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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
F Street, Alfred Billings
127 Woods and waters
A2S82
1865
WOODS AND W
IN THE SARANACS
Hit* 1TFS> ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD
" ^r .
DESIGNED BT WILLIAM HART, AND ENGRAVED BY AVERT
BY ALFRED B. STREET
AUTHOR OF "POEMS," "FRONTENAC, A NARRATIVE POEM," &c.
NEW YORK
PUBLISHED BY KURD AND HOUGHTON
BOSTON: E. P. BUTTON AND COMPANY
1865
n
o
Entered according to Act of Congress, :'n the year 1860. by
ALFRED B. STREET,
In the Clerk's Office of 'the District Court of the United States for tne Southern
District of New York.
P
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY H. o. HOUGHTON AND COMPANT.
To JOHN A. GRISWOLD,
OP TEOT, N. Y.
I dedicate this book to you, as a memento of friendship and of the
happy hours we have enjoyed, with the other members of the Saranac
Club, in the great wilderness of our native State.
THE AUTHOR.
ALBANY, N. Y., August 1st, 1860.
ILLUSTEATIOE'S.
MOOSE MOUNTAIN, FRONTISPIECE.
DOE AND PAWNS, VIGNETTE TITLE-PAGE.
MOUNT SEWARD PAGE 41
CONTENTS.
PAGB
INTRODUCTION, xv
CHAPTER I.
Camp of the Indian Carrying-Place. — The Saranac Club and Guides. —
A Bear. — Seeking Deer and finding Musquitoes,. 1
CHAPTER II.
The Start from Home. — The Yankee's Story of the taking of Ticon-
deroga. — The Ausable Yalley. — The Driver's opinion of Deacon
Brown. — Scenery on the road. — A quotation under difficulties.—
Harvey Moody. — Scenery at Baker's, 13
CHAPTER III.
The Saranac Boats. — The Buckboard. — Harvey kills a Deer. — The Song
of Glencoe, 25
CHAPTER IY.
The Lower Saranac. Lake. — The Eagle. — Mount Tahawus. — The Loon. —
The Gull. — Moose Mountain. — Cove Hill. — Mount Seward. — White-
face 31
CHAPTER V.
Lower Saranac Lake. — A Talk on Trapping. — A Moose Story. — Sara-
nac River. — Moose Mountain. — Middle Falls. — Round Lake. — Um-
brella Point^Bartlett's. — Upper Saranac Lake, ., 43
CHAPTER VL
PAGB
Sunrise. — Indian Legend. — The Saranac Wizards. — Mode of Carrying
the Boats. — The Beaver-Pond Hunt. — The Stony Ponds, 55
CHAPTER VII.
Stony Creek. — Origin of the Indian Plume. — The Racket River.—
Moose Talk. — Panther Story. — Palmer Brook.— Racket-Falls Camp, . . G9
CHAPTER VIII.
Floating for Deer. — Night Scenery on the Racket. — Owls. — A Camp
Scene 82
CHAPTER IX.
Carry at Racket Falls. — Up the Racket. — Cold River. — Bowen's Camp. —
Long Lake. — The River Driver. — Harvey's Woods. - Almanac, 97
CHAPTER X.
Camp Sketches in a Rain Storm. — Lumbering and River Driving, 104
CHAPTER XL
Camp Sketches — Racket Falls Camp Left. — Down the Racket to
Calkins. — An onslaught of Musquitoes upon the Saranac Club. —
Mart's imitations, 118
CHAPTER XIL
A Rainy Day on the Racket. — Down to Folingsby's Brook. — Folings-
by's Pond. — Bingham and the Ducks.— Captain Folingsby, 131
CHAPTER XIII.
Down the Racket.— Old Ramrod.— Trout Fishing at Half-Way Brook. —
A Water-Maple.— Cloud Pictures. — Woods in the Wind. — The Great
Oxbow. — Ramrod's Shanty ; and Chase by Indians. — A Talk on Fish-
ing, with the Opinion of the Guides about it. — A Night Scene on the
River, , U8
CHAPTER XIV.
Simon's Pond. — Harvey's Story of Old Sabele, the Indian. — Driving
Deer.— The Simon's Pond Pirate.— Tupper's Lake.— Night Sail on
Lake,.,.., . 163
CONTENTS. XIL1
CHAPTER XV.
PASM
Tapper's Lake.— Old Sabele continued.— The Devil's Pulpit.— Its
Legend. — A Deer's Leap. — The Camp. — Trout Fishing 177
CHAPTER XYI.
Bingham Kills a Deer in the Lake. — The Indian Park. — Leo, the.
Indian. — The Loon. — Showers on the Lake. — In Camp, 188
CHAPTER XVII.
Thunder-storms. — Lightning Island. — Thoughts at the Indian Pass. — A
high Wind. — Captain Bill Snyder. — Night Sail in the Wind. — Cove
at the Devil's Pulpit. — Mist on the Water. — Harvey's Indian Story, . . 202
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Sabbath.— Preaching at the Indian Park.— The Pool.— The Sky.—
Politics.— The Constitution, 224
CHAPTER XIX.
Sail up Tupper's Lake. — Jenkins' Clearing. — The Shanty of the Spring. —
Bog River Falls. — Head of the Lake. — Up Bog River. — Leo. — Track
of the Moose. — Roar of the Moose. — Mud Lake. — Death of the
Moose, 233
CHAPTER XX.
Back to Tupper's Lake. — Night Sail down the Lake. — The Echo. — De-
serted Camp. — Message, woods fashion. — Tupper's Lake left. — Down
the Racket. — Indian Camp. — The Water-lily. — Legend of its Origin. —
The Mink. — News of the Party. — The Eagle-nest. — Through Racket
Pond. — The Island. — The Irish Clearing. — Captain Peter's Rocks. —
Camp at Setting-Pole Rapids, 248
CHAPTER XXI.
Fish-Hawk Rapids. — Perciefield Falls. — Death of Sabele. — Beaver Trip
agreed upon. — Floating. — The Dark Woods. — The Foot-Tread. — The
Indian Jack-Light, 261
CHAPTER XXH.
Setting Pole Rapids behind.— Wolf Brook.— Little Wolf and Big Wolf
Ponds. — Lumber-Road in the Ram. — Picture Pond. — Beaver Mea-
dow.— Maine Shanty, 2t7
XIV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXHL
PAOI
Path Resumed. — The Medal — Musquito Pond. — Rawlins Pond. — Flood-
wood Pond.— The Sable, — A Network of Ponds. — Long Pond.— The
Cranes.— Slang Pond.— Turtle Pond.— Hoel's Pond.— Boat Left-
Through the "Woods. — Beaver Meadows. — Beaver Signs. — Beaver
Pond. — Beaver Houses. — A Beaver. — The Bivouac 285
CHAPTER XXIV.
Return Path. — ClamsheH Pond. — Song-birds. — Beaver-dam. — Beaver-
talk. — Absence of Serpents. — Hoel's Pond. — Carry: — Green Pond. —
UPPER SARANAC.— Eagle.— Water-thatch.— Tommy's Rock-
Goose Island. — Harvey's Opinion of Neighbors. — Phin's Idea of Subor-
dination.— The Loons. — Loon Talk, 299
CHAPTER XXV.
Up Fish-Creek "Waters. — Old Dam at Floodwood Pond. — Big Square
Pond. — Maine Shanty. — Beaver-dam. — "Wind on Upper Saranac. —
Bear Point. — The Narrows.— Deer in Lake. — Camping on Point —
Moonlight Scene. — Dawn. — Trail in the "Woods. — Down Lake to
Bartlett's. — Moonlight Sail through Lower Saranac. — Baker's, 313
CHAPTER XXVL
Whiteface. — Approach to Mountain. — Upward. — "White Falls.—
Chasm. — Little Slide. — Great Slide. — Summit. — Prospect. — Descent —
Baker's. — Backwoods' Dance. — "Whiteface Notch. — Homeward . . , . 324
INTRODUCTION.
THE wilderness of Northern New York is a plateau
ranging from fifteen to eighteen hundred feet above tide.
It is one hundred miles in diameter. On the north and east
it approaches within thirty or forty miles of the Canada line
and Lake Champlain ; on the south, within fifteen or twenty
miles of the Mohawk River, and on the west, within the same
distance of Black River. It embraces nearly the whole of
Essex, Warren, and Hamilton Counties, the southwest portion
of Clinton, the south half of Franklin, the southeastern third
of St. Lawrence, the eastern third of Lewis, and the northern
half of Herkimer.
Different portions of it are known under different names.
The northern portion is called The Chateaugay Woods ; The
St. Regis Woods lie next below ; then comes the Saranac
Region ; then that of Racket Lake ; to the east extend the
Adirondacks; and below, south and southwesterly, are The
Lake Pleasant Region, and John Brown's Tract.
The eastern portion of the plateau is exceedingly mountain-
ous. Here lies the Adirondack range, or group, the most
northerly in the State, extending in a general northeast direc-
tion from Little Falls, on the Mohawk River, to Cape Trem-
bleau at Lake Champlain. This range presents the conical
summits cloven into sharp grey peaks peculiar to its hyper-
sthene formation, and attains in some of its peaks nearly the
height of one mile — almost the limit of eternal snow.
•XVI INTRODUCTION".
These peaks are Tahawus or Mount Marcy (which is the
central and tallest, 5,400 feet high), Mount Mclntyre, Mount
St. Anthony (corrupted to Sanantoni), and Mount Golden.
These mountains are generally isolated, sloping somewhat
moderately toward the north, but precipitous at the south.
Other summits rise north, south, and west, some equal in
height to those named (except Tahawus) and others but little
inferior — Dix's Peak, Nipple Top, Blue Mountain, Mount
Seward (a cluster of peaks), Cove Hill,. Moose Mountain,
Mackenzie's Pond Mountain, and Whiteface. The last is the
most northern of all the high crests of the wilderness, and
hardly inferior in elevation to Tahawus. The region lying
around the south base of Mount Seward was called by the
Indians Cough-sa-ra-geh or " The Dismal Wilderness."
In the middle portion of the plateau, the mountains are gene-
rally rounded, and, like most of those mentioned above, waving
from base to top with forest. The western portion is plea-
santly varied by hill and plain.
One great valley shaped like a Y crosses the whole plateau
in a northeast direction.
It begins at the junction of Moose River with the Black,
continues seventy miles to a point six miles south of Upper
Saranac Lake, here branching northerly to Potsdam in St.
Lawrence County, and northeasterly to Plattsburg on Lake
Champlain.
A remarkable chain of lakes and streams extends along this
valley and its northeastern branch, linking (with a few carries,
and with the exception of twenty miles of rapids on the lower
end of Moose River) Lake Champlain, through the Saranac
River and Lakes, the Racket River, Long, Forked, Racket
Lakes, the Eight Lakes, and Moose and Black Rivers, with
Lake Ontario. The River St. Lawrence is linked with this
chain, by the Racket River traversing the northern branch
of this vaUey.
INTRODUCTION.
The waters of this plateau fall naturally into four groups
or systems, the Saranac, the Racket, the John Brown Tract,
and Hudson River.
The first system lies mainly in the southern part of Franklin
County, and comprises the Saranac River and Lakes, with the
network of ponds and streams lying west and north of the
Upper Saranac. All these are discharged into Lake Champlain.
The second lies just south, belonging to the south part 01
Franklin and the north of Hamilton Counties. It includes
Racket River through those Counties ; Long Lake ; the two
Forked Lakes ; Racket Lake ; Blue Mountain Lake (with its
two lesser sheets, Eagle and Utowana Lakes, and Marion
River), and Big and Little Tupper's Lakes; Blue Mountain
Lake being the real source of the Racket River, although
Racket Lake is generally so designated. These waters flow
into the River St. Lawrence.
T^he third group includes the Eight Lakes : the Reservoir
Lakes and other head waters of Black River, and the Moose
and Beaver Rivers its branches. This group lies in the west
part of Hamilton, the northern part of Herkimer, and eastern
part of Lewis Counties, and its waters flow into Lake Ontario.
The fourth system produces the Hudson River, and occu-
pies a portion of Essex County near the western line, and the
east and south portions of Hamilton. It embraces the Uppei
Hudson, the Sacondaga, and Schroon branches of that river
(the latter branch, however, is on the edge of the wilderness),
Piseco, Round and Pleasant Lakes, and others. Thus, these
sources pouring themselves forth to every point of compass
form all the larger rivers of the State — besides those men-
tioned, the Ausable, the Salmon, the Grass, the St. Regis, the
Oswegatchie, and the East and West Canada Creeks emptying
into the Mohawk. And thus, upon this great watershed, and
within a circuit of ten miles, rise springs whose waters seek
the seas of Labrador and the Bay of New York.
INTKODUCTION",
The extraordinary arrangement of these sources is illustra-
ted by the fact that the Upper Hudson ripples from the south:
west portals of the Indian Pass, and the west branch of the
Ausable River which empties into Lake Champlain from the
northeast. Preston Ponds, through Cold River, .feed the
Racket River at the west ; Fountain and Catlin Lak.es, west
of these, supply the Hudson at the east; and the Mooso
River, flowing southwest, almost twines with the Racket
waters running north.
Other waters are scattered over the plateau, but not falling
within the above systems: the east and west branches of
the Ausable, Lake Placid, at the foot of Whiteface, Cran-
berry Lake, an enlargement of the Oswegatchie River, and
Chateaugay, Ragged, and Chazy Lakes, near the northern
edge of the forest.
Rich marbles are found in the plateau ; valuable timber
and beds of iron ore abound. The last-mentioned, although
distributed generally throughout the forest, are found most
abundantly in the eastern portion of the plateau, and are as
extensive as any in the world. One bed on the Upper
Hudson (between Lakes Henderson and Sanford) is worked
ea'sily, yields seventy-five per cent, of pure metal, and will pro-
duce a steel equal to that of the best Swedish or Russian ores.
The valleys of the eastern portion of the plateau, and the
middle and western portions generally, are capable of sup-
plying nearly all the agricultural products native to the
State, such as rye, buckwheat, oats, pease, beans, turnips, and
potatoes. The soil, however, is especially adapted to grazing.
There is but a small quantity of arable land in the moun-
tainous or eastern section; and even this, although strong
(shown by its heavy growth of timber) is made less valuable
by its low temperature, owing to its elevation and the sur-
rounding mountains.
The soil is a gravelly loam, and is " deep, warm and rich"
in many parts of the western division.
INTRODUCTION. XIX
The trees are the pine, hemlock, spruce, white cedar, and
fir, among the soft or evergreen kinds, and prevail on the
lowest grounds and higher slopes and summits of the hills ;
and among the hard-wood species, the maple, beech, white
and black ash, birch and elm on the intermediate surface.
On the gentle swells between the lakes maple and beech
abound.
The climate is the same as the mountainous portions of
New England.
It is needless to enlarge upon the grandeur and picturesque
beauty, of the whole plateau.
Settlements throughout the plateau, of any extent, there
are none. Here and there, on the edges of the wilderness,
are clusters of rough habitations, and along the lakes and
streams is an occasional log cabin, or hunter's shanty. The
summer tent of the sportsman alone, in addition, dots the
boundless sweep of forest verdure.
All the wild animals of our northern latitude, the panther,
bear, wolf, and wild-cat, are here, with the moose, deer, fisher,
sable, otter, mink, and muskrat.
The moose is the rarest of all. Still, not a year passes but
one is slain in the deep, dark fastnesses which have now
become the animal's haunt.
The eagle, the partridge, the loon, the duck are likewise
found ; lake trout swarm in the broad waters, and speckled
trout in the cold, clear spring-brooks and rapid streams.
Eight or ten years ago, this wilderness hardly contained a
hut or shanty, and was rarely invaded by visitors. But of
late the number of sportsmen and explorers has gradually
but greatly increased. The noble trout, however, are as
abundant as ever, as are also the deer. But the latter have
grown more timid, and are less certainly found along their
once familiar waters. The shout of the loon, too — that
symbol of the wildness and loneliness of the scenes haunted
XX INTRODUCTION.
by this wildest and loneliest of birds — now rarely meets
the ear.*
As suggested, the edges of this enormous wilderness are
thinly inhabited by hunters and trappers, who pierce its
deepest recesses in 'their light boats, and act as guides to
visitors in summer.
The centre of the plateau comprises the region of the
Saranac Lakes, the Kacket River from Racket Lake to
Perciefield Falls, and a tract around Tupper's Lake. In it
are found all the distinctive features of the plateau — broad
and beautiful expanses of water ; the loveliest river of the
forest ; the prettiest cascades ; one of the highest mountains,
commanding the very grandest prospect of all ; and, save
one, the sublimest gorge. The chief and almost the only
home of the moose lies within it ; trout swarm in the myriad
brooks ; and the deer are as plentiful as in any other spot.
Into this centre, then — this wild heart of the wild northern
forest — the reader is invited through the following pages.
* For some of the principal routes into the wilderness, see Appendix.
WOODS AND WATERS;
OR,
SUMMER IN THE SARANACS.
CHAPTER I.
Camp of the Indian Carrying-Place. — The Saranac Club and Guides. — A
Bear. — Seeking Deer and finding Musquitoes.
SUNSET at the foot of the Upper Saranac I A golden
light kindles a little clearing -upon the southern border of
the glittering lake: one sweep of dark green wilderness
covers the remainder of the scene.
A log hut stands in the foreground of the clearing.
Behind, on a gentle slope, lies a patch of rye and buck-
wheat, the rye scarce hiding the charred stumps within it,
and the silver blossom of the buckwheat lending bright
contrast to the coal-black soil.
Beyond, gleams a broad white space of calcined earth,
with dark logs strewing it everywhere. Dead and living
trees stand here and there moodily apart. A rough zigzag
track leads up the slope, and is lost in the close woods of
the background.
Down by the waterside, are two tents. The larger is
open in front, displaying a layer of hemlock boughs upon
the ground, and over them, blankets of grey, crimson and
purple. On the front tent-pole, hang powder-flasks and
shot-pouches : against a tall withered pine, lean fishing rods
and rifles, while one of its skeleton limbs sustains the red
1
2 WOODS AND WATERS;
forequarters of a deer. From a stick in a stump, dangles a
cluster of dead partridges, their chequered hues warm in.
the sun-glow. One has fallen, and points with arched neck
and hanging wings, as if for attack, at a black and white
wood-duck, whose red bill is open to grasp, in appearance,
the orange leg of a blue- winged teal, the leg drawn up
seemingly from dread. A slanting beam glitters on a pile
of trout between a brace of fish baskets, and a score of
the same glossy prey, strung upon a birchen twig, lie care-
lessly on the neighboring moss.
Three hounds, white, with tawny spots, are nosing about,
occasionally bending on their haunches to scratch their ears
and lick their paws, crouching to stare open-mouthed,
through their fore-legs, at the fire and snap the flies, or
curling themselves for a nap, to start up again and resume
their roamings.
Around a crackling fir^ of piled logs, four men are busy
cooking. One, short but muscular, in a red hunting shirt,
watches the roasting of a noble haunch of venison ; another,
tall and lank, in a shirt of blue, is frying trout in a bob-
handled sauce-pan, while a third, with a hare-lip, and in a
coarse blue check, is " toasting," on forked sticks, a brace
of partridges spread out like fans.
The fourth is a man about fifty, of brawny shape, bronzed
skin, an air ever on the alert, and eyes that, gazing at any
object, protrude in keen glances. All the fingers of his
right hand, except the first, are twisted into the palm, and
there is no sign of a thumb, yet the limb is almost as ready
as its neighbor.
He wears a purple check shirt, with pantaloons and felt
hat, both of an earthen tint, and a woodknife sheathed in a
belt of deerskin.
His actions correspond with the quickness of his looks.
Now he tries a pair of ducks, roasting on sticks like the
partridges ; then stirs a layer of frying trout, ; then hurries
to a large Indian cake, arching and darkening into a
rich brown ; next turns a tawny wheat pancake, then stands
OR. SUMMER IN THE SAEANACS. 3
a moment with arms a-kimbo, glancing round the forest
and over the lake.
On the stump, a boy of sixteen is dressing a string of
trout.
A little removed from the fire, is another group ; two
sitting on camp-stools, calmly smoking, one standing and
loading his rifle, one reeling a fish-line, and one reclining
on his elbow, with his shoulder against the pine-tree, gaz-
ing upon the scene.
Boats are resting their bows on the brown sandy margin,
with their sterns buried in white water-lilies ; a heap of
dead prone hemlocks is on the left, half-drowned in the
rushy water ; and a couple of white cedars point horizon-
tally, at the right of the scene, their jagged limbs resting on
the bottom of the shallow, so as to lift their stiff, bristling
foliage a little from the surface.
The whole picture is soft and rich, as well as wild,
steeped as it is in the mellow charm of the deepening sun-
set.
" Here we are at the Indian Carrying-Place, and only two
deer," said the one with the rifle. " That's miserable luck
enough. I hope next year we'll find out a wilder hunting-
ground ; in Maine, for instance, where we can get not only
as many deer as we want, but moose, gentlemen, moose !"
" What a restless mortal you are, Bingham," said one of
the two on camp-stools, of erect, slender shape and gentle-
manly air, and whose sporting garb of coarse grey even
had a neat, trim look. " We shall find deer enough, before
we're through with our trip ; more than you'll shoot, I'll
be bound ! Harvey," turning to the guide with the maimed
hand, " isn't it time for Mart and Will to be back ?"
" Source yet, Mr. Gay lor," replied the old woodman,
" they wont be likely to come afore they've got a deer.
Sometimes though, it's mighty quick work gittin' one.
Onst me and Phin," glancing at the young man with the
hare-lip, " was at Flood wood Pond ketchin' fur. We "
" Hark !" exclaimed the other of the two on camp-stools,
4: WOODS AND WATERS;
as a faint sound stole out of the far distance. He was in
form and garb much like his companion, and wore an air
of decision and careless self-reliance. " Wasn't that the
hound, Harvey?"
"Jess so, Mr. Eunnin' !" answered the latter. " Watch
has sung out twyst afore. This last time, 'twas jess this
side o' the Gut. I shouldn't wonder ef the deer takes to
the water there. There's a runway at the p'int, isn't there,
Corey ?"
" There is so," answered the one at the haunch. " One
day, the fust week I come to this place, as I was gittin' out
the logs for my cabin there," nodding toward the hut, "I
heerd my dog Drive — hullo !" as a dull report echoed at
the right, where a large island seemingly blocked the lake,
with a smaller one in advance. " That gun come from
'twixt Birch and Johnson Islands, and, I think, jest at the
runway."
" That's Will's rifle, and we'll see the boat soon," said
Harvey, shading his eyes, and gazing in the direction of
the islands. " By goll, I thought I see 't then, but I didn't.
'Twas unly a loon making a flash. Besides, 'tisn't time 3Tit."
" And why the deuce isn't it time !" broke in Bing-
ham. " Are we to wait here all night, after hearing the
gun, before Mart and Will come, and then it may be with-
out the deer ? When the hound speaks, the occasion de-
mands, as old Webster says, prompt action ; in other words,
that I should be there ; eh, gentlemen ?"
" There it is again !" said the one on the camp-stool, who
had called attention to the cry of the hound. " Bing, you
do keep up such a horrible noise about your shooting qua-
lities that "
" And who has a better right, I should like to know,
Ealph Renning ?" returned the other loudly, bringing down
his rifle with a thump. " I only wish I had gone with
Mart and Will, I would have shown you what shooting
qualities are, that is, if Watch drives a deer, eh, Cort?"
' Jess so, Mr. Bingham," answered the one at the fire,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 5
with the blue hunting shirt ; " and talkin' o' deer, I kin take
ye to a place after supper, not fur from here nuther, where
you'll hev a shot at a deer in no time 't all, and mebby two
or three on Jm."
" Hurrah ! let us be going immediately," said the other,
shouldering his rifle and moving off almost on a run.
" Good-bye, gentlemen, I'll show you what shooting is !
Gome, Cort, what are you waiting for? Which is the
way ?" pausing over a prostrate log, with his legs astride,
and throwing back an impatient look.
"Hadn't you better get your supper first, Bing?" said
Gaylor.
" Not when a deer is in question," answered Bingham,
" or two or three, as Cort says. For my part, I think we
shall find half a dozen. Cort, why don't you come ?"
" Because Cort is engaged," said Eenning. " I, as one
member of the Club, object to his coming or going any-
where till supper is ready."
" Umph !" returned Bingham. " Well, if Cort can't
come, Cort can tell me where to go, I suppose !"
" It's over to the last o' them three p'ints back o' Green
Island and right agin' Fanny Island," said Cort, launching
his arm, without looking, towards the large left-hand island
which, with Birch Island, closed the water prospect.
" Hurrah ! Smith, if you can leave your tree there, and
Coburn can stop fiddling at his fish-line, we three '11 take
the boat over to the point," exclaimed Bingham. "I'll
show you how to shoot a deer — eh, what's that in the water
there?"
" A bear, by golly !" exclaimed Harvey, seizing a rifle
and hurrying towards one of the boats. " He's makin' torts
Green Island!"
" A bear !" echoed Corey, leaving his venison and
snatching also a rifle.
"A bear!" shouted Gaylor, Eenning and Coburn, the
two first overturning their camp-stools, and the last throw-
ing down his rod, and all springing to their weapons.
6 WOODS AND WATEES;
" A bear !" yelled Bingham, plying his long legs in mar-
vellous strides towards the water. " Hurrah, you Cort,
don't be all day in getting the boat ready ! Bears don't
wait for people, a bit more than bucks. Only get me near
enough, and if I don't plump that bear right through the
head, or some other place, I'm a 'souced gurnet,' as old
Falstaff says," and he tumbled into the boat, almost upset-
ting the light, buoyant thing.
In a few minutes, we all came up with the dark mon-
ster, who glanced round upon us his little, wicked, black
eyes snapping with fury. Cort, in the excitement of the
moment, urged on by Bingham, struck his boat against a
sunken log, in line with the beast, who was by this time
but a few feet from Green Island. Bingham was standing
at the bow, looking as wild as a muskrat in a trap. His
rifle was at his cheek as the boat struck, but fate was
against the enthusiastic sportsman. Unprepared for the
shock, over he toppled, upon a plat of marshy grass, just
as he was about to fire. He fell upon his knees and one
hand ; fortunately, the rifle did not go off in the fall.
The bear, meanwhile, with his glittering tusks clicking
like gunlocks, and jaws dripping with foam, had made his
way to the bank of the island. As he leaped upwards, a
mingled sound from several rifles echoed, and his black
carcass seemed to wither down among the bushes.
"Good evenin', sir!" shouted Harvey, as he landed.
" 'hope you like bullet feed ! As for myself, I al'ys take
whiskey. Here, Phin ! (who had come along in his boat),
you kin carry the bear back to camp. This, Mr. Smith, is
what I call rael old hunderd."
In a few minutes, we had all returned.
The sun had now sunk, and in the golden transparency
of the first twilight, every object, from the leafy outline of
the parallel shores to the minute tracery of the water-
grasses, was pencilled more clear and sharp than even at
noontide. The white lily blossoms looked like tiny cones
of silyer resting among their broad, heart-shaped leaves; for,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 7
like the birds, they fold themselves to slumber at the setting
of the sun.
The clouds burn in vivid hues, the woods are golden
brown, and the water seems as if a mine of varied jewels
had there turned liquid.
Wrapt in the beauty of the scene, the Saranac Club hear
all important call twice given before they heed it. It is
" Supper ! gentlemen !" in the voice of Corey, cook and
camp-master to the club.
Just without the large tent, a table of forked poles has
been thrown up, laid with bright, sweet flakes of spruce
bark, and on it, smoke our wildwood viands.
Banquets in palaces ! what are they, to the feast before
us rovers of the greenwood, with the peerless scene in
front and the radiant roof above !
The minutes do not vanish more rapidly than the fra-
grant spoils of stream and fofest, prepared by the simple
skill of our guides, who, with vigilant eye to our every
want, wait upon us.
At length we fall back and the guides advance in turn.
What heaps of crackling trout, what flakes of crusted veni-
son, disappear ! If there is an object in nature more vora-
cious than a Saranac guide, I have yet to know it.
Suddenly Harvey rises with " There comes the boat ! jest
this side o' Johnson Island !"
A dark spot is relieved on the water in front of the
smaller island in advance, at our right.
" They row so smart, I shouldn't wonder ef they'd got a
deer," continued the old guide.
" Deer are not so plenty in this region, that you can
imagine all that row fast have them," said Bingham, a little
querulously.
Several minutes of silence followed.
" I bleeve I see the horns of a buck over the sides of the
boat !" exclaimed Harvey, screwing down his right eye.
" Pho, pho ! a couple of dry sticks!" said Bingham.
"Mart and Will feel well!" said Corey. "They're
8 WOODS AND WATERS |
tunin' their pipes like a couple of bullfrogs," as a hoarse
strain swept across the water.
" Hev you got a deer ?" cried Harvey, at length.
" Yes, and one more on top on't," answered a tall, power-
ful man, paddling at the stern, in a red hunting shirt, and
leather belt with the usual wood-knife.
" Two deer did you say, Mart ?" exclaimed Bingham,
rushing to the water's edge.
" Shouldn't wonder !" said the one at -the oars, in a pink-
striped shirt and with the frame of a Hercules.
" Why, Will, where on earth did you come across such
luck ?" asked Bingham, excited as if some extraordinary
event had happened.
" Oh, on the p'int, jest agin Birch Island, that is, one on
Jem. The other we got — thalf is, the fust one, 'long in the
Gut. nigh the carry to Bartlett's," answered Will, drawling
his words in a slight nasal accent.
" Come, Cort, hurrah ! now's the time for our deer !
Come, Smith, 'can't wait a moment !" said Bingham, strid-
ing into his boat so as almost again to upset it, followed, as-
it righted, by myself.
" Take the. stern, Smith ! give us a shove off, Harvey !
If I don't have one deer before it's dark," grasping the oars,
" I'm a donkey !" giving them an enormous sweep.
" Don't go without me, Mr. Bingham 1" exclaimed Cort,
hurrying to the margin; " you can't find the spot without
me!"
" Sure enough ! I forgot all about you, Cort !" said Bing-
ham, backing up. " But when we're in such a country for
deer as this is, a man must be wide awake. Now, Cort,
make her spin !"
Cort entered the boat and took the oars, while Bingham
seated himself at the bow, fronting it.
" You show me a deer," continued the latter, examining
the cap of his rifle, " or even a piece <of one not bigger than
the eye, and if I don't put a ball straight to the mark, call
me a spooney, that's all!"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 9
We were soon gliding round the first point. " We
mus'n't make no noise now," whispered Cort, "we may
come on a deer, the very fust thing."
Bingham raised his rifle from his lap, in readiness.
We turned the point. No living thing disturbed the
solitude of the cove, except a black duck, which burst from
the water and darted over Green Island to our right.
Bingham aimed.
"You'll skeer all the deer, ef you shoot!" said Cort
eagerly.
" True !" returned Bingham, lowering his piece. " I didn't
mean to shoot ; at least I don't think I did, only the duck
rose so sudden. But, hurrah, Cort ! let's see what's behind
the second point."
We rounded this with no better fortune. The broad
surface of lily-pads Jay unbroken ; not a living shape was
seen among the foliage of the banks.
" Where have all the deer gone to, Cort !" said Bingham,
in a snappish whisper.
" I dunno I" answered honest Cort. " They ought to be
here, by good rights. But less see what's round t'other p'int."
We did see : sleepy trees and lazy lily-pads and — nothing
else.
Bingham began to fidget.
" We'll land here, ef you say so," continued Cort, " and
I'll go back in the woods a leetle. We'll hev a deer yit !"
cheerfully.
" I'll have one if I stay all night," said Bingham reso-
lutely, as Cort brought the boat up to a dead tree jutting
in;to the water and buried in moosehead-plants and rushes.
A few steps over this rounded bridge landed us on a
strip of black mould, stamped into hieroglyphics with the
sharp delicate prints of deer, many quite fresh ; and cross-
ing, we entered a little glade, shadowed by tall alders.
" I shan't be gone long, it's gittin' so late," said Cort, fol-
lowing a line of tracks leading from the glade up into the
woods.
10 WOODS AND WATERS;
" I'm in no hurry," returned Bingham, seating himself
on a log, " I'd as lief stay here till pitch dark, that is, as long
as I could see to shoot at all. Now, Smith, isn't it pleasant
here?"
The first grey which succeeds the gold after sun-setting,
now trembled in the air. The colors of the water had lost
their brilliancy ; a soft sheen like the tints of the wood-
pigeon's neck, had followed.
As I gazed, I felt some sensations more decided than
pleasant. Still I said nothing.
" How our friends will open their eyes when we bring
a buck home, this evening !" said Bingham, after (for him) an
extraordinary pause of silence. " We'll have a good time
around the camp-fire, eh (with a slap on his cheek), Smith !"
" Yes, when we bring the buck I"
"When we bring ! why, of course (another slap), confound
the musquitoes ! we shall bring — (threshing his arms wildly
about) 'let me get a sight of one, that's all ! it '11 be good
bite — night I mean to Mar — whew ! why the air is full of
the devils ! I say, Smith, do the musquitoes trouble you
so ? I do wish the deer would come along ! aha, wouldn't —
I killed two this time ! (scraping his cheek, with an em-
phasis.) What confounded little rascals they are ! They
come (jumping up, breaking off a branch hastily and whip-
ping the air fiercely) not in companies, but in battalions,
regiments, divisions, whole armies, tribes, nations ; whizz,
fizz, sizz, heavens ! I shall go crazy ! I hear them, I see
them, the Lord knows I feel them — yes I fairly taste them !
There's two in my mouth, three in each ear, and hang me !
if there isn't one up my nose! I'm off!" and he moved
towards the boat.
" But the deer, Bing, the deer !"
" Hang the deer ! I couldn't shoot one, if he came. One
might as well try to shoot with St. Vitus's Dance ! You
may stay if you choose, but I'm off! or stop though ! Have
you matches ? we'll make a smudge 1"
" Not a stick ! " feeling in my pockets.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 11
" Oh, of course not ! nobody has anything when it's
wan ted I Cort, where are you? (yelling at the top of his
voice). Come back here and make a smudge ! I never saw
the flies so thick, since the Lord made me 1"
"But the deer 1"
" Hang the deer, I say ! let's get rid of the flies I I
wouldn't stay in this place five minutes longer, without a
smudge, for all the deer at the Saranacs 1"
Just then, Cort made his appearance.
" I followed the tracks to a stream jest back o' here," said
he, " and there I lost 'm and was lopkin' round fur more,
when I heerd you sing out, Mr. Bingham! Did you say you
wanted a smudge ?"
" There's nothing on earth I do want but that. I'd go
back to camp quicker than lightning, if Eenning and Gay lor
wouldn't crack their jokes on me for a week. But hurry
up the smudge, for conscience' sake 1"
Cort left and returned in a moment, with a piece of
damp wood.
" The flies is a leetle thick," said he, in his usual drawl-
ing way. " I dont keer for the skeeters so much," tearing
off strips of mouldy bark from the old log where we were
seated, making a pile, with the wood and several green
hemlock boughs, and lighting it with matches and a few
dry splinters. " It's these leetle midgets that bite so bad.
I remember one night, on the Eacket — there !" as the smoke
streamed up. " You wont be troubled long with the crit-
ters now ; they hate smoke as an owl does daylight."
" Ah, this is comfortable 1" said Bingham, bending over
the smudge till his visage looked as blear as one of the
witches in Macbeth. "Yes, the flies are all gone, Corty,
and now bring on your deer I"
But the deer would not be brought. So, after waiting an
hour, we returned to the camp.
The gray of the twilight was now yielding to the dark-
ness of the night. The shores and islands grew gloomy
and mysterious,, and the water soon was one expanse of
12 WOODS AND WATERS;
\
starry purple. Comrades and guides bad retired to the
tents. Nothing disturbed the quiet of the summer night.
The solitude was intense. The silence filled my heart.
God seemed near in the solemn heavens. Far away was
the world, with all its darkening sorrows and corroding
cares. Here, I thought, would I abide and forget that
world, that torturing, maddening world — here, close to
the heart of Nature. The solitude would teach me peace,
the quiet would yield me rest. Here would I abide, where
the wilderness sweeps as sweeps the boundless sea. Sin
blights not ; pride, hatred, envy and ambition never enter.
Here, the soul, mingling with Nature, would soar towards
God. May Man, then, never pollute this realm with his
breath, may he never plant his foul heel on its bosom
of beauty ! Free may its forests wave, teaching their stern,
pure lessons of self-denial, self-reliance, endurance and
courage ; of the religion which dwells with Nature, where
the bared soul
" Like Moses, shall espy,
Even in a bush, the radiant Deity 1"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 13
CHAPTER n.
The start from home. — The Yankee's story of the taking of Ticonderoga.—
The Ausable Valley. — The driver's opinion of Deacon Brown. — Scenery on
the road. — A quotation under difficulties. — Harvey Moody. — Scenery at
Baker's.
How came we at the Indian Carrying-Place, in the wild
forests of the Upper Saranac ?
One day toward the last of July, I was debating whither
I should go, to escape the heat. Now, the forest sang in the
breezy tone of the pine, "Come !" Then the delicious rumble
of the sea beach murmured, " Come !" and then the blended
voices of some rural valley, the tinkle of sheep-bells, the
rustle of wheatfields and the clinking of scythes uttered,
" Come !" in most persuasive music.
"Where shall I go?"
" What do you mean ?"
The voice was most familiar ; I looked up and there was
Ralph Renning, a fellow-townsman and a lawyer of emi-
nence, who had just entered. , •
"I mean, where shall I go, to escape this dreadful
weather?"
" Go ? Why to the Saranac Lakes and Racket. Join
our Saranac Club; Graylor, Coburn, Bingham and myself.
We start, to-morrow afternoon."
"Enough!" as a vision of that noble region of lake,
stream and forest, of which I had heard so much from my
friend, glowed before me. "But stay, what must I take
for the trip?"
"Well, rifle, rod, powder, Aot, hooks and lines, of course.
Then a warm, wide blanket, to sleep in ; a felt hat ; your
14 WOODS AND WATERS;
winter clothing and overcoat. Better take a flannel hunt-
ing-shirt, too. Then for the rain, take an india-rubber coat.
Get a pair of large thick boots, reaching to the knee. As
for stores, you will find them, at Baker's, where we put up,
before going into the woods. But I only dropped in to see
how you were ; so good bye, and be at the Northern Depot
at five."
Accordingly, the next day, Kenning, Coburn (Renning's
partner) and myself left Albany in the cars, for Whitehall.
At a neighboring station, we were joined by Gaylor and
Bingham, the former a wealthy banker, and the latter a pro-
minent lawyer ; and the Saranac Club was fully mustered.
The beautiful evening saw us sailing down Lake Cham-
plain in one of the fine steamers of its waters. All was
sweet and peaceful; the boat skimmed rapidly over the
star-dotted lake, and the night deepened in lovely quiet.
At midnight, we reached the ruined fortress of Ticonde-
roga. Darkly in view rose Mount Defiance, and my
thoughts recurred to that July night, eighty years ago,
when the columns of Burgoyne tore upward to the summit.
A slight movement attracted my attention to a form near
me, looking earnestly at the hill.
"Ah," thought I, "here is one with whom I can inter-
change sentiments."
Apparently the figure thought so too, for it turned to me
with
" Ahem ! — I say — Mister I"
" Good evening, sir 1" I replied, in my blandest manner,
but not exactly liking his mode of salutation.
"Good evenin' ter yeu. But I say, there must be a
tarnal heap o' snakes up on that aire hill !"
" Ah, ["-responded I, quite crestfallen, and observing the
speaker more closely by the deck-lamps. ,
He was a tall, lank genius, with a hat like a saucepan
and a mouth like a cat-fish. His vest was of immense
black and white stripes, across which ran a steel watch-
chain like a ship's cable.
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 15
" Yaas," continued he, with a nasal drawl, " I kinder con-
Bate so, from the looks on't and what I've heern tell. But
I say!"
"Well!"
" Them black things up there's old Ty."
"Ah?"
" Yaas. I've heern my old grand'ther tell all abaout the
time that tarnal critter Allen tuk the fort. Grandpop got
it from grandmom, who got it from old Aunty Strides, as
we used to call her, who got it from Miss Fellows, who
al'ays said she heerd it straight from Miss Bunker, the wife
o' one o' Allen's men. All these ere old wimming-folks
lived in the place where I was raised, up on Connecticut
Eiver. Waal, as I was a sayin', grand'ther used to tell
that when old Allen, with his Green Mounting b'ys, got up
to the fort, there wasn't nobody nowhere's araound, no
haow it could be fixed. 'Twas very airly in the mornin'.
Allen, whilse the b'ys was a goin' one way inter the fort,
went t'other, right smack up to the door where the Cap'n
who was boss o' the whull consarn ; Cap'n — let's me see —
what war his name ! he war a married man, teu. Waal, I
dunno as I kin call his name naow ; but 'twas where he
done his sleepin'. Old Allen gin teu or mebby three
smart bangs at the door, with the handle of his seword.
Now, yer must kneow that though Allen war a tough old
critter, yit when he war a mind teu, he could be as per-lite
as a dancin' master.
. " ' Up with yer here !' says he, ' yeu tarnation lazy critter,
and s'render, or I'll give the whull consarn to Old Sanko !'
" The door whips open quicker nor lightnin', and there
stands the Cap'n, and who should be there but his woman
teu, in her night-cap !
" Old Allen tuk his cap off with one hand and riz his
seword with t'other.
" S'ze to the Cap'n, s'ze — but stop though — fust s'ze
1 Haow air yer ?' s'ze, ' haow d'yer come on ?'
"'I'm all right!' says the Cap'n, for yer knows them
16 WOODS AND WATERS;
French fellers is jeest as per-lite and gin-teel as kin be.
' Haow de yeu come on?' s'ze.
"'Oh, stiddy by jerks,' says old Allen, 'but' s'ze — stop
though, fust, s'ze, smilin' kinder to the woman, s'ze, 'I ax
yer pairdon, mom,' in the per-litest way' " (here the fellow
swung his leg up in a boorish bow) " ' but,' s'ze, puttin' on a
farse look at the Oap'n, s'ze, 'ye must s'render,' s'ze, 'but ye
musn't be afeard, mom,' s'ze, fust-rate gin-teel agin, ' we don't
make no war on the wimming-folks,.' s'ze; ' but,' s'ze, to the
Cap'n, farse agin, s'ze, 'ye must s'render!'
" 'In whose name?' says the Cap'n, who but he ? as peart
as a crow on a tree-top.
" ' In the name,' s'ze, ' of the Great Jehovy,' s'ze, 'and the
Cont'nental Con-gress,' s'ze, by hokey ! an' he got the fort,
an' I'll be dod durned (slapping his thigh) ef he lost a
single man !"
On the strength of this very reliable account of Ethan
Allen's noble capture of Ticonderoga, I retired, with my
comrades, to rest.
At daybreak, we were at Port Kent, where, with the
morning star blazing on the water, we landed.
Up the long winding hill we creaked in the post-coach,
toward Keeseville, four miles distant, passing trees all
wrenched in one direction — signs of a past tornado. Sud-
denly, close by the road, a chasm opened, of sheer precipices
and jutting crags, with leaning trees, and foam flashing
through the downward gloom, while a low thunder rum-
bled upon the ear. It was one of the famous chasms of the
Ausable Falls — a wild picture, shaded, as it was, by the
morning mist that deepened the spectral lights and frown-
ing shadows.
"We breakfasted at the pretty and thriving village of Keese-
ville, on trout and venison (earnest of the region before us),
and then started, in a public conveyance, for Baker's Lake
House, two miles this side of the Lower Saranac Lake and
forty-six from Keeseville.
The glow of a bright summer's morning was kindling the
OK, SIMMER IN THE SARANACS. 17
landscape as we launched upon our planked road, which
struck off southeasterly.
At our left, lay the beautiful Ausable valley, sloping up
to wooded hills, showing points of wood in grassy bays ;
meadows with the hay- wagon loading ; fields with cattle
by the stream or under shades ; large barns nearly drowned
in lakes of yellow grain ; and orchards of apple-trees con-
torted as by some vegetable spasm, with the small, red
farm-house blinking through the branches.
In the centre of the scene was the Ausable river, flowing
to Lake Champlain, in bends and reaches, rifts and stilly
nooks, with tree and rock photographed upon it.
In front, was a, streak of mountain pinnacles on the sum-
mer haze, giants of the enchanted realm we were to visit.
Chief among them, pointed out by one of my comrades, was
Whiteface.
We passed the little village of Clinton ville and were now
bowling toward the larger village of Ausable Forks, along
a level, fringed on the left by trees, where the wild grape
twined in lower bowers of foliage, through which glanced
the scenery of -the river.
" Hullo, Bill !" said our driver, to the Jehu of an advanc-
ing wagon, which a sudden turn in the road disclosed, " is
that you ? What's the news at the Forks ?"
" Bad news enough I" answered Jehu, " the Morgan hoss
is dead!"
" Dead !" exclaimed the other, pulling up suddenly and
catching his breath, while his jaw fell, "the Morgan hoss
dead ? you don't say so ! Gaul hang ! that's bad news, sure
enough I He was a feelin' tip-top, t'other day I When did
he die, and what of?"
"He died, this mornin'. Nobody knows what of! He
hadn't been ailin' more'n a few hours. Yes, he's gone !"
" Well, I swan ! I should think the whull village 'ud be
in mournin'. The ^forgan hoss dead ! Well, what kin be
next ! But it can't be helped, ef we mourned here all day !
So good-bye, Bill ! I s'pose there's nothin' else stirrin' 1"
2
18 WOODS AND WATERS;
" No ! good bye ! git up there ! but stop though, there is
a leetle suthin' else I Deacon Brown's dead 1"
" Whew, is he? But unlj think, the Morgan hoss dead!
Who'd a thought it I sich a stepper too I Well (sighing),
good-bye, Bill I" and the worthies parted.
As we proceeded, bends of brooks and roads, breadths of
rippling rye, white houses in green courtyards, and an
occasional tavern, thrusting its gallows-shaped sign and
large horse-trough into the traveller's' eyes, met our
glances.
From the Ausable Forks (where the east and west
branches of the Ausable river unite), the country grew
wilder. The wilderness stood close to the road, or left stony
lots and black stumps transparent in thin grain. Forest
summits with gray cliffs looked down, and barren slopes
stretched away, with pines stripped nearly to the top, seem-
ing, on the horizon, as if they might scud off.
We passed Black Brook, funereal with its furnace smoke:
lines of dark charcoal arks drawn by mules and driven by
glaring goblins ; board-roofed mud hovels for charcoal
burning, puffing black smoke from their loop-holed sides,
with the huts of the charcoal burners crouching by in
stumpy patches.
At Franklin Falls (where the plank road ends), we first
encountered the Saranac river. This beautiful stream, flow-
ing successively from the Upper, Eound and Lower Saranac
Lakes, unites after a score and a half of leagues, with Lake
Champlain at Plattsburgh.
We dined at the tavern, which, with the red store opposite,
had found miraculously one spot free from rocks, on which
to rear itself; and again we started. Still wilder grew the
scenery. The close forest thrust out the sharp ends of logs
cut asunder for the track, and shaped a groined roof above.
Corduroy bridges spanning the frequent marshes; fireslashes,
one chaos of charred logs and stumps; wild pastures of
fern and bramble, burying prostrate trunks ; tumble-down
log huts and new cabins in fresh-cleared Lots, with patches of
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 19
potatoes, rye and buckwheat, showed themselves at every
turn. 0
The summits, sketched upon the morning mist, now stood
boldly forth, mountains of purple.
Old King Whiteface towered loftier than ever, and I
registered a vow to dare his summit, at some future period
of my trip.
Suddenly, a pool near by was wrinkled as with a myriad
waterflies ; a humming in the woods began and soon a sun-
shower sparkled in the air. It melted in a few minutes, and
then, almost without warning, a rain dashed upon us. "We
donned our india-rubbers, but supposing it a passing
shower, agreed that it varied pleasantly the long ride,
while Eenning remarked it was a good breaking-in for
the woods.
A half hour dragged along, and the fierce rain still
streamed.
" I wish this breaking-in of yours, Eenning, would break
up," said Coburn, at length, querulously.
