6cT. 4 1900.1 
FOI^EIST^ AND STMEAM. 
a large poi'liou of the night apparently engaged in fish- 
ing, but mostly in rellection, and in I'ecalling and living 
over the many incidents of the past; lor it made no 
difJerence whether the fishing was good or bad, every 
evening it was the same, and he seldom came in before 
two or three o'clock in the morning, and from that time 
till half past five or six o'clock seemed to be all the 
sleep he required. His only exception to this rule was 
on Sunday. Nothing could induce him t- go out upon 
the Sabbath. This day was spent silently and rever- 
£ntly in his little room in pious meditation, broken only 
by an occasional hymn tune upon his flute." 
J. B. BuR>fHAM. 
In Sunny Tennessee. 
It is not singular that one's first day of vacation should 
be spent this year in some of the lovely peach orchards ot 
northern Alabama. That of my good friend, Johnnie 
McDaniel, lies on the northern slope of McDaniel Moun- 
tain, some eight miles from my home, and is, I dare say, 
as beautiful an orchard as can be found in the State. 
Uncle 'Thaniel, who drove us on that quiet road, aisled 
by great pines, was arrayed in his Sunday Prince Albert 
and neckcloth of flaunting hue and lively pattern. He 
patted his mules none the less affectionately, however, and 
prattled on to them as is his wont in the long days spent 
m their company alone. The July sun had brought out 
the orange and the whorled coreopsis and the several 
varieties of helianthus flamed radiantly from the fence 
rows. The woodthrush and the summer tanager were 
still in song, and from distant grain fields came the notes 
of promise for another season of quail shooting. To stand 
among rows of the soft green trees, bending with richly 
colored fruit, seemed justly to place the day at the top 
of la belle saison. At such times even ordinary events 
take on a color as though the day were blessed of saints, in 
whose worship one has some part. 
To middle Tennessee, where I fished in the waters of 
Barren Fork, was a quick transition. To Aug. i there 
had been no fishing of consequence on account of the 
unusual rains, but after that time I have never seen the 
sport so good in these familiar waters. The mill pond in 
the town of McMinnville is well stocked with bream, rock 
bass and black bass, and a successful day's "breaming" 
is to be reckoned among the chief pleasures of the gentle 
art in this section. One is paddled in a canoe with deft 
and silent stroke along the banks, skirting the nibss 
beds, and the cast, with light tackle, is made from the 
prow; the goose quill float dips like a flash of light on 
reacliing the water, and, if at all expert, a fighting prize 
of green and gold is the swift reward. 
Aside from the many discomforts of mountain trout 
fishing, which somehow heightens the sport to the right 
thinking angler, I regard breaming as quite its equal. 
One is, too, generally more certain of a full basket, and 
in these limpid streams the table quality of the fish can 
scarcely be excelled. One day my companion and I 
brought home 119 fish, including one 2-pound trout, the 
latter being caught on a reel with some 50 feet of line. 
The fishing over, I am always inclined to linger over the 
beauty of this mill pond till nightfall. The four miles 
stretch of placid water, the lines of birches, silvering the 
green oaks and maples, and the festoons of Virginia 
creeper and grape; the dripping spring, tumbling over a 
mossy ledge with gentle plashes and crowded in very 
honor of its quality by a tiara of jewel weed; the dark 
mysterious sloughs where the great blue heron is some- 
times seen standing sentinel, and where the smaller com- 
mon varieties breed and live, darting in and out with 
cries as Aveird as their haunts. 
One fair July day we moved our house party from the 
venerable shades of our town house to a cottage at 
Beersheba, in the Cumberland Mountains. Here the alti- 
tude is 2,500 feet, and no summer heat ever penetrates. 
The views from the observatory of the hotel and the Back- 
bone cannot be equaled, possibly, in all this range. The 
cottagers have friendly and congenial circles where read- 
ing aloud, music and cards help to speed the time, and the 
best of all these diA^ersions, the long tramps to the steeps 
and the gorges of Long's and Laurel mills. Stone Door 
and Father Mountain. Two enthusiasts and myself 
botanized for some time over a wide territoiy. and for 
two weeks, almost without interruption. I rose at dawn to 
linger awhile over the purpling east at Balance Rock, then 
down to the twilight of Dark Hollow for squirrels. At 
certain stands my ear was usually rewarded by the 
familiar rasp on hickory nuts, and if within range I would 
find quick aim as ni}' dainty feeder reached out for fresh 
food in the festoons of small branches. As I was ex- 
pected back for breakfast, my bag was never heavy, but 
all the better for this, as this -splendid dish figured the 
longer in our menus. 
