FOREST AND STREAM. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
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CHARLES IlAI.I/Ol'K, Editor. 
B . SES S. H. TURRILL. Chicago. 
T. C. BAN Western Manager. 
Business Manager. 
CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE COMING 
WEfe K. 
Friday, May 10.-Am°rlcati ohamplonfhlp walking at Rink. New 
York Base ball: Buffalo v? Lowed, at Lowed ; CUcket vtSprlDg.leld, 
at S ringf.eld ; Allegheny vs New Bedford, at New H. d'ord : Harvard 
vs P.imeton, at Princeton. T.o.tlng at Prospect Paik Brooklyn. 
Saturday. VoyU -Ann Mean eh .mplon-hlp »a k us ab ve. Crlc et. 
Oe.ina.down vs Phi adtiph a. :»t N'ce-.o n ; Dorian vs Belmont, at Ha- 
verford; Bdmort v« Philadelphia, at West Phl.ade.pma ; Young 
A-nertos vs Germantown, at Tu npike Bridge. Base nail : at New Bed- 
ard ,8 above; H. roell vs Rochester, at Rochester; Tecnm-ch vs 
Lwel' at Lowell; Buffalo vb Manchester at Manchester; Harvard vs 
pr nceton, at Prince on; Amherst vs Holyoke, at Amherst; iTlntty ' e 
Wesejat. nt Hartford ; Harvard Fresh, vs Yale FrcHh.,at New Haven. 
Chicago Univer.-ny v- Nonhwestem Univere'ty, at Kvanstown. Stem. 
lord Conn Rille Clob M«t* h Running Meeting, at Lexington. Krn. 
Monday, Slay 13,-Ba-e ball: Buffalo vs Manchester, at Manchester , 
Cricket vs UHca, at Utica; Tecomseh vs Lowell, at Lowell; Star ve 
Rochester, at Rochester. Trolung as above, aul at Suffolk Paik Phlla- 
^Turaday, May 14.— Westminster Kennel C ub Bench Show, New York. 
Ba-e bail: Cricket vs Mar, at Syracuse ; Allegheny vs SprlngUeld, at 
S, nugUeiU ; Buffa’o va Live Oak, at Lynn; Tecomseh va Manchester, 
at Mat Chester. Tr ttlng as above. 
Wedne*day, Slay 15 — Westminster Kernel Club Bench Show. New- 
ark Rule Club vs Zettlers; BUinford R tie Club maich.at Stamford, 
Conn Knick roo.ke Yacht R gstia, at Port Morris. Hanlon ve 
Palsied Bare bsl,: Tecumschs a» a' o e; Bocheeter vs Cricket, at 
RocheBte ; B ffa o -s Llvenak. at L?nn; Ya e ^ s Princeton, at Prince- 
ton Tiot'lDg a« above, and st < o dwaier, Mich. 
Thvrtday Slay 10.- Westmlueter H-nch Show. Portland Yacht Club 
ChaU. nge c..p Regatta. B«sc ball: C.lcket vsHornell.at HorneUsvd e; 
Allegheny vs UHca. at Utica; Tecumseh vs Live Oak, at Lynn ; Buffalo 
vs New Bedfo.d, at New Bedford. Irotilug as above. 
THE CBOTALID/E. 
The rattlesnakes and their nearest allies possess a peculiar 
interest in view of the fact that they arc the most venomous 
of the North American ophidians, and are, at the same time, 
those which the sportsman or naturalist is very likely to en- 
counter in liis wauderings. There is really less danger, ow- 
ever, from the rattlesnake than from some other species me 
copperhead, for example, or tho moccasin-which arc not 
provided will) the characteristic appendage of the genus Lroia- 
lus. It is very unusual for a rattlesnake to strike without first 
sounding his note of warning, which so closely resembles the 
crepita'ing noise made by some grasshoppers as to be casi y 
mistaken for it. The popular belief that the number of rattles 
i ncreases annually by one, tbus indicating with certainty the 
individual’s age, is, like many other widely accepted state- 
ments, so far unsupported by any direct and absolute proof ; 
and, until we have some definite evidence of its correctness, 
cannot be accepted os a fact. A very similar erroneous im- 
pression, namely, that the number of tines on the horns of the 
common deer is an index of the age of the animal, has recent- 
ly been exploded. As suggested by Drs. Coucs and Yarrow 
in their recent paper on the herpetology of Dakota and Mon- 
tana, “the growth of the organ must depend largely, as in all 
parallel cases, upon the vigor of the individual, which is not 
the same at all periods of life, granting even a continuous 
state of perfect health.’’ 
