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FOREST AND STREAM. 



|Dec. 7, 1895* 



MAMMOTH TEETH UNEARTHED. 



Mb, Nace Brock has shown us two huge teeth which 

 were dug out of a canal on Mr. Cad Koonce's land near 

 Kicblands, Onslow county, at a depth of 6ft. The teeth 

 are adjudged to have belonged either to a mastodon or a 

 megatherium, both of which animals are accounted by 

 scientists to have existed ages before man, the former in 

 highlands, the latter in lowlands. The mastodon was 

 somewhat the larger of the two, but the megatherium 

 had the greatest length. He was about 30ft. long, and by 

 raising himself up and resting his front feet on tree limbs 

 or other support he could graze upon the tops of moderate- 

 sized trees. It is to this latter animal that Prof. Charles 

 Hallock, who has seen skeletons of each, supposes the 

 teeth to have belonged. 



Each tooth has two deep indentures on top in one direc- 

 tion, and a cross central one the other way. These give 

 the top of the tooth somewhat the appearance of three 

 rows of saw teeth with two teeth to the row. 



They measure about 6in. from the crown to the end of 

 the roots and they measure 6in. across in one direction 

 and 4in. in the other. One tooth is nearly entire — only a 

 small pirt of the roots having been broken off; the other 

 is simply the upper half; the tooth that is entire weighs 

 31bs. 



Some hones, seemingly remains of the animal to which 

 the teeth belonged, were found also, but they were too 

 decayed and crumbly to amount to much. 



Mr. Hallock informs us that about fifty varieties of ani- 

 mal remains — some of extinct species and some of species 

 still extant — can be found in the great South Carolina 

 phosphate beds. The immense accumulations are ac- 

 counted for by scientific men in this way : They say there 

 were great floods which drowned out the aidmals and 

 the currents swept the. great proportion of them to the 

 places where the immense deposits are found, while here 

 and there an animal or two woyld be caught and its re- 

 mains left elsewhere, as in the case of this solitary animal 

 now found in Onslow county. 



Mr. Hallock gives us the following as to the origin of 

 such deposits and the extinction of certain species: 



"Historical geology might inform us that once upon a 

 time, during the early part of the Cenoz >ic age, in the 

 period termed tertiary, a mighty flood from which there 

 was no escape submerged nearly the whole continent, as 

 it now sometimes does portions of the Mississippi Valley, 

 and involved these innumerable creatures in <me common 

 destruction. Then did the overwhelming downpour of 

 rain beat the helpless fowls to the earth. It drowned out 

 the amphibious animals and reptiles, the alligators, the 

 turtles, the tapirs, the manatees, the saurians and the 

 megatheria which occupied the low-l> ing swamps and 

 lagoons. And the mighty current which surged toward 

 the sea bore upon its turbulent tide the dead bodies of 

 the animals which had been drowned in the uplands and 

 carried them coastward until a sudden subsidence of the 

 waters left them floating among the carcasses which 

 already polluted the lagoons and basins along the shore. 

 Meanwhile sharks and other rapacious fishes, which had 

 been attracted to the carnival of decaying fLsh, were im- 

 pounded in the basins by the receding il >od, and so also 

 miserably perished. 



"Here, in the still and stagnating wat rs, the processes 

 of decomposition and sedimentary deposit went steadily 

 on. The drift of other partial floods which succeeded 

 gradually covered them. Silt, till, vegetable mold, and 

 all kinds of organic matter accumulated, including the 

 decayed portions of the carcasses, and finally the lagoons 

 filled up, the water evaporated or ran off, the land 

 emerged or rather was raised by alluvial deposits carried 

 from higher regions, plants and trees germinated, grew 

 and matured, and so by natural and intelligible processes 

 the phosphate beds were formed. Portions of the bones 

 and pachyderm did not decay, but became preserved or 

 petrified. In the aggregate no better material for a com- 

 post heap could be gotten together. 



"These phospha.te beds, therefore, are the records of the 

 second great submergence of the continent, the first hav- 

 ing taken place during the first glacial period, when there 

 was no animal life. The partial submergences or lesser 

 floods which occurred subsequently added to the depth of 

 the deposits and to the assortment of animal remains, 

 thus accounting for remains of extiact and extant crea- 

 tures being found together. Bat it was during the great 

 submergence that many of the now ---xiinct animals dis- 

 appeared." 



Deer Horns, "Velvet aid. Trees. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I fully agree with Mr. Wilmot that the Virginia deer 

 at least do not find it necessary, neither do they get rid of 

 the velvety covering of the antlers by rubbing them on 

 trees and bushes. 



