PEC. 31 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
445 
Yankee, an' was hard to keep from eating colored boys, 
but if you don't have the mules here in ten minutes I'll 
have you for dinner." 
Old George, the Doctor thought, had no religious 
scruples about travel on Sunday, but he hoped for a 
pecuniary reward fof doing it, and after the mules were 
hitched and the start was made he Said: "The bluff 
didn't work, but it was fun to see it tried. These darkies 
are not consistent and are not truthful, George has 
not half as much respect for Sunday as we have, but on 
this occasion he paraded his respect for the day in an 
attempt to get money; it did not work, and here we 
go." 
The old darky took his place on the driver's seat as 
usual. If he was at all disgruntled by my action it was 
not apparent, for he soon began to sing: 
"Roll, Jordan, roll; roll, Jordan, roll; 
I want to go to heaven w'en I die, 
To hear old Jordan roll," 
He gave us snatches of other religious songs, for the 
plantation darky is fond of sonorous hymns, especially 
if there is a good chorus to them. When we stopped for 
dinner he asked: "Is yo' gwine tfabbel alt day?" 
The deference with which he asked this question was 
evidence that he acknowledged my assumption of 
authority over him and his team, therefore I answered: 
"Yes, all day or all night, until we reach the river. 
We've fooled along this toad too much, and the soon- 
er you push your mules into Plaquemine the sootfer 
they'll get a rest, and if you can't get them there to- 
night, I will." 
"I dun no, 1 'spect de rain's make de road sof\ all' de 
wagon clone pull hahd, but if yo' fnuV get dah to-uight 
we s gvvine try*" 
As we .started and the Doctor and I dropped into oUr 
places behind the Wagoh, he remarked: "I've enjoyed 
the way that yoU have issued orders where yott really 
have no authority, and also the way in which they have 
been obeyed. The boy is afraid of yott, and perhaps his 
faihet is also, but there is no excuse for more delay. 
We had only about thirty miles to go when we started 
yesterday noon, and can't have much mote than hall 
that distance before us now; but if you let George have 
ibis way it will take two days to get to the river," 
Then I adopted new tactics: at every stretch of good 
^olid road we would pile in over the tail board and one 
of us would work uo alongside of George and "feed" 
'the mules with the blacksnake until they were wide 
awake; and we had over an hour of daylight when we 
pulled up at a hotel in Plaquemine, then a village of 
.some 2,000 inhabitants. We gave George enough to buy 
several new blacksnakes, and when I told him that I 
knew the mules could make the trip before night he 
grinned and replied: "Yassah, but dey done got some 
help wid de blacksnake, o' 1 'spect we. be back in de 
woods now." 
We got a steamer for New Orleans about midnight, 
S4id next day Dr. Gordon voluntarily solved the riddle 
that I had propounded to myself. In the course of con- 
versation he told me that his father was a rich Georgia 
planter, but he had run away from home with a circus 
when fourteen years old, and had gone North; inter- 
spersing his narrative with reminiscences of Dan Rice, 
Jo. Petitland, Dan Costello and Tony Pastor; names 
known to every boy half a century ago, when a circus 
billed its clown as the star feature, and had only one. 
who was better known to the small boy than any of our 
statesmen. Two years of this life satisfied him, and the 
boy went home. Then he studied medicine in New 
Ycrk and graduated; drifted to California and back to 
Chicago until the Civil War broke out, when he re- 
turned to Georgia and was appointed surgeon of a 
Confederate regiment. Afterward he had traveled 
abroad. Hence my failure to fix his locality by provin- 
cial terms and expressions, he was too thoroughly cos- 
mopolitan to be so fixed. 
The Doctor knew of a quiet restaurant where for three 
days we had green-winged teal served in different ways, 
-and he declared that they were all so good that he 
couldn't tell which were best, and that never, until then, 
did he know how much excellence lay under the feathers 
of a duck that was usually spoiled in the cooking. He 
said: "I will treasure your rule and never allow any 
sort of dressing in a wild duck unless the bird is fishy 
or sedgy, and the flavor is to be destroyed." 
