July i0, i^i.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
4a 
which he moved, whisky was not only expensive but 
scarce as well, and none of it suited his taste. _ The old 
man longed for some of his own old time liquor. It 
happened that Fox had a barrel nearly full of this same 
man's make that had in some way been carried into 
the wilds. He offered to sell it to the old man and 
jokingly said that if he hadn't the money to spare his 
farm would be accepted in its place. Imagine his sur- 
prise when the offer was accepted. The farm was quite 
large, and is now \vorth thousands of dollars, but 
whisky was considered far more valuable at that time, 
especiaHy to a retired whisky maker. 
Another Whisky Story. 
In order to show how highly "tanglefoot" was valued 
by the early Buckeye settlers, I will tell another circum- 
stance of a like character. Years ago when Ohio was a 
howling wilderness a family of settlers emigrated from 
the East and sought a home in the lonely wilds. Among 
their possessions were several pigs with which they in- 
tended to stock their clearing. They also had with them 
several jugs of whisky which were carried on a horse's 
back. As they were journeying along one day the jugs 
in some way became cracked and the contents began 
to rapidly leak away. A family coimcil was quickly held 
and the affair decided. They had no other vessel into 
which to put it, and so they concluded that the only 
way was to kill the pigs and convert their skms into a 
kind of skin bottle. The pigs were almost invaluable 
to them, but the liquor was more so. As they were 
ooliged to sacrifice one or the other, they decided in 
favor of the whisky. Their plan w'as quickly carried 
out, and in a little while the skins which had formed a 
covering for the pigs were converted into leather whisky 
bottles. 
A Rattlesnake Story. 
We all know that in the early days our river bottoms 
were only dense swamps and that each spring the coun- 
try was submerged by the freshets. This caused the 
pioneers to settle on the high lands bordering the river 
valleys. This was very inconvenient, for the nearby 
swamps were the home of fevers and reptiles. That it 
required real grit, to live in those days is shown by the 
following. Two boys were one day working in a field 
on the edge of a swamp when one was bitten in the hand 
by a large rattler. Of course they were badly frightened, 
but the uninjured one retained his presence of mind and 
did the only thing he could to save his companion's 
life. Ordering his friend to lay his hand upon a stump 
near by he severed it with a well directed blo\y with an 
ax. It was a desperate remedy, but it saved his friend's 
life, as no medical aid was to be had. 
V 
The First Cabin Floor in Cincinnati. 
In the latter part of the eighteenth century a man 
named William Vandiveer (the writer's great-grand- 
father) left his home in Delaware and crossed the moun- 
tains to the headwaters of the Ohio River, where he 
made a flatboat and descended that stream to Cincin- 
nati, where he proposed to make his future home. He 
erected a cabin out of the lumber of his raft, using the 
bottom of the boat for his floor. This was the first 
floored cabin in the "Queen City of the West." Later 
this man led a party of emigrants to the newly settled 
hamlet of Dayton. It is also said that this was the first 
wagon train to arrive in that city. Some years after 
he built a mill at_ Franklin on the Great Miami and 
there did a flourishing business. The old structure stood 
through the blasts of many a year until the exceedingly 
high water of the spring of 1898 carried it away. 
Such are the many tales of the past that are afloat 
in the Miami Valley. The Indians, the Rioneers and the 
game have disappeared, but a memory of their deeds 
will always remain. . Clarence Vandiveer. 
Tame Ruffed Grouse. 
HuDSONj N. Y., July 3. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Much has been said and written about domesticating the 
ruffed grouse, and if I remember correctly. Jay Bee came 
ihe nearest to it; but for taming this bird, I think that 
Mrs. M. McKenna is in the lead. 
Some two months ago Mr. McKenna said : "Come 
over and see our tame partridge and get a picture." Then 
he told me that in the early spring a partridge came near 
the house (which is in a grove) and they threw out some 
crumbs, which she picked up, and the next day she came 
again, and continued to come, and finally came two and 
three times each day. 
One day they noticed the bird looked larger and darker, 
and on close inspection found that it was not thcs same 
bird, but another, which proved to be the cock bird, as 
both the cock and hen bird came up the next day. 
I drove over several times, but she did not come until 
after I had started for home. I guess she smelt the 
camera. One afternoon I went prepared, if necessary, to 
stay all night, and to take a flashlight if she did not come 
earlier. I sat down to the table for supper about 6:30. 
About 6:4s they said, "Come." I dropped napkin, supper 
and all, and started for the cottage, and there sat Mrs. 
McK. on the door step and the bird was picking up pieces 
of apple and eating out of her hand. 
There were three members of the family present. I 
istood in a doorway about eight feet from the bird, and at 
last stepped out. As soon as she saw me she straightened 
up her neck, with Tmit, twit, twit, and walked away. 
This bird has come into the kitchen while the dog was 
lying on the floor and several members of the family have 
been present; has jumped on the window sill and never 
shown fear. Last Sunday it was very rainy all day, and 
she came to the house twice and was fed. 
