244 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



upon fish of all kinds, including those, ■which escape the occa- 

 sional dart of the kingfisher. 



A glance, too, at the means of the latter to capture its prey, 

 as compared with those of the voracious merganser, will afford 

 additional point to the argument. In the one we view a smooth 

 spear-shaped like beak, necessitating, to be serviceable, ex- 

 tremely favorable combinations for pinning and securing its 

 prey, while the saw-like, relentless grasp of the narrow beak 

 cf the other could make incalculable, never-failing havoc. 



I have singled out these birds, as their geographical dis- 

 tribution is very general, being resident breeders of all streams 

 of eastern North America, from the shores of Labrador to the 

 wooded retreats of the mountains of Pennsylvania. But the 

 visitor to the Gulf of St. Lawrence cannot fail to notice, also, 

 here and there a less active but even more voracious enemy of 

 the salmon in the cormorant, the proverbial symbollism of all 

 aquatic voraciousness. There is a curiously-shaped rock near 

 the eastern extremity of the Province of Quebec, called, from 

 its appearance, the rock of Perce. The little town near it is 

 named likewise, and is a convenient station of the Gulf Port 

 6teamers running regularly between Quebec and Halifax. Ro- 

 mantic Gaspe, with its beautiful fiord-like bay, is but fif- 

 teen miles north of it, and thus adds to the desire of any 

 tourist to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence to linger a few days 

 where so many attractions compensate for this judicious out- 

 lay of time. Perce Rock is but a few hundred yards from 

 the main land, and stands out like a conspicuous landmark in 

 bold relief to the straight outlines of the main shore. 



It is formed of almost perpendicularly tilted scheists of gray- 

 ish slates, and ha3 a flat square top, which may be owing to 

 the vast denudation which has affected this whole region on 

 the grandest possible scale. This top has been for ages the 

 chosen breeding ground of the great common cormorant and 

 other large colonies of sea gulls, wh'ch seem to live harmo- 

 niously with their voracious neighbors. The rock rise? perpen- 

 dicularly, is inaccessible by nature and additionally so by spe- 

 cial local laws forbidding its ascent, and enacted to prevent 

 possible catastrophes or the disturbing of the breeding grounds 

 of these birds. They must be both an instructive and charm- 

 ing sight to the lessees of the great salmon rivers Dartmouth, 

 York and St. John, which empty their floods fifteen miles 

 from this spot into the basin of Gaspe. There seems to be or- 

 ganized a regular system of fish transportation bet-ween the 

 hungry broods on this rock and the upper course of these rivers, 

 as even human ingenuity could not desire better. The visitor 

 at Gaspe may see exery morning as unfailing as time, cormor- 

 ant after cormorant flying up stream, to return at intervals 

 loaded down-to *he utmost with fish for their hungry young, 

 after having, of course, enjoyed themselves to the utmost the 

 liberal banquet spread before them by the myriads of quickly 

 growing salmon, which abounds herein spite of these immense 

 inroads upon its successful increase. If in tan I mentally 

 calculate upen the relative amount of fish needed to sustain a 

 cormorant and his full-grown family, if I think of the clouds 

 of birds I saw rising up from the rock, wheu the captain of 

 the steamer fires a gun to afford his passengers the luxury of 

 this interesting sight, it seems to me that a premium upon the 

 head of the cormorant may prove a better protection to the 

 salmon fry than suggestions toward the extirpation of the 

 kingfisher, our lively, chattering, enlivening denizen of the 

 monotonous solitude of mountain streams. Perhaps Mr. Fred. 

 Curtis of Boston, the widely renowned Walton of all notable 

 salmon streams of the St. Lawrence, would endorse a trial of 

 altered warfare, when reflecting upon the somewhat lessened 

 amount of his royal private fishing grounds, the beautiful 

 Dartmouth. L > 



For Forest and Stream and Mod and Gun. 

 REMINISCENCES OF THE TURF. 



