184 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



|Oct. 5. 1888. 



Ashing tackle and oiled our muzzle-loading Billing 

 hursts, and practiced off-hand every mild day, and quite got 

 ourselves in love with Devil Luke' and Sand Lake Without 

 good reason therefor, All throtigli the spring and long, 

 hot SUOlulcr it Wap our One objective point, the stake Eo 

 which wv were' steadily working up, and it came to us. The 

 having of such a heai'ty, healthy object constantly ahead 

 uas, perhaps, worth more-than\ve knew. 



Ai. Inst, on a lint day in early September, we took a packet 

 of the old •■Red Bird line" for BulTalo. Then, the old 

 clumsy propeller Globe for Toledo. And then came, the 

 ride by railroad. The '■Southern Michigan," what there 

 was oi it. and il was not much. Twenty miles of rickety 

 strap rail. One shabby ear. a trifle larger than a wagon, a, 

 six-ton locomotive called the "Rocket? 1 a couple o1 oualnl 

 freight ears, very small. Such was lie- trail] as made up 

 every day on what is now the grand "Southern "Michigan 

 Railway." Just here l want to slate the fact that we had 

 leisure to get off the train and shoot squirrels alongsidi 



oiii 



m the Si 



as a train h: 



and she Inn 



era Miohiea 



-d tin 



All 



-nana 



The 



ck iv, 



! lie 



-ditch, 



owd he 

 "South 



And corning 

 i tailed in the black looki 

 id told us. the engineer had tried to 



2 that with If 



i was a pi, 

 mile ride troni 

 Hudson was slow but full of in- 



frienelly to a fault, more than one 

 farmer offered to board us For. $1.26 per week, if we could 



"put up with his fare." Compare that with the waj sum 



1 i i i' p i.-il and fleeced at popular "resorts" nowa- 

 days, 



At Hudson we. struck a broad-shouldered, rough-looking 

 old gr ngi r, who calmly looked us over in a way we did not 

 like, i thought him rather a backwoods rough — one who, 

 i n. j»hi be I disposed to resent a decent "hat or stQT 



tercet. The people 



ult. I \ 



When he 



) from Roch- 



e-lollies as a persona 



had listened to us a while he came up to n 



startling slap on the back and said, "Yorj cot 



estCTl I inn htittl Syracuse. I've been here ten yei 



iToh jest come 'with me. I live two mile from the lak 

 I've got two tool boys who are just, your style — -\ 

 air hunt all the lime." Ami we submitted to far 

 arid went home with him, and were introduced I 

 Stricken family of wife and eight children, (Alas, that shell 

 a sylvan paradise should be cursed with the plagues of ague. 

 and malarious fevers. But such has been I helot, of inore 

 than one Western Siaie.i A brother could not, have treated 

 us more kindly, lb' offered to board us for jl.gi 



.hi 



r Noyc 



lie 



Cii 



nir, t.a 

 If.lp 



the only 

 If we 

 ild take 

 the and 

 ip. stay 



or as much tegs i we pi 



skill' on the Lake . ive 



wauled to camp, his two 



the team, put. u- on tin bi 

 cut us all the grass v 



with us if wo el o-, -].oi\ us the best hunting and fishing 

 and iu a general way. do all in their power to 

 make our slay a plear-.ure. We accepted the offer thank- 

 fully. Gabetooh us to a marvelous spring, a model eamp- 

 ,i jround. 



1 out just below a stiff layer of blue 

 strong. It was shaded by oaks and 

 of the Quest 1 have ever seen. 

 c missed the hemlock, but we had the 

 iclei blankets and a square sheet of 

 eight feet by ten, well oiled, at d safe 

 my rain. 1 1 was :i pleasant camp, that 



Tli 

 elay, cofd, di 

 shrubs, and v 



In making 



lone mar-ii : 



l-.l IMIIg C01 OS 



for a shelter l 

 on Devil Lak 



And how cheap the living was. How friendly and kind 

 thesettlers And what, sport! Luckily I have" my musty 

 old cheek book ai hand, ,ri »" which 1 .quote prices as fol- 

 lows: ••i/iour. $3. 50 per barrel; pork, mess, -k. per pound; 

 butter, 10c perpotniuj potatoes no sale, given away, eggs, 

 , , i. .ai; tine hams, Uc. per pound; boaid. country 

 hotels, $1.75 to $3 per week: board, among farmers. jfl.SKi 

 per week, or what you like." 



