1870 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
307 
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'i’lac 5>atcst Street Toy. 
I have told you, hoys and girls, that lots of toys are 
sold along the streets. They come thickest just about 
Christmas, but the approach of Fourth of July brings 
out some too. These, in keeping rvith the season, arc of 
a kind that go oft' with a pop or a bang. Last year it was 
a little gun for shooting torpedoes, and this year the 
latest toy makes noise enough to satisfy the most patriot¬ 
ic. It is only a pop-gun. The original pop-gun was a 
quill with a wooden rammer, and a slice of potato for 
wadding. We used to cut out a pellet of potato by push¬ 
ing the quill through it, and push the pellet a short way 
into the quill: then another pellet of potato was cut out 
and pushed with the rammer. The air between the two 
pieces of potato was squeezed into a small space, and 
when the other piece could no longer resist the pressure, 
out it went with a pop. An improvement on this was a 
wooden tube with a rammer, furnished at the end with a 
piece of leather, which made it fit closely to the tube. 
This went in at one end and the other was stopped by a 
cork. The rammer being thrust in, compressed the air 
just as was done between the two pieces of potato, and 
the cork would be driven out with a loud pop. This new 
toy that I was speaking of is an improvement on this. 
It is an iron tube with a close-fitting rammer, but instead 
of the further end being stopped by a cork, it is closed 
by a piece of writing paper which is held on by an easily 
fastened ring, which clamps it closely to the end of the 
tube. The rammer being smartly pushed down, the pa¬ 
per bursts with a bang as loud as a small pistol. Here 
is a chance to celebrate our noisy holidays without any 
smoke or smell of powder, and no danger of getting 
burned. I don’t know how the boys will like it, for I 
used to think that the smell of the powder was half the 
fun ; but parents will be largely in favor of having the 
noise, if noise must be made, without the risk that at¬ 
tends crackers, double-headers, and fire arms. 
Will Warren. 
Among; tlie Spice Islands. 
BY “CARLETON.” 
A few months agot was far away on the other side of 
the globe—wandering over some of the islands from 
which we obtain pimento, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. 
It was delightful to sail along their evergreen shores, 
with soft breezes fanning my cheeks, and inhale the de¬ 
licious odors wafted from forests blooming with myriads 
of frdfrant flowers; to look into inlets, bays and shel¬ 
tered coves, where the waves rippled on pebbly beaches, 
and where palm-trees reared their tall trunks and waved 
their green plumes in the balmy air. 
Open your Atlas to Asia and you will see Sumatra, Ja¬ 
va, Borneo, and hundreds of smaller islands in the In¬ 
dian Archipelago, from whence wc obtain our spices. 
Bay after day our steamer plowed its way through the 
calm waters, and I beheld entrancing scenes, and at 
night I looked out upon a sea of fire ! Many of the boys 
and girls that live in the country probably never have 
had an opportunity of seeing the beautiful phosphores¬ 
cent light that sparkles on the waves of the ocean, and 
which is so brilliant in the tropical regions that when 
night comes on, the water seems to bo on the point of 
bursting into flame. 
I shall never forget one evening when we came to 
anchor under the lee of an island off the coast of Malacca. 
The stars were shining, but the night was dark, and our 
vessel as it glided along turned up a great furrow that 
reached miles away; it widened on one side far out to sea, 
and on the other broke in waves of light against the shore. 
When the anchor went down into the water a sudden 
flash of light spread out in circles over the glassy surface 
of the sea. The native boatmen as soon as they heard it 
drop, launched their light cailoes and came off to see us. 
Long before they reached the ship—long before their 
dusky forms could be distinguished through the growing 
darkness, we saw the water changing to fire with every 
dip of their oars. As I looked over the side of the vessel 
I saw innumerable lines of light beneath the surface, 
winding swiftly here and there, now circling round the 
ship, now diving beneath it and coming up the other side. 
