M.\y 13, iSyg.] 
"The woods are very green here now, the corn and 
cotton are coming up, and the Bob Whites are pairing off. 
1 am now listening to the whistUng of half a dozen birds 
in sound of my office, and a few minutes ago I saw one a 
few yards from my window, sitting on the root of a 
trfee on top of an Indian mound that has a church on 
it, that is in close proximity to my building. 
"This moimd, which is covered with green grass and 
shaded by large trees, together with my office building, 
are situated immediately on the bank of Sunflower River, 
which here has a channel 700 or 8ooft. wide, and over 
soft, deep, while the stream that runs through the middle, 
ai the bottom of the valley, is perhaps 40ft. wide and 
4ft. deep, showing an enormous excess of channel capac- 
ity over the i-equirements of the storm water carried. 
The explanation is that the stream formerly had its 'head' 
half a mile north of here, where it was a natural outlet 
from a bend of the Mississippi River, which, was 'cut 
off' from the parent stream several centuries ago, be- 
came a lake some twenty-five miles long and "horse- 
shoe' shaped, and later became terra firma by filling up 
gradually vsath sediment, and now consists of forest and 
fields. The large channel capacity of the Sunflower, so 
near its head, was created by the great volume of over- 
flow water from the Mississippi in flood times; that 
water being now cut off by levees on the bank of the 
river twelve miles to the westward. 
"This valley is occupied by large trees and clothed 
with grass, down to the margin of the stream, and has 
quite a park-like appearance. 
"In looking from my office window, I can easily fancy 
that I am in a mountainous region, looking across a 
stream at the foot of one mountain to the rising slope of 
another beyond, a remarkable illusion for this flat 
country. "Coahoma." 
New Jersey's Ancient Game Supply. 
The old narratives of exploration here in America in 
the early daj-^s, and the histories of the first settlements 
are perfect mines of Forest and Stream lore. Here is 
a suggestive picture of New Jersey conditions in the times 
when there were only red men to hrnit the game. It 
comes from a New Jersey correspondent, Louis E. 
Meeker, who writes: 
In looking oA^er a history of Elizabeth, N. J., I came 
across some very interesting information in regard to the 
early game and fish supply, and as it refers particularly 
to the regions covered by the wings and ramifications of 
Mr. Mather's net, I will quote a passage or two from a 
letter published therein and written in 1661 : 
"Marvelous plenty in all kinds of food, excellent vene- 
soii. Elkes very great and large. All kinds of land and 
sea foule that are naturally in Europe are here in great 
plenty, * * * the sea and rivers abounding with ex- 
cellent fat and wholesome fish." 
Denton also writes in part, 1670: "And how prodigal, 
if I may so say, hath nature been to furnish the country 
with all sorts of wilde beasts and fowle, which everyone 
hath an interest in and may hunt at his pleasure. Where 
besides the pleasure of hunting he may furnish his house 
with excellent fat venison, turkeys, geese, heath hens, 
cranes, swans, duck, pidgeons and the like; and wearied 
with that, he may go fishing where the rivers are so fur- 
nished that he may supply himself with fish before he 
can leave off the recreation." 
The passage above quoted, "which everyone hath an 
interest," etc., might be taken as a text for a sermon on 
game protection and preservation, for to have an inter- 
est in does not mean to kill everything in sight; although 
at that early period he could not have meant more than 
that the game and fish were the common propertj' of the 
settlers whenever they could get them. The above shows 
what the country contiguous to New York once was. 
Now only a mere fragment is left, and is to be found only 
by those who know just when and where to go to get it. 
Louis E. Meeker. 
In Colorado. 
As for the texts for sermons, one finds them every- 
where, and we need not go back to the old chronicles to 
discover conditions of superabounding game plenitude in 
districts now either wholly barren or where the remaining 
supply must be preserved, if it shall be preserved at all, 
by the untiring efforts of those who have the wisdom to 
appreciate the situation and the public spirit and grit to 
provide the remedy. The West is making wonderful 
strides in game protective sentiment and system. The 
Forest and Stream has had much to say of the new 
Colorado game law. Here is an opinion about it from 
the pen of one whose opinions in such things are worth 
recording; and from a letter written by Mr. Wm. N. 
