FOREST AND STREAM 
26 G 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted toFcbu> and Aquatic Sports, Pp_actioal Natural H ibtory, 
Fish Culture, the Protection op Game, Preservation op Forests, 
aud tub Inculcation in Men and Women op a health v interest 
in Oct door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
forest and §treanj publishing fiomyatiQ, 
17 CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK. 
[Post Office Box 2832.) 
Term*, Five Dollar* a Year, Strictly in Advance. 
A discount of twenty per cent, allowed for live copies and upwards. 
Advertising Kate*. 
In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the Inch. 2E 
cent* per line. Advertisements on outside page, 40cents perllne. Reading 
notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent, 
extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 
months. 30 per cent. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1875. 
To Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub- 
lishing Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 
All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 
objection be made. No anonymous contributions will bo regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 
notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
Bud our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
is beautiful In Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 
Ihe legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 
tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 
ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 
terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 
We cannot bo responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, If 
money remitted to ns is lost. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 
CHARLES IIALLOCK, Editor. 
WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager. 
CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE COM- 
ING WEEK. 
Thursday, June 3.— Trotting, Prospect Park; Woodbury, N. J. ; 
Kansas City, Mo.— Kentucky State Sportsman's Association and Bench 
Show, Paris, Ky.; Bench Show, Watertown, N. Y. 
Fbiday, Jnne 4. — Trotting, Prospect Park, Kansas City, Mo. 
Saturday, June 5. — Racing, Jerome Park — Base ball, Harvard, vs. 
Yale, '78, Boeton; Boston vs. St Louis, St. Louis— Spring races Yale 
Navy; do. Wesleyan University, Middletown, Ct.-Departure of the In- 
ternational Rifle Team. 
Monday, June 7.— Base ball, Boston vs. St. Louis, St. Louis. 
Tuesd at, June 8. -Racing, Jerome Park —Trotting, Kingston, N. Y. ; 
Grand Rapids, Mich.; Titusville, Pa.; Omaha, Neb.; Goshen. N. Y,; 
Hartford, Ct.— National Sportsman's Convention, Cleveland, Ohio. 
Wednebdat, Jnne 0. —Trotting, Kingston, N. Y.; Titusville, Pa.; 
Omaha, Neb. ; Goshen, N. Y.; Hartford, Ct — Base ball, Mutual vs. St. 
Lonle. at St Louis— CorilDg Clnb, Yonkers, N. Y. 
The Convention. — The New York State Association 
for the Protection of Fish and Game is now holding its 
seventeenth annual convention at Watertown, N. Y. The 
convention was called to order at Washington Hall on Mon- 
day evening by George W. Flower, President. The attend- 
ance was much larger than usual, nearly every club in the 
Slate being well represented. Alter Mr. Flower's opening 
speech, and the reading of the Secretary’s report, new 
clubs and several county delegates were admitted to mem- 
bership. The Treasurer’s report showed a balance of 
$1,222. The bench show of dogs is one of the principal 
features of the gathering, all the prominent kennels being 
represented. A full report of the proceedings reaches us 
too late for this issue, but will be given in our next. 
Our Contemporaries.— Flood and Field is the title of a 
new paper established by Mr. John D. Neill at Greenport, 
L. I. Its tendencies are not so much in the direction of 
"sporting,” properly speaking, as in circulating useful and 
entertaining matter for the sportsman and tourist regarding 
Long Island principally. Mr. Neill’8 abilities amply 
qualify him for the task, aud we wish him every success. 
The Sportsman .— This paper has been changed from a 
monthly to a weekly issue. Messrs Foster and McIntyre, 
late of the Spirit have joined the original proprietor, and 
with this array of talent and experience the ultimate suc- 
cess which wo would wish for them should he beyond a 
peradventure. 
Mr. A. M, Halstead, for some time connected with 
this journal, has recently become the chief editor of the 
Poultry Bulletin, a journal which we believe he originally 
started. Halstead is well known to the poultry fraternity 
find, we might say, to all the "old cocks” in the country,' 
OLD SUPERSTITIONS OF THE SEA. 
"Of other plants more rare, more strange than these, 
As very Ashes living in the sens; 
As also rams, calves, horses, hares, and hogs, 
Wolves, urchins, lions, elephants, and dogs. 
Yea, men and maids, and which I most ndmire, 
The mitred bishop nnd the cowled friar." 
S O sings the poet, and with Pliny, iEliau, Roudeletand 
others, to supply the appetite of superstition with 
their grotesque figures of food it is no wonder that they 
themselves became honest advoentes in the cause of imagi- 
nation, nnd so fit inly fixed became those ideas concerning 
the population of the seas with a perfect race of beings, 
that we have in some of the old histories statements and 
assertions from men of authority allltming that they have 
seen with their own eyes these wonders, and there can be 
no doubt of their existence, and to day we see the remnants 
of these strange beliefs in the toilers of the sea, who, al- 
though they laugh at the mermaid and the Flying Dutch- 
man, would uot for their lives put to sen on Friday; and 
to find one who has not seeu a sea serpent would be a 
rarity. 