Kenning said nothing.
At last the rain ceased, and soon the only reminder of
it was a mist which Whiteface sent up ; the old Sachem,
smoking his calumet, on the return of peace.
Beyond the hamlet of Bloomingdale, we again encoun-
tered the Saranac river, lost as soon as seen, at Franklin
Falls. Here it was gliding eastward, full of sylvan beauty.
A few miles farther and we encountered a corduroy
road ; logs laid across the track, at a swampy portion.
Bingham's tongue, ever since the rain, had been on a
gallop. He was fond of quoting from his favorite authors
and, as we struck the road, had fallen on Daniel Webster.
" I tell you what, gentlemen, this is great ! ' Europe,'
says the grand old fellow, ' within the same period, has been
agitated by a mighty' — bump, bump, bump, all the time
these logs are awful — ' revolution, which, while it has been
felt,' ugh ! what a cadunk ! — ' in the individual' — it's out
of the question, gentlemen, I can't talk — 'condition'" —
20 WOODS AND WATERS;
(here we came to the most horrible piece of corduroy I
ever saw, its huge logs lying or rather weltering, in a soil
that shook like a jelly), " ' and hap-pap-pap-iness of almum-
mum-most every man has sha-sha-shaken to the cen-cen-
tre the po-po-po-litical fabric' — look out for that log ! driver,
can't you ? it '11 roll over as sure as a gun — ' and d-d-d' —
deuce take it—' dashed against one another thrones whoo-
whoo- which had s-s-s-stood tr-tranquil for ages!' — thank
heaven ! boys, we're over that corduroy I"
The gold tangle of sunset glittered in the forests, the
damp air was full of fragrance, and the Saranac river gave
flash after flash, inviting us on, as we came in sight of
the Lake House. A sharp turn to the left, the trample of
our horses' hoofs over a little bridge, a slight ascent, and we
were at Baker's.
" Now we've come," said Eenning, after we had made
ourselves comfortable in the little parlor of the inn, " the
first question is, Where shall we go ?"
" What think you of the Upper Saranac, or the St. Kegis
region ?" suggested Gaylor.
" I should think Eawlins' and Floodwood Ponds and all
that chain of waters west of the Upper Saranac would give
us good hunting, if not fishing," said Bingham.
" I've a notion that a trip up the Eacket to the falls, then
down to our old camping spot on Tupper's Lake, would be
pleasant, beside the fishing we should have," remarked
Eenning. " But suppose we send for Harvey Moody. I
hear his voice pretty loud, in the bar-room ; he will give us
some good advice."
In a few moments, Harvey made his appearance. He
was the oldest of several brothers, all living in that vicinity
and nearly all guides ; was the father of four or five sons,
each a guide, and was an experienced one himself. He
had been brought by his father to the region when a child,
had always 'lived in it since, and, of course, was perfectly
familiar with its localities.
He was dressed in the sober colors I found it his custom
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 21
to wear ; thus blending himself with the natural hues of
his haunts, so as not to startle his game — the hues of the
oozy shore, where he set his mink-trap ; of the bark of the
runway trees', where he lurked for the deer ; the log at the
pool, where he stole to lure the trout ; the sand-banks and
gravel-beds of the stream, where he prowled for the otter ;
and the dawn and evening greys of the shallows, where
he pried to waylay the fisher and the muskrat.
" Harvey !" said Ealph, after that worthy had paid his
respects and expressed his joy at again seeing the four
with whom he was acquainted, " we are considering where
we shall go ; whether to the Upper Saranac, to Eawlins'
Pond, or to Backet Falls and then down to Tupper's Lake.
What do you think ?"
" Well, Mr. Eunnin ' !" answered Harvey, in his some-
what cracked Voice, " as for Upper S'nac, I don't say there
ain't as likely places in the world, but I do say there ain't
no likelier. I "
" But how about the fishing there, Harvey ?" interrupted
Ealph, who would not have cared if the waters of Paradise
shone over the next ridge, were no trout to be found there.
" Well I" -^Id Harvey, " I al'ays tell jest as 'tis. As fur
the fishin,' 'tain't liothin' wuth speakin' on ; but the huntin'
is rael old hunderd. One -day, 'twas jest about sundown,
I and my son Will shot three bucks at Black Pond outlet,
above Markham P'int, in less 'n no time. In the evenin',
and 'twas a parfect inkstand of an evenin', too, as black as
my dog Watch's mouth, we went floatin' for deer, and jest
where a cat-tail p'int jets out from a cedar swamp above
the Narrers, we come upon the goll darndest big buck "
" That's the place I1' said Bingham, with his eyes bulging
out like a hooked trout's (he was a keen hunter, but cared
little for fishing) and starring to his feet.
" Hold on !" said Eenning, " don't go there to-night,
Bing! We have time enough before us. You forget
Eawlins' Pond and the waters along there ! What do you
think of that region, Harvey ?"
22 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Well," answered Harvey, " Rawlins' is a rael tip-top
place for huntin', too. You kin a'most al'ays kill a ven'son
there. But the fishin' there ain't of no 'count, that is, when
we talk about the Racket and T upper's Lake; that is,
there's good sport ketchin' whitefish at the old dam in the
outlet o' Floodwood, which is next door to Rawlins, but
you can't ketch 'em this time o' year, nohow. It's only in
October. Still, ef you want to go to Rawl "
" What do you think as to Racket Falls, before we go
to the old spot, Tupper's Lake ?" said Renning.
" Fust best !" returned Harvey, slapping his knee ; " you
can't git no better place than Racket Falls and all above
there and then all the way down to Tupper's Lake. You
know, Mr. Runnin' and Mr. Gaylor and Mr. Bingham and
you, too, Mr. Coburn, all about the Racket, down from
Stony Brook to Tupper's; but Racket Falls and them
places up there, I bleeve you've never been to. Well,
now, as fur fishin', you won't hev much till you git to
Palmer's Brook — then there's the Falls — then Cold Brook
— then Cold River. As for that Cold River, you may
bleeve there's trout there, and some on 'em full grown, too.
And as for huntin', Mr. Bingham, the deer's around, up
about them slews. It's rael inkstand there with 'em.
There's Stony Slew and Loon Slew and Moose Slew,"
counting on his fingers, " below the Falls, and Moose
Creek, above. Ef there ain't the places fur night huntin',
then there ain't none ; and ef you, Mr. Bingham, could git
only two or three of them big bucks I've seen at Moose
Slew alone, you might hold up your head like a school-
inam. It's all sorts of a nice place, I "
" Suppose we say Racket Falls, and then down the
Racket to Tupper's Lake !" said Bingham, transported by
Harvey's suggestions of night-hunting.
" Agreed 1" said we all, and the thing was settled.
Obeying now a summons from our host, whose portly
form appeared at the parlor door, we ranged ourselves at
the supper-table, which was abundantly supplied with the
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 23
two staple luxuries of the woods, trout and venison. Piles
of the delicious fish, browned and diffusing a most appe-
tising fragrance, filled the space between a venison steak
and an immense boiled lake-trout, lapped in golden cream.
The tea and coffee also mantled in cream, whose rich clots
looked like bits of golden ingots, while the white, crum-
bling biscuits almost melted on the tongue.
In answer to our queries, our host informed us that the
trout (except the large one caught in the Lower Saranac)
came from Eogers' Brook, and the venison from Colby
Pond, both in the vicinity.
After supper, we strolled out in the twilight, to enjoy
our surroundings. The Lake House was a low building,
of two stories, partly white and partly in the wood's
natural weather-stained hues, with a projecting gable. A
white fence inclosed a little grassy courtyard. The borders
of this space had once been devoted to flowers, but all
traces were now being fast hidden by the grass. The
Saranac river wound from the forests at the west (although
its general course was from the south), and, broken into a
small rapid, flowed northeasterly a short distance from the
inn. A little wooden bridge spanned the rapid.
Eough upland fields, but lately wrested from the forest,
lay around. The narrow river-flat northeast, however, was
smooth in grass. Several buildings were scattered along
the Keeseville road, with one or two not yet finished.
The Lake House was at the intersection of two roads ;
the Keeseville, which swept round at the foot of the build-
ing and wound to the Lower Saranac Lake ; and the
Elizabethtown, which ran hence to a village of that name
and to Westport on Lake Champlain.
In the rear, or east of the tavern, a wild summit, known
as Baker's Peak, heaved its dark, leafy cone against the
sky. Mackenzie's Pond Mountain, cloven into two points
like the antlers of a deer, printed the horizon next in that
quarter, with other crests surging away to the south and
east.
24 WOODS AND WATERS;
An irregular line of the wild forest was traced around
the whole horizon.
The scene was enchanting with the soft semi-light, the
rose-leaf clouds, the crimson west, the darkening fields,
the blackening woods and the purpling mountains. Blended
with the dreamy twitter from the shadowy trees, were the
rush of the rapids and the distant cry of a huge bird — the
black eagle of the woods — winging his stately way high
overhead, toward the Lower Saranac.
We ascended the acclivity of the Blizabethtown road
and made our way to the right, up a green hill, where
was a flag-staff. The timid stars were stealing into the
heavens. Deepest quiet prevailed, broken only by an
occasional bay from a hound, at the cabin of Moody below.
My comrades descended the hill, but I lingered behind.
I lingered and gazed and dreamed. The scene was so
soothing, the tranquillity so holy I Nature seemed with
folded hands to praj.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 25
CHAPTER
The Saranac Boats. — The Buckboard. — Harvey Kills a Deer. — The Song of
Glencoe.
WHEN I descended from my room, the next morning,
day had just planted his golden sandals on the summit of
Baker's Peak. The sky was a lapis lazuli ; the atmosphere
bland and cool. Early as was the hour, the tent intended
for our trip was already pitched between the tavern and
the barn, and round it our guides had gathered. These
were Harvey Moody, with Cortez and Martin his brothers,
and Phineas and William his sons.
Beside the barn door, on which sprawled a dried wolf-
skin, two bear cubs were confined in a long, wooden cage.
One was pacing to and fro, with quick startling motions,
now and then thrusting his nose and paw through the bars
in front; the other, lazily winking, was crouched on a
cross-bar midway the height. While I was feeding them
with blueberries from an adjoining field, Harvey saun-
tered up.
" Good mornin', good mornin' !" said he, in a hearty tone,
" lookin' at the cubs and feedin' on 'm I see, Mr. Smith.
They were got jest out here on Keene Mountain, and the
skin of the old bear's in the loft there," pointing to a gable
building, newly erected for a corner store. " I didn't git these
ere, but I took two from a stump, last winter, at the lower
Lake. The old 'un I shot, jest as he poked his head up.
One o' the cubs died, but the other I've got chained up by
my shop."
" You've killed bears enough in your lifetime, I suppose,
Harvey?"
26 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Yes, and painters too. I was follerin' up a saple line
onst, from Hoel's Pond a leetle north o' the Upper S'nac to
the St. Eegis waters, and jest by Catamount Mountain, I
come crost the all-firedest big painter" —
" Good morning, Smith," said Eenning, thrusting his head
from his chamber window. " Good morning, Harvey 1 are
the guides all ready for Kogers' Brook ?"
"All ready, Mr. Eunnin'," answered Harvey, "I've hed
the b'ys here sin' afore sunrise, and the boats is in the
pond by Cort's."
We had selected our guides, the evening before; Eenning,
Gaylor, Bingham and Coburn, choosing respectively Will,
Mart, Cort and Phin, and I taking Harvey.
Eenning and Gaylor were to try the trout at Eogers'
Brook, and Bingham and Coburn to drive for deer at.
Colby's Pond. My choice was to wander around Baker's.
I was impressed, the more I saw of Harvey, with his skill
as hunter and guide, and at a later day, as trapper. He
not only thoroughly understood the region and the habits
of its every bird, fish and animal, but was full of resources
in his vocations. As guide, he was entirely reliable and
always ready. He handled rifle, rod and oar with equal
skill, and taught his woodcraft with a cheerful patience.
His senses were wonderfully acute and continually alive.
Not a sight or sound of the woods or waters escaped him.
As hunter, trapper and fisherman, he laid the whole
forest under tribute. In the swamp, he opened the jaws of
his wolf-trap ; through leagues on leagues of woods, he blazed
his sable line ; on the borders of the waters, he built his
deadfall for the mink ; over the entire wilderness, he let
slip his hound for the deer, while his fatal hook knew the
buoy spots of every lake, and the mouths, eddies and rapids
of every stream.
Eenning and Gaylor started with their two guides, all
fully equipped ; and the morning was so beautiful, I deter-
mined to accompany them with Harvey, to their point of
embarkation for the Brook.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 27
We travelled up the Elizabethtown road, passing Har-
vey's cabin (half log, half clapboard) and his little log
smithy in the corner of a small green space at the side of
the hut.
We passed also the red farm house of Harvey's father
and turned at the right into a grassy road, which soon
brought us to the Saranac River. A dam at Harrietstown
(a cluster of rough dwellings on the road between Baker's
and the Lower Saranac) sets the waters broadly back for
miles, and the overflow had killed the trees and thickets that
crowded the former borders. A labyrinth of dead trees,
prostrate trunks and withered branches, obstructed the
waters, leaving but a narrow channel, midway. The live
forest framed in the whole.
Drawn half way up the green bank, near a log hut,
were four Saranac boats. These boats are dark-colored,
slender as a pike, buoyant as a cork, made gracefully of
thin pine, with knees of fir, their weight from ninety to one
hundred and twenty pounds. Each has two oars on iron
pins, a paddle, a neck-yoke for the " carries;" is made for
three (it can hold five), and though so small and lightly
built, will live in the roughest swells.
Eenning and Gaylor embarked and glided rapidly and
smoothly through the channel, Will and Mart handling
their oars like playthings.
Harvey and I returned to Baker's. We reached it just
as the buckboard (a Ijoard on four wheels with one seat)
drove up for Bingham and Coburn, who were on their way
to Colby Pond.
It was brought by a scarecrow of a boy, all broken out
into tatters. The nag was a tottering mass of ribs and
knuckle-bones with a skin drawn tightly over, and it
seemed to have a constant inclination to fall on its nose.
Bingham borrowed a hickory goad and jumped on the
buckboard with Coburn, and at last, between the two and
amid the grins of the tavern loungers, old Mortality was
punched and jerked into a funereal jog. Down the hill he
28 WOODS AND WATERS;
shambled, his legs tangling and untangling in the most
mysterious manner. But the moment he struck the level
(I followed to see the sport), he subsided into his constitu-
tional crawl. The woods echoed to Bingham's goad, but
Bones only crinkled his hide, without budging a step the
faster. I left them as they began the hill, with Bingham
hallooing at the top of his voice, and boring the goad as if
it were a gimlet, into the old nag's crupper.
After the buckboard had disappeared, Harvey and I
strolled along the lane behind the barn, and he was in the
middle of a "jack-hunt on Eacket Pond onst, nigh the mouth
of Wolf Brook," when he interrupted himself with "Hark!
there's a hound runnin' a deer. It sounds like Watch ; hark I"
Although I listened intently, I heard nothing but the
rush of the rapids under the bridge above.
"It's Watch, by goll!" resumed Harvey. "He's bin
missin' ever sin' yesterday. I was huntin' out on the Plains
by Eay Brook, when he started a deer that run torts the
Lower S'nac. He must a started another. There he goes
agin ! Goll, don't he sing 1" and a yelp or two, followed
by a burst of cries, came to my ear.
The sounds then retreated, floating fitfully here a'nd there,
lower, then louder, then lower again, and dwindling to a
dreamy echo, then swelling once more until the tone illus-
trated the " wandering voice " of Wordsworth. At length,
a peal sounded, like a clarion's.
" Here comes the deer, and a buck in the bargain ; here,
Mr. Smith, here ! he's comin' this way !" exclaimed
Harvey, slinging his rine over his shoulder and running
before me. " I'll hev a shot afore he reaches the river."
The deer had broke, from the forest at the base of the
Peak, and was now darting towards the stream. He cleared
the stumpy field next the Peak and was crossing the river-
flat, when Harvey fired. The buck gave one bound and
fell headlong.
Harvey rushed to the spot and cut the animal's throat
with his woodknife.
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 29
f
1 Here's Watch I" said he, as a brindled hound came
leaping over the field toward him.
" Good feller, good pup !" patting the head of the hound;
" What did ye do with the deer yisterday, eh !" while the
dog rubbed against him, whimpering, and twisting his lithe
body with delight.
"Well," said Bingham, stretching his long legs on the
chintz sofa of the inner parlor, just after tea, while we all
sat round, " I'm about sick of this business, already.
Here Coburn and I have been all day watching at Colby
Pond and going over the worst road to get there that
ever afflicted mortal man, all rocks and corduroy, and such
a beast too, to take us ! — why I've drilled so many holes
with the gad into his leather carcass, that it looks like a
sieve ; — but as I was saying ; here we've been watching all
day for a shot, and not a shot do we get ; not even a yelp
to tell that one was wanted. And here Harvey Moody
kills a deer right under Smith's nose, without stirring from
Baker's. And here Eenning and Gaylor come back from
Rogers' Brook, and they too have a deer, without mention-
ing trout enough to break down that confounded tetering
buckboard of ours, and without even leaving their boats.
Well, so goes the world, Coburn, and suppose we take a
drink. Ah, this liquor is good, at all events ! and I say,
boys, if I had got a shot, wouldn't I have given the deer fits?"
" That's so much a matter of course, Bing," said Gaylor,
" there's no use of talking any longer about it. But here's
Will Moody coming from the bar-room. Come in, Will,
and sing us Glencoe."
Will entered, and after a few bashful excuses, struck up
in a powerful but rather nasal tone, the following ballad,
which I have translated into English from the Saranac
vernacular.
4 The young leaves of May had just feathered the trees,
And the heatherbell's fragrance was filling the breeze ;
I went, as of old, to see day dipping low,
On the wild, gloomy grandeur of rocky Glencoe.
30 WOODS AND VATERS;
• *
' The bank of a burnie beside me that run,
Displayed a bright lassie, as bright as the sun ;
All flowing in tartans, a lass long ago
That loved young Macdonald, the Pride of Glencoe.
1 With heart beating wildly, I slowly drew nigh,
The lily and rose in her cheek seemed to vie ;
I asked in soft tones where her thought was to go,
And she answered, I'm straying to gaze at Glencoe !
* Said I, lovely lassie, thy look and thy smile,
My pathway for ever with joy can beguile 1 •
If thou thy affections on me wilt bestow,
Til bless the glad hour we met at Glencoe.
' Said she, My affections no more can I claim ;
I once had a true love, Macdonald his name ;
He went to the wars, alas I long years ago,
And I live but to see him once more at Glencoe.
1 It may be Macdonald thou'lt never more see,
That he loves some far lassie more fondly than thee^
That he thinks not of tartans so simple in flow,
But of jewels that shine hi disdain of Glencoe.
'False man 1 my Macdonald true-hearted will prove:
The valiant in battle are faithful in love 1
And soon will the Spaniards in dust be laid low,
And in joy will my true love return to Glencoe.
' So loyal I found her, I pulled out a glove
She gave me at parting, her token of love ;
She hung on my bosom her tears all aflow,
Oh, art thou Macdonald returned to Glencoe I
4 Tes, Nannie, dear Nannie, thy sorrows are o'er I
I come from the battles to wander no more !
The rude winds of war at a distance may blow,
And fond and contented, we'll dwell at Glencoe.1
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 31
CHAPTEE IV.
The Lower Saranac Lake. — The Eagle. — Mount Tahawua. — The Loon. — The
G-ulL — Moose Mountain. — Cove Hill. — Mount Seward. — Whiteface.
THE next morning arose warm and threatening rain.
Breakfast over, my four comrades and myself, with rifles,
rods, blankets, overcoats and carpet-bags (holding as few
articles as possible), left in Baker's wagon for the Lower
Saranac Lake, to start thence upon our trip.
Up and down the winding road we merrily went, with
the picturesque bends of the Saranac river at our right. •
One view particularly pleased us, soon after our departure
from the Lake House : a graceful curve of the stream, lost
at either end in woods, with one dry jagged tree slanting
athwart, the only sign of decay amid the overflowing life.
We crossed the dam bridling the river at Harrietstown,
by a bridge, and leaving the hamlet on our left, ascended
a hill, and, with log-cabins and rough-clearings breaking
the wilderness at either hand, soon saw the glancing blue
of the lake in the background of the road.
"We found our five boats in waiting, with as many
guides ; Corey, our cook and campman, meeting us here
from the Indian Carrying-Place, with his son (little Jess,
a boy of sixteen) as assistant, and two boats for the camp
equipage and stores.
There was a party of sportsmen at Martin's (a tavern at
our point of embarkation much frequented by visitors of
the region), bound for Blue Mountain Lake. They were
lolling on the green slope before the house and seated on
the logs scattered around. The forest makes friends of all,
and soon we were chatting and joking together, like old
32 WOODS AND WATERS;
acquaintances, exchanging little gifts, discussing plans and
relating our adventures.
"You seem to want to know about the region, Mr.
Smith," said Harvey to me, after lie had placed his boat
(the little Bluebird) in complete readiness; "So I'll tell ye
that the Lower S'nac p'ints southwest and is six miles
long by two wide. Then comes the S'nac River, three
miles inter Bound Lake, which is two miles long by that
broad, and lays about west. Then a mile o' the river
agin to Bartlett's, where there's rapids and a carry inter
the Upper S'nac, which p'ints north agin. So you see the
three lakes makes a horseshoe, with the two eends p'intin'
one north and t' other tol'able nigh so."
" What are those islands south there named, Harvey ?"
" Them two little ones over this spread o' water is the
Two Sisters. On the left is Eagle Island, the largest
island in the lake, three-quarters of a mile long. Burnt
Island is on the right, and then comes the main shore.
That fur mountain over Eagle Island, is Mount Morris, or
Tupper's Lake Mountain, that we'll see clusser afore the
trip's over. That peak north, is Baker's Peak. This is a
great country fur mountains, and waters too. The lakes
and ponds is like spots on a fa'n, and the streams is as
thick as streaks on the moose-missee wood. As fur the
woods, all in the State is packed away in this 'ere region,
with now and then a clearin', like a bug on a chip floatin'
in the S'nac here."
In a few minutes we were underway ; each at the stern
of his boat, leaning against the backboard, and the guide
near the middle, plying smoothly and rapidly his oars.
Harvey had brought Watch with him, and he lay coiled
at the Bluebird's bow. Sport, the other hound, had been
consigned to the care of Will. Drive and the Pup com-
pleted the pack.
Onward the five boats swept toward the Two Sisters,
with the store boats at the left crank and tottering under
their loads.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 33
On either side, was one grand sweep of mountain woods,
swelling from the very verge of the water, which was
scattered with manifold islands. Here and there trees,
withered and scorched, strewed their gray and dull red tints,
but they were hardly discoverable amid the universal
green.
Heavy clouds with bright edges, filled the sky. The
whole scene was fitful with brights and darks. Sometimes
a beam lighted sudden and startling, on the top of a
shadowed mountain, overflowing it with splendor. A new
shadow then darted from the base, peeling off the light
until the whole mass frowned again in gloom.
So with the lake. Now it showed one sullen hue; a
gleam would then break forth, widening till dazzling
diamonds danced upon the view, followed by a leaden tint,
which closed like an enormous lid over its broad, sparkling
eye.
Growls of thunder were echoing all around the scene,
as if the mountains gave vent to fitful anger.
" Mackenzie's Pond Mountain, over there," said Harvey,
" has his umb'rell up to-day," nodding to the east,
where a dense mist touched the cloven crest. " It'll be a
kind of on-the-fence day, nuther much rain nor shine,
but a muxed up consarn, and mebby some wind. "Well,
in any blow that is reasonable, and some that might
be unreasonable, this little Bluebird o' mine '11 live
about as well (jerking his old hat in the most know-
ing manner, then spitting on his hand and sweeping
wide his oars) as a loon, whether it's on Upper S'nac
or Round Lake, and them two's about the wust in this
region."
A breeze now crisped the lake, freshening till we danced
onward over whitening swells I bared my head to the
wind ; I plunged my arm in the waves. Onward, good
Harvey ! swifter I let your oars play more merrily ! How
they dash, how they flash ! onward, old fellow ! on, old
guide of the Saranacs !
3
34 WOODS AND WATERS;
On, on o'er the waters I song dwells in their sound,
Brave life in their tumult, and bliss in their bound !
Roam thou where the light wind makes love to the tree^
But a way o'er the wild rolling waters for me I
Oh the eagle, he darts through his mighty domain 1
Oh the steed, with what triumph he tramples the plain !
But the bark, the bold bark, speeds as fleet and as free 1
Then a way o'er the wild rolling waters for me I
Men say there is sorrow and darkness in life,
That the heart, it grows weary and worn in the strife ;
But the bark has no heart-break ; all cares from it flee ;
Then a way o'er the wild rolling waters for me I
Bound onward, bold bark ! leave the tame earth behind
Thy path is the white wave, thy breath is the wind I
Pash whiter thou white wave 1 wind heighten thy glee !
Ho I a way o'er the wild rolling waters for me 1
At this glowing moment, when Pegasus had completelj
run off with me from the present scene and I was career-
ing oVer the magnificent ocean, a stealthy dash of rain
from Eagle Island extinguished my enthusiasm and wet
me pretty thoroughly before I could don my India-rubber.
I could see Harvey grin as I clutched my coat ; but I
wrapped myself in my philosophy as well as my garment,
and
" Did what they do in Spain-
Let it rain."
The pelted lake leaped into convulsions of foam, and
through the mist the Two Sisters looked spectral.
The rain at length ceased, so suddenly, it seemed as if 'a
wet curtain had in a twinkling been lifted; but mist
still hung upon us.
" I had a rainy time on't, one time, in Lonesome Pond
Bay, over therev to the east," said Harvey, " watching for
deer. Old Spot — he's dead now — was out, and as I hadn't
heerd him for some time, I consated I'd fish. I ketched
four big lake trout and bimeby I heerd Spot. How he
did yelp 1 Jest as I drawed sight, for I knowed suthin' was
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 35
a-comin', what should bust out of a lorrel swamp but an
onmassifull big painter ! I fired, but only wounded 'im.
He sprung into a watermaple and sot openin' his green
eyes on me as farse as a milishy cap'n on trainin' day. He
was jest drawin' up for a jump, when I fired t'other barr'l
right at his eye, and he tumbled as dead as — well, I won't
say divil, 'case that's swearin' — but as dead as — well, I
dunno — but he was as dead as — w-a-a-1, dead as kin be.
I've got his skin now in my shanty to hum. But look
at that eagle I He jest rose from Otter Island! How
cluss he flies 1"
As he spoke, a mass shot by so near, I caught the flasl}
of a wild eye-ball. On the mass darted, into a range of
stronger light. I saw his silver crest, his stately motion ;
he, the dark chieftain of the crag, swift of wing as the
blast and keen of sight as the sunbeam !
" There he lights on Saple Island !" continued Harvey.
" I kinder consate I'll hev a chance at 'im."
Swaying the head of a fir-tree downward, the eagle rose
again and throned himself on the top of a tall hemlock,
standing high and proud on his yellow-pillared feet. He
, cast his fierce eye down as we drew near, seeming to regard
us with profound disdain and looking " every inch a king."
Harvey raised the rifle; but as he did so, the eagle
launched forth again his black shape ; but the rifle cracked,
and the majestic bird swooped and fell, with a broken
wing, into the lake. Watch leaped from the boat and in
an instant was upon him. The wild orbs of the eagle
flashed gleam upon gleam, as he darted his terrible beak
at the eyes of the hound and struck with his sinewy claws
and one massive wing, while Watch, eluding his enemy
with quick motions, made at him rapid dashes of attack.
The water foamed with the strife, almost concealing at
times the combatants in a showery veil. Gallantly did the
superb creature battle for his life; but his bristling neck
was at last grasped by the hound, who shook him, as it
were in triumph. In a few moments, the streaming blood
36 WOODS AND WATERS;
and relaxed frame of the victim showed that the strife was
ended.
Harvey pulled the hound and his prey into the boat,
patting the back of the former proudly and lovingly, while
I looked with pity on the latter. There he lay, the con-
queror of the clouds, so lately careering in the glory of his
strength, mangled, at my feet, and weltering like a warrior
in his blood. Haughty and dauntless to the end, he fas-
tened his grand, tawny eye upon me, flashing even through
the mists of death, until he shook in his last tremor.
Harvey, however, was not troubled with any sentimen-
talities about the bird.
" They're a wild, cruel sort o' critter," said he, " them
eagles, and boss it over the whull wing kind in the woods.
They've bin known to ketch fa'ns when they was sleepin',
and pick their eyes out as quick as a wink. They're great
robbers, too. When a fish hawk has took a fish, an eagle
'11 bust, as 'twere, right out o' the air, pounce on the hawk,
kill him and steal the fish. Now that hawk had as good
a right to that fish as I hev to any trout I ketch, and I
should like to see a man take away my trout. He'd stand
a mighty good chance to feel what's in my rifle, that's all.
I don't hev no kind of pity fof the greedy rascals, when
they are killed. I'll skin 'im fur ye, when we git to the
Injin Carry, and you kin git him stuffed and show folks
what kind o' critters comes from the S'nac country. But
you was askin' me t'other day about Mount Tawwus,
or Mount Maircy as sonie people calls it, and why they
should I dunno ; it's only the name of a big man, it don't
mean nothin' ; but Mount Tawwus means a good deal, it
means — lets me see — it's suthin' about split, but whether it's
case it goes full split up into the clouds, or it splits folks
most in two straddlin' up 't, I can't say now — rowin'
kinder muxes up things in my head. You kin jest git a
squint," resting on his oars and pointing eastward ; then
dipping an old battered, tin coffee-pot into the lake and
drinking from the half-flattened spout.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 37
A gauzy summit on a blue background of cloud and
kindled by a stray glance of the sun, met my gaze, seeming,
every moment, as if it would melt away. Was that dreamy
shape, tender as memory and bright as hope, the grim god
that piles one on another his defiant crags, and tosses with
scorn the thunderbolt from his breast ? There it shone in
almost transparent beauty, more like a fairy painting .than a
terrific mountain whose crest pierced the clouds and froze
in the cold of the sunshine.
A point in front now concealed the other boats, and we
entered a channel between two islands.
The water is smooth ; the trees are quiet in the lull of
the wind ; the solitude is complete. " The gentleness of
heaven is on the " — hey ! what the deuce is that ?
A sound burst upon me, making me jump in my seat. It
was like the laugh of a maniac ; more — the jeering laugh of
a demon over a fallen victim — a bitter, taunting laugh and
yell mingled. It came from the opposite side of the island,
to the left.
I looked at Harvey with wonder.
Harvey grinned.
" "Wait a little, Mr. Smith, till we pass Buck Island here !
There ! d'ye see that black speck ?"
" Why, yes ; but you don't mean to say the infernal
sound I heard, came from that speck ?"
" Wait !"
Again the demoniac laugh. It sounded evidently from
the speck. It echoed and re-echoed over the lake, now
from the neighboring point and now from the little island
in our rear, until the air seemed filled with a diabolical
gabble.
" Hoo, hoo I yes, you may hoo, hoo, there ; but look out !
don't be sassen us too much !" said Harvey.
" But what the plague is this hoo-hoo thing of yours,
Harvey ? I never before heard such a sound, out of Bed*
lam !"
" That's a loon, Mr. Smith!"
38 WOODS AND WATEES;
"A loon!"
" Yes, and he's the sassiest thing "
" Well, Harvey 1" said I, " I've often heard the saying,
' crazy as a loon,' but I never realized the truth of it before.
His cry is horrible 1"
"Yes, siree! fightin' torn cats and owls stirred up by
jacklights aint nothin' to a loon when he's a mind to holler,
sayin' nothin' of a couple on 'em. There he goes agin'
ho-ooooooo-ah-ho-oooooooo-ah-hoooooo-ee.e-e-e. Don't you
be a sassen us all the time ! I've killed loons afore I ever
see you, you sassy tjrke ! He's comin' up quite cluss 1" as
a swell (we were now out upon the lake again) lifted him
so that I could see, against a background of island, his
glancing shape of black and white.
Harvey lifted his rifle.
"I bleeve I'll — there I consated he'd pop under, the
sassy villyan !"
And pop under he did. Lightning could hardly have
been quicker. Minutes elapsed.
" Why, where has he gone, Harvey ?"
" He'll be up in a minute. There he comes I"
Sure enough, and reappearing as suddenly as he va-
nished; so near too that I could see his sharp beak and
even the white strips round his dark, graceful neck. But
he had hardly risen, before he gave a quick, frightened
cry, and once more shot downward. Minutes again passed
and I saw the black speck of his head a quarter of a mile
away, floating near an island.
"There was a feller, ho! ho! ho!" said Harvey, "from
York; he was out with me, one time, on Tupper's Lake, and
a loon hollered out and then ducked under and staid —
w-e-1-1, I should say ten minutes ; and he wanted to know,
ho ! ho I ho ! ef 't'adn't got so feared at us 't'ad drownded
itself. I thought I should split ; but see that gull ! there,
on that little bare rock jest afore Schooner Island, where
them two trees stands up."
There it stood, relieved against the leaden hue of a ledge
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 39
upon the island, as if formed from white water lilies, and
filling entirely its little pedestal.
" I bleeve I must make short work of that critter, at any
rate. I'm gettin' rayther hungry for a shot 1" said the old
hunter, aiming his rifle.
" Don't shoot that bright thing, Harvey !"
"Too late, Mr. Smith!" crack went the rifle, and the
gull — flew away.
Yes, positively. I looked at Harvey, and Harvey, he —
why he tried to whistle. But it was of no use — he couldn't.
He had shot and — the bird wasn't there. He — the deadly
rifle of the Saranacs ! To be sure, an hour afterward, he
broke a silence of fifteen minutes by telling me that it was
" all Watch's doin's ! that he stuck his consarned nose right
agin my elbow jest as I was pullin' ; " but I noticed a
slinking air in the old woodman, the rest of the day.
But just now, he tried to change the topic.
"Don't you think that island looks suthin' like a
schooner, Mr. Smith?" in a subdued voice, and giving a
sweep with his oars.
It certainly did. It was about a quarter of an acre in
extent, rocky, with groups of thickets and two tall trees
resembling masts.
" There's old Moose !" exclaimed Harvey, shortly after,
pointing to a vast mountain, »smooth with its woods and
blocking the horizon to the south-east.
" Next is Cove Hill. You'll see this and Mount Morris,
all the way crost Eound Lake, till you come nigh abouts to
Bartlett's. Cove Hill agin comes out plain at the fust of
the Stony Creek Ponds, crost the Injin Carry. On t'other
side o' Moose Mountain, twixt it and Mount Seward, is Am-
persand Pond; that sends out agin Ampersand Brook,
which j'ines the last of the Stony Creek Ponds jest where
Stony Creek goes out."
Harvey now rowed for a considerable distance in silence.
The sun had marched into a broad space of blue sky,
the breeze had fallen and the lake was glassy. We passed
40 WOODS AND WATERS;
island after island, heaped with their forest foliage, some
like green domes, others broken with ledges. Counterparts
were painted on the crystal of the lake — the rocks to the
most delicate lichen stain and tiniest moss cup, the trees to
the most spider-webbed fibre, and even the waterplants to
their most fairy blossom. We glided over these green
pictures, as if skimming the air in some magic bark above
the real rock and forest. The furrows from the oars ruf-
fled them for a moment, but they reunited, fragment to
rock, branch to tree, blossom to plant, as the gentle water
pulses ceased ; and all was once more perfect.
" There's Outlet Island, where the S'nac river leaves the
lake for Plattsburgh on Old Champlain," said Harvey,
jerking his head to the east. " A queer thing happened
there onst ; I set my trap fur a bear on the island, nigh a
deadfall fur mink. Well, I didn't go nigh it agin fur a
fortnight. Finally, at last, I consated I'd go and see what
luck I'd had. Afore I got to the trap, I found the trees all
gnawed and stripped round, and the bushes stamped flat,
and some old logs all bruk up ; and, by goll ! ef there
wasn't bear tracks round, enough to set a dozen school
mams a-puzzlin' ! Finally at last, I come to a little holler,
and there was the biggest bear I'd seen that season, dead,
with the trap all bent and battered up, hanging to his hind
leg. The deadfall was bruk up too, with a mossle o'
mink's hair nigh it. My idee was, that the bear 'ad got
into the trap shortly after I'd set it, and finally at last
starved to death, after he'd eat a mink that 'ad got into
the deadfall ; but see that wood-duck steerin' by Loon
Island 1" pointing to a small rock in the middle of the
lake.
" Why, how many islands are there, Harvey ? It seems
to me they form a perfect network."
" There's fifty-two ! The lake looks like speck-maple
from Boot Bay Mountain with 'm. But there's Mount
Tawwus agin, and Mount Mclntyre by it. That's where
the great Ingin Pass is, and a mighty grand place 'tis too."
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 41
" You've been there, Harvey ?" said I, pricking up my
ears.
" Onst," resting on his oars, to dip his old coffee-pot
again and drink. " How the rock on one side o' the Pass
could get up so high into the clouds, isn't inkstand with
me. Why, it scoots up right afore ye, as if 'twasn't never
goin' to stop till it bunks its head agin' the moon or
some other place up there. That air pine," pointing to
a vegetable Anak on shore, "wouldn't look bigger on top
there, than a deer-weed. And there's holes in the rocks
you hev to scramble over, to git through the passage, big
enough to hide all Gen'ral Jackson's army at Orleens.
But speakin' o' the mountains, there's Mount Seward next
to Mount Mclntyre and risin' over old Moose."
I looked and saw the blue summit, with a spot like a
star sparkling high upon its breast.
Since then, I have grown familiar with that star.
Once, in the fearful wilderness that stretches from the
base of the mountain, I became accidentally separated from
my comrades. I knew not where to turn. A tempest was
near and I looked forward with dread to a night passed
alone in that forest, exposed to the storm's fury and to the
chance prowlings of the savage animals roaming the gloomy
depths which were unknown even to the oldest hunters.
The shanty of an Indian trapper was within an hour's
distance, but where? Above me, soared the vast moun-
tain, and it frowned more darkly than ever, in the shadow
of the coming storm.
Just as I had surrendered all hope of extricating myself,
a spot flashed out on the breast of the mountain, to a sud-
den gleam of sunshine. It was the star ; and guided by it,
I found, before the night fell, the kindly cabin, and heard
against the protecting walls, the wild tempest thundering
through the pauses of my slumber.
<;That flashy place there on Seward is a ledge with a
waterfall over it, and it al'ays shines jess like a tin platter
in the sun," continued Harvey, "but fur a shiny thing,
42 WOODS AND WATEES;
the slide on Old Whiteface, standin' up out there, is the
most flashiest! It looks as much like a white ' riband, as
any that a pooty schoolmam puts in her hair, when she's
riggin' out fur a dancin' bee."
" Aha ! Whiteface I have you been up it, Harvey ?"
" I hev so ! Gittin' up gives yer a high old time.
Hadn't I better put a stop to that crane's flyin' any fur-
der?" pointing his rifle, as the slim bird, stretching her
snaky neck and towing her spindle legs, moved heavily
athwart the green mainshore; "but let her go" (remember-
ing probably the gull). " As I was say in', gittin' up that
mountain is mighty bad sleddin' ! It's a rael old Dutch
ruff of a consarn, and afore ye strike the slide, you tug.
right up straight a'most with your hands and feet, about
the same as a bear 'ud go up a tree. Eisin' the slide is a
good deal like mountin' a ladder from the top of a meetin'-
'ouse up to the steeple. It makes ye fairly dizzy. But
it's old hunderd when yer git there, Mr. Smith. You kin
see miles on miles, all round yer. It makes yer feel as ef, as
a body may say, you was one o' them eagles high up in the
air a-lookin' down'ards, and ef a feller could make himself
into a ball like a bear and roll down agin, you'd feel all
the better. But you can't stay up long, unless you camp
all night, for there's no housen within miles on ye, even
from the foot of the mountain, lettin' alone the mountain
itself."
" Oncle Joe Estis," continued the old guide, a moment
after, " see that slide made. He was roofin' a barn, nigh
Lake Placid — 'twas about thirty years ago — and all of a
sudden, he heerd a sound like thunder from the mountain,
and see smoke, with rocks and trees tumblin' kinder dim
like through 't, down, down the side, a crashin' and a roar-
in' ; and when the cloud of smoke cleared away, there was
the grey slide o' rock half way down to the foot, the same
as 'tis now."
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 43
'CHAPTER V.
Lower Saranac Lake. — A Talk on Trapping. — A Moose Story. — Saranac
River. — Moose Mountain. — Middle Falls. — Round Lake. — Umbrella Point.
— Bartlett's. — Upper Saranac Lake.
WE had been skimming, for some little time, in sight of
a long mountain at the right, or west side of the lake, and
now came abreast of a beautiful bay, opening in the same
direction.
"I've camped often at the lower eend o' Boot Bay here,"
continued the old woodman. " It winds and twists south
along 'twixt Boot Bay Mountain that you see there, and
Loomis' P'int. Pope's -Bay winds on t'other side, with
Mack's P'int twixt the bay and lake. Both's old hunderd
for ketchin' fur. There's as much as a dozen of old dead-
falls o' mine tucked away 'long the shores of each on 'm, at
this very time."
" What do you trap for, Harvey ?"
" Muskrat and otter and mink and saple and fisher.
The two last is gittin' source about here. But I'll tell ye
suthin', Mr. Smith, ef you'll keep it cluss. I know where
there's beaver I"
"Beaver ! Harvey, beaver ! Can ye take me to them?"
"I kin take ye to the waters where they hev their
housen and where I've trapped 'm fur years, every fall
a'most."
"Where?"
" Up in the St. Regis' woods, off north-east o' the head
of the Upper S'nac."
" Good ! we'll make that expedition, before I leave this
region, Harvey !"
44 WOODS AND WATERS;
" I'm with ye !" answered the old trapper, " and we'll
consider the consarn settled on !"
"How do you take the animals you have mentioned,
Harvey ?"
"Muskrats and beaver and otter, gin'rally in common
steel traps. But we make deadfalls fur saple and mink.
They're made this way : You cut large chips or blocks of
wood and fix. 'em in the ground in a tight half round, and
cover the top over with hemlock or spruce or other thick
boughs. That's called the boxin'. Then yer lay down a
piece o' wood along the openin', called the bed- wood. Then
yer lay a round stick, called the spindle, crost the bed-
wood, with a piece of ven'son or trout on the eend, that's in
the boxin'. On the forred part o' the spindle, yer stand
up another round stick, called the standard, and on top o'
that yer lay a heavy piece o' timber, a tree or big bough,
that's called the top pole. So when the mink or saple
crawls in and nibbles the bait, down comes the top pole
squash, and there's an eend o' the critter. Them kind o'
traps is scattered all along these waters ; and as fur the saple
traps, we make a line on 'm forty, fifty miles through the
woods, and hack the trees along, which we call blazin', and
scatter the traps, a dozen or mebby twenty to the mile ;
and some take fresh deer entrails, when they kin, and scent
up the traps, fur the mink and saple to smell and foller 'm.
As fur the fisher, he's al'ys breakin' inter the back o' the
boxin' and stealin' the bait in these traps, so we hev a trap
or contrivance fur him, in these saple lines. We bend down
a saplin' so as to hev the eend in a notch we make in a
root or log cluss to the ground ; then we fasten a common
trap to this eend, baited ; so when the fisher pulls on the bait,
the saplin' flies up. out o' the notch with Mr. fisher danglin'
with his foot in the trap, and there he hangs till he dies
or the trappers comes 'long and bags the tarnal sputterin'
thief. Sometimes he gnaws his foot off to git away, but
gin'rally we find him danglin' there like a piece o' smoked
ven'son ; but shell I git ye a taste of the spring up there?"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 45
Eeceiving my assent, he rowed to the shore, through a
broad, aisle of lily-pads, disappeared up the steep bank, and
returning with his coffee-pot brimmed with the liquid,
offered me a draught.
Of all beverages, commend me the spring water of this
region. The crystal of the lakes and streams is sweet and
refreshing, but the cold nectar that bubbles up from the
grainy silver, at some old mossy root or lichened ledge, is
worthy the lips of
"Heroes in history, and gods in song."
" Look at that rock up there 1" said Harvey, after we had
resumed our way ; pointing to a ledge rearing its mural
front upon a bank three-hundred feet high, near the inlet
or entrance of the Saranac River.
The cliff looked like some grey rampart of the dark
ages, frowning from its steep upon its vassal waters.
" There was an old hunter by the name o' Ramrod, that
had an adventur up there," continued he. " Well, fust of
all, there used to be in a corner of the rock, an old dead
pine with prongs all down its sides. It come up to a level
with the head of the rock. One day, he telled me, he
rousted up a bull moose and unly wownded him. Did ye
ever hev a mad bull make at ye? I tell ye that's some,
but 'twant nothin' to the way that moose made at Old Ram-
rod, 'cordin' to his tell, full trot. 'Twant but a leetle way
from the head o' the ledge, and I tell ye, he put it. A
half a minute fetched him to the top o' that air pine,
and he throwed himself on the prongs, and down he went.
But he hadn't tuk more'n four steps, afore the moose come
to the edge o' the rock, and over he went, licketty split.
Ho ! ho ! ho ! wa'n't there a dead moose ketched in some
spruces, a'most down to the edge o' the water, after he'd bin
knocked from rock to rock down the precipyce, 'cordin' to
Ramrod I and wa'n't he glad ! I tell ye it sot him up, as
he said, for the rest o' the day, fur it wouldn't ha' bin no
46 WOODS AND WATERS;
b'y's play, ef that dod-blamed wownded, cross-grained old
moose had a ketched him afore he'd got to that air pine,
now I tell ye. I know suthin' about that, myself. They're
a terr'ble farse critter, when they're riz up, and I'd ruther
eat dumplins any day than fight one on 'm. There's an
otter slide !" pointing to a smooth path down a bank of the
main shore. " But here we are, at the S'nac Eiver ! The
rest of the boats is out o' sight, but we'll overhaul 'm at
Middle Falls, where they'll stop, I've 'a notion, to fish.
It's a good place for trout there! or mebby they'll stop this
side ; there's a good brook there, too 1"
As the old guide was speaking, we entered the river.
Directly at the entrance, on our right, lay an expanse of
wild grass, and thickets, with a deep fringing of water-
plants.
The views now changed suddenly as the scenes of a
theatre. The banks became low, the woods frequently
yielding to broad spaces of natural grass, called indiffer-
ently by the guides, parks and wild-meadows. They were
skirted, next the water, either with thickets or trees, the
green levels beyond being seen through the loops and
vistas of the foliage.
Sometimes, these meadows wound like bays into the
recesses of the background forest, beckoning the fancy to
distant nooks of beauty.
Here and there, in the forked head of a dry tree, was
the nest of the fish-hawk, a rounded mass of grey withered
sticks. From the abundance of the water in these woods,
this bird haunts almost every scene, and its huge nest,
frequently met, gives a wild picturesqueness to the mono-
tony of the verdure.
Spread over the shallows, was a broad floor of lily-pads,
glistening in green varnish and brilliant with white and
yellow blossoms, the pearly scallops of the former resting
on the surface, and the globes of the latter erect upon their
short, thick stems.
The dark red Mohawk-tassel and the scarlet-berried
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 47
Solomon's-seal gleamed upon the banks, and on their tall
stems, tufted in the water, shone the purple blossoms of the
moosehead.
Between these meadows, the forest thronged to the river's
edge so densely as to slant many of the skirting trees
nearly athwart the stream. We skimmed over the shadows
in the water, where some jagged branch was so accurately
depicted, it seemed that the little Bluebird would be torn
while gliding over.
Black, soaking logs, almost buried in the waterweeds,
lay along or pointed from the banks, whence the twittering
stream-birds vanished at our approach, while from among
the plants, the duck whizzed and the frog and occasional
muskrat plunged.
" Look out fur the fifth bend o' the river, Mr. Smith,
fur a nice sight, as you seem to hev a notion of seein'
mountains," said Harvey ; " but here's all the party, and
they've bin fishin' like sixty."
Sure enough, comrades and guides were just leaving
the mouth of a little brook which joins the river at the
east.
