Nov. 16, 1882.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



307 



Tmi Divurara Rod. — The London Tina:* publishes sev- 

 eral lelieis on I!"' wui king of the divining roil. Mr, T, 

 Sherwood Smith, P. S, 8., writing from Bristol, says that 

 E)me yeara ago he was carrying on mining operations in 

 Somersetshire aud liad a workman who professed tlic power 

 of using the "twig." He tested him and found that the 

 I wug certainly turned up sharply between his hands, while 

 in Ins w. Q it 'muds BO sign. On another occasion one of Mr. 

 Smith's men was pointed out as possessed of the power. 

 A. number of hats were placed in a row, and under one of 

 them— known only to Mr. Smith and two seientitie friends 

 wit h him— a number of copper coins. The man was called 

 in, and by means of the twig, identified the right hat. The 

 iGj'i in nt ira. several times repeated, and in mbS i I - 

 with success. Lieutenant Colonel Charles OOckS, in a let- 

 ter written from Moutreux. says that at Cannes and other 

 places on the Riviera certain Italians constantly travel about 

 the country lor the purpose of finding concealed Springs to 

 supply houses "in course of building. Tn place of the usual 

 hazel I wis in use in Cornwall the Italians use a twin f olive. 

 AVhen water is indicated the loop gives slight jerks upward 

 and eventually slowly becomes upright, ami turns toward 

 the breast oE the person operating. Colonel Cocks, gives an 

 instance of the successful employment of the twig, and says 

 (hat he himself has often tried to trace a drniu as a mere 

 matter of curiosity, with invariable' success. He has no 

 doubt whatever of its truth. On the other hand Mr. T. K. 

 Tapb'n, of Milverton, Somersetshire, writing with reference 

 to some successful experiments said to have been made with 

 the twig in a field near Westburv-sub-Mendip, savs that the 

 field in question, though generally surface tlrv, had abund- 

 ance of water below, and he has little doubt, that the spring 

 said to be tapped could have been tapped at any part of the 

 field or even in the adjoining field. The men, no doubt, 

 knew very well that they were practising a joke. The labor- 

 ing men born aud bred in any district, he adds, know well 

 the nature of the land and where water is to be obtained. 

 Capt. D. Bingham, writing from Paris, says that Abbe Para- 

 melle, who died four years ago, possessed' the power of find- 

 ing water, and through it. conferred great benefits in various 

 parts of the country." He wrote a book on ''The Art of Dis- 

 covering Springs,'' in whiehhe describes the merits of the 

 divining rod. The Abbe says Uie rod turns spontaneously in 

 the hands of certain individuals endowed with a tempera- 

 ment of a nature to produce the effect. The movement 

 is determined by fiuids. which escape our perception, such as 

 electricity, magnetism, etc. The rod turns Indifferently 

 over places where there is not the least thread of water a's 

 over those where water is found, and, consequently, it can-- 

 not be depended upon. 



Brris or the "Cotton-Mouth." — Sardis, Miss.. Oct, 31. 

 — In the last, issue of Fokest and Stheavi under the head 

 of •'Co' ton-mouths and Water-mocassins," A'. A.T. certainly 

 gives a good description of a Tennessee cotton-mouth, both 

 as to habits and abiding place. lean call to mind two in- 

 stances where dogs were bitten by cotton-mouth snakes. 

 One ol the dogs was bit ten on the under jaw, and tiled 

 within two hours or less; the other dog was bitten on the" 

 hind leg. and lived about a day anddietHii spasms. I have 

 seen wafer-mocassin- bite dogs and UOt affect the dog more 

 than to cause a slight swelling, which always went aw.iy in 

 a lew hours. Bly nephew one day took his dog Gyp fish- 

 ing with him, ami in his rambles through the wood's from 

 pond lo pond, Gyp came upon a very large cotton-mouth, 

 and being quite an expert at shaking the iusides out of 

 snakes, he did not hesitate to at, once give this cotton-mouth 

 a general shaking up. But I suppose from the size and 

 weight of this old rusty fellow, the dog could not handle 

 him very well. Soon after the tight, the dog showed signs 

 of being sick, and as my nephew valued him very highly, 

 because be was a distant relative of the famous guards-dog 

 at Andersonville, S, 0., during the war. he hastened home 

 to doctor him, thinking the snake had bitten him. The 

 doii's body was terribly swollen for several days, and he 

 finally gait so sick that he could not walk. All the time he 

 was well eared for and nursed. By and by the hair began 

 to come off in a narrow strip, say an inch' wide, ami reach- 

 ing from the left side of the throat, across the back of the 

 neck, down across the right shoulder blade nearly to the 

 belly, After the hair earac oil' the flesh then rotted out 

 nearly to the bone, and din not cure up for several months; 

