.July 2S, igoo.j 
your memoir. But I have a note here under the word 
•deer' which ought to suit This was in Colorado. My 
friend here from the School of Mines has undoubtedly 
posted you as to what is known as the cyanide process 
of gold extraction. Out in Colorado there are a great 
many rich ores that present the gold in certain chemical 
combinations which nothing but cyanide will break down 
and liberate the elemental gold. Under such conditions 
the prospector has to be somewhat more of a mineralogist 
than when his search is confined to placer, quartz and 
gravel gold. In at the back of Pike's Peak there was 
a camp of half a dozen prospectors, for they had found 
a good line of country rock and were working out in all 
directions. I regret to say that very many of these ad- 
venturous miners are very heavy drinkers, and the men 
in this camp were no exception. What is worse, they had 
an abundant supply of the stuff, and every night after 
their exhausting labors above the line of 10,000 feet of 
altitude they gave a very close imitation of a debauch. 
All this time they were feeding on bacon and salt pork, 
and canned goods once in a while just by way of variety] 
But one day a member of the party sighted a herd of 
deer, and the next day he took a day off with his rifle, say- 
ing it Avas about time the camp had some real meat- 
some of the fresh kind. Well, he brought back a deer 
that day, and they cooked it and had it ready for dinner 
when the others got back. That venison went just to the 
right spot, and the camp unanimously agreed to this 
man's being authorized to keep them supplied with fresh 
meat. After dinner they brought out the demijohn and 
filled up all around. It was no difficult thing for that 
crowd to pour the stuff down — the trouble came imme- 
diately afterward. One gagged; another choked until 
the tears streamed from his eyes — all were in difficulties. 
"'Who's been monkeying with this whisky?' said one 
as soon as he could get his voice. 
'First time I ever knew whisky to go back on me,' said 
another. 
"They decided to give it another trial, but it was no 
go. When they got it to their lips they couldn't get it 
any further. They not only did not want it, but they 
had an aversion to it. This went on for several days, get- 
ting woi-se every day, and they were getting so beastly 
sober that it was like making new acquaintances all 
around. At last they decided to send one of the party in 
to Colorado Springs to consult a doctor. The way they 
figured it out was that as they were all afflicted in the 
same way, one patient would be just as good as the bunch, 
and when the doctor had found out what was the matter 
with him and given him a prescription, all he would have 
to do would be to buy six times as much as was ordered 
and then there would be enough to go around. Just to be 
sociable, this fellow packed in one of the deer that they 
had been living on. Well, he came back without much 
satisfaction, but plenty of medicine of one sort or another 
— at any rate the druggist told him it was a good deal 
better. In a few days who should come chasing up to 
their camp but the doctor. The upshot of the whole 
matter was that the doctor had found himself affected the 
same way, but as he was an Eastern man it didn't so much 
matter in his case. He did some chemistry on the venison 
that was left him and he found the meat crammed full of 
gold chlorides. That made everything plain. Instead of 
venison they had been eating a regular jag cure, and now 
they couldn't drink. But the medicine man had plenty 
of savey — a heap more than the prospectors. Under his 
direction they trailed up the runway of the deer and 
finally found the place where they had their licks, for 
you know deer must have something salt to lick. The 
prospectors had been looking for sylvanite and the tellu- 
rides; they had no idea what gold chlorides looked like, 
and they had passed this place over a dozen times as not 
worth so much as the tap of a hammer. The deer had 
been steadily licking the outcrop until they were fairly 
charged with the gold in its chemical combination, which 
passed into the men who fed upon the venison. To-day, 
I am glad to say, that is one of the best propositions north 
of Cripple Creek." 
"This is the most interesting yet," said the Professor. 
"But did I understand you that there had been an 
organized effort to collect such data?" 
"It is so," replied the Guest. "The Sazefac Society or 
Club has devoted much attention to this subject." 
"And the Sazerac Society is " 
"The Sazerac Society is an association of those who 
seek to make daily and practical use of flights of fancy." 
Llewella Pierce Churchill. 
Spommen's jm$. 
Some of the Queer Discoveries Made by Those 'Who Ate 
Looking for Game or Fish. 
MM a. 
3. 
