364 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[May 8, 1897. 
could frequently squeeze into tile openings among the 
crooked poles. The instant she did bo Lion would dash to 
the other end and stand guard. Then the pcor rabbit 
was doomed. The most amusing part of the transaction 
would be the little dog's excitement, when, as often hap- 
pened, she could not follow the rabbit through, but had to 
back out. The reckless haste which she made to the other 
end of the pile to see whether Lion had done his part was 
extremely comical. 
I am glad Mount Tom can appreciate a dog's smile. I had 
often spoken of it to my wife, to whom all dogs look alike 
dreadful. But she could never see it till a year or two ago, 
when as we were visiting a friend's hacienda a greyhound 
puppy greeted us one morning with a smile that was abso- 
lutely dazzling. A dog shows his teeth in smiling, like ihe 
human arimal, but supplements this very effectually with 
ears and tail. 
Now, you see, T started to answer Mount Tom's question, 
"Did they reason?'' and inasmuch as this screed may not be 
scientifically clear, I will give you my answer here: Of 
course they reasoned, just as you do and just as I do. I al- 
ways believed it, and' I believe it a good deal more since 
reading Mr. Thompson's capital letter. Aztec, 
S.AJ1 Luis Potosi, Mexico. • 
CARNIVOROUS SQUIRRELS. 
Hab it not been that I read Mr. Sandys's note in 
Forest and Stream, April 24, about carnivorous squirrels, I 
doubt if I would have had the courage to write the follow- 
ing: 
Last September I was fishing the Metabetchouan Eiver, 
in Canada, for ouananiche. Our camp was in a shanty 
near the third, or Island Pool, and one morning going 
down the steep path to the pool I stepped over a dead 
snake. I was going so fast, rather against my will on 
account of the grade, that I was not sure the snake was 
dead, and when I could pull myself up and come to a halt 
by grabbing the bushes, I turned back to make sure. To 
my surprise a chipmunk was tearing away at the dead 
snake like one possessed. It was a double surprise; first, 
that the little animal should be there at all a few seconds 
after I had. passed over the spot, and second, that it should 
be eating the flesh of the snake, for that was certainly 
what it seemed to be doing when I interrupted it. When 
we returned from the pool we examined the snake, and it 
had a hole back of its neck which looked as though some- 
thing had eaten of the snake, taut my friend Mr. Ratlibone 
laughed me to scorn when I said it was the mark of the 
chipmunk, for he contended that the "chip" was not car- 
nivorous. Certainly the "chip" was not playing tag with 
the dead snake when I caught him in the act of digging 
into the snake's vitals with his teeth; and if he was not 
breaking his fast, what was he doing? I made a memor- 
andum of the facts on the spot, but have never dared until 
now to print them. A. N. C. 
Gloucester, Mass., April 19. — Could Jacobstaff walk in 
on me at this time he would not only see a squirrel eat 
meat, but he would hear as well. A red squirrel sits on a 
post at the open door gnawing a bit of well-fried pork 
rind. This squirrel is not famished, for there is food 
enough for a dozen or more in the door-yard. Besides, he 
has just left off sprouting sweet acorns, so he could have 
had his fill, but instead is eating meat because he seems to 
relish a certain amount. 
I have to inclose all fat meat for chickadees and nut- 
hatches in wire netting to keep the squirrels from carrying 
it away. 
Squirrels prefer the flesh of birds to any other meat, but 
will eat all kinds, choosing the lean first. 
Red squirrels eat young birds, and doubtless would eat 
old ones if they could catch them. The scamps give me 
no rest while the young birds are in my door-yard. 
By the way, I wonder if it is generally known that 
squirrels sprout acorns just as farmers sprout potatoes? 
Well, thev do, and for the same reason. Some time in the 
near future I will write out what I have observed of this 
interesting feature of squirrel life for Forest and Stkeam. 
Hermit. 
Bethleiiem, Pa., April 29. — I noticed in Fobest and 
Stream something regarding the carnivorous propensities 
of squirrels. I have had nearly all varieties in captivity, 
and found that they were very fond of meat occasionally, 
ftither cooked or raw. A chipmunk fairly goes crazy over 
a piece of raw beef and devours a worm with relish. 
Mohican, 
EdifM" Forest mid Stream: 
In my short article on a shooting with a muzzleloader of 
105 f quirrels in a little over two hours, the rodents feeding 
on a dead horse, I merely wished to record a tale as told me, 
for your Camp-fire Flickeiings column. 
