Evening Star Newspaper, November 25, 1923, Page 78

THE SUNDAY | STAR, WASHINGTON, D. €, NOVEMBER 25, 1923—PART 5. Leopard Is Killed in Furious Hand-to-Hand Battle With Hunter I Mr. Akeley had extraordinary en- oounters with elephants and lions, as @escribed In previous Instaliments, still the following barehanded grapple with & leopard comes close te taking the prize of all big game hunting experi- ences. This is the fourth of a seriss of five remarkable articies, by one of the mest distinguished of American ex- plerers and natural scientists, upon hunting the wild beasts of Africa. BY CARL E. AKELEY. WENT one time a long way into the waterless desert of Somali- land to hunt ostriches. After being continually outwitted by them for two days I began to think 11} of the man who originally started the story about this bird's stupldity. With the difficulties of the chase firmly {n mind I set out early on t third day to see If I could get a specl- men plume-bearer. the mmaller the party the better th opportunity. I took only a mule and my horseboy. There is a general belief firmly fixed in the popular mind by constant ; repetition that the ostrich is a very stuoid bird. A man might well ex. pect easy hunting of a bird that tried to hide by the traditional method of stic:ing its head in the sand. But with the ostrich, as with other Af- rican game, I found that they did not always realize thelr obligation to tra- dition or ablde by the rules set down for their behavior. One time we were just across the Haud and were camped in a “tug" or dry stream bed where by digging we could get water for our sixty men end the camels. During two days of hunting in the dry bush of this des- ert I had seen many ostriches, but none of them had put its head into the ground and left its big black plumed body for me to shoot at. On the contrary, {n this, my first ex- perlence with them. I found them exceedingly wary. They kept their bodies hidden behind the bush. Only their heads were exposed, each head only about large enough to carry a pair of very keen eves and much too small to serve as a target at the dis- tance that they maintained. Soon after this I climbed to the top of a termite hill about elght feet high to look the country o fleld glasses. As I held the glasses to my eves while adjusting the focus, I suddenly realized that the letter S that I was focusing on was the head and neck of an ostrich and that there was & second letter S besids it. The birds remained perfectly motlcnless watching and I di? ilkew se, ! their position meanwhile by the ter- mite hills which were nearly in line between us. Suddenly tho heads ducked and disappeared behind the bush. ¥ dropped from my perch and Tan rapidly to where they had been, but found only thelr trail in the sand. ‘When I had given up tracking them and was about to start farther afleld T came to an opening In the bush that was about thirty yerds wide and 200 | yards long. Near the center of the opening was a dense green bush a @ozen feet in diameter. A beautiful ©ock ostrich broke Inta the clearing at full speed just below the bush and @8 I ralsed my rifie he disappeared behind the bush, g0 I held ready to eatch him as he passed out from be- hind it on the other side, where there were fifteen or twenty yards of clear ground bofore he would reach cover again, 1 stood there ready with my gun up until I felt foolish. Then I ran quick- 1y to the bush expecting to find him Just on the other side. He was no- ‘where in sight. but his trail told the story. As he had come into the open he had seen me and when behind the bush he had stopped short as indicat- o4 by a great hole and swirl of sand where he had caught himself by one foot, had turned at right angles and Tun straight away the length of the olearing, keeping the bush between himself and his enemy. I have not known many animals to do a more olever thing than this. I got one shot at him later—putting my sights at 300 yards—but the bullet struck in the sand between his lej L wfl" only a half mile from camp 1 met an old hyena who was loafing along after a night out. He looked Illke a good specimen, but after I shot him, one 1<~" at his dead carcass was enough to 'sfy me that he was not as desira as I had thought, for his skin 1s badly dls- eased. I had very good reason to think of this very hard later in the day. A little farther along I shot a good wart hog for our scientific collection. Leaving the specimen ‘where it 1ay, I marked the spot and continued In search of ostriches. ‘We returned to camp later in the afternoon, having sighted but not gotten any birds, and after a little rest and refreshment I started out again with enly the horseboy and carrying the mecessary tools to get the head of the wart hog that I had shot in the morning. We had no dif- ficulty in finding the place where I had shot him, but there was nothing t0 be seen of the pig. The place was strewn with vulture features, but suraly vultures could not make away , with the bead. A crash In the bushes at one side led me in a