FOREST AND STREAM. 







A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
DEVOTED TO FIELD AND AQUATIC SPORTS, PRACTICAL NATURAL HisToRY, 
Fish CULTURE, THE PROTECTION OF GAME, PRESRVATION OF FORESTS, 
AND THE INCULCATION INMEN AND WOMEN OF A HEALTHY INTER¥ST 
IN OvUT-DOOR RECREATION AND STUDY: 
PUBLISHED BY 
Sorest and Strean Publishing Company, 
—AaT—— 
1u2 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 
pg se 
Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 
Sn 
A discount of twenty percent. for five copies andupwards. Any person 
sending us two subscriptions and Ten Dollars will receive a copy of 
Hallock’s ‘‘ Fisnine Tourist,” postage free. 
———__>_—— 
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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPT. 11, AS iB e 


To Correspondents, 
—_=>—__— 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
correspondence, must be addressed to THE ForEesT AND STREAM PUB- 
LISHING ComPANY. Personal letters only, tothe Manager. 
All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 
objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Ladies are especially invited to use our columns, which will be pre- 
pared with careful reference to their perusal and instruction. 
Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 
notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other; and they will 
find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of FoREsT AND STREAM aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 
the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 
vend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 
ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 
terms; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 
We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 
money remitted to us is lost. 
This paper sent gratuitously to all contributors. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 
CHARLES HALLOCK, 
Managing Editor. 


Calendar of Events for the Current Week. 
—— 
Frmay Sept. 12—Plainville Park Association, Conn.—Westchester 
County Association, White Plains, N, Y.—Wellsboro Driving Park, Penn. 
—Saratoga Rowing Association, Saratoga Lake, N- Y. 
Saturday, Sept. 13th.—Boat clubs foot of 133rd St. East River.—Athletic 
Rowing club race.—Oneida Regatta, Jersey City.—Plainville Park Associ- 
ation, Conn.—Society of Horticulture and Agriculture, White Plains, N. 
Y.—Prospect Park meeting, Brooklyn, N. Y¥.—Wellsboro Driving Park, 
Penn.—Hamilton, Regatta D. of Canada. 
TurEspAy, Sept. 16th.--Central Pennsylvania Association, Altoona, 
Penn.—Kansas city Association, Mo.—Union Driving Park, Peoria, Il].— 
Fleetwood Association. 
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 17th.—Atlantic Boat Club regatta, Hoboken.— 
Kansas City Fair, Mo.- Central Pennsylvania Society Altoona, Penn.— 
Union Driving Park, Peona, Ill.—Regatta St. John, New Brunswick. 
THURSDAY, Sept. i8th.—Fleetwood Association, Mortisania, N. Y.— 
Kansas City Fair, Mo.—Union Driving Park, Peoria, I1l.—Centra. Penn- 
sylvania Association, Altoona, Penn. 