" Here comes the loiterer I" shouted Bingham. " "What
have you been about, Smith ? Here we've been pulling
up trout as fast as Joe Bunker, the pettifogger, can lie.
But whew ! The musquitoes ! We've been like the Jews
in building the walls of Jerusalem, fighting with one hand
and working with the other. Ealph and Graylor don't
seem to have minded them, though ! I lay it to the thick-
ness of their skins ! But poor Coburn ! he "
" Do, for Heaven's sake, stop that tongue of yours, Bing I"
exclaimed Gaylor. " It's like a runaway horse !"
" It runs to some purpose, then, or you wouldn't try to
stop it !" retorted Bingham. " I'll gird ye, as Falstaff says,
if the musquitoes can't."
" These musquitoes are terrible, there's no mistake about
it!" said Coburn, his usually bluff, hearty tone, now
low and slightly fretful. "I-I hardly — beL ve — I can
48 WOODS AND WATERS ;
stand it all the way, if the whole trip is to be so. I don't
know but I begin a little to repent coming."
"Nonsense, Coburn," exclaimed Bingham, "pluck up
what spirit you have and put it through !"
" Exactly !" returned poor Coburn, plaintively, " put it
through — that's what I complain of. There's been no-
thing but putting it through, ever since we've been at this
plaguey spot."
" Didn't I hear you singing, ' The woodpecker tapping
the hollow beech tree,' pretty loud, on the lake, Coburn ?"
said Gaylor, smiling.
" Yes ! but I didn't bargain for the tapping I've had here,"
returned Coburn, fidgetting in his seat.
"Well, come, let us tap on our way. We've caught our
fish, don't let us waste any time in talking," said Ealph,
who was smoking like a locomotive. ¥
" On, Stanley, on !" roared Bingham, and we all again
started.
" Now look out for the view, Mr. Smith 1" said Harvey,
shortly after.
We opened upon a bend, and, filling the horizon, a
mountain broke out with an expanse of its broad breast, so
sudden as to be startling.
"Old Moose agin!" said Harvey, "but look, Mr. Smith,
look I" dropping the oars and grasping his rifle which lay
within reach, fitted into the side of the boat.
On a little glade of smooth grass, at my right, were two
deer, one with head erect looking at the boat, and the other
crouched at its feet.
Mine was a mere glance, for before Harvey could point
his weapon, the two had vanished, more like shapes of
smoke dissolving into air, than living things shooting into
the foliage.
A dashing, crashing sound now filled the air, and we saw
the gleam of foam in the channel of the stream. It was the
" Middle Falls," where the water was broken by scattered
rocks, into a rapid.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 49
Here was our first carrying-place. Landing, I made my
way through the narrow footpath, up and along the bank
clustered with aspens, spruces and maples, to the broad
ledges at the side of the falls, where Ealph and Gaylor fell
as greedily to the task of deluding the trout on their hooks,
as if they had never before thrown a line. Bingham com-
menced spouting " The Falls of Lodore ;" Coburn, taking
a seat, began rubbing his musquito bites ; I looked about
the spot and watched the two anglers.
Gaylor. A jerk ; a " squttering" (as Harvey says) in
the water; curl of trout on surface; frantic slap on nose
at musquito ; mosquito nowhere ; trout ditto.
Eenning. Twitch; twitch and jerk up; hook in air;
nothing on it; growls; hook swings into rapid; three grabs
at gnats ; gnats nowhere ; trout ditto. Scene ended.
For the boats have by this time been dragged through
the rapids by the guides, and all is ready once more for a
start.
During this process, my eye had been fastened on Har-
vey. Each boat was towed by a rope at the bow, with a guid-
ing oar in the middle. The old guide was most industrious.
Planted to his waist in the white waters, now he dragged
at the bow, now kept the boat from the rocks by the oar.
But the greatest trial of skill was in running the two store-
boats. With his keen eyes widening, his whole form alive
with excitement, yelling, pulling, pushing off with the oar
from the rocks ; shouting quick commands, as the stern of
Corey's boat once nearly buried itself in the foam and
then keeled as if to spill her load in the rapids, the old
boatman showed himself, as his after bearing proved him,
the master spirit of the guides.
" We'll hev a dancin' time on't, over Eound Lake," said
he, resuming his rowing and jerking his head at the sway-
ing of the trees, even on this sheltered stream. "But the
swells '11 be with us instid of agin us, and that's jest all the
diff 'rence. One's a boost in the back and t'other's a punch
in the belly."
4
50 WOODS AND WATEKS;
A curve of the river was passed, and Bound Lake, roll-
ing and dark, now opened. Here we stopped for lunch.
An enormous, prone hemlock on the left bank of the stream,
was our table, with myriads of wild roses, which spangled
the thickets as if a pink snow storm had fallen there, per-
fuming the air, and with the low roar of the lake for our
accompanying music.
We were soon on its angry waters. Gallantly did old
Harvey swing his oars, and boldly did the little Bluebird
dance along, after rustling through the long, dense rushes of
the shallows at the entrance, the swells threatening, every
moment, to bury our little bark. Onward, however, she
went safely, although with shifting walls of water on either
hand, and ridges swelling in front, while the other boats
were rising and sinking in deep see-saws. The white-
edged rollers were climbing wrathfully the sides of the
islands, and the air was filled with the hoarse voice of the
lake.
Eastward, Moose Mountain, the whole grand breast of
Cove Hill and the summit of Mount Morris, bounded the
horizon, without an opening or scorched tint in the fresh
smooth foliage, with tall pines and hemlocks, " the haughty
senators of mighty woods," rising here and there above the
general surface.
Over these mountains, sailed swift lights and shades, like
the play of color upon velvet. Occasionally, the breast of
a ridge glowed in golden sheen ; an immense shadow then
rose from the lake like the Afrite from his crystal vase, and
clambered the acclivity, the startled sunshine shrinking
before it, until it vanished over the summit.
" There's somebody taking a snack on Bark Canoe Island
to the right there !" said Harvey, looking over his shoulder
towards a blue streak of smoke undulating through the
trees. In a few minutes, we were abreast a noon camp.
In the foreground of a little green dingle, the carcass of a
deer hung from a limb ; a camp fire crimsoned a ledge in
the back ground; and a spotted hound crouched by a bush.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 51
In the middle picture, were two men in red hunting- shirts;
one toasting, on a stick, a flake of venison, and one seated
on a stump, examining his rifle.
" Halloo, Harve !" shouted the former, as we danced past,
" you're hevin' a Scotch jig on the lake there, aint ye ?"
"Yes, it's lively times here!" answered Harvey, "but
where did you kill your deer?"
" Nigh Duck Island, out there ! He took to the water
from Bartlett's clearin' and run down TJmb'rell P'int. He
swum lively, but . 'twas no go. Loot settled him afore he
got to the island!"
"Stearns Williams and Loot Evans!" said Harvey,
"they live with Bartlett. But there's Umb'rell P'int!"
glancing toward a tongue of wood thrust into the lake at
the west, near an upland which had been burned over, dis-
playing darkened rocks, charred logs, and standing trees
of a dull red, scattered over a partially blackened soil.
" That pine, lookin' so like an umb'rell, gives the name
to the p'int," pointing to a tree standing far above the
other foliage of the spot, with a trunk bare nearly to the
top, where a few large branches curved out, the whole very
like the object mentioned.
" I remember the time well," added Harvey, " when that
tree had all its branches like any other pine. But there's
a story round the woods about it : how one time, Old Mck
wanted to go a-fishin' in the lake when 'twas rainin' ; so he
tore up the tree and whipped off the branches with his big
jack-knife, carried it with him into the lake and stood
under it whilst he grabbed the all-firedest big trout that
ever was seen in these waters ; then as soon as it come to
the top and see his eyes, it turned all cooked to his hands,
and when he got through fishin', he put the pine back agin,
and went ridin' over on a streak o' blue sulphur to Tupper's
Lake Mountain or Mount Morris, that you see over there
to the south-west. There's no eend of sich stories in the
woods, Mr* Smith, but it takes a fool to believe half on
'm."
52 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Ought not this lake, Harvey, to be called the Middle
Saranac ?"
" That's jest as folks has a mind to. It's gin'rally called
Eound Lake 'cause 'tis round ; but then it's about in the
middle 'twixt Upper and Lower S'nac."
" How many islands has it ?"
" There's Duck Island and Buck Island and Feather
Bed Island, Bark Canoe Island, Bear and Amelia Islands,
west ; and Watch, Hatchet and Fawn Islands, east ; nine
in all."
"You see that burnt ridge over there by the p'int," con-
tinued he ; " 'twas burnt over three years ago, and a rousin'
time 'twas, I tell ye. Ef all the furnaces in Black Brook
could be brought to blaze away t'gether, 'twouldn't be
nothing to what that fire was. Why, the pines and hem-
locks quirled up like caterpillars, and as fur the bushes,
they went off like blottin' -paper, and the leaves fell jest
like bugs inter a camp-fire. 'Twas night, and I was on the
lake at the time. Sich a roarin' and sich a red it throwed
on the sky and on the lake ! Why, my two b'ys, Sim
and Phin, that was with me, looked like a couple o' red
divils. And, sanko ! how the sparks flew ! All of a sud-
den, I heerd sich a screech. 'Twas so shrill-like and piti-
ful, it cut right through me. Onst, twyst, three times it
come, then there was four or five doleful whines, and 'twas
all still. 'Twas a painter, I've a notion, ketched in some
holler in the rocks where it couldn't git out, and was burnt
to death."
We had now crossed the lake. We entered once more
the Saranac river, losing, as we did so, the influence of the
wind.
The ripples from the oars washed over the broad, thick
lily-pads, the water quickly peeling from the oily varnish
or shrinking upon it into large drops. The white lily
leaves, where they had been stirred up by the oar or feed-
ing deer, showed in their inner lining a dull crimson, and
those of the yellow, only a lighter green.
OK, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 53
A mile farther brought us in sight of Bartlett's. We
threw our lines at the mouth of a brook on our left, and a
brief half hour rewarded us with a dozen trout, of a pound
each. We then crossed and landed among the rest of our
boats, close to a large slab boat-house.
At this point, began a quarter-mile carry westward,
along the rapids of the river, to the Upper Saranac
Lake.
The clearing contained but an acre or so, on the north
bank of the river. Here stood Bartlett's two-story, un-
painted, frame tavern, and its shadow lay cool and black
upon the gentle, grassy slope, as I passed to ward the entrance.
Our guides were clustered at the open door of a log hut at
one side, with several gaunt hounds that, I found, belonged
to Bartlett.
A huge, savage-looking bull-dog, with porcupine quills
clinging to his coat, and his black lips curled over his white
fangs, stalked near the hut, looking powerful enough to
bring down even a moose, while Bartlett himself, a short
but strong, square-built man, with a hat that seemed made
of dingy jackstraws, talked to one, laughed with another
and kicked the hounds generally out of his way, with exple-
tives more emphatic than pious.
In the sitting room, I found my comrades louder than
usual in conversation, for which the empty glasses, telling
clearly of punch, probably accounted.
The boats and luggage having been carried on wheels
over the portage to the Upper Lake, we followed, leaving
Bartlett in the act of applying his right foot to the ribs of
an unlucky hound, and the bull-dog gazing after us with a
face grim enough to darken daylight.
The afternoon sun sprinkled the bushes and trees of the
ridge like golden rain, and soon the bright waters of the
Upper Saranac gleamed before us. We watched the guides
as they reloaded the boats ; steadying them by the bows,
while we entered to our places at the stern. The wind had
lulled ; the lake lay in smooth sleep ; no more symptoms
54 WOODS AND WATERS;
of rain were visible. Gaily we launched upon the water,
here narrowed into a bay, and merrily rose our songs.
Sometimes a playful breeze stooped to the surface brush-
ing it into darkening ripples, then fanned our brows with
its delicate wings and melted away.
"We soon turned the point at the east, whence we could
see the lake stretching upward to the north, narrowed by
islands into winding channels. As I glanced through
these liquid paths, I longed to thread -them toward the
upper waters, which, the guides united in saying, were so
exquisite in their beauty.
Pointing southwest, we passed Birch and Johnson
Islands, crossed the intervening basin and landed, an hour
before sunset, at the Indian Carrying-Place.
OR, SDMMEH IX THE SAUANACS. 55
CHAPTER YI.
Sunrise. — Indian Legend. — The Saranac Wizards. — Mode of Carrying the
Boats.— The Beaver-Pond Hunt.— The Stony Ponds.
I KETIEED to rest in the tent about midnight and awoke
at day-break. There was a cool, grey light over the lake,
which lay like glass. The fronts of the islands rose indis-
tinctly as if reared in air, with dark pictures below them.
The atmosphere was fresh almost to chilliness, and sweet
with the odors of the woods. The tent looked ghostly,
the forest gloomy. A brace of loons near the margin
were sending out their wild halloos like Indian warwhoops,
awakening a hundred quavering echoes. An eagle was
sailing over the lake ; a drowsy twitter was creeping
through the woods. The smokeless cabin looked dead.
The camp fire was smouldering in brown ashes, with em-
bers melting along the charred back-log.
The largest of the stars were still shining, although
dimly, through the sombre tints of the sky.
Soon, however, the ash color of the east commenced to
clear into serai-transparent grey, then to kindle into pale
yellow. Trees began to creep out from the massed forest,
and a streak of distant mist to crawl along the lake. The
islands stood out more boldly. The twitter from the
woods increased to chirps, swelling occasionally into song.
The lake showed differing though still sober tints ; here a
space of marble grey, there of polished black.
At length, the cheeks of the clouds at the zenith blushed
into rose : one long cloud in the east began to glow into
ruby, then burn into gold. Gemmed colors — sapphire,
emerald, topaz and amethyst — glanced upon the lake.
56 WOODS AND WATERS;
Gold ran along the tops of the tallest trees. The east
gleamed with royal crimsons and imperial purples. At
last, through a vista of the background ridge, striking the
landscape into gladdening light, poured the lustre of the
risen sun.
The scene was now astir. The guides left the smaller
tent (where they had slept with the exception of Harvey,
who had preferred, wrapped in his blanket, to make his
bed in a neighbpring thicket) and began preparing the
morning meal. My comrades appeared from the larger
tent, Bingham's face opened with a yawn like a cavern,
while Ealph's seemed swollen as if all his diabolical snores
of the past night (he is a most horrible and provoking
snorer, that Ealph) had settled there for the day. He
also wore a hang-dog look, as though he felt guilty for
his disturbance (may the Lord forgive him !) of at least one
suffering individual.
The smoke of the camp-fire commenced curling, and, as
if it were a signal, the rough chimney of the log-cabin
began to breathe. The' guides, bending over the crackling
blaze, toasted slices of ruddy venison and spread the trout
on the winking coals for broiling, while the sauce-pans
began to carol and the head of the tin teapot to strike up
a clattering jig.
Our sylvan meal ended, we lighted our pipes for a
social smoke on the grass.
"Ealph!" said Bingham, "you must feel quite ex-
hausted by your last night's performance I"
" How is that ?" returned Ealph, with a twinge of his
shoulder, as if conscious of what was coming.
" Why, those sounds that, more than human, echoed
through the tent ! those unearthly snores, fit to wake the
dead, let alone live people !"
" Pish!" said Eenning, pettishly, "do let my snores alone !"
" But your snores won't let other people alone. Poor
Smith there, looks as if he were becoming insane from
want of sleep. It is really villanous! I — really — I —
OR, SUMMER INJTHE SARANACS. 57
with my delicate nerves too (with a languishing look), I —
I — won't be able to stand it. I shall break down ; at
the beginning of the trip too ! What will you do, when
the air, out here, and the exercise have made you even
stronger and heartier? I really dread to think of it!"
and the inveterate tease affected to shudder.
"I move we let each other's little peculiarities alone, and
confine ourselves to general subjects," said Renning, twist-
ing uncomfortably in his position.
" Little !" returned Bingham, putting on a stare. " Little !
Here's impudence ! And peculiarities ! Well, I never heard
full, deep-chested, air-shaking, sleep-murdering roars, called
little peculiarities before. Why, gentlemen," rising as if
for a harangue, " he ascends the scale regularly, from the
double bass of the biggest bullfrog to a height where he
is in imminent danger of choking. There is no use in
shaking him ; it only breaks the sound into numerous par-
ticles and distributes them over a wider surface, splinter-
ing, as it were, one monotonous note into counter, tenor
and treble ; the scale then proceeding with more rascally
vehemence than before. I'll match him against a dozen,
I was going to say a regiment, of loons, any day or rather
night ; for like the whippoorwill, this interesting friend of
ours only sings at that season. I move we proceed against
him as an outlaw, on the spot 1"
" How about the musquitoes, Bing ?" said Renning, reco-
vering his good-humor, and charging in his turn upon the
enemy — the common enemy, I might say. "You were
going to outlaw them, last night."
"Bing is better in denouncing snores and musquitoes
than in killing deer," said Gay lor quietly.
"Deer!" exclaimed Bingham, "where's the deer I've
missed, I should like to know ?"
"Where's the deer you've shot?" enquired Coburn.
" Shot 1" returned Bingham crossly. " How the deuce can
you shoot a deer, when you don't see any ? I've shot all
.the deer I've seen I"
58 WOODS AND WATERS;
"And that's nil!" said Gaylor.
" Nil, sure enough ! I would have shot one of the deer,
if not both, that Mart and Will brought in, last evening,
had I seen them first. It is nil, sure enough ! All the hunt-
ing stories that sportsmen and writers tell, of finding deer
on every point and island and drinking at every creek in
this wilderness, should be scouted, denounced, gentlemen!
by all decent men. They talk as if deer are to be found in
every alder-bush, and trout in every little- ripple, no bigger
than Coburn's conscience here ; and if, gentlemen ! (waving
his hand), you can find anything smaller than that, you
must turn your eyes into microscopes, that's all !"
" Smith says you found the musquitoes rather trouble-
some at the point, last evening," said Coburn, with a grim
smile.
" Oh, Smith !" said Bingham, turning to me. " Smith's
tongue is the only thing about him that is even reasonably
alive. I've wondered ever since we started, why we've ad-
mitted him among us. Killing deer and catching trout are
as much beyond him as Ealph's nasal accomplishments
here are beyond a whole orchestra of hoot-owls, or even
a moderate knowledge of men and things is beyond my
friend Coburn here. But what on earth is that?"
A long, open box of wood, mounted on round wooden
blocks, about a foot from the ground, drawn by shadowy
oxen and driven by a tatterdemalion that looked
like a scarecrow from Corey's cornfield, met our sight.
This picturesque conveyance, moving with most diabolical
screeches as if laboring under a wooden rheumatism, we
found was to transport our luggage over the carry (a mile
of travel), while our guides would bear our boats, and we
betake ourselves to our independent feet.
Shouldering our rifles and rods, up the ascent we started.
I subsequently learned the legend connected with the
clearing.
About a hundred years ago, a large tribe of the Saranac
Indians inhabited the forests through which runs the
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 59
Indian Carrying-Place ; an old path, named by them, the
Eaglenest Trail of the Saranacs. The site of the clearing
held their village and Council-Place. They claimed as their
exclusive hunting-grounds, not only the Eaglenest Forests,
but those of the Wampum Waters,* the Stream of the
Snake, f and the Sounding Eiver,J from the Lake of the
Blue Mountain to Wild Mountain at the Leap of the Foam-
ing Panther. §
Two young warriors, stately and brave, divided the
admiration of the Tribe ; Ta-yo-neh, the Wolf, and Do-ne-
on-dah, the Eagle.
Whenever the war-path led to the lodges of the fierce
Tahawi, on the slopes of grand Tahawus, — The Splitter of
the Sky — the young warriors vied with each other as to
which should win the most scalps to his belt. Ta-yo-neh
was brief in talk and his chants at the war-dance were few,
but his eye burned with the fire of his heart. Do-ne-on-dah
was frank in speech, and his song in the dance was loud.
Although rivals on the war-path, the young braves smoked
together the calumet of friendship. Love had made soft
the heart of Ta-yo-neh and he had gathered to his lodge
O-we-yo, the Blossom of the Tribe, but no maiden's eye as
yet had kindled the breast of Do-ne-on-dah. The old men
looked at both with pride, and the young with admiration.
Each could skim the Lake of the Silver Sky at the head
of the Eaglenest Trail, in his yellow canoe, as the eagle
skims the air. The Lake of the Great Star|| saw the prints
of each on his margin, after the deer, at noon ; the Stream
of the Snake beheld on his winding banks at eve, the trail
of the same feet unwearied. The Tribe, at length, became
divided as to the merits of the two, but the strife was
friendly.
So rolled on the suns, and now the two young warriors
were to visit the torrent of the Wild Mountain in search
* The Stony Ponds. f Stony Creek. \ Racket River.
§ Perciefield Falls. || Racket Lake.
60 WOODS AND WATERS,
of the stately moose. Both departed in their birch canoes,
over the Wampum Waters at the foot of the Trail of the
Eaglenest.
The moon of the month of young leaves hung its bow
to the glittering orb of the early evening, then grew round
as the red ring in the eye of the loon, and nought was
heard of the warriors.
At last, as that same moon was quenched in its rising by
the sun, Ta-yo-neh appeared but no Do-rie-on-dah.
" Where is the Eagle of the Tribe ?" asked old O-qua-
rah, the Bear of the Saranacs, the Sachem of his Tribe.
" He went with his brother to the Falls of the Wild
Mountain, after the trotting moose," answered Ta-yo-neh-
" but the Black Terror of the woods was not to be seen
even by the keen-sighted Eagle. Ta-yo-neh and his bro-
ther then paddled through the Eye of Hah-wen-ne-yo* up
the Lonely Riverf to the Dark Lake,:}: where the Black
Terror fell before the arrows of Do-ne-on-dah and Ta-yo
neh. As the bright Sachem of the sky touched his feet
upon the Hill of the Raven, Ta-yo-neh and his brother
went out upon the trail of a deer. They climbed a tongue
of the wood by the Dark Lake and Ta-yo-neh left his
brother to follow a panther's trail leading from the trail
they were treading. Since then, Ta-yo-neh has mourned
for the sight of his brother."
"Wolf!" shouted 0-qua-rah, while his eye gleamed like
the fire in the wood, " the Sachem of the Saranacs hears a
forked tongue — Ta-yo-neh has torn with his claws the heart
from Do-ne-on-dah 1"
" Ta-yo-neh cannot lie," answered the other firmly. " He
knows not what has happened to his brother the Eagle.
He searched the tongue and the dark waters beneath it.
He was a whippoorwill, all night calling ' Do-ne-on-dah !
Do-ne-on-dah !' but nought answered, save the mocking
spirit that only speaks what the voice utters."
* Tapper's Lake. \ Bog River. $ Mud Lake.
OK, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 61
"Wolfl" again shouted , 0-qua-rah ; and this time, he
clutched his tomahawk. " Where is Do-ne-on-dah ?"
" Ta-yo-neh has said," answered the other.
" Die I" yelled the Sachem, and swung on high his toma-
hawk, but a light form shrieking flew between it and Ta-
yo-neh and the glittering axe sank into the brain of 0-we-
y°-
Ta-yo-neh started as his bride fell dead at his feet,
clutched his tomahawk in his turn and swung it toward
the head of the Sachem. But the blow was arrested by one
of the old men of the Tribe.
" Go 1" said he, " the old Bear of the Saranacs — the
Sachem of the Tribe — must not be torn by the young Wolf.
0-kah also asks, where is Do-ne-on-dah ?"
" Do-ne-on-dah ! Do-ne-on-dah !" rose in notes of wailing
and anger from a portion of the Tribe; "Ta-yo-nehl
Ta-yo-neh!" mingled with " 0-we-yo," in accents of grief,
broke out from the others. Knives and hatchets flashed
and a terrible conflict had commenced, when old 0-qua-rah,
with Ta-yo-neh's knife plunged in his heart, fell headlong
among' the combatants. The strife was arrested ; the arm
of Hah-wen-ne-yo had interposed ; the sacrifice to justice
had been made. The heart of Ta-yo-neh had been cloven
by the death of 0-we-yo; 0-qua-rah had been stricken
down by the bereaved Ta-yo-neh.
But though the combat ceased, the feelings springing
from these events soon caused a separation of the Tribe.
One portion, under Ta-yo-neh, went down the Sounding
River to the Green Council -Place, close to the beautiful
lake, the Bye of Hah-wen-ne-yo ; the other, under 0-kah,
remained at the Eaglenest Trail of the Saranacs. Moons
upon moons passed away, while the two portions of the
Tribe became more and more angry with each other. Ta-
yo-neh claimed the hunting-grounds down the Sounding
Eiver to the Council-Place, 0-kah those of the Eaglenest,
the Wampum Waters and upward to the Lake of the Blue
Mountain ; but the Stream of the Snake that winds from
62 WOODS AND WATERS;
the Wampum Waters saw often the gleam of the hatchet
between the two and his own bright brow stained with
Saranac blood drawn by kindred, but now alien, Sara-
nacs. Hundreds of moons passed. Ta-yo-neh grew into
a withered pine, with grey moss fluttering thinly from his
top, and then a fallen trunk, which the Tribe reverently hid
within the earth.
One day, the Tribe of the Baglenest saw a canoe coming
upon the Lake of the Silver Sky. It touched the shore
and an old man tottered out and with feeble steps ap-
proached them.
" Has the tribe of the Saranacs forgotten Do-ne-on-dah ?"
he asked, in faltering accents.
" The dead still lives in the Tribe," answered 0-nech-tah,
the son of 0-kah, who had in turn become the Sachem,
" but it is as the song of a bird heard when the heart was
young, lingering faintly in the thoughts of the aged."
" Do-ne-on-dah is here 1" answered the stranger, laying
his hand feebly on his breast.
Doubt flitted across the face of 0-nech-tah. The stran-
ger opened the beaver skin from his bosom, and lo ! there,
stamped upon his heart, shone the totem of the Eagle.
Then knew the Tribe it was indeed Do-ne-on-dah tottering
before them. A shrill cry of joy and welcome went up,
and " Do-ne-on-dah ! Do-ne-on-dah I" echoed in the woods
of the Baglenest and over the waters of the Silver Sky.
" How did Do-ne-on-dah return from the bright Land of
the Happy ?" asked O-nech-tah. " Has Hah-wen-ne-yo
spared him for a while from the Feast of the Strawberry, to
gladden the hearts of his people the Saranacs ?"
"Do-ne-on-dah's feet have not yet trod the trail that
leads to the land of Hah-wen-ne-yo," answered the other.
" He lingers like the hemlock that the moss covers, but
must soon fall and mingle with the dead leaves of the
forest."
He then told them how, after Ta-yo-neh left him, he had
fallen through a cleft into a cave, where he had lain help-
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 63
less, until discovered by hunters on their way to Canada ;
how he had joined the British against the French in the
war between the two countries ; was rescued from death in
battle by an Indian Chief, who gave him his daughter, and
whose Tribe made him Chief after the death of his pre-
server ; how he had lived since happily, surrounded by
his children and children's children in the distant spot
where the Tribe had dwelt, and how, lately, the whole
Tribe had been swept away by the Hurons and he had now
come to die among the people of his youthful love.
Joy took possession of the Tribe of the Eaglenest, as they
listened. A runner was despatched with the tidings, to
the Tribe at the Eye of Hah-wen-ne-yo, and the next day,
at sunset, both tribes were assembled in the Council-Place
of the Eaglenest. Do-ne-on-dah took his seat upon a mound
with 0-nech-tah and Ko-nu-teh, Chief of the lower Tribe, at
either hand supporting him, for he drooped like the elm
when the water is washing under its roots. The old man then
repeated his story and ended by solemnly enjoining both
Tribes to live together hereafter in amity. They as solemnly
promised, raising in unison the shrill whoop of friendship.
As the last quavering note died away, Do-ne-on-dah, with
a quick motion, bent his ear, reared himself suddenly on
high, flung his arm aloft and saying loudly, " The Eagle
hears the voice of Hah-wen-ne-yo I He comes I" stepped
forward a few paces and fell dead in the sight of all the
people.
The two Tribes buried him, just as he had sat upon the
mound, by the side of Ta-yo-neh, on the margin of the Eye
of Hah-wen-ne-yo, and ever after lived in harmony and
peace. When the sad time came to leave the Green Coun-
cil-Place and the woods of the Eaglenest, together their
canoes rippled the Lake of the Silver Sky and together
they sought the waters of the Ottawa in the hunting-grounds
of Canada. There, remnants of the Tribe still live in con-
tentment and prosperity.
We had a delightful walk over the carry. The track
64 WOODS AND WATERS;
was broad and passably smooth, with here and there huge
roots running across and bordered with luxuriant wood
plants. It dipped into hollows and wound pleasantly
along, with the fresh morning sunshine lighting up the
whole.
Upon one side, was the curiosity of the carry. Withered,
jagged limbs projected from the bark of living trees
like struggling skeletons. The sight was truly death
in life.
The legend runs thus. While the Saranacs inhabited
the carry, certain wizards from the lonely waters of Am-
persand Pond in the wild region between Moose Mountain,
Cove Hill and Mount Seward, so troubled the Tribe that a
feast was holden on Turtle Island ; and the old Patriarch
Priest of the Tribes, forsaking his cave in a gorge of Cove
Hill, prayed for help to Hah-wen-ne-yo. The Great Spirit
listened to the prayer. One night of lightning and rain,
the wizards who were slumbering in hollow trees, were
awakened (so said one who had been least guilty and who
escaped to tell the tale) by finding themselves walled in
with growing bark. In their despairing struggles, they
thrust forth their arms, which were caught by the bark and
there they withered. To this day, when the fall wind wails
in the forest, sounds of sorrow float upon it from these
magic trees, the coffins of the wizards of the Saranacs.
At the end of the carry, on the shore of the first of the
three Stony or Spectacle Ponds, we found one of our
American ruins, a dilapidated log hut, with a dead clearing
around it, dotted with dark stumps and strewed with half-
burned logs. %
Here we basked in the sunshine, after drinking from a
spring that bubbled through the overgrown border, await-
ing the transportation of our boats over the carry.
The conical breast of Cove Hill, dark with wood, heaved
grandly up eastward. Ampersand Pond is cradled at'
its foot and sends out a brook,- which, after a rocky and
tortuous course, links itself with the last of the three
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 65
Stony-Ponds, its mouth being a famous resort for large
trout.
The scene was quiet and delightful. Faint cries from
hawks dotted around a distant fir, touched the ear ; a king-
fisher, with his purple back gleaming in the light, watched
the water, from a dry limb; and a little family of black
ducks steered out from a hollow in the bank and pushing
through a broad field of lily-pads, made their way diagonally
down the pond.
Bingham had just seized his rifle for a shot, when a
couple of legs appeared, working nimbly under the long
curve of a boat. The bow being rested on a stump, let
from under it a man, no other personage than Cort, some-
what red in the face from his exertions. And here let me
notice farther the mode of transporting boats practised
throughout the forest.
The guide balances his upward-turned craft by a wooden
yoke clasping the base of his neck, the ends fitting in
iron rings at the sides of the boat, and the weight also rest-
ing on his upturned arms. He thus bears his burden over
the portages of the innumerable waters that make one vast
Venice of the wilderness.
When the portage is long, the guide rests himself for a
moment, by leaning the boat's bow against some tall stump,
broken sapling or small rock and withdrawing from
beneath it.
Our comrades started to fish the mouth of Ampersand
Brook, but the restless Bingham resolved to visit a beaver
pond a mile or two off (the knowledge of which had been
infused into him by Cort) for his favorite sport, deer-hunt-
ing. He (unlucky Bingham) invited me to accompany
him and, propelled by Cort's oars, we were soon furrowing
the mirror of the pond. We crossed ; entered the second
pond ; skirted on the left a bank of open trees, and passing
an island fronting a bay, pushed into a creek which twisted
through a wild meadow.
" Turkic Island there is a great place for the black
5
66 WOODS AND WATERS;
snappin' turkles," said Cort. " There's a turkle's nest on't
where the critters lay their eggs. D'ye see that streak o'
brown sand ? That's where they crawl up from the water."
We left the boat a short way up the meadow, and
wading through the long, coarse grass, reached at last a
wooded point. Here Cort whispered to be " keerful and
not make the least bit o' noise, for round it, he'd no doubt
but there was mebby two or three deer feedin'."
Treading softly, in Indian file, Cort foremost, we rounded
the point. As usual, in taking the utmost care, my
unlucky feet would keep cracking all the dry twigs in
the path ; and it was ludicrous to see Bingham's impatient
face turned towards me as some crisp snap broke the still-
ness. I knew I should pay at the camp-fire for every
crackle, in his stinging jests and provoking raillery; but
the more gingerly I tried to tread, the more I kept up the
snapping.
No deer was in sight ; but another point was ahead, and,
Indian fashion again, we neared it.
Crack, crack, snap, snap, crackle, snap. At last, Bing-
ham lost all patience.
" Confound you, Smith !" jerking his head alternately
as he whispered, " has the devil, if I must say so, got into
* — what do you see, Cort ? Heavens ! are those big feet of
yours shambling around without any control or — do you
see anything, Cort ? Have all the bones in your body got
loose — eh, what is it, Cort ? Where on earth Smith do you
manage to find so many twigs to step on !"
" Hush-sh !" said Cort, who was now peering round
another headland. The next moment, he beckoned to
Bingham, who quickly, though quietly, advanced. I fol-
lowed. In a lily-pad pond, with head and earflaps erect
and one forefoot lifted, stood a large buck. Bingham
aimed, but at the critical juncture, my unlucky pedals
struck another twig — snap — whew ! Didn't that deer run ?
Bingham fired; but the buck still bounded through the
scattering lilies. Another shot — this time from Cort — and
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 67
the deer fell. Cort rushed forward with his wood-knife,
which he carried, like the other guides, sheathed in his
leathern belt ; and by the time Bingham and I had reached
him, he had cut the throat of the victim. The ball had,
however, pierced its heart.
Bingham looked narrowly at the wound.
" I say, Cort ! couldn't it have been possible that I hit
the buck before you did ?"
" There isn't but one hole there !" answered Cort.
" Ah, Smith !" said Bingham, shaking his head, " you're
an unlucky creature, or rather I'm the unluckiest of mor-
tals in bringing «you. I was as sure of that buck as I am
that you're my evil genius. What on earth got into those
hoofs of yours ! But no matter now ; let's join the boys
at Ampersand Brook, or the next thing, I shan't be able
to get even a trout !"
Cort swung the deer over his stalwart shoulders and we
returned to the boat, left the second pond behind and,
pushing through the long grass and lily-pads of the con-
necting channel, opened into the third.
This and the first of these linked sheets of water are a
mile in diameter and of exquisite beauty ; round, as if
traced by a compass ; rimmed with a belt of snowy sand,
and ringed with the dark green woods. Not a shape or
color of decay can be seen on any side.
The second is much larger and quite irregular.
The forests were tranced in the morning calm, and the
pond, as we crossed it, was a reflected picture of blue and
white. Now we cut through a wreath of pearl and now
ruffled a belt of sapphire.
" There they are, at the mouth of the Ampersand !" said
Cort, glancing round.
" And whipping up the trout like Old Sanko !" added
Bingham. " Pull away, Cort, and let's have a chance
among them. Jupiter! if Eenning isn't bringing up a
two-pounder in that landing-net of his ! Pull, pull, Cort !
Good morning, gentlemen. Have you left any trout for a
68 WOODS AND WATERS;
luckless lawyer and one Smith, gentlemen, whose name
has been adjudged by the Supreme Court to be no name,
and who would be the life of our party if he could only
crack jokes as he can twigs ! Why,"
" For heaven's sake, stop that bawling of yours, Bing-
ham I" exclaimed Eenning, who had just dropped his prize
with a broken neck, into his boat, " you'd frighten all the
trout in the universe."
"And if I did, I'd but follow Smith's example here in
the way of bucks. What do you think, gentlemen ! In-
stead of
' Stepping like Fear in a wide wildenfess,'
which, by the way, is a very appropriate line in these old
woods, he stepped like a cart-horse on paving-stones, and
the consequence was — I — heml — have the honor to an-
nounce that a deer is in the bottom of the boat. What
do you think of opening the day with a fat buck, gentle-
men? What do you think ?"
" I think I shall pull out of this place," said Coburn.
"Bingham's tongue has got loose again, and the Lord
knows now when it will stop."
" Are ye afraid, gentlemen, I shall rival you all in my
trout exploits also, that you go as soon as I appear ?" re-
torted Bingham. " However, I'll follow. Smith, please
get into your own boat. I'll say this of ye, before we part,
that your feet in size and shape, are more like snowshoes
than any natural extremities I am acquainted with, and
make a noise to match."
Again I found myself in the little Bluebird with my
friend Harvey, and we all filed into Stony Creek, whose
source lies but a rod or two from the mouth of the Amper-
sand.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 69
CHAPTER VII.
Stony Creek. — Origin of the Indian Plume. — The Racket River. — Moose Talk
— Panther Story. — Palmer Brook. — Racket-Falls Camp.
STONY CREEK, or Wahpolichan-igan — its Indian (St.
Regis) name — flows in a succession of sharp oxbows, three
miles, into the Racket River, principally through wild mea-
dows skirted, at the stream, as is usual, with trees. Among
these, the most conspicuous are the elm and white or water
maple ; some of the latter, grouped into a score of stems from
one root. This tree is the Banyan of these woods, and its
" pillared shade " is one of the most noticeable objects along
their streams. Particularly along the Racket, is it seen
clustering its trunks on the grassy banks, coverts for the
deer and " leafy house " for the birds.
The Creek was quiet and beautiful, stealing beneath the
gothic roof of branches in gold-speckled green and some-
times laughing in open light from the meadows or parks.
Pointed logs frequently narrowed the channel to a few feet
in width and sunken trunks now and then stretched entirely
across, obliging my guide to sink them deeper with his
paddle for he had abandoned the oars from the continual
windings. As I sat at the bow, with my eyes half shut,
steeped in the wild beauty of the scene and shaping some
chance moulding of leaves and sunshine into an ambushed
hunter or crouching panther, my attention was at length
caught by glowing flakes among the dense herbage of the
low borders.
" What is that beautiful flower, Harvey ?"
" That's the Injin Plume 1"
70 WOODS AND WATEKS;
" The Indian Plume ! A pretty name and most lovely
flower !"
It rose in a slender spire of superb scarlet, about a foot
high, its delicate petals like the geranium's. The plant
seemed nearly to blaze in the sunshine and to kindle into
ruby light the green nooks where it nestled.
As I looked at the flower, glowing almost like live coals
against the grasses of the banks, I shrined it in my memory
and heard afterward from a St. Regis Indian, this legend of
its birth.
A very long time ago, long before the incidents related
of the Indian Carrying-Place, Onwee was the Sachem of
the Saranacs, dwelling by the Stream of the Snake. One
daughter shone in his lodge, beautiful as a star, and pure
as a snowflake on the wintry summit of Whiteface. She
was betrothed to Ka-no-ah, named " The Arrow," from his
swiftness on the trail, whether of the deer or the foe. All
went happily, and the life of Len-a-wee or " The Indian
Plume" was like the mellow days that the Indian Summer
smiling in the stern face of Winter, breathes in purple mist
through the wood. But at last, the Demon of the Quick
Death darkened over her people. Eight and left he swung
his startling tomahawk, and the white hair — the frolic boy
— the strong warrior and the blossoming maiden fell alike
beneath it. All trembled before the viewless foe. Onwee
bowed his old head and died, and the Swift Arrow was
launched upon the shadowy trail. The Tribe veiled their
faces in dread ; Hah-wen-ne-yo was angry with his children.
In vain the Great Calumet sent its smoke from the lips of
the Prophet toward His Dwelling-Place. In vain was the
White Dog slaughtered, to bear upward the sins of the
people. At last, the old Prophet proclaimed that Hah-
wen-ne-yo had appeared to him. He came in dazzling
splendor, one night of lightning, on the top of the Tempest-
Darer that looks upon the first of the Wampum Waters.
And thus he said, " Not the breath of the Great Calumet
and not the blood of the dog of snow will soften my wrath.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 71
The warm blood from a human heart will alone appease it
That spilled, my smile will again beam upon my chil-
dren!"
The old Prophet spoke and deep silence hushed the
tribe. But a moment after, Len-a-wee glided into the ring
of warriors ranged around the Prophet on the banks of
the winding stream.
" Len-a-wee is a blighted flower;" said she, in her tones of
music, but now sad as the wail of the wind in the time of
the falling leaves ; "let the blood of her heart atone for
the sins of her people 1"
She said, and grasping the knife from the belt of the
Prophet, darted close to the stream which she and her
Ka-no-ah had so often skimmed together in their birch
canoe, and plunged it into her bosom. The red blood
flowed upon the earth; the keen weapon had cleft her
heart. Reverently and sorrowfully did the warriors of the
Tribe raise her in their arms, and solemnly did they lay her
form by that of Onwee and Ka-no-ah. As the next Morn-
ing trod through the forest, his golden fingers touched the
spot which had been stained by the blood of the msiden.
No blood was there, but instead, a slender flower, red ag
the flush that kindles the cheek of the Sunset as it sinks
in the gloom' of night. The Demon of the Quick Death
plied his tomahawk slower and slower from the birth of
the flower, and soon his presence darkened no more the
hearts of the people. And ever after, was the flower loved
by the Saranacs. The warriors twined its blossoms in'
their scalp-locks, the maidens spangled its glowing sparks
over their tresses of darkness. When the Autumn blighted
it, they mourned ; when the late Summer told it to bloom,
they were glad. A feast was instituted in its honor, for it
glowed in their minds as the emblem of unselfish devotion
to the common good.
Another curve of Stony Creek, and, darkening for an'
instant under a log bridge, we came to the junction of
the stream with the Backet, where two leaning water-
72 WOODS AND WATERS;
maples watched like Dryads the wedding of the lovely
Naiad. We turned to the left, or eastward, up the river,
as the last of the other boats, containing Bingham's tall
form, vanished beyond a bend.
Broad in comparison with the channel we had just
quitted (which is about a rod in width), this truly beautiful
river, like the Saranac Lakes, impresses its character upon
the region it traverses. Its source is Backet Lake ;
thence it expands into the Forked and Long Lakes, and
after flowing one hundred and fifty miles, in two bold sweeps,
to the north-east and north-west, falls into the St. Lawrence,
north of its source. From crystal cradle to grass-green
grave, its shadowy footsteps glide through an unbroken
wilderness. I say unbroken, for the dots of clearings only
heighten by contrast the general wildness of the scene.
Its name, as some suppose, is derived from the French
Canadian hunters, in old times, hunting the moose in winter
by means of the raquette (the French for snow-shoe), around
the waters now known as Raquette or Eacket Lake.
Others affirm the name to be taken from a small marsh
which a Frenchman, accompanying Indians who were
exploring upward from the river's mouth, thought to be
shaped like a snow-shoe.
" But I've al'ys heerd," said Harvey, " the name come
from the tarnal racket the river keeps up with the falls and
rifts and what not, on't."
Its three Indian names are Mas-le-gui (St. Francis),
Ta-na-wa-deh and Ni-ha-na-wa-te (both Iroquois), the last
signifying " full of rapids."
" "We are now 'mongst another set o' waters from what
we was at the S'nac Lakes," continued Harvey, after he
had given his idea of the name of the river. " The ridge
that the Injin Carry runs over, is the dividin' place. The
Stunny Ponds runs, as you know, by way of the Creek,
inter the Eacket. This ridge, about thirty miles west or
mebby northwest o' here, turns the Big and Little Wolf
Pond waters inter the Kacket too. On the other side o'
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 73
the ridge the waters of the Musquiter and Kawlins and
Floodwood and other ponds round there, go inter the
Upper S'nac."
A short distance east, we found the river bending short
to the south. Two or three miles from the bend, glimpses
of an opening broke upon us through the foliage of the
border on our right.
" Big Meadow," said Harvey. " I'll see if there's a deer
there."
He landed, taking his rifle, and ascended the bank, fol-
lowed by myself. The wild meadow contained about a
hundred acres, moulded into bays by points of wood and
grouped with groves like islets. Irregular streaks of stem-
less cedars, like green tents planted on the ground, and
tamaracks, with their graceful limbs, skirted here and there
the grassy surface.
"We cast our glances around ; no living shape dis-
turbed the loneliness. We entered deeper ; and Harvey,
stopping suddenly at the muddy margin of a thread of
water, exclaimed —
"By golly, I raally hed a notion at fust glance this
track b'longed to a moose," pointing to a large, rounded
hoof-print stamped in the ooze. " How on airth could
oxen 'ave strayed out here ! We're miles away from any
clearin' or where any human critter lives. Let me see !
Oh, I hev it ! The lumber people, workin' on Cold Eiver,
'bove Racket Falls, must ha' drove their oxen 'cross here."
" Is a moose-track like that of an ox ?" I inquired, as
we were gliding again upward.
" It's longer and more peaked. The time has bin
when I've seen a good many moose- tracks, but not of late
years. Of'en and of'en, when I was a young man, I've
hunted 'em on snow-shoes, on the sides of old Tawwus, but
they've gone, most, from there now."
" They've gone almost entirely from this region, haven't
they, Harvey?"
" Jest round here, they hev. But in them woods south
74 WOODS AND WATERS;
o' Mount Seward, they say they kin be found yit. Them
woods, though, I don't know nothin' about, nur nobody
else that I ever see, but the Injun guide, Mitchell Sabatis.
I dunno but some o' the Keene Mountain trappers, too,
may go 'long the edges in winter, layin' saple lines on
snow-shoes. And they finds 'em round at Mud Lake"
" I suppose you've shot numbers of them, Harvey, in
your time ?"
" You're right, I hev. But they're a terr'ble critter to
kill."
"Why so?"
" Oh, they're so farse when they're wounded or brought
to bay. There isn't no critter in the woods that I wouldn't
fight, sunner than a moose. A bear or a painter ain't
nothin' to 'em. I've fit a good many and killed a good
many and I tell ye, when their blood is up, by goll ! it's
lively times. They jump at ye with their mane on eend,
and glarin' as though they'd eat ye up ; and them broad
horns o' theirn, too, look mighty ugly. You've got to be
consid'ble smart in dodgin' about the trees and watchin'
your time to fire, or let 'em hev it with your knife whiles
the hound tugs at their flanks, or it's kingdom come with
ye. I've fit 'em when 'twas about an even chance whether
I should be killed or them. And there's no give up to 'em,
nuther. They'll fight as long as there's breath left. And
you take a critter five or six foot high, and weighin'
eight hunderd or a thousand pounds, with great horns,
and feet that'll cut into ye like a knife, and you may hev
a notion it's no child's play fightin' 'em. I've heerd a bull-
moose roar afore now and was glad he was miles off!"
" What sort of sound does he make, Harvey ?"
" Well, I can't scurce tell ye. It's a loud, shrill, ringin',
twangin' sound, like — I'll tell ye- — 'tis more like the
twangin' of a tin horn than anything I kin think on, and
kin be heard through the woods a-ringin' and echoin' fur
miles."
• " What does the animal feed on ?"
OR, SUMMER IN THE gARANACS. 75
" Water-lilies jest like tlie deer ; but they're more fond
o' the tap-borers or moose-heads or pick'rel weeds, as some
calls 'em ; and they say in the woods that the piek'rel
come from these weeds. They're old hunderd on 'em.
The big upper lip o' the moose, when it's feedin', goes
flop, flop, in twistin' in their fud, so that a body kin hear
it, a mile or more. I remember, one time, at the head o'
Cold Eiver — 'twas one still night in the airly part o' July,
Them queer things, the tree-toads, was singin' away—
quir-r-r-r-r-r, and as for the lightnin' bugs, by goll! I
never see 'em so plenty. Well, I sot in my boat — 'twas
Little Mary, afore I'd built the Bluebird— and the fust J
knowed, I heerd, kinder faint-like, that flop, flop, flop.
The moose was either in a lily-pad pond, more'n a mile off,
or in the second o' the Preston Ponds not so fur, but over
a mile at enny rate. They're a big critter and don't do
things like a mink by a derned sight."