I notice with regret that the chestnut trees throughout 
this section of Tennessee are dying rapidly. Up to a fcAV 
years since no disease was known among them. T trust 
some reader of Forest and Stream may have observed 
fliis and can explain the probable cause. 
Like the warblers, lingering yet a little while in this 
delicious air of mid-Septeraber, I find that I too must 
turn southward to the white cotton fields of work. 
E. M. 
Attalla, Ala,, Sept, 28. 
"Wild Animals in Vermont. 
Mr. Carlos L. Smith sends to the Montpelier Journal 
these statistics of animals killed in Vermont during the 
time from 1885 to 1898, both years inclusive: 
During 3897 and 1898 there were no bounties on noxious 
animals, but although there were considerable many boun- 
ties paid during 1897 and a very few in 1898, they were 
for those animals killed in the j^ear of 1896, after the 
auditor's report had been made and the law repealed, and 
before it went into effect in February, 1897. The audi- 
tor's report shows for the time above mentioned that there 
were bounties paid on 494 bears. 16.3 lynx. 46,313 foxes. 
2TS rattlesnakes, i panther, i wolf, costing the State 
$3S.353. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach ws at the 
latest ity Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 
The Copperhead's Bite. 
Editor Porest and- Stream: 
The interesting letter from one of your correspondents 
about the copperhead snake was very correct in its de- 
tails. The writer forgot to mention the bright green 
plate present on the forehead when that reptile is at its 
best. The gray coppprheads arc the very small ones, but 
on account of their markings and their extreme thickness 
in proportion to their length and- their large head, they 
are never mistaken for any other snake. 
The copperhead is certainly a most villainous reptile. 
I have seen them of the length of my little finger with a 
toad inside of them thicker than the end of my thumb. 
Now look at your little finger and the last joint of your 
thumb and you will will appreciate the comparison. 
Again, I saw a copperhead in the summer of '89 at Valley 
Park, Mo., that was not much longer than my arm, and 
yet it had a head as large as my closed fist and its body 
was as thick as my arm (my fist and arm arc consider- 
ably above the average in length and size). This snake 
was by far the largest I ever saw of its species, and must 
have been nearly twenty years okl. Its head was nearly 
severed by that enemy of all snakes, the hay mower. I 
discovered it the day after we had cut the hay in a dried 
up swamp that lay close to the village of Valley Park. 
So much for this beautiful creeping devil. 
Now, how does it feel to be struck b}^ one? I once un- 
derwent that experience, and in snake days at that time 
when the virus is at its worst. I had heard stories of 
persons dying from the eft'ects of the bite — in fact, that 
very summer a boy, a white woman and a colored man 
had died inside of two weeks in that very neighborhood 
from the effects of copperhead bites. I differ from your 
correspondent's expressed opinion when she states that 
the bite of the copperhead (Ancistrodon contortrix) is less 
poisonous than that of the rattlesnake (Crofalus hor- 
■ridus). I have spoken to Indians from the West and 
those who were native of Canada, and without exception 
they have more dread of a copperhead bite than of a 
rattlesnake bite. For the copperhead bite' their only 
remedy is to cut a large piece of flesh out and sear with 
a red-hot iron, whereas the remedy for a rattlesnake bite 
was the process of copious sweating. 
But the question is, How does it feel to be struck by 
a copperhead ? I was once stung by a nest of bumble- 
bees, and afterward counted sixteen .stings; the eft'ect 
of this was to cause me to voinit and turn very pale 
and weak. I can say that that incident was not even a 
flea bite in comparisoii to the strike of the copperhead. 
Probably the reader has sometimes caught hold of an 
electric battery and found the current so strong that he 
could not leave go. That is the nearest description I 
pan give of the pain — you can't let go, and the pain keeps 
getting worse and worse. You can't cry ; you simply 
hoAvl and roar with agony. I was struck on the fore- 
finger of the right hand, and it felt as if something was 
tearing along the whole course of the nlner nerve to the 
cerebellum. Although I was struck on the first joint of 
the right forefinger, so tremendous was the pain that I 
could not locate the exact spot. It seemed' to me that the 
entire right hand and arm was being run over by a rail- 
road train. 
