March 5, J 885.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



103 



filk or buffalo in the Park, for the reason that their summer 

 range was beyond its present, limits. 



I am pleased to bear that there is a prospect of the. passage 

 of the amended Vest bill, for unless the territory of the Park 

 is extended at least twenty miles on Ihe east, the summer 

 range of the majority of elk that would winter in the Park 

 would be left opeu to the hunter, who could stand between 

 them and their refuge and slaughter them so fast that it 

 would take but a very few years to make their protection un- 

 necessary. Let me further stale that our inefficiency is 

 caused many times more through lack of legal power than 

 incapacity in us. 



Excuse' me for making this letter so long, but when T think 

 how we have been slandered and abused it would "stir a 

 fever in the blood of age." Ichtiitjs. 



[Our correspondent has misunderstood our language in the 

 editorial referred to. We have have always knowu that the 

 assistant superintendents are without the power to make 

 arrests, and it is for precisely this reason that we have so 

 continuously urged the passage of the Vest bill. The utter 

 absurdity of having protectors without power to make arrests 

 is painfully apparent. The Vest bill, however, in Section 7, 

 provides that the superintendent and his assistants shall 

 "have all the powers and duties conferred by law upon the 

 sheriffs and constables" of the Territory under whose juris- 

 diction it is. The prime reason for the passage of the bill is 

 that the curiosities, the forests and the game may be pro- 

 tected. This cannot be done unless the officers whose duty 

 it is to look after these shall have the power to arrest those 

 who violate the law. We need not assure our correspond- 

 ent of our hearty sympathy with him in most of what he 

 says. It is a shame and a disgrace, that this grand region 

 should have been so long neglected,] 



^portstqmi ^attti^U 



UNCLE LISHA'S SHOP. 



x. 



THE first warm days of spring had come, when for all the 

 chill of the frosty nights, the sky and the white clouds 

 drifting across it looked soft and hazy as in summer. The 

 voice of the crow had become a familiar sound again; the 

 first robin had been reported; more than one bluebird had 

 sung its short sweet song in the valley; and Lisha had seen 

 a phebe perched on a dry sunflower stalk in his garden, and 

 making thence her unerring swoops upon the flies that, 

 thawed to life again, buzzed about the sunny side of the 

 fence. The snow was deep in the woods ye't, but it had 

 grown coarse-grained, and all the winter litter of branches 

 and twigs and latest fallen leaves seemed to be upon its sur- 

 face, and it w T as gray iu patches with myriads of ever-mov- 

 ing snow fleas. In the open whole southward-sloping fields 

 were bare and brown except their borders of drifts, and here 

 and there bits of the road were dry and firm, most pleasant 

 to feet long accustomed to the uncertain and slippery foot- 

 ing of winter ways. Here and there at a homestead a man 

 or boy in shirt sleeves was working up the great pile of sled- 

 length wood into fuel, but most of the "men folks" were 

 away in the sap works gathering their great harvest of the 

 year. 



Among the tall maples that grew on some hillside of every 

 farm the smoke of the sugar camp drifted upward, and the 

 daily and nightly labors there of all Lisha's friends had for 

 some time prevented their customary visits to the shop. 

 Lisha having, as he said, "got too ol' an' short-winded to 

 waller 'raound in the snow, an' never could git the heng o' 

 snow-shoein'," had hired Pelatiah to do his sugar making, 

 while he attended to his shoemak'mg and mending. But get- 

 ting very lonely with his solitary labors, duringa slack run 

 of sap he sent his henchman out among his friends with a 

 verbal ' 'invite" to a sugaring-off at his camp on a certain 

 evening. Accordingly at "airly candle-ligh'in'," the guests 

 came straggling in, and were loudly and warmly welcomed 

 by their host. "I'm dreffle glad to see ye, boys! I haint sot 

 eyes on ye for a month o' Sundays, seems 'ough. Make yer- 

 selves to hum, an' I'll sweeten ye up to rights." The little 

 open-fronted shanty faced a rude fireplace, a low wall of 

 rough stones inclosing on three sides a square yard wherein 

 burned a rousing fire that shed a comfortable warmth into 

 the furthest corner of the shanty, and lighted up the trees 

 for rods about. To one side stood the "store trough," a 

 hue-e log hollowed out to hold the sap as gathered. The 

 great potash kettle slung by a log-chain to its monstrous 

 crane, a tree trunk balanced on a stump, was swung off the 

 fire, and the syrup was bubbling in a smaller kettle, care- 

 fully tended by Lisha and Pelatiah. 



