246 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Ootomb 27 1881. 



escnpe of water in the event of ihe upper darn being unable 

 to withstand the pressure. Ho h these dims are covered 

 with a dense growth i f gra=s and hushes. Bait said the 

 upper one Wis an old one'when he ti at saw it, some fifteen 

 years aao. Under each of the>e«ecaug t some fine trout. 

 Our tent was pitched a little hack from the river and about 

 two and a half miles above 'he uppermost of the chain of 

 ponds in Maine. Here five consi liable po. d*, and several 

 minor ones, miy he struck wit in a ciicimiference of a mile, 

 namely: Arno d. Crosby. M losehorn, Horseshoe and Haihau 

 B >ir. All a ound with trout, wh le Arnold and Crosby con- 

 tain 'unite. Tin- wuiers of a'l u ile and form the principal 

 tributary of the chain i f ponds. In rear • f our camp stands 

 the finest urani e ledge we have ever seen. Near the edge 

 Assures extend to a depth of twenty to thirty feet, with 

 Biuooth perpendicular sides God help ihe fisher — or anv 

 other man — who shoul.i fad into one of th se fl sure-*. Un- 

 aided, his chances of 06cai e would be small, aud he would 

 be provided with a sarcopbagm not made will] hmids. 



At night two of us ligged up a j ack-lignt and went back to 

 the bog The night was warm and perlecily still. The hoot 

 of the owl and Ihe alarm signal "f the beaver were the on y 

 s Minds. We had never lie.nl the beaver before, and when 

 the alarm was given hi elo-e tha* the wa'cr almost Splashed 

 over us, it caused a shiver in I he back and our hand took a 

 tighter gra-p of the lifle. li is given by slapping tbe tail 

 paddle like on the water, aud the sound is similar to that of 

 a twenty-pound st- ne stone thro «n into deep water. On our 

 return we heard a large moose walking through the marsh el se 

 by, occasionally Stopping 10 feed or r. c tfntoftie. It kept just 

 within the edg of tbe timber, aud although we remained per- 

 fectly mo ionless.aud were for len minutes vithinonr hundred 

 feet, we faded to get a sight of it. We tried for two irigliia 

 more to get a shot at it, but without success. On nearly 

 every stream moose tracks were seen in which the water 

 was still muddy. Sev. ral deer were also seen, one a very 

 large buck, wiih antlers seven or eight pronged. One of our 

 party wa' within shouting distance, and r used the Big 'it of 

 his rifle to three hundred yards. AlVrsvard he managed to 

 get some bushes between them and got within sixty yards, 

 when he fired, forgetting to lower the sight. He then fired 

 a s cond shot, the buck in each case merely looking r uml at 

 the crack of the rid-. A (bird shot must have touched his, 

 ear, for, giving his head a savage 8'iake, be started for the 

 timber. The same day this pany had a bead drawn on an- 

 other buck, standing in a tarn irack grove, and lost his shot 

 by waiting for him to come out into Ihe open, which he 

 didn't. 



Trout in the vicinity of our camp were abundant. On the 

 last evening Ball look out over thirty in a few minu'es with 

 the fly, without moving the position of his boat. Our sup- 

 ply of bread and pork being exhausted, we took our back 

 ttack on the 22d, making Uvj distance from the head of the 

 Haitian Bug t< i the Spider in four hours, and reaching the 

 Chandiere at ten o'clock the same night, feeling that we had 

 exercise enough for one day, and next morning at 9.-30 

 were back in Sherbrook». We shot some beautiful speci- 

 mens of the Canada grouse on our return trip. To any one 

 wishing to make this trip we would recommend our guide, 

 S. D. Ball, whose post office add i est) is Agnes Lake, Megan- 

 tic, P. Q. He charges two dollars per day. He has a per- 

 fect knowledge of the country, and can always lay one on 

 good hunting and fishing. The trout on all these ponds take 

 tne fly well, and there is plenty of large game, the open 

 season for which, in this Province, is from September 1 to 

 February 1. It is now close season for trout and lunge. 



D. Thomas. 

 » ■«■ 



THE "TARRAPIN" BEFORE THE HOUSE. 



Yokkiown, Va , Oct. 17. 

