338 
FOREST AND STREAM 
they come to be known, will astonish you. I will send the 
figures as soon as the “returns” come in. 
Results Achieved.— May 12th.—To the description of 
Guadalupe Island heretofore given (the outlines for which 
were supplied by goat men who arrived at San Diego from 
the island) I will now add the results of the kidding sea¬ 
son of 1874, recently closed. The facts have been ob¬ 
tained from gentlemen at the head of the project, who re¬ 
port the following substantial results as achieved thus far. 
The company’s first kidding season on Guadalupe Island 
shows an increase of 100 per cent, from the ewes in their 
flocks; and the aggregate number of goats, great and 
small, pure grade and common on the island has been 
swelled to about 85,000 head. A large number of these 
have more or less Angora blood in their veins. The pre¬ 
vious estimates of the managers, which were based upon 
an anticipated natural increase sufficient to double the 
number of bearing ewes every year, have thus been made 
good so far, and the managers think they have sound rea¬ 
sons for expecting far better results in future years, be¬ 
cause the rates at which the superior animals increase be¬ 
come proportionately higher every year as the males of 
this race supplant those of the common stock. 
The condition of the flocks is reported as excellent, and 
the feed on the range as never better or more abundant. 
It would support 100,000 goats, say they. The company’s 
men report the grade kids shining white all over the isl¬ 
and—the practical result of work done by the Angora 
bucks since May, 1873. These have taken and held the 
field against the native bucks wherever the two have come 
in contact. 
This fact would seem to confirm the statement of the 
well-known traveller, Rev. Henry J. Yan Lennep, D.D., 
for thirty years a missionary in Turkey, and author of 
“Travels in Little Known Parts of Asia Minor.” This au¬ 
thor, writing from Angora in 1864, says:—“It is worthy of 
notice that in particular districts the Angora breed excludes 
all others.” As to the origin of this goat there is much 
diversity of opinion among naturalists. Cuvier believes 
the Angora to be descended from Capra cegagrus , the paseng 
of Persia. M. Saac traces it back to Falconer’s goat (Capra 
Falconeri), which inhabits the mountains of Thibet. M. 
Brandt intimates that the race was produced by the domes¬ 
tication of other wild species than C ’. ocgagrus or C. Falcon- 
eri. Dr. John Bachman, the eminent American naturalist 
of South Carolina, in a paper written many years ago and 
published in a government report, says:—“The varieties of 
goats are equally numerous and equally varied in different 
countries. They are all of one species, the varieties mix¬ 
ing and multiplying into each other ad infinitum. They 
all claim as their origin the common goat {Capra hircus ), 
which, it.is admitted by most reliable naturalists, derives its 
parentage from the wild goat {Capra (Bgagrus ) that still ex- 
• ists in the European Alps.” Which of these theories may 
be the true one is not important. The practical fact of 
consequence to this country is the steady improvement 
realized in the cross of the pure Angora buck upon females 
of the common species. When this practice is skilfully 
and systematically persisted in the progeny improve with 
each succeeding generation, and all traces of the plebeian 
blood seemingly disappear after a few years. But care 
must be exercised by the breeder lest his stock “breed 
back.” The amelioration of the plebeian race is a work of 
time, requiring the exercise of skill and patience. 
How the Angora thrives on this coast may be judged 
from these facts:—In one flock on the main land, near the 
Pajaro Valley, not over forty kids of this year’s dropping- 
have been lost out of 1,400. I have been shown a letter 
from a breeder in Oregon at The Dallas, who purchased a 
small band three years ago. He writes:—“I have been 
running my goats m a band of 1,500 sheep; all fared alike 
and corralled together. I lost in the storms 540 head of 
sheep and not a goat. All the goats came out in fine con¬ 
dition. The snow on my place was fourteen inches deep.” 
