632 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 23, 1894. 



most taciturn men on the earth, just as he is one of the 

 kindest-hearted and most obliging. In all the time I was 

 with Folsom I never knew him to speak a word unless 

 addressed. He has "books, a cat, a flute and a little 

 organette to help him break the lawful monotony of the 

 winter life alone in such a region— a calling most unique 

 and trying among the singular ones followed by the sons 

 of men. His chief duty is to keep the roofs free from 

 snow and to exercise a general care over the buildings. 

 The winter keeper is generally a carpenter as well. He 

 must also be his own cook, laundryman and chamber- 

 maid. At all these turns of work John Folsom proved 

 adept. Thanks to Mr. Deane, we got a home in the kit- 

 chen, a good bed to sleep in and supplies for continuing 

 our trip. The value of all this caa readily be appre- 

 ciated. We' thus avoided the carryu g in of heavy sup- 

 plies of food and lightened the hardships of the trip most 

 materially. 



The Plot Thickens. 

 We were now thirty-two miles into the Park, all well 

 and hearty, and so reported to Capt. Anderson by tele- 

 phone, as quick as the wire began to work, receiving 

 hearty good wishes in return. We felt contented and 

 comfortable, knowing that we were now within a day's 

 march of the buffalo and elk, and with the most interest- 

 ing and exciting portion of our trip ahead of us. It will 

 be in due order now to tell about our camps on the Hay- 

 den Valley, and about our experience there with the great 

 game of the Park. E. Hough. 



909 Security Building, Chicago. 



" That reminds me." 



A BULL STORY TOLD IN CONFIDENCE. 



The letters of "Old Sam" have brought to mind many 

 pleasant recollections of "Robin's Nest Camp"— the most 

 delightful camp among hundreds in my recollection, 

 and I have to thank my friends for their kindly words of 

 "Kelpie" in Forest and Stream. 



It occurs to me that so much has been published about 

 that Carp Lake bull, that I perhaps ought to break the 

 long silence which I have hitherto preserved with respect 

 to that ferocious creature; for if thip thing keeps on, the 

 eerie tales anent the "Water Bull" of the Highland locks 

 will be as naught to those told around waning camp-fires 

 about the Carp Lake monster. The Colonel will forget to 

 punch the said fire with his wooden poker (on which is 

 marked the exact length of the trout that Jeems Mackerel 

 didn't catch), and the M. & N. E. R. R. will sell no tickets 

 to the Carp Lake stations. Prudent fathers will compel 

 their sons to hoe potatoes or drop pumpkin seeds when 

 they seek to go fishing, and the mother will hush her cry- 

 ing babe with the whispered tale of dread. 



Yes, there was a bull, I mind it well. We saw him, 

 Johnny No. 2 and myself, when we went across the lake 

 to fish the brook where "Kingfisher" and "Old Sam" were 

 so ignominiously routed. Only the creature was not at 

 that time in the pasture, so that we fished the brook in 

 peace until we reached the road where it ran across into 

 the next field. There were bushes along the upper fence, 

 and a pool between that and the bridge. I thought to 

 fish this pool. 



Having crossed the fence into the road at some distance 

 from the bridge, and not far from a farm house by the 

 roadside, we— No. 2 and myself— advanced toward the 

 pool, when we were aware of a large and well constructed 

 bull, near some young cattle and not far from the house. 

 I do not now recollect whether or not he heralded his 

 approach with the regulation boo-oo-oo. but he came 

 slowly down our way, evidently bent on business of some 

 sort. No. 2 was a city boy, and had less experience than 

 I in such cases, so he jumped over the fence. I did not 

 think the animal likely to trouble us, but I wanted him to 

 keep away from the brook. So I advanced toward him, 

 waving my rod, and addressing him in an elevated tone 

 of voice. He stopped, and I again moved toward the 

 brook. Soon he once more came forward before I had 

 time to cast a line. I looked around for a stick or stone 

 but none were to be had. I again waved the rod, adding 

 to the action-ray expressed opinion that he ought to go 

 away. Then I reflected that it was just possible that he 

 might mean us harm, and I thought of the lines in the 

 "Bull Fight of Gazul:" 



"His eyes are jet, and they are set in crystal rings of snow, 

 But now they stare with one red glare of brass upon the foe." 