 EdiUyr Forest Stream : 



1 see that the Pot Lu k Club has spoken, and decid' d that 

 the lunle is boih tish aud tame — a most wonderful decision, 

 ami never eipialled save In iE^op's fables, w h. n the birds 

 of ihe air and ihu beasts ol the. field declared War upon one 

 sue t her, the bat, not wishing loiak sides with eith r, passed 

 himself . ff alternately for a n ouse and a bird, but being 

 caught w s tried for his life. Afier hearing all ihe tes i- 

 lin.ny .Mr. Chiel Justi t Owl, pr •riding, gave it > s hisopiuh n 

 that the bat Was both beast and fowl, aud o dered his re- 

 lease—a dec si n that so pleased ihe bat that be took boa d 

 with Ihe owl in a hollow tre>< and their descendants d \ ell 

 to. ether in peace and amity to this day. 



While 'U this sunject 1 send jou a speech delivered in 

 the Virginia Legislature by one of the members In support of 

 the theory thai the lenapin is game, aud 1 leave it to Ihe 

 spoilsmen which is right— Ihe President of the Pol Luck 

 Omb oi the Virginian. 



By Ihe way, we • ever ca 1 them turtles down bfre, bu 

 tarrapms. Just heie 1 may ado that Colonel Bumgarduer. of 

 Summon, oilers a boille of his cele rated w a.-ky, warranted 

 swee ai d siroiig, lo ihe man that will make ihe oesi ihyme 

 t i ''terrapin" — Uieedi.orof iheFoHKsr and tbsam iu be the 

 umpire. 



Bui the speech ! tbe speichl as the Roman populace cried 

 to Mark Aulhory and Marcus Brutus. 1 inclose it. Heie it 

 is: 

 Mr. Speaker , 



A bill, having for its object the marking and specifying the 

 close s asou for catching in d killing lurtlestfud terrapins, lias 

 just been introduced by tie gentleman from Rockbridge who 

 asks that it be referred to he Com initlee upon Game, of which 

 I have tbe honor lo beeharman. To this disposition of Iheb 1 

 ihe gentleman irom Gloucester couniy demurs on tbe ground 

 tha turtles or terrapins are tisliaud not muile and, therefore, 

 Should be sent to ihe Commitiee on Fib and Ovsters. 



On Chesapeake Bay and its ribuiarie=, says the ho orable 

 gentleman, turtles ami terrapins are frequently captmed 

 many miles out at S' a in nets or with artificial hook and 

 line, as all other members of the litmy tribe are, aud, there- 

 fore, they are fish and nothing else but fl^h. 



Sir, I have the profoundeBt respect f <r the gentleman's 

 opinion. As a lawyer he has achieved not only a State, but 

 a National reputation ; i ut even I, opposing a pin's point 

 8gain8i the shield of Pelides, take issue with him. Sir, I am 

 no lawyer, 1 don't even understand enough of la* to k>ep 

 out of its meshes, but I will answer his sophistries with a 

 few plain, unconvertible facts ; and, as the old saw hath it, 

 facts are s ubboru things, 



la the tun lea lis 1 '? I opine not. Down in the lowlands 

 of the Potomac Kiver, wiie.i 1 came from, t ; e darkeys have 

 dogs trained to hunt lerrapi S "ben they come Up on dry 

 bind to deposit their eggs, and when they find litem the ca- 

 nines bark like they were treeing a squirrel, or had holed a 

 'possum. Now I ask the House did Ihey ever hear of a fish 

 being hunted with dogs r 



Who does not know that a turtle has four less, those legs 

 fee', and those feet are armed with claws like a cat's, a 

 paniher's or a lion's? Has tie gentleman from Gloucester 

 ever seen a fish with talons ? I trow uotl 



It is well known that a turtle can be kept in a cellar for 

 we- ks, and even months, without water. Can a fish live 

 wi'hout water? Why, sir. it has grown into a proverb that 

 it cann >t. And yet. The gentl -man sn s the turtle is a fish! 



Do we not know hat »e may cutoff a turtle's head and he 

 won't die until the sun goes down. Suppose, now, some 

 modern Joshua should p inl his sword — which is as potent as 

 Ithurial'a spear - at the sun, and c anma- d it to stand st ill iu 

 the heavens ; why, Mr. Speaker the turtle could live a thous- 

 and years »ith his head off. And yit thegeutleman says the 

 turtle is a fish I 



M-<\\-> tels in his fables of aTace between the tortoise and 

 the hare ; and we are left to believe thai it took place on dry 

 land, the author nowhere intimating that it was a swimming 

 mati'h. Did the gentleman from Gloucester ever hear of a 

 fish running a quarter stretch and coming out winner of a 

 silver cup? 