" You say you would rather meet a panther than an
angry moose, Harvey 1"
" Pooh I painters ain't nothin'. I'd about as lieve meet
a dog as one on 'm. They're a good deal more skeered
at you than you at them, and '11 run, that is, when they
ain't got no cubs to fight fur. I've hunted and trapped in
these woods and fished in these waters about forty-two
year and I've never seen a tarnal sight on 'em. I've
camped, too, alone of'en, right under Catamount Peak,
that lays off in the St. Eegis' Woods, nigh the head
waters of the Upper S'nac, and never even then heerd a
great many. I remember one time, though. I'd bin trap-
pin' beaver on a pond right under the Peak and 'ad killed
a doe and dressed her jest outside my camp. I call it
camp, but I hadn't no shanty nur tent, unly the ground to
sleep on. I was alone, unly I bed Watch. Well, I made
a rousin' big fire, fur 'twas a leetle cold and there'd bin a
flurry o' snow at sundown. About midnight, I was woke
up by the dolefullest sounds — well, they was • more like a
woman cryin' out fur help in the woods than anything
76 WOODS AND WATERS;
else — a pitiful, kind o' whinin', wailin' cry. 'Twas comin'
clusser and clusser, and at fust my head was so twistified
by bein' woke up so sudden, I raally consated some one
was lost in the woods ; so I sung out and the doleful cries
stopped right off and I knowed then 'twas a painter.
Well, I was jest a goin' to turn over and go to sleep agin,
when Watch begun to show his teeth and growl, and the
hair on his neck riz up. I couldn't see nothin', and yit, as
I stared round the camp, I consated I see a blazin' kind o'
eyeballs nigh the fire. But Watch wouldn't stir, fur the
catamount would a killed 'im with one blow of his paw.
Finally at last, I heerd a creep, creep, creep, off through
the woods, and that was the last on't ; and sun I fell asleep
agin. But talkin' o' moose : when he's riled or wounded
or crowded up too cluss, look out fur 'im, that's all. You
must git out o' his way, fur he won't git out o' yourn, take
my word for't."
" I should like to see a moose, Harvey I"
" I'll take ye to Mud Lake, up Bog Eiver, that comes
in at the head o' Tupper's Lake, where you'll be tol'ble
sure o' seem' one and p'raps git a shot."
I expressed myself delighted with this arrangement and
he resumed.
" It's a dreary, skeery, dark hole of a place, that Mud
Lake. There's a wild meader or slew, some ways from it,
the biggest I ever see. You can't much more 'n look crost
it, and there's the place where the moose find their feediii'.
This meader isn't known much. I never knowed but one
man beside myself that ever spoke on't. Well, I've saw
the time when I've skeert up in that meader two, or even
three moose, in a day, and shot one or two on 'em. But it
can't be done now. Talkin' o' trappin' too. I've ketched
fisher and mink and saple and black foxes on Tupper's
Lake, 'twixt sunrise and sundown, enough to kiver the
little Bluebird all over. But that can't be done now
nuther; — see how the deer Ve turned up old sanko there,
and no later than last night, too !" pointing to a broad shallow,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 77
bristling with the cropped stems and heaped with the tumbled
pads of the yellow lily, interspersed with the upturned dull
red leaves of the white. " What say ye For a jack-hunt to-
night ? There's fust rate slews all along here, up to Kacket
Falls, where we camp for a day or so, as I onderstand 1"
Gladly did I express my readiness, for I had long wished
to witness this mode of hunting deer.
These slews (i. e. sloughs) are frequent in the forest and
are either low, marshy spots with narrow streams and
covered with wild grass which affords pasturage for the deer,
or shallow basins of water, mantled in water-lilies, of which
the yellow species is the animal's favorite luxury. The'
principal hours for feeding are from sunset to early morn-
ing. The day is generally passed by the deer in covert.
In about an hour, we reached Palmer Brook, a charming
little stream meandering through the usual wild meadow,
where trees single and clustered, and shrubbery-like thick-
ets, all disposed as by the hand of taste, gave the scene not
only a picturesque but habitable look, so that the eye
involuntarily wandered to discover the country-seat.
There we found the whole party landed, with their boats
drawn up the shore. They had decided to send their three
hounds out for a drive and were waiting for Harvey to
bring Watch.
It was now deep in the afternoon.
Mart, Will and Cort each led off a hound, to let him
loose ; my comrades started for their several stations, while
Harvey and I set out, he leading Watch by his chain.
We entered the forest, and the old woodman undid the
collar from the hound, who looked up with his bright,
intelligent eye, waving his tail delightedly. Harvey
bade the dog start. Watch bounded off with a yelp and
then moved in a quick walk, with his nose to the ground.
After completing a circle, he returned and gazed up at
Harvey, as if to say, " No deer there." Harvey waved
him off again, and vaulting logs, threading thickets, search-
ing bushes and spruce caverns and nosing the underwood
78 WOODS AND WATEKS;
generally, in another and still wider circle, once more
he returned with his mute message as before. A third
time Harvey sent him away, but a half hour now elapsed
without the return of the dog. The old guide then turned
to me and said,
" The pup has got the trail at last, so we'd best make
tracks torts the brook again. Bimeby we'll hear him tell
his luck."
Returning, we found Coburn at the mouth of the brook ;
Corey and Little Jess had pushed on to Racket Falls with
the baggage boats, to prepare the camp before night.
My station was also at the brook's mouth on my left.
Beyond, was the runway.
The scene, — late alive with shapes of hurrying men and
eager hounds, flitting colors of red and blue hunting-shirts
and flashes of guns and wood-knives, boats gliding up and
down the river to their stations, with loud talk and calls and
short, joyful yelps, — -was now quiet and solitary, with only
the common sights and sounds of the wilderness. The fal-
setto of the jay ; the bass note, softened by distance, of the
raven ; the harsh cry of the wheeling hawk, the tap of the
woodpecker, and the pervading monotone of the river,
soothed the ear and deepened the loneliness. Occasionally
I hushed my breath for a cry from the hounds, but nothing
was heard. My boat lay with quiet ripples sparkling
around its stern, and bushes burying its bow. The sun-
light glanced from the river, twinkled on the leaves and
bathed the grass. Minute after minute crept by ; no cry
from the dogs, no human sound ; my rifle lay idle at my
knee. Seated near me, on a mound of moss, was Harvey,
with his rifle also across his knee ; and over a clump of tall
ferns, close to the borders of the stream, I saw the motion-
less head and shoulders of Coburn.
At last, a burst of music from a- hound made the woods
echo. A rifle shot succeeded ; then came a fainter yelping,
followed by another report, dull and lengthened, down the
river.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 79
Soon Bingham and Cort appeared, skimming down 'the
Eacket, the face of Bingham radiant with pleasure, and Cort
rowing with buoyant speed. As the boat came nearer, I
saw a buck at the bottom and Watch curled at the bow.
" I fixed him this time !" shouted Bingham, " Eight
through the heart, or I'm a humbug ! By goll I" landing,
" as old Harvey here says, it was a splendid sight ! How
Watch yelled and how the deer flew 1 And how he
stopped too — and fell — right flat in his tracks ! But I sup-
pose it will be all Cort, Cort, at the camp-fire. Eenning
will say, in that confounded cool way of his, 'Why, of
course, Cort shot the deer ; who doubts it !' And then
Gaylor will say, 'There's one thing Bing can't do; he
can't shoot 1' And then you, Coburn and Smith here, will
chime in. Well, I've heard such before. But it doesn't
affect me ! I tower above it all, ' like some tall cliff ' — Ah,
here comes Gaylor and Eenning — and — hang me if
there isn't — yes — there is — a deer, by Jupiter! in Gay's
boat ! Well now I call this last superfluous. It's really
robbing the forest ! Of course, Gaylor," as the last party
landed, " you shot the deer, and not Will."
" Of course I shot him," responded Gaylor in a cheery
tone. " There's one in your boat, I see. When did Cort
shoot him ?"
" There it is I" said Bingham. " But I shall enter into no
controversy on the subject. I shall merely mention I shot
him and say no more."
" Ha, ha, ha 1" exploded from the whole company.
" Oh laugh away 1" said Bingham, taking a seat.
•" There's the buck though, and here's the tool," slapping
his rifle, "that did the business. Cort I hand me my
flask I"
After enjoying the quiet and leafy beauty of Palmer
Brook, a little while longer, we all moved gaily up toward
Eacket Falls, which we reached at sunset. We found the
tents pitched and the camp-fire kindled upon an elevated
point or headland, on the east bank, at the foot of the
80 WOODS AND WATERS,
falls or rather rapids, the foam of which gleamed red among
the scattered rocks.
The tents stood in a grassy space, with a background of
firs and cedars intermingled with the birch, aspen and
maple. One large white pine towered on either side, with
one near the front of the headland looking upon the
Eacket, which glided swift and dark, with large blots of
foam from the falls, whirling and loosening in their downward
way. In one corner, a tamarack hung its beautiful foliage.
The opposite shore rose into an acclivity, with here and
there a dry pine like a flag-staff, above the verdure, and
fluttering with pennons of grey moss. Paths meandered
from the headland (which was a well-known camping-spot)
down to the river on either side and into the background
of forest.
After our usual meal, we disposed ourselves for a genial
smoke before the crackling camp-fire.
The lucent gold of the twilight tinged the scene and
vanished ; the dusk darkened into night.
A breeze crept through the high woods opposite ; above
me, the white pine, that tree of sorrow, heaved its long deep
sigh, and the low crashings of the rapids filled the air.
Ralph and Graylor had left to lie down in the tent, the
grassy floor of which had been spread deep by the
guides with mattresses of hemlock. Coburn had taken his
seat on the end of a log, close to the camp-fire, to smoke
and cogitate perhaps his next speech in Congress (as he
was a member and a powerful speaker), while I had gone
aside to observe, if not also to meditate.
« At first, my eye was caught by the camp-fire shedding its
gloss in a wide circle over the grass blades, brakes and tiny
wood-sprouts, cutting the nearest trees into gigantic yellow
cameos on a sable background and touching with wild scar-
let the black river below ; the dark figures of the guides
flitting athwart the flame like goblins, with Coburn shown
in sharp relief, his countenance fixed and arm slightly
raised as if thrusting an argument upon " Mr. Speaker,"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 81
and the sparks whirling through the smoke like fiery
insects.
I thought then of the vast expanse of this sea-like wil-
derness, almost unchanged since its creation, and of the
wild freedom of that savage life known upon our continent
before the " White Throats" came. I asked myself whe-
ther man has gained greater happiness with his boasted
civilization. Do all the trophies won by that civilization,
its treasures of science, its enchanted realms of painting,
poetry, sculpture, music, eloquence, its elegancies and
luxuries, outweigh its sufferings, cares and crimes, the
daily anxieties and toils and battles for its miscalled prizes ;
its galling conventionalities, its scourging necessities, its'
malignant rivalries, its treacherous smiles — real ability fail-
ing where grinning trickery succeeds ; mere poverty de-
spised and mere gold adored ; genius trampled beneath the
hoofs of pompous dulness; frank honesty supplanted by
wary villany ; right throttled by the ruffian hand of power ;
all these, the rank weeds that choke the hotbed of our arti-
ficial existence ? I, for one, am sick of the griefs and strifes
and follies of the world. Oh men ! when will ye cease to
torture and crush your fellow-men ? Thy wailing winds,
oh earth ! are but the echoes of our human sighs, thy very
throes the emblems of our agonies !
Here, thought I once more, would I live ; here, in this
fresh, free wilderness, this tranquil realm of content, where
honor is not measured by success, where pretension does
not trample upon merit, where genius is not a jest, good-
ness not a seeming and devotion not a sham. Here, where
the light of day is undarkened by wrong, where silence is
the parent of pure meditation and the solitude is eloquent
of God. Here would I live, listening the forest's calls to
self-communing, and all those teachings that guide the in-
sight, soften the heart, and purify, while they expand, the
soul.
6
82 WOODS AND WATERS;
CHAPTEK YIIL
Floating for Deer. — Night Scenery on the Racket. — Owls. — A Camp Scene.
I WAS awakened from my reverie by the voice of Harvey
at my side.
" Come, Mr. Smith ! it's about time now for our night-
hunt, and a rael inkstand of a night 'tis, too, dark and not
windy ; and I think one deer, ef not two, 's jest about 's
good 's dead. Keady ?"
I slipped on my overcoat and grasped a blanket to
defend my knees against the chill of the night air. At the
boat I found Corey, who was to go with us as marksman
(as I had had little experience with the rifle), while Harvey
was to handle the paddle. The latter duty required con-
summate skill, which the old boatman proved himself
to possess. He seated himself in the stern while Corey
took the oars ; I sat in the middle, and the Bluebird
skimmed rapidly down the river, a bend of which soon
hid the camp-fire.
Our jack was a semicircular piece of birch bark, painted
dark; the top and bottom of wood, with two oil lamps
behind a glass front, and planted on a wooden handle at the
prow. It was not yet lighted.
The black woods looked threatening, but the water,
although dark, seemed more companionable sprinkled with
the stars, and even the wilderness did not appear entirely
abandoned, with the same dots of light glittering among the
breaks in the gloom.
Nor was the solitude completely silent. Now and then
came the chirp of some bird startled by our oars, while the
owl's prolonged hoo hoohoo, hoo hoohoo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 83
ah, rounding into a deep-throated, peevish caw, frequently
came on the ear.
Here and there a skeleton tree, leaning over, made a
thick black streak in the air, or a protruding branch dropped
an arch, while dark bulks told the margin logs.
" We're nigh Palmer Brook," at length said Harvey, in
a guarded voice. " I forgot to put ile in the lamps or trim
'em to-day, so we'd best land to light up the jack, hadn't
we?"
We landed on the steep bank, in a cavern of the foliage.
We had not much more than entered it, however, before my
face and hands broke out as it were into an intolerable
tickling.
" Whew, the flies is comin'," said Corey. " How quick
they smell a feller out ! Plague take these mitchets ; but
we'll fix 'em, skeeters and all !"
The charges of these winged lancers were indeed terrible.
They, the mixed legion of musquitoes and gnats or midges,
are the serious annoyance of the summer woods. They
seem to lie in wait, and the moment one ventures from
the boat on shore, they swarm in myriads ; like fire on
invisible ink, your very corning strikes the atmosphere into
gnats and musquitoes.
If you open your mouth, in they go ; if you inhale
through your nose, up they go ; they play an unceasing
fife to the drum of your ear, and dart in as if to assault
your brain. Just as you motion to slap your forehead,
there is a quick sting on your temple, and you don't
know which to slap first. If you rub your cheek —
w-h-i-z-p — there is a terrific bite on your eyelid. You
crush the sight out of your optics with a finger that
has three little fiends tacked to it; you try to rub both
your prickling hands at once, while your elbows are
suffering; you shrug your shoulders and begin to wrig-
gle your back in your shirt, at the same time your
legs are twitching as if in a galvanic battery ; in short,
you are defending the tip of your nose, while the
84 WOODS AND WATERS;
aggregate flesh, of your body is creeping off your
bones.
"Yes, yes! we'll fix 'em!" repeated Corey, as he and
Harvey gathered the materials of combustion at the foot of
a pine tree. Soon a snapping blaze was licking the rough
bark, bringing out the immense tree from its dark back-
ground and tinging the leaves and stems around into ruddy
gold. With the light flickering over their persons, the
two guides then prepared the jack, kindled it, and we re-
embarked, leaving the fire to burn down, like a red eye-
ball alternately winking and glaring in the darkness of the
bank.
Corey examined his rifle, to see if all was right, theii
seated himself directly behind the jack, so as to front the
water, with his weapon across his lap.
A red glare played upon the shore and the stream ahead,
while the boat remained in deep shadow. The unnatural
light dazzles and bewilders the deer, which frequent the
banks and shallows and particularly the sloughs, at night,
to feed upon the water-lilies, and it strikes them motionlesSj
the boat and its occupants being concealed in gloom. They
stand gazing out from the dark background, quite
covered with the light, affording a near and generally
fatal shot.
The boat seemed now to glide of its own volition, Har-
vey drawing his paddle so still, as not to wake even the
whisper of a bursting bubble. Once dipped, the paddle is
not withdrawn, but worked by the wrist and elbow noise-
less as the fin of a fish.
As I hushed my breath while thus borne along, there
was a weird effect from the glide, making me feel, with
Hecate,
" Oh, what a dainty pleasure 'tis,
To sail i' the air!"
The water-flies entering the glare of the jack-light glit-
tered like specks of gold. As the broad crimson gleam
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 85
startled up the banks, a gigantic shadow seemed to chase
the boat and swallow the trees, touching them first, then
meandering over the branches down to their very tips.
The red beams flitted athwart the bushes and water-
plants of the margin near us and turned the bushes into
moving gold, upon which and the gleaming lily-pads, we
would rustle suddenly, as suddenly leaving for the still
water. A quick dropping shot of splashes in the shallows
told the " plops " (one of Harvey's Saranac words) of the
startled muskrats, as they tumbled into the water from the
logs and borders. Their little black heads spotted the
water all around in the jack's radiance, vanishing when out
the stream of light, with the quickness of thought.
We were now gliding across the opening of Palmer
Brook. Suddenly I heard a slight rustling close to the
bank and then two or three light, paddling sounds in the
water. Corey raised his rifle and motioned toward a black
thicket. The boat glided up, as if sentient. The click of
Corey's springing gunlocks followed ; I saw two spots of
pale fire in front of an immense black tree ; Corey caught
his weapon to an aim ; the figure of a deer, motionless as
a sculptured image, with head turned toward the jack,
started out ; a rifle-crack ; the deer sank ; the boat shot to
the bank and Corey, drawing his wood-knife, leaped out.
The deer scrambled up, fell and then lay motionless.
" It's down among the rushes 0 1 with that ven'son I"
said Harvey, laughing.
" 'Tisn't nothin' else I" answered Corey, dragging the doe
into the boat, with her throat cut. " I sent her my 'spects
right 'twixt her eyes !"
" Old hunderd, and all the folks jine in 1" cried Harvey.
" Now for the slews below," singing,
" Ob, Susy was her name 1
Sich a purty little dame — zip I"
Again we were skimming along the margin, Harvey
86 WOODS AND WATERS;
dipping without care, as no feeding-places were afforded by
the bolder shores now presented.
The ripples clinked along the sides of the boat in the
quiet, like little, muffled bells, and I heard the gulp or gut-
tural yelp of a frog, sounding like a blow on a tree, awaken
ing an echo.
At length the dash of the paddle and ripple-taps at the
prow stopped and we were again gliding along, with the
stillness of death. Corey would motion first with one hand
and then the other and the boat would, as if human, obey.
Now it turned and stole into a little cove, looking this way
and that with its broad, red glance, like a Chinese candle-
bug, and then it drew itself backward and resumed its
course. Now it felt along an opening, glided beside a
pavement of lily-pads, pushed its face into a space of rushes
or crept athwart a cluster of alders. Often, some dark
object seemed to me a deer, but the light turned it into a
small rock or an immense log foreshortened or an up-
turned root. Occasionally there would be a splash or
paddling near the margin, but Corey would whisper, " a
bullfrog" or " a muskrat."
At length, we turned into a basin of lily-pads.
" Loon Slew," whispered Harvey.
On we rustled; the newness, the picturesqueness, the
romance of the entire scene delighted me. Gliding as if by
magic over these wild waters, hemmed in by the trackless
forest ; not a human creature (but our own party) probably
within leagues of us ; not one human habitation , the stars
our only watchers ; my two companions, inhabitants of the
wilderness, caring for or knowing little else than its sports
and laughing at its hardships ; the whole, presenting such
utter contrast to my usual experience of life, impressed me
with the profoundest interest.
We had now approached a low point covered with tall,
dense thickets. The jack-light played upon the edges but
failed to penetrate the interior. Corey raised his hand as
if warning us to perfect stillness. A light, quick smack-
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 87
ing or chopping sound within the alders — an animal feed-
ing 1 Corey raised himself cautiously ; the sound ceased
but was instantly resumed. He peered on this and then
on that side the jack ; swung it either way ; then motioned
now on one side, now on the other, the boat turning as if
chained to his gestures. At last, another light, paddling
sound came, then a trickle or two of drops. Corey aimed
with lightning quickness, but with the motion a loud start-
ling huh-h-u-u-u, huh-huh rose from the thickets, followed
by a rapid crash through them. As if the first sounds
were signals, three more like them burst from the shore, a
rod or two from us. Light boundings were heard ; a few
moments elapsed and then for some distance within the
forest, echoed the same thick, fierce sounds between a snort
and a scream, only fainter.
" Confound 'em I" said Corey, in a tone of vexation.
" Five whistles and every deer off!"
" And no leave axed," added Harvey. "But let's try
the other places below ! Them deer by this time is mindin'
their own business. ' Ef it's all the same to you,' says they,
' we'll bid ye good evenin' ; we don't like no sich company!'
But didn't they whistle !"
Making our way out of the slough, to the usual terror of
the frogs and muskrats, who were " floppin' and ploppin'
and poppin' and squigglin' " (whatever that was), as Harvey
said, all around, we once more glided down the river.
We passed several low openings, which the Bluebird
swept with her searching eye, but fortune had deserted us ;
no more deer were seen ; no sounds were heard that told
even of their vicinity.
" The deer has all gone to night meetin'," said Harvey, at
last. " I felt quite sarten of one, at Moose Slew, but 'taint
no more go. 'Spos'n we turn back to camp, Corey ! Shell
we, Mr. Smith ?"
The boat's direction was accordingjy changed up stream.
The same caution was still observed but it was fruitless.
By the wheel of the magic paddle, the little Bluebird would
88 WOODS AND WATERS;
turn her gaze full in front of the openings and sweep them
with red scrutiny, but nothing was seen across the flat ex-
panses. Wheeling her great eyeball half round again,
onward the boat would steal, bringing the various dark
objects of the shore into momentary crimson life. Up
Loon Slough once more we moved, starting out over the
rustling surface, as if by an enchanter's wand, the stemmed
balls of the yellow lilies with their broad, glistening leaves,
but we could hear or discern nothing that showed a deer
had even visited the spot. We reached the point. The
bushes moved gently in the faint night breeze ; but there
was no sound upon the bank, no ripple on the water.
Out of the slough again we glided.
" I guess the deer has all gone to bed 1" said Harvey at
length, giving a plunge with his paddle. " There's no use
tryin' any longer, so we'll git on to camp as fast as we
kin ; hey, Corey! What say ye, Mr. Smith?"
" Yes I" answered Corey, " let's git out o' this, jest as
soon as we kin go. For my part I'm tired o' lookin'
without seein'. Hang the deer say I !"
I was also in favor of moving camp-ward, as the air was
increasing in its damp chilliness, and every limb felt
cramped in keeping my position with such entire quietude ;
so we turned and pulled rapidly up the river; Corey
extinguishing the jack and betaking himself once more to
the oars.
Again came the distant hoot of the owl floating over the
dark silence.
" Shut up there !" exclaimed Corey. " What d'ye think
we care for you !"
" Them owls is a sassy thing ; them and loons," said Har-
vey, lighting his pipe with a match. " They seem to hev
a notion nobody haint no business in the woods but them."
" I tell ye, shut up and mind yer business !" said Corey,
as another hooting was heard, but this time appearing to
come from a considerable distance. "If I hear another
word, I'll give ye a bullet to feed on."
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 89
" How can you shoot him, Corey ?" said I. " He must
be, from the sound, certainly a quarter, if not half a mile
away."
" He isn't twenty rods !" replied Corey ; " that's a way
the critters hev of hootin' in their throat so as to seem a
long way off, when they're close by."
" That's a true bill," chimed in Harvey. " And they're
just the re varse o' wolves. Let them howl and you'd
think yourself nigh enough to look down their throats
a'most, when they're mebby so fur off they couldn't smell
ye, if their noses was as long as pine-trees. They'll go
y-o-w-1, y-o-w-1, one beginnin' fust and the rest strikin' in,
jest as they sing in meetin', when the parson lines the
hymn."
" Hear that owl snap his jaws !" said Corey, as a click-
ing sound in front met my ear. " Look 1" continued he,
after the boat had moved a few rods, " there he stands !"
pointing to a dry tree leaning over the water a short dis-
tance before us. Sure enough, there, dimly seen, was a
large bird perched on the top of the tree and shaking his
head sidewise and up and down, like a political orator in
a paroxysm of patriotism.
" He don't appear to mind us much," said I.
"They're the sassiest " Harvey was commencing,
when another hoo hoo, broken short \)j the report of
Corey's rifle, intervened. Whether it was the jar I gave
the boat in my desire to see, or carelessness on Corey's
part, from being too sure of his aim, the bird, instead of
tumbling dead as I expected, glided away smooth and
noiseless as thistle-down, showing for a moment athwart
us, and then swallowed in the gloom.
" These stump speakers can't always be killed off, Corey !"
I observed.
" Specially when the place you shoot from plays teter !"
said Corey in a slightly vexed tone. "But no matter,
misfortins will happen."
" In the best regilated fam'lies," added Harvey.
90 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Tootle too loo, too loo, too looty,
Tootle loo — whew, whew, whe — whew whew" —
a sudden crack sounded, and then a dull, reverberating
report.
" A tree fallin','' said Corey, as I gave a slight start.
" They'll fall sometimes in the woods without any warnin',
jest as human bein's will in apoplex."
" That's so," said Harvey. " I've bin out afore now,
and a tree that looked jest as sound as a trout 'ud give a
quick skrick like, as a deer'll bleat when tackled by the
hounds, and then fall with a most onmassyful noise. It
takes a two-hoss pettyfogger to git out o' the way."
At this moment came the most singular sound I ever
heard. It was a sharp whine, half smothered in a thick
wheeze, or a loud hiss with a fine whistle cutting through
it, like an exhausted blacksmith's bellows or a person
breathing in an asthma.
" What on earth is that, Corey ?" asked I.
" It's a young owl tryin' to whistle !" answered he, " and
a rael doleful sound 'tis. It sounds as if his throat was
dry, and he couldn't pucker his mouth."
"It sounds as if he had the phthisic," said Harvey,
"and was tryin' to breathe through a holler knittin'-
needle."
A hollow, choking ubble-bubble now sounded close at
hand.
" There's somebody drowning there in the river, boys I
do make haste — quick !"
But the " boys" only laughed.
" That's another of the owls agin ; the big horned critters,
or cat owls, as they're called," said Corey.
" An owl again !" exclaimed I ; " why, how many noises
do the creatures make ?"
" As many a'most as ridin' skimington," answered
Harvey. " Sometimes they'll screech like a catamount ;
then they'll whine like an old woman at-camp-meetin'.
Another sounds like a bell — a leetle owl, not much bigger'n
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 91
a couple o' white lily-blows. Another sounds for all the
world like the whet-whet of a saw — and that isn't a great
sight bigger'n a pine-knot. I've heerd some bark like a
dog, some mew like a cat, and spit 'pit 'pit they will and
snarl and growl as ugly as Satan. Others agin '11 c-r-y out
so doleful, you'd think they had the belly-ache. Others
agin '11 whu-i-stle clear as a nigger. They're great hands
to steal, too, 'specially the big horned ones. I've seen 'em
spyin' round my traps for what they could git, time and
agin. And I've ketched 'em tearin' rats they've found in
traps all to pieces, and lookin' farse as» wild-cats."
" What do they live on ?"
" Well, ducks, and patridges, and dead fish ; the last is
old hunderd to 'em. I've seen 'em skim cluss to the
ground, and then fall quick as a wink on a squirrel, or
muskrat, or rabbit, mebby. I've shot, afore now, and
wounded 'em, and they'd throw themselves on their back,
and lift up their long, black claws, and snap their beaks,
and wink their round eyes, they would, and sw-e-1-1 like a
big puff-ball. They're all sorts o' colors, too, grey and
brown,- and white and brindle ; and one kind's red at fust,
as ef 'twas singed by the camp fire, and then grows mottled
like. This 'ere makes sounds like a body's teeth a-chat-
terin' and clickin' t'gether with the cold. The fust time I
heerd one I couldn't think what on airth 'twas. I looked
round and round, and finally at last I see the leetle red
sarpent a p-e-e-kin' out of a holler low down in a maple,
lookin' like a konkus on a pine-tree."
We now glided along in silence past the grim, ghostly
trees. I almost fancied we were spectres flitting through a
phantom scene, bound in a spell, and I feared to draw
breath lest I should break it, and incur some dreadful
punishment. Now and then I imagined the darkness
gathering into a vast demon, and threatening to whelm us
in the gloom of his frown ; sometimes I thought the sombre
walls on each side were closing to annihilate us.
Suddenly another hissing was heard, but this time accom-
92 WOODS AND WATERS;
panied with a sound between a snarl and a snore. It filled
the woods in the stillness, until I thought it might be the
demon napping on his lonely vigil.
Corey clattered one of the oars, and immediately, with a
keen shriek, a large black object burst from the shore, and
sailing over our heads, became lost in the darkness.
" An eagle," said Corey, unconcernedly. " He was
sleepin' ; and though he snores like a nor'wester, the least
leetle sound '11 wake him, and off he goes."
A sudden light now gleamed from the gloom in front,
and Harvey exclaimed —
" Here we are cluss to camp. I'm glad on't ; my j'ints
feel rayther creaky in the damp air so long I" Then
croaking :
" And it's are you-u-eu Macdon-ald, returned to Glenco-o-o
Oh! it's hung on my — hayl hul-lol" —
At this instant there came out of the camp the voices
of Kenning and Gray lor raised in a song. I could hardly
believe my ears, as I knew they had no more idea
of music than a brace of loons. And yet, there they
were, tangling their voices together in an ear-splitting
discord of —
" Some love to roam
O'er the wild sea foam,
Where the shrill winds whistle free I
But a mountain la— (No, Ralph, you're wrong.)
But a chosen band,
In a mountain land,
And a life in the woods (a tremendous roar) for me I
Oho ho oh ! ho, ho, ho, ho !
But a chosen ba — (No, no, not yet, Ralph.)
Oho oh oh ! ho, ho, ho, ho-o-o-o I
(Like the blast of a cracked trumpet.)
But a chosen band,
(With a clap, as if they had joined hands in eternal friendship.)
In a mountain land,
And a life in the woods for (clear up in the air) me."
(With a sudden drop into a long groan.)
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 93
" That last sound 's a good deal like the c-a-w-w-w of one
of them owls we've bin speakin' about," said Harvey.
" I've knowed my two tom-cats sing better 'n that."
" I've got two b'ys to hum," said Corey, " that kin beat
that noise on a couple o' punkin vines."
The two singers recommenced —
" Some love to" •
*
I had now reached the camp, and the fire revealed me
to them. They were seated on one end of a green log, the
other end lying in the camp-fire, and smoking like a huge
calumet.
The song broke oif short.
" Why, Smith, is that you ?" said Kenning. " Come,
take a punch. By the way, what luck have you had ?"
" We've one deer I"
" Good. I may say very good. But I don't care much
for deer-shooting. Give me trout (loudly, and clutching
the air with a swing) eh, Gay ?"
" Certainly," returned Gaylor.
" Trout ! that's the word — trout ! Come, Smith, take a
punch : a moderate punch ! But I say, Smith, put me in
a boat, and Gay, here, in his, and you in a third : no, not
you ! you can't catch trout : but Bingham : no, nor Bing
either : he's only down on deer. Well — we'll say Coburn,
that is, if he wasn't so afraid of the flies ! But the truth
is, Smith, the flies are rather bad in the woods. They do
bite, old boy ! sometimes better than the trout — and as I
was saying, put me and Gay in our boats, and — who-
ever you've a mind to, I don't care a fig — at Half Way
Brook, down there on the Eacket, or at Redside Brook, on
Tupper's Lake ; wouldn't we have lively times there with
the trout ? from one pound to two, eh, Gay ?"
" Precisely !"
" The punch is in the pitcher, by the partridges there,
Smith. Isn't that good punch ? Stop I I'll take a little 1
94 WOODS AXD WATERS;
Gaylor and I have been so busy conversing^ we quite
forgot the punch — eh, Gay ?"
" Umph !" said Gaylor.
" Talking of punch," resumed Ralph, " Gay, here, makes
the best"
" Hold your jacklight a little more around, Cort !" a
loud voice here broke in, which we recognised as Bing-
ham's, sounding from the woods a little above. " It
appears to be a sort of ' facilis descensj^ Averni' here, Cort !
— in other words, a most diabolical mud-hole. Lord, one
of my boots is gone ! Ah ! here it is, all right ! Hurrah,
there, Cort, come back a moment ! your long legs don't
recognise the difficulties of a pair not brought up in the
woods. I've lost the path to the camp, and I'm down here
by the river. These woods are 'a mighty maze,' and
deucedly ' without a plan,' and in the night time they're a
good deal ' like the light,' as Byron says, ' of a dark eye in
woman' — that is, the dark with the light left out. Ah !
here we are ! Good evening, gentlemen. What ! are ye
thieves of the night, cutpurses, that you sit up so late ?"
" What have you got ? " asked Ralph, laconically.
" Got ! a pair of barked shins and a cold, I'm afraid, on
this confounded river !"
" Where's your deer, Bing ?" said Gaylor.
"Deer!" repeated Bingham; "I don't believe there's
a deer on the Eacket. Here we've been floating from the
head of the fells, up as far as Moose Creek ; into the Creek
for a mile, and back again, and I pledge you my word
there are no more signs of deer to be found than of com-
mon sense in our friend Smith, here. There were signs of
musquitoes, though. In fact, I may say, my face is one
great sign. Every pore is a bite. But there's an awful
smell of punch here. It truly
" ' "Wastes its sweetness on the desert air.' "
" You'll find some in the pitcher there," said Ralph.
" Help yourself. That's the way we did."
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 95
"So I should think," said Bingham, looking into the
pitcher at the camp fire ; " and ' we' have helped ourselves
so thoroughly, the pitcher is as dry as a President's mes-
sage. Why, you must have used a forcing-pump here I
there isn't even a seed left. Cort, make me a glass of
punch 1" sitting down on a log.
" So you found no deer, Bing !" said Gaylor.
" Deer, poh, deer ! Why not say elephants, hippopo-
tami ? One can find the last as well as the first in these
woods. Take my word for it, gentlemen, there's no deer
here. I shall certainly go to Maine next year, if I have
to go alone. You can there — why, Cort, what on earth is
in this punch ? it's as black as old Harvey's tom-cat," hold-
ing the cup containing it at the camp-fire.
"I ax your pardon, Mr. Bingham," said Cort aghast,
" but I do bleeve I've mixed it in the cup that had black
pepper in't."
" Black pepper !" said poor Bing, clapping his hand to
his stomach, " gunpowder, you mean ; and from the heat
in my throat and all the way down, I think it has exploded
there. - Black pepper, Cort, is good in its place, but it's
confounded bad in the place it has got to now !"
Gaylor and Kenning soon after this went to their tent,
whither Coburn had gone early ; the guides sought lairs
in the thickets, preferring them to the close air of the lesser
tent. Bingham, after giving birth to a diabolical yawn,
followed his comrades, and I was alone.
The black river below; the dark bank in front; the
murky woods around ; the hollow rush of the falls ; the
hoot of a neighboring owl and the distant cry of a wolf
— a long drawn melancholy cry — all made a scene of the
deepest solitude. Man ! how far off he appeared and how
near God I
The wilderness is one great tongue, speaking constantly
to our hearts ; inciting to knowledge of ourselves and to
love of the Supreme Maker, Benefactor, Father. Not in
the solitude of the desert, nor on the mighty ocean do we
96 WOODS AND WATERS;
more deeply realize the Great Presence that pervades all
loneliness. Here, with the grand forest for our worship-
ping temple, our hearts expanding, our thoughts rising un-
fettered, we behold Him, face to face.
I walked to the end of the point ; I surrendered myself
to the influence of the hour and the scene. , From the
starry heavens and the solemn landscape, breathed the
Invisible Presence ; and from the depths of my heart rose
an aspiration of unbounded faith and love. And I knew
I was immortal — I knew, despite the sin and weakness of
my wrecked humanity, I was still in some poor measure
one with Deity.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 97
CHAPTEK IX.
Carry at Racket Falls. — Up the Racket. — Cold River. — Bowen's Camp. —
Long Lake. — The River Driver. — Harvey's "Woods- Almanac.
WE rose with the sun for an excursion up the river,
to the foot of Long Lake (Wee-cho-bad-cho-nee-pus, lake
abounding in bass-wood), belonging to the Kaeket System
of waters.
As I awoke, a path of gold gleamed into the tent through
an aperture in front left for air.
Upon the sun-streaked space before it, the camp-fire was
merrily blazing, and around were the guides busy for the
breakfast, the first symptom of which appeared as I left the
tent, in a gridiron grinning at a gaping lake trout, as if
anticipating the lively broil to which it would shortly put
him.
The scene was fresh and cheerful. The tips of the white
pines, and the upper rim of the bank opposite, were of a
yellow burnish; a brown, decayed stump, against which
stood a jack, a neck-yoke and a landing net, looked mellow
and rich in the light, and the stem of a silver birch, touched
by a finger of the sun, gleamed like a pillar of pearl.
A carry of a mile and a half led around the falls over a
steep ridge.
Each guide, except Corey (who, with Jess, remained to
keep the camp), shouldered his boat, and up through the
fresh, odorous woods, we moved over an undulating track,
a foot in width, with the accompanying music of the rapids
and forest. The guides strode steadily on, with firm and
even buoyant step ; around huge roots, over prone trunks,
98 WOODS AND WATERS;
and through tangling underbrush, although the burden upon
them was over six score pounds.
We passed the Titanic pine, with its long tassels ; the
hemlock, with its stiff fringes ; the pointed cedar poised on
the ledge and clinging to the cleft ; the dense cones of the
spruce; the perfect pyramid and finger-like apex of the
balsam fir; the maple, the beech, the birch, with their
varieties and differing hues ; the streaked moose-wood ; the
low-branched hopple ; hundreds of seamed columns around,
a firmament of foliage above; sprouts, herbs and plants,
ferns and mosses, lichened rocks, tall thickets, low bushes
and creeping vines forming the floor; the whole scene
bewildering the eye and stimulating the fancy.
The landscape, too, was full of life. A wandering breeze
put all the leaves in a flutter ; the golden- winged wood-
pecker, with an upward slide, clutched the bark of some
old tree and rattled with his black beak till echo laughed
again ; the raven winnowed his sable shape over the tall-
est trees ; the ground squirrel made a brown streak across
the green log ; and the rabbit, jerking his long ears, bounded
athwart our winding track.
At the summit of the ridge we found the remains of a
camp but lately deserted ; the* black remains of the fire,
and the beds of hemlock boughs showing the locality of the
tent, A deer's head lay under a neighboring thicket, with
its brush lodged in the leases ; and a large trout, freshly
dressed, hung from a forked stick in the dead leaves, where
it had probably been forgotten. We respected, however,
the law of the woods, which says, " Thou shalt not touch
thy neighbor's traps, nor his venison, nor his trout, nor
anything which is his, not even a jack-knife." Every-
body honors that law. In the loneliest shanty, the hunter
may find a rifle, a fishing rod, a haunch of venison, a
basket of fish, and, lawless as he may be otherwise, he
thinks no more of disturbing it than if the owner were
present.
There is another law. Every empty cabin is taken pos-
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 99
session of for the time being as if the intruder were tne law
ful occupant.
We descended to the head of the falls, and launching our
boats, moved up the river sparkling before us like a track
of diamonds. The trout leaped into the light like a
flying fish ; the duck rose with a splash and shot before
us ; the brown heron spread his wide sails from the
sandy islet. Sprinkles of hawks were pin-pointed around
a dry pine in the background ; a flock of blue jays scolded
in a near clump of trees ; and a black eagle swept lessening
over the rolling surface of the woods, alighting at length
on a hemlock, like a musquitp on a finger.
We presently came to a beautiful headland of open trees
and luxuriant grass scattered with firs and cedars. Near
it, was a wild meadow, softened and smoothed over with
such a rural home-look that I almost bent my ear to hear
the sheep-bell, and glanced to see the boy ride the farm-
horse in his rattling harness to water.
At Cold Brook we stopped to fish, as also at the mouth
of Moose Creek, and soon after we reached Clear, or Cold
Eiver, presenting at its intersection a much broader surface
than the Eacket. Cold Eiver rises in the Preston Ponds at
the south foot of Mount Seward, and empties here after a
flow of forty miles. It being noted for trout, we entered,
and soon scores of the speckled fellows were flapping in
our boats.
We then explored farther up the beautiful stream, and at
length a distant sound of axes touched our ears. " The lum-
ber people that I told you of at Big Meadow !" said Harvey.
Now the bank thrust some black tongue of a log into
the stream to collect the floating twigs and water- weeds ;
now the elm leaned over so as to touch the sparkling water-
break as if to drink, and now the lady birch gleamed out
with her waxen skin and flowing tresses.
At our right, or to the north-east, Harvey pointed out
Mount Seward, some six or eight miles distant and mellow
with aerial tints.
100 WOODS AND WATERS;
A mile farther on we passed a little opening in the
woods. A fire was sparkling there, and around it were
several stalwart fellows in red flannel shirts engaged at
their dinner. Among them the copper skin and long dark
locks of an Indian were conspicuous. A yoke of oxen
were near, one ox lying down and the other feeding.
Following the example of the lumbermen, we shot into
a little cove and swallowed our lunch on the back of a pro-
strate cedar,, with our knees buried in herbage.
We then returned, and taking the cross cut of a small
channel to our left came again into the Eacket. Up
we pulled once more, and, after a few miles, landed on
the right bank, whence a half-mile carry led to Long
Lake.
A path that touched along through the woods soon
brought us to a small stumpy clearing, where stood
" Bowen's Camp," a little four by six shanty of spruce
bark and sloping to the earth from a cross stick on forked
poles. The recess contained a chest and a bed of boughs.
A sapling fish-pole stood in a corner. Outside was the
kitchen — an upturned, propped scow, with a gridiron, a
saucepan, an iron pot, and a tin cup or two underneath.
Blackened stones showed the fire-place, with- a pole planted
in a rocky cleft whereby to hang the pot ; the whole
disclosing a very primitive mode of life.
It was the home of Bowen, a solitary hunter and trapper,
who cultivated also a small patch of potatoes, rye and
buckwheat on the adjacent hillside.
We skirted the clearing, passing the grey eye of Bowen's
spring sparkling between long fern leaves, ascended a
height, and the lake burst upon us. Eeflecting in its broad
bosom the blue and white of the soft heaven, it stretched
down toward the south, until an abrupt curve closed the
view. In front was a charming bay, a leafy mountain
beyond. A bare rock stood by a green island in the mid-
distance, with another bay rounding to the right. Thence
the vision was closed by the curve, although it still would
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 101
fain have roved beyond where fancy imaged a hundred
fairy coves and stately reaches and romantic shades.
I gazed at the lake in its enchanting beauty, with playful
breezes darting over its gloss and the sunlight kissing it
into radiant smiles, and thought how it pierced onward and
downward into this splendid wilderness, so lonely in its
surrounding details, so imposing in its sweep of grandeur.
Far to the east, towered I knew the sublime Indian Pass
and the cloud-cleaving Tahawus with the wild lakes gem-
ming like dew drops his giant feet. Southward from its
head, down through the great forest glittered a network of
water to Lake Greorge, that storied lake of mountains. To
the west wound the savage Bog Eiver, dim artery to the
core of the wliole region's heart, its gloomy fastnesses offer-
ing, with the Mount Seward wilderness and the lonely shades
of Indian Lake, the only home now of the almost mythic
moose.
We returned to our boats and were soon on our down-
ward way toward the camp. The dash of the oars echoed
pleasantly and the ripple of the wake made hollow gurgles
and pulsated among the lilies and rushes of the margin.
As we passed the mouth of Cold Eiver, a boatman, de-
scending the stream, joined us. He was a river driver ; and
belonged to the lumber crew we had seen, but for a week
had been hunting with success near Mount Seward ; had
heard the roaring of a moose in the distance, had caught a
fine lot of trout, and was now on his way to his shanty near
Tupper's Lake. He was a frank, talkative fellow, and we
gave him an invitation to camp with us the coming night,
which he accepted.
" We'll hev rain shortly," said Harvey, pointing to the
sky. " When I'm off the lakes and can't hear the loons, I
look out for other signs o' rain in Natur. Now the weather
seems jest at this time fair enough, but do ye see up there
how them white clouds take to one another jest like b'ys
and gals. That's a sign I've source ever knowed to fail
that rain's a comin'. Ef they hang off though, meltin'
102 WOODS AND WATERS;
away in the sky, that's the sign of a dry spell. There's
another sign I see too ! Look at that popple flutt'rin 1"
directing nay attention to a quivering aspen or wild poplar.
" There aint no other leaves stirrin'. Them trees know
jest as well as the loons when wet weather's ahead. Ef I
hear the owls to-night I shell be more sarten than ever."
" A deer, a deer !" at this moment shouted Gay lor, who
was leading the van. I caught a glimpse of a pair of ant-
lers skimming the surface of the stream in front of Gaylor's
boat, and then a sudden turn concealed them.
Both the boats dashed round the bend, but we were only
in time to catch a glimpse of a white brush disappearing
by a thicket in a small, wild meadow on our right.
After this little incident, nothing occurred to waken our
attention until we heard the note of a kingfisher perched on
an old rotting tree.
" Did ye ever see them little critturs, 'bout breedin' time ?"
asked Harvey. " They're cute, they be. I come nigh a
nest, one day, in a hole in a bank, and one on 'em made
a suddent flop onto the water and went flounderin' and
splutterin' about as ef he was a-dyin', and t'other stood on
the bank, all bristlin' up and his tail a-shakin', and makin'
a squawkin'. They cut them didoes jest fur to git me off
the nest. It beats me how much critters without sense
knows. They know a great deal more'n some men !" and
with this aphorism he comforted himself with a portion of
i( stick."
We shortly reached the head of the falls. It presented
a sweet, peaceful water scene of scattered rock and leaning
tree, with dark spots of cedars, and logs laving their jackets
of golden green in the crystal ; a marked contrast to the
dash and foam of the stream immediately below. We tra-
versed the carry, and found the camp fire merrily blazing
under Corey's superintendence, and the camp in perfect
order.
Our sylvan meal was soon spread and cheerily we de
spatched it.
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 103
Merry merry outlaws
Of the greenwood free,
Far from toil and trouble,
Self-made monarchs we I
Over us its banner
"Waves the windy tree,
"Waters round us warble,
Oh how blithesome we I
Night draws around ; the stars jewel the trees and we
prepare for slumber.
Just as we had slouched our felt hats over our ears and
were wrapping ourselves in our blankets, a most horrible
uproar burst from the opposite bank. It sounded like
imps in convulsions of laughter. The tones and the echoes
were so blended it was impossible to tell the number of the
voices.
" Harvey !" shouted Bingham to that worthy at the
camp-fire. " Are the ghosts of the Saranac Tribe pealing
out their warwhoops preparatory to an onslaught, or have
all the panthers in the woods become suddenly mad, and
are coming to attack the camp ?"
" Them's owls !" said Harvey laconically.
" Owls once more !" cried I. " Are the woods made of
owls, and every owl with a different voice ?"
" The sort of owl that makes this noise," said Harvey,
" is a part of my almynack of the weather. We shell hev a
rainy day tomorrer depend on't I"
104 WOODS AND WATERS;
CHAPTER X.
Camp Sketches in a Eain Storm. — Lumbering and River Driving.
I HAD been dreaming of floating through a forest, with
a jack-light for an eye and trying to halloo between a
scream and a hiss, when a humming like an enormous bee-
hive wakened me. Harvey had proved a true prophet;
the rain had come. I rose, and opening a fold of the tent
in front looked out. It was early dawn. Through a
brown light, masses of the landscape were dimly breaking.
Across the background of the opposite bank the fine rain
was glimmering. A rainy mist mantled the sky and shut
in the farther view.
As the grey dawn strengthened, near outlines came out,
but the whole view looked sulky and promised only a day
of unvarying wet. The guides were soon astir, and the
camp-fire was at length spluttering and flaming, our only
comfort in the dreariness.
Presently my comrades awoke. The front of the tent
was open for the fire to shed its genial, cheerful light
within.
" A nebulous prospect I" exclaimed Bingham rising,
" everything looks like a wet sponge. How watery these
forests are! Every appearance of a social day in camp,
eh, fellows?"
" A very good time to kill that buck you're always talk
ing about, but never doing, Bing !" said Gaylor.