" Wal, boys," the old man said, after testing the syrup for 

 the twentieth time by pouring it slowly out of his dipper, 

 "it begins to luther-apron an' I guess it's 'baout ready. Pel- 

 tier, you put aout an' git tew three buckets o' clean snow; 

 Samwill ketch a holt o' that 'ere stick an' help me histe this 

 'ere kittle off. Naow, then, fetch up some seats, the' is sap 

 tubs 'nough layin' 'raound. Samwill, Jozeff, Solon, some o' 

 ye, the' 's a baskit of biscuit in back there under my cut, an' 

 a bowl o' pickles; won't ye jest fetch ; em aout?" 



So bustling about, he at last got his guests seated around 

 the kettle of hot sugar and the buckets of snow, and they 

 fell to, each in turn, dipping out some syrup, and pouring it 

 in dabs upon the snow, when it presently cooled into waxy 

 clots ready for eating. 



"Pass 'raound them 'ere biscuits, Peltier— ta' keer, don't 

 tip the kittle over wi' yer dummedhommils! Mos' 's good 's 

 wild honey, haint it, Samwill?" Lisha asked, smacking his 

 lips after disposing of a big mouthful. 



"I d' know but what it's jist as good t' eat, " said Sam, 

 "but the' haint much fun agittin' on it." 



"Naow, dew you r'aly think the' is much fun in bee-hunt- 

 in', Samwill?" Lisha asked. 



' 'Sartinly I dew. 'Tain't so excitin' as fox huntin' an' 

 sech, but it takes a feller int' the woods in a pleasant time o' 

 year, an' it's interestin' seein' the bees aworkin' an' seein' 

 haow clust you c'n line 'em and cross-line 'em, an' a feller's 

 got to hev' some gumption, an' — wal, I'd a good deal druther 

 hunt bees 'an to lug sap." 



"By gol! so 'Id I," said Pelatiah. "My shoulders is 

 nigh abaout numb kerryin' the gosh darned ol' neck-yoke." 



"It mus' be tough, on that 'ere lame shoulder o' yourn, 

 Peltier," Joe Hill remarked, withholding a paddleful of sugar 

 from his open jaws, while he bestowed a general wink upon 

 the party. 



"fionhll haint got no lame shoulder in p'tie'lar— not 

 naow, I haint." 



"Wal naow, boys," Lisha said, after all had plied their 

 paddlea silently but diligently for some time, "this is what 



I call bein' kinder sosherble agin, 'Tain't quite so cozy as 

 the shop, but we've got all aoo'doors for room." 



"Not inside, on us, we haint— leastways I haint" — said 

 Joe Hill, "this 'ere maple sweet is tumble till'm'." 



"Take a pickle if y'r el'yed, Jozeff, an' begin agin," Lisha 

 urged, on hospitable deeds intent, but Joe declined, and soon 

 all but Pelatiah desisted and tossed into the (he the little 

 wooden paddles which had served as spoons. 



"This is what I call raal comfort," said Sam Lovel, after 

 lighting his pipe with a coal and stretching himself on the 

 evergreen twigs in the shanty. "The' haint nothin' like an 

 aou'door fire an' a shanty like this an' a bed o' browse for 

 raal genywine restin' comfort!" 



"Wal, it haint bad for onct 'n a while in pleasant weather; 

 but for a steady thing, I'd a leetle druther hev a good ruff 

 over my head, an' plarstered walls 'raound me, an' a fire- 

 place or a stove," said Lisha, and then to avoid unprofitable 

 discussion— "Samwill, I s'pose ye don't get much huntin' 

 naow-a-days. Tew late for huntin' foxes an' tew much bare 

 graound for trackin' 'coons. Git a patridge onct 'n a while, 

 though, I s'pose, don't ye?" 



"No, sir," said Sam, with emphasis; "haint shot a pat- 

 ridge in a, month. I want the' should be some next year. I 

 killed a fisher, though, t'other day." 



"I wanter know ! Shoot him? 'Taint of ten 't a feller gits 

 a chance to shoot one o' them critters. Awfle hard to git a 

 shot at, they be, 1 s'pose?" 



"Yes, and hard to kill when ye du git a shot at 'em. 