And here was T in a deep thought notwithstanding all 
the pain, thinking what an ass I was to doubt other 
people's words. The colored people in the neighborhood 
told me story after story of the danger of the bite. I 
thought of Saint Paul and the viper, and how they niet 
and how they parted, and I said "Nonsense." If ever a 
human being tried to work the mind cure I did then, as 
I kept repeating over and over the word "ridiculous" 
during the interval of half a minute, and the result was 
that the poison thoroughly entered my system. As hick 
would have it, I was onh^ a quarter-mile from a steam 
bath, which I rapidly set out for. and I covered the 
distance in better time than ever was made. The outward 
passage of the air from my lungs was utilized to give 
forth a roar that brought every one in the neighborhood 
to "see." For the space of one hour and twenty minutes I 
parboiled in a steam bath roaring without ceasing, except 
the last five minutes, when the pain seemed to leave rae'. 
While in the steam bath I was aggravated by two doc- 
tors — one Avanted me to drink ammonia and the other 
pure alcohol. I refused to drink anything but water- 
melon juice, and came out of the process a much thinner, 
paler and wiser man. 
Dr. Stickney was telegraphed for to St. Louis, and he 
arrived, finding me lying out on the lawn resting after the 
ordeal. My right fingers, hand and whole arm were 
swollen to the extreme tightness of the skin, but the pain 
was gone with the exception of a dull, heavy ache in the 
right lobe of the cerebellum. 
"Doctor," I said, "we will visit the snake and kill him." 
"All right," said the doctor. "Will he be there?" 
So taking Al. 'the colored overseer of the farm, we 
ascended the hill to the black thimblcberry patch, and lo ! 
true to the copperhead's nature, he was there. Al dis- 
patched him. The specimen in size was not to be com- 
pared to the monster I have previously mentioned, but he 
was brilHant in hue; the bright green plate on the fore- 
head glistened- in the sxm, and all the shades of brown 
were very pretty. The swelhng had disappeared by the 
next morning, but a decided tenderness remained in my 
right finger, and I Avent about my work and considered 
the whole matter over; but I soon found but that the 
worst was to come. 
One month from the time I was bitten I noticed a 
felon come on mj- hand close to my forefinger. This I 
burnt with a red-hot iron in no gentle manner, as I was 
quite mad at its arrival, and suspected something. Two 
Aveeks after this I met the noon hour with a raging fever. 
I went to bed for one' hour, and then got up and went to 
work in the cornfield. The next day. one hour later, I had 
a terrific chill, then a fever, then a sweat. People in 
the neighborhood said I had the ague, and that it would 
last a week or ten days. Every day for six weeks, one 
hour later. I would have a terrific chill. I would shake 
the whole house. Nothing could warm me. Then a fearful 
fever would come tip, followed by a relieving sweat. I 
asked the neighbor.s what it incaiU. They said, *'I had 
ihc chills and fever bad -^->-^~^^ ^ — ." CThese dashes 
mean silence and wide open eyes.) I said, "I had." Now 
and tlien I would go to St. Louis, eighteen miles dis- 
tant by train, and get next the red-hot stove and freeze 
with a chill ; then i would go to the doctor's for the 
curiosity of having my temperature taken, I09J^° F. As. 
I would be exhausted, I would sleep there for an hour and 
then return. This thing kept up. I never missed a day. 
The chill and fever would follow me through the night. 
September passed by, October passed by, and in Novem- 
ber Dr. S. W. Dodds thought that cold water would down 
the fever; but it did not. For nearly four weeks I was 
treated to cold baths and a very, very low diet; but even 
then JogYz" F. would be registered occasionally. 
In the meantime I had been thinking hard, and I made 
up my mind that all systems and theories of disease and 
cure were wrong. I made up my mind that disease was 
not an entity, but the circumstances that caused the 
disease, and that disease is a friend and .should be at all 
times aided and never combated. Acting on this hy- 
pothesis I got into a hot-water bath of a temperature 
one degree higher than my previous day's chill. I got into 
the bath during the chill period, and I tell you it was 
pleasant. At this time I was as thiji as a human could be 
and live, and was as yellow as an orange. In one week 
after this treatment I was well. Almost immediately 
eight glands under my right arm swelled up and dis- 
charged a most putrid, green-colored, vile-smelling pus. 