Like the leaf on the tree, it will fall when it has ful- 

 filled its function without any effort on the part of the 

 deer. The velvety skin covering the antlers during their 

 period of growth is thin and tender, possessing none of 

 the qualities of the true skin of the animal, but like the 

 epidermis or grain which the tanner scrap; s off the skin 

 before tanning. So when it is no longer needed and the 

 circulation ceases it becomes dry, shrinks and as a con- 

 sequence cracks, becomes loose from the horn and falls 

 off without any rubbing. I have lived among the deer in 

 the Adirondacks all my life and have killed more or less 

 every year fur the past fifty years. I have never seen 

 where bucks have marked trees or bushes with their 

 horns until some time after the period for shedding the 

 velvet covering. I have seen no markings before Octo- 

 ber. This habit is most prevalent as the rutting season 

 approaches, and during the forepart of that period bucks 

 will paw the ground and rub trees with thtir horns more 

 than at any other time. Musset. 



ADIROKDACK.S. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Mr. Lew Wilmot still adheres to his theory that deer 

 are not in the habit of getting rid of ihe so-called velvet 

 on their antlers by rubbing them against brushts and 

 young trees. He further asserts that the velvety covering 

 is never fast to the horns. Again he is in errur, I have 

 a pair of antlers mounted in my room which were taken 

 from a stag I shot during the time the antlers were still 

 covered with bast some fifteen years ago. They are to- 

 day in the same condition as the day the st.-ig was shot 

 and the covering on them shows no signs of ''peeling" off. 

 It still sticks fast to the antlere. 



Brehm's "Illustrirtes Thierleben" — Illustrated Animal 

 Kingdom — says on the subject here at issue: "As soon as 

 the antlers have attained their full development and reg- 

 ular size the blood ceases to circulate in the velvety cover- 

 ing, and the stag has the desire to get rid of this skin or 

 bast, which now becomes loose by rubbing the antlers 

 aeainst young trees or brushes. As a rule antlers grow 

 120 days, that is the velvety covering sticks to them for a 

 period of forty days after they have assumed their regular 

 formation, and during this last named time the antlers 

 appear to be very sensitive, since stags are then particu- 

 larly cautious not to injure their horns. The stag does 

 not commence to 'feg' (the German sportsmen's term for 

 rubbing) until twenty days afterward, or when the cover- 

 ing shows a tendency to peel off. Antlers of the same 

 species of stags vary in color. This is due to the differ- 

 ence in the sap of the particular trees or brushes against 

 which the antlers were rubbed." Armin Tenner. 



How a Snake Sheds its Skin. 



Dublin, Va., Nov. 20. — The letter in your paper from 

 J. W. Schooley, of East Radford, Va , in reference to bis 

 rattlesnake reminds me of one I possessed at the same 

 time. My rattler was very savage, never becoming tract- 

 able as with Mr. Schooley's. The general impression with 

 most people is that the Bhedding process comes on when 

 the skin becomes loose and the snake crawls out and leaves 

 the skin on the ground as it was. This was not the case 

 with my snake. The day before he was apparently as 

 lively and his skin as perfect as usual, but when I saw 

 him the next morning he had only half shed his skin, the 

 rest being turned back, wrong side out, as if a bag was 

 turned. He accomplished it by twisting and turning the 

 body. When he had the skin turned down to his rattles 

 it seemed to hang for some hours, thereby hiding the 

 rattles from view. J. D. S. 



Breeding of Wapiti in England. 



It may interest some of your readers to learn that one 

 of the wapiti that Sir Peter Walker imported from 

 America two years ago gave birth to a fine calf last week 

 at Osmaston Manor. — Correspondence London Field, 

 Nov. 23. 



wtt{t §ag mid §tm. 



A STORY OF DEER HOUNDING. 



The scene of this narrative is in the extreme northern 

 part of New Hampshire, among the spurs of the White 

 Mountains. Two beautiful ponds located there are well 

 known to all New England sportsmen and tourists, as 

 they afford excellent trout fishing and are surrounded by 

 woods which are the haunts of deer. During the summer 

 months the place is one of the most peaceful and quiet on 

 the face of the earth and is visited principally by gentle- 

 men and their families who are fond of "the happy prac- 

 tice of angling." At this time also deer hunting is unlaw- 

 ful, and the deer not being molested become quite tame, 

 and are often seen during the day feeding on the lily- 

 pads which grow near the water's pdge. Hunting begins 

 Sept. 1 with guns and Sept. 15 with dogs, and in both 

 cases lasts until the end of December. 



