Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co, 
RMS, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $3. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1905, 
j VOL. LXIV.— No. 8. 
j No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
'he Forest and Stream is the recognized medimn ofentertain- 
nent, instruction and information between American sportsmen, 
ifhe editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
«ges are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
icarded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
:)f current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
■orrespondents. 
: Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
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(particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
A WHALE AT CHAHOOS. 
This is a story of the New-Netherlands and of the year 
b47, which was the thirty-fifth after the exploration of 
i.he country by the Englishman Hendrik Hudson, sailing 
j'vestward in a Dutch bottom to discover a passage to the 
dngdom of China. The tale is told by that Jonker Adrian 
■an der Donck, who, having purchased from the Indians 
)n the east bank of the Hudson River, just north of New 
\msterdam, the colony of Colen Donck gave it the name 
Yonkers from his title, the name which it still bears, 
i an der Donck came out to America as schout (sheriff) 
)f the Patroons' Colony of Rensselaerwyck, where he re- 
nained until 1647, and so might very well have been a 
Uness of the Cohoes whale incident recorded in his 
^ascription of the New Netherlands," published in 1655. 
As all the early Dutchmen who wrote of the natural at- 
xtions and resources of the new country, our Jonker 
vas impressed with the beauty of the lands and the plen- 
•;ude of the animal life, and he has left many pleasing 
d suggestive pictures of the great store of the fish and 
:ihe game which were justly reckoned to be among the 
(notable riches of the colony. "Here our attention is 
arrested by the beautiful landscape around us," he writes. 
I 'Here the painter can find rare and beautiful subjects for 
;the employment of his pencil, and here also the huntsman 
is animated when he views the enchanting prospects pre- 
sented to the eyes; on the hills, at the brooks and in the 
K alleys, where the game abounds and where the deer are 
: feeding, or gamboling or resting in the shades in full 
:view." 
Then, as now, the fall was the hunter's choice season of 
;the year; and very enticing are the glimpses given in Van 
der Donck's pages of the New Netherland autumn, "very 
fine, lovely and agreeable— more delightful cannot be 
I found on the earth." It was then that the summer pro- 
I auctions were gathered, the earth yielded its surplusage, 
'the fat oxen and swine were slaughtered, and the wild 
■ese, turkeys and deer were at their best. The country 
as filled with game, and immense numbers of deer were 
Laken by the Indians. 
"This is also the Indian hunting season, wherein such 
great numbers of deer are killed that a person who is un- 
informed of the vast extent of the country would imagine 
that all these animals would be destroyed in a short time. 
But the country is so extensive, and their subsistence so 
abundant, and the hunting being confined mostly to cer- 
tain districts, therefore no diminution of the deer is 
observable. The Indians also affirm that before the 
arrival of the Christians, and before the smallpox broke 
out amongst them, they were ten times as numerous as 
they now are, and that their population had been melted 
down by this disease, whereof nine-tenths of them have 
died. That then, before the arrival of the Christians, many 
more deer were killed than there now are, without any 
perceptible decrease of their numbers." 
Information about the interior of the country was 
vague; how far inland it extended was a subject of specu- 
lation; but Van der Donck was so impressed by the im- 
mense numbers of beaver and land animals taken by the 
Indians and brought into the Dutch posts for barter that 
he conjectured that the country must be very large to pro- 
duce such multitudes of fur-bearers. Moreover the great 
numbers of water fowl "which fly two and fro across the 
country in the spring and fall seasons," convinced him 
that the land must extend several hundred miles into the 
interior. It was known in those days— though in these 
later times the shooters who demand spring shooting have 
apparently forgotten it— that the wild ducks seen in the 
country inland from New Netherland were not all emi- 
grants; for Van der Donck tells of the great Lake Tra- 
coysen (afterward called Ontario), which "has extensive 
reed and brook lands of great breadth, wherein great 
multitudes of water fowl breed in summer." 
