406 
A 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


light. This may be called a wonderful combination of 
rare, curious, and unique flowers. They are of all kinds, 
shapes, and colors, and you have only to visit the florist to 
find ready potted for use any variety you may desire to 
place within your now nearly completed window garden. 
Begonia rez is the best variety grown in this country, being 
avery showy and picturesque plant, and is equally well 
grown in the parlor, conservatory, or greenhouse. Its 
leaves sometimes attain to a large size, and are beautifully 
marked with crimson. Some of them have broad, irregu- 
lar silvery zones and curious spots, rendering them truly a 
most wonderful plant for the parlor, and worthy of all our 
care and attention. 
In arranging this lower box much care must be had in 
keeping it open, so that you can let the very largest plants 
have ample room to develop themselves like trees in minia- 
ture, so that you can look under their leaves. If you wish 
to add in front some of the smaller plants, as violets and 
the like, you could probably find no finer study than the 
violets and mosses would yield you. Try it, and do not 
forget the rules of harmony of color, room, soils adapted 
to your plants, and untiring watchfulness. 
Tn our next we will tell you something about sub-tropical 
plants and the aquarium as a study and an amusement. 
OLLIPOD QUILL. 
_— 
A Great CANAL.—The Grangers of California have de- 
vised a grand seheme of irrigation. It is proposed to con- 
struct a canal, commencing where the San Joaquin de- 
bouches from the Sierra Nevada, and carry it along the 
foothills, «5 high up as practicable, to Stockton. The 
object primary to be obtained is the affording of a suffi- 
ciency of water to ltrigate all the land intervening between 
the canal and the San Joaquin river, and at the same time 
to furnish a means of cheap transportation for the produce 
the large area of land will give to the country as a result of 
the irrigation. The great canal is proposed to be made 100 
feet wide by as much as eight feet deep, large enough to 
carry boats of 100 tons capacity, and will be supplied with 
its waters from the following streams, which are situated 
as follows: 1. San Joaquin; 2. Fresno, about twenty miles; 
8. Chowchilli, ten miles; 4. Mariposa, ten miles; 5. Bear 
Cuieek, eight miles; 6. Merced, fifteen miles; 7. Toulumne, 
twenty miles: 8. Stanislaus, nine miles; thence to Stock- 
ton, twenty miles—making 112 miles in all, though the 
actual distance is probably about 180 miles. Taking 130 
miles as the length and twenty miles as the width, there 
would be 2,600 sections, or 1,644,000 acres, of nominally 
unproductive land, that would be rendered the most pro- 
ductive of any body of landin the world. The cost of the 
canal is estimated at $13,000,000. The State will be asked 
to issue her bonds for the cost of construction, and the law 
providing for the canal will levy an annual tax of $1 per 
acre On every acre of land within the above limits, alsoa 
tonnage duty of say twenty-five cents on every ton of pro- 
duce passing through the canal, to save the State from ex- 
pense. Each stream crossed by the canal shall be used as 
a feeder, and it is suggested that flume-feeders may be used, 
through which the timber, lumber, and wood bordering on 
those streams in the mountains can be floated to the canal, 
and thus reach a market otherwise impossible. As it is 
now, the crops being uncertain, the land of the entire dis- 
trict is probably not worth over $5 per acre, certainly not 
more than $10, whereas certainty of a crop every year, 
as irrigation would make it, would enhanceit to $30. This 
would make the actual enhancement of the value of the 
land $16,440,000, more than the cost of the canal; and in 
less than ten years the productiveness of the land would 
enhance the value to $70 or $80 per acre. 
Slatural History. 
NOTES ON THE GAR PIKE. 



—We ‘are gratified to receive this prompt reply to the 
queries of Prof. Baird respecting the gar pike. Doctor E. 
will accept our thanks :— 
LAKE City, Minnesota. 
Epitror ForEST AND STREAM:-— 
For many years I have endeavored to study the fish in 
Lake Pepin; in many cases have been successful, while in 
others, have only been able to form theories. Thus with 
the gar pike, (sox belone), I have never been able to dis- 
cover for a certainty their spawning mon‘h, but I have ar- 
rived at facts satisfactory to myself, but which would not 
perhaps do to state as scientific truths. For instance, when 
we first begin our fishing in June, we frequently catch 
while seining for minnows, very small and young gar pike, 
say from two.to three inches long. These, I have calcu- 
lated, could not be over two months old. From this fact I 
am led to believe that they spawn in April, perhaps as 
early as March. Their spawning grounds are more difficult 
to determine. But in this, also, 1 am myself satisfied with 
my observations. It has been generally supposed that they 
spawned in sloughs or in the worst waters they could find. 