Byers, of Denver, we quote: 
I think we have a pretty good game and fish law — 
that is, it is progressive, and that encourages us to hope 
that 'we may some day get proper and efficient legislation. 
We have had a light flight of water fowl this season. 
I have not Seen a flock of geese, and but few ducks. The 
small birds are very abundant and very busy building 
their nests. 
I have no matured plans yet for the mountains this 
season, but expect to get there for some time — the more 
the- better. The last winter has been the most severe I 
have ever seen here, and it was my fortieth. Weather 
very fine now and vegetation coming on well. 
The Man at the Desk. 
And May He Enjoy It as Long. 
Brooklyn, N. Y.— Editor Forest and Stream; Inclosed find sub- 
scription for Forest and Stream for three years. I was for many- 
years a subscriber, but the past two years I have not been. But 
I have a grandson, aged twelve years, and as he was looking 
over some Forest and Streams of 1888, he made the request that 
1 again take the paper. I do it now, as a birthday present to him. 
And may he enjoy the same as the- old BXan has done. 
John T. TJATEntAx. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for -publication should reach us at the 
tetcat bf Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Man and Brute. 
Editor Fores I and Stream: 
I have been much interested in the arguments pro and 
con on the question of the reasoning powers of the lower 
animals. The very able contribution of Hermit in your 
last number is especially interesting. It appears to me 
that Mr. Wade falls short of the truth in one direction, 
while Hermit is perhaps a little too emphatic in the 
other, though to my apprehension, the latter has much 
the better of the argument. It occurs to me that before 
these two warriors couched their lances for such a reso- 
lute tilt against one another, it would have been well 
had the issue been more clearly defined. What consti- 
tutes "reasoning powers" in any kind of animal, man in- 
cluded.? How is this function of the brain to be described 
in exact terms? 
I believe the test of the exercise of reason lies in the 
syllogism. Man says, "If I drink this champagne I will 
surely have a headache, as champagne invariably gives 
me headache. I would enjoy much pleasure from the 
champagne, but the headache must be avoided; ergo, I 
will not drink the champagne." 
Dog says, "I see a rabbit! What a jolly time I would 
have chasing that rabbit! But my master invariably gets 
angry with me when I chase rabbits. His anger must 
be avoided; ergo, I will not chase the rabbit." 
Measured by this test, it seems that the operations of 
the man's brain and the dog's are exactly identical. 
Therefore, the dog exercises the powers of reason. 
Q. e. d. 
In India, elephants have been employed to pick up 
heavy hewn timbers from a promiscuous pile, carry them 
some little distance and then stack them up in regular 
order. Here a still more complex syllogism is brought 
into play, which it is unnecessary to analyse. 
An observer in India relates that he once saw an ele- 
phant approach a fence of bamboo pickets and break off 
the end of one. He then felt of the ruptured end of the 
fragment he had secured, and not suiting his purpose it 
was cast aside and another selected. This one stood 
the test, and the observer, curious to see what use would 
be made of the picket, was much interested to see the 
elephant reach under his abdominal region and detach 
an "elephant leach" that he was unable to reach with his 
proboscis. Here a plain syllogism is indicated. 
I once saw Mr. Rooney, a noted chimpanzee in the 
Cincinnati Zoo, insert a stick into the lock of his cage 
door, endeavoring to use it as a key. 
I also saw an old monkey in one of the cages holding 
out a bit of rag with one hand between the bars of his 
cage, inviting the spectators to seize it, and when the 
attempt was made the rag was Avithdrawn with great 
suddenness, and the adventurous hand was as suddenly 
seized by the other hand of the monkey, with very 
evident enjoyment on his part. This game was kept 
up until interrupted by the keeper. 
