4 
FOREST AND STREAM 
mind’s eye to the continents and islands of sunny seas, it is 
simply wonderful that people do not crowd to see them, and 
travel while they stay at home. There! don't touch that 
Platycerium majua ! By the way, though not more than six 
inches high, it is cheap at ten dollars, but you cannot touch it 
or it is hurt. Look where some Philistine has left his mark, 
the brute. Come to tins corner ! We open a private and 
particular case, and look down into the warm damp air of a 
Javan dell} where the parrots are screaming in the close 
branches above, and serpents of strange name glide away 
from us, and see the delicate clouds of the Tricomanes ferns 
Well, says Goliath, what of that ? Well, my muscular hearty, 
just this of that : it takes mind and care and thought and in- 
dustry ; it takes oft getting up at midnight to look after fur- 
nace and steam-pipe ; it takes a conscientiousness in doing 
what one undertakes to do, and knowledge of all manner of 
entomological pests and botanical molds and cankers ; it takes 
the skill of a vial herb-doctor to know just when to administer 
food and drink and medicine (called, vulgarly, manure); it 
takes a strong hand and back, and a kind heart and a tender 
touch ; it takes, most of all, that “ bond of all the virtues" — 
charity for the weak — to produce those results. You will go 
and see the Loan Exhibition, for it is the thing to do. Go and 
revel over laces, aged and brown. Alas ! for the dames they 
have graced. But where are the laces like these in the 
. loom of nature’s grounds ? No one has dropped a tear to 
produce them. No weary slave has sighed at bondage to 
color their tender spray and misty hairs. Look how our 
friend, James Taplin, watches to catch the style in which 
you approach them ! Sympathize with them : give them a 
loving glance, and he understands you, and tells you of them 
with genial tales ; but betray your indifference and you are 
lost. Where is Bush ? Well, he is off worshiping a Pitcher 
Plant, and a dozen times he gets back to it and you hear him 
expatiating on it. Sure, it was wonderful to look on. 
What will buy it? To answer that, reader, tell me how 
much you will take for that dear little girl that is the light of 
the household ? And then think over that old tale of the 
Prophet Nathan — of an ewe lamb — “and it was unto him as a 
daughter.” That’* about the figure. 
But we stop ; nor relate, as should be done only in melodi- 
ous verse, of our return— how Bush lost his bat, and a good 
Samaritan came by that way, who had been hunting robins 
and found none, and had a duplicate hat; and then how the 
said robin-hunter takes us to an inn and did well entreat us, 
pouring in oil and wine all this you lose. But as we un- 
rolled our bundle in the warm retreat of home, and put away 
Gleichenias and Gymnogrammes, fronds fertile and unfertile 
till late into the night, we found that one may profitably go 
out botanizing in midwinter. Let him that has time try it, 
and we commend the wise to our friends, Clements and Tap- 
lin, with thanks for a day's pleasure and profit. 
Dr. C. H. Hall, Brooklyn. 
Eucalyptus Globulus. — The vitality of popular errors is a 
feature as marked as it is unpleasant. One of these errors as 
we believe, is the statement that the Eucalyptus has any 
special power of averting or destroying malaria, apart from its 
rapid growth and transpiration, and the improvements in the 
condition of the soil consequent on planting. As an illustra- 
tion of our remark, we refer to a statement by a correspondent 
of Nature , that he and many others known to him lind suf- 
fered from malaria in the very heart of a Eucalyptus forest 
But if the anti-malarial qualities of Eucalyptus are open for 
doubt, what shall we say as to the ridiculous statement that 
the' Eucalyptus trees are somehow inimical to mosquitoes’ 
Nowhere, we believe, are these pests more troublesome than 
in the Eucalyptus forests of Australia. It is a pity that such 
false and exaggerated statements should be made, os they are 
sure in the end to excite a prejudice against a tree whose 
utility is likely to be very great.— Gardener* Chronicle, 
London. 
f o Correspondents. — Those desiring os to prescribe for their dogs 
wl:l please take note of and describe the following points In each ani- 
mal: 
L Age. 2. Food and medicine given. 5. Appearance of the eye ; 
of the coat ; of the tongue and llpa. 4. Any changes In the appearance 
of the body, as bloating, drawing in of the flanks, etc. 6. Breathing, 
the number of respirations per minute, and whether labored or not! 
