710 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 5, 1906. 


commander of the American expedition, secured 
103 examples of the musk ox. He gives latitude 
83°3’ north as the highest point where traces of 
this animal were observed by Lieutenant (Cap- 
tain) Lockwood. 
One or two writers have said that lichens form 
an, important item.in the diet of the musk ox, but 
Greely is’ positive "(afd I°agree with him) that 
none of his party ever observed them eating any, 
while the stomachs of a large number examined 
by him did not contain a trace thereof. The con- 
tents clearly demonstrated that they fed on dwarf 
willow, saxifrages and grasses. ‘They use their 
hoofs in digging for these when the ground is 
covered with snow. There must, however, be 
fairly good pasturage in certain fertile spots amid 
the generally desolate and sterile lands situated 
in high latitudes, similar to that described by Dr. 
Armstrong as occurring on Baring Island, or it 
would be utterly impossible for reindeer and 
musk oxen to subsist there, as many do all the 
year round. Of course, no such food scarcity ex- 
ists on continental America, even in the so-called 
“Barren Grounds.” Like all wild animals, the 
musk ox in winter quenches its thirst by eating 
snow. 
As spring advanced, the musk oxen of the An- 
derson country migrated northward. The females 
are said to produce one, and sometimes two, at a 
birth. The company’s posts at which skins are 
usually traded are Fort McPherson (from the 
eastern coast Eskimos), Forts Good Hope and 
Norman (from the Anderson Eskimos and from 
post Indians who specially hunt them), Rae and 
Resolution on Great Slave Lake (from Indian 
hunters), Lac du Brochet, Reindeer Lake (from 
the inland Eskimos), and Fort Churchill: (from 
the Hudson Bay Eskimos). It is only in recent 
years, however, that the company has strongly 
encouraged the hunting of musk oxen, and al- 
though there is no record of the sale of any in 
the London Statement, 1853 and 1877, yet we now 
know that a number of pelts were occasionally, 
if not annually, traded at Forts Churchill and 
Anderson, at least subsequent to 1860, and that 
they must have sold there or in Montreal (the 
British company’s market for buffalo robes), as 
the statement of the northern department fur-re- 
turns for outfit 1865, shows that the districts of 
Mackenzie River and York, Hudson Bay, col- 
lected twenty-five and sixty-six musk ox skins, 
respectively, in that year. 
During the last thirty years, the Indians and 
Eskimos have devoted more attention than be- 
fore to the hunting of this valuable animal. In 
1902, 271 skins and in 1903, 246 skins were ex- 
posed for sale, and theaverage for the past twenty 
years probably ranged between 200 and 250 pelts. 
The greater portion of those secured by the com- 
pany are purchased in London and reshipped to, 
and used in Canada and the United States chiefly 
as sleigh and cutter winter robes. 
In his “Explorations in the Far North,” Dr. 
Frank Russell, of the Iowa State University, has 
given a very interesting account of his successful 
efforts in hunting the musk ox in the Fort Rae 
Indian country. His other experiences in the ter- 
ritories of Canada are well worthy of perusal, 
while his services to science reflect much credit 
on himself and his alma mater. Mr. Caspar 
Whitney’s achievements in the pursuit of the 
musk ox, under the unfavorable conditions as 
narrated in his published volume, also deserve 
commendation. 
Changing Course of the Colorado. 
San Cartos, Ariz., April 8—Editor Forest 
and Stream: It is a far cry from Yuma, Ariz., 
to Alaska, but Major Glassford, of the Signal 
Corps, U. S. A., has brought it very near, for 
in a bulletin on temperature he says that on Feb. 
5, the temperature at Salchia and Summit, 
Alaska, was identical with that at Memphis, 
Tenn., and Flagstaff, Ariz. At Fort Egbert and 
Eagle, both on the Yukon River, up toward the 
Arctic circle, it was exactly the same as at Santa 
Fé, N. M. The coldest weather reported on that 
day in Alaska was at Ketchumstock. where the 
temperature was the same as at Fort Brady, 
Mich. 
The Yuma soldier’s desire for his blanket to 
temper the chilly shades of hades did not come 
amiss, for he had a blanket at Yuma, and at times 
had use for his overcoat. I know I felt the need 
of one when I got off the train at Yuma, in 
March last, on my way to view the Salton Sea. 
A short time ago a well known writer and au- 
thor took occasion to make fun of some statement 
about the use of snowshoes in Arizona. Now, 
Arizona is not an ideal country for toboggans 
and snowshoes, but I know of several places in 
Arizona where in the last two years snowshoes 
would have been very useful in getting from one 
point to another. 
At a point about fourteen miles below Yuma 
on the Colorado River, where New River, as it is 
called, now leads the entire river into the Salton 
Sink, the Southern Pacific Railway Company and 
the Imperia! Canal Company are working hard 
to turn back the river into its original channel 
to the sea. To do this they are digging, parallel 
with the river, a canal which will have two head 
gates. When completed, the river will be turned 
into this canal and a brush and earth dam con- 
structed across the river to turn the water into 
the old channel of the Colorado, where it is ex- 
pected to scour its way to the Gulf. It is need- 
less to say that the upper headgate of the new 
canal is in rock and will last. 
On the upper river, the Reclamation Service 
is doing splendid work in throwing a dam across 
the Colorado River from bluff to bluff with di- 
verting canals at each end. The work has not 
entered the channel of the river yet, but is on the 
bottom land on each side. The procedure is as 
follows: A row of sheet piling is driven at right 
angles to the river in the bottom of the excava- 
tion. Over this is built a wall’of concrete the 
height of the dam, At intervals of forty or fifty 
feet two other walls are similarly constructed, 
but each lower than the first, in order to form 
a slope, the whole being filled in with loose rock, 
the top paved with huge blocks forming a slope, 
over which, when it is completed, the water will 
pour in a thin stream. Though the foundation 
is built on sand, the structure has a solid look, 
and will, I believe, answer all purposes. 
