126 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



|Seft. 14, 1882. 



THE HEART OF THE WILDERNESS. 



TITTS Immediate region, about Neweomb. Now York, is 

 visitcd only by :i tVw who love lo recreate quietly, :m<l 

 ;i little information as to what is here, arid Wufil can lie seoji 

 and .1. .in . will i.. of iin- real 



For geographical information see any good tnnp of the 

 Adirondack^. I suggesl thai the followim; facts be noticed 

 while the map ia in your bands: First. Newcomb is In the 

 heart of thu ■wUdernosBj second, it is in the region of the 

 headwaters of the Hudson, wlUji'O lakes and streams abound; 

 (bird, i > \ a delightful route with easy carries you can reach 



Long Lake, whence access is easy lo tile 'region ol' the 

 Raqii.tle ami Mho- Moniilain l&lGeS tO the SOUlh, atld the 



Saiaicie region to tlie north. 



We reached Newcomb by railroad to North Creek, where 



we were met by our landlord with a smart team and a 



Cuurlland wagon, who gave us a ride of thirty miles— wild 



enough, cough enough, beautiful enough, and' long enough 



tbeinosl fastidious. There is nothing quite like a 



thirty-mile ride over a mountain road 'The life ol every 

 lover ill nal lire and of e\ery il vspepl n will In forever In- 

 complete without this experience. Such a ride here pays, 

 von gel so mueii i'o!- your money. Besides a good appetite, 

 sore joints and :i hack ae.ie. if Landlord Williams meets 

 you. or any other imported Ver-monter or well-bred native, 



you will learn ii history and hear of the oxploits.of 



famous hunters, not omitting those of himself. Stories you 

 will ha.e in abundance, and good historical one- loo. based 

 upon faeis probable and improbable. Indeed, by a little 

 judicious questioning mn may be pretty well up itt the lore 

 hi the region hy the time your ride ends. Ai the Neweopab 

 House you will have a thoroughly good table, good air and 

 superb views— in a word, you will find enough to eat and 

 enough to do. the two essentials of happiness in this eountrv. 



To ti»- easl ii, b Marcy and bis compeers; to the north the 

 most prominent isSantanoni; to the west, near at hand, is 



Ooodnow. These grand old lords of I lie wilderness you may 

 admire :>- i mi -il on I he pia/va Miid smoke your after dinner 

 pipe, if this ilu s nni satisfy you. bestir yourself and elimb 

 Goodnow. It will lake yon bul an hour and a half, and you 

 will gel the best view for the length of Climb we In ve ever 

 seen." At a distance the monarch ffiarcy lower- in his mag- 

 niliei nei . Mini his subordinates till the huiizon. 'I'o the 

 south you will look down upon a sea of jpruoe tops, an un- 

 broken primitive Eoresl as Far as the eycean reach, Bo much 

 fur mountain scenery, Lakes are abundant. Prom Good- 



now vim c:i ii < rmiil iiine, and si wral others only a fiJW DljloS 

 distant veto cannot see, These are all Inauliful, but Rich 

 and Cafliu lakes excel. We camped a week upon Catlin 

 Lake, and unanimously voted the lake unsurpassed in beauty 

 and unexcelled as a camp eg ground 



How about Ihe sporting? Well, come up in .May or June 

 and you may catch as mnnytroul as you choose. Ai tMa 

 season hrook trout nave left the rapids ard are up stream in 

 the spring boles, and the irout can hardly he beguiled out. of 

 111.- d ip waters. You must fish it yon catch trout in August. 

 One persistent fisherman, however, came in several times 

 with ten pounds caught in the brooks. Huiilimr is good 

 everywhere; in some places you will find game. It depends 

 upon -what you hunt and how nni bunt ii Partridges are 

 plenty. Bears area little scarce this year. N'oi a good year 



for bears. There are a l' I many deer, and if you hire 



guides enough and stick lo il you may In miiv of getting 

 one. Since we came venison has liei n on Ihe lahle regularly, 

 and we have done our share of Ihe providour. LmIci in Ihe 

 season, when the deet will swim, there will be a chance for 

 some good sport. Of course you will lake your chances, 

 If all the guides of Newcomb or any other region would 

 agree nol to slaughter any game, and not to kill the deer 

 early in the season, this game waild soon be abundant. In 

 discriminate killing for the fun of ii ought to be prohibited 

 by public sentiment as well ashy law. The guides have 



this mutter entirely in 'heir own bands, whatever the pen: 



script fath.r- mayenacl at Albany, and if they know what 

 is for their own interest they will protect the game. 