" Who killed that buck at the Beaver Pond I should like
to know ?" said Bingham with some heat.
" Cort !" answered Coburn laconically.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 105
" Ah ! la. — e — m ! but who shot the other at Palmer
Brook ?" triumphantly.
" Heaven knows 1" said Eenning. " You said you did.
But what shall we do to-day, boys I"
" A capital day, Ralph, for you to fish the river !" re-
torted Bingham. " A little water by absorption may pos-
sibly neutralize something else in your system !"
The odors of breakfast now rilled the air ; the frying-
pan hissed, and the teapot bubbled.
Tea, in the woods, hot or cold, is most delicious, refresh-
ing and invigorating. The air of the forest, sparkling with
vitality, requires not the aid of spirits to make the blood
glow and the heart bound. Tea adjusts and sustains the
true equilibrium.
The meal finished, we quartered ourselves comfortably
in the tent, pipe in mouth, to pass the day as pleasantly
as we could.
Our canvas room presented quite a picturesque appear-
ance. Guns and fishing-rods, in their woollen covers, were
piled in a corner. Blankets were spread over layers of
hemlock, the warm reds and purples of some contrasting
with the cool -greys of the others, as well as the greens of
the foliage, to which red and blue hunting-shirts added
their colors. Camp-stools stood legs up ; pipes and meer-
schaums, boxes of cigars and papers of tobacco littered one
nook; partridges chequered another; one overcoat hung
loosely by the neck from the tent-pole and one was sprawl-
ing below ; carpet-bags, pillows of the night before, were
strewed about ; the skin of our bear stood rolled up in a
corner near a pair of moccasins and a neck-yoke acciden-
tally left and on which my luckless cranium had slipped
in my jack-light dream, adding to its sensations a feeling
as if the owls were busy with my brain.
Outside, was another picture composed entirely of forest
touches. In the hollow of a tree was a slain wood-chuck,
its grey dimly relieved by the gloom of the cavity ; a rifle,
slanted low against a stump, was pointed at a dead deer
106 WOODS AND WATEKS;
propped against a tree; on another stump forked a pair
of antlers ; half screened by a twisted root stood a jack ; on
a flake of bark, covering a camp-kettle, glistened a gluti-
nous pile of trout ; and a dead mink showed its teeth at a
mud-hen, which trailed her brown wing in seeming defiance.
Of the guides, two were at the entrance of the small tent
smoking with the river driver, who had decided to spend
the day with us ; two within were playing a game of cards ;
and one next them was turning a sapling into a ramrod.
Corey, his red shirt lighting up the covert, was under a
stooping cedar, cutting venison steaks, and Little Jess was
by him, dressing a wood-duck.
Add to these, the glimmering air ; the dripping trees ;
the tamarack drooping its boughs as a lurcher its ears, and
the aspens in hysterics from the ceaseless pelting ; the river
pricked into one continual twitching by the rainy needles ;
with the dense grey blanket of the mist spread over all, and
the scene is complete.
" Well, boys, how we shall spend the day, out in these
rainy woods, where the sun has hardly room to shine in
the best of times, I can't imagine," yawned Bingham.
At this moment the river driver passed, and, hearing the
last remark, stopped and, with the latitude of the region,
spoke.
" Onst in a while," said he, " we hed jest sich times in
the lumber woods when we didn't know what to do with
Ourselves, but 'twas in the wust kind o' snow-storms instid
o' this mite o' rain."
" Come in and tell us about this lumber life !" said Een-
ning.
" Well," said the boatman entering, and settling down
against an overturned camp-stool ; "in the fust place,
there's big comp'nies in Maine that follers lumb'rin' for a
business. In the fall they send out their timber hunters to
find out where the thickest white pine clumps is, for this
pine mebby you know lives t'gether like parents and chil-
dren and grows not a great ways from the water.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 107
" Then the buildin' hands come, and bush out a spot for
a camp, and build up the shanties. The shanties are nice
ones and they're scatterered all round in the woods, p'tic'ly
round the Upper S'nac Lake. They're called Maine Shan-
ties. Then other hands comes and lays out the roads ;
fust the main — that's the big road through the woods — and
then the branch roads leadin' to the pine clumps. Then
the crews is made up, and comes inter the woods fur the
winter.
" All our fam'ly's bin in them crews and bin everything
but Boss and Cook. The old man's bin swamper, I've
bin chopper, Tim and Hank, my two brothers, lumb'rin'
up Cold Eiver with Joe Slack and Injin Jake, they've bin
barker and teamster, and 'ave tuk keer o' the bateau with
the tents, cookin' things and victuals."
" What do you mean by swamper and barker?" asked I.
"The swampers bush out the roads to the pines that's
felled, and the barkers strip the bark off the eends of the
logs that slides on the snow from the bob-sleds that carries
'em to the landin's.
"I've been chopper, as I said afore, and though I say't
myself, it takes a smart man to be a good chopper. Fust,
you must look out and not take pines that's got the rot, or
the konkus as we call it. You've got to look out purty
sharp fur that. The tree on the whull is jest as good
lookin' as one that's sound, and it's unly by lookin' cluss
that you see a brown blotch even with the bark, not fur
from the butt, and from the size of a popple leaf to the
biggest size hopple's and there you see the konkus. And
then you must hev jedgement about fallin' a pine, or mebby
you'll be knocked by 't inter kingdom come. I've knowed
pines to fall contr'y a'most from the skid."
"Skidl"
" Yes ! the bed-piece or little cord'roy road o' poles we
lay on the snow fur the tree to fall on, and not bury itself
in the banks ; and there you hev 't handy to strip the
limbs off. and cut it inter logs.
108 WOODS AND WATERS;
"Well, as sun as the snow sets in the crews go ter work
in the woods, fur ye see the snow makes it rael handy in
these thick woods to drag the timber. After the pines 's
down we chop 'em inter good-sized logs, and mark every
one so we kin pick 'em out agin at the booms along and
p'tic'lar at the big boom at the eend. They're then hauled
to the water by the teamsters with bob-sleds and oxen.
But about the choppin' ! I tell you when we're all to work
we make the old woods ring agin fur miles round the
shanty. Sich a whack, whack, and sich a crackin' and
roarin' as the pines fall! And then the draggin' ! It's
gee up and gee ho ! and whoe, and go 'lang, and the sleds
they go a screechin' through the snow with the weight o'
the logs on 'em ; and the woods is in a parfect hallerbelloo
with it all. So we gets 'em to places handy fur the
high water, and the river drivers come, and drive 'em down
to the big boom at Plattsburgh.
" What waters do they drive the logs through ?" asked
Gaylor.
" Gin'rally through the Upper S'nac, Eound Lake, and
Lower S'nac into S'nac Eiver and then down. But there's
waters all round the Upper S'nac that they drive through.
There's Musketer, and Eawlins and Floodwood Ponds and
the Fish-creek waters, and twenty more up and round there.
Now about the drivin'. That's stirrin' work I tell ye. It's
bad enough in runnin' the bateau to keep right sides up
through the logs and rapids along, but this is, I was a goin'
to say, the very old Harry. A stavin' off the logs from the
rocks, and one another, and pushin' on 'em down with your
pike-poles, and jumpin' on 'em and strikin' up a dance as
they roll over to keep up straight, and straddle 'em when
they come to a rift ; I tell ye it's some !
" The river drivers 's a hard set. It's rum, rum, with
'em most all the time, and when they aint drinkin' they're
fightin', that is when they aint workin'. But after all, ef
rum must be drinked, I don't know any folks that ought
to hev it more than them Maine river drivers. They're
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 109
in" the water a'most all tlie time, and you know as well as I
doos what the water is in Mairch. There's a good deal o'
fun, though, afore the rael drivin' begins. The fun is gittin'
the logs into the water. All go to work with their pries
and hand-spicks and cant-dogs, and it's tug, and it's roll, till
swash go the logs into the stream that's all swelled up and
comes a rushin' and a roarin', hur-r-r-r-r-r-a b'ys ! down
through the woods like a nor'-wester or a hail-storm. In
the logs go ; swirlin' round ; turnin' eend over eend ; a dar-
tin' here and slap-dash agin a rock there; knockin' agin
each other, cadunk, cadunk, makin' the splinters fly ; divin'
down and stickin' up their noses agin like ^c-rth Eiver
sturgeons, or jumpin' half-way out o' water like a hungry
trout, and all the while a rushin' down with the current.
When there's a high bank for 'em to roll down, I tell ye,
it's some to look at 'em. I've seen 'em often roll down
them steep hills by Fish Creek waters up there on Upper
S'nac. Down they go, topsy-turvy, eends up, head over
heels, any way, a crushin' down the small trees, bringin' up
agin the bigger ones, and jumpin' over the rocks and rollin'
like thunder and lightnin' both down over the ledges till
they come to the water, and, Jesse ! what a splashin'. I've
seen the stream as white as a cloth with 'em.
"Now comes the work. Sometimes they'll go fur a con-
sid'able ways, jest like a flock o' sheep, till the stream looks
as ef 'twas made o' logs a'most ; and w,e walk over 'em
as ef 'twas one big raft. Then there comes a little bay
like or eddy, and fust one, then a dozen or twenty mebby
gits a kant, and noses up torts shore, and then the others
comes along and jams up the forred ones, and I tell ye
there's fightin' fur a consid'able time arid the foam flies,
but the rael old jam mebby don't come yit.
" Bimeby that comes. We'll spose there's a little island
or a rock in the narrer part o' the channel, or a sharp crook
in the stream, and a log or two gits ketched ; then a dozen
or fifty so as to make a boom like ; and then them that's
behind comes dunk, dunk, bum, bum, and the big ones
110 WOODS AND WATERS;
rides down the smaller ones, and the others comin' down
shoots up on them and others come a crashin' on them and
workin' under, and the jam gets bigger and bigger, and
the stream roars down through and over, enny way it kin
to git along ; and the whull kit that's a comin' down comes
a tumblin' and a dashin' and a rollin' and grindin' agin one
another, and flyin' back and rarin' up and divin' down, and
the waves wash up, and you'd think all cr'ation was a
breakin' to pieces. All this ere unly makes the jam bigger
and stronger. It lays all eends and p'ints, and it must be
got rid on. So when the stream has high rocks over it, a
man is let <^>wn by a rope round his waist, with his picka-
roons on, to cut or pry away at the lower eend o' the jam
where the trouble is. This is gin'rally in a small spot, a
log or so, and ef the log, the key-log some calls it, has the
bigger part o' the weight on't, a few cuts with the axe doos
the business ; the log breaks and hurra ! the man's jerked
up by the rope ag'in and the jam comes a tumblin' down
like old Sanko. Ef the trouble can't be got rid on so, the
man knots a rope round the log and the hands go down
stream with the rope and tug and tug and he pries or cuts,
or both, and the jam starts that way.
" Other times and when there aint no high banks, one,
sometimes more, 'cordin' as the jam is, goes with his axe
and hand-spick and pickaroons agin — you knows what them
is ! No ? Well, they're leetle steel spikes druv into the
heels and soles o' their boots so as to keep 'em from slip-
pin'. "Well, he goes a treadin' over the jam as well as he
kin, for it's dusty trav'lin', I tell ye, to cut away and pry
off the trouble, and he tugs and h-e-a-v-e-s and s-t-r-a-i-n-s
and cuts, and sometimes one nip or blow doos it. and all
gives way at onst, with a roar like the breakin' up o' the
ice in Tupper's Lake, and down the logs come tumble-te-
tumble. The thing is now fur the man to git away. There
he is in the middle mebby of the logs, and it's mighty hard
sleddin' there, all a rollin' and tumblin', and it's some to
git ashore. He runs and he jumps (these river drivers are
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. HI
as spry as cats) and he goes cornerin' round ana twists, and
sometimes what he steps on turns over, and afore he knows
it, down ho goes 'twixt two logs and he hes to dive down
and come up where he kin ketch it, and sometimes don't
come up at all. There was Will Tiniball, he was as nice a
young feller fur a river driver as ever I see ; a sober (fur
all on 'em don't drink), good, honest feller, as merry as a
cricket all day long, and couldn't he sing ! I tell ye, there's
no use o' talkin', but some of his songs they fairly witched
your heart out. Well, he went in a heavy jam to pry off,
and he went down and he never come up agin. I see him
onst with his hands up above his head twixt some logs,
but they shut up tight like the wink o' your eye, and that
was the last of him. Poor Will, he must ha' got hurt as
he fell, fur a spunkier feller never lived, and strong and
nimble, and knowed how to drive as well as the best on 'em.
There was Betsey Chase, his sweetheart, he was to be mar-
ried to her as sun as he got to Plattsburgh, as nice a young
gal as ever growed. Oh how she took on ! Them that
ee her at Plattsburgh when she was told on't, said it e'en
a'most bruk their hearts to see her take on so ; she was
kinder onsarten after that about the head, and finally at
last died. Well, when the logs druv past, we found the
body and took it to Plattsburgh, and we buried him along-
side of his mother.
" I see another terr'ble sight onst in a jam. The jam was
jest above a long stretch o' rapids, and rael bad rapids they
was too, about fifteen mile above Plattsburgh, in the S'nac
River. Well, there the jam was, and a feller they called
Dare Devil Dick — his name was Dick Siples — and he was
one on 'em, now I tell ye ! one o' yer rael harum-scarum
kind o' critters that didn't know what bein' skeert was.
He'd al'ys go right head foremost into scrapes, and some-
how or other he'd al'ys git out on 'em too. I see him fight
two men one time and they was the bullies of Plattsburgh '
too. Well, he licked 'em both. I tell ye he fit spiteful.
He was the sassiest feller to strike I ever see, and I've seen
112 WOODS AND WATEKS;
a good many fightin' charackters too in my day. Well, as
I was say in', Dick spoke out, says he, ' I know jest where
the trouble is, and I bleeve I kin set it right,' and with that
he jumped with his hand-spick right out on the logs, and
ef he didn't spring and jump over 'em — I tell yer ! Well,
he come to a sarten spot and he tugged and pried and
tugged agin, and finally at last, quick as that (slapping his
hands) it 'peared to me, the whull give way. Dick sprang,
but the log he was on went slap-dash right into the rapids,
and what did he do but fall right a straddle, and down he
shot, and all the logs a tumblin' after him. I tell ye we
all quaked. There was Dick, a riding the log jest like
a hoss, and a tossin' and a plungin' a leetle ahead o'
the rest, but precious little though. Now he'd shoot
twixt rocks where the foam flew six foot high, and now
he'd seem to be a goin' right on a bed on 'em ; but some-
how or the other he'd fly as 'twere past ; and now he'd
dive down into a great white swell o' foam, like a loon,
and up he'd come agin. All this while the logs behind
was a strikin' agin' the rocks and keelin' up and rollin' over*
and over and s-w-a-s-hin' down agin. I tell ye 'twas an orful
sight. And sich a roarin' and crackin' and splittin' as there
was. Two or three times we all had an idee he was gone.
Onst he grazed a log so cluss he had to throw his legs up,
and hang on by his knees, and then on t'other side a log
come p'intin' right agin him, and 'twould ha' tore him all
to pieces ef it had a hit him ; but he kinder twirled himself
round and it unly struck the log. It keeled that over
though, and down he went and made what you may call a
summerset in the water. Up he comes agin a gripin' and
holdin' on like death. He hadn't though got more'n sot
up agin afore a tre-mew-jious log come a strikin' on a bed o'
rocks. It jumped up I should raally say six foot and then
rolled over and over right upon him as we had an idee.
It didn't though, but it struck the log he was on, jest on
the eend, and it tipped it up Kke a rarin' colt. Down it
come agin caswash, and the foam flew, and we could jest
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 113
see Dick through it, but down stream he went and wasn't
hurt a hair. But now come the wust thing of all. There
was a passle o' logs struck a smooth ledge o' rock that
Dick had shot aside of. They come a cornerin' like,
and hung jest like a ruff right over Dick's head. We all
thought nothin' now could save him from bein' crushed flat
as a shingle. Down come the logs, whonk, and Dick's log
flew up on eend and then fell back'ards on the other logs.
But where was Dick all this time ! Why I'm afeard you'll
set me down as a liar ef I tell ye that he see the logs a
comin' (for his eyes appeared to fly round his head like a
hum-bird's in a tumbler) and he sprung and he hit on
another log jest along side, and the next we see of 'im he
was a shootin' right into a swift place where the stream was a
runnin' like a mill-tail ; and here was the very wust place, fur
'twas where it pitched a foamin' like a bear's mouth when
he's riled, down about six foot into a hole where 'twas a
bilin' jest like a pot. Ef he'd a gone down there, nothin'
could ha' saved him, I bleeve, fur that aire hole was jest
one bed o' sharp p'inted rocks and he knowed it. Well,
I'll be swizzled ef that aire critter, jest as that aire log was
a pitchin' down that aire cobumbus like o' water, didn't
reach out and ketch hold on a branch o' hemlock a growin'
from a pint o' the bank, and swing himself up jest like a
squirrel. Didn't we hooray ! I tell ye, we did, some ;
and Dick he hoorayed too, and he got a straddle of the
branch, and ' Hail Columbee !' s'ze he, and he clapped his
sides and gin a crow and s-s-pun it out so long, you could
ha heerd him a mild. Then he slipped down from the
tree and the fust thing he said, s'ze, ' Gimme a drink,' s'ze,
4 fur I'm so tarnal dry,' s'ze, ' fur all I'm so wet,' s'ze, ' and
so chilled through,' s'ze, ' that I don't know,' s'ze, ' but I'd
go off,' s'ze, ' ef my teeth should happen to strike fire,' s'ze,
and he gin a laugh and then a jump as ef he was a goin' to
jump down his own throat.
" Poor Dick, poor Dick ! he didn't fere so well the next
scrape he got into ; fur the very next year he got inter a
8
WOODS AND WATERS;
jam, and a couple o' logs come t'gether and cut him right
in two, they did. Poor Dick ! I see the eends of the logs
all red fur a minute afterwards, and down he went, and we
buried him at Plattsburgh, jest as we did Will Timball.
" Yes, yes, it's a danng'rous life, and a hard life this
drivin' the river. It's a good deal like drivin' a passle o'
onrooly cattle in the woods. Some o' the hands go be-
hind in boats and a wadin'' where they kin, and ridin' on the
logs to see that they don't stick by the way ; arid pole 'em
and hand-spick 'em along, and drive 'em enny way ; fur in
the coves and eddies along a good many's mighty unwillin'
to go ; and then agin they're too willin' and shoot away
with ye, as I've said, and shoot up on the banks, and then
it's tug, tug, to git 'em back agin. Some on us hev to go
on the banks keeping pace with the logs, up the ridges and
down the ridges, and through the swamps and over the
trees and stuns, heltery skeltery, licketty scramble, jest as
we kin ketch it ; sometimes makin' a short cut that's often
a long one, crost a bend, takin' a bite o' suthin' through
the day ; dartin' in a tavern ef there should happen to be
enny, and pitch suthin' to drink down our throats and a
cracker or two, and out agin and follerin' along. Some-
times we folly all night, but gin'rally we don't. As a
gin'ral thing we put up at night, and let the logs slide
along and ef there comes a jam it's all the better. But a
few times in my drivin' though I've druv all night, when
the woods was so dark it rally seemed as ef you might cut
the air into solid blocks ; all the time 'twas rainin' too,
that cold mizzlin' kind o' rain that feels like needles on yer
face ; you couldn't folly the stream nuther, a quarter o' the
time on the bank, the brush was so thick ; and ye could
unly tell by the roarin o' the water and crashin' and wal-
lopin' o' the logs where 'twas. Sometimes you'd hev to go
a mild or so clearn round where the stream made a spread
drownin' some swamp ; and other times where 'twould run
up some deep gully and we'd hev to swim crost and mebby
feel our way over some tree felled from one bank to t'other,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 115
each side lookin' like a giet black gulf. I tell ye, we'd
hev ter put hands and feet one crost tother mighty keerful
goin' crost, treadin' like a painter or a bear, or fare wuss.
And sometimes there'd come up a thunder storm and
b-l-o-w, and the wind 'ud smash down the trees, whack, all
round ye, and the thunder 'ud roll and crack so that 'twas
onpossible to hear the stream roarin', and the rain 'ud fall
hogsheads full. The unly thing pleasant about the thing
then 'ud be the lightnin', fur that flashin' and glarin' all
round, showed the trees, and they seemed company fur ye,
and showed the way through 'em too. It offen cut so
cluss crost your eyes as to cut the sight out on 'em a'most,
and I've seen it strike, whizz, the big pines and hem-
locks, so nigh to ye, 'twas next to scorchin' the hair on yer
head.
" 'Twas a wild sight, too, and I don't know but skeery
to see the stream a rollin' down through the black night
and hear't moanin' jest as though 'twas lost in the woods.
And the dark logs streamin' 'long and pitchin' through the
rapids, seemed as ef there was an all fired set o' black
things a fightin' t'gether."
" Was there nothing to enjoy in this kind of life ?" I
asked.
" Oh yes ! I somehow enj'yed the whull on't ; that is
rayther. Part o' the time 'twas as pleasant as kin be.
After workin' in the woods all day, to come back at night
to a rousin' good fire, and the fellers all a jokin' and laughin'
after supper, with now and then a good song ; I tell ye,
'twas fust rate. Here's one o' the songs !" and he struck
up, in a not unmusical voice, the following, timing the air
with his foot : —
Oh, it's lumb'rin in the forest, it's a lumb'rin we will go,
When the winter winds is whistliu' and the woods is full 6f snow,
When the winter winds is whistlin' and the air is bitter cold,
"We leave the life of menkind, for lumber life so bold.
Oh, it's lumb'rin' in the forest, it's a lumb'rin' we will go,
With our axes on our shoulders fur to lay the pine-wood low.
116 WOODS AND WATERS;
The deer is close a hidin' and the ice it holds the trout ;
All Natur' fast is fi ozen, but we long to stir about ;
The lumber lads is merry and the pine has ready pay,
So wife takes keer of cabin and we low the pinewood lay.
Oh, it'a lumb'rin1 in the forest, &c.
Whack, whack from dawn till sundown we do lay our lusty blows,
And thund'rin' to the snow-banks deep, down, down the pinewood goes.
And when the day is ended, in the shanty all do meet,
And round the fire a roarin' all our songs and jokes repeat
Oh, it's lumb'rin' in the forest, <tc.
" When the logs got down to the lakes, too," continued he,
" and we ketched and pinned 'em t'gether — what we call
cribbin' or boomin' on 'em— twas high old times agin. We
boomed 'em tight all round with timber and made a big
raft, then warped 'em through the lakes. That is, we'd
sink an anchor thirty or forty rods ahead, and hev a rope
twixt it and a windlass on the raft, and then we'd (twisting
his arms round) warp up, warp up. When the weather
was kinder warm, I never hev enj'yed enny thing more'n a
sail this way down the Upper S'nac. The lake 'ud be as
smooth as glass, not a riffle on't, except where some loon
or other skimmed along, or a trout jumped up, or a gull
or so dipped inter the water ; and we'd go glidin' by the
islands and the p'ints, and the sun 'ud burn softly and the
wind make fannin' all over ye. You forgit all yer trou-
bles a drivin' and wish you could git 'long so all yer life.
And the moonshiny nights I've seen on the lakes too;
when there 'peared to be a line o' gold dollars sparklin'
half crost the water ; and some places as white and shiny
as the breast of a deer and others as black as a raven.
'Twas nice. Sometimes though the Upper S'nack 'ud be
as ugly as p'isen. 'Twould be all black and white with
the swells and foamin' and dashin', and the wind 'ud
g-w-i-s-s-s-k down as ef 'twas a big blacksmith bellus.
Wouldn't the raft dance ? I tell yer, 'twould be lively
times there ! And then by the time we got inter the Gut
by Bartlett's, mebby 'twould be calm agin.
OB, SUMMER IN TH^ SARANACS. 117
" Then 'ud come lettin' the logs loose to shoot the rapids
at Bartlett's.
" So you see the sort o' life the river drivers live. "Tisn't
a feather bed one, take it by and large, by a blamed sight !
But I telled "Will I'd shoot with him fur a pint jest about
this time, and I must be stirrin'."
So saying, the boatman rose and sauntered out of the
tent
113 WOODS AND WATERS;
CHAPTER XL
Camp Sketches. — Racket Falls Camp Left. — Down the Racket to Calkins.—
An onslaught of Musquitoes upon the Saranac Club. — Mart's imitations.
HM, m, m, m ; hm, m, m, m, patter, patter, drip, drip.
We had our dinner in the tent, and I then stepped out
to change the scene.
The nearer trees were looking dark through the misty
air, and glimmering more and more indistinct, until
they were completely shaded in. Over the hill in front
ragged scuds were flitting, while white vapor rolled down
its breast. The dripping forest, and the river, mezzotinted
with the ceaseless drops, looked forlorn and desolate. The
guides were in their tent, showing dimly from the gloom ;
four now in a game of cards on a flake of bark over their
knees, and one cleaning his rifle. Corey was looking at
the players, and -Little Jess was repairing a rod.
Two of the hounds were before the tent, one snapping at
the drops that splintered on his nose, and the other gazing
at the forest with uplifted foot, and an ear-flap erect.
A third went stalking solemnly around, occasionally
lengthening himself back with protruded fore-feet and
gaping lazily ; while a fourth now rose to his fore-legs
sweeping his tongue around the corners of his mouth, and
now reared himself entirely to look sleepily about ; then,
after a turn or so, as if in search of his tail, crouching again
with his head between his fore-paws for apparent slumber.
All these live dottings of the monotonous picture served
but to amuse for a moment, and I re-entered the tent.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 119
"Kenning, your tongue is the longest, tell us a story !'
said Bingham, stretching.
" I'm not much of a story-teller, boys, but " com-
menced Ralph.
" In one sense," said Bingham.
" But," repeated the other, lighting a fresh cigar and dis-
daining to notice the insinuation, " I'll do what I can.
About three years ago, I went up the west branch of Bog
River to Mud Lake with a friend and a guide. It is the
loneliest and gloomiest of rivers, and the same, or more, is
true of the Lake.
" We reached the Lake about sunset. My friend and
the guide took our boat to visit a cove some distance up,
where the latter said he had on a former visit seen a moose.
Left thus to myself I felt inexpressible loneliness stealing
\over me. I thought, should any accident befall my friend
and the guide, how inevitably would I perish ! To enhance
the wildness of my position, I saw in -the sand of the shore
the huge tracks of a moose and panther.
" As I sat plunged in my reflections, I heard low deep
sounds, apparently of anger, rising from a neighboring
ravine. I fastened my eyes there, and saw an object just
above the edge. It looked like the head of some wild
beast. I placed my gun in readiness; the object rose
higher ; and now it seemed a human form which advanced
toward me. I looked with astonishment. The form was
that of an old man. His clothes were woven of pine
fringes, his hair fell on the shoulders in large masses. It
was composed of the grey moss which clings to the dead
pines and hemlocks, and was surmounted by the antlers of
a deer. A beard of moss flowed to his knees. His face
and hands were scaly with lichen. His eyes were like the
red balls of the wolf; tusks projected from his mouth like a
panther's, and his nails were long and curved like the claws
of an eagle. His gait was a long stride, and his feet, or rather
hoofs, made clicking sounds like those of the moose.
" As he approached, I tried to move away. But some
120 WOODS AND WATERS;
power fastened me to the spot. I found I had to ' face the
music.'
" ' Aha !' said he, ' I've found you, have 1 1'
" As the remark could not well be controverted, I
answered that I thought he had.
" ' Do you know who I am ?'
" I regretted most politely that I did not.
" ' I am the Spirit of the Wilderness,' said he.
"I begged to be allowed to say, and 'would have risen
had I been able, that I was very happy to see him.
" ' I am the only survivor of a family that once covered
all this State,' said he.
" ' Ah!' said I, attempting a look of regret.
" ' Here was our abode,' continued he, ' centuries upon
centuries. The red men were our dependents. They lived
happily for generations under our protection. The moose,'
the panther^ the wolf, the bear, the deer, the beaver, also
enjoyed our bounty. The winds were our breath ; and,
drinking in God's gift of rain and sunshine, we rendered
Him our thanksgiving and praise in happy murmurings
and songs. The birds bore our thoughts in merry sylla-
bles ; the waters were our bands of brotherhood. Where
are we now ! The accursed white man, with his pitiless
axe and devouring fire, has destroyed all but me. Here
I have lived in such content as the fate of my poor family
would allow. But these last years have brought a woeful
change. My solitude has been outraged,' and his eyes
began to gleam, 'by these detested whites. Parties of
them from the cities, affecting the airs of hunters, invade
my peace with unmeaning uproar, mountebank pranks,
forlornest jokes, and most villanous rum. My eyes and
ears are offended with them ; my nostrils are sick of them.
Therefore have I vowed vengeance;' and as he said this,
he snapped his tusks together with a click that chilled my
blood.
" 'You,' added he, glaring more fiercely than ever, 'you
are one of them 1'
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 121
" I hastened to say that though constrained to aamit I was
white, I was merely passing through the region on very
particular business, and all alone. t
" ' Business !' repeated he, and his eye grew fiercer ;
' business ! That word I hate. Are you a lawyer ? Of
all these people, a lawyer I most detest.'
" My heart (to use a slang but most appropriate phrase)
sank into my boots. However, I said nothing. In fact, I
could say nothing.
" ' These lawyers,' continued he, ' are for ever nosing under
titles and unsettling my boundaries ; and then the axe
comes crashing in. I hope you are not a lawyer,' fasten-
ing his great wild eye on me.
" I hastened to protest — that I — I — in fact that I was an
artist.
" ' I'm glad of it. These artists and poets, if they do no
good, they do no hurt. They paint me in pictures and
verses rather shabby sometimes, but I — on the whole — I
like the craft. Yes, yes, 'I'm glad you're one of them, and
not a lawyer. If you were' — and his tusks began to
gnash again.
" I rejoiced at my escape. Politely proposing to spend
the evening in my agreeable company, he advanced close
and asked my name. I told him. He seemed about to
seat himself. At this instant my unlucky fate intervened.
As I whisked out my handkerchief to wipe away the drops
of my excitement, a paper flew out with it, in red tape ; a
paper with the boldest writing on it — ' Supreme Court.
Bugg v. Rugg, R. Renning Attorney.'
" I grasped it, but too late ; the fierce eye was on it.
"'Aha I' growled the Spirit, 'Renning, Attorney, is it?
So you are a lawyer!' with a yell that rang like a loon's j
and with flashing eyeballs he sprang at me. His claw
was in my shoulder ; and the next moment — I saw — my
friend's good-humored phiz smirking full in mine.
" ' Well, of all snoozers,' said he, ' you beat I I've been
shaking the very boots off you to start you up.'
122 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Start me," said I. " Why— wliere's the Spirit of the
Wilderness?"
" ' Spirit of the pqpket-bottle 1' said my friend ; ' here it
is !' producing his flask of whiskey ; ' and the next time I
go to hunt up moose for the company, I hope you'll keep
awake long enough at least to light a smudge for the mus-
quitoes."
" So my friend has been humbugging us with a dream,
has he," said Bingham. " This Spirit of his was unques-
tionably the spectre of his own sins ; and as the rest of us
must despair of telling a greater — h-e-m — than this, I move
we play eucre."
As I did not play, I again left the tent.
The scene was now brown in the declining day. The
sharp head of the woodchuck was alone seen in the
gloom of the hollow stump ; several small trout, left in
the pan, were undulating in the water that had rained in it.
The hill in front was blackening ; the flashes of the rapids
were getting dim ; darkness was creeping into the white
pines and turning into a mass the forest background. No
symptoms of clearing. It seemed as if the rain would last
for ever.
A hound stopped from grazing the ground with his nose,
to shower the rain around him with a quick shake. H>
then gave a sniff as if trying to blow his nose, and another
vigorous shake, and grazed the earth as before. Drive,
with his neck raised into a crescent and his upper lip
wrinkled above his teeth, watched the hill with an occa-
sional low growl sharpened into a spiteful bark, while
Pup, fastened to a log, had twisted himself into a cat's
cradle, and was endeavoring in every wrong way to untwist
himself, confounding his tail • with his head, and his legs
with one another.
The guides had ceased their game, and were now ear-
nestly talking. As I approached I heard old Harvey
say.
" I tell ye, Mart ! it can't be done. No man ever went
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 123
up Settin' Pole Eapids alone in a boat. You never did ic
cr'atidn."
" I know I did," said Mart doggedly.
" Onderstand me now," returned Harvey. " You kin go
up part o' the way ; but there's a p'int o' rock which no
man kin git round. Now I tell ye so !"
" Well, / went round," said Mart, talking so earnestly
as to catch his breath. " I went up to the p'int, and there
I did hev a tussle. 'Twas licketty whang which should
beat, I or the water, but I pulled and I strained ! I tell ye
didn't I work ! Well, I did some. But I broke my oar in
gittin' up."
" I tell ye 'tis not a thing to be done. Don't I know, and
didn't I row a boat afore you was born. Now I tell ye
you might as well try to row up old Whiteface, as to row
round a sarten p'int there. But ef you didn't go up you
come down onst. Ho ! ho ! ho ! you and Cort, ho ! ho !
ho ! licketty whip ! I see the boat go round like a kitten
chasin' her tail."
" What bad weather we're a hevin'," here interposed
Will, •" it's rained so much to-day it don't 'pear to know
how to stop."
" This ere weather," returned Harvey, " is aggravatin'.
I wish I could turn inter a trout, and then I wouldn't
mind it. But while it's about it, why don't it rain a leetle
whiskey as well as water. I think 'twould be a rael old
hunderd idee."
I retreated again to the tent. As my companions were
still engaged in "eucre" I seated myself by the entrance
and watched the camp-fire blazing and crackling in the fast
gathering darkness. The rain but sprinkled it into fresh-
ness. Now and then the pine tree near it spit a broad
drop that stung a snappish ember, made a testy coal hiss, or
a dot of warm ashes sound sullenly to its pat. I saw in the
glowing depths a red deer drinking at a water-streak of
ashes ; and wasn't that Cort in his red hunting shirt seated
on a crimson rock ? And the smoke 1 now it was the
124: WOODS AND WATERS;
dark topsail of the Flying Dutchman, and now Surtur with,
his flaming falchion moving to the last grand battle-field of
Yigrid.'
My picturings were at last destroyed by the simultaneous
risings of my comrades from their game, and after an hour's
glancings and Sittings of talk we all retired to our hemlock
beds for slumber.
The heavy eyes of the morning opened, still glazed with
tears. But the rain soon dwindled into a waterv trans-
*/
parency and then glimmered away. The blanket of mist
broke into huge fragments with glaring white edges, as if
the light were trying to drain through, and curls of scud
grazed the trees, twining around the higher ledges. The
outlines of the forest began to show with hair-like distinct-
ness. The surface of the Racket below the falls was like
oil, and the windless trees stood still as in a painting.
Tired of the landscape around the camp, we prepared to
leave. ,
In an hour our tent was struck, our boats loaded, and
all, except Harvey and myself, on the downward voyage
to Tupper's Lake.
With his usual care, Harvey went over the camp to detect
any article left behind. He shortly passed me toward the
boat with a candle-end, several matches, a piece of twine
and a tooth-pick taken from one of the smaller bones of a
deer's leg in the cup of one hand, and a fork with one
prong, a sugar-crusher whittled from pine, and a broken
jack-knife thrust into the knots of his other ; while a bat-
tered pewter spoon divided his mouth with a sooty un-
lighted pipe. I lingered for a moment to throw a farewell
glance over the camp. A ghastly sunbeam glared across
the silent scene late so full of color and motion. There
were our beds of hemlock ; there the thickets in which the
venison had been sliced and the trout dressed ; there the
white pines whose murmurs had been to me so full of
music; there the roots and stubs to which the ropes, draw-
ing our tent to its shape, had been fastened ; there was the
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 125
stump of the marmot ; there stood the acclivity where the
owls had assured Harvey in his weather wisdom ; and there
the background forest with its meandering paths. The single
thing left of all our property was the grinning deer's head.
The rapids were flashing over the rocks, and they seemed
to say "farewell!" the murmuring pines breathed the
same ; the aspens trickled it as with tears.
As I passed the thicket at the head of the path leading
down the headland to the river, I gave one more glance to
the sylvan beauty of Eacket Falls Camp, and the next
moment was at the stern of the Bluebird. Harvey pushed
her from the bank with his oar, and^immediately we were
following the other boats, which, however, were by this
time out of sight.
A deep sound ; a report of a gun, but distant.
" They've shot at suthin' forred there," said Harvey.
" A deer most likely !"
We passed a little distance farther and another sound
touched my ear. It was faint and quick, delicate as the tap
of a ripple.
"Another gun," said Harvey, "but a long way off I
That come from Folingsby's Pond, ten mile from here. It
can't in course be one of our party, fur not even Mr. Bing-
ham, quick-as-a-snap kind o' gen'leman as he is, couldn't
ha' got there yit, ho, ho, ho ! How fond he is o' tellin'
how many deer he's killed or would a killed ef he'd hed
a chance!"
It is surprising how far the report of a gun can be heard
in the wilderness. The brittle sound flits across the ear
from a distance almost incredible.
What with stopping to look over the " slews " for deer,
gathering Indian Plumes, mohawk tassels, moose heads,
and white water-lilies, and otherwise loitering, we did not
reach the bend to the left or north-west, above Stony Creek,
until sunset.
There was a splendid flush of color in the west, with
clouds like blazing coals in a furnace.
126 WOODS AND WATERS';
" Too much red," said Harvey. " I'm a leetle afeard
of to-morrow. Kain '11 be the order agin, I think ; but it
can't be helped."
The beautiful twilight shed its softness over the scene.
On either bank the trees and herbage were drawn in the
glassy river with the most delicate pencilling, forming a
series of fairy paintings flecked with the gold, crimson, and
purple of the zenith. From the trunk of the tree to the cut
edges of its leaf, everything on the margin was seen as if
the water was air. The ripplings generally of our way
only made the emerald pictures undulate without breaking
them. Occasionally, however, a deeper plunge of the oar
fractured the beautiful tracery, but in a moment it was
again joined as if by invisible fingers.
We had now arrived at the mouth of Stony Brook.
Here Harvey pushed the stern of the boat in among the
grasses of the bank, and I landed, took a seat in the smooth
fork of the leaning water maple at the western edge, and
watched him while he angled. Only one trout rewarded
his trouble, which he threw into the bottom of the boat.
Several white flashes at the end of his raised line, however,
told the shiners or minnows were abroad. These elfin
members of the fish tribe, with all their delicate, silver-
scaled armor, only excited Harvey's contempt, and he
either flirted them back into the stream with "dang the
minnies," or kept them " for bait." Indeed, I had noticed
early that Harvey was wanting in a sense of the beautiful,
he regarding a trout as a trout, without reference to the
golden bronze and rubies in which it glittered. I remarked
about its beauty to him once. He had just cut off a por-
tion of "ladies twist" with his dark jack-knife, and he
answered, as with great gusto he placed the morsel into his
mouth, that " 'twas all well enough, but a trout 'ud be jest
as good eatin' ef its color was like a tadpole's." As the
remark was true enough, I said no more. So with a radiant
wild flower to which I called liis eye one day, so rich it
shed a gleam on the water, and turned a passing water-
OK, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 127
fly into a gem. " Them things 'ud make right good greens
b'iled," said he, " and muxed up with a leetle inion and
vinegar they'd go good raw."
As for the tints of sky, cloud, and water, the purple
films of distance, and the picturesque beauty of near pros-
pects, they were entirely beneath his notice.
Forward we went again, over a surface gleaming with
the colors of the wood-duck's back.
I looked at the trout in its splendid blazonry, and the
golden-eyed water-lily in its creamy silver lying beside it,
and thought with what little reference to man exists the
greater part of the Deity's creation. Some things appear
to be made for his use, but what myriads of others, grand
and beautiful, have no connexion with him or his presence.
The trout and the lily glitter generally in the solitude.
The graceful deer, the forest waving in curves of matchless
beauty, the billow splintering on lonely shores, the grandeur
stretching from inaccessible peaks; all these ask not the
eye of man to admire them. And yet he thinks the world
made specially for him ! instead of being but one of the
myriad expressions of the Creator, one of the links in the
infinite series of creation. All, from the constellations to
the mote, are but portions of that mantle which the inscru-
table I Am wraps around Him for His own purposes.
The tender tints tremble away into the soft pearl of the
deepening twilight. Solitude and silence reign. No move-
ment save our own. Even Harvey seems impressed with
the quietude, for he is musing while he rows.
A distance of two miles from Stony Brook brought us to
Calkins' clearing, our goal for the night. "We found the
boats of the company at the margin, and securing our own,
after tasting the spring upon the bank, we ascended the
rough clearing in the grey of the evening to the log hut
that crowns it.
My comrades had found the hut alone, had taken posses-
sion, and were gathered near the door where two fires were
blazing.
128 WOODS AND WATERS;
Log outhouses were each side the hut, with a cleared
ridge in front sloping into a natural meadow on the wind-
ing Racket, and an upland in the rear. The whole was
walled with forest, in some places touched red with an
old burning.
I immediately found the fires were necessary to repel
the musquitoes. In fact, if the whole clearing had been
kindled it would scarce have sufficed.
Gaylor and Ealph stood by oiie fire, -and Bingham and
Coburn by the other. The first were performing a tragic
pantomime; slapping their foreheads, beating their breasts,
and almost tearing their hair. The last were in the comic
spasms. Bingharn's knees cringed as Coburn's shoulders
hitched. Then Bingham's arms tossed wildly and Coburn's
hands dashed still more wildly over his person wherever
they could hit. Now Bingham shook his head as if to let
his brains loose, and now Coburn struck up a perfect hys-
teric of motion as if every muscle and nerve had begun a
dance of its own, and would end in running bodily away
with him.
As for myself, preferring musquitoes alone to musquitoes
and smoke, I struck down into the dark grey clearing.
The evening was warm and close, and the thickening gloom
had shaded away the outlines of bush, stump, and tree. The
owls were shouting at the tops of their voices.
While sauntering along, I came upon Mart Moody shap-
ing out a paddle. I watched his work ; at last he looked
up and spoke.
" Is that you, Mr. Smith ? The woods as well as the
flies is in full blast to-night. Did ye ever hear a painter
sing out ? H-e-c-h !" (giving a horrid scream.) " And here's
the wolf" (with a howl so that Watch bounded forward with
a yelp) ; " the deer" (imitating perfectly their heavy inde-
scribable whistling) ; " and the bear" (with a snarl and growl
that made me jump involuntarily backward) ; " but I guess
you never heerd a moose beller," uttering a sharp roar
that startled the woods into an echo.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 129
" Why, Mart ! you're an artist !" said I.
" There's a good many sounds in my throat," answered
he complacently. " Here's the loon, and the raven and
the eagle and the hawk," producing in succession the
sounds of the several species he mentioned.
He then continued his work, while I strolled farther
down into the glimmering meadow.
I fancied the sublimity of possessing what alone belongs
to the Deity ; an existence, the idea of which is given in the
scriptural expression, " a thousand years are as one day."
To see light leaving some immeasurably distant orb for
this earth ; its splendor moving on, on, on, through what
would be to mortals centuries upon centuries ; on, on, cleav-
ing the startled darkness until it reaches its goal — to mark
the formation of a world, the first throb of chaos, the
mingling of the elements into the spinning orb, the with-
drawal of those elements to their appropriate spheres and
their elaboration into the perfect world — to note the march
of events over our earth, the progress of the forest to the
empire, decay drawing its grassy mantle over the latter ;
new empires rising and Time successively crushing them
under his tread f while swarms upon swarms of life, human,
animal and vegetable, glance and disappear — such is the
sublime existence of God, and such the eternity of the
past and the future under His eye ; — all one immeasurable
present 1
What a Being ! self-existent, self-sustained ! His habi-
tation that magnificent system of universes, in which our
own cluster is only one of the myriad pillars and our world
a tiny leaf of its capital. And yet amid all the wonders He
has created, none is more wonderful than the human soul,
boundless as eternity, yet enclosed with all its divine attri-
butes in a frame fragile as the leaf that May calls into exist-
ence for October to waft into its grave. Grand thought !
The loftiest archangel that smites the sunbeam with superior
lustre has no more enduring existence than the lowliest
beggar that dies in the winter storm unsheltered as the dog
9
130 WOODS AND WATERS;
beside him, and nameless as the snow-flakes that stream
around him in the blast.
And yet what an infinite distance between man and his
Maker; between the Creator and the mightiest created!
Yea, the stately suns that with systems for their diadems
tread in gorgeous march through the countless ages along
the illimitable spaces, approach no nearer the essence of the
Father than the swarming animalcules that live and die in
a single drop of water, approach in splendor and duration
to the suns.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 131
CHAPTER XII.
A Rainy Day on the Racket — Down to Folingsby's Brook. — Folingsby's
Pond. — Bingham and the Ducks. — Captain Folingsby.
WE retired to rest at an early hour. Ralph and Gaylor
occupied the lower room, Bingham, Coburn, and I ascended
by a ladder to the loft, and the guides took sleeping apart-
ments outside.
The lighted pine-knot which one of us held brought out
in dark crimson relief the slanting roof, five feet at its high-
est and three at its lowest height ; a row of bunks filling
one half the floor and a pile of potatoes the other. A little
window gleamed in the rear. A stifling air pervaded the
loft and — what can I say of the musquitoes, except tBat
they composed (almost) the very air itself.
We laid ourselves, however, upon the straw of the bunks,
after demolishing the window panes and letting in a stream
of fresh air, and tried to sleep.
In a few moments Coburn caracoled from the bunk and
stampeded, followed, after a short series of ground and
lofty tumblings on his mattress, by Bingham.
As for myself, thinking that as there was greater space
outside, there was more room for the musquitoes, I armed
myself with a kind of heroic despair and — let the fiends
bite. They could not do so more than one night through,
and I thought my blood might possibly stand that. " Tired
nature " at last subsided into a kind of a trance — a sort of
transparent sleep, in which I solemnly affirm I beheld a
huge musquito stalk into the room droning like a buzz saw.
Fastening his great glaring blood-thirsty globes on my un-
fortunate person, he made as if to plant his horrible pump
132 WOODS AND WATERS;
on my face. I started up, and found the little square of
the window grey in the daybreak.
There was a humming too on the roof as of a million
musquitoes, as well as a dampness in the loft which told of
rain. I arose and looked out. Sure enough there were
the now familiar streaks glancing athwart the wall of forest
and against stump, tree, bank, and hollow of the clearing.
Another rainy day ! I descended to the lower room, and
there found my comrades and the guides'.
After a hasty breakfast we decided, rather than loiter in'
that dreary clearing, to push on to where Foliugsby's
Brook entered the Eacket, and there camp.
We embarked once more. I had donned my India rub-
ber, and the thick tent blanket, and bade defiance to the
storm.
Down we all swiftly flew, I catching glimpse through
the misty air of the forward boats and occupants as we
turned some bend ; now of a stern with Gaylor leaning
back ; now of a broadside with Cort's flashing oar and
Blngham bending to a rake of rain ; now of Coburn hud-
dling in the middle of his craft, and now of Kenning dipping
a vigorous paddle.
Past the bald hemlock flowing with moss like an old
bearded prophet ; past the mined elm, its top tilting to our
ripple and raising dimples in the water; past the grey
finger of the skeleton pine — finger pointing to the centuries
that have rolled over the forest ; past the water-maple's
peristyle of pillars upholding the blended dome ; past the
ledge green with moss as an emerald ; past the tongues of
the banks thrust far into the channel, and the coves of hol-
lowed foliage where the duck dimly seen had doubtless cast
anchor for the day ; past the old fir hardened into iron
like the trees of Jarnvid, and wreathed into green softness
by the moss ; past the trunk wrestling on the border with
some strangling grapevine, a Laocoon of the wood ; past
the black sunken log where the ripples undulated ; past the
windy pebbles in the channel where the rain launched its
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 133
fiercest lash, we swept along. On either hand frowned
the aboriginal wilderness — a wilderness like that which
walled Hudson as he tracked up his river ; which darkened
on Champlain as he coasted down his lake ; where no axe
but the one clearing space for the camp shanty had ever
rung, no smoke had ever curled save that breathed by the
camp fire ; close-twined save at the beautiful green open-
ings, grassy nests of the forest, tempting one to make
there a home where existence should glide along in sylvan
peace.