It seems evident that in all these cases the brain 
process that we call "reasoning" was employed, the 
syllogism being clearly discernible. But the varieties of 
animals whose brain organisms are developed to this 
extent are quite limited. The reasoning faculties of the 
horse and cat, for example, are much more circumscribed 
than those of the animals above mentioned. In their 
cases, however, the syllogism in its simplest form ap- 
pears as a feature in the process of ratiocination, though 
the premise is often mistaken. A rather vicious pet cat 
bit the writer severely on the hand with slight provoca- 
tion. A severe whipping was immediately administered, 
the cat being unable to escape from the room. A recon- 
cilement took place after a shoi-t lapse of time. The 
following day the same thing occurred, but the cat 
escaped from the room during the castigation. After 
that the cat was as ready to bite as before; but could 
never again be induced to enter that particular room, 
evidently associating the whipping with his presence in 
that room. 
The writer's well-trained and docile buggy horse would 
always draw the empty buggy through a gate at word 
of command when held open for the purpose; but on 
one occasion when he ran a wheel against the gate post 
a little unpleasantness arose between horse and master. 
After that he could never be relied on to draw the 
vehicle through the open gate, but would turn aside into 
the Avoods or field. As in the case of the cat, the horse 
had not sufficient perspicacity to associate the true cause 
with the more impressive effect, but assumed a wrong 
cause. Still, a syllogism was present in the brain work- 
ing in both cases. 
There is a regular gradation of mental capacity, from 
the highest type of human development, doAvn through 
a long diminishing series to the lowest; and the same 
gradation folloAvs on down through the animal series, 
the diminution of mental power keeping exact pace Avith 
the diminishing complexity of brain organism, and this 
with very limited dependence upon mere volume or 
weight of brain matter; just as one electric motor of 
given Aveight and verj' complex construction will de- 
A^elop much greater poAver than another of the same 
weight, but with coarser wire and fewer convolutions. 
The brain organism of the typical Afro-American is 
much less complex than that of the Caucassian. The 
former especiall)^ lacks the faculty of precision. Take 
an average Southern plantation negro; give him a 12-in. 
rule and tell him to cut half a dozen sticks each isin. 
long. It will be sate to wager that not one of them will 
be exactly of that length, nor even very near to it. It 
is asserted that a greater difference in brain organism 
exists between the African bushmen and the European 
than between the chimpanzee and the bushman. 
Much has been said about the "missing link" between 
man and the Simian race. It has occurred to the writer 
than there is no ground between them upon Avhich 
an intermediate type could stand. As soon as the as- 
cending animal, Avho was at the head of the evolution 
procession, reached a point where he could communi- 
cate his ideas by a spoken language, he made an im- 
measurable bound away from the animal that could 
not talk, leaving a wide gap betAveen. 
368 
The non-speaking animal, barring a limited line of in" 
herited instincts, gained but little knowledge from his 
parents, but had to rely for his stock of information 
upon his individual expei'iences. 
On the other hand, the speaking animal began his 
career equipped with knowledge derived from the ao- 
cumulated experiences of his ancestors. So he was much 
further along at the beginning of his individual career 
than the former was at the end of his. Moreover, the 
free interchange of ideas through the medium of lan- 
guage was a powerful stimulus to the further develop- 
ment of brain organism in a seemingly endless process, 
Avhereas the brain development of the non-speaking ani- 
mal long ago reached its limit, and stayed there. 
The brain process that Ave call "reason" as between man 
and the higher animals at least appears to be a matter 
of degree only, with an intimate relation between its 
physiological and mental aspects. 
That which is loosely called "instinct" and which may 
be briefly defined as inherited mental impulse, runs along 
as an undercurrent beneath the reasoning stratum of 
the more intelligent animals, including man, and even 
among those most highly developed, reason is occasion- 
ally dethroned temporarily, and instinct resumes its 
SAvay. 
It is impossible to say at what point in the chain of 
animal development the rudiments of reason begin to 
overlie the pre-existing instinct. It is exceedinly dififi.- 
cult to exactly define the boundary line between instinct 
and reason. In a tentative effort I should express the'^ 
difference in these terms: 
Instinct is an involuntary, inherited, impulse, slowly 
augmented by persisting experience through many gen- 
erations, excited in the iiidividual by a repetition of the 
same experience that, haying persisted through former 
generations, established its dormant machinery in his 
brain organism. 
