FOREST AND STREAM, 
462 
ment, but had finally to send for the owner of the dog. The 
faithless sentry was found “torn into shreds," as the com- 
mander’s report expressed it, and stretched across his body lay 
the bitch, badly wounded, but undaunted, and resolved, as it 
seemed, to hold the fort against all comers till relieved by 
proper authority. , 
The Aragon wolf-dog exceeds the mastiff in strength and 
the greyhound in swiftness and intelligence, aud faces the 
thorniest brake with the resolution of a Russian boar ; but 
all his promising points as a hunting dog are outweighed by 
one fatal disqualification— he cannot hunt by scent. 
Apropos of the like deficiency in greyhounds, colleys and 
poodle dogs. Dr. J. E. Van Ende, formerly Superintendent of 
the Munich Zoological Garden, gave me the following inge- 
nious explanation, based on his experience with different 
“ menagerie ” dogs, representative canines of sundry species, 
that lost their olfactory acuteness in the atmosphere of the 
Zoo: “According to a by-law of merciful nature, everything 
that affects our senses with painful violence tends to blunt 
their sensibility. The sufferings of a canal mule are miti- 
gated by the increasing callosity of its hide ; a two years’ resi- 
dence in Spain will enable a foreigner to chew red pepper 
with impunity ; millers and gunners become dunny, and the 
eve aches of arctic travelers arc palliated by snow blindness. 
Now, the effluvia of a menagerie or sheepfold, which offends 
even our blunted organs, must be downright torture to those 
of a sharp-scented animal. The sensitive nose of a dog must 
he affected by such odors as the human ear is by a cannonade, 
or the human palate by a dose of asafeetidn ; he suffers more 
than the misery of a tanner’s apprentice, till nature comes to 
his relief by blunting the sense of smell. A young pointer 
bitch that had been confined for a year and a half with a 
hyena, a jackall and two foxes, as a member of a so-called 
happy family, was afterward unable to scent a cat across a 
corridor, and the “lion’s favorite,” a poor spaniel that had 
served a three years' term in a carnivora cage, would have 
failed to distinguish a basswood ham from the orthodox arti- 
cle. In breeds that have been employed as shepherd's dogs 
for many generations this deficiency becomes hereditary, and 
cannot be cured by a change of occupation, and there is no 
doubt that the greyhound and the poodle, as well as the Span- 
ish wolf-dog, acquired their characteristics on the mountain 
pastures of the Mediterranean peninsulas." 
But on the open prairies of Texas and California, where 
large game can be hunted by sight, the swift greyhound has 
become very popular, and the only obstacle to the introduc- 
tion of the swifter galgo is his preposterous, but by no means 
incurable, ferocity. Early and judicious training would, no 
doubt, improve his temper, though I must admit that experi- 
ments witli imported specimens are a little discouraging. Mr. 
Negrete's black champion has become the belt noir of San 
Bernardino County, Cal., aud his purchaser, Captain St. . 
who used to congratulate himself upon his bargain, has found 
out that a weekly suit for damages can make a wolf-dog a 
rather expensive pet. Last fall the captain heard that one of 
the northern tributaries of the Mohave River was swarming 
with mallards and moorhens, and engaged an experienced 
sculler and his duck-boat for a trip to Canyas Lake, at the 
head of that tributary. The oarsman, a poor “greaser" 
with a large family, seemed very anxious to earn a couple of 
dollars, but when he ascertained that Cerberus was on his pas- 
senger list, he “backed out," and offered to loan his boat 
gratis , or even to part with it altogether, rather than convey 
the galgo for all the wealth of Upper and Lower California- 
The captain then relinquished his purpose, but complained to 
a neighboring clergyman about the perfidy of the Catholic 
Mexicans. “You ought to make allowance for the circum- 
stance that the man is a ‘Mission Indian,’ ” said the deacon. 
“ He has been taught to believe in the efficacy of the extreme 
unction, aud therefore prefers to die on terra Jirma." 
F. L. Oswald. 
&[>h <£«%?• 
MORE ABOUT THE MOVEMENT OF 
EELS. 
Tbootbeok, June, 1878. 
jEditob Forest and Stream: 
I have just read in a late number a very interesting com- 
munication on the migration of eels, and notice that the 
writer claims it as a settled fact that very young eels always 
descend to the Balt water. 
Now, while entirely crediting the gentleman’s statement 
that his little eels go down stream, I would like to tell him, 
and all interested in these things, what the wee wrigglers do 
in my pond and brook. My trout pond, of cold spring water, 
also contains eels. It is connected with Roslyn Harbor by a 
rapid brook 6ome three hundred feet in length. 
