June 33, 1900.3 
FOREST - ANB STREAM. 
4^8 
larger and spread a little below, and a iong and careful 
inspection through the glasses showed that it was really 
the peak of the mountain hanging there in the clouds 
like a picture in its frame. Meantime the clouds about 
Mt. Cook rose higher and higher, and the whole moun- 
tain became visible, though streaked with clouds. Here 
and there, far, far in the interior, a distant peak or two 
now and then came into view, of mountains wliich we 
could not identify. 
The Fairweather Range was constantly drawing nearer 
^nd its mountains standing up higher. Mt. Fairweather 
could be distinguished as a great snowy cone, beyond 
which was a square-topped mountain, Latuya, and be- 
,ypnd again a lesser peak, seeming small because so dis- 
tant, but really great. All over the range hung a pale 
haze, which did not interfere with the view in the least, 
but tinted the mountains so that the snow looked soft and 
creamy, the roughest outlines of the rocks were made 
round, and to the whole view was given a wonderful soft- 
ness and beauty. 
■ Before long we were opposite Fairweather, and now 
its appearance was changed. Seen from here it was a 
peak with two shoulders, and clad in the clearest, whitest, 
most glistening snow. As we drew hearer and nearer 
the haze of distance disappeared, and all the mountains 
showed hard and rough. The shape of Latuya was 
changing now from a square-topped mountain to a cone. 
Tall, unnamed mountains, hitherto unseen, kept coming 
into view, and Crillon and La Peyrouse grew in height. 
Before this we had passed Latuya Bay, a deep, T-shaped 
inlet, six miles wide, which lies at the foot of Latuya 
Mountain. Its entrance is narrow and is protected at 
its mouth by a great rock under water, which lies in the 
middle of the channel. The rush of the tide in and out 
this narrow entrance makes passage imppssible except at 
slack water — when the tide is high or low. At other 
times the channel is like a waterfall or rough rapids. Con- 
stantly at the mouth of this bay a tremendous surf beats, 
and we could see the .spray 'thrown a hundred feet into the 
air as the waves dashed against the huge boulders which 
form the narrow bar which closes it. On the beach above 
the mouth of Latuya Bay were seen tents and houses, no 
doubt occupied by miners who were sluicing the red 
sands of the beach for gold. In past years some of these 
men have been quite successful, one having taken out, it 
js said, $11,000 in three months. The miners are troubled, 
however, by high tides and high surf, which now and then 
wash away their sluice boxes and oblige them to do all 
their work over again. They save the gold by quicksilver. 
All the afternoon we sailed by the wonderful moun- 
tains, under a summer sky. The breeze increased a little 
so that at length it created quite a sea, but as the wind 
was fair it made no unpleasant motion. It was after 
dinner that the ship turned into Cross Sound, and s0 at 
once into quiet water. 
Steaming forward we passed Glacier Bay, and saw 
much floating ice; Juneau, where the hills would be 
beautiful but for the forest of dead stumps and the great 
gash of the Treadwell mine.; lovely inlets with quiet 
water, disturbed only by rising flocks of sea fowl, where 
smooth green forests rise from the shore to meet- the sky. 
The trip was drawing to its close. Each day the ship 
steamed southward through beautiful fiords, past the old 
village of Bella Bella, twisting and winding among low 
evergreen-clad hills which rise from dark waters, with 
now and then glimpses of snow-clad mountains to the 
east, and above them the brilliant blue sky. Most of the 
hills are of solid granite, smoothed arid polished by the 
ancient glaciers that have passed over them. The soil 
on them is very thin, and it has little hold on the steep 
slopes. It thus happens that as the trees grow and become 
large, their weight is too much for the thin soil, which so 
slips away down hill, leaving wide areas of absolutely 
naked rock, on which nothing grows. If there happens 
to be a crack in the rock's surface, so that vegetation can 
send its roots down and get a hold, there will remain along 
this crack a line of persistent green; otherwise, the rock 
is bare and gray. One evening we anchored for a few 
hours in Safety Cove, where Frobisher once sought refuge 
from the storm. Long after the setting sun had been hid- 
den by the island in the bay of which we lay, the purple 
light lingered, tingeing the hills to the east of us — some- 
rhing to be remembered all one's life. 
