288 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 3, 1888. 



Company's post at Mistassini, but only the men who were 

 with me, Prosper Cleary, Jr., Paul Lemieux and Thos. 

 Lejarin, have been around the lake; and he can, I think, 

 hire any of them to go with him. 



The trip from Lake St. John to Mistassini should be 

 accomplished, with good canoemen, in three weeks at 

 the outside, the distance being from two hundred to two 

 hundred and fifty miles, according to the route followed, 

 that by the Chef branch of the Ashouapruouchouan being 

 the shortest. Two weeks on the lake will be sufficient to 

 solve the problem as to its size and another week will 

 bring him back to Lake St. John, covered with glory, 

 and from there he can send to the world at large glowing 

 accounts of his wonderful discoveries. Or if sufficient 

 glory be not obtained he can descend the Rapid River to 

 James Bay in two weeks, cross the bottom of the baj r to 

 Moose Factory, which will probably take a week, owing 

 to the almost certain chance of being wind-bound on the 

 way. From Moose he can ascend the Messinaibie River 

 to the C. P. Ry. at the height of land in two weeks more, 

 and thence return home when he pleases. By application 

 to the director of the Geological Survey he' can furnish 

 himself with maps of the whole route and so dispense 

 with the services of a guide. This whole trip has been 

 clone quite easily by Prof. Galbraith, of the Toronto 

 School of Science, in 1882 or '83, and myself in 1885. 



I inclose with this letter the official report of the ex- 

 ploration. The statements therein made regarding the 

 size, etc.. of the lake are all from actual measurement 

 and personal observation, and not taken from the "Rela- 

 tions of the Jesuits" or from Indian stories, as are the 

 data on which our friends of the ancient capital have 

 built up their romance of the great inland sea. From the 

 leport you will see that Lake Mistassini is a long, narrow 

 body of water, lying between N. lats. 50° and 51° 24' and 

 W. longs. 72° 45' and 74° 20'. A long point at each end 

 divides it into two deep bays; between the points, and 

 seemingly a continuation of them, is a chain of islands 

 with shallow water between them. These practically 

 divide the lake into two parts, the water being very deep 

 everywhere else, with bold rocky shores. From the head 

 of the N. E. bay to the head of the S. W. one the distance 

 is nearly one hundred miles, while the average breadth 

 of the main body is about twelve miles. The surround- 

 ing country is well wooded with small spruce and poplar 

 chiefly. As a sportsman's resort it will never be popular; 

 there is nothing to shoot, the Indians in the vicinity 

 have exterminated all the deer. Ducks and shore birds 

 are altogether wanting, owing to the absence of proper 

 feeding grounds, as is the case with most of our Lauren- 

 tian lakes. The lake teems with large whitefish, lake 

 and brook trout, pickerel and pike, and good sport can 

 be had with spoon and minnow; but as fishing of as good 

 character can be obtained much nearer civilization, I 

 would not advise any one to go so far for it. 



A. P. Low, Geological Survey of Canada. 



REMOVAL. 



The offices of Forest and Stream are nowa,t No. 318 Broadway. 



A Dining Car Line to the Pacific Coast.— The completion of the all rail 

 line between Portland, Ore., and San Francisco gives the Pacific coast trav- 

 eler an opportunity to patronize the famous Pining Car and Yellowstone 

 Park Line, the Northern Pacific Railroad. The sportsman traveling in the 

 West, whether a lover of the rod or gun, naturally seeks this road, pene- 

 trating as it does the lake park region of Minnesota, and running through 

 the valleys of such trout streams as the Yellowstone, Gallatin, Hell Gate, 

 Clark's Fork, Spokane, Yakima and Green Rivers, for a distance of fully 

 1,500 miles, as well as lying immediately contiguous to the finest hunting 

 grounds in the United States, viz., The. Big Horn, Snowy, Belt, Bitter Root, 

 Coeur D'Alene and Cascade Mountains. Information in regard to this 

 region can De obtained by addressing Charles S. Feb, General Passenger 

 and Ticket Agent. N. P. R. R., St. Paul, Minn.— Adv. 



BULLSNAKE AND WHITE WOLF. 