Reason is a self-evolved mental process, growing out 
of the more highly dcA^eloped brain organisms in the 
instinct stage, the exciting cause being new experience, at 
first purely objective, but gradually merging into the 
subjective or self-contemplating and abstract, with in- 
creasing complexity of brain organism due to reaction- 
ary influences. See? Coahoma. 
The Dreadful Santer. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The other day I was talking with Dr. C. Hart Mer- 
riam, who is the most persistent and painstaking zoolo- 
gist in America, about the wonderful accessions to our 
list of mammals during the past twenty-five years. Their 
name is legion. 
Dr. Merriam has crossed and traversed nearly every 
State Avest of the Rockies on horseback, and has himself 
discovered innumerable ncAV species and sub-species of 
rodents and mustelidse, to say nothing of other creatures 
classed and unclassed, Avhich fill up the notable indices 
of his collection. Many of these mammals are restricted 
to circumscribed geographical areas, and are local in 
their characteristics; but they differ so much in structure, 
size, habitat, sex peculiarities, and mutations of pelage 
that the consociation of naturalists readily accepts and 
recognizes them as variants, and labels accordingly 
(agreeably to the law of nomenclature) with the best ap- 
proved Latin, which same being a dead language, is not 
only appropriate to defunct specimens, but favorable to 
cognomial u^iformitJ^ A scientific term means but one 
thing the world over, while a popular expression or syn- 
onym means perhaps one thing in a certain locality and 
in another two or three; and possibly nothing at all. 
For example, a gopher in Ncav England is a chipinunk; 
in Minnesota a prairie rodent belonging to the Sciiirida, 
or squirrels; in Florida a tortoise, and in Arkansas a 
snake. Scientific designation can alone determine which 
is referred to. 
That the methods of the scientists are preferable to the 
loose A'ernacular of the hunters and wood rangers is 
proven by the difficulties which continually arise among 
laymen to identify creatures by the several names which 
are applied to them. Besides, the provincial names all 
the Avhile change with the times and places of their usage, 
more surely than the nomenclature of the savans. A 
practical illustration is the recent attempt to discover the 
origin and significance of the word "sinnaker," as ap- 
plied to a variety of swamp bears in sections of North 
Carolina, and so happily traced to the Iroquois Indians 
by the natural history editor of Forest and Stream in 
one of its recent issues, thereby impressing upon the flip- 
pant and captious the conviction that names Avhich often 
appear absurdly grotesque to the general observer are 
media of communication between men who are quite as 
wise as some other men, but educated in a dii¥erent school, 
and should therefore command respect. 
Right in line with this thesis comes the word Santer, a 
North Carolina synonym for panther in that section of 
the State to which the last colonists of Sir Walter Ral- 
eigh migrated from Roanoke Island in 1587-8, now em- 
bracing Mechlenburgh and the adjacent counties. The 
names of the IT7 men and women who were eventually 
absorbed into the tribe of Croatan Indians inhabiting that 
location have been retained by families until this day, 
through four centuries, and which likcAvise have many of 
their traits, habits and religious beliefs and practices; so 
that it is obvious enough that santer is a mispronuncia- 
tion of the English Avord panther, which the Indians could 
not master any easier than the craftsmen on Solomon's 
Temple could the test word shibboleth, or a Chinaman 
the incorrigible barbarian letter R. 
Santers are not numerous in that region, but they occur 
frequently enough to be a dreaded reality and not a myth. 
Indeed occasional specimens are found throughout the 
entire mountain region and foothills of the Appalachian 
chain, and only last July, in 1898, one was ravaging the 
hog-pens of Jackson county, in the Loxaway country, 
where I Avas restivating. 
Another interesting terror whose identity the mountain 
men seem not to be sure of, is what I believe to be the 
woh'erine, glutton, carcajon, or Indian devil, as it is re- 
spectively designated in diverse parts of its habitat. Fred- 
Mather describes its appearance and habits most minute- 
ly and correctly in his sketch of the French trapper An- 
toine Gardapee, in "Men I Have Fished With." Some 
