A:^BIL 2, 1891.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



^07 



ANTOINE BISSETTE'S LETTERS.-VII. 



Wsieu Fm-en' Strim: , 

 One evcliB we '11 set by de stof-heart, a smokin' tabacca. 

 As fas' as de chimley was smokin' de sproce an' de balsam. 

 M'Meu Mumsin be '11 oios' mek rae cry wid bis read ia' a story. 

 Was write, so he say, by great long AriLcrican feller, 

 Baout a Frenehmana, he '11 lo;o. of liees gal 'long go, in Acadie. 

 You '11 hear of it, probly, baovv one gone on one sloop, one on 

 anodder. 



One seratter dis way, one scratter dat way, never togedder, 

 Til! hose of it, ho)', an' de feller was ready for die off. 

 It mek me felt sob-le, for hear msh frien' read of it, softly. 

 For it suoun lak de vowce of mah mudder, w'en he sing to me, 

 "Dnr' p'«/e," dat tain Ah '11 was bebby. an' lie half sleep on bees 

 bosom=. 



One ear an' one heye hopen for lislia an' see what be go on. 

 Two tudder shut saoun, fas' sleep on de breas' of mah mudder; 

 It bring it all back, as Ah '11 hear it an' see it, dem day tam. 

 De bump of de hin'leg an' foreleg of de chair, on de hard floor. 

 As she rock me, "Dor' p'tWc, rtor' pHiLe,^'' all de tam sing mah hoi 

 mudder. 



De humbly bee bumblin' all over de marigol' posy, 

 De bobolink ringin' bees bells 'bove de meider where hayin' 

 De mans was, an' tie wheat flel' where liwomans dress all in blue 

 gown. 



Was scoop daown for reap off de grain shinin' more yaller as gold 

 was. 



On de river, a Hingin was paddle his can-noe more la';y 

 An' slow as de move of de water, an' oyer de fiel' an' de river 

 De blue sky aooop daown to da big hwood. 

 S:) it comeback to mab remblor w'd de nowse of dereadin'. 

 An' mek mo for feel kan' o' oacomfahle happr, 

 Lak a feller dat heat up all of hees mud-turkey keep wlshln' 

 '11 have it for hsatit, forever more some of it. 



Wen he '11 finish hees read. Ah '11 t'ink while Ah '11 finish mah 

 smokin', 



Haow Ah '11 mek it come off grea' deal more better for pleasant 

 P Ah was flat great long Amerl an feller dat wrote it, 

 For Gabriel, Evangeline an' all dar was hear of de story, 

 Gabriel wa'* dat kan o' mans Solem Brigg was call it philosoply. 

 W'en de pos' hofiice aa' telegrab ant bring it no letter, 

 W'en de sloop an' de atimboat an' de railroll ant bring it hees 

 gal back. 



Nor took heem to de place where Evangeline was be a stoppin', 

 An' he fan aout he can' fan aout where she was have been 

 gone to, 



He'll msk aout hees min' dat everyt'ing come to de feller dat 

 waitens. 



He goin' do dat. An' bombye Evangeliae goin' for come to heem. 

 So he '11 sharp off hees h^xe an' hee.iin for chanp aout some 

 clearin'. 



Everv nowse of de win" dat he hear in de taup of de tree blow. 

 Every nowse of de tree dat he chaup an' coma tomble hover, 

 Dey say, "Bombye, Evangeline comin', bombye she 'U comin'." 

 De bird from de sous come, de bird from de nort' come, dey tol' 



heem de sem t'ing; 

 Dewil' geese draggin' de sky wid hees harrer in sprim tam. 

 In de fall, de black string of crow puUin' de las' one to de sea 



shore. 



All tol' heem dat "Bombye, heesleetly gal comin' "from some- 

 wliere; 



So he '11 buil' for it up dar a nice leeUy lawg haouse, all smooze 

 off 



De side, aii^ covenvld whitewash, an' notch all de aidge of de 

 shingle, 



An' under de free window, he sow some marigol' posy. 