I AM encamped in the deep forests on the carboni- 

 ferous hills of Young county. My temporary shelter 

 is a small cabin of a single room, full of cracks through 

 which many things can creep. This morning, an hour or 

 two before dawn, a heavy rain storm descended upon us, 

 and the air grew quite chilly. While lying in my com- 

 fortable little bed listening to the howling of the wind 

 and pouring of the rain, I felt a strange movement in the 

 bed. It w^as not the movement of an earthquake, or of a 

 whale, or of an elephant; yet I immediately recognized it 

 as a movement of a very moving nature — one that might 

 involve terrible consequences. I felt it again, and it was 

 not only in the bed, but under the cover with me. Just 

 at this "juncture I felt something very slick and of a 

 somewhat cold nature move against my hand. The time 

 for action evidently had come, and I did not deliberate 

 what action to perform, but performed at once. With 

 one fell bound I vacated that bed and landed in the mid- 

 whole of the floor with such a thump that the cabin shook 

 all over. In a moment my lamp was burning, and seizing 

 a club I approached the' bed and cautiously pulled down 

 the cover. There lay a snake beautifully coiled up, with 

 his head somewhat uplifted, licking out his tongue at 

 me. He was about four feet long. He looked at me and 

 I looked at him. He made no motion as if he would run 

 and neither did I. I thought I spied a gentle and con- 

 fiding expression in his eye, as if he said: "You need 

 not be alarmed; if you will not hurt me neither will |I 

 hurt you. If you will be my friend, I will be yours." I 

 threw my club aside. I perceived that my bed-fellow 

 was a builsnake, almost precisely like the rattlesnake in 

 markings, but in no other respect like that monster. 

 He is without fangs, without poison, and of a gentle, play- 

 ful and amiable nature. He grows eight or nine feet long. 

 I said unto him that he and I should be friends; that he 

 might not only dwell with me in my cabin, but that if 

 he liked, he could sleep with me in my bed. Having 

 said that much, I carefully spread the cover over him and 

 told him to sleep on. And he did so. But I did not go 

 back to bed to him. I sat by my table and read a few T 

 chapters of St. Paul, who, of all authors, is my favorite. 

 How logical, how forceful, how grand and ennobling he 

 is! 



On returning from breakfast I brought one of my fel- 

 low-workmen with me to show him my friend and bed- 

 fellow. When I drew back the cover there he lay, per- 

 fectly quiet and content, but licking out his tongue. My 

 fellow-workman w r as dumbfounded. I then put the cover 

 back again. A few moments ago my snake de- 

 scended from the bed, in a quiet way, as if entirely at 

 home, and is still probably somewhere in the house. He 

 was probably engaged in hunting mice when the storm 

 came up, and becoming chilled in the changed atmos- 

 phere, he found my bed pleasant and concluded to sleep 

 with me. 



Forest and Stream some time ago informed me that 

 the builsnake is Lotophis bellona. That seems to me a 

 misnomer for the builsnake. I have no Latin dictionary 



with me, but suppose that bellona means "warlike," or 

 something of that sort. Now, the builsnake does not 

 appear to me to be in the least warlike, but very amiable 

 and peaceful. He eats rats, mice and birds, and will 

 steal eggs from the hen's nest, but he does not specially 

 war upon these things. So do I eat mutton chops, and. 

 beefsteaks and hens' eggs, but I do not war upon sheep, 

 steers or hens. On the contrary, I treat them with great 

 consideration and kindness. It is in order to change the 

 name of this snake; and I suggest the name Lotophis 

 tayloreus. inasmuch as I am probably the first man that 

 ever slept with one of them. 



My letters to Forest and Stream on the wolf have 

 been much read in this country, and the result is I am 

 much visited by lovers of wolves. One of these tells me 

 that he saw a few days ago a very large lobo that was 

 perfectly white. He said that he was splendid to look 

 at, and that he could not possibly be mistaken that he 

 was a wolf. Since then I have heard of others who have 

 seen this wolf within a mile or less of my camp. Such a 

 thing as a white wolf I had not heard of before. I have 

 told some young men that if they can rope him and 

 secure him unin jured I may be able* to sell him for them 

 to the Central Park museum for a snug figure. They 

 think of trying for him. N. A. T. 



Young County, Texas. 



ARE HAWKS DESTRUCTIVE OF GAME? 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of March 17, you do me the honor to pub- 

 lish a brief article on destructive hawks, with the editor- 

 ial query whether I include in one group Cooper's and 

 rough-legged hawks. In the kind of group I was mak- 

 ing, as it were, a company of thieves, they are included. 

