244 FOREST AND STREAM. [Oct. SO, 1887.
we had a couple of miles to descend to the lake. Reaching are found, viz. : General-Hooker, brown-hen, yellow-
the shore and leaving their heavy loads, the Siwashes took May, ginger-palmer, jungle-cock, jungle-Abbey, jungle-
up the trail of the deer they had started in the morning;
they followed the faint trail with great skill, much like
setters following a bevy of quail and with the rapidity
and stealthiness of a cat. After going perhaps a mile, I
was startled by seeing a big blacktail deer jump up from
the tall ferns and start off "on a smart trot directly away.
I threw up the Winchester and blazed away. On it went,
turning into some thick bushes. I fired again, much as I
would at a bird, aiming about a foot in front, and was
gladdened by hearing the big beast go down with a crash.
With a yell of triumph we dashed after it and my big
hunting knife was plunged to the hilt in its throat; and
I had killed mv fust blacktail.
While two of the Indians skin and break up the deer,
the chief and I make a fire, and he lights a cigarette.
My pipe and tobacco are in my coat pocket in the boat
and I long for a smoke, so I make signs to indicate that I
would like a cigarette also. The big chief nods his head
and grunts, which I take to mean all right, and proceeds
to roll one in the most approved manner. I am rather
taken aback though, when, with what he considered a
great compliment", he puts it in his mouth and lights it
before handing it to me. I accept with the best grace
possible, and, while I enjoy the smoke, make up my mind
not to ask a Siwash again for a cigarette.
It was a wild and picturesque scene; the great dark for-
est with its big trees, the wdd, bareheaded Indians, with
sleeves rolled up and long hunting knives, cutting up the
deer, while the big six-foot chief, with his long black
braids hanging down each side of his face, squatted com-
placently before the fire enjoying his smoke. There was
no doubt but that I was in the West. It was late in he
afternoon before we reached camp, where I received the
congratulations of the party; and a good supply of fine
venison was assured for ome days to come.
It is impossible in a short article to describe all the in-
cidents or give all the particulars of our three weeks' stay
on this beautiful lake. I can only state in a general way
that we had superb weather and an abundance of trout
and venison, varied occasionally by a few ruffed and
spruce grouse. We had venison three times and trout
twice a day while in camp. Some sportsmen think that
the blacktail are not as good eating as the whitetail
deer, but we could not find much difference. I want
nothing better than roast saddle of blacktail deer and
currant jelley.
The Indians, of whom we had five, belonging to the
Kalespell tribe, were splendid hunters though indifferent
shots, and we found them in every way trustworthy,
truthful and reliable. Personally I prefer them to the
majority of white professional hunters. They never bed
about a miss nor indulged in profanity, and never spoke
unless we asked them a question. I found them per-
fectly honest, which is more than we could say of some
of the white gold hunters who hung about our camp. I
was surprised to find the Indians so clean. They used
soap and water freely, and brag about their superiority
in that respect to the white man. The sweat-house is
quite an institution with them, and they indulge very
freely in this wild substitute of the Russian bath.
The only trouble we had on the whole trip was with
one of our white guides; who got drunk one night, broke
into our storehouse and opened fire on us with his Win-
chester. The Siwashes took to the woods and did not
appear until the nest morning. They dislike to get into
a row with the whites or "Boston men" as they call them,
for no matter how Httle they are to blame, they have to
shoulder it all.
We were disappointed in one particular, we expected
to find this region unvisited by white men, but the report
had got abroad that there was gold in the land, and we
found the country already overrun with prospectors. As
these men live on the game, to say nothing of the blasting
going on with giant powder, naturally the big game had
left the lake shore and gone back into the mountains,
making the hunting exceedingly difficult and packing the
venison into camp a very serious matter. Only one of
our party succeeded in killing a caribou, a fine fat cow
with the horns still in the velvet. Our score for the trip
was 23 blacktail and two whitetail deer and 1 caribou,
besides grouse of three varieties, hares, ducks, beaver,
coyotes and trout. We did not waste any game or fish;
every bit killed was eaten or given away.
They call the spruce grouse fool-hens, and right well
do they deserve the name, for then stupid tameness is
bevond belief. The sharptail grouse, which they call
prairie chickens, are said to be common near the beaver
meadows, but we did not happen to see them. Of the
famous Dolly Varden trout, which somewhat resembles
our lake trout, we took very few, as they were -spawning.
