310 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
KANSAS WILD PLUMS. 
We have received the following letter from Jackson Gill- 
banks, Esq., a frequent contributor to London Field, and 
recommend its contents to the consideration of our numer¬ 
ous friends in Kansas in hope that some of them will give 
the subject attention. We should be obliged for a descrip¬ 
tion of the tree of bush and a handful of the seeds or 
stones as soon as the fruit is ripe, some of which we will 
take pleasure in forwarding to Mr. Gillbanks:— 
Cumberland, Eng., May, 1874. 
Editor Eorest and Stream:— 
A writer signing himself E. A. C. in the Field newspaper, gives a se¬ 
ries of articles on the interior of America. Among other things worth 
notice that he meets with are sandy, barren plains in Kansas, on parts 
of which were immense quantities of plum trees “not larger than our 
gooseberry bushes,” hearing fruit of enormous size and most luscious 
flavor. It strikes me as being odd that when travelers a long way off 
meet with a great curiosity like this, by some unaccountable oversight 
they generally neglect to bring home a specimen or seed thereof. Now, 
common experience shows that any one bringing to England a fruit tree 
as described would realize a fortune at once; since if it would not 
stand our winters, it would be admirably adapted for orchard house s 
now quite common. I have written to our Field newspaper in vain for 
more information about this tree or bush. I hope some of you across 
the water will clear it upland help me and others interested. I saw it 
alluded to m a northern expedition, where it was said to be so juicy-and 
sweet as not to require sugar, either raw or cooked. At present I and 
other lovers of nature’s good gifts are eating it in imagination, cum 
qrano sails, Jackson Gillbanks. 
Batumi history. 
For Forest and Stream. 
THE NEWFOUNDLAND DEVIL FISH. 
M R. SAVILLE KENT, an eminent English naturalist, 
has published an article on “Gigantic Cuttle Fisli” 
in the “Popular Science Revew,” in which he announces it 
as his opinion that the cuttle-fish discovered by the Rev. 
M. Harvey in Newfoundland and described and photo¬ 
graphed by him, is a new species,, and different from that 
described by Professor Heenstrup, under the name of 
Archituthis monachus. Mr. Kent has proposed to the Zoo¬ 
logical Society that this new species be named Megalotenthis 
Harreyn , “in recognition of the services rendered to 
science by Mr. Harvey, in securing and describing” this 
extraordinary- specimen. 
Professor Owen has divided the cephalopoda into orders; 
the one including the Pearly Nautilus, called TetrabrancMata 
or four-gilled; the other including the rest of the existing 
species, named DibrancMata, or two-gilled. To the latter 
order belong the cuttle-fish, (tepiadae). 
It is remarkable that of the great division of cuttle¬ 
fish called TectrabrancMata , there is but one living repre¬ 
sentative, namely, the pearly nautilus, with numer¬ 
ous arms unprovided with suckers, no ink-sac, and an 
external many chambered shell. All other cuttle-fish 
belong to the DibrancMata , or “two-gilled” order, and have 
either eight arms, as the octopus, or ten arms as the cala- 
mary or squid. The Newfoundland specimen is a cala- 
mary, having ten arms, the two largest being twenty-four 
feet in length. Professor Baird discovered a new species 
of octopus in the Bay of Fundy which has been named in 
honor of him Octopus Bairdii. It is of course very different 
in appearance from the Newfoundland calamary, its eight 
arms being connected together by a partial web and used 
as an organ of locomotion as well the siphon, through 
which wat er is ejected in swimming backwards. The octo¬ 
pus is small, all the specimens hitherto found being males. 
It is well known that females of this genus are usually very 
much larger than the males—in fact of utterly dispropor¬ 
tionate size; so that it is quite possible that the female 
Bairdii may be of formidable diminsions. The same is pos¬ 
sibly true of the gigantic calamaries of Newfoundland; 
which may account for the difference in size of the two 
specimens lately seen, of which one was said to be sixty 
feet, the other only seven or eight. 
Professor Verriil, who has now in his possession various 
portions of the MegalotentMs Harveyii, as Mr. Kent has 
named it, will be able to determine whether it is really a 
new species, or identical with that described by Heen¬ 
strup. The learned Professor has got the photographs en¬ 
graved for his new work on the fishes of the North Atlan¬ 
tic; and no doubt we shall speedily know his decision 
through the medium of one of the scientific organs. 