Last spring I had occasion to repair the tumbling dam over 
which the water flows from the pond, and noticed that the 
pool just below this dam was literally dense with eels about 
three inches in length: 
I watched them closely day after day, and found they were 
makiDg great effort to get up that dam. The current was too 
swift and heavy for them, so they were actually climbing by 
thousands over the wet stones and logs. To settle the matler 
conclusively, I lowered the pond until there was only suffi- 
cient water flowing over the tumbling dam to keep the stones 
wet. Then the eels began to remind me of the youth who 
“ bore the banner,” for their motto was unmistakably “ Ex- 
celsior,” many of them actually wriggling up the perpendicu- 
lar face of an eight inch flush-board, and thus getting into the 
pond. 
May it not be that young eels desire water of a certain tem- 
f erature, and will proceed either up or downstream to find it? 
think that in summer they 6eek the cooler water, whether it 
be salt or fresh. Yours truly, Thomas Clapuam. 
Having submitted Mr. Clapham’s letter to the State Com- 
missioner of Fishery, Mr. Roosevelt sends us the following : 
Your correspondent’s mistake in the above letter is that he 
does not know how the eels got into the pool below his dam, 
whether they came from below or above. He saw some— pos- 
sibly a considerable number — climbing up over the wet stones, 
and concluded they were all doing eo. Here is where he was 
deceived. All fish when pursuing a certain course in schools 
return upen themselves in numerous individual cases. When 
salmon enter a salmon river they do not ascend at once, but 
remain at its mouth and run forward and back, and play 
about for days and sometimes weeks before they make their 
final movement. So the eels go down and come back, and 
stop, and advance, and recede a little until they are ready to 
migrate. I mentioned in my previous letter that eome of the 
eels in my preserves, after having wormed or squirmed their 
way down stream through two screens with meshes so small 
as to endnnger their lives, climbed laboriously back into the 
trough, aud would have gone through the screens up again 
if they could. Very possibly they have to attain a certain 
age, size, or development, ns with salmon smolts, before they 
can venture into the salt water. Let your correspondent 
ascertain whether his eel fry do not come from his pond in 
vastly greater numbers than they go back into it before he 
makes up his mind as to their mode of life. 
Robebt B. Roosevelt. 
Our correspondent of Pittsfield, Mass., Mr. Thomas Chal- 
mers, writes: 
“ Mr. Roosevelt asks your correspondent, B. T. B., ‘ How 
did he know whether the cels he saw in the Susquehanna 
were going up or down the river ?’ It is true, fish, when 
traveling, do not always follow the direction their headc are 
pointing. If B. T. B’s eels were going up the Susquehanna, 
they were in their natural course. Mr. Roosevelt’s eels had 
undoubtedly got lost. In the rivers of Great Britain with 
which I was familiar (aud they were many), the young cels 
went up stream in the spring. In the rivers of this continent 
(and I know a great many of them), the young eels go up 
stream in the spring. How do I know they were going up ? 
Well, as the Irishman said, 1 To see was to believe, but feeling 
was the naked truth.’ I have seen eels go over dams and 
other obstructions by climbing them ; I have taken eels off 
the face of a dam (stone masonry) half-way up; 1 have seen 
them when a strong freshet was in the river leave the water, 
flank the dam, and take the water above the dam. I have 
caught and used eels many years for bait, for there is nothing 
better for any of the bass family, black or striped.” 
Herring, Shad and Eels in the Potomao.— The Virginia 
Fish and Game Protective Association furnishes to the Rich- 
mond Dispatch a statement showing the decrease in the food 
fishes of the Potomac. In the spring of 1840 the total catch 
of herring in that river may be estimated at 86,000,000. The 
catch last spring was less than 5,000,000, a difference in thirty- 
eight years of 81,000,000, between the highest and lowest 
catches ever recorded, except those during the war when the 
industry was impeded by military restrictions. In the spring 
of 1840 the shad catch was estimated at 4,700,000 in round 
numbers. During the last season there were taken only 
210,000, a number 20,000 less than the single White House 
Landing on the Potomac, a short distance below Mount V er- 
non, has been known to catch season after season for years in 
succession. 
The investigations of the association have induced the be- 
lief that the eel is responsible for this enormous decrease in 
the edible fish of the river. The eels have been almost undis- 
turbed and have been allowed to increase and multiply until 
now they arc so formidable in numbers and voracity as to de- 
vour all deposits of spawn and so destroy all natural and arti- 
ficial propagation. In this opinion, which is also entertained 
by experienced fishermen, |we think the association are correct. 