As a man of leisure the Doctor could hardly under- 
stand my anxiety to get back to Washington with my 
specimens, and make my report; but some years later 
be dropped into the aquarium at Broadway and Thirty- 
fifth street, and in the evening we ate teal in my favorite 
Cafe, and in memory floated down the Atchafalaya River, 
hunted frogs and squirrels in the intervals of black- 
snaking the ribs, of mules over the roads through the 
woods in Iberville Parish, after time had obliterated all 
llhe discomforts of the trip, while memory retained only 
the pleasures which were magnified in the fog of distance 
and loomed up as our pleasures of the past are wont to 
!do. 
The past is all that we are sure of, and the 'good 
old days" are always behind us, but when they were 
with us we still looked 'back or forward, according 
as we were old or young. It was with young men in 
mind that Pope wrote: "Man rrever is, but always to be 
blest." 
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Subscribers are asked to note on the wrapper the 
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promptly for renewal, that delays may be avoided. 
For prospectus and advertising rates see page iii. 
The Antelope's Horns. 
To men who have hunted much in the West the 
antelope is familiar* and needs no description. Strong, 
swift and graceful, he gives life and movement on the 
bare yellow prairie, where often no other living thing 
is to be seen. Being so common and so familiar, few 
people realize how singular an animal the American 
antelope is. They may imagine — if they think about it 
at all — that other creatures like him inhabit other por- 
tions of the globe, and perhaps suppose that the antelopes 
of Asia and of Africa are similar in general character- 
istics to the one of our Western prairies. This is far 
from being the case. Nowhere in the wide world does 
there exist another animal at all like the prong-horned 
antelope. He stands alone — the only representative of 
his family, the Antilocapridce, just as the giraffe is the only 
representative of his family, the Camelopardidce; and 
as the giraffe is found only in Africa, so the prong- 
horned antelope exists only on the plains and among 
the mountains of western America. 
Besides his structural peculiarities, which separate the 
pi'ong-horned from all other antelopes, he is remarkable 
for shedding his horns. He belongs to the horned sec- 
tion of the great group of ruminating animals called 
Pecora, which includes the. giraffe, the deer, all antelopes, 
sheep, goats and oxen. This group is further divided 
into two; one is the deer whose solid bony antlers are 
shed and reproduced each year; and the other is 
of the hollow-horned ruminants, in which the horns are 
permanent and covered with a sheath of horn or skin. 
These bony outgrowths are usually permeated by large 
air cavities, and it is on account of these that these ani- 
mals are called hollow-horned. 
Of all the hollow-horned ruminants the prong-horn 
antelope alone sheds his horns, yet he does not shed them 
as the deer does. The bony growth never drops off 
from the frontal bone, but each year the sheath which 
covers this process of bone becomes loose and falls off. 
Many a hunter, ignorant of this peculiarity of the ante- 
lope, has been astonished after killing a specimen in the 
earlv winter to have one or both of the horns come 
off "in his hands, as he straightened out the animal 
preparatory to butchering. If, one looked carefully at 
the support on the antelope's head, from which the 
black sheath has just slipped away, he would see that it 
was covered with soft skin, from which grew fine, whitish 
hairs, looking a good deal like those on the antelope's 
leg and that only at the tip was it black, hard horn. 
It is the growth of this hair, and of the new horn, which 
pushes up and loosens the sheath of the old horn. 
In the spring and summer the process of bone support- 
ing the sheath is covered with living tissue as thin as 
paper, just as are all living bones. This is the perioste- 
um, which keeps the bone alive, and which in case of 
injury secretes new bone. 1 
Toward autumn, however, the periosteum becomes 
thicker, and takes on the character of skin, and from this 
skin grows the fine hair, which, as stated, finally pushes 
the sheath of the old horn away from its supporting 
bone, and at the extremity of the skin becomes new hard 
horn'. After the sheath has been shed, the hair continues 
to grow, and as it grows it becomes -matted together 
below the tip, dark and hard, and gradually working 
down toward the head, changes from a covering of single 
hairs, which are white in color, to a mass of black ag- 
glutinated fibers, precisely like the sheath which the 
animal carried the year before. This process gradually 
extends further and further down the horn, until at the 
base it is sometimes difficult to be certain just where 
the sheath ends and the skin of the head begins. 
