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FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 27, 1895. 



Creek, three or four miles up, is a good place to find deer, 

 and as for wild turkeys they are very abundant in the 

 eastern part of West Virginia near Dowell, Brook trout 

 are caught in considerable numbers in Falling Springs 

 Creek, Anthony's Creek, Cherry River, the Quinnamont 

 and various other branches, runs and creeks, as the 

 smaller water courses are designated in these parts, all 

 within easy reach of Covington by railroad or wagon ; 

 and black bass are abundant in Jackson's River and Dun- 

 lap's Creek on the edge of town, and in Greenbriar River 

 just west of the main divide. These streams have been 

 liberally stocked and are protected. 



On the first of July the close time limit expired, and 

 everyone in Covington went fishing, pretty much as they 

 do on Long Island when the trout season opens. On that 

 occasion it so happened that one of the guests at the hotel, 

 who had a little attack of Krarikheit, was unable to 

 procure a doctor. Every physician in town had gone 

 fishing! so that there is a proposition now to call close 

 time on the craft, to prevent more than one being absent 

 at once. By the way, isn't it phenomenal that there are 

 so many anglers among the doctors? Look over Cassinb's 

 JSTaturaiist's Directory and you will find a very large pro- 

 portion of the names tabbed with an M. D. And what 

 would Forest and Stream do for contributors were it not 

 for medicine men? Coues, Gill, Gordan, Bean, Merriam, 

 Ellzey, Greenough, Henshall, Fottler, McChesney, Metcalf , 

 and the host of army surgeons who have contributed to 

 it from first to last ? I suppose their success as fishermen 

 is largely due to medicaments and occult arts; though I 

 could never detect with my own eyes whether they used 

 asaf oeteda or saliva on the bait. I happened to be out with 

 a friend of one of them on opening day. A servant 

 dropped us three miles up stream on Dunlap's Creek, and 

 we were to wade down to the town. I tried it for a 

 couple of hours, but the experience was more like a 

 plunge bath than angling, as I caught nothing worth 

 basketing. Hygienically, it is considered imprudent to 

 remain immersed in cold water more than ten minutes. 

 For my own part, I did not wade in above my waist; and 

 my partner said that was the reason why I didn't catch 

 any fish. When I left him, he was up to his armpits, 

 making for a big rock from which to obtain a masterful 

 cast. We were fishing with "mad toms" for bait; that is 

 what the local fishermen call diminative bullheads. 

 These and helgramites were the favorite baits, and very 

 killing ones they are, as I have since discovered. My 

 partner's catch that day was fifteen. 



When I reached the Intermont I took a dry rub and a 

 cup of coffee, than which there is no better this side of 

 Delmonico's. By the way, several of the waiters there 

 are graduates of Hampton, who served soup or fishes 

 (superficies?) or solids, lam pleased to say, with mathe- 

 matical accuracy. I may be permitted to mention this, 

 en passant, by way of encouragement to the Hampton 

 faculty. 



Wading waist-deep or up to one's neck in a running 

 stream, where the bottom is covered with slippery stones 

 and obstructed with boulders, is no easy task, "but this 

 method seems to be the only successful one. The angler 

 who expects to stand on the bank and fill his creel will 

 save time by buying his fish in market. With several 

 spare hooks stuck in his hat band, minnow pail filled with 

 live bait and trailing from his waist by a string so as to 

 keep the fish submerged and alive, and whatever fish he 

 catches fast to another string, the angler goes into the 

 deep water with the abandon and firm courage of a Bap- 

 tist minister at an immersion. Hooking a "mad torn" 

 by the lips, so as to allow it full freedom of movement, he 

 picks his way out carefully over the stones and casts 

 toward the middle of the stream. Then he waits. Some- 

 times he fishes the pools and anon the rapids. Both yield 

 a fulsome reward, but the pools are the most prolific. 

 Presently he feels a slight twitch on the line, which be- 

 gins to run out slowly at first. The fish is not yet fast, 

 but as soon as the line is taut and begins to run off 

 rapidly it is time to check him. A slight jerk is sufficient 

 to fasten the hook, and from this moment the bass fights 

 and cavorts until he is lifted from the water. Your read- 

 ers all know the play of a bass by this time, either from 

 hearsay or experience. Put it on the string and drop it 

 into the water, and it will continue to struggle as long as 

 it has any life or strength left, and will often be found 

 alive at the end of the day's outing. If the fish is 

 extra large and pulls hard the best plan is to make 

 for the shore and land it. Standing in the water trying 

 to get a big fish off the hook on to the string may involve 

 a ducking or the loss of the fish, These contingencies an 

 old angler will seldom risk. A minnow usually does not 

 survive the onslaught of a bass, but my friend claims to 

 have taken four with one bait, and to have missed but 

 one strike in capturing fifteen bass. This is a remarkable 



Eerformance, and shows much judgment in letting him 

 ave the bait before maneuvering with him, When once 

 firmly hooked a taut line should be kept on him, for he is 

 apt to unfasten from a slack one. 



