•July 4, 1889.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



489 



as above, that is allowing Fred to go well ahead and then 

 fishing in his wake. 



The trout evidently were not much on the feed that 

 morning, for it took careful work to capture what we 

 did. I lagged not in the pleasant pursuit, and fish as 

 earnestly as ever. On I went, passing lonely stretches of 

 wood and river scenery with the reward of an occasional 

 trout, until finally circling around a sharp bend I saw 

 immediately in front of me such a dark and lovely pool, 

 so enchantingly embowered in shade from overhanging 

 trees, lapping bushes and waving grasses, in which the 

 violets and primroses "blushed and bloomed," that I felt 

 assured it was where the trout grow golden. It seemed 

 a burning shame to offer the lovely princelings of the 

 brook in such a charming retreat anything but an artistic 

 fly of pre-eminent perfection, and I must confess that I 

 felt a tinge of regret when 1 sent my meaty fin as the 

 decoy to tempt him from his aqueous realm of beauty. 

 I was heartless, and for the time being lost to all the po- 

 etry of angling, and like a sturdy baiter [sent the fin into 

 the shady pool; it no sooner struck the water than it was 

 greedily seized, and then a struggling trout was repent- 

 ing his hasty action. He was soon encircled by the net 

 and then gently placed in the creel. He was little less 

 than a half-pounder, but a royal beauty. Again my 

 quivering bait was moving in the water, and another 

 trout of about the same size was captured. This I re- 

 pealed until I had caught two more, and then the sport 

 was over at this ideal pool. I wondered if Fred had had 

 airy luck here, for he was a capital angler, though I 

 thought he fished over the choice places entirely too fast. 

 .1 have always found that slow and careful trouting in 

 good waters yields the amplest returns. 



Again I am on the tramp, and after about an hour's 

 fishing the guide overtook us, and we concluded as it was 

 mear noon to take lunch. Selecting a shady grove for our 

 banquet grounds, the guide started a fire and made some 

 coffee, and then we feasted right royally from the lunch 

 basket, which contained a good variety of "toothsome 

 edibles. We here compared our catches, and ascertained 

 that the guide had the largest number, while Fred and I 

 ,-were about equal, though I had the prize trout of the 

 morning victims. I congratulated the guide on his catch, 

 and remarked that they would greatly assist me in 

 making ou' a nice lot for some of my friends at Grand 

 Rapids. He very coolly and, as I thought, somewhat 

 defiantly told me that he was fishing for the house. I 

 fired up at this, and warmly told him that he could then 

 look to the house for his pay. This somewhat confused 

 him. and, altering his tone, he mildly stated that he 

 would speak to the landlord about it. This is some- 

 thing akin to the methods that prevail with the 

 skippers of the fishing yachts at Nantucket, who 

 pharge you $8 or $10 per day, and then in addition claim 

 the fish as their perquisite. It is really a compound 

 double discounting contract, "heads I win, tails you lose." 

 I had got indignant over the system at the island, but 

 when 1 found that it also prevailed in this "neck of the 

 woods" I was assuredly hot in the collar. A distinguished 

 friend of mine, high in the councils of the State, had the 

 same experience as I had, and he, too, kicked on princi- 

 ple. So will any one who is not entirely a cheerful idiot. 

 It is the coercive measure that pinches, not gre^d for the 

 fish at all. Alex. Star/buck. 



[TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK.] 



AN EPISODE OF THE WAR. 



MEMORY oftentimes presents most striking exhibi- 

 tions of latent retentive power. Incidents that 

 transpired years ago, and had no special significance to 

 leave behind them lasting impressions, flash from its 

 see ret chambers, and as vividly as if it were but yester- 

 day that they took place, they pass like a panorama 

 before our mental vision. During the great civil war, 

 when powerful armies and mighty naval vessels covered 

 the land and the sea, scarcely a day closed that was not 

 fraught with military achievements or disasters to either. 

 ione or the other contending forces. Now and then a 

 thrilliug incident produced a profound impression of ex- 

 ultation or depression in the public rnind, but time and 

 the multitudinous and multifarious affairs of life crowded 

 it, as was supposed, out of memory. But years later a 

 'Casual remark, or a transaction that may have some indi- 

 rect connection with it, releases from the invisible cells 

 •of the mind the long-forgotten event, and it is pictured 

 (before us as clearly and vividly as when we read the 

 graphic account of it so long ago. 



A check from the IT. S. Treasury was recently sent to 

 a business frieud. It was to settle for salvage to the cap- 

 tors of a vessel that made a voyage noted for a thrilling 

 digression from the even tenor of the ways of an unwar- 

 like merchantman. 