I was at this place recently on the opening of the 

 "hunting" season, and remained a day or so for partridge 

 shooting, and it was during one of those few days that 

 the events recorded here occurred. This was the first 

 deer hunt I ever saw, though not the first deer. 



There are several ways of capturing this noble animal — 

 some lawful, civilly and morally; others decidedly unlaw- 

 ful in every sense of the word. Crust-hunting 1 hold as 

 unlawful; this consists in following the deer when he can 

 make no progress through the deep snows, while you are 

 aided by snowshoes. 



Jacking is better than crust-hunting; still, it is not a 

 very honorable way of killing a deer. The bullseye lan- 

 tern takes advantage of the curiosity in a deer and holds 

 him spell-bound as long as you do not make a noise and 

 frighten him. In this mode of killing the hunter must be 

 skillful in the management of a canoe, so as to make the 

 least possible noise; he must exercise patience and be on 

 the alert to catch every sound, for it often happens that 

 the deer is in the woods ready to enter the pond to feed, 

 and will come out to view the light if all is still; and 

 finally the hunter must be able to shoot under a jack 

 light, if called upon. This latter is not an easy task, as 

 the dim light is deceptive. A guide — and good authority 

 —once told me that about nine-tenths of the deer shot at 

 under a jack escaped to the woods more or less wounded. 

 The only true, manly, creditable way is to steal upon him 

 in the woods when there is little or no snow upon the 

 ground. This puts hunter and deer upon equal footing. 

 The one depends on his intellect, good judgment and skill 

 to overcome the instinct and acute sense of the other. 

 The manner of hunting described here is termed "hound- 

 ing," or driving with dogs. 



On the day in question the weather was clear and the 

 temperature warm for the latitude. Several parties had 

 arrived in camp the x^receding day, among them a party 

 from Lancaster, N. H. , who were the institutors of the 

 hunt. The proprietor had secured a trained dog for the 

 occasion. The men had been inquisitively eyeing the 

 weather and were elated with the prospects of a good 

 hunt. They had handled and patted the dog, looked at 

 him, remarked on his build, questioned wht ther he would 

 follow a deer well, etc. They had cleaned well their 

 firearms, carefully selected their ammunition and one or 

 two were regulating their rifle sights by an occasional 

 shot at a target. 



The guide was to take the hound up on a distant moun- 

 tain and loose him there on a fresh track, while the party 

 were to distribute themselves on the shore of the two 

 ponds, Some remained on the little pond where the 

 camp was situated, but the majority took to the big pond. 

 The hunt happening to take place on that day at the big 

 pond, we will leave those on the little pond full of the 

 hope that the deer would give the big pond the go-by 

 and come in by them. 



Some of the hunters at the big pond went over to the 

 cove, some to the upper end , others to outlet or inlet, 

 each of them thinking that the others were fools who 

 knew nothing about deer hunting, and that the deer 

 would certainly come in where he was. In the meantime 



the deer was still in the woods and undecided as to where 

 he would enter. 



An hour passed before the long-drawn bay of the hound 

 was heard, showing that a deer was up and moving, 

 whether toward the pond or up to Connecticut Lake they 

 did not know, but were nevertheless expectant and wish- 

 ing that the dog would drive him to them. Now the dog 

 can drive the deer and that is all. Whether he will drive 

 him to the pond or not depends on the deer. 



As soon as the dog gives bay the deer is up and off ; he 

 knows by instinct what that sound means : his ancestors 

 were chased by wolves, a far more tireless and dangerous 

 enemy than the dog, and his nature tells him that he 

 must run for his life. He starts off, relying on his legs 

 for security, and runs for many miles down through val- 

 leys or up over mountains, leaping brooks or bays, or 

 whatever obstacles are in his way, but the dog draws 

 nearer, as he knows too well by the occasional bay. The 

 deer is by no means weary yet and keeps on, hoping to 

 tire his pursuer, but he cannot ; another bay and another 

 tells him that the dog is gaining. He makes another 

 break and goes at his topmost speed down the mountain 

 side to the pond, where he will run into a new danger. 

 If he can reach the pond and cross before the dog strikes 

 the shore and sees him get out on the other side, the scent 

 will be destroyed and it will be a long time before the dog 

 can take it up again, if he ever does find it, and the deer 

 will gain a good start and perhaps time for a rest. 



