304 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
“sy 
ENov. 18, 6884. 
ghatuyal History. 
NOTES OF THE WOODS AND WATERS. 
CLUB MOSS, GROUND PINE (Lycopodium dendroidium). 
()* all the fairy tales of science, I think none are so de- 
lightful as those thai: the botanist can recite, and of all 
the different proyinces and domains into which the wonder- 
land of nature is divided, not one, I think, is so rich in 
beauty as that of which the botanist possesses the key. It 
lies spread out beneath the feet of every sportsman. The 
nearest hedgerow, the wayside pool, the ferny hollow, the 
abandoned fields and the woodland shade—yes, this wonder- 
Jand of nature is ever present, and none who have eyes to 
see, need dread to enter its borders, for Nature, a priestess, 
pure and simple, ‘‘in pastoral array,” waits beneath the 
trees for you to take you by the hand and lead you over 
mossy rocks, by sparkling streams and dewy recesses, where 
smile her fairest children. 
At first the different common names that aplant may have 
will prove as confusing as the many common or local names 
that many of our birds and fishes have. What can be worse 
than the case of that much named fish the menhaden, which 
is also called pogy, poghaden, mossbunker, bonker, pan- 
haden, panhagen, bardhead, bonyfish, skippang, whitefish, 
fatback, yellowtail and bugfish. The trouble is that the 
world in general will not fix upon any one popular or com- 
mon name, and so science comes in to straighten things out, 
to make things exact. But even this admission does not 
quite reconcile the beginner to words of six syllables in an 
unknown tongue as Lycopodium dendroidium and Apocynum 
and rosemitolium, hut if his love is an ardent loye, he will 
soon Overcome and master these early trials and tribulations, 
Lycopodium dendroidium.—Of all our native club mosses 
the Lycopodium dendrotdium is the most beautiful, showy 
and useful. It is an evergreen perennial, having something 
of the habit of the true mosses. The club mosses are to be 
met within all parts of the world, some varieties in the 
highest Arctic latitudes; but the most beautiful varieties are 
mm the tropics. Lycopodium dendroidiwm is treelike in form 
and habit, and attains a height of from six to nine inches, 
the root stock is creeping and subterranean in habit, The 
branches ate fanlike and spreading, reminding one of a 
miniature coniferous tree, It delights in moist and shady 
woods, and in Southern New Jersey, where it is very abund- 
ant, it is gathered several weeks before Christmas, and is 
stored in dry and cool cellars preparatory to making it into 
Christmas roping; or else it is packed in barrels and sent to 
ne ene city, where it brings from fiye to six dollars per 
arrel. 
This modest evergreen, when collected by the children, 
has often been the means of helping considerably to pay off 
the mortgage, which bore heayily on the owner of many a 
small fruit farm. It is mostly gathered by the women and 
children, and right merry times they have of it as each one 
empties her bag on the family pile, after which it is carefully 
gone oyer and sorted into two grades before packing in bar- 
tels, With dealers and gatherers it is known by the name 
of ground pine. From New York it is distributed to all 
parts of the Union. Ihave often seen this beautiful ever- 
green after it ad been packed in barrels for several weeks 
and looked so faded and dried up as to appear absolutely 
useless, restored to its rich, dark green color, by dipping it 
in water a few times, 
During the winter months the florists use immense quanti- 
ties of this Lycopodium for boquet packing, and with them 
it is known as “‘bouquet greens.” The name club moss is 
given to this interesting plant on account of its club-shaped 
seed vessel, of which the method of germination is nol as yet 
well determined, though it is thought to be through the 
agency of a prothallus as in ferns, 
Nearly all the club mosses are valuable on account of their 
spores, which are known in commerce and pharmacy as 
lycopodium. When collecting this curious material, the 
plants are first gathered and carefully dried, care being taken 
to rid them of earthy material; after drying, the spores are 
easily separated by shaking and sifting. In the mass they 
constitute a yery mobile powder, which, when rubbed on the 
hands, has a remarkably smooth feeling. When this powder 
is thrown on water it floats on the surface, spreading out in 
a thin film or layer; the hands and arms can be immersed in 
the water and when withdrawn will be found to be entirely 
dry, not a drop of the waten having come in contact with 
the flesh. ‘The spores of the lycopodium as sold by druggists 
consist of extremely small, pule yellow particles (sporules) 
—hence the name of sulphur powder—which is employed 
for dusting on the excoriated parts of infants’ bodies, and is 
called by old-fashioned nurses “‘paby-powder.” It is also 
used for enveloping pills to prevent their adhesion. 
