a dis¬ 
tressing accident to shrug his shoulders, cock his eye, and 
exclaim: “He ought ’er ’a been more careful.” We 
shall not follow his example. 
Antlers for Club Rooms.— An old hunter in the Far 
West has consigned to ns a lot of horns which he wishes 
to dispose of. We do not covet this kind of commission. 
However, we will do what we can for our friend, and, 
therefore, state to such game clubs as have meeting 
rooms, that a no more attractive ornament for their 
headquarters can he foiuid than a handsome pair of horns. 
The consignment comprises six pairs of elk horns, one 
of them extra large, a pah- of mountain sheep horns, and 
a pair of moose antlers, the latter, being from Washington 
Territory, are a curiosity. We have put a price of $15 per 
pair upon each set, all around (except the big elk horns, 
which we appraise at $25,) and will deliver them to order 
within a reasonable distance, express charges paid. The 
large horns measure fifty inches from burr to tip, around 
the outside, and 39] inches across the widest span. 
A Monument TO Adam. —The Rev. Thomas K. Beech 
er, of Elmira, N. Y., recently held in a discourse that if 
Elmira was not the Garden of Eden it at least deserved 
to have been. Mark Twain, who once wept at Adam’s 
tomb, and whose summer residence is at Elmira, coin¬ 
cided with Dr. Beecher, and the two originated the proj¬ 
ect of erecting a monument to the great progenitor of the 
human race. It is to be a marble shaft seventy-five feet 
high, and is to cost $35,000. Among the subscribers are 
Frank C. Hall, ex-Mayor Arnot, D. C. Robinson, the Gov¬ 
ernor’s son ; the Hon. Seymour.Doxter, Mark Twain, Mr. 