Sometimes one line chased another, and then the two 
went in zigzags or turned sharp corners. There were 
numerous sparks of fire and they all seemed to be playing 
tag! The fishes did all this. 
a fish story! I do not wonder that you say so, 
but it is true for all that. It seemed as if each fish car¬ 
ried a lighted match in his mouth ! A shower came on 
and every rain drop as it touched the water seeme'd 
changed to fire ! It was a wonderful sight. In the morn¬ 
ing I jumped into one of the little boats and the copper- 
colored, black-haired native with a paddle shaped like a 
mustard spoon, took me to the shore and I wandered 
into the dark forest where the tall trees threw put stout 
branches and locked arms with their neighbors, and 
formed a green roof over my head. A monkey sitting on 
one of the branches showed his teeth at me. Another 
hopped down from a high limb and made up a face. A 
third screamed as loud as he could, which probably was 
a signal cry; for a whole troop came hopping from limb 
to limb, yelling, grinning and chattering. Not under¬ 
standing the monkey language, I don’t know precisely 
what they said, but am pretty sure that they were mak¬ 
ing fun of me; perhaps to pay me off for making fun of 
those of their race that come to this country in company 
with the organ grinders, and who wear their little straw 
hats on one side in imitation of some young men I know 
of. Besides the monkeys, there were parrots, macaws, 
and birds-of-paradise, with brilliant plumage, making the 
forest ring with their singing, only their songs are not 
near so sweet as those of the lark, the thrush, or the 
robin. Birds in the tropics are not such fine songsters 
as those that build their nests in our orchards and gardens. 
But a tropical forest is a wonderful thing to see. Par¬ 
asitic plants, like the mistletoe, which do not draw their 
nourishment from the ground, but from a tree, hang in 
dark masses, or droop in graceful festoons from the 
bending limbs; others cling to the rough bark, and 
twine round the gigantic trunks; and rattans, not larger 
than a whip-stick, wind up to the highest branches, then 
run along the interlaced limbs from tree to tree. The 
monkeys gather upon them in groups, and swing to and 
fro like children in a swing. The forest was dark and 
gloomy, for the leaves of the palms are so broad that they 
almost shut out the sunshine. Only think of a leaf being 
large enough for an umbrella ! The men who sell pine¬ 
apples and mangoes in the villages put up one for a 
booth and sit beneath it through the day, and sleep under 
it at night. It is sutfleient to protect them from the sun 
or rain. You will think it a big story perhaps, but the 
leaves of the “ fan palm ” are ten feet long and three feet 
wide ! Walking up a winding path I came to the nutmeg 
groves and the pepper orchards. Bid you ever think 
when you were sprinkling pepper on your food that it 
came from those distant islands ? Yet there wore the 
groves from which the berry is gathered. A spicy flavor 
pervaded all the islands, so delicious that I felt like lying 
down beneath the shade and doing nothing. There is 
no better place in the world for lazy folks. The people 
wear few clothes and food does not cost much. There is 
no winter, spring nor autumn, but always summer. After 
all, I should not like to live there, I had rather reside in 
America where we have all the four seasons. Besides, 
they have the Cobra—a snake so poisonous that if one 
were to bit.c me I should not live fifteen minutes. And 
they have Anacondas in the jungles,—twenty or thirty 
feet long, that would break every boue in my body or 
swallow me whole. Ugh! 
The fire-flies, or “lightning-bugs,” as I used to call 
them in my younger days, that buzz about our ears at 
night on these islands, are very large and give out a great 
deal of light. A half-dozen of them will keep a room 
well lighted; and some of 
the natives put them into 
glass bottles and use them 
instead of candles or lamps. 