hurry in that direction and a little later I saw my pig’s head in the mouth of a hyena traveling up the slope of a ridge out of range. That meant that my wart hog specimen was lost. As we came near to the place where 1 2ad shot the diseased hyena In the morning it occurred to me that per- haps there might be another hyena about the carcass, and, feeling a bdIit' “sore™ at the tride for stealing my ‘wart hog, I thought I might pay off the goore by getting s good dpecimen of & hyens for the collections. The herssboy led me to the apot, but the dead hyena was nowhere in sight ‘There was the bdlood where he had fallen and In the dusk we could make out a trall in the sand where he had been dragged away. Advancing & few steps, 2 slight sound attracted my attention and glancing te one side I got a glimpse of a shadowy form going behind a bush. Ithen did a very foolish thing. ‘Without a sight of what I was shoot- ing at, I shot hastily into the bush. The enart of a leoperd told me with ‘what kind of & customer I was taking chances. A leopard is a cat and bas all the qualities that gave rise to the legend of "alne lives. To kill him you have got to kill him clean up to the tip of his tall. Added to that, & leopard, uolike & len; is vindictive, A Concluding that ' r with ; cating | ‘wounded leopard will fight to a finish | practically every time, no matter how many chunces it has to escape. . Once aroused, its determination is fixed on fight and It a leopard ever gots hold, it claws and bites until its victim is torn to shreds. All this was in my mind and T be- san looking about for the best way out of it, for I had no desire to try conclusions with a possibly wounded leopard when it was so late in the day that I could not see the sights of my rifle. My intention was to leave it untll morning and if it had been wounded, there might then be a chance of finding it. I turned to the left to cross to the opposite bank of @ deep, narrow tug and when there I found that I was on an island where the tug forked, and by going along a ishort distance to the point of the and I would be in position to see ehind the bush where the leopard had stopped. But what I had started the leopard was intent on finishing. While peer- ing about, I detected the beast cross- ing the tug some twenty yards bove me. I again began shooting, although I couid not see to aim. How- ever, I, could see where the bullets struck”as the sand spurted up be- yond the leopard. The first two shots went above her, but the third scored. The leopard stopped and I thought she was killed. The horseboy broke into & song of trlumph which was promptly cut short by another song such as only a thoroughly angry leopard Is capable of making as it charges. * %k ¥ ¥ FOR Just a flash I was paralyzed with fear, then came power for action. I worked the bolt of my rifle and was consclous that the magazine was empty! At the same Instant I realized that a solid point cartridge rested In the paim of my left hand, one that I had intended, as I came up to the dead hyena, to replace with a soft nose. If I could but escape the leopard until I could get the cartridge Into the chamber! As she came up the bank on one side of the point of the lsland, I opped down the other side and ran about to the point from which she had charged. By this time the car- tridge was in place, and I wheeled— to face the leopard in midalr. The jrifle was knocked flying and In its place was eighty pounds of frantic cat. Her intention was to sink her teoth iato my lngeat and ‘with this erip and her forepaws hang to me while with her hind claws she dug out my stomach. This pleasant prac- tice 13 the way of leopards. However, happily for me, she missed her alm. Instead of getting my throat she came to one side. She struck me high in the chest and caught my my upper right arm with her mouth. This not only saved my throat, but left her hind legs hanging ciear where they could not reach my stomach. With my left hand I clutched her throat and tried to wrench my right arm free. I couldn’t do thia except little by little. When I got grip enough on her throat to loosen her hold just a little she would catch my arm again an inch or two lower down. In this way I drew the full length of the arm through her mouth inch by inch. I was consclous of no pain, only the asound of the crushing of tense mus- cles and the choking snarling grunts of the beast. As I pushed her farther and farther down my arm I bent ove and finally when it was almost fre 1 went to the ground, the leopard! underneath me, my right hand in her mouth, my left hand clutching her | throat, my knees on her lungs, my elbows in her armpits spreading her front legs apart so that the frantic clawing did nothing more ti tear my shirt. Her body was twisted In an effort to get hold of the ground to turn herself, but the loose sand of- fered no hold. For a moment there was no change in our positions and then for the first time I began to think and hope I had a chance to win this curious fight. Up to that time it had been simply