I examined critically the characteristics of the ocular 

 outfit of this brute, but nothing answering to the above 

 specifications could be discovered. There wasn't a sign 

 of brass, red or yellow, about his eyes; but then, Ameri- 

 can bulls might have different ideas about these things 

 from the Spanish. I tried him once more, and he 

 wouldn't budge. Remembering that I was not as active 

 as in the old days, I gave up the pool, thinking it best to 

 take no chances; and began fishing below the fence 

 Then, with a stately stride, that fierce and ferocious beast 

 —that new edition of Harpado of Xarama— moved on- 

 ward to the pool and— took a drink. That was what he 

 wanted. Then he retraced his steps for about 52yds 

 while we, breathless, watched to see what dire calamity 

 should befall such rash adventurer as might dare to cross 

 his path. And it was a girl about twelve years old red- 

 haired and barefooted, with a dried stalk of the "Ameri- 

 can velvet plant" (commonly called mullein)in her hand 

 She skipped nimbly forward, rounded up that bull and 

 drove him into the barnyard before I had time to cross 

 the fence again and drop a line in the coveted pool. 



When we were seated near the camp-fire in the even- 

 ing, I heard No. 2 express some suiprise at the darino- I 

 had shown on this trying occasion, but I believe that this 

 is the only time that I have ever alluded to the matter- 

 and it must be understood that the above simple unvaru ' 

 ished tale is to be considered as strictly confidential 



Not all the bulls that have set up their projects in 

 opposition to mine have come off conquerors A eood 

 many years ago I found myself, after an arduous cam- 

 paign m the Southwest (in which I nearly perished) in 

 very indifferent health. As a consequence,* findim? that I 

 should probably die if I remained in civilization? I took 

 up a homestead on the Oconto River, in northern Wis 

 consm, cleared a patch of land, built a house, and lived 

 there some years. This move probably saved mv life 



I had planted a small garden near the house, and it had 

 begun to show good promise of rewarding my efforts 

 when one fine morning before breakfast, we heard a boo 

 booing, and on looking out, there was a large and lively 

 bull "pawing dirt and hooking gravel," right among my 

 garden-sass. I was surprised, for except one man whose 

 clearing joined my own, there was no one living within 

 some two miles on my side of the river, nor for three- 

 quarters or so on the other side. Where the brute should 

 have come from, I could in no wise determine. 



I caught up a handspike and went at him. We argued 

 the point for a few moments, when he broke for the 

 river, which ran some 40yds. from nay house. This 

 stream (the Oconto), was perhaps from 30 to 35yds. in 

 width, and near the shore on my side quite shallow; 

 so that the bull walked out to what he thought a safe dis- 

 tance in the shoal water, and stood there, fighting flies. 



I followed as far as the shore and shouted at him, with 

 no result. Then as they say in Texas, I "rocked" him, 

 Then I "chunked" him, but without avail. 



He didn't like the look of the deep water toward the 

 further shore, and he meant to return and complete his 

 analysis of my food products. 



Then I issued an order, which brought me in double- 

 quick time a shotgun and ammunition. This gun I 

 charged with a dose of No. 6, and just as that infernal 

 bull was subsiding apparently into a quiet nap, I sighted 

 for his starboard quarter, and cut loose. 



There was an agonized roar, a splash and a convulsive 

 spring that sent the pestiferous animal some 15ft. out into 

 the swirling rapid, and drove the spray against the 

 branches of the fir trees on the opposite shore. Not upon 

 the order of his going did he stand, but he got across 

 somehow, scrambled up the bank and disappeared in 

 cluster of tamaracks, and I went into breakfast. 



Kelpie. 



QUAIL AND LOCUSTS. 



The Ozarks, Mo. — I have been accustomed to the notes 

 of the quail from boyhood, and Bob White has a peculiar 

 charm for me, disassociated from any idea of autumnal 

 sport afield, but nowhere in all my travels have I 

 sojourned in a land where the musical whistle of Ortyx 

 virginianus was so common as in this locality. It is ex- 

 ceedingly pleasant to awake on a cool dewy morning 

 when the light of a new day begins imperceptibly to 

 make inroads upon the darkness of the waning night and 

 to hear from here, there, everywhere, in the woods, from 

 the fence top, the field, the copse, the hedge row, those 

 beautiful notes, Bob White, Bob White, each vieing with 

 the other in the liquid clearness of the call, seemingly 

 glad to the bubbling over in the enjoyment of the new 

 day and of life. This is a heavily wooded country, and 

 quail seem to be at home as much in the trees as on the 

 ground, at least more so than in any other place I have 

 been. Quail everywhere will alight in trees sometimes 

 when alarmed, but here I see them almost daily and hear 

 them calling from trees, and by the way I have thought it 

 possible that it was the female only that made that other 

 call different from Bob White which only the male makes. 