His ears up pricked, his braided standiua mane 

 Tpon his compassed crest, now stands on end ; 



His nostrils drink the air, and forth again 

 As from a furnace vapors doth he send. 



His eye, which scornfully glistens like lire. 

 Shows his hot courage and his high desire. 



Venus and Adonis. 



THE most splendid of animals is not only great in his use- 

 fulness, but his nature and the linko'f love between him 

 and his master have created the Centaur as an emblem of con- 

 quest, and established the typical n an on horseback to repre- 

 sent advancement and civilization. There is poetry in him 

 which inspires bards, while his beauty, is the study of the 

 painter and the sculptor. Prom his proud crest to his delicate 

 pastern he is a succession of interminable lines of beauty ; the 

 curve and the reverse curve repeated and varied until the 

 Critical eye is lost in wonder and admiration. And what a 

 noble spirit animates the splendid creature. One of the gorge- 

 ous military champions of the age of chivalry in his enthusias- 

 tic love for his horse exclaims: " Ca ha! He bounds from 

 the earth as if his entrails were air, U cheval volant, the Pegasus 

 qui a las narines de feu. I soar, I am a hawk ; he trots the 

 air. The earth sings when he touches it. The basest horn of 

 his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes." 



No wonder that aristocracy has made the horn a device in 

 the blazonry of nobility, and appointed the gold spurs as the 

 badge of the highest knighthood; and that gambling with so 

 noble a creature in the ancient chariot races and on the modern 

 turf makes the ''Olympic dust" a phrase of classic lore. 



Those who love to trace the blood of the illustrious Diomed 

 in Ameuca will find his noblest descendants foaled on the 

 plains and hills that surround the once famous Rebel capital 

 Timoleon, Flurizal, Boston, Peacemaker, Revenue, Red Eye, 

 »nd many another famous four-mile nag, raised in that seem- 



ingly desolate land of broomsedge and huckleberry, have left 

 an undying fame in the history of the Mciairie Course, the 

 Charleston" the Broad Ruck, the Fairfield and others.^ 



The great racer, Wm. R. Johnson, was called " the Napoleon 

 of the Tin f " in the days when a road wagon or a sulky were 

 unknown ; when gentlemen went courting in a slow, stately 

 tandem, with a negro groom following on horseback who 

 carried the high portmanteau en croupe. 1 have before me a 

 most amusing old colored print of the famous race for La- 

 fayette's carriage, at. Tree Hill, near Richmond, in 1825. It 

 was a beautiful barouche, in which the illustrious Frenchman 

 traveled when in America the last time, when be went along 

 the rich valley of the James River, or rather " Jeems," as it 

 is called in classic Virginian, and' was escorted from one man- 

 sion to the next by a score of the best gentlemen of the Old 

 Dominion until he arrived at Mon'icello. As Col. Tom Boi- 

 ling, who was one of the gentlemen who bad the distinguished 

 honor to constitute the escort of outriders, has told me of it, 

 the scene which was there enacted must have been impressive 

 and almost solemn. 



The mansion stands on the summit of the last outpost of the 

 Blue Ridge Mountain?, which bound the western horizon 

 with lines of blue, whose graceful curves impart an idea of 

 majestic calmness, while to the eastward the rich lowlands 

 stretch away as smooth as the ocean beyond. The dreamy 

 stillness of the autumn held all nature in a trance, and Lhe 

 light floating clouds stood still in the sky, so that when the 

 gay cavalcade reached the height and felt the impressive 

 of the scene, the laughter which had resounded along the 

 route all the morning suddenly ceased, and even the horses 

 relaxed their speed into a slow- and stately gait. These two 

 celebrated men, the statesman and the warrior, had watched 

 the birth of the young republic— its infancy swathed in bat- 

 tle-flags, and its youth heralded with the world's wonder and 

 acclaim ; and now they greeted each other with a mutual con- 

 gratulation which was too full and great to find utterance in 

 words. The gentlemen stood ur.covered ; the ladies, the ser- 

 vants, the very household dogs bent their eyes on the two 

 men, as Mr. Jefferson, with the stately dignity that belonged 

 to him, came down from the porch. " What will he say ?" 

