28 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



fJAff. 14, 1893- 



ABOUT BUFFALO CRASS. 



DENVER, Col., Jan. A— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 In your issue of Dec. 31, you editorially quoted 

 Prof. A. R. Wallace as announcing that since the extermi- 

 nation of the buffalo the buffalo grass is disappearing — 

 giving place to coarser plants — because "the uniform 

 hardening of the surface by the tread of bison, together 

 with the equally regular manuring, favored the growth 

 of this particular form of grasses." I desire to say, not 

 from any theoretical conclusions or brief superficial ob- 

 servations, but from forty years' experience in the buffalo 

 country, that the buffalo grass is not running out from 

 any such causes as are stated by the learned professor. 

 The buffalo grass is a plain, practical plant. It can endure 

 adversity: hence it grew on the plains when few other 

 plants could live. But it can also stand prosperity, and 

 it f3 ^urishes the more proportionately. Buffalo grass is 

 now an element in our native upland hay, which many 

 of us feed in preference to timothy or clover. Thia shows 

 that it grows in the more or less irrigated meadows to a 

 height sufficient to be caught by the sickle. On the dry 

 plains it did not, but in early days of travel and traffic on 

 the plains it was always observed that the rankest growth 

 of that grass was along the sides of the roads where the 

 wind blew the du9t from the road upon and around it 

 and thereby gave it a measure of cultivation, and in the 

 swales or depressions where the water followed after rains. 



As for the ''treading" of the ground add the "manur- 

 ing" by the bison, assumed by the professor to be the two 

 essentials necessary to perpetuate the buffalo grass, it is 

 a fact that the entire buffalo region is now trampled more 

 and manured more, by domestic cattle (including sheep, 

 horses and other animals) than it ever was by the buffalo. 

 The country is now pastured as nearly as is safely practi- 

 cable to its full capacity, whereas in the days of the 

 buffalo it was not pastured to one-half what it was capable 

 of. Why didn't the professor attribute its disappearance 

 to sentiment — the buffalo gone, why should the grass 

 remain? I assure you that wherever it has given place to 

 coarser plants there is some other obvious and common- 

 sense reason why it has so happened. I can point out 

 plenty of places where, to my own knowledge, a buffalo 

 has not been for more than thirty years where buffalo 

 grass still grows luxuriantly every year — much more 

 luxuriantly than it grew thirty years ago. 



The common, every-day public is often shamefully 

 humbugged by the learned logic of professed professors, 

 who ought to confine their erratic speculations to de- 

 scriptions of the flora of the moon. Wm, N. Byf/rs. 



CANNIBAL SNAKES. 



VFR. HENRY HORAN, Superintendent of the U. S. 

 13 JL National Museum, who has had considerable ex- 

 perience in the care of living reptiles while confined at 

 the Smithsonian Institution, cites a case illustrative of 

 the cannibalistic tendencies of certain snakes. At one 

 time he had in a cage two king snakes, the largest of 

 which was about 2ft. long, and the smaller I8in. The 

 kind and affectionate nature of these snakes soon won 

 for them the best attention from Mr. Horan, who fed 

 them upon "all the delicacies of the season.'* The snakes 

 were particularly fond of the eggs of other snakes, and 

 through their weakness for these tid-bits Mr. H. discov- 

 ered his king snakeship's inclination to a trait character- 

 istic of the Fiji islanders. Upon this occasion a goodly 

 number of blacksnake eggs were being fed the pets, and 

 for the last round but one egg was left for the two snakes. 

 It was given to the smaller one, which took it from the 

 hand from which all the rest of the eggs had been taken , 

 and the larger snake, seeing no other egg, tried to take 

 the last one from the mouth of the small snake. But the 

 smaller reptile had a firm hold and kept the egg, where- 

 upon the larger snake commenced to swallow the egg 

 and its possessor. When the snake had disappeared, leav- 

 ing only a few inches of its tail protruding from the 

 mouth of the larger snake. Mr. Horan took hold of the 

 member and rescued its owner from the living tomb. 

 He was much surprised to find that the small snake still 

 he'd the egg in its mouth and says it lost no time in swal- 

 lowing the morsel. 



Another case illustrative of how we are not overrun by 

 snakes was seen in the National Museum in 1881. when a 

 large water3nake gave birth to 104 young, and the male 

 snake hearing of it went over and swallowed the whole 

 batch. He was playing "for keeps." too. Bon. 



Washinton, D. C. 