Now if the rainy weather does not kill all the young, we 
shall not be in the least surprised to see this old cock 
and hen bring their brood up to the house to be fed and 
warmed by the kitchen stove. 
I inclose j'ou a photograph taken by Miss Ella Mc- 
Kenna, which will show for itself. H. 
Can the Rattlesnake Poison Itself? 
St. Louis, Mo., July 7. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
In describing the capture of a rattlesnake, Coahoma says : 
"In his contortions in the sffort to get away, the fangs 
were forced into the snake's lower jaw, so as to produce 
a free flow of blood, but he did not appear to suffer any 
harm from his self-inflicted wounds. This is a mystery, 
as it seems to be a well-attested fact that the injection of 
a snake's venom into its own veins is fatal to him." 
There is a conflict of authorities on this point. Miss 
Hopley, in her book on "Snakes," quotes Dr. E. Nichol- 
son, of Madras, to the effect that venomous serpents can, 
and sometimes do, kill themselves with their own venom. 
She says that the keeper of the reptile house of the Lon- 
don Zoological Garden has known poisonous snakes_ to 
die from bites inflicted by others of their own species. 
Yet she cites other instances to the contrary. 
Dr. Weir Mitchell, who is our best authority on the 
MRS. M KENNA S TAME GROUSE. 
venom of American snakes, says positively: "The deadly 
apothecary does not succumb to his own drugs. I have 
over and over injected under the skin of a rattlesnake its 
own venom, or that of a moccasin, or of another crotalus, 
but in no case have I seen a death result." 
Not long ago I saw a large rattlesnake that, after be- 
ing wounded by a stone thrown by one of our party, 
struck its fangs so deeply into its body that we had 
trouble in extricating them. The snake's back was 
broken by the stone, but it lived half a day, and its death, 
so far as we could judge, resulted from the broken back 
alone. There was no swelling where it had struck itself. 
Can any of your readers give me details of a case of 
snake bite treated by hypodermic injection of a saturated 
solution of potassium permanganate, as recommended by 
Weir Mitchell? I have carried the apparatus for such 
treatment, but, fortunately, have had no occasion to use it. 
It was recently swept overboard, with my other duffle, in 
a skiff wreck on the Mississippi. 
Horace Rephart. 
The Bobolink^s Song. 
We have had two versions by Mr. Charles Hallock of 
the bobolink's song. Mr. H. H. Thompson sends this to 
Mr. Hallock as another version : 
"Johp Gillet, John Gillet, scour the kettle, scour the kettle; 
scour it clean." 
Hartford, Mich. — Editor Forest and Stream: Inclosed 
please find a good rendition of the bobolink's song, clipped 
from our paper. Sullivan Cook. 
Weary of the palaver of the politicians, suppose you 
go up on Belle Isle any bright day and listen to the bobo- 
Imks. 
This is the month of the bobolink, and as he breasts 
the wind and darts over the green fields, Bob sings_ a 
riotous song, which, by the way, he stole from the robin, 
the field sparrow, the little wren and others, too, breathing, 
into the fragments the very essence of summer time. 
Swarms of warblers dart and dip carrying their glad 
cries through the deep green woods, but Bob pipes as 
though specially commissioned to outdo, in sweetness at 
least, if not in variety, all the woodland songsters. 
Manj' critics regard him as the finest singer that comes 
to Michigan. Perhaps he says, in his impish way : 
My wife! My wife! 
I sing to you! 
Mrs. Link! Mrs. Link! 
Mrs. Bob-o-Link! 
Queen! Queen! 
June's here! June's here! 
Let's frolic over the wheat! 
This free translation is the best the writer could make, 
but if you try to put in words the spirit of another of his 
outbursts, you find yourself watching him as he swings 
en a tuft of tall grass, and imagine that he is saying some- 
thing like this : 
Blubber-dubber-snipper-snapper-snee! 
Mrs. Link, to thee! To thee! 
Fe-fi-fofuxn-fee ! 
Snicker-a-mar-ee ! 
Bob's as black as tar, except for his white collar and 
white cap, and his wings are shaded with fine golden 
seams. He's a plump, saucy beautv' who sometimes sings : 
Single! Twingle Kerdingle! 
I rise 1 I risel 1 
To the skies I The skies! 
Up, up he goes, over the open meadow, all green like a 
wavy sea; the sunlight sparkles on the dewy grasses and 
the rapturous song makes rare music for tired city ears. 
Poor Bob! His fate, alas, is shared by many human 
beings. In the springtime of life he offers every promise 
of a happy, successful career, but as time passes, he 
grows lazier and lazier, and finally flies to the rice fields 
of South Carolina, where he makes a living without any 
trouble whatsoever, becoming more and more confirmed 
in his indolence, until along comes the gunners and bring 
him to the ground. 
