FOREST AND STREAM. 
251 
' On the twelfth day after leaving Texas we arrived at Berry- 
ville, a small town fifteen miles south of the Missouri line, 
and seventy-five miles south of Springfield. Here we were 
forced to part with our ponies, we had ridden them on very 
little grass, and still less grain, until they were so exhausted 
we feared another day’s ride would break them down com- 
pletely. I sold mine, with saddle and bridle thrown in, for 
ten dollars, while Nichols sold his saddle for eight dollars, and 
made a present of the horse to the purchaser. We then re- 
duced our bundles to the lowest possible weight, and set out 
to walk to SpriDgfield, where the nearest railroad passed. 
That night (it was Saturday) we slept at a farm house, and 
the next morning, or rather forenoon, we arrived at White 
River. I was surprised at the crystal clearness of this stream. 
As we paddled across in an old dug out, the smallest pebbles 
on the bottom were plainly traceable, and the depth seemed 
only about three feet at the deepest, when in reality it was 
over seven. The banks on both sides were thickly wooded, 
and seemed like probable resorts for game, buttlie only living 
thing we saw was a solitary crane strutting about on a sand- 
bar in the river. 
North of White River stretches a tract known in that region 
as the “ Wilderness." It is a tract about thirty miles wide, 
with no houses, and only one spring. The road through it 
runs in most places along the crest of a ridge or hill, and 
through a continuous forest of pines. After takiug a bath we 
started on this, our last or home stretch, with buoyant hopes 
that the journey, of which we were becoming thoroughly 
sick, would be soon and easily ended. Alas, we learned that 
the sickliest part of the trip was still before us. "I will 
wager,'’ says the devil ia Bailey’s Festus, “the great archan- 
gel's trump to a dog- whistle, that whatsoever happens worse 
ensues," and before the sunset of that Juno we were 
bitterly echoing the same Sentiment. If 1 should live to the 
age of the Patriarchs I shall never forget the experience of 
that afternoon. Its memory haunts me now like the recollec- 
tion of a horrid dream. If my words fail to impress the 
reader with its painfulness, let it be accounted for on the hy- 
S othesis that 1 am not skilled in the language of agony. 
ever very strong, the starvation diet to which I had been 
subjected for two weeks had made me still more feeble. I 
had imagined, during our long ride, from the relieved feeiin 
of my limbs when out of the saddle, that a walk of a liundreu 
miles would be a mere bagatelle, as it really might under other 
circumstances. The first day on foot I hud stood it very well, 
but'the next morning I was so lame and stiff I could hardly 
stand. In addition to this, that night a bug or something else 
got into my only good eye- -contraction of the cornea destroyed 
one of my eyes when young— and it was so sore and inflamed 
I could scarcely open it. Up to the time when we left White 
River I had, by continual resting, contrived to endure my 
aches and pains with equaminity, but after that they increased 
so as to be almost unendurable. We struggled along until 
about three o'clock, when it seemed to me that I should drop 
down at every step. The sun had come out extremely hot, 
and the reflection of the light on the road had increased the 
inflammation of my eye till the white was nearly all concealed 
by coagulated blood. At times everything seemed to blur, 
and 1 could scarcely discern the road before me. The least 
jar caused by an uneven step or a sudden turn of the head 
caused sharp twinging pains to shoot backward through my 
head, and increased a splitting headache from which I had 
suffered all day. At first I tried to moisten my eye with 
spittle, but soon this source of alleviation was dried, for my 
throat and mouth became so parched I could hardly swallow. 