a good fight in wheh T expected to lose, but now if I could keep my advantage perhaps the horseboy would come with a knife. I called, but to no effect. I still held her and continued to shove the hand down her throat so hard she could not close her mouth and with the other I gripped her throat in a strangle hold. Then I surged down on her with my knees. To my surprise I felt a rib go. T did it sagin. I felt her relax, a wort of letting go, although she was still struggling. At the same time I felt myself weakening simlilarly, and then it became a question as to which would give up first. Little by littde her strugsling ceased. My strength had lasted the longest. . After what had seemed an intermi- nable passage of time I let go and tried to stand, calling to the hors boy that it was finished. He now screwed up his courage suffclently to approach. Then the leopard began| to gasp and I saw that she might re- cover, so I asked the boy for his knife. He had thrown it away in his Nothing But Nature’s Weapons Employed in Thrilling Encounter When Rifle Is Knocked Flying by Animals Spring—Anxiety Produced Earlier by Discovery That Gun Magazine Is Empty—Animal Is at Home in Every Kind of Country in East Africa—Like Other Cats, Has Tip of the Tail. “Nine Lives,” and Must Be Killed Clear to the fear, but quickly found it and I at last made certain that the beast was dead. LR 8 T looked at her later I came to the conclusion that what /had saved me was the first shot I had fired when she went into the bush. It had hit her right hind foot. I think It was this broken foot which threw out the aim of her spring and made her got my arm instead of my throat. With the excitement of the battle still on me I did not realize how badly used up I was. I tried to shoulder the leopard to carry it to camp, but was very soon satisfied to confine my efforts to getting myself to camp. When I came inside the “sereba,” my companions were at dinner be- fore one of the tents. They had heard “] CONTINUED TO SHOVE ONE HAN never to attempt it at wuch olose quarters again. In spite of thelr fighting qualities I have never gotten to like or respect leopards very much. That is not be- cause of my misadventure; I was hurt much worse by an elephant, but I have great respect and admira- tion for elephants. I think it is be- cause the leopard has always seemed to me & sneaking kind of animal, and also perhaps because he will eat carrion even down to & dead and dis- eased hyena. A day or two before my experience with the leopard some one else had shot a hyena near our camp and had left him over night. The next more- ing the dead hyena was lodged fifteen feet from the ground in the crotch of A tree at some distance from where he was killed. A leopard. ' IN A STRANGLE-HOLD.” the shots and had speculated on the ! very possibly my enemy, had dragged probabilities. They had decided that I was in & mix-up with a lon or with natives, but that I would have the enemy or the enemy would have, before they could get to me, 56 th had continued their dinner.: The fatalistic spirit of the country had prevalled. When I came within their range of vision, however, my ap- rance was quite sufficlent to ar- rest attention, for my clothes were all ripped, my arm was chewed into an unpleasant sight, and thero was blood and dirt all over me. Moreover, my demands for all the aritiseptics in camp gave them some- thing to do, for nothing was keener in my mind than that the leopard had been feeding on the diseased hyena that I had shot in the morning. To the practical certainty of blood poisoning from any leopard bite not quickly treated was the added ocer- tainty that this leopard’s mouth was particularly foul with disease. While my companions were getting the sur- gical appliances ready, my boys were stripping me and dousing me with cold water. That done, the antiseptic was pumped into ry one of the innumerable tooth wounds untii my arm was so full of the liquid that an injection in one drove it out of an- other. During the process I nearly regretted that the leopard had not won. But it was applied so quickly and so thoroughly that it was a com- plete case. Later in the evening they brought the leopard fn and laid it beside my cot. Her right hind foot showed where the first shot had hit her. The only other bullet that struck her was the last before she charged and that had creased her just under the skin on the back of the neck, from the shock of which she had instantly re- covered. This encounter took place fairly soon after our arrival on my first trip to Africa. I have seen a lot of leopards since, and occasionally killed one, but I have taken pains | him along the ground and up the tree and placed him there for future use. While such activities canmot increase one's respect for the taste of leopards, they do give convincing evidence of the leopard's strength, for the hyena welghed as much as the leopard. *Ex THE leopard, like the elephant, is at home in every kind of coun- try in East Africa—on the plains, among the rocky hills, among