The eel is a recognized destroyer of these fish. The United 
States Fish Commissioners, in their work on the Chesapeake, 
find it exceedingly difficult to secure spawning fish which 
have not been attacked by the eel. When caught in the net 
the spawning fish is found with the eel attached devouring the 
spawn. A crusade against these reptiles in the Potomac must 
be attended with excellent results. The Virginia Commis- 
sioners cannot expect.to have their once rich river restocked so 
long as all their efforts result only in fostering the destructive 
agent. 
United States Fisii Commission.— Professor Spencer F. 
Baird has gone to his summer headquarters at Gloucester, 
Mass., where he will make a specialty of hatching young cod- 
fish for the New England coast. We may yet see the fishing 
banks restocked and the fishermen of the United States de- 
voting all their time profitably to the domestic industry. Prof 
Baird also proposes to experiment with the Norwegian gill 
net for deep sea fishing, and thinks that he can demonstrate 
that with its use much larger catches of cod can be made near 
the bottom than are now taken with hook and line fishing. 
Origin of Salmon in the Delaware. — Editor Forest and 
Stream : As I have obtained all the data as to the introduc- 
tion of salmon in the Delaware, I trust you will deem it 
worthy of being noted in your paper. One of the gentlemen 
who took a deep interest and a very active part in the efforts 
has passed away, and whatever credit is due ought certainly 
to be recognized. The first plant of Atlantic salmon was made 
on the 30th of May, 1871, in a stream emptying into the Dela- 
ware River, called Bushkill, not far from Easton, and con- 
sisted of about 2,000 young fish having been hatched out by 
Messrs. Christie, of Dutchess County, N. Y. In the spring 
of 1872 Mr. Wilmot, of Newcastle, Ontario, Canada, sent to 
the late Mr. Thaddeus Norris, of Philadelphia, and Mr. Geo. 
W. Stout, of Easton, 12,000 eggs of the Atlantic salmon, 
which were hatched in a spring near the Bushkill. About 
10,000 fish were secured and placed in the stream on the 6th of 
April, 1872. On the 22d of March, 1873, 40,000 eggs were ob- 
tained from Mr. G. O. AtkiDS, Bucksport, Me., and placed in 
hatching boxes in a large spring near the Delaware River, 
about two miles above Easton on the New Jersey side. Of 
these about 20,000 hatched, and the fish placed iu a stream 
called Spring Run in May, 1873. The foregoing was entirely 
a private enterprise, and was first proposed by J. Dickinson 
Sergeant, of Philadelphia, at the house of the late Thaddeus 
Norris, Esq., he heading the subscription list to defray ex- 
penses with a subscription of twenty dollars. After the spring 
of 1873 the Fish Commissioners of Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey directed their attention to the matter, and these gen- 
tlemen discontinued their efforts. The first salmon caught in 
the Delaware River was taken at Riverton, N. J., about the 
1st of May, 1877, and weighed about ten pounds. Shortly 
after that another was taken there, but it escaped, and was 
supposed to weigh twenty pounds. On the 16th of Novem- 
ber, 1877, one was shot in the Bushkill, a female, lank and 
lean, thirty-two inches in length and weighing nine pounds 
In connection with the foregoing permit me to add that the 
first plant of black bass in the Delaware was made at Easton 
October 26, 1870. Yours truly, 
Philadelphia, J une 18. ^ Bbnj. W. Richards. 
Salmon in the Connecticut Rivkr. — James A. Bill, Esq., 
State Commissioner of Fisheries, writes us as follows from 
Lynn, Conn., under date of July 13 : 
There are no salmon being taken in the Connecticut at this 
time. The Commissioners are going to take steps to find out 
the catch of salmon on the river in seines and gill-nets, and in 
the pounds outside in the Sound. James Selden's fishery, two 
hauling seines, at Brockway’s Island, has taken fifteen snl- 
mou. This is the greatest number taken at any one fish place 
Fish Culture in France.— La Nature informs us that M. 
Dabry has succeeded in introducing into France one of the 
cypronoides, the Ilipophthalmycthy's Dubryi or II. MolUriw, 
the fish comes from China, and is called the Kia-yu. It 13 
easily fed on aquatic plants and grows to weigh forty pounds. 
The fish introduced into Paris four years ago have already 
acquired a good size. The French Societe d'acclimatation 
propose importing more of these fish, so that they can be prop, 
agated. The flavor of the Kia-yu is said to be excellent, re- 
sembling turbot, and to be without bones. 