6. Condition of the bowels and secretions of the kidneys, color, etc. 7 
Appetite; regular, variable, etc. 8. Temperature of the body as lndl 
cated by the bulb of the thermometer when placed between the body 
and the foreleg. 9. Give position of kennel and surroundings, outlook, 
contiguity to other bulldlugs, and the uses of the latter. Also give ahy 
peculiarities of temperament, movements, etc., that may be noticed 
go i of suffering, etc. 
FIXTURES FOR 1878— BENCH SHOWS. 
St. Louis Bench Show, St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 19, 20 21 and °2 
Entries close Feb. 5. ’ ' 
Boston Kennel Club Show, Boston, Maes., March 2C, 27. 28 and 
29. Dr. E. J. Forster, Secretary. 
Baltimore Kennel Club's Show, Baltimore, Md., April 23 24 25 
and S4G. L. it. Cassard, Secretary. 
The Westminster Kennel Club (New York) Ber.ih 8bow Gil- 
Becretary aI< * eU ' JG ’ 17 ’ lh * ud 19 ' Dr.' W. Seward Webb, 
For Forest and Stream and Hod and Gun. 
COURSING RABBITS IN VIRGINIA. 
FIELD HEMJMs; RNCES— IsL PAPER. 
A/I Y first hunting experiences were acquired under the 
11 of my cousiu Sandy long before I was old 
enough to straddle a bor e, aud long before I had at- 
tained to the dignity of a long-tailed coat, and, like all South- 
ern boys, I was first “ entered at hares,” possums, coons, aud 
such “small deer” as the plantation uegroes wore permitted 
to hunt, preparatory to the much-longed-for day when, 
mounted on my own pony, I was to take a part with men 
in hunting the fox. 
My cousin, Alexander Skinner— or Sandy, as he was called 
by his kinfolk and his intimates— belonged to a distinct class 
of men peculiar to the Southern States, and which, as it is 
now extinct, may be worth description. Like the whole of 
his genus, cousin Sandy was a gay bachelor, of good education, 
with a certain umount of social talent and information, which 
made him a welcome guest in every country house in the tide- 
water counties of Maryland. He was a first-rate judge of a 
horse aDd amateur veterinarian, and he was a dangerous man 
to bet against in the quarter-races, to frequeDt at the county- 
court meetings. No man bred 6uch flue game fowls as he, 
and no one could heel and pit them better. He was a crack 
shot with gun and pistol and a great stickler for the “ code 
his equal at brewing a bowl of punch, on apple toddy, or 
concocting a julep was not to be found ; he could sing a 
capital song, and, though he was the most amiable and joill- 
est of men, he once whipped the country bully — one Buck- 
master— withiD an inch of his life for refusing to open a gate 
for a lady. 
Cousin Sandy’s many good qualities, and even his weak- 
nesses, made him popular with the gentlemen ; as for the la- 
dies, though notoriously a non-marrying man, lie was with 
them a great favorite. He went up to Baltimore four or five 
times a year, and on his return would entertain them with 
the town uossip and the latest fashions, and with a perennial 
flow of that small talk so acceptable to most women. Wb/it 
cousin Sandy's pecuniary resources were no one could precise- 
ly find out ; but he kept clear of debt, was always well- 
dressed, drove a stylish, old-fasbioned gig, rode a fine horse, 
and owned a little bandy-legged old negro called (ironically, 
I fancy) Cyru9, for he could neither draw the bow nor for the 
life of him tell the truth. This queer little darky accom- 
panied my cousin everywhere as his body servant, qnd was 
looked upon by all the boys, both while and black, as the 
very cutest old darkey in all the lower counties, and what ad- 
ded no little to tne importance of Uncle “ Sy " was the own- 
ership of the very best coon and 'possum dog in all Calvert 
County. 
