Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1899, bv Forest a!jd Stream Publishing Co. 
SRMs, $i A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Si.<£ MoxTns, $i. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 2B, 1899. 
( VOL. HI. -No. I a. 
I No. Broadwav, Nbw York. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not bt re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iv. 
O. C. MARSH. 
Professor O. C. Marsh, the eminent paleontologist, 
died at his home in New Haven, Conn., on Saturday, 
March 18, aged sixtj'-seven years. 
He was born at Lockport, N. Y., in 1831, graduated 
from Yale in the class of i860, and devoted the next five 
years to the study of science at New Haven and in Ger- 
many. In 1866 he returned to New Haven to occupy the 
chair of paleontology, which had just been established 
for him, and Avhich he continued to fill to the time of his 
death. His labors in science were purely those of love, 
for he received no salary from the university, and be- 
sides, up to the year 1882, he himself paid the wages of 
many of his assistants. 
Professor Marsh's services to science were very great 
and of many sorts. It was through his influence that his 
uncle, George Peabody, of London, gave to Yale the fund 
from a portion of which the Peabody Museum ^t New 
Haven was built. He susperintended the construction of 
this building, of which he was Curator, and it was his 
hope that he might live to see the central and main struc- 
ture completed. 
In 1868 Professor Marsh made a short excursion to the 
Rocky Mountains, and from information acquired on this 
trip, he learned and appreciated, as no one else had done, 
the vast possibilities of the western country as a field 
for the collection of vertebrate fossils. In 1870 he took 
out West the first of the expeditions, which afterward 
became so well known, and which in later years have been 
followed by so many similar expeditions from other in- 
stitutions of learning. These parties, and others which 
followed them, gathered the treasures which made Pro- 
fessor Marsh's collections famous throughout the world. Of 
them Professor Huxley said in 1876: "So far as my knowl- 
edge extends there is no collection from any one region 
and series of strata comparable for extent, or for the care 
with which the remains have been got together or for their 
scientific importance, to the series of fossils which he has 
deposited there." Charles Darwin wrote : "Your work 
on these old birds and on the many fossil animals of 
North America has afforded the best support to the theory 
of evolution that has appeared within the last twenty 
years." 
The number of new forms of animal life brouglit to light 
by Professor Marsh's researches is very great. Among 
them were the first monkeys, bats and marsupials dis- 
covered in America, besides such amazing forms as birds 
with teeth, vast and monstrous forms of dinosaurs, re- 
markable pterodactyls, or flying reptiles, and the strange 
many-horned dinocerata and brontolheridte. The titles 
of his papers on scientific subjects number many hundreds, 
and he was the author of several elaborate quarto mono- 
graphs, among them being one on Birds with Teeth, on 
huge Dinosaurs and on the Dinocerata. His demonstra- 
tion of the ancestry of the horses many years ago attracted 
wide popular interest. 
Although so enthusiastic a devotee of science, Profes- 
sor Marsh was also a keen sportsrnafi; an exceedingly 
good snap shot and an expert fly-casfer. The work of 
collecting fossils on his Western trips was varied by big 
•game hunting, grouse shooting and trout fishing, and in all 
these different pursuits Professor Marsh proved himself 
skillful and successful. 
In his earlier expeditions to the West, it was often 
necessary lo pass over the hunting grounds of hostile 
Indians, and so to have the protection of escorts of United 
States troops. But it was not only on hostile grounds 
that he met the Indians. In 1875 he learned of the In- 
dian Bureau frauds committed on the Ogalalla Sioux, and 
called public attention to them; a course which led to a great 
improvement in the Indian service. Old Red Cloud and 
the other chiefs of this band ever afterward held Professor 
Iklarsh in grateful remembrance for his services to their 
people. Professor Marsh's achievements received the 
high appreciation of scientific men. He was a member and 
fellow of many European scientific societies, had been 
President of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, and of the National Academy of Sciences. 