 Is it so? Who can tell? I was reminded of this by seeing 

 a female alight in a tree the other day and make this 

 peculiar whistle; meanwhile she lolled as a hen will on a 

 hot day. I frequently heard members of a bevy when 

 scattered make that call, but never, to my recollection, 

 saw whether it was male or female or both that made it! 

 This has been a favorable season for nesting and there 

 should be a "slew" of birds this fall. 



This is the year of the "seventeen-year locusts" here 

 and they are having their innings with a vengeance. 

 They are like the "leaves in Vallambrosa" or the hair on 

 a dog's back for number, millions, yea, verily, quadrill- 

 ions of millions of them, and they are playing havoc with 

 the fruit trees, the young trees especially. What an 

 engine of destruction the ovipositor of the female is, to be 

 sure. I have seen them over a quarter of an inch in 

 length, as hard and sharp as a needle, and thousands of 

 limbs a quarter of an inch or more in diameter of last 

 year's wood, pierced from either side and hanging down- 

 ward withering, bear abundant and lamentable evidence 

 of the muscular power with which these lances are driven 

 through bark and wood that reproduction may be carried 

 on. 



I came upon a fact some days since — new to me — which 

 is that it is the male only that has the corrugated music 

 boxes that deafen with their strident din. The female is 

 quiet, but she gets in her work all the same. Underneath 

 the shoulder of the wing of the male, on each side of the 

 thorax, is the convex, white, corrugated abomination 

 that makes the ear-splitting noise, made, I suppose, as in 

 the case of all the cicada?, by the rubbing of these corru- 

 gations or plates against each other. I haven't found out 

 yet what purpose this noise fulfills, and as time is passing 

 and I don't expect to be here when this crop of eggs 

 hatches out seventeen years hence, I shall have to hurry 

 up with my investigations now. When I ascertain I will 

 acquaint you. o. O. S. 



AT A DOLLAR APIECE. 



The spring is not the time to hunt most animals, yet it 

 is the only time to successfully hunt this class, Perhaps 

 you don't know what they can be. I will describe them 

 a little; of a yellowish, mottled color and long lithe 

 body; they do not stand high at the shoulders; their ears 

 are very short; they are very gamy and fight hard on the 

 defensive; they have from one to fifteen rattles on their 

 tail. Last year a bounty of $1 a tail was declared for the 

 extermination of the rattlesnakes in the town. The main 

 den is in Derby Holler, a decided "holler" on the lake 

 front in the Split Rock Mountains, Lake Champlain. At 

 the lower part of this basin, fronting the water for about 

 100 rods X 30, the surface is completely covered with broken 

 jagged rock, fallen from the escarpment above There 

 is no earth or vegetation of any kind anywhere to be seen 

 inside the den. In the holes and crevices under all this 

 debris are concealed for half the year hundreds of rattle- 

 snakes. The first Sunday in May without fail, so said, 

 the rattlers wake up and begin their tedious journey to 

 the woods and mountain pastures in search of their food 

 —frogs, birds' eggs, young of chipmunks, red squirrels 



time that I went hunting for them over 100 had been 

 killed. The rocks were strewn with their dead and 

 putrifying bodies. Most of them had either been killed 

 or made good their escape when we appeared upon the 

 scene. I killed only one, it having seven rattles. Mather 

 killed two babies, each having only a "button." Grey 

 killed one that had been deprived of his coveted end by 

 some former adventurer. We afterward learned who 

 had cut his tail off while he was escaping in the rocks. 



On close inquiry I cannot learn of a single case of 

 snake bite to man or beast from the inhabitants of this 

 den. I examined their fangs. They look just like a cat's 

 claw, white and curved, on the upper jaw. My snake 

 was as hollow as a rubber hose from his long fast. 



Query — Do they breed in the den or after leaving it? 



Essbx County, New York. HEATHCOTE. 



SERPENT SUICIDE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I am glad to see in your issue of the 9th inst. the article 

 on the suicide of a rattlesnake, and especially the rapid 

 mortality of its own bite. 



I can confirm Capt. Kingman by an observation of nl.y 

 own. Some years ago my brother and myself were rid- 

 ing together on horseback, and I saw a large copperhead 

 lying in the road itt stich a position that my brother was 

 about to ride over it. I Called to him that his horse 

 would be bitten and he reined to one side, stooping over 

 in the saddle and striking the snake just in front of the 

 back with the tip of a slender riding switch. The snake 

 immediately struck at the place where he felt the sting 

 of the switch and deeply implanted his fangs in his own 

 back, and as he snatched his head back we saw a drop of 

 blood ooze out from each puncture of the fangs. The 

 creature fell into violent contortions, and in less than two 

 minutes was lying belly upward, motionless and dead. 