It is, however, confronted with a peculiar situa- 
tion. The distance from New River (where they 
are trying to put back the river into its old chan- 
nel) to the Salton Sea is eighty miles, with from 
300 to 4oo feet fail. The distance to the Gulf, 
as I am informed, is about 130 miles, with only 
thirty feet fall. Now, if they do not succeed in 
diverting the channel to its old bed this summer 
it will be too late, as New River will then be too 
deep to permit the change because of the rapid 
scouring it is subjected to. in its rapid fall in 
eighty miles. This scouring will continue up the 
Colorado River to the Laguna Dam and beyond, 
thus undermining the dam. 
The Colorado River has been high all winter 
and spring, and there is very deep snow in the 
mountains. If, with the melting of the snow, 
there should be warm rains in Arizona and Colo- 
rado, the river would be flooded to such an ex- 
tent as to sweep over and destroy the work al- 
ready performed in trying to return the Colorado 
to its ancient channel. S. KELLy. 
A Burning Glass of Ice. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your recent article on the different ways 
adopted by primitive men in the production of 
fire and the mention in another article of the 
magic power attributed by a tribe of Indians to 
the possessor of a common burning glass, have 
reminded me anew of an old idea of mine, that 
an effective burning glass might be easily fash- 
ioned out of transparent ice. I have never heard 
of such a thing being done, but see no reason why 
it could not be, and have often resolved to make 
the experiment, but have never yet put the thing 
to test. Neither have I ever carried into the 
wilderness a burning glass, but it seems to me it 
would be a. very. good thing to have in one’s kit. 
It would be easy to carry, inexpesive, and might, 
upon occasion, prove very useful. 
We all know how often matches are forgotten 
or lost or rendered ineffective, and always at the 
time when one most needs them. Of course, that 
need is most often at nivht to start a camp-fire 
and when a burning glass could not be used, 
which would also be the case in stormy or cloudy 
days, yet there would be times when without 
matches and in prospect of a night of cold and 
exposure a man with a burning glass could camp 
and start his fire before the sun failed him, And 
without a glass but with a bit of clear ice avail- 
able I believe a man could, with a little effort, 
roughing it out with hatchet or pocket knife and 
polishing with the warm hand, fashion a lens with 
which, even in bitter cold but with bright sun- 
shine available, he could start-a fire. If so, the 
method will be worth remembering and adding to 
one’s armamentarium, 
We know that the conventional resources some- 
times fail and that an experienced and resource- 
ful man can frequently conquer adverse condi- 
tions and provide for himself safety and even 
comparative comfort where an inexperienced one 
would suffer miserably or even perish. 
We have all heard the conjecture that prairie 
or forest fires have sometimes been started by 
some bottle or broken bit of glass acting on dry 
grass or leaves as a burning glass. Whether or 
not a fire has been started I know that a blaze 
was not long ago started on a window sill in a 
chemical laboratory by the sun’s rays being con- 
centrated by a globular glass filled with water 
which chanced to stand there. I hope some 
reader of ForEST AND STREAM has tried the ice- 
lens scheme and will report results, or that some 
one in position to do so—in the open—will make 
the experiment before our belated spasm of win- 
ter is quite gone. C. H. AmEs. 

[Our correspondent’s idea of a lens formed of 
clear ice which shall act as a burning glass is not 
new. As long ago as the beginning of the last 
century, Dr. Scoresby, the eminent Arctic ex- 
plorer and writer, fired gun powder by the sun’s 
rays converged by large lenses of ice. Since then 
the experiment has frequently been tried. As 
Dr. William Hallock, the eminent physicist of 
Columbia College, has pointed out to us, such 
lenses are often made by freezing ice between 
two watch crystals and then melting the latter 
away. Not far from forty years ago Prof. Tyn- 
dall, in his lectures “On Light,’ was accustomed 
to collect the rays of an artificial light and fire 
paper, by means, first of a glass lens, and then 
by means of a lens of ice. With an ice-lens he 
also exploded guncotton, Coming down to mod- 
ern times, Mr. Evelyn B. Baldwin, the Arctic ex- 
plorer, informs us that during one of his Arctic 
experitions one of his companions, with a lens 
formed of clear ice, succeeded in scorching a dry 
pine shingle. 
It is obvious that the forming of an efficient 
lens by the average untrained man would be a 
see difficult matter, yet it might occasionally be 
one. 
The action of the sun’s rays on such a lens, 
provided the temperature of the air were low 
enough, would be nothing; for it is well recog- 
nized that just as the warmth of the sun may 
penetrate clear glass without perceptibly warming 
it, so it may pass through clear ice without per- 
ceptibly affecting the ice, while melting the frozen 
soil which lies under the ice. The principal is a 
common one. |] 
From an Old Reader. 
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., April 25—Editor Forest 
Stream: Thanks for your notice of the exten- 
sion of my subscription on account of reduction 
of the subscription price of Forest AND STREAM. 
The publication, in-its old form and price, has 
for many years given me great pleasure, satisfac- 
tion and rest, and really proved to be a well of 
delight; for each week it brought fresh breezes 
from the fields and woods, often laden with the 
fragrant hemlock, spruce and pine, with sounds 
of running brooks and jumping fish. In fancy I 
sit by the old camp-fire and feast my eyes on the 
green hills or towering mountains, dreaming of 
the happy days of camp life already passed, and 
of promises yet to come. 
I commend the new make-up and believe under 
the present management it will continue to retain 
the high moral standing and interest as in the 
past, so I say while blessing the old Forest AND 
STREAM, success to the new. H. O. WILBur. 