Next to knowing how to play and land a fish, the thing 

 most necessary is to be able to keep the hook from getting 

 fast, for a lively minnow, especially a "mad torn," will 

 make for under a rock every time it touches the bottom; 

 in which case the hook may be accounted a dead loss, for 

 pulling and jerking the line seldom dislodge it. If the 

 water is sufficiently shallow, the angler may wade out to 

 the trouble and release the bait, unless he should mean- 

 while slip into a deep hole and get drowned. 



As a writer in the Baltimore Home Journal declares, 

 the fisherman who can undergo all these hardships for a 

 full day, and brave every risk, is entitled to a long night's 

 rest and a sweet pipe at the farmhouse where he has left 

 his store clothes and valise. 



On the Greenbriar much comfortable fishing is done 

 from boats with expert oarsmen, who drop down stream 

 for any given distance, fishing all the way, and then haul 

 back by rail or wagon. Portable boats of canvas 

 would be just the equipment on these waters. I have 

 heard of some strings of forty and fifty being made. 

 Fort Spring or Alderson's, which are only a few? miles 

 apart on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, are the best 

 points to stop at. The hotels and boats are good, and the 

 guides understand their business. 



Chaeles Hallock, 



Covington, Va., July 10. 



Game laws in Brief. 



The Game Laws in Brief, new edition, now ready, June 27, has 

 new game and fish laws for more than thirty of the States. It covers 

 the entire country, is carefully prepared, and gives all that shooters 

 and nglers require. Bee advertisement. 



;Admires7!Mr. Avis's Grit. 



Mobile, Ala.— Editor Forest and Stream: You will not 

 find my name on your list of subscribers in your office, 

 but every Saturday evening for the past two years I in- 

 variably make sure there is a dime in my pocketbook with 

 which to purchase a copy of your paper while on my way 

 home after business hours. I am not much of a marks- 

 man, nor am I a successful fisherman or very much of a 

 yachtsman, but I like to try my hand at such pastimes 

 and endeavor to interest my wife and boys in these pleas- 

 ures and the contents of your paper. 



I fancy I derive more enjoyment in reading the experi- 

 ence of others than from my own realization, especially 

 such trips as Mr. W. H. Avis made up ths St. John's 

 River in Florida. I have often wished for the command 

 of language and the ability to vividly describe human 

 character, location, incidents and surrounding natural 

 conditions, in order to give to others the impressions 

 made upon my mind. Some years ago I spent six 

 months living in a tent in Florida, with my youngest 

 brother for my only companion. I have been over much 

 of the ground Mr. Avis writes about, and a great deal be- 

 sides. He gives everything true to life, without the slight- 

 est exaggeration. I can fully appreciate the amount of 

 grit or nerve required to make one's first trip through a 

 cypress swamp in search of a dog belonging to another 

 fellow. W. C. P. 



TINAMOUS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman's advice to "W. O. B." in re- 

 gard to the introduction of tinamous into this country is 

 worthy of indorsement. The tinamou as a game bird 

 would hardly prosper where Bob White fails to keep up 

 his family. Instead of introducing a species for which I 

 have very little respect, why doesn't "W. O. B." go to 

 work and help Ortyx virginianus, one of the best of his 

 kind? 



While on a specimen collecting trip to the Argentine 

 Republic in 1886, I had excellent opportunities of testing 

 the value of the two tmamous most frequently met with, 

 so far as my experience goe3, between Buenos Ayres and 

 Bahia Blanca. And first let me give my opinion as to 

 their table qualities. Contrary to Mr. Spears's opinion, 

 our party found both species, especially the smaller one, 

 decidedly dry and insipid. We tried them every way, 

 but found them always the same. Compared with Bob 

 -White, they are as a steamed buffalo chip to a Delmonico 

 beefsteak. We ate them — when we couldn't get anything 

 else. They were certainly preferable to an asado — you 

 couldn't chew the latter. The birds I refer to were called 

 by the natives Perdiz grande and Perdiz chico. (Mr. 

 Spears and Mr. Chapman will kindly correct my Spanish; 

 nine years makes one's memory rusty.) 



The large partridge (Perdiz grande), as I remember it, 

 is about the size of a Dominick hen, but shaped something 

 like a guinea fowl, which bird it resembles both in flight 

 and running powers. I never shot any save at La Tigra 

 and Curumulan, on the line of the Ferro-Carril del Sud. 