The question, of what use is the rattle to its possessor, 
has often been asked, but no altogether satisfactory explana- 
iion of its function has as yet been given. Certain it is, that 
m all of its relations to its enemies, this appendage seems to 
ue a positive disadvantage to the snake, informing them of its 
proximity when otherwise they might have passed it by, and 
-giving them ample warning of any intended hostile demon- 
stration. Two bypothe-^ have been advanced concerning the 
possible uses of ibis organ, either of which, although not ful- 
filling all the neces^ry conditions, secm9 likely enough to be 
correct. The first of these is that the rattle is a call by which 
the sexes may be brought together at the breeding season ; 
the oi her suggestion is tbat, owing to its resemblance to the 
sound produced by one of the large Western grasshoppers, the 
cull may be used a9 a means of attracting the bird9 or smaller 
animals, which feed upon these insects, within reach of the 
snake. The question, however, is still an open one, and calls 
for closer observation on the part of those favorably situated 
for investigating the habits of this most interesting group than 
has yet been given. 
The mechanism of the poison apparatus and the method 
which the snake employs in striking, form a most interesting 
topic, and one which we should like to describe at length, did 
our space admit of it. The reader who is interested in the 
subject is referred to the paper from which we have quoted, 
where the process is described in detail. 
The enmity which exists between the black snake (Bas- 
canion ) and the rattlesnake is a very curious ODe, and is Dot 
easily to he explained. That 9ucb an enmity exists can hardly 
be doubted in view of the testimony which has been adduced. 
We are told that the black snake invariably conquers the rat- 
tle soake, and, having killed him, makes a meakof his victim. 
The same state of things is said to be true of the king snake 
( Ophibolus ) and the moccasin. We have io the past printed 
occasional notes on this subject, and should be glad to receive 
further communications on the matter, if any of our readers 
can furnish us with evidence on so interesting a point. The 
food of the rattlesnake consists chiefly of small bird9 and 
mammals, and of the former those species which nest upon 
the ground are, of course, most often captured; mice, shrews 
and squirrels iu the East, and mice, rats and spermophiles in 
the West are the mammalian victims. 
Among the enemies of the rattlesnake, besides the ophidians 
already mentiooed, are deer, hogs, and the peccaries of the 
Southwest. Hogs, being protected by their great development 
of adipose tissue, the venom of the snake i9 prevented from 
eutering into the circulation, and hence these animals face the 
rattler without danger, and make many a hearty meal of his 
flesh. Deer kill these snakes by springing upon them with 
iheir hoofs. Of course, man is their worst enemy, and the 
Dumber killed by bim far exceeds those destroyed by other 
agencies. “ The seed of the woman,” you know. 
Why this is so is beyond my knowledge, but personal obser- 
vation has often called my attention "to the fact. Winter 
among the Rockies is not always so grim and terrible a king 
ns upon the plains, yet . seasons come when the swarming 
game, from the mountain lion to the gray rabbit, flees south- 
ward from before him ; and then it is that the thoughtless 
Ute, less provident than the squirrels who hybernaic about 
bim, finds the gaunt wolf of starvation at tlic door of bis 
tepee hut, glaring at the bare walls and the closely-gnawed 
bonc 9 that strew the floor. Then it is, at hist, that the In- 
dians must cat or die; and rather than die he will eat any- 
thing, such food even as his first cousin, the coyote, would 
refuse. 
Throughout the Rocky Mountains grow the yellow and 
white pine ; young trees when blistered by the suns of twenty 
summers, nor yet old when toughened and twisted by the 
storms of three score winters. The piue has two barks, or, 
more properly, a bark and a skin. The one is the overcoat 
worn all the year around, the other is the epidermis of the 
tree, through which, iu the spriug, courses its life blood up 
and down. Now, visit with me an encampment of Ute or 
Pi-Ute Indians in March, when for four or five months the 
unblushing, unsoftened snow lias lain like a great white, 
blanket over peak and level aud canyon. There is no game ; 
for days and weeks the forest has been as silent and deserted 
as the northern ocean, and as cold. There is in tho whole 
camp neither meat nor fish nor vegetables, aud yet the In- 
dians are cooking and eating. 
Examine the contents of the copper kettle, black and green 
without from the smoke of a hundred fires aud tho verdigris 
of ycar 9 , stolen perchance from some far-away rancher, 
whose wife yet bemoans her loss. As it hangs over tho coalg, 
themselves growing dull and brown, a faint piney odor ex- 
hales from the thick grayish soup that slowly stews within. 
It is breakfast, dinner and supper, three meals in one for tho 
group of gauut figures who surround it, watching with 
hungry eyes the bubbles tbat come and go, aud secretly re- 
gretting the loss of the very vapor which diirts from it as it 
simmers It is bark soup, made from the skin of the young 
pine. Stripped from the trees, chopped into small pieces and 
cooked with snow water for hours, the glutinous or gelati- 
nous portion of the wood is extracted, concentrated— not re- 
fined, however— and forms a thick gruel-like soup, with just 
enough nourishment in it to sustain life. And so, sometimes 
for weeks even, these miserable human beings, if such they 
may be called, exist until spring releases the streams and the 
disappearance of the snow brings again the game from the 
southward. 
