86 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
Feb. 2, 1895. 
Market. That means from 8,700 to 10,000 ducks shipped 
daily from that one point alone. 
"Only one firm ships to New York. It operates at a 
point between Houston and Galveston, and it ships only 
high-class ducks, sprigtail and canvas-backs. All its.ducks 
are shipped to Delmonico, with whom the firm has a con- 
tract to deliver all that it kills. 
"Deer are killed within the city limits, at Lees and 
Michaud, on the L. & N. E. E, 
"The protection to fish and game and the total prohibi- 
tion of gill netting in waters contiguous to New Orleans, 
and the prevention of duck-shooting before the 1st of 
November, have resulted in a great and material increase 
in their numbers. The city laws are in addition to the 
State laws. The former are being enforced by the record- 
ers of the courts. The effect is that the game has increased 
both for the professional shooter and the amateur. 
'The regular market shooters have themselves estab- 
lished stringent regulations on duck-shooting, limiting 
the shooting from daylight to 9:30 or 10 o'clock A. M. 
These men often kill in a morning from 80 to 1G0 ducks. 
Tarpon. 
Mr. Manning also told of the vast numbers of tarpon 
seen in Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas, which are 
connected by Pass Mauchac. They could be seen jump- 
ing out of the water in great numbers. There is no doubt 
but what the tarpon abound in great numbers in the 
vicinity of New Orleans, and along the Gulf coast from 
Florida far West on the Texas coast. 
Robins. 
The robin seems to serve a double purpose in the domes- 
tic economy of man. In the North it is loved for its sim- 
ple melody and pleasant association, for it makes its nest 
near the abode of man. In Louisiana it is prized as an 
article of food, and for that purpose is killed in great 
quantities. It is not an uncommon sight to see men walk- 
ing along the streets with a lai-ge bunch of them, which 
they offer for sale or are carrying home. In the French 
Market bunches of them on sale can be seen at almost 
every stall where game is sold. B. WATEES. 
THE SENSES OF ANIMALS. 
Editor of Forest and stream: 
Under the heading, "The Lyre of Orpheus," in Forest 
and Stream of Dec. 22, is an article from one of your cor- 
respondents upon the very interesting subject of the 
senses of animals. 
While it is doubtless true, as he remarks, that in a 
large majority of species smell is the most important 
and reliable of their senses, there are some decided objec- 
tions to this rule, caused most probably by the nature of 
the surroundings, in which certain animals have ilved for 
many ages, having called other senses into greater use 
that that of smell. 
Judging f om what many expeiernced hunters state about 
the moose, it seems almost certain that hearing is the 
most acute and valuable to that animal of all its senses. 
An Indian with whom I once encamped, many years ago 
in the bush of New Brunswick, told me that when he was 
stalking moose in very stormy weather, they took no 
notice of branches or twigs snabped off by the wind, but 
if he broke one with his hands they instantly detected the 
difference in sound and ran away. 
The common antelope and gazelle of Ludia (Antilope 
Begoartica) and (Gazelle bennetti) always appeared to 
me to epen for saf ty almost entirely upon their sight, 
which is extraordinariyl long and good. The reason of 
that is that they have dwelt for great periods of time 
upon wide open plains where sight was more serviceable 
than hearing or smell, in saving them from danger. I 
have frequently observed them watching me from great 
distances. So long as I walked from them, or at right 
angles to their position, they stood still, but the instant I 
walked ' toward them they would run away, even when 
800 or 1,000 yards distant. 
Although their ears are large, I doubt if their hearing 
be very acute. I have often, by walking quietly in places 
covered with bushes, stalked to within 60 or 70 yards 
of an antelope and 20 to 40 yards of gazelle even when the 
ground consisted of bare hard clay or gravel, and I was 
wearing ordinary thick shooting boots. 
I also feel sure that either their sense of smell is dull or 
else that, being in the habit of feeding in cultivated 
countries they have learned to pay little attention to the 
scent of man. 
On one occasion I crawled to within 100 yards of a 
group of gazelles that were feeding upon the leaves of the 
bushes. I lay for a coniderable time watching their 
actions, and although a direct breeze was blowing in a 
direct line from me to them, they showed no suspicion 
of my presence. At length I tried to get a shot, but the 
instant that a few inches of the rifle barrel protruded 
outsie the bush behind which I was concealed, they saw 
it and ran off. 
There is no doubt that deer living habitually in thick 
woods depend for safety chiefly upon smell and hearing. 
Even if the sight be good, it seems in some species, de- 
cidedly limited in range. 