The geological' record makes a remarkable disclosure 
regarding these great orders of cuttle fish. During the 
Palaeozoic Ages, the oceans and seas swarmed with the 
“four-gilled” cuttle-fish, their beautiful external shells 
being now found as fossils in the older rocks; but as the 
earth advanced towards its present condition, these curious 
forms slowly died out, leaving the pearly nautilus their 
only living representative. On the other hand, the “two- 
gilled” cuttle-fish have no representatives m the earlier 
periods of the earth’s history, and only now seem to have 
reached their full development. The pearly nautilus oc¬ 
curs in almost the oldest rock formations in which traces 
of living organisms are found, and still holds its ground 
in the great battle of life. 
Permant, one of our older naturalists, writes thus of the 
octopus, or eight-armed cuttle-fish:—“In the Indian seas 
this species has been found of such a size as to measure 
twelve feet in breadth across the central part, while each 
arm was fifty-four feet in length, thus making it extend, 
from point to point, 120 feet.” He further states that “the 
natives of the Indian seas, when sailing in their canoes, 
always take care to be provided with hatchets, in order 
immediately to cut off the arms of such of these animals 
as happen to fling them over the sides of the canoe, lest 
they should pull it under water and sink it.” This account, 
which has hitherto been laughed at, receives a remarkable 
confirmation from the incident which took place last Octo¬ 
ber, in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, when a gigantic 
cuttle-fish flung its arms over a fishing boat and would have 
sunk it but for the prompt action of a fisherman who cut 
off the tentacles with a tomakawk. 
St. Johns , Newfoundland, June 10tfA, 1874. 
—What! the noble Dane without a rabbit ? But so it is, 
for La Glume Illustree tells us that the Danish Government 
have just bought 50,000 rabbits in France to repeople their 
country. What a multitude of cotton tails to be sure. 
GRAYLING OF MONTANA. 
Helena, Montana Territory, June 8, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I notice in your issue of May 28th last a correction from 
your correspondent “Monmouth,” referring to liis previous 
interesting letter in regard to the Yellowstone Valley. 
One very fine canon of the Yellowstone, sketched by 
Mathews, and lithographed for publication, can be reached 
from Fort Ellis in a very few hours, being about twenty 
miles from that place and ten or eleven above the Crow 
Indian Agency. 
There are trout galore in the Yellowstone. I have 
caught a thousand a week frequently during a twenty 
months’ residence at.the Agency mentioned; and, further¬ 
more, there are grayling there, the veritable Salmo Thy- 
mallus as depicted in Ronald’s Fly-Fisher’s Entomology, 
which work I have by me as I write. 
The employes, of the Agency were in the habit of throw¬ 
ing them away, calling them white suckers, and “no ac¬ 
count,” until the sergeant in charge of the few troops there 
told me they were as good as trout, and after a terrible 
fuss with our cook, who thought it beneath his high toned 
art to “cook suckers” in a trout country, we had some for 
supper, and pronounced them good as trout. 
We could always tell a grayling’s bite from that of a 
trout; the rush is harder, but they weaken quicker, have 
not the ‘‘leather” in them that trout have. 
During this season I may drop you a few remarks on our 
fish and fishing. I am very fond of the sport. We have 
several varieties of trout. Some men who fish for a living 
declare that one variety is a hybrid between a trout and 
the grayling I have mentioned; this matter I shall try to 
investigate. 
One thing you may assert, trout are caught in the Mis¬ 
souri river, in the main stream, I mean, below the three 
forks, at what is called “the Gate of the Monntains.” 
They are not plenty, however. More of this, too, anon. 
In haste, yours. Stump. 
[These statements are corroborative of others made by 
our correspondents in previous letters.—E d.] 
FAUNA OF NEWFOUNDLAD. 
St. Johns, Newfoundland, June 7, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Your letter of the 6tli ulc. .1 only received two days ago, having been 
absent on a visit to Canada for some Weeks. I shall be glad that the 
misstatements regarding this country, which have appeared at different 
times, may be rectified through the columns of your journal. I never 
saw your issue of 21st of May, and never read the article on Newfound¬ 
land. I must take the liberty of correcting a misreading of my lecture 
quoted in that article, which perhaps you will kindly show on a future 
occasion. You say at one part “Wild swans and geese are absent.” Wild 
swans are absent, or at all events I never heard of any having been seen; 
but wild geese, anas canadensis, come in enormous numbers and breed 
all over the island. 