 But bes' t'ing of all he feel plump of, was bed of beautiful onion. 

 All summer he caffly weed it, in fall it was beeg as tea sasaer; 

 Den he pull it an' braid it in long string an' hang it on side of de 

 haouse up, 



Where blow by de breeze of de evelin, de pref-fume was carry 

 long way off. 



An' w'en he look of it, he '11 said, "Haow Ah '11 weesh dat leetly gal 

 comin'. 



For help me of heat off dat onion. Prob'ly she '11 tink. Ah '11 free- 

 git it, 



Ant rembler for love, but Ab. '11 love it dat gal, more as onion. 

 An' mah heart was grow lonesick for waitin', more as waitin' for 

 onion for supper." 



All lone in de dark hwood, was poor Evangeline wander, 

 All de star an' de moon from de sky, de norc' win' was blow off, 

 An' haowl lak some wolf, an' bite her wid col' toof; 

 De black cloud spiU hees rain drop daown on her an' mek her 

 more col'er, 



De win' haowl more wolf y an' laoud an' bite her more harder. 

 An' someC'ing scareful creep toward her in every black shadder; 

 An' her heart was grow lonesick for aU de scare t'ing araoun' 

 her. 



Her heart dat was so lonesick afore for all her long lookm'. 

 Jus' w'en she was ready for give up, so scare', so tire', so honger, 

 She '11 feel of de smell of onion, an' rise up, riffesh, an' go on. 

 T'rough de snatch of de brier dat ketch her an' tear off her clo's off, 

 T'rough de switch of de bushes dat wheep her lak forty hoi' school 

 mom, 



'Gainst de bump of de tree dat was paoun her lak maul drivin' 

 wedges, 



She foller dat smell, lak haoun dat was cbasin' de rabbeet; 

 An' bombye it brought her to clearin' where she '11 seen lit in de 

 winder, 



F you '11 ever been hongry all day, an' come home for heat some 

 mud-turkey, 



'F you '11 ever be dry all a hot day, den fan de col' sprim' a 

 bubblin', 



Den you kno w haow she feel w'en she faint on de door an' it hopen, 

 An' she '11 fell on de harm of her Gabriel. If you '11 ant, Ah '11 

 can' tol' you, 



Wal, den, dey was marry, an' leeve very happy togedder. 



But probly dey was tam w'en dey weesh dey ant fan one nudder ! 



Antoine Bissette. 



August Schoverlkg of this city died in Ditsseldorf- 

 on-ihe-Rhine, Germany, Sunday. Mr. Schoverling went 

 abroad early in the month in search of relief from a bad 

 cold that threatened pneumonia, but by the time he 

 reached Diisseldorf he had grown so mucb worse that 

 the physicians gave up hope. He was born in Osnabriick, 

 Hanover, fifty years a^o, and came to this city when fif- 

 teen years old, finding employment at Herman Boker & 

 Co. 'a gun store. Five years later he went into the gun 

 business with Charles Daly, as Schoverling & Daly, and 

 the firm continued under this name until 1879, when Mr. 

 Joseph Gales became a partner, and the firm name was 

 Qh«nged to Schoverling, Daly & QtaXeu^ 



THE RACCOON AND HIS WAYS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I would say to your correspondent, "B.," and others of 

 his opinion, that it is a fact that raccoons do come out in 

 winter; and also a faci; that they do catch, kill, and eat 

 rabbits. I would not be misunderstood. My knowledge 

 of the above extends to two States only, Maine and Mass- 

 achusetts. Further south I knoyp^ nothing of the natural 

 history of the coon. 



In Maine the coon often comes out in mid- winter, pro- 

 vided there is the usual January thaw, and I do know 

 that they kill and eat hares in that State. 



