IDec i6, 1905.] 
Fdftfest ANb stRfeAM. 
of Fenimore Cooper and made one glad that . such a 
primitive spot yet rested upon God’s footstool With 
the growth of pine properly cared for under forestry 
rules this great watershed gave promise of feeding the 
Father of Waters for all time. 
But two billion feet of standing timber _ was a great 
temptation to the lumberman and town-site operators, 
anxious to “skim the cream,” and therefore the Morris 
bill was passed and this great woodland paradise was 
thrown open to settlement, and the will and wishes of 
the lumberman and the land speculator. 
And now what has happened? The Panama Canal is 
to be. The whole Mississippi Valley wakes up and looks 
at the map and cries, “We must now see that our river 
is deepened. We must profit by the Panama Canal, and 
we must have a navigable highway, and Congress must 
help us.” Suppose it does take $50,000,000 to deepen the 
channels of this great river, they say it’s worth it, and 
they want it done. And while the knocking for this 
$50,000,000 appropriation is heard upon the doors of 
Congress, so too is heard at the same time at this river’s 
Feadwaters the chug, chug, chug of the keen ax,_ the 
:rasping of the saw and the crash of the falling giants 
:as they topple daily to the earth in thousands. 
The headwaters are being cut out, the very headwaters 
■whence this mighty river is draining her supplies, and 
•the people of the Mississippi Valley, oblivious to what 
iis going on. are beseeching Congress to deepen the river. 
iCut out and dry up the river’s headwaters first and then 
■spend $50,000,000, yes, $100,000,000 fruitlessly, to deepen 
;the channel. 
A Kaleidoscopic Sea. 
'Editor Forest and Stream: 
One of your contributors, Mr. Charles Cristadoro, has 
^recently called attention to a marvellous marine pheno- 
menon which I have not seen before alluded to by any 
-writer, and which he portrays in the following beauti- 
fully descriptive language. Ihe passage appears in the 
'body of an article on “Southern California,” as I quote it ; 
“Gazing out upon the surface of the Pacific lyhen but a 
slight breeze stirred its surface I there saw reflected in 
brilliant patches, every color of the rainbow. Upon its 
gorgeous surface was here a patch of velvety green, there 
royal purple, pink some other place, deep red, yellow and 
delicate grays, the changing breeze shifting and graduat- 
ing these colors until the surface of the ocean at times 
seemed to be one great rainbowed sheet of color. We 
now and then hear that color photography is an accom- 
plished fact, and after gazing upon the kaleidoscopic-hued 
surface of the ocean I wondered whether the_ water, act- 
ing as a lens, was not in some way responsible for the 
fixing of the colors on its surface in the shells of the 
abalone. The coloring of the abalone shells is one of na- 
ture’s mysteries, explainable of course, but yet unex- 
plained.” 
I have myself often noticed these prismatic “abalone 
colors” along the southern Pacific coast from the heights 
of Avalon and Point Loma, and wondered at their variety 
and combination, as well as at the play of light upon 
their graduated and changing hues; and my observation 
has discovered that they are imparted to some extent by 
the floating beds of amber-hued kelp which reflect the 
chromatic rays of the sunlit atmosphere, as is seen in a 
mirage, or even in the dancing heat waves on the surface 
of a furnace. These show the rainbow colors to a per- 
ceptible degree. Plausibility is given to , this theory by the 
fact that these results obtain only in a still, warm, sunny 
atmosphere. There may be other causes such as those 
which give color to the blue waters of Geneva Lake and 
the Mediterranean, the greens of Niagara and Lake 
Michigan, the blacks of Lake Superior and the Saguenay, 
and the whitish greens ofToastwise shoals. Changes of 
temperature have to do with changes of coloration. The 
phenomenon of shadows falling on a lake from an over- 
hanging mountain or cliff increasing the transparency of 
the water by cooling the-' surface is familiar; but these 
illustrations do not fully explain the “abalone colors,” the 
patches of “velvety green, the royal purple, the pink, deep 
red, yellow and delicate grays,” and their changing fea- 
tures. The whole subject, is not only intensely interesting 
but highly poetical, as well as scientific. It presents an 
ideal theme and an opportunity for poetasters seldom 
offered or even dreamed of. Will some ambitious muse 
make an attempt to dye the abalone by lights reflected 
from the rainbow sheet of colors? Charles Hallock. 
