April 16, 1891.j 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



247 



another smell. We left him to Ms own devices and odors 

 and plodded ahead. 



By tliis time McK. had got his dog in leash to prevent 

 any more hare rising, and was being towed along through 

 the bushes at rather an iincomfortable rate of speed by 

 the half-choked eager hound, which soon placed him in 

 the advance together wilh C, and several dogs, which 

 latter soon found what was pronounced a fox trail and 

 dashed oft'. Right here we'll drop this much of the outfit 

 for they don't interest us further, as we saw them no 

 more that day. I neglected to mention C.'s big black and 

 white dog, which accompanied him without any definite 

 purpose, being composed of several different breeds with 

 a good deal of oiher kind of dog, and exhibiting consid- 

 erable enthusiasm without much attention to business. 

 V. had a pocket edition of canine, as had our host F., 

 which were taken along to take care of us in case we got 

 lost, I suppose, as I couldn't see any other reason. 



Paster and faster away went the dogs ahead, and we 

 five pulled along behind easily, while the lone dog in the 

 scrub behind was evidently working up considerable of a 

 fever. The theory was presented that he was working 

 the same trail that the other dogs had struck further on, 

 and that he would work it up to their trail and then re- 

 join us. This was as satisfactory as anything we could 

 think of, and more complimentary to the dog than if 

 charged with frittering away his time on a hare. Of 

 course all the motions of the dogs must be understood, 

 and each person generally having a different opinion 

 added to the clear solution 'of the matter. The skirmish 

 line was getting pretty much out of hearing, when we 

 struck a road, one end of which was anchored in Millville 

 ^and the other somewhere else. Here we halted a bit, 

 listening for the dogs and making various wild and un- 

 - satisfactory conjectures. Then host F. said that he and 

 ;:L. i70uld follow on and F. , V. and I could form a picket 

 >iine along the road, and if the dogs turned the fox back, 

 ,or the fox led the dogs back, we would be in position to 

 ^ shoot him, perhaps. So the woods swallowed them up, 

 i,and we moved down the road a way and stopped for con- 

 .aultation, as it was necessary to come to some conclusion 

 ;as to what the dogs were doing and what the fox would 

 Iprobably be compelled to do in case there was any fox up. 

 tOnce in a while one would say "Hark!" and then each 

 would stretch his ears away off into the forest and en- 

 deavor to persuade himself that he heard the dogs, when 

 an entirely new set of conjectures were called into play. 

 After a time, during which the rear guard hound had 

 joined the company cheerfully, showing that he had done 

 all that could have been expected of him, V. suggested 

 that we go down to Hance's bridge, across "Painter Greek 

 Branch," that could be seen at a little distance. There 

 being no good reason why we should not, and there being 

 the possibility that we might surprise the fox swimming 

 up the creek, we leisurely I'eached the bridge, where we 

 paused and looked into the water and speculated about 

 how old the puncheons were a,nd other fox hunting sub- 

 jects. V. told of coming along here in winter one day 

 and going out on a slippery log to dip a bucket of water 

 for his horses, and how cold he was wheir he crawled out 

 from the water and for some time thereafter. He also 

 said that in the cedar swamp, that skirted one side, the 

 stream was a good place to find rattlesnakes, and I 

 mentally resolved that I'd choose some other place to find 

 mine, where the odds would be more even. 



F. mentioned that near here was the spot where Mrs. 

 Whatshername dug for gold, having dreamed that there 

 was any amount bm-ied in a certain spot. He also begun 

 to tell how in the swamp near the bridge was a jug cache, 

 , made by two boys, I believe, who were teaming to and 

 from Millville, and who didn't dare carry the liquor home, 

 . and there was more to it, but right here something in- 

 V terrupted him, and I'm in a good deal of doubt as to the 

 , 3ee[uel — I'll ask him for the rest some time when there is 

 lUo danger of being inteiunipted by the incidents of the 

 cihase. 



We were having a terrible good time and enjoying our- 

 selves immensely, exclaiming '"Hark!" every now and 

 then and pretending we heard the dogs. Across the 

 bridge and up the road a little way was a covered wagon 

 in the bushes, denoting the presence of other hunters far- 

 or near. 