Moving on again, we passed Johnson Straits and Sey- 
mour Narrows, where the tide was whirling, as it alway.= 
does, and the tide rips and floating trash darting hither 
and thither reminded one of the party of his passage of 
'Hese narrows in a Chinook canoe nearly twenty years 
bt fore. 
Jow settlements began to be seen; houses, singly and 
in clusters, bits of cultivated land, and forest^ fires, sure 
signs of civilization. The air was thick with smoke, 
which could be seen rising from the forests here and 
there, and was plainly smelt. Out in the Gulf of Georgia 
steamers and sailing vessels and rowboats became com- 
mon. Here, too. were whales, some of them quite close to 
the ship, M'hen they sounded, turning up broad flukes ten 
or twelve feet across. Several were seen — but at a con- 
siderable distance from the ship — to throw themselves 
out of the water, far into the air, and to fall back vpith s 
splash that dashed the water high and far. 
The sunset that night was marvelously beautiful, for the 
sky was full of smoke, and a red light lay on all the hills. 
It was very quiet and peaceful as we steamed along over 
the glassy" water and watched the lights on the distant 
shore, and remembered what the morrow would bring. 
The southern end of Vancouver Island was passed about 
dark, and the next morning we lay at anchor at the wharf 
at Seattle. The voyage was over. G, B. G. 
A meeting of gentlemen interested in the protection ot 
game was held at the Cooper Union in New York, May 
19. for the purpose of forming an international associa- 
tion of Americans and Canadians to regulate the game and 
fi-sh laws on a ba.sis of reciprocity. Those present were 
few in number, but a large number of letters were read 
expressing sympathy with the objects in view. Hon, R. S. 
Roosevelt' was elected president and several vice-presi- 
■dents were named. There not being enough present to lorm 
an executive, a. nominating committee was appointed to 
select the standing committees as eligible names might 
-tccur.^ Rod and Gun, May 29, 1875. 
See the lUt of good things in Woodcraft in our adv. cols. 
The Land of the Golden Sun,^* 
In the Sierra Madras, 
Northern Chihuahua, Mexico.— No more beautiful 
climate can he found than in this land, situated on a 
plateau of over 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, and 
where can be seen the old trail of General Crook, made 
on his great march after the Apache chief, Geronimo, 
In these lands there seems to be everything to excite the 
interest of the traveler — the most wonderful geological 
formations, relics of the cave dwellers, traces of the 
Apaches, and walls still standing partitioning off the 
rooms of the cliff dwellers. 
There are also to be seen beautiful valleys and rich 
meadow lands, with forests like open cultivated parks 
filled with, game of all kinds — a perfect hunter's paradise — 
while overhead is a cloudless sky with the bright warm 
sunshine that gives life and happiness ; while the air is so 
fresh and pure with the invigorating odors coming from 
tile pine forests filled with balsam, that it would seem as 
if nothing more could be added to this haven of health to 
give new life and strength to the stricken invalid. 
In this region are streams of pure cold water, coming 
from the many hillsides surrounding the meadow val- 
leys, that give natural irrigation, and causing the rich 
black soil to be productive of abundant harvests. On these 
streatns and shallow inland lakes are seen many beautiful 
wild fowl, while the shores are well trodden by the marks 
of the deer and other bigger game of the forests. • 
Flocks of parrots glittering in the sunlight ' are flying 
overhead, and from tree to tree the giant woodpecker of 
beautifid plumage darts here and there, a rare specimen 
for the taxidermist. 
Added to these features are hundreds of mounds of the 
Mot^tezAumas still unexplored, while stretched out for 
miles are open vistas of the mountains beyond filled with 
minerals of all kinds which are now being brought from 
their long resting places by the army of miners and 
prospectors looking for the precious lodes buried beneath 
their surface. Such are the facts that this new country 
shut in by the granite walls of the Sierra Madres on the 
east and west side of a plateau over a hundred miles 
long and fifty wide, have revealed to the explorer as he 
examines these new fields which have until recently been 
the roaming ground for the Apache who held full sway 
until pushed across the border by the combined efforts of 
the United States and Ivlexican authorities to their 
Northern reservation. 
Civilization and new settlements can hardly be long 
delayed with the introduction of railways which have al- 
ready commenced operation between El Paso and the 
old "Mexican town of Casas Grandes. 
The introduction of an extension into this region will 
doubtless prove of great value to the projectors and of 
immense interest to the tourist who can spend weeks and 
months without tiring of the panoramic. views ever spread 
out before him. in this still tinexplored region of the land 
of the "Golden Sun." R. 
