142 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
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him. It was this which seemed to us without justification." 
[The italics are our own.] 
We cannot agree with the secretary. From what we can 
understand of the case, the larger dog was a vicious brute, and 
should have been exterminated on the spot. Suppose the 
aggressor in this case had been a panther, could he not have 
been killed ? Of course the character of the individual who 
used the knife, and his motives in such a case, ought to go for 
a great deal. The second wound might have been inflicted 
when, in the opinion of the person who used the knife, the 
larger dog was in the act of returning in order to inflict fur- 
ther injuries. In his judgment, the smaller and weaker dog 
was m constant peril while the larger dog was within sight. 
About one hundred and fifty feet could be traversed by a dog 
or a man in a very brief period of time. A man having a 
vicious dog, and not taking care of him in the street, is likely 
to have his dog killed. Common sense dictates that such a 
dog should be gotten rid of in case he makes an attack. The 
owner of the vicious animal, had he been killed on the spot, 
could not have reclaimed damages, and a cross between a St. 
Bernard and a Newfoundland, when his anger is provoked, is 
about as dangerous an animal as can be met with. If the per- 
son whose dog had been punished, or even killed by a vicious 
dog, on one day, was to return the next day, or in a week’s 
timo, and then inflict injury on the aggressive dog, then, per- 
haps, something like deliberation could be shown ; but in the 
heat of the moment, that a person used a knife twice, at neces- 
sarily very short intervals, we believe was perfectly justifiable. 
The secretary writes : “ The fact that the Court adjudged 
Mr. guilty, and fined him forty dollars, and that after 
appealing from the decision at the time, he subsequently paid 
the fine, are facts which should be conclusive that the act was 
not defensible.” We by no means consider that this is in 
the least a conclusive argument. Persons may not be desirous 
of continuing litigation, and though the decisions of a bump- 
tious justice may be in direct opposition to common sense, 
it is sometimes wiser to leave a disagreeable matter as it is. 
A man dreading notoriety, or a poor man, may be mulcted 
forty dollars in the most unjustifiable way, and have neither 
the inclination, time nor means to carry his case to a higher and 
wiser tribunal. 
The secretary writes us : “lam told the knife had four 
blades, and the largest was used in the attack." The knife, 
we beg to remark, might have been a gardener’s pruning 
knife, or a Bowie knife, or one with twenty blades, and a 
cork-screw to boot, and the character of the instrument would 
not have altered the case. We are only sorry that Mr. 
feet in length and fifteen in breadth, and is said to be covered 
with a coat of mail. The letter gives the particulars of 
several occurrences of the Minhocao, but we are forced to ac- 
knowledge that, so far as heard from, the animal itself has 
not yet been seen by any person except the Datives, although 
his works have been examined by more than one European. 
The creature is variously described as “of gigantic size, 
nearly one metre in thickness, not very long, with a snout 
like a pig “ as big as a house “ an enormous worm-like, 
black animal, about twenty-five metres long, and with two 
horns on its head its skin is said to be as thick as the bark 
of a pine tree, and formed of large and hard scales, like those 
of an armadillo. We gather, too, that it is an animal fond of 
moisture, liviDg in swamps and morasses, from which it 
emerges only during, or just previous to, rainy weather. 
During its excursions it appears to proceed just beneath the 
surface of the ground, forming trenches like those made by 
our moles. If a huge pine happens to stand in its way it just 
uproots the tree and goes on ; it also plunges over cliffs into 
rivers, and in fact seems quite at home in all situations. 
Whether there is really any basis of fact at the bottom of 
all these stories it is hard to say, but from the circumstantial 
manner of the narration and the number of cases given, it 
certainly seems likely that it has some foundation. Granting 
that where there is so much smoke there must be some fire, 
the description given is altogether too meagre for us to venture 
any conjecture as to what the creature may possibly be. The 
probabilities would seem to be in favor of its bearing some re- 
lationship to the Post Tertiary Edentates which once flour- 
ished in such wonderful abundance and variety in South 
America. The largest armadilloes of the present day are only 
about four feet in length, and should the Minhocao turn out 
to belong to this group he would prove a most interesting ad- 
dition to it. It is well known that many of the armadilloes 
are burrowers, and pass a considerable part of their lives be- 
neath the surface of the earth. The little ChlamydopJiorua is 
especially subterranean in habit, and might make somewhat 
such traces as those referred to, differing, indeed, only in 
size. We shall await further news on this subject with no 
little anxiety. 
