486 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 20, 1882. 



of (lie gimp, the fish making never a flop, but when two- 

 thirds of his Length out of water, and they thought he was 

 ,'u-i as pnorl as in the boat, the treacherous gimp snell parted 

 (it was one of the same worthless lot that had lost Dan's big 

 fish at the head of White's Lake), and he sunk out of sight 

 under the boat. 



To say that Dan was mad would but feebly express it, and 

 if the maker of thai, gimp could hare been within earshot. 

 he would have gone home and closed up his business in the 

 firm belief that it was high time for Mm to mend his ways. 

 They pulled over to camp, and Dan had been sitting there 

 on the stool ever since, drawing consolation from his pipe 

 and studying it all over. 



Here, while the old fish-hawk is refilling his briar-root, it, 

 may be in place to give the accepted origin of the term 

 "mossback." as applied to the inhabitants of the North 

 Peninsula. 1 quote from a letter received from our friend, 

 J. M. Wadsworth, of Central Lake, after we returned home. 

 "Many years ago, a party going from here over the old In- 

 dian trail, to Saginaw, passed Try quite a large settlement 

 who were just finishing up their shanties, and all were busily 

 engaged gathering moss and carrying it on their backs to the 

 shanties to moss or fill up the cracks between the logs. From 

 this the term mossback was derived, and it has stuck to them 

 ever since as tight as the moss to the north side of a beech 

 tree." 



Our mossbacked friend — a Mr. Simmons if I remember 

 rightly — felt that it was mainly through his bungling that 

 the fish had been lost,, and his usual serenity was somewhat 

 disturbed thereby. But a.s it was not exactly his funeral, he 

 recovered from it sooner than old Dan, who is, I believe, 

 still nursing bis disappointment and cussin' that gimp. 



From his description of the bass— a small mouth, he must 

 have weighed fully nine pounds, and S. said it was the big- 

 gest bass he had ever seen in the lakes. KiNOFisrrrcK. 



| TO BE CONTINUED.] 



CAMP FIRE IN THE GREAT SWAMP. 



BY A. MULE.— PAST n. 



"1 



J AC, you must have come here before the bottom was 

 xtJL cut to pieces by the Levees, didn't vou?" said I one 

 evening, as the talk flagged. 



"No." said the old hunter, "I got here afterwards. But 

 I've heerd so much about it from the Injins who was here 

 that I sometimes believe I saw it myself. 



"This swamp for the Injin them" days was like the place 

 you read about in the good Book— a real Paradise. The 

 overflow was regular twice a year, and kept off most of the 

 cane without being deep enough to affect the game, while 

 the burning of the grass every fall killed the underbrush 

 and left the noblest, biggest, fairest open woods that ever a 

 moccasin made a track in. 



"The woods were full of honey, and wherever there was a 

 chance high ground there were dense thickets of paw-paws. 

 plums, cherries, grapes, and all sorts of wild fruits. Black- 

 berries and dewberries loaded the vines in every little open- 

 ing, and the wild strawberries were far sweeter and better 

 than the same things we raise here now. 



' 'As for nuts and sich like, they were in places so thick that 

 in season a man might walk on them for hundreds of yards 

 and not touch the ground. I've seen myself groves of wal- 

 nuts and pecans deadened by the acre to clear away for the 

 cotton field. As for fish, well, they are here yit, thank God, 

 but the game is gone. 



"The deer then used about in regular droves, sometimes 

 fifteen or more in a bunch, and it was almost impossible to 

 miss killing one anywhere if a man sat still on a log for an 

 hour. 



"The b'ar and turkeys, to say nothing of the wild hogs 

 and cattle, were just running about in every direction and 

 were half afeered of a man. In fact they must have been 

 gentle to let the Injins kill them with such bows as they 

 had and such shootin' as they did." 



"Why," said Jack, "I always heard the Indians were fine, 

 shots." 



"Great mistake," said Shelb. I've lived with 'em, hunted 

 with 'em, fit with 'em and never saw a nigger of 'em could hit 

 a barrel head everytime at thirty yards. 