THE GREATEST PARK IN THE WORLD. 
wl ougs ee 
HANKS to Mr. Hayden, we are now commencing to 
appreciate the grandeur of the Government reservation 
onthe Yellowstone river. In time to come, when our great- 
great-grand-children people the Pacific slope, and popula- 
tion teems there, the memory of, that particular Congress 
who made this great natural wonder public property, will 
be gratefully remembered. To the grandest scenes of na- 
ture, overhanging cliffs, deep gorges, towering mountain 
heights, are added the glorious falls of the Yellowstone. 
At the head of the grand canon, the fall is found to be 397 
feet in height, and the depth of the canon at its foot is 
675 feet, increasing rapidly to 1,000 feet. Here the river 
narrows, and takes a deep sea-green color. <A half mile 
from the upper fall there is another fall of 140 feet. * These 
may be natural beauties, but in this park the supernatural 
is added. Think of the geysers, with a temperature of 
104° to 108°, at an elevation of 6,779 feet above the sea! 
clear boiling fountains of water, bubbling all the day, form- 
ing beautiful incrustations on their margins. Never ceas- 
ing are they. To-day a spring may be here, to-morrow it 
may be gone, but then a new one has taken its place, 
bursting out at a short distance from its old loc: lity. The 
very mud these hot spring cast forth loses the character of 
simple mud, but is changed in hue, and is now red, now 
black, now cream-colored. 
We cannot but express our delight over the fact that this 
reservation belongs tothe great American people for all 
time to come, and we consider it the first “grand national 
step in the direction of the preservation of our forests. 
THE SCOTCH GAMES. 
; ee oh 
F the Forest AND STREAM may find some fault for that 
iF lack of interest our own native Americans taketin athle- 
tic sports, such complaints can hardly be addressed to those 
of foreign birth, who divideSwith us the’ possessorship 
of this good country of ours. If we cannot yet look to our 
own people for the netter furthering of that manly spirit 
which delights, in out-of-door sports, we certainly can, 
with no small pride, point to the Scottish games, now so 
firmly established in our midst, and may hope that in them 
will be found that leaven which must, in time, work through 
all our more sluggish native element. 
Outside of Scotland, beyond the Duke of Athol’s Glen 
Tilt, we think it no exaggeration to state, that nowhere 
else in the world, not even in London, could there be found 
congregated such a large assemblage of people as wit- 
nessed the Scottish games at Jones’ Woods on the 4th of 
September instant. 
Among the oldest of human iraditions, is that of ne- 
madic tribes assembling together at stated periods to wit- 
ness the strife of their athletic heroes, and there is some- 
thing impressive when one sees our adopted citizens in this 
fresher country. of ours, reproducing the games which have 
been played in old Scotland so many centuries ago. 
These Scottish games, intensely national in character, 
consist principally of tossing the caber, putting the stane 
(stone), and throwing the hammer, and vaulting. A caber 
may be a trunk of a tree, twenty- -five feet long, if you 
please, and must be turned over completely in the air be- 
fore it falls to the ground, by a combination of sheer 
strength and dexterity. There is no limit to the size of the 
eaber. If one is beyonda man’s strength, he takes a 
smaller-sized one. It is something like the struggle be- 
tween Milo and the oak. 
Putting the stone, is to take a carxnon ball, weighing 
from twenty to fifty-six pounds, and to heave it. The ball 
is usually held in the right hand, and the athlete, resting 
himself on the right foot for an instant, with the weight 
well behind him, suddenly lurches forward, and as soon as 
the left foot touches the ground, away goes the heavy ball. 
Mr. Dinnie, the famous Scotch athlete, has been known to 
have thrown the twenty five pound ball forty-seven feet ten 
inches. 
Throwing the hammer, perhaps, exhibits the highest 
degree of skill. The hammer is usually a ball of iron, 
weighing some sixteen pounds, into which an ash handle is 
inserted. Planting his two feet in the ground, sometimes 
with his back to the point de mire, he swings the missile two 
or three times round his head, when, wheeling suddenly 
around, away hurtles the hammer like a sky-rocket. The 
greatest of the hammer throwers has been able to launch it 
a distance of 140 feet. 
See all these gallant feats accomplished by men clad in 
the handsomest of costumes, while the pibroch chaunts, 
and it is the true conception of what athletic sports should 
be—a strife of demigods. 
This year’s sports were remarkable in every respect, not 
only for the excellence of the contests, but for the admira- 
ble arrangements made for the 20,000 sight-seers ; and 
we cannot but congratulate our Scotch citizens on the 
conclusion of the finest athletic festival we have seen for 
some years. 

<0 
WOORARI, OR CURARE, 
See Lakes 
HIS deadly poison, quite as fatal to living creatures as 
crotiline, known under the name of woorari, or 
curare, was first brought to England by Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh. Its effectsupon animals have been thoroughly studied 
by the distinguished physiologist, Claude Bernard. How 
it is made, or from whence derived has, however, never 
been absolutely determined. From Le Tour du Monde, we 
translate the following, taken from Doctor Saffray’s tra- 
elsin New Granada. ‘‘The favorite arm of the Choco 
Indian at San Juan is the bedoquera. What they use in 
this blow-gun are arrows poisoned with a substance simi- 
lar to curare which they obtain from the venom of a frog. 
The batrachians which furnishes the poison, isonly found in 
certain districts. The proper name for it, is Phyllobates 
melanorrhinus. Itis a frog three inches long, of a yellow 
color, with red spots on the back. Its eyes are prominent 
and it has a black nose. When these frogs are scarce, 
another variety with a black belly answers the purpose 
They keep them for use in small wicker baskets. When 
poison is wanted for their weapons, they take the unfor- 
tunate creature, and tie it to a green branch and expose it 
to a slow fire. Almost immediately from all over the body 
of the frog there exudes a whitish substance, and after 
that a viscous yellow oil. This the Indians scrape off care- 
fully, as it is the true poison. A frog may have this cruel 
process repeated several times, and on each occasion will 
furnish a certain quantity of poison. Like curare, this 
frog venom seems to effect all the organs of locomotion, and 
animals absorbing this poison into their tissues, die of as- 
phyxia. 
Desirious of satisfying myself on every point in regard 
to the action of this poison, I induced an Indian to use it 
in my presence. Equipped with his bodoquera or blow gun 
and a machette, we took to the woods. Ishould have 
liked him to try his arrow on a jaguar, but none appeared. 
Presently, however, a small specimen of deer came within 
shot. The Indian carefully raised his cane tube to his 
mouth, his chest became expanded, as with quite an effort 
of his cheeks he discharged his arrow. The deer was 
struck with the minute arrow, and at a single bound was 



