404 
FOREST' AND STREAM 
For Forest and Stream, 
ELEGY 
ON THE DEATH OF A FAVORITE HORSE. 
BY WAYNE HOVEY. 
ECEIVE, cold earth, a fav’rite’s dear remains. 
Consigned with grief to everlasting rest; 
And if with printless tread he press’d thy plains, 
Lay lightly, greenest sward, upon his breast. 
The noble blood of many a generous steed 
Flash’d in thine eye, and glowed in every vein; 
Thee oft the fairest hands did deign to feed, 
And smooth the tresses of thy flowing mane. 
No braver steed than thou—though princes led 
Hector’s proud courser in the camp of Troy— 
Thou to soft peace and gentle deeds wert bred, 
To bear thy master with a conscious joy. 
Here do I strew around thy grassy tomb 
Each leaf and flower of melancholy hue, 
And weep in fond remembrance of thy doom: 
No more excess of love and grief can do. 
§uUat[e. 
This .Journal is the Official Organ of the Fish Oultiir 
ists’ Association. 
FLASHES FRO M THE “BLU SLIGHT.” 
THIRD WEEK. 
T HE week’s work has, I believe, been considered by 
the naturalists as productive of most satisfactory re¬ 
sults. The dredge and trawl have, as heretofore, brought 
to bottle specimens of both northern and southern fauna, 
and this same peculiarity extends to the sea weeds, plants, 
and mosses. 
We have made two visits to a deep hole in the “Race,” 
just to the westward of Fisher’s Island. Although un¬ 
known to the fishermen hereabouts, the depth of the water 
is marked in the coast survey charts as upwards of seventy 
fathoms, and we have struck fifty-five fathoms, but our 
work so far in it has not been verv paying. The swift 
running of the tide, and the excessively irregular nature 
of the bottom, fouled our dredges, and but for the quick 
tell tale of the check stop we would have soon lost our ap¬ 
paratus. 
The temperatures of the bottom water in these deep lo¬ 
calities are considerably lower than in the shallow waters 
of Fisher’s Island Sound. In fifty fathoms it was 58°, and 
in forty-five fathoms 57°, while in Fisher’s Island Sound, 
at the depth of seven or eight fathoms, it is usually 62° to 
64°. The temperature of the surface water in this region, 
at this season, varies from 63° to 68°, according to the 
weather, time of day, state of tide, and direction of the 
wind. 
The fauna of the deep waters near the the “Race” is 
decidedly northern, and much like that of the coast of 
Maine in many respects. Several northern species were ob¬ 
tained during these trips which had not before been found 
south of Cape Cod. Among the Arctic species found here 
were two handsomely colored shrimps ( Panda,lus annul,icor- 
nis and Hippolyte pusicla ); many kinds of annelids, among 
which Nereis pelar/ica and Aphrodite aculeate were conspicu¬ 
ous, and the beautiful green Phyllodoce Grmilandica was a 
new addition to the fauna of southern Hew England. 
The assumption that the brackish waters in this vicinity 
would furnish much information in regard to the young of 
fishes has been realized, and the Fish Commission has be¬ 
come a feature of interest—skinning, dissecting, bottling, 
hatching, are going on most of the twenty-four hours, and 
the huge ice chests present a motley array of odd fish. 
Every smack that comes in from a trip brings us something 
new. Among the acquisitions has been a fine short-nosed 
sturgeon (Acipenser bremstrU ), measuring nearly eight feet 
in length. The usual post mortem was unavoidably de¬ 
layed, as he persisted in retaining life for three hours after 
lie had been transferred from the smack to the wharf. This 
enormous fish seemed to have a delicate appetite as to 
quality, though not as to quantity, for he had made his last 
dinner on about a bushel of a little amphiod {PUlocheirus 
pinquis ), a russet-clad Crustacea not more than a third of an 
inch in length. The sturgeon is a sluggish, slow going ani¬ 
mal, and it must have been a labor of time for him to col¬ 
lect his locker full. 