This strange food I have seen in the camps of the Utes and 
Pi-Utes, and nowhere else, and I believe its use to be con- 
fined to these aud neighboring tribes of the Rocky Mountain 
Iudians. Certainly the custom is as strange a one as that of 
the Chinaman who eats rats, the Frenchman who loves frogs, 
or the American who devours oysters. F. E. Hamilton. 
A WONDERFUL SOUP. 
Excursion to Labrador.— Mr. M. M. Chick, of Boston, 
who has gotten up several summer excursions to La- 
brador, but whose attempt last year failed, is out again 
•wi h another prospectus for the comiDg season. Having 
once aided in organizing a Labrador < xpedition ourselves, we 
know that it can be made most enjoyable. For further par- 
ticulars efer to advertisement in our columns, or address the 
projector, 41 Franklin street, Boston. 
P ROBABLY no greater difference in customs and habits 
of life exists among the various families of the Cau- 
casian race than among certain of the Indian tribes who roam 
along our western frontier and throughout tho mighty W^st. 
Between the Sioux, Blackfeet, Pawnee, Arapahoe and 
Apaclie warriors of the plains, and the Ute, Pi-Ute, Snake, 
Assiniboine and Owyhee hunters of the mountains, there are 
in certain things as distinct lines of demarkation as those 
drawD between the Chinaman and the Frenchman, the Japan- 
ese and '.he American. Each of these various tribes has cer- 
tain peculiar customs that are exclusively their own, govern- 
ing them in peace and in war, at home and abroad. The 
plain Indians, differing as they do among themselves, differ 
yet more widely as a great class from their brethren of the 
mountains. The riders of the prairie are natural warriors, the 
climbers of the peak9 are as naturally born hunters. Yet, 
strange as it may seem, the lowland tribes are in the main 
better providers than are those of the upland. The fighters’ 
family generally runs less danger of starvation during the 
winter than do the squaws and papooses of tho sportsman. 
HOW TO PROTECT FISH. 
WANTON WASTE OF SnAD IN NEW YORE HAY. 
I T is from the State of Oregon that we are to receive our 
lesson how fi9h should be protected. It is as simple as 
possible. It makes the fisheries of the community provide 
the revenue for the fish culture operations of the community. 
Iu the fishery legislation now being enacted at Olympia, two 
bills are under consideration— one to regulate salmon fisheries 
in the waters of the Columbia, and the other to encourage 
the establishment of hatching-houses on the said waters. Tho 
propose^ bill— at least, that portion of it which particularly 
attracts our attention — is a9 follows : 
“No person is to be allowed to take salmon upon the river, 
except by first having license therefor. For each boat a 
license of ten dollars is to be paid, and every fisherman taking 
salmon with a gill net must pay five dollars license for the 
season. For each seine used the license is to be ten dollars, 
aud for each weir or trap, fifty dollars. Licenses cannot be 
transferred. Penalties are provided for fishing without li- 
cense, or otherwise violating the law. All moneys received for 
licenses or as penalties are to constitute a fund to be applied 
to the assistance of hatching establishments and to the propa- 
gation of salmon. The funds are to be paid over to such 
person or company ns may successfully inaugurate the busi- 
ness; or if there shall be more than one establishment, said 
fuuds are to be distributed pro rata according to the number 
of hatched salmon.” 
Mr. Livingston Stone, whose knowledge of the salmon 
streams of the Pacific and the legislation necessary for their 
protection i9 second to none, writes' us: “The adoption of 
this principle by Oregon and Washington Territory is, I be- 
lieve, an entirely new thing in this country, and has never 
been contemplated in any of the Eastern Stales. You 
must see at once how important the principle is and how valu- 
able it may possibly prove in giving permanency and cerloin- 
ty to the fishcultural labors of the States.” Mr. Stone asks, 
“Why should not the shad fisheries of Eastern livers pay for 
the hatching of the shad in these rivers?" 
As far as we can see, we consider the plan proposed in 
Oregon an admirable one. Possibly, if fishermen were made 
to pay directly for fish culture in re stocking the streams they 
fish in, they would be more interested in the results. Such 
cases of utter waste as we directly noticed in the fish market 
last week with shad, we take just here the opportunity of 
giving publici'y to. 
Thousands of small shad, the largest weighing something 
over a pound, the smallest less than three-quarters of a pound, 
were found exposed for sale. Ten of these fish weighed less 
than fourteen pounds. These shad were caught in fyke netSj 