Again, as regards fishes. Although I can only identify two quite dis¬ 
tinct species of trout in these inland waters, I have no doubt that a pro¬ 
fessed naturalist would in all probability discover many more; and fur¬ 
ther, I would say, so far as sport goes, I imagine there are few parts of 
the world where better could be found. The sport With, sea trout and 
salmon is even now very good, and were it not for the barbarous practice 
of baling the streams it would be equal to any in America. 
Speaking of the caribou, I have not stated that they could not be 
tamed. On the contrary, they can be very easily tamed; but they never 
appear to live for any length of time under restraint. I have caught and 
tamed two—a stag and a doe fawn—myself, which became as tame and as 
friendly as a dog, but both died when a little over a year old; and I have 
known of many similar instances, besides having the evidence of the 
doorkeeper of the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park. London, to the 
same effect. 
As my name may be called in question regarding these matters, I will 
be obliged by your noticing my present statements. I am sending you 
a copy of my official report for 1873, which I hope you will glean some 
little information from, and beg to subscribe myself yours, very faith¬ 
fully, - Alex. Murray. 
Jackson, Miss., June 15, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
I have been somewhat astonished—not at the great interest taken in 
“Do Quail Withold their Scent”—but that any one should doubt it. My 
first lesson in partridge shooting (I mean “Bob White” when I say par¬ 
tridge), after the covey started and I was more than eager to go for the 
single birds, was to wait and let the birds give out their scent, of which, 
as Mr. Laverack says, Mr. E. S. Wanmaker has given the best and the 
only rational explanation. As probably some of your readers would like 
authority, I would give them Frank Forester’s “Field Sports,” vol. 1, 
page269, edition of 1848, where he says: 
“This cunning little bird, having either the power or the peculiarity of 
retaining its scent for some time after alighting, when it is alarmed, so 
that the best dogs in the world shall fail to find it. This may be an ac¬ 
cidental provision of nature, possibly owing to some contraction of the 
pores and consequent check of the odoriferous effluvium, owing to 
alarm, &c, &c.,” and goes on to say that he thinks “quail can . witli- 
hold their scent voluntarily,” also citing instances when good dogs could 
not find the birds of scattered coveys until after the lapse of some time. 
In regard to the latter, Lewis’ “American Sportsman” says on page 98 
that “this seeming deficiency, however, in the olfactory organs of our 
canine favorite is now easily accounted for by the presumed existence of 
a singular provision of nature, which endows the American partridge 
with the extraordinary faculty of withholding, for a time, the emanation 
from its body of that peculiar, strong odor that betrays its proximity to 
the dog.” Lewis then gives a letter from a gentleman, who seems to 
have made it a specialty, to fully determine the question of “withholding 
scent,” and proves it by making various trials with. good dogs on scat¬ 
tered birds. 
Will you please tell Fred Beverly that I throw up the sponge about 
hammocks. Webster spells it with u, o and a, so I presume we “pays 
our money and we takes our choice.” Yours truly, Geo. C. Eyrich. 
Importation of Thorouoilbred Dogs. —By the Williams 
& Guion steamer “Wyoming,” which arrived a week ago 
last Monday, our correspondent, “Mohawk” received from 
tl\ekennel of Mr. Macdona, a.very handsome liver, white 
and tan setter dog, named “Milo,” a cousin to the great 
Ranger. Also a handsome liver and white pointer bitch 
called “Naylor. 
—The Canadian government is.enforcing game laws in a 
model manner. Steam tugs are employed on the St. Law¬ 
rence in searching for seines and nets, and on shore officers 
keep a close watch. 
FISH IN SEASON IN JULY. 
Salmon, Salmo Solar. 
Trout, Salmofontinalis 
1 
Land-locked Salmon, Salmo gloveri MichiganGrayling ThVmdTlv* t • 
Black Bass, micropterus salmoides, micropterus nigricans w ln oolof 
Striped Bass, Roccus lineatus. 
Bluefish, temnodon saltator. 
Sea trout, Salmo immaculatus 
vv eaKtish. 
flt^T We beg onr friends throughout the country to send 
us frequent notes on angling, both sea ard river fishing 
Let us know the size and quantity of fish taken, kind of 
fly or bait used, the run of fish, stage of water, temperature 
when practicable, number of rods on the stream or stand 
improvements in fishways, lodging accommodations 
general facilities, routes, means of transportation, celebri- 
ties abroad, number of summer tourists and sportsmen 
and any other information of interest or value to sportsmen' 
Remember that each contribution to the general fund of 
knowledge will prove of mutual and reciprocal service 
—There is an abundance of salmon in market Of 
course we do not mean to say that at thirty cents a pound 
you could gorge ’pren'tices with salmon, but still it is i n 
plenty. Yery possibly when our paper is read salmon will be 
worth but twenty five cents. The noblest in size come from 
the Quebec region, and we handled one of fully forty 
pounds. Big fish are not liked; it is the smaller ones, run¬ 
ning from ten to fifteen pounds, which are most in de¬ 
mand. Native salmon still scarce. Trout from Canada 
in ’elegant condition, at about the same figures as last, 
quoted. Blue fish, are now caught all along the coast, as 
far north as New Bedford. Sold at eight cents a pound. 