In Russia, Hungary and France it has been administered 
in cases of hydrophobia, and in the Tyrol for killing vermin 
on animals, but its chief consumption is for the production 
of artificial lightning for theatrical representation and by the 
manufacturers of fireworks. When lycopodium is diffused 
it is highly inflammable, and a cloud of it shaken in the air 
against a flame burns with a rapid flash. When using it to 
represent lightning a large syringe 1s charged with the pow- 
der which is shot across the stage ina zigzag continuous 
stream, which, the instant it comes in contact with a wing- 
light, flashes across the stage with a zigzag, lightning-like 
flash of bright fame, 
The showers of golden sparks seen in various kinds of fire- 
works are due to the liberal use of this powder by the manu- 
facturers of fireworks. In Germany, the country from 
which most of the lyeopodium comes, it is known by the name 
of witches’ powder (Hexenpulver). Why we should have to 
depend on Germany for a supply of this article, when we 
have such large quantities and many yarieties of the lyco- 
podiums growing in our woods, is a fact that I can’t under- 
stand, as it seems to me that we could easily gather all that 
we require for home consumption, — 
The season for gathering it is during the months of July, 
August and September. Its market yalue is from thirty-five 
to forty cents a pound. ' 
Small doses of this powder are said to produce violent yom- 
iting, and in larger doses it acts as a narcotic poison. Zing- 
ler having taken a dose of it to study its effects, was taken 
sick in four minutes and fell into a state of syncope, from 
which he was relieved by having vinegar poured down his 
throat, but did not recover his memory for sometime. It 
also enjoyed a great reputation among the Druids, who cx- 
pressed the juice for various maladies, When woolen 
cloths are boiled with lycopodium they become blue, when 
passed through a bath of Brazil wood. 
Of late years a curious looking, dried up and curled up 
plant has been selling on Broadway and Fourteenth street 
under the name of the ‘Resurrection plant from the Holy 
Land,” This truly wonderful plant (Selaginelia lepidophylla) 
is a related genus to the lycopodiums, and is a native 
of Southern Culifornia, where it is found growing in the 
crevices of rocks. The stems during the dry season curl 
up, and the form of the plant becomes very suggestive of a 
bird’s nest; but when the rainy season comes, the dry, dead- 
looking and uninteresting stems uncurl and fistten out, pre- 
senting the appearance of a beautiful rosette of imtense bril- 
liant green. Hyen after this plant is dead the branches still 
retain this property of unfolding and expanding when placed 
in a saucer of water. The lepidodendrums and sigillarians 
of the coal formation were giant forms of lycopodiums. 
A. W. RogBerts. 
BLACK BRANT. 
Liditor Forest and Stream: 
I have just finished reading the excellent article of your 
correspondent, A, B, Pearson, in the ForEst AND STREAM 
of Oct. 16, entitled ‘‘California Duck Shooting.” 
In this article there are some statements that I desire to 
take issue with for the better information of your readers, 
Mr. Pearson will, I trust, pardon me for correcting some of the 
statements made in his article, as being a sportsman he will 
doubtless welcome information upon any subject pertaining 
to his favorite sport. Speaking of the black brant or Arctic 
goose (Bernicla nigricans), he says: “He is found from about 
October to May solely in San Diego Bay on the coast of 
California.” Again, speaking of the comments of Mr. E. 