But little life was abroad. On the sandbank at the
Three Corners a tall crane was standing as if in mute soli-
loquy over his prospect of a fish dinner, and at Wolfs
Point by the Four Corners we saw the white brush of a
deer glancing into a thicket. At " Buck Slew," where the
bleaching skull of the enormous deer shot there by Harvey
(he naming the slough from the circumstance), glistened
from the alders, a mink leaped through the foliage.
Just after we had turned the Little Oxbow my eye was
caught -by another of those objects I have before men-
tioned ; the enormous nest of a fishhawk in the antlers of a
dead pine, cutting against a background of dark purple
cloud.
The rocks of the Three Sisters looked grim in the grey
air as we glided by, but The Emerald (the little grassy
island close by) seemed in the polishing rain bright as the
gem whence its name was taken.
At one of the spring brooks flowing into the river my
comrades had stopped to try the trout. Having caught a
number before we came, they started down with us, all
checking progress at the mouth of another brook. Although
success rewarded our efforts, we found fishing in the rain
too much like the Chinese method of swimming under
water to capture ducks, so we pushed onward.
The afternoon was advancing as we came abreast the
wild meadow at our left or south bank of the Backet, where
Folingsby's Brook entered.
134 WOODS AND WATERS ;
The cheerful hack of the axe was echoing as we landed
Corey and Little Jess had preceded the party, as usual, to
select our camping spot, and had commenced clearing on a
knoll west of the meadow, and at the mouth of the brook.
As if vexed at our coming escape, and to give it to us
while it had us, the rain now fairly poured. But tree after
tree fell before the guides; poles were planted; saplings
shortened into stubs ; and presently the tent was reared and
secured by the looped and knotted ropes.
Meanwhile we " lookers on" sheltered ourselves as well
as possible in the hollow trees, under jutting ledges and
dense cedars, and in grottoes of hanging hemlocks.
A glorious fire shed a glow over the dripping scene, and
we enjoyed its warmth and radiance until we could enter
the tent, which we soon did. The ground covered with
dead pine needles absorbing the rain, formed a compara-
tively dry floor to our little dwelling. The fire played
over our variously tinted blankets, gleamed on our India
rubber coats, powder flasks, and shot belts, hung along the
slender tent rafters; upon the brass reels and rings of our
rods, and along our rifles and fowling pieces ; kindling bits
of color and flashes of light all over our pleasant apart-
ment.
The opened curtain of the front framed another picture.
Stems seamed and smooth, dark, mottled and grey, columned
a part of the view, with the newly prostrate trees heaping
another. The falling axes of the guides glittered, and their
red hunting shirts glowed in the firelight. Below the
knoll a bright background was made of the rain-freshened
meadow grass tinted with brilliant water weeds.
Just before sunset, following a shower which came tram-
pling over' the woods, river, and meadow at our front, and,
beating our tent as with tiny flails, went roaring away in
the rear, a gleam of fluid gold shot over the scene. The
remaining drops were transmuted into a sparkling sheet
flung athwart the dark landscape, like the silver veil over
the brow of Mokannah, and a streak of tender blue opened
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 135
above the western trees. Splendid tints flashed over the
clouds; a cool breeze poured liquid balm around; each
tree shook off its glancing gems, like a deer after a bath,
while the whole landscape breathed the freshest fragrance.
Shortly, a jocund crew were we, around the usual table
on the sylvan floor in front of the tent.
Lo, the treasures of that table !
Piles of trout, their crusted skin cracking open from the
dark golden flesh ; flakes of venison richly browned and
swimming in ruddy juices ; partridges showing their white
dainty substance ; ducks, their juicy breasts distilling
red nectar ; curls of crisp potato clippings, brittle biscuits,
Indian cakes like sponges, and tea, a real cordial.
At dark Bingham took Cort and went on a night hunt
down the river. The rest of us preferred remaining in
camp.
I wandered a short distance into the woods. Overhead
were broken streaks of sable sky, the stars seeming to cling
to the tree tops and struggle through the higher branches.
I could see a few black trunks close round me, but the rest
were lost as in a dungeon. Ebon masses told the near
thickets. Not a stir ; not a breath. So dead the silence
the Runic fetter of Grleipnir might have been woven from it.
Spots of ghastly glare showed the phosphorescence of the
decayed logs and stumps. There seemed at last a weird influ-
ence, a frowning horror in the murky depths. If phan-
toms had appeared I should scarcely have been startled.
From where I stood the mighty wilderness extended
threescore miles unbroken either way, motes of cabins in
specks of openings alone excepted.
At length I returned, and the gleam of the camp-fire, the
movements of the guides around it, the tent, the cheerful
voices of my companions within, all casting that social
spell so congenial to our nature, restored the equilibrium
of my spirits. The gloom dissolved ; the feeling of isola-
tion fled away ; I was again one of the family of man.
In about two hours Bingham returned.
136 WOODS AND WATERS;
He had been unlucky as usual, the perverse deer keep-
ing purposely from his rifle. " The fact is, gentlemen,
they know the light of the jack just as well as Ealph here
knows how to take a glass of punch, and no more can be
said on the subject. Cort, make me a glass of punch !"
The morning arose fresh and radiant from her bath as did
Aphrodite from the sea. The rose tints of dawn faded ; the
summits of the far hills warmed into purple ; the tops of
the trees brightened into gold. A little while and the sun
was kindling the bushes, low rocks, and logs into yellow
life, and then picking out the sprouts and dead leaves, until
all was one broad illumination.
We were now to explore the beauty of Folingsby's Pond
unknown to my comrades, and of course to me, but painted
in strong colors by the guides.
We rowed one after another up the crooked brook or
outlet, which flows in a north-westerly direction. At either
hand was an expanse of wild meadow with wooded accli-
vities. The sunlight lay like a golden mantle on the mea-
dow embroidered at the edges by the shadows of the hills.
The light tinged the adder's tongue into a deeper purple,
and made a red intaglio of the Indian Plume fitting into
some cranny of the bank.
The brook narrowed as we ascended, with thickets and
broad tufts of wild grass in the channel, until it dwindled to
a mere streak doubling and twisting like a water-snake striv-
ing to hide in the herbage of the meadow. Side cul-de-sacs
enticed the boats, whence they were obliged to back once
more into the channel, through which now and then they
were forced by main strength over the sand and rushes
having but a film of water upon them. The oars of the
party had been abandoned almost from the first for the
paddle, Harvey alone clinging to his until the blades
more often slid yver the borders than touched the water.
The stake driver rose awkwardly from her seat in the
long, coarse grass of the bank, and fanned heavily away
with a hoarse cry, the light touching her brown slender
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARA.NACS. 137
shape; that feathered buffoon, and peculiarly American
bird, the blue jay, sent from the hills his peevish trumpet-
ings, and the hawk sailed the blue as if he delighted in the
freshness of the morning.
" Them stake-drivers 's a queer thing," said Harvey.
"They make a noise like drivin' posts *in wet ground.
You hear it all over, and yit can't fix it to one spot."
At last, on turning a bend, a broad sheet of water burst
upon us — Folingsby's Pond— expanding from the brook
with a suddenness almost startling. It lies north-westerly,
in an angular course with a succession of points either side
of its five or six bays ; is without an island, and has a length
of three miles, with a breadth of two. Hilly forests slope
to the water's edge unbroken by a clearing, and unstained
by the red hues of fire or the grey of withered trees. Upon
entrance, a headland rounding blunt to the lake like an
eagle's beak arrests the eye with a rock like a huge duck
in the water before it.
Harvey again betook himself to the oars, and, in the
wake of the other boats, laid his course swiftly through the
pond. At the head, where the shores are low and swampy,
Kenning and Gaylor, true to their instincts, began prying
for trout around the mouth of the inlet that came crawling
zigzag through the alders and swamp willows. Dropping
here, flinging there, they teazed the lazy water for a half-
hour in vain. Not a trout even the length of a finger
rewarded them. At last Renning tried the fly. Skipping
it over the broad parts, speckyig the sleepy pools with it, a
little more time elapsed with evidently oozing patience on
the part of the unlucky angler. Meanwhile Gaylor was
working up the inlet, his grey coat glancing like a heron
in and out of the water bushes.
A croak from a lazy bullfrog now and then sounded by
a lily -pad, while the eager, brassy deer-fly buzzed around
our ears and occasionally lighted with a tingle on our
hands.
" Come, gentlemen 1" at length said Bingham, addressing
188 WOODS AND WATERS;
Coburn and myself, the former of whom had squatted him-
self on a surly old log thrusting its nose from the dark
mud of the margin ; " aren't you tired of the antics of
these two great fishermen. There's but little venison in
the camp, and Cort says there's a good chance of a deer in
Grassy Bay, around the next point. And you know,
gentlemen " (presenting his piece as if to fire), " if my rifle
covers a deer, it's good-bye to Mr. Deer. Come, Coburn,
you look on that log more like a huge frog than a human
being, wake up. Come, Smith ! you can't snap twigs in
the boat, thank fortune ! so come along ! We'll leave these
two knights of the rod, whose ideas in this grand wilderness
never soar above a trout, to the exciting pastime of whip-
ping water-flags and catching old sunken roots, and we'll
catch a deer, eh, Cort !"
We left Eenning on a green bog where he was unable to
stand still long enough to catch a trout from fear of sinking
to his waist, and dancing in consequence from one leg to
the other as if in a nest of snapping turtles, while Gaylor
was crawling back round a mid-channel bush like an otter
after its prey.
Bounding the point and reaching into the depths of the
bay, we looked narrowly into the thickets of the shore
for the tawny hues that tell the deer, but none were dis-
covered.
" Shall I let Watch go ?" said Harvey.
" I think not," said Coburn, interrupting Bingham, who
was giving assent. " Our stay at the pond will be too
short for that."
" We'll hev chances enough too at Simon's Slew and Tup-
per's Lake fur drivin', on second thoughts," said Harvey.
" Mr. Eunnin and Mr. Gaylor expecks to be back to camp
afore sundown sarten, so as to try a brook down the river."
"That's always the way!" said Bingham, pettishly;
" everything has to yield to trout in this party. A deer is
no more thought of than a chipmunk. That's the reason I
never kill — hem — that is — but by the powers, it's raining I"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 139
Sure enough the golden scene had become grey. One
of the prowling showers of the region had stolen upon us,
and light, watery threads were glimmering against the
broad breasts of the hemlocks and cedars, and athwart the
dark cavities of the woods.
" It won't be much of a rain," said Bingham, covering
the lock of his rifle with his coat ; " and maybe it will
rouse up the deer from the thickets."
At this instant a loud, mocking, taunting shout burst
from the middle of the pond where the mist of the shower
had already enclosed a narrow horizon.
" Uncle loon says diff'rent !" exclaimed Harvey.
"Confound him!" said Bingham, gasping his rifle;
" where is he ?"
" Bound the p'int there !" answered Harvey.
" Give me a chance at him," said Bingham.
Another war whoop.
"I'll stop his yell," continued Bingham; "pull round,
Harvey !"
Down came the rain like a cataract. The narrow circle
of the pond bubbled and frothed like a kettle over a fire.
A clear, bold, ringing, clarion sound broke from the
mist.
" Clear out !" said Bingham.
The burst of rain lasted until it had smitten us through
and through, and then ceased as suddenly as it came. It
stopped so quick that the middle drops didn't know it, but
kept patting the water -for several moments later.
The tr^es again struggled out from the near fog ; the far
wreaths grew transparent and melted. From a vanishing
curl appeared the boats of Eennirig and Graylor rapidly
gliding towards the outlet.
" We're going back to camp ["hallooed Kenning, mak-
ing a speaking trumpet of his hand.
" I too," said Coburn to us. " This is rather poor sport,
Push ahead, Phin !" and off he went.
At this instant the base of the wooded acclivity in front
140 WOODS AND WATERS;
blazed into splendid colors. Higher they rose ; higher,
higher ; they bent ; it 'seemed as if invisible spirits were
forming an arch : downward the colors curved, down, down,
until they linked themselves once more to the edge of the
water.
" Well," exclaimed Bingham, " I never saw a rainbow
grow before."
It had built itself before our very eyes, and now glowed
there upon the background of the hill, beautiful as Bifrost
before the portals of Yalhalla.
It held its gleaming being, with a paler bow above it,
longer than is wont, but at last the fainter arch died away ;
the superb colors of the other commenced slowly to dim,
until dissolving gently, the bright messenger of returning
sunshine vanished like some returning seraph from our
view.
We were now abreast the blunt headland and rock,
where the lymph was so clear I could see the white sticks
at the deep bottom twisting like water-snakes.
" Suppose we follow the rest to camp," said Bingham.
" I dont believe we'll find any deer, and there's nothing
else I care for — Jupiter, see those ducks ! a flock of them,
by the living Mars ! Pull, Cort, pull ! and give me a shot!
pull, pull ! let me get any sort of a chance at them, and if
you don't see slaughter I'm a donkey !" grasping the pad-
dle and bending his tall form in deep, long plunges.
" More speed, more speed, Cort ! I say, Smith, we'll have
some duck for supper, hey ! Pull away, Cort, pull away !
How the little devils scud ! A mother and ten young
ones ! Pull, pull ! Hurrah for ducks on Folingsby's
Pond !"
" Ef you holler so, Mr. Bingham, now you've got so
cluss, you wont git no ducks I" at last said poor Cort, pant-
ing with his exertions and his face streaming.
" Don't I know that," said Bingham, looking at his caps,
and then aiming as the flock huddled close a short distance
ahead. "Oh, confound them! there they go again!"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 141
And go they did, the cluster breaking away like beads
with the string broken,, and all scouring over the grey sur-
face. • «
Once more we approached, and once more away they
scudded, making the water white as they went.
"They'll git off, Mr. Bingham, after all. They aint
forty rod from shore."
" I know it ; and how the little rogues skip," said Bing-
ham. " There they go !" and the flock struck the margin
and vanished into a thicket like a flash.
" You may git 'em yit, Mr. Bingham !" said Harvey,
' ef you'll land, and beat round a leetle. I kinder guess
you'll find 'ern under some log or bush. They aint gone
fur, that's sarten !"
" Harvey, you're a trump 1" said Bingham, making one
stride to shore.
The rest of us remained in the boats. Now and then a
snap or rustle in the woods told that Bingham was ferret-
ing around. A minute or two succeeded. The near shout
of a loon echoed ; the flashing dragon-fly again threaded the
water plants or darted in startling angles over the shallow ;
and the lake stretched away in dazzling whites and cool
breezy darks, quiet as if nothing had ever disturbed it.
Another rustle and in a cleft of the foliage, a huge boot
and a long leg appeared followed by what proved to be the
whole of Bingham. Leaning his left hand on a hemlock,
with his forehead ruffled up and his eyeballs distended,
he peered around a moment and then glided silently
away.
Bang, bang, and a terrible tumult in the water.
" By the powers ! didn't I say so !" in Bingham's loudest
tones. " Four, as I'm alive, four ' in one fell swoop,' or
rather two, as I fired both barrels 1 I'd had the whole
flock if I'd had another gun." *
We pulled around a little rocky point, and there, in a
beautiful covert of white sand, lay four white-breasted
ashen- winged copperhead ducks. The bright orange legs
142 WOODS AND WATEKS;
of one beside the grey ones of the rest showed the mother
of the brood.
" I found them sitting in a row as close and cosy as you
please ; quite a family party," continued Bingham, while Cort
threw them into the box, which was fashioned at the bow
of the boat. " There they were quacking and putting their
heads together as if in serious conversation over their
escape. Cort, where's my flask ? " entering the boat.
" We'll all take a drink on these shots of mine, eh, Smith!
here, drink my boy ! a good shot, Smith ! here, Harvey,
take some! Cort, help yourself! a pret-ty good shot, eh,
boys ! and. now I'm ready to follow to the camp ! Go
ahead, Cort!"
" Suppose we go around the pond first," said I. " It is
a beautiful sheet of water."
" Very well ! I'm up to any thing now ! Go ahead
Cort!"
We then took the circuit. We rounded the bays;
brushed the herbage of the headlands and pierced the
grottoes of the leaning trees. Now we caught glimpse of
a duck skulking into the water-flags ; and now we startled
into the air a crane watching the water behind a point.
Then, after loosening the echoes with three ringing cheers,
we left the lovely pond, and threaded the twisted silver of
the brook by sunset to the camp.
I afterwards gleaned some particulars of the mysterious
personage who had given the pond its name, from those
conversant with the traditions concerning him, and espe-
cially from one who was accidentally present at his death.
Captain Folingsby, as he was called, was a strange,
melancholy man, of an age almost impossible to determine.
From several indications he appeared to be in the meridian
of life, but his hair was grey, and his frame, though massive
and sinewy, was bowed. *
He lived, forty years ago, in a shanty of thickest logs,
built, as he stated, by his own hands, in the rear of the
blunt headland. The whole region at that time had no
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 143
residents, except here and there a red man, and was un-
known save to the white hunter or trapper who straggled
into it from the Lower Ausable or Lake Champlain.
No one knew when Folingsby came. A wandering trap-
per who visited the secluded waters (more secluded proba-
bly from the difficulty of ascending the shallow and wind-
ing brook) saw the shanty already erected. He was told
of Folingsby's existence by an Indian whom he met at the
mouth of the brook, and who had just seen, for the first
time, the strange white man fishing in the pond.
Entrance into the shanty was .only allowed to those driven
thither by stress of weather. A lock of great strength and
curious intricacy secured the massive door, and the one win-
dow was furnished with a thick ironwood shutter.
While at home Folingsby passed most of his time on the
pond with his rod, or in the woods with his rifle. Some-
times he launched into the adjacent region, penetrating now
and then to great distances.
The hunter at the head waters of the Upper Saranac
saw him bearing his bark canoe over some carry, or skim-
ming some water ; the Indian trapper among the ponds of
the St. Eegis in search of the beaver, caught glimpses of
him, rifle in hand, stalking through the surrounding
forests.
Thus he bestowed his name on other sheets of water
besides this pond — Folingsby's Clear Pond, near the head
of the above lake, and Folingsby's Pond in the St. Eegis
woods.
A trapper, whose sable line ran by the pond, was weather-
bound one day in Folingsby's cabin. The recluse talked
but little, appearing to be generally sunk in gloomy medi-
tation, and occasionally moving his lips as if in soliloquy.
He showed, however, no want of hospitality ; on the con-
trary, he produced his finest trout and venison for the
trapper's repasts. The trapper said afterward in effect,
that what most impressed him, was the lordly authority
which diffused itself, as it were, from Folingsby's presence.
144 WOODS AND WATERS;
There was a grace and refinement too, in his movements
and actions, especially at the meals, which made the rude
trapper feel " as though " (in his own language) " he
wasn't no man at all, but a kind o' half nigger all the
time."
When the storm passed, the trapper left, Folingsby ac-
cepting his simple thanks with the condescending kindness
of a king.
A year or two passed, when one October day a sports-
man from a village on the eastern edge of the wilderness,
visited the pond with an •Ausable trapper, in search of
fisher.
Passing the cabin they heard a loud voice talking rapidly,
interrupted by hoarse screams. They broke in the door
after great exertion, and found Folingsby stretched on his
bed of bear-skins, and delirious with fever.
Unable to aid him, all they could do was to listen to his
ravings, and restrain him in his occasional fits of insane
strength.
His wild talk made them wonder and occasionally shud-
der. Sometimes he seemed addressing himself to high per-
sonages, Lord this and General that ; sometimes to one he
called Georgiana, and he would then break into mingled
curses on her and on one whom he called villain and de-
stroyer. His tones would, however, sometimes melt to
tenderest music while mentioning her ; but his mood would
again change, and exclamations of "wretch" and "weak
wicked creature " would flit through his ravings in accents
of the most horrible hate.
Blood, blood, was then his theme, and from what the
hearers could gather, his hands had been imbrued in the
blood of both victim and destroyer.
Then he would fancy himself in battle, calling upon his
men to follow him, and hurling scorn on all cowards who
would desert their leader. His bearing at those times, the
sportsman said, was bold and majestic, something as he
supposed Washington's might have been in some great
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 145
fight ; Folingsby whirling his hand over his head as if
waving a sword and striking out right and left.
He also muttered broken words about a chest, rolling his
mad eye, and once or twice pointing his lean finger toward
the stone fire-place, and he would then huddle up his bear-
skins as if to conceal some object.
All through the day and night he raved, and at dawn
he died, the name of Georgiana the last sound upon his
lips.
The two wrapped him in his bear-skins and buried him
in a neighboring dipgle, planting a pair of rude stones at
his grave.
They then explored the cabin. It was composed of two
.rooms, with loop-holes, the front one having the window.
Nothing was seen in either, beside the bear-skin bed, but a
rude bench or two, an arm-chair of roots, two or three
rifles, with wooden angle-rods and their apparatus, axes,
hunting-shirts, with other coarse clothing, and a few culi-
nary utensils of the roughest description. The exclama-
tions concerning the chest, however, stimulated farther
search, and under a stone of the hearth they discovered in
a cavity, a strong wooden box. Within, was a magnificent
sword in a gold scabbard, with a gold hilt, sparkling in
diamonds and impressed with something which, as well as
I could gather from the description, was a coronet. There
was also a brace of pistols, the stocks of rich, polished wood,
mounted in silver, and inlaid with pearl, and stamped like-
wise with the coronet.
A scented dressing-case was also within, with gold and
gemmed articles of toilet ; a little cabinet of glossy and
fragrant wood ; a splendidly decorated uniform coat of the
British scarlet, with gorgeous epaulets, and a gold laced
chapeau.
At the very bottom was a package of letters. Some were
signed Georgiana; were addressed to her dear Hubert,
and filled with expressions of love, with details domestic
and otherwise. The sportsman (who was an educated and
10
146 WOODS AND WATERS;
intelligent man) was struck with some things in these let-
ters, tending, as he thought, to throw a little light upon
Folingsby. She mentioned in one, the arrival from the
Peninsula of her Hubert's wounded friend, Lord — — , who
brought her dear Hubert's letter ; and that he spoke of
owing his life in a certain battle to her brave Hubert. In
another, she mentioned that Lord was residing near
the castle. In another that the Earl, her Hubert's father,
was confined to the castle from his failing health.
There was another letter of a subsequent date to the
above, which appeared to be written, by a high official of
the British Government. It was addressed to Colonel, the
Earl of , and in friendly and familiar terms, informed
him of his approaching promotion for his distinguished
gallantry in a certain battle ; the sportsman thought the
battle of Salamanca.
What became of the articles and letters the sportsman
never definitely knew. They were replaced in the chest,
together with the other articles, and transported by the
two in their boat on their return course to the foot of the
Lower Saranac, where they passed the night in the shanty
of a hunter. In the morning the chest was missing. Whe-
ther the trapper or the hunter made away with it the sports-
man could not ascertain. The former asserted it was the
latter. The letters were most probably used for wadding,
and the other articles doubtless changed into rifles, traps,
powder, ball, and other necessaries of wilderness life in some
of the cities, or large villages, to which the hunters and
trappers occasionally made their way.
The strange circumstances that surrounded Folingsby
invest him even to this day with mystery. The simple-
minded woodmen visiting the pond still think his spirit
inhabits it. In the misty days of Indian summer they
imagine him glimmering in his boat off some point, or in
some bay in pursuit of the trout, or gliding through some
ravine of the hills in the track of the deer. In the sounds
that echo over the calm sheet they hear his shout or the
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 147
report of his rifle. During the moonlight nights they have
fancied glimpses of his form, now crouching under a tree
on the bank gazing at the shining expanse, now moving
around the spot where his remains were buried, and now
shooting with his canoe athwart the golden glitter of the
moon-glade. In the wailing night winds of November they
recognise, while seated around the camp-fire, his tones of
mourning, and occasionally his wild shrieks as the blast
swells through the forest.
A haunted place is Folingsby's Pond, and many the
daring hunter or trapper who, laugliing at every other
peril, trembles as night environs him in its dreaded pre-
cincts.
148 WOODS AND WATERS;
CHAPTER XIII.
Down the Racket. — Old Ramrod. — Trout Fishing at Half- Way Brook. — A
Water-Maple. — Cloud Pictures. — Woods in the Wind. — The Great Oxbow.
— Ramrod's Shanty; and.Chase by Indians. — A Talk on Fishing, with the
Opinion of the Guides about it. — A Night Scene on the River.
OUR camp was astir as the morning colors were kindled
on the hills of Folingsby's Pond. The day promised to be
fine, and soon our tent was struck, Brook Meadow Camp
deserted, and we afloat down the beautiful Racket.
Down we went over the glossy greens, the glittering
whites of the river ; down past elms and spruces and hem-
locks and pines and water-maples and alders ; down past
sand-banks and gravel-beds, sunken logs and slanting trees ;
old withered upright trees and trees thrust midway into
the channel where the water eddied and sparkled ; down
past lily-pads and water-grasses, leafy arcades and cloisters,
colonnades and peeping nooks; down past glades and
swamps and lichened ledges and dry ridges brown with the
diopped needles of the pine:
Down the winding woodland river,
Oh how swift we glide 1
Every tree and bush and blossom
Mirrored in the tide ;
Bright and blue the heaven above us
As — whose azure eye I
Soft and sweet the wandering breezes
As — whose gentle sigh !
White the cloudlet wreathing o'er us
As her spotless brow I
Oh what king was e'er so joyous
As we roamers now 1
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 149
Ho, ho, we merrily go
Down the winding sparkling flow I
Down so cheerily,
Never wearily,
Ho, ho, we merrily go
Down to the lovely lake below I
" Mark the crane wide winnowing from us!
OS the otter swims !
Round her fortress sails the fish-hawk ;
Down the wood-duck skims I
Glitters rich the golden lily,
Glows the Indian Plume,
On yon point a deer is drinking,
Back he shrinks in gloom ;
Now the little sparkling rapid 1
Now the fairy cove 1
Here, the sunlight-mantled meadow!
There, the sprinkled grove I
Ho, ho, we merrily go
Down the winding glittering flow !
Down so cheerily I
Never wearily 1
Ho, ho, we merrily go
Down to the lovely lake below !"
" There was an old feller," said Harvey, breaking a half-
hour's silence, and pointing to a little green opening be-
tween a couple of cedars, " that shantied out there some
twenty years ago, who was old hunderd in the way o'
huntin'. We used to call him Old Kamrod, and a cur'ous
old critter he was too. When he fust come to the river he
camped down on the Great Oxbow in a holler tree.
" But couldn't he handle a rifle ? I tell ye ! He could
shoot inter a squirrel's eye! Why he al'ys cut off a
patridge's head with a single ball ; that wan't no kind of
a trick. All in the way of shootin' was inkstand to 'im.
And he wasn't nobody's fool at trappin'. He had the
greatest lot o' traps I ever did see. Bear-traps and wolf-
traps and painter-traps and otter's and beaver's and what
not. And he'd named 'm all too. 'There was Clapper-
jaw, and Sticktooth, and Whangdown, and Big Billy, and
150 WOODS AND WATERS;
Little Billy, and Bear's\Misery, and Wolfclick and Bangup.
and all sorts o' names. There wasn't no stream, nor slew,
nor pond anywheres about this here part o' the country,
but he kno wed about as well as I know the S'nac Lakes
and the Eacket.
" He was about as big as a small sized moose that feller,
and in the way o' wrastlin' — there's 'n orful sight o' deer
tracks there ; the bank's cut up with 'm — he could throw
all that I ever heerd on ; and when it come to fightin',
w-a-a-1, he didn't sing psalms much when he was at that
business. How he would strike! It 'peared .to me that
the very wind his fist made 'ud knock a common man
down.
" There was another feller, too, about, that was an orful
critter to fight. But he didn't hev no rule for fightin'.
He'd claw and he'd bite, and he'd jump up and strike his
heels right agin your breast, like 's not, jest like a hoss, and
run 'twixt your legs, and all sorts o' ways. He was a stout
feller, too, almost as stout as Old Kamrod ; and young ; —
he wan't more'n twenty-five ef he was that.
" Well, one day, there was a shootin' match at the settle-
ment at Harrietstown — one Christmas day, for five fat
turkeys. Old Eamrod was there and this feller — let me
see — what was his name? Snazy ! no! Snar — Snowy!
what the mischief! Snow, Snudgeon, Snack, Snew ! oh,
Potter was his name ! we called him Foxtail 'case he al'ys
wore a cap made o' that critter's fur, with the tail stuck up.
Well, Foxtail had drinked consid'able and couldn't git no
turkey. All he could do — see that bear track ! what an
all fired big one 'tis ! there by them alders — he couldn't
git no turkey. He was suthin' of a shot too, that is,
when he was himself. When Foxtail was Foxtail he could
shoot old hunderd, but there 'twas ; that day he couldn't
git no turkey. Well, what riled him most was that Old
Ramrod got two out o' the five. In the fust place, the rael
truth on't was, he didn't like Old Ramrod a bit more'n a
crow likes a raven, or a bluejee a hawk ! 'caze why ! ho
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 151
was jealous of Old. Ramrod as a fightin' charackter ; but he
didn't do as the crow doos, keep away from the raven, but
he jest up and stuck his blamed fool of a nose right inter
Old Eararod's face, jest as a passle o' bluejees will in a
hawk's till the hawk jumps on one and gives 'im fits. But,
as I was sayin', Old Kamrod got two turkeys out o' the five,
and he'd a got 'm all I spose ef he'd a tried, but he was a
gin'rous old sarpent, and didn't want I spose to grab all on
'm. Howsever, whether or no, this Foxtail, he got, as I
said afore, r'iled, and so he ups and says to Old Kamrod,
s'ze, ' Some folks feels mighty farse about turkeys.' ' Well,
no,' says Old Kamrod, s'ze, ' not as I knows on !'
" ' Well,' says Foxtail, ' I kin lick any man on these
grounds, turkey or no turkey.' Old Kamrod didn't say
nothin', but he tuk a chaw of tobaccy. Says Foxtail, s'ze,
' I don't ax no odds of no man ! I kin lick an-y m-a-n on
these grounds, 'tickally one what gits two turkeys out o'
five in a shootin' match.' Old Ramrod began to cock his
eye, and I could see he was gittin' kinder riz, but he didn't
say nothin' yit. Says Foxtail agin, s'ze. ' Folks says there's
an old critter called Ramrod about here that's some on tur-
keys, and thinks he kin lick all cr'ation ; now I'm jest the
chap for all the old Ramrods that kin be skeered up, and
ef so be as the old critter wants an all fired lickin', I'm the
b'y what kin do it, right square up to the handle, turkeys
or no turkeys, hooray !' Didn't Old Ramrod jump ! I tell
ye he had his old deer-skin shirt off in the twinkle of a
deer's tail in a brush heap, and the way he thro wed down
his wolf-skin cap wasn't slow, now I tell ye ! Well, there
he stood, and he drawed up his big old fists he did, and
' Come on,' s'ze, ' I'm hungry,' s'ze, ' after jest such leetle
chaps,' s'ze, ' as you be !' He hadn't sunner said that 'an
Foxtail (he had his coat and cap off too) run up and gin a
jump to jam his heels interOld Ramrod's breadbasket, but
the old feller kitched hold on one o' his heels and gin a
swing, and, lick-a-my-dod ! didn't Foxtail turn over! I
kinder consate he did ! about a rod ! and fell. I wondei
152 WOODS AND WATERS;
'he didn't break his consarned neck. Qld Ramrod looked
at 'im, as he lay down there all quirled up in a heap, as I've
seen Watch look at a leetle cur dog, and, s'ze, ' Landlurd,'
s'ze, 'gimme suthin' to drink,' s'ze, 'I'm dry !' Well, after
a while, Foxtail got up with his shoulder out 'o j'int, and
you may b'leeve he let Old Ramrod alone after that. But
here we are at Half- Way Brook !"
This was one of the many streams emptying into the
Racket, at the mouths of which, in the1 late summer, the
trout gather.
My comrades were there busy at their fishing, and directly
as we came up I saw the flash of -a half-pound trout on
Renning's line. The broad deep pool at the brook's mouth
was already too crowded, so I selected a spot at the side of
the bank where a streak of bubbles glided from a water-
break and cast. My hook had scarcely touched the water
before I felt the thrill of a trout's bite (very gentle in these
waters), and up I whipped a half-pounder. Up glittered
three more among my friends. Harvey cast in, and out
came a fine speckled fellow of nearly the same size as mine.
He commenced talking to the trout, as was his custom.
" Now don't be too greedy ! Be decent and we'll sarve ye
all alike. We don't make no odds 'twixt ye ! One's jeest
as good as another. Leetle or big, it don't make no bit o'
diff' rence ! Unly come along ! By goll ! he's took my
bait off as clean as a whistle ! That was a chubb, I know !
Yes !" jerking one up and swinging it with vast contempt
into the river. " We might as well be goin' now ; when
these ere reptyles, and minnies, and sich vagabones venter
out, you may be sure there aint much trout about."
Just as he caught the chubb, however, I had spied a dot
of a pool under a sycamore root, where the bubbles of a
little rapid had turned melting into a scale of froth. Cast-
ing my line into its centre, another half-pound trout swung
into my hand, smooth and luscious, and up flashed another
from the waterbreak on Graylor's hook. After that, the busy
tantalizing nibbles told us it was really as Harvey said, and,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 153
waging no war on the small populace of the river, and
having in prospect two or three more tilts with the trout
before we came to our camping-place, we desisted.
" There's a path from Half- Way Brook," said Harvey,
as we started again. " It leads through the woods to the
Upper S'nac, a mile above the Gut to Bartlett's."
" Are there many 'of these paths in the woods ?"
" Not a dreffle sight. There's a passle o' lumber roads,
but they're plain to see. In winter there's a grist o' roads
made in the snow for lumb'rin. These paths though, what
there is on 'm, is hard to hit. You might never find 'm,
unless you stumbled on 'm, ef ye didn't know where to look."
We all landed for our lunch in a little wild-grass dingle,
with a fringe of silver sand tasselled at the edge with
arrowheads and rushes, mingled with Tyrian-dyed moose-
heads and golden-globed lily blossoms.
Close to us was a splendid water-maple with thirty trunks.
The gold and blacks beneath it made a floor of mosaic.
A kingfisher perched there before betaking himself to a
dry overhanging limb at the margin, and gave a hoarse
shout as if struggling with a bad cold caught from the
damps of his business. A woodpecker followed him with
a cracked laugh ; then began a rat-tat like a drummer mark-
ing time, warming into a roll, and he then flew away.
The lunch being finished, I lay within the shadow of
the tree, and gazed on the sky-pictures.
The blue was of that tender, transparent tint through
which we seem to penetrate into unbounded depths, and
over it the summer breeze wreathed its graceful cloud
paintings. Now passed a turreted castle ; now a pillared
'palace ; then a fleet bore up ; then came knights on snowy
steeds ; then a Spanish muleteer, an Arab on his camel,
an Indian with his hatchet, a group of palm-trees ; and then
a superb gleaming Himmalayan peak.
At last my eyes ached with the lustrous images, and I
bathed them in the soothing green below, watching the
motions of the woods in the wind. I
154 WOODS AND WATERS;
At a little distance an aspen shook as if to drop into
pieces ; then a pine waved its emerald plume. An oak
next trembled, and a tremor ran through a massive fir-tree.
Next a maple turned up the whites of its Argus eyes as
the Meadow-Sweet kissed the blushing Indian-Plume ; while
the hemlock murmured through all its fringes at his lofti-
ness forbidding a caress to the wild rose, which had opened
her pink beauty directly beneath him..
The breeze, after its run through 'the woods, betook
itself, like a deer, to the water. It skimmed away like
a great water-fly; then, after throwing a dark, ruffled
mantle over the surface, it leaped into a white cedar and
flitted off through the pulsating forest.
I was at last aroused by a summons from Harvey, and
hurrying to the boat, found my companions already in the
stream.
Down again we went, checking our course at the mouths
of two or three spring brooks for the speckled prey.
Passing a shingle weaver's camp, and threading the
Eapids where a dozen rocks of differing sizes in the channel
caused various currents and eddies, we came to the Great
Oxbow.
This is a two-mile sweep of the river around a long
point. Across its base, however, the portage is scarcely
more than a score of paces.
We landed at the base, and drew the boat across, crush-
ing the lush wood-plants into an emerald paste. Before
launching again, we regaled ourselves on the whortle-
berries, whose blue, misty eyes glanced at us in every
direction.
" Folks gin'rally say the Oxbow or the Great Oxbow,
when they talk o' this place; but there's two Oxbows.
T'other one is out there cluss to this ; but it's a bad carry,
and the boatmen don't never notice it," said Harvey.
" There's bin a mighty thrashin' 'mongst the bushes
here," continued he, glancing round. " The bears 'as bin
here, that's sarten— ryes, yes — there's the tracks ! But about
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 155
Old Eamrod, as I was a tellin' on ye,'' seating himself at
the foot of a biteh, I doing the same, " he made a good deal
o' this place ; he camped here for some years ; and in his
young days had lived here in a sort o' cave, or rather a
holler in a big pine-tree, the biggest, 'cordin' to his tell, I
ever see in these woods. You switched a thick cedar-bush
a one side, and crawled inter a shelvin' place 'twixt the
roots like a wood-chuck's hole, and there was a place
in the body of the tree big enough to stand up in and walk
a leetle about and lay down too, curled up, though, as a
hound sleeps. Old Kamrod made two or three knot-holes
in the tree bigger to give 'im air and light. They made
good places to shoot from, too ; and the St. Regis Injins
bein' about the Racket in them days, these 'ere loopholes,
as 'twere, stood him a good turn sometimes.
" He was a great Injin fighter, was Ramrod, for he had
an idee the Injins had no business comin' on the Racket to
hunt and fish, as they had their own waters all round the
Upper S'nac. 'Twas treadin' on his toes, so he was down
on 'em, and got up a fight whensumever he could, 'tickelly
when there wasn'^ more 'n two or three agin 'im. He pop-
ped over all he could, and finally at last the Injins didn't
never go on the Racket without expectin' a row with Old
Ramrod or the Quick Wind, as they nicknamed 'im, 'caze
he'd pounce so dreffle sudden on 'em with his rifle. The
Injin for that name was Grollywolly ; and I guess that word,
by goll, that I use so much, comes from it. Whether or
no, one day, he, that is Old Ramrod, had been up to
Folin'sby's Pond, and had fell agin a rock, so as to break
the lock of his rifle. Well, he started torts hum, and jest
as he rounded the left-hand p'int o' the brook down inter
the Racket, what did he see but an Injin canoe hauled up
on the bank. He got at the same time a squint o' two
Injins crooched up like a couple o' mud-turtles, or like a
couple o' black squirrels, we'll say, crackin' hickory nuts.
The Injins, though, was a smokin' through them queer
kind o' things o' theirn — hatchets hollered out in the
156 WOODS AND WATERS;
handle, with the bowl in the head. There they was, with
their backs torts him. Well, he'd got 'fairly inter the
Backet, and he was in hopes they wouldn't see 'im 't all, as
two to one with rifles was too much odds for the old feller,
farse as he was, when he hadn't got no rifle, or what was
next to't, one that was broke. But jest as he was turnin'
a bush, didn't they screech ! Did you ever hear a war-
whoop, Mr. Smith? it's so (clapping his hand to his mouth,
and playing it with a rapid motion) : hoo-oo-ooooooeee, hoo I
And as they sung out, they started for their canoe in sich
a hurry that they didn't never think o' their rifles. Old
Eamrod see the whull consarn, and he put to 't. Didn't
he make his dug-out spin ! I tell you I But he unly got
clear by the skin of his teeth ; that is, by rushin' his canoe
up, and dashin' crost with it to t'other side here (for the
Injins didn't know this place, and kept straight on), and
lickety splittin' it down'ards to Simon's Slew, where he
hid a whull day in the bushes."
Again we were on our downward way, and the sky
began to burn in the colors of the sunset. The clouds had
long been streaming towards the west, and now reared their
gorgeous architecture, gold, purple, and crimson, radiant
as the angel-ladder that shone to the patriarch in his dream.
" A glorious day we'll have to-morrow, Harvey, for
Tupper's Lake," remarked I.
Harvey shook his head.
" Too much deep red agin, Mr. Smith 1" said he.
" There's rain in that sundown ; and hark ! hear them two
cranes fly in' along there. All that jabberin' says jeest as
plain as the sky doos, 'rain tomorrer.' But here's our
campin' place for the night, and there's our folks all
landed."
The spot selected was a little green hollow on the right
hand bank, with a spring sparkling from the roots of a birch
along the dell's edge to the river.
Before the rose had faded from the shreds of the zenith-
clouds, the grassy plat began to have a home-look; a
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 157
blazing camp-fire reddening up our tent, and the crotched
sticks whereon hung portions of venison, with a cluster or
so of trout, ducks, and partridges. In the thickening
dusk, by pine-knot torches, we took our supper, and after
a smoke under the hazy stars, my comrades retired to the
tent for eucre. I strolled to the river-bank, and found
three of the guides, with their pine-torches, around the
boats. It was a striking scene ; the black walls of forest,
the dark river dotted here and there with a star, relieved
by pallid spaces caught on the sensitive surface from
lighter portions of the sky, and flecked with the deep
crimson of the torches under which a stone, a water-log, a
ripple, a spot of lily-pads, a dipping bush, looked redly
forth. The same dark-red lustre brought fitfully out a
hunting-shirt, a bronzed face, a hand, an oar-blade, or the
half hollow of a boat ; the whole presenting a picture of
strange, flitting effects, worthy Kembrandt.
I listened to the guides a moment.
" There's a trout as is a trout," said one, lifting a two-
pounder. " This mouth o' his'n is open as wide as a school-
mam's a singin' Coronation."
" I wonder ef we go to Tupper's Lake tomorrer ?" asked
a second. " I'm a kinder hungerin' after Eedside or Grind-
stone Brook, I don't keer which."
" 'Twould be news to us ef ye ever stopped hungerin'
after anything," said the first. " But hang it ! I've carried
boat so much this summer, my neck's so hard a bear *ud
crack his jaw on't."
" Say skull, and we'd all b'leeve ye I" retorted the hun-
gerer. " I'll leave it to the company ef there ever was a
time yet that this chap wasn't more fond o' lettin' suthin'
run through his neck than carryin' ennything on't !"
"Well, hooray, boys," exclaimed Harvey, "let's hurry
up our work and make a sleep on't jest as soon as kin be.
I'm consid'able tuckered out fur one, and I guess by tomorrei
we'll all feel suthin' a-runnin' every where over us, ef I'm
any judge when rain's a-comin'."
158 WOODS AND WATERS;
Entering the tent, I found my companions in a paroxysm
of argument on one of the political questions of the day,
Gay lor and Kenning (as well as I could ascertain, from the
hubbub) fighting off Bingham and Coburn. In a short time,
Gaylor, having the weakest voice and the most modesty,
and finding himself buried in the clamor, turned to me in
a lowered tone, and then to Harvey (who had just made
his appearance with an ejaculation of something about sup-
per), finishing on him what he had to say in a sort of con-
fidential aside. Renning soon after made a grumbling
retreat, evidently crippled, and Bingham and Coburn had
the field to themselves. Then in following up their victory
they fell out between themselves, each at length pummel-
ling the other with hard assertions, and each voice striving
to soar above the other, until a shout from Harvey that sup-
per was ready sliced the battle short off, and sent all- to the
waiting trout and venison, now as cool as the argument had
been flaming.
As Harvey had once more predicted, rain came with the
morning, confining us to the tent. In the desultory con-
versation that after a while occurred, we all caught at last
upon the topic of fishing, Renning and Gaylor becoming
exceedingly learned, and I thought rather tedious, in explain-
ing the varieties of hooks and flies, and enlarging upon
trolling, fishing at buoys, and what not. The guides
seemed much interested in the discussion, listening with an
air of great respect, while Renning, leaving Gaylor behind,
with an occasional glance at them, contrasted, fluently and
enthusiastically, but (the truth must be owned) somewhat
pompously, the merits of the different hackle flies, and
hooks, reels, baits, rods, and so forth, until Bingham invo-
luntarily commenced a whistle, which he, however, bit off,
and even the faithful Gaylor showed by the swelling of his
features that he was struggling with an inward yawn. Still
the guides lingered and listened, nodding their admiration
to each other, and retreated only when Renning, fairly
bothered with his own arguments, seemed hardly to know
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 159
which fly, hook, reel, bait, or rod, he most preferred him-
self, and covered his confusion under the smoke of a fresh
cigar.
Happening shortly after to pass along a thicket skirting
the open tent of the guides, I became the involuntary
depository of their reflections on Ralph's eloquence.
" Dang my parsnips," said one on his breast, tossing up his
leg and putting a hemlock twig in his mouth, " ef I didn't
swell all up, I was so full o' laugh at Mr. Runnin's topsy-
turvy talk about fishin'. How he did go on about his
black flies, and grey flies, and green flies. Ef he likes flies
so much, I wish he'd all on 'em to himself in this ere
quarter o' the country."
" Talkin' o' black flies," said another, " it's my idee ef
he'd got unly about a dozen o' them nips that I had from
the black divils last June in Simon's Slew, he wouldn't
want to see no more o' that color." •
" And as fur his reels, his plain and multiplying and
Lord knows what all," said a third, " the unly reel I keer
about is the Scotch reel, and the more multiplyin' that
with a sarten schoolmam I knows on down at the settle-
ment, the better for me 1"
Here old Harvey broke in.
" I don't say there aint as nice men in the world as Mr.
Runnin', but I do say there aint no nicer : he's old hunderd,
that's a fact ; and he's good enough fur fishin' in the streams
and brooks round in the settlements — that is fur what I
know — but, massy, b'ys, I raally thought I should split
when I heerd him agoin' on about his reels, and his rods,
and his flies, and grubs, and so on. It doos make me
cackle to see these city fellers bring out to S'nac their rods,
lookin' as ef slicked all over with 'lasses, and all shinin'
with brass, and their brass reels that takes more trouble to
handle than a dozen oars over a two mile carry. Them
devilish reels is, after all, the wust things I knows on.
They're al'ys a gittin' ketched some way in yer coat, jest
when ye hook a big trout ; or they go spinnin' out, jest
160 WOODS AND WATERS;
when ye don't want 'em to, and ef ye hev a stop in 'em,
the 'tarnal stop stops at the p'int where it shouldn't stop.
But, howsever, this is the thing. About them shiny rods.
Now, b'ys, I kin git a rod ennywheres in the woods, with
a good plain hook, that '11 do all I want a rod to do, and I've
fished more'n forty year in these ere wild waters ; and as for
flies, I'll take a worm, or mebby a bit o' minnie, and I'll
go right after one that's bin fishin' with a fly and ketch jest
twice as many as he did in the same spot. I don't keer how
much he skitters here and skitters there, and all that. A
worm's a worm in these ere waters. And then the rifles
the gen'nlemen bring. Why, my darter Polly kin see to
fix her hair in the stocks, and they're all finified off with
silver. Now there's my old rifle Spitfire, that I've killed a
hunderd deer with in about three weeks at Tupper's Lake
in one season alone ; I wouldn't give that rifle fur any one
o' them kitteningoes they brings ; and that, b'ys, is the
whull matter !"
At noon it cleared. It was decided upon, however, as
the camp spot was so pleasant, to stay where we were until
the next morning.
" And as that's the case," said Bingham, " and we shall
have a clear, pleasant night, I intend to start on a jack-
hunt as far as the Rapids as soon as it's dark. Harvey,
will you be paddler ? Cort don't feel very well."
" Sarten !" answered the old boatman.
" Well, have your boat ready, and if there's a deer as
^,r as we go on the river, I intend to make its acquaint-
ance !"
But about sunset it thickened up once more, and shortly
the rain threads began glimmering.
" Another rainy night on't," said Harvey sauntering up.
" Well," said Bingham, " truly may we say, in all sin-
cerity, in these woods, ' The Lord reigneth.' But rain or
no rain, I mean to float for deer to-night up the Kacket.
Be all ready, Harvey, so we can start at dark. The rain
after all may stop soon."
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 161
The rain still fell. And it looked as though it wouldn't
stop in a hurry.
Night came.