the bamboo, and in the forest all the way up to timber line on the equatorial mountains. Unlike the lion the leop- ard is a solitary beast. Except for a mother with young, I have never seen 28 many as two leopards to- gether. It is my belief that, like the Hon, they do their hunting at night almost exclusively, and I am quite sure that this is thelr general habit despite the fact that the only un- mistakable evidence of day hunting I ever saw myself In Africa was done by a leopard. I was out one day in some tall grass and came upon the body of a |small antelope. As I came up I heard an animal retreat and I thought I recognized a leopard's snarl. The antelope was still warm. It had evi- dently just been killed and the tracks around it were those of a leopard. One of the leopard’'s chief mources of food supply consists of monkeys and baboons. I remember a certaln camp we had near the bottom of & cliff. Out of this cliff grew a num- ber of fig trees in which the baboons were accustomed to sleep falrly well out of reach of the leopards. The, re, however, not completely immune and we could hear the leop- ards at the top of the cliff almost every night and once in a while the remnants of a baboon testifled to the success of the lecpard's night prowl- Besides monkeys and baboons, leop- ards seem inordinately fond of dogs. A pack of dogs like Paul Rainey's can make short work of a leopard, but on the other hand a leopard can make short work of a single dog and ssemingly takes great pleasure in doing %o. . Home years ago there was a settler at Nylrl who had & dog. Ong night this man and a nelghbor were sittini talking in his shack and the dog wa sleeping under the table. Buddenly, and quite unannounced a leopard slipped in through the open door. Confusion reigned supreme for a moment, and then the men found themselves on the table. The leopard was under the table kiiling the dog and somehow in the excitement, the door had been closed. One after the cther the men fled out of the window leaving the dog to bis fate. A traveler had a similar but more D DOWN HEx THROAT, AND WITH THE OTHER I GRIPPED IT painful experience with & leopard st the Dsk Bungalow at Vol Vol is & station on the Uganda railroad, where there was, and 1 suppose still is, a rallroad hotel of a rather primi- tive kind known as the Dak Bunga- low. One night a man was sleeping in one of the bungalow rooms and, hearing a commotion outside, he started out to seo what it was. As he pagsed through the open doorway onto the porch he was attacked by the leopard that had evidently come stalking his dogs. Leopards are not particularly afraid of man. I never knew ome to attack a man unprovoked except when caught at such close quarters as the case at Vol, but they prowl around man's habitation without compunction. I had a camp at Somaliland once where the tents were surrounded by two thorn thickets— the inner and out sareba. A leopard came in one night, killed a sheep, dragged it under the very fly of my tent o the way out, jumped the zareby and got away. Fifteen years ago, when Nairobl was a very small place, the daughter of one of the government officers went into her room one evening to dress. As she opened the door she heard a nolse and, looking, she no- ticed the end of a leopard's tail sticking out fram under the bed with | the tip gently moving from side to side. With great presence of mind the young lady quietly went out and closed the door. ¥ Nairobl had many possibilities of | thrills in those days. It was about the same time that a gentleman hur- rying from town up to the Govern-|. ment House one evening met a lon In the middle of the street, to the em- barrassment of both parties. * * x % INCERNING the rhinoceros of “rhino,” as every one calls him in Africa, there are some phases in Tennyson's “Charge of the Light Bri- gade” that always put me in mind of him: l “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and dfe.” But 1t {s stupldity, not duty, that keeps the rhino from reasoning. He is the stupidest old fellow in Africa. I know that many experienced hunt- ers likewise consider him, one of the m dangerous animals in Africa. I can’t quite agree with this. Of course, if he runs over you not only is it dan- gerous, but it is also likely to be fatal. It is also true that as soon as he smells man he is llkely to start charging around in & most terrify- Ing manner, but the rhino is never cunning ltke the elephant, nor is his charge accurate -like that of a lion, nor is the rhino vindictive llke the buffalo or the leopard. Most men's estimate of the relative dangers of African animals is based upgn their own experience. The animals that have mauled them worst or scared them worst they hold most danger- ous. I have been mauled by an ele- phant, chewed by a leopard, and scared half to death a dozen times by lions, so that I have . the very firmest convictions about the dan- gors of these animals. On the other hand I have twice been caught by rhinos In positions where an elephant, a lion or & leop- ard would have had me in no time, and both times the rhinos left me un- molested. When I first went to Africa I had the same experience as every one else. Rhinos getting wind of me would charge me and to save myself I'd shoot. 