A little more than a year ago Professor Marsh pre- 
sented to Yale University his six superb collections of 
vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, osteology and ethno- 
logy to be forever held by it xmder the charge of the 
trustees of the Peabody Museum. 
SINNAKER BEARS. 
In recent communications from^; North Carolina, Mr. 
Charles Hallock has several times spoken of a particularly 
large, powerful and ferocious' sort of bear, known to the 
North Carolinians uiider the name of sinnaker or sinna- 
ber, the last probably being merely a misprint. He 
.speaks Of these as "cattle bears," not "hog bears," the 
distinction carrying with it the idea of strength and en- 
ergy. Some curiosity has been manifested as to the 
etymology of this word, which in fact is interesting. 
In the history of the early settlements of Virginia and 
North and South Carolina, there are frequent references 
to the "Sinnagers" whose ferocity is dilated on and 
whose cruelty is complained of. This word, "Simiager," 
appears to have been a generic term applied to all tribes 
of the northern Iroquois, and is unquestionably merely 
a different spelling of the word Seneca, one of the prom- 
inent tribes of the Six Nations which made up the power- 
ful league of the Iroquois, long famous as the most ad- 
vanced political institution devised by North American 
Indians. 
Early writers of the soiithern colonies, which of course 
means only the narrow fringe of English settlements 
along the coast, tell us much of the continual raids made 
by the New York Iroquois upon the Algonquin and 
Siouan tribes inhabiting the coast region and the higher 
wooded lands of the southern Allegheny Mountains. So 
fierce were these assaults and so continuous , this war- 
fare, that the tribes attacked frequently appealed to the 
English for help against their northern foes, and at 
length a number of them deserted their villages and came 
to live near to Fort Christian in the hope of escaping 
the incursions of their enemies. Even this, however, 
did not protect them, for the Iroquois attacked and killed 
them under the very guns of the fort. It was not until 
1722 that through the effort of the colonists a perma- 
nent treaty was made by which the Iroquois agreed here- 
after to forego their attacks. The peace came too late 
to save the southern tribes. Broken and decimated by 
the hostility of their Indian enemies, and still further en- 
feebled by their closer association with the whites, they 
melted away and disappeared, some joining other tribes, 
by which they were absorbed, while others in small com- 
panies moved away westward and in name still exist, 
though represented by few or no individuals of pure 
blood. 
That the word Sinnaker should have persisted as a 
local term for 250 years is certainly interesting. Orig- 
inally applied to a people possessing certain character- 
istics, it came at last to stand for those characteristics, 
and finally became merely an adjective meaning strong, 
fierce, ferocious and perhaps masterful. 
SNAP SffOTS. 
We print elsewhere a dissent from some remarks made 
in these columns last week, the gefffifial tenor of which was 
to point out the futility of the coarse abuse so commonly 
resorted to in the application of the epithet "game hog" 
to all whose shooting restrictions were not in accord with 
the notions of those most given to the use of the epithet 
when speaking of their fellow men. We allude again to 
the subject here, to point out that what was written is 
not to be construed as in any way ofTering a defense for 
intemperate game destruction. The particular point re- 
ferred to by our correspondent, of the fifty-bird bag, for 
instance, was not a justification of the killing of fifty birds 
in one day. We wrote: 
Fifty birds in Mississippi or Louisiana in a day would be far 
less relatively than five would be in Connecticut. Fifty birds 
might serve to supply one man with an abundance of game; the 
same amount might be wholly inadequate for the needs of an- 
other. One man might shoot one day in the year and kill one 
hundred birds; another man might shoot ten days and kill ten 
birds on each days so that the sum total which each one took 
was the same; yet the ten-bird man might feel that he was war- 
ranted ixk denouncing his {ellow as a "game hog." 
It was rather to suggest that the spirit controlling the 
killer of the five might be precisely that of the killer of 
the fifty, each being governed by bis opportunities; and 
the killer of five thus being without his justification in 
denouncing a brother, whose score was fifty. 