The acknowledged success attending the culture of this 
valuable animal on the Pacific coast has greatly stimulated 
the production. Many stock growers are going into the 
business for the first time. One old breeder informs me 
that he has sold fine and grade breeding goats to the value 
of over $7,000 within the past four months. 
The rate of increase realized in the Guadalupe flocks 
thus far will, if kept up, produce in ten years nearly four 
hundred thousand goats—a result so astonishingly large 
that I am almost afraid to tell it, lest I be charged with 
Munchausenism. It should be stated, however, that the 
flocks will be reduced from yt ar to year by slaughter and 
sale, so that the island will at no time be overstocked. 
Seguramente esta es la isla de la piel d,e oro! Surely this is 
the isle of the golden fleece; and these Pacific wool grow¬ 
ers be veritable, not mythical. Argonauts, for they are not 
only seeking but finding, or, what is better, producing 
•‘A fleece more golden than that famed in Greece, 
Which venturous Jason on his Argo bore 
From the lulled dragon and the Colchian shore.” 
They have planted themselves on the solid bed rock of a 
visible, tangible reality. Yours, 
Buena Espekanza. 
For Forest and Stream. 
FORT CAPRON, FLORIDA. 
I N a late number of your paper I noticed an inquiry 
made by a correspondent—from St. Louis, as well as I 
recollect—asking information with regard to a locality in 
Florida suitable for the establishment of a hotel. Having 
served about two years in South Florida during the last 
Seminole or “Billy Bowlegs” war, I think it probable that 
I may have it in my power to furnish your correspondent 
with the information he seeks. I believe Fort Capron, op¬ 
posite Indian River Inlet, to be the very place for his pur¬ 
pose. Its mild and salubrious climate, together with the 
abundance of fruit, game and fish to be found in its im¬ 
mediate vicinity, render it a place of unsurpassed attrac¬ 
tions for both sportsman and invalid. There is absolutely no 
endemic disease at this place. Its mild, genial climate 
banishes all coughs, colds and rheumatisms, while a line of 
hills in its rear effectually intercept the malarial exhala¬ 
tions of the fresh-water swamps of the interior. The 
chlorinated vapors brought by the trade-winds, which are 
constantly blowing from the sea, also exercise their power¬ 
ful sanitary influence. The abundance of game and fish 
in the vicinity of Fort Capron is truly astonishing. Dur¬ 
ing the prolonged period that I was stationed at that fort 
we were never, in the proper season, without game, fish, 
oysters or green turtle. The fish found in the vicinity are 
red fisli (a species of drum, commonly called “red bass,” 
the “rouge” of the Creole French about New Orleans) red- 
snapper, sheeps-head, cavalls, sea trout, sea mullet, and 
the far-famed pompano. These two last-mentioned fish 
do not take a bait. There are also two other remarkable 
fish inhabiting Indian River and the adjacent coast whose 
scientific names. I am unaware of. These are called by the 
natives the “Jew fish” and the “Tarpon.” The former 
sometimes attains a weight of two or three hundred 
pounds, and resembles a bass in its general contour, while 
the latter presents more the appearance of a doce. The 
“Tarpon,” owing to its gracefhl outlines and lustrous col¬ 
oring, is a fish of most surpassing beauty. The scales on 
its sides are about the size and of the briiliancy of a silver 
dollar, out of which the native females fabricate beautiful 
baskets. When a school of these fish are disporting them¬ 
selves upon the surface of the waves, as is their frequent 
habit, the bright reflections from their sides produce an 
effect not unlike that presented by the burnished arms of a 
squad of soldiers at drill. This fish attains a length of 
about five.or six feet, but is not so heavy as the Jew fish. 
The bar at Indian River Inlet is an unrivalled locality for 
short spearing for those who are fond of that thrilling 
amusement. I have myself, in a common “Whitehall” 
boat, aided in harpooning fifteen or twenty in.a morning. 