During the rutting season, which takes place late, in 
September and during the first half of October, antelope 
use their horns to some extent in fighting, and often come 
together with considerable force and energy, and push 
head to head for a long time. It is not probable how- 
ever, that such battles are ever severe enough to loosen 
the horns, or that they have anything to do with the 
annual loss of the sheath, which has been described. 
As already intimated, the fact that the antelope sheds 
the sheath of its horns is a very remarkable one. For 
years scientific people denied that they did so, although 
"the fact had long been known to many old hunters. A 
description of the process was written out and sent to the 
Smithsonian Institution in 1828, a long time before the 
fact was finally published, but the statement was so 
contrary to all that was known about hollow-horned 
ruminants that it was. thought that there must have been 
some mistake, and the statement was never put into type. 
The first published observations on this subject were in 
1855, on an antelope that was for years on exhibition in 
the. Zoological Gardens in London, England. 
Our issue of Nov. 19 contained a note explaining 
the annual shedding of the horns of the deer. If there 
is so much uncertainty as seems to exist in the minds 
even of the readers of Forest and Stream about the 
shedding and growth of the horns of deer, we need not 
be surprised that the belief about the shedding of the 
•antelope's horns is still more vague and hazy. It is 
hoped that this description will clarify the ideas of some 
of our readers as to the matter. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
' latcsf by Monday. $nd a? tnych *?s\i«r *s practicable 
Wyoming- "Wolves, Coyotes and Game. 
Jackson, Wyo,, Nov. 15. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
.Al the last meeting of the Jackson Hall Gun Club, a $1 
bounty on coyotes and a $3 bounty on wolves was of- 
fered pavable in scrip — due in cash three months from 
date.' The killing of game by coyotes especially has 
reached enermous proportions, and the Gun Club knew 
of no better way to get rid of its surplus cash than in this 
manner. . , , , , _ 
Louis Lonigan, a constable, was also hired by the Gun 
Club to patrol the wagon roads leading into Idaho, and 
to arrest all persons who were unlawfully killing game — 
the game wardens hired by the county at $3 per day 
betno- absolutely no good and incompetent. 
Wm. L. Simpson, 
Not the Passenger Pigeon in Mexico. 
Macomb, III, Nov. 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: We 
will have to acknowledge at last that you are better 
posted in regard to the wild pigeons of Mexico than all 
of us. The' Forest and Stream has claimed all the 
time that the wild pigeon of Mexico was not the pas- 
senger pigeon of America, but was probably the band- 
tail pigeon or some other species that resembles the 
passenger pigeon. I wrote to the Agricultural Depart- 
ment at Washington, and through it obtained the address 
of E. A. Goldman, who is employed by the Government 
traveling through Mexico in the interest of agriculture, 
and wrote him, asking if he would go to the trouble to 
find out if the American passenger pigeon could be 
found in Mexico. The following letter will explain it- 
self: 
"Guaymas, Mexico, Nov. 14.— Dr. W. O. Blaisdelk 
Dear Sir — The passenger pigeon, so far as we know, 
does not occur in any part of Mexico. _ Another bird, the 
red-billed pigeon, is very common in the tropics on 
both coasts, and has sometimes been mistaken by Amer- 
icans for the passenger pigeon. The band-tail pigeon, 
which occurs in the mountains of Western United States, 
is quite common through the Sierra Madre, Mexico, 
nearly as far south as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 
Yours very truly, "£. A. Goldman." 