Cabio Blanco^s Wtitings. 
New York, Nov. ,30. — Editor Forest and Stream: It is 
certain that in recent times you have had no writer whose 
articles appealed to your public so- strongly as those 
written by Cabia Blanco, a name which — to most of us, 
I think — seems to fit our friend much bettef than_ that 
v.diich was given him in baptism. You have published 
many enthusiastic letters about his writings, and pf these 
letters not a few have suggested that you should publish 
a book containing the more important sketches from his 
pen. No special notice, however, seems to have been 
taken of these suggestions, and it may be that such a 
vmlume would not be commercially profitable. About that 
you can probably judge better than I. 
Might it not be practicable, however, for you to print 
this book by subscription ; that is to say, that you would 
print it provided a sufficient number of readers agreed to 
take copies of the book, at whatever price you might see 
fit to establish. For my part, I should be very glad, in- 
deed, to take five copies at $2 each, for I am sure that I 
could dispose o-f four to the great profit and pleasure of 
the men I might send them to, while one I should wish to 
keep for myself. _ , 
As has often been said, there was a singular quality 
about Cabia Blanco’s writings and this was their apparent 
verity. No one ever suggested, in my hearing, that any 
story told by this man had been in any degree exag- 
gerated. He told his tale and told it with so much force 
that it was believed. If he did not write what in Boston 
would be called “literature,” he at least told stories so 
that people were interested in them, believed them and 
wanted more of them. It seems melancholy that he 
should have left us. Admirer. 
The Crow in Winter. 
oCherryvale, Kan., Dec. 7. — Editor Forest and 
: Stream; The column given to the crow in last weeks 
.paper carried me back to the “days befoh de wah, be- 
. fore I made my entrance into Uncle Sam’s ranks, to the 
,;fa!l and winter of ■1861', when the crows came from some 
■ place and gathereddn untold hosts, on the farmers’ fields 
! along Cayup Lake, in Tompkins county, N. Y. Where 
■, they -canie from np one knew, but they selected for a 
Troost a body ,pf young second growth oak and hickory 
t timber on the west ride of the lake, four miles noith 
nfrbm the. Lead pf\the 'lake, and about one mile from my 
i father’s farmhouse. ' _ , , ,,, 
:In the mornings and-evenings they would settle upon 
[’the ■eo^rn-'Shoci<3-rn.,sucL, numbers as to hide the color of 
ttfie shock, and for the. protection of the corn all of the 
1-farmer’s Toys w§re sent, to the fields to drive the crows 
:away and keep ^#'^,i-rom;^_(?stroying the corn. It was 
‘ great jpy boy Wjho -had -one' of those old-style single 
VbarreLshptguns,’ to Lide rink a, corn, shock and shoot the 
1 hungry c.rpwpfn tlie,^pEnings ajnd.eyemngs, and we used 
i to have much pride -as we carried our trophies home. 
.'After two 'wpel^'nfrihis, work,:. ^ after a heavy frost had 
I caused the leaves to fall, the fatheis took up the war- 
f-fare on "moonlight 'inights, . shooting at the crows upon 
1 their roost, and a weeks’ ..shpo.ting_ broke up the roost. 
jBut while the .prows 'made, a migration elsewhere, all the 
1 barns, in our sectiqn had o'ne, side .embellished with dead 
r crows fa^-sten^d on the. side with, ,3,. hail diiven through 
tthe head, keeping them .'to scatter on. the cornfields the 
inext spring to , keep the-crows from, prilling up the corn. 
i In this southern secrion of ' Kansas ' the farmer never 
'■speaks of Uw m ^eims, ot respect,, buLgenerally as the 
r cussed thieving c . v W hile .the croAv may go hungry 
nin the Eastern States m the. winteiy season,' he always is 
: sure of a good -square meal -in this.xountpc As the most 
( of the farmers ot thiS:.section. are. cattle feedeis they laise 
, immense fields of fCafhr .corn, Milo.^naizd, pr Jerusalein 
(■corn and the -commqn held worn, which ,is ..cut and 
: shocked in the fields, and' left standing, until fed out to 
t'the stock in wagon .loads, npd alLfed unhusked or un- 
: ’threshed. 