A Moonlight Night on the Caribbean. 
I CAN imagine no more charming sheet of water from 
which to gaze upon the splendor of a tropic moon than 
from the waters of the Caribbean. The Caribbean Sea is 
dotted with numberless small islands, which present to 
the eye a pleasing contrast of dark green to the blue of 
the sea. Each of these little islands contains one or more 
cocoanut palms, and the other trees are fairly covered 
with beautiful creepers carrying many-colored flowers. _ 
Imagine, if you please, the moon peeping from behind 
some cloud hanging low over the islands of the sea and 
then watch it sail out majestically into the blue of the 
heavens, lighting up the sea as if a pale-faced sun had 
suddenly risen and thrown over the waters the benediction 
of its smile. The clouds of the heavens will be rose-tinted 
like the dawn and shading into infinite colors and com- 
binations of colors as far as the eye can see. The waves 
of the Caribbean will reflect back the clouds, giving to 
them the somber blue-green tint natural to the sea. 
One can take such solid enjoyment lolling in a steamer 
chair, watching some beautiful cloud reflect back the 
varied colors caused by the brilliancy of the moon. The 
balmy air, laden with the perfum.e of spices and aromatic 
shrubs all strange and fascinating to one reared in a 
far Northern latitude, is breathed in with every passing 
breeze and almost makes one think he is in fairyland. 
The splash, splash of the waves, rounding up and break- 
ing in low gentle murmurs against the sides of the vessel, 
conduces to dreams; and ere one is aware (for the Car- 
ibbean on a moonlight night is a great place to start 
reveries or in which to build castles, not in the air, but 
deep in the azure of the sea) he is dreaming of times long 
gone by, reaching back in one sweet moment to boyhood 
when roaming in the meadows with sisters and brothers 
now long dead or far away; or else when roused from 
pathetic reverie he for a moment dreamily watches the 
glittering orb of night, apparently so close to the sea ; and 
again, ere he is aware, he is building castles for future 
leveling and as well contented with his earthly lot as if 
realizing the projects of his busy brain; and so he sits 
dreamily, lazily, happily watching the moonlight on the 
waters, and now and then, with his castle building, won- 
dering vaguely what lies beyond that great orb of white 
light and whether or not it is somehow or other connected 
with the sequel of life. Thus one is apt to spend the 
moonlight nights upon the Caribbean, for its beauty 
cannot be duplicated or excelled in this world. One night 
on its blue-green waters lighted by a tropic moon will 
never be forgotten, and will serve as an inspiration in 
many a dream. Paitl Wakd. 
Capt. Bill Rew and Wesley Yent returned here Satur- 
day with the Belle of Myers from Boca Grande Pass. 
Wesley says they captured a hammerhead shark in the 
pass that nieasured 17 feet in length. The sharks have ap- 
peared in large numbers in the pass, and if a tarpon was 
hooked and not secured in a hurry the sharks would make 
a meal of him. — ^Fort Myers (Fla.) Press. June 7 
Always Interesting and Refreshing, 
A New Jersfy clergyman writes of the Forest and Stmavh 
'1 have found the paper alwaj's interesting and refresbinsr- Its 
aims are high and its tone particularly healthy minded." 
Birds and Caterpillars. 
^ CharlestowN;. N. H,, June 16 —Editor Forest, and 
Sfream: You have noted the devastation caused by cater- 
pillars on the sugar maples of New England for the last 
two years, and one village, where there are many fine trees 
along the streets, was a great sufferer from their ravages. 
They appeared about June i, and some of the younger 
trees were completely stripped of their leaves. 
They were often called the "tent caterpillar," but they 
were not, though no doubt near relations, for they did 
not build "tents" in the trees, but lowered themselves 
singly to the ground, and spun their cocoons in the inter- 
spaces of the picket fences and under the lower edge of 
the clapboards on the houses. They were also called the 
"army worm," from their habit of ascendmg the trees in 
solid, serried columns, but I do not think they were the 
worm usually known by that name in the South, though 
I have no personal acquaintance with that pest. 
Be this as it may, they were a pest indeed, both last 
summer, and the previous one, but not one has appeared 
this year so far. 