In the market he masquerades as a plump reed bird. 
Perhaps he died in time, for long before that, his once 
musical voice degenerated into a sorry croak. Good for^ 
tune proved too much for him, and when he found the 
rice fields so rich for the mere plundering, he even forgot 
to practice his notes and his last glory was soon gone. 
The precious imp of the Michigan fields become the fat 
dumpling of the rice fields ; and that's the last of onr 
Bob whose riotous song was the envy of all the Michi- 
gan woodland. 
Alexander Dumas on Snakes. 
From ike Page. 
When M. de Villemessant was founding Le Grand 
Journal he wrote to Dumas asking for his assistance. 
Dumas at once prepared a romance in six volumes. In 
the meantime the editor asked him for some articles or 
causcries which were to be published immediately. "I 
have the very thing!" cried Dumas. "I was just about 
to start on a whole series about snakes." "On snakes?" 
"Yes. I have the entire subject at my fingers' ends, I 
spent half my life studying them. There's not a soul 
who knows anything about the dear, interesting little 
creatures. You will find it will be a great success — this 
article." The editor, half-convinced, agreed to accept this 
article "on snakes," saying to himself: "After all, Dumas 
is very likely to hit on something effective." "If you 
want a little cash in advance, you can draw on me." "I 
have plenty," said Dumas, "for the first time in ray life, 
I confess; but still, I really have enough." "They parted, 
and the editor returned to his office. On «rriving there 
he found Alexandre's secretary waiting for him with the 
following paper feady signed: "Received the sum of 
fifteen napoleons on account of my story. A hearty 
squeeze of the hand. A. D." The next day the secretary 
arrived with the first feuilleton, and a letter which ran : 
"My dear friend: Be kind enough to hand the bearer 
the sum of nine napoleons. A. D." The very same even- 
ing came a dispatch from Havre: "On receipt of this 
please send twenty napoleons to my lodging at Erascatl. 
A thousand thanks. A. D." An hour later came another: 
"My Dear Boy: I should have said thirty, not twenty, 
naps. You are my best friend. The feuilleton is on the 
road. A. Dumas." 
The finale of this capital story is no less characteristic. 
The feuilleton arrived by post the following day, and was 
found to contain exactly four lines of Dumas' compositiop 
— two at the beginning and two at the end of the paper. 
Thus it ran : "I copy from my good friend, Dr. Revoil, 
the following particulars about snakes." Then came a 
long essay on that subject, all copied out in his own neat 
handwriting, and clo.sed by this original remark: "In my 
next I will deal with the boa constrictor, the most curi- 
ous of all the snakes." 
The Oposstim as a Chicken Thief. 
Hyde Park, Mass., June 17. — In answer to a request 
for information a few weeks since in Forest and Stream, 
as to whether or no opossums would kill chickens, I would 
say, though I have no actual proof, I think I have enough 
evidence against "Bro' 'Possum" to justify a poultry 
raiser in considering him a suspicious character. 
In SefFner, Fla., in March of this year, I killed two 
opossums near a hen yard owned by a friend, who had, a 
week or two before that, killed one inside the same in- 
closure. 
To-day I have received a letter from a young son of 
the friend mentioned above. In it he says : "One night a 
'possum came and broke into the coop and took thirty 
chickens." They had about one hundred chickens hatched 
in March, and as many more in April. ♦ 
Mark E. Noble. 
Ducks Breeding: in New York. 
Watertown, Jefferson County, N. Y.~Editor Forest 
and Stream: Reports from different parts of the county 
show that ducks are nesting here in large numbers. Geo, 
E. Bull, of Rural Hill, reports five pairs of wood ducks 
and a pair of Canada geese nesting near his place. Reports 
from Perch Lake and the lakes around Theresa and Red- 
wood, show an unusually large number of wood duck, 
mallard, black duck and teal. Even along our lake front 
and the St. Lawrence River, where we met the greatest 
opposition, the sportsmen are reconciled, claiming that 
they had the best shooting last fall that they ever had, 
and that the ducks bred there last year, and that more 
ducks are staying here this year than last. 
' H. Tallett. 
A Htjntsman*s Grave* 
More than a touch of old-world romance was displayed 
at the funeral, the other day, of Prince Albert of Sach- 
sen-AItenburg. After the service at the church of Ser- 
rahn the coffin was placed on a hearse, and the proces- 
sion went slowly toward the forest, where, in accordance 
with the last wishes of the Prince, a so-called huntsman's 
grave had been dug under an old beech tree. When the 
mourners were all assembled the lid was taken from the 
coffin, and the body, wrapped in a white satin shroud 
covered with fir twigs, was taken out and placed in the 
grave, which was four yards deep and lined with green 
boughs. Then the prayers of the dead were said the 
grave was filled with earth, and a simple white wooden 
cross was planted on the mound as the only sign of the 
spot where the forest-lover's dust had been given back 
to the dust. — Westminster Review. 