in the forest, the Indian following. Ten minutes after- 
wards the animal lay at my feet, breathing it is true, but 
perfectly unable to move. When a small animal the size of 
the deer is struck in any partjof the body, where the cir- 
lation is rapid, its powers of running are limited to not more 
than three minutes. The limbs stiffen, the animal stops, 
trembles, and falls. All the voluntary museles cease their 
action, absolute paralysis sets in, one the heart ceases to 
beat. Mi 
Se  —— 
HOME AGAIN] 
eee, 
WENTY-FIVE hundred trunks consigned to one Ex- 
press Company in asingle day! 
This is the number of pieces that, we are told, were 
brought to New York by the returning sojourners in moun- 
tain, seaside and fashionable watering place, the moment 
the first chilly zephyr from the northwest ushered in the 
autumn. And if so many trunks to one Company, how 
many to all the rest together? 
‘“Homeward the swallows fly,” says the German poet. 
Even so do our fair ladies hie to their long deserted 
homes, and allina body, too, just like the little birds. 
What a flutter and fluster they make as they swoop down 
and settle among us! But why is this thus? Why do 
they all take wing at the same time? Why does one 
thought and one mind seem to animate the whole? Oh! 
it is ‘‘the; fashion,” we suppose! Is it the fashion then 
with the little birds? Quien Sabe? 
But the blessed little birds never? bring any trunks. 
Much as we delight to compare our returning dear ones 
with the swifter winged travelers, this mountain of trunks 
completely destroys the metaphor. The poetical allusion, 
or illusion, vanishes. 
Poor Dodd! careworn Dodd! Are you married? If so, 
do you, O Dodd, restrict the ladies of your family to a 
definite arbitrary minimum of trunks when they travel? 
Just suppose for an instant, that the gentler sex should be- 
come imbued with the Grange spirit and endeavor to dic- 
tate to the railroad and express companies regulations 
governing the transportation (of their baggage! Com- 
bined with the farmers, what corporation could withstand 
their united pressure? 
Yet, welcome the returning trunks! 
cheer. 
They bring good 
Now gleams the light of the roseate smiles around 
the domestic hearth and festal board. Welcome the 
trunks! The croquet lawns will be gay with parti-colored 
costumes, the bridle paths of the Parks be enlivened by the 
fair equestrians; the theatres sparkle with vivacity, and all 
the familiar salons and fashionable resorts, long empty, 
once more be thronged by the devotees of pleasure. Wel- 
come the trunks! Their coming means that the enervating 
heats of summer are ended; that the cooler autumn in- 
vites our lady readers to the fields and groves, where we 
trust the Forest AND STREAM will be able to teach many 
a pleasant lesson to those who enjoy our out door recrea- 
tion. 

ab 0 
THE GRAPHIC BALLOON. 
eae 
Wie our paper is on the press, the great balloon is 
advertised to be en route for Europe. For several. 
days at the Capitoline grounds in Brooklyn it attracted 
thousands of curious spectators. As it lay on the ground, 
half inflated, and, swaying at its moorings, it rose high in 
air above the enclosure, seeming like a living monster, ris- 
ing and falling on the atmospheric wave with pulsations so 
regular that twelve beats of the watch marked the intervals, 
It requires 400,000 cubic feet of gas to fill the balloon, and 
the inflation, through an eight inch pipe, occupies three 
hours. A canvas tent held all the appliances of the expedi- 
tion—the lifeboat Chicago; the miniature canoe, the paper 
boat Donaldson; the carrier pigeons, the balloon car proper, 
the astronomical and meteorological instruments, the life- 
preservers, the water kegs that will serve as ballast, the an- 
chors, sails, ropes, hatchets, saws, buckets, and the details 
of the aerial household. 
Underneath the balloon will hang a rope car, distended 
by three rings. From the upper ring will hang cords hold- 
ing the car; the ropes suspending the paper boat, and ropes 
suspending the lifeboat. The car, which is a lattice of 
ropes, has a floor about twelve feet below the balloon, on 
which are chairs, a table, the mercurial and aneroid, barom- 
eters, sextants, and thermometers. In the paper boat, 
modeled after the Staten Island canoe club-boats, are a com- 
pass, sails, and a paddle. The lifeboat is one of Ingersoll’s 
best, with sleeping room below the deck for three, water- 
tight compartments, binnacle, compass, cooking furnace, 
oars, anchors, &c. 
Every evening during the week fire balloons were sent up 
as tests of the upper currents, and so far, at an estimated 
height of two miles, they have sailed off to the eastward. 
Upon the continuance of this eastern current the success of 
the expedition, and perhaps the lives of the aeronauts, de- 
pends. It becomes a serious matter now, this sailing away 
in space at the mercy “of the winds that blow, with no 
secondary, controlling or counteracting force whatever. It 
is much like launching an ingeniously contrived craft above 
the Falls of Niagara and trusting to fortuitous improba- - 
bilities for successful preservation after the fearful leap is 
made; and yet the feat might be done. At best these ex- 
periments are a trifling with God-given life, and we fecl 
that it would be better to start the big thing off on its mis- 
sion alone than to sacrifice these intrepid but foolish aero- 
nauts to misapplied,science by sending them off with it. It 
may be Wise to go, but we think he is wisest who stays at 
home. Yet if it must,be, we can only join in wishing the 
attempt the fullest success. 