 Drive treed this one, an' he went a skivin' through the tree- 

 tops 'baout as spry 's a squirrel. I let 'im heve it on the run 

 — bed in buckshot an' three Bs — an' disenabled him so 's 't he 

 couldn't jump; but I bed to shoot him twict more 'fore he 

 come daown, an' then hommered his head a spell 'fore he'd 

 quit a kickin'. Then 1 tied his hind laigs together an' slung 

 him on my back an' started for hum," 



"Wha'd ye wanter lug his carkiss for? Why didn't ye 

 skin 'im?" 



"Oh! I— ah," said Sam, stammering and blushing, "I 

 wanted to show him to— to — some o' my folks 'at hedn't 

 never seen the hull critter; nothin' but the skins." 



"H-m. Some o' my folkses' names begins with H-u-l-dy 

 P-u-r— " 



" 'N' 's I was a tellin' on ye," Sam broke in hurriedly, "I 

 bed him on my shoulder s'lung ont' my gun berril, an* bed 

 kerried him much 's half a mild, an' goin' 'long through 

 some little thick secont growth, suthin' ketched an' most 

 pulled the gun off 'm my shoulder, and I'll be shot if 't wa'n't 

 that 'ere cuased fisher come to agin an' ketchin' holt of asap- 

 lin' wi' one of his fore paws!" 



"Wal, I say for 't," said Solon, "be they so termintious o' 

 life as that?" 



"What for you ant tole him he dead, Sam? Dat all what 

 was de matter wid it, he ant know when he dead !" 



"Wal, I bed to go to work an' lull him agin, an' then I 

 made aout to git him hum 'thaout any more of his fluruppin' 

 'raound." 



"I haint never bed no chance o' studyin' the nat'ral hist'ry 

 on 'em," Solon observed, "but from what I've larnt 'oraclar, 

 I jedge the name of fisher an' black cat don't no ways imply 

 to' 'em. They don't ketch fish, an' consequentially they 

 haint fishers, an' though they be toll'able black, they don't 

 resemblace the cat speshy no more 'n nothin' in the world. 

 Haint 1 right, Sammywell?" 



"Sartinly you be," said Sam. "They don't never ketch 

 fish — as I knows on— as mink an' auter does, but lives on 

 squirrels an' mice an' birds an' rabbits, an' stealin' bait 

 aouten saple traps; they're the beaters for that. An' exeep' 

 for their handiness in climbin' an' their hardness in dyin' the', 

 hain't no cat abaout 'em. They're a overgrowed weasel or 

 saple." 



"They're putty scase nowerdays," Lisha said, "do' know 

 's they ever was plenty. Saple 's gittin' scase tew, but 

 twenty, thirty year ago, they was thicker 'n spatter. A man 

 'at onderstood it c'ld make his dollar a day easy trappin' on 

 'em. Ol' Uncle Steve Hamliu uster hev his lines o' saple 

 traps sot for milds through the woods every fall, clear'n to 

 the. foot o' the Hump sometimes. Every little ways he'd hev 

 a steel trap sot for fisher that come along stealin' the bait 

 aouten his deadfalls, an' he'd git consid'able many on 'em 

 every year. But game 's agittin' scaser'n' scaser. Samwell," 

 he resumed after some moments of meditative smoking, "if I 

 luffted to hunt an' fish as well as you du, I'd go daown to 

 the lake some fall 'long baout the fust o' September, to Lee- 

 tle Auter Crik an' hunt ducks an' ketch pick'ril." 



"I s'pose it's a tumble place for ducks," Sam said. 



"Ducks!" cried Lisha, "good airth an' seas! 1 sh'ld think 

 it was! Why, when luster be daown that way a whippin' 

 the cat, an' I was consid'arble ten year ago, they was thicker 

 in the marshes — wild oats grows thero. ye know— thicker in 

 the fall 'n ever ye seen skeeters in a swamp in July. The' 's a 

 lawyer daown there name o' Pairpint uster go a shootin' on 

 'em with a feller to paddle his boat, 'n' he'd git a heapin' 

 bushel baskit full on 'em in a day ! 'N' they said 't he shot 

 all on 'em a flyin'! Never shot none on 'em a sittin'!" 



"Like anough," Sam assented, "I've hearn tell o' folks 'at 

 shot partridges a flyin', but I never was bleeged tu. I c'ld 

 allers git shots at 'em a sittin'." 



"An' pickril!" continued Lisha, "I never seen the beat on 

 'em, I uster go trollin' arter 'em wi' some on 'em, 'n' we'd 

 hev each on us a big hook with a pork rind an' a piece o' red 

 flannel on 't for bait, an' a toll'able loug line an' a short pole, 

 V we'd paddle 'long kinder easy on the aidge o' the channel, 

 an' I tell ye we'd yarn 'em aout! 01' sollakers, tew; four, 

 five, six paounds, an' one 't I seen weighed ten paound 'n' a 

 half." 