^A. McKing, W. M. Franklin, John Franklin and Judge 
King, of Fort Valley, Ga., went to the river on a camp 
fishing, says the Macon Telegraph. They caught 100 
pounds of fish, but the fun came next morning. W. M. 
Franklin found a bee tree, and all decided to cut it down, 
and in thirty minutes after the tree was found it was on 
the ground. Mclving was elected to take a wad of rag 
and stop the hole in the tree to keep the bees in. He ran 
up on the log to perform his duty, followed by W. M. 
Franklin, and when he got to the place where the bees 
were a large number of bees were out of the hole, and 
he threw down the rag and ran off in the canebrake. 
Judge King ran up to the tree and stuck the rag in the 
hole and held it with his foot, and fought the bees for 
dear life with both hands. He yelled to the boys to come 
help him quick. W. M. Franklin told him to run out 
or they would sting him to death, and he obeyed orders 
very quiclcly and came dashing through the canebrake 
like a bear, yelling for some one to take the bees off of 
him. McKing went to help him, but Judge outran him 
and came by where John Franklin was hid in the cane. 
John told him to run into a lake that was near, and into 
the lake Judge went, just like old Sut Lovingood did when 
the hornets were after him. He made the water splash 
in every direction, and soon got rid of the bees. He asked 
for some tobacco to put on the stings, and when McKing 
ran to him with the tobacco the bees following after. 
Judge said: "For God's sake, don't come here with 
FOREST_ AND STREAM. 
them bees, for I am nearly stung to death already," and 
off he dashed through the canebrake at a wild gait. Judge 
says that he has got enough of cutting bee trees. His 
eyes are very much swollen yet, but no serious damage 
IS expected. The fishing party filled six buckets and the 
frying pan with honey taken from the tree. The only 
way they managed to get the honey was to take a sack 
and slip it over W. M. Franklin's head, tie up his hands 
and cut into the honey. As soon as the honey was 
broken into the bees got quiet and all hands went to work 
and took the honey. 
In Yazoo county, Miss., a party of hunters killed a 
deer that had a human skull impaled on a prong of his 
horn, supposed to be that of a negro. The prong had 
entered the cavity occupied in life bv the eye, and had 
grown up around the bone, showing the skull had not been 
put on recently. There are A^arious conjectures as to 
how it it got there, but the most prevalent opinion is 
lhat the animal was wounded and brought to bay by the 
negro, and had killed the latter in the conflict which en- 
sued, the prong entering the eye and piercing the brain. 
The body of the deer showed signs of wounds. He wa.s 
about as large as a two-year-old calf. 
5. 
While Alexander Lewis and his two sons were hunting 
in the vicinity of Temple. Ind., the dogs treed something 
m a hollow tree. The hunters came up, got their guns 
ready, and found the unknown animal to be an infant 
but two or three days old. and still alive. The child had 
evidently been abandoned to its fate. Mr. Lewis carried 
the little one to his home, and there is every prospect that 
it will be successfully reared. 
A Pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks. 
In the spring of 18S4 I first found the nest of Butco 
lineatus. It happened in this way: My cousin and I 
were rambling through a thick piece of woods in Farm- 
mgton. Me., late in May, and hearing the cry of this 
hawk, we soon located the nest high up in an old growth 
of yellow birch. We had no climbers, so went to his 
home and got an axe and returned to the site and cut 
a small maple, felling it over into the first forks of the 
birch, and climbed up to the nest on this maple. It con- 
tained three young hawks, covered Avith yellowish, fuzzy 
down. They were quarreling and trying to pitch each 
other out of the nest. We took them and I carried them 
home with me and fed them. They made very interesting- 
pets. When I fed them bits of meat or earth worms one 
would grab one end of the food, and before he could get 
it swallowed another would commence to swallow tire 
other end and a general "mix-up" then took place. 
When they were about half grown I had to be away from 
home all day, and they would take food only from me. 
Other members of the family offered them food, but 
they would not touch it. AVhen I returned they were 
so weak they could not eat the bits of mice I offered 
them and soon died. 