The allusion to the carnivorous act, situation .of teeth, 
grinders, etc., I put in as a "flyer," hoping to draw out some 
of your many correspondents. I was glad to see that our 
friend E W. Sandis has very pleasantly replied. Of course, 
the Sdurklce are carnivorous at times. I had a pair of black 
squirrels that, having been caught when quite young, be- 
came very lame and veiy mischievous, as well as smart. 
They were allowed to roam at will over the house and exten- 
sion grounds, and I well remember that quite a large dish of 
sausages was cleaned up in rapid time by the scoundrels 
while the good housewife's back was turned, and that after 
she had just given them a hearty meal of corn. 
They did not masticate the meat, hut, like the vulture and 
buzzard, simply gorged. Am I not right V But those little 
black imps would devour anj'thing,'apples, cabbage, lettuce, 
and I don't know but what they would suck eggs (though I 
won't swear to that), I believe they disposed of a fib, trout 
that I had reserved for one of our professor-'. We could not 
prove it on them, and it was laid to the cat; but as the cat 
had disappeared some two weeks before and had not been 
seen since, it was doubtful. 
I think these queries and answers by brother sportsmen 
are a very pleasant feature in a paper like ours. It is bring- 
ing together, as it were, in closer communion of congenial 
spirits. And if we cannot talk with our brother in these 
columns, where can we? There are eyes and eyes. Some 
eyes see what other eyes, even when directed to the same 
objects, do not, especially when viewing nature "in its 
various moods," and the peculiarities of its wild creatures' 
life. Some eyes are very keen, and their owners know how 
to use them, and to tell us about what they see, and to tell 
it well; and we, the less favored, are made glad by .what we 
are able to see through then- eyes. 
But. pshaw! I am getting garrulous (that's a gocd word, 
isn't it ?j. But I am getting old, and can oo longer climb 
the rugged mountain after the whirring grouse, nor tramp 
the fields as I could a score of years ago, but I like to .see in 
print the good times others are having. 
Some philospher has said that there sre only two pleasures 
in this life: the "pleasure of anticipaiion" and "(he 
pleasure of retrospection." Well, I am .principally on the 
retrospect just now, and I know that in a varied career of 
nearly three snore and ten I have had my share of enjoy- 
ment in the victories in forest smd field, and by the babbling 
brooks or sounding waves of the sea. There I go agsin. 
Good luck and good cheer to all brother lovers of the dog 
and gun. ^ Jacobstaeb-. 
The Cat and the Door-Liatcfa.. 
Ohaklestown, N, H., April S7. — Editor Mrest and 
Stream: When that happy time comes, it ever, when corre- 
spondents of Forest and Stream shall meet in the flesh, as 
thf-y now do in its columns in the spirit, I shall hops to be 
able to shake hands with (Jharles Josiah Adams. 
Mr. Adams's own book, on his dog, was first loaned me by 
a friend, but recently the rector of the church in this village, 
which makes "three of us" who agree. 
Many yesirs ago, when I was a small b:)V, my mother 
owned one of the old-fashioned "tortoise-shell" cats, so much 
oftener read of than seen. Now, pussy, though a celebrated 
mouser, was rather a misanthropic individual, and avoided 
personal contact with the family as much as possible, but 
iiad a great fondness for the warm spot under the kitchen 
stove, from which she was often, for various reasons, shut 
out. Still, she was often found in the kitchen when she bad 
been expelled, while no one had opened the door for her, 
and her entrance was alpuzzle, until one day, when one of the 
family discovered the secret. Just outside the door leading 
into the back kitchen stood a long wash-sink against tlie 
wall, with it'^ front edge just coming out to the line of the 
doorjamb. Eighteen inches or so above this, in the coiner 
next the door, was a broad she'f, on which stood the soap- 
dish. 
The door had the old-fashioned "latch" on the inside, with 
the handle and thumb-plate on the outside, Now, pussy 
was seen by some one out on the "stoop" to jump up on the 
sink, and from there to the soap shelf, and thence down 
against the door, bringing her paws together on the thumb- 
plate, and thus lifting the latch inside, while the weight of 
her body forced the door open. 
Of conrse, like all cats, she landed on hei feet on the fl jor, 
and gently walked into the now open door and took up her 
accustomed position under the stove. 
Now, if this was not a clear case of reasoning 1 never 
heard of one. Yon W. 
"Instinct vs. Reasoning." 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have so often broken lances with my respected friend, 
Bev Charles Josiah Adams, on the above matter, and have 
so thoroughly appreciated bis chivalry as an opponent, that 
we seem to have about agreed to disagree. 