Biological Society of Washington.— At the meet- 

 ing of the Biological Society at the Cosmos Club last 

 night the folio wins officers were elected for the ensuing 

 year: President, T)r. C. Hart Merriam; "Vice-Presidents, 

 Prof. C. V. Riley, C. D. Walcott, Richard Rath bun and 

 Br. Frank Baker; Corresponding Secretary, F. A. Lucas; 

 Recording Secretary, F. V, Coville: Treasurer, F. H. 

 Knowlton, and a Council comprising Dr. T. H. Bean, L. 

 O. Howard, T. I. Palmer, F. W. True and Dr. Theobald 

 Smith. 



Words of Appreciation. 



I most heartily congratulate you ou the changed appearance 

 and greatly increased value of Forest and Stream. H wan a 

 superior paper of its kind before— clean, comprehensive, reliable. 

 May its prosperity increase in proportion tothe spirit of enfer- 

 prise it shows in abundantly filling the field it occupies. Dear 

 Forest and Stream. I have read every number of it from its 

 beeinning. D. H. Bhuch. 



Syracuse, N. Y. ■ 



The new Forest and Stream, I can truly say. is "imnaense.S 

 The paper has been growing in interest and value for the year 

 past, and is now quite up to the highest demands of sportsmen. 



New Hartford, N. Y. R. U. Sherman. 



Congratulations are in order, therefore allow me to offer mine 

 to Forest and Stream on the occasion of :its new issue as a long 

 time correspondent and reader of Forest and Stream. I have 

 enjoyed the evenness of its gait and consequently I am not sur- 

 prised to find that with comparatively little effort its claim to 

 lead the entire field has been so indisputably asserted. Its record 

 is without blot, and it has not, and I am sure will no( , belie its 

 character. White it has been and white it should be. May yon 

 continue to show the lead, in expounding to the public, in the old 

 manly way, all that is best in nature as wa know her. 



Long Island, W. Townsend. 



nmt mtd 0nq. 



Antelope and Deer of America.. By J. D. Caton. 

 Price $2.50. Wing and Glass Ball Shooting with the 

 Rifle. By W. C. Bliss. Price 50 cents. Rifle, Rod and 

 Own in California. By T. S. Van Dyke. Price $t.50. 

 Shore Birds. Price IS cents. Woodcraft. By "Ness- 

 muk. f Price $1. Trajectories of Hunting Rifles. Price 

 50 cents Wild Fowl Shooting: see advertisement. 



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

 tories and British Provinces are given in the Booli ot the 

 Game Laws. 



A GUN CAMERA, 



BERLIN, Germany. —Editor Forest and Stream: Baron 

 Victor Kalchberg (Austria) has successfully solved 

 the problem of obtaining photographic views in such a 

 short period as is represented by the difference of time 

 between pulling the trigger of a gun and exploding the 

 cartridge, and by this means securing an absolutely re- 

 liable control of a correct aiming at moving game. 



The apparatus is made to fit any hunting gun or mili- 

 tary rifle, and is so constructed that the pulling of the trig- 

 ger will open and close it before the effect of the explo- 

 sion takes place. 



The small attachment is made out of aluminum and is 

 fastened to the lower side of the barrels in such a man- 

 ner that its optical axis stands in a straight line with the 



aiming point. It therefore follows that when a shot is 

 fired at a distance below sixty yards the center of the 

 picture thus obtained will show a distinct spot, repre- 

 senting the true point of aiming at the moment of the 

 pulling of the trigger. 



Thirty such views, each in size a trifle smaller than a 

 silver dollar, can be taken in succession. Even at a dis- 

 tance of eighty yards the view will be plain enough to 

 Bhovv that part of a deer very distinctly at which the gun 

 has been aimed in the moment ot firing. The same pic- 

 ture will display the surroundings of the main object 

 within a circle of thirty yards. 



At longer distances, however, the aid of a magnifying 

 glass is necessary in order to locate the aiming point on 

 the picture. 



The attachment can be readily fastened to and re- 

 moved from the gun, thus enabling the gunner to use his 

 gun with or without the attachment. Armin Tenner. 



A VENERABLE BEAR HUNTER. 



