May 6, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
847 
trail after he changed horses without putting foot to 
the ground). 
It is not logical to conclude that the lower animals 
reason because they possess the necessary organs for_ it. 
We all have the same organs of smell that the deaf-blind 
have, yet we normals cannot smell as they do. Hermit 
says: "It is one of Nature's laws that a useless organ 
soon disappears." It does, does it? How much "soon" 
is there in the continuance of the extinct third eye now 
surviving as the pineal gland of the brain? Surely it is 
a longer stretch of time than any "soon" since we were 
lizards. 
I would suggest to Hermit that Lloyd Morgan's "In- 
troduction to Comparative Psychology," "Habit and In- 
stinct," "Animal Life and Intelligence," etc., can be had 
of Edwin Arnold, 70 Fifth avenue, New York, and some- 
how Prof. Morgan has enough "science'^ for me to sit at 
his feet and think that I am honored in finding him sup- 
port my "claims." W. Wade. 
Weight of the Raccoon. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Have you any record data at hand showing what weight 
the raccoon attains? My attention was called to this mat- 
ter by an item in last issue of Forest and Stream, rela- 
tive to a solb. coon, said to have been killed recently near 
Bangor, Me. Very many people will question the accu- 
racy of the scales upon which the solbs. was weighed, 
and I would perhaps be found among the doubting 
Thomases but for the following incident: About twenty- 
five years ago a young man named Schoolcraft killed, 
near the village of Fonda, N. Y., a raccoon that is said 
to have weighed S3lbs. The coon was weighed at the 
American Express in the village of Fonda, and there was 
at one time and possibly is yet, in existence a certificate 
signed by several reputable persons who saw the animal 
weighed, which certificate gave the weight at S3lbs, The 
heaviest one I ever saw put on the scales weighed 281bs. 
and was a very large male. The largest I ever saw shot 
weighed less than 25. Domestic animals sometimes at- 
tain abnormally large weights, and no doubt wild ones 
do also. The weight of the coon killed near Fonda ap- 
peared to be quite well authenticated- S. 
Trov, N. V. 
[Definite records of the weight of th-* raccoon are not 
accessible. It has always been our impression that the 
full-grown animal weighed from islbs. to i81bs., but we 
have seen some that were much heavier, though none to 
equal the weight given above. We should be glad to 
have authentic weights from any correspondents.] 
California Awdubon Society. 
Redlands, Cal., April 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
At the close of the meeting of the Contemporary Club 
at the Y. M, C. A. Auditorium last Monday afternoon, a 
meeting was held for the purpose of organizing a society 
for the protection oi song and insectivorous birds. 
It was decided to call the organization the Califoraia 
Audubon Society, Following officers were elected: A. 
K. Smiley, Redlands, President; Mrs. A. G. Hubbard, 
Mrs. G. T. Grunlief, Miss A. H. Partridge, Redlands ; 
Mrs. Elizabeth Grinnell, Pasadena ; Mrs. Isabel H. Baxby, 
Santa Barbara ; Mrs. Caroline Severance, Los Angeles ; 
Mrs. Geo. H. Dole, Riverside; Rev. T. H. Williams, F. 
P. Meserve, Kirk Field, H. L. Graham, Redlands; Prof. 
Everett McLoomis, Academy of Science, San Francisco ; 
Prof. A. W. Anthony, San Diego; Prof. A. T. Cook, 
Claremont ; Honorary Vice-Presidents. Secretary and 
Treasurer, Mrs. Geo. S. Gay, Redlands ; Executive Com- 
initteee, A. K. Smiley, Mrs. Geo. S. Gay, Harry L. Gra- 
ham, Redlands. The following resolution was passed : 
Resolved, That the California Audubon Society hereby 
appeal to all parents and teachers to prevent the cruel and 
wanton slaughter of our native birds by air guns, sling- 
shots, parlor rifles, shotguns, etc., in the hands of the 
youth under their charge, and that they exert their influ- 
ence and authority against the practice of egg collecting, 
now so prevalent among boys. 
On payment of 25 cents anyone so wishing may become 
a life member of the society. Reelfoot. 
Manitoba Elk Heads. 
Winnipeg, Man.— The largest wapiti or elk head killed 
last season in Manitoba measured 49in. along the beam; 
had thirteen points, and a span of 3ft. 4in. This is much 
smaller than some Montana or Wyoming heads, but a 
very large one for this Province, though not a record. 
St. Croix. 