"By gol!" exclaimed Pelatiah, wide-eyed and wide- 

 mouthed with wonder, "ten paoun' an' a half? He must ha' 

 ben mos' 's big as one o' them 'ere whale fish 't they git lamp 

 ile aouten on!" 



"An' mushrats," said Lisha, continuing the relation of the 

 wonders of the lowlands, "i've seen their haousen on the 

 marshes in fall an' winter thick as ever ye seen hay cocks in 

 a medder, most, an' hunderds of acres o' marsh with 'em sot 

 jes' so thick. The' was Benham an' 'mongst 'em uster git as 

 high as three hunderd mushrat apiece, most every spring. 

 These 'ere teamsters 'at hauls ore up here to the forge says 

 'at ducks an' mushrat an' fish is jest as thick there naow. 

 That 'ould be the place for ye, Samwill! Ducks an' fish for 

 fun, an' mushrat for profit." 



' 'Probly dey bullpawt an' eel dab, ant it One' Lasha? Ah 

 wish Ah be dah too, me!" 



"Eels! I guess the' is. Why Ami Twine, you c'ld ketch as 

 many o' the dum snakes in a night as you c'ld eat the nex' 

 day, an' that 's a puttin' on it high. Yes, an' the' 's pike an' 

 bass, an' a gret fish 'ats got a bill like ashelkluck on'y lon- 

 ger, but they haint good for nothin'. An' the' 's sbeepheads 

 an' shad, V more pa'ch an' punkinseeds 'n' 3'ou could 



shake a stick at in a fortnight, but nobody don't make no 

 caount o' them, on'y boys for the fun o' ketchin on 'em. 

 An' the' 's bowfins an' suckers V I d'know what all. They 

 lies gret times a shootin' pickril airly In the spring, 'an' a 

 spearin' on 'em. tew" 



"Wal sab, One' Lasha, Ah can shoot it dat moosrat wid 

 spear in winter w'en he'll live in haouse." 



"Ketch mushrat with a spear! Oh, naow you go to grass, 

 Ann Twine. You'd ort to bed a spear to git them 'coons." 



"You ant, b'lieve it dat? You as' Injin if he ant git it 

 moosrat dot way. Bah gosh! Yas! Wen ice all be frozed 

 up, have it spear got on'y but one laig baout so long as two 

 foot, ver' sharp, wid toof on him ah' woodle handlin' tree 

 foot, four foot prob'ly loug. Den walk slow, slow, ant 

 mak it no nowse, to moosrat haouse. Den push him dat 

 spear in quick! hard! ragbt in middly of it. You feel it 

 spear shake, you got dat moosrat, mebby one of it, two of 

 it, sometam three of it, prob'ly. Den chawp in wid axe, 

 tek it off, go nudder one jus' de same. Sometam git feef ty, 

 seexty all day. " 



"Wal, I do' know but what ye haint a lyin' for onct, Ann 

 Twine; if saounds kinder reasonable. Y'ou want, to git ye 

 thirty forty traps, Samwill, an' go daown there with Ann 

 Twine an' his spear. Then ye'd hev a French cook an' live 

 high-duck, pea soup, an' roast mushrat three times a day." 



"Bah gosh! One' Lasha, you ant steek you nose up dat 

 moosrat! He pooty good for eat, Ah tole you!" 



"Yes, yes; anybody 't eats snakes needn't spleen agin rats, 

 sartin." 



"Oh, One' Lasha," said the Canadian reproachfully, "eel 

 don't snake, more as you was mud turkey." 



"If I lied me a boat an' traps anough," Sam said, after 

 some silent, and thoughtful smoking, "I'd jest like to go 

 daown there a trappin' an' huntin' an' fishin'. An' then, 

 arter I got a good shanty built, an' well to goin', hev all on 

 ye come daown a visitin'." 



"You jes' du it an' see 'f we don't, hey, boys?" And there 

 was general assent. "Yes, Samwill, we'll tackle up a two- 

 boss waggin an' all go. We'll go tuckernuck, kerry aour 

 own pervision; on'y mushrat an' fish we'll expecfc you to 

 furnish, Samwill. Wal," Lisha continued, hoisting out his 

 porringer of a watch and consulting it by the waning fire- 

 light, "it's a gittin' late. Why, goodVuth an' seas! If 't ain't 

 mos' 9 o'clock! Peltier, 'f you've got, that 'ere kittle licked 

 aout, you c'n slick up a little raound an' we'll go hum. No 

 need o' bilin' to-night, the' haint sap 'nough in the store 

 trough to draound a chipmuuk. Git the baskit an' Jurushy's 

 bowl an' come along." 