Come in season and yon may ealch fish — Irout. huge and 



small, pickerel, perch oi bullhead, with an occasions] bast 

 We trolled half an hour one day and landed three piukerel 

 which weighed together over seventeen pounds, if you 

 want io gel away from work and rest, out, and allow nature 

 to recreate vur'tired hiain and limbs, collie hilhor. When 

 you have snuffed this ail lor a week you will wonder if you 

 ever had an appetite before, and a live-mile walk will hardly 

 be enough lor exercise. Leave ad your good idol he*, your 



tramp, eai and sleep with neither cans lmr creditors to mo- 

 le-! .a make afraid, slay a month, and go home aged sixteen. 



H. 11 K 

 Newcomb, Essex County, N. Y., Aiiff. AS. 



Put Oct Youk C.vmi'-hilks. -In bis admirable "Guide 

 toMoosehead Lake and Norihern Maine," Mr. Lucius L. 

 Hubbard gives this sound advice: "The attention of camp- 

 ers is earnestly called to the subject oi their camp-fires. Too 

 inui h care cannot beexfirtaseo i" see thai these are thor- 

 oughly p.n K-P.re i , e camps are deserted. The dan 



li-hed I 



•eplii 



side. It should be 

 mp, to apply plenty 

 vhich nearly alwavs 



Br Inflammable mat- 

 i.e.. A-parklurk- 

 ,■ be fanned into life 

 -chief which ensues 



ter. tie, r ienllv lolhedepihof m loot 



ing in this uim-s for day- undetected 



by the nexl wind IIimI blows, and th. 



ni.iN he irreparable, Too much stress cannot he I. .id mi this 



matter. The wriler knows f cases where campers biW< 



tDken the Utmost care. apparently, to leave not a Singh 



live (iniier behind them, and yet ravaging forest fires havt 

 been proved to have originated from their camps. Thou 

 -ands upon thousands of dnllare' worth of timber have heei 



llmsije-hoved; and if we only ivnieinb -r lied in burubu 

 a in. in- In is we do him as much harm as if we btirued hi- 

 BQU3I ii will spur all Conscientious men io nval the forests 

 with perhaps even more coii-idn.ii ion than ihey would their 



own property. ■' !> »" ""'»" privilege we enjoy, of eamp- 

 feng, hunting and fishing on other men's hind, Let us then 

 render back ai least this one duty of putting nut our camp 



tins' 



Old Point Gc-MFC-RT, Va. — There is lino li-hinu: all 

 arOUMd -crabs bv I he millions Ml the whal!'-. Spois and bay 



maekcrei in profusion in the deep water by the Rip Raps a 

 lialf a mile awav. iind -heeoshead and hogfish a few miles 



distant. The angler can hive the befet of sport if he is fond 



of ocean fishing. — Cjiasskiuk, 



M<itui[nl W^tovft. 



SNAKES AND SNAKE BITES. 



I AM like St! 

 I cat 



larling— "I can't get Out." The best 

 ! a week out now and then, watch a 

 lick, put out set-line-, lay myself oul on a nice, camp, and 

 leave il jusi Ms I have fairly got my -woods legs on. 



[tisonenf Kbe mysteries that odd bundlesand packages 

 of toil and trouble should quietlyand silently fasten them- 

 selves on our shoulders Jiisl w Inn we are least able to make 

 a heavy carry, and through no faull or failing of our own. 

 Shall we understand it in tile near future? 



Shall we. ve! f.o.K nude, -laid why a human biped With 



eiMje hrain power can becontenl toexhansta Ufeingraap- 

 e and-grabbing for certain metallic discs, represented by 



philosophy and all thai is' beautiful iii' nature! Ivr.owinsr. 

 loo. IIimI 'be camiol paek m dollar ovei the last cany, and 



ihai the more ho leaves the more it will curse his heirs. And 

 I am frying to moralize on this brightest of September morn- 



gs! (1- my liver all right, 1 wonder?) 