Just as our last issue went to press a big school of striped 
bass struck Squan Beach. A catch of eighty-six weighed 
forty-four pounds-each. Monsters are seen everywhere in- 
the market, and are worth from ten to twelve cents a 
pound. Scattering lots now coming in from the north of 
us. There never was a more plentiful season for sheeps- 
heads. Usually they fetch twenty-five cents a pound; this 
year they are bought for eighteen cents. Fishermen are 
catching them all along New Jersey and Long Island. 
Spanish mackerel still coming from Norfolk and the Ches¬ 
apeake in fair quantity. One we looked at weighed six 
pounds. We have seen them when they have^been caught 
further north to turn the scale at nine pounds; worth fifty 
cents, a shade higher than they have been. Shad have de¬ 
parted, and the last run has gone. Kingfish scarce; worth 
twenty cents, and coming from Long Island. An exceed¬ 
ing quantity of green trutle, which, the bigger they are, 
the cheaper they are. You can take home on-a dray a five 
hundred pounder for eight cents a pound; but a nice little 
one, a wheelbarrow turtle, costs as much as eighteen cents. 
Soft crabs rather diminishing in number, but in active de¬ 
ni and at $2 a dozen. It has rained a shower of frogs legs, 
and yet there is no plague. Canada now sends her supply; 
price down to thirty cents. Even Mark Twain’s jumping 
frog would not briDg more, when properly dressed, than 
the before-mentioned figures. Pretty blow fish, animated 
sea-bubbles, are now seen in the market. You apply your 
lips to their mouths, blow away, and they swell up like a 
balloon. The tongue of the fish forms a tight-fitting valve, 
you blow in, the fisli swells, but the air can’t get out. At 
Mr. Blackford’s we saw 7- a fine specimen of the Hawkshill 
turtle ( caretta imbricata), the real shell trutle, from whose 
plates pur tortoise shell combs are made. There are thir¬ 
teen scales on his back, which overlap each other. This 
nice creature will go to Central Park, Mr. Blackford hav¬ 
ing presented him to the collection. 
—During the week ending June 19 ninety-nine arrivals 
were reported at Gloucester. Forty-two of these were 
from George’s Bank, with an aggregate catch of 852,000 
pounds of codfish; eleven from Grand and Western Banks, 
five bringing 505,000 pounds of salt fish, and six with 
172,000 pounds of halibut; and forty-six from Southern 
trips, forty-five of which brought in 8,841 barrels of mack- 
eral, and with 200 barrels of porgie bait. The Southern 
mackerel fleet met with good success during the past week. 
—There are very few fish at present in Canarsie Bay, 
though there is a fair run outside. Charley Fox took _ t ^ e 
first Sheepshead of the season at Rockaway Beach on Wed¬ 
nesday last. . 1 
—Slieepshead are bitting at Barnegat, and fishing wi e 
good in a week or two. 
" —Old fishermen, who know every nook and crook within 
twentv miles of New Bedford, say that salt water fish are 
move plenty this year than has been known for several 
rEST Blue Fish Reported.—I. Hathaway Esq., a 
fisherman, captured on the 16th inst., while fis img 
le bridge at Coliasset Narrows, (Mass.) with io an 
blu'e fish weighing twenty-five pounds, certain y ® 
ever caught there, seventeen being the next aiges 
d. Do our friends at Barnegat find larger ones. 
> have received from the Secretary of the Blooming 
^ark Association the following notice to mem 1 
40 Fulton Street, June 18th, 
shooting season will open July 4th. Trout an 
hing now good. Please inform us wliat £ L n _ 
to be at the park, so that we can arrang , 
3, etc. John Avery,. Sect etarj. 
e Muncy Trout Company, of Lycoming o-, ** 
ndly send us an invitation to - be present a 
festival, which is to commence on June; • 
ire beautiful grounds, and trout are to e 
3 hing every day, and there is something ul ° s . 
en guests are requested as per programme 
TV .. 4 -i. „ o-h from one to three 
