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FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec, 10, 1891. 



IN MAINE WOODS.-m. 



IN CAMP, Piscataqiiis County, Me., Oct. S7.— Before 

 I left Boston I let my wild and daring resolve to go 

 to the Maine woods be known to some of my friends. 

 Various were the emotions excited. One excellent lady, 

 whom I honor and love, shivered at the very thought of 

 how I would be sure to freeze. "Go to the Maine woods 

 at this season of the yearl Awful ! " I protested that it 

 was just the season to go. Then came the question, "But 

 why do you need to go so far, and at such an expense, to 

 find woods? There are plenty of woods just out beyond 

 Dorchester [I am not sure but she said in Dorchester] and 

 it will only cost you 5 cents to get there." 



Thus does the unhunting and uncanoeing mind regard 

 the matter. (You see I have taken your word into my 

 vocabulary and coined another by the same rule.) 



Well, there are several thousand reasons why the Dor- 

 chester woods will not serve as well as those of Maine for 

 my present purpose. Readers of Forest and Stream 

 know most of them and can conjecture the rest. 



My guide is asleep in the sleeping tent some rods away 

 and I sit in the log cooking camp, where there, is a stove 

 and a table. The rain falls fast, and delicious to me is its 

 sound on the roof — and I also hear the wash of the waves 

 of the lake on the rocks hard by. Guide says he cannot 

 read after dark. His eyelids button down tight the 

 moment he tries it. He has worked hard all day— so he 

 leaves the world to me. I cannot express the comfort of 

 this silence. The rattle and roar of things is shut out. I 

 have been doing — not what a morning's mail demanded 

 — ^but just what I wanted to. 1 have been very busy all 

 day, nevertheless. Tn the first place I have read over 

 again, for the hundredth or two hundredth time perhaps, 

 a lot of Emerson's poems, half the volume. This must 

 always be done in camp it one would get the true enjoy- 

 ment of the woods and waters. I want to write you a 

 letter some time to prove that Emerson is not only our 

 best poet of nature but our greatest American poet, any- 

 way. His poems "The Sea Shore," "Wood Notes" and 

 "Monadnook," now— but, as Kipling would say, "that is 

 another story" — and I will come back to camp. 



Yesterday, like to-day, was cold and cloudy, a genuine 

 "camp day," and, as such, a day to thank God for and to 

 be enjoyed. But we had our hunt all the same, We 

 had set up a target on the beach and were puncturing it 

 in good style at iSOyds., when, despite our racket, a big, 

 fat buck was good enough to crash into the thin ice up in 

 the dead water and give us our warning. We quickly 

 took it, and with quickened pulses heard him now and 

 then breaking more ice and working his way down to- 

 ward the outlet. At length he stepped into full view. A 

 shot through the skull and he fell stone dead. I shall 

 not tell whose rifle did it. Our score at the target was 

 just about even when we ceased practice. We both fired 

 at the deer and he is dead. It was a case of most sudden 

 death. Nothing but execution by electricity could be 

 quicker. 



By the way, I happen to be, so far as I know and be- 

 lieve, the first person who suggested the latter method. 

 My letter to the New York Tribune, when I was a lad at 

 school, many a year ago, was widely quoted and much 

 commented on, mostly in a humorous vein, but I was in 

 earnest, and I have lived to see the adoption of the 

 method by the State of New York, and with credit to the 

 dignity of the State and the cause of humanity. Let me 

 once more attempt the roll of prophet, though this time 

 by no means that of advocate. Why may not the time 

 come, and that speedily, in view of all the inventive 

 genius now devoted to it, when a weapon shall appear 

 which will throw an electrically charged bullet which 

 shall kill or stun an animal if it so much as graze the 

 extremest part of him, as surely as if it pierced his brain 

 or heart? Heaven defer the day, say I, but I fear it. 



Well, we hung up and dressed the deer, and a fine 

 fellow he was, and honestly killed. Just before we go 

 out of the woods we may want one more, but for a week 

 I would not give a cent to shoot another. 



I rather want a caribou, however, and if a clear day 

 comes we shall try the bogs. 



I have been preparing the skin of a loon. It was the 

 one that was caught in the net of which I spoke in a 

 former letter. I now understand how a loon keeps warm 

 and enjoys life even in icy waters. His white vest is 

 lined with a double thickness of fat, stitched and quilted 

 in among the roots of his feathers in an amazing way. 

 The warmth inside cannot get out and the cold cannot 

 get in. How huge are his muscles and how stout his 

 bones! He is ac the same time a stern- wheeler and a 

 side-wheeler, for under water both feet and wings play 

 their part. His outfit is perfect for his business. 