Then they filed out of the sugar camp on their homeward 

 way, while far above them in the black growth of the moun- 

 tain side the hoot of an owl and the gasping bark of a fox 

 voiced the solemnity and wildness of the ancient woods. 



in\nl Wi$t° f U* 



GROUND SNAKES OR WORM SNAKES. 



IF not too late, and while much regretting such delay, I 

 venture a few words in allusion to Mr. B. Horsford's 

 exceedingly interesting speculations of July 24 last, on the 

 "Worm Shake." His description of its form and habits 

 seemed on first reading to point to a relationship with our 

 little English "blind" worm" or "slow worm" (Angi/u 

 fragilits), as also with the buirowing snakes generally. There 

 appear to be at least two small snakes known as "ground 

 worms" in the United States, viz., the Bhineiira floridana, 

 which Dr. Yarrow pronounces the one sent him by "Red 

 Wing" to be, and another the Celuta aincena, described by 

 Baird and Girard in their Check List of 1853. Both have 

 short tails ending in a horny point; but while "Red Wing" 

 says the color of the Florida snake is dull gray on the back 

 and white beneath, Prof. Baird describes the more northern 

 species as being of a bright chestnut brown above, and sal- 

 mon color beneath, which more nearly approaches the color 

 of Mr. Horsford's specimens. "Small head, body very 

 glossy, sub-cylindrical, tail short, tapering into a point," is 

 Barrel's further description of CelvM, which, he says, is the 

 Bruchyarrhos ammnus of Holbrooke (1842), but among the 

 many synonyms and apparent varieties it is hardly safe to 

 pronounce upon a specimen without reference to the descrip- 

 tion alluded to by Dr. l r arrow. Hoi brook states that the 

 Brachyorrhos is found under the bark of old trees and under 

 rocks in all the Atlantic States, from New Hampshire to 

 Florida, and in Louisiana, while the Bhineiira, according to 

 Cope, belongs only to the Floridan district. Still another of 

 the little burrowing snakes, Carphophiaps, is known as the 

 "worm snake," and its name would imply a stick-like body; 

 but of this I have no description. In their Check List of 

 the specimens at the National Museum at Washington, both 

 Cope and Yarrow name three species of Carpliophiops, one 

 of which, G. vermis, must, from its name, be worm-like. 



As among the readers of Forest and Stream there may 

 be many, who, like myself, have not readj r access to the 

 published descriptions of these various worm snakes, as given 

 by the American herpetologists, and which would enable us 

 to decide between them with better certainty, I may, pend- 

 ing further accounts of them, offer a word on two on the 

 burrowing snakes generally, in the hope of inducing further 

 observations of these curious little reptiles: and indeed they 

 present many features of peculiar interest. First, the ground 

 snakes proper, as distinguished from tree snakes and water 

 snakes, form one very large group, and the burrowing snakes 

 form another distinct group, notwithstanding some of the 

 latter may bear the vernacular name of "ground snake", or 

 "ground worm", as do those under consideration. As Mr. 

 Horsford observes : "Running under the ground is a very 

 different matter from running upon it ;" but the burrowing 

 snakes are especially adapted for their worm-like life. They 

 have for the most part a round compact body, covered with 

 hard, close-set, smooth scales, which form a capital armor 

 against soft earth, sand and dust. Their eyes are usually 

 small; in some families inconspicuous, or only rudimentary. 

 The TypMopidai or blind snakes are in this latter condition, 

 but the deficiency is compensated by an extremely keen 

 sense of touch and' probably of hearing also, for the little 

 reptiles are exceedingly active. A peculiarity of tail is an 

 other feature of the burrowing snakes. A great many ter- 

 minate in a hard point, more or less acute according to the 

 size and form of the snake, but always strong, for they make 

 constant use of their tail as a propeller, or a fulcrum or a 

 support. 



The names of some of the snakes are descriptive of their 

 tail, as for instance, Brachyorrli-os or Braehyurus, short tail ; 

 Rhinmra, horny or pointed snout; (the rhiis occasionally used 

 for either wora) ; tfropeltis, tail with a shield, etc. This 



