Nov. 25, 1898.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



449 



saw very strange Fishes, especially of the Ouican, not 

 unlike an Eel, but with an extraordinary great Head, 

 over which hangs a Skin like a Bag. This Fish is the 

 Natives Fisher; for having a Line or handsom Cord 

 fastened about him, so s^on as a Turtel, or any other of 

 his Prey, comes above Water, they give him Line; where- 

 upon the Gitican, like an Arrow out of a Bo we, shoots 

 toward the other Fish, and then gathering the Mouth of 

 the Bag on his Head like a Purse-net holds them so fast, 

 that he lets not loose till hal'd up out of the Water." 



The U. S. Fish Commission has been very successful in 

 keeping remoras alive at Wood's HoU, at Washington 

 and in its great Aquarium at the World's Fair, and the 

 species has been under observation for six months at a 

 time. Mr. L. G. Harron has been immediately in charge 

 of the salt-water fish, and to him we are indebted for the 

 notes on habits here recorded. " 



In the aquarium the remora is nearly always attached 

 to sharks or turtles, leaving its host only when fed. It 

 prefers to consort with the sharks, but when there is a 

 scarcity of these animals, it will accompany turtles of 

 suitable size. The big green turtle sent by Mr. Black- 

 ford has seldom been without a guest of this kind. The 



all. When continuous night has become continuous day 

 without any perceptible approach to spring an Alpine 

 traveler naturally asks whether he has not reached the 

 limit of perpetual snow. It is true that here and there a 

 few bare patches are to be found on the steepest slopes, 

 where most of the snow has been blown away by the 

 wind, especially if these slopes face the south, where even 

 an Arctic sun has more potency than it has elsewhere. It 

 is also true that small flocks of little birds— at first snow 

 buntings and mealy redpoles, and later shore larks and 

 Lapland buntings— may be observed to flit from one of 

 these bare places to another looking for seeds or some 

 other kind of food, but after all evidently finding most of 

 it in the droppings of the peasants' horses on the hard, 

 snow-covered roads. The appearance of these little birds 

 does not, however, give the same confidence in the 

 eventual coming of summer to the Arctic naturalist as 

 the arrival of the swallow or the cuckoo does to his 

 brethren in sub- Arctic or sub-tropic climates. The four 

 Uttle birds just mentioned are only gipsy migrants that 

 are perpetually flitting to and fro on the confines of the 

 frost, continually being driven south by snowstorms, but 

 ever ready to take advantage of the slightest thaw to 



SHAEK AND REMOEA. 



remora is just as well contented to be on the upper side 

 of its host, in which case it is upside down, as on the 

 lower side. 



When swimming fi'ee, it moves as easily and gracefully 

 upside down as when upright, and it rolls over without 

 any apparent eflort. When the remora becomes sick it 

 leaves its attachment and lies on the bottom, where it 

 either recovers or soon dies. It is very quick in its move- 

 ments, darting after its food "like a shot." and returning 

 at once to its resting place. It is fond of beef but it is 

 particularly devoted to clams. 



In the aquarium at Wood's Holl, one of the remoras 

 became a universal pet, and would come to the surface 

 and feed out of the hand. Its attitude when at rest was 

 singular, the hea(i and front part of the body being 

 always raised a little above the level of the tail, thus re- 

 sembling the poise of some water snakes. T. H. B. 



THE COMING OF THE ARCTIC SUMMER. 



In his address before the Geographical Section of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. 

 Henry Seebohm paints a vivid pictiu'e of the sudden 

 coming of the Arctic summer, and we quote from the 

 Oeographical Journal for October the following para- 

 graphs: 



"The sudden arrival of summer on the Arctic Circle ap- 

 pears to occur nearly at the same date in all the great 

 river basins, but the number of recorded observations is 

 so small that the slight variation may possibly be seasonal 

 and not local. The ice on the Mackenzie River is stated 

 by one authority to have broken up on May 13 in latitude 

 63°, and by another on May 9 in latitude 71°. If the Mac- 

 kenzie breaks up as fast as the Yenisei — that is to say, at 

 the rate of a degree a day — an assumption which is sup- 

 ported by what little evidence can be found — then the dif- 

 ference between these two seasons would be nine days. 

 My own experience has been that the ice of the Pechora 

 breaks up ten days before that of the Yenisei, but as I 

 have only witnessed one such event in each valley too 

 much importance must not be attached to the dates. Ac- 

 cording to the Challenger tables of isothermal lines, the 

 mean temperature of January and July on the Arctic Cir- 

 cle in the valleys of the Mackenzie and the Yenisei 

 scarcely differ, the summer temperature in each case 

 (being about 55° F., and that of winter — ^25° F., a diiier- 

 .6nce of 80" F. 



"On the American side of the Polar Basin summer comes 

 almost as suddenly as it does on the Asiatic side, but the 

 change appears to be less of the nature of a catastrophe. 

