40 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 
Fish Culture, the Protection op Game, Presrvation op Forests, 
and the Inculcation in Men and Women op a healthy interest 
in Out-door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
parent md publishing ($somym\ti f 
-AT- 
103 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK, 
and 125 SOUTH THIRD [STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
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Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 
A discount of twenty per cent, for five copies and upwards. Any person 
sending us two subscriptions and Ten Dollars will receive a copy of 
Halloclv s “Fishing Tourist,” postage free. 
Advertising Kates. 
In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12lines to the inch, 2c 
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notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent, 
extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 
months, 30 per cent. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1874. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub¬ 
lishing Company. Personal letters only, to the Manager. 
All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names null not be published if 
objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Ladies are especially invited to use our columns, which will be pre¬ 
pared will? i areful reference to their perusal and instruction. 
Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 
notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle¬ 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re¬ 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 
the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 
lend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise¬ 
ment. or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 
terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department o the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 
Wc cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 
money remitted to us is lost. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 
CHARLES HALLOCK, 
Managing Editor. 
Transfer. —As lias already been announced in the daily 
press, a one-tliird interest in the capital stock of Forest 
and Stream has been sold for $8,500 to William C. Harris, 
Esq., late of the Trade Journal , Philadelphia, who will, in 
a few days take entire charge of its' business affairs. Until 
such time our branch office at 125 South Third street, Phil¬ 
adelphia, will remain under his supervision. Under the 
efficient management of Mr. Harris we look for increased 
prosperity and business patronage, and feel that the trans¬ 
fer thus made will be for the advantage of all who are di¬ 
rectly or indirectly interested in this journal. 
Charles I-Iallock, Editor. 
THE HUDSON RIVER SALMON. 
O UR esteemed cotemporary of the Troy Whig, in his 
paper of February 13th, suggests a possible failure of 
the attempt to stock the Hudson River with salmon, on the 
grounds that for some reason unknown the river was never 
frequented by this fish. He thinks that if the fry are put 
into the upper waters of the Hudson they will doubtless 
find their way to the.sea, hut never come back in numbers 
to create a profitable fishery. This anticipation, however, 
is entirely contrary to the every day experience of fish cul- 
turists in America, and Europe, since it very often happens 
that fish thrive better in new localities than in those from 
which they were transferred. 
Certainly, as far as the black bass is concerned, they 
have never been known so plenty in the western waters,from 
which they were brought to the Potomac, as they are now 
in that river, in which they were placed only about twenty 
years ago, and the experience of other localities is of very 
much the same character. Our eastern trout is success¬ 
fully propagated in California; and many similar exchanges 
of the trout family, to say nothing of bass and shad, are on 
record. Of one thing, however, we may be certain, if the 
Upper waters of the Hudson are suited to the growth of the 
salmon and they go down to the sea, they will be sure to 
come back again, since, nothing is more firmly established 
than the fact that fishes always return during their breed¬ 
ing season to the place whence they started as young fish. 
Even, -therefore, if there he impassable dams to prevent 
their reaching the head waters where they were first intro¬ 
duced, they will proceed as far up as they can, and may be 
taken in one part of the river if not in another. 
It must also be remembered tint the salmon, to which 
reference is made as being lately introduced into the Hud¬ 
son, is not tlie species that formerly occurred in the Con¬ 
necticut, and is now taken on the coast of Maine, but is a 
totally distinct kind from California. Given streams prop¬ 
erly constituted, as far as purity and natural and artificial 
obstructions are concerned, the next question affecting the 
introduction of the salmon is that of the temperature of 
the water. We know that the temperature of the Con¬ 
necticut during the summer, is quite as high as that of the 
Hudson. But should there be a difference, it must be re¬ 
membered that the California species of salmon is accus¬ 
tomed to a much higher temperature than that of either 
river mentioned; the upper Sacramento indeed, during the 
summer season for months together, having a temperature 
of from 100 to 110 Q in the shade. At any rate, whatever he 
the actual result, we cannot know it without an experiment, 
and it is to be hoped that every facility will be given to 
this effort. For ourselves we have not the slightest ques¬ 
tion that if the operations of the United States Commis¬ 
sioner and his colleagues in the States, are properly sup¬ 
ported for a few years to come, all the rivers of the eastern 
coast, as far south at least as the Roanoke, together with 
the appropriate tributaries of the great lakes and the head 
waters of the Ohio and Mississippi, will become the local¬ 
ities of profitable salmon fisheries. 
---- 
THE NEWFOUNDLAND TELEGRAPHIC 
MONOPOLY. 
