426 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 24, 1886. 



DAYS WITH THE BARMECIDE CLUB. 



VI. 



CAMP, where so much time is always spent, should he 

 made as pleasant, attractive and convenient as possible. 

 Nay, more than that, if you can make it luxurious with the 

 primitive means at hand, do so. There is little sense in a 

 hand-to-mouth existence, in having everything at sixes and 

 sevens, even in an outing where we are supposed to expect 

 a certain degree of roughing. Roughing it does not mean 

 the hard side of a board, water boiled until it is burned, nor 

 a roof which "lets in the sunshine and the rain." The best 

 man for roughing it is the one who knows how to smooth it. 



Odd times were employed in clearing out the underbrush 

 and fallen limbs in the front yard. The little path to the 

 lake was attended to, and now in the darkest night we can 

 go from shanty to raft without stubbing our toes or losing 

 our temper. We made a table with comfortable seats, and 

 our meals were doubly enjoyable that we could take them 

 without cramping our legs and straining neck and back. 

 We made a little landing where we could get aboard our 

 raft as conveniently as stepping from one room to another. 

 "We doubled the thickness of our hemlock mattrass, and 

 studied in every way to smooth our roughing, and our work 

 was a good investment. It saved time and words. Tom 

 Draw's idea of the man best adapted to roughing it was the 

 correct one. He believed in the man who was accustomed 

 to a good bed and good food. 



Guide wanted to go home. Would be gone two days. 

 We S'ave him a basket of fine trout for his good wife and 

 the childrei;, and she sent back by him all the eggs he could 

 safely pack. TheV were fresh, and with a few pounds of 

 butter and a pair of chickens, which accompanied the eggs, 

 admirably filled up a blank space in our bill of fare. 



Roy struck one morning what he called the condensed 

 essence of a holy terror. He was paddling the raft a few 

 yards out from the lily pads between the landing and the 

 outlet. He had attained with a liberal application of muscle 

 a tortoise like headway to the craft, when suddenly splash, 

 he heard the upward and downward break of a trout. He 

 turned quickly enough to see the great circling ripple ex- 

 tending larger and larger each moment. He brought the 

 raft to an anchor and cast over the place where he had seen 

 the jump. Expectation was away up on the top shelf. He 

 could now and then see the lustly fellow cautiously follow- 

 ing the flies as they were drawn away from him, but he 

 seemed to be positive of the deception, and would survey it 

 with an intelligent look that boded no good fortune for Roy. 

 Draw in thy shining leader, 



Those flies ne'er cheat my sight; 

 You are luring me to danger 

 With your graceful casts and light. 

 Roy had about convinced himself that this gentleman 

 would not be tempted, and drop by drop the spring of hope 

 which bubbled up so brightly was running dry, whenlo! the 

 stretcher fly was taken with a flourish that would suffice to 

 throw every train of disagreeable reflections off the track. 

 There was a little preliminary skirmishing and then the 

 battle opened in earnest all along the line, and the party of 

 the first part was fully occupied with the rapid rushes of the 

 party of the second part in the water. ~It was only by heroic 

 remedies that Roy could prevent a juuctionof his leader with 

 the water plants close by. 



There was something akin to insanity in the movements 

 of the trout, which was a very large one, yet there was 

 method in his madness. Finally he approached the raft very 

 unwillingly, took a good look at the captain of the craft, 

 and not being particularly impressed with his personal ap- 

 pearance, refused to venture aboard, and with a desperate 

 rush accomplished his object of getting among the weeds, 

 where he disengaged himself from his unhealthy alliance 

 with the leader, which came back to Roy slightly shortened 

 aBd with a fly missing. He will remember that tussle long 

 enough to recount it to his speckled Igrandchildren. Roy 

 was without doubt a trifle disappointed over the result of the 

 strike and play, but took it very philosophically. "Good 

 leather, my boy. You were partly mine for a few minutes 

 anyhow. What further sport could I have counted ou with 

 you had I landed you? Now you are free to come again 

 some other day, and thanking you for a pleasant visit I wish 

 you good day and good luck. As the German Ambassador 

 says, T dond tink you vas werry much vorth nohow.' " 



The meeting adjourned. Roy immediately proceeded to 

 repair the damage, inflicted by the seceding delegate, and 

 then pulled, poled or paddled a bit further down the shore, 

 stopping occasionally to flirt his flies over some rippling 

 circle made by a late breakfaster. He gathered in a half 

 dozen, which remained gathered, and with a kind word and 

 a gentle hand he returned others to their homes, requesting 

 them to add weight and wisdom against his next visit. 