After exhausting the pleasures of this place we easily 

 moved back to our first position, where, after due consul- 

 tation and much straining of ears, dm'ing which we 

 plainly heard dogs in the same direction as before, we de- 

 cided to follow the advance guard and endeavor to come 

 upon the field of action, convinced that the fox had not 

 yet been started and that if he was he would lead the 

 dogs straight away down across the Dowdy's Tavern 

 road, then doubling back would keep up the other side 

 the swamp toward Bennett's mill and over into the Thick 

 Holes. That was as far as we coald safely predict and I 

 couldn't see any good reason for any prediction at all, 

 but when a person wishes to do anything he will gener- 

 ally find a reason. So we started, overtaking ere long a 

 solitary huntsman with a dog chain over his shoulder, 

 going in our direction with a white hound. He was sur- 

 prised to find that our party was ahead of him on the 

 same trail and before long he vanished in some mysterious 

 way. We halted every two or three hundred yards to 

 listen for the dog music, which began to be a little better 

 defined and served as a mild stimulus. After a while we 

 entered a i-oad going our way, crossed a swamp and rose 

 a hill, where in the sand we found the tracks of our 

 party pointed ahead in the road, as evidenced by the rub- 

 ber boot track of F and the small track of L. which we 

 could identify. Here and there we found where they 

 had halted, waiting for the dogs to work out the trail or 

 watching for a shot. The music, however, keijt about so 

 far ahead, old Jack of the baritone voice, with supple- 

 ment of soprano and falsetto mixed, doing the solo jiarfc, 

 while the other dogs encom-aged him by tm-ns. Of 

 (Course, we periodically halted during the next mile or 

 two and held a caucus as to the present position and occu- 

 jjation of the pack and what we'd better do in case the 

 fox kept the swamp or took a side shoot to the starboard 

 and a turn over by May's Landing and down Egg Harbor 

 River. Old Jack continued to keep just about so far off, 

 which was just near enough to render it very doubtful 

 whether we heard him at all, though occasionally one or 

 the other would exclaim: "Hear that? I heard him then 

 sure. There! Don't you hear lum ? That's him." Then 

 we'd all strain a while with more or less doubt or cer- 

 tainty, as we had imagination in the emergency. 



Finally as we came to a fork of the road up which the 

 party had gone, we heard unmistakably the dogs in what 



seemed to be full cry, a long distance away. Here was 

 a new mix. If we kept on we'd be going directly away 

 from the attraction. So we caucussed again and con- 

 cluded that the fox would now come down the swamp we 

 had Grossed, and if we were not there we'd be somewhere 

 elsCi In order to prevent so dire a calamity wo took the 

 back track instanter and paddled along lively for a while, 

 and then halted to listen — notasound. Everything dead. 

 V/ell; now what? The whole chase was pi-obably head- 

 ing now for Atlantic county and would probably pull up 

 down by Atlantic City somewhere, but we might as well 

 scup on to the swamp and wait awhile j and so we did, 

 enjoying the sport as only thoroughbred fox hunteis can* 



On nearing the crossing we found a little open space 

 where some woodchoppers or charcoal burners had once 

 had some little huts. Here we sat or reclined and rested 

 om' weary legs, almost exhausted in the hot chase after 

 the fox, while we talked of the pleasures of the sport and 

 en joyed the mild air of mid- January. A light breeze had 

 arisen, and sighing through the treetops gave once and 

 again momentary sounds in confusion which might have 

 been wafted from the dogs, and might have been from a 

 thousand and one other causes, probably were. After 

 waiting long enough to be reasonably certain that neither 

 dogs nor fox were going to make us any trouble, we re- 

 sumed our legs and filed along the road for a mile or so 

 until we came to a road, old and disused, leading diago- 

 nally to the right from the one we were on. Here we 

 stopped to indulge our ears once more and caucus a little. 

 F. said that right here on this ridge was formerly a noted 

 deer stand, where his father and perhaps his grandfather 

 had slain many a mighty son of a glen, which of course 

 started reminiscences in which we all indulged, while we 

 drank in with quivering ears the "heavenly music" of 

 the fox chase — in the next county, and congratulated 

 each other that it was our good fortune to be enjoying so 

 much sport on such a perfect day in the woods. 



Well, should we keep the old road we were on or take 

 the still older one and go some where else? It was argued 

 by F. that we were nearer home now than we would be 

 were we to go "callahootin' " off into a new neck of 

 woods, while V. said that the right hand road led nearer 

 in the direction of the dogs' last note and not so far 

 away from the home road; while I, being a stranger in a 

 strange land, opined that if the road in question inter- 

 sected the Bennett's Mill road at a point equi-distant 

 from the junction of Rattletrap Bi-anch and Petticoat 

 Greek we might get there in time to cut the fox off from 

 heading for Thick Holes— in case there was any fox or 

 dogs. 



During my argument V. had slowly wandered off 

 down the fork, and F. and I not wishing to break up the 

 procession, slowly and uncertainly followed. In a few 

 yards we came to another old road intersecting this one 

 at nearly right angles, thus making the direction of the 

 last found road S.E. by E. i E. Here we stopped from 

 force of habit and listened. The wind softly sighed 

 among the oaks and pines, and away off somewhere 

 where there was life and hope a locomotive whistled for 

 a crossing, and then silence smothered everything again. 