 thought every spell-bound spectator. The fashion of France 

 prescribed an embrace and a kiss for such an occasion, and the. 

 illustrious American, with the refined delicacy of a true gen- 

 tleman, chose that ceremony as a compliment to the ally and 

 an endearment to the friend ; but the two could only regard 

 each other with a look which spoke unutterable things that 

 only they could understand. And it was only when the first 

 toast was given at dinner, and the brimming glass drained that 

 any of that historic party could speak clearly or see clearly, 

 so affecting had been this meeting. 



I did not mean, gentlest of readers, to go off so far in La- 

 fayette's carriage, but to tell a very short story about the race. 

 The gentlemen who figure in that old colored print are attired 

 in the long blue frock-coats that reach nearly to the ankle, 

 with voluminous neckties and aspiring collars that threaten 

 the brims of the peaked beavers, the chins all smooth and the 

 boots very pump-like. The older men wear the blue swallow- 

 tail, buff or gray breeches, and Wellington boots. Occasional- 

 ly among both classes you may see that marvel of a fop's 

 make up at i hat period, an ' • ark-in-seal waistcoat," i.e., a 

 vest of such beautiful variety of color that the French tailor's 

 genius called it, a rainbow, {arc en del). 



Jack Randolph, as he was always called in Virginia ; Col, 

 Wm. R. Johnson, "Old John Wickbam," noted forTinto Ma- 

 deira; .las. Harrison, politician and turfman; Col. Nat Macon, 

 Dr. Wych, Dr. Brownlow and Chief Gustner Marshall were 

 among the characters who attracted the eyes of the immense 

 crowd. It was a two-mile race for three-year-olds, six entries, 

 aud Captain Belcher won it in two stra'ght heats on his horse, 

 Lafayette, through Virginian and Sir Archie, a great grandson 

 of Diomed. 



Captain Belcher, afterward one of the famous turfmen of 

 America and the owner of Red Eye, was then twenty-nine 

 years old. To-day he seems to carry his eighty-one years 

 with ease. His frame is wiry : his keen gray eyes are very 

 expressive and intelligent, and his manner soft and gentle. 

 Silting before the great log fire in an old Virginia mansion of 

 a winter night, it is a rare treat to hear him tell of the olden 

 time— the racing, the cock fighting, the drinking, and also 

 the fighting, for in those days the terrible " smooth bores " 

 were the accepted arbiters m all disputes, business, politics, 

 or society. 



FLORIZEL AND PEACEMAKER, 1808. 



The old Broad Rock course near Richmond was the scene 

 of this remarkable race, which so excited the people generally 

 that ladies staked bracelets and rings, boys bet their marbles, 

 and the gentlemen planters their negroes. Many a pretty 

 fafm changed hands, and for many years afterwards "nig- 

 gers " won on that race were called after the two horses. In 

 those days the first ladies of society were always present in 

 the "ladies' pavilion," as the stand allotted to the fair sex 

 was called ; and if descriptions of those scenes be true, they 

 were as enthusiastic and noisy in their applause as the Roman 

 ladies at the chariot, races, as represented by Jerome and other 

 painters. Both these horses were famous four-mile nags, and 

 were accustomed to being held in at the first and let out at the 

 last, which is the reverse of modern tactics generally. The 

 finest horse would jump twenty-two feet at first and twenty- 

 four at the finish. ' Old racers smile at the dash races of our 

 time and deride the degeneracy of the stock ; but it is likely 

 that real speed is as well developed, and too great a strain on 

 the horses avoided. 