Twenty-six years ago the harbor of New York be- 

 tokened warlike times. Men-of-war were almost daily 

 arriving from the Southern coast for repairs or supplies, 

 while others, full-manned, were sailing out of the harbor' 

 to take a part in the conflict that was raging a few hun- 

 dred miles away. On the stretch between the Narrows 

 and Sandy Hook the taut and ship-shape schooner Flora, 

 with her wiiigs spread to a clear and strong northwesterly 

 wind, dashed on to the ocean. As she cleared the land 

 and entered on the bosom of the Atlantic, the wind 

 freshened and sent her on at a swinging pace. Around 

 her bows the yeasty sea boiled and sputtered, and as the 

 misty spray flew over her forecastle it glistened and glit- 

 tered in the sunlight like a shower of diamonds. As the 

 sun, looking like a big red ball, sunk below the horizon, 

 scores of lights on vessels bound in and out danced up 

 and down to the motion of the brisk sea that the stiff 

 breeze had raised, and as the gloom increased the hull of 

 •the Flora grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared in 

 the Charybdis of darkness. The next view we have of her 

 , is "running down the Trades." Here the sky is almost 

 ■cloudless, the wind balmy, and the stars of great brilli- 

 ancy. The splendor of the Southern Cross, each star in 

 which is like a Kohinoor magnified a thousand fold, is 

 beyond the power of description. The crew of the Flora, 

 in the dog watch, told over and over again to one another 

 tales of the perils they had passed through, of funny esca- 

 pades in foreign ports, and of the gorgeous sweethearts 

 they had left, tearful and inconsolable, when they sailed 

 away from port. They also sang those weird and plain- 

 tive songs of the ocean that have been handed down by- 

 successive generations of the toilers of the sea. 



After rounding a stormy cape, drenched with the icy 

 spray, the warm and peaceful bosom of old ocean in the 



Trades is a blessed relief to poor Jack, and none can ap- 

 preciate it more than he. The Flora was rolling lazily 

 from port to starboard, and as the breeze was not .strong 

 enough to keep her sails full they flapped spitefully. The 

 man at the wheel was powerfully affected by the calm 

 and somnolency of the scene, as the "bobbing" of his 

 head suspiciously indicated, "Sail-ho!" came in loud 

 and startling tones from a sailor on the topgallant fore- 

 castle. Away off on the verge of the horizon the dark 

 hull of a vessel appears, and as she draws nearer to the 

 Flora a long, filmy streak, stretching far astern, reveals 

 that she is a steamer. At the first cry of "Sail-ho 1" all 

 hands came on deck, for it was at a tiruo when danger 

 lurked on the ocean. Confederate cruisers were sc"ur- 

 ing the seas, and many a peaceful merchantman had 

 been captured. The dark hull came on; a thick cloud of 

 smoke poured out of the funnel, and it was evident she 

 was being driven hard to come up with the Flora. They 

 were helpless to escape. The wind was almost a dead 

 calm, and the anxious faces of those on board as they 

 peered over the rail evidenced their deep interest in the 

 actions of the strange steamer. Then- fears were height- 

 ened and their nerves strung up to the greatest tension 

 by a puff of smoke from her port bow, which was followed 

 by a report and the dropping of a shot into the sea a 

 short distance astern of the Flora. Now the ensign is 

 run up to the schooner's main truck, and she is hove to. 

 Shortly after the steamer is seen to be heavily armed, 

 and her flag, which had been raised some time before, is 

 recognized as the Confederate colors. 



An unexpected object sometimes overpowers the mind, 

 but men who have been accustomed to face sudden dan- 

 ger recover rapidly from the momentary stupefaction; 

 and thus it was with the crew of the Flora, and they 

 philosophically awaited their inevitable fate. She 

 steamed close to the doomed vessel, and trained her guns 

 on her. Five or six armed boats put off and boarded 

 the Flora. As she was unarmed it would have been 

 vain to offer resistance, and soon all were prisoners of 

 war. 



A prize crew was put aboard the captured schooner, 

 and all of her crew except the mate and colored cook 

 were transported to the steamer. Then, we apprehend, 

 the officer in charge of the prize received orders to pro- 

 ceed to some port, and there to deliver her to the naval 

 authorities. They soon parted, and it is quite natural to 

 suppose that the prize crew looked forward with exulta- 

 tion to making a triumphal entry into port. The thought 

 of how they would be feted and lionized by the citizens 

 and fair ones made the hearts of all beat faster. But, 

 alas, there is nothing certain in this world but a few feet 

 of ground to receive our earthly clay, and to the prize 

 crew on the Flora a cruel fate denied them even this; 

 for, one dark night, the mate and colored cook success- 

 fully planned and carried out the destruction of their 

 enemies, and the eternal and silent graveyard of the 

 deep received their bodies. Instead of honors and glory 

 their requiem was sung by the feathery inhabitants of 

 the air over the lonely ocean. 