But to the whale story, which, be it repeated, is of th§ 
Hudson as it was in the full generous flow of 1647, and 
by no means the shallow stream of the present day. Be- 
tween the two have intervened centuries of wood cutting 
and forest depletion, and a shrunken flow. Cohoes is 
on the west bank of the Hudson River, nine miles above 
Albany, at the mouth of the Mohawk. This is what hap- 
pened there in the days of Van der Donck as he tells it : 
"This river is rich in fishes— sturgeon, dunns, bass, 
sheepheads, etc. I cannot refrain, although somewhat out 
of place, to relate a very singular occurrence which hap- 
pened in the month of March, 1647, at the time of a great 
freshet caused by the fresh water flowing down from 
above, by which the water of the river became nearly 
fresh to the bay, when at ordinary seasons the salt water 
flows up from twenty to twenty-four miles* from the sea. 
At this season, two whales, of common size, swam up the 
river forty miles, from which place one of them returned 
and stranded about twelve miles from the sea, near which 
place four others also stranded the same year. The other 
run farther up the river, and grounded near the great 
Chahoos falls, about forty-three miles from the sea. This 
fish was tolerably fat, for although the citizens of Rens- 
selaerwyck broiled out a great quantity of train oil, still 
the whole river (the current being still rapid) was oily 
for three weeks, and covered with grease. As the fish lay 
rotting, the air was infected with its stench to such a de- 
gree that the smell was offensive and perceptible for two 
miles to leeward. For what purpose those whales ascended 
the river so far, it being at the time full forty miles from 
all salt or brackish water, it is difficult to say, unless their 
great desire for fish, which were plenty at this season, led 
them onward." 
*A Dutch mile is about tliree English miles. 
THE WEATHER AND THE BIRDS. 
The winter of 1904-05 will long be memorable for its 
severity. Along the Atlantic Coast the freezing weather 
has extended down into Florida, ruining many an orange 
grove, and through the southern quail country there has 
been winter worthy of Canada. In many places in North 
Carolina the thermometer has been below zero, with 
abundant snow and much ice. 
On the other hand, this year, as never before, efforts 
have been made to protect the birds and to provide them 
with food during the existence of such unusual condi- 
tions. The game commissions of Massachusetts, Illinois, 
AVest Virginia, and no doubt of many other States, have 
taken active steps to provide food for the birds, and these 
efforts will not be without their reward. Usually it is not 
the cold which kills the birds, but starvation. If fuel for 
the internal fires is provided, the birds will generate heat 
enough to preserve them through the bitterest winter 
weather. 
A number of the States mentioned have gotten out 
posters and hand-bills urging the farmers to feed the 
birds, and while sportsmen have readily contributed 
money, local individuals gave the work to carry food to 
the fields to preserve the starving quail. At Asheville, 
N. C, grain was freely distributed to responsible persons 
for scattering where the birds might find it. 
The great depth of snow over much of the country calls 
to mind the inclined feeding trough described and pic- 
tured in Forest and Stream of October 15, 1904. This 
inclined trough is provided with partitions to keep the 
grain from all running down to the bottom, and its in- 
clined position makes it certain that some portion of the 
trough will always be above the snow level. Moreover 
the trough is roofed to keep the snow and rain out of 
the grain, and a shelter of boughs in the form of a brush 
house in part protects it. In Massachusetts the device has 
served to keep quail alive in a time of deep snows and 
cold, and incidentally many small birds feed here. There 
is no reason to doubt that the partridges or ruffed grouse 
might also form the habit of feeding at such a trough, for 
it is well established that the ruffed grouse will visit regu- 
larly places where grain has been strewn or spilled by 
accident and feed on the scattered kernels. 
The freezing up of the great bays and sounds along the 
coast has been an evil thing for the wildfowl. While the 
sea ducks, like broadbills, redheads, canvasbacks and 
many others, commonly shift from north to south as the 
water closes or opens, there are rnany marsh ducks whose 
attachment to localities -seems to be so great that when 
their usual winter feeding grounds close up they ait about 
on the ice waiting for a change of weather, or resort to 
open warm spring holes, where they dabble in the mud, 
and, instead of migrating, starve to death where they are. 