HAVING for some time been a constant reader of the 

 Forest and Stream, the oldest, ablest and most 

 reliable sportsman's paper in the world, I naturally take 

 an interest in its varied contents, and if it would not be 

 too much of an intrusion I should like to say a few words 

 concerning my old and valued friend, Elijah Simonds, 

 the venerable hunter and trapper of the Adirondacks, 

 who, by the way, is probably personally acquainted with 

 more of the old readers of the Forest and Stream than 

 any other man living in northern New York. Thia truly 

 remarkable man, now on the further side of seventy, is 

 passing the happy evening of a hunter's life under the 

 shadow of Mt. Raven, whose towering summit looksdown 

 with stately and steady gaze upon the lovely Bouquet Val- 

 ley, in the bosom of which nestles the romantic little 

 village of Elizabethtown. He is the last surviving mem- 

 ber of a large family of brothers, all of whom were pas- 

 sionately fond of hunting. Notwithstanding the fact 

 that Mr. Simonds is living on "borrowed time," he is still 

 able to roam the deepest recesses of the forests unattended 

 save by that trusty fowling piece, a Lewis double-barrel 

 muzzleloading weapon, one barrel for bullet and the 

 other for shot. He has caught the usual number of foxes, 

 mink, skunk, etc., this fall, and has also taken three 

 black bears, capturing the last one just west of Elizabeth- 

 town village on Tuesday, Dec. 8. All these bears were 

 caught within a few miles of the Essex county court 

 house, which fact, besides proving the prowpss of Mr, 

 Simonds, goes to show that bears are still fairly plenty in 

 and around Elizabethtown. I venture to assert (Mr. 

 Simonds would never voluntarily speak of his own ex- 

 ploits, as he is a very modest man) that no other hunter 

 living within the entire limits of the Empire State, who 

 bears the weight of three score and ten years, can point 

 to a similar record made during the past three months. 



G. L, Brown. 



AGAIN THE JACK RABBITS. 



T HAVE just landed here and shall stay till April or 

 A May, As I have before had occasion to say, this re- 

 gion is afflicted with jack rabbits. I have brought along 

 both a .o'i and a .22 Winchester, with 1,000 cartridges 

 for each, and hope to thin out the long-eared pests some. 

 I wish some of your readers who like to shoot and who 

 are jolly good fellows would come out and help me. I 

 will guarantee them a shot every ten minutes as long as 

 they care to hunt. And for a change I will agree to 

 show them 200 to 400 (mail a day for any number of days 

 in succession. I can show them 20 to 50 antelop'e a day 

 within 20 miles of town, 5 to 15 deer a day by going 30 

 miles out, and plenty of peccaries, or wild hogs, within 

 the same distance. The open season lasts until March 

 on deer, antelope, quail, etc., and all the year round on 

 the other varmints. 



I am not in hotel or livery business and have no axe to 

 grind. 



Two brothers of the name of Witt recently went into 

 the foothills of the Guadaloupe Mountains, 40 miles west 

 of here, hunted two days, saw over 40 deer and brought 

 in seven. 



A few weeks ago I was driving down the valley with 

 my wife. Two antelope, a buck and a doe, stood near 

 the road. When within 200yds, of them I handed the 



lines to Mrs. S., took the rifle, hopped out of the buggy, 

 and took a hasty shot at the buck, I failed to scoie, and 

 the pair sailed away over the prairie. They ran to the 

 top of the ridge, and stopppd. The distance was great, 

 but accidents are always liable to happen in this glori- 

 ous climate of New Mexico. I estimated the distance at 

 850yds., turned the Lyman sight up until it showed the 

 proper number of points, knelt down, took a careful aim 

 at the buck— holding well up to allow for any possible 

 underrating of distance— and when the smoke cleared 

 away the buck was down and kicking, 

 "Oh, George," screamed my wife, "you've killed the 

 oor thing." And then she wept just as any other ten- 

 er-hearted, sympathetic woman would have done, and as 

 I felt inclined to do myself. 



I stepped the distance to the buck and it was a good 

 honest 379yds. The bullet severed his spine. 



I would never have told of the shot had I not had a 

 witness to it, and one whose word no one who knows 

 her would ever doubt. 



By the way, why don't some of you sportsmen come 

 here and take up homesteads and go to farming and 

 growing fruit? There are thousands of acres of Govern- 

 ment land here, under the irrigating canals, that in .two 

 years will be worth $50 an acre. Meantime you can live 

 on quail, wild turkey and venison. Write me any of 

 you who are interested. G. O. Shields. 



Eddy, New Mex'co. 