Salmon in the Oswegfo River. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In late numbers of your paper reference has been 
made to the former presence of salmon in Lake On- 
tario and is tributaries. Up to the time the Oswego 
Canal was constructed and the dams built, salmon in 
great numbers frequented the Oswego River, coming up 
each year from the sea through the St. Lawrence River 
and Lake Ontario to visit their spawning beds. 
My father has told me of seeing shoals of them on 
bright sunny days, stopped by the shadow of the bridge 
at Oswego Falls, twelve miles above the mouth of the 
river, waiting until the sun was off the water to pass up; 
and at night of seeing the river covered with boats and 
canoes, the men in them spearing the salmon by torch- 
light. These salmon were never known to take a fly 
or any bait so far from the sea, except that a man fish- 
ing for trout many years ago on Salmon River (coming 
into the lake twenty miles below Oswego), at the foot of 
the high falls, took several grilse. 
Some years ago fishways were placed at each dam on 
the Oswego; but the demand for water for power and for 
the canals at low water time, when the salmon were 
running up, was too great, and the fishways had to go 
dry. 
Up to 1870, and perhaps a little later, salmon were 
occasionally taken in the whitefish nets set off the 
harbor of Oswego. _ " Fisherman. 
Old Hudson's Bay Dag. 
The weapon and its sheath here figured come down to 
us from the olden time. These dags— so called — were the 
first knives furnished by the Hudson Bay Company to the 
Indians of the North, and most of them have long since 
been worn out, given away or lost. A few still remain, 
and are cherished more as relics and mementoes of the 
good old days than for any use to which they are put 
at present. 
When the first white man came, he found the Indians 
using knives of bone, or of flint stone to skin and cut up 
their game. Strangely rude and useless they must have 
seemed to him, yet they served well the purposes of these 
primitive people. We may imagine that thousands of 
years before that, the Indians did not know even how to 
use a sharpened stone or bone for cutting, but that they 
tore their way through the tough hides to the flesh below 
with their teeth, or perhaps with a sharp-edged shell, or 
possibly with the tine of a deer's horn. 
After the white man came, the first improvement in the 
I 
Hudson's bay dag and sheath. 
knives was by inserting a strip of tin or hoop iron along 
the edge of a bone knife. For, in those first days, of 
course, metal — this new and mysterious substance — must 
have had an enormous value for the Indians, and they 
must have used it as economically as possible. This strip 
of tin would take an edge and hold it for a li^ttle while, and 
thus give them a knife vastly better than anything that 
they had previously known. Soon after this, however, 
there were brought into the country these old-time dags, 
useful weapons which rendered far easier the labors of 
men and of women. These were employed for many 
years, but later the company sent in an improved knife, 
more useful for skinning and for the other purposes o£ 
camp life, but not nearly so good for war. 
It was for this last purpose that in later years these 
dags were chiefly used, and each warrior when he entered 
a hostile camp for the purpose of cutting loose horses, 
carried his dag, slung by a loop to his left wrist. Very 
likely he might leave all his arms hidden outside of the 
camp, for an armed man walking through the camp with 
bow case and quiver and shield upon his back would be 
an object of curiosity and would be stared at and soon in- 
vestigated by the people who occupied the camp. So the 
warrior who entered it, and who, above all things, desired 
to escape notice, was usually clad only in blanket or robe, 
and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Yet some 
arms he must have for his defense, and so he carried the 
dag_ swinging to his wrist under his robe, and ready at 
an instant's notice for the terrible forward and downward 
thrust which might rip open an enemy. 
Our friend Bea^- Chief) who will be remembered by 
many of our readers, was once stabbed through the lungs 
with one of these great knives, the point of which almost 
came out at his back, maldng a wound two inches wide, 
through which the wind whistled as he breathed. Many 
another man has been similarly cut up, and it is singular 
to notice how many of those stabbed in the chest rfc- 
covered from their wounds. 
As has been said, the dag is a relic of the olden time, al- 
most as much so as is the bone knife which preceded it, 
or the still earlier knife of flint. The one here figured is 
a legacy left to its present owner by -a friend, a brave 
Picgan warrior, who several winters ago left his people 
to join that greater throng who, in the Sand Hills, still 
hunt the buffalo that have long since vanished from the 
material world. 
How the Bird Hid. 
Reading Pine Tree's article, I feel it ray duty to write 
this explanation. The quail and ruffed grouse have the 
power to retain all scent under certain conditions. 