How little did the old hawks mistrust that I was des- 
tined to be the plague of their lives! On May 6, '85, 
I went to the nest, and as I cautiously crept up to the 
tree the female left the nest with a cry of despair, joined 
the male and each circled high in air over the nest utter- 
ing their shrill "Kae, kae, kea." or "Ke-he, ke-he, ke-he" 
while I ascended to the nest. There were two eggs, 
which I placed in my soft felt hat, took the hat between 
my teeth and worked my way back to terra firma. 
In a few days they went to a patch of woods across 
the Willson's Stream from the old nest and reared their 
young unmolested, as I had no boat then in which to 
cross the stream. 
April 28, '86, they had completed a nest in a large 
sugar maple in the further end of the same woods con- 
taining the last year's nest, and had laid three eggs. 
From the side hill above the woods I had watched them 
working on the nest, and until I thought they had the 
set completed, and on the above date I went to that part 
of the woods with climbers and a box to carry on my 
belt, to bring the eggs down in. Finding the tree rather 
hard to climb, I decided to get a long pole and fix a net 
on the end of it, climb with it to a fork in a poplar that 
stood about 15 feet from the maple. This I did, and 
dragging the pole up the poplar I rested in the fork and 
scooped the three eggs from the nest, placed them in my 
box and slid to the ground again. In a few days, not 
discouraged, the pair went to an old nest up the stream 
about two miles, and lining it with a few twigs of green 
hemlock boughs and a few bits of dead birch bark, laid 
two eggs and hatched them unmolested, as I did not wish 
to drive them away entirely. Having been away to 
school in the spring of '87, I did not have opportunity 
to watch them nesf building, but on April 29 I paid 
them a visit and found them nesting in a large beech in 
a piece of woods up on the side hill overlooking the old 
site, which they so much liked to occupy. With a pole 
and net I climbed a maple beside the beech and scooped 
the three eggs which the nest contained. This nest was 
an old crows' nest relined Avith live hemlock twigs and 
bits, of bark. The pair then went down the stream 
about two miles and repaired an old nest and hatched 
their two young undisturbed. In the spring of '88 they 
rebuilt the nest in the sugar maple occupied in '86, and 
on May 3 I took with a net, as before, the three eggs and 
put in their place three dirty hen's eggs and hid behind 
the upturned roots of a fallen tree to watch the female's 
return. _ She was very cautious coming back to the nest. 
Both birds circled about overhead, looking over every 
inch of ground before the female would go near the nest. 
She lit on a tree some distance from the nest and stayed 
a long time, then flew to a tree nearer and stayed a 
shorter time, and so on until she came to the nest, u.sing 
up over an hour before settling down to the nest. She 
acted strange when she looked at the eggs and made a 
great deal, of fuss before she settled down on them. But 
T suppose she thought she would have to put up with 
most everything while that fellow with the long pole was 
"on her tracks/' 
66 
Returning to the nest about three weeks later, I found 
egg shells on the ground beneath the nest and one dead 
chicken that had been pitched from the nest as soon as 
it had hatched, and the old birds had left the ill-fated 
locality and were seen no more along the valley of the 
stream that season; but in '89 they returned April 10 and 
soon repaired the nest two miles down the stream that 
was occupied successfully in the spring of '87. With a 
net I climbed a tree near and scooped the three eggs. 
They then went to the woods across the stream and 
occupied an old nest, probably the one u,sed in '85, and 
reared their two young. 
The succeeding three year.s they returned to some one 
of the old nests and were relieved of a first set and al- 
lowed to rebuild and to hatch the second set. But in 
'03 I took a set of three on April 25 and a set of two on 
May 12 and a third set of one egg on May 29. That year 
they did not rear any young; but they returned as usual 
in '94 and the same experience was theirs — ^to lose the 
first set and to rear the second succssfuUy. They have 
returned each .succeeding year and I have taken their 
first set while on my vacation. They have come to know 
me at sight pretty well, even my footstep heard about 
their nest locality, and they will return to it no more, so 
certain are they that I am after th em. Each spring as 
I return to their locality, as I come in sight of them 
they leave the woods in which they are nesting with a 
cry of despair and go to some other of their old nests, 
to breed undisturbed. The spring of 1900 was no excep- 
tion, as I was taken sick and was ordered by my doctor 
away from my work up into the country to get rested 
up and to regain my health. The old hawks came April 
JO and had their nest relined. 