When stalking axis deer T^Axis maculatus) and seme 
kinds of antelopes which live much in thick jungles, it is 
not very difficult, by attending to the direction of the 
wind and gliding quietly from one tree trunk to another, 
to approach within 60 or 80 yards, even on ground where 
the trees are not particularly close together, and where 
some of the animals ought to see the hunter if they were 
long sighted. Deer and antelope living in mountains, 
where bare of trees like the Alps and Himalayas, have an 
acute smell and hearing, and also long and sharp sight. 
Mr. W. Baillie Grohman, in his work on Tyrol, says of 
the chamois, "Frightened by some unusual sound or 
sight, and dashing down the precipitous slopes of the 
most inaccessible mountains, it will suddenly * stop, as if 
struck by lightning, some yards from the spot where re- 
cent footprints are visible in the snow, or when, by a 
sudden veering of the wind, its keen scent has warned 
it of the vicinity of a human being." 
Lions, tigers and other animals of the cat tribe appear, 
from all accounts, to have only power of smell, and, to de- 
pend chiefly upon sight and hearing for either avoiding 
danger or finding the prey. 
Elephants certainly have very inferior sight, but then- 
senses of hearing, smell, and touch, are wonderfully 
good. I believe that a wild elephant that had become 
totally blind would have little difficulty in finding food 
and accompanying the rest of the herd anywhere. 
I was once for several clays with a shooting party in 
the Terai, a broad belt of jungle at the foot of the Him- 
alayas. Each of us had an elephant to ride, and one, 
upon which a friend was mounted, was perfectly blind in 
both eyes, yet he kept, with apparent ease, in line with 
the other elephants when walking at their usual pace, 
and avoided trees, crossed swamps, and went in and. out 
of water courses (some of which had perpendicular sides 
and were 7 or 8 feet deep) quite as safely as those which 
could see. The end of his trunk was constantly at work, 
feeling the ground and everything within reach. 
On another occasion when I went shooting in the Se- 
walik Hills, at the northwest point of the Bengal Presi- 
dency, accompanied by a native shikari, we came upon 
the tracks of wld elephants and, following them for some 
distance, suddenly found ourselves in sight of two bulls, 
two cows and a calf about the size of a bullock. They 
had ihrown sand over their backs to keep off the flies, as 
is the custom of tame elephants, and were browsing upon 
some small trees some seventy yards from us. Al- 
though the intervening ground was perfectly bare they 
did not see us, and we sat down upon a grassy back to 
watch their actions. There was r.o wind, but in a very 
short time the two bulls smelled us, and turned their 
heads in our direction. They stood moving their trunks 
from one side to the other to discover our exact position, 
and, having made up their minds about that, pointed their 
trunks straight at us for a few moments, then turned and 
walked rapidly away, followed by the others. 
It is often supposed that the elephant is a clumsy ani- 
mal, but, out of curiosity, I followed their tracks for 
about two miles, and found that they had walked up 
ridges so steep that I was obliged to hold on to the rocks 
with one hand while climbing them, and in some places 
they had apparently knelt and slid from the top to the 
bottom of grassy slopes that I could only descend in an 
oblique direction. 
The statement of old writers about elephants making the 
ground tremble when they walk are utter nonsense. An 
elephant driven by his mahout, at a fast walk along a 
macadamized road, steps so lightly that he sometimes 
overtakes a man and passes within a yard before the 
latter is aware of his presence. 
While it is generally true, as your correspondent re- 
marks, that wild animals realize danger only in life, and 
life only in motion, it is wonderful how soon they learn 
to distinguish between that which is dangerous or other- 
wise, whether alive or not. Wild elephants, for instance, 
are greatly terrified at lightning, probably because they 
sometimes see their comrades killed, or trees destroyed 
by it. 
In parts of India where there are few native shikaris, 
antelopes, gazelles and nilghai, allow natives to pass them 
on open ground within 60 or 70 yards, while Europeans, 
trying to stalk them have much difficulty in approach- 
ing within treble that distance. 
It might be imagined that nothing would lie more ter- 
rifying to wild animals than a railway train rushing along 
at full speed, but they soon discover that it does not hurt 
them if they keep off the rails. When traveling by train 
I have passed within 50 yards of herds of antloepe, and 
noticed that they were so unconcerned that those which 
were lying down did not take the trouble to rise. 
Some animals seem to distinguish between a man with 
a gun and one without. Rooks in England undoubtedly 
do so, and there is reason, to believe that other animals 
can learn the difference. I was stationed for six months 
at a place where jackals swarmed, and as they destroyed 
a great quantity of feathered game, I tried to dimmish 
their numbers. The district being too thickly inhabited 
to make the use of a rifle safe, I generally carried a shot- 
gun when out walking in the evenings, but never once 
had a chance of firing at a jackal. On many occasions, 
when I had no gun, they came out of the growing crops, 
and stood looking at me within thirty yards, or walked 
quietly across the road, not more than that distance in 
front of me. 