 aud when it did gel well the new hair was of a reddish color, 

 where, before, it was white. It, was always my belief that 

 Hje"Bhake was so large and heavy that the dog eovldnot 

 raise it, (dear when shaking, and the result, was that one of 

 its fangs must have scratched him from side to side, or ma 

 iw.w. I notice you make me say: "Fishing with net is 

 anything but good." * * * 1 intended to say: "Fishing 

 with »u is any tiling." etc Don't accuse me. of fishing 

 With net.— Davy. 



Mcd-uf.ss £.\t Frsu. — Lincoln, Neb., Nov. 4. — 1 have 

 read "Byrne's" letter in Fokest and Stream, Oct. 26 

 Tastes iri the matter of diet are so varied in the human race 

 that when one man asserts the mud-hen is a palatable bird 

 there is no reason to call in question the assertion, especially 

 so fat as he is concerned. He may enjoy eating them, others 

 do not. But when he claims that the mud-hen is strictly a 



y I i 'I' feeder, he shows that he is a shade "oil"' on fids 

 subject. The mud-hen does feed largely on fish, and 1 think 

 prefers theni io any dirt it ran get. My brother and 1 have 

 watched them for hours swimming about and among our 

 duck decoys in the lake adjacent to Vicksburg, as we sat 

 concealed in our "blinded" skill, and have often seen them 

 emerge from a dive with wriggling minnows in their bills, 

 which Ihey gulped down in short, order aud with apparent 

 gusto. I do not allude to the little "hell-diver." The dif- 

 ference between the two is quite marked, and any intoilu 

 hunter can easily distinguish one from the other at quite a 

 distance away. So far, however, as my own observatioi 

 ex I '"mils, the mud-hen i.s as regular a. feeder upou Bat, bug; 

 an I worms as is the "hell-diver." and 1 doubt if there IS 

 much difference between the two re, an article of diet. Hay- 

 ing thoroughly tried the mud-hen, I would call for "iie.ll 

 diver" if compelled to eat one or the other.— Br h.k H. Polk, 



A Oomjlction of Horns Destroyed.— The studio of 

 Albert Bicrsladt. the artist, was destroyed by lire last week. 

 Of his natural history collection Mr. Bicrsladt said: "The 



nable paintings, but, what 

 i that I made dur- 



studio had in it not only 



. '< 1 



ing ten years in tin- Rocky Mountains of costumes, carvings, 

 implements and paraphernalia of various tribes of Indians. 

 and many objects of a branch of natural history in which I 

 bad deeply interested myself, I had made a stud) of the 

 wild-horned animals of ibis country, and had many speOi- 

 men heads of tie. 1 deer, wapiti, mountain sheep, aud goats, 

 from the time their horns stail io grojv until lb y an- (lie 

 most perfect specimens obtainable. For instance, \ had 

 fourteen pairs of wapiti heads. In the studio also Were a 

 great, number of valuable studies and sketches, together 

 with pictures completed aud incomplete, Aram £ th i ori- 

 osities was a book written by Indians, in their language, and 

 illustrated by them. II told of their wars aud th, pet null 

 exploits of many noted b-.i\ es, and Bitting Bull had written 

 in it a sketch Of himself. It was given me by General Sher- 

 man, who got it in one ol his Indian raids."' 



AOobskhuwi in tug Adirondack*. — Meacham Lake, 

 N. Y., Nov. 9 — A cormorant i(li;t:;ibi< tjib'uhiti Linn,, 

 Gray) was killed to-day by Mr. Fred N. Collins, of New 

 York. Neither the guides nor myself ever saw the bird 

 before and no one knew what it we.-, until we looked over 

 DcKay's "Birds oi New York,' and Jordan's "Manual of 

 Vertebrates," Other waterfowl are plenty her a at 'ernes 

 ami im r Mather naught a little gwtbe pliwtl*) a small ocl and 

 win send it, to Central Pm* -\ B Ft i i 



%m\\e §xg fflfd $w\. 