One afternoon we returned to camp, where we found Roy 

 puffing away at his brierwood as though his life depended 

 on his consuming a certain amount of tobacco in a brief 

 amount of time. He had evidently not stumbled across pros- 

 perity in his morning promenade down the creek, but had 

 evidently run afoul of a mosquito Balaklava, for his face was 

 swollen large enough to give one the impression that it enter- 

 tained serious thoughts of embarking in business on its own 

 account. It made its owner look as though he contemplated 

 suicide soon as he had finished his next pipe. But how mis- 

 taken one would have been to have taken his face as an index 

 to his heart. 



"Yes, I've had a splendid time. The walk down the creek 

 was simply charming. The waters purled aud sang their 

 songs of summer gladness as cheerfully as of yore, the 

 whispering leaves and swaying branches seemed on the best 

 of terms with the morning breeze, which tempered the rays 

 of the sun but did not disperse the mosquitoes to any appre- 

 ciable extent, and they have got their work in on me accord- 

 ingly — thanks to my forgetting tar and oil. But mosquitoes 

 and blackflies must indulge in luxuries occasionally, else 

 they might close shop and retire from business, and I don't 

 propose to boycott them. No, if I didn't have what most 

 people would call good luck, I know of something which has. 

 Another hedgehog has been making a visit to our butter pail. 

 Oh, yes, he's left some. He was no thoroughbred hog, you 

 know. How he must have enjoyed such a find, and how I 

 would have liked to watch him when he discovered the yellow 

 bonanza. Great Scott! how he must have enjoyed it." 



"You don't mean to say our butter has been stolen and that 

 it would have afforded you any amusement to have seen a 

 disgusting hedgehog making away with it? You make me 

 tired, Roy." 



"What! complaining again? Well, I do love what they 

 call a grumbler, but not a chronic one. Give me one who 

 uses a little judgment, even if it be only a little." 



"Come now, Roy, with all your good nature had you been 

 the beggar who asked food of the Barmecide prince you 

 would have pulled his nose and pitched him out of his own 

 window had he dared to have played such a measly old joke 

 on you." 



Complain? Well, if there was any complain in Roy's 

 vocabulary it must have begun with a k and an u, for it 

 would never have been found under the C's nor over them. 

 He would be pretty thoroughly demoralized and weakened 

 when he could not make an enjoyable meal of fresh air and 

 mountain scenery. He could extract any amount of comfort 

 and sport from the most unpromising beginnings and the 

 most disastrous endings. 

 "Where are your trout?" 



"There in the basket. I thought I'd just have a little 

 smoke before dressing them." 



"There are none here. This is your basket, isn't it?" 

 Roy, looking benignly on the proceedings, answered yes. 

 "There is nothing in it." 



"Nothing in it? Why, man, it's full of pleasant remi- 

 niscences of which you are a part." 



"Thank you. You'd better dress them after your next 

 pipe." 



"All right, I'll commence on you." 

 "Where are your fish, anyhow?" 

 "In the lake " 



"That's a good place for them. They'll keep." 

 Murmuring avails nothing; and Roy's was the right spirit, 

 and we entered into it, perhaps ..[not fully. To him every- 

 thing miuisters to his pleasure. The birds rioting in song, 

 the shimmer of a rippled lake, the dripping of a leaky roof 

 into his ear, rosy twilight lingering on the hilltop, the 

 doughy heaviness of half-baked bread, the soft plaintive 

 lullaby of a meadow brook and the persistent probings of 

 empty mosquitoes are to him mines of pure delight. The 

 guide said to him one day when he came to camp hungry as 

 a wolf, "I'm very sorry, Mr. Roy, 'for- 1 think I've scorched 

 the potatoes." "Oh! that's all right; a little scorching im- 

 proves them and I'm not sure but the more they are scorched 

 the better they are." The only time we knew of his being 

 out of condition and inclined to complain was when he said 

 "Hang a country where dried apples are a luxury." 



We saw deer in abundance every day, but refrained from 

 even disturbing them, for the novelty of their appearance 

 had worn off and they had become so accustomed to seeing 

 and hearing us that they almost seemed as though they had 

 lost a little of their instinctive fear of man. Millard. 



THE FISHER. 



THE fisher (Mtwtela pennantee Erxl.), called by hunters 

 "black cat," is not very abundant, yet sufficiently so 

 to make a special part of the fall and winter hunt. 



The size and shape much resemble the fox, excepting the 

 legs, which are much shorter. The color is black all over 

 except the shoulders and neck, which is mixed with a rich 

 gray, when prime. His body is about two feet long, and 

 tail one foot, bushy and black. Weight about twenty 

 pounds. 