1 suppose I had stood off twenty of these charges with my rifle before I discovered that if I did not shoot it would not mnecessarily be fatal. I discovered the fact, of course, quite by accident. I was going along the bank of the Tana river one day with my camera. My gun boys were some distance behind so as not to disturb any animal that might afford a picture. Suddenly I was set all quiver by the threshings and snort- ings of a rhino coming through the bushes in my direction. I very hasti- 1y took stock of the situation. There was nothing to climb. Between me and the thicket from which the rhino was coming was about twenty-five feet of open space. Behind me was 1 thirty-foot drop to the crocodile-in- fested waters of the Tana. The only hope I saw was a bush overhauging the brink which looked as 1f it might or might not hold me if I swung out on it My mind was fixed to try the bush and let the rhino land In the river in the hopes the bush would hold and ) wouldn't join him. The bushes were thrust aside and he came full tiit into the opening where he could see me. Everything was set for the final act. He suddenly stopped with a snort. His head drooped. His eyes almost closed. He looked as if he were go- ing to sleep. The terrible beast had become absolutely ludicrous. While this was going on I feit & poke in my back. I reached behind and took my rifle from the gunboy who had come up with celerity and bravery. I drew a bead on the old fellow, but I could not shoot. A stupider or more gro- tesque looking object I never saw. I began talking to him, but it did not rouse him from his lethargy. There he stood, half aslecp and total- ly oblivious, while I, with the gun half aimed, talked to him about his ugly self. About this time my porte; came into hearing on a path behind the rhino. He pricked up his ears and blundered off in that direction. T heard the loads dropping as the por- ters made for the trees. The rhino charge through the safarl and off into the bush. ** % A't‘ another time thres of them charged me when I was sitting down and unarmed. I couldn’t get up in time to get away or get a gun, 80 I merely continued to sit. This time they didn’t stop and doze, but they went by on both sides ten or fifteen feet away. This kind of charge pleased me a good deal more and seemed to satisfy them just as much as if they had attacked some one. These experiences have led me to think that in his blundering charges the rhino has no clear object—Ilke a lion, for instance. Even his blun- dering charge is dangerous, of course, if you are {n the way, but I firmly be- lieve that the rhino is too stupid to be elther accurste in his objective. fixed in his purpose or vindictive in his intentions. This does not mean that a lot of people have not been killed by rhinos. They have; but I do belleve that compared with other African animals the danger of the rhino is smells something h the scent until he As he can't see very far, no man with a gun Is likely to let him come with- in seeing distance without shooting. So the stupid old beast goes charging around hoping to see the source of what he smells and gets a reputation for savagery besides getting shot. I remember coming up over the top of a little rise one day and seeing &cross the plain an old rhino stand- ing motionless in the shade of & soli- tary acacla sbout 200 yards away. The usual tick birds sat on his back. It was a typicsl rhino pose. As I stood looking for more entertalnment a second rhino came ‘mouching along between me and number one. Num- ber one evidently heard him. The birds fiew off his back, he pricked up his ears and broke into a charge toward number two. Number two re- ciprocated. Thelr direction was good and they had attained full speed. I ‘longed for a camera to photograph the collisjon. But the camera would have done no g0od. The collision did not happen. ‘When about twenty feet from each other they stopped dead, snorted and turned around. Number one returned to dose under his tree and number two continued the journey which had been {nterrupted. I suppose that rhinos have gotten the babit of charging around when- ever they smell anything because un- til the white man came along they could investigate In this pecultar manner with {mpunity. Everything but an elephant or another rhino would get out of the way of one of theso investigating rushes, and, of course, an elephant or another rhino is big enough even for a rhino’s poor eyes to see before he gets Into trouble. The coming of the white man with the rifle upset all this, but the rhino . $as learned less about protecting him- self from man than the other an mals. But man went ever farther in breaking the rules of .hlno ex- istence. The ralflroad was an even worse affront thap the rifle, The rhino furnished scme of the comedy of the invasion of the game country ' by the Uganda railway. In the early days of that road a friend of mine was on the train one day when a rhino charged it. The train was standing still out in the middle of the plain. An old rhino efther hearing it or smelling man, set out on the custom- ary charge. The train didn't move and he didn't swerve. He hit the run- ning board of one car at full epeed. There was a terrific jolt. My friend rushed to the platform. As he reached it the rhino was getting up off his knees. He seemed a little groggy. but he trotted off, conselous, perhaps, that railroad trains cannot be routed by the rhino's traditional method of attack. (Copyright. Al rights reserved.) 