W E have been favored the past week with several in¬ 
terviews with Michael Carroll, Esq., an eminent 
naturalist and historian of Newfoundland, who is now in 
this country for scientific objects, and at present in Wash¬ 
ington. Mr. Carroll has brought to our attention some 
important facts which will be new to some persons 
and perhaps forgotten by many, but which arc neither new 
nor forgotten by the telegraphic monopolists, who have so 
long held the key to the ocean cable telegraphic system. 
Newfoundland bolds a position of peculiar interest to 
the people of this continent, for upon it rests one end of 
the Atlantic cable, and across it passes the single land 
wire which, connecting with the cable, puts the whole 
business world under constant tribute, and dictates tlie cost 
of telegraphic messages. At this remote place North and 
South America on one side, and Europe, Asia, and Africa 
on the other, must. all pay toll for their correspondence; 
and even though cables should girdle the world, it is sail at 
Newfoundland they are called upon to stand and deliver. 
The remote cause of all this is that on April 15, 1854, an 
agreement was entered into between the Legislature of 
Newfoundland and the “New Y r ork, Newfoundland and 
London Telegraph Company,” by which the Legislature 
granted to this company the exclusive right to build, make 
and occupy a line of telegraphs between St. Johns and 
Cape Ray or between any other two points; and for a period 
of fifty years exclusive right was granted to this company, 
and no one else was to he allowed to build a telegraph on 
the island. But (fo^shave sometimes the happiest effects) 
the legislature allowed themselves a fortunate loophole, 
having inserted this proviso that at the expiration of twenty 
years, if they thought well of it, they might buy back from 
tlie New Y T ork, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Com¬ 
pany the telegraph line, paying a fair price for tlie wires, 
poles, cables, etc. Now on the loth of April, 1874, exactly, 
the twenty years expire, and the legislature are going to 
take back tlie land telegraph line into their hands. Of 
course as this line has so far controlled all the cable lines, 
it lias prevented any other cables having their ends at New¬ 
foundland. In fact it was the pigmy of a land telegraph 
which commanded the situation. Legal decisions of the 
greatest English lawyers show that the Newfoundland legis¬ 
lature has a perfect right to buy the land line when they 
please to do so. Everybody in the world will be delighted 
when this monopoly ceases, which was as unnatural and 
impossible as if the effort was made to pass the whole cur¬ 
rent of the Mississippi through an inch pipe. 
Mr. Carroll is deeply interested in this subject, having 
made the surveys of the present telegraph route, and he 
thinks, as we do, that when this monopoly is swept away 
more telegraphic cables will instantly be laid down, and 
that*the importance of Newfoundland will thereby be won¬ 
derfully increased. 
-- 
THE SPECIES OF BLACK BASS. 
V -*.-- 
A MONG the various candidates for popular favor, for 
introduction into new waters, the Black Bass has al¬ 
ways deservedly occupied a very high place. The excel - 
lence of its flesh, its rapid growth, its endurance and its 
game qualities, all contribute towards this appreciation. 
Little by little this fish has been carried from one part of 
the country to another, until now there is no part of tlie 
United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, where it may 
not he found in greater or le^s abundance. Its great merit 
in this connection lies in the fact that it requires no care in 
the way of culture, since a few pairs transferred bodily, will 
in time furnish a numerous progeny. In consequence of 
its liahit of making a nest and guarding it against intruders 
the fish is enabled to readily secure tlie perpetuation of its 
race. 
Much uncertainty has existed, until recently, as to the 
number of species really entitled to be called Black Bass, 
many having been described and supposed to.be peculiar to 
particular waters. Prof. Gill, of the Smithsonian Institu¬ 
tion, lias lately made a critical and exhaustive investigation 
of this subject, and with the aid of the large amount of 
material belonging to the Institution and that of the Museum 
of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, lie lias come to tlie 
conclusion that there are really but two distinguishable 
forms; the one tlie Mieropterm salmoides , or tlie small 
mouthed bass, and the other, the M. nigrica ns , or the larger 
mouthed variety. 
Both of these species occur naturally over a great part of 
the United States, with the exception of New England and 
the Atlantic sea board of the Middle States, although only 
one, the small mouthed, seems to liave been originally an 
inhabitant of the hydrographic basin of the Ohio. It is 
not to he understood, however, that there are no variations 
from the standard type to he observed in the bass of these 
two groups, in different localities, and it is not improbable 
that a careful criticism will reveal certain trifling peculiar¬ 
ities, which may serve to distinguish those belonging to a 
particular area. The differences of the two primary forms 
are, however, perfectly appreciable, so that even tlie veriest 
tyro, seeing them side by side, must admit tlieir distinction. 
These differences, as stated in the paper of Prof. Gill, are 
as follows:— 
contrasted differential characteristics. 
Scales of Trunk, 
SMALL-MOUTHED. LARGE-MOUTHED. 