\While the Eastern, -crow may. npt; be.,_an,.epicppe,. the 
\'Western one is, and scorns the . common -field corn and 
- acts as if the Kaffir corn and 'Mild mai^e, with .their 
1 round white juicy seeds were as pleasing.,to-,his palate as 
1 terrapin and canvasbacks .are to the -Eastern jgour'mands 
‘ So in the fall they gather in this section by thousands ami 
Vfeed in the middle of the day for four of five hours, and 
; then leave for their roosting place, which is unknown to 
'.their farmer enemies here. _ . 
Two weeks ago, while upon a railway tram winding 
its way through the Flint Hills, which may be termed 
the rock backbone of the State of Kansas, as they ex- 
tend from the northern line of the State clear across, 
rising higher as they extend south, until they unite with the 
Kiomeche and other mountains of the Indian Territory, 
as the train was passing up a ravine leading toward the 
crest of the hills, I noticed in a sheltered nook of the 
ravine about sixty acres covered with a growth of jack 
oak timber, that the trees were covered with crows Look 
as I might in any direction the air was darkened_ by the 
flying crows, slowly winging their way, just at nightfall, 
to this roost, which they settled upon, to my surprise, 
without any circling in the air, which may have been 
caused by their location, so far from any house, that they 
have not been molested, and so have changed their usual 
manner of alighting upon the roost. .. 
As this is the only roost known m this part of the 
State, the crows that feed upon the grain in the fields 
cf this section have to make a daily_ flight of over sixty 
miles coming from and the same distance returning to 
the roost, and the selection of their reposting place so far 
from the field of their depredations is only an instance 
of their sagacity, equalled by the selection of the roost 
away from all settleiheht, -and in a nook sheltered from 
the winds from the north and west, as well as the south. 
W. F. R. 
Rattlesnakes and Crows, 
St. Augustine, Fla., Dec. 6 . — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Your correspondent who tells “another snake 
story” in this issue (Dec. 2), only tells what is commonly 
known in Florida, viz., the spitting, as it is called, of the 
venom of the rattlesnake when he is aroused to anger 
and yet . is too far away to make the fatal strike. Rattle- 
snakes confined in boxes with a wire netting have been 
known to do it. Of course, usually no harm results, as 
the venom does nqt reach the object or is caught upon 
the clothing or upon unbroken skin. The hog, usually 
considered almost immune and making a meal of every 
rattler he meets, , sometimes seems to _ have a mistaken 
confidence, as a short time since a hog in New Augustine 
(a suburb of our city), jumping on a rattler was bitten 
and died in a few minutes. The following, coming with 
the authority of the “Journal of the American Medical 
Association,” will, I am sure, be of interest as showing 
such accidents are not always fatal. Dr. W. A. Gresham, 
of Russellville, Ala.'^. reeords in the Journal : 
“A man was bitten Aug. 14 by a very large rattlesnake. 
For about thirty hours it seemed that he was about to 
succumb at any time, but he suddenly began to improve. 
He suffered intensely for twenty-four hours. There was 
only a little sloughing at the point of injection of the 
poison, but the man was incapacitated for work about 
thirty days. As to treatment, the arm was corded tightly, 
an abundance of wh-isky was given, and hypoderniic in- 
jections of .strychnin .1-40 grain every forty-five minutes. 
He has gone to work, and has a good arm.” 
As to the “Crow iii' Winter,” in same issue, it is a won- 
der to me that all intelligent crows don’t emigrate to 
Florida, where persecution on account of previous repu- 
tation is unknown,, and where all little peccadillos are 
freely forgiven. The Florida crow in either winter or 
summer has rather an enviable existence, for no man’s 
hand is raised against him. Even as I write a hundred 
or so are just across the street in the tops of the tall cab- 
bage palmettos that adorn the lawn of the Ponce de Leon. 