Something of this kind took place during the bitter winter 
of 1874-75, when at a certain point in New England the 
black ducks lost all their flesh, and no doubt many finally 
starved to death. One caught in a muskrat trap in a 
little spring hole, and two shot in ignorance of their con- 
dition showed the birds to be mere bunches of feathers 
and bones. From North Carolina come accounts of can- 
vasbacks and redheads drowned by diving into the air 
holes and coming up under the ice. If true, these reports 
show very extraordinary conditions, for the average duck, 
as we have seen him when he dives, understands very well 
where he must come up again. 
What will be the prospect for birds next summer can- 
not now be told; but so far as it is possible to judge, it 
is not a cheering one. 
DEATH OF PROFESSOR PACKARD. 
Alpheus Spring Packard died last week aged 65 
years. Prof. Packard was an eminent zoologist and a pro- 
lific writer on biological topics as well as on geology and 
paleontology. He was born in Brunswick, Me., in 1839, 
became librarian and custodian of the Boston Society of 
Natural History in 1865, was curator of the Essex In- 
stitute the next year, and in 1867 became Curator and 
afterward Director of the Peabody Academy of Sciences. 
From 1877 to 1882 he was a member of the United States 
Entomological Commission. He was one of the founders 
and for twenty years was editor-in-chief of the American 
Naturalist. He was a member of many scientific societies. 
Among his better known books are his "Guide to the . 
Study of Insects," "Half Hours With Insects," "Zoology," 
and his text book on "Entomology." 
Prof. Packard was long a subscriber to the Forest and 
Stream, and in its earlier years was a frequent contribu- 
tor to its columns. 
The Senate has a standing committee on Forest 
Reservations and the Protection of Game, the members ■ 
of which are Messrs. Burton (chairman), Depew, 
Perkins, Kearns, Kittridge, Burnham, Ankeny, Morgan, 
Tillman, Gibson and Overman. There is no such com- 
mittee of the House of Representatives, where measures 
relating to game protection are referred to different com- 
mittees which are made up in part of men of no expe- 
rience nor special interest in this special field. The 
growing importance of Federal legislation for game pro- 
tection makes it highly desirable that there should be a 
committee of the House specially charged with the con- 
sideration of measures in this field; and a recognition 
of this has prompted Mr. Shiras, of Pennsylvania, to [ 
submit a resolution providing for a committee. It reads: 
"Resolved by the House of RepresentaiHves, That there 
be added to the standing committees of the House a ' 
Committee for the Protection of Game and Fish, to con- . 
sist of sixteen members, and to which committee there - 
shall be referred all proposed legislation relating to the 
protection and propagation of game and fish." As the ; 
need of the proposed committee is so well defined, Mr. . 
Shiras's resolution will without doubt be adopted. 
William C. Prime, one of the best known anglers of 
this countrj^ and author of the book, "I Go A-Fishing," 
died at his home in this city last week. Dr. Prime was 
born in Cambridge, N. Y., in 1825; he graduated from 
Princeton in 1843 ; and practiced law in New York until . 
1861. In that year he became part owner of the Journal 
of Commerce, to the columns of which he contributed the 
fishing papers which won for him wide popularity and 
appreciation, and when collected in book form took their 
place among the classics of American angling literature. 
He was a fisherman all his life, and had cast his lure in 
many of the famous fishing waters of the world, not only 
in this country, but abroad, in England, Scotland, Pales- 
tine and Egypt. With the White Mountains and the , 
Adirondacks he was familiar in the old days when fished- 
out waters were unknown and undreamt of. His writ- 
ings are characterized by the enthusiasm of- the devoted 
angler and glowing descriptions of nature; and they are 
pervaded with a depth and tenderness of sentiment which^ 
jielong to the writings of a p^st generation. 