The rivers and creeks emptying into Indian River are 
filled with black bass (miscalled “black trout” by the 
natives). This species of black bass reach a much greater 
size than any other species of this fish I have ever met 
with. I have taken them weighing in the neighborhood 
of ten pounds, and I have seen others swimming in the 
water that seemed to be almost as large again. Like the 
bass of the Upper Mississippi and lakes of Minnesota, and 
unlike the bass at present inhabiting the Potomac and its 
tributaries, it will' readily rise to spoon or fly. They are 
apt to have a grassy taste during the summer, but as win¬ 
ter approaches they have as fine a flavor as any other fish 
of the genus. The streams which they inhabit, flowing as 
they do through the sandy soil of the “pine barrens,” 
which contains but little sediment, are almost as transpa¬ 
rent as the celebrated trout brooks of New England. In¬ 
dian River, so called, is not properly a river; but rather a 
sound or salt water lagoon, being separated from the ocean 
by a narrow strip of sandy land overgrown with palmet- 
toes and mangroves. It is about one hundred and fifty 
miles long, and ranges from several miles to forty yards in 
width. On the east it is fed by several inlets from the sea, 
through which the tide ebbs and flows freely. Several 
large rivers enter it from the West, the principal of which 
are^the San Sebastian, Santa Lucia, and Locha Hatcheer 
No country that I have ever visited affords as great a 
variety of game and fish as South Florida. Besides large 
game, such as bear, deer, turkeys, etc., this region literally 
swarms with snipe and ducks, at least during' the winter 
months. Patridges (bob whites) are also sufficiently nume¬ 
rous to afford sport; but I have never seen a woodcock in 
that section. The snipe shooting on the savannahs is 
simply superb. These savannahs (or natural meadows) 
.afford suffiqiont moisture to attract the birds, without 
being so miry as to render the walking difficult or fatigue- 
ing, as is so often the case at points further north. On 
one of these snipe grounds of many hundred acres in ex¬ 
tent, several miles in rear of Fort Capron, I used to enjoy 
most delightful sport, seldom returning without a full 
bag. 
I would advise sportsmen desirous Of snipe shooting in 
that section to take pointers instead of setters, for the 
long hair of these latter are likely to harbor the numerous 
sanquinivorus insects which there abound; its mild climate 
is also more suitable to the nature of the pointer. 
I have been highly delighted by the eloquent and 
graphic descriptions of .South Florida by your accom¬ 
plished correspondent “Fred Beverley.” “Fred” was mis¬ 
taken, however, in supposing the Okee Chobee (big water) 
region to be a terra incognito previous to his visit, as the 
lake has often been explored by officers of the regular 
army engaged in the several campaigns against the Semi- 
noles in that section. The gallant Captain Greland, of the 
Fourth Artillery, once a professor at the United States Mil¬ 
itary Academy at West Point, now lies buried upon its 
banks. But your correspondent certainly deserves great 
credit for the admirable manner in which he has unfolded 
its mysteries to the general public. Your correspondent 
makes honorable mention of a gallant exploit of one of his 
followers whom he calls “Jim.” Now, if he alludes to 
“Jim” Russell, of Fort Capron, (and I am pretty sure he 
does), I am happy to state that I am well acquainted with 
“Jim,” and have had many a jolly day’s sport in his com¬ 
pany. After relating another gallant exploit of “Jim’s,” 
of which I was an eye witness, I will bring this rather un¬ 
reasonably prolonged effusion to a close. During a sail¬ 
boat trip to Morrit’s Island in company with Lietuenant, 
now General, Jeff. C. Davis, of Captain Jack notoriety, and 
several others, among whom was our hero, we had occa¬ 
sion to take along a famous pointer of mine, “Old Nat” by 
name, for the purpose of varying our amusement by a lit¬ 
tle snipe shooting. Now, although “Old Nat’s” moral 
status was none of the best, for lie would “steal like a 
quartermaster,” yet his admirable hunting qualities made 
him a great favorite with all. Like most of his species, he 
was very fond of consulting his own comfort and conve¬ 
nience. At the fort he was accustomed to sleep in a nice 
shady spot on my porch, and seeing a similar locality on 