Looking back through the .lira vista of fori 

 seven trips l have made !•> Michigan, 1 rise t, 



from the absence of hemlock, the no 



mount: idthi danger of mal iria, Miehi 



Slate for sport in which 1 have ever camped. 



Wti soon found that it would not do to shoot or fish more 

 than an hum- or two daily. You can't, relish an excellent 

 squirrel soup, or a pigeon stew, or fried fish for breakfast 

 with each and all the animals rotting about camp, and we 

 kepi dur camping ground clean and sweet, and burned all 

 offal, brush, and other debris, and killed no more than we 

 could use. Forty roils below our camp was the beginning 

 of a long marsh, grassy, dry- at that time, and studded with 

 dead nnieiracks. on which the pigeons were constantly 



and tin 



linesf 



pa 



for 



attle- 



slug- 



The 



irders 



•kerel 

 m the 



il deer, were plenty 



man. 



t icing ai the necks of 



We both were fond of fishing, and, let me 

 t that I 



Th: 



ime that there 

 j to the ques 

 i way the que 

 hen the leadh 

 dthe 



stated. 



alighting. The marsh was 

 snakes, or, in the vernacular, mass 

 gish outlet was a hot-bed of the. lai 

 marsh, the outlet, and I he timbered 

 came to be our favorite hunting j. 

 and ducks were abundant in and on 

 bordering dry lands gray, hlaoK a 

 quail ami turkeys, will, a Dt 

 enough to satisfy any reasonable sp 



lUCB liked to hunt the m.o'-h, p 

 ducks und pigeons. 



I chose the uplands. 1 liked to clip the heads of grouse 

 and squirrels, " 

 add. snakes. 



Now, it happened 

 imated discussion gc 

 swallow their young 

 Portsr'i Spfr&of tin- Th 

 of the country, rather fi 



were divided. One or two, with something of national 

 reputation, showed, in a calm, superior way, thai the thing 

 wu-, tire!, improbable: seeoud, unnatural, uucalled for; third, 

 against physical and organized laws, therefore impossible, 

 all of which was convincing, and not to be gainsaid by a. 



f-een backwoodsman of lender years, only it happened that 

 had Been the most, improbable and toughest yarns concern- 

 ing natural history, the first to be verified by actual facts, 



and. I had S the garter-snake, the water-snake and the 



rattlesnake each and all of them swallow their young, and 1 

 said i" will secure a specimen with the young inside of her 

 ;,,-, v,.,v swallowed, and forward the thing to 



Port.r'.- Spirit. That will settle the question for good. 



It has b.-en ,,!-, \|„rieuee through many years that, just, 

 when you particularly want a specimen of natural history, 



that i„'ji'-" the time] sort lay your hands on it. Vance 



and I Bunted the lake, the marsh, the outlet, iu vain. We 

 saw hundreds of water snakes, scores of uiaass.-iv 

 Beeured a dozen sets of rai ties, but , lid not find what we 

 wanted until one hot September forenoon, f being in the 



edge of the grove antl he in the marsh; he suddenly sang 

 out, "Come here, quick; here's your snake swallowing its 

 young ones." [was there in half a minute, and here is 

 what I saw. A large massasauga lying on half a sunken 

 log, tail erect, with a low warning rattle, mouth open, and I 

 was in time to see the hist baby snake disappearing down 

 the motherly throat; then she dropped oil the log and com- 

 menced to disappear among the roots of marsh weeds, 

 shrubs, and rotten wood. 



The chance was not to be lost. I saw nothing better for 

 it, and seized her near the tail. She bung to the weeds like 

 grim death, and I pulled strongly and steadily. 1 thought, 

 the biting end of her had got into a ragged looking break in 

 the tog, and meant to let up OS soon as the head came in 

 sight, ft fame in sight suddenly. It came around the stiff 

 weed stalks like a ll .Ji, .ml strut down on my left hand 

 with a grip I should hardly ha -e expected from' such a light 

 pair of jaws, f took in the situation at a second's notice. 