 About an hour later we repassed the place and the reptile 

 was lying dead where we left him. The proposition 

 could not be maintained that the slight blow with the 

 keen small tip of a birch switch had killed a large and 

 powerful reptile. It certainly received no other injury 

 except its own bite, which I believe beyond all dispute 

 killed it, notwithstanding certain scientific experiments 

 seem to show that the snake's venom is innocuous to itself 

 and other snakes. 



I have, moreover, the facts of another case from my 

 brother-in-law, Dr. Rush Chancellor, his wife and another 

 of my sisters, who witnessed it. The doctor was driving 

 the ladies to church, and the wheel of the carriage nearly 

 passed over but did not touch a large copperhead, which 

 he gave a smart tap with his whip, when it struck its 

 fangs into its own body at the spot touched by the whip. 

 After very brief, violent contortions and writhings, as if 

 in intense pain, it rolled over dead, and was lying dead 

 in the spot they left it on their return from church, 



The accuracy of my observation having been questioned 

 by scientific experimenters, I am glad to see the record of 

 Capt. Kingman's case, and take this opportunity to record 

 my own observation and that of Dr. Chancellor. I haVe 

 not the least doubt that many other persons must have 

 witnessed the same thing. This seems to throw doubt oil 

 the value of experiments with captive snakes whose 

 venom was doubtless exhausted before the negative 

 results were obtained. I have no doubt we shall hear 

 from the gentlemen on that side of the question, but I 

 doubt if they can dispose of the cases of Capt. Kingman, 

 Dr. Chancellor and myself by any negative results so far 

 recorded. M. C. Ellzey, M.D. 



CUMBERSTONE, Md, 



BLACK AND GRAY WOODCHUCKS. 



Mr. John W. Rush, of this place, and myself have 

 found something new in woodchucks. Mr. Rush is an 

 expert forester and something of a naturalist. He wrote 

 you a few observations on these rodents, which you 

 printed in last week's issue of Forest and Stream. These 

 referred chiefly to their tree climbing habits and to their 

 color, which differs from that of the common field wood- 

 chuck. We do not claim the discovery of a new species, 

 for we detect no structural difference between the black 

 and the gray animals; but we are ready to assume that 

 their variation is analogous to that of the wood bison aiid 

 the plains bison, so that they may very properly be desig- 

 nated as the forest woodchuck and the field woodchuck, 

 the former confining itself to the woods and feeding on 

 browse, berries and nuts, while the latter seldom ventures 

 beyond the brink of the grass and clover fields. We 

 assume, too, that the forest woodchuck does not burrow 

 like its congener, but lives like squirrels in hollow stumps 

 and trunks of trees, climbing to the topmost fronds for 

 food, when not otherwise provided, and making winter 

 store in magazines. Charles Hallock. 

 Haines Falls, N. Y. v 



Five Lakes, Wis. — One of your correspondents says he 

 never knew a gray woodchuck to climb trees. This is the 

 only kind we have here, and it is a common occurrence 

 for them to tree when cut off from their burrows. While 

 out walking to day my little beagle Been treed one; it 

 ran up a smooth willow about 4in. in diameter to a height 

 of 20ft. They are very plenty here, and a great pest to 

 the farmers, as they are sure to choose a nice level meadow 

 for their burrows. W. E. W. 



Game Birds, Fires and Floods. 



Eagle Rook, Pa, June 11.— The birds have had a hard 

 chance here this spring. Forest fires during the nesting 

 time must have destroyed hundreds of nests, and those 

 that escaped the fire met with floods and cold wet weather 

 at the time the broods were hatching. Still I have heard 

 of two large broods of pheasants (ruffed grouse) within 

 the last week. Woodcock seem to have hatched well. 

 On May 13 I saw two broods which were half grown. 

 The earliest I have ever seen. 



I have a friend who bought a pup from me; I told him 

 it was a good dog, but he wouldn't take my word for it. 

 You know what Mr. Hough's standard is for a good bird 

 dog. Well, what did Sam do but run a loaded wagon 

 over his pup. Mc. 



etc. As cold weather warns them of the winter to DKi CooK,s Ahctic Expedition, a few sportsmen can join it. To 

 come they gradually work back to the den Tin rr> +>i 0 "Greenland's icy mountains.'' To within 800 miles of the North Pole. 

 J ueu - U P 10 tne 'Hunting polar bear, Beal, walrus and reindeer. —Adv. 