In looking over an old work by the ouce great writer, 
Cnfornia, we find the following "flow of soul,” evi. 
dently thrown upon our ancient forefathers with honest 
intent, ns it is confirmed by Arabian history. The name 
of the valuable volume is "Agaub el Malkowkat," and its 
contents compare with it most favorably. After a learned 
dissertation upon the wonders of nature in general, he 
states that in the year 894 a fish was captured in the Cas- 
pian Sea of such wondrous feature that it was taken before 
Prince Salim nnd opened, aud within, like Jonah of old, 
and perhaps communing with the “inner man” of Iris fish- 
ship, sat a sea girl, and he says "she had on a pair of pants, 
without a seam, made of skin like that of a man, and 
which came down to her knees. She sometimes held her 
hands to her face, aud at others over her hair. She drew 
heavy sighs, and only lived a few minutes.” Again, he says, 
"on the 18th of March, 592, an officer stationed at the Delta 
of the Nile, in lower Egypt, while walking with some 
friends, came upon a sea man aud woman. They swam 
along theshore,” and this "brave soldier" says "the woman's 
face was sweet and mild, her hair was black and floated 
upon her back, her body white, aud her breasts quite prom- 
inent.” The man, of course, had a fierce air nnd terrible 
aspect ; his hair was red and somewhat bushy, nnd his skin 
was of a brownish color. These two monsters remained 
over two hours in sight of the officers, and so much atten- 
tion was taken of it that Maurice, who then reigned, came 
to witness the wonderful spectacle. The name of this 
"observer of nature” is not given, but surely he should be 
enrolled with Pliny, and his fame handed down unto all 
lime. Shakespeare has not forgotten these maidens fair, 
but refers to their vocal powers in the following:— 
"1 heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 
That the rude sea grew civil at her song." 
Aud such a one saw Don Emauuel, and held converse with 
her, if we may believe a late history of Portugal, which 
states that on the Indian coast tweuty-flve mermaids were 
captured and sent to his highness, but two only survived 
the voyage, a woman and her daughter. They were very 
melancholy, would eat but little, and were slowly dying, 
when the kind, touched by their condition, ordered them 
to be chained and put in shallow water. On seeing the 
water they rushed to it eagerly, and having plunged them- 
selves showed by a thousand tricks their joy and satisfac- 
tion. They remained three hours under water, and in this 
manner were kept three years. He also adds that "they 
never spoke a word, a fact much lamented upon.” That 
one fact endears their memory to us, and with the poet we 
ask in vain: — 
"Now are there really coral caves below. 
Or beds of amber, or of precious stone, 
To which the blushing Nereids languid go 
In idle hours to recline upon? 
And are there fays to fan them while they’re dreaming, 
Whose wings seem like two diamonds purest gleaming,’' 
And to say no seems hard, as here lies all the romance of 
the grand old sea. Its huge plains and mountains budding 
with twice living verdure— its forests of coral and "dark, 
unfathomed caves,” alive with marine flowers— its entan- 
glements of algae, that in rare beauty of texture and form 
far exceed their models on land— seem fitted for the homo 
of higher forms, and as we look down into the Southern 
seas the fair forms that live but in the fancy seem needed 
to frame the lovely scene. 
So firmly did these strange illusions force themselves 
upon the minds of the people that on the 31st of May, 
1671, the following account was drawn up by Captain Com- 
mander Peter Luce, off the quarters of the Diamant, in 
Marlinico, and sworn to before Peter de Bevillo, notary, 
and four witnesses: "In returning from the islands of the 
Diamant we saw near the shore a sea monster of human form 
from the middle upwards, and terminating towards the tail 
like a fish. His tail was large and split; the head was of 
the size of an ordinary man’s, with straight huir, black and 
intermixed with gray; his face wus large and full; his arms 
and hands were the same os ours, and he seemed to wipe 
his face with them as he rose; his skin was moderately 
white, “id bis length seemed about five feet; bis air was 
fierce, and he looked at us all with great attention. When 
we saw him first he was not over seven paces off, but ho 
dove and reappeared so close that one of the men offered 
his fish line, at which he disappeared.” 
This shows how strangely the imagination can be worked 
upon, as the oath is on file, and the men evidently saw 
something and believed it a man. Perhaps Barnum was 
there. 