It was in December, 1824 or '25, that my father took my 
brother and myself down to Calvert County to spend a por- 
tion of our Christmas holidays with our aunts and cousin 
Snndy. Eaily in the morning we embarked at Light street 
wharf on the Eagle, the pioneer steamer of the Slaryland 
waters, commanded by Captain George Weems, the father of 
Mason and Theodore Weems, and others of that family, all 
steamboat men. I remember well the splendid breakfast we 
sat down to as soon as the boat was imder way. We had 
diamoDd-backed terrapin and canvas-back, “a discretion ,” as 
the French would say. but in those good old days a large 
“ hen ” terrapin bursting with eggs, or a fat canvas-back duck 
might be had for a quarter. As the boat neared the mouth 
of the Palapsee, at North Point, our wonder was excited by 
the clouds of ducks cutting the air in every direction, and the 
wedge-like flights of geese on their way to their feeding 
grounds up the bay. Off Thomas’ Point we admired the tall, 
snow-white swans floating on the flats like a fleet of war- 
ships in order of battle ; the now famous pleasure resort at 
Herring Bay was not inexistence then. So we passed on, and 
toward sunset dropped anchor off Plumb Point, landed, and 
within an hour were seated at my aunts’ bountiful table with 
appetites sharpened to voracity by the braciDg salt air of the 
glorious bay. 
Dear old cousin Sandy, who was devoted to young people, 
had planned a hate hunt for us the next morning. So we 
were packed off to bed, while be and my father, seated on 
either side of a yawning fire-place, glow'mg with half a cord 
of blazing hickory logs, brewed their apple toddy, smoked 
cigars, and talked horse. 
The following dawn found us up and dressed, aod as eager 
for the hunt as two huDg greyhounds straining in the slips. 
Breakfast was soon ready, and while eating it Uncle Cyrus 
was sent for and c insulted as to future proceedings, but not 
until he had imbibed near a pint of peach and honey mixed 
for him by liis master. The old fellow sipped it deliberately, 
as if he enjoyed it, then he replaced the tumbler on the table 
w ith a bow worthy of an African Chesteifield. With half- 
closed eyes and a sigh of contentment he cocked his white 
woolly bullet-head on one side, and then on the other, with an 
air of the profoundcst cogitation— the Lord Burleigh shake of 
the head was nothing to it— after a pause due to what he con- 
sidered the gravity of the occasion, he decided that we should 
first visit the hay-slacks in the meadow, where he knew, he 
said, that a certain old “ bar,” as he pronounced it, always 
made his form when the weather was so cold, und the wiud 
from the quarter it was in then. We accordingly set out on 
horseback, we boys behind my father and cousin Saudy, old 
“ y y ’ " f°ot. leading the way with an ax under his arm, 
and followed by Lion and Tiger, two youDg l'ox hounds, nod 
his own dog, Bose, the famous coon dog. As old “ Sy ” pre- 
dicted, the old “ bar " had made his form to the leeward of 
one of the stacks, but he, doubtless remembering former nar- 
row escapes, had bolted before we reached it. The youug 
hounds immediatly took the hot trail, and were off like a 
flash, making the hills re-echo with the music of (heir cry. 
That music from only two mouths gave me a passion for 
hunting with hounds which has never weakened, and now 
with more than three score years upon my head I would 
ruther bear a pack in full cry than listen to the sweetest notes 
of a Betsey Banckeror a Jennie Morton. For twenty minutes 
or so Lion and Tiger, leaving old Bose far in the rear, stuck 
close to their quarry, and though soon out of sight were never 
out of hearing. Suddenly the .musical cry changed to a sharp 
bark and old “Sy,” jumping up and cracking his heels 
together, exclaimed in great glee: “ Got him, Mass Sandy ! 