4 # , — 
SALMON IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 
CHARLES HALLOCK, Editor. 
T. C. BANKS, 
Business Manager. 
8. H. TURRILL, Chicago, 
Western Manager. 
AN ALLEGED CASE OF CRUELTY. 
T T is a duty of the Forest and Stbeam and Rod and Gun 
A to its numerous constituents, to take cognizance of all 
communications addressed to us. Sometimes the topics pre- 
sented are not of an agreeable character, especially when a 
conflict arises between sportsmen and associations for the pre- 
vention of cruelty to animals. Thoroughly as we may indorse 
such societies, giviog them full credit for having induced a 
broader humanitarianism, we are forced to declare that in their 
actions they often transcend the dictates of justice and com- 
mon sense. Their fault is that over-refining of feeling, which 
Huxley designates as “the cursed sentimentality of the pres- 
ent age." 
A case in point, to which we call attention, is as follows 
In the discussion of this subject we will try to be as moderate 
as possible, giving both sides of the question : A gentleman 
in Boston, well known and respected, while quietly walking 
m the street wilh his setter, a timid and inoffensive animal.was 
called upon to protect his dog from being throttled by a large 
vicious, cross-bred dog, weighing some 125 pounds. The 
owner of the setter finding that he could not drive off the big 
dog with his cane, used his pen-knife, cutting the assailing 
dog once while he had the setter by the throat, and cutting 
him a second time after he had driven him off. For this act- 
cutting the dog*a second time-the owner was criminally 
prosecuted by the Massachusetts Society for the Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals, and was fined forty dollars. De- 
sirous of'bemg fully informed, we wrote to the Secretary of 
the Boston Society, and were favored with an immediate 
in the JL ‘!S ri 7* the BOciet y 8tates ‘hat the defendant 
in the case chd not stop when he had separated the dogs, and 
the danger had ended, but had followed the St Bernard about , 
*"* Wr«! andJlflllM, and then again naad the kJo^on 
did not use a pistol or a bludgeon, so that the larger dog had 
been killed on the spot. 
To conclude, we are of the opinion that the decision of the 
Boston Justice was in opposition to equity and common 
sense, and that even if a fine had been inflicted, which we do 
not allow, the penalty of forty dollars was exorbitant. 
Such a judgment inclines too much in favor of a powerful 
association, and to the prejudice of individual rights, and just 
such a case as this, urged by the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, tends to bring them into discredit. 
We are equally positive that the stigma of cruelty cannot be 
affixed on the defendant. He did exactly what anybody else 
would have done under the circumstances, when the life of a 
valuable and inoffensive dog was imperilled. 
A NOVEL MONSTER. 
'C'OR the past few years we have had quite a surfeit of the 
sea serpent, and people have become somewhat tired, 
not only of the animal itself, but also of the veracious (?) 
mariners who would persist in seeing it and in making all 
sorts of affidavits concerning its appearance and habits. It is 
fortunate, therefore, that, just at this time, news is received 
of an animal which, if all accounts be true, is no less wonder- 
ful than the sailors’ old stand-by, and which has this advan- 
tage over its marine rival— that it inhabits the bowels of the 
earth instead of the depths of the sea. The Pawnees have a 
saying to the effect that you cannot follow the trail of a fish 
through the water, or a wild goose through the air, but to 
track a horse on the prairie, or to trace out the burrow of a 
mole in the ground, is easy enough. Happily, the new mon- 
ster of which we write, does not confine himself wholly to 
subterranean depths, but occasionally visits the regions of 
light ; and fortunately, also, bis dimensions are such that 
when he burrows near the surface of the ground his excava- 
tions are easily discoverable, and, indeed, are on such a large 
scale that they remain for years little altered by exposure 
to atmospheric influences. 