"The Injin then would kill more game than a white 

 man on an average, but he did it with his patience and not 

 with his shootin'. Anyhow they got a better living here than 

 anywhere else. Old Tush-ma-soggee told me that he saw 

 thirteen b'ar once around one bee tree had blowed down!" 



"Shelb., I'm told you are particularly fond of turkeys," 

 remarked the Doctor with a twinkle in his eye that boded 

 something. 



The old man started slightly and then gave a very dry sort 

 of laugh between a chuckle and a groan. 



"Tom must have been telling you that yarn, and it didn't 

 lose anything in traveling through his tongue I know." 



"Well," said Tom, "as the boys want it I'll try to do it 

 again. Some years ago, a big party from the hills came 

 down one fall for a grand hunt. They all knew me and 

 Shelb., and in fact camped near his house and made it a 

 sort of headquarters. It was the most restless devilish team 

 that ever was got together. Every man as full of fun as 

 he could hold and lots oozing out all over the camp. There 

 was literally no rest in them. Like a kaleidoscope every turn 

 brought new combinations and often most unexpected ones. 

 Everybody joked everybody else, and nobody was safe from 

 some curious prank or other. Fighting was not allowed 

 under penalty of lynching in the "bayou, and getting sulky 

 was not by any means a remedy to be used rashly. 



' 'Among the lot was a doctor who was notoriously the worst 

 shot in North Mississippi, but, nevertheless, most passionately 

 fond of shooting and sport. 



"Now, Shelb. never pi ayed but one practical joke in his 

 life, but after seeing a few of the Doctor's first-class misses, 

 be despised him in his heart, and resolved to 'fix him.' And 

 as his bad luck would have it he took into his confidence a 

 couple of the very worst rascals in the gang. 



"Everything being arranged between Shelb. and his fellow 

 conspirators occasion was taken one off afternoon, to banter 

 the Doctor about his shooting. He reared up at once and 

 swore that he could beat anybody in the crowd. Shelb. 

 offered to bet his saddle horse against the Doctor's mule and 

 shotgun, that the Doctor could not kill one out of McP— 's 

 flock of turkeys at thirty-five yards with 1^- ounce shot, 

 Shelb. 's two friends to load the gun and see all fair. 



"The Doctor blazed away and slayed just nine, his part- 

 ners having gone back on old Shelb. and loaded up first-class. 



" 'Oh, Lord,' said Me— 'what'll Polly say?' 



"The good lady came out like a hive of bees. 'Now, Mr 

 McP — , just see what you've done!' 



" 'Hold on Polly,' said poor Shelb. 'Hold on. Tain't no 



use to say one word. I'm done. 1 am, mrc, I've sucked 

 my last aig. I have sure, by gad, I have. You can put 

 my name down on your church books, by gad, you can, sure/'" 



"Did you ever join the church in fact, "Shelb. 1" asked P— . 

 "Why of course," struck in the Doctor, "didn't you know 

 that Shelb. was raised for a preacher'?" "Yes, and would 

 have been preaching till now, but for a wasp," said Jack. 

 "On the day of his trial sermon he put on a pair of buckskin 

 breeches that had been hanging up for a year in the garret, 

 and by the time he got fairly warmed up the wasps got 

 enthused too. They say he ripped, and cussed, and tore off 

 his breeches, and whaled both the other preachers with him 

 in the pulpit before the audience could choke him down." 



Old Shelb. stood it patiently, for he had been baited be- 

 fore. "All right, boys," said he, shaking his head, "go 'in. 

 You are like my old "woman's ash-hopper— the lie is all com- 

 ing out of you. Preachin' is a good business, and I put it 

 next, to b'ar-hunting. But the only man I ever heard of com- 

 ing near uniting the two was a fellow who shot an old suck- 

 lin' she in the nose, and when she charged him he got his 

 foot fast in a bamboo. Finding he couldn't git loose, he 

 began to pray the Lord to stop the b'ar. When she got close 

 to him, however, he quit that prayer, and said, 'Good Lord, 

 look down upon me and assist me. But if you can't help 

 me, don't help the b'ar, but just lie low and" you'll see the 

 durndofit b'ar fight in Mississippi.' " 



"You ask the Doctor, Shelb., who was his last patient 

 with 'ague cake!' said P. 