TWO REMARKABLE CAPTURES, 



LAST fall, while on a quail shoot at Kellogg, W, Va., 

 I lodged with my friend Robert Arms, with whom 

 I have been acquainted for many years, and who, I will 

 say, has not a constitutional proclivity for telling wonder- 

 ful things for wonder's gratification. Before the lurid 

 glare of the great lire-place in the old log cabin he ventured 

 upon my credulity at least for once, and, in all honor to 

 bis veracity, I will say I doubt not his story. Said he: 

 "Now, it may seem a thing impossible to you, but what 

 I'm going to tell you is a fact. I was standing on the side 

 of a hill, when some one started a pheasant (ruffed grouse) 

 which came directly toward me. I stood near a tree, and 

 the bird apparently aimed to pass between me and it, 

 and as it did so I made a grab for it and caught it." 

 Now, when we consider the strange vagaries of the 

 grouse, the account does not seem at all incredible. T 

 know one instance of the bird flying from the woods into 

 the village in daylight, and striking the door of the drug 

 store, where it fell and was caught. At another time I 

 was hunting in Ulster county, N. Y., when my beater 

 drove a grouse out of the thicket into the open field where 

 I was stationed in expectation of his flight toward me. I 

 was a considerable number of yards from the thicket, but 

 he came straight toward me and did not seem to realiz?. 

 his danger until very near my head, when he seemed to 

 struggle to check his speed, as it were, fluttered, but he 

 did not change his course. As he passed by I wheeled and 

 dropped him. I think I might have reached him with 

 my hand. 



The other singular "catch" was made by a d ->g, not a. 

 greyhound, but one of remarkable ability for leaping, and 

 formed somewhat after the mould of that fleet-footed dog. 

 The dog had a peculiar propensity for running after and 

 barking at all birds that flew overhead. One day a hawk 

 swooped down and bore off a fowl; but the load was a 

 heavy one, and in getting to the woods he had to pass 

 over ascending grouud. The dog seeing the thief, started 

 in full pursuit, and, making one leap, brought the 

 marauder to the ground and tore him to pieces. The 

 chicken survived. This was told me by Mrs. Frances 

 Strupe, who saw it, and who is above making a false 

 statement. • N. D. Elting, 



OLD SANK'S GOOD WORK. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



How largely does a gunner's pleasure in the field de- 

 pend on the good work of his dog. 1 have been out twice 

 with my gun this week. Sank did some fine work on 

 quail. They got up and I missed with both barrels. 

 Then I hunted an hour for them and Sank took the trail 

 and followed back over the first trail down to the very 

 spot where they first rose. I thought he was on the old 

 trail and tried to call him off, but could not. He started 

 on and up a hill and came to a point. When I got to him 

 he was pointing directly at three white hens in a tree 

 near the ground. When the hens began to (jSokle he 

 looked sheepish, dropped his tail for an instant and turned 

 a quarter round and straightened out again. The bens 

 began to fly and ten or a dozen quail rose. I was off my 

 guard and rattled. I fired twice and got nothing. A 

 woman came up and accused me of firing at her hens. I 

 made that all right and came home, having seen the best 

 piece of nose work I ever expect to see in that line. It 

 was one trail doubled on to one a half hour old, and the 

 old fellow knew it and wouldn't be called off nor bluffed 

 by me nor by the hens. I resolved that I would never 

 put my judgment of appearances ahead of Sank's nose 

 again. 



To day I went cut again till noon. Sank took a dim 

 scent over in a valley. The birds had evidently been 

 feeding and running about everywhere aud I sat on the 

 rocks and watted. At last he started off. Every few 

 rods he would circle a while, find the trail, then go on. 

 We went over rocks, brush, fences and at last down into 

 the open swamp. I had no rubber boots on, but my faith 

 did not falter and I followed along the borders of the 

 swamp through tall grass, weeds and briers and out ou 

 some poles over a stream into some plowed land, where 

 Sank halted for the first time. There was no cover and I 

 was confident now that I would spo my birds. Man pro- 

 poses but the quail disposes. When I saw them they 

 were in the air as usual, but I was not "left." I got down 

 one with each barrel and Sank smiled. So did I, It was 

 the triumph of faith. We had followed them almost a 

 mile. Soon after I added an old partridge to my bag, but 

 could not find the quail again in the time I had. They 

 wiil keep for another day. 



Sank and 1 have a pretty clear understanding now. 

 He leads and I follow if I know myself. A. G, W. 



Names akd Portraits of Birds, by Gurdou Trumbull A 

 book particularly interesting to gunners, for by its use they can 

 identify without question all the American game birds which 

 they may kill. Cloth. 220 pages. Driee ?2.q0, For sale bv Forest 

 4 JTD St Eta am. • ^ 