THE WHITE-HEADED EAGLE IN THE 
HUDSON HIGHLANDS. 
BY EDGAR A. MEARNS. 
[Read before the Ltnnean Society of New York, April 6, 1S76. j 
( Concluded from Page 421.) 
W E have reached the lower brook. How splendid the 
falls to-day I What a vast volume of water is pouring 
down. This is the effect of the recent heavy rains. But how 
are we to cross the swollen stream, do you say ? Oh ! this is 
easy. I have often crossed before on this old birch-trunk. 
How strange that it should have grown horizontally out over 
the stream, and then shot up to such a height as if for no 
other purpose than to furnish you and me, reader, with a 
bridge on which to cross the brook on this particular morn- 
ing. We now press up the steep bank to the top, and then 
follow a beautiful path that winds about through an oak 
forest, giving one occasional pretty glimpses of the river and 
opposite shore. And now, by an unexpected turn of the path, 
we find ourselves standing upon a rocky point above the 
jagged cliff, with the whole scene before us, and nothing to 
obstruct the view. On the opposite shore is West Point, the 
site of the United States Military Academy, with some of its 
elegant buildings fronting on the cliff. That large building 
with the arched roof is the Riding Academy. Farther to the 
north is Battery Knox, bristling with its grim array of heavy 
cannon, mounted on splendid iron carriages; still farther 
northward are seen the frowning walls of Fort Clinton, while 
on the extreme point is Gee’s Point, with its lighthouse. 
Winding along the river's bank among the cedars is “ Flirtal 
tion Walk.” There is the long, crooked line of officers’ 
quarters and the barracks, with their background of dark 
cedars, and in front the broad, snow-covered plain. On the 
height behind are seen the massive walls of ola Fort Putnam 
built during revolutionary times. This eminence commands 
the finest view in the Highlands, and one of the finest in the 
world. Looking to the north, the bold outlines of Cro’ Nest 
and Storm KiDg are presented to our view, with their sun- 
lighted cliffs and perpendicular ledges, descending hundreds 
of feet to the river. 
We now follow the path, which winds obliquely down to 
the edge of the cove through a thick grove of hemlocks. See ' 
the eagles have seen us, and both of them leave their perches 
as we approach with a leap and a powerful wing-stroke that 
shakes the whole tree-top. They are a pair, male and female 
each with snowy white head and tail and a handsome yellow 
bill. They are coming directly toward us. But do not shoot ; 
they are farther off than they seem. Being so large they 
look near, when seen against a background of clear sky. It 
would spoil all to frighten them by a miss. How splendid 
their flight ! See them wheel and turn, ascend against the 
wind, and float with wings motionless! Sorry you had not 
fired ? No need for that. They will return to these same 
trees before long. This is my plan : We will build here, mid- 
way between the two hemlocks at the side of this rock a 
bower of hemlock boughs, and lie concealed within until the 
birds return to their perches. We will break off some of 
these dead maple saplings for the framework of our arbor. 
The hemlock boughs are 60on collected by the aid of our 
strong knives. And now we are quietly ensconced within our 
pretty little shelter, each sealed on the soft evergreen boughs 
anxiously watching through loopholes, at opposite corners of 
our domicile, the movements of the many eagles that are in 
sight. 
Some are sitting upon the edge of the ice, watohiDg, ready 
to seize the first unfortunate carp that approaches in the grasp 
of their strong talons. This manner of fishing is shared in 
common with the crows and several species of owls. But this 
easy means of procuring a livelihood can only be indulged in 
at Ibis particular season. At other times they plunge from on 
high, often entirely disappearing beneath the water, and sel- 
dom rising without bearing the fish in their claws, iioine of 
them are.soaring in wide circles in the higher regions of air ; 
no doubt for exercise, or to aid tbeir digestion. Still others 
are frolicking together overhead, chasing each other with 
laughing, cackling and screaming cries as they pursue each 
other; sometimes throwing themselves backward in air, strik- 
ing fiercely with their talons when the pursuers come too 
cloaj ; arching their necks, erecting their crests, and uttering 
loud, cackling screams and hisses. They are constantly pass- 
ing over our verdant screen, unconscious of the danger that 
lurks beneath, making a great din with their cries. But seel 
One of them comes flying toward us, bearing a great carp, 
struggling in its talons. He comes straight toward us; but 
now he veers a litlle to the north, and now stretching upward, 
and then closing those great wings, he fairly alights on a side 
limb of a large pine tree, just out of gunshot, giving an ex- 
ultant 6cream of triumph, or else a call to liis mate ; for soon 