On May i I took a set of two eggs and May 20 they 
had an old crows' nest relined in the upper end of the 
same woods ready to lay the second set, but I miscal- 
culated the time and went to the nest before the eggs 
were laid. They then went across the stream and were 
left to breed unmolested. In the p,ast seventeen years 
they have occupied eleven different nests, all being re- 
lined with live twigs of hemlock and small bits of birch 
back. 
How much longer I shall be able to disturb their first 
attempt at nesting 1 am not able to say, but for seventeen 
successive seasons I have been on hand and taken their 
first set. That this is the same pair of hawks there is 
little doubt. They are very much attached to their old 
breeding grounds. It would be interesting to know 
how many years they had bred along that valley previous 
to '84, and also how many years they will continue to 
return and be persecuted. In looking over and compar- 
ing the sets taken in all this time, the eggs bear a strik- 
ing "family resemblance." None of them are heavily 
marked. The first set, taken in '85, are somewhat smalleV 
than those taken the last few years. Some of the later 
sets are a bit more heavily marked than the earlier sets. 
I am looking forward to my vacation next spring and to 
meeting my old friends the buteos, and I presume they 
will be expecting me too. 
J. Merton Swatn. 
Portland, Me. 
Squirrels as Pets. 
A MORE entertaining and interesting pet than a squirrel 
it would be hard to find, and a less troublesome and 
prettier pet in the animal kingdom there is not. Con- 
trary to general opinion, the squirrel is the least ex- 
pensive of all pets. To a coarse-grained individual there 
may be pleasure in keeping a squirrel in one of those 
little prison cages where they are pestered with fleas, can- 
not breed and generally end up by becoming paralyzed in 
their hind quarters; but not so with persons who are 
sensitive. Pleasure comes only to them through seeing 
their pets enjoy existence and not in the mere posses- 
sion of them. 
That the large black, fox and silver gray squirrels can 
be kept around the house and grounds in much the same 
manner as a pigeon I have proved to my entire satis- 
faction. This can be managed in the following way: 
(i) Have your squirrels paired properly— male and female 
that are not related. To be sure of this, never rely upon a 
dealer's word, but buy one animal from one dealer and 
the other from another. This is most important, for ani- 
mals will not breed that are out of the same nest, and are 
very likely to leave, hunting for a mate. (2) Procure a 
box, say about 3 cubic feet, place a smaller box inside of 
this, in which is some manila for bedding. (3) Close 
the box up with boards, all but a small opening "in which 
you can just put your hand. (4) Place a very liberal 
supply of mixed nuts and sunflower seeds, but no' roasted 
peanuts. (5) Hoist the whole affair into some lofty tree 
or the corner of the barn. If the barn is of brick, then a 
wooden pole or two must lead to it. Secure firmly. (6) 
Place your squirrels and some water vessel in the open- 
ing and cover with inch mesh wire netting. Water daily. 
(7) After a few days, say three- or four, you can take off 
the netting and allow out an hour or two before sundown. 
Sprinkle the ground immediately beneath the nest with 
nuts and place the water in a position where cats cannot 
molest them. (8) From this on, never disti^rb the 
nest. Every time the squirrels are frightened they will 
run to their nest; let th em be at peace there. Dogs are 
not cunning enough to catch a squirrel, and the large 
varieties are not molested by cats. You will observe your 
pets will leave their box very cautiously at first, the tree 
will be thoroughly explored and the least noise will send 
them rushing back to their retreat. 
Squirrels mate in the fall of the year when the hickory 
nut shells. They have their young in the early part of 
March. These are born naked and blind, and number 
from one to five, according to the amount of food on 
hand. The period of gestation is, I think, four weeks. 
Squirrels never hibernate in the true sense of the word, for 
they will come out on the coldest day in the year and eat 
some snow — in fact, they are out 365 days a year. Even 
the chipmunk and the flying squirrels will not hibernate 
as the ground hog does, but pop their little noses out for 
a breath of air and a bite of snow. 
In buying squirrels always examine their teeth and see 
that they are not curved into tusks; also see that their 
coat is glossy and be sure that they are not .suffering from 
partial paralysis. A squirrel is one of the most active 
creatures in the world, and if it cannot; run up and down 