The largest killed weighed 9ib . We tried them with all
sorts of lures, but the mottled pearl bait seemed decidedly
the favorite. The black spotted trout before described
would tyke a ything; spoons, phantom and fairy min-
nows, grassho pers, venison and artificial flies, nothing
came amiss. I was surprised to find these fish so very shy.
The water of the lake was as clear as crystal, and one
cotdd see the big fellows cruising around in schools, but
at the slightest movement of the boat, or motion of the
rod, they were off like a flash. As they had never been
fished for, '. attribute their shyness to the fish-hawk
(ospreys), which were daily seen fishing in the lake.
They • would drop into the water like a stone, often
reappearing with a big trout struggling in their talons.
Toward, evening, just at sundown, fuperb sport could
be had with the trout, when they came to the shallows to
feed. I would let my boat drift along shore, and, when
they rose with n casting distance, dropped my flies over
them, and rarely failed to hook one. When fast they
seemed crazy with fright and rage. As the water was
too shallow for them to dive or sulk, they would tear off
with the line like a race horse, making it hiss as it cut
through the water, while the reel buzzed like a rattle-
snake. Several times I had trout that only weighed a
couple of pounds (on the scale, not estimated) run off my
bne until I could see the spool, and I carried 40yds. on the
reel. The rod I used on this trip was an eight-section
bamboo, w ighing 5oz., and about 9ft, Sin. long. So the
angler can imagine the sport I had. I have killed hun-
dreds of black bass and thousands of speckled trout on a
fly-rod, but I never had fish to fight so hard- or so long
as these young salmon did. I suppose they could hardly
be called grilse.
We found the following the best flies, and the list is a
good one for any locality where the black spotted trout
Montreal, jungle-ibis, jungle-professor, royal-coachman,
great-dun, dusty-miller, beauty, grizzly-iking and black-
gnat. Hooks, t> to 8 Spr^ at, excepting in the small streams
where a No. 10 is better. The fluttering fly, properly
manipulated on the still surface of the lake, I found to be
very deadly, and those that used it had a big advantage.
Sometimes, in the lake, these fish would rise to a bright-
colored salmon fly.
These trout had the peculiar habit of almost always
taking the upper or hand fly, and if they missed it once
or twice, would get very much excited and jumping
clean out of water, take the fly a,s they went down head
first. The reader can imagine what a* beautiful picture
this made to the angler's e e, as they showed their bright
colors and glistening sides for a moment in the air. Dur-
ing an evening's fishing, it was indeed rare to kill a fish
under 1^1 bs. and the chances were that many of them
would turn the scales at 21bs. and over.
A species of chub called the squaw fish was frequently
caught on both fly and spoon; very good eating, though
rather bony, and averaging about 21bs. in weight.
We noticed the usual variety of wildfowl on the lake,
but not in any great quantity. I saw no swans, and only
one sandhill crane. The magpie, Idaho jay and raven
were new birds to me. The pine squirrel, resembling in
size and color our red squirrel, but much darker and with
a tail almost black, was very common and rather a nuis-
ance about the camp. They would climb the great pines
and throw down the big solid cones by the dozen. These
cones were full of nuts and weighed about a quarter of a
pound each. It would have been no joke to be hit by
one coming from that height. Bears we sometimes
started, but owing to the dense underbrush we could not
get a shot at them. Wolves, though quite common and
often heard at night, are rarely seen.
Our head guide was quite a character, a New York
gentleman by birth and education, who, after a romantic
career, married a Kalespell squaw and settled down in
Washington Territory, where he has a fine ranch and
plenty of hunting.
Our return to Sand Point was better arranged than our
trip out had been. We kept three or four pack horses
and the cook right with us, so that at night we had our
tents pitched and a comfortable time generally; besides,
we were in much better trim and enjoyed roughing it.
At Sand Point we found large delegations from the
Kalespell and Kootenai Indians, the latter a lach tribe
from British Columbia. They were pruchasing their
winter supplies of flour, sugar, coffee, etc. They were a
fine-looking lot of Indians, with long, black hair hanging
in braids, gay-colored blankets and beeds, and faces col-
ored with vermillion, and made a lasting impression on
us "Boston men." It is to be regretted that Uncle Sam
does not make it more difficult for them to obtain fire-
water. Their great weakness, however, is gambling.
They spend days at their favorite game of "chelalak,"
not even stopping to sleep, and make night hideous with
their monotonous tapping and howls. They stake any-
thing and everything, even the clothing on their backs.
I saw one buck in the street at Sand Point who had noth-
ing on but an old black frock coat; a comical and startling
object he was.