When Pine Tree has hunted as long as I have, which 
is almost three score years, he will learn that the best- 
nosed pointers cannot locate a frightened quail which 
has dropped into the grass and leaves to hide when even 
less than a yard from their nose. 
Last October, while hunting about two and one-half 
miles north of Hartford, with as good a TJewcUyn setter 
as any man could wish to shoot over, the dog trailed a 
covey of quail about eighty rods and came to a point at 
some scattered brush at the roadside, I flushed the quail 
and stopped a bird with right and left, and marked the 
rest down in a cultivated raspberry patch not SOyds. 
away. Picking up my two birds, I went into the raspber- 
ries, which were in distinct rows, with my dog close at 
hand and my gun ready. I went up and down through 
that patch of berries both ways, following the rows, the 
dog hunting faithfully. But from the action of the dog 
you would not have thought there had been a quail there 
for a month. Knowing the power of the quail to sup- 
press all scent for a short titnc, I called the dog and 
walked away Soyds, to an apple orchard and sat down 
and ate apples for fifteen or twenty minutes; then took 
my dog and returned to the raspberry patch, and the dog 
had no sooner entered the bushes than she came to a 
point. On the ground wc had so recently been over, the 
dog found and I flushed and shot six quail. The situation 
was such that I positively know the quail were there all 
the time. 
With the same dog my son and I killed forty-two quail 
and twelve partridges in one day. 
Yet I have seen that dog within 2yds of a partridge on 
his drumming log and still unconscious of there being a 
bird in that neighborhood. The partridge will drum 
continually in places where there are foxes, skunks and 
other animals who would devour them were it possible 
to locate them by scent. If, when Pine Tree flushes a 
flock of birds that fly only a short distance, he will wait 
a few minutes before he puts his dog on to the ground, he 
will never have to kick the birds out. The dog can find 
them. For further proof of this fact I refer him to 
Frank Forrester's complete work on "Dog and Gun." 
Sullivan Cook. 
Michigan. 
Connecticut Grouse Snaring. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The last shooting season demonstrated the fact that 
partridges are unusually scarce in this vicinity, while 
woodcock and quail average about as usual. Sports- 
men are puzzled over the scarcity of partridges, but a 
moment's reflection should reveal part of the cause. 
The Connecticut law allows snaring on owner's prem- 
ises. This license is eagerly grasped by land owners, 
who have always borne reputations as snarers. I write 
of what I know to be a fact, when I say that many post 
their lands to protect the snares they' set on them. 
While they reap a reward through the medium of this 
lame law, yet they are filled with hatred of game laws 
in general. Many of them are too ignorant to realize the 
far-reaching benefits of good game laws; they think they 
are inade by and for the benefit of a class. "Let mc 
ketch one o' them dudes that make the game laws on 
my land once; I'll have him arrested and shoved higher'n 
a kite." That's the way some of them talk to me. 
From experience I will say that it is useless to under- 
take to reason with such men. You could never con- 
vince them that gatne laws are a benefit to them. Of 
course they believe in the law which allows them to snare 
on their own lands, but not in game laws in general. 
Besides the partridge stranglers, there is a small per- 
centage of farmers who kick against game laws because 
they have that privilege, and they would kick against 
anything else for the same reason. Ask them their reason 
and they will either evade your question or give an 
answer lik^ this: "The birds don't belong to the city 
dtide, and they've got a nerve to make laws so they can 
hunt over my land in the fall of the year. What right 
have they got to hunt on my land?" They don't hunt 
the birds themselves and would keep others from hunt- 
ing them, simply because they themselves are chronic 
kickers. 
For the benefit of my fellow sportsmen, I would say 
that a little flattery judicioitsly applied works to per- 
fection on this material. Praise the appearance of their 
fields or of their cattle and horses, and you are in 
the right road to an invitation to "have a glass of cider? 
Won't you stop to dinner?" or "Say, you can hunt on 
my lands whenever you like." 
Of course there are farmers, and many of them are 
stanch supporters of all game laws, who are compelled 
to post their lands. I talked with one of these persons 
recently and he said: "It was like drawing teeth for 
me to post my land. I am so near the city, however, 
that I was compelled to do so. It was bang! bang! 
bang! right around my door, all day long; and the 
rowdies and Italians broke down my fences, stole my 
fruit and even shot some of my chickens. I stood it 
all as long as I could before I put up the signs. Any 
decent man is welcome to shoot over my land, even 
now; but he must ask permission first," T know of a 
numlser of cases like this. 