"That ain't as bad on him as the way he set Henry Thomp- 

 son's dislocated hip," said S. Henry got thrown off his mule 

 while dead drunk, and the Doctor was sent for. The patient 

 was insensible, but the learned physician saw at once that 

 the man had dislocated his hip— a bad case, as one leg was 

 six inches shorter than the other. So he bustled around, got 

 the devil's own lot of pulleys and ropes and niggers, and 

 hauled and twisted for several hours. Still, he was utterly 

 unable to reduce it, and was in despair. Just then one of 

 the niggers told him that Thompson always did have one leg 

 shorter than the other! 



"As soon as the patient became sober enough to speak, the. 

 Doctor asked him eagerly if one of his legs was shorter 

 than the other?" 



Hairy rolled over and hiccupped, "N-o, siree! one of 'em's 

 longer than t'other !" 



"Well," said old Pills, "go ahead, boys. My time will 

 come when calomel and jalap stock will go up!" 



"Yes, just as we go down!" 



"Anyhow, I ride civilized fashion on a horse, and don't 

 straddle everything that comes along!" 



"What does that mean?" 



"It means I was out hunting one day with Mr. Tom, 

 there. He took along a big, clumsy dog he said was a regu- 

 lar staghonnd. We knocked down* a big buck, and Tom sat 

 down on him to cut his neck. But the buck was just wait- 

 ing for some such foolishness, and rising up with a bounce, 

 off he tore, kicking and bucking, Tom holding on, for deer 

 life and squalling for me to shoot. I was laughing too much 

 to try that; but I sicked on his big dog, who had not seemed 

 to understand the scene. But he soon caught up and went 

 in for meat seriously. Whether it was a miss-take or what, 

 I never saw and never got a chance to ask the dog; but any- 

 how, he grabbed Tom's leg instead of the deer's, and a pretty 

 mess they made of it. When I stopped laughing long 

 enough to run up, there was Tom a-straddie of the dog, which 

 was dead as a nail— perfectly crazy — cursing till he was 

 blue in the face, and sticking his knife viciously in the poor 

 beast at every word — the deer, of course, gone forever." 



<J|#//w/#/ l§i§tortJ. 



MIMICRY AS A PROTECTION. 



THE intelligence of the lower animals is, perhaps, in no 

 case so well shown as in their attempts at protec- 

 tion. The struggle for existence seems to have developed a 

 marvellous ada( tation to their surroundings, strongly marked 

 in some, slightly in others, yet recognizable among all Irving 

 creatures. In the North we find many animals that offer, in 

 their color, little contrast to the ever present snow, the re- 

 sulting inconspicuity being the greatest protection afforded 

 by nature. The ptarmigan, indeed, so closely follows the 

 change in its surroundings, that while in the winter it is pure 

 white, when the gray mosses, lichens and scanty vegetation 

 crops out in the spring, the birds shed their white coat and 

 assume a correspondingly dark garb. The animals that live 

 upon the great deserts in Africa and America, in almost 

 every case, have assumed nearly the exact shade of 

 the ground upon which they rest. The horned toad of the 

 West is almost invisible, as it lies upon the burnt, sandy 

 soil ; the toads of our gardens resemble the dusty roads which 

 they frequent, while the frogs assume a brilliant green that 

 affords them sufficient protection among the rushes by the 

 river side. 



Color in animals is a protection not only because of its simi- 

 larity to surrounding objects, but it serves its possessor in 

 another way, to warn their enemies. Numbers of the un- 

 eatable caterpillars are extremely beautiful ; equally so are the 

 Baruiida, Helkonidue and Papilionidce. all richly marked but- 

 terflies, noxious to birds, and so strangely characterized that 

 they are never attacked by the latter by mistake. 



