66 
Forest and stream. 
tJtJtY 26, 1902. 
year, and has two young at a time. The natives eat its 
flesh, which is white and tender, but rather flavorless, 
touch resembling that of the American hare. 
"The early French writers of Canada, who ascribed to it 
the habit of dropping from trees on the backs of deer, and 
destroying them bv tearing their throats and drinldng 
their Wood, gave it the name of Loup cervier. The 
French-Canadians now term it indiflferently Le Chat, or 
Le Pesshoo." 
Of late years, as is well known, the Canada lynx has 
been accused of killing calf moose in Maine and Canada, 
as well as of killing calf elk in the Yellowstone Park; 
but we do not know that any actual evidence of such acts 
has been secured by any one. It is conceivable, of course, 
that this might happen, but, on the other hand, it is to 
be remembered that at the season of greatest stress, when 
food for the lynx is most difficult to obtain, the calves of 
moose and elk alike are well grown, strong, and hardy 
animals, perhaps too much so to be destroyed by a small 
creature like the lynx. While ferocious enough in appear- 
ance, the power of the lynx is limited. Its total length is 
less than three and a half feet, and its height, at the 
shoulders, less than a foot and a half. At the same time 
the lynx is not devoid of courage ; we have known of its 
coming up to a camp at night and boldly carrying off a 
ham of meat, and then defeating and driving away two 
small dogs that were set upon it. 
The Doom of the Mosquito. 
From the Paierson (A*. J.) Chronicle. 
The present State administration is taking gigantic 
steps toward covering itself all over with glory several 
inches deep. The mosquito, which has added so much 
to the renown of New Jersey, is to be exterminated to 
the great relief of suffering humanity and a material 
reduction in the usual volume of profanity. Physically 
and morally the human species withm the borders of 
this State is to be improved. r 1 • j • -ui 
The first step toward the attainment of this desirable 
end was the dissemination of useful information in re- 
gard to the enemies of mosquitoes, and people were in- 
formed that sticklebacks and minnows subsisted to a 
great extent upon the larv^ of mosquitoes and upon 
the fully developed insect, the latter being placed withm 
reach of the fish whenever the mosquitoes attempt pro- 
creation of their species. The result was a number of 
applications to the Board of Fish and Game Commis- 
sioners for consignments of sticklebacks and minnows. 
Unfortunately, sticklebacks live only m salt water; if 
transfertred to fresh water they Avould show about as 
much activity as smoked herring, but a little mistake 
like this should not be noticed when the great end to 
be attained is remembered. It is to be hoped that the 
fish and game authorities will fill every requistion for 
minnows, if not for sticklebacks, for such a course would 
not only tend toward the extermination of the insect 
pest but would also start up a new industry in New 
Jersey. There is no doubt that minnows are fond of 
young and tender mosquitoes; the fact that the fish and 
game authorities would have to take their supply of min- 
nows from one insect-breeding water in order to supply 
another is hardly worthy of consideration, for the reliet 
the mosquitoes would obtain in one place would be 
counterbalanced by the warfare to be waged on them in 
the water where they are to be placed. The new indus- 
try which would be developed by this plan of killing 
mosquitoes would be the establishment of canning fac- 
tories in numerous places, giving employment to hun- 
dreds of hands. Mosquitoes breed only during a short 
period of the year, and consequently it would be neces- 
sary to supply the minnows with mosquitoes during the 
spring, fall and winter months. For this reason it would 
be necessary to can a lot of mosquitoes during the sum- 
mer months in order to prevent minnows from starving 
to death during the rest of the year. Then people would 
have to be employed to feed the canned mosquitoes to 
the minnows, and care will have to be taken not to give 
them too much food, for mosquitoes are a rich food for 
fish apt to develop dyspepsia, gout and similar diseases. 
But just think of the millions of mosquitoes that would 
be killed both by the minnows and by the canning pro- 
cessl , . • r • .1 
Having settled this matter to their satisfaction, the 
State mosquito authorities have now applied to the fish 
and game authorities for a permit to kill certain kinds 
of birds, the object being to ascertain what birds devour 
the most mosquitoes. It will be seen that in the wisdom 
of the mosquito authorities the insects are to be at- 
tacked both in the water and out of it. They will not 
be given any rest until they have been exterminated. 