My knowledge of the coon on Cape Ann dates back to 

 the fall of 1884. In the winter '84 and '85, I tracked a 

 rabbit {Lepus sylvaticus) to where a coon had killed it. I 

 did not see the rabbit killed, but the tragedy was litho- 

 graphed on an inch of light snow, and thus as easily read 

 as the printed page of Foeest and Stkbam, I tracked 

 that coon to his den and the next spring cai)tured Mm 

 alive. He was in my posi^ession nine months, and I find 

 that my note book is crowded with interesting items as 

 regards his habits and actions. He preferred food in the 

 order herein named: Insects, eggs, birds or poultry, 

 frogs, nuts, red squirrel, rabbit, gray squirrel and fish. 

 This, without doubt, was the bill of fare of his wild state. 

 He would not touch green corn or milk until I had 

 crushed the former into his mouth, and had dipped his 

 nose into the latter. Afterward he would leave every- 

 thing for milk. 



The first rabbit I fed to him was about two thirds 

 grown. It was one which a mink had chased into my 

 dooryard and killed. It was evident from the first that 

 the coon was no stranger to this kind of food. He opened 

 the rabbit's mouth with his fore paws and ate out the 

 tongue, after which he skinned the head, turning the skin 

 back over the neck. He crushed the bones of the head 

 and lapped out the brains. On the third day he had 

 finished the rabbit, and the skin was turned inside out, 

 even to the ends of the toes. Sqtxirrels were skinned in 

 the same manner. 



This coon decided for me a disputed question. I refer 

 to the whimper or cry of the coon. Night after night, in 

 the rutting season, he would call to his comrades, and 

 they would answer from the surrotxnding woods. 



It is no uuusual thing for me to see signs of where rab- 

 bits, grouse or quail have been killed by the coons. 



Perhaps it will be as well to explain to the uninitiated, 

 that the coon makes two kinds of tracks. Usually when 

 walking or rtinning the back is humped or arched , and at 

 such times only the toes touch the ground, and a track is 

 made accordingly. When at rest, or moving about for 

 a few feet, the back is level and the whole foot comes 

 to the ground, making the plantigrade track. Hkrmit, 



THE BIRDS OF GREENLAND. 



''pHERE has just been issued, by Little, Brown & Co., 

 X of Boston, a catalogue of the "Birds of Greenland," 

 by Andreas T, Hagerup. Mr. Hagerup is a Danish mining 

 engineer, who spent two and a half years in southern 

 Greenland, and some of the results of his sojourn there 

 are known to readers of the Auh, in which appeared in 

 1889 a paper on the birds of Irigtut. The present work is 

 much more elaborate, and is the only complete catalogue 

 of the birds found in Greenland which has been published 

 since 1875. It is translated from the Danish by Mr. 

 Frimann B. Arngrimson, and is edited by Mr. Montague 

 Chamberlain, who is sufficiently and well known to all 

 Americans who are interested in ornithology. The nomen- 

 clature and classification followed in this catalogue are 

 those adopted by the A. 0. XJ. 



The catalogue before us is divided into two parts; (I) a 

 list of the birds of Irigtut, which occupies 31 pages and 

 gives 39 species, and (2) a catalogue of the birds 

 of Greenland, in which 139 species are enumerated. In 

 this list there are given 10 species which were not men- 

 tioned in Newton's list of Greenland birds (1875), and there 

 are several additions to the bird life of that country. 



Mr. Hagerup's notes — especially tho^e in connection 

 with the birds of Irigtut — are extremely interesting, and 

 he tells us much that is new about the habits of several 

 little- known species, such as the gyrfalcon, redpoll, ptar- 

 migan and others. This material is very valuable, for his 

 long residence in Greenland has given Mr. Hagerup 

 opportunities for observing these northern forms such as 

 have not been had by other students of the birds of that 

 region. 