There is one point upon which opinions of practical 
sportsmen and naturalists would be interesting. Are not 
wild creatures subject, like ourselves, to absence of mind? 
There seems no other way for accounting of the fact 
that one of them will occasionally, though of course very 
rarely, stand looking toward a hunter until he is quite 
near, and then apparently awake with a start and bound 
away. J J. MEYEICK. 
Maine Local Laws- 
Legislation is progressing slowly in Maine, but both House 
and Senate are flooded with a mass of proposed law, both for 
private districts and waters. Some of the propositions are 
absurd, and sectional in the extreme. Capt. Fred C. Barker, of 
Lake Mooselucmaguntic, was in Boston Friday, for a short 
trip, in the interest of a continued charter for his steamers. Pie 
hopes that little new legislation will get through concerning fish 
and game. He believes, that with a very few changes, the 
laws now in force are excellent. It is better enforcement that 
is wanted. He is strongly in hopes that the added appropria- 
tion, asked for by the friends of protection, will he obtained. 
A hearing has been had before the committee on Judiciaiw, in 
the interests of the proposed change to a commission to take 
all special and local matters effecting fish and game protection 
in charge, and has already been explained in the Forest and 
Stream. The measure was thoroughly advocated by some of 
the best game protectors in the State, and it is believed that 
the committee may recommend a bill. It is believed that a 
measure of this sort, wdrile stopning the continued string of 
special laws asked for and sometimes obtained, will also put 
the special protection of streams and ponds and sections of 
country into the hands of a good commission, which would be 
more likely to rule according to .the merits of the case. This 
commission would have the power to prevent fishing and shoot- 
ing, in eases of extreme need, at any and all times. The ad- 
vocates of such a commission say that it often happens that 
very disastrous fishing and shooting is indulged in at times and 
seasons when the law is inoperative. Deer, for instance, have, 
the past two years, come down into the more settled counties 
of the State, and have fed there unmolested till the open season 
began, when immediately they have been set upon by a score 
of hunters and every one killed, notwithstanding the owners 
of the land where they have frequented, and many of the best 
citizens of the towns would have been glad if they could have 
been let alone for a couple of years at least. Again certain 
waters are frequently excessively fished, when if there was a, 
reasonable commission to stop it, the fishing might be pre-, 
served, to reasonable nshgrujeQ. if5S,r,(jftd of being utterly des-t 
troyed, \u th§ opea ge&SQo, 
SPECIAL. 
Hudson River Fishways. 
Mr, A. C. Johnson, an engineer living at Mechanicsville, 
N. Y.. has taken an active interest in the building and main- 
taining of fishways in the Hudson River since the first salmon 
appeared in the river opposite the village in which he lives. I 
am under obligations to Mr. Johnson for frequent reports con- 
cerning the condition of the fishway at Mechanicsville, and 
about the salmon in the river. He now writes me: "Do you 
know what is to be doue this winter in the Legislature about 
fishways? I see not a word in the newspapers about it. I think 
there was not a single salmon at Mechanicsville last season, and 
yet I never saw a word in the Troy papers as to why they where 
not there. There should be some provision made for repairing 
fishways, for as it now stands there is no money for such repairs. 
For $50 the fishway at our place can be repaired'so that drift- 
wood cannot gee into it. At present it is filled with drift. The 
game protector cleared it all out last summer, but he had no 
orders nor money to fix it so that it could not again fill up, and 
it is about.full again. If called upon, I will do all I can to make 
the situation here plain. VV e must have the fishway in the Troy 
dam rebuilt next season, but I cannot learn that anything is 
beiug done about it, and I am getting so uneasy that I had to 
write you. I have watched the working of this fishway so 
closely, and know what it will do if attended to, that I am 
anxious th=»t an early move should be made on the Legislature 
that we will not get left in the rush at the close of the session. 
We have formed a Rod and C4uu Club here, as you will have 
learned through Forest and Stream, f or practice and for the 
protection of fish and game. As president of the club, I wish to 
say we will do all that we can to aid in procuring fishways, but 
if the fishway is to remain^useless by reason of the driftwood in 
it which prevents fish from passing through it, we would like 
the signs removed which forbid fishins: within a certain distance 
of the fishway. We would much prefer to have the fishway 
epaired and kept in order. 