The fish and game authorities have no more right to 
grant permits for killing insectivorous birds than has the 
Board of Aldermen of Paterson a right to issue permits 
for horsestealing, but when the constitution is set aside 
for the attainment of great objects, a little thing like 
granting a permit to kill birds ought not be deemed 
worthy of consideration. The State mosquito authori- 
ties evidently intend to secure their information first 
hand, from the stomachs and crops of birds; they evi- 
dently do not intend to rely on the extensive investiga- 
tions into this subject made for some vears past by the 
Department of Agriculture of the United States. From 
these reports it might be learned that the swallows de- 
vote most of their lives to killing mosquitoes, but there 
is nothing like knowing a thing by direct information 
and not depending on hearsay. After the State au- 
thorities have killed a few thousand birds and analyzea 
the contents of their crops and stomachs, they will prob- 
ably inform the public what steps they expect to take 
next. There will be no use in passing a law prohibiting 
the killing of these birds, for such a law has been on 
our statute books for many years. The chances are that 
they will invent some artificial method of propagating 
these birds, just as scjentists propagate trout. Whether 
the birds will be permitted to die when their usefulness 
for the season has expired or whether they will be fed 
on canned mosquitoes for the rest of their sojourn in 
New Jersey will be a matter for subsequent considera- 
^^Great is science, especially as developed by the State 
mosquito authorities, and what a fortunate thing it was 
that we have a governor who has kindly given the use 
of a part of the $10,000 fund in his hand for the noble 
purpose of ridding New Jersey of mosquitoes! In the 
meantime the world is waiting with bated breath for the 
next step to be taken by the State mosquito authorities. 
Locked Antlefs. 
Boston, July 20. — Fish stories are good, but they should 
have some shadow of truth. Stories of hunting and game 
animals should not be surrounded with impossible condi- 
tions. The latest comes from Maine, concerning the find- 
ing of the bodies of a couple of buck deer, with antlers in- 
terlocked. So firmly were the heads locked together that 
it was not possible to separate them, and the story says 
that the heads are being mounted in that position. To a 
well-known Maine guide the find is attributed. Now the 
story is all right, if told at the proper season, and the 
fact' that buck deer do get their antlers locked together 
and die in that position is well known, but when such a 
find is made in late July, conditions are somewhat at 
contraries. In the first place, the deer and moose of 
Maine all shed their antlers not later than the middle of 
January, and in Julv the new horns are but mere knobs, a 
few inches in length, "in the velvet." If the deer of the 
recent find had locked their horns when they had them 
last fall, and died in that position, their bodies would 
have decayed at the first approach of spring weather, even 
if every shred of flesh had not long before been eaten 
by foxes and other anir^als. This story has appeared in 
several papers, but if buck deer are to lock their horns and 
die in that position, let us have them do it at the season 
when they have horns. Special. 
nn[t und §mu 
— ^ — 
Proprietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Fokest and Stkeau. 
An Adventure with Buffalo. 
This story is taken from the British Naval and Military Gazette of 
1835. It is a sturdy tale such as they knew hew to tell m 
those days. 
The extraordinary adventure and miraculous escape 
of Lieutenant Clerk, of the Bombay Army, from death 
by the jaws of the lion, is one of the many astonishing 
interpositions of Providence, and strikes not only re- 
ligious and reflective people, but the most thoughtless, 
with awe, admiration, gratitude and wonder. Such nar- 
ratives are not only entertaining, but useful in a moral 
and religious point of view. They instruct mankind how 
much, under all and every circumstance, their lives are 
in the hands of the Creator of the Universe. 
When I was a lieutenant in the Fifteenth Regiment, 
Bengal Native Infantry, I experienced almost as miracu- 
lous an escape from death from a wild buffalo. There 
was a long, though inaccurate account of it given in 
the Bengal papers at the time, and again copied from 
them into some of the London journals. An authentic 
narrative, however, even at this distant period, may be 
amusing to your readers, and if you think so, you are 
welcome to the following statement of facts, to which I 
pledge m3rself: 
I was at breakfast one morning, in March, I6I3> the 
battalion of the Fifteenth Regiment, N. I., to which I 
belonged, then being stationed at Kissenjunge, when 
an orderly of the commanding officer of the regiment 
and station, Lieutenant-Colonel Morgan, came with the 
Colonel's compliments desiring to see me. I sent word 
back that I should be Avith him as soon as I had break- 
fasted. The orderly returned a second time with the 
Colonel's compliments, desiring that I should repair to 
his quarters instantly, and breakfast with him. The 
Colonel, when I entered the room, said: "What the 
d—l did you stay for your breakfast for; did you sup- 
pose there was none here?" adding, "there was a whole 
herd of wild buffaloes in my compound or back lawn." 