W. Nelson, of Alaska, upon the migration of these birds, he 
says: ‘“The writer might have added that the birds make no 
stop until they reach San Diego Bay in Southern California,” 
In both of these statements Mr. Pearson is in error, The 
first authentic description of the black brant eyer given in 
print was written by Mr. W. A. Perry, of this city. This 
description was written by My, Perry from personal obser- 
yations of these birds and their habits, made on Puget 
Sound and in Alaska, and 1 think Iam correct in saying 
that it is the first authentic and full description of these 
birds which ever appeared in print. If 1am mistaken I shall 
be glad to be corrected. Mr, Perry has kindly furnished 
me with notes, from which I give the following description 
of the habits of the birds; The black brant or Arctie goose 
is but littlelarger than the mallard duck, and in flight re- 
sembles the teal. " Their food consists of ecl grass, a sedgy 
marine grass that grows in two or three fathoms of water, 
They avoid the land, never alighting upon the beaches, but 
are sometimes seen walking on the flats, closely following 
the receding tide, When on the wing they will not fly over 
the land, but follow the shore line around it, They reach the 
Sound about the ist of October and remain until March. 
During the season Padilla Bay, the Samish flats and Smith’s 
Island (in Puget Sound) are the fayored resorts of these 
birds, In these places the surface of the water will be coy- 
ered with immense ‘‘rafts” of them, ‘They fly into the shal- 
lows of the bays morning and evening to feed on the eel 
grass and procure sand, which seems to be necessary for the 
proper assimilation of the grass, as their crops are filled with 
it. The hunter, standing im a blind on a projecting sand 
spit, often makes huge bags, There are authentic instances 
of as high as 125gfalling to one gun in anafternoon. The 
Indians sometimes approach them in a canoe covered with 
cedar boughs, and by a raking'shot will kill a large number. 
Thave known as high as twenty to be killed at one shot from 
a musket in the hands of a ‘‘noble red man.” 
It will be seen from the above that these birds arrive here 
at about the same time that they reach San Diego Bay, ¢@ ¢., 
Oct, 1, leaving. however, a little earlier in the spring; that 
they exist on Puget Sound in yery large numbers, in fact 
ere more numerous than any other species of goose known 
to us, there being probably twenty of them on the Sound 
for every one in San Diego Bay, and by a reference to Mr. 
Perry’s description of them, it will be seen that there is no 
doubt as to their being the same bird spoken of by Mr. 
Pearson. Mr. Perry’s description will also be found in Dr. 
Coues’s ‘Key to North American Birds,” edition of 1884, 
We consider Washington Territory and especially that 
portion of it surrounding Puget Sound, the game country 
of the United States, and are not disposed to let California 
monopolize one of our best game birds. 
While upon the subject of geese, a brief description of (in 
other countries) a very rare species of the goose known as 
the little snow goose (Chen hyperboreus albutus), may not 
be uninteresting, This goose is still smaller than the black 
brant, weighing about three and one half pounds. In color 
it is snowy white, except the tips of the wings, which are 
black, When in flight it is the most beautiful of the goose 
family. It, however, is not a good table bird, while the 
black brant is one of our best in that respect. In habits 
and migration it closely resembles the black brant. It is 
found on the Sound in countless numbers, at the mouths of 
the Stilliguamish and Skagit rivers, giving the flats at times 
the appearance of vast snow banks. They are hardly as 
numerous, however, as the black brant. 
Puget Sound, situated as it is, in the direct line of migra- 
tion between Alaska and the South, has probably more 
varieties of water fowl than any other country in the world. 
During the fall migration water fow1] of all kinds come south 
in vast multitudes from their breeding srounds on the mighty 
rivers and Jakes of Alaska, and passing over Puget Sound 
find in its mild climate and plentiful supply ot food a con- 
genial resting placefor the winter. Here the greater portion of 
them rest content during the winter and when spring: comes 
return to the frozen north, Here they find all the essentials 
for a winter residence. The climate is very mild. The 
lakes and the banks of the Columbia River abound in wild 
celery, and the shores of the Sound in eel and other edible 
grasses and shellfish, Water fowl of many varieties winter 
here in vast multitudes, and the life of the hunter during the 
winter season is a happy one, ADE. 