II 1 can't get oul ii i- well to live iii a region where every 

 day brings some ripple of sport or natural history. For six 

 ■ks Ihe berry season has be n "on," and. as the berries 

 are found on the mountains: furthermore, :i- the lively rattler 



found among the hWrj bushes, il follows ihai snak .stories 

 arc in order, and plentiful enough — nakes and stories. On 

 one huckleberry mountain, where toe ground is. or has been, 

 blue with lurries, as many as forty teams have been driven 



ihe ground In -a 'Single day. And siill the lurries are 



•ntv: also ih • snakes. There is uol it da) on which aev- 



d large rattlesnake? ale not brought Off tlie hills, pendant 



mi the iMil-boaids of lumber wagons. Only ihe largesl are 



red in this way. One evening last week thr ifi teams came 



through town thus adorned, One badablgysflow rattler 



hanging from the tail hoard live feet long, fifteen rattles; 



wo rattlers, four and a half and four feet eight 



length, nine 10 twelve rail lis respectively; another, 



•■in; from town With a jolly party of six, had a 



poor show of beriics bul three iMltlesiiMkcs lunging front 



the counter, all black QnCB, and none over four feet in length. 



The party claimed lo have found B '■den." They told stories 



of narrow escapes. They tried to run their yarns on me. I 



advised them to start a soap factory; they could icet their 



grease from fal rattle uakos, and it wouldii'1 cosl 'em a cent. 



for lye. So far 00 one ha- been bitten, Hut as we average 



One case .of suttlce bite per annum in thifi county, 1 am only 



wailing for lln.next victim. And i.-n I it strange that men 



are bitten in New fork bypet'snakes and either die or 



conic \ery near it. while men an- 1 »■ 1 1 ■ ■ 1 1 Under a blazing sun 



on hot barrens, far away from medical aid. and always 

 recover, without the loss of 8 linger? 



Perhaps I am aboui the only correspondent of PoapsT 

 ami Stream who ha- ever qeeu fairly, squarely and deeply 

 bitten bj B full-grown, he.dliiy rattlesnake. 



And because Of this; and boi : use. taking my own notions 

 of tie.-ituieiii in -mil m case, ! was rowing and fishing- os 

 Devil Lake four d.-.vs Ihere.dter; and for Unit 1 have taken 

 a niorelivelv intecesl in Ihe serpent tribe than in any other 

 branch of natural history from myyouthup,] propose, at 

 an cMily day, to wrile an arlii le for IToRfiST ami Stream 

 on snakes. * 



\lv ol-.-ervalions extend from ilinncsola to Maine; from 

 SI. Louis on Ihe Mississippi, to Santarein on Ihe Amazon 

 (or Madeira). And 1 have not seen a tithe of the poisonous 

 snakes thai int'esi this earth. But, 80 far as I have seen and 

 known; tm$y speak. Perhaps lean give a useful hint to 



someone v. ho has Cooled away legs tittM such matters tluili 



i have 



P. H.— I am almost, ashamed to say Ihai. while we can 

 hold our own on copperheads and rattlesnakes, we are fear- 

 fully deficient on thai grandest of ophidians, the terrible 

 hooper It is no fault of ours. It is owing to the unfortu- 

 nate conformation of the country. Our society, the "Natu- 

 ral Naturalists." have sttidiejUhis question deeply, painfully. 

 We have sought in vain. We have offered a reward of $100,- 

 llilii (in ten centennial inslalnu nisi for a genuine hoopsnake, 



but there i- no response. We do woaderai this. When 



the Smithsonian Institution, backed by the Cmited States 



Cm. ■rum. nl and whal small change is l'el'1 in the Treasury, 

 cannot obtain a simple, common specimen of natural history, 

 is ii likely thai a village society in the backwoods is going 

 iii succeed? 



At our June meeting our scientist. B. Sickle, was deputed 

 to collect all possible information regarding the hoopsnake, 

 to-add. his own deductions as an engineer, and to report al 

 the August meeting. I append hi- n pott, (I .aiirht to add 

 thai B, Sickle handle- ihe heavy coal train that comes down 



the uuiain every day from Antrim lo Well.-horo, with 



from Id to 80 heavily laden coal dumps. That, in icy, .slip- 

 pery weailer la- always Comes through safely; and that the 

 ••coinpanv" give him credit for sound sense.) 1 will say 



again thatlliave known him for years, and will put his 



pl.iin h..r-e-.n-e ftgniDBl all Ihe false, linniken notions ol 



college boysi which the sum I saw enough of in the "Scion 

 lili.i iinimission" lioin ••Cornell rnivelsity" in 1«70 On the 

 Ania/on Kiver. 



i:i eoi:r OF B. so ;.i i. 

 T.,t/„ thetetojrfmtwtd Yttotratitts, WeU&boro, Pa.: 



[have to report on hoopsnakes. First. Logic is logic. 