"Come." said he, "sit down and eat your breakfast and 
we will talk to them afterward." I replied: "Stuff, sir, 
you are gammoning;!" To which he said, "No, by 
Jingo! come and see for yourself." I accompanied the 
Colonel to the back of his house, and upon the plain, 
at a distance of aboiit 200 yards, was a herd of seven 
buffaloes, and a three-parts grown calf. I was so aston- 
ished I could hardty believe my eyes, and expressed 
myself that they mtist be tame buffaloes. The Colonel 
replied, "Tame bufTaloes. indeed! Where were the like 
ever seen before?" Upon my asking how he could ac- 
count for their being there at such a long distance from 
the forest (about thirteen miles), he said that the only 
way he could accoant for it was their having wandered in 
the night; and daylight having broken upon them, they 
were lost. We retired to the breakfast table, and the 
Colonel sent his orderlies round the cantonments to call 
the officers to his quarters. 
Most of the officers having arrived, and expressed their 
surprise at the extraordinary visit of such company, the 
Colonel wished to know what was to be done. The 
Colonel stated that his elephants, and also the company's, 
were gone for charra, or food. The other two private 
elephants, one mine, the other that of another officer, 
were also gone. The Colonel then said the only way 
to attack them and prevent their escape was that of 
hunting them on horseback and spearing them. No one 
seemed to relish the Colonel's ideas of encountering so 
formidable an antagonist with a mere hog spear on 
horseback. The Colonel, however, to stir up our pluck, said: 
"There was time when I wouid not have looked at 
them before I had been at them; I am now too old and 
too heavy to ride" (about 17 storie); and returning to 
mc, who had professed to be a spcnrtsman, added. "Come, 
send for your horse and set them ah example." I felt 
very little relish for this, and to giet off, made some ex- 
cuses as to the strength of my horse and its incompe- 
tency; but this was overruled by the offer of horses of 
other officers, one of which I accepted. After some 
persuasion several others sent for their horses, and when 
mounted, we consisted of five— Capt. Cooper, Lieut. 
Stirling. Lieut. Shuldham, myself ant? Pf- Swiney. Armed 
with spears, we advanced upon the herd, who imme 
diately set ojt at full speed. After a chase of about i 
mile and a half, the calf being Unable to keep up with 
the herd, separated from it; we rode it, and having 
despatched it, continued our pursuit after the herd. We 
had very hard riding before we came up with them. 
Thev were almost immediately lost in a grass jungle, 
hut through which we followed them, and o:>cs more 
drove them out upon the plain. Their speed had Hitherto; 
)).-eu .so great we had not been able to close ufCn them 
so as to deliver a spear. We had ridden about seven 
niltf'S, when all on a sudden a very large male about 17 
hritid'^ high, with horns at least six feet long, the lender 
of 1^"". herd, turned round, and having allowed the iiprd 
lu proceed on, he charged most furiously, first one horse, 
then another. He was not, however, able to come i-n ' 
contact with our horses, and after the herd had pro- 
reeded at least a mile and a half, and could only be 
traced by the clouds of dust they raised from the burn-' 
inc sands over which they traveled, he set off at a full 
gallop after them. Now was the time when our spears' 
fir.et hiegan to have effect. He was closely pursued for 
nearly two miles, and, although the spears, which had' 
been delivered, had very severely cut his hind-quarters, 
he still kept up his pace. Seeing that the system pursued 
was not likely to bring him down and that we should 
losf" him. I called out to the other huntsmen to "keep 
off." <:o "keep clear." and I would "job him," a system: 
sometimes resorted to by first-rate hog hunters, and. 
which consists in not delivering the spear from the hand.i 
but to wait until the horse is sufficiently near to the 
ho? to drive it through him, holding the shaft in the| 
hand. Very few sportsmen, however, will venture upon! 
it. as it is attended with much danger to the horse from 
the ttisks of the boar. I rode in upon the buffalo, who 
was most eagerly continuing his course in chase of the 
herd, which he was fast closing up on. He took no notice 
of the horse — not even when neck and neck together. 