I was astonished to find nothing in his gizzard but 

 gravel stones and mud and bits of roots— not a trace of 

 organic matter. Yet he seemed in good condition, and 

 the men who set the net declared that the night before 

 his death he was several times heard to laugh. If any 

 one suggests that a loon's laugh does not mean enjoy- 

 ment, what, let me ask, does it mean? I will entertain 

 any suggestions. Meanwhile 1 shall believe that a loon 

 can laugh and be happy on an empty stomach. If so. hie 

 secret would seem to be worth finding out. 



To-day we have discovered that some animal has 

 dragged away the entrails of several deer which the deer- 

 doggers left. They were dragged away in a mass into 

 the swamp, and for a distance we could plainly follow 

 the trail. We want to think that it was a bear that did 

 it, but certain tracks on the sand beach near by prove 

 that a black cat (fleher) has been about. Now, could a 

 black cat do what has been done? We think not, but the 

 doubt gives opportunity for valuable excitement and 

 speculation. Meanwhile we bait again with the entrails 

 of our deer and set many traps and long for to-morrow. 



So you see we are very busy and have little time for 

 folly or dissipation of any sort. We only wish the advo- 

 cate of "Dorchester woods" could know the degree of 

 our content. Would she not envy us! Truth to tell, per- 

 haps she would not, but would even prefer her home in 

 Boston to a camp on this lake shore this dark and rainy 

 night. People vary so in their tastes! 



But I must to our sleeping tent. My rifle is "loaded 

 for b'ar." C. H. Ames. 



If your shooting friend does not read Forest and Stream 

 why not g-ke Mm a Ghristinas present and do a littU missionary 

 work at the same time hy subscribing to the paper for Mm. Jt 

 will give Mm pleasure fifty-two times a year. Do yoxi realise \ 

 tJiat next year |4 wiil buy you 1664 of these Ug ptges, and all 

 of them demted to wholesome, moinly sport, i 



MONKEY TALK. 



IN the November New Review Prof. R. L. Garner re- 

 lates his further experiments with monkeys in his 

 endeavor to learn their language. We extract from the 

 paper these paragraphs: 



"Since writing the sounds used by the capuchin mon- 

 keys, as well as I could represent them by the letters of 

 our alphabet, I have had no reason to alter the literal 

 formula by which they are expressed : but I have found 

 that the word which I had construed to mean food, and 

 sometimes perhaps to mean drink, has a still wider sense. 

 It is difficTilt to formulate in human speech anything 

 equivalent to it, since our human mode of speech has 

 been so changed by a.ccretions and by our higher modes 

 of thought that we cannot grasp the thought from such a 

 slight suggestion, and our habits of redundancy make us 

 incapable of their modes of speech. It impresses me that 

 the sound formerly described as meaning food is used in 

 some way as a kind of 'shibboleth.' It is possible that 

 this may arise from the Simian idea of food as the chief 

 source of all happiness, and that the satisfaction which it 

 gives is the supreme thought of his life, and in this man- 

 ner ;he associates that sound with every kindness and 

 pacific office, but from a lack of opportunities I have not 

 been able to ascertain to what extent these are associated 

 ideas with him. 



I have described in my former paper the fright which 

 I gave to a monkey named Jokes, in Charleston, and at 

 the time of writing that article I had not been able to re- 

 new friendly relations with him. After a lapse of some 

 ten or twelve days from the time 1 had frightened him, 

 I resorted to harsher means of bringing him to terms; I 

 began to threaten him with a rod. At first he would re- 

 sent it, but when he failed to frighten me by his threats 

 and assaults, he soon yielded and came down from the 

 perch in his cage, although greatly frightened. He would 

 place the side of his head on the floor, put out his tongue, 

 and utter a very plaintive sound, having a slight interrog- 

 ative inflection. At first this novel demeanor quite de- 

 fied interpretation: but during the same period I was 

 visiting a young monkey of the same kind called Jack; 

 we were quite good friends for comparative strangers, and 

 he allowed me many liberties with him, which the family 

 to whom he belonged assured me he denied to others. On 

 one of my frequent visits he displayed his temper and 

 made an attach upon me because I refused to let go a 

 saucer from which I was feeding him some milk. 1 jerked 

 him up by the chain and slapped him sharply for this, 

 whereupon he instantly laid the side of his head on the 

 floor, put out his tongue, and made just such a sound as 

 Jokes had made several times before, under the stress 

 of great fear. It occurred to me that must be a sign of 

 surrender or submission. And many subsequent tests 

 have confirmed this opinion. 