My lameness and weakness had been all the time increasing 
until it was with difficulty I could lift my feet ovsr the small- 
est stick or stone or inequality in the road. Once I eat d->wn 
to rest, and on trying to rise could only do so by clinging to a 
young tree near by. But my greatest suffering was from 
thirst. AJ1 along our journey thus far we had found plenty 
of water, and the cool, dear springs gushmg from the moun- 
tain sides had been our on ly source of real, unalloyed enjoy- 
. ment. But here there was no water save only at one spot we 
had not yet reached. At last we met a man who told us the 
spring was about four miles ahead, and we would know the 
place by several square yards of clover growing beside the 
road. Shortly after Nichols had an attack of colic, and. de- 
claring he could go no further, lay down, telling me, as I’suf- 
fered most from thirst, to go on to the spring and there wait 
for him. The time taken to reach that spring, though prob- 
ably only about three hours, seemed to me an age. I stagger- 
ed aloDg like a drunken man, at times stopping and leaning 
against a tree to rest, not daring to lie down for fear I might 
not be able to get up again. At last I reached the clover 
patch where 1 had been told the spring was, but in order to 
reach it I had to descend a hill about twenty-five yards. After 
a while I got to the bottom, and after taking a good drink 
tried to reascend the hill, but found myself unable to do so. 
After resting about aD hour, however, I succeeded iu crawl- 
ing on my hands and knees to the top, where, selecting the 
spot where the clover was thickest I lay down for the night 
hoping, almost praying, that the morning's light would°see 
me either refreshed and strengthened or would see me dead 
I was not especially particular which. 
It would not be the exact truth to say that my hopes were 
fulfilled. When Nichols came up and awoke me in the morn- 
ing I was scarcely more fitted for travel then when I lay down. 
My nerves were in a healthier state, but every bone and 
muscle was in agony almost beyond endurance. Only the 
dread, which bad now returned, of leaving my bones beside 
that road gave me courage and strength to go on. Nichols 
who was stouter and stronger than I generously consented to 
exchange bundles, mine being heavier than his, and we started 
My comrade took the lead and looked out for the road, while 
I followed mechanically behind, listlessly dragging one foot 
after the other. I can recollect but little-of the details of the 
next three days journey, only here and there isolated facts 
standing out boldly in my memory. I remember thp.t in 
some way we passed over the distance intervening between 
the wilderness and the city of Springfield. I remember that 
that Monday morning we slopped somewhere at a house and 
got a breakfast of corn bread and bacon, and that at this 
house there was a buxom young woman with black eyes and 
bare feet, supporting a pair of well turned ankles. I remem- 
ber that we stopped at another house to buy some wheat 
biscuits to munch along the road ; that the proprietor of 
this house had a nose like the dawning of day, and prophe- 
cied a revolution if Government did not do something to 
alleviate hard times. I remember stopping at still another 
house, where we heard the news that the Republican con- 
vention had nominated Hayes and Wheeler. I remember 
that somewhere we had to swim a stream too deep to be 
waded, and that Nichols, carrying my bundle and panther 
skin, got them both soaked to the centre. I remember that 
we at last came to a region of fences, many of them inclos- 
ing magnificent looking farms, where the wheat was shoulder 
high, and which were resounding with the clatter of reapers, 
and the merry badinage of the harvesters. And lastly, I 
remember that Wednesday afternoon we entered Springfield, 
tired aDd truvel-stuiucd, loot-sore and eye-sore, hungry and 
thirsty, with every bone and muscle aHd sinew feeling ns 
though they had just emerged from the ordeal of the Inqui- 
sition, and looking as wild and haggurd as a Pennsylvania 
“ tramp." The people stared at us as we walked on through 
the streets'; the proprietor of a restaurant stared at us as he 
saw the viands he had placed before us disappear down our 
insatiable esophagi. The conductor on the train whicli con- 
veyed us to St. Louis, stared at us, as we requested him to 
carry us to the city of mounds for eighteen dollars— all we 
could scrape together— when the regular fare was twelve 
d liars a head, but, like the gentleman that he was, he gave 
his consent to the arrangement. And when we arrived at 
home, our friends stared at us, and wondered whether I was 
really the same being who not six months before had left 
there to go to Texas. 