The women not being rich 
enough to own jewels, wear 
fire-flics, instead, when they 
go to a dance. Their dances 
are usually held in the open 
air. It must be a very curi¬ 
ous sight to see a party of 
ladies whirling round with 
lightning bugs flashing in 
their long, black hair 1 The 
swamps and thickets pre 
sent a beautiful andenchant- 
ing scene at night when the 
myriads of bugs arc flying 
about among the mangrove- 
trees. They keep up a con¬ 
stant flashing from sunset 
until daybreak. If you are 
standing during the evening 
by the ocean shore, both the 
water and the land seem to 
be on fire—just ready to 
burst into flame, and you 
wonder if the world is n’t 
going to be burned up! Our 
black-haired boatman rows 
us over the calm waters, a*id we look down into them 
and behold a forest of pure white coral which the little 
animals are building slowly through the years. We see 
green and crimson, purple and violet shells lying on the 
bottom. And there are dark green weeds and delicate, 
moss-like plants growing on the rocks. We are never 
weary of looking at the beautiful scenes around and be¬ 
neath us, whether we behold them by night or by day. 
Gutta-percha-trees grow on these islands. The natives 
tap them just as we do our sugar maples. They evapo¬ 
rate the sap in the sun until it is about as thick as tar, 
when it is very sticky. They use it advantageously in 
trapping tigers. You wonder, I dare say, how they can 
catch such ferocious beasts with gutta-percha. There 
are a great many tigers in the forests, so bold that they 
sometimes come into the villages and carry oft' the inhal) 
itants who arc not very well supplied with guns. One 
way of catching them is by digging pits and covering 
them with brush, and baiting the tiger by tying pigs ra¬ 
gouts near by. When the tiger gives a spring to catch 
the poor trembling animal, he goes down through the 
brush to the bottom of the pit which is so deep that he 
cannot get out. Sometimes they set a gun near the bait, 
and when the beast comes up to get his breakfast lie 
tpuches a string which pulls the trigger, and receives 
two or three, or may be a half-dozen bullets in his body. 
But another way of catching them is by using the gutta¬ 
percha. A pig is tied to a tree in the jungle, and the 
gutta-percha spread upon the ground around it. When 
piggy is hungry he begins to squeal; and the tiger snif¬ 
fing a good dinner, creeps up like a cat through the 
bushes, cautiously and stealthily crawling on his belly 
over the leaves. lie comes nearer and nearer, his mouth 
wide open, his eyes flashing fire. He gives a leap through 
the air, and falls plump into the gutta-percha, ne has 
killed the pig by a gentle pat of his paw, but in trying to 
eat him, ho gets the sticky stuff into his mouth. In a 
short time his jaws, t ongue, and teeth are daubed with it. 
He rubs his mouth rvith his paws and gets it into his 
eyes. It is not long before they are glued together so 
that he cannot see. He growls more fiercely and lashes 
his tail. He tries to walk, but there is a great mat of 
leaves sticking to each foot. He rolls over and roars in 
rage. The natives arc on the watch, and all hands rush 
out from the villages with shouts and hurrahs, and with 
guns and spears quickly despatch him. They take oft' his 
skin and carry itback in triumph, kill a pig, make a feast, 
dance all night, and have great rejoicing over the capture 
of the beast which they dread above all others. 
Ahowt JPitzzles and Problems, 
A large number of our young friends have sent us puz¬ 
zles, rebuses, and the like, and probably have wondered 
why they were not published. We wish to thank those 
who have forwarded them and to make a general acknowl¬ 
edgement of those we have used and those we have not. 
As to those which we have not published there are sev¬ 
eral reasons for withholding them. Some of them are very 
well known ones, others are not good enough, and some 
of the arithmetical ones are, too difficult. It must be 
borne in mind that the object of such things is to afford 
amusement and not to propound difficult tasks in algebra. 
Our young friends generally fail in their attempts at 
making rebuses, and we have not had a really good one 
sent us in a long time. It takes a peculiar talent to make a 
first-class rebus. The way to succeed is to keep on trying 
A Saisslke I,evee. —Such a time with the 
snakes!. Our artist was out orve spring morning an I 
came upon a gathering of water-snakes, like the one 
represented in the picture. The snakes had just come 
out from their winter hiding-places, and were evidently 
holding a mass meeting. Whether they were discussing 
snake rights,which watering-place they should visit for the 
summer, we do not. know, but the squirming and twisting 
and hissing he describes as having been remarkable. 
