May 15, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



327 



down with cabins on them, in which the raftsmen lived, 

 cooked and slept on their slow passage down the river. 

 Sometimes they tied up to the bank opposite the village 

 over night, and were a great resort for all the boys for 

 bathing and fishing. Then in the summer great flat- 

 boats, impelled by sails when the wind was from the 

 south, and by poles when it was not favorable, came up 

 the river from Hartford, Conn., bringing rum, salt fish 

 and molasses, hardware and lime for the country traders, 

 and were carried back on the rafts when empty. 



For one or two summers a steamboat ran on the river 

 from Bellows Falls to Windsor, Vt. Nothing of the sort 

 can be seen now. The only boats are an occasional ferry- 

 boat or the skiffs in which the farmers on the opposite 

 side of the river cross to the village for their mail or the 

 boys use for bass and pike fishing. The huge pines have 

 all disappeared from the upper Connecticut valley, and 

 the axe of the lumberman is fast stripping the spruces 

 from the forests at the headwaters of the river, which the 

 State foolishly sold some twenty years since to lumber 

 speculators, and for two or three weeks in June the river 

 is full of floating logs, from a decent stick of timber 

 down to those the size of a man's leg, and which should 

 not be cut these forty years to come. At the rear of the 

 drive of logs come 80 or 100 men, with their tents, and 

 boats, horses and oxen, pulling the logs off the shoals and 

 bars and from around the bridge piers where they have 

 stuck, and sweeping them all down to the great steam 

 mfils at Northampton and Holyoke. I had a long chat 

 a few days since with Mr. Russell, the owner of the great 

 paper mills at Bellows Falls, who deplored this waste of 

 lumber, and said this small spruce was too small to be 

 profitable even to grind up into paper pulp. Still, this 

 same reckless and ruthless waste goes on. 



When a very small boy, sixty years ago, I went with 

 my father to see a great conflagration on a hillside near 

 the village, where to make a convenient cow pasture the 

 great pine logs were rolled together in piles and burned 

 where they had grown. 



I have seen the same thing done, half a dozen years 

 ago, on Clear Stream, one of the tributaries of the An- 

 droscoggin, just east of Dixville Notch, and in other 

 places north of the White Mountains, where the land had 

 fallen into the hands of French Canadians, who thought 

 a tree an abomination and an excrescence to be destroyed 

 as soon as possible. 



Nor is this destruction confined to the Northern States. 

 1 have seen as I traveled through Virginia, the Carolinas 

 and Georgia, the red soil of the abandoned "old fields," 

 seamed and scarred with innumerable gullies, the water 

 in once clear streams red with mud, and the fire-scorched 

 soil showing no symptom of a return to a valuable forest 

 growth. 



It is to the fire, more than the ax, that the barrenness 

 is due. A piece of woodland, simply cut and left as 

 "sprout land," will soon reclothe itself, but when the fire 

 has been over it the vegetable soil, the growth of centu- 

 ries, has been destroyed, together with any seeds that 

 may have lay dormant in it. I have no faith in these 

 "dormant seeds" after a scathing fire. The letter you 

 sent me from Mr. A. C. Sikes, of Springfield, Mass., was 

 duly received, but with all respect to him, I am too near 

 the psalmist's limit of "three score and ten" to waste 

 much time with a pickaxe (or spade) on distant hill pas- 

 tures or to expect to see anything better grow from them if 

 I did, than their present crop of sweet fern and hardhack. 



It would take a regiment of strong-backed, short-bodied 

 navvies to produce an impression, in all summer, on the 

 first range of hills east of our village, and I do not pro- 

 pose to waste my remaining strength in any such effort. 

 It is a question of national interest, although the right to 

 do what is needed may be one of those "reserved to the 

 States," but it is time something was done to keep our 

 once well-wooded country from falling into the barren 

 condition of the hills of Judea or the table lands of Spain. 



My attention was turned to these questions long since 

 by the writings of the late Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, of Ver- 

 mont, our former Minister to Italy: and when in Con- 

 cord a dozen years ago getting appropriations for the 

 Fish Commission through the Legislature, I had a num- 

 ber of conversations on the subject with my old friend, 

 the late Hon. Geo. G. Fogg, who had just returned from 

 a term of diplomatic service abroad as Minister to 

 Switzerland. He insisted that it was useless to attempt 

 to restock our waters until we first restored the forests 

 which fed them, and he was to some extent right. 



It is often claimed that there are more acres growing 

 up to woodland annually in New England than are being 

 cut off, which may be true; but it must be remembered 

 that when a man cuts off one acre of wood he cuts the 

 growth of forty years, and that it would take the annual 

 growth of forty acres to equal what he has cut down on 

 one ; and if the land were burnt over and pastured it 

 would take 100 years to restore it! 