 1 was "snake-bit." No use to whine or cry out. I took her 

 by the neck, snug up to the head, with thumb and finger of 

 the right hand, and pinched for all 1 was worth. She did 

 not choke off worth a. Cent. Then 1 jerked her loose, tearing 

 the teeth through the flesh and making a wound that bled 

 freely, fn an instant I was sucking the wound with all the 

 strength I could bring to bear, while I held the squirming 

 reptile at arm's length toward Charley Vance, who clipped 

 the head off quietly and neatly. Then' we started slowly for 

 camp, I sucking the wound, and all the time pressing and 

 squeezing the flesh toward the bite, to get out, all the blood 

 and poison possible. When ray mouth was dry as a bone, 

 and I seemed to have exhausted all power of suction, Vance 

 wet, a handful of line cut tobacco and tied it snugly on the 

 wound. Then 1 sat down by the spring in the cool shade 

 and took to pouring a constant stream of cold spring water 

 on the arm and hand, while Vance, under instructions, 

 made a huge poultice of blue clay. The poultice, an inch 

 thick, and large enough to cover the hand aud arm.half way 

 to the elbow, was thickly sprinkled with fine salt, and 

 pressed on. It at once relieved the pain, which was getting 

 .severe. All this look about two hours. Then Vance sug- 

 gested whisky. He assured me thai a quart would not 

 make me drunk, lie had faith in it. 1 had not. Buthc 

 filled a gill (.up with common corn whiskey, which. I drank, 

 and was tight in less than half an hour. 



Then GabeNoyes, who had suddenly played out when I 

 was bitten, came buck with his father, the country doctor, 

 and several sympathetic, neighbors. 



The doctor had a half gallon of whisky and a bottle of 

 sweet oil. It was his notion that 1 ought to drink the wliolc 

 business at once, lie even hinted death in case of refusal. 



I began to see fun in it. I was feeling easier; was aheady 

 half drunk and disposed to joke, L begged off on the 

 ground that I was a little fellow. I only held a pint, and 

 was already half full. The doctor was a solemn man. II 

 there was a point he didn't, see it, 



lie insisted on his whisky and sweet oil, and [finally 

 took a gill cup of whisky, with a layer of oil on (op. 'I 

 thought then, 1 think now" that il was bad medicine. 



As the sun sank slowly down the west 1 lost, all relish for 

 fun. I seemed to feel the steady tramp of death marching 

 slowly from hand to shoulder, from shoulder to heart, and i 

 was sick — sick all over — sick unto death. 



Farmer Noyes looked serious. He sent his son home 

 with the team" and stood by me that painful night. I had 

 faith in the spring, and kept pouring the cold water on arm 

 and hand. Every two hours they made me a fresh elay 

 poultice, increasing the size until at last they reached nearly 

 to the shoulder. 



Just at sundown I was taken With a chill and became 

 numb all over. They made a huge fire. They brought in 

 ray rifle, and the snake. They cut the snake open and 

 counted the young ones — thirteen in all. They remarked 

 on the coincidence that the number of rattles should corres- 

 pond — thirteen rattles. 



It was a miserable night, I was cold, delirious aud sick. 

 1 came lo realize that a snake bite was a rough joke, but, 1 



In the early arav of the morningl. became unable to stand, 

 and felt like 'freezing, Thev made a boutln that threatened 

 to bum the camp. When the sun was fairly up 1 made the 

 spring and commenced to pour cold Water again. 



Then relays, of clay poultices. A cup of the strongest 

 black coffee", a nip Of hot whiskey and a gill of squirrel 

 soup. 



Then, the swelling began to subside. I felt belter. 

 Twenty-four hours after the, bile. I could say I was safe. It 

 had been worse, morepainfut than I should have supposed. 

 It may be that the late of our black or yellow mountain rat- 

 tlesnake is more dangerous than lite bite of the massasauga; 

 and the. bite of the large diamond rattlesnake of the South- 

 ern States, may be slilf more deadly. 1 do not know. The 

 bite of a massasauga is bad enough. 