 Having no dog, we hunted them on foot. The modus 

 operandi was: As soon as we saw them running ahead 

 of us, we sprinted up to where we had seen them and then 

 looked out. Apparently they ran about 30yds. and then 

 flew, always giving us quite long shots. What they might 

 have done with a dog to pin them I can't say. Once we 

 had found out how poor a table bird they were, we never 

 bothered them. 



My introduction to the little tinamou (Perdiz chico) 

 also took place at La Tigra. Around the fonda and 

 station they were to be found everywhere, but not in 

 coveys. Except in one instance, I never saw more than 

 two or at the most three together. Generally they 

 were equally distributed, one here, another there, and so 

 on; just like quail scattered after being flushed. Their 

 actions at La Tigra and other spots where we met them 

 south of Buenos Ayres always excited my sympathy. 

 Walking along in the grass, a little dowdy bird would 

 suddenly start from a bunch of graES and run off in front 

 of one; it never ran very fast and sometimes chirped as it 

 ran. To get a large bag or even a dozen of these birds 

 required a good deal of lung power if one wanted to kill 

 them on the wing. They had to be chased before rising, 

 and I know we afforded the Guachos who hung around 

 the fonda lots of amusement when they saw the "crazy 

 Englishmen" chasing such small game. They laughed at 

 us most because we did not pot them on the ground. At 

 Curumulan, Casey's estancia, where we were most hos- 

 pitably entertained by Mr. Shoebridge, the manager, I 

 saw the birds' actions before a dog. They had there an 

 old pointer, liver and white, with a body like a barrel, 

 Bwarming with fleas, but good-natured withal. This old 

 dog would trot off by himself when he felt like it; find a 

 bird somewhere near the house; point it and stand staunch 

 for quite a length of time; then rout it up and go on after 

 another. There was no question as to whether the bird 

 would lie to a dog. 



As to the flight of both kinds, that is a point also on 

 which I differ from Mr. Spears, and I imagine that he 

 draws bis conclusions from birds which he found away 

 from civilization, where they had not been hunted much. 

 At La Tigra, Curumulan and such places they certainly 

 made short flights, but at Chascomus and in the vicinity of 

 Buenos Ayres they were far wilder and flew like bullets 

 (I am referring now solely to the smaller tinamou). I re- 

 member having a very nice day's sport only a few miles 

 south of Buenos Ayres during the month of June, 

 '86. We found the birds as usual in pairs or 

 singly. They rose often 25 to 30yds. away and flew 

 far and strongly, affording us really good sport. Of 

 course it was all open shooting, nothing for the birds 

 to get behind. I can liken it to nothing more than 

 a "walking match" at targets with the targets thrown 

 low and fast, the flight of the tinamous being very steady. 



Mr. Spears talks about tinamous in a ' 'flock. " As stated 

 above my experience during four consecutive months 

 right out on tl e pampas was that they were not gregarious 

 when full grown. Like our ruffed grouse, they no doubt 

 form a covey until well able to look out for No. 1. The 

 only time that I met with what looked like a covey was 

 during my second day at La Tigra. We had spent the 

 day preparing the skins of birds killed the previous after, 

 noon. Toward evening I thought that a mess of tinamou^ 



would not be bad, as the beef was uneatable. Crossing 

 the railroad track in front of the fonda, I went to a spot 

 where I had seen quite a number of tinamous as we came 

 in the night before. This particular place was a deserted 

 miniature brickyard where the bricks for the fonda had 

 been made, at least that is what I took it for, although it 

 may have been the ruins of some more ancient fonda. 

 The spot was overgrown with thistles (the big thistle of 

 those parts), all trampled down and by no means easy 

 walking, bub it was full of the lesser tinamous. The first 

 one got up under my feet and looked small enough as it 

 went buzzing off over the pampas. At the report of my 

 gun others rose and kept on rising as I fired and fired 

 until my gun got too hot to hold. All this time I had not 

 walked a dozen steps from where the first tinamous rose. 

 The dead birds were hard to find and I fear I didn't re- 

 cover more than two-thirds of those I dropped. Now, if 

 that was a "flock" of tinamous it was a mighty big one, 

 as at a modest estimate there must have been twenty-five 

 or thirty birds in that patch of old thistles and bricks, a 

 patch not more than 20yds. square. My idea was then, 

 and is still, that the birds were there for feeding purposes, 

 not for conversation and good fellowship. Mr. Chapman's 

 experience with tinamous on this point would be of in- 

 terpst. 



As for natives scaring them to death, as reported by 

 Mr. Spears, I cannot speak; neither did I ever see one 

 feign death. It would, however, be no particularly hard 

 feat to pick them off with one of the long whips used 

 down there, as they run off to one side out of the way of 

 a wagon. So far as I saw they didn't scare worth a cent 

 at a wagon nor at a man on horseback, nor for the matter 

 of that not much at a man with a gun away from civiliza- 

 tion. 