" Come, hurrah there I" said Bingham, slipping on his
rough overcoat and clapping his rifle within it. " All
ready, Harvey?"
" All ready, Mr. Bingham I Come, Mr. Smith !"
"What, is Smith going too? Well, hurrah, hurrah!
the deuce take the rain ! Come, Harvey, light your jack
and push off! ought to be nearly to the Rapids by this
time ! Come, hurrah, hurrah," and off we pushed upon
the rainy river.
The most intense darkness wrapt the scene, with a silence
broken only by the humming on the leaves and sprinklings
on the water.
Up we went, the Bluebird glancing her eye into the
banks, but we saw nothing, heard nothing that told of deer.
From a gloomy clearing on the left bank, came the asthma-
tic whine of an owl, and now and then the hoarse gulp of
a frog. At last we reached the foot of the Rapids, with
the shingle- weaver's camp just above. A single light like
a star told where the woodman was weaving his shingles
by his pine-knot torch. All else was solitude. Here Bing-
ham and I landed, while Harvey pushed up through the
Rapids to visit the camp. We kindled a bonfire with some
old shavings on the bank, upon a broad rock at the foot of
the Rapids. The glare flashed the black scenery into crim-
son life. Soon a shout sounded from the head of the
Rapids, and amid the wild flaming light and a shower of
red sparks, I saw Harvey descending in his boat and kneel-
ing in Indian fashion. Darting hither and yon like a
frighted bird ; seeming at one time to be dashing on a rock,
then swinging round in some eddy, the little Bluebird at
length emerged from her perils, ready for her return flight
to camp. Down the river again she ' sped, but as before
we saw nothing. Once only there was a light, cautious,
paddling tread in the water, but the gloom disclosed no
11
162 WOODS AND WATERS;
living shape ; black logs and blacker rocks alone met our
view.
A little before midnight we returned to the camp. The
rain was still falling, freshening into ruddier light the camp-
fire, which sent up among the leaves long lines of golden
lace work. Seated upon their stools around the tent, front-
ing the genial blaze, were my comrades, pretending to be
lost in admiration of the glittering curls that were winding
through the foliage, but really lost in the effects of a huge
pitcher of punch.
Soon the rain ceased, and by the time we went to bed
the stars were shining.
OR> SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 163
CHAPTER XIV.
Simon's Pond.— Harvey's Story of Old Sabele, the Indian. — Driving Deer. —
The Simon's Pond Pirate. — Tapper's Lake. — Night Sail on Lake.
MORNING arose calm, and mantled in light cloud. The
sun -glow interfusing the delicate mist kindled it into a
veil of pearl streaming over the brow of the day.
We had fallen so in love with our camp, and the softness
of the weather was so luxurious, that we deferred our depar-
ture from hour to hour.
My comrades went to their eucre again, and I took a
seat on a log near where the guides were " lying around
loose."
" That chap that goes about peddlin' so much from
t'other side o' Keene Mountain," said one, rolling from his
breast to his back, and slouching his hat over his eyes,
"let's me see, his name is — no matter, he's cross-eyed
and chaws t'baccy some I tell ye ! well, he was a tellin'
round t'other day at Harrietstown, that he could kill more
deer, ketch more trout, and row a boat better than enny
guide about Baker's.
" ' Why,' said I, 'you don't know as much as a yaller
dog about enny o' them things you're a braggin' about.'
He was a goin' to get mad, but he kinder thought better
on't."
" Fools is fools," said Harvey, " and you can't make
nothin' else on ?m. But I say, b'ys, let's hev a shootin'
match !"
As he spoke, a ground squirrel darted upon a mossy log
near, and lifting his brush, looked saucily at the guides.
Will seized his rifle, and as the little striped clown of tK
164 WOODS AND WATERS;
underbrush turned, lie fired, and the animal fell, minus
a head. Tiny, chirpy titmouse next came hopping along,
bending his brown turban to one side and the' other; but
as he paused under a buff hopple-sprout to peck at his
raised foot, away went his turban, picked off by a bullet
from Oort. Then Harvey glanced at a yellow bull's-eye
of a knot bulging high on a pine-tree. Up went his piece
to his left shoulder, and as the short, flat report rang in my
ears, I saw a black spot in the middle of the bulge like a
robin's eye.
" Wa-a-1 1" said the remaining guide, " I don't see no
more chipmunks, or chickadees, or knots, and not even a
respectable-sized devil's darnin'-needle on the stream to
shoot at ; but there's suthin' up there," pointing to a pre-
maturely crimsoned leaf of the mercury plant, which
wreathed a maple-stem, looking like a red dot on the soft
grey of the sky, " that I rayther guess I'll drill a hola
through."
So saying, he aimed, and the leaf vanished.
After dinner, we decided to start for Tupper's Lake (six
or eight miles distant, and connected with the Racket),
and there erect our camp for a week. A spot on the east
shore, nearly opposite two islands called the Two Brothers,
and about a mile from where we entered the lake, as
explained to me by Eenning, was the spot selected.
Everything being in readiness, we started, Corey and
little Jess taking the lead in the store-boats. They were
to precede us to the lake, to place the camp in readiness for
our arrival, we having settled on a drive at Simon's Pond
on our way thither.
Harvey and I took the lead of the party.
The river was smooth, and the colors upon it were all
soft and velvety.
"Stetson's!" said Harvey, as we passed where a brook
came in at the north bank, with a boat or two drawn up
on the muddy margin. " There's his house and clearin' I
There's quite a little settlement about here ! half a dozen
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 165
fara'lies, sarten ! My son Sim's 'mongst 'em. 'Tisn't
more 'n a mile right crost the woods to Eacket Pond,
below Tupper's Lake, and the Pond's eight -miles from
here. So you see what an onmassyful twistin' river the
Eacket is."
As we doubled a point we came upon a shanty, crouch-
ing, with its two gleams of windows, under a leaning fir,
like a frog under a tilted lily-pad. A hunter sat upon a
log, cleaning his rifle.
" Goin' to Tupper's Lake, I 'spose ?" shouted he.
"Nothin' shorter," shouted Harvey, in return; "but I
say ! had enny sport at Simon's Slew, or on the pond,
lately?"
" Killed two in the pond, jack-huntin', unly last nighx —
a buck and a doe. They're mighty thick up thf3.
Kicked the lily-pads clean up on eend."
" All right !" said Harvey ; and we passed on.
We turned shortly into a little stream to the south, ttat
spread, after a few rods, into a broad expanse.
" Simon's Pond !" ejaculated Harvey, and steered out
upon its surface. All around us was a pavement of lily-
pads, which bore fresh tokens of deer in the piled and
upturned leaves.
"We had taken the short cut into the pond, and had to
await the other boats through the usual channel. After a
while they appeared ; and "Watch and Sport were taken
by Harvey into the woods for the drive. He soon returned,
taking his seat at the prow, with the encouraging remark,
that it wouldn't be long, he guessed, "afore we'd hear
music."
The other boats dwindled off to their stations.
We were in a beautiful little nook; the Bluebird ginned
to a log by Harvey's oar planted close to her side ) a the
ooze of the shallow. A streak of white lilies, with sp >ts of
little, furzy pink blossoms, was just outside.
The snipe alighted and hopped, bowing in his grey coat
and white waistcoat, along the wet stones, and the green
166 WOODS AND WATERS;
bullfrog jumped with a croak on the black log, and lifting
his yellow, speckled throat, stared at us with his great eye-
jewels, as if he were carved from stone,
" I never telled ye about old Sabele, I bleeve !" said
Harvey, after a while, but in a cautious tone. " He was
an old Injin. I knowed 'im well. When I fust knowed 'im
he was shantyin' where old Leo is campin' now, down on
the Racket, jest above Racket Pond. He was as good a
shot at a deer, and could ketch as big a lot o' trout as the
next man, and he wa'n't no man's fool at trappin' ; he was
an orful old critter, though, when he got mad ; but" —
bending his ear suddenly, " I bleeve I heerd one o' the
pups then — was as smart, actyve a man for his years as
I've most ever seen, and as a gin'ral thing was purty good-
natered. But when he got rum aboard, look out ! Why,
he'd dance and kick about, and keep his tommyhawk
a-goin' and sssss-sing, he would, like a dozen bagpipes.
' Hah, hah slammerawhang, hooh !' he'd go, ' hah, hah,
wah — hay' (cocking his ear, with eyes and mouth wide
open), that must ha' bin one o' the dogs — Watch, I think.
Well, he used to tell me some o' the terr'blest long yarns
about what he did when he was a young man in Canady,
in the last war. He fit fur us, he said, and he must ha'
bin round some, 'cordin' to his tell. ' Sabele,' he used to
say, ' put on de TN ax-paint — all red on one side de face, and
black on toder — den he dance de war dance, and hit de
war post all down to noting, and den he took de war trail ;'
that is, he went out for a gin'ral spree agin the British,
a tomahawkin' and a sculpin — there's a blue jee agin' ! what
a squawkin', sarpent 'tis ! — the wust way.
" He was livin' with his tribe on the 'Tawy River, and
fell in love with a white gal — what a tattin' that plaguy
woodpecker keeps up ! I could hear the pups, though, for
all that sharp rattlin'. There ain't no sound in natur' that
joggles enny other sound to me. But as I was say in'
about old Sabele. This white gal was the darter of an old
trapper that lived nigh the tribe. Now, as Old Sanko would
OR, SUMMER IN THE SAKANACS. 167
hev it, there was two things agin Sabele and the gal ; one
was, it was agin the law o' the tribe fur to marry ermy
except Injins ; and the other was, the old chief of the tribe
wanted Sabele to marry his own darter ; and as he was a
bright, smart, actyve chap, and a great warryor (as the
Injins calls their fightin' charackters), the old chief — let's
see, what was his name ? — well, I forgit it ; but no matter,
he forbid the match. But that didn't make not a mite o'
diff'rence with their feelins — that is, Sabele and the gal —
they hed sich an orful sight o' love aboard. So the old
,chief, as ye may s'pose, didn't like it.
" But afore he did anything, he hed a talk with Sabele.
Old Sabele has telled me this ere talk more'n twenty times ;
when he got very drunk he used to tell it, I tell yer, with
all the hifilutens.
" Well the old chief, s'ze, to Sabele, s'ze, ' "Wing o' the
cloud,' s'ze, ' Eagle o' the sun !' the old — lem me see — was
it oak ? I disremember, but 'twas some old tree or other —
the old — whatever 'twas — cedar, or white pine, or — maple
fur what I know — is now — the idee was — a tott'rin' like —
and '11 soon — the idee was — fall down — that is — the p'int
on't was, that the old chief might soon die off, and then the
Eagle — ef so be he behaved himself — would be head o' the
tribe. ' But,' s'ze, ' listen,' s'ze ! the ' Eagle,' s'ze, ' when he
— kinder tries, you know, to fly right agin a blast o'wind
— w-e-1-1 — a harricane like — -that's the idee — he's — the idee
was — throwed back catwallopus right agin the rocks, where
— as a body may say — he breaks all the bones in his body'
—by goll ! there's the pups, and in airnest too I" spring-
ing his locks. " The runway is by that little openin' there,
cluss to that leanin' white cedar. Look out now, and you'll
see suthin' in a few minutes. Watch and Sport's both
a singin' like a row o' schoolmams at camp meetin'."
As he ceased, a distant guttural yet sweet and liquid
ough, ough, ough, ouoo, ouoo, ouoo, ul-lul-ul, lul-ull-lull-
loo touched my ear, rapidly swelling; nearer and nearer;
then sinking, and floating away, then rising again; the music
168, WOODS AND WATEES;
of different tones blending, separating, blending once more,
and now coming closer and closer.
Harvey, with his rifle raised, and his whole appearance
bristling with excitement, sat with his protruded eyes
gleaming and fixed on the opening that was gauzed in a
curl of sunny mist from the water.
Nearer, nearer, nearer swelled the music of the hounds.
At last in the woods just beyond the cedar, a brown shape
glanced, and the next moment a buck, with his antlers on
his shoulders and his sharp face lifted, shot across the open-
ing, his dark stretched-out frame appearing like a phantom .
darting through golden smoke. With one bound he leaped
into the water. Harvey fired ; the deer gave a convul-
sive spring and then sank.
" Deer sink this time o' year in the water jest like a stun
ef they're shot dead," said Harvey, pulling up his oar
and making the boat fly toward the spot where the deer
had disappeared; "but this can't sink fur in this shall er.
There 'tis," pushing aside the lily-pads.
The deer was lying on the bottom, not more than two
feet from the surface.
' "A three year old buck at least," added Harvey, strik-
ing the prongs of a boat-hook he always carried into the
animal's neck, lifting his head above the water and drag-
ging him into the boat.
" The dogs has turned," as a faint burst of cries came
from another direction ; " they must 'ave rousted up two
deer. You shot the buck you know, Mr. Smith! This
is a mason boat ! You'll be rael old hunderd with 'm after
this. They kinder think you can't shoot no deer no way ;
but this '11 make 'm feel thank ye mam all over torts yer !
Ho, ho, ho 1 won't they look jealous — but by goll there's
another deer in the pond — there — don't ye see a speck like
a loon's head? Mr. Eunnin's boat's closin' on't too.
Mart's a goin' to tail it. Yes, by hokey he has, and Mr.
Eunnin's shootin' ! We've got another deer," as the crack
of a rifle echoed over the pond.
OK, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 169
" So you've a deer too," said Renning as we approached ;
' pretty well for an hour's work. Gay] or has taken up the
dogs, and what say you all now to having a look at the
pond!"
"Jess so!" answered Harvey, "that is ef so be Mr.
Smith's agreeable, as I b'leeve he is, that is, I kinder con-
sated you'd all hev a notion to take a cruise, and so" —
" Well, hurrah then !" said Renning, leading the way.
" There may be as nice men about," said Harvey, hitch-
ing his hat over his eyes, " as Mr. Runnin', but, as I've
said afore, there aint no nicer. But don't you think, Mr.
Smith, he's sometimes got a kind o' way of cuttin' crost
folks when they're talkin' ? Now I don't never stick my
tongue in when I ought'n ter, and as you knows I haint no
great shakes of a talker enny way ; I al'ys 'ud a great sight
ruther hear other folks talk than talk myself; but some-
times when I do say suthin' I somehow kinder like to say
it through. But it's all right, so (croaking)
" ' He went to the wars, alas, long years ago-o-o-o,
And I live but to see him unst more at Glencoe 1' "
and so on ! "
The shores were high and covered with forest. The water
was clear as air, and in the soft afternoon light had in it a
golden gleam like champagne. We skimmed rapidly to
the head, landing on a ledge of grey rock for a lunch. We
then entered the inlet leading, as Harvey informed me, into
a small pond back of Mount Morris.
',' There's the place for a jack-hunt," said he, as leaving
the inlet we skirted a swampy meadow. " But I must tell
ye of an old feller that lived on this pond some twenty
years ago. I'll tell ye the rest about old Sabele tomorrer
on Tupper's Lake. "Tisn't old Simon that the pond's named
after that I mean, but an old man, a hermit like, as I heerd
a gen'leman call't, that was as lonesome in his way o' livin'
a' most as an old loon. He was a cur'ous old critter, and
/ think a leetle out of his head. He was about the wust
170 WOODS AND WATERS;
lookin' man I ever see. He had a scar from his eyebrow
clearn down his cheek, and when he was in liquor and mad,
for when he was in one he was t'other, that scar 'ud turn
the color of a red huntin' shirt, and his eye looked as farse
as a painter's. Some folks said he'd been a pirate, and I
raally b'leeve he hed, for he'd talk the queerest when he'd
rum aboard I ever heerd a decent man talk.
" ' I've cut a man to pieces when I was down in Cuby
fur a less thing 'n that,' said he one time when a chap gin
him the lie in a shootin' match at Harrietstown, ' and dern
me' (or suthin' wusser 'n that) ' ef I stand it now,' and with
that he outs with his knife and makes a spring at him,
and ye may bleeve there was a row there a leetle while.
The old feller — his name was Kelsey — didn't use his knife
though, fur a leetle chap by the name of — what was that
feller's name agin ? Doodle ! no ! well, he had a game leg,
and we used to call him Hoppy. He was one o' them kind
o' fellers that wasn't afeard, well, I might as well say it, of
the divil ; he come up and took him right by the elbow —
he was as spry as a cat that feller — and afore old Kelsey
knowed it, he had the knife away. Oh, but wa'n't old
Kelsey mad, old Moose Kelsey, as we used to call 'im ! He
fairly roared, but twant no use, and finally at last he cooled
down and took a drink.
" He wa'n't much of a hunter or fisherman, but he -was
an all fired trapper. At one time he'd a longer saple line
than enny other man in all the S'nac region. It reached
from this pond clearn up inter the St. Regis, massy knows
how fur. More'n fifty mile though. I shantied with ,'im
a week, one fall, on Tapper's Lake ketchin' fur. We got
all the rats we wanted, besides fisher and mink and saple ;
and we killed a good lot o' ven-'son too. But I wouldn't a
stayed with him a week longer fur all the fur and ven'son
on the lake. Why he'd start out of a sound sleep right
onto his feet with one jump, and y-e-11 ; and his eyes 'ud
glare, and sometimes he'd stagger and tottle back as ef he
wanted to hide himself, and tremble he would jest like a
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 171
fa'n when he's ketch ed, and he'd scream out, in a kind o'
jerk, ' Go 'way, go 'way !' and at other times he'd jump
forred and ketch the air and hev a fight all to himself with
his knife. Sometimes he wouldn't sleep 't all, but walk up
and down, up and down, all night. I got beat out at the
end o' the week and put fur hum."
" What became of him, Harvey ?"
" Well he died. He was found by a couple o' hunters
dead under a tree nigh a wolf-trap o' his'n on the edge of
the little pond, up there under Mount Morris. I never
could fairly make out about 'im. After he died his shanty
was sarched, and a cutlash and an old sailor's jacket, with
an anchor on the sleeve, was found in a cubby hole, and
an old scrap of a newspaper, printed I bleeve in New
Orleans, that had a long account of a nest o' pirates that
bed bin broken up in one o' the islands round Cuby.
Some on 'm had bin hung and some put in a dungeon fur
trial, and some o' these had broke out and run away. One
in partic'lar was spoke of as bein' the farsest and bloodiest
and most desprit of all, and a big reward was offered fur
'im. His parson was all in print, the cut of his face and
height and all, and I tell ye, the newspaper and old Kel-
sey's looks 'greed like two mushrats. But here we are at
the Eacket agin, and now hooray for Tupper's Lake I"
Doligbted at the prospect of so soon beholding a lake of
whose beauty I had heard so much, I leaned back, after our
turn to the left into the river again, and watched the gliding
banks, anticipating the moment when we should open out
into the lovely waters, and expecting it at every bend.
" I. spoke o' Simon's Slew as bein' the spot where Old Kam-
rod hid away from the Injins," said Harvey. " We passed
it a leetle while ago. It's on the opp'site side to Simon's
Pond, and the all firedest place fur lily-pads I 'most ever
see. You may bleeve there's jack-huntin' there. And
talkin' o' huntin', I shot a mighty big buck jest by that
jam o' flood wood in the river up there. He was 'most aa
big as the one I shot at Buckslew.
172 WOODS AND WATERS;
We had now reached a bend to the rignt. A low island
covered with vegetation lay before, dividing the river into
two narrow channels, while to the left, or south, stretched
a path of water. Into this we turned. A few minutes
passed, when suddenly a broad sheet of water expanded at
our prow.
" Tupper's Lake !" said Harvey.
The view was surpassingly beautiful.
A green and gold sunset was burning in the west and
gleaming on the water.
On each side the lake curved gracefully away ; at the
left in an unbroken line, and at the right blending to all
appearance with a network of islands. In front were two
other islands rounded as if by an architect, identical
in shape and forming the gateway, as it were, to the
inner view of points and headlands, crescent bays, island
edges and liquid vistas that extended downward until
closed by a mass of forest. Within this gateway glowed
a golden film of light, while a depth of shadow purpled
the water before it.
Over this splendid water picture we laid our course, lead-
ing the way diagonally to the left. As we skimmed
along I heard again the bravura of the loon. The distant
quaver came over the water from the direction of the
grouped islands at the right, and I felt that something in
keeping with the wild region was restored. Except the
instance at Folingsby's Pond we had not heard the sound
since we left the Saranac Lakes, broad expanses of water
alone constituting the loon's haunt.
I turned to detect the speck of its head on the surface,
but my eye only fell on the boats of the party skimming
in our wake over the superb enamel of the water.
At length we touched the shore at a little cove, some-
what to the right of the south gateway -island, and running
the bow up the sandy margin we awaited the coming of the
other boats.
Corey had pitched our tent in a little opening at the edge
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 173
of the water, at the foot of the bank. The tent of the
guides was beside it.
Here was to be the camp for our week upon the lake,
and a pleasant spot it was.
In due time our traps were transferred from the boats
(hauled in a row half way up the sand) to the tent ; our
rustic table was again erected under a cedar, and our even-
ing meal of customary trout and venison prepared.
It was with a home feeling, after our roamings along the
Kacket, that we drew around the rude board in the sunset
to discuss our wild delicacies.
Suddenly an unearthly scream rang through the forest.
It came from directly over our heads ; fierce, threatening,
making our ears tingle.
" What the deuce is that ?" said Bingham, his cheek bulg-
ing with a huge bite of trout, as he stared upward.
The guides laughed.
Another scream, more diabolical if possible than the first,
echoed from the lower branch of the cedar, and I saw what
I had taken to be a large knot take wing, and with a glide
like thistledown perch on a stump near the table. Two
round eyes like small moons gleamed in the light of our
camp-fire, and we then saw it was an owl.
" Well, this is the strangest country I ever knew," said
Bingham. " If you go on the water in the day you hear
a yell like an Indian's in a war dance, and you are told it is
a loon. You cruise through some tangled-up lily -pad hole
that goes by the name of slew, in the night, and suddenly
there '11 burst out a sound like a strangled tornado, making
you jump out of your skin almost, and the guide will say,
' How that deer whistles !' when it is as much like a whistle
as a north-wester is like a piccolo flute. And now a com-
pany of Christians cannot enjoy a meal in their own camp,
which I take to be their own castle " (here Bingham was
evidently carrying the case to the jury) " without owls
coming and screaming in the most disgraceful manner;
just like a — a — a — a — in fact, as I may say, just like the
174: WOODS AND WATERS;
devil. And, by the way, these owls have each more sounds
in their throat than a military band with a company of cats
and the north wind. They hiss arid they whizz, they bark
and they yell, they whine and they hoot, and they mew
and they snarl ; in fact, Mr. Harvey Moody, head guide of
the Saranacs, can you tell me what sounds they don't
make ?"
During the excited Bingham's harangue, the owl had
alighted nearer to the table, and now began to eye the pro-
visions on it, as if wondering why, in the name of all that
was polite, he was not invited to partake. So pert was his
look, and so impudent his actions, that we all, Bing-
ham (after his spasm of eloquence) included, burst into a
laugh.
This pursuit of a supper under difficulties continued
until Watch, thinking, probably, that the matter was
" about played out," uncoiled himself from a hemlock
root, and with his ear-flaps erected into a stately frown, and
his tail ringed into severe determination, stalked, as if to
stop this foolery at all hazards, towards his owlship, who,
waiting till the hound was within a few feet of him, gave a
spitting bark, ending in a caw of vast contempt, and glided
spectre-like away.
The dark water now stretched before, with the black
shapes of the islands massed within the gloom. Lines of
faint light lay upon the surface from the few rays that
lingered at the zenith, seeming to beckon me on ; and the.
scene looked so dimly mysterious, I felt impelled to explore
its shadowy recesses;
Calling Harvey, we pushed off, he taking the paddle.
He drew it with a meek, regular sound, scarcely disturbing
the divine quiet in which the scene was lapped. The
water gurgled sweetly at the prow, and the air opened by
our motion was balmy, and filled with the peculiar fragrance
of the forest.
We ran up the shore, the woods assuming strange, fanci-
ful shapes as we passed. Now a procession of kings
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 175
streamed along with crowns of gold, and spangled with
golden jewels. Now a fairy city of dark marble met my
view, with sparkling casements. A dead pine on. a bank
before a ledge, and with a long* star-tipped arm, was Pallas
before the Parthenon, with her spear-point gleaming in the
everlasting lamp. Those withered trunks were Baalbeck
in starlight; and the black object above on the boulder,
with a speck of pallid light, some would have said it was
a log, with a bit of phosphorescence, but it seemed to
me a panther, with his gleaming eye on a slumbering
hunter.
"We left the shores and steered into the lake, and between
the two islands in its centre. All was shadowy ; dark
trees mingled with dark rocks ; alleys of black water
studded with stars — all in the highest degree exciting to
the fancy.
From the islands we glided into the broad space of
jewelled black directly opposite the camp.
Breathing an air redolent of the balsamic odors of the
pine and rich pungency of the cedar. I leaned back and
gazed into the sweeping constellated heavens. I strove to
pierce into the spangled depths, and to realize the gran-
deur of the upper spaces, whose infinitude crushes power-
less the wings of the most soaring imagination.
Nothing gives a deeper feeling of solitude than float-
ing over one of these wild lakes at night. The profound
quiet, broken only by the loon's cry and some nightbird's
plaint, which rather deepen than disturb it, and the darkness
mystifying the surrounding woods, are full of mysterious
promptings.
This feeling is also purifying. The colors are not those
with which the day appeals to the sensuous within us ; the
sombre tone prevalent touches our deepest and holiest emo-
tions. We lament past deficiencies and sins ; we form wise
and good plans and resolutions ; we long to initiate a bet-
ter and loftier future. Our highest affections are awakened;
home and its loved ones; our friends, those on whom
176 WOODS AND WATERS;
we are dependent, and who depend on us, crowd around.
How the gloom is peopled! how the night overflows
with dear forms and faces ! The soul speaks, cleansed for
the time from its impurities, as malaria is swept by the
breath of autumn.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 177
CHAPTEE XV.
Tupper's Lake. — Old Sabele continued. — The Devil's Pulpit.— Its Legend. —
A Deer's Leap. — The Camp. — Trout Fishing.
THE frescoes of the dawn had not yet melted when I left
the tent ; but soon the tip of a white pine on the nearest
island broke into rosy fire, and the dead grey brightened
into a golden landscape of wood and water.
There was no stir yet in the tent. At length a red
squirrel, twirling his brush like a housewife her dish-
cloth, cantered to the rear, where a corner had been left
exposed, and threw within a chatter, as if in scorn at slug-
gards, and then scampered up a beech hard by. Out
darted Bingham, rifle in hand, and sent a bullet after his
squirrelship, visible in a high fork; but as only a twig
fell instead of a squirrel, Bingham, catching my eye, turned
around, red in the face, and picked a quarrel with Pup, on
pretence that he had nipped his leg as he shot.
After an early breakfast we all separated ; Gaylor and
Eenning to try the trout below Perciefield Falls which were
about ten miles down the Racket ; Bingbam and Coburn to
fish the buoys sparkling between the islands, and to explore
the lake, and I to visit, with Harvey, the mouth of Redside
Brook, a mile up, also for trout.
Tupper's Lake is about eight miles long, with an average
width of two. Of its Indian names, 'Pas-kun-ga-meh signi-
fies " a lake going out from the river," and Tsit-kan-i-a-ta-
res-ko-wa, " the biggest lake." The former has reference to
its connection with the Racket.
It forms an angle, and Mount Morris, or Tupper's Lake
12
178 WOODS AND WATERS;
Mountain, extends along its south and east sides at a dis-
tance from the water of three or four miles.
The lake lies north-east and south, is south-west of the
Backet, and connected with it by two channels. The
southern channel is the one by which we entered.
The northern, or "the outlet," leads to the "Indian
Park," a tongue of land formed by a semicircular bend of
the Racket on the one hand, and a little bay of the lake
on the other. It flows for some distance between a rocky
bluff of the Park to the north, and an island which divides
it from the southern channel.
The north and west shores of the lake are hilly, Gull Pond
Mountain extending along a portion of the course.
We coasted up the camp side of the lake to Bedside
Brook, and Harvey fastened the boat by its chain to a log.
There was a golden flutter of light on a ripple ; the gleam
of a white birch kindled the purple gloss of a pool ; there
was the emerald flash of the dragon-fly, and around the
brown water-spider skated.
" Well," began Harvey, after we had settled to our fish-
ing, " as I was tellin' on ye about old Sabele. When the
old chief heerd o' the love scrape — I had a bite then — but I
guess 'twas onljf a minnie — he had, as I was a sayin', quite
a jaw with Sabele, a smoothin' on 'im down at fust by callin'
'im an Eagle and so on, which I don't think, fur myself,
was enny great shakes of a name. I don't think half as
much of an eagle as I do of a fish-hawk — one's honest and
t'other aint ! I can't give ye all the speech, but the long
and short of it was it didn't do no good, and so the old
chief was detarmined on suthin' else. So — aha, how de do,
sir !" (jerking up a large trout, breaking its neck on the
boat's edge, and casting it to the bottom), "so one day
Sabele went — these deer-flies bite most as bad as mitchets
this mornin' — he went to see his gal, and found the old
trapper dyin' — hold 'im well up, Mr. Smith ! taut line — not
too taut, though, or he'll break away — -jest so that he'll feel
the bit. Give 'im line now! that's a two pounder, Mr.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SA.RANACS. 179
Smith, I'll bet a saple skin agin a mushrat's — now reel
in, and I'll ketch 'im by the gills — there 1" breaking his
neck also and throwing him below. " But, as I was a savin',
there was the old trapper dyin', and the gal dead, and the
trapper telled Sabele that the old chief and another fightin'
charackter of the tribe 'ad come to the shanty and 'ad tom-
myhawked and sculped 'm both. Wasn't Sabele mad?
Wasn't he ? I tell yer he could a chawed up a wolf-trap,
'cordin' to his tell ! His heart was a bustin' too — massy
alive, I b'leeve I've got the great grand' ther of all the
trout in this ere part o' the country on my hook ! sizz-
whizz — don't ye wish yer could git off? — but yer can't,
yer know. I'll tell ye the rest o' the story in a minute,
Mr. Smith ! There now, you hed to give up, didn't yer —
though you aint so big as I thought you was" drawing in,
then lifting an immense trout with a back like a leopard-
skin by the gills, and joining him, with a broken neck, to
the others. "Well, back. Sabele went, lickety split, to the
tribe, and was a goin' to let it right inter the old chief with
his knife, but the rest on 'm wouldn't let 'im.
" Well, when Sabele found he couldn't let inter the old
chief, he says to 'im, s'ze he, — I can't give it to yer as the
old feller used ter, 'tickelly when he got drunk (which was,
'twixt you and me, nigh about all the time), for he'd go
high up, I tell yer, and slash about, and make mouths, and
strut he would, like a crow in a gutter — but the idee was,
' you ' — that is, ef you, as a body may say, was dreffle mad,
and wanted to tell a man he was a — I dunno as I know
'zack'ly how to say it — but ef you thought he was a great
villyan, and scoundrel, and rascal, and mean feller, you'd
say so, wouldn't ye ? and mebby not say it scripter fashion
nuther ! — well this was the idee on't. Sabele said to the old
chief, 'You con-demned old villyan! I've found yer out!
You've killed the gal !' — Them wa'n't the words, Mr.
Smith ! but that was the idee, the p'int on't.
" ' S'posen I did !' said the old sarpent, ' that's my busi-
ness !'
180 WOODS AND WATERS;
" ' Well, it's my business too !' says old Sabele — he was
young Sabele then though — 'tisn't the rael words, Mr.
Smith, as I said afore, but the idee — ' and I'm a goin' to
let daylight through your dod darned old pictur-frame !'
With that he rips out his knife agin, but they held him
back tight by his coat-tails — no — not coat-tails, fur Injins
don't wear none a bit more'n a frog, but they held 'im back,
enny way. ' So,' s'ze, that is Sabele, s'ze, ' you want me to
marry your darter ! now, go to the' — that is, Sabele, s'ze — the
idee was — go to t'other place with your darter, and I'll go
to Texas — that is, there warn't no Texas — that is, Sabele
didn't know nothin' about Texas, but that was the idee —
and with that he turns on his heels and off he goes. At
fust he felt so bad he thought he'd kill himself, but bless
ye, Mr. Smith, this ere love business aint no' killin' matter,
after all, and life's kinder sweet — goll ! ef there aint a rael
old settler !" peering over the log.
Poised in the mottled depths above a sunken limb
which was wriggling in the refraction of the restless water,
was an immense trout undulating, fanning himself with
his fins and "laying off" generally.
Harvey let his hook down cautiously by the fish, which
gave a look at it, and then moved away from it like a mas-
tiff' from a puppy.
" Be off with yourself!" said Harvey, casting his line
in another direction — " but as I was sayin' about Sabele —
he'd heerd tell o' this wilderness region, and so he come
down here to get a livin', and the fust I knowed of him he
was a shantyin' on Long Island in the lake here. He
used to trap and hunt and fish there, and then he went to
the Injin Park at the outlet o' the lake, and then furder
down to where I telled yer — where old Leo is now — we
must go and see Leo when we git down there ! he'll sell ye
a nice pair o' moc'sins, and cheap too. Well, finally at
last he — that is Sabele — got to be old and ragged, and went
back to Canady and found all the tribe gone west ; and
come back, and was drefHe lonesome, and got the rheumatiz,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS.
and couldn't trap much, nur. hunt nur fish fur that matter,
and didn't git no money and couldn't git no rum caze he
hadn't no fur, nur no ven'son, nur no trout, nur no nothin'
to git rum with, and nobody 'ud give 'im any, and the
older I grow the more I see that nobody don't give much
to nobody enny way— and so when he found he couldn't git
no rum he made up his mind he wouldn't live no longer,
and got in his canoe and went singin' his death-song, as he
called it. I s'pose you never heerd an Injin's death-song,
Mr. Smith ? I heerd Sabele one time, when he wasn't as
drunk as common ! oh, how he did d-r-o-n-e and draw-1-1-1
it out, hoh-hoh-je-me-neddy-hoh-hoh-massy on us ! hoh-
hoh, 'lasses candy, and then he gin the warwhoop. Well,
as I was sayin', he went floatin' down the Racket, and
finally at last went whipperty fling over — there's a duck
— a copperhead ! I'll fetch him !" throwing down his rod,
and the bird fell with Harvey's bullet directly through the
green polish of his head. " This is fur your dinner, Mr.
Smith !" rowing with alternate dips to where the bird was
floating, and depositing him in the boat.
" But where was it he went over, Harvey ?"
" Went over ? why, he went whicketty clash over — I'm
bound to hev that patridge too under that cedar bush — all
these leetle things count in,"' firing, and stepping on shore
he returned with the partridge minus' a head.
" But, Harvey, I want to know where he went over?"
" He went over Pussyville Falls, and enny body that
wants to go over them, may go and be darned , 'twont be
me, this year at any rate ; but spos'n we don't fish enny
more, Mr. Smith — there don't appear to be many more
bites, and as the mornin' is so pleasant I'll row ye round to
the Devil's Pulpit."
" The Devil's Pulpit !"
" Yes ! it's a high rock on Birch Island !"
"But why is it called so ?"
" Well, they say the devil once got all the deer and fisher
and saple and mink and rats and eagles and loons and trout
182 WOODS AND WATERS;
and what not together to preach to 'm. He come from the
top o' Mount Morris out there, and sailed up over the lake
on two pine trees which he cut down with his claws. He
telled 'm that in a short time the fishermen and hunters
and trappers was a comin' and a goin' to hev a high old
time with 'm all. And he laughed till all the sides
o' the rock cracked. When he got through, he dug his
heels inter the rock down'ards, ketched a two-year-old
buck, blew on't and cooked it, took a brook trout weighin'
about four pounds, sarved it the same, and then eat 'm
both with about a dozen patridges, which he popped inter
his mouth like dumplin's right afore 'm all. He then took
and slung a couple o' the fattest deer over his shoulders,
stuck a lake trout they say three foot long twixt his teeth,
and baggin' about twenty black ducks, and kickin' the
pine trees all to flinders, he skulled along with his tail
through the lake till he got to the mountain, where he
turned eend over eend and lit on top head- foremost and
went down through like a streak o' lightnin'."
Harvey urged the boat slowly along, while I gazed at
the rock lifting its stern front from the lake four score feet
in height. Its length of three hundred feet was curved
like an enormous half-moon bastion. There was a little
cove at its lower extremity darkened by dense cedars.
Thence the mass heaved rounding onward, with large boul-
ders at its base, their summits plumed with evergreens.
Mossy seams furrowed its black and grey sides from top to
base. In the clefts of its enormous ledges — cracked and
splintered and scaled with lichen — tottering pines had
clutched their claw-like roots, and in nooks and on plat-
forms, bushes had clustered and spruces planted their dark
spear heads. The rock was also broken into several
steep profiles, and its head was a smooth, iron-like precipice,
rounding downwards to the lake. All along its summit
dead pines stretched their jagged arms and reared their
withered antlers.
" There was a deer jumped right from the top o' that
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 183
rock onst," said Harvey dipping a birch bark cup and
drinking.
" From the top of that rock, Harvey ?"
" 'Twas a cur'ous thing, but 'twas so," replied Harvey.
'' 'Twas one afternoon in August, jest afore sundown, Will
and me and Cort was campin' on the lake on one o' the
Two Brothers. There was two or three b'ys in the lake
agin this ere Pulpit which we'd bin baitin' fur some time,
and they'd got to be fust best places fur lake trout. Well,
one day, about sundown, as I said afore, Will and Cort
was there fishin' at the b'ys, one in one boat and one in
another. Will was right under the Pulpit, and had jest
ketched an all-fired big trout ; well, 'cordin' to his tell, it must
ha' bin a trout weighin' nigh about five pounds, and had a
kinder riz up to rest himself, and was a lookin' right at the
top 'o the rock. All on a sudden, an almighty big buck,
with horns like a rockin' -chair, bust up to the top, and
sprung, and fell kersplosh inter the lake. He put to 't,
and both Will and Cort was struck so all up in a heap,
that they let the deer git away. I al'ys thought the way
the deer come to jump was, that some bear or painter was
a runnin' the buck, and he didn't mebby know the spot,
and come so sudden on't, he couldn't stop, or mebby he
jumped slap dash enny way. There's one thing about it,
a painter did take to the water a short time after that from
Birch Island, and Will see 'im, and shot 'im. But talkin'o'
bucks : there's Grindstone Bay out there to the left — a fust
best place fur jack-huntin', and 'taint a very bad place fur
trout where Grindstone Brook tumbles in."
We then coasted down the north-east shores, dipped
into a little bay with a baldric of silver sand, next into
Gull Pond Bay (so called by Harvey), and threaded the
group of islands I noticed on my entrance upon the lake ;
the dark-green polish of the water-alleys and the inter-
mingling shadows, full of sprinkled light. We then went
into Mink Bay (which forms the lake side of the Park),
and I began trolling, making the circuit of the spot of rock
184 WOODS AND WATERS;
in the midst, like a mud-turtle, but I caught nothing. We
then pushed into the outlet, and I cast beneath the grey
beetling bluff. The water was deep and weedless, and
under Harvey's quiet rowing I soon secured a lake trout,
of two pounds or more.
Its thick frame, with its grey and yellow spots, con-
trasted unfavorably with the more slender shape of red
spangled brown and golden bronze shown by his gorgeous
cousin of the brook.
"We then turned and made for the camp, in the low after-
noon light. Reaching it, we found all the party returned.
A back shanty for a kitchen had been built. A deep
square pit had . been dug as a cellar, wherein our stores
were deposited, and covered by a flake or two of spruce
bark. A rude table had been planted under a cedar, with
cross pieces on forked sticks for seats. Cross poles, on
which to hang powder flasks, bullet-pouches, and the like,
also stood at various points.
In the centre stood the tents, with the usual camp fire in
front. A path led up the ridge (as I discovered) to a spring.
The beautiful spot was alive with culinary operations ;
the old trees listening to the song of gridiron and saucepan
instead of bird and ripple.
I took a seat in a green root, twisted like an arm-chair,
and looked around. My attention was caught by Pup.
He dashed from a thicket to the fire, stopping so quick as
to cant his hind legs up. There h« gazed, with one ear
pointed, as if for a stab, until a tiny rocket discharged by
the flame wheeled him short round, with a yell like a loon.
He then trotted sidewise to a bush, with a sniff at a stone,
and a blow of his breath like a pshaw. At the bush he
barked himself for a few moments off all his legs. He
then stole toward the camp-kettle, hung by a sapling over
the fire, and in whose twitching froth potatoes were bob-
bing, stretching his neck so far as to uncurl his tail, till a
glance from Corey shrank him into half his size, and he
sneaked off limpsy.
OR, SUMMER EN THE SARANACS. 185
Never did a hungry set enjoy a dinner more. The pure
air of the woods, the exercise, and — I know not what,
keeps you on a sort of famished look-out all the time.
The very exercise -of eating, too, seems to give you fresh
appetite. And without meaning to turn informer on my
comrades, or tell tales out of school, I must say that Bing-
ham's stomach, in the woods, gave me a nearer idea of the
bottomless pit than any other thing, human or divine, I
have met in my travels.
After our meal we all betook ourselves to pipes and com-
fort. One lolled against an upright of the tent, another on a
camp stool or in a dry brown hollow, or on a bank of moss ;
while one lay flat on his back, with his boots planted
against a tree, as if determined on pushing it out of his
way. Our talk was light and lazy. The sunlight spread
broad and dreamy upon the grass; here, sprinkled itself
away among the leaves, there, struck aisles into the forest.
The little birds touched upon the trees, and there was the
occasional bark of a squirrel. Before us stretched the
glittering white and sombre grey of the slumbering lake.
One of our party at length seized an axe and laid vigor-
ous but rather ineffectual blows on a pine, which the Anak
seemed to scorn, for he did not show even a tremor. And
no wonder, for if the axe fell twice in the same cut it was
by accident, and as I turned to look at a beam of light like
a ladder against a cedar, my friend was tugging with a
face of scarlet and frown of fury at his axe, having by a
desperate blow buried it in the soft wood to the eye.
The islands and headlands threw long eastward masses
of shade upon the lake ; the sunset sky was one glitter of
light, and the water broke into a glory of color.
Nothing delighted me more during our sojourn at the
lake than the daily variety of its looks. Not a fragment
of cloud, not a flying hue, but found on its delicate texture
an immediate image. Tints not detectable in the atmo-
sphere, kindled its surface. Thus, every moment almost, its
appearance changed. Now it smiled in tenderest azure,
186 WOODS AND WATERS;
then a little airbreath lighted upon it and a gleam of silver
ripple cut athwart ; next some impalpable shade turned it
into purple. Now it was grey glass, then a vagrant wind
fanned up flitting darks all over. Again, a blue and golden
calm; then the surface blackened, and intermittent foam
broke out like the gleam of fireflies ; the tumult followed
once more by softest quiet and divinest hues.
As the light just after sunset is most propitious to the
angler, the whole party now embarked for the mouth of
Redside Brook, a little distance above. This spot is the
most famous for trout of all the cold spring brooks that
enter the lake, and fine sport was anticipated. Nor were
we disappointed.
We moored to the logs and bushes, and shortly trout in
numbers were gleaming and leaping on the bottom of our
boats. Toward the last, Kenning tried a white night-fly,
thinking he might strike a larger fish than with worm or
minnow. He touched the water just where a log peered
out from a lair of grasses. Whew ! wasn't that a bite !
Off the fish darts like a bullet ; down he dives as if the
pricking in the throat could be doctored in that fashion ;
up he comes again, finding little consolation down below ;
then he launches out and spins around. He darts toward
a log, but Renning turns him off; how skilfully he plays
him ! how he gives him rope to hang himself more cer-
tainly at last ! mark the countenance of the angler so grave,
and the whole demeanor so collected and self-reliant I He
reels in and reels out, keeping the fish " taut up to the
rein." But now the prey's motions are slower — he makes
one more desperate lunge for the lily-pads, one more dart
toward the pool under the hanging lid of the sedgy bank ;
but he is wearied and drowning ; so Renning pulls him
carefully toward him. There is a flap or two in the water,
and a faint outpull ; at length something glitters under the
surface near the boat. Mart seizes the landing-net ; dips
quickly, and in a trice a three pound trout is captured.
After this Waterloo of our Napoleon, we rowed back in
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 187
the dusk toward the camp. Is a bear crouching in yon
nook ? or is it a cedar bush on the edge of the water ?
If I had not known that Bingham was ahead in his boat, I
should certainly say this lank shape was his with rifle rest-
ing against a rock for a shot. But no, it is merely a broken
trunk with its crooked elbow leaning upon a ledge. If we
were at Mud Lake, I should take that object for a moose
looking at us with staring eyes. Too — hoo too — woo-o-o-o-o
— psha 1 it is an owl in a low, broad water-maple.
" It is rather singular we don't encounter panthers," said
Gaylor, after we had returned to camp. " I've been here
four times, yet I've never seen one alive yet."
" "Tisn't offen they are seen," said Cort. " I've hunted
and fished round here all my life, yit I've never seen many
on 'm. There's quite a passle, take it by and large, but
they keep back in the woods and rocky places where peo-
ple don't go. There's a good many more on 'm in Maine,
'cordin' to the lumber fellers. Deer and trout is as plenty
as here too, and moose a plaguy sight plentier ; fur I tell yer
what 'tis, gen'lemen, it's one thing to talk about moose and
t'other thing to git 'm. But they say out there on the —
lets me see," putting his finger on his forehead, "there's a nob
iu't, or a nub — no, nob; what the plague is that name" —
" Androscoggin," said Bingham.
" No, no, there's a nob in't, I know."
"Well, they call mountains knobs, sometimes," said
Bingham ; " and all Maine is nothing but mountain. As
a fellow once said in my hearing, you're scarcely half way
down one before you're going up another."
" Cort means Penobscot, probably," suggested Gaylor.
" That's it," said Cort quickly, " the Nobscot ! well, they
say there's an all-fired grist on 'm, that is, moose, up there,
and"—
" Come, come, Cort !" broke in Bingham, " we know all
about that. Suppose you moose up a little punch. I
haven't had any in two days ! I shall forget the taste of it."
And the obedient Cort immediately set about his brewing.
188 WOODS AND WATERS;
CHAPTER XVI.
Bingham kills a Deer in the Lake. — The Indian Park. — Leo, the Indian.—
The Loon. — Showers on the Lake. — In Camp.
IN the morning we all decided upon a drive. Watch
and Sport were accordingly let loose, and we took our
several stations on the lake for the expected deer — Harvey
and I in the little Bluebird, as usual. "We crossed the
lake, and fastened to a bush in a small cove.
The spot at first was lonely and quiet. At length sights
and sounds began to steal out. The grey wheel of the
gnats revolved up and down with its fine hum of motion ;
the water-spider skipped along ; the sparkling waterbreak
made its purl heard ; while a squadron of musquitoes,
charging from a cover of rushes, filled the air with their fine
sultry trumpets, and plied their lances, till I thought every
pore held a needle.
" "Don't mind the flies, Mr. Smith," remarked Harvey,
crushing a phalanx between his hands, " and they won't
trouble ye half so much. I wouldn't glad the little var-
mints so much as to notice 'm. Ef they will bite, let 'm
bite and be derned. But I consated I heard Watch,"
bending his ear, " I didn't, though."
I had for a little time been observing a spruce perfectly
drenched in a broad fall of light. This illumined spot
shaped itself at length to a cathedral window. There it
glowed with its lancet arches, its mullions, its trefoil, all its
bold and delicate traceries, and all a-blaze with jewelled
hues. Those hues streamed from off the shoulders of
saints, and melted through the pinions of angels in vivid
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 189
reds, greens, and yellows; they stained the aisle below,
and sprinkled the roof with gem-like rain.
" About trollin'," Harvey drawled out at this moment,
causing my window to vanish, " 'taint every feller kin troll
that thinks he kin. Trollin' is trollin', and it ain't nothin'
else. 'Taint fishin for brook-trout, nur deep fishin' at the
b'ys, though every fool that comes out here thinks ef he
can't do nothin' else he kin troll. Hark I — no, it's nothin' !