It is unfortunate that the habitat and range of the Minhocao, 
as the creature is called, so far as at present ascertained, is in 
the southern province of Brazil, among the high table-lands, 
where the rivers Uraguay and Parana take their rise; un- 
fortunate, we say, because the scene of its labors is so far 
from scientific centres that considerable time must necessarily 
elapse before material for a complete biography of the animal 
can be procured ; because, too, the carping sceptics of the 
present day will no doubt attempt to discredit the announce- 
ment of its discovery, and by their ingenious arguments may 
succeed in deceiving even the very elect. But we shall hope 
for better things, trusting that before long such authentic de- 
tails may be received as will put the existence of the Minho- 
cao among the accepted facts of science. 
In a recent communication to the Zoologieche Garten, Herr 
Fritz Muller gives an account of our monster, which is there 
termed a gigantic earth-worm, and is spoken of as being 150 
r T'HERE is now upon the calendar of the Senate a bill for 
J- the protection of the salmon fisheries of the Columbia 
River, recently introduced by Mr. Mitchell, of Oregon, who 
will call it up soon for reference, but before having it re- 
ferred will address the Senate upon the importance of legisla- 
tion in this direction. The bill has a lengthy preamble, de- 
claring that in consequence of a general disregard by the 
fishermen of proper regulations and conditions necessary to 
protect the annual spawn of the fish, and in consequence of 
the pollution of the waters of the various rivers and shore- 
lines of the bays of the Atlantic coast, by saw mills, manu- 
facturing establishments, and the drainage of towns and cities, 
the supply of salmon in the rivers of the Atlantic sea-coast 
has so largely decreased as to be now of little consequence, 
greatly to the detriment of commerce ; and that there is 
danger of the supply of salmon in the Columbia River and its 
tributaries, now so plentiful, suffering a similar decrease with- 
in a few years, unless suitable laws and regulations are made 
and enforced to insure the requisite purity of the waters of 
said rivers, and the annual deposit of fish spawn therein. It 
then provides that it shall not be lawful to catch or fish for 
salmon in the waters of the Columbia river or its tributaries, 
by any means whatever, in any year from the 26th day of 
July to the first day of October ; such period being the best 
portion of the spawning season in that river. The penalty 
for a violation of this section is a fine of not less than $1 000 
nor more than $1,500 for the first offence, and for any subse- 
quent offence the same fine and imprisonment, at the discretion 
of the Court, not exceeding twelve months. 
The second section of the bill makes it unlawful to catch 
or fish for salmon in that river or its tributaries from the first 
day of April to the 26th day of July of each year with gill 
nets the meshes of which are less than 8J inches diagonally 
or with seines the meshes of which are le/s than 5 inches 
diagonally when extended, or with wires or traps the slats of 
which are less than three inches apart on the pocket or seine 
pond. And during said closed season, from July 26tli to Oct 
1st, there Bhall be an opening at least three feet square through 
the pocket of the trap to let the salmon pass freely through. 
Any person or persons violating the provisions of this section 
or encouraging its violation by purchasing salmon knowingly so 
unlawfully caught shall be fined not less than $500 nor more 
than $1,000 for the first offence, and for any subsequent offence 
shall be fined not less than $1,000, to which may be added 
imprisonment for not more than twelve months, at the discre- 
tion of the Court. The act, however, is not to be so con- 
strued as to prevent any person from taking salmon for the 
purpose of securing the spawn or of propagation of the same 
in said river or its tributaries. It is also made unlawful 
for any person to deposit sawdust from any sawmill, or 
refuse of waste liquid, hair, lime-water, tan- water from any 
hide or leather tannery, or poisonous waste liquid, or com- 
pound mineral, or chemical liquids, or substance from any 
woolen or cotton factory, or dyeing or chemical or gas 
works or establishment, into the river or any of its tribu- 
taries, from the first day of July to the thirty-first day of De- 
cember of any year; and every person guilty of violating any of 
the provisions of this section shall, on conviction, be fined not 
less than $500 dollars for each and every such violation. 