Another not common fish brought in was a specimen of the 
“orange file fish” ( Ceratacanthus auriantiacus ), a flat fish with 
remarkably large eyes, and of a bright orange color. This 
fish was a three days’ wonder to the New Londoners, and to 
the fishermen was entirely new. Professor Baird, how¬ 
ever, classed it at once, having procured a number of simi¬ 
lar fish at Wood’s Hole three years ago. A hammer headed 
shark proved quite a curiosity. 
No blue fish to any amount brought in, and few mack¬ 
erel. 
Mr. Fred. Mather arrived here from Holyoke on the 23d 
with a tin can containing some 20,000 young shad, and be¬ 
gan a series of experiments of mixing salt and fresh water, 
and placing the shad in the mixtures. Those placed in 
pure sea. water died that night; those in water three parts 
salt lived some twenty-four, some forty-eight hours, and a 
few till the third day, which finished them. Others, when 
the water was fresher, stood it longer; but one little fellow 
alone, which had been in the salt water, then taken out 
and carefully brought up in (not on) a bottle of fresh water 
by a young lady, through her extreme care held out until 
this A. M. (28th), when the “last run of shad” was exem¬ 
plified in his case. He stood on his head at the bottom of 
the bottle, and gave no responsive wriggle when touched. 
Mr. Mather also, with Professor Baird, Professor Goode, 
your correspondent, and others for spectators, visited a 
large fish car, in which some 1,500 black fish were con¬ 
fined. After many fruitless dips with the scoop net, which 
came up full, but empty, he succeeded in procuring a small 
quantity of spawn, which, having been impregnated in the 
usual manner, adopted in rearing shad and salmon, was 
cared for; but the result was not a success, and Mr. Mather 
hardly had hoped that it would so prove, for the fish had 
been long confined, as the bruised condition of their fins 
indicated, and had nearly spawned out. We hope for bet¬ 
ter luck next time. 
The eggs of the black fieh are, Mi*. Mather gays, the 
smallest of any he has ever seen, being so fine that our 
finest hatching boxes would not confine them. The eggs 
of the “mummy chu.g,’\a fish three inches long, were pon¬ 
derous in comparison with those of a five pound black fish. 
These experiments can neither of them he considered en¬ 
tire failures. Points were learned in each case that in fu¬ 
ture experiments will carry us farther on, and if, as it may 
prove, it is eventually found that sea fish can be artificially 
raised, and that young shad can he supplied from the sea 
with proper water, thus making much simpler the task of 
transporting them to Europe, the record of this, the first 
known experiment in either, will possess an interest. 
The sandy coves about Noank produce great numbers of 
eels, and an expert, Mr. Latham, spears from fifty to one 
hundred weight per night, and once, in two successive 
nights, he procured upwards of 1,000 pounds, netting him 
a handsome sum. With all of his experience, though, for 
years among the eels, Mr. Latham is no wiser than the rest 
of ns on the vexed points as to whether eels have sex, are 
vivaparous or oviparous. 
From the pound yesterday we procured a full grown roe 
shad. As the shad is presumed to have ascended the rivers 
and spawned two months ago, this is looked upon as a phe¬ 
nomenon. 
A good sized blue shark occupied the post of honor on 
the dissecting wharf for a day last week. Divesting our¬ 
selves of all prejudice, a fair sized piece, which looked 
nice, was prepared with William’s utmost skill, and served 
by itself, with-various sauces, on the “Blueliglit’s” dinner 
table. The unanimous vote was that, although not had, 
it was not good. The meat was coarse and dry, and had 
very little flavor of any kind. So we don’t hanker after 
any more shark. 
On the 25th a very pleasant little regatta took place, the 
contestants being sloop and cat, boat yachts belonging to 
the post. The race was dead to windward and return, and 
the pennant was won in good time by the sloop “Watson,” 
R. Palmer, closely pressed bjr the cat boat, “Ally,” the lat¬ 
ter just launched, and named in honor of an important 
member of the commission. As both first and second 
boats were built bv the same builders, Messrs. Palmer & 
Duball, selected by Mr. Bennett to lengthen and put new 
hows on the Dauntless, their performance was, as was to 
be expected, most creditable. 