We tried the trout once more with good success in
beautiful Pend d'Oreille, and then bade farewell to our
wild tent life, reluctantly put away the comfortable gar-
ments of the woods, and returned to the stiff "boiled
shirts" and hideous clothing of civilization.
W. HOLBERTON.
Of it, Professor Flower has said, "Only one species of
this genus is known, It. stelleri, the Northern Sea-cow,by
far the largest animal of the order, attaining the length
of 20 to 25ft. It was formerly an inhabitant of the
shores of two small islands in the north Pacific, Behringa
and the adjacent Copper Island, on the former of which it
was discovered by the ill-fated navigator whose name the
island bears, when, with his accomplished companion, the
German naturalist Steller, he was wrecked upon it in 1741.
Twenty-seven years afterward (17ii8), as is commonly sup-
posed, the last of the race was killed, and its very exist-
ence would have been unknown to science but for the in-
teresting account of its anatomy and habits left by Steller.
and the few more or less perfect skeletons which have
recently rewarded the researches carried on in the frozen
soil of the islands around which it dwelt. There is no
evidence at present of its having inhabited any other
coasts than those of the islands just named, though it can
hardly be supposed that its range was always so restricted.
When first discovered it was extremely numerous in the
shallow bays round Behring's Island, finding abundant
nutriment in the large laminariae growing in the sea. Its
extirpation is entirely due to the Russian hunters and
traders who followed upon the tract of the explorers, and
who, upon Steller's suggestion, lived upon the flesh of the
great Sea-cows. Its restricted distribution, large size,
inactive habits, fearlessness of man , and even its affec-
tionate disposition toward its own kind when Wounded or
in distress, all contributed to accelerate its final extinc-
tion."
Professor Nordenskjold has claimed and in the writer's
opinion upon too insufficient evidence, that hving speci-
mens of this sirenian were known to exist in the locality
above referred to as late as the year 1854. This matter
has been more r-arefully examined into by Dr. Stejneger,
who it would seem has ve y successfully refuted this
erroneous notion.
We now pass to the existing types of these interesting
animals, and find that there are but two genera of them,
viz.: Halicore and Manatus, the first contains the famous
Dugongs, sirenians very distinct in their structure from
our Manatees, but as they are denizens of "the shallow
bays and creeks of the Red Sea, east coast of Africa,
Ceylon, islands of the bay of Bengal and the Indo-Malayan
Address aR com munications to the Forest and Stream Pub. Co.
THE MANATEES.
BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M.D., O.M.Z.S., TJ. S. ARMY.
CorrespondingMember of the Academy of Sciences of Chicago, etc.
HAVING dealt with the Armadilloes in m - last con-
tribution, they being the representatives, as we re-
member, of the Suborder Loricata of the Order Edentata,
we now arrive in this Provisional List of the Mammals, as
authoritatively arranged by the U. S. National Museum,
t another very distinct order of animals, known to zo-
ologists as the
Order STRENIA. Sea-cows.
Family Tricheohidje. The Manatees.
Trichechus manatus, Linne. South American Manatee.
Triehechus latirostris (Harlan), True. Florida Manatee.
My personal knowledge of the Manatees is principally
based upon having carefully studied the skeletons and
other material afforded by the Museums, and having seen
a live one once on the west coast of Florida, and another,
some twenty-seven or eight year . ago, about half a mile
up the Coatzacoalcos River on the Isthmus of Tehuante-
pec, southern Mexico. This last one I saw from the deck
of a steamer, and I remember very well that it was in
shallow water, and that is had drawn itself partly out on
the muddy ooze of the bank, so that its form was very
fairly exposed to my view.
Nevertheless I am quite familiar with this Order of
mammals, and it will be my aim in the present article to
review some of the more important parts of the history
of them so far as it is at present known to naturalists.
Geology goe=* to show that the early Pliocene and
Miocene seas of Europe swarmed with several species of
animals, which zoologists have good reason to believe were
the latter extinct ancestors of existing Sirenians (Hali-
iherium). But the intermediate forms which connected
our living types, such as the Manatee, with the ancient
ones, to which 1 refer, have not as yet been discovered.
Zoologists have also held, and 1 think it is very probable
too, that the Manatees and their kind are in some way
related links, remotely affined to the Cetaceans on the
one hand, and the Ungulata on the other; but even of
this kinship the evidence is as yet not satisfactorily de-
monstrated. "Various other extinct sirenian species have
received different names at the hands of paleontologists,
but it is not our object to further pursue this part of the
subject here; one form, however, recently exterminated,
fully deserves a word of passing notice, and I have refer-
ence of course to the Northern Sea-cow (Rhytina stelleri).