I do not believe this to be the case. For we get many of 
our minnows from the sloughs in the fishing season, and 
never get a single fingerling of the gar pike, as far as I 
have observed. I have observed the very young broods of 
almost all our fish, but I have never seen as a brood the gar 
or the shovel-nosed sturgeon. From all these observations 
Iam persuaded that the gar, also the accipenser spawn on 
muddy bottoms in deep water. 
I have repeatedly put the young gar into my aquarium, 
but have as often become disgusted with them, for if say 
six inches long, they will kill all my minnows. I once had 
in my aquarium a gar about six incheslong. He wassuch 
a curiosity that I desired to keep him, but he soon began to 
destroy my other fish, and for the bad deeds he had done, 
I resolved to punish him, so taking a piece of very small 
silver wire, I tied his long jaws together, leaving them just 
enough apart so that he could breathe well. At this treat- 
ment he was very much enraged, and would dart at every 
fish in the tank, and would nose and root them in every 
conceivable way—but they soon found out that their once 
dreaded enemy was now harmless. ThusI kept him four- 
teen weeks, when he passed in his checks, and young Mr. 
Gar was dead. There was now a regular jubilee among 
the other fish—they seemed to realize that their great enemy 
was dead, and such playing and frolicking I had never seen 
before among my finny beauties. 
De GCyek.,. M.D: 
ee 
Wuy Awconon Cures RatrLesNake Brres.—The ex- 
periments of Professor Binz, of Bonn, in regard to the 
effects of alcohol on animals, are exceedingly interesting, in 
as much as he seems to have discovered the reasons why 
alcoholic stimulants were so useful in cases of snake poison- 
ing. He found that when decomposed blood was intro- 
duced into the veins of the living animal, all the symptoms 
of putrid fever were shown, the temperature increasing 
until death ensued. Alcohol reduced the heat, retarded 
the putrid process, increasing the action of the heart. This 
seems to be precisely the effect of alcoholic stimulants 
when administered in cases of rattlesnake poisoning. 
er Oo 
A HINT TO ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTORS. 
Eprror Forest AND STREAM:— 
There are many collectors who work hard in the field and make large 
collections of animals, yet for mounting purposes many of their skins 
are worthless. When the skins are given to the taxidermist he has to 
soak them in a pickle until they are soft and pliable. Ifskins are not 
properly prepared, when subjected to the pickle the hair becomes loose 
and falls off when handled in mounting. It is essential that collectors 
should pay particular attention to preparing the skins of animals, par- 
ticularly their heads. Many persons leave the whole fleshy parts of 
the lips on the skins when drying them. The resultis the flesh first be- 
comes putrid and then dries. When a skin is prepared inthis manner 
it appears to be a good skin, but when it is soaked by the taxidermist 
the hairimmediately falls off around the muzzle, eyes and ears, and it 
is impossible to replace it. To prevent such disastrous results, skin an 
imals as soon as possible after being killed, and clean their pelts thor- 
oughly. Those which feed on vegetable matter, such as animals belong- 
ing to the orders Rodentia and Ruminantia, should be dressed as soon 
as they are taken, and skinned as soon as an opportunity offers. Dur- 
ing the summer months the coats of all animals are naturally loose, and 
every means should be employed to prevent the hair from parting with 
the skin. Animals of the genera Felis, Lynx and Lepus,have thin skins, 
which are quickiy dried and preserved. But such animals as bears, 
wolverines, porcupines, large marmots and the Cervus family, need pow- 
erful preservatives, which will penetrate the skin quickly, thus prevent- 
ing putrifaction. Small animals should be skinned below the eyes to 
the teeth, and have the lips split and rubbed well in pulverized saltpetre 
and alum, and have the feet and head primed wlth corrosive sublimate 
dissolved in alcohol or hot water, and the whole skin covered with dry 
arsenic. Ifthe skinsare to be mounted, allow them to dry in the open 
air as soon as possible. When turned inside out skins thus prepared 
look very poor to the collector, but the taxidermist would select them 
for mounting in preference to skins which had been returned, filled out 
and brushed up to a nicety. Large animals may be prepared in the 
same way, bnt should have theskull and leg bones removed from the 
skin, and the lean meat should be cut away from the lips, and the dark 
colored flesh on the margin of the lips be split and preserved. The pre- 
servatives should be crowded between the skin and bones, at the base 
of the hoofs, and should also be applied on the outer or fur side of the 
skin in similar places. The ears of large animals shonld be skinned 
half their length, the superflous meat removed from the base of the 
gristly parts aad be well primed with the preservatives. Pelts may be 
preserved successfully as above stated, in any climate or at any season; 
provided they are kept from being fly-blown. 
