% 5, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
533 


Indians did not either, but they crept up 
ird it, and what do you suppose they saw? 
fe was a big lion and a middle-sized brown 
. and they seemed to be having a fight; not 
rular rough and tumble, but the lion seemed 
ne trying to kill the bear. The bear was 
ling on his hind legs with his back against 
ly rock and was yelling bloody murder. The 
was crouched on the ground about twelve 
fteen feet from the bear. They waited there 
» a little while, the lion in the position ofa 
about to spring, working his tail, with his 
laid back and getting ready for a jump as 
1oved his feet back and forward, as you will 
a tomcat do. Once in a while he would 
lvl. The Major and the Indians kept quiet 
looked on. At last the lion charged the 
and grabbed him, and they both went down 
ther and the dust flew up so that it almost 
the two fighters. In a little while the lion 
lenly let go and sprang back to where he 
been before. Both animals were bleeding 
each was licking its wounds. The bear 
up his moaning and screaming and would 
|; been mighty glad to get away, but he did 
dare to expose his back to the lion. The 
animals spent some time licking their 
nds, but at last the lion charged the bear 
n and this time with his claws he tore open 
bear’s back and his claws must have reached 
je deadly part, for presently the bear fell 
- dead and the lion went off to his old place 
began to lick his wounds again. After a 
le he took hold of the bear’s carcass and be- 
| to drag it down the hill and to cover it up 
1 leaves and brush, just as I expect you have 
|n seen a deer’s carcass covered up by a lion. 
ile the lion was at work doing this, one of 
| Indians killed him. 
jhis Major Cremony was a good man, and I 
jeve he saw what he said he did, and from 
bE he told about the way the lion fought the 
jr and the way he cut up its back, it may be 
|. the scarred bears that I have seen had got 
| scars in fighting lions. 
| never saw anything that looked like a 
‘ther attacking me, though just once I had a 
|ple come up close to camp. It was out in 
/shington and I had been prospecting and was 
|ving from one range to another on foot and 
ia mighty little to carry. I lived on the 
|ntry, killing deer now and then and oc- 
{onally a grouse, of which there were plenty 
jrywhere. i 
One night when I was in the 
}untains and in thick timber I killed a, deer 
| stopped and camped right by it. I had 
hood meal that night, the first real good one 
tt I had had for some days, and after I had 
lan. I smoked for a little while by the fire. 
I sat there I heard thunder a long way off, 
|. presently the sky clouded over and I 
{ught we were going to have rain; but I did 
mind that very much, because I was camped 
ler a good, big tree up on a hillside, where 
water could not run on to me. 
Refore it began to rain I thought I heard a 
lither call off to the west higher up on the 
funtain side, and a little while after I heard 
tsther faint call off to the east. I did not 
+ much attention to that, but soon I noticed 
it these animals seemed to be calling to one 
sther and to be getting closer, and I reckoned 
¥t one of them had smelt my meat and was 
ining up to find out what it was that smelt so 
fod. I was a good deal younger then than I 
now and knew considerable less about 
fithers. and I did not know but that they 
ixht come right into camp and take my deer 
day from me. I would not have liked that, and 
‘lid not mean to have them do it. There was 
}nty of wood around and I packed in quite a 
Id close to the fire and then began to pile it 
i There were one or two small hardwood 
les not very far from the fire. and as the 
hithers kept getting closer, I swung myself 
| into one of these and climbed up fifteen or 
‘ontv feet. From here IT had a good view of 
» fire and a good view of the deer. The 
Gathers kept calling and kent getting nearer, 
}1 after a while they seemed to be right close, 
I more than fifty or sixty yards from the fire. 
ter they got right close they began circling 
é- fire. still calling to each other. It was not 
ly jong before they evidently came together, 
( 
uf 

i 
| 
: 
and then they stopped calling and began to 
moan and holloa at each other, just about as 
a couple of common tomcats would, only with 
twenty times more noise. Then they seemed 
to have a regular tomcat fight, with hissing and 
spitting and caterwauling in great shape. After 
that it was quiet for a while and the fire was 
dying down, and then presently I happened to 
look over on the other side of the fire, and 
there, just within the circle of light, I could 
see a big panther looking at my deer. He 
looked mean and hungry and gray, as well as 
I could see by the fire, and he kept slowly crawl- 
ing nearer to the deer, not seeming to pay any at- 
tention to the fire. Presently, when he got 
about ten or twelve feet from the deer he sort 
of settled himself down into the ground to 
spring, and I tried to draw a bead on him. It 
was not easy to see my sights in the dark, but 
I was looking toward the fire, and at last I 
drew rather a coarse sight and aimed well down 
toward the bottom of the panther’s body and 
shot. He gave a big jump toward the deer, but 
did not reach it and landed all doubled up at 
the foot of the tree the deer was hanging on. 
After that he never moved. I sat up there for 
awhile, waiting to see what would happen, and 
then I climbed down and built the fire up again 
and hauled the panther away and began to skin 
him. 
I felt a little nervous all that night, thinking 
maybe the other panther would come around 
and show up, but he never did. I expect they 
had a fight and the big one scared the little 
fellow out of the country. The one I killed had 
a fresh bleeding scratch on his shoulder that I 
expect the other one had given him. 
I have heard that out in that country some- 
times the male panthers have terrible fights 
and sometimes one is killed by the panther he 
is fighting. HucH JOHNSON. 