 The geographical causes which produce this result are the 

 smaller area of the river basins and the less amount of 

 rainfall. There is only one large river which empties 

 itself into the Arctic Ocean on the American side, the 

 Mackenzie, with which may be associated the Saskatche- 

 wan, which discharges into Hudson Bay far away to the 

 south. The basin of the Mackenzie is estimated at 590,000 

 square milt«, while that of the Yenisei is supposed to be 

 exactly twice that area. The comparative dimensions of 

 the two summer floods are still more diminished by the 

 difference in the quantity of snow. 



"The arrival of summer in the Arctic regions happens 

 so late that the inexperienced traveler may be excused for 

 .-sometimes doubting whe.ther it really is going to come at 



press northward again to their favorite Arctic home- 

 They are all circumpolar in their distributions, are as 

 common in Siberia as in Lapland, and range across Can- 

 ada to Alaska as well as to Greenland, In sub-Arctic cli- 

 mates we only see them in winter, so that their appear- 

 ance does not in the least degree suggest the arrival of 

 summer to the traveler from the south. 



"The gradual rise in the level of the river inspires no 

 more confidence in the final melting away of the snow 

 and the disruption of the ice which supports it. In Siberia 

 the rivers are so enormous that a rise of 5 or 6ft, is scarcelv 

 perceptible. The Yenisei is three miles wide at the Arctic 

 circle, and as fast as it rises the open water at the margin 

 freezes up again and is soon covered with the drifting 

 snow. During the summer which I spent in the valley of 

 the Yenisei we had 6ft. of snow on the ground until the 

 first of June. To aU intents and purposes it was mid-win- 

 ter, illuminated for the nonce with what amounted to 

 continuous daylight. The light was a little duller at mid- 

 night, but not so much so as during the occasional snow- 

 storms that swept through the forest and drifted up the 

 broad river bed. During the month of Msiy there were a 

 few signs of the possibility of some mitigation of the rigors 

 of winter. Now and then there was a little rain, but it 

 was always followed by frost. If it thawed one day it 

 froze the next, and little or no impression was made on 

 the snow. The most tangible sign of comingsummerwas 

 an increase in the number of birds, but they were nearly 

 all forest birds, which could enjoy the sunshine in the 

 pines and birches, and which were by no means dependent 

 on the melting away of the snow for their supply of food, 

 Bettveen May 16 and 30 we had more definite evidence of 

 our being within bird flight of bare grass or open water. 

 Migratory flocks of wild geese pissed over our winter 

 quarters, but if they were flying north one day they were 

 flying south the next, proving beyond all doubt that their 

 migration was premature. The geese evidently agreed 

 with us that it ought to be summer, but it was as clear to 

 the geese as to us that it really was winter. 



"We afterward learnt that during the last ten days of 

 May a tremendous battle had been raging 600 miles as the 

 crow flies to the southward of our position on the Arctic 

 circle. Summer in league with the sun had been fighting 

 winter and the north wind aU along the line, and had 

 been as hopelessly beaten everywhere as we were wit- 

 nesses that it had been incur part of the river. At length, 

 when the final victory of summer looked the most hope- 

 less, a change was made in the command of the forces. 

 Summer entered into an alliance with the south wind. 

 The sun retired in dudgeon to his tent behind the clouds, 

 mists obscured the landscape, a soft south wind played 

 gently on the snow, which melted under its all-powerful 

 influence like butter upon hot toast, the tide of battle was 

 suddenly turned, th« armies of winter soon vanished into 

 thin water and beat a hasty retreat toward the pole. The 

 effect on the great river was magical. Its tliick armor of 

 ice cracked with a loud naise like the rattling of thunder, 

 every twenty-four hours it was lifted up a fathom above 

 its former level, broken up, first into ice floes and then 

 into pack ice, and marched down stream at least a hun- 

 dred miles. Even at this great speed it was more than a 

 fortnight before the last straggling ice blocks passed our 

 post of observation on the Arctic circle, but during that 

 time the river had risen 70ft, aboye its winter "level, 



although it was three miles wide, and we were in the mid- 

 dle of a blazing hot summer, picking flowers of a hundred 

 different kinds, and feasting upon wild ducks' eggs of va- 

 rious species. Birds abounded to an incredible extent. 

 Between May 29 and June 18 1 identified sixty-four species 

 which I had not seen before the break up of the ice. 

 Some of them stopped to breed and already had eggs, but 

 many of them followed the i-etreating ice to the tundra, 

 and we saw them no more until, many weeks afterward, 

 we had sailed down the river beyond the limit of forest 

 growth. 



"The victory of the south wind was absolute, btitnoten- 

 tii-ely uninterrupted. Occasionally the winter made a des- 

 perate stand against the sudden onrush of summer. The 

 north wind rallied its beaten forces for days together, the 

 clouds and the rain were driven back, and the half-melted 

 snow frozen on the surface. But it was too late; there 

 were many large patches of dark ground which rapidly 

 absorbed the sun's heat; the snow melted under the frozen 

 crust, and its final collapse was as rapid as it was com- 

 plete. 



