382 
AUGUST, 1917 
FOREST AND STREAM 
SOMETHING MORE ON FISHING 
IN THE BIG HORN COUNTRY 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Being interested in your magazine and 
the big outdoors, and seeing a letter re¬ 
questing some information in regard to the 
Big Horn country, I am contributing my 
“bit.” 
In regard to Mr. Birch’s inquiry as to 
the ice being out of the lakes, it is out now 
[May 31] but the snow isn’t out of the 
hills so that fishing in the lakes is advisable 
sport before July 1. Though in the foot¬ 
hills I have already this month taken some 
beauties weighing up to five pounds. As 
a lure I used a small Bull Dog spinner, 
using a six-ounce split-bamboo rod with 
a medium size mottled silk line—of not 
less than fifty yards as the water is very 
swift out here and plenty of line must be 
in reserve. 
Flies best suited to this country are 
Royal and California Coachman, Black 
Gnat; any hackle, Black, Gray or Brown; 
Professor, Queen of the Water, and Silver 
Doctor. Of course there are others also. 
Good three and six-foot leaders of any 
standard make are needed. We use both 
the dry and wet flies and both are very sat¬ 
isfactory. 
Don’t worry about the clothing. With 
a good tent and blankets, and plenty of 
good footwear for changing, you are o. k. 
The flies won’t bother you to speak of. 
I do lots of fishing in this section of the 
country, which is my home. I trust some¬ 
one may read this and be interested. I can 
catch my limit of trout, from now ’til Oc¬ 
tober is, each day. C. E. Stites. 
Powell, Wyo. 
[Mr. Powell has kindly offered to fur¬ 
nish further and detailed information about 
the Big Horn country to readers especially 
interested, if they will write to him at his 
address, given above.] 
“WAR BUNNIES” ARE ALMOST 
AN EPIDEMIC IN MISSOURI 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have read with interest the article by 
John O’Sullivan in the April number of 
Forest and Stream concerning the horned 
rabbit or “war bunny” trapped in Ne¬ 
braska. I Avish to advise the OAvner of this 
specimen that by coming down to the vi¬ 
cinity of Emporia, Kansas, I believe he 
can secure a variety of similar specimens, 
and at an outlay much below one thousand 
dollars. 
The first one I ever saw, I killed about 
tAventy years ago. The head was literally 
covered Avith horns, to such an extent that 
one eye was almost closed. I haA r e killed 
many of them since. 
However these groAvths do not always 
take the form of horns, but appear much 
like Avarts sometimes seen on cattle and 
ahvays appear on the head or belly or 
betAveen the hind legs—neA r er on the back. 
I have skinned many rabbits affected with 
these growths, Avhich are of a scaly nature, 
but contrary to Mr. O’Sullivan’s experience 
have neA r er found any sign of their being 
attached to the flesh or bone, as they came 
off readily Avith the skin. 
The affection has become so general in 
this vicinity as to cause people to discard 
rabbit as an article of food almost entirely. 
It may not affect the flesh but the idea of 
eating them is distasteful. The cause of 
these groAvths has been a matter of con¬ 
jecture for a long time, and I would like 
to see a scientific explanation of them. 
L. W. Andrew. 
922 Grand Ave., Kansas City, Mo. 
[An interesting explanation of the occur¬ 
rence of the “horns,” by a San Antonio 
physician, Avas published in Forest and 
Stream for June, page 261.] 
THE WAR BUNNIES UNKNOWN 
IN HOLT COUNTY, NEBRASKA 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I read the article about the “war bunny 
in the April Forest and Stream, by John 
O’Sullivan, of O’Neill, Neb. I have never 
heard of or seen a specimen like this, 
though I have done lots of hunting on the 
Red Bird, Black Bird, Dry Creek and Elk- 
horn rivers, out in Holt County, Neb.—in 
T904, 1905, 1906—and have shot lots of 
rabbits. 
I found many of them with a wart from 
a half to two inches long. Mostly these 
Avould be found extending out from be¬ 
hind their ears or around their noses.—But 
you could pull them off like you would a 
scab. 