Open Seasons. — See UihV 1 of 'n pen saiwm for game anil AW/ 

 in mite efJvii/ 30. 



DUCKS BELOW ZERO. 



THE classic Skunk — Chicagua is its more melodious Indian 

 name, but it means just, the same thing — the sometimes 

 erratic and uproarious, sometimes calm and Bjenfle, bill 

 always crooked Skunk, sweeps in a ragged curve about the 

 town of Newton, in the pleasant State of Iowa. V\ est six 

 miles on the C. R. I, &P. road lies the station of Met/., situ- 

 ated on the river bottoms. South twelve miles on the N. <fc 

 M. branch is Reasuor, nho upon the bottom. Between these 

 two points is a distance of perhaps twelve miles, by the way 

 of the river it is probably thirty, Bi sonol which dis- 

 pensation of providence and the railroad companies, Ore 

 morning of the dav before Thanksgivings In 1881. found a 

 friend and myself' m oui boa! ? ai : ig - - gri wr lighl 



enough to start. It was very cold, our 1 . by 



the fingers of tBe frost, find COllld not leak a drop. We 

 shivered under our heavy coats, Far and wide the bottoms 

 were a Sheet of ice, for winter had caught old Skunk "out 

 on a high," though the water was now within I he banks. 

 Ice being on either shore, a id the meager current in the 

 middle looked blue-black and forbidding in the morning 

 light. A cold wind whistled through the trees, and the 

 whole scene was so dismal that it was wilh feelings almost 

 of foreboding that we .-U-pp.d aboard and shoved off, head- 

 ing eastward, where a faint gray sir,-, ,k told of the coming 

 day. Fifteen minutes passed in silence as wc sped down 

 the racing current. Then tt sharp whiz-z greeted our ears, 

 as a soli'ary sp ketai! crossed from the light. We dropped 

 two empty shells in the bottom of the boat. Ami tin duck 

 went, right on; a double miss to begin on. Now an old 

 ■mallard starts from under the willows, bin he comes down 

 dead all over. Two more follow, aud meet, a like fate. 

 Then they start np by the hundreds, from under the. ice, 

 among the willOws, from the dry ground. "Shoot! sbootj" 

 my companion cries, and as fast as lean work the top 

 Snap! comply. Half, our ducks felt on shore, and before 

 we could break through the ledge ot ice many of the crip- 

 ples were lost beyond recovery, sometimes creeping off a 

 hundred feet beneath a sheet ,,f ice, where a man could not 

 follow them. 



We now exchanged places, ami Virgil took tin- bow with 

 both guns, it being our agreement thai but one should ghool 

 at, a time, we no! earing to add auother to the list of acci- 

 dents from caret'-:-: --ii ie :n boats. 



As we rounded a bend, 1 noticed myiriend trying < icati b 

 a sight on a big mallard which we; swimming ahead of him. 

 "Trying to shoot on the water, are yon, bey'.'" said I, "See 

 here — " ".No. I am not. He's dived twice. Hold on! 

 Whoa! Back water! Confound him, th:>rc be goes again!'' 

 and that, duck was never seen again. After several such 

 experiences, We concluded to shoot on sight. With tew ex- 

 ceptions the single ducks would dive instead of living. It 

 was i, hi-, proVOklug. '"get wilhin Uiirty yards of a tine 

 duck, and then, ju-t- as you expect to see him start up to 

 meet an honorable death, see him settle down in the most 

 approved hell-diver style, till his eye just showed above 

 water line, aud then dive to shot. These "sliukers," as we 



called them, were all mallards, though i i.m, -,i-,u , - 



do the same thing. They were nearly all uninjurei so fa: 

 as we could see. Sometime- we would Be lira 



skulling along the. edge of the river si ith thi at leads down. 

 trying to escape notice till they could hide or dive. The 

 day was very cold, ice formed on our oars so thick that we 

 often had to stop and pound it off. aud it struck us that the 

 birds were possibly too numb to fly, or h id their wing tips 

 frozen fast. A friend afterward suggested that these were 

 all crippled birds, driven in by the freeze, but, some of their 

 actions and their numbers precluded that- idea with us, 

 though the shooting had been very heavy thai fall. We set 

 itjdswn to natural cussednesB, Whitl say oiii re* era* 



Meantime, imagine us gliding down the swirling current, 

 between long rows of ice-laden, creaking willows, now run- 

 ning full before the wind, now rounding a, bend to meet a 

 row of whitecaps which dashed an icy spray in our faces; 

 now pulling straight away, now veering quickly to escape a 

 sunken log or projectinc ice ledge. WescaraTy knew our 

 familiar stream in its changi I ometime 



ran through the woods for miles without knowing when- we 

 were. 