The famous Red Eye, in his race with Nina and Lawson, 

 ran twelve miles in less than twenty-four minutes; and, 

 though I have not the time made by Florizel, it is likely that 

 it w r as a somewhat similar achievement. There is only a dim 

 tradition now of Florizel aud Peacemaker, but we may im- 

 agine the high scaffold which was erected for the negroes 

 who were staked, and hear the excited voices of the betters : 

 ' I'll bet you Cesar on Peacemaker!" or, "I'll go you Dinah 

 on Florizel !" " Two number one field hands and a good breed- 

 ing woman on Florizel J" and other equally significant offers: 

 fur there were as many as five hundred slaves lost and won , 

 and as many more hypothecated to the " traders " who were 

 the great brokers of the slave oligarchy. The race was won 

 by Florizel. 



HED ETE AND NINA. 



This famous race was run at Broad Rock in the fall of 1853. 

 The famous son and daughter of Boston monopolized the 

 public attention, though Lawson also ran. Red Eye won the 

 first heat, Nina the second, and Red Eye the third. Politics, 

 the Virginian's unvarying theme, and tobacco, the Richmond 

 merchant's delight, were all forgotten in the excitement and 

 betiine, and a certain young lawyer was called the Virginia 

 Sheridan for an excellent bon mot. : " Id certum est quod cer- 

 ium vuhii potent. 



It was asserted That a certain well-known preacher was to 



be hauled over the cals for being caught on lhe quarter 

 stretch, but the bishop, who was doubtless deeply infected 

 himself with the general excitement, charitably let the spi rt- 

 ive parson off. Hot se -racing, card-playing parsons were- fea- 

 tures of the colonial society, and the F, F. V.'s, bo pr< 

 their ancestry, could not consistently go back on the revival 

 of a time-honored custom. More staid, dignified and proper 

 burghers were drunk that day than ever were seen before, 

 but the occasion was so great that it was a sufficient excuse 

 for anything Red Eye was a busy devil to be held in, so 

 Con, bis owner, very wisely told the boy to let him win the 

 first heat, which, according to accepted ideas, was wrong, be- 

 cause Red Eye's great point was his bottom). So at, the 'finish 

 of that heat there was such a pandemonium as was never 

 heard on a race-course before. When Red Eye came to the- 

 string the next his eyes were glaring diabolically and he reared 

 and charged and seemed to jump forty feet at every stride.. 

 The third heat was between the hor.= e and the mare only, and 

 as I have said, the former, at, the close of the race, had run 

 twelve miles in 22:415. 



The Washington course at Charleston in old times was t'eie 

 best in all its appointments in the country. The ladies' pa- 

 vilion was a marvel of propriety and elegance, while the as- 

 semblage of gentlemen was unequalled in America for wealth 

 and aristocracy. The Broad Rock and the Fairfield c 

 have not felt the hoof of a four mile nag for many a year, and 

 are not likely for many another to see such a display as used 

 twice a year to draw the Virginians there in croWcls. Trot- 

 ting stock is one reason, but The principal cause of decline is 

 the fall of the old planter aristocracy of lhe Old Dominion. 



In the further South there is a marvelous change even in 

 the last few months from the des:lafion and chaos which 

 characterized the last decatle. The typical " old plantation " 

 is reviving; the negroes turn to their former masters since the 

 demise of the carpet-bagger, and the nature of cotton plant- 

 ing demands large farm's. Already the system is so far 

 changed into a co-operative one between land-owner and negro 

 that it is safe to say that large plantations, as in the olden 

 time, will be almost universal. When Ibis is the case the 

 aristocratic planter will patronize the turf, and the race- 

 courses will be as grand as before— except the old Metairie, 

 which a lottery man bought and made into a cemetery.. 

 because the Jockey Club blackballed him. Page McCarty. 



For Forest and Stream- 

 AMONG THE PINES AND VIOLETS.. 