The fur is valuable, commanding for individual skins in 

 the wholesale market ten dollars. Tlie texture of the hide 

 is thick and tough as compared with the mink (American 

 sable), but the fur is fine, black and long. This animal is 

 very industrious and mischievous— a perfect pest to the 

 martin hunter, sometimes following his lines of log traps 

 for miles and knocking them to pieces and stealing the bait. 



A. general rule among fur hunters is to build a larger trap, 

 about one in eight, along the mountain side, especially for 

 the fisher, and by so doing the hunter not only saves his 

 martins but occasionally secures a specimen of more value. 

 It is not a sure thing, however, for the fisher is an artful 

 and shy creature, especially if he is an old one and has been 

 trapped before, as then they will often contrive to get at 

 the bait without springing the trap. 



The surest way to capture them is with steel traps, and 

 the usual manner of setting it is in open houses built of ever- 

 green boughs, about four or five feet high, and three feet 

 deep. Stick down a forked stick in the extreme back of 

 the cubby, and put your bait on it. Then set your trap in 

 front of the bait (18 or 20 inches from it); cover your trap 

 with fine moss so that it will all look natural ; fasten the 

 trap securely to a small detached tree, and tie the top of the 

 tree so that the animal can swing it round at liberty. 



The best bait is supposed to be fresh fish, yet he will take 

 any fresh meat, and he is bound to have it too. 1 once, 

 while hunting the Rangeley wilderness, was sorely tried by 

 a fisher's robbing my traps, and set a steel trap for him, and 

 for several weeks he outgeneraled me by stealing the bait. 

 He knew just as well as I did where my trap set, and he 

 would get around or Over it and carry off the bait every 

 time. I tried him in all the ways I could contrive, with no 

 better success. Finally 1 set in auother steel trap in front 

 of the one already set, and next time I visited my traps I 

 had him, and he had eaten or chewed into small pieces every 

 little tree he could reach, even the bough-house in which 

 the traps were set was a pile of chips. 



1 could always tell when I came in sight of a trap set for 

 a fisher if I had him, for he would invariably eat up his 

 house and every other available thing within reach, and 

 form a mound of chips, a fitting monument of his industry 

 and savageness. 



f^They often gnaw off their foot in the trap and get away 

 pn three legs. This is sagaciously done by gnawing all the 

 ffoot and leg that is below the jaws of the trap and then pull- 

 ing out the leg. I once caught one with only two whole 

 legs; he had been trapped twice before and lost a leg each 

 time. They are very tenacious of life, and may be said to 

 have "nine lives" like the cat family. The natural food of 

 the fisher in this State is the white hare; they follow them 

 persistently uutil the poor hare has to succumb to fatigue. 



Their noise is like a child when it cries in a mournful tone, 

 and again it makes a sharp, short whistle. The track on the 

 snow shows only two feet, one a little in advance of the 

 other, with sharp-pointed toes, when running, but when 

 walking he spreads out his toes, making a broad track and 

 very near together, diagonally opposite each other. They 

 are very uncertain in their habits, going to-day in one place 

 and to-morrow in another, so that it is difficult to set traps 

 with any certainty for their capture. They run chiefly on 



mountains and in the deep forest, beating back as civilization 

 advances, maintaining their solitary habits in the wildest 

 haunts. Some hunters assert that the fishers go into brooks 

 for fish, but I have never noticed any evidence of this. I 

 have caught several specimens alive for zoological gardens, 

 both in this country and in Europe, but they have to be kept 

 in iron-lined cages, as they will continually gnaw wood, and 

 by their industry soon make their escape. Very few are 

 trapped now compared to former years. J. G. R. 



Bethel, Maine. 



ADDITIONS TO CALIFORNIA AVIFAUNA. 



THE occurrence of the yellow rail and European widgeon 

 in tkis State was first recorded by Dr. J. G Cooper in 

 the Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences, Vol. IV., pages 8 and 9. 



I do not know if the specimens were deposited in any 

 collection and they may not now be found. 



It may have been from an oversight or perhaps doubts as 

 to the identity of the species that these two have been ex- 

 cluded from the birds of this State, and yet I do not under- 

 stand why the statements and data of these birds again in 

 California which I sent to some Eastern ornithologists should 

 have been wholly ignored. I trust that my making known 

 the following facts in Forest and Stream and the presence 

 of the skins in my collection will be sufficient to convince 

 the most iucredulous. 



Porzana noveborae-ensis (Gmelin), Yellow Rail. — I took a 

 female of this species on the salt marsh of Alvarado, Alameda 

 county, Dec. 28, 1883. No. 1169, female. Writer's col- 

 lection). 



The bird flushed from close before me and flying a few 

 yards dropped into the grass and skulked out of sight. It 

 was soon found and pointed by my red setter and 1 picked 

 it up alive. When first caught it made a sound very much 

 like a young chicken in distress. Another specimen of this 

 species which I have sden was shot near Cordelia, Solano 

 county, last year by Mr. W. G. Blunt. 