the boat, produced by the shadow of the main sail, he soon 
ensconed himself therein. After getting through with his 
snooze, and thinking himself, no doubt, still in his accus¬ 
tomed spot at home, he suddenly got up, and, much to our 
surprise and dismay, leaped overboard. As there was a 
violent gale blowing at the time, the “white caps” running 
angrily, and, furthermore, as the dog’s chain soon be'came 
entangled with his legs, his peril became extreme. We 
luffed up promptly; but in spite of all our efforts the fate 
of the dog seemed sealed, when “Jim,” throwing off his 
coat, boldly plunged into the seething, surging waves. A 
few strokes brought him near enough to lay hold of the 
collar of the drowning dog, but owing to the helpless con¬ 
dition of the latter he could not make much progress on 
his return to the boat. Owing to the increased violence of 
the storm we now became aware of the alarming fact that we 
were slowly but surely falling to leeward, and our fears 
now became excited for “Jim’s” safety also. We shouted 
to him to abandon the dog and save himself; but the gal¬ 
lant fellow would not do it. By letting the sail fall and 
using the oars with desperate energy, we were enabled to 
hold the boat in a stationary position, so that “Jim,” swim¬ 
ming with one arm and aided by the waves, succeeded, 
after a desperate struggle, in coming alongside with the 
dog. I soon pulled them both in and we all applauded 
“Jim” for his manly daring; but to this day “Jeff” sw< nr« 
that I pulled the dog in first; but this, however I can 
never bring myself to agree to. a ’ tit 11 
■ Winchester, Fa., June, 1874. 
ALL SUMMER IN THE SIERRAS. 
BY J. H. BATTY, UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
T HE entire countiy knows of the wonders of the Yel¬ 
lowstone, its dizzy heights, its yawning chasms its 
boiling springs and spouting geysers. It "was through 
geological expeditions that this valuable accession to our 
knowledge of the geography of our land was obtained 
These explorations were commenced from a small be<un' 
ning by Dr. F. Hayden, and their past achievements and 
future aims may be best told in a recapitulation of 'the 
Doctor’s experience. 
Dr. Hayden was born in Massachusetts, graduated at 
Oberlin, Ohio, in 1850, studied medicine with Prof. j $ 
Newberry, the present eminent geologist of Ohio, and 
graduated at the Albany, New York, Medical College in 
1853. In the spring of the same year the Doctor began his- 
explorations by a visit to the. Mauvaises Terres, or Bad 
Lands of Dakota, for Prof. James Hall, of Albany, New 
York, for the purpose of procuring a collection of the re¬ 
markable fossil animals in that ancient cemetery, or o-reat 
lake basin. He returned late in the autumn with a to very 
large collection, and much important geological informa¬ 
tion. In the spring of 1854 he started again, and ascended 
the Missouri alone, and on his own account, on the fur 
company’s steamer from St. Louis, which at that time made 
a trip but once a year. He was absent two years, without 
a cent of money from any quarter, having earned his lh- 
ing by putting his hand to any labor that presented itself 
and gained the good will of the fur company. He accom¬ 
panied the leading expeditions among the Indians, and 
thus secured a great amount of valuable information and a 
large collection of fossils. The attention of Profs. Henry 
and Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, was called to his 
labors, and they secured a position for him as geologist to 
the expedition of Lieut. G. K, Warren, United" States To¬ 
pographical Engineers, which explored the Missouri and 
lower Yellowstone river under the auspices of Gen. Har¬ 
ney in 1856, then in command of the troops in the Sioux 
war. He remained with Lieut. Warren unt il the spring of 
1859, when he accompanied Capt. W. F. Reynolds in an 
expedition to the head waters of the Yellowstone and Mis¬ 
souri rivers as geologist. In the meantime he prepared a 
number of official reports, and published many articles in 
the various scientific journals of the day. He also col¬ 
lected material for a volume on the languages of the In¬ 
dians of the upper Missouri, embracing seventeen different 
dialects, forming a quarto volume of 230 pages, with a 
map' and two plates. This was reported as the longest con¬ 
tribution of entirely new matter to our aboriginal literature 
that had been made by any one up to that time. 