Since writing my last letter on the "Hill Farms" I hap- 

 pened to pick up the last volume of "Belknap's History 

 of New Hampshire," published in 1791, or 100 years ago, 

 in which the author speaks of the great influx of settlers 

 into New Hampshire from Massachusetts and Connecti- 

 cut, and the way in which they cut down and burned 

 the forests and planted Indian corn in the ashes, besides 

 the large amount of the latter which were converted into 

 pot- and pearl-ash. This was at that time a great industry 

 in New Hampshire, and I well remember in my boyhood 

 the old "potash kettles," which formed part of the equip- 

 ment of every country store. As I have before said, I 

 have noticed not only the diminished summer flow of our 

 great rivers, but more especially that of my favorite trout 

 brooks, in some of which their former finny denizens have 

 became entirely extinct from the droughts of the last 

 twenty years. The two wet summers we have just had 

 are partly restoring them, and I last summer restocked 

 one with trout obtained from the State Hatchery. 



I am not familiar with the Swiss and German forest 

 laws, but only know that no trees are allowed to be cut 

 until they have been certified to be big enough by a gov- 

 ernment inspector, and that no land is allowed to be 

 burned over after cutting. Some such laws are what we 

 need, by the States to protect the headwaters of the 

 streams within their borders, by the National Govern- 

 ment to protect those in the yet unorganized Territories, 

 and all should work together to that end. It is all very 

 fine to say that steam is as cheap as water power, and 

 more easily manageable, which may be true in the coal 

 regions, but is very far from it in those which are sup- 

 plied with water power, and coal is not inexhaustible, as 

 England is beginning to find out to her cost. Neither is 



natural gas, which was so loudly proclaimed a few years 

 since as the "fuel of the future," and electricity is not a 

 motor of itself, only a transmitter, and depends on water 

 and steam to furnish the original energy. 



When New Hampshire and Vermont were frontier 

 States, they were cleared up as Mr. Belknap describes, 

 then the tide of emigration flowed westward, and my 

 first recollections are of the wheat flour which we ate 

 coming from Genesee Valley. Now it comes from Minn- 

 esota, then an unbroken wilderness. 



It is amusing to read the very absurd theories, to re- 

 turn to my former topic of the "Hill Farms," which are 

 broached by different people and papers for their aban- 

 donment, ignoring the simple fact that the scanty soil, 

 once made fertile by the ashes of years of forest growth, 

 has been worn out, and must be restored by nature's slow 

 process after the lapse of years, or even ages! 



One very usually well-informed New York paper charges 

 it to the tariff. Now, the tariff has no more to do with it 

 than the Code of Justinian or the Institutes of Menn. The 

 greatest exodus I ever saw from New Hampshire was in 

 1835-6, under the Compromise Tariff of 1832, when the 

 duties on foreign goods were reduced to the lowest point 

 they had ever been since the country adopted the policy 

 of raising revenue in that way. Those were the days of 

 wildcat banks and cities on paper. The fertility of the 

 prairies of Indiana and Dlinois had been discovered, and 

 the young men of New England started for them in 

 droves, as they did to California in 1849. 



The emigration from New England has been due, not to 

 any tariff, but to the old Berseker blood of the old north- 

 ern Vikings, who repeopled Old England from the shores 

 of the Baltic, and crossing the Atlantic founded a New 

 England in anew continent. Spanning that continent in 

 its ever westward march, it is now building cities on the 

 shores of the Pacific. Daniel Webster well said, speak- 

 ing of England and her progress, that "her morning 

 drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company with 

 the hours, encircles the globe with one continuous strain 

 of the martial airs of England!" 



Whole families of the early settlers became extinct in 

 the male line, and only descendants of daughters or distant 

 relatives are left to continue the stock of families promi- 

 nent in this town at the beginning of the century. 



I spoke of "Sam's Hill" and the old veteran for whom 

 it was named, but did not give his name, Col. Sam Hunt. 

 His male race is extinct; the meadow and the farm of 

 which I spoke at its base bear the names only of the hus- 

 bands of two of his granddaughters; the people are gone. 

 The Wests went West, as might be expected, half a dozen 

 of them, and so did the Stevenses and Morrises and others, 

 till none of their name are left, and a new generation, the 

 descendants of the "railway builders," are taking their 

 places. As an agricultural State of importance, New 

 Hampshire may be counted out in the future, but there 

 is yet profit to be made on the best lands, in supplying 

 some of the wants_ of the great body of the population, 

 who are engaged in various manufacturing industries; 

 and it is to this end, growing larger and more important 

 the longer I look at it, that I urge the adoption of such 

 measures as will serve to restore her forests at the head- 

 waters of her streams and maintain her water power, 

 which seems to me to be the mainstay of her future pros- 

 perity. 