Now, although my daughter, my grandchildren and 
myself gathered and burned six or seven quarts of 
cocoons last summer from our own fences, I do not 
think that could have produced any very perceptible effect 
on the general crop, which could not have been affected to 
any great extent, and I give the credit wholly to the in- 
sectivorous birds. During the heavy snowstorms of the 
latter part of the winter we were visited by great flocks of 
grosbeaks and cropbills, which swarmed in the trees, and 
after a fresh snowfall the banks of snow beside the foot- 
paths under the trees would be strewn with tiny bits of 
bark, as if they had been scattered from a dredging box 
or pepper caster. Then later in the season, when the 
show was gone, came with the spring migration a host 
of small birds, "creepers," so called, and others, which 
I am not enough of an ornithologist to identify, even if my 
eyes had been able to distinguish them clearly, in their 
rapid movements from bough to bough. At all events, 1 
think they rhust have destroyed all the eggs, for no cater- 
pillars have put in an appearance. 
It seems to me such a striking instance of the benefits 
of our winged visitors, and so strong an argument in 
favor of bird protection, that I send it to Forest and 
Stream in the hope that other papers may copy it and use 
the facts as evidence in fighting again the ruthless destruc- 
tion of feathered life, carried on mainly by the hosts of 
immigrants from southern Europe, who are invading us in 
annually increasing numbers. 
I have no fishing notes to send you. As I have writ- 
ten, the drought of the last two summers has practically 
exterminated the trout in the small brooks. I have been 
out twice, the first time alone, when I had "not a nibble," 
the second time in the company of one of our village 
clergymen, an enthusiastic angler, to Great Brook, which 
he fished down from the bridge, where we struck it, for 
a mile, without a bite ; while I went up about as far and 
caught one-— 5 inches long. We ate our luncheon when 
we met again at the bridge, and came home, admiring the 
apple blossoms and the mountain scenery. Von W. 
Black Squirrels in Domestication. 
^ l oRONTO, Canada, May 28. — Editor Forest and Stream. 
Some four years ago I discovered that our large black 
squirrel was almost extinct. From, every county in the 
Province of Ontario but three came reports of its entire 
absence, where formerly it was present in millions. The 
causes that have brought about this state of affairs are 
several, (i) The clearing of the forests, especially the cut- 
ting out the valuable timber, such as white oak, hickory, 
beech, walnut, butternut and chestnut, thus depriving 
the animal of its food supply. (2) His conspicuous 
color, which makes him an easy mark for the shooter. 
(3) His respectable size and Ai table qualities, together 
with the value of his hide, causes the black squirrel to 
be much sought after by "the man with the gun." 
(4) His enemy, the red squirrel. The above causes, 
together with the fact that the black squirrel is not a 
very rapid multiplier, has made this, the most beautiful 
of the squirrel family, almost extinct. The black squirrel 
has only from one to five young at a time, and breeds 
from one to three times a year, according to the supply 
of food. 
As the large jet black squirrel is only a native of this 
province, I considered it my duty to protect it as far as 
lay in my power. Duty, you may say, is a strange word 
to apply to the undertaking I am about to relate, as I 
had no share in undertaking its extermination. But I 
consider that to leave undone a good act that could 
have been done a decided neglect of duty; therefore I 
secured four pairs of unrelated black squirrels, and I 
have managed to raise 100 living squirrels from those 
eight. Three of the original eight had been pets in a 
small cage for four years, previous to my purchase of 
them, and the are alive and well to-day. 
To the readers of Forest and Stream my means of 
breeding them may be interesting. For this purpose I 
used ray stable loft, in which I placed eight empty apple 
barrels up side down in elevated positions close to the 
roof. I placed the barrels in pairs, each pair to each 
corner. This is necessary, for when the female is with 
young she chases her mate entirely out of the barrel, but 
he must have a retreat close by or there is disturbance, 
for the male black is full of fear. From the windows oi 
the loft I have a large wire cage leading to the ground. 
I have always fed them on nuts, which I procure from the 
wholesale fruit mercliants after the season is over. I 
can then get chestnuts for a song, as they are dried up 
and are not appreciated by the genus homo. Sweet 
acorns, sun flower seed, artichokes, sweet potatoes 
(roots) and lettuce, but no grain nor rat food whatever, 
such as bread, must be fed to squirrels. Cracked nuts 
are sure death to a squirrel. The hardest butternut is 
easily opened by a squirrel, and keeps its teeth from 
growing too long. 
The male black squirrel makes no noise outside of a 
verj' low growl of defiance to a rival. It is the female 