Done tree, by golly!” and off he ran, his bow-legs making 
first-rate time. We followed on, and soon found the dogs 
scratching and gnawing at the root of a medium-sized tree 
with a small hole at the butt. Old “ Sy " eyed tLe tree with 
grave deliberation, he then cut a rod or switch about five feet 
in length and splitting the small end of it, tin ust it up the 
hollow of the tree, und endeavored to twist the Imre out 
but Oidy got, a little fur for his pains ; he then sounded again, 
and finding the hare had climbed about four feet up, lie with 
grcul care and Deatnos cut a smgle chip out of the tree, and 
as it tell puss was Bicn and dragged from her retreat ; then, 
?f t » L L- a ! r< a ' 1 y n p f au , S ,,ie cLl P and securing it with a piece 
of twisted grape vine, our sable huntsman cust off the hounds 
again, observing that he meant to have “anudder bar out dat 
tree befo' lie went home." The words were scarcely out of 
his mouth before the hounds opened again, and to 0Ur 
astonishment in n little while another hare took the siuno tree 
and was bagged without, trouble by simply removing the clij.,. 
Old Cyrus asserted, what I have since ascertained to he tfio 
fact, that our little American bare (Lepus viryinianv*) i s 
always acquainted with all the hollow trees within his range 
and when hard pressed never trusts to clmnco to find a place 
of refuge. 
We caught four Imres that morning, and returned to dinner 
highly delighted and thoroughly inoculated with the passion 
for field sports. 
During those cvcr-to be-reniembcrod holidays Cousin Sandy 
and old “Sy " initiated us into all the mysteries of 'possum 
and coon hunting, and taught me at least that one of the 
most delicious dishes in the whole range of gastronomy ia a 
fat ’nossum baked in a Dutch oven with sweet potatoes, by a 
Southern darky. 
If you can find space for it, I will give you in my next 
some of my experiences with noted packs of fox-hounds in 
Virginia and Maryland. F. G. s. 
FIRST ANNUAL BENCH 
DOGS 
SHOW OF 
To ns Held in Boston on March 20, 27, 28 and 20 nv the 
Massachusetts Kennel Club— Entries Close Marcb 15. 
CLASSIFICATION OF DOOS AND LIST OF PREMIUMS. 
Division 1 .— Sporting Dogs— Champion Classes.— For 
either native or imported dogs or bitches that have won first 
prize at any benoh show in this couutry or abroad. 
Class 1— Champion English Setters— For the best dog, $50; for 
tho best bitch, $50. (Winners of first prize in sporting class' can 
Lave cup instead of coin if they desire it ) 
Class 2— Champion Irish setters— For tho best dog, $50 • for 
best bitch, $50. *" ’ or 
Champion Classee are only open to winners of first prize at 
Chicago. Baltimore, New York and St. Louis liench Shows. 
Class 3— Champion Gordon Setteis— For best dog, $50 • for best 
bitch, $60. 
Class 4— Champion Fointere— For best dog, $60 ; for best bitch 
$60. ’ 
(Judges in this class will be instructed not to discriminate with 
regard to weight.) 
OPEN CLASSES. 
Class 5— Imported English Setters or then- Progeny of tho First 
Generation— For best dog, $35 ; second best. $20. For best bitcb 
$35 ; second best, $20. For best dog puppy under 12 months of 
age, $10; for best bitch puppy under 12 months of age $10 
Class 6-Native English Setters— For best dog. $35 second 
best, $20. For the beet bitcb. $35 ; eecoDd best, $20. For best 
dog puppy under 12 months of age, $10; for best bitch puppy un- 
der 12 months of age, $10. rl J 
Claes 7— Imported Ited, or Red and White Irish Setters or their 
Progeny of the First Generation— For best dog, $35 ; second best 
*20 For best bitch *35 ; second best. $20. For best dog puppy 
under 12 mouths of age, $10 ; for best bitch puppy imdr r Va 
montbe of age, $10. 
Claes 8— Native Rod or Rod and White Settere, either Irish or 
Crossbred— For best dog, $35 ; second best, $20. For best bitch 
b f ° 8 '; $2 .°'.. F . or ,he best dog puppy under 12 months 
of age, $10 ; for best bitch puppy under 12 montliB of age $lo 
Class 9— Black and Tan, or Black, White aud Tan Gordon ffei- 
tere, Either Nauve or Imported- For best dog, $35 ; second her 
$20. For best bitch $35 ; second best, $20. * For best dog puppy' 
uuder 12 months of age, $10 ; for best bitch puppy 
mouths of age, $10. 