7 Turkey and Trimmings HE turkey is indigenous to North America and, like the Indian and the buffalo (bison), he is 100 per cent American. He is also the great national domesticated bird of these United States. ‘With his size, his marvelous beauty of plumage, his majestic appearance and the savory character of his flesh, the turkey may justly be termed the king of domesticated fowls. Being an unquestionable native of the soll, he was unknown outside of this hemlsphere until Columbus or some other seafaring gentleman dis- covered this continent. Is It nece sary to state that we are proud of him? We may, If we choose, trace his lineage for thousands of years, even to the days prior to the one on which the houseboat of Noah is said to have stranded {tself on Mount Ararat. Formerly the wild turkey occurred in large numbers in the wooded por- tions of a range extending from Malne to Florida and thence across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona into Aexico and as far south as Honduras. The numcrous varieties of domesti- cated turkeys now existing in the United States are without doubt a development from the native wild turkey of North America. As this country became more and more settled the number of wild tur- keys grew stesdily less, until at the present time they are found in the wild state only in the more remote portions of their former southern range. ‘When the Spaniards conquered Mexico they say they found the tur- key In a state of domestication among the Aztec finbabitants and sent specimens of these birds back to Spain. From Spain the breed spread to other parts of BEurope and was propsgated to such an extent that later it was brought back by colonists to the United States and was the foundation from which our present varieties have spruni but to establish the many varieties known to us today there was ex- tensive use made of selected speci- mens of the wild flocks which were captured for that purpose. How does this bird happen to be called turkey? When the birds were first brought to Spain from the “new world” they were handled and sold there by Jew- ish merchants of that country, and as these birds were generally con- fused with and called peacocks It was natural enough that these Jewish traders should apply to them thelr name for peacock—"tukkl” More or less common use of this name fol- lowed, which easily became, in the English language, our present name “turkey.” Before leaving Europe for America the Puritans or Pilgrim Fathers cele- brated their important Christian fes- tivals by dining off roast goose, but, owing to the scarcity of these birds imported into the Plymouth colony, they transferred their allegiance to the tender, juicy and more easily di- gested wild turkeys of the forest, and learned from the Indians how to capture them alive. Instead of the familiar and well-beloved goosc as chief dish at Thanksgiving and Christmas, the turkey was substitut- ed and continues to be our most popular and most satisfactory table fowl, barring the expense. Turkey hens are not prolific layers; they lay in litters, rarely more than two litters in a season, and in each litter there are from eighteen to twenty eggs. For this reason turkey eggs, which, after all, are more valu- able for hatching purposes, are sel- dom offéered for sale as food, although the bave an agreeable and del- icate flavor. A turkey hen that is “broken up” In her brooding and not nermitted to “set” may lay as many as 100 eggs in & season. It /is the object of the turkey raiser to produce birds for sale, so it behooves him to set his eggs early in order that the cockerels and pul- lets hatched out shall be at least six months old at the time of mar- keting, which {is principally at Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the demand is keenest. As the dress ed birds must be at the distribution points about two weeks before the demand reaches its peak, and as it takes twenty-eight days to hatch an ©g&, it may be seen that Mrs. Turkey must get busy with her domestic af- fairs by, the middle of March or else lose out at Thanksgiving. The small farm turkey ralsers sell their birds to itinerant buyers, who either drive them afoot or ship them to concentration points, where they are forwarded to the packing plants. At the packing plants they are slaughtered, dry-picked, placed iIn clean