The second night Was more-endurable. I was no longer 

 delirious and bad no chill--. I slept fairly, lousing up once 

 in about two hours for a fresh poultice. The skin, which 

 had been glossy, with a watery semi-transparent look, began 

 to shrink with a. whitish shriveled appearance. Just three 

 days from the lime i was bitten I was decidedly convales- 

 cent. On the fourth day, just before sundown, I was on 

 in lake fishing. The arm was stiff and swollen, and the 

 fingers somewhat like a row of bologna sausages; but I could 

 rod after a fashion. On the fifth day 



illl 



lilie 



•eaftci 



istedof 



the 



•earn 



Iv washings of hand 

 and arm in strong Urine— salt and water, fu a week 1 was 

 enjoying the old lire well as ever. In six weeks the skin 

 had peeled off nearly to the elbow, and I have never felt any 

 inconvenience since from that little experience, But I found 

 myself a good deal demoralized on serpentoloay. When- 

 ever I stirred up a rattler with his sharp warning whiz, a 

 sort of electric thrill would dart from lingers to heart, and 

 a disposition to start, or jump was irrepressible. It has never 

 left me. I still handle the festive rattler; but I do it with a 

 I imlse and beating heart. 

 Let me add a few words on snake bitesi I have personal 

 knowledge of more (ban fifty eases, aud only know of 

 three deaths, (excepting the ease- of Doctor Wainwright, 

 who being a doctor himself, and in easy call of the doctors 

 in New York, could hardly be expected to reeovir). The 



I,-.,. . alluded to were exceptional In each of the 



cases the blood was healed, the snake was large, and virile, 

 and the Dile was inflicted in a mo,l dangcrou- place. One 

 vi. io.i ..s. bitten iu the neck, the fangs reaching a large 

 artery. One was bitten on the wrist deeply and far from 

 help. The third, a young woman in the western part of 

 Pennsylvania, was bitten while coming off the mountain 

 with a pail of berries in each hand. She dropped her pails, 



fell down, aud was bitten deeply the second time. She died 

 that evening, and was buried before sunrise the next morn- 

 ing, so rapidly had decomposition taken place. 



A young man was bitten near Ansley's last summer, and 

 the treatment resorted to was whisky." He was dead drunk 

 for twenty-four hours, was sick a longtime, and recovered, 

 with the loss of a linger. 



Boy bitten on hand at Lloyds, eighteen miles below here. 

 J wo days before a doctor could be had. Simple remedies 

 WOTS applied; salt, tobacco, cold water, etc. The. lad soon 

 got well. 



Six miles below Lloyds a farm hand, in mowing, cut off 

 about live inches from the biting cud of a large rattlesnake. 

 He seized the piece near the head intending to drop it in a 

 hollow slump. The head turned around and bit him on the 

 thumb. He was already well primed with whisky, and his 

 friends proceeded to fill" him with the same until he was 

 dead drunk. Between the whisky and the poison he had a 

 rough time of it. For days his life was despaired of, but 

 he finally recovered. 



Schoolboy bitten on Long Run. sixteen miles from here. 

 Remedies: Sucking the Wound, pressing out all the poison 

 and blood possible" with salt, cold water, etc.; no whisky. 

 Boy was attending school iu a week thereafter. 



I could give a. score of additional cases but these are 

 enough. They go to prove that, whisky is no antidote to 

 snake poison, at least for one in the habit of drinkhiE'it. 



Perhaps it may not be amiss to offer my own notions of 

 remedies iu case of poisoning by the bites of insects or 

 reptiles. First, if the bite inflicted by a poisonous snake is 

 not severe enough to bleed freely, enlarge the wound by use 

 of the knife. Next, if it be possible, suck the wound 

 thoroughly, pressing the surrounding parts towards the 

 wound. For outward application, 1 believe ammonia to be 

 the best remedy; but it is seldom at hand. Common salt, 

 moistened to a poultice-like consistency, is the next best thing 

 I know. It should cover the wound aud the adjacent flesh 

 to the thickuess of half an inch or more. After three oi 

 four hours, the clay poultice, as before described, and Irt 

 all means keep up 'the pouring of cold water. No man will 

 suffer much or long from a snake bite or scorpion sting who 

 adopts the above treatment, provided the application ba 

 prompt, 



On the Amazon River I found ammonia the one remedy^ 

 in which all had faith. If thai was not at hand, then salt. 