Srarniz, W. T,, Oct. 29, 1884, 
[There appears to be an opinion quite general among 
sportsmen that the black brant is arecently discovered spe- 
cies. This is by no means the fact. It has been kuown 
since the year 1846, Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence having that year 
described it in a paper read before the New York lyceum of 
Natural History and at the same time published a plate of it. 
Since then a great deal has been published about it. Men 
like Cooper, Luckly, Barneister, Dall, Kennicott, and others 
have written very fully about it, cliiefly during the years 
from 1860-70, The black brant is found as an accidental 
straggler en the Atlantic coast. Does not ‘Alki’ refer to 
Chen vossit instead of to the lesser snow goose? ] 
Deer hunters should read Judge J. D. Caton’s ‘‘Antelope and Deer 
of America.”’ For sale at this office. Price }2.50,—Ad». 
_ ARMADILLO In Texas.—G. H. Ragsdale, of Gainesville, 
Texas, informs me that an armadillo was recently killed 
in northern Denton county, Texas, which is the only animal 
of the kind ever taken in that part of the country. The 
armadillo is said to have been common on the Rio Grande 
River twenty years ago, but has long since been considered 
extinct in the United States.—A. Hann (EH. Rockfort, Ohio), 
Recent ARRIVALS AT THE PHILADELPHIA Zootogican GARDEN.— 
Received by purchase—One ocelot (#. pardalis), six pig-tailed maca- 
ques (M, nemestrinus), ten common macaques (M. cynomolgus), six 
Hamadryas baboons (C. iamadyyas), three green monkeys (C. cal- 
litrichus), one Mozambique monkey (@, rufo-viridis), one white- 
throated monkey (C. albogularis), one yiscacha (ZL. trichodactylus), 
one brush-tailed poreupine (4. africana), two brown bears (V, arc- 
tos), two American flamingoes (P. ruber), two chaffinches (F'. coslebs), 
two green finches (Z.chloris), two gold finches (C. elegaws), one 
European bluejay (G. glandarius), four rose-coloréd pastors (P. 
roseus), and one sun bittern (2, helias), Received by presentation— 
One red fox (V7. fulvus), one woodchuck (A. monaa), one white- 
nosed coati (VY, nusica), two great-horned owls (B. virginianus), one 
blue and yellow macaw (2B, ararauna), one red and blue macaw (4. 
macas), one screech owl (8. aso), two Carvlina parrakeets (C. cai-o- 
linensis), one canary bird (5, canarius), one menopoma (MM. alle- 
ghenitensis), four alligators (A. mississippiensis), one spotted sala- 
mander (S. maculosa), one black snake (B.-constrictor), one banded 
rattlesnake (C, horyvidus), and one horned toad (P, cornwta). 
Game Bag and Guy. 
THE CHOICE OF WEAPONS. 
Hditor Forest and Stream: 
I have read with much deliglt and instruction ~‘Ness- 
muk’s” excellent little book on ‘*Wooderatt,” and although 
I have had considerable experience in ihe American bush, 
and have traveled in Indian jungles for years, there were 
many things in the book quite new to me, especially the re- 
marks upon canoes. Whenin North America, twenty years 
ago, | used a birch-bark twelve feet long, and thought it the 
lightest practicable canoe in existence. It was, therefore, 
gratifying to find from ‘‘Nessmuk’s” description, that canoes 
can be obtained quite safe and strong at twenty-two pounds 
weight. 
I look forward with great longing to the time when I shall 
be able to retire from the British service and again wander 
among the glorious forests and Jakes of America, They are 
my heaven, just as Paris is said to be the heaven of good 
Americans, 
11 is pleasing to see that ‘Nessmuk” repudiates the preya- 
lent ideas about the necessity for rough clothes and heayy 
foot gear, Ifound the most useful form of dress to be a 
Norfolk frock of fine tweed with trousers loose to the knee 
but fitting closely below, and buttoning above the ankle, so 
as to slip easily into short boots. The Norfolk frock is the 
best pattern of coat, because the weight of ammunition and 
other things in the pockets rests upon the hips, leaving the 
chest and shoulders perfectly free. A piece of sheepskin 
sewn on cach shoulder causes the rifle to be carried with 
entire comfort and saves the cloth being worn into holes. 
