312 



RECREATION 



A SNAPPER. 



By Geo. W. Tusk. 



we all know in the fable, but 

 his ambition had a different 

 bend ; in place of striving to be 

 as big as an ox this frog tried 

 to be big enough to eat turtles 

 whole, and only discovered his 

 mistake when the turtle became 

 hopelessly jammed and immov- 

 able in its distended jaws. 



The boys say that "if a turtle 

 gets hold of your toe it won't 

 let go until it thunders," by 

 which they mean that one must 

 go around with the turtle hang- 

 ing on one's toe until a thun- 

 der storm comes along and 

 frightens the creature away. 

 We all believed this, but it is 

 unnecessary to say that there is 

 no more truth in the thunder 

 part of the legend than in the 

 spirit stealing power of the 

 camera. 



have as mean a soul as a strike-breaker. I 

 say strike-breaker because there is the por- 

 trait of one in the paper before me and he 

 has just the expression of this turtle. 



I have never met the man and know noth- 

 ing of him, but I do know turtles, and they 

 are terrible monsters. A turtle eats every 

 living thing smaller than itself, frogs, young 

 ducks, wood mice, squirrels ; in fact, if boys 

 were small enough they would be eagerly de- 

 voured by this armored knight of the muck 

 pond. When the turtle is a funny little baby 

 it is itself in some danger of being devoured 

 One of my young friends found a large dead 

 bull frog, and in its mouth was a dead baby 

 turtle. The frog was ambitious, like the one 



POSING UNCONCERNEDLY. By F. H. Holmes. 



When I was last in the Rocky Mountains 

 a big mountain lion drove a beautiful little 

 fawn down to the railway station at Belton, 

 on the Great Northern Railroad, and the 

 kind-hearted station master fed the little 

 spotted fawn from a bottle just as the small 

 boy is doing in this illustration. 



Deer make beautiful pets, but the bucks are 

 very dangerous at certain times of the year. 

 However, this depends upon the size of the 

 buck. One full grown deer that I once owned 

 had legs smaller than the pen with which I 

 am writing, and its body was not as large 

 as a big jack rabbit. Of course, this toy deer 

 was not dangerous any time of year. But the 

 pigmy musk deer of Java are far from nu- 

 merous and seldom seen in this country. The 

 one I owned was killed by gas from the fur- 

 nace of our house. 



TWO DEARS. 



By E. F. Cawgill. 



In the next number of Recreation we hope 

 to have an article on how to keep fresh 

 and salt water aquariums, written by one 

 of the experts at the New York Aquarium. 



The aquarium is a most interesting affair 

 to keep in one's room, but not half so inter- 

 esting as is the pursuit and capture of all the 