Small (e. g. lat. line , 72-75; be- Moderate (e. g. lat. line , 65-70; be¬ 
tween lateral line and back, 11 tween lateral line and back, 71 or 8 
rows). rows). 
Scales on nape and breast. 
Much smaller than those of sides. Scarcely (on nape), or not much 
(on breast) smaller than those of 
sides. 
Scales of ch eeks. 
Minnte (e. g., between orbit and Moderately small (e. g. between 
preoperculutn. about 17 rows in an orbit and preoperculum, about 10 
oblique line and about 9 in a hori- rows in an oblique line and about 
zontal one). 5-6 in a horizontal one). 
Scatts of interopei culvm urdserial. 
Covering only about half the Covering the entire width of -the 
width of the bone. bone. 
Scalcs°of preopercnlar limb. 
None. Developed in an imperfect row (e. 
g., 3-5 m number). 
Scales on dorsal. 
Developed as a deep sheath (in- Developed as a low (obsolete) 
volving last spine) of small scales shallow sheath, and with series as- 
differentiated from those on the cending comparatively little on 
back, and with series advancing membrane behind the rays (none 
high up the membrane behind each behind last five or six), 
ray (except last two or three). 
Scales on anal. 
Ascending high behind eachrav. None (or very few). 
Mott % 
Moderate. Large. 
Supramaxillary. 
Ending considerably in front of Extending considerably behind 
higher margin of orbit (about under the posterior margin of orbit, 
hinder border of pupil). 
Bay 
Dorsal articulated, i3. Dorsal, aidiculated, 12(1.11). 
Anal HI, 10 11. Anal HI, 10. 
Pectoral, 1 16-1 17. Pectoral 114 (1 13). 
Dorsal fin in front of soft portion. 
Little depressed, the ninth Much depressed, the ninth spine 
spine being only about a half short- being only about a fourth as long 
er than the longest (3, 4, 5) and a as the longest and a half as long as 
fourth shorter than the tenth. the tenth. 
-- 
^ A MENAGERIE IN WINTER. 
T HOUGH it was not precisely an arctic temperature, 
yet the jingling of the sleiglibells on one side, and tlie 
scythe sharpening sound of the skate irons on the other, 
the sleighing parties on the road, the skaters on the lake at 
the Central Park, all recalled winter. 
How do our friends, the wild beasts, pass their winters 
in their close quarters? wc asked ourselves. Ho the animals 
of warmer climes, as they look through the windows, won¬ 
der what all this brilliant white covering of nature means? 
Fancy an African lion plunging through a snow drift, or a 
tiger skimming along on ice; or the reverse of it, a Polar 
bear wallowing in the red hot sand of the Sahara. 
Somewhat imbued with the queer anomalies of things, . 
men and beasts in general, our reverie was broken when 
we found ourselves in front of the jackall den at the zoo¬ 
logical building in the Central Park, or rather at the back 
of the cages, a place of privilege kindly allowed us by Mr. 
Conklin, the Director of the Menagerie. What an old, 
rusty, weather beaten, dilapidated, second-hand-liair-trunk 
looking thing a hyena is. 
“Them’s the’scavengers of the place,” remarked Mr. Lan- 
nonj-the feeder; “it is bones we feed them on. What the 
nobler animals leave them jackals devour. Their teeth are 
not long, but they have a tremendous jaw power. Now the 
lions can crack most anything in the wayof a hone like a hazel 
nut, hut for steady gnawing, a continuous kind of grinding 
that makes hones as fine as mill dust, the jackals is 
the boys. Now here is a piece of neck, most all bones; a 
lion would turn his nose up at it. I will have to get two 
pieces or there would he such a fight and howling as would 
disturb the whole place; and you will see for yourself.” 
Saying this, Mr. Lannon procured two bony pieces of 
neck, which he slung into the hyenas’ cages. How they 
both, male and female, precipitated themselves on the first 
piece thrown in, and snarled and yelled and laughed hys¬ 
terically and demoniacally, until each got his own chunk,., 
and then they commenced the mastication of their separate 
pieces! How they plied their vice-like jaws, armed with 
rather short teeth, and liovv the phosphates and the silicates 
of lime were disintegrated, broken up and swallowed! 
Query—Might not an over use of phosphates dcvelope, be¬ 
sides brain, certain ferocious instincts? It is a question 
physiologists may yet del ermine. There are always redeem¬ 
ing traits about animals, which Oriental people are fond of 
recalling. “She walks adorably, glides like a swan,” would 
say our tamer rhymer, apostrophising his lady love. “She 
waddles like an elephant,” would be the compliment to a 
lady’s movements paid by the Birmah poet laureate. Of 
course we do not know whether Hafiz, the Persian, ever 
spoke about the eyes of the hyena in his verses, but we do 
declare that the eyes of this otherwise ugly beast are soft, 