That certain insects are awiare of their mimitic power, and 

 take advantage of this, is shown in the case of the butterfly 

 ParaUUia. It is in much favor by certain birds, and often 

 chased by them. When driven to the wall, however, by a 

 feathered enemy, it suddenly assumes a slow and labored 

 flight that is peculiar to a poisonous butterfly' much dreaded 

 by birds. The parsuer, on noticing the change, thinks it 

 has made a mistake, and gives up the chase in disgust, while 

 the cunning mimic resumes its natural mode of flight. 



Among the insects that find protection in both color and 

 form, the Manikin: and Phumdda, are pre-eminent; the tornier 

 arc called praying insects, from their curious habit of holding 

 up their long fore feet as if in prayer. Many of them are 

 colored in exact imitation of the trees or twigs upon which 

 they are found, and in their general adaptation to their en- 

 vironments are wonderful examples of the positive existence 

 of design in Nature. 



The leaf insects (Phasndda) are still more exact iu their 

 mimicry, especially those of the genus Phyllium. They are 

 about the size of an ordinary leaf; their wings and the 

 dilated margins of their bead, thorax and legs, being almost 

 exact in their resemblance to the leaves of the plant the 

 walking leaf most affects; the veining, even to the most 

 delicate markings, is there, and the color is exact. In the 



East they are often kept alive as curiosities, and visitors from 

 abroad jestingly asked to point them out, when they are 

 clinging to a limb, entirely lndistihguishablefroin the. leaves, 

 though only a few inches away. 



Some of the stick insects in the collection of the Museum 

 of Natural History, Central Park, are seven or eight inches 

 long, and are perfect iu their resemblance to green twigs; 

 the rugosities of the bark, the knots and defects in the 

 wood are all closely copied by the leg joints and various 

 parts of these curious creatures. Some resemble dead twigs, 

 and have singular excrescences upon them that mimic moss. 

 We are all familiar with the difficulty of capturing grass 

 hoppers from their similarity in color to the grass. "Locusts 

 on sunburnt plains are brown or gray, while those thai live 

 in the green woods are arrayed uT like colors. In some the 

 actual imitation of the oval decayed spots of the leaf are 

 seen, so that the insect resembles an old leaf punctured with 

 holes, and is safe in this protection from the various birds 

 that seek it. Mr. Belt, the naturalist, Was fortunate in observ- 

 ing the action of one of these locusts in time of danger. It 

 was moving slowly along when a host of insectivorous ants 

 came by, eager for such game. The locust stopped, drew 

 closely to the ground, while the enemy rushed by, little 

 suspecting that the dried and weather-worn leaf that barred 

 their passage, was the choice morsel they would gladly have 

 captured. When the ants had passed, the clever mim ic re- 

 sumed its way unmolested. 



Certain flies mimic bees, even to the noise they make. 

 Wasps find their double iu the syrphus fly, and the Priome- 

 mis, a wasp of Central America, is so closely imitated by a 

 hemipterous insect (Spiniger luteoncomis), even to its erratic 

 movements, transparent wings, etc., that few would take up 

 the cunning though perfectly harmless mimic. 



The stinging ants, ferocious creatures,, are closely copied 

 by certain spiders, and numerous species of hemiptej > 

 coleoptera. I have often found a small spider clinging to its 

 delicate web on growing corn of a rich green of the exact 

 tint of the new stalk. Notice the plant lice upon } r our rose 

 bushes, how perfectly they partake of the general tone. 

 Again, the scale insecis, especially the Coccus, found upon 

 the oleander; it fairly seems a part of the leaf so flat is it, 

 and so exactly of the same color. It has nothing to fear 

 from birds, no matter how careful the scruting may be. 



The trap-door spider, that digs a hole in the ground, lining 

 it with glossy silk, is a cunning mimic. The door of its 

 house works on a hinge, and lifts up and down, fitting the 

 hole exactly, and when completed, as you may suppose, pre- 

 sents a strange contrast to the grass or sand. But the spider, 

 seeming to understand this, brings earth and covers the top, 

 finally planting bits of moss and twigs upon it, which soon 

 grow and entirely conceal the door that when lifted often 

 raises a miniature flower garden. 