The small size und probable scarcity of the bird, together 

 with its secretive babits, has no doubt caused it to be over- 

 looked by collectors. 



Anas pendope (Linn. ), Widgeon. — I received a specimen in 

 the flesh from the market in San Francisco, the source of 

 Dr. Cooper's specimens, which, as he suggests, "were prob- 

 ably stragglers from Asia instead of Europe." (No. 542, male, 

 Feb. 17, 1882. Writer's collection.) 



I do not find the Carolina rail mentioned in any work to 

 which I have referred as having been found in California, 

 and take this opportunity to make known its possibly first 

 occurrence. 



Porzana Carolina (Linn.), Sora. — Taken near Gilroy, Santa 

 Clara county, Jan. 30, 1874. (No. 500, adult. Collection 

 of D. S. Bryant.) 



There is figured in Gould's "Monograph of theTrochilidae," 

 the type and only specimen then known of SelaspJwrusfloresii. 

 I have just received a second example, shot by a boy near 

 San Francisco, in May, 1885, which is a species new to the 

 United States. 



Sdasplwrus florestii (Loddiges). (No. 2.620, male. Writer's 

 collection.) The appearance of the bird is strongly suggest- 

 ive of a hybrid between the anna and rufous hummingbirds, 

 but Mr. Ridgway, who identified the bird from my descrip- 

 tion, writes me that he is "rather inclined to consider it a 

 distinct species." 



Should additional specimens be taken they will prove of 

 great interest. Walter E. Bryant. 



Oakland, Cal., June 9, 1S86. 



INOCULATION FOR SNAKE BITE. 



THE following suggestions are made by Miss Catherine 

 C. Hopley in a communication to the London Globe: 

 The success of M. Pasteur's treatment lor hydrophobia i 

 will, or might, raise one more hope that the bite of the most i 

 venomous snakes may at last be combated. Inoculation for I 

 snake bite has, with very few exceptions, been barely ac- ! 

 knowledged hitherto, and confined to the savage races. 

 Strange that it should be so, while in this enlightened nine- 

 teenth century every means on earth within the range of 

 science, excepting this, has apparently been tried in vain. 

 But now that the success of inoculation for several other 

 previously unmanageable maladies is so pronounced, the 

 time may have arrived for attempts to be made with "atten- 

 uated" snake venom also. As is well known, some Oriental 

 nations in long past ages practiced protective means from 

 snake bite, assimilating their bodies with the venom by 

 swallowing it, and also by feeding on the vipers. The 

 power which the Psylli exercise over deadly vipers was 

 attributed to this. They swallowed the venom, and also the 

 flesh. The Arabs, Persians, Egyptians and African snake- 

 charmers all used protective means, some may still do so, 

 like the bushman of South Africa, to acquire immunity in 

 handling deadly snakes. These protective measures among 

 ancient and savage nations, and by the Indians of the West- 

 ern world, have been too olten described by writers of repute 

 to call for recapitulation here. What has more to do with 

 the present subject is inoculation, which has also been 

 extensively practiced. The juices of certain native herbs, 

 themselves powerful poisons, said to be "antidotal," and 

 used also for external applications to the wound, are in- 

 jected under the skin for this purpose, and have been used 

 by the Indians of both North and South America from our 

 earliest knowledge of them. The juice of the famous huaco or 

 guaco of tropical America is one of these, and was thought 

 by Humboldt to impart to the body an odor repugnant to 

 the serpents, as the American white ash, Fraxinus americana 

 of the north, is death to the rattlesnake. Certain it is, that , 

 in all snake-infested countries, excepting India, the death- 

 rate from their bite is comparatively insignificant. To th« 

 superstition and fatalism of the low caste Hindoos (and not 

 only the very ignorant natives) must to a great extent be at- 

 tributed their high death-rate. They take no rational means 

 either to protect themselves from the bite, or to cure themselves 

 when bitten, placing faith only in charms, incaDtations, and 

 native quacks. Exactlv ten years ago, when writing on this 

 subject, and impressed" by the fact that it should be left to 

 savage race3 only to practice with success a safeguard so 

 much to he desired, and when the conventional "20,000 per 

 annum" dying of snake bite in India was greatly disturbing 

 the public mind, I ventured to throw out the suggestion. 

 "How would it be to try inoculation with some of the 

 Hindoo plants on the natives, but first on some of the ani- 

 mals that are being bitten by thousands in the service of 

 science? Should it be found successful, inoculation against 

 cobra poison might be made compulsory in India, as it is for 

 smallpox in England." {Dublin University Magazine, 