The black and angry clouds, the ice fields, the strange 

 sounds in the woods, and the swiftly moving vistas of the 

 §V6r Changing, restless river, made up an ell'eci. which will 



boating with the mercury below zero, ami lie ri el a rrow 

 ing slowly. Would I hiive oliaoge,! ,„y niii-:isi :.,-:, r ",,, M- 

 winter panorama to -hUBl n. ol Uii eie on foot or on 

 horseback, or play any fish beside a summer pool? By no 

 means. Such fascination I have never known. 



ii pas the last day of th o-senaon and all tH« ducks iu &he 

 country were crowded along Qui narrow channel; and no 



one else vv lie . ■ . , .> I, -a or make afraid. 

 ^ Whang' e '■. n i - i n I gol nal old slinker that 



time," said lie Sure enough, we" could sue bis red feet 



paddling in -] ice as he wiinly tried to 



dive, Wa had learned to beiieve ii as ho,,,,. :i I 



,■ | diving ns one flyingi 



At noon wc, landed, si retched our limbs, and ate our frozen 

 lunch. 



We had now nearly as many ducks as we thought it honor- 

 able to lake. I realized that if we would catch the evening 

 train we must hasten. So cautioning Virgil not to shoot 

 any more, I took the oars, and we flew down stream at a 

 lively rate. Running thus for some time in silence, except 

 an occasional -'Port a little! Straight away!" from my 

 companion, I was start lei I by the double report of his gun, 

 followed by the whistle of a flock of mallards as they passed 

 up stream. Two ducks lay stone dead upon the water. 

 "Thought you weren't going to shoot any more," said I. 

 "Well." said he, a little ashamed, "I couldn't help it; the 

 old gun would come up, and I had to hold her, you know." 

 We changed again before long, ami I made a righteous re- 

 solve not to shoot another duck, and allowed several to pass 

 uusaluted. Finally an old drake came shooting along up 

 the river. "It would be a sin," thought. I, "to kill that, 

 cluck, for we have a plenty. Shoot him? No. That's not 

 so easy, though. 1 don't know— I guess— just watch me 

 drop him as he crosses!" Now, is not that fin intense mo- 

 ment, when the gun comes just against the shoulder and the. 

 duck seems glued to the end of the barrel? Every interven- 

 ing object is blotted out: you can see uothiug but the duck; 

 and he falls to the crack of the gun, as if you had struck 

 him dead with a concentrated eye-glance. But alas! alas! 

 for my principles. I had killed another duck! 



We now left both gnus unloaded, and one taking his seat 

 in the stem with thepailtlle. and the other at the' oars, we 

 went ahead in grand style, and in due time reached our 

 journey's end. Here we 1 pulled out our boat and locked 

 her to a tree, but, happening just then to meet a native with 

 a train, wc concluded a badv bargain by which ha was to 

 haul our boat over to the station for the sum of one dollar, 

 the roads being, as he said, powerful bad. 



Virgil started ahead with all the ducks he could carry, 

 and I followed with the rest, together with the guns and 

 coats. At the station we were the wonder of nil observers, 

 there appearing to be a general desire lo see "the two fools 

 who had come all the way from Metz right iu the (lead of 

 winter." We reached homo in good season, having made 

 the rOUnd 'rip in on. day. That night we divided up with 

 several families, and the next day some of our game ap- 

 peared upon tables where, possibly ducks were rarely seen. 



This bum. we thought, paid us well, not so much in the. 

 game as in lhatwi !■ I; we had surprised nature in a now 

 mood — one which she had gotten up for herself and intended 

 no one else should see. It was audacious in ns to tempt her 

 in such a mood ; but in the memories of the day our audacity 

 was rewarded. F. Honon. 



