Sept, ii, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
411 
there was no sign of life about. Scrambling 
down the rocks I walked over to the tent and 
went in. There was no occupant, though it had 
evidently been recently used. And it was not 
ours. 
Coming out I looked around again for some 
sign of life but could find none. As I looked 
I spied a bucket lying on its side some fifty 
paces away. I went over and found the soak— 
the real soak. It was a well, five or six feet in 
diameter, with the water about three feet from 
the surface. 
It did not look very inviting at first glance, 
there being a pretty thick scum of dry horse 
manure on the top of the water; it was no un¬ 
usual thing for a digger to leave his horse at 
large near one of these soaks for two or three 
months at a stretch. Seizing the bucket I yanked 
it in, and drew it up about three-quarters full. 
Of course a fair quantity of the dried chaff 
came up with the water, but I was far too 
thirsty to be squeamish. Putting the bucket to 
my lips I blew the chaff aside as well as I could 
and drank a mouthful; it was deliciously pure 
and cool ; then I let the water flow down till my 
thirst was completely satisfied. 
I have had many long and satisfying drinks 
in thirsty hours in different parts of the world- 
stout in Dublin, bitter in London, wine in Paris, 
shandygaff in Sydney, lager in New York, but 
I can safely say that, if the best dozen drinks 
of my life could be compressed and made into 
one, it would not equal, in intensity of delight 
and satisfaction, that magnificent drink of water 
and chaff. Taking the bucket from my lips I 
poured what was left on the sward, and then 
lay down at full length, nearer to Paradise than 
I shall ever again be—in this mortal life. 
At the end of fifteen minutes I was ready for 
another bucketful, only this time I was more 
careful to separate the liquid from the chaff. 
Presently there were revolver shots. “Those 
must be the fellows looking for me,” I said to 
myself, and going over I climbed the rocks. 
Dinny and Howmuchv were hurrying in my di¬ 
rection along the side where I was. The moment 
they were within hailing distance Dinny shouted, 
Have you found it?” I answered “Yes.” In¬ 
stantly Dinny dropped on his knees before How- 
muchy and held out his hands in an attitude of 
prayer. I laughed, knowing what that meant. 
When I got up to them Howmuchy had his head 
tilted back with the waterbag on his mouth 
draining the last few drops, while the rocks 
were splashed with the water which had been 
spilled through Dinny’s fingers. But that did 
not matter then. We had found the soak. 
Days with the Pueblos. 
Las Animas, Colo., Aug. 31 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: While in New Mexico recently I 
revisited one of the old cliff dwellers’ ruins in 
Santa Clara canon. This canon enters the Rio 
Grande Valley near Espanola, and explorations 
were being conducted while I was there by a 
party who are turning their finds over to the 
Historical Society at Santa Fe. At the mouth 
of the canon is a venerable Government police¬ 
man who allows no one to enter unless he has 
a pass from the authorities at Santa Fe. The 
exploring party is making no new finds. They 
are uncovering kitchen pottery and utensils that 
are found in all these ruins, but are adding 
nothing to the history of a race notable alone 
for its picturesqueness. Their descendants, the 
Pueblos in the Rio Grande Valley, are repeating 
the lines of their ancestors—absolutely non-pro¬ 
gressive. The only remarkable thing about 
them is their chastity. They intermarry neither 
with the Mexicans nor the whites. Their blood 
is as pure as when De Vargas came among 
them, and their customs are unchanged. They 
still grind their corn on their stone metates and 
cultivate the same patches of chili and frijoles. 
While whipping the Santa Clara for trout, one 
of these Scions of a decadent race made a requi¬ 
sition for my six-ounce rod. Noting his look 
of disgust for my flies, I removed all but one 
and tiimmed this one for him. Catching a grass¬ 
hopper I soon had him busy. Tossing his catch 
to me, he would call for more grasshoppers, and 
soon I had to cry bastante. He would drop his 
hopper in the little swirls surrounded by drift¬ 
wood that I could not approach an'd invariably 
get a good trout. He told us to make his cabin 
our home, but the towering spruces with their 
sheltering branches were more inviting, and we 
declined with thanks. His wife brought us 
goat’s milk in an olla, and his mangy curs were 
our sentinels. p. T. W. 
Crow Habits. 
Discussing the subject of the crow as a men¬ 
ace to poultry raising in a report of the Rhode 
sland Station of the United States Department 
>f Agriculture, L. J. Cole says: 
That the common crow (Corvus brachyr- 
lynchos) is a not infrequent despoiler of the 
tests of other birds has long been known, while 
iis attacks upon poultry and eggs were among 
he grievances held against him by the early 
ettlers. It is, perhaps, not generally appre- 
tated that the crow is distinctly omnivorous, 
nd that under natural conditions a large pro- 
ortion of its food consists of animal matter, 
vccording to Barrows and Schwarz, roughly 
peaking one-third of the food of crows con- 
ists of animal matter; during certain months, 
specially April and May, the proportion of 
nimal food consumed is nearly double, while 
1 the fall and winter it is correspondingly less. 
The crow’s depredations upon poultry con¬ 
st almost entirely in the destruction of eggs 
ad the killing of the young. Adult fowls are 
robably seldom attacked, unless sick and weak- 
led. The eggs of the turkey, which is com- 
ton ly allowed to roam and select its nesting 
site far removed from the house or poultry 
yard, are especially liable to destruction by 
crows. They do frequently, however, attack 
chicks, young turkeys and even goslings. * * * 
“Serious depredations of crows upon poultry 
and eggs appear to occur only in certain locali¬ 
ties, while in other places, though the crow may 
have an unsavory reputation, as he generally 
does in farming communities, he is at least free 
of this opprobrium. The reasons for this are 
probably twofold, depending, first, upon the 
abundance of other food, and, in the second 
place, upon the accessibility of poultry. As 
poultry raising is now generally conducted, when 
any special attention is given to it, the eggs are 
no longer exposed to the danger from crows, 
since the hens lay in regularly appointed houses. 
Furthermore, the young chicks are, as a rule, 
much better protected, being confined in yards 
and runs near the house instead of being al¬ 
lowed to roam at large with their mothers. 
Nevertheless, * * * the crows may become very 
daring in their attacks when other food is 
scarce. The necessity of an abundant supply 
of food is especially great during the months 
of April and May, when the crows are rearing 
their young. * * * Since young ctuV.cs are 
usually raised at about the same time, it is evi¬ 
dent why they often furnish a very acceptable 
addition to the crow’s larder.” 
Attention is called to two cases of persistent 
depredations by crows, which caused serious 
losses to poultrymen in Rhode Island. In one 
case 25 per cent, of the chickens hatched were 
destroyed by crows between April 1 and July 10. 
All sizes’ were taken from the time they were 
just hatched until they were a pound in weight. 
T he larger chicks the crows killed and ate where 
they caught them, but the smaller ones they 
carried away in their beaks. Various efforts 
were made to keep the crows away, most of 
which were ineffectual. The first was a scare¬ 
crow, but this had little or no effect. In the 
second place, corn soaked in strychnine solution 
was scattered on a field of planted corn at a 
little distance from the chicken yard. This may 
have killed some crows, but no dead ones were 
found. No corn was pulled, but there was no 
appreciable decrease in the number of chickens 
taken. Third, a steel trap was set on a pole 
near the chicken yard, but without success, 
bourth, white twine was run on stakes around 
and across the chicken yard. This kept the 
crows from the yard, but the small chicks would 
Vi. V1T l. visvaRiiiViitmairmaii 