The mind recoils from such an act of butchery, but 

 war commends any deed that will circumvent and defeat 

 an enemy. Edward Manning. 



MONTCI.Ain, N. .1. 



CRAWFISH AND SNAKES. 



I RECENTLY observed a very cunning and ingenious 

 trick of the crawfish (or crayfish) for catching flies, 

 the recital of which may prove of interest to your natur- 

 alist readers. The crawfish, as he is called in these parts, 

 is a kind of fresh-water lobster, which is very abundant 

 in this region, and is still more so further south. He 

 reaches a maximum length of some 6 or 8in., and seems 

 to prefer muddy, stagnant ponds. He is much esteemed 

 as food by some, especially the Creoles of Louisiana, and 

 is, indeed, of more delicate flavor than the salt-water 

 shrimp. 



The trick to which I alluded was this: Sitting on the 

 bank of a muddy pond, or "borrow pit," over the surface 

 of which many small flies were swarming about, I ob- 

 served that the crawfish came to the surface near the 

 water's edge, and turning over on the side, the tail 

 probably touching bottom, with claws and le;j;3 "sprud- 

 ling" about in the water, they assumed the exact sem- 

 blance of dead creatures floating on the water. In a 

 few seconds flies would alight on the apparently dead 

 crawfish, and as soon as one got into the proper position 

 there was a sudden and instantaneous flip, when fish and 

 flies would disappear together under the water. In a' 

 few seconds more he would again appear on the surface 

 and go through the same maneuver with same result. 

 There were, perhaps, two or three dozen of them in sight 

 at the same time, and all industriously engaged in the 

 fly-catching game. 



Speaking of their prevalence, I have seen them in 

 countless multitudes in the swamps of Louisiana after 

 the subsidence of an overflow of the Mississippi River, 

 crawling through the still muddy woods, seeking relief 

 from the dearth of water, and piling up in shady places 

 to die in such numbers as to produce a very offensive 

 stench to the passengers on a slowly moving railway 

 train. I have seen old crawfish crawling through the 

 swamps with great masses of young ones clinging to 

 certain feathery appendages under the tail of the parent. 



Speaking of snakes, which, by the way, we were not 

 speaking of, but I nearly always wind up on snakes, I 

 have now two live rattlers in a box, which were recently 

 caught for me in a canebrake by a negro. His method 

 of capture was to place a forked stick over the snake's 

 neck, then grasping the neck with his hand he permitted 

 the reptile to coil around his arm, when, unwinding it 

 with the other hand, he dropped it tail foremost into a 

 box. The larger of these is a 'little over 3ft. long, the 

 other a little less. 



Having given much attention to the subject of snakes, 

 as being of practical importance to a constant wanderer 

 in swamps and brake, I have concluded that the rattle- 

 snake is the only dangerous species we have, and they 

 are not numerous. The cottonmouth moccasin, which is 

 very abundant in the Mississippi bottoms, bears a most 

 villainous reputation, which he does not deserve. He has 

 plenty of venom, but never attains great length, and his 

 fangs are comparatively short, But above all, he is in- 



disposed to bite. I have teased and worried a good many 

 specimens to induce them to show fight, but while they 

 exhibit anger by puffing up the body and in other ways, 

 I have never succeeded in making one strike at a stick, 

 and he is always ready to escape at the first opening that 

 presents itself. 



A short time since, in stepping over a log, I discovered 

 that my foot was coming down on a coiled cottonmouth. 

 By an extra effort I cleared the snake but stepped pretty 

 near him. He made no motion, and when I touched his 

 head with a stick he darted off and escaped. I never 

 kill them, because they appear to be harmless teaman. 

 Nearly all of my associates "kill every snake they ;iee," 

 and when questioned for a reason have no be/. ' c a* one 

 than "I have no use for a snake." It is difftcu, \ per- 

 suade them of the needless cruelty and positive b- r % of 

 indiscriminate snake killing. 



I once had a pretty garter snake crawl up nV pf j 

 log, thereby giving suggestion of the appropriateness oJjais 

 name. He went as high as my knee, when, grasping my 

 leg a little above with my two hands, a kick or two 

 brought him out, and we parted good friends. 



CLARKSDALE, Miss. COAHOMA. 



ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY. 



^^HE annual report of the Department of Agriculture 

 A for 1888 includes the report of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 

 the ornithologist and mammalogist of the Department. 