Up to the .autumn of 1860 he had explored the country 
bordering on the Missouri River from Omaha to its source 
in the Rocky Mountains. In 1861 he joined the army as a 
surgeon of volunteers, served four years in various capaci¬ 
ties, and was breveted Lieutenant Colonel at the close of 
the war for meritorious services. In 1865 he made another 
expedition to the great bone deposits of the Bad Lands of 
Dakota fo^the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, with 
an order from Gen. Grant on the military posts for such 
facilities as could be gi anted without detriment to the ser¬ 
vice. He obtained at Fort Randall, Dakota, a six mule 
team, with five soldiers, was absent sixteen days in a hos¬ 
tile Indian country, and returned safely with about a ton 
of the valuable vertebrate fossils, a portion of which was 
deposited in the museums of Philadelphia, Boston, and 
New Haven. About the closing of the session of Con¬ 
gress in the spring of 1867 an appropriation of $5,000 was 
made for a geological survey of Nebraska. This was the 
commencement of that which is now denominated the 
United States Geological Survey of the Territories. A pre¬ 
liminary report and a finale were published of the survey. 
The survey was continued from year to year since 1867, 
the appropriation annually increasing in amount, and the 
results have been proportionately valuable. Six annual re¬ 
ports, containing entirely new matter, have been published. 
The publications of the survey, as now organized, will 
consist of three kinds —the annual reports, which are pub¬ 
lished in large editions, and distributed to the people; mis¬ 
cellaneous publications, embracing mostly special reports, 
not suitable for the other two series, and a series of quarto 
volumes, containing the more original and technical results 
of the survey. The success that has attended this survey 
would appear to have entitled it to the confidence of the 
people, and it is believed that Congress will continue it as a 
legitimate government enterprise. It is inferred from its 
great popularity throughout the country that it supplies mi 
existing want, and that its power should be gradually in¬ 
creased from year to year to meet the needs of the govern¬ 
ment so far as its needs are concerned. The managenient 
of the Territories, as well as that of the public domain, is 
under the Department of the Interior, and it is believed 
that this great interior survey should remain in that de¬ 
partment as an integral portion of the government, and be 
so regarded and provided for by annual appropriations by 
Congress. If the survey is so regarded it will continue to 
be successful, and will send out reports and maps to the 
people from year to year, increasing our knowledge of the 
great and wonderful west, and adding to the honor of . our 
country at home and abroad. 
After leaving our camp on the Tarry all Creek, we made 
another camp further up the creek, and then “struck out 
across the hills for Crater Mountain, distant two days jour¬ 
ney. Our second camp was made three miles from tbe 
base of the mountain, and although at so great a distance 
from camp it appeared to be very near. So clear is the 
atmosphere in Cofbrado that the distance of any large ob¬ 
ject is very deceiving. At that camp game w r as very abund¬ 
ant. All the streams in the vicinity were obstructed by 
large embankments made by the beavers, and deer trails 
were seen all over the woods. Antelope were also seen in 
bands near the edge of the timber. I succeeded in shoot¬ 
ing two black tail does one evening, and as it was late m 
the day when they were killed, and my horse was two 
miles away at camp, I concluded to leave them until the 
next morning. Having dressed one and lifted it into a 
fallen tree six feet from the ground, I started for camp by 
a short cut, and, as is often the case, my short cut P r ° ve r 
to be a long one. After having floundered in the dat 