If you will permit, 1 will say that the question whether in- 
telligent acts in animals proceed from instinct, or from reas- 
oning, narrows down to a very small lane — thus: We all 
a<lmit that there is a wide difference between the mentalities 
of man and the lower animals. There are acts involving 
reasoning, so low in reasoning lequireinents as to be within 
the compass of the mentalities of the most degraded of hu- 
man beings, and yet are entirely beyond the powers of the 
most intelligent animal. The gathering of apes around the 
expiring fire left by travelers, basking in and enjoying its 
warmth, yet totally incapable of maintaining the source of 
their enjoyment by pushing the expiring embers together, or 
the cow, quieted by the stuffed skin of her recently killed 
calf being given her. prccseding to eat the hay with which 
that skin was stuifed, are all illustrations of this. Now 
with such glaring instaoces of incapacity to reason staring 
us in the face, is it not clear that the lower animals do not 
reason in the sense that man does, and that theiriutelligences 
difl'er in kind even more than in degree? W. Wade. 
Oakmost, Pa., April 27. 
The Crocodile's Upper Jaw. 
Jacksonville, Fla., April 21.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
In reference to the statement of mine that the Nicaraguan 
alligators lie With their mouth wide open, the upper jaw 
elevated, nearly at a right angle, 1 inclose a letter just re- 
ceived from ijieut. Peary, the Arctic explorer, who pre- 
ceded me in cemmand of the expedition engaged in laying 
out the Nicaragua Canal. You will see that this letter con- 
firms my statement, and further confirmation may be fecund 
in the writings of Alex Von Humboldt, who states the same 
fact as to the alligators of South America that he saw in his 
travels. J. Francis LeBaron, 
Lieut, Peary writes to Mr, LeBaron; "I have repeatedly 
seen the alligators lying on the sand banks in the San Juan 
with their upper jaws elevated at a very high angle, though 
I could hardly swear that the jaws were precisely perpen- 
dicular, To all intents and purposes 1 believe your state- 
ment to be correct, R N. Peary, Civil Engineer, U. S, N. 
A Cat Adopts a Rat. 
Belleville, Ont., April 29. — The following is taken from 
a newspaper published in thisci'y; "Mr. J. G. Davison, i^ 
owner of a cat which recently gave birth to two kittens 
The other day he discovered a nest of rats and caught an 1 
gave them to the cat, which killed and devoured all but one, 
which it has adopted. She prizes it as much as her legiti- 
mate offspring and fondles and licks it with every symp- 
tom of a mother's affection, and the young rodent i^ very 
happy with its adopted mother. Perhaps the mother'd af- 
fection is genuine and then again she may be waiting for a 
good fat meal. 
A Coon's Age. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A common expression for an indefinite, but rather long, 
time is "a coon's age." There is no need to suppose that 
this is based upon a popular impression that the raccoon is 
particularly long-lived, but what are the facts? Can any of 
your readers give any precise knowledge of the ages which 
coons have been known to reach? E, I. 
Bewick's Wren in Northern Ohio. 
L-AKEWOOD, O., April 30.— I caught to-day with my hand 
a fine male specimen of this species, while the bird was flying 
against the window of my hen-house, I have been a Very 
close observer and collector of birds for the past twenty-five 
years, and never saw nor heard of one being taken here be- 
fore. I therefore think I can safely say that this is the first 
on record in this vicinity. A. Hall. 
'^wj^ md §tttj^ 
FORTY YEARS IN GAME COUNTRIES. 
Northwest Territories, — Editor Forest ayid Stream: t, 
am now going to do what I have often intended to do for 
some years, but have been stopped by what is generally 
called procrastination, and at the same time being in doubt 
whether some of my hunting experiences would be accept- 
able to your valuable paper, being in many ways so oppo- 
site to what the general ideal of your hunting correspond- 
ents express. 