But my daily visits to Jokes had not won him back 

 after a lapse of more than two months, and on my ap- 

 proach he would manifest great fear and go through 

 with this strange act of humilation. I observed that he 

 had a great dislike for a certain negro boy on the place, 

 who teased and vexed him very much, so I had the boy 

 come up near the cage, and Jokes would fairly rave with 

 anger. So great was his dislike for this boy that he 

 seemed to forget all other things about him in his efforts 

 to get to him. I would feign to beat the boy with a stick 

 and this gave Jokes great delight. I would hold the boy 

 so near the cage as to allow the monkey to scratch and 

 claw his clothes, and this would fill his whole Simian soul 

 with joy. I would then release the boy and drive him 

 away with sticks and wads of paper, to the evident pleas- 

 ure of the monkey. I repeated these things many times, 

 and we became the very best of friends again. After 

 each encounter he would come up to the bars, touch my 

 hand with his tongue, chatter and play with my fingers, 

 and show all signs of friendship. He always warns me 

 of the approach of any one, and his conduct toward them 

 is very largely controlled by my own. He never fails to 

 greet me with the sound described in my former paper. 

 The sound is a compound, as I have shown by reversing 

 the cylinder of the graphophone, and repeating it back- 

 ward. This will be referred to farther on. 



I may here relate that on one occasion a boy was teasing 

 Jokes with a stick, when I approached the cage and put 

 my hand in, and allowed him to caress it; in the mean- 

 while the boy would reach his hand into the cage under 

 my arm and catch Jokes' tail or toe, which seemed at 

 first to surprise him greatly, but in a trice he detected 

 the author and flew at him with great violence, and 

 every time the boy would reach his hand into or toward 

 the cage the monkey would spring at him and try to 

 catch his hand. In his haste and anger he once grabbed 

 my hand in mistake; but he discovered it so quickly 

 that I had scarcely realized the situation myself before I 

 found him crouched down and his head on the floor, his 

 tongue out, uttering that peculiar sound (which 1 cannot 

 reduce to letters), in the most suppliant manner, and he 

 continued to do so until he had been assured of peace. 

 When he assaults any one else he always returns to me 

 and touches my hand with his tongue, which seems to be a 

 kind of sign of a covenant. 



Another little monkey of this species which I visited a 

 few times was called Jennie. Her master had warned 

 me in advance that she was not kindly disposed to stran- 

 gers and I should watch her, that she might not do me 

 any harm. At my request he had her chained in a small 

 side yard and forbade any of the family entering it. I 

 approached her little ladyship with the usual salutation, 

 which she seemed to recognize at once, and I sat down by 

 her and began to feed her from my hands. She seemed 

 to regard me as a friend, but of a different species. She 

 eyed me with evident interest and some suspicion, but 

 when I would utter that sound for ./'oocZ she would respond 

 promptly. While we were indulging in a kind of mutual 

 investigation of affairs a negro girl, who lived with the 

 family and frequently fed Jennie, being overcome by her 

 curiosity, came into the yard and came up within a few 

 feet of us. I at once decided that I would offer her as a 

 sacrifice on the altar of science, so I arose and placed her 

 between myself and the monkey and began to sound the 

 'alarm" or 'menace' with gi eat vigor. Jennie flew into 

 a perfect fit of fright. I continued to sound it, and at the 

 same time to attack the girl with a great display of 

 violence, thus causing the monkey to believe that the girl 

 had laade the alarm, I then drove the girl away from 



the yard with a great flourish of paper wads and pea-nut 

 shells, and returned to the little monkey to pacify her. 

 She became quite calm and seemed to think I was her hero, 

 but for days she would not allow the girl to feed or ap- 

 proach her. This quite confirmed my opinion as to the 

 meaning of this peculiar piercing sound. 



A few weeks later I went to Cincinnati to visit my chim- 

 panzee friends again, and I found immediately that they 

 gave evidence of understanding one of the words whicti 

 I used on approaching them. This word I had learned 

 from the record of their speech which I had made last 

 year. I have not had the opportunities to experiment 

 with them which would justify my giving a very full ac- 

 count of any of their traits of speech, only to say this, 

 that I am quite sure from my studies of their vocal char- 

 acter in the graphophone, and by listening to them in 

 their cage, if I could be more intimately associated with 

 them I could soon master their language; but they are 

 kept in a large cage, entirely inclosed in a house of glass, 

 the outer doors of which are kept closed to avoid any 

 change of temperature which migiit tell on their health, 

 and the keeper is so apprehensive of some ill befalling 

 them that he keeps them forever under his eye. I suc- 

 ceeded in getting their attention as I tried to utter a sound 

 of theirs, and I could get the female to come to me every 

 time I would use it. I cannot fully describe it here, 

 although it comes within the compass of human speech, 

 and is not very difficult to utter. It is not quite, but 

 nearly, represented by h-ou-wh, very slightly nasal, and, 

 so far, the only trace of a nasal intonation in the vocal 

 products of any of the lower animals which I have ever 

 detected. They have more words than a capuchin monkey, 

 and all the words they speak, so far as I have ever been 

 able to hear, can be reproduced by human vocal organs. 