Much of this "game liog" denunciation is in truth an 
aggravated case of the very black pot calling the kettle 
black and there is no greater humbug in the history of 
field sports than some of this same "game hog" reitera- 
tion, by those who are intent by vociferous and shrill- 
keyed outcry upon concealing I heir own brutish perform- 
ances as wanton destroyers of animal life, game and other- 
wise. Mr. Schenck tells us that he now views the making 
of a large game score in a light diflerent from that in 
which he regarded it years ago; and in this he is relating 
an experience common to most of lis who learn wisdom 
as we count the years behind us. But will he go a bit 
further, and tell us whether the change was wrought in his 
heart because some holier-thau-ihou brother pointed the 
finger of scorn at him and objurgated him as a'"ganie 
hog?" 
The notes with the photographs of captive moose in the 
Providence Park, which we publish this week, deserve 
more than a passing mention. Mr. Talcott's observations, 
though not very long extended, are interesting and valu- 
able, and furnish a good example of the useful work that 
may be done for his fellows by an intelligent man who 
is willing to take the trouble to observe, and to set down 
on paper the things which he sees. It must be acknowl- 
edged that the ability to see, and the impulse to write 
down what has been seen are not too conmion. It is 
gratifying to receive from old friends, as we so often do, 
notes of real value. Mr. Talcott's observations on the 
increase of the moose's bell during the growth of the 
antlers, and its decrease in length after the antlers drop 
off are of extreme interest, and so far as we are aware 
this phenomenon has not liitherto been noted. It sug- 
gests a number of interesting questions. We do not know 
that the function or purpose of the moose's bell has ever 
been determined; but these observations would seem to 
indicate that bell and antlers are subject to the same in- 
fluences. As the antlers grow large, the bell increases; 
when the antlers disappear, the bell grows smaller. Now 
the antlers, of course, are a part of the moose's breeding 
dress. Is the bell also a part of it? Among birds remark- 
able changes of dress — usually decorative — commonly 
take place at the approach of the breeding season, and 
special appendages often make their appearance at this 
time, of which the breeding plumes of herons and the 
crest on the pelican's bill are familiar examples. These 
like the antlers of deer are directly connected with the 
reproductive function. Is the moose's bell an ornament 
of this nature? 
The Albany Senate bill No. 179. introduced by Mr. La 
Roche to restore spring shooting on Long Island, opening 
the season May i, should be opposed, and is actively op- 
posed by friends of protection. Mr. Robert B. Lawrence, 
Secretary of the New York Association for the Protec- 
tion of Fish and Game, described the situation succinctly 
and accurately when he said that, whereas, because of 
the dearth of game at the time when the law against 
spring shooting was originally under discussion, the mar- 
ketmen did not think it worth their while to oppose the 
measure, now, when in consequence of the operation of 
the law the game stock has been replenished, and there is 
something for them to shoot in the spring, they are bent 
on the law's repeal. In this new condition of a restored 
game supply for Long Island is found the unanswerable 
argument for the retention of the law which has worked 
the restoration. 
Governor Voorhees, of New Jersey, has named for fish 
commisioners Messrs. Howard P. Frothinghani. of Mt 
Ariington, and Wm. A. Halsey, of Newark, Republi- 
cans; and Benj. P. Morris, of Long Branch, and J. Frank 
Budd, of Burlington, Democrats. The Governor has 
given out that he has the new commission pledged^against 
the reappointment of State Game and Fish Protector 
Charles A. Shriner, of Paterson. because, as Mr, Voorhees 
evplains his action, ]\Ir. Shriner opposed his election. 
Mr. Shriner has been an intelligent, alert, discreet, honest, 
faithful and efficient official; he has conducted his office 
in a way to serve the public interest in the highest prac- 
ticable degrees. His dismissal now would be a piiblic. 
outrage. 