On Tuesday the Brooklyn yacht squadron passed out 
from New London, hound to the westward, and presented 
a fine appearance. 
In the laboratory the microscopic investigations have been 
carried on with many interesting results. "One of the most 
interesting tables in "the laboratory is that of Professor Hy¬ 
att, who is making a special study of sponges. The popu¬ 
lar idea in regard to sponges is, to say the least, rather 
mixed up. That they come from the sea all know, and 
that the}' - were once living animals many know—but in 
what shape or form that mass of honeycombed texture 
could have supported life was an unsolved problem. The 
microscope of the Professor, and his clear explanations 
resolve the mastery. As torn from the rock or shells at 
the bottom of the sea, on which they make their home, the 
sponges present a very different appearance from that in 
which we are familiar with them. The ordinary sponge, 
as seen everywhere, is but the skeleton not of one, but of 
millions of animals—the countless orifices on its surface, 
but the exit openings of an elaborate net work of canals 
and channels, each communicating witli all others, and all 
lined with countless minute animals of a cellular nature, 
whose secretions form the sponge, and who, by the uani- 
mous action of hair-like appendages called cillac, draw in the 
sea water through orifices not visible to the naked eye, and 
with it the food upon which they subsist, animalculse still 
smaller than themselves. In them we find confirmation of 
the poet’s lines, that “Great big fleas have little fleas,” &c. 
The refuse of their food is carried on from channel to 
channel, each growing in size by the junction of others, 
as in a brook-fed river, until at Iasi ejected from the large, 
exhalent orifices. A coating of liver-like flesh, soft and 
non-elastic, covers the skeleton; this is removed by mace¬ 
ration in water in the species which are preserved for com¬ 
mercial purposes,* and in them is of a horny or keratose 
nature. The sponges found on our coast represent several 
families, none of which, however, are free from silicious 
or calcareous spiculge, which renders them useless for the 
ordinary purposes for which a sponge is required, and 
which those brought from the Red Sea, Mediterranean, or 
West Indies fulfil. Certain forms on our coast, however, 
as the Ghalina arbuscula , and one or two others, have a net 
work of the horny substance connecting the spiculse. and 
therein more nearly approximate to the West India sponge, 
in which there is no trace of the silicious spiculae. A form 
found in Martha’s Vineyard, the suberites , a flat, yellow 
mass, is so covered with these flinty needles that on press¬ 
ing one in the hands a decided pricking sensation is ex¬ 
perienced. 
The most interesting of the true silicious sponges is the 
Cliona sulphuria , which attaches itself to dead shells, fre¬ 
quently the clam shell, penetrates entirely through in 
countless places, until the shell is completely honeycombed, 
and the large exhalent orifices protrude on either side, and 
around this soiid basis it grows to be a great yellow mass, 
looking little like a sponge to the fishermen who frequently 
haul it up on their hooks. Few have any idea as to the 
great variety of sponges to be found on our coasts. We 
have this season collected over a dozen varieties, one or 
two of which are entirely new, and over a hundred varie¬ 
ties have been recorded" as natives to the New England 
coast by this and preceding dredging parties. Piseco. 
Shipment of Young Shad to Bremen. —We had on 
Tuesday last a flying visit from our much esteemed friend, 
Fred Mather, Esq., just from Holyoke, Mass., en route for 
Bremen, having* in charge 100,000 .young shad fry (hatched 
on the 4th of August). These fish are consigned to the 
Deutche Fischerei Verein , and will be delivered to Prof. 
Peters of Berlin. They are sent by Prof. Baird, United 
States Commissioner. The spawn came from Holyoke. 
The, nursery improvised for the young shad on hoard the 
Donau, consists of two iron tanks lined with cement. The 
steamer carries 10,000 gallons of water. Though the 
chances are against the enterprise, if it is in the fish “to 
go through” Mr. Mather is the man to take care of them. 