Prof. De Lage’s Experiments. 
AccorpING to a recent cablegram to the New 
York Times from Paris, remarkable experiments 
in the chemical development of life have been 
recently effected by Prof. De Lage, of the Sor- 
bonne. In his laboratory at Roscoff in Brittany 
Prof. De Lage placed the unfertilized eggs of 
the sea urchin and the starfish in sea water, add- 
ing a solution of sugar with a few drops of 
ammonia and tannin. 
In about an hour segmentation, which is the 
first sign of life, began, and the eggs produced 
larve. The great majority of these .larve soon 
died, but Prof. De Lage, by constant and minute 
care, brought four of the sea urchins and two 
of the starfish through the larve stage, and they 
are now healthy growing specimens. 
One of the sea urchins has six pairs of ten- 
tacles and six pairs of spikes, whereas those 
which are produced by natural means have only 
five. The creatures are still so small that the 
tentacles are visible only through the microscope, 
but Prof. De Lage hopes to bring them to, matur- 
ity, followed by reproduction. 
Prof. De Lage’s experiments go beyond those 
made by Prof. Loeb, of the University of Cali- 
fornia, at Berkeley. Prof. De Lage shows that 
the vital impulse begins immediately, as soon as 
the fecundating liquid touches the ovule. If the 
part touched be cut out, the ovule nevertheless 
continues its evolution and prodices a larva. 
Prof. De Lage is making further experiments 
with the object of throwing further light on the 
causes leadine to the action of the artificially 
compounded liquid in awakening the latent life 
in the egg. 
Prof. Jacques Loeb, of the University of Cali- 
fornia, for years carried on experiments in arti- 
feial fertilization at the Marine Biological 
Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., where he 
proved that it is possible to perform by chemical 
or mechanical means male functions in the propa- 
gation of life. 
Experimenting in 1905 with sea urchins at the 
Hopkins Seaside Laboratory at Pacific Grove, 
Cal.. he successfully artificially fertilized the eggs 
of these animals and of producing almost down 
to the last essential detail the phenomena of nor- 
mal development in eggs which were made to 
develop by chemical means. 


By first treating the eggs with special solutions 
he performed the astonishing feat of making them 
susceptible to cross fertilization and has hybrid- 
ized different families and orders of marine ani- 
mals, an achievement which upset hitherto ex- 
isting theories concerning biology and threw 
open new fields for experiment. 

The Wasps’ Crusade. 
In the small hamlet of Week, in Westmore- 
land, a strange custom is observed yearly in 
commemoration of a dreadful incident that hap- 
pened in the year 1841. That year was visited 
by a plague of wasps, when hundreds of human 
beings throughout the country succumbed to the 
poisonous sting. The little hamlet holds the 
record for its number of victims. On Aug. 10, 
of that eventful year, says the County Gentle- 
man, about half its inhabitants—about forty— 
were either stung to death or had a narrow es- 
cape. People working in the hay fields were 
those who suffered most, as their escape was 
almost impossible. Those who had the presence 
of mind to bury themselves in the hay were prac- 
tically little the worse, but many who took to 
their heels were followed and attacked by the 
venomous insects and literally done to death. 
In memory of the dreadful incident a memorial 
tablet was erected on the moor near where the 
victims fell. Each year there is a procession. 
Most of the inhabitants turn out armed with 
every description of insect powder and other de- 
vices for killing wasps, and march to the 
memorial stone, where a short service is held 
by the minister of the parish. When the service 
is over a general crusade is made in search of 
wasps’ nests. Once a nest is found every known 
device to destroy it is employed. Some carry 
guns, some rags saturated in turpentine, while 
others carry paraffin, which is poured into the 
nest and a match applied. The anniversary is 
considered the most important event of the year. 


The Snake's Rattles. 
MuLLaNn, Idaho, Sept. 19.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In a recent issue of the magazine a 
correspondent asked something in regard to 
rattlesnakes. Now, as I am pretty familiar with 
the bird, having been raised with him, I will 
try to enlighten your correspondent. The rattles 
lie edgewise. It is evident that they must do 
so, inasmuch as they are but continuations of the 
backbone. The snake carries the rattles on the 
ground except when he raises them to sound his 
warning. This will be evidenced by the fact that 
in every snake of any size that is killed, the rattles 
are worn through on the under side. 
If there is any further light that I may be able 
to shed on the serpent subject, just let me know. 
Cuas. S. Moopy. 
New Publications. 
“Nimrop’s WIFE,” by Grace Gallatin Seton, is 
a little volume every sportsman will enjoy read- 
ing, while his wife, if she has shared with him 
the pleasures and the disappointments of camp 
life, will find solace in its stories of the ups and 
downs of Northern and Western cross-country 
travel and the incidents that impress a woman 
fond of outdoor life. Mrs. Seton wrote “A 
Woman Tenderfoot” and worked with her hus- 
band, Ernest Thompson Seton, in the preparation 
of the several books he has written; he, in turn, 
illustrating her latest work in part, while other 
pictures were painted by Walter King Stone. 
“Nimrod’s Wife” is divided into four parts, re- 
spectively, “In the Sierras,” “In the Rockies,” 
“On the Ottawa” and “In Norway.” It is hand- 
somely illustrated and decorated, and is pub- 
lished by Doubleday, Page & Co., New York 
city. 
THE CAMPING OUTFIT 
of the thoughtful camper invariably includes a 
supply of Borden’s Eagle Brand Condensed Milk. 
With this in camp, the most important food item 
is taken care of. Eagle Milk keeps indefinitely 
in any climate. The original and leading brand 
since 1857. Always uniform.—Adv. 