J. H. Barry, Collector, 
U. 8. G. Survey. 

Dr. F. V. HAypeEn In charge. 
a 
BALTIMORE, January 27, 1874. 
Epiton Forgest AND STREAM:— 
Do quail withhold their scent? Among sportsmen of my acquaint- 
ance there is the greatest diversity of opinion. If they do, and I incline 
to that opinion, isit an act of will, or is it involuntary and caused by 
fright? 
Last November, when hunting in Virginia, one of my dogs pointed a 
bevy of full-grown birds in some brush. I put them up, killing one with 
my right-hand barrel and missing with my left. However, as I marked 
them down in a grassy meadow, about three hunnred yards off, the miss 
did not cause me any special unhappiness. Without any delay I walked 
to the spot, a solitary bush around whichI had seen them drop, and 
hunted every yard of the ground, both dogs working care- 
fully, and I walking it over; finally the bitch pointed, 
and I put up the bird within a yard of her nose, I killed that 
and four more, the dogs getting almost over them before pointing. At 
the last shot the rest of the bevy, about twelve birds got up from the 
ground I had been hunting over. It was not more than twenty yards 
square and coyered with thick grass about a foot high. 
Had the dogs ‘been strangers to me I should have blamed them, but 
they are both good, and the bitch has a remarkably good nose. 
Hoping to hear from you, I am truly yours, G. H. M. 
[After a bevy of quail have been once flushed they will 
fly say 150 yards or so and alight, huddling together, never 
moving, and scarcely breathing. The scent that comes 
from them is not perceptible even to the delicate nose of 
the finest dog; but let the same bevy rest awhile, recover 
their nervousness as it were, and begin to move about ever 
so carefully and they emit a strong scent. Mark down the 
bevy, and always wait a few minutes, keeping the 
dogs ‘‘to heel” before flushing them a second time. The 
scent is withheld, not from any will power, but because 
the birds are in a state of quiescence.—ED. ] 
CENTRAL PARK MENAGERIE. 
———E 
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC PARKS, } 
New York, January 31, 1874. s 
Animals received at Central Park Menagerie forthe week ending ‘an- 
uary 30: 
One Toque Monkey, Macacus pileatus. Hab. Ceylon. 
One Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus. Captured in the park. 
One Mottled Owl, Scops asio. Presented by Mr. M. I. Hoff. 
W. A. ConELIN. 
et 
FISH BREEDING AT BURGHLEY HOUSE. 
—_——~——— 3 7 
\ é OU will be glad to hear that I have just received a 
ood remittance of ova from Mr. Robert Roosevelt, 
New York, through the kindness of Sir Edward Thornton. 
The ova have arrived in first-rate order, and are safely de- 
posited in my breeding-boxes. Four boxes contain the ova 
of the Coregonus albus (white-fish), four of Salmo amethystus 
(salmon-trout), and four of Salmo fontinalis. The ova of 
the white-fish seem to travel the least well of the three 
kinds, as there are many dead amongst them, while the 
other two sorts have arrived in perfect order. Icould have 
some ‘‘Black Bass” sent over, but am afraid of ‘them, as 
Mr. Roosevelt says that ‘‘the Black Bass (@rystes nigricans) 
is a fighting American, and will swallow every British fish 
in your lakes. It is our champion fish, and it can whip all 
creation of the fish race.” After this description, I think 
that you will advise me to have nothing to do with such a 
devil, if I want to get up trout and Salmo fontinalis in my 
ponds. The fish hatched from eggs sent me by Sir Edward 
Thornton last year are doing very well, and are growing 
rapidly. They are principally salmon, white and big lake 
trout, with a few white-fish. I hatched a good number of 
the latter, but, unfortunately, lost most of them, through 
their escaping down the waste-pipe of the lower large tank. 