The Donau left on Wednesday. This shipment of Ameri¬ 
can shad marks an important event in fish culture. Mr. 
Anderson of Maine, will accompany Mr. Mather. 
Sjtatmal history. 
DO ALLIGATORS SWALLOW THEIR 
YOUNG? 
Prof. Brown Goode, having settled the question that 
snakes swallow their young, Ool. C, G. Forshey, of the 
New Orleans Academ.y of Science, from occular demon¬ 
stration, asserts that alligators do the same thing. Colonel 
Forshey states that in 1843-’44, when surveying the banks 
of Lake Homochitto, he started a litter of young alligators; 
they scampered off, yelping like young puppies, and sought 
refuge in the mouth of a five foot alligator. Referring the 
matter to Prof. Goode, he has very kindly sent ns the fol¬ 
lowing letter:— 
Headquarters U. S. Fish Commission, [ 
Noank, Conn., July 27th, 1874. j 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
The item you send me giving the observations of Colonel Forshey on 
alligators, pleases and interests me greatly. T had never before heard 
that alligators are supposed to “swallow their young,” though there ap 
pears to be no a priori improbability in it. The female alligator is known 
to cherish its brood very tenderly. After depositing their eggs in their 
great haycock-like nests of mud and grass, and breaking down the dense 
growth of reeds surrounding into a sort of abattis , to prevent the ap - 
proach of enemies, they watch the eggs until they are hatched, take the 
young in charge, defend them and provide for their subsistence. 
Nearly all the North American snakes which produce their young 
alive, some of the egg-laying species, and what more particularly concerns 
this case, one species of lizzard (Zootoca vivipara) are known to shelter 
their young in their throats: why not the alligator? 
The scientific reputation of Colonel Forshey is too -well established to 
permit ns to question the accuracy of his observations, and in this case 
his eyes coulu hardly have deceived him; still, it would he gratifying to 
have the nail of evidence clinched by the statement of other witnesses 
especially so to hear from some one who has seen the young alligator 
come out of the mouth_of the dam. Yoars very truly, 
G. Brown Goode. 
THE PTARIMGAN OF NEWFOUNDLAND 
Editor Forest and Stream .— 
The Ptarmigan or Partridge (“pattridge,” in our local vernacular) of 
Newfoundland are quite equal to the Scotch grouse, and indeed resem¬ 
ble them so closely that it is difficult, to make out any specific difference 
between the red grouse, gorcock, or moorcock of Scotland, and the 
ptarmigan of Terra Nova. They are a most delicious article of food, 
whether roasted, stewed, or in white sonps. All visitors to our shores 
admit that the flavor of a plump partridge, well cooked, is unsurpassed 
in richness and delicacy. They are of respectable proportions, a brace 
of them in season weighing from three pounds to three pounds and a 
half. When the sporting season opens, on the 1st of September, they 
are in prime condition, after feeding on the wild berries, the partridge 
berry and cranberry being their favorite food. In certain localities they 
are very abundant, and to the sportsman there can be nothing finer than 
a day’s partridge shooting over our breezy “barrens,” during the fine au¬ 
tumn weather. The air is then cool and exhilarating, and the bright 
skies, the weird and charming scenery, varied by countless lakes or 
“ponds,” as we call them; the low, rounded hills, covered to the summit 
with the tapering firs; the lakelets bright with the white and yellow 
water lilies; the bold headlands along the coast through whose summits 
glimpses of the restless Atlantic are obtained—all these, with the ex¬ 
citement of the sport, combine to furnish to the lover of nature a day of 
raptui'ous enjoyment. It is a thrilling moment to the genuine sports¬ 
man when, gun in hand and dog at foot, he finds himself among the par¬ 
tridge coverts. His faithful Rover scents the game; every nerve in his 
frame quivers as step by step he thoughtfully and cautiously advances 
tow ard the unseen cover: then suddenly pausing, the right fore paw bal¬ 
anced lightly, and every limb and muscle rigid as a statue, the beautiful 