paper-lined- barrels, about 160 pounds to a barrel, frozen eolld and then placed in storage rooms kept 2t a temperature of about 32 degrees F. At the proper time they are shipped in refrigerated cars to the distributing points, where they are, #01d to the retallers and by them to the public. Perhaps you amay think that these are “cold storage” turkeys, ia cons nection with which there has devel- oped an ugpfavorable sentiment. Of course they are “cold storage™ birds, but this refrigeration, without which you would have to dress and cool your Thanksgiving turkey yourself, actually improves the tenderness of the flesh and conserves its flavor. All highly perishable food purchased by you has been through *“cold stor- age” or refrigeration before it reaches your ice box; but if you are still od- posed to purchasing a refrigerated turkey, then buy a live one that ls probably still highly feverish from transportation and loss of sleep on his long railway trip from some west- ern or southern state. Turkeys do not reach econom!cal market weight until about the first of November. Therefore they are not plentiful until about that date. From this it may be gathered that they are not subject to refrigeration for & period of more than four weeks be- fore being offered for sale. Having read thus far, you are now prepared to select a dressed turkey for your Thanksgiving dinner, but before doing the actual marketing it might be well to decide upon the number of pounds suitable to the size of the family and the number of in- vited guests. It is economical man- agement to purchase a bird that will last for two days, and to arrive at the approximately correct welight one should allow two pounds of dressed weight to each person in the house- hold. Even If the family should be & small one, the bird selected should not welgh less than ten pounds, as the light-welght birds are probably the ones that did not mature properly before being disposed of. The flesh of such birds is usually deficent in firmness, flavor and food value. Some’ buyers object to dlack-feath- ered turkeys, whose skin appears white by contrast, while others Insist upon a white ekin in a white-plumaged bird. As 2 matter of fact, all turkeys dress with a decided tinge of yellow in thelr skins. At any rate, the skin coloration has no significance one way or the other. What should be looked for are the proper welght, age and firmness of the flesh. In the city of Washington, where all perishable foods offered for sale are ocoloration has no significance one way spectors, there is little or no danger of having tainted turkey offered to you at the shops. Nevertheless, use your senses of sight, smell and touch, and also verify the scaling. Size of Ocean Cables. T would perhaps be quite & natural fdea to hold that an ocean cable, connecting countries thousands of miles apart, would be very large in diameter. Also, it would seem logical that the cable should be largest where the ocean is deepest. As a mat- ter of fact, where the sea is deepest, ths cable is smallest, for the reason that a cable of very large dlameter would be very heavy to ralse when repairs were necessary, and, more- over, where the water is very deep, there is practically no movement on the bottom and a small cable answers every purpose. In shallow water, because It is sub- ject ta greater strains, beiug shifted about more or less, heavier cable must be used, and a still heavier cable is found at shore ends. Thess three sises of cable are known as “deep sea,” “intermediate,” and “shore end,” and are, respectively, one, one and three-quarter and two and three- quarter inches in diameter. Use of Litmus Paper. THE coloring principle of litmus, the matter or substance obtained from certain lichens by exposing them to the air in the presence of monia snd potassium carbonate, Is & red acid, but the color of its saits is blue. Aside from the use of litmus as a dye, it is used In the laboratory to detect the presence of acids or alka- llex. Any acid turns it red and any alkall restores the blue color, In the market litmus Is sold as & lumpy blue powder, but “litmus paper,” an unglazed paper treated with .litmus, {s the method most commonly used for the detection of acids. Lichens are pecullar formations in the plant world. They thrive under great exposure and are found in high altitudes and far north or south as any plant can grow. Quartz in Photography. I'r s well known that nure quarts’ glass possesses the property of transmitting, very abundantly, the so-called chemical rays of light, by means of which photographic effects are produced, and it has often been attempted to make photographic plates of quarts alone. Unfortunate- 1y, quarts also possesses the prope erty of double refraction, so that, unless the opening of the len very narrow, good images ar produced. . A French optician, E. Morin, is re- ported to have succeeded in making, small photographic lenses of quarts islass in which some of the difficulties have been avoided and the lenscs show great rapldity of actlon.