 Th,re ip not. and never can he. a hoopsnake. No such 

 reptile can or could ever make headway on any possible 



ground A shnple, self-moving circle, is hnpossihle on 

 smooth surfaces A bicycle gbes along by stiff, unbending 

 rims, m balance bar, two cranks moved by a muscular rider. 



who niusl have practice Mild skill, and he must have a gra 

 dieni not exceeding twenty d igrees, with smooth, hard sur- 

 face, A]-,, hi rattsl hMVe a r-inall -bin win el. or he cannot. 

 WJ at all. 



Second. The Im -vole cannot go in a clover field, nor ill a 

 common pasture. HOT even on a village lawn. On a moun- 

 tain side or on a pi;iirie even, vou cannot roll an iron bOQp 

 two rods An iron hoop is stiff, bul you nui-i give il an 

 impetus to make ii mil. Then, it will only go on a hard, 

 smoolh surface Where is your balance .and impetus Oil the 

 hooper? Wlnre is your rider, balance liar and slern wheel? 

 And a snake i- limber— pliable. Even if he could go, where 

 is the motive power." 



Third. Supposiug such an impossibility possible.it would 

 call for a c.unti v -niooih as a lioor. with a down grade to 



every poinl of the compass, ortbereptfle could never make 

 a start. 



Fourth. Il is aijiieslion for fool.-, and not worth the no- 

 tice ..I' mii» man wh.. undersinnds ihe first principles of nam 

 ral philosophj 



Fifth. If the society has any more such fool questions to 

 ask, please propound" them to my Chinese chore boy, Ling 

 Set. B". Biokle, 



S.i.niia I., ihe Wellshoio NMlnral Naluralisls. 



P. S. — Your Mani Ie< ■correspondent. -S E. B.,"apenks<M 



a mysterious snake which he killed at Weel Branch, Mich.. 

 "resembling an adder, bul having a hard, sharp irorn at the 

 end of the tall," etc. Vou add, in a foot nolo, "We cannot 

 say whal. the snake was from the description. * * There 

 is no snake which has a Bting in its tail nor in its tongue, as 

 some persons imagine." Vou are right. But you ought to 

 recognize the reptile at a word. Jl is the milk snake. 

 timiuS; one of the smoothest. liMiidsoine>l. mo-i 

 harmless of all the ophidians. All mature maleaof this spe- 

 cies have a hard, horny spike at the end of the tail. An old 

 male will -often have a double spike, each branch about an 

 inch long, and guite sharp, hard, and bony. They have a 

 trick of vibrating the tail when frightened or angered, jus! 

 like a rattlesnake. This, among dry leaves Or graSa, makes 

 m whi/yin..' n.iis,., that is apt lo ho rather suggestive to a 

 neophyte. It means nothing that I could ever see. 



1 happened lo catch a fine 3pepi n some four weeks ago 



(single spike). I carried him home, measured him as well 

 as I could, tormented him to madness, and then took him 

 into the shanty and suffered him to bite mi- on the back of 

 the hand and" arm until he was lired of il. Although a 

 good-sized specimen, he could not draw blood one bile in 

 three, and all his best bitimr did mil raise half as much in- 

 flammation as a single bite trom Ihe North Wood-, black fly. 

 He measured ihrco'fcot ten inches. 



If Fokkst ami BTRBAM would Ihitik a .-peeiimai or O,,/,/- 

 .. Worth the trouble, I dare say I could send one 

 before the seaspn closes— probably a double spike, pretty 

 certainly a single one. and alive. 



In closing, 1 rise to say I have, no prejudice alien I the ser- 

 pent tribe. One and all. they embody liogarih's lines of -<r 

 pontine grace and heauiv. They area persecuted face, and 



they are useful. " ' 



I have voluntarily tak.-n iiii.s from iln largcal specimens 

 of the garter-snake, the green-srjake, watw-snake, black- 

 snake! ' He was a huge, dirty-looking fellow: .and mad as a 

 hornet; he bit savagely, and hung on like a terrier; but his 

 bite was harude-s. f have a petlclWit, for testing the bites 

 of alt innocuous serpents; aid of the scores of bites which 



1 have taken volunlMiilv. I can testify thai no one caused as 

 much pain or inllauiinalion as the single bile of a black llv. 

 As to Ihe bite 1 got from a raiilesieike. perhaps you will 

 agree with mv friends, who ask, with super-human humor. 

