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Aug. 29, 1908.] 
attacks of enemies. Dogs do not trouble them. 
During the rutting season, however, the male 
is distinctly a dangerous animal, and therefore 
as few uncastrated bulls as possible should be 
kept. 
Elk forage readily enough for themselves, 
living largely on browse, but, in confinement 
would require hay and very likely would eat 
cornstalks. A little grain is good for them, 
and assists in taming them. They should have 
salt and plenty of water. 
Although a frightened elk will go over a tall 
fence, elk do not very readily jump. We have 
seen tracks where they had gone over a five- 
foot fence, but usually such a fence would con¬ 
fine them. Mr. Lantz reports Mr. Russ, an 
Arkansas elk breeder, as saying that a good elk 
fence may be built for $200 a mile. 
Elk are so common and so easily obtained 
that the stocking of an elk farm would be a 
matter of slight expense. 
The Virginia deer is exceedingly prolific, and 
is well known to do well in captivity. The deer, 
however, is subject to certain diseases, of 
which black tongue is the most dangerous. 
Nevertheless, according to the experience of 
those who have tried it, they may be reared 
with profit. One breeder says that from fifty 
does one can count on seventy-five fawns. An¬ 
other says, “For the last seven years my 
herd has averaged 70 per cent, increase.” For 
winter food for these animals outside of what 
they can pick up in their range, alfalfa is recom¬ 
mended, or any coarse hay that is full of weeds. 
Of course, if deer are to be shipped dead as 
food, they need no special care, they may be 
allowed to run wild and may be killed as needed. 
On the other hand, if they are to be be shipped 
alive, for use as pets, they must be cared for 
almost from birth, and accustomed to the sight 
and touch of human beings. 
Mr. Lantz gives some figures bearing on the 
increase of deer in confinement. In the ten 
years between 1892 and 1903, the deer on 
the New Jersey preserve of Chas. S. Worth¬ 
ington. 4,000 acres in area, increased from 19 
to about 400 head. The St. Louis Park and 
Agricultural Co. has about 1,000 deer and 400 
elk in its 500-acre preserve in Taney county, 
Mo. The Otzinachson Rod and Gun Club, 
about six years ago, placed ninety deer, mostly 
does, on its 4,000-acre preserve in Clinton 
county. Pa. There were said to be 2,000 head 
there in 1907 with a prospect of 1,000 fawns in 
1908. 
The progress of this industry will be watched 
with much interest. 
D. G. Smith. 
This old contributor to Forest and Stream 
in its earlier period, during the seventies, died 
two weeks ago in New York city at the age of 
sixty-four years. In those days he was editor 
of the Miramichi Advance, published at Chat¬ 
ham, N. B., and wrote intelligently on fish pro¬ 
tection and propagation. Later he held the office 
of Commissioner of Fisheries under the Pro 
vincial Government and operated a trout hatch¬ 
ery on the river Bartibog. In recent years he 
became a very active politician, gave up his paper 
and removed to New York city. His remains 
went to St. Stephen, N. B., for interment. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Watches that Mark Time by Sound 
Signals. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
There appeared in Forest and Stream, of 
July 18, a most interesting article under the cap¬ 
tion of “Nelson Lee’s Silver Watch.” In the 
camp library is a copy of the original edition of 
THREE YEARS AMONG THE CAMANCHES 
The Narrative of 
NEESON LEE, 
THE TEXAN RANGER, 
Containing a Detailed Account of his 
Captivity Among the Indians. 
His Singular Escape 
Through the Instrumentality of His Watch, 
And Fully Illustrating 
Indian Life As It Is 
On The War Path And In The Camp. 
Albany: 
Baker Taylor: 58 State Street. 
1860 
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 
NELSON LEE, 
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United 
States for the Northern District of New York. 
This book makes good the promise so quaintly 
written above in a truthful, laudable and most 
interesting manner, the only weakness in it being 
an occasional exhibition of the very strong likes 
and dislikes of the author for friend or foe— 
a something that is born of and accentuated by 
wilderness contact. The tongue of Nelson Lee 
was straight, his heart was warm and true, his 
head contained the very quintessence of the 
knowledge so sweet and so absolutely essential 
to the welfare of the wildest wild creatures, 
while hand and eye worked together with that 
skill and certainty attained only when death is 
the price of failure. 