It was more than a month before I regained my former 
condition of comparative health, and even now at times I 
can feci the effects of that long and wearisome journey. Still 
however, the lessons learned and the experiences stored up 
through 2tha t trip amply repay me for all the discomforts 
attendant upon it, and I cannot say that were a similar expe- 
dition placed before me to-day I would shrink from the 
undertaking. Guy Rivers. 
foundlanrl, it is captured in the shore herring seiues at the 
MIGRATION OF FISHES.— No. 4. 
BY Q. BROWN GOODE — BEAD BEFORE THE AMEBIOAN FISH 
OULTCBAI, ASSOCIATION. 
[ Concluded from page 194.] 
MENHADEN MIGRATIONS NORTH AND SOUTH. 
There is no satisfactory evidence that the menhaden pur- 
sue extended migrations north and south. The same evidence 
which tends to show that the shad, salmon and alewife do not 
follow this course, will apply, with modifications, to the 
menhaden. The menhaden schools at different points along 
the coast appear to have individual peculiarities, correspond- 
ing to those of the. shad in the different rivers. A Maine 
menhaden may be easily distinguished from the Long Island 
menhaden, a Chesapeake or a Florida one by certain inde- 
scribable characters easy to perceive, but difficult to describe. 
The presence of the crustacean parasite in the mouths of the 
Southern menhaden, and its abseoce from those of the North, 
is a very strong argument in favor of local limitation, in the 
range of menhaden schools. That the same school of men- 
haden return year after year to the same feeding ground is 
rendered very probable by the statements of Mr. Miles in 
paragraph 72. The schools in the Southern waters do not re- 
ceive any apparent increment at the time of desertion of the 
North coast, nor are the Southern waters deserted at the time 
of abundance i n the North. There is, however, a limited 
North and South migration. The Maine schools, on their de- 
parture in the fall, appear to follow the southward tread of 
the coast until they strike the hook of Cape Cod, where they 
are detained for some days, they then round the Cape and are 
again detained by the hook of Montauk Point. They first 
strike the shore at Point Judith and are turned over into Pe- 
conic Bay by the line of islands stretching across the eastern 
end of Long Island Sound. In the same way the Chesapeake 
schools are said to be detained for some days by the projec- 
tion of Cape Henry. J 
The questions of hybernation and extended migration hav- 
ing been considered, it only remains to discuss the third al- 
ternative— that of the possibility of sojourn in the warm 
strata of the open ocean. In plate is given a diagram section 
of the North Atlantic Ocean between New York and Ber- 
muda, showing the -soundings and isothermal lines obtained in 
II. M. S. “ Challenger,” April 24 to May 8, 1873. The verti- 
cal scale is necessarily enormously exaggerated, but the dia- 
gram Bhows the presence of strata under the Gulf Stream and 
between it and the American coast, the temperature of which 
exactly meets the requirements of the menhaden. At a depth 
of 50 to 100 fathoms there is a shoreward extension of the 
warm stratum of 50 deg. to 55 deg., which extends inward 
120 miles. There are no means of determining the corres- 
ponding isothermal lines on the coast of North Carolina but 
an extension of much less degree would approach very ’near 
the shore in that region. The diagram represents the condi- 
tion of the sea temperatures m ar New York at the very period 
when the menhaden are approaching the coast iu April and a 
similar relation (not improbable) exists, iu November at the 
time of their departure. The schools of fish, swimming out 
to sea when the shore waters become too cold for them and 
driven below the surface by the winds of November would 
natural y strike these temperate strata, and being kept from 
descending deeper by the uniform coldness of the waters be- 
low, as well as by the increasing pressure, and their efforts to 
approach the shore being also opposed by a temperature bar- 
rier, they would remain in the temperate strata until they 
were enabled by the warmth of spring to regain their feeding 
grounds near the shores. ° 
No authorities can be quoted in support of this hypothesis, 
but in tbe case of the menhaden, at least, it appears to explain 
more of the difficult questions in relation to periodical move- 
men s ban that of hybernation or that of extended migration 
(1) It presupposes less sudden changes of temuerature 
ban that of hybernation It bus been shown that hyberoa 
l GS !? n , e T v ° lun J ftr y. but is a state of torpidity 
induced, like that of mstivution, by a change of temperatures 
and surroundings, which they have no power to avmd b 2 
fore entering upon hybernation or icstivation, fishes retreat to 
the deepest water, and only become torpid when they an; foL 
lowed thither by the changed conditions of existence 7 In the 
fresh water of temperate countries fishes do not become en 
tirely torpid in cold weather, but are sufficiently active to be 
taken with hooks from under the ice. This is a^so the case in 
tewi rCgl °, DS - , The - ; ka ‘ lern 8 ri,z . or American ^bo“ 
if dtfU ? h 'PPf 9 ^mdes) } is taken with hooks in the 
dead of winter under the floe ice of North Greenland at « 
depth of 300 fathoms, in South Greenland, on the oceanic 
banks, at sixty and eighty fathoms, and at Fortune New- 
same season. 