Incidentally with this comes in the restoration of her 

 fisheries and the preservation of her game, thus offering- 

 continued attraction to the inhabitants of the cities who 

 annually seek her mountains in thousands for health and 

 recreation. 



The above remarks are equally applicable to New 

 York and Pennsylvania, for the headwaters of the Hud- 

 son, the Lehigh, the Delaware, the Susquehanna and 

 the Ohio are being equally impoverished and aie equally 

 worthy of preservation with those of the Merrimac and 

 the Connecticut. 



Finally— A friend suggests to me that I should urge as 

 a beginning a moderate appropriation by the Legislatures 

 of New Hampshire and Vermont for the purchase at such 

 nominal value as they now can be purchased at of some 

 of these abandoned farms lying around the headwaters 

 of the streams and their restoration to forest. Such 

 action would tend to improve the water power, to furnish 

 timber to be judiciously cut in future, and to increase the 

 fish and game, which make these States a desirable sum- 

 mer resort. 



It will be far more useful than a spasmodic effort 

 to restock them with Scandinavian emigrants, whose 

 children will be sure to take early trains for the 

 West, if the parents Btay on the soil long enough to 

 raise any. VonW. 



Charuestown, N. H. 



NESSMVK. 



Editor Farest and Stream: 



I opened my Forest and Stream with the usual delight this 

 morning, to he saddened at once, when my eyes fell on the an- 

 nouncement of thp death of "Neasmuk." 



I feel as if I had lost an old friend, for although I never saw 

 him, his well-known signature lias heen familiar for many long 

 Years, and I have tramped and camped with him in spirit, if not 

 in the flesh. 1 can hardly agree with you, that his "Forest Runes" 

 will be his chief memorial, for there is poetry in all his prose, 

 and a true flavor of old Izaak Walton himself in his simple nar- 

 rative. What can he more pathetic and touching than the ac- 

 count in "Woodcraft" of his carrying the apples and peaches to 

 the two poor sick children in the Michigan wilds? What more 

 perfectly sketched and more fascinating to the angler, than 

 "Meeting Them on the June Rise?" 



The true child and lover of nature, he leaves many mourners 

 henini him and a gap in our forest literature which few can fill. 



It needs not to say, "Peace to his ashes." Nothing else could' 

 ever rest upon them. It only remains to wish that his gentle 

 spirit may find "happy hunting grounds" in some one of those 

 "worlds beyond this," to which we all look forward, when the 

 eyes that look on this one are closed forever and the unfathom- 

 able veil which conceals the future is lifted at latt. He has but 

 like a good woodsman gone before! Von W. 



Charlestown, N. H., May 9. 



A Book About Indians— The Forest and Stream will mail 

 f ree on application a descriptive circulnr of Mr. (xrinnell's book, 

 "Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales," givine a table of contents 

 and suecinimj illustrations from the volume. — Adv. 



Forest and Stream. Bos 2,832, N. Y. city, has descriptive illus- 

 trated circulars of W. B. Leffln^well's hook, "Wild Fowl Shoot- 

 ing," which will he mailed free on request. The book is pro- 

 nounced hy "Nanit." "Gloan," "Dick Swiveller," "Sybillene" and 

 other competent authorities to be the best treatise on the subject 

 extant. 



BLANCHARD ON NOMENCLATURE.* 



HPHiS production from the pen of a French savant, 

 JL appearing in Bull. Zool. Soc. of France, Vol. XIV., 

 1889, pp. 87-157, is a most notable one. The res-ume, 

 under seven heads, may be briefly summarized as fol- 

 lows : 



1. Of the nomenclature of living organisms. Here 

 Dr. Blanchard is binomial, yet giving trinomialism a 

 place, from its utility, and not discarding the word 

 varietas or its abbreviation var. 



2. Of generic name?. These should be either Latin or 

 Latin in form and unique in character, avoiding in zo- 

 ology those preoccupied in botany, and vice versa. Geo- 

 graphical names are reserved for specific use. 



3. Of specific names. The genetive is the proper case 

 for these, and they should be either a word recalling 

 some characteristic of the species or its habitat, or de- 

 rived from the names of persons for whom the species is 

 called. 



4. Of the manner of writing generic and specific 

 names. Generic names require a capital for the first let- 

 ter. Specific names, declares Dr. Blanchard, and here he 

 is at variance with American zoologists, simply follow 

 the usual capitalization of ordinary writing. Readers of 

 scientific literature know to what diverse capitalization 

 this tends. 



5. Of subdivision and union of genera or species. In 

 these cases the law of priority should so prevail that the 

 original name follows the type elements. Where doubt 

 exu-ts, the writer has some liberty of choice, but his action 

 is final. 