1 read but a short, time ago, Mr. Speaker, of a man who 

 bad a lion, which he offered to bet could whip any living 

 I him?. The challenge was accepted and the mo^ey put up. 

 A snapping lunle whs produced, which conquered the lordly 

 king of beas'B in the first round. Can the gen leman from 

 Qloucesler briug any fish from York River to do the same? 



Again, tbe turtle has a tail Now, what Nature intended 

 him to do with thai caudal appendaac I cannot divine. He 

 does not use it like our Darwinian ancestors, the monkeys, 

 who swing themS' Ives from the trees by their tails ; nor like 

 a cow or mule, as a brush in fly time ; nor yet as our house- 

 hold pet the dog, who wii>.8 a welcome to u with his; nor, 

 finally, does be use it to swim with. And, sir. if the gentle- 

 man from Gloucester ever saw a fish that didn't use his tail 

 to swim with, then he has discovered a new and most won- 

 derful variety. 



Mr Speaker, I will not take up the valuable time of the 

 Hou=e by a further discussion of ibis v. : xed question, I will 

 have only one more shot at the gentleman — to prove to him 

 th it the. turtle is the oldest inhabitant of the earth. Last 

 summer 1 was a-vay up in the mountains in Giles County, 

 some two hundred miles from the ocean. One day, saunter- 

 ing leisurely up the mountain road, I picked up a land tor- 

 toise or turtle, and examined him. I saw some quaint and 

 curious characters engraved on the horny shell on his back. 

 Through lapse of time the letters were nearly illegible, but 

 by dint of persevering efforts I deciphered the inscription, 

 and read : Adam — Paradise — Tear One. 



Mr Speaker, 1 have done. If I have not convinced every 

 member on this floor except this gentlemm from Gloucester 

 that the turtle is not a fish, then I appeal to the wisdom of 

 this house to tell me what in the name of common sense it 



Chasseur. 



FORMER ABUNDANCE OF THE WILD PIGEON. 



IN connection with the discussion as to the. desirability of 

 continuing the practice, sancioned by custom, of shoot- 

 ing great numbers of pigeons at the annua! Slate sportsmen's 

 conventions, a few extracts from the writings of the older 

 ornithologists will be of interest. The time has pa-sed when 

 any such vast bodies of migrating birds as were observed by 

 Wilson and Audubon cau be seen. Iu the Eastern States the 

 P ssenger Pige a is now not. a very common biid, and in 

 many sections its nest is regarded as a rare and desirable find 

 by the oolog st. Fifty years ago, on the other hand, it was 

 not so. Pigeons were abundant in almost all sections of 

 the country. If they were scarce in any place one year, thev 

 were likely 'O be plenty the next. Cooper in his "Leather- 

 stocki g Tales" giv s an account ot their abut dance in New 

 York olate, which we may assume not to have been exagger- 

 nte i, since it is confirmed by the statements of older wrters 

 and of ihe fat he s of American Ornithol gy— men. whom, 

 when they wrol of what they saw, we cannot but iielieve. 



We give a few citat cms from the writings of early authors 

 whicu bear upon the former abud nee of this species in the 

 East. In Force's Histor cal Tracts we find a p ragraph re- 

 printed from theobse'vi'ionsor Gov. Thomas Du ley, who 

 wrotd as early as 1631. He says:- Vpm the S ot March 

 from after it was faire day light, untifl about 8 of the clock 

 in the forenoone, there flew over all the tounes in our planta- 

 ions s e many flocks of doue<, each flock c nteyning many 

 thousands and some soe many that they obscureit tee lighte, 

 hat it passeth credit, if but the truth should bee written, and 

 he ihi g was tbe more strange, because I scarce lemember 

 to have seen tenne dou«s since I came into the counfy. 

 Ihey were all lunles a< appeared by diverse of them wee 

 killed flying, somewhat bigger than those of Eur pe, and 

 Ihey flew Irom tbe north east to the south wes ; but what it 

 portends 1 know not. 