I could never find out nor have I seen 
anyone who could explain what caused 
these warts. And out there in Holt 
county is the only place where I ever 
found them. E. E. Laavrence. 
GOOD SPORT IN MAINE 
Editor Forest and Stream'. 
On May 21st Charles and Thomas Phair, 
of Presque Isle, Maine, caught in the 
Thoroughfare salmon pool, near Titus 
Home Camps, fifteen land-locked salmon— 
the largest Aveighing six pounds. On May 
24th, Dr. and Mrs. Frank Tarbell, of 
Smyrna, Me., on a fishing trip at Titus 
Home Camps, caught eleven good salmon. 
Eagle Lake, Me. G. W. Cooper. 
FRONT-PAGE DR. JAMISON! 
Will Dr. Jamison, of Philadelphia, a 
Forest and Stream reader, kindly send 
his name to the Editorial Desk, office of 
Forest and Stream, 9 East 40th street 
New York City? Another reader Avants 
to get in touch Avith him. 
THE PASSING OF THE 
FLORIDA CATCH DOG 
(continued from page 359) 
the pine timber. They preferred him to 
portraiture, and without an apology they 
lit out after him with those great soft- 
footed bounds that always stir in your 
heart the hunting blood. 
Most biologists will say that the persis¬ 
tent prepotent hound qualities I speak of 
Avere probably not produced originally by 
use of the animal or at any rate cannot 
noAV be produced by use or by anything 
men can contrive. Acquired qualities, they 
say, cannot be inherited. The high quali¬ 
ties admired or desired exist in the germ 
plasm and are carried on only by heredity, 
becoming latent noAV and then and then 
again appearing; all that so-called breed¬ 
ing does is to pick out these appearing in¬ 
stances—the individuals with these quali¬ 
ties—and for the sake of profit or to de¬ 
lude your rivals you can frame a theory or 
pedigree as to how they came about. 
Certain it is that the mating of two ani¬ 
mals of high quality does not necessarily 
produce high quality offspring; and when 
it does the type cannot always be contin¬ 
ued. It is sometimes continued by in- 
breeding ; mating brothers and sisters or 
grandfather and granddaughter. This suc¬ 
ceeds for a time until suddenly degeneracy 
is reached (in-and-in breeding, it is then 
called) and the offspring—in the case of 
dogs—is born stone deaf or with Aveak 
spine or incurable ricketts, or with mere 
good-for-nothingness. 
Of course very high quality in a family 
or strain is necessarily likely to fail after a 
time, simply because it is abnormally high 
—higher than the general type of the race. 
The Hav of diminishing returns comes in 
here as elsewhere in Nature. Or, as it is 
sometimes put, there is a provision of Na¬ 
ture which prevents trees from groAving 
up into the sky. 
There Avas probably a good chance in the 
development of the Florida catch dogs in 
the last fifty years, for the biologists to 
gather some facts about heredity and ac¬ 
quired qualities. They missed another 
good chance in the development of the 
Chesapeake Bay dog. I am not altogether 
inclined to accept unqualifiedly the usual 
theory that acquired qualities cannot be in¬ 
herited. I am inclined to believe that some¬ 
times they are inherited. But I must con¬ 
fess that the development of the Florida 
dog, so far as I have learned about it, looks 
as if it had thus far been merely a selec¬ 
tion of individuals Avith the qualities de¬ 
sired, and not a development by use. 
Among the dogs they had on hand it 
was discovered that a feAv—very few— 
Avould of their own accord, Avhen encour¬ 
aged but with very little of Avhat is called 
training, seize and hold a bull by the nose, 
and soon learn to keep cattle in line or 
drive them by this sort of attack or the 
threat of it. The dogs that Avould do this 
all had a general resemblance to one an¬ 
other, strongly resembled one another in 
color, and were more apt to be found in 
a cross of cur with hound. How far mat¬ 
ing good dogs of this sort perpetuated the 
desired qualities and whether the qualities 
increased Avith use and were carried in 