"Wonder where this road goes," said V.', referring to 

 the almost overgrown track that had just arrived from 

 S.E. by E. i E. He said lie was going to look it up a 

 little, and was soon swallowed up in the brush. I looked 

 at F., who was looking away, waj^ off into the untried 

 realities of the unseen, and 1 said, says I, "F., the strain 

 attendant on the intense excitement of the past few 

 hours' sport is beginning to tell on me. I'm as a nervous 

 as a cat and — ^" 



"Hello-o-o-ol" came faintly from the dim recess of the 

 brush. 



"V.'s in trouble," quoth F. "It'll never do to leave him 

 to suffer out there all alone by himself in the bushes," and 

 off we went to see what the matter was. After quite a 

 tramp we sighted V. standing in the edge of a mile wide 

 clearing, evidently gazing away off into 1900, and when 

 we had nearly reached him he cried, "Hold on! Heao- 

 that? There they are. They've got him up this time 

 sure. That's music for you." 



AVe listened some more. It was true. From away 

 across that clearing, and from how much further we 

 knew not, came the rich baritone of Old Jack, accom- 

 panied by the voices of the other dogs in full chorus. It 

 did seem as though we were to have a little taste of a fox 

 chase after all. The clearing was thickly grown with oak 

 bushes about head high with branches as stiff as wire, 

 but into it waded V. face to the music, and with con- 

 siderable misgiving we poked along behind. Pushing the 

 bushes aside, stepping high over brush, zig-zagging this 

 way and that to avoid the more dense portions we slowly 

 forged ahead forestward, and at last the scrub was ail 

 behind us and we stood in the Bennett's Mill road and 

 paused to catch a breath and do the Hstening act over 

 again. Naught but a faint and far "ough" rewarded us. 

 The crescendo with which we had entered the scrub had 

 given way to a diminuendo which in turn had died away 

 into a pianissimo, and we were badly left once more. 



"The dogs must have caught that fox again,'' quoth F. 



"Yes," I said, "and lucky it is that we were down in 

 this section to head the fox and turn him back. Those 

 fellows wouldn't have had any fun but for us." 



It was now nearing the middle of the afternoon and 

 the internal vacuum plead loudly to be filled with some- 

 thing besides dog music, and very Uttle of that, which 

 led, I suppose, to examining the road for tracks, if per- 

 chance we might find some leading homeward, and in- 

 deed we did find two, one of which we pronounced that . 

 of F. with his rubber boots, the other that of C., also the 

 tracks of a large dog, which must have, of course, be- 

 longed to the buUfoundhmd. We didn't wish any better 

 pretext than this for a retreat, and forthwith fell in for 

 home arguing that if two who had been with the hunt 

 all day had given it up, we couldn't be expected to hold 

 on. So we left the hounds and such of the htmters (if 

 any there were left) as chose to stick to the forlorn hope, 

 to work out their own salvation, and paddled along the 

 sandy road, with a good deal of rumble in the conversa- 

 tion. After a tiresome tramp, during which we passed 

 through a part of the Italian settlement of East Vineland, 

 we reached the house to find that C. had left for home to 

 attend to some business, and that host F. had not come 

 at all. So easy is it to be mistaken both as to foxes' and 

 men's tracks. Hitching up, we started homeward, skirt- 

 ing the flooded cranberry bog near the house, and so with 

 cheerful chat over the softened road to town, which we 

 reached in the eai-ly evening, having had a full suffi- 

 ciency of fox hunting under existing circumstances, and 



perfectly convinced that there are some things just as 

 feasible as atterai^ting to corral a lone fox in a ten-mile 

 square tract of swamp and other varieties of wilderness 

 indigenous to Jersey. 



This is the way we went fox hunting, But then we 

 know that it is not all of fox hunting to shoot a fox. 

 To change the proverb slightly, UJiomme pi^opose et valpes 



I have learned since that the dogs did really act after 

 we left as though they had started a fox, and tore up the 

 country in groat shape, but they begun too late in the 

 day to secure tangible results. O. O. S» 



FROM A PHILADELPHIA SANCTUM. 



I^HE MERCURY," PhUadelphia, March Ql.—Dear 

 - Forest and Stream: I notice in the issue of the 36th 

 a suggestion by E. L. Carney, of Leavenworth, Kansas, 

 for the extermination of prairie dogs, the method being 

 the use of the fumes of the poisonous and volatile bisul- 

 phide of carbon. Can it be that this is the final solution of 

 burrowing pests? I wonder what the answer will be from 

 Australia when the Fokest and Stream for March 36, 

 1891, arrives? The question as to whether the English or 

 the rabbits shall take that continent may soon be decided, 

 or at least be put in a more premising way for the English 

 than it seems to be from the latest advices. 