TUonias \b rton, an Englishman, speaks, in 1632 of 



Millions if Turtledoves one tbe greene houghes: which 

 sate pecking, of the full ripe pleasant grapes that were sup- 

 ported by the lusty trees, whose fruitfulle loade did cause 

 the anus to be- id. * * 



Over one hundred years later Richard Hazen, a surveyor, 

 describes a breeding phice of pigeons, which he saw west of 

 the Connec icut River, near the hue between Massaohuse ts 

 and Vermont in the fo lowing language : " For tbpe miles 

 logether the pigeons nests w&e so thick, that five bundled 

 might hive been told upon the b ech trees at one time; and 

 could they have be u cou ted on the hemlocks, as well, I 

 doubt not ut five thous nd at one turn arouud." 



Wilson says :— I had left the public roa I to visit the p- 

 mains of the breeding place [netore tm ntioned] near Shelby - 

 v lie, aud was traversing the woods with my gun, on my way 

 to Frankfort, when ah ait one o'clock the pigeons, which I 

 hd observed flying the greater part of the morning north- 

 erly, began to return in such immense numbers as I never 

 before had witnessed. Coming to an opening by the side of 

 a creek called the Benson, where I had a more uninterrupted 

 view, I was astoni>hed at their appearance. Th y were 

 flyiDg with greai steadiness and rapidity, at a height above 

 gunshot, in several strata deep and, and so clo^e together that 

 could sh >t have reached them, one discharge could noi have 

 failed of fringing down several individuals. From right to 

 left as far as the eye could leach, t e breadlh of thi- vast 

 pi ocession extended ; seeming everywhere equally crowded. 

 Curious to determine how long this appearance would con- 

 tinue, I took out my watch to note i he time, and sat down to 

 observe I hem. I sat for more than an hour, but instead of a 

 diminution of this prodigious procession, it seemed rather to 



increase both in numbers and rapidity ; and, anxious to reach 

 Frankfort before night, I rose and went on. About four 

 o'clock in the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky River, at 

 the town of Frankfort, at which time the living torrent 

 above my head seemed as numerous and extensive as ever. 

 Ln-a'ter this I observed them, in large bodies that con- 

 tinued to pass for six or eiuht minu'es, and ihese again were 

 followed by other detached bodies, all moving in the same 

 soiv bea»t direction till after six in the morniug. The great 

 breadlh of front which this mighty mul itude preserved 

 would seem to imirnate a corresponding breadlh of their 

 breedng place, which by several gentlemen who had lately 



Fassed through part of it was stated to me at several miles. 