The wonderful power possessed by some lizards of chang- 

 ing their color, affords them a most perfect protection. 

 Iguanas are of the same tint of the boughs upon which they 

 cling, and the chameleon as it moves along changes its color, 

 adapting itself to its various surroundings with" marvellous 

 rapidity. The writer has observed the little green snake, so 

 common in the New England Slates, coiled, with its head 

 erect several inches from the ground, so closely resembling 

 the sprout of some succulent plant, that the' unobservant 

 stroller would pass it by unnoticed. 



The power of directly assuming the tint of other surround- 

 ings is not confined to reptiles. Mr. J. W. Wood found 

 that when placing a number of the chrysalises of the small 

 cabbage butterfly (Pontiu tapes.) in different colored boxes, 

 each changed to a tint corresponding to the lining of its 

 prison; those in dark boxes became black; those placed 

 against a whitewashed wall became white; those in red 

 boxes, red, and so on. One of the most remarkable cases of 

 this kind is recorded in the "Transactions of the Entomo- 

 logical Society" of London, 1874, the insect being the chry- 

 salis of an African butterfly (Papilco nireus). This cater- 

 pillar feeds upon the orange tree, and also upon a forest 

 tree ( Vhpris lancwlata), which has a lighter green leaf; and 

 its color corresponds with that of the leaves it feeds upon, 

 being of a darker green when it feeds on the orange. The 

 chrysalis is usually found suspended among the leafy twigs 

 of its food plant, or of some neighboring tree, but if, is prob- 

 ably often attached to larger branches; and Mr. Barber has 

 discovered that it has the property of acquiring the color, 

 more or less accurately, of any natural object it may be in 

 contact with. A number of the caterpillars were placed in 

 a case with a glass cover, one side of the case being formed 

 by a red brick wall, the other sides being of yellowish wood. 

 They were fed on orange leaves, and a branch of the bottle- 

 brush tree (Banlma sp.) was also placed in the case. When 

 fully fed, some attached themselves to the orange twigs, 

 others to the bottle-brush branch, and these all changed to 

 green pupa? ; but each corresponded exactly in tint to the 

 leaves around it, the one being dark, the other a pale, faded 

 green. Another attached itself to the wood, and the pupa 

 became of the same yellowish color; while one fixed itself 

 just where the wood and brick joined, and became one side 

 red, the other side yellow ! These remarkable changes would 

 perhaps not have been credited had it not been for the pre- 

 vious observations of Mr. Wood ; but, the. two support each 

 other, and oblige us to accept them as actual phenomena: 



This faculty has been observed among fishes, and a veiy 

 pretty experiment can be tried by any of our readers 

 who "are the fortunate possessors of a salt water aquarium. 

 The common flounder, the one that has such beautiful 

 movable eyes, is perhaps the best to experiment upon. To 

 commence", your fish or fishes must be in perfect condition; 

 having made sure of this, place them in the aquarium, 

 having previously arranged the bottom so that it is pure 

 white bleached sand answering the purpose, Watch the 

 color, a light brown probably, of your flounder, when you 

 put it in, and leave it for a day or less. You will then set 

 that the fish has grown lighter or has assumed a tint very 

 similar to that of the bottom. Remove it now and cover the 

 bottom with the black kelp that can be found /long the 

 beach, and again introduce the now light-colored fish, Give 

 it several hours as before, and on returning you will find 

 that instead of the light tint it has become very dark and 

 mottled, and can scarcely be distinguished from the bottom, 

 in fact, your flounder has assumed, as nearly as possible, the 

 color of the botton as a protective measure. But how is it 

 done? It certainly seems as if the flounder had looked 

 around, and observing that he was offering a dangerous con- 

 trast to the bottom, had changed his color, a process that 

 would seem to require thought on the pari of the fish. It is 

 however, probably merely illustrative of the effect of light and 

 color on its pigment cells, and is an involuntary witness to the 

 changes that are taking place in its complexion. The eye is 

 the medium of the change, a fact that cau be proved by using 

 a blind flounder in the above mentioned experiment, when 1$ 