 "Did the -nake live? What did they want a doctor for— 

 the snake:" etc . etc. 



Well, the snake turned out to be Hie only one of that party 

 who n,,iled adoctor. Ni:ss\iik. 



Wellsbouo, Pennsylvania, Sept., 18H2. 



The man who should read a daily paper in front of a map 

 of the world and mark, on it every point of interest a- In- 

 reads, would soon find himself educated-, and also ibid his 

 map had disappeared in a bed of chalk. There is hardly a 

 spot on the earth that would not be brought under his eye, 

 and the simple record of lads thus gathered as the world 

 moves on would show what it. really is— one great source 

 and one great reservoir of human knowledge. It. is this 

 chara, leri.-lic which makes die KoKksT ami STREAM, aside 

 (mm sporting mailers, a mo-l valuable record of the true 

 phenomena Of organic life. The grqat beauty lies in the 



simple story of whal isseenand >U-m- in ihe wood- and on 

 the water, and sometimes in that, element now grave and 

 now humorous and gav, am! pardonable if the coloring is 

 brilliant without distorting facts. Another thing is, what a 

 man writes under his own signature will not often be "ap- 

 propriated" by hook compilers as their own,. or credited in 

 .some obscure corner seldom s'rn. There is also amusement 

 continually Dropping out. marks of Ignorance in high life 

 we should' hardly expect. One of the most common is dis- 

 belief in whal oiio man of veracity lias ^-n and done, while 

 the other has had no such experiences. I once hoard the 

 president of a BOurishing club room den v. as false and in- 

 credible, what your kennel editor had seen and done, and 

 which your humble servant oould swi ar to, 



Borne thirty years ago, in October. 1 unwittingly killed a 

 blacksnake eighl \\-'\ long (the black racer), from whose 

 stomach 1 look seven red "squirrels 1 say unwittingly, be- 

 cause, like the Irishman. "I saw a head -licking out ol a 

 woodpile and hit it.' - The "original" Spriutjjifid It.-/,,,/,!/: 

 eon published dimensions and contents, which were copied 

 into the New York Journal of Qmmu m . The nesl Jowyivi 

 contained the announcement from some "parlor naiurnlist' - 



that it WAS contrary lo the nature of coluhci lo eat. BO much-, 

 and would liny plea-e a-k ihe l!< jmhlicn}) to shorten the tale 

 of squirrels by six. 1 replied that the request could nol he 

 for a moment entertained, but for his especial edification I 



would state a be ! generally known, that the blacksnake, 



before retiring to winter quarters, lays in a stock of provi- 

 sion, squirrels, mice and frogs, provided he Can catch them. 

 In the present instance the -nake was OS Stupid as a piece Of 

 cable, and could have taken the sipiinels only by fascina- 

 tion, a- all ihe oirouinsiMnces indicated. II. 



A correspondent sends in this clipping from an article 

 which appeared originally, we believe, in tin Brotfclyn 

 Eagle: "Vou have beard of hoopsnakes-'" "Yes, oflen." 

 •Must so rs'ot long ago we heard a fearful row in I he cellar 

 one night, it sounded like a rock blast, and then there wis 



i. , i him '-s were quiet. When 1 looked in the inoru- 



ine the eider barrel had busted, lint, we didn't lose much 

 eider.'' "Ilou did \ ou -a\ e il '.'" "II. seems that the slaves 



had busted out, but Before they could get ;1W -' V l "'"' '""T- 

 snakes coiled around ihe battel and tightened up and held 

 it together until we drew it oil in bottles. That's the way 

 we found 'em, and we've kept them around the house ever 

 since. We are training them for shawl straps ndw. Does 

 that strike you for an item?" "Kaiinniously. " we replied 



Fool' of ScviiKows.— Washington, 1). ('., Sept. 7.— On 

 September 5 1 noticed one of several Anglo-American spar 

 rows apparently huhttog for something to eat, on the east 

 side north of X street opp -il. to No. l.:!ll. with a grub or 

 caterpillar hanging from hi- bill. lie stood till I came 

 within three feet of him. .ind when I slopped to look at this, 

 to me absolutely new sight, he moved only eie.nl or ion 

 feel, and then withsonie little difficulty sw..llowod Ilu- -; uh. 



Th. others were apparently hunting undo, the shade in es 

 for the same food, so 1 am satisfied that this iui| opular lit- 

 tle, mitddler will sometimes eat worms from our shade Irees. 

 All justice be .Ion.- hint. -M. c. Meigs 