Class 10— Pointers of Fifty Pounds Weight or Over— For beet 
dog. $35 ; second best, $20. For best bitch, $36 ; second best, 
$20. 
Class 11-Pointers Under Fifty Ponnde Weight- -For beet dog 
$35 ; second best, $20. For beet bitch $35 ; second Lest $20 
flats 12— For beet dog puppy under 15 months of age $10 - for 
best bitch puppy under 12 months of age, $10. ’ 
Class 13— Chesapeake Bay Doge— For best dog, $35 : second 
best, *20. For best bitch, $35; second best, $20. 
(Judges in this class will be instructed not to discriminate with 
regard to length of coat.) 
Class 14 -Irish Water Spaniels— For best dog or bitch $'<n 
second best, $10. » • 
Class 15- Clumber Spaniels— For tho best dog or bitch $*>0 • 
second best, $10. ’ » 
BeSndbes7 C $ 0 l C 5 er8paniel8_F0r ^ ^ d ° g ° r W,cb ' 820 ! 
or°bth, 1 ^ i ±n P ab. 0 lL 0 »lo” 5 ' »'• h»i dog 
b “ l ““P 1 ” <“<■«■ »r bitebe.), 
gfe la-BeagJes-FM beet dog or bitch. *15; second host. $10. 
bo8t a «10 Da ° “ hUDd0 ~ f0r b6Bt d ° B ° r bi,0b ’ * 16; “econd 
b £tw l ~ FOi Terrier8 - For be8t d0 « or bitch, $15; second 
^ Class 22— Greyhounds— For best dog or bitch, $16 ; second best, 
"“'bounda-For or bitob, Ml, 
Division 2— Non-Sportino Doos 
^eiaes 24 Mastiffs— For best dog or bitch, $20 ; second best, 
^ ciass 25— St. Bernards-For best dog or bitch, $20; second best, 
beeR a $5 26_N0 ' VfOnndland8_F ° rbe8t d ° g or bito1 ', $10 ; second 
. t S“b. , .7^5 eri ‘ n “ ““ D “ 8 ‘- For b “' or *10 I 
Jo“db“7 D .6 lm “ iS ° " C '°" b D ° B8 - F “ r b “> “OS or bitoll, no, 
Class 29— Shepherd Dogs or Collies-For best dog, $16 • second 
best, *10. For best bitcb, $15 ; second best, $10. b ’ 8CC0Ud 
Class 30-Bulldogs— For best dog or bitob, $10 ; second best *5 
boS“" S Bu “ Sorrier* For boat dog ir bitob, «°0 “wffi 
M - mJlI _F ^ r q b0Bt *r dOg - 0r bitch > *<° ; *«soud best, $5 
( lass 33- Black and Tan Terriers (exceeding oloven pounds in 
weight)— For best dog or bitch, $10; second best, $6. P 
Class 34— Black and Ton Terriers (not exceeding oloven pounds 
in weight)— For best dog or bitob $10 ; second best, $5. P d " 
best a $5 5 y ° Ternera - For b08t dog or bitch, $10; second 
best 8 $5 3 ^ SOO ‘ ChTerri018 “ For b0Ht dogor bitcb > *10; second 
.,S‘d bj.7 M n,li “ Di °““ ,nt T «rri«.-J?or boat dog or bitob. $1 
.oc“r‘d\ 3 e 8 .7« k “ b,reTe ' T ‘' !r “-- Ii ' 0r ,b ° b ‘"< ** M bitob, $11 
“ ,o pou “ <1 ' woi <= bt >- F ' 
Class 40— Blenheim, Kiug Charles, or Japanese Spaniels F. 
best dog or bitcb, *10 ; second best, $5 ' rapamois i 
oi.d 1 hcsR 1 ^ I,ttlian Gr °y bomuls— For best dog or bitch, $10 ; se 
class i3~S° d in B “£ 0r b ?? 1 d°8 or hitch, $10 ; second boat, $ 
Class 13— Miscellaneous, Dogs or Bitohos -The sum of $16 w 
bo given, to bo awarded at tho judges’ discretion, for breeds 
dogb which havo not boon aatjiguotf apooiftl olaaaoa. 