Kewton, Iowa Qfltober 5, 1883. • 



NOVA SCOTIA MOOSE HUNTING. 



riMiriRE is great rejoicing in the camp of the Rod and 



1 Gun Club, for behold, the grand worthy chief of the 

 freu and independent order of moose snarers hath fallen, 

 yea, verily old Alex, surnamed "Piper," who twice before 

 had evaded the toils of the game protectors, has at last fallen 

 into a "snare." and as a consequence thereof has been fined 

 by the "Deacon" $'35 and costs for setting a snare with in- 

 tent to cut rap the king of all our game animals, the moose. 

 And richly the old boy deserves it, for according to his own 

 count he has caught, during his lifetime over eighty moose, 

 and although he has repeatedly been had up before the war- 

 dens he has always managed to evade the law and get off 

 scot, free until this time, so the boys take great credit to 

 themselves. It was considered one of the impossible things 

 to convict old Alex, and his conviction will sirike terror 

 into the hearts of all the other "snarers" of smaller caliber. 



Last winter was a hard one on the moose, the heavy snows 

 and crust in February and March rendered them an easy 

 prey to the "dog hunters," and as a consequence over one 

 hundred moose were killed in this and the ad joining county. 

 The price of hides rau high aud iiiniiv moose were lulled and 

 left in the woods, nothing being taken out but the hide. 

 The writer, while hunting this fall, came upon three skele- 

 tons which had been h-l'l in the woods, and it was quite evi- 

 dent that nothing but the hides had been taken. But so 

 well did the poachers lay their plans, and so stealthy wore 

 they in their movements' that not one conviction followed 

 for "dog bunting" this season. We art' determined t,» stamp 



ii ; Of hunting out, if within the bounds of possibility, 

 and to that, end the game protection society have offered a 

 reward of $20, besides half the fine, for information that 



"' ie i eonviel ing parties hunting with dogs, and passed 



an amendment making it, lawful to destroy dogs found hunt- 

 ing moose. 



I have lately returned from my usual fall trip moose hunt- 

 ing. 1 was oul nine days and bad a first, rale time. I was 

 accompanied by the veteran hunter McQ. On the day ap- 

 pointed MoQ. and T drove to Sunny Brae, eighteen miles, 

 then, packed our stuff seven miles across tin- barrens to the 

 forks of Bryden's Brook, on the west, branch of the St. 

 Mary's River; there we camped, as we expected to get 

 good lishiiig as well us hunting. The evening of the next 

 day after we got to camp was favorable for "calling," so we 

 tried that . We did uot hunt much during the day, as we did 

 not. wish to disturb any game which might be near. About 

 sunset, we repaired to our calling place. On the second call 

 wcg-ol an answer, and could hear the moose quite plainly, 

 but he was la/.y in eomiugup, andjiilthough wc waited till 

 past ten o'clock he did not put in an appearanee; and as 

 the night was cold and we were getting hungry we decided 

 to return to camp. The next day We investigated and found 

 that our moose had conic i:p during the night to within ten 

 feed, of where We bad called but had got the scent, and was 

 off like the wind. It proved to he a young bull, and they in- 

 variably aid thus; they are very shv and timid about coming 

 io a .-all. If they coma Up boldly and they rind an elder 

 brother in possession of the field "they are apt to get a sound 

 thrashing from the old one. Next day being Saturday we 

 determined to goto the river and tish, so taking a light fly rod 

 we started ten the "Cameron pool," about a mile front camp. 



■ IV! ng there-, i got my tackle in working order and on the 

 iii.-i cat i i" uked I wo fine sea, trout. I found the fish very 

 lively; i continued (ishing till lunch time and had landed 

 about three dozen beauties and lost many fine ones for want 

 of a. net. After, lunch, began fishing again And got several 

 more. 



Winn 1 began to lliiuk about, reeling up aud making for 

 camp, f turned round to tell .Mac, who was smoking quietly 

 on the' bank, that I thought it was time to go. when some- 



thing OrOke Cl\e water, which, as [.did not see. it, I took by 



the noise in In- a whale, and away wont the Hue through the 



the reel keeping time at the rate of forty miles 



miliour By this time • I ;!- | ;,,,, that I had hoU 