Later, in 1720, Oliver Morin, captain of the vessel Mary 
de Grace, swears (until everything must have beeu blue) 
"that as he was lying off the coast of Newfoundland a sea 
man came up under the figurehead. I took a gaff to draw 
him aboard, but was afraid he would draw me over. For 
this reason I ouly gave him a blow on the back. When 
the monstor felt the blow he turned his face to the owner 
like a man in wrath. He swam around the ship, aud when 
he was leaving laid hold of the rudder with both hands 
which obliged the crew to fix its handle to bolh sides of 
the ship, lest he should endanger her. Then he repassed 
by the starboard side, swimming like a man, aud when he 
was at the bow he stopped to look at the figurehead, which 
was that of a beautiful woman. After having long con- 
sidered it he seized hold of a rope and raised himself up, 
with the seeming intention of laying violent hands on the 
wooden virgin. He afterwards swam to the windward 
about a cable’s length, and passed again and shook the rud- 
der. I theu struck him upon the back with a harpoon, 
whereupon he looked again at me as in a rage, aud swam 
away. This entertainment lasted until noon, the monster 
having all that time been uear the ship, and oft times not 
more than ten feet away, so that the crew, composed of 
thirty-two men, had the pleasure and convenience of re- 
marking the following facts: That his skin was brown and 
tanned, but without scales; that all the motions from his 
head to feet were like those of a real man; that his eyes 
were well proportioned; that his mouth was small, consid- 
ering the length of his body, which was supposed to be 
about eight feet. His tongue was thick, and his teeth large 
and white. In a word, he was similar to a man, except 
that his hands were joined with a pellicule, such as that 
found iu the feet of ducks and geese." 
Such was the belief of these simple folk, who, in the 
excitement of the moment, allowed themselves to see a 
hand for a flipper and the fat greasy face of some old seal 
for a fierce man or voluptuous nymph. The movements of 
these huge creatures are extremely human, and the bright, 
queer faces of the young seals aud sea lions look not unlike 
the dusky faces of the little darkies seeu rolling in the 
waters of the Southern States. Along the Scandinavian 
coast to-day many an old mariner can be found who will 
tell you of the mermaids of his day, aud in fact the Nor- 
thern Seas have their hiatus of these tales, and the histo- 
ries of the times are filled with curious yarns telling of 
these wonders of the deep. 
In the “Speculum Regale,” an Icelandic work of the 
twelfth century, is the following account of a mermaid 
that appeared to a select few: "A monster is seen also near 
Greenland, like a woman so far down ns the waist; long 
hands and soft hair, the neck and head like that of a hu- 
man being; the hands seemed to belong and not parted; 
from the waist down the mouster seemed like a fish, with 
scales, tail, fin, etc.” 
It will be seen that most of these accounts agree in every 
particular, and are undoubtedly taken from the seal or 
some similar creature. In Bishop Pontoppidan’s History 
of Norway we find an account of a sea man, given in Ihe 
usual liberal style of his holiness: "About a mile from the 
coast of Denmark, near Landscrond, three sailors, observ- 
ing something like a dead body floating upon the water, 
rowed towards it. When they came within seven or eight 
fathoms it still appeared as at first, for it had not stirred; 
but at that instant it sunk, and arose almost immediately 
in the same place. Upon this, out of fear, they lay still 
and let the boat float, that they might better examine the 
monster, which, by the help of the current came nearer to 
them. He turned his face and stared at them, which gave 
the men a good opportunity to watch him narrowly. He 
stood in the same place seven or eight minutes, and was 
seen on the water above breast high. At last they grew ap- 
prehensive of some danger, and began to retire, upon 
which the monster blew up bis cheeks aud made a kiud of 
lowing noise and disappeared. In regard to his form they 
declare it to be that of an old man, strong limbed, with 
broad shoulders; but his arms they could not see. His 
head was small in proportion to his body, and had short 
black hair, which did not reach below his ears. His eyes 
sat deep in his head, and he had a meagre face, with a 
black beard.” 
Such was the belief o'f the leading scientist and church- 
man of Norway, as there is no doubt but what the worthy 
Bishop believed what he thought he saw, or had within 
him, by nature, a most wondrous vein of exaggeration. 
In the Southern Seas we hear of mermaids of lovely form 
through Megasthenes, who listened to them at. Taprobane, 
and upon hearing the story Aelian drew so heavily upon 
his imagination that he peopled the sea about Ceylon with 
fishes having the heads of all known terrestial creatures, 
and stranger still, in the form of satyrs. 
The historian of the proceedings of the Jesuits in India 
gravely states that seven of these monsters were captured 
at Ceylon in 1560 and carried to Goa, where they were dis- 
sected by the surgeon to the Viceroy, and their internal 
structure found to be in all respects similar to the human. 
Many of these ideas were probably taken from the dugong, 
a seal-like creature found on the coast of Ceylon, aud hav- 
ing a somewhat human appearance. The mother shows 
great affection for her young, often holding it to her breast 
while swimming, so that with a little imagination almost 
anything could be seeu. 
In later times so-called "queer fishes” were exhibited to 
the public, and M. Rimbault, in his "Notes and Queries,” 
iayg that this fever reached its height lu the rolga of Eliza- 