Fig-. A.—Skull of African Manatee (Manatus scnegalensis), xl-5.
(After Flower).
Fig. H.—The from view of the head of the American Manatee,
showing the eyes, nostrils and mouth, and with the lohes or
the njmer lip divaricated.
Fig. < .—The same, with the lip contracted. (After Flower, from
Murie.) These figures all copied by the present writer.
Archipelago, ranging from Barrow Reefs on the west to
Moreton Bay on the east," they cannot properly claim
our time and space here, as interesting as they are in
many particulars. Even our own Manatee has a closely
related African cousin (31. senegalensis), and of which
form I have given a view of the skull in the present
paper (A), as I had not one of the American ones at my
hand.
As will be seen by the classification in my leading para-
graph above, there are two species of American Mana-
tees, but only one of these belong to our United States
fauna, the Florida Manatee, a form that so far as this
country is concerned, is now confined to the coasts of the
peninsula from which it takesits name. Owingto the fact
that most of the specimens of Manatees thathave reached
Europe are the South American animals, and further, as
it was very natural that they should figure that form in
the "Transactions," this will account for my presenting
here a group of those animals in lieu of our own species;
however, when reduced to this small size they would be
hardly distinguishable in the drawing which illustrates
the present paper.
Manatees are enabled to use the paddles formed by
their forearms with considerable facility, and this is un-
doubtedly the way in which they originally came by
their name, it being derived from the Latin word for
hand. Manatus, moreover, is the technical name applied
by some zoologists to the genus that has been created to
contain them. According to True, Mr. W. A. Conklin,
director of the Central Park menagerie, in New York
city, gives the following dimensions of a specimen kept
alive in that establishment in 1873, these being the only
reliable measurements of a Florida Manatee, under its
proper name, on record: "Length, 6 ft. 9£in ; circum-
ference around the body, 4ft. 9 in.: length of flip er, 1
ft, ; width of same, 4f in. ; width of tail joining body, 1
ft. 6f in.; greatest width of tail, 1ft. 8£in.; weight, 450
lbs." It is very bkely, however, that the animal may at-
tain to a length of at least 8 or 9 ft., as trustworthy au-
thorities so state, in which case they would come to weigh
something between five and six hundred pounds.
Oct. 20, 1887.] FOREST AND STREAM. 245
My figures so thoroughly portray the general form of
the Manatee, that it hardly seems necessary to enter upon
any very extended description in this place; we are to
especially note, however, the fish-like form of the body,
terminating behind in the broad, somewhat rounded and
horizontal tail; the constricted neck connecting this body
with a rather small, oblong head; the complete absence of
hind hmbs, with the fingerless paddlelike forelimbs, the
latter tipped on either side with three small nails; the
total absence of all fins; the wonderful minute eyes and
ears, the latter being without any external pinna; the
great tuinid upper lips overarching rather a large mouth,
the former having a, sparse growth of stiff bristles grow-
ing upon them; the wrinkled skin, which is of rather a
deep gray color, and having a few scattered hairs growing
over it in some specimens, more especially in the younger
individuals. But of all the external characters of a Ma-
natee none are so noteworthy as the fleshy pads, one on
either side, that go to form the extraordinary upper lip.
ually resort to the shallower waters of rivers, bays and
lagoons, where they move sluggishly about on the bottom,
browsing much in the same way that the terrestrial
herbivora do upon land, their food consisting exclusively
of the aquatic plants which so abundantly grow in such
situations. In quiet weather, they sometimes seem to
enjoy getting into deeper water, where by the assistance
of their lungs, they are permitted to float at the surface,
which they do arching their body in a, peculiar manner.
Indeed, their lungs seem to act very much in the same
manner as the swim-bladder of fishes is known to operate,
and while Manatees are feeding they may be seen to rise
every few minutes to the surface to breathe, but instances
of their getting completely out on the land remain yet
to be proven, and when placed there, their acts are in the
extreme most awkward. So far as their senses are con-
cerned, these creatures have fair eyesight, acute powers
of hearing, and the other powers probably well developed.
They are not known to be possessed of the ability of
Industries of the United States." Mr. True in closing his
article in that work, says, "In the Manatee, then, we have
an animal of great size, of gentle disposition and appar-
ently of rapid growth, which lives in places readily ac-
cessible to man, and is easily captured, and which furn-
ishes meat which is not inferior, oil which is remarkably
fine, and leather which possesses great toughness. From
these considerations it would seem evident that, with the
proper protection, it would furnish no small revenue to
the people in those portions of our country which it in-
habits, for centuries to come." (p. 128).