Sixty years and better behind us adown the 
corridors of time is the Texas of Nelson Lee, 
and the land is as changed as the times. No 
wonder the men of to-day run over the pearls 
of truth strung on a thread of deer’s sinew by 
the old Texan ranger and then prate to their 
fellows of fiction. One of them said: “What! 
A watch striking the hours? Heaven defend us, 
what a lie.” 
The production of such watches, and yet 
others still more complicated, was and is the fad 
of the watchmakers of yesterday and to-day. L. 
Reverchon in Cosmos (Paris, May 2), a trans¬ 
lation of which was made for and appears in 
“The Literary Digest” of Aug. 1, says: 
“The striking watch is very old. Nearly two 
and one-half centuries ago it was invented simul¬ 
taneously by two English watchmakers, Barlow 
and Quare. * * * Watches that strike the hour 
when desired are now made like ordinary 
watches and at a reasonable price. Good 
watches in metal cases, striking the quarter 
hours, may be bought for 100 francs ($20).” 
The article tells of real chimes in these repeater 
watches, passes to the consideration of stop 
watches (chronometers), calendar and perpetual 
calendar watches, and successful, practical com¬ 
binations of them. Such a mechanism consists 
of no less than 552 pieces, pierced with 752 holes 
and held together by 177 screws, some of which 
are not more than 0.3 millimeter (about 1/80 
inch) in diameter. It mentions Paul Ditisheim’s 
watch on whose dial appear hours, minutes, sec¬ 
onds, lunar phases, days of the month, the time 
of sunrise and sunset and a device for showing 
the equation of time and concludes, “In such 
complicated pieces of mechanism it is evident 
that all the wheels cannot be arranged in on« 
plane. They must be disposed in layers, which 
of course makes the watch thicker than usual.” 
As the present rolls into the past let us hope 
that Forest and Stream will give us multi doses 
of the truth that is stranger than fiction, and 
which riddles the files of that paper for more 
than the third of a century. 
A. J. Woodcocx. 
Bad Laus in Virginia. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Permit me to call your attention and through 
you the attention of all interested in the pro¬ 
tection of game to a vicious law enacted by 
the Legislature of Virginia at its last session. 
There is a law in Virginia entitled “An Act 
to regulate and restrict shooting and to pre¬ 
vent the destruction of wildfowl in the waters 
of Black Bay and its tributaries in the county 
of Princess Anne.” 
Whatever may be the merits or demerits of 
that law, it certainly forbade shooting at night. 
The Legislature at its recent session passed two 
amendments to that law, the first reading as 
follows: “Section 1. * * * Provided, how¬ 
ever, that the provisions of this act shall not 
apply to the shooting of wild geese at night be¬ 
tween the first day of March and the first day 
of April in each year.” The second is: “Sec¬ 
tion 6. Provided that nothing in this act shall 
be so construed as to prohibit shooting a duck 
known as a ‘peter’ or ‘blue peter,’ in any way 
or at any time after the last day of February 
until the last day of April of each year.” 
Chapter 230, Laws of Va., 1908. (Italics ours.) 
Heretofore, as everyone knows, there has 
been enough of night shooting in those waters, 
the law prohibiting night shooting being “more 
honored in the breach than the observance”; 
but by the above amendments not only is spring 
shooting encouraged, but night shooting is per¬ 
mitted for three months of the year. One would 
think that as wildfowl can be shot for more than 
six months in the year, that day time would be 
sufficient for such shooting. If the present law 
be indulged in, it is safe to predict every living 
thing in those waters that can fly will be driven 
therefrom. 
Comment on the law is not necessary. It will 
be denounced by every man, woman and child 
outside of the county of Princess Anne that 
may hear of the law, and if ghosts walk, the 
gracious Princess for whom that county is 
named will disturb the miscreants who shoot 
wildfowl during the night season. 
Of course, it is only fair to conclude that 
the amendments were passed through the Legis¬ 
lature by the trickery of some one. The bill was 
probably never read by the members and those 
that voted for it were most likely moved by its 
title and made no further inquiry, as it would 
be difficult to conceive the Legislature of 
Virginia understanding^ voting for night shoot¬ 
ing. 
It is to be hoped that when the people of 
Virginia read of this law they will rise in their 
wrath, denounce the bill, the chicanery which 
passed in and demand its immediate repeal; 
and in order to prevent the passage of such 
laws in future that they will insist upon the 
passage of a law providing for a State game 
commissioner. Xper. 