I have retired after having enjoyed the best hunting in 
this country. From 1854 I had the buff'aloto 1860. I then 
went West, and hunted the Upper Frazer through to the 
Finlay Branch, and down the Stikeen River to the coast 
till 1865. From there I came back to the north branch of 
the Saskatchewan, and hunted for five years on the east 
side and through the Rockies up to the Laird River, with' 
out going out once from 1860 to 1870; I was not employed, 
but was on a simple hunting and prospecting tour from 
1870 to 1893. I have hunted through the whole of the 
Peace River, Atliabasca River, English River, in fact from 
the Rockies to York Factory and Churchhill, and north 
to Great Slave Lake. I may safely say there is no one in 
the country who knows so much of it as I do, or who has 
enjoyed such unlimited sport — buffalo in Saskatchewan in 
thousands; big horns, goats, caribou, bears of all kinds in 
the Rockies; bears and caribou on the west side; bears, 
moose, caribou and reindeer in Peace River, Athabasca 
and English River, to say nothing of thousands of beaver; 
and as for wildfowl — geese, swans and ducks — you can im- 
agine what they must have been on large feeding and 
breeding grounds, where few disturb them and shot is the 
only scarce article. ' 
Now for one reason I don't agree with most of your 
hunting correspondents. Some write in favor of large 
bore rifles, some for middling size, some for small, for 
moose to grizzly bears, I say never take a rifle in a wood 
country if you are a hunter; and particularly never fire at 
a grizzly bear at more than four or five steps from him; and 
if your nerves are what they ought to be, you kill him at 
once or run on him with the left barrel and blow his 
brains out. Use a double-barrel gnn. You can shoot 
quicker than with a rifle, which in thick woods is neces^ 
saty, and you should never shoot moose or any large defir 
over lOOyda. at the most, and seldom at that distance. 
My idea of a hunter is a man who can beat an animal 
■With his own weapons: the game has good eyes, good ears 
and good nose to save himself with and enable him to run 
from danger before it is too close. If you are a himter 
you should be able to approach him so close that he can- 
not get away. I used nothing but a muzzleloading 
double-barrel gun, 28-bore, for all my hunting up to 1886, 
when I took a run home to England, and then I had 
inade a breechloader of 20-bore. I would use no other 
either for ball or shot; and even here, with all sorts of 
hunters dnd gufis about me, my small bol'e fills up the ba^ 
with ducks, chickens, snipe, etc., as well as the 12 and 
l6-bore do. 
Your hunters may call me a pot-hunter, and I may call 
them only target shooters, who could not live by their 
guns unless they had markets close at hand. H, I. M, 
WESTERN GUIDES AND OUTFITS. 
Rocky Mountains, April 20. — Editor Fore&t and Stream: 
It may possibly be an advantage to some of your readers 
who contemplate a camping trip in the Rocky Mountains 
with pack and saddle animals, to know what provisions 
one wants to take along, and cost for guides, packer.'?, 
cooks, saddle and pack animals. As there is not a uni- 
form rate throughout the West, I will only give the prices 
usually charged in Montana and Wyoming by the out- 
fitters. 
As a rule, your guide will furnish everything required 
for the trip, and if informed in time will have everything 
ready to start on your arrival at his headquarters. This 
means several days' work, for which there is no charge. 
If you wish to rough it a bit and do some of the cam]i 
work (presuming you know how), you can get along with 
one man, who is guide, packer and cook. As there is con- 
siderable work in camp and on the trails, he will not be 
able to devote much time to your pleasure. If you 
have another man along to do the cooking, helj^ pack, see 
to the camp and animals, your guide can devote all his 
time to you. If you wish to go very comfortably and have 
camp chairs, tables, cots, your bed made down at night 
and rolled for you in the morning; if you wish to start 
out ahead of the pack train, not seeing them again until 
night; if you don't wish to travel with the pack animals 
along the trails, nor to take a hand now and then to pull 
one out of the mud and get its pack off and on again — you 
would better have another man to help the cook take care 
of the pack outfit. He can look after the horses, help the 
cook, buikl camp-fires and do many of the thousand and 
one things constantly turnings up. You can get along 
without them, however. It all depends on how you wish 
to travel. Additional men and horses mean additional 
expense. If you travel alone it.is more expensive than for 
each one of a party, when there are companions to share 
the expenses. But if you are on a hunting trip and there 
is more than one hunter in the party, he^must share the 
country with the others or make side trips from a main 
camp. If you are out only for pleasure to see the country 
or for scientific purposes, your party can be large to your 
advantage, making the expenses much less where shared 
by many, at the same time giving you ample help in 
camp. 
The first important thing is to secure your guide. Con- 
tract with him for everything you wish him to furnish at 
so much per day, for a stated number of days if possible. 
Understand just how much you are to pay before starting 
out. Don't wait until the trip is over before making ^ 
bargain. 
I ought to say something about both parties standing by 
their contract. If by any unforeseen cause you are obliged 
to give up your trip at the last moment, ought you to pay 
for the whole thing, just as though you made the whole 
trip? The guide has made a bargain with you for a service] 
he has engaged men, possibly having taken them from 
other work; has refused other parties, and might be unable 
to get another trip that year; in fact, would lose his sea-! 
son's work by your failure to go. On ttie other hand, 