After reading through ‘“‘Wooderaft” carefully, and many 
parts twice or three times over, there seemed to me to be 
one defect in it, viz: the absence of a chapter containing 
‘“Nessmuk’s” opinion as to the best guns and ammunition 
for use in the bush. After his very extended experience of 
wild life, his ideas upon those subjects would have been most 
valuable to forest wanderers. My own comfort and success 
would have been greatly increased had I known as much 
twenty years ago as | now do about firearms and their pro- 
jectiles. ‘‘Nessmuk” has made up for his omission in some 
degree by the interesting letter in your paper of Sept. 25, 
but he does not discuss the subject with sufficient fullness. 
When starting for America in 1861, a friend who had been 
in Canada told me that the best weapon to take was a plain 
double shotgun, because the bush was so thick that deer 
could not be seen until within smooth-bore range. TI accord- 
ingly bought a 14-bore, 30-inch barrels, muzzleloader, made 
of 84 pound weight in order to carry bullets well. It was 
good with small shot, and with bullets of fifteen to the pound 
and a greased linen pateh it would throw as regularly as a 
rifle into a space about the size of my hand at 60 yards, but 
could not be depended upon for greater distances. Even at 
80 yards the bullets dropped nine or ten inches, and struck 
about a foot apart. I killed two deer and failed to hit others 
that wete beyond the accurate range of the gun, so I 
bought a rifle for the next shooting season. In succeeding 
years when out in the bush and wanting to shoot something 
for food, if | happened to be carrying the rifle I frequently 
came across ruffed rouse or ducks which would not sit 
still or come close enough to have their heads cut off with a 
bullet. J often thought that a combined gunand rifle would 
be an excellent weapou for such work, but never had one 
made until six years ago. It differs from that which ‘‘Ness- 
muk” describes in being a brecchloader, and having its bar- 
rels side by side instead of under and over, The latter posi- 
tion is not necessary, because the rifle is Jarge enough in the 
gauge to balance well with the shot barrel, 
I believe a weapon of this kind to be the best all-round 
gun for bush life that has yet been made, aud J find mine to 
be quite as handy for winged game as a double shotgun of 
the same weight, viz.: 8 pound 12 ounces. 
With regard to the bore of the rifle barrel I would not for 
a moment put my own opinion against that of a man with 
“Nessmuk’s” experience, yet I cannot help thinking that the 
gauge mentioned by him is toosmall, His gun carried round 
bullets of 80 to the pound and conicals of 40. That is about 
.88-gauge, and although large enough to generally kill a 
deer quickly when a shot can be put through the heart or 
front part of the lungs, | doubt if the bullet has weight 
enough to go through a large animal lengthwise. Having 
frequently bagged deer or antelope galloping straight away 
among bushes, the bullet striking between the haunches and 
going out through the chest, I would‘not like to use a rifle 
unless it was sufficiently powerful to rake animals 
from stem to stern, and doubt if this can be done with 
certainty from anything smaller than a .40-guage with bullets 
of quite 240 grains and 60 or £0 grains of powder. My 
American friends often used to tell me that their small bullets 
were large enough when put into the right place. ‘That was 
perfectly true, but it was often impossible to see the right 
place when deer were standing among bushes, or to hit it 
when they were galloping and plunging over fallen trees, and 
a small bullet only afew inches too far back in the lungs 
does not drop the game so quickly as a large one in the same 
spot. It is evident that the larger the striking surface the 
more blood vessels and nerves must be cut Lhrough in its 
course, therefore the greater the shock and the more quick 
the bleeding. During five years’ use of .45 express rifles 
with 270 grain bullets, and 110 to 125 grains of powder, i 
— 