I shall have to fall back on my old theory that the 
passenger pigeon of America must have perished of some 
disease. They disappeared almost at once. The millions 
and millions of these birds could not have fell a prey to 
the shotgun and net in so short a time. 
W. O. Blaisdell. 
Forest Preservation in Bohemia. 
Consul Mahin writes from Reichenberg, Sept. 28, 
1898: Bohemia is one of the most populous countries 
on the globe. Its climate is relatively cool, with rather 
severe winters. Therefore much fuel is used, and it is 
largely taken from the forests which cover the mountain 
sides. Yet. after the many centuries during which these 
forests have furnished fuel and building material for a 
dense population, they retain nearly their primeval area. 
This is due to the forethought of the Government in 
ordaining that as trees were cut down others should be 
planted to fill the vacancies. Vast stretches of dense 
forests cover the mountain slopes of this district. The 
wood is mostly pine. Trees are constantly being cut: 
but wherever a clearing is made small trees are planted 
the next spring. What at a distance may appear to be 
a bare spot in the forest, on near view is seen to be 
covered with little trees, set out in symmetrical rows and 
varying in height according to the length of time since 
they were planted. These new trees are raised from the 
seed in small inclosures, scattered in the mountains, and 
are thence transplanted. A similar custom in the United 
States might yet avert the serious danger threatening 
at least the Western part of our country. 
"The Ways of Roots in the Ground." 
Boston, Nov. 20. — Editor Forest and Stream: The 
account given in your issue of Nov. 19 by Mr. Shelton 
under the heading "The Ways of Roots in the Ground. ' 
can be matched by the behavior of a tree root which is 
or was a few years ago — preserved in the Natural His- 
lory Museum of Brown University at Providence, R. I. 
The legend concerning this root is piously believed by all 
good Rhode Islanders, as it has to do with their patron 
saint, Roger Williams, and is, as I remember it, in sub- 
stance as follows: , ... , 
On some occasion of exhumation of the remains ot 
Williams or at least examination of them, it was found 
that a root— I think of an apple tree— had behaved ex- 
actly as in the case reported by Mr. Shelton, and had 
sent out branches to follow the arms— the main root 
following down the spine and dividing at the base, a 
thick branch following down each of the legs. It is sup- 
posed that all that is left of the bodily substance of the 
doughty old pioneer and disturber of the peace of the 
Massachusetts colony is preserved in the tissues of this 
root. C - H " Ames - 
Insects on Mountain Tops. 
The claim of Capt. Langford that at the time when 
he reached the summit of "The Grand Teton, he found 
mosquitoes there, reminds me that one time, as I stood 
at noon of a sunny July day on the summit of the Little 
Matterhorn— one of the minor peaks of the Pennine 
Alps— at an altitude of almost 13,000ft., there floated 
directly over the summit and within reach of my hands a 
beautiful black butterfly. I also have a distinct recollec- 
tion of reading in Tyndall or Whymper observations of 
bees seen on the snow on some mountain top— 1 trunk 
it was the Matterhorn itself. 
As a member of the Appalachian Club, and just a bit 
of a mountain climber myself, I have been interested m 
Capt. Langford's, to my mind, rather impressive de- 
fense of his claim to have reached the summit of the 
Grand Teton, and possibly what I have said may lend 
verisimilitude to his statement on one of the points 
challenged. C - H - Ames " 
As a Life Preserver. 
I call Forest and Stream my "life preserver." It 
is the onlv reading matter I can pick up for a few 
minutes, when worried with business, and my mind all 
In a muddle, and find instant relief by becoming oblivious 
to all cares and business perplexities; and I verily believe 
such a blessing as that will add years to the life of any 
business man. Then why do I not rightly call it a life 
Pr Af e ter e s r pending years in the wilds of the Rocky Moun- 
tains with the full enjoyment and freedom of such a life, 
with its attendant pursuits of game and close touch with 
undisturbed nature, a change into a business life would 
be almost greater than I could bear were it not fpr the 
weekly visits of the Forest and Stream. 
EmsSSON Carney.. 
