Aug. 4, 1906-] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
i 75 
quantities this winter, which I can but attribute 
to the fact that special effort was made to pro¬ 
tect these birds during their breeding season 
last year. 
“We were fortunate enough to secure one or 
two early convictions for hunting them out of 
season, and the gunners took alarm and very 
few were killed. What is true in this county, 
is true in many other counties where like con¬ 
ditions exist. We intend to make these birds 
the object of special care and supervision in the 
hope that they may multiply and yet be seen in 
large quantities in this State. They should be 
protected during every month of the year for a 
period of five or six years, but the truth is that 
very few of the birds can be killed during the 
thirty days of the open season, as they are then 
full grown and are very strong, and will not 
lie before a dog and are very shy.” 
Kansas is another State where the prairie 
grouse w r as formerly abundant, but here the 
pinnated grouse is always the common bird, and 
the sharptail the exception. Mr. D. W. 
Travis, State Fish and Game Warden, gives us 
in brief but very telling form the history of 
the wholesale destruction and rapid decrease 
of prairie chickens until about six years ago, 
and then, of the change of sentiment and an in¬ 
crease of the birds during the year 1905. It is 
to be hoped that this good work will go on. 
Mr. Travis says: 
“Up to the year 1885 pinnated grouse were 
very plentiful in Kansas and especially so in 
the western part. From that time they de¬ 
creased very rapidly, until about 1900. Between 
the above dates a grouse was seldom seen in the 
eastern half of the State, and but very few in the 
western half. The decrease was caused by the 
late burning of the prairies all over the western 
half of the State. Settlers were filling this sec¬ 
tion rapidly, and it seemed to be the general 
opinion that all dead grass should be burned, 
which destroyed all food and insects, starving 
the birds out and leaving no nesting grounds. 
Again meat was scarce and high, and the settlers 
killed grouse the year round in order to supply 
their tables, and also killed thousands and sent 
them to eastern markets. This, with the hun¬ 
dreds of eastern market hunters, caused the al¬ 
most complete extermination of the grouse in 
Kansas. 
“About 1900, the people began to realize that 
the grouse were nearly exterminated, and a 
crusade for their protection started. More 
stringent laws were passed in 1903, and still 
more in 1905, and I am pleased to state that 
in the fall of 1905 in a number of the central 
counties the birds have increased to numbers 
beyond expectations, and to-day grouse can be 
found in many of the eastern counties. 
“With proper protection, pinnated grouse 
will be abundant in all parts of the State with¬ 
in five years. The day of the game butcher, the 
pot and market hunter is past. 
“You may tell the readers of Forest and 
Stream that Kansas is all right. It not only is 
the greatest agricultural State in the Union, but 
has more true sportsmen than any other State, 
and within a very few years will be the game¬ 
bird paradise of the world.” 
Texas is now and always has been a State 
where pinnated grouse were abundant, and it 
is so large that there are still great numbers 
of birds there. The growth of the game pro¬ 
tective sentiment, which has been so marked 
within the last year or two, promises to protect 
these birds. 
There are other States, as Michigan and Wis¬ 
consin. that have a few pinnated grouse, and the 
bird occurs rarely in the Province of Ontario. 
In his “Birds of Manitoba,” Mr. E. Thompson 
Seton gives an account of the introduction 
of this bird in Manitoba, and shows that the 
first record of its appearance was in 1881, when 
a specimen was gotten near Winnipeg. 
It would seem perfectly practicable to rein¬ 
troduce this bird in eastern localities where once 
it was abundant, but this of course could only 
be done in situations where the bird would be 
sure to be protected, in other words, in large 
preserves. It is conceivable that the birds might 
live and do well on some of the large estates 
of Long Island, and even on the Shinnecock 
Hills, but it is hardly to be, hoped that they 
could ever be brought back as a game bird. 
They would have to be regarded merely beauti¬ 
ful natural objects. 
That the bird can be domesticated we es¬ 
tablished to our own satisfaction many years 
ago, when we purchased ten or a dozen birds 
one autumn. Their wings were clipped and 
they were turned out in a garden which was 
tightly fenced, where they became so tame that 
the next spring they were accustomed to scratch 
about the feet of the man who was spading the 
garden. Unfortunately, dogs got among them 
and destroyed a number, and the others were 
scattered and lost. 
The Divining Rod. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The time-worn question of the efficacy of the 
“divining rod” to find underground water, has 
been recently revived in the columns of Forest 
and Stream by various contributors. 
In the most recent contribution on the subject, 
Rear Admiral Rockwell gives a theory advanced 
by his father which attempts to explain the phe¬ 
nomenon on rational grounds, involving natural 
physical laws. 
The suggestion is that the water that is in the 
sap of the hazel or peach tree twig, used in the 
performance, sets up electrical relations with 
running “veins” of underground water, and so 
discloses their presence. 
This seems a very inadequate explanation. 
There is very little water present in even a 
freshly cut switch, and in a few hours of warm 
weather after the switch has been cut, this is 
largely dissipated. But if water is the active 
agent in the process, then surely a much more 
effective implement could be contrived with 
special provision of water for the purpose. Any 
such contrivance would, however, be likely to 
eliminate the element of faith in the mysterious, 
which is the most important ingredient in the 
make-up. 