In that situation, not being able with single hand to 
drive the spear far in, I dropped the reins upon the neck 
of my horse, and with my two hands drove the spear 
with my utmost force in between his ribs. When I 
found l' could get it no further, I laid hold of the reins 
and endeavored to wheel the horse to the left, to make 
way for the other sportsmen to close in; but the horse,' 
instead of answering the bit, made a quarter wheel, and 
stood still, refusing the spur. The buffalo missing the 
horse, halted, turned round, and faced the horse. Imme- 
diately I saw this, without looking round to the sports- 
men, who were close upon my heels, I called out to 
them— "For God's sake, keep off, for I am gone." As 
I spoke these words, I saw the buffalo preparing to 
charge; his ears were drawn close to his neck, he tossedl 
his horns back, sunk his Head, took his level, and with 
his eyes flashing like two balls of fire, down he came with! 
a tremendous crash to the charge, and threw me and tlie 
horse a considerable distance. I alighted upon my back, 
aad the buffalo ran up to my feet. There he stood, with, 
the spear in his side, the blood flowing in torrents from 
his wounds. My companions were sitting upon their 
horses at a respectful distance, exclaiming: "My God! 
he is killed." "Poor fellow," said another, "It is all 
over with him." A third exclaimed: "I would not have 
come and seen this for all the world!" A consultation 
was shortly held as to what was to be done to get my 
body, one observing that they could not return without 
it. Upon this a certain gallant cock, whose name, per- 
haps, it may be as well to withhold, said: "I will gc 
back and get a gun and shoot him." So saying, off he 
went; but, alas! never more to return. 
I had begun to get exceedingly tired of my situation, 
and to think very seriously of having to wait until mj; 
friend should reach the cantonment and come back with 
a gun. Indeed, I was fearful that when arrived in con- 
tonments, he would be fatigued; and if he once got ir 
company of Hodgson's pale ale or saw the Tiffin table 
smoking with the savory curries and chicken cutlets, 
his senses would be so absorbed in gastronomic reflec-i 
tions that he would forget the object of his journey, 
and we should see no more of him. So it turned out., 
He had been very shy all the day of the monster. Cir- 
cumstanced as I was I felt a great delicacy in doing any- 
thing which might offend His Majesty of the Plain, 
however, after a little consideration, I resolved to raise 
my hand, and beckon therewith to the remaining hunters 
to indicate that I was alive and to draw the buffalo ofl* 
from me. I accordingly waved my hand. This was re- 
plied to by exclamations. "Good God, he is not dead!" 
"See. he moves his hand!" "Get up and run away, for 
God's sake, or you will be killed." This, I thought 
pretty advice; easier given then followed; and if fol- 
lowed, sure almost of meeting with death. The sun 
was now in the meridian, very powerful, burning my 
faee and eyes sadly. After some further consideratior 
I rolled over from my back to my belly. I then cas! 
my eye behind me and found my fierce companion stil 
quiet. I then began seriously to think of escaping froir 
him, despairing of being extricated by the assistance 
of my companions. After a little hesitation, by way o, 
experiment to see how the buffalo would take ray move 
ment, I rose gradually upon my hands and knees, keep- 
ing my eye over my shoulder upon him. In a scconc 
he went through all his former evolutions of ears, horns 
and eyes, took his level, and made another furiou^ 
charge; the dreadful consequences of which I escaped bj 
prostrating myself flat upon the ground as soon as I 
saw that he had taken his level. By this maneuver his, 
horns merely grazed my back. The force of his heac 
broke on the ground off my left shoulder, he rolled heac 
over heels and lay upon the ground upon his forefeet 
close to me, we looking at each other in the face. 
It was now time to think seriously of getting away 
I felt I had been much bruised; but I experienced bu: 
little pain. I thought the moment favorable to try ano 
escape, and I calculated that before he could get up : 
could lie down again. Up I got but with difficulty, thf; 
pain in my loins was so great; I supported them witl 
both my hands. He permitted me gently to walk away; 
for fast I could not, and rejoin my companions. Thi 
buffalo never offered to move. My companions were ful 
of sympathy, such as exclaiming: "Make haste, make 
haste!" "Look, look at the blood," and at last, "Wha 
can we do for you?" Irritated and vexed,, I said: "Gc 