Now you see that the purpose of the fever was to ripen 
and separate the poi.son, so that it could be discharged. 
During all this time 1 never took a drug. 
I have often been told that the head of a mule, horse 
or cow will rot off if they are bitten by this snake that 
never gives warning. 
After my experience from July to Christmas, 1889, I 
would advise any one intending to try a copperhead bite 
to first practice by having all their teeth pulled out of 
their head at once and gradually learn what pain is. I 
can tell the whole >vorld that snake bite is a real thing. 
G. H. CORSAN. 
Toronto, Canada^ 
A New Coon in Town. 
Of late years Ithaca, N. Y., has furnished a number 
of appetizing stories of wild life foreign to that which 
find its developing influences at Cornell. The forth- 
coming census is expected to show Ithaca as the likeli- 
est cover in the Empire State, with municipal attach- 
ments, in which to successfully pursue the elusive and 
appetizing raccoon. 
The other day Dr. Loekeby, who resides within a block 
of the busiest business part of the city, succeeded in 
killing a very large coon at the rear of the family resi- 
dence. The animal had devastated nearby poultry houses 
of select pedigree to such an extent that its early capture 
dead or alive by virtue of a reward sanctioned by 
municipal authority or otherwise had fairly become a 
public necessity. LTpon a plebeian pitchfork the un- 
tcrrified M. D. impaled the wild life outcast, and in a 
voice tremulous with the spirit of conquest proclaimed 
himself a benefactor of the first magnitude. 
And thus Ithacans continue to maintain the city's 
prestige as the foremost cover for small game within 
city limits in this Eastern country. 
Ruffed grouse fly against window glass and obligingly 
kill themselves for effete banquets. The merry little 
quail alights upon the Mayor's dooryard fence and 
whistles to be broiled for a morning spread on toast. 
The toothsome canvasback gayly disports itself within 
gunshot of the city's bath house. The great American 
polecat takes his morniirg spin along State street un- 
molested. Raccoons invade the home of judges and the 
abode of materia medica, and calmly offer themselves 
upon the altar of the colored gentleman's Sunday dinner. 
The husky carp pokes his nose in the public eye abroad 
friendly waters to incite the angler to renewed deeds 
of valor — but why continue to end of chapter? 
Ithaca l-^^s established an indisputable reputation as the 
spoi'tsman's paradise, second only to Chicago, in which 
mighty city the corpulent prairie chicken is annually, 
shot along the far reaches of many an unhallowed 
avenue. M. Chill. 
Sayre, Pa. 
Fish and Mosquitoes, 
From year to year the importance of the mosquito 
seems to be growing, and the efforts made by man to 
reduce its numbers are constantly increased. That the in- 
sect is a transporter of the malaria germ seems to be pretty 
well established, but the study that is now being devoted 
to the subject is likely greatly to increase our knowledge 
of it before long. 
For most people the mere annoyance of the mosquito's 
bite is justification enough for his wholesale destruction. 
A good many -years ago Dr. L. O, Howard, of the United 
.States Department of Agriculture, advocated the employ- 
ment of kerosene for the destruction of mosquito larvae, 
and it is generally believed that this method of fighting the 
pest is more effectual than any other that has yet been 
tried. It is quite certain that in some places the use of 
kerosene has very materially abated the mosquito pest. 
It is Avell known that many small fishes greedily feed 
on the larvse of the mosquito, and an example noted in 
Dr. Howard's recently published paper on these insects, 
concerning an occurrence which took place in Connecticut 
not long ago, illustrates this very well. Dr. Howard said: 
"In this case a very high tide broke away a dyke and 
flooded the salt meadows of Stratford, a small town a few 
miles away from Bridgeport. The receding tide left two 
small lakes nearly side by side, and of the same size. In 
one lake the tide left a dozen or more small fishes, while 
the other was fisliless. An examination in the summer 
of 1891 showed- that while the Ashless lake contained tens 
of thousands of mosquito larvae, that containing the fish 
had no larvae." 
In cases where water' must be stored in tanks or 
barrels for household purposes, the use of kerosene to 
de,«troy mosquito larvae might well be impracticable, and 
it is . suggested that small fishes might be introduced into 
such' recentacles in order to keep the mosquitoes from 
breeding in the water which they contain. 