 I knew of many cases there: scorpion, tarantula, coralsnake, 

 and even the deadly swrueilM being included. With the ex- 

 ception of the latter none of them proved fatal. The sting? 

 of the centipede was the most obstinate, and painful, but it 

 would yield to copious applications of ammonia. 



I w T as stung by the common gray scorpion on the Estrada! 

 San Joan, antl in one minute had a handful of wet salt on 

 the wound. It was about equal to a. first-class hornet sting; 

 the promptness of the treatment saved me much pain. 



A physician in the southern part of this State, who has 

 probably treated as many snake bites as any man in America, 

 depends" entirely on, first, enlarging and pressing the wound, 

 second, on pouring cold watei. lie has never lost r < esse of 

 snake poisoning. 



And enough of snakes, poison or otherwise. Nhssmuk. 



BIRD MIGRATION IN THE MISSISSIPPI 

 VALLEY. 



COMPILED FKOM THE X0TF.fi OF WTR. O. WTXOJANN BV 



W. W. CO'JWK. 

 CART 1. 



Editor Forest)/ itrf fftrmri; 



The following notes on the movements of our birds were 

 sent me in daily reports by -Mr. O. Widmann, 4,034 Can 

 delet avenue, sit. Louis, vMo. In gathering them together I 

 have endeavored, as far as possible, to preserve the exact. 

 Words of the author. 



■,.'•. plan lias been to give iu Part. First the general state- 

 ments, and afterward in Fart, Second a tabulated list of the' 

 dates of arrival and departure. The nomenclature is that of 

 tin 1 i.i Smithsonian catalogue. In Part Second the numbers 

 before the name denote iiie order of an ival this, spring. 

 Where several arrived the same day they are given the 

 same number. Yours respectfully, 



W. W. Cooke. 



White Eakth. Minn., June 10, 1SS3. 



St. Louts, Mo.. Feb. 22. WS'i.—Do'r Mr: Tour invita- 

 tion to help in tracing and timing the birds in their migra- 

 tions, 1 accept with enthusiasm, and moinise aid to the 

 lull extent, of mv power. The chapter of migration is the 

 most interesting part of the whole -eieuce of ornithology, 

 hutit cannot be studied to great advantage without the 

 operation of others. 



There seems to be no part of the. globe more appropriate 

 for this particular branch of investigation than the valley of" 

 the Mississippi. Migration has been studied for ages, but 

 the work has never been done systematically, with simulta- 

 neous co-operation, and therefore there has always been I 

 tendency for speculation to step iu where actual observation 

 was lacking. 



Having recorded every bird observed during the last four 

 years. I am aheady in possession of a considerable number 

 of data. Immediately after receipt of your letter I set to 

 work to prepare a list Of what I thought the most interest- 1 

 ing dates, namely, the first (= F.) and last (= L.) days of 

 transient visitors '(== T. V. ). The last (= L. ) days of wii 



Sojourners (== W. S ) and the arrival (= F.) of summer 



jpnrners (= S. S.i. While doing so I found that -u-a ,1 

 not always give a correct insight into the movements of 

 bulk of il species, and I tried to remedy this omission by 

 inserting another date, which I named "X. N. (= numerous 

 and noisy), as it, means the first day when I found the spei 

 numerous, probably the arrival of females, which event can 



Iu studying the migration of birds I think we have to. 

 consider principally the movements of our common, eell 

 known, conspicuous birds, and that the arrival of rare bi 

 is of little value, The dates of arrival of single individuals 

 do not. show much of interest; a lull exponent of i he move- 

 ments of a species is onlv obtained by continuous observa- 

 tion aud repeated report* upon the bird's doings. 



3. 7, '82— Last .year Spring began here on the Itiih of 

 April. This year ft has already set in on the 1st of Mftrcffl 

 The meadows were rich green in February. Maples are 

 covered with flowers. Frogs croak since 3, 1. G 

 pers and butterflies are abroad. Everything is ;el, me, d 

 except the bird life, on which this line spring weather has 

 had little effect. 



3, 10.— There was a perfect standstill in everything from 

 8, 6, till 3, lo. the weather being cool, wet, gloomy, windy. 