So long as the menhaden can avoid the extremes of tem- 
perature, which they so carefully avoid in summer, by seek- 
ing congenial warmth in the ocean strata under the Gulf 
stream, need we suppose that they will plunge into the colder 
strata below ? 
(2) It involves less radical changes than hybernation in 
the habits of the fishes. Some fishes, like the mud-nuniiow 
(Mdanura timi), of the eastern United States, are peculiarly 
adapted for a life in the mud. Others, such as the “com- 
pound breathers” ( Labrynt/ieci ), of India, are said to respire 
with ease with their head covered by liquid mud. Such 
fishes, however, are totally different iu organization from the 
free swimming species of the open seas. 'All free swimmers 
are especially needful to avoid contact with tbe bottom. This 
is especially so in the case of the herring family, of which 
the menhaden is a member. They are provided usually with 
deciduous scales, and never suffer themselves to come in con- 
tact with the bottom. If one of the lierriug or mucker tribe 
is placed in an aquarium it will be noticed that it keeps itself 
always free from the bottom. Other fishes in the same tank, 
such as the sea-bass, tautog or king-fish, will be seen to rest 
on the bottom, and even to take refuge under the stones. It 
is extremely improbable that mackerel ever sink into the mud 
of the ocean bottom— still more so in the case of the men- 
haden. 
(3) It Accounts better than the other theories for the 
early appearance of the fish in the spring. Admitting a 
possibility of a winter’s sojourn in the mud, we are met by a 
difficulty when we try to account for the prompt appearance 
of the fishes in the spring. The deeper strata of the ocean, 
are now known to preserve throughout the year the uniform 
temperature of 35 to 40 deg. The fish, once mummified in 
the depths of the ocean, would remain so forever unless they 
possess powers uuknown to exist in other animals. 
On the other hand, if we suppose the fish to be swimming 
in the strata of mid-ocean, we know that they are just in the 
position to be susceptible lo all the daily variations of temper- 
ature. Following with the advance of the season the inward 
curving of the Gulf Stream the warm strata below it gradually 
approaches the shore. The schools of fish are thus enabled 
gradually to draw nearer to the coast line, and when the 
strata of 50 deg. to 55 deg. in temperature touch the coast the- 
menhaden are at hand. 
(4) It explains os well as the hybernation theory, and better 
than the migration theory, the peculnrity of the different 
schools at different localities along the coast. This was dis- 
cussed in paragraph 88. 
(5) It explains better than the other theories, the appearance 
of the fish at the time of their arrival in the spring. The. 
menhaden appear to be bottom feeders. If they migrated 
coastwise to the south they would find these feeding grounds. 
If they sank to the bottom they would find food, if they had 
sufficient vitality to resurrect themselves in the spring. If 
they passed the winter in the mid-ocean strata they could 
obtain no food and would naturally become emaciated, the 
accumulated fat of the preceding summer being absorbed. 