 My recent visit to them has quite satisfied me that I can 

 make myself understood by them; and while it is pre- 

 mature as yet to mention it, I am now trying to arrange 

 for a trip to interior Africa to visit the troglodytes in their 

 native wilds, and if my plans (which are all practicable) 

 can be arranged, I agree to give to the world a revelation 

 which will rattle the dry bones of philology in a wholly 

 new light. Mr. Edison has kindly agreed, if I can make 

 certain arrangements, that he will aid me in the phono- 

 graph feature — the only thing which makes these studies 

 possible— and I promise to perform some feats which 

 will be worthy of public attention." 



MORE SHARK NOTES- 



1AM glad to see that my communication to your 

 columns, "Sharks and their Ways," has called forth 

 experiences of others; in this way we may arrive at the 

 truth. The experience of some of these writers is op- 

 posed to mine, but that of a late writer who observed the 

 habits of sharks at Pensacola confirms mine, and I am 

 induced to think that possibly the habits of sharks in 

 Southern waters may differ from those in Northern seas. 

 My observations have been made in tropical oceans and 

 on the east coast of Florida. In Florida waters the 

 species noticed were the dtisky shark, the hammer-head, 

 the shovel-nose and the nurse shark; these I have taken 

 with rod and reel, from 3 to 6ft. in length, and like the 

 writer from Chicago, I have never seen them turn over 

 to seize the bait. 



As game fishes the sharks do not, I think, stand high; 

 the most common of them, the dusky shark, when 

 hooked, circles round on the surface and usually bites off 

 the line and escapes. If so hooked that the line cannot 

 be cut, the struggle is furious but short, the shark giv- 

 ing up in much less time than a game fish of half his 

 size, such as a channel bass, salt water trout or snapper 

 would do. I once hooked a shark about oft. long which 

 fought longer than usual, and when brought to gaff he 

 was found to be hooked in a side fin, so that he retained 

 his full powers. So also with the hammer-head. The 

 shovel-nosed shark I have found to be the most active of 

 them. The nurse shark lies on the bottom, and its bite 

 is not felt or its presence known to the angler till he 

 raises his rod, then the fish comes up like a log, without 

 resistance, S. C, C. 



Maribtxa, Georgia, 



HABITS OF WHITEFISH IN PONDS. 



WE are indebted to Col. Marshall McDonald for the 

 following interesting and important information 

 about the feeding habits of whitefish in ponds, contained 

 in a letter from Mr. C. G. Thompson of Warren, Ind. 

 Mr. Thompson is a member of the firm of Smethurst & 

 Thompson, proprietors of the Star Roller Mdls. These 

 gentlemen have an abundant supply of good water and 

 ample space for ponds. They have established a hatchery 

 on their property and devote their energies and resources 

 chiefly to stocking public waters. Plans for constructing 

 trout-hatching boxes, like those used at Northville, Mich., 

 were obtained from the U. S. Commission and the hatching 

 appliances are successfully operated. The results with 

 wall-eyed pike, known at Warren as pickerel, have been 

 particularly gratifying, and Mr. Thompson expects to 

 liberate fully 1,500,000 fry in the river next spring. A 

 pond is now being constructed with dimensions of 300 by 

 200 feet and a depth of 16 feet: this is to be completed by 

 October next and will be used for landlocked salmon and 

 lake trout. The establishment now contains whitefish, 

 landlocked salmon and wall-eyed pike. It is intended 

 to add sturgeon and other fishes next summer and lake 

 trout as soon as possible. 



Mr. Thompson feeds his whitefish on mill-feed (called 

 also shorts and middlings) and he finds that these fish, as 

 well as catfish, carp and wall eyed pike, thrive on such 

 rations. Mr. W. F. Page uses the same material very 

 successfully for black bass at the Neosho station in Mis- 

 souri. 



Two years ago Mr. Thompson procured 12 large white- 

 fish at West Sister Island, Lake Erie, nine of them are 

 now living and have made good growth. Eighteen months 

 ago he received some whitefish fry from the Sandusky 

 station of the U. S. Oommisaion. Several hundred of 

 these survive, measure 10 to 12 inches in length, and weigh 

 probably from 10 to 12 ounces. Last spring Mr. Thomp- 

 son obtained about 5,000 fry from Put-in-Bay and placed 

 them in the pond with the larger whitefish; but found that 

 "the old fish ate them up as fast as a chicken can pick up 

 corn, consequently we got few fish from that lot. This 

 was a revelation to the whole fish fraternity, as every 

 one supposed that whitefish did not eat anything of the 

 kind— but they do— and one whitefish one year old will 