The work of editing this list appears to be well done 

 and we may quote Mr. Chamberlain's concluding note, 

 in which he says, "Of the 139 species here enumerated i 

 is extinct and 53 are merely accidental stragglers, while 

 24 others are so rare that they might be classed with the 

 accidentals, leaving but 61 species that should be recog- 

 nized as regular inhabitants of Greenland; and of these 

 several are of quite uncommon occurrence." 



This catalogue shows the bird fauna of Greenland to be 

 more American than Old Woild, thus confirming previous 

 conclusions. 



THE DEVIL'S HOLE. 



FEOM ]Mr. "Walter Aiken, who is now at Hamilton, 

 Bermuda, we learn that the Islands are very lovely 

 this winter, and the mercury has averaged 72 degrees. 

 He writes also that the fishermen are bringing in fine red 

 snappers, groupers, rockfish, hogfish, amberfish, pom- 

 pano, yellowtails, senate fish, and many other beautiful 

 species. 



These are caught on the reefs some miles distant, 

 where there is generally too much swell for a veteran 

 trout and black bass fisherman like Mr. Aiken. 



Several handsome eel-like fishes, called morays, are 

 taken with the food fishes, but these are rather ugly to 

 handle. 



One of the curiosities of Bermuda is the pool in which 

 live fishes are kept until needed for market. This is 

 known as the "Devil's Hole" and is thus referred to by 

 Mr. Aiken: "The -Devil's Hole' is a natural hole of great 

 depth in the coral rock near the sea, and is fed with 

 water that comes through the rock. It is used as a pound 

 to keep fish in until they are wanted for use. There are 

 several hundred fish in it and it is great fun to break up a 

 loaf of bread and throw it to them. They make the water 

 fairly boil. The whole is inclosed with a fence and the 

 colored man who owns it makes a good thing out of it in 

 the wiater by admitting Tiaitors at one shilling each," 



)Hme §Hg md ^ntf. 



The full texts of the game laws of all the States, Terri- 

 tories and British Provinces are given in the Booh of tlie 

 Oame Laws. 



PRACTICAL TRAPPING. 



n. — WATER TRAPPING. 



WATER trai^ping is, to my mind, a much more diffi- 

 cult and intricate art than land trapping. The 

 work, though somewhat more diversified, is quite as hard, 

 and a far more thorough knowledge is needed of the 

 habits of the animals to be taken. As has been already 

 said, the three most important of these are the beaver, 

 the otter and the mink, and each one of these living in a 

 different situation and having its own habits, must be 

 carefully studied. The mink, the most abundant but 

 least valuable of the three species, is not diflicult to trap, 

 but the beaver and the otter are animals of eiugular 

 acuteness, and no trapper will be successful who does not 

 meet their intelligence with a greater one. 



Although beaver and otter are both water animals, their 

 habits are entirely tmlike, and quite different methods 

 must be employed in trapping them. No trapper would 

 think of setting a trap with the notion that he might 

 catch either a beaver or an otter. For the one animal he 

 would put his trap in a particular place, bait it with a 

 pardcuiar substance and fasten it in a particular way, 

 while if setting for the other species, the place, the bait 

 and the mode of fastening would all be changed. 



Constant pursuit extended over many years has made 

 beaver and otter extremely shy, and has made them also 

 well acquainted with the simpler devices of the trapper. 

 The green hand who nowadays wants to take up trap- 

 ping must either serve a long and profitless apprentice- 

 ship, picking up a knowledge of the art through slow 

 experience, or else he must contrive to spend a season or 

 two with some old trapper who is familiar with the work, 

 and learn from him. The trappers of early days had an 

 easy time of it. All they had to do was to find where the 

 beaver lived and to set their traps for the animals to walk 

 into. Then trapping was only* a trade, but nowadays I 

 call it an art. 