(i. Of family names. Such are to be formed by add- 

 ing ida>. to the root of the type genera, or ince where a 

 subfamily name is sought. 



7. Of the law of priority. This grand law, the firm 

 ground upon which we gladly plant our feet, is empha- 

 sized; the limit being binomialism, founded by Tourne- 

 fort in 1700, used by Lang in 17^2, and followed by 

 Linnaaus in 1758. All pre Linn a?an names to be employed, 

 subject to some limitations. Names to be rejected spar- 

 ingly: cases of barbarisms or of words from their simi- 

 larity likely to cause confusion excepted. 



L. S. Foster. 



New York, May 10. 



*De la nomenclature des 6tres organises, par le Dr. Raphael 

 Blanchard, 1339. 



An Old Graveyard.— Considerable interest has re- 

 cently been taken by the daily press of this city over a 

 supposed Indian mound discovered near Inwood — about 

 205th street — and on Monday last the discoverer, Mr. 

 Chenowith, and Dr. Seeburg gave a description of it be- 

 fore the New York Academy of Sciences. A number of 

 human remains were exhibited, together with fragments 

 of pottery and a few stone implements, the impression 

 being given that the bones and the undoubted Indian re- 

 mains were of the same age and were closely associated. 

 This impret-sion appears to be wholly erroneous. There 

 was undoubtedly an ancient hearth, or fireplace, adjacent 

 to the spot from which the human bones were removed, 

 and from this hearth have been recovered interesting re- 

 mains, as shells, pottery, deer bones, arrow points, and 

 so on. But while this is true, it is also true that the 

 human bones found were taken from an old graveyard. 

 Persons now living can recollect when wooden crosses 

 marked these graves, hand- wrought nails with fragments 

 of wood f\|jre, preserved by the oxide of iron, have been 

 taken from at least one grave, and with one skeleton 

 a lot of buttons were found. The mold of the coffins 

 was seen in taking out the skeletons. It is claimed by 

 the discoverers tWtb the mound m which these skeletons- 

 were found is an artificial one, and an attempt is made 

 to connect it with the mounds of the Mississippi Valley. 

 This is wholly fanciful. The mound is a natural one, 

 the site of an old white man's graveyard, and there does 

 not appear to be a particle of evidence to connect the 

 human remains with the Indian hearth. The discovery 

 of this last is interesting, but in no sense warrants the 

 conclusions attempted to be drawn by the amateur arch- 

 asologists who made the find. 



Hare Coursing.— Your is^ue of March 6 contains a lit- 

 tle description of a coursing match on the ice — a mink 

 chasing a hare. Your correspondent asks, did he catch 

 him? I think he did. It called to mind a little thing I 

 witnessed 20 years ago. I had mpunted my pony one 

 frosty winter morning for a two mile ride to school. For 

 about half a mile the road ran parallel a,nd 100yds. dis- 

 tant from a grove. Riding along here, and slackening to 

 look toward the grove, 1 noticed a rabbit acting queerly. 

 He was running back and forth, round and round, and 

 in every way acting like a lunatic. I could not discover 

 the cause of his queer actions until he headed directly to- 

 ward, me, when I noticed a little white weasel at his heels. 

 Every rod or so the weasel would make a desperate jump 

 at him, but until they got close to me the weasel did not 

 succeed in holding him. Just as bunny struck the road 

 ahead of my pony the weasel landed on his back and 

 caught him* back of the ears. The rabbit bounded into 

 the air and all over but could not shake him loose, and* 

 after a moment or two gave it up and dropped his head 

 like a sheep when caught by a coyote or dog. At this 

 stage of the game I interfered, and as the weasel was so 

 intent on his victim, I killed him the first blow with my 

 riding whip. The rabbit was not injured badly, but was 

 so tired and frightened he did not attempt to leave me 

 and I picked him up in my arms. Now, then, how long 

 bad it taken this little bloodhound to run him down and 

 tire him out. I had always supposed they only caught 

 rabbits in brush holes or burrows. I have hunted many 

 kinds of big game and had a few thrilling experiences, 

 but never got more excited than when watching this 

 chase.— W. E. W. (Fox Lake, Wis.). 



Philadelphia Zoological Society.— The eighteenth 

 annual report of the Philadelphia Zoological Society, 

 just issued, contains interesting information. The addi- 

 tions for the year were 223 mammals, 218 birds, 533 rep- 

 tiles and 1,10-3 amphibians. An unusually large number 

 of specimens, not previously represented in the col- 

 lection, has been received during the year, and lists of 

 these, with notes on some of the rarer species, are given 

 in the report, which is an interesting document. 