In the last published report of the New- York Fish Commis- 
sioners, for the year ending September 30, 1893, they say, on 
page 12: "The fishway at Laekawaxen was so damaged by the 
ice last winter as to be useless, while the one at Troy was en- 
tirely destroyed in the early part of lastsummer." It will be 
seen, by looising at the provisions of the chapters referred to 
(Construction of Fishways), that the maintenance of these two 
important fishways, as well as other fishways in the State, is 
wholly in the care of the Superintendent of Public Works. 
The Commissioners of Fisheries ai - e entirely helpless in the mat- 
ter. In -the instances above referred to the Commissioners have 
both, by letter and in person, repeatedly urged upon the Super- 
intendent of Public Works the urgent necessity of repairing the 
fishwav at Laekawaxen and replacing the fishway at Troy. 
This certainly ought to have been done so that next spring the 
fish might ascend to their spawning beds. His answer to our 
request was that there were no moneys available for such pur- 
jjoses, and the most important fishways in the State are useless. 
Then follows a request that provision be made in the Supply 
Bill for money to make the necessary repairs. 
Nothing was done in the matter by the succeeding Legislature, 
nd the Commissioners refer to it again in their report for 1894, 
not yet printed. It is true chat the laws providing for fishways 
direct, that they shall be built and maintained by the Superin- 
tendent of Public Works, under the direction of the Fish Com- 
missioners, but up to very recentlythe Fish Commissioners have 
understood that they were to keep the fishway open and free 
from drift, and they did it by giving orders to he game pro- 
tectors to this effect. 
I cannot say what legislation may be expected on this sub- 
ject, but the Mohican Rod nd Gun Club, of Glen Falls, with a 
membership roll embracing the officers of the corporations, 
paper pulp lumber mills and factories that occupy nearly all 
the water-front above the fishway last built, will send a petition 
to the Legislature, asking that the Troy fishway may be rebuilt 
and that fishways may be built above Thomson's Mills. The 
club has sent circulars to the members of the Legislature, con- 
taining: an agerement in favor of building of fishways. 
A. N. CHENEY. 
\nti\e §ag nx\d 
SHOOTING AT GREEN LAKE. 
Portland, Oregon, Jan. 16.— The pleasure to be derived 
from sports afield can only be determined by each indi- 
vidual sportsman's measure. What would constitute 
sport for one man would be spiritless and insipid to an- 
other. One would be disappointed if he did not succeed 
in bagging a cart-load of ducks, while another would be 
ashamed to bring such an evidence of a porcine nature 
into town. In nothing else does a man's true nature 
shine out so justly and faithfully as in his treatment of 
the lower orders of life from what he is pleased to desig- 
nate "the sportsman's standpoint." It has been said that 
open confession is good for the soul; and while I would 
scorn to be recognized as a game hog, I must confess that 
I have always been rather proud of big bags and well- 
filled creels. I am getting rid of that disposition to a de- 
gree, but the boys cruelly insinuate that it is because I 
am getting old. 
Byron, speaking of his governess, said: "She taught me 
how to read, and taught so well, that she herself, by 
teaching, learned to spell." So might my friend J. Eob- 
erts Mead say of me. Coming here from Connecticut, 
ignorant of this country, its sporting resources and its 
sporting customs, he appealed to me, some years ago, for 
direction, if not instruction. We have just returned 
from an outing wherein Brother Mead instructed me some- 
what in the ethics of true sportsmanship. 
Let me tell you about it. Saturday morning weather 
indications pointed ve-y favorably toward ducks. Mead 
undertook the difficult task of inducing me to accompany 
him on a trip down to his preserve, the famous Green 
Lake in Washington. Well, he succeeded in his under- 
taking admirably; and 2 P. M. found us, well equipped, 
aboard the little river boat "Iralde," bound for the "happy 
hunting ground," so to speak. 
We ferried across Lake Eiver while it was yet light, and 
found Johnny ready for us with a line hot supper. 
Johnny, you must know, guards the lake from trespassers; 
and incidentally cuts wood, washes dishes, stows the 
boats and puts decoys away after the day's shooting, and 
makes himself decidedly useful. In fact, Johnny is a 
prize, and Mead may consider himself fortunate in secur- 
ing such a man for the place. While 1 am not ignorant 
of the fact that Forest and Stream has prohibited essays 
on the subjects of eating and drinking, 1 would like the 
pri vilege of informing the general public that Mead is a 
good provider and a marvelous eater. In the matter of 
selecting good things to eat and drink, and knowing how^ 
to cook and eat and drink them, Mead is a great success* 
and the sportsman lucky enough to secure an invitation 
to accompany him to the Green Lake had better accept. 
Well, after supper we proceeded to do just about what 
other hunters would do under like circumstances. We 
smoked and talked over the many filiating and fishing 