There is another feature connected with the 
whole subject, which believers in this kind of 
magic seem to have lost sight of or failed to 
apprehend. It is this; underground water that 
is sought. for, and reached by digging or boring, 
generally is not running water, but reposes in 
more or less extensive basins, or widely dis¬ 
tributed strata of sand or gravel, or both. When 
such a reservoir of water is reached by sinking 
a well into it, the same water can be found in 
any number of wells distributed over a wide 
radius, and located indiscriminately. 
The existence pf running underground streams 
or “veins” is exceptional, and generally they 
occur only in countries with elevated topography 
and rocky substrata, which afford opportunities 
for water to percolate through the fissures of the 
rock in a down grade; and in limestone forma¬ 
tions this movement is much facilitated by the 
disintegration of the inclosing limestone by the 
acids contained in the water, by which process 
underground channels are developed. But as be¬ 
fore remarked, these conditions are exceptional, 
and generally all of the subterranean water is in 
a state of repose, as water cannot run, except 
in open channels and “down hill.” 
The truth is that this belief in the “magic 
wand” for discovering water, is simply the last 
survival of a whole brood of very ancient myths, 
whose parentage dates back to the dawn of human 
history; and this survival affords additional evi¬ 
dence of the proneness of the human mind to 
cherish and cling to ancient hallucinations which 
carry a strong element of the supernatural. 
The following example occurred in the writer’s 
experience. In company with a former member 
of one of the United States scientific bodies, 
an elderly professor, we were looking at the 
moon, when the professor remarked, “That is 
a wet moon with us, is it. so in your country?” 
To which reply ■ was made, “Well, professor, I 
don’t take much stock in the moon theory as 
having influence on the weather.” The only 
reply from the professor was a long drawn 
“A-h-h.” Having a curiosity to know whether a 
man of scientific attainments and habits of 
thought had any rational grounds for such a 
belief, the subject was returned to later with the 
question, "Professor, do you really believe that 
the moon exerts an influence on terrestrial 
weather?” “O-h-h y-e-s. We have neap tides 
and spring tides, from the moon’s influence; 
there is no reason why it should not influence the 
weather also.” To which reply was made, “But 
the moon exerts the same influence upon all 
parts of the earth’s surface every twenty-four 
hours. It would seem that if it causes rain in 
one place, it should cause rain all over the world.” 
This ended the discussion. Evidently this 
learned professor had never thought of analyz¬ 
ing the question, but simply clung to a belief 
probably imbibed in the nursery. 
The late John Fiske, in “Myths and Myth 
Makers,” traces the “divining rod” in its various 
forms to an origin in the great sun myth of 
Aryan times. In ancient mythology the rays of 
the sun were the “invincible spear” of the God 
Phoebus, and other mythological deities, from 
whence have sprung the “William Tell myth” of 
the “unerring arrow”; the sprig of mistletoe 
that pierced the heel of the Norse god—his only 
vulnerable spot—of which the arrow that pierced 
the heel of Achilles is another form. Likewise 
the sprig of sesame that opened the cave con¬ 
taining gold and precious stones; the hazel or 
birch wand that disclosed hidden treasures in the 
middle ages, as well as “veins” of underground 
water—all of these and many kindred myths 
that are still cherished in different parts of the 
world, are variants of the sun myth of ancient 
mythology. No doubt plenty of specific evidence 
of unquestioned authenticity can be adduced to 
support such beliefs—as the same is true con¬ 
cerning cures by patent nostrums, etc., but when 
any one offers to me such evidence of impossible 
occurrences, I generally ask, “Do you believe in 
stinging snakes ?” Oh yes, he has seen them 
repeatedly—has seen their stings with his own 
eyes! there can be no question about the fact. 
Then when confronted with a veritable stinging 
snake without any sting, and as “harmless as a 
dove,” a doubt begins to pervade his mind as 
to the truth of an impression that had been long 
cherished as absolutely true, and based as he sup¬ 
posed on ocular evidence. 
The credulousness of the human mind concern¬ 
ing all matters involving mystery and spiced with 
superstition, is among its most curious phe¬ 
nomena, and is evidently a survival from primi¬ 
tive ages when all men’s minds were under the 
dominion of such beliefs. It is upon this credu¬ 
lous propensity that so many quacks, prophets, 
fortunetellers, and almanac makers, rely for a 
living. Coahoma. 
Spread of the Houseboat. 
The wide distribution of the interest felt in 
houseboating in this country, is shown by the 
very widely scattered localities from which come 
orders for Mr. Hunt’s new book, “Houseboats 
and Houseboating,” the only volume that has 
ever been published on this interesting subject, 
and particularly useful on account of its illus¬ 
trations and its plans for construction. Orders 
come from the Pacific Coast, from the Gulf of 
Mexico, from the great rivers of the West and 
from many points on the Great Lakes, the Middle 
States and New England. 
It is curious to notice how slowly the interest 
in this delightful form of summer life has grown. 
There have been houseboats in America for a 
dozen or fifteen years, yet very few people have 
comprehended how comfortable and convenient 
they were. Since the publication of Mr. Hunt’s 
book, however, people seem to be waking up. The 
N. Y. Sunday Sun recently devoted half a page 
to the subject with illustrations taken from this 
book, and only two or three weeks ago the New 
York Sunday Herald gave a full colored page 
to the subject, also with illustrations from the 
Houseboat book. 
For the benefit of persons who have only heard 
of the book, and not seen it advertised, we may 
say that its price is $3 net, postage, 34 cents. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
fliHV newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