So much has been written about the habits of the beaver 

 that almost every one knows something about the animal, 

 and everybody is acquainted with the fact that it builds 

 dams and houses to dsyell in. Their dams are exceed- 

 ingly strong and dtu-able, and they are prompt in repair- 

 ing any injury to them. A dam cut during the day will 

 usually be repaired the same night, and in the morning 

 will be as good as new. I remember an instance of this 

 sort which occurred on San Juan Island; An old Eng- 

 lishman named John Wootton, who was new to the coun- 

 try, wished to get rid of a colony of beaver that lived on 

 his place, and one day cut their"dam. The next morning 

 he found it repaired and cut it again , and this time to 

 frighten away the animals when they should come to re- 

 build it, he set up a green cottonwood pole on the dam 

 and hung his overcoat on it. The following day on visit- 

 ing the place he not only found the dam in its usual go.od 

 condition, but the cottonwood pole and his overcoat had 

 gone to help stop the gap he had made and were now in 

 the dam. 



Beaver houses are less common now than they ttsed to 

 be, partly because beaver themselves are less abundant, 

 but mainly because the presence of a fresh beaver house 

 betrays even to the most unskilled eye the existence of 

 beaver in the neighborhood. In the older districts beaver 

 now generally live in holes in the banks of the streams 

 they inhabit, though in some parts of the Reeky Moun- 

 tains and in many places on this coast the sight of a 

 beaver house is not uncommon. The houses differ a good 

 deal in size, location and shape. Some are as large, 

 though of course less high, than a small haystack; others 

 are hardly more than six feet through at the base. They 

 may stand either wholly on land or partly in the water 

 and partly on the bank, or wholly in the water. They 

 are never placed in very deep water, for a base must be 

 built for the house to stand on reaching up to the surface, 

 since the chamber inhabited by the occupants must be 

 dry. The shape of those houses which I have seen on 

 shore approaches the conical. Those in the water are 

 more irregular, sometimes only rounded, at others long 

 and rather fiat on top. Within each house, and con- 

 nected with the water by a concealed passage, through 

 which the beaver pass to and fro, is the chamber which 

 is the animals' dwelling place. It is large enough to con- 

 tain seven or eight of them, and high enough so that a 

 beaver can conveniently sit up on its haunches. It is 

 warm, dry and clean, for the beaver is extremely neat in 

 all its habits. 



The food of the beaver consists chiefly of the green 

 bark of twigs and young hmbs of various trees. Cotton- 

 wood bark is preferred, then comes willow, then alder, 

 but the bark of almost any tree may be eaten. I have 

 known them to eat pine and white" cedar. The beaver 

 often cut down trees of very considerable size to get at 

 the smaller limbs, which they eat. I have seen cotton- 

 woods 30in. in diameter so cut, and once on Vancouver 

 Island, near Johnston's Straits, found a cedar 24ft. 

 throtigh which they had gnawed down. This work of 

 cutting down a large tree is done by a single animal. I 

 have seen the beaver engaged in the"^ operation, which is 

 performed as follows: The beaver sits up on its haunches 

 facing the tree and with his fore-paws resting against it. 

 With his head turned on one side, he cuts a groove above 

 and then one below and bites otit the chip, taking it off 

 in almost the same way an axman would. He thus saves 

 himself the trouble of gnawing all the wood up into fine 

 cuttings. When' the tree is felled the whole community 

 attack and cut up the tender limbs, carrying them away 

 to the cache. 



Unlike many of our gnawing animals, the beaver does 

 not sleep through the winter: he remains active, often 

 venturing abroad during the whole of the cold weather. 

 He must therefore have food, and a large part of the 

 summer and autumn is devoted to securing this food and 

 depositing it in caches. This food consists of the limbs 

 and twigs of the trees most preferred by the beaver. They 

 are cut from H to 3ft. long, stripped of their leaves and 

 smaller twigs, carried to the water and floated to the 

 cache where they are sunk. And here comes a very 

 curious point. These sticks are floated to the cache and 

 are sunk by the beaver to the bottom of the water, where 