SOUTH CAROLINA is not remarkable either for the- 

 picturesque wildness of her scenery or her rural beauty— 

 a flat, sandy country, covered mainly with extensive growths 

 of pine forests, whose monotony is seldom broken, save by a 

 log cabin in a clearing, or a plantation sometimes in a flourish- 

 ing condition, but of times decaying as it were, or long since 

 deserted. Nowhere is found that rugged biauty of a northern 

 wilderness, nor the charming pictures of our rural life, with 

 its cosey farms nestling among the hills, with views of moun- 

 tain, lake and stream, nor the pretty swampy woodlands, where 

 the woodcock's treble is heard, and further up the hillside the 

 the whirring of the ruffed grouse. None of these has South 

 Carolina. 



But anon one will wander on a bit of stray picturesquencss 

 hidden away in the ever-present pine forest— a lonely hill, with 

 its rock-strewn side, its lofty pines, its undergrowth of dog- 

 wood rhodedendron and sparkleberry, the ground carpeted 

 with fragrant wild flowers. Tiny streams springing from be- 

 neath rocks, almost enveloped in sweet-scented jessamine 

 bushes, ripple down hill, over moss-covered stones, and are- 

 lost to view among the covert undergrowth. The blue sky 

 is above ns. ' At the foot of the hill the pine woods stretch 

 away, and meet the horizon on all sides. Such places as this 

 are sometimes stumbled upon in quail shooting, and agreeable 

 is the change to liim who has seen but pines, saucl and s-ky for 

 a couple of hours past. 



" Shall we try the quail this afternoon," queried my friend, 

 whom we will call Jack Herbert, as we sauntered up and down 

 the Lngth of a broad piazza, which composed part of a noted 

 winter resort in the southern part of South C'ariolina, Where I 

 happened to "hold forth" last spring. " By all means " I 

 assented, and after a few more preliminary arrangements we 

 parted, to obey the summons of a nondescript ive looking son 

 of Ham, with a gong, that forerunner of Southern dainties as 

 onlv our old "aunties " knew how to prepare. 



After a light dinner and still lighter cigarette of "Vanity 

 Fair," I retire to the privacies of my room to don " Holablrd," 

 etc.. and, taking my breech-loader, saunter to the stables, 

 where I discover Jack to be already there, his fancy English 

 check suit has been replaced by a velveteen coat, corduroys 

 and thigh gaiters, while Dick, his handsome, and still better 

 fine working, pointer is whining with excitement to be off. 

 Jack swings" lightly into saddle, I follow, the grizzled old ne- 

 gro lets go the hacks, and we are going at an easy lope through 

 the town which is situated near the confines of the Hotel's 

 grounds ; this is soon passed, and we are bounding ttrrc 

 sandy road leading through the woods. But bounding 

 on a light dinner is not consistant of much prolit, or in 

 words don't pay. and we sober down to a more easy gait. 



Passing through the woods we come to a large open stretch 

 of what we might ca'l meadow-land with quite a pond a 

 distance from us — for we have left the road, and arc now 

 rifling 'cross country — the whistle of the winter "yellow 

 leg" is heard from the high grasses that line the pond, and it 

 is agreed that I shall dismount and attend to him. Dick the 

 pointer is at down charge by his master's mare, and I proceed 

 in the direction of this wily bay bird. The bunch oi 

 from whence tJe noise first" proceeded is now within twenty 

 yards, it issurprisiugthat the leggy individual should lie . ■ 

 —when I see a long hilled head thrust through the reeds. A 

 double whistle,and not one, but two winter yellow tegs are on 

 thewing before me. Amiss it first barrel, the second bring3 

 one tumbling down at the water's edge, his mate circles round, 

 and soon alights at the side of her dead companion. Fresh 

 cartridges are inserted in the smoking barrels, a step or two 

 nearer to her is reached, and then the long wings are doing 

 their best. Bang I a few eight shot go crashing through her, 

 and down she drops at mid-distance across the pond. The 

 gqn reloaded, I signal Jack who 5s minding the horses, an ex- 

 cited and interested observer, to send Dick to retrieve, and at 

 his master's "Heigh on" he comes bounding toward me Pick- 

 ing up the bird which fell at the water's edge 1 sere: 

 after the other which is soon retrieved. 