Rimbauds classification, which is a modification of one 
recognized in the markets of South France is very suggestive 
but it does not appear to me to be entirely applicable to the* 
fishes of our coast, at least not in the way in which it has been 
usually adopted. 
Rimbaud makes four divisions, viz.: 
I, — Wandering fishes (Poisson nomade). 
II. — White fishe3 ( Poisson blanc). 
Ilf.— Bottom fishes {Poisson de roche or Poisson de fond)'. 
IV. — Alien, or outside fishes (Poisson forrain) 
The distinction between classes I. and IV, does not appear 
to he very dearly marked. In the western Atlantic some of 
the fishes making up class IV-ibelong to each of the other 
classes. 
A more natural classification would be its three divisions 
which might readily be co related with the three kinds of 
migration mentioned in the preceding paragraph. 
The first group would include the wandering fishes, the- 
Poisson nomades of Rimbaud, whose migrations are entirely 
oceanic, and confined to the surface zone. The second group 
would include the bottom fishes of restricted rauge, the Pois- 
son de fund of Rimbaud, which move to and from the shore 
or the shallows, and.wbich do not range. 
The third group would . include the middle classes, those 
which take advantage of both methods of migration and cor- 
responds approximately to Rimbaud’s second division. 
“White fi9hes” seem hardly an appropriate name. Coast 
fishes would probably be more expressive. 
Col. Lyman in his report “On the Limits of Artificial Culture 
and the Possible Exhaustion of Sea Fishes,” p. 07 (Report of 
the Commissioners of Fisheries of Massachusetts for the 
year ending, January 1, 1870, pp. 58-G7), speaks of the first 
class as the wandering or “ schooling ” fish of the high seas 
The term whooling is liable to mislead, for the “ white fishes ” 
also school. Among the wandering fishes he mentions onlv 
‘the herring ( Olupea elongata), mackerel (Scomber vernalis) 
menhaden (Alosa menhaden), cod (Oadus morrhua), etc " The 
cod and herring most certainly are “ white fishes,” and the 
menhaden and mackerel are certainly not to be ranked with 
“those which appear on the coast only when s migrating ’ and 
then in vast but uncertain troops,'’ p (53. 
A provisional classification by habits of the fishes of our 
eastern coast might stand somewhat as follows • 
I. — Wandering or Surface Fishes.— These remain in our 
waters only for a short time, their movements being capricious 
or accidentally directed by the ocean currents, or else in search 
of food. They do not spawn on our coast, and their young 
are never seen in our waters. The best known examples are 
the sword-fish (Xiphias gladius), the spear-flsh ( Tetrapturus 
albidus), the bonito ( Pelamys sarda ), the tunny (Orvcnus 
thynnus), the dwarf tunny (Oi'ycnus alii ter at n*), the ceroes 
and Spanish mackerel (Cylrium maculabum, C\ caballa and 
C. regale), the rudder fishes (Halatractus zonatus, Nancrates 
ductor), and (Palinmichthys perciformis), the dolphin ( Con/n 
tnena, two or three species), the remoras (Echeneididai), the 
barracuda (Sphyrana borealis), the lady fish (Conorhvnchu* 
albula), the tarpum (Megalops thressoides), the Oceaffic KEto 
such as OalMcerdo tigrtms, and the numerous waifs from the 
West India fauna. Of these only the sword-fish bonito and 
the ceroes and bpamsh mackerel are of economic importance 
at present. 1 
II . —Local or Bottom Fishes.— These remain in our waters 
throughout the year, their movements being chiefly to and 
from the shore, though many of their species move for long 
distances up and down the coast. Tl.ey prefer a somewhat 
umform temperature, which they secure by going into the 
shallows in the summer and deeps in the winter in the northern 
dis nets ot their distribution, while in the southern districts of 
distribution their movements are reversed. They spawn on 