Finally, to those interested in the progress of science in
Florida, I should say that we have not as yet by any
means a complete history of this animal, and accurate
reports upon the following subjects are very much to be
desired; (1), an accurate observation giving all the cir-
cumstances of a Manatee voluntarily coming ashore to feed
or for any other purpose; (2), the manner of coition, the
period of gestation, the mode of delivery, the number of
GROUP OF SOUTH AMERICAN MANATEES.
Adapted from a drawing by Henry "W. Elliott from the " Transactions of the Zoological Society of London," by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, U. S. Army.
Professor Garrod in alluding to these says of them that,
"These pads have the power of transversely approaching
towards and receding from one another simultaneously
(see figs. B & C). "When the animal is on the point of
seizing (say) a leaf of lettuce, the pads are diverged trans-
versely in such a way as to make a median gap of con-
siderable breadth. Directly the leaf is within the grasp
the lip-pads are approximated, the leaf is firmly seized
between their contiguous bristly surfaces, and then drawn
inward by a backward movement of the lower margin of
the lip as a whole."
It is said that Manatees have the power of carrying
their young about within the grasp of their forelimb or
limbs, and that their appearance at these times has given
rise to the fabulous mermaid of nursery tale renown, but
so far as the writer is concerned, if these mythical maids
of the sea, which so often filled my dream-head in boyish
days, or my fanciful reveries of perhaps riper years, bore
any resemblance to the beauty that sits up on the.tip of
her tail in the group herewith presented, I beg to be ex-
cused an introduction, and, well, perish the thought in a
mind thus so rudely disappointed, I fain would remark,
"Not for Joseph." Certain it is, however, that these
animals can make considerable use of these paddles of
theirs, for with them they assist in tucking their food
into their mouths, and in moving about on the bottom of
the river or lagoon where they may be feeding, they use
them in conjunction with the tail, in assisting theirloco-
motory acts.
Manatees avoid getting into the open see, but habit-
emitting any voice-sound. They seem to bear captivity
well, and living specimens have been studied with great
interest and advantage at the Zoological Gardens of Lon-
don, where they have been successively kept. In be-
havior, they always seem to be gentle and inoffensive,
exhibiting on all occasions great concern and affection
for their young. Indeed, man has proven to be their
greatest enemy, and they are forever pursued and cap-
tured for their flesh and skin and the oil which they yield.
Thus it is that Manatees are on the road to extinction,
which, everything considered, in time is sure to come
about. The methods of capturing the Manatee are
many; (1) they may be shot as they rise to the surface to
breathe, an operation that requires great skill and quick-
ness; (2) they are taken in some localities by means of an
ingenious kind of net; (3) finally, they are captured by
the various modes of spearing and the use of the harpoon.
So far as the breeding habits of the Manatee is con-
cerned, but little or nothing is known; the best authori-
ties have it that the period of gestation lasts eleven
months, and the young follow their mother about for six
months or perhaps longer. It is a well known fact, of
course, that the dam suckles her young at her breasts,
there being two mammae, which are post-axillary in posi-
tion.
In concluding, it gives me pleasure to state that in my
account of this animal, I have been much assisted through
my perusal of True's history of it in that admirable work,
recently published by the United States Commission of
Fish and Fisheries, entitled "The Fisheries and Fishery
calves at a birth, how the latter are suckled, their size and
appearance, and how long they remain with their dam,
and a great deal of their structure and anatomy, are all
subjects almost unknown to us.
The Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective As-
sociation gathered together its members for the first
time this autumn on Tuesday, Oct. 11, and by general
consent the meeting was pronounced a decided success.
Fifty members and their friends, among whom was Mr.
A. G. Faye, Jr., editor of the new Boston sporting journal,
Judge and Jury, as a special guest of the association, sat
at the tables of the Tremont House. It being the first
meeting since June there was very little business to be
transacted; the only new members were H. M. Daggett,
Jr. , and W. M. Bunting, and the major portion of the
evening was given up to social chat. President Samuels
first called upon Mr. Walter M. Brackett, who gave an
account of salmon fishing in Canada, and following him
Mr. Samuels gave some very entertaining and amusing
reports of his own experiences in Cape Breton, where he
had spent the summer months. Mr. Faye gave a very
practical talk upon methods for furthering proper protec-
tion of game, and suggested that the association should
extend its correspondence and make affiliation with all
sporting clubs in the State, both for the good of all and
for its own interests, especially in forwarding the good
work.
—
Hub.