Thad a guard of perforated zinc; but the little white-fish 
seem to work themselves through everything, and they got 
away, despite all my care and that of my servant, who is a 
very good hand at fish-hatching. The trout appear to grow 
rapidly; I have taken out several over one and two pounds 
weight this summer, while shifting my fish from one pond 
to another; and one trout was nearly three pounds in 
weight. These fish had only been hatched a year, ora 
year and a-half at most. Amongst them, I took out about 
one dozen very pretty fish, as bright as salmon, but differ. 
ent inform. They are broader than salmon, flatter in the 
sides, and the head is of a different form from either the 
above-mentioned fish or the trout. The scales were like 
salmon scales, but rather coarser. I am sorry now that I 
did not take fuller particulars of the fish before turning 
them into the ponds, and I cannot get at them now. Not 
having seen a full-grown American white-fish, I am unable 
to say if these fish are the same; but not having any white- 
fish spawn sent me the year before last, I do not think 
that my friends can be the Coregonns albus. Anyhow, they 
are very handsome fish, and they came in the ova from the 
fea side of the Atlantic, and were hatched in my boxes 
ere. 
Enclosed I send you the observations made by my valet 
(Deane), while attending to the hatching of the ova sent 
me from various parts. The ova from Switzerland gen- 
erally turn out well; but the sender should be more careful 
about the packing of the ova, which are often sent in too 
crowded a state. EXETER. 
—Land & Water. 
Seth Green, Esq., bas kindly inclosed to us the 
above paragraph, remarking that ‘‘ the strange fish 
mentioned in Lord Exeter’s letter in the Land & 
Water, January 10th, as above, is a hybrid between 
the Great Lake Trout and White Fish. The spawn of the 
trout was impregnated with white-fish milt. I hope Lord 
Exeter will take great pains to raise them for scientific ob- 
servations, and will give us a full description of what they 
are like through some paper.” 
a be ee 
—A large number of valuable papers on Natural History 
accumulated within the past fortnight, are necessarily de- 
ferred until next week.—Ep., ] 
Kish Culture. 
PRACTICAL FISH CULTURE.—No. 4. 



THE AINSWORTH SCREENS. 
Se ee 
HIS admivable contrivance for taking spawn, in a 
natural manner, is the invention of the Hon. Stephen 
H. Ainsworth, of West Bloomfield, N. Y., who has been 
called the father of fish culture in America, as he was the 
first to engage in it, whose experiments were successful 
enough to attract attention. The screens were first used by 
him in the fall of 1868, and by the writer in the following 
season. 
They are not patented, neither are any of the other 
inventions of this gentleman, who has devoted many years 
to studying the habits of fishes, simply from the love of_it, 
as becomes a true angler, who, while he delights to kill his 
game, has an eye to its increase and protection; and it is to 
be regretted that his limited supply of water, and its dis- 
tance from his residence, combined with his poor health, 
should have prevented him from further experiments for 
the past three years; but as I will have occasion to refer to 
his place again under the head of ‘‘Ponds and Water 
Supply,” I will proceed with a description of the screens, 
their manufacture and mode of working. 
The race is, of course, at the head of the pond and 
should have a flat bottom and square sides of either stone 
or plank; ours, at Honeoye Falls, have stone sides and a 
bottom of hemlock boards; the depth of water at the upper 
end is six, and at the lower eighteen inches. Whether this 
sloping bottom is of any advantage or not, I cannot say, 
but they were built so because some one recommended it as 
being the best arrangement for a race where fish of differ- 
ent sizes resorted to spawn, giving the small ones a chance 
in water too shoal to be frequented by the larger fish, 
which may be good in such a case, but our different sized 
fish are kept in separate ponds. I have noticed, however, 
| that most of the spawn is deposited near the centre of the. 
race. 
Our races are four feet wide, and the frames for the bot- 
tom screens are made of strips of inch pine, two inches 
wide; the frame is made three feet long and the width of 
the race, with a strip in the middle dividing it lengthwise 
into two sections, each 32'inches by 21; these are covered 
with wire cloth of eight wires to the inch; three strips are 
then put on over the cloth, on the middle, and side strips, 
so that they do not interfere with a flow of water under the 
screens, and will not allow the screen to sag to the bottom 
of the race. 
-The upper screens are put on boxes made of inch stuff 
six inches wide; they are made so that two of them just 
cover one bottom screen, resting on the middle strip; they 