 This covers sixty pages and is full of matter of great in- 

 terest to all persons who pay any attention to natural 

 history, and especially to all farmers. It contains, too, 

 much matter which the sportsman may read with pleas- 

 ure and profit. 



Congress has defined the scope of the work of this 

 Division as "the promotion of economic ornithology and 

 mammalogy, an investigation of the food habits, distri- 

 bution and migrations of North American birds and 

 mammals, in relation to agriculture, horticulture and 

 forestry." The Division is a bureau of investigation, and 

 the facts which it collects are published in the form of 

 special reports and bulletins. One of these, on Bird 

 Migration in the Mississippi Valley, was issued last 

 November, and impressed all who examined it with the 

 magnitude and the importance of the work being carried 

 on under Dr. Merriam's charge. 



The more important divisions of the report now before 

 us are a statement of the work done in 1888, some remarks 

 on the Geographical Distribution of Species, special re- 

 ports on Introduced Pheasants, The Mink, The Sparrow 

 Hawk, The Short-Eared Owl, The Food of Crows, and The 

 Rosebreasted Grosbeak as an Enemy of the Potato Bug. 

 Of these the investigation into the food habits of the 

 crow is much the longest, though it would be hard to 

 say which of all these interesting papers is the most im- 

 portant. As might be imagined, they are all written 

 from the farmers' standpoint, and the question of food 

 and whether the animal is useful or injurious to the agri- 

 culturist are the ones to be determined. 



The facts brought out by Dr. Merriam's visit to Oregon 

 about the Asiatic pheasants introduced on the Pacific 

 coast are of great interest to sportsmen. 



The work being carried on by this division of the Agri- 

 cultural Department is of very great importance and 

 ought to be undertaken on a much larger scale than is at 

 present possible. Limited appropriations and a small 

 force hamper the chief of the division and delay work 

 that is of the greatest importance to the tillers of the soil 

 all over the country. 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.* 



IN this publication we have what has long been called 

 for, a popular and interesting natural history of North 

 American birds, written simply, but in a very pleasing- 

 style, and illustrated by colored lithographs after the best 

 artists, and in the highest style of art. 



Prof. Nehrling is no compiler; his acquaintance with 

 the birds described lias been made in the field, where he 

 has devoted himself to loving observation of their vary- 

 ing characters and habits, and being possessed of a happy 

 literary style, charming in its easy simplicity, his des- 

 criptions cannot fail to be popular with young people, 

 whom it is the author's object to inspire with a tender 

 regard for the feathered minstrels of the grove. The 

 work does not profess to be strictly scientific, and is not 

 to be reviewed from a scientific standpoint. It is in- 

 tended rather for the intelligent friend of nature, but at 

 the same time, so far as we can judge from the single 

 part which is before us, the author deserves great praise 

 for the excellence of his biographies so far as they go. 



The plates are good exanrples of the lithographer's skill, 

 and will be useful to the class for which the book is in- 

 tended. 



The nomenclature employed in the book is old, but this 

 is easily understood when we are told that when the A. 

 O. TJ. Code and Check List appeared a large number of 

 the plates had been already printed, and a great part of 

 the manuscript of the work had been handed in. The 

 work will not include descriptions of all North American 

 birds, but will run to number 398 of the Smithsonian List 

 of 1884. 



It is high time that a popular attractive work on North 

 American ornithology should be published, and very 

 much is added to the attractiveness of this work by its 

 illustrations. 



The book is being published in twelve parts, each part 

 with three colored plates, and forty-eight pages of des- 

 criptive text, the size is imperial octavo, the reading 

 matter is printed from large new type on finest book 

 paper, red-line edition, and a single glance at the first 

 part is sufficient to satisfy one that no expense has been 

 spared to get up the work in the highest style of art. The 

 price of each part is $1, and the work will not be com- 

 plete until the fall of 1890. 



So far as can be judged from the part which has already 

 appeared there is no other popular work on the subject of 

 nearly equal merit, nor, indeed, comparable with it, and 

 we confidently predict for it a f ah measure of its deserved 

 popularity. 



♦North American Birds, by H. Nehrling, with thirtv-six colored 

 plates after water-color paintings by Prof. Robert Ridgway, 

 SinhliBonian Institution, Washington, D. C.j Prof. A. Goering 

 Leipzig, and Gustav Muetzel, Berlin. Milwaukee, Wis.: Geo. 

 Brurnden. 



The revised and abridged edition of the A. O. TJ. Check List of 

 North American Birds, including the additions and changes made 

 m the supplement, will be sent post free on receipt of 50cts.— Adu, 