 I was writing avowedly for sportsmen and practical 

 shooters, and not for the purpose of airing my acquaint- 

 ance with technical terms fetched out of a convenient 

 term-book, so to speak, of which I have several at hand; 

 works of the older ornithologists; all that Dr. Coues has 

 written; Jordan's Manual, etc. Now comes after me 

 your correspondent E. M. Evans (whether Mr., Mrs. or 

 Miss lam ignorant), and thinks "it may prove interesting 

 to me to know that the slate-colored hawk does not 

 exist as a species." How then does he exist? I am aware 

 that the slate-colored haw T k, as described by Wilson and 

 by Grim, technically designated Falcopennsylvanicus, was 

 based on miniature specimens of sharp-shin. There are 

 three hawks commonly known to the sportsmen and 

 shooting men as Cooper's hawk, sharp-shin and slate 

 colored or blue hawk. This last is known to those- who 

 profess and call themselves scientists as Faleo colum- 

 barius. All three are often confounded as one by shoot- 

 ing men as "partridge hawks," sometimes also as "pigeon 

 hawks" : yet those who make a distinction divide them as 

 above. All three are excessively destructive, as is well 

 known to all — shooters, scientists and would-be scientists. 



As to the rough-leg, your correspondent says it is the 

 most indestructive and useful of hawks, and fetches out 

 of Audubon the quotation that the great naturalist 

 "never knew it attempt a more considerable feat than to 

 seize a lethargic frog at the water's edge." I have, Mr. 

 Editor, if Mr. Evans and Audubon have not. Audubon 

 also says he never saw this hawk west of the AJleghanies. 

 I have, and it is now known to be not of uncommon oc- 

 currence there. I take issue with all who defend the 

 rough-leg hawk. Three times in my life, once some- 

 thing over a year ago, and west of the Alleghany, I have 

 shot this hawk in the act of devouring a ruffed grouse. 

 The same fact has been reported to me by friends whom 

 I know were as competent to know what they saw as 

 Audubon himself. I have seen it take and destroy rab- 

 bits, squirrels, partridges, larks and various other birds, 

 besides poultry, and especially I have seen it more than 

 once devouring woodcocks, and from what I know of its 

 haunts and habits I believe it to be especially destructive 

 of this somewhat rare and rapidly diminishing in num- 

 bers, and most splendid of game birds. For this reason 

 largely I desire to see this hawk put out of protection of 

 the law, and a price on its head. The rough-legged 

 hawk w T ill prey on anything from a dead horse to a field 

 mouse, a lizard or a "lethargic frog." Will any natural- 

 ist seriously defend the proposition that a rough-legged 

 hawk, or any of our large hawks known or belonging to 

 the buzzard group, will sit on a perch and allow a covey 

 of partridges to stroll beneath, or a mother weodcock 

 and her brood to w r addle by unmolested, while he awaits 

 the appearance of a "lethargic frog?" No nonsense in my 

 opinion was ever more ridiculous. If hawks are shot where 

 there are no game birds, and where field mice, frogs and 

 lizards abound, no game birds and plenty of these lesser 

 vermin will be found in their craws, as it does not require 

 a Solomon or a so styled "trained scientist" to know. 

 Before now men of science (exprofesso) have shed much 

 ink to show why a thing is and must be so, which at last 

 lias turned out not to be so. 



Your correspondent advises that I leave this question 

 to those competent to pursue it with accuracy and justice, 

 (including himself?) instead of disseminating my er- 

 roneous opinions and promoting ignorant and cruel 

 prejudice to the sacrifice of much precious and useful 

 life. To adopt his own way of putting it, I, suggest that 

 it may prove interesting to him to know that I have 

 succeeded better as a giver than as a taker of advice. 

 To style a body in one breath ignorant, incompetent, 

 cruel and foolish, is just a bit uncivil. But your cor- 

 respondent having so delivered himself, falls to writing 

 of the "precious and useful lives" of a lot of hawks. It 

 may further interest him to know that whatsoever opinions 

 he may have formed of myself, my competency, cruelty, 

 etc.. I "regard them with indifference, but when he be- 

 gins to write in that kind of style about hawks, I think, 

 if not beneath it, his opinions are beyond all doubt not 

 above criticism. 



I am not a new convert to the idea of the legal protection 

 of fish and game, and of insectivorous and song birds. 

 As a sportsman, when there, w^ere no game laws, I al- 

 ways observed strictly what I deemed natural close 

 seasons, and never shot sick meat. When my native 

 State of Virginia was known as District No. 1, General 

 Canby commanding, I wrote to that officer a protest 

 against the wanton destruction of bird life in his do- 

 minion, and while he did not notice me or my letter, he 

 did issue an order having the force and effect of a game 

 law. As soon as the Legislature sat, I sent them the draft 

 of a game law (j which passed in one House and failed in 

 the other. I persevered, notwithstanding the discourage- 