' 'In the basin of the Yenisei the average thickness of the 

 snow at the end of winter is about 5ft. The sudden trans- 

 formation of this immense continent of snow, which lies 

 as gently on the earth as an eider-down quilt upon a bed, 

 into an ocean of water rushing madly down to the sea, 

 tearing everything up that comes into its way, is a gigan- 

 tic display of power compared with which an earthquake 

 sinks into insignificance. It is difficult to imagine the 

 chaos of water which must have deluged the country be- 

 fore the river beds were worn wide enough and deep 

 enough to carry the water away as quickly as is the case 

 now. * * * 



"The alternate marching of this immense quantity of 

 ice up and down the Kureika was a most curious phenom- 

 enon. To see a strong current up stream for many hours 

 is so contrary to all previous experience of the behavior 

 of rivers that one cannot help feeling continuous astonish- 

 ment at the novel sight. The monotony which might 

 otherwise have intervened in a ten-days' march-past of 

 ice was continually broken by complete changes in the 

 scene. Sometimes the current was up stream, sometimes 

 it was down, and occasionally there was no current at all. 

 Frequently the pack ice and ice floes were so closely 

 jammed together that there was no apparent difficulty in 

 scrambling across them, and occasionally the river was 

 free from ice for a short time. At other times the river 

 was thinly sprinkled with ice blocks and little icebergs, 

 which occasionally 'calved' as they traveled on, with 

 much commotion and splashing. The phenomenon tech- 

 nically caUed 'calving' is curious, and sometimes quite 

 startling. It takes place when a number of scattered ice 

 blocks are quietly floating down stream. All at once a 

 loud splash is heard as a huge lump of ice rises out of the 

 water, evidently from a considerable depth, like a young 

 whale coming up to breathe, noisily beats back the waves 

 that the sudden upheaval has caused, and rocks to and fro 

 for some time before it finally settles down to its floating 

 level. There can be little doubt that what looks like a 

 comparatively small ice block floating innocently along is 

 really the top of a formidable iceberg, the greater part of 

 which is a submerged mass of layers of ice piled one on 

 the top of the other, and in many places very imperfectly- 

 frozen together, the bottom layer becomes detached, 

 escapes to the surface, and loudly asserts its commence- 

 ment of an independent existence with that commotion in 

 the water which generally proclaims the fact that an ice- 

 berg has calved. 



"Finally comes the last march-past of the beaten forces 

 of winter, the ragtag and bobtail of the great Arctic army 

 that comes straggling down the river when the campaign, 

 is all over — worn and weather-beaten little icebergs, dirty 

 ice floes that look like floating sandbanks, and straggling 

 pack ice in the last stages of consumption that looks 

 strangely out of place under a burning sun between banks 

 gay with the gayest flowers, amid a buzz of mosquitoes, 

 the music of song birds, and the harsh cries of gulls, 

 divers, ducks and sandpipers of various species." 



THE BUFFALO REMNANT. 



Winnipeg, Manitoba, — Away up in the northern part of 

 the Canadian northwest, almost as far from New York as 

 London is, there are a few herds of buffalo, numbering 

 in all between 200 and 300 head, the probability being 

 that there are not more than 200. The Indian is still, 

 however, their greatest enemy and is making good use 

 of his knowledge of the haunts of the buffalo. 



A law was passed at the last se.«sion of the N. W. T. 

 Legislature to preserve this fiame, but noth withstanding 

 this their numbers are fast diminishing. There is no 

 treaty with the Indians living in the Vermillion District, 

 where the buffalo are found, so the operation of the law 

 does not extend to them. Even if it did there are not 

 enough mounted police in that country to enforce it. 

 The possibilities are that the slaughter which has been 

 going on with more or less regularity all summer will be 

 resumed with increased energy as soon as the snow gets 

 deep. Then the fleet-footed Indian on his snowshoes 

 chases the unwary animal into the drifts, where, becom- 

 ing imbedded in the snow, he falls an easy prey to his 

 pui-suer. I have discussed the subject with several trap- 

 pers who have come to Winnipeg from the far north and 

 they all agree that the law cannot preserve tlae buffalo as 

 long as they are within gunshot of the Indians. The 

 scarcity of food in the Vermillion District is another 

 thing that makes it evident that the buffalo must go. 



Rod Random. 



Washin^on Wildfowl. 



Spokane, Wash,, Nov. 8.— Sportsmen now are paying 

 their attention to ducks, geese and chickens. While it is 

 unlawful to offer them for sale, we who do not ' 'shoot" 

 sometimes get hold of them. Four gentlemen went out 

 a few days ago I understand, near Davenport, forty miles 

 west, and returned with 80 geese and other game. Other 

 parties have succeeded in bringing back 50 and upward. 

 Sunday seems to be a big day with the average sportsman; 

 on that day the trains leaving the city take a goodly num- 

 ber of people, the success is varied, but on Monday num- 

 erous families enjoy the toothsome duck. A. B. K, 