My vote is, therefore, recorded as against any introduc- 

 tion of tinamous with a view to acclimatization and 

 propagation. The success of such a scheme would be ex- 

 tremely doubtful, although there is no reason that I can 

 see why they should not thrive in any portion of the 

 United States south of the South Carolina line. The pine 

 lands of Florida would suit them to a T. But where 

 would be the advantage? Who wants anything better 

 than a bunch of Bob Whites before a dog's nose? Look 

 out for Bob White's interest, and save the game of this 

 country so that there may be some sport for shooters fifty 

 years hence. I don't suppose I'll be here then, but there'll 

 be others who would like to do some shooting, unless the 

 children yet unborn are very different from those that are 

 now figuring upon their first gun. Edward Banks. 



New Yoke City, July 17. 



DO ANIMALS PRACTICE HYPNOTISM? 



As regards those acts of the lower animals which ap- 

 pear to imply a high degree of intelligent design — of adop- 

 tion of exceptional means to special ends — it may still be 

 regarded as an open question whether they proceed from 

 a process of ratiocination similar to that which would 

 influence a human being under the same circumstances, 

 or whether they are prompted by instinctive impulses. 

 My own view is that every creature has a narrow intel- 

 lectual range, within which his mental processes are as 

 acute and active as those of man's ; but although the intel- 

 lectual grasp of the lower animals covers only a very 

 narrow range, their nervous constitution is so exactly 

 similar to man's in kind, and their emotions of anger, 

 fear, love, hate and their instinct of self-preservation so 

 precisely the same as in man, that in all those cases in 

 which a defenseless animal submits to his fate without 

 an effort at escape, or even rushes into it as described by 

 your correspondent "V." in your issue of July 6, the 

 most common-sense method for interpretation of the 

 phenomena is, I think, to look for parallel cases among 

 men. 



I do not believe in the power of any animal to fascinate 

 its prey by its gaze — that is, in the sense of charming it; — 

 but the gaze of a ferocious oreature upon its defenseless 

 foe at close quarters serves to inspire terror, which is 

 greater the more sudden and unexpected. A deer run- 

 ning through the jungle and coming suddenly within a 

 few feet of a crouching tiger stands paralyzed; the heart's 

 action ceases. A bird seated on its nest, too, and becom- 

 ing suddenly aware of a snake poised to strike, undergoes 

 a similar experience; the hopelessness of escape paralyzes 

 the whole nervous system; a man, unarmed, in like cir- 

 cumstances would undergo a similar experience. At least 

 there are numerous instances where the heart's action 

 has been arrested by terror in the face of impending 

 danger. There are even cases on record where such 

 arrest of the heart's action has itself proved fatal. 



Where the danger is imminent.although not so imminent 

 and sudden as to preclude all possibility of escape, the 

 nervous system, although not absolutely paralyzed, may 

 be so deranged by the paramount influence of terror that 

 the creature is apt to lose its presence of mind, and to 

 forfeit its chance of escape. A deer suddenly confronted 

 by a tiger a few yards off, and afraid to turn, will bark 

 and try to back away while the terrible beast crawls 

 within spring of him. The mainsprings of action are 

 more complicated when maternal instincts counterbalance 

 or rise superior to fear. In such cases any combative 

 creature, however feeble, will be prompted to assail the 

 foe, sometimes so bolily as to put him to flight, at others 

 so hesitatingly as to insure its own fate, 



The case of the squirrel described by V. is more or less 

 abnormal; most squirrels after getting up a tree out of 

 danger are level headed enough to keep out; but one 

 instance similar to that described by V., came under my 

 observation just forty years ago, in South Australia. A 

 couple of collie dogs I had with me started a little animal 

 resembling a red squirrel; the little fellow was near a big 

 tree, and ran up its trunk about ten feet, when it turned 

 and faced the barking dogs, came down a foot or two, 

 sprang, and alighted on the back of the neck of one of the 

 dogs, and held on to his ear with tooth and claw. The 

 second dog made a good attempt to seize him, but the 

 movements of the first dog were so vivac'ous and erratic 

 that he did not Bucceed at the first or second attempt; "V.'s 

 squirrel too probably attempted a similar feat, but the 

 more active cat succeeded in catching him as he sprang. 



It would be rash to dogmatize as to the mental processes 

 which prompt an animal thus to rush into danger which 

 might possibly be escaped; but arguing from the known to 

 the unknown, from what individual men have done in 

 more or less parallel cases, I am inclined to conclude that 

 the unreasoning creature, unduly excited and thrown off 

 bis mental balance by terror, is unable to endure the 