As I sit in my office alone nights, letting thoughts of 

 woods and fields come between me on the one hand and 

 the latest exchanges, the tariff, the wickedness of the 

 Other Fellows, etc., etc., on the other, I have had a singu- 

 lar experience, or at least one singular to me. Eating an 

 apple one night, I threw the core down among a large 

 pile of papers I had been clipping so that it Avas com- 

 pletely concealed. Within a very few minutes a rat came 

 out of the near offiGe and walking straight up to that pile, 

 dug his nose down into it and fished the apple core first 

 shot and marched off with it. I can only attribute this 

 to extraordinary powers of mind reading on the part of 

 the gnawer; or (who knows?) it may have been a sense of 

 smell so keen as to put our human organs to the blush 

 (that is to say if any organs except those we modest news- 

 paper fellows run, can blush). Have you had any data 

 or information on the point of extraordinary keenness of 

 scent like this among animals of this kind? 



I have been using Schultze powder in a .33 Winchester 

 magazine gun. Result: less noise, greatly less smoke, 

 of course, and slightly greater penetration. Can you 

 explain, however, why an occasional bullet should leave 

 no signs of its presence on a seven foot square target at a 

 time when I am making anywhere from 38 to 31 out of 3.5 

 (Creedmoor figuring); or what is equally singular to my 

 untGchnical soul, that the bullet should in one case appear 

 to have cut a hole in the target, which looked as though I 

 had fired a piece off the sharp end of a lead pencil about 

 an inch long, rounding in point like the bullet, said piece 

 appearing to be three times as long as the bullet and to 

 have turned round broadside to the target, so. D. G-. 



WATER LIFEp 



Occasional Observations on the Fishes in the Aquaria of the U. S. 

 Fish Commission, 

 THE KEEPING!- OF YOVNQ SHAD IN AQUAMA, 



DURING the shad hatching season of 1890 a number 

 of shad eggs and fry were placed in a pool in the 

 yard of Central Station, at Washington, D, C. The pool, 

 which is constructed of brick and has perpendicular 

 sides, holds about 4,000 gallons, and in the summer con- 

 tains a dense growth of aquatic vegetation. During the 

 summer of 1890 it was essentially a small pond, the 

 water net being allowed to run in it except to clear it on 

 two or three occasions, when it became green from the 

 presence of unicellular alga). At times the temperature 

 of the water, which is about 30In. deep, was taken, and 

 found to be sometimes as high as 85" at the surface and 

 83° at the botton, but it appeared to be perfectly satis- 

 factory to the fish, they, however, keeping nearer to the 

 bottom as it grew warmer. The growth of the fish was 

 watched with interest throughout the summer, and they 

 could be seen in schools of hundreds, always in motion. 

 The water was alive with insect larvse and small crusta- 

 ceans, such as Oammarus. Asellus, Daphnia and Cyclops, 

 and these appeared to constitute their sole food' up to 

 September, by which time they had attained a length of 

 li to 3iin. During this time several goldfish, which had 

 hatched from eggs accidentally introduced into the same 

 pond on some aquatic plants, had grown to a length of 

 4 to oin. The goldfish is a forager for food, while the 

 young shad usually only takes what it finds floating free 

 in the open spaces." 



The young shad in September were not so large on an 

 average as those which had been planted in one of the 

 big carp ponds, and they aijpear to have stopped gr-ow- 

 ing. This was no doubt due to the exhaustion of the 

 natural food supply. They were now tried with bread 

 and crackers, and it was found they would eat them 

 with avidity, catching the crumbs as they descended 

 through the water. From this time with daily feeding 

 they grew more raj)idly, and in October, when from 1-J 

 to 2iin. long, an attempt was made to transfer them to a 

 fresh-water aquarium. Three attempts were made, but 

 although there was no lack of aeration, both natural and 

 artificial, and apparently wholly favorable conditions, 

 except in the size of the tank (about 60 gallons), they did 

 not thrive, and soon died. 



In the latter part of October a number of them were 

 brought from the carp ponds in a tub, and instead of put- 

 ting them in fresh water they were put into brackish 

 water, about 1.005, where they seemed to be more com- 

 fortable. The water was gradually brought up to the 

 full strength of the sea water of the aquaria, and some 

 of the shad are yet alive, and are therefore almost a year 

 old and 3 to Sin. long. 



Their principal food is clam chopped very fine and they 

 take it voraciously. This is varied with oyster, mussel, 

 raw beef, bread, crackers and chopped earth wonns, all 

 of which they will eat. Most of those which have died 

 have been affected by some form of eye disease, which is 

 prevalent with some species in the aquaria. It is sur- 

 .mised that it is due to the presence of some immature 

 form of a parasite, which is present on some species of 