animal is at once transformed into a marble Niobe. Presently a whirr is 
heard, and with a loud “ca, ca, ca,” a magnificent old cock rises on the 
wing. Crack goes the gun and down tumbles the great bird, the scarlet 
tips over his eyes glistening like rubies, as with a thud that gladdens the 
sportsman’s heart, he strikes the earth. Or perhaps a whole family- 
father, mother and children—rises at once, and the double barrels bang 
at them right and left, bringing down two or three brace. At times a 
late cover is raised, the chickens of which are only two or three weeks 
old, just able to run smartly along the ground. It is a touching sight 
then to see the cock fearlessly exposing his life to save the lives of his 
offspring. He tumbles along the ground a few yards in advance of the 
dogs, rolling there in order to decoy the sportsman from the brood which 
the hen is anxiously calling into the thicket. No more touching instance 
of paternal affection could be witnessed; no more touching proof among 
the lower creation of self-sacrifice, prompted by love. The poor feeble 
bird would almost attack dogs and men in his efforts to save his chil¬ 
dren. No true sportsman would harm a bird under such circumstances. 
Only a brute w r onld fire upon it. The dogs are called off, and father and 
mother ptarmigan are soon rejoicing over their rescued family. 
After a day’s sport over the hills a supper of roast ptarmigan,with 
wild strawberry tart, as an accompaniment, and trimmings composed of 
our sweet garden vegetables, is “a feast fit for the gods.” Our ptarmi¬ 
gan have in summer a plumage.brownish ash-gray in color, mottled and 
barred with dusky spots. This color, when the frost sets in, gradually 
disappears, as in the Alpine hare, and at length -when the snow falls it is 
almost pure white. One peculiarity, however, in the Newfoundland 
bird is, that the middle or incumbent pair of tail coverts are rarely found 
entirely white in winter, as they are stated to be in “Birds of North 
America,” p. 634. These remarable changes, effected as in the northern 
hare, without loss of substance, fit it admirably for its situation; as the 
sportsman, if he have not a dog used to the game, may almost walk over 
the bird without putting it up. It is feathered and haired down the legs 
and between the toes, and maybe distinguished at a considerable dis¬ 
tance by the red about the eye. These birds are widely diffused over the 
island and it is no uncommon thing for a sportsman to bag in a day 
from a dozen to twenty brace. 
There can be no doubt, that our ptarmigan are the Willow Grouse (Lag 
opus albus) of naturalists, and they are the only lowland or sub-Aipme 
species indigenous to Newfoundland. Their food mainly consists of 
the buds and tender shoots of birch, alder, black spruce, juniper, &c., 
but in the berry season they feast on partridge berries and cranberries. 
They almost invariably roost on the ground, but are often shot feeding 
on the tops of birch and- alder trees. Professor Baird says: “I find a 
considerable difference in different specimens of the large ptarmigan ( L. 
a/bus) before me. Those from Eastern Labrador and Newfoundland ap¬ 
pear to have decidedly broader, stouter, and more convex bills than those 
from the Hudson’s Bay and more northern countries. I think it not im¬ 
probable that there may be two species.” Professor Newton of Cam¬ 
bridge is, however, of a different opinion. He says: “None of Profes¬ 
sor Baird’s later writings have gone to strengthen the suspicion ex¬ 
pressed by him formerly as to the existence of a second species of wil¬ 
low grouse. I have compared a pretty good series of skins from many 
parts of North America, extending from Alaska to Newfoundland, and 
so far as I can judge I have no doubt they are of one and tbe same spe¬ 
cies, which is further identical with the willow grouse of Europe. Tetrao 
saliceti (Temmick;). T. subalpinus (Wilson.)” 
At times, in some districts, they are so tame that they can be lolled 
with a stick, and at others so wild that they will not allow you to ap¬ 
proach within gun shot, and such is generally the ease in winter, when 