He is nearing the water, but some of the so-called 

 sportsmen have been over-indulgent with their whisky 

 and are trying their guns on some muskrats. This is 

 enough for the deer; his scheme has failed, so he starts 

 down the outlet of the pond for a new run — he knows not 

 where or for how long. The dog follows the track down 

 the mountain side to the lake ; he is thirsty and perhaps 

 a little tired, so he comes into the water for a drink and 

 a moment's rest before starting off again. 



The guide starts the dog on a new trail, for he knows 

 full well that that deer will take to other waters. A fresh 

 trail is again successfully struck, and the dog bays aloud. 

 This deer is started near the pond, and it is not probable 

 that he will take to water until he has tested the running 

 and scenting powers of the dog. He starts for the north 

 toward Connecticut Lake and runs for about half an hour, 

 and then returns to the pond, to use the last resort swim- 

 ming the lake. The hound has been gaining and he 

 must destroy his trail. He pauses in the woods on the 

 edge of the pond and looks over the water. All is still. 

 The hunters are concealed among the bushes eagerly 

 waiting for the appearance of the buck, for the dog's bay 

 has told them that the deer is near the water. 



The deer breaks cover and plunges well into the water, 

 dashing up the spray before him; he swims out a short 

 distance and will return to shore again at another point, 

 but he has been discovered, and with the crack of a rifle 

 a bullet passes through his ear. This is shown by the 

 spasmodic shake of the head. Bewildered, he turns for 

 the nearest shore, but another ball from the same rifle 

 breaks his lower jaw, making it drop helpless and useless 

 forever afterward. He rears well up out of the water 

 from the effects of the pain. 



By this time the other boats have come up for a share 

 of the "sport," and there is a general fusillade from seven 

 or eight men. The exposed part of the deer's head and 

 neck are the targets. The strife does not last long, how- 

 ever, for a well-directed ball from a Winchester rolls him 

 over dead. His course is run; he obeyed his instincts and 

 did his best, but the odds were against him. 



The boats now gather around and he is taken aboard 

 and to shore. The hunters are triumphant. During the 

 excitement they forgot the cruelty of the operation and 

 called it spcrt. Perhaps it was to those who were intoxi- 

 cated with the excitement which prevailed, but not to the 

 deer. They were not skilled in the use of firearms and 

 could claim no praise from that source, for they threw 

 aside all caution and reason, and came very near shooting 

 each other. Each one thought only of himself and glory, 

 thus showing a high degree of selfishness. All of them 

 could not lay claim to glory, only one, and his claim was 

 not a creditable one, as it was afterward found that the 

 death-dealing bullet from the Winchester was the last of 

 thirteen shots that had been fired at the deer by the same 

 person. 



The dog arrived at the water's edge right in the marks 

 of the deer and gave a long-drawn howl of disappoint- 

 ment. He gladly joins his party, for he is tired, and is 

 surprised to find his quarry slain. When the party re- 

 turned to camp they were welcomed by the others, who 

 helped to carry the buck. He was laid on the grass to be 

 admired, and well was he worth it, more so than his 

 cruel slayers. If these men had, by some skill or inge- 

 nuity on their part, obtained the deer, then give them 

 credit; but they had not. They had sent the dog out to 

 do the work, well knowing that the deer would come into 

 the water and be at their mercy. Instead of waiting" in 

 the woods and shooting him on the run, they wait until 

 he gets well out into the water and then row up as close 

 as they please before they shoot. 



The men stood around with an air of having accom- 

 plished a great feat. Each told of what he had done 

 toward the killing. They bragged and boasted, but in all 

 the tales told over the body of that deer there was not 

 one which showed either gallantry, skill, credit or 

 humanity. One man stated that now as he had killed a 

 deer he felt like going to war. 



But how about the dog, to whom they owed all their 

 reason for boasting? Where did his share of the credit 

 come in? He had been running for miles the whole time 

 that they were resting easily in their boats. The marvel- 

 ous powers and sagacity of the dog had been severely 

 tried and had borne the test. He, in obedience to his 

 instincts, had successfully accomplished the work set 

 before him, and amidst all this triumph and proclamation 

 of glory he modestly takes a back seat, well knowing that 

 he did it and not they. The very expression on his face 

 is one of well-deserved pride for himself and disdain for 

 those around him. C. B. S. 



Game Laws in Brief. 



The Gkime Laws in Brief, current edition, sold everywhere, 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 

 nd anglers require. Pee advertisement. 



The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday 

 Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 

 latest by Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 