 t was said to be in Green c unty, and that the young began 

 lo fly in Mrch. On the seventeenth of April, forty-nine 

 miles beyond Danville, and not far from Green Kiver, I 

 crossed ths same breeding place, where the nests for more 

 than three miles spotted every tree; the leaves not being yet 

 out 1 had a fair prospect of them, and was really astonished 

 at their numbers. * ********** ** 



* * * I have taken fr >m the crop of a single Wild 

 Pigeon a good handful of the kernels of beech nuts, inter- 

 mixed with acorns and chestnuts. To form a rouuh estimate 

 of the daily consumption of one of these immense flocks, let 

 ui first attempt to calculate the numbers of that above men- 

 tioned as seen passing between Frankfort and Ihe Indiana 

 Territory. If we suppose this column to have been one mile 

 in breadth (and I believe it to hive been much more), and that 

 it moved at the rate of one mile in a minute, four hours, the 

 time it continued passing, would have made its whole length 

 two hundred and forty miles. Again, supposing that each 

 square yard of this moving body comprehended three 

 pigeons ; the square yards in the whole space multiplied by 

 thiee, would give two thousand two hundred and thirty 

 millions two hundred and seventy-two thousand pigeons ! An 

 almost inconceivable multitude, and yet probably tar below the 

 actual amount Computing each of these to consume half a 

 pint of mast daily, the whole quantity at this rate would exceed 

 seventeen millions four hundred and twenty-four thousand 

 bushels per day I 



Nuttall's statements do not differ materia'ly in general 

 tone from i hose of Wilson and Audubon. He s?ys: "To 

 talk of hundreds of millions of individuals of the same species 

 habitually associated iu feeding, roostingand breeding,without 

 any regard to climate or season as an operating cause in these 

 greuarious movements, would at first appear to be wholly 

 incredible," Further on he describes a roost in these 

 terms ; As ihe sun begins to decline they depart in a body 

 for the general roost, which is often hundreds of miles dis- 

 tant, and is generally chosen in the tallest and thickest forests 

 almost divested of underwood. Nothing can exceed the 

 waste and desolation of these noc'urnal resorts; tbe vegeta- 

 tion becomes buried by their excrements to the depth of sev- 

 eral inches. The tall trees, for thousands of acres, are com- 

 pletely killed and the ground strewed with many branches 

 torn down by the clustering weight of the birds wheh have 

 rested upon them. The whole region for several years pre- 

 sents a continued scene of devastation, as if swept by the re- 

 sistless blast of a whirlwind. 



Audubon's account of ihe vast multitudes of these birds is 

 not diss milar from those already quoted. He says: The 

 multitudes of Wild Pigeons in our woods are astonishing. 

 Indeed, after having viewed them so often and under so 

 many circumstances, 1 even now feel inclined to pause and 

 assure myself that what I am going to relate is fact. Yet 

 I have seen it all, and that too in the company of persons 

 who like myself were struck with amazement. 



In the aurumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on 

 the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing 

 over the Barrens a few miles beyond Hardensburgh f ob- 

 served the pigeons flying from north-east to south-west in 

 greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, 

 and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass 

 within the reach of my eye in one hour, 1 dismounted, seated 

 myself on an eminence, a"d began to mark with my pencil, 

 making a dot. for every flock that pissed. In a short lime 

 Audi -g the task which I had undertaken impracticable, aa 

 the birds p ured in in countless multitudes, I ros', and 

 counting the dots then put down, found that 163 had been 

 made in twenty-one minutes. I traveled on and still met 

 more the farther I proceeded. The ah was literally filled 

 with Pigeons; the light, of noon-dny was obscured as by an 

 eclipse; me dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of 

 snow; the continued buzz of wings had a tendeucy to lull 

 my senses to repose. 



While waiting for dinner at Young's in, at the confluence 

 of Salt River with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense 

 legionB still goiig by, with a front reaching far beyond the 

 Oi io on the west and the beech- wood forest directly on the 

 east of me. Not a single bird aligh ed. for not a nut or acorn 

 Win that year to be seen in the neighborhood. Th y 

 c nseqiirntly flew so high, thai diffe<ent irials to reach with 

 a capital rifle, proved ineffectual: nor did the repor 8 disturb 

 them in the least. I cannot describe to you the extreme 

 beauty of tbeir aerial evolutions, when a Hawk chanced to 

 press upon the rear of a flock. A' once, like a torrent, and 

 with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a compact mass, 

 pressing upon each other toward the centre. In these almost 

 solid masses, they darted forward in undulating and angular 

 lines, descended and swept close over tbe earth with incon- 

 ceivable velocity, mounted perpendicul irly so as to resemble 

 a vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and 

 twisiing within thrir continued lines, which then resembled 

 Ihe coils of a gigantic serpent. 



B fore Bunset'l reached Louisville, distant from Hardens- 

 bur-h fifty-five miles The Pigeons were still passing in 

 undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for thee days 

 in succession. Tbe people were all in arms. The bauks of 

 the Ohio were crowded with men and boys, inceisantly 

 shooting at the pilgrims, which then flew lower as they 

 passed the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. For a 

 week or more, the population fed on no other flesh than that 

 of Pigeons, and talked of nothing but Pigeons. The atmos- 

 phereT during this time, was strongly impregnated with the 

 peculiar odor which emanates from the species. * * * * 



It may not, perhaps, be out of place to a tempt an estimate 

 of the number of Pigeons contained in one of those mighty 

 flocks, and of the quantity of food consumed by its mem- 

 bers. The inquiry will tend to show the astonishing bounty 

 of the great Author of Nature in providing for the wants of 

 bis creatures. Let us take a column of one mile in breadlh, 

 which is far below the average size, and suppose it passing 

 over us without interruption for three hours, at the rate 

 mention, d above of one mile in the minute. This will give 

 us a parallelogram of 180 miles by 1, covering 180 square 

 miles. Allowing two pigeons to the square yard, we have 

 one billion, one hundred and fifteen millions, one hundred 