When I opened the door on the porch just now, rather 
suddenly, a group of them, numbering at least twenty- 
five who were holding a close conference in the top of a 
palmetto, were rather surprised and flew away to join 
their comrades in another part of the lawn. In the fig 
season about a dozen of them think they are entitled to 
an early breakfast on their way from their roosting place 
on Anastasia Island to the country, and announcing their 
presence by the occasional “caw” of the watchman who 
sits on the top of a nearby China berry tree. As this is 
usually about 4 o’clock of a late June morning, they are 
not often disturbed, and as only figs are taken from 
the top limbs of the trees, no one begrudges them_ their 
early meal. While his wary nature clings to him in 
Florida yet, as he is never disturbed any more than the 
buzzard, he is usually quite approachable. 
The following from to-dajds Record, our local paper, 
while having nothing to do with snakes or crows, I am 
sure will be of interest. It comes with the authority of 
our genial and fearles? sheriff: 
“Not long ago a Record representative overheard 
Sheriff Perry relate an experience in turkey hunting in 
the southwestern part of the State. He and a friend, 
tempted by the high prices offered for alligator hides, 
went prepared to clean out the saurians where they were 
thickest, and they established camp in a spot where hunt- 
ing promised to be profitable. Tn those days,’ said the 
sheriff,'- ‘turkeys were plentiful and we feasted on 
them during our stay in camp. One morning, as usual, 
I went out to get a gobbler for breakfast and saw a flock 
on a small plain not far from camp. Crawling behind a 
clump of bushes I resorted to the old trick of calling by 
imitating the challenge of a gobbler. I saw the leader oi 
the flock throw his head up and I repeated the call. This 
time the turkey strutted forward a few feet and answered 
the challenge. He approached a few feet closer when I 
again repeated the call, and eventually I worked him 
until he was near enough for a sure shot. I raised the 
gun to take aim when, without the slightest warning, a 
huge catamount dashed through the bushes and his head 
and mine came together in a terrific collision. The beast 
evidently thought a turkey dinner was -waiting for him in 
the bushes, and approached so stealthily that I had not 
the slightest idea of his presence. When he made the 
rush to secure what he supposed was a turkey he struck 
me with such force that I went over backwards, and he 
must have bounced a few feet. As to which sustained 
the greater scare it is impossible to say. The varmint, 
however, lost no time in apologies, and his retreat was 
as rapid, if not more rapid, than his rush. Did I get the 
turkey? No. I think I forgot what I came after. I 
don’t remember what we had for breakfast that morn- 
ino- ’ ” DeWitt Webb. 
The Killirg of Bitd Warden Bradley. 
The Key West, Fla., Grand Jury, which investigated 
the killing of the Audubon Society’s warden, Guy Brad- 
ley, by Walter Smith at Flamingo several months ago, 
deemed the evidence of the State insufficient to bring the 
accused to trial. The killing of young Bradley was made 
an event of general importance, so much so that the 
National Audubon Society, of which he was a represen- 
tative as game warden of Monroe county, and while in 
the discharge of which duty he was killed, took the mat- 
ter up and employed Col. J. T. Sanders, of Miami, to go 
to Key West and assist in the prosecution of his slayer. 
The Miami Metropolis of Dec. 6 reports: Colonel 
Sanders, in conversation with a Metropolis reporter, 
stated that the State made out a very weak case. He 
found but little interest manifested in the trial when he 
arrived in Key West, and had to send to the Keys for 
witnesses. They were secured with much difficulty, and 
after being gotten could give testimony of no importance 
to the State in making a case against Walter Smith, the 
accused, and the grand jury, after thoroughly probing 
the matter, found no true bill, and Smith was released 
from prison, where he had been since arrested. 
The killing of Bradley occurred on Smith’s boat at 
Flamingo, where Bradley had gone to remonstrate_ with 
him about a son killing birds at one of the. rookeries in 
the keys. Bad blood existed between Bradley and Smith, 
and, after a heated passage of words, both men shot and 
Bradley was killed, Smith remaining unharmed. Smith, 
Colonel Sanders says, presented a strong defense in that 
all his witnesses, those who were on the boat with him 
at the time Bradley was shot, swearing that Bradley shot 
first. Smith shooting, in self-defense. No others saw the 
tragedy and consequently the State failed in the prose- 
cution. ' . I 