About trollin', splice your two hooks back to back, and
stick yer minnies from mouth to tail, so as to hev
'em wobble in the water ; hev your oarsman row slow ;
keep clear o' the weeds (weeds is the deuce and all in
trollin') ; drop your line as keerful and quiet as a painter
walks ; then draw in and out, in and out ; and ef ye
don't ketch yer trout, there ain't no trout about there to
ketch."
A half hour glided away, I watching the glint of the
light on the water, and looking at the forest, and Harvey
whistling and humming to himself.
Suddenly he started.
" There's the deer, by golly ! there in the water !"
unchaining the boat and seizing the oars, while I snatched
the paddle ; " it's strange we didn't hear the hounds!"
At this moment a boat appeared, making swiftly for the
deer. It contained Bingham and Cort, the former paddling
with all his might, and the latter rising and falling to his
rapid oars.
" Now for a chase," said Harvey ; " that buck's as good
as gone, though, with our two boats after 'im."
The scene was the open water opposite the camp.
The buck made for the west Brother Island, straining
every nerve, and driving swiftly through the water.
Our boat was nearer the island than Bingham's, and we
tried our utmost to head the deer off; for, once there, Birch
and Long Islands — the three divided only by alleys of water
— would lead him too far down the lake for us to hope
anything in his pursuit.
190 WOODS AND WATERS;
We succeeded, and the buck turned again to the open
space.
Bingham, by this time, had also approached, and I could
see he was in a frenzy of excitement.
" Pull away, Cort !" shouted he, "pull away I We must
have that deer ! Jupiter, what horns ! Don't let Smith
get in before us ! Pull as though you were drawing your
legs through your mouth ! Hurrah !"
The deer, wild with terror, was plying every sinew,
leaping half way out of the lake in his desperation ; the
water furrowing from his shoulders, his nose in the air, and
his eyes almost bursting from his head with his exertions
and fright.
Both boats were now within a rod of the striving, pant-
ing, snorting animal.
" Hurrah, Cort !" yelled Bingham, dipping his paddle to
the eye, " one or two more pulls, and then tail him ; and
if I don't give that deer"
The boat shot up as he spoke, and Cort, leaving his oars,
lunged to seize the brush of the deer. Quick as thought
the latter eluded him, turned, dived completely under the
boat, and rose on the other side. This brought the deer
closer to us, and Harvey, throwing aside his oars, made a
dash on his part to tail the animal. The frenzied creature
once more dived, but was again forced to rise.
" Cort, it's very strange you can't tail that deer," at last
said Bingham. " He's either made of quicksilver, or both
you and Harvey there are as lazy as Deacon Haskell's
preaching, and you can take a drink between every word
he says. Now at him again !"
The deer had again struck out, but Cort shot up, and
this time he grasped the brush, while the animal, snorting
loudly, redoubled his frantic efforts at escape.
Bingham aimed within a foot or two of the deer's grace-
ful head. I caught the wild gleam of the dilated eye ; the
report then rang, the head fell, and a tremor shook the
tawny frame. Cort's keen knife next flashed at the victim's
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 191
throat, and his strong arms lifted and deposited him in the
boat.
" That's the way! hurrah for our side!" exclaimed Bing-
ham. " The best way, after all, to shoot a deer, is to tail
him. If I could have had all the deer tailed, I've shot at
in these slippery woods, I could start a victualler's shop in
the settlements, eh, Smith!" and off he and Cort pulled
toward the camp, while Harvey and I steered toward the
Indian Park.
We entered the outlet; at our left rose the cliff, its
ledges breaking out of the clinging foliage, and turning with
i afternoon shadow the belt of water into ebony, and
darkening the long low island between the two channels.
Soon we reached the Park. It wore a sweet, pastoral look
m the lowering light, the glowing atmosphere softening the
lights into golden down, and the shades into transparent
purple.
A single log cabin, unoccupied and ruined, stood in the
Park, with an old haystack at one corner, and a beautiful
birch tree at the other.
Beneath the slanting radiance, the weather-stained hues
of the hut were turned into a rich tawny, the russet of
the stack gleamed in golden brown, and the tree, together
with a black cherry beside it, seemed burning in amber
flame.
Up the Eacket Mount Morris met the eye, mingled
and smoothed into one misty blue. In the middle distance
the river, divided by its midchannel island, came flowing
through two branches into the board basin which fronted
and flanked the Park.
There's iron up there," said Harvey, nodding at the
wooded ridge that rose above the Park. "Folks don't
know much about it, but I'm a blacksmith you know, and
keep my eye out for sich things. If you'd like ter, I'll
show ye some blocks on't," and drawing the Bluebird's bow
on shore, the old woodman led the way across the pleasant
grassy plat, scattered with trees and thickets, and showing
192 WOODS AND WATERS;
traces of old cultivation, into the forest covering the swell of
the ground. We had risen nearly to the summit, when
Harvey picked from the rocky earth a fragment of black,
sparkling ore, which I found to be a specimen of magnetic
iron, rich and very heavy.*
" There's plenty more all round here. See there, and
there, and there," continued he, pointing about. " But let's
go on, I want to show yer where this p'int begins."
Crossing the summit and descendingj we came to a small
wild meadow, the neck of the peninsula, where the river
came with one bold bend, toward the little bay belonging
to the lake.
" It looks jest as ef," said Harvey, " old Tupper had put
"out his little finger, and the Eacket was comin' to take it,
and the woods had stepped up and dropt a green hand-
kercher 'twixt, and gone on agin to drop another -one at
the eend."
Eeturning to the boat, we found drawn up by it, a canoe
or dug-out, smoothly hollowed from a birch log, with a
beautifully shaped paddle athwart it. Immediately an
Indian, with a rifle, and followed by two dogs, appeared
from the woods nearest the lake.
" (roll, ef here aint old Leo !" said Harvey. " Why, Leo,
how de do !"
" How do, how do 1" answered the Indian, in a low, gut-
tural accent, smiling and holding out his hand.
" Been a huntin' !" asked Harvey, shaking it
" Yese, oh yese !"
" Kill enny thing?"
" Nah, nah, oh hang, nah 1"
" See enny thing?"
" Yese, yese, oh yese I See a-a-a — yu-yaw-gwin — a-a — vat
you call eet?"
"I dunno. How should I?" said Harvey.
"He goes so, bo-o-o-m-m-m," striking his sides with
his elbows.
* Tbis specimen I subsequently found to contain ninety per cent, of iron.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 193
" Bullfrog !'' said Harvey.
" Taun,taun, nab, nah, oh hang, nah — he fly."
" Flies and goes boom," said Harvey, thoughtfully.
" Well, a crow goes boom, or quaw, which is the same
thing. Was it a crow, a black thing that goes quaw,
quaw?"
" Nah, nah, oh hang! n-a-a-h I" said the Indian. " Dare,
dare I" as one of the dogs roused a bird at the edge of the
woods.
•' Oh,, a patridge! Well, what else did you see?"
" Quaah — he go so," jerking his head, " and says
qu-a-a-h."
" That's a crow, I know."
" Nah, nah, nah black thing ! Nah crow."
" Well, what the old mischief is't then ?"
" Go so — oh goo' mannee," rapping on his rifle-stock.
" Woodpecker I why didn't you say so — what else?"
" Dyaweh, oh so mooch I" placing his han<is about a foot
apart.
" I should think a body 'ud die away all to pieces, to
talk to this old wild goose of an Injin. I git everything
so rnuxed up in my head1 tryin' to find out what he means,
I can't remember nairy thing when I talk to him nor which
from t'other. What the Old Sanko is dieaway?" tartly.
" Down dare," said the Indian, pointing to the water.
"Well, what d'ye mean? Trout, muskrats, mink?"
" Yese, yese!" interrupted the Indian.
" Oh, mink, hay ! Where is yer fur ? I should like to
see it. But 'taint the right time o' year, Leo, to ketch fur,
you must know that."
" Nah, nah ! oh hang, n-a-a-h," and Leo threw aside a cedar
branch in the stern of the canoe and showed a string of
trout on a birch twig.
" Oh, trout ! I don't think there's much die-away on them
onless ye eat enough to kill a hoss ! "
"Yese, yese! trou, trou, so mannee!" holding up the
string, which was really a fine one.
18
194 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Very good, Leo ! a good nice bunch on 'em. Them's
good dogs o' yourn too," looking at the gaunt, tawny, wiry,
wild-looking animals. " Eael wolf-dogs, Mr. Smith 1 swift
as lightnin' and savage as a mad moose. That's a good
rifle you've got to boot I" taking the weapon and examin-
ing it critically.
I looked at the two as they stood together, both repre-
sentatives of a class unknown to cultured life ; 'the old,
bronzed hunter and trapper, and the wild red man, united
by their habits and modes of life, and both so perfectly in
keeping with the scenes where I saw them — the natural
meadow — the primeval woods — the lonely lake — the log
hut — the wolf-dogs — all so different from the objects to
which I had been accustomed. I could hardly realize that
I was scarce two-score leagues from populous and polished
cities, and I revelled in the charm of the contrast before
me.
" "Well, Mi» Smith !" said Harvey, handing the Indian
his rifle, " we might as well be goin'. Good-by, Leo ! I'm
comin' to see ye ! Down there yit, I s'pose !" pointing
down the Eacket.
" Yese, yese," said the Indian, laughing as if the old
trapper had uttered a good joke.
« Good-bye !"
tj Goo-bye I" and whistling to his dogs, that were revolv-
ing in a snapping and gurgling ball on the bank, the old
Indian shoved off. Harvey did the same, and we glided
toward the left-hand channel of the river, on our way to
the camp.
The Indian, paddling on his knees in the middle of his
canoe, turned the Park and went down the Eacket, mous-
ing along the banks, his hunting-shirt as he descended
dwindling to a red spot, which glanced in and out the
thickets and hollows of the shores in the low sunshine like
a jack-light, until an elbow of the stream shut it entirely
from view.
Coasting along the mid-channel island of the river we
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 195
turned to the right, and entered the lake through the south
channel. The waters were kindled in the sunset ; the top
of Gull Pond Mountain was in a glow, and the islands of
the Two Brothers had assumed the golden softness peculiar
to the hour. The great star of the camp-fire was filling the
nook with ruddy light, giving it, with the tinged tents
and shanty, and figures moving about in the flitting flame,
a picturesque as well as a genial look. As we approached
we heard Bingham, just returned from a partridge hunt,
as I discovered, detailing to his comrades at the highest
pitch of his loud voice his exploit of the buck.
The last lustre of the sunset was pouring into the camp.
The hounds were gliding about all in a glitter ; a rod and
rifle were pointing keen glances over a stump, and Bing-
ham's buck, not yet dressed, was lying at a root sleeked
over with light.
The sunshine was peeping into the bushes, and striving
to force its way into the forest. Although it made a high-
rooted birch glow like a vast lamp hung upon the bank, it
but edged the adjoining cedars.
Pup again caught my eye. He was roaming about, lift-
ing one ear and then the other, looking at the tree-tops,
cantering and stopping short to bite off a fly, then twirling
into a heap only to untwirl, see that the ring of his tail
was perfect on his hollow back, and peer under the bushes.
At length he stopped before a hollow tree with a hole at
its root, and the play opened. Now he started back to his
haunches ; then launched forward, streaming out in yells ;
then bounded with all his feet from the ground back again,
and then dashed his pointed nose beneath the beech to jerk
it quickly away. Occasionally during these manoeuvres a
grey paw, or slim whiskered snout, would dart out in the
direction of the dog. At last Pup buried his head and
shoulders under the tree, with one hind leg after the other
quivering in mid-air. This was immediately succeeded
by his hasty retreat with a hideous yell and a dismal
whine, his nose one gore of blood. Bending it to the
196 WOODS AND WATERS;
earth, he rubbed it with his fore paw as if it were a nuisance
to be rid of, glancing continually at the bush with a rueful
air. At last Watch, who had been to all appearance sleeping
between his paws, rose as though his patience was exhausted
and he was resolved to see what all this racket was about,
and marched with a severe dignity and a not-to-be-baffled
look to the bush. Pup had contented himself with peeping
in at the basement, but "Watch magisterially, with arched
neck and lifted tail, looked in at the window. As he did
so, he pealed his slogan, and rushing into the citadel, reap-
peared, shaking a kicking, spitting, snarling woodchuck by
its neck. After a short struggle, the battle ended in the
death of the woodchuck, which was taken by one of the
guides, who forthwith skinning and dressing it and stretch-
ing the white, delicate frame on a pronged stick, proceeded
to broil it for dinner.
The evening wrapped around us sultry and close. The
camp-fire died down, and as the darkness gathered there
was a fine show of summer lightning. The tents flashed
in and out — the shanty and trees stepped forward and
back — a dog gleamed forth — a gun — a human form stood
out and vanished ; and amid this black and red dance I
retired to my bed of hemlock feathers and was soon asleep.
I was awakened by a violent shake.
" Come, Smith, wake up. It's about daylight, and if you
sleep any longer what brains you have will evaporate. I
can almost see them melt now."
"What do you want, Bingham?" said I.
" I want lake-trout. Harvey says we can't have a bet-
ter time ; and if I don't make those buoys out there suffer,
you may say, when you get back home, I didn't kill that
buck. So, hurrah ! Smith, get up, and go with Harvey and
me."
I accordingly rose, and in a few minutes we were gliding
toward the first buoy.
"The guides take a great deal of pains to bait these
buoys," continued Bingham. " According to Harvey, you
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 197
can hardly go amiss of one of these fish with worm-bait
Diet of Worms, eh ? But ph-e-w, how close it is. I wish we
had brought Kenning out with us just as we left him.
The tornado he raises with that nose of his would shake up
the air a little, at all events. But here we are at the buoj.
Now, Harvey, my line — hurrah 1"
" Hurra-a-a-h I"
"Hey!" said Bingham, seizing his rifle (he carried it
wherever he went). u Where is he, Harvey ?" staring
around.
" There !" said Harvey.
" Good-bye, Mr. Loon," exclaimed Bingham, firing.
" Psh-a-a-ah," said the loon, ducking under.
" He's a dead loon," said Bingham.
" Wait," said Harvey.
" Hurrah !"
" There he is," said Harvey.
" The deuce take his impu" —
" Hurr-a-a a-h !"
" Head up like a soger," said Harvey.
" Let us get a little closer," said Bingham, fidgeting. " I
didn't have a good chance that time."
" Pshah psha — pish, pish — p-s-h-a-w-w-w ! Hurrah 1
hurrah ! hurrah ! " shouted the loon, burying himself
nearly to his head. " Hurrah," rising again to his shape.
" Now's your chance," grins Harvey.
" Hurr" — bang. No loon there.
" We'll see him floating on his back in a moment," said
Bingham, confidently.
" Hurrah." The sound rings proudly, but more distant.
The loon's neck specks the water near the east Brother.
" Psha-w-w-w, psha-w-w-w ; hurrah, hurrah, hurrah-eee,"
and with this final challenge the loon disappeared.
Bingham tried to look unconcerned, but only succeeded
in looking brazen. He turned once more to his line and
threw it. For ten minutes he played it up and down,
according to the approved mode.
198 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Where the plague have the trout gone to, Harvey !'
said he at length, crossly.
" One has gone onter my hook," said Harvey ; " and
from Mr. Smith's line, I g\iess another is on his'n."
" There's none gone on mine, that's certain," looking
fixedly at the fine specimen that Harvey raised and
secured. " On the whole, I think breakfast must be on by
this time. At all events it ought to be, judging from cer-
tain interior feelings I have ; so let us go back to camp."
And back we went.
After breakfast we again divided. Gaylor and Eenning
went with Mart to fish in Grindstone Brook; Bingham
and Coburn with Cort and Sport, up the lake for a drive ;
while Harvey and I visited the outlet bluff again, to troll
the deep waters at its base. Will and Phin went to
Simon's Pond with Drive, also for deer. Corey and Jess
remained to take care of the camp.
Not proving fortunate in trolling we decided to return to
camp, particularly since what air there was proclaimed rain.
After proceeding nearly across the lake, I saw a cloud in
the west drop its gauzy ladder to the rim of the horizon.
Eeaching the camp I entered the tent, and watched the
coming of the shower.
The forest outlines on Gull Pond Mountain mingled
greyly, then the whole mass was swallowed. Over the
darkening lake the dense mist moved, devouring the pros-
pect. The pyramid of a cedar on the farthest of the Two
Brothers melted ; a group of jagged, scorched hemlocks died
away ; a skeleton pine, rearing the nest of a fish-hawk, like
a skull, glided back, and the whole island vanished. The
nearer Brother was next in a misty mingle, and then with
a rush the shower was upon us. The prospect was limited
to a white half circle of water, with dim images of rocks
and trees around me. The camp, so soft and pleasant in
the sunset of the day before, became in a moment reeking
with wet. The hounds, however, enjoyed it hugely. Pup,
having washed his face from the blood, was as frolicsome as
OR, SUMMER IN THE SAKANACS. 199
a boy in the snow. He lapped the pools, snapped at the
drops and shook them into sprinkles from his coat, while
the sober Watch, having endured quite philosophically the
liquid beating on the wind side of a thicket, settled himself
by the camp fire, thrust out his paws as if to dry them, and
blinked at the rain.
At length the halloo of a loon sounded from the mist,
and out he glided ; the rain ceased ; to the wand of a sun-
beam, the misty curtain lifted, and there was the instan-
taneous glitter of a diamond scene. In another half-hour,
however, a new shower came, swallowing the lake in its
mist from the south, and changing again into jewel-work
under the sun.
For the next two or three hours, there was a quick inter-
weaving of rain and sunlight. The former would streak
the scene ; then blue eyes would open in the sky. The
arcades of the forest would glow, darken, be masked in the
shower, and flash again into gold.
Things continued so until past noon, when the clouds
blended themselves into one smooth leaden mantle, and a
rain set in, which, from its obstinate look and pertinacious
pour, threatened to last a week. There was such a sulky
pig-headed air about the storm, a determination to give the
whole scene " the devil " (according to Bingham) this time,
that I began to find a legion of devils flitting about my
spirits. At the expiration of some three or four hours,
however, I was most agreeably disappointed. The lead-
color above whitened, then broke into large fragments,
while a splendid gathering of clouds at the west com
menced to kindle, as if under a strong wind, for a gorgeou,.
sunset. And gorgeous it was — peaks of gold, ridges of
crimson, waves of purple, filling the west and firing the lake.
Emerging from a path lying on the water, like a crimson
column, a returning boat appeared, which a nearer view
showed to contain Bingham and Cort.
"Phew!" said the former, taking two strides from thy
b.eru to an old gre.n log at the margin. "Ph-e-c-w! if
200 WOODS AND WATERS;
ever there was a poor devil glad to get back here, I am.
This watching a runway in the rain, with no run on the
way but the rain, which run away like the deuce, especi-
ally my way, and was most confoundedly in the way, till I
wished I was out of the way, is about the meanest thing in
my experience, especially when' the pocket-bottle gives out,
as mine did. It was literally —
1 Water, water every where,
Nor any drop to drink.'
Cort, make me a glass of punch."
This harangue, delivered with the greatest volubility
and in the most stentorian sounds, made the woods echo ;
and after the delivery, the excited orator took a seat on a
stump, with an eye on the glass which the long-suffering
Cort was hastening to manufacture.
" We had better luck," said Kenning (he and Gaylor
had reached the camp from an opposite direction, while
Bingham was roaring) ; and he placed a basket brimmed
with glittering trout on a log. " There are thirty pounds
there, at least ! Good game trout, too ; none less than half
a pound, and from that up to two, and in one or two
instances, three."
" Never was the old adage about a fool, and luck more
strikingly verified than in an instance happening on Tup-
per's Lake on a certain day in the present month of
August," said Bingham. " I've about made up my mind
to abandon shooting and take to fishing. Any blockhead
can fish, but it takes the wits of ten Yankee pedlars, and
the patience of twenty Jobs, to do the shooting. I've about
made up my mind now there are no deer in the woods."
" I didn't catch the trout at Tupper's Lake," said Ken-
ning. " We found poor sport at Grindstone Brook, so we
went down to Setting Pole Rapids."
"Who said you did catch . them at Tupper's Lake?"
returned Bingham. "I appeal to the company if my
respected comrade here doesn't show a marvellous alacrity
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 201
in applying to himself the adage mentioned. 1 think it a
remarkable, if not painful, instance of self-consciousness.
Ah, Cort, this glass is fit for Jove !"
" I knowed a feller by the name o' Joe," said honest
Cort, " that was the best hand at makin' a glass o' punch I
ever see. And when he made it, he could drink it, too,
and without winkin'. Good gracious, how that feller could
liquor up I He druv the river for a livin', and was the
best hand about here. He was called Driver Joe. I've
seen 'm drive logs"
" I wish I could see you drive musquitoes," interrupted
Bingham. " Every drop of rain to-day has hatched a
family of them, and hungry-mad at that," threshing
about. " Coburn, your skin is thicker than mine, some-
thing like sole-leather, I take it, from the looks — do come
here and let them settle on you. You will this way do
more good than youVe done to-day, for I believe the deer
went by on your runway, where you doubtless were asleep,
while I, awake and watchful, saw nothing. But there's
one thing about it, Coburn ; I hope Renning and Gay lor
won't celebrate their luck to-night with one of their con-
founded choruses ! I can stand anything mortal, but
when it comes to sounds so utterly diabolical, I yield — eh,
Smith ?" and Bingham, after scenting a pinch of pulverized
tobacco (he had forsworn all other use of the weed), began
examining his gunlock.
Deep in the evening, while I was watching the stars
glittering through the black trees, Will and Mart appeared
with a doe they had shot at Grindstone Bay. The moment
Sport and Pup saw each other, they rushed into one
embrace, rolling over and over with yelps and harmless
bites ; and it was not until Will threw each a slice from
the venison which was already dressing by the light of
the camp-fire, that they separated, attacking the slices,
tooth and nail, and wheeling their eye-balls round, as if
every stick and stone were in wait to wrest their morsels
from them.
202 WOODS AND WATERS;
CHAPTER XVII.
Thunder-storms. — Lightning Island. — Thoughts at the Indian Pass. — A high
Wind. — Captain Bill Snyder.— Night Sail in the Wind.— Cove at the
Devil's Pulpit. — Mist on the Water. — Harvey's Indian Story.
ALTHOUGH clear, the succeeding morning was warmer
and closer than the last. There was a brooding calm after
the first freshness of the dawn had vanished, which hung
like a weight upon the frame and spirits.
The trees dozed in the languid light ; the hazy islands
looked drowsy ; and the opposite hills seemed half dis-
solved in the warm, dreamy mist.
After an hour's sport at Bedside Brook, we were driven
back by the sultriness of the air, and the sun which beat
like a great burning-glass upon the lake.
The morning was passed in the camp — all seeking the
most comfortable positions. Bingham's long legs were
sprawling in everybody's way, until he adopted the expe-
dient of lying on his back and crossing them, with his toe
in the air like the tip of a balsam fir. The hounds moved
sluggishly, or coiled themselves at the apertures of the
thickets, where the slightest air could draw, with their
tongues lolling from their mouths, and their tawny forms
streaked like sweat. The delicate-stemmed maple-leaf
did not show a glimpse of its pearly lining ; and even the
wild poplar, that quakes if a raven fan it, gave scarce a
flutter. From the edges of the forest came the snappish
bark of the ground-squirrel slinking under the shady logs
and roots, as if in complaint of the heat. Over its floor,
too, ran a slight rustle, as though the dead leaves were also
restless and were striving to turn over. Across the glass
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 203
of the lake, quavered with startling distinctness, and waken-
ing a thousand echoes, the cry of the loon ; now it was the
despairing shout of some drowning wretch, and now the tri-
umphant whoop of an Indian warrior on the trail of his foe.
About noon, the hot, filmy sky became broken at the
south-west by glaring white vapor tinged with copper. ~
At length two crags of cloud rapidly rose over the
shoulders of Gull Pound Mountain. Up they moved above
the darkened summit, deepening as they came, till they
frowned black as the ravens on the shoulders of Woden.
As they approached, they joined into a mass, with streaks
of vivid red darting through its heart, as if it were cracking
open in the terrible flame behind it.
The lake blackened ; glances of lightning quivered over
it, and volumes of thunder unrolled their jarring lengths.
The swells danced ; the quick white-caps flashed ; the woods
of the Two Brothers tossed to and fro, in the outburst of
the wind ; then a blinding glare, a quick, ringing, splitting
bolt, as if the heart of the forest had been cleft ; and the
rain tumbled. All now was one wild turmoil of howling
winds and writhing trees, and driving rain sheets, and the
hoarse dash of the foaming lake.
At length, through the driving scud, a large object sud-
denly broke, which we saw was an eagle borne struggling
on the wind. One wing was evidently injured. On he
came, swooping and tumbling, and, wafted over the- tops
of the trees, was lost in the rainy mist behind.
The fierce mountain storm soon passed, and the afternoon
was quiet and beautiful.
Corey and Harvey being bound for Stetson's, to replen-
ish some of our stores, I accompanied them.
When half way up, however, an angry black and red
sunset glared through the woods upon us, threatening
trouble.
We obtained our meal, milk and maple sugar, and started
on our return. Corey was at the oars and Harvey at the
paddle, and we skimmed through a gloom which (although
204 WOODS AND WATERS;
the eagle eyes of the guides pierced it) was to me like a
cavern's. Except the sounds of our way, the ear of Heim-
dall could not have detected a whisper in the woods or on
the water.
Suddenly the black sky opened in a quick, fierce glance
^f lightning, displaying enormous clouds, hanging low
over the forest and water. A growl of thunder succeeded.
Then came another glare, redder, fiercer, and a peal was
launched that made the ear ring.
The storm now burst. The lightning kindled an almost
stationary blaze in the clouds, and there was nearly one
grand continuous roll of thunder. The rain streamed
upon us, while the roaring of the woods told that the
wind had spread its pinions. Steadily onward we went,
however, to the torch of the lightning, the trees, rocks,
windings of the banks, and spaces, of water glaring out in
the fierce crimson, until, leaving the kindled and black-
ened vista of the river, we emerged upon the wrathful lake.
"We had not danced far over the wild swells and through
the tinged rain, when a blue, forked flash left the ragged
zenith. It fell upon the top of a towering pine, on the East
Brother Island, like the hammer of Thor on the forehead of
Thrym. The top burst into flame, casting a scarlet track
upon the lake and flooding our boat with a passing glare.
But now the logs of the shore, the tents, the trees, the
very streak of water-lilies edging the shallow, the red pic-
ture of the camp painted by the lightning, gleamed into
view, and, in a few moments, we had safely moored the
Bluebird, and entered the shelter of the tent.
The stars were soon shining from between the parted
clouds, but the pine tree still burned, and by the light of
this gigantic candle I sank into my dreams.
Fresh and breezy, rose the following morning ; the sky
was a delicious blue, against which the trees waved their
tops joyously, the leaves fluttering and flashing, while the
fragrance of the woods was delightful. The eagle sailed
up the stream of the wind, dipping his wings either side,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 205
and the loon glided below, his brindled shape clearly cut
against the crystal air.
The deep black shadows were drawn in hair lines in the
sunlight, while the million ripples of .the lake bore each a
star upon its front.
The whole party, except Corey and Jess, Harvey and
myself, left for a drive. The first two busied themselves
in drying some venison, while the old guide and 1 launched
on the lake toward the buoys.
" The wind was consid'ble heavy at one time yisterday,"
said Harvey, " but I've knowed it blow a good deal harder
on these waters round. There was a man bio wed clean off
a raft on the lower lake, one spring. 'Twas a river-driver.
Sassy Dick we called him, and the sassiest kite, next to a
loon, I ever come crost. Well, he was on a dozen logs,
comin' down the lake, and when he got within a mile or
so of the outlet, a gust come and took him clean off his legs
inter the lake. He was a fust best swimmer, and kept up
nice, though the swells was or.ful, and after a little while
he made out to git onter the raft agin, that was catwollopin'
about in the lake, and went a swashin' along till he got
inter the S'nac river.
" That pine too was a good deal of a sight," continued
he. " I see another tree, onst, struck jest about as cluss.
'Twas in an island in the Lower S'nac, not fur from Mar-
tin's. It's called Lightnin' Island, by some. The tree
was cut round like a corkscrew, and as deep as my finger.
I see 't done. I was comin' from Bartlett's one afternoon
in J'ly, and h-o-t 'twas — why it raally 'peared to me as ef
the water 'd bile ! Well, all on a sudden, as I was rowin'
'long, a do-zin' like, the lake turned as black as a loon's bill,
and jest as I come abreast o' the island, massy, didn't there
come a flash! Why I thought my eyes was scorched right
out ; and 'twas follered right along by a crack. Goll, ef
it didn't seem to split me right in two ! It struck that tree.
But spos'n we don't try the b'ys this mornin', but see if we
sau't git some trout at Grindstone Brook."
206 WOODS AND WATEKS;
We went, tap, tap, tapping across the lake to Grindstone
Bay, where the brook tumbles down the rocky stairs of the
bank, and in an hour filled our basket with large and
handsome trout.
" There's a little pond up there," said Harvey, pointing
to the northwest, "and follerin' a brook along the same
p'int o' compass brings you to Gull Pond. The outlet o'
the Pond jines the Racket twixt Settin' Pole Rapids and
Fish Hawk Rapids, nigh the head o''Fish Hawk. But
what say ye to a short tramp in the woods torts the little
pond?"
The emerald, gold-dotted light of the forest was grateful
after the glare on the lake ; and the fresh, cool air was so
invigorating I seemed to step on springs.
We entered a vista whose carpet was woven deeply of
moss.
These vistas strike the eye with beautiful effect, wearied
with the endless entanglement of the woods. Streaks of light
dart athwart, mottling their floors and kindling the bushes at
their margins. Sometimes a rill bickers through, murmur-
ing a continuous music mingled with the songs of perching
and glancing birds. They are spots for dreams, where the
tricksy wood-sprites might hold their moonlight revels.
The deer feeds there; they are haunted by the ground-
squirrel and rabbit; and there the black-cat steals at night
to cheat of its bait the hunter's trap lurking in the mossy
cavern of the hemlock's roots for the mink or sable, while
the fallen trunk stretches within, under its pall of moss,
like some old Sachem of the Forest.
We came after a while 'to a small dark sheet of
water. The dense verdure crowded to the very edge,
except where two or three little bays pierced inward, show-
ing bits of gleaming sand. As we gazed, a deer appeared
wading around a curve of the nearest bay, cropping the
water-lilies right and left. He^came on, sinking lower and
lower in the deepening water, until he opened into the
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 207
pond and struck boldly out, his an tiered head and plying
shoulders alone visible. He crossed the sheet, leaving a
track of silver, bounded into the bushes, shaking glittering
spray around him, and vanished. '
At length we retraced our way to the boat.
At the camp we found the party returned from their
drive, with a fine doe. We had a pleasant dinner in the
sunset, and as the broad yellows and blacks began to shrink
into stripes and patches over the land and water, we rowed
to Redside Brook for an hour of twilight angling.
On our return the auroral splendors — the weird valkyrior
of the Scandinavian Runes — arose. Up sprang these wild
riders of the North, urging their rainbow-steeds far up the
steeps; wielding their battle-axes, darting their spears, and
waving their banners in the magic tournament of the dark-
blue field above.
A moaning wind was in the forest when I awoke. A
sombre sky greeted us ; the lake looked grey and mournful.
I sat beside our tent and listened to the wind. A deso-
late wail thrilled through the wood, that plunged me into
the deepest sadness. But once only, and that since, have
my thoughts been so sorrowful. Then I was under the
grand battlements of the Indian Pass. Weary with wander-
ing through the woods, I halted a little distance from
the Pass, in the dim twilight of a cloudy day, to bivouac
for the night. At my side whispered the ripples of a
little stream, and to accompany my frugal meal, it fur-
nished me a draught from its cold goblet of crystal.
Before me towered that stupendous wall, the north barrier
of the Pass, second only in. sublimity to Niagara. Then
also a wailing wind went through the forest. Night
came on apace. As I gazed upon the rock, soaring and
looming in the darkness, the wind seemed to say, " Poor,
fleeting mortal, what are thou to this work of untold ages I
Does it not rebuke thee with its grandeur, and crush thee
with the frowning of its strength? And if a mere rock, .1
208 WOODS AND WATEES;
grain brushed from the Almighty's hand, thus awes thee
into nothing, how darest thou claim immortal life, the
loftiest attribute of that Almighty !" And a more bitter
mockery seemed to deepen in the wind.
" Thou pratest of a soul ! Thou, to arrogate what is
denied this stately pile! thou, perishing as the flower it
nourishes in its clefts ! Away with thy presumptuous
folly ! Know this and tremble — to thee and thy wretched
race, the end cometh with the grave I" .
I shuddered to the core of my heart. I felt utterly
abandoned and desolate. The after life that sheds its smile
upon the dark trouble of this, was it indeed a fantasy ?
While I thus mused, a cloud overshadowed the rock and
blotted it from my sight. But above me beamed a star
lone through a rift in the cloudy mantle. A mere point it
shone, and yet so pure, so brilliant, my nature rose expand-
ing as I gazed. The wind no longer spoke ; music instead
seemed lengthening from the star.
"Fear not, and be not sorrowful," my heart thus inter-
preted the cadence; " thou bearest a light within that shall
shine when I, counting my life by centuries, have for ever
vanished. Though perishing as the flower, thou art eter-
nal as God. Let the consciousness of this sublime truth
rest ever upon thee, and may it prove thy felicity and not
thy curse !"
The earth was my bed that night, with the swinging pine
for canopy ; and through the forest tore and raved the chilly
wind, but a happy glow was at my heart, and my slumber
was balmy and sweet.
And often now, the memory of that night rises soft and
clear, and the shadows that oppress me flee away.
The clouds looked wilder, the wind strengthened, the
lake grew darker. Swelling more and more, the blast
swooped through the rocking forest. Far away would
Sound a deep roar, increasing rapidly into trampling thun-
der ; the gust would then burst over head with the shock of
a mighty billow, and sweep furiously down the foaming lake.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 209
At the. forest edge, the white pine streamed out crazily,
the maple was in convulsions, and the aspen seemed as if
it would fracture itself into atoms.
Nor did the lowly tribes of the forest floor escape the
searching wind. The adder's-tongue hissed to the trem-
bling, shrinking Indian Plume ; the sword-grass and arrow-
head exchanged quick passes, and the bulrush beat with
its brown war-club the purple helmet of the moosehead.
At length, I summoned Harvey, and as the wind had
somewhat lessened, we launched the little Bluebird upon
the lake, Watch leaping in at Harvey's call as we left the
shore.
Up we went. The white-caps gleamed and the dash of
the tossing swells filled our ears. We landed at last off the
foot of Long Island, in a little cove on the west shore of the
lake. It was a wild, tangled, jagged spot; dead pines
slanting from the foliage, streaming with grey moss; firs
bending outward; cedars pointing straight to the water,
and a multitude of dry twigs, steeped in moss, tangled all
about. Old trees lay in the water, which last was clustered
broadly ,with water lilies. Lighting a fire, we passed the
afternoon gazing at the swells rolling and frothing over the
lake ; at the trees bending and writhing to the wind, and in
listening to the volume of sound poured by it through the
woods. Various tones made up that sound ; howls, like
a giant in agony ; shrieks, like a score of perishing victims;
unearthly, mocking voices, as if from a legion of maniacs,
sinking occasionally to one lingering cry, like a wail over
a lost soul.
Deep, dead, prolonged shocks of sound would also fre-
quently echo — the fall of great trees overturned by the
wind.
Amid all this tumult, my ear was caught by strange,
wild tones, that issued from a neighboring ridge. Now
shrill screams, then jarring screeches ; they made my blood
run cold.
" In the name of wonder, Harvey, what sounds are these ?
14
210 WOODS AND WATERS;
If the Saranac Indians were here now, I should think they
were torturing some one at the stake."
Harvey laughed, and leading the way a little up the
ridge, pointed to where one pine leaned, from the loosening
of its roots, against another, and was swayed to and fro by
the gusts.
" Talkin' of Injins," said Harvey, " when I fust come to
the S'nac with father, there was nobody else about there
but Injins. I used to meet 'm on the lakes fishin' in their
bark canoes, and trappin' about the streams, and huntin'
everywheres. They was great hands to still-hunt and good
shots too. There was a tribe on Bear Island in the Lower
S'nac, and one Injin — come here, Watch ! what are yer
hazin' and nosin' about fur I we don't want ter roust out
no deer now ! come here and stay here, or there'll be a
yellin' in the woods enough to wake up dead folks ! — one
Injin, a young feller, killed another of the same tribe. He
ran away down here to Tupper's Lake, but he was ketched,
and the chief killed 'im with his tommyhawk. I was trappin'
on Mink Island when the others fetched 'im back.
" There was old Captain Bill Snyder, he was o' that tribe.
He lived around here until about fifteen years sin', huntin',
fishin' and trappin', to the last. One day I met 'im though,
jest — there's a hawk bin sailin' over that fire-slash for the
last five minutes ; I shouldn't much wonder ef there was a
dead deer, or mebby a sick fa'n in the deer- weeds there ; or
mebby it's only a woodchuck — well, 'twas jest this side o'
the Middle Falls, 'twixt Eound Lake and the Lower S'nac,
all painted up, and an eagle's feather in his sculp-lock.
"He hadn't nothin' on but a strip o' wolf-skin round
his body. He'd got to be then about ninety. Well, I
axed 'im where — a trout jumped up then by that lily-blow,
a good un, a two-pounder I should jedge — where he was
goin' fixed up so, and he said in his way, ' Down dare,'
p'intin' hereaway. ' Ole Injin on war path ; nebber come
back. Goo' bye ! Too ole ; don't want to live no more —
goo' bye I'
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 211
" He never was heerd on agin, that is, for sartin. Joe
Platter, or Hunter Joe, as they called 'm, who was shanty in'
at that time on the Injin Park out there, huntin' by Little
Wolf Pond, about a month after, come upon a couple o'
wolves, snarlin' and fightin' over a passle o' bones in a
little holler o' rocks. He shot one, and that skeered away
t'other, and he picked up a feather that he showed me, and
'twas 'zactly like the one I saw on Cap'n Bill's head ; but
there was no knowin' to a sartenty what did happen to the
old chap."
The wild and troubled sunset came, and the drear twi-
light. The wind, which had been increasing since our
landing so as to render dangerous an attempt to return,
began to lull at the folding in of the darkness.
Although the night was black with the great clouds that
rolled over the sky like stormy billows, and the roar of the
lake still hoarse and threatening, Harvey at last decided
on returning to the camp.
True, with a fire and under the boat, we might have
passed the night somewhat comfortably ; but there was a
dash of wild romance to me in wrestling with the fierce
lake ; besides, Harvey's word in all wood matters was law.
We embarked, and over the black rolling water we went,
against the swells, Harvey at the oars, and I at the paddle.
Harvey had lighted his jack, and the ghastly foam glistened
as it flew about us, and I felt the sprinkles of the spray,
raked off by the wind. Still onward we danced through
the darkness, and Harvey's blithesome whistle blended with
the wind.
At length, a low roar in the distance caught my ear;
rapidly it approached ; Harvey ceased his careless whistle
and braced himself to his oars.
" It's comin', Mr. Smith, look out !" said he, dipping his
oars deep, and lifting himself from his seat as he pulled.
"What, Harvey?"
" The gust o' wind. It 'ill make the Bluebird jump,
but I consate she'll hold her own. We shan't go fur,
212 WOODS AND WATERS;
though, afore I'll try shelter. It's too squally a night to be
out."
On came the gust. It struck us; the little Bluebird
staggered as if hit by a blow, and swung off; two black
walls of water foamed beside us, and the air was, for a
moment, filled with flying spray.
The next, her head rose up a steep swell, and onward we
darted, rising and sinking, the howl of the wind mingling
with the dash of the rollers.
Suddenly a black, towering mass burst out of the
gloom.
" The Devil's Pulpit," said Harvey. " I guess I'll try
the cove."
There was a loud wash of waves for a moment, and a
glimpse of climbing foam. The boat seemed about to be
dashed against the beetling precipice, that looked as if a
portion of the murky darkness had become solid, when we
glided instantaneously into smooth water.
" Here we are !" said Harvey, " snug as in the Harriets-
town mill-pond. "We'll hev a fire in the rocks here in a
jiffy, and make ourselves as comfortable as we kin. We've
got the jack to see by, and " (rummaging in the box at the
bow) "here's crackers, and goll! if there aint a couple o'
ducks here too ! The b'ys must have shot 'm, put 'm
in the box here and forgot it. But they'll do for our
supper."
So saying he paddled the boat between a labyrinth of
old logs in the water next the margin, landed on a rock,
followed by myself and "Watch, drew the boat on the edge
of the gravel, and then separating the jack from its handle
flashed the light around. We were at the threshold of a
large fissure in a rock, with a cedar slanting over, and
dense foliage on either side. Soon Harvey had a fire blaz-
ing in front, and a bed of hemlock boughs on the floor of the
nook, over which, dividing it into two equal portions, a
dead trunk had fallen.
All without was tumult, all within, peace.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 213
Rage, cruel wind ! in vain thy wrath I
Tbe shelter of this isle I share !
No more to-night the billowy path
My swift but fragile bark will dare.
I hear the blast hi roaring flight,
I hear the surge in angry shock,
But feel the camp-fire's generous light,
Flooding with joy my nook of rock.
Soft radiance bathes the slumbering hound ;
It flits athwart my stalwart guide
Who, on his couch, a rest hath found ;
I also soou will seek his side.
Hark 1 was not that the panther's scream
"Borne from yon rock upon the blast ?
But ruddier leaps my camp -fire's gleam,
And li velier joy around is cast.
Rage, cruel wind 1 my little bark
Trembled as down thy fury fell 1
Wild foam flew glancing through the dark
Death seemed to ride on every swell :
Without, the blackness blinds my view ;
Billow and forest blend their roar ;
Within, falls quiet's blessed dew ;
Come, slumber, spread thy pinion o'er I
The wind had ceased as I looked out from my nook at
sunrise, but the lake was lost in mist. Soon, however, a
broad beam of the sun cleft it, and the light wind caused it
to rise. How beautiful was that rising ! Silver billows
rolled over the lake ; spotless pinions waved above. Now
gleamed the walls and summits of a city, now an enormous
forest moved slowly by, and now a grove of pearl. The
masses vanished, leaving fragments to work their magic.
Was that the white canoe of Hi-a-wont-ha stealing into yon
winding cove ? See that white eagle clinging to the pine !
And so the mist went curling up, until its flakes all melted
upon the rich blue of the summer heaven.
As we floated toward the camp, Harvey told me of a wiz-
ard shape, a white spectre, that on misty mornings the hunt-
ers had been accustomed to see around and upon the lake.
214: WOODS AND WATERS;
Now it glanced through the forest, now it trod the water.
It climbed the hill, it threaded the gully ; it was a pan-
ther in the tree or a wolf on the rock ; a deer in the grass;
a fisherman at the brook or a hunter in the glen.
" As for me," said Harvey in conclusion, " I al'ys telled
the consarned fools twant nothin' but a piece o' mist, but
most on 'm wouldn't bleeve but they see some one o' them
things, 'tick'ally them that had bin out all night with
whiskey in the boat. Them last 'ud stick to 't so fur as to
say sometimes that each man on 'm not unly see one
painter and deer and what not, but, goll, ef they wouldn't
say they see two." *•'
Beaching the camp in time to take breakfast with the
others, we again embarked upon the lake, all scattering
as usual to different points for fishing or hunting. The
day's beauty was just fitted for exploration and the enjoy-
ment of leisure and freedom.
" How many islands belong to this lake, Harvey ?" asked
I, as we approached the Two Brothers.
" Forty-two," he answered. " Some on 'm hev names,
but the most part don't. There's the two afore us ; and
next up'ards is Birch and Long Island, and the two Nor-
way Islands next, and then Jinkins's Island, and another
at the head."
" Folks gin'rally say," he continued, " that Tupper's
Lake is the handsomest piece o' water in the whull region,
but to my thinkin' the Upper S'nac is. The head on't is
the beautifulest I ever set eyes on. Standin' on a little
rocky island called Goose Island, where I've camped
many's the time, there's water round ye four miles broad,
with unly one more island nigh, a leetle round rock that
looks like a snappin' turkle's back. But still, Tupper's
Lake 's nice, 'tick'ally the head on't that we'll see on our
way to Mud Lake."
We landed on the west Brother, leaving the Bluebird
with a knot of white lilies touching her waist like a bouquet.
We lay in the warm, brown hollows, sprinkled with light
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 215
through the nel work of giant hemlocks ; glanced out upon
the water, that shot here and there a keen glance ; watched
those feathered mice, the ground-birds, leaping along and
bending their dusky red turbans this way and that over
the decayed leaves ; and listened to the squall of the blue-
jay and the rat-tat- tat of the woodpecker.
Island after island tucked away in the north-western
part of the lake, we visited, inhaling the fresh odors of the
water, laving our arms and brows in its balmy softness
and enjoying the shady coolness and speckled light.
At length we glided through the outlet, and along the
beautiful basin that opened before the green sandal of the
Indian Park.
" A tribe o' S'nac Injins lived on the Park there, onst
upon a time," said Harvey, dipping softly alternate oars.
" Old Sabele telled me a storj- about 'm one day that I'll
tell ye, ef you'd like to hear it. Don't ye feel dry?
(producing a pocket bottle from the box at the bow, swal-
lowing a large draught and following it with a sip or two
of water, in his hand, from the boatside.) This lake
water's so warm, it want's suthin' to take the sun out on't.
But as I was sayin', this tribe was a part o' the one that
lived on the Injin Carryin' Place. They had a quarrel,
and so this part came down here, and the other stayed up
there. Well, things went on so bad that they wouldn't
speak when they came crost one another ; and every now
and then the big bugs 'mong 'm, when they happened to
bunk up agin each other on the Eacket or round, would
hev a fight with their sculpin'-knives and tommyhawks, as
politicianers 'rnong us white folks, whenever they come
t'gether on 'lection day, pitch in and give one another
lickety-whack. "Well (this talkin' makes me kinder dry),
bimeby there was queer doin's noticed around and about
the Park, or rayther he was fust seen at Simon's Slew, not
that 'twas Simon's Slew then ; I don't know 't 'ad enny
name then, onless 'twas some Injin name ; and I'll tell ye
what 'tis, Mr. Smith, there's more inkstand in some o' them
216 WOODS AND WATERS;
Injin names than one 'ud s'pose them kinder hay then sort
o' people, as a body may say, knowed. Now, there's a
good many of these Injin names about"
" But about the story, Harvey ?"
" Oh, lets me see ! I've got so many things to think on !
How fur had I got ?"
" Mercy knows ; but you were saying that he (whoever
that may be) was first seen at Simon's Slew."
" He — why that was the young Injin b'longin' to the
Injin Carry tribe that came a-sparkin' the gal that b'longed
to the Injin Park tribe. His name was — well, I never kin
think o' names, but it meant in Injin, The Big Wind what
Howls. I'll call him Howl fur short. The gal's name
was Hop-so-me-turvy, or some sich name; but I'll call her
Hopsy. I knowed a gal when I was a young man by that
name, that jest was — wa-a-1, I won't say there hasn't bin as
nice gals as Hopsy, but I will say there haint bin no nicer.
Oh, that gal ! — why don't you take suthin' too, Mr. Smith ?
this whiskey is fust best! — couldn't she dance ! and wasn't
she a hoss at singin' ! We had singin' school at Harriets-
town onst a week, and a chap — an all-fired good singer, too
— he was a school-teacher by the name of — well, I bleeve
I'll forgit my own name one o' these days. He was a
Yankee, that chap, and I kinder consate he'd been a
peddler. I calkilate he could do the thing up in the way
o' singin about as well as enny a-goin', that is. in my
'pinion. I don't want nobody to s'pose I want folks to
bleeve that 'caze I say so 'tis so. I've as good right to my
'pinion as ennybody has to his'n ; and my 'pinion is, that
that chap was about as good a singer as" —
" But the story, Harvey, the story."
" Oh, yes, sarten. You don't remember where I left off,
do ye?"
" You were speaking of Hopsy, the Indian girl."
" Yes, yes. She and Howl got 'quainted somehow on
the Racket ; he skeered off a wolf, I bleeve, that was
a-goin', or Hopsy consated was a-goin' (but 'twant no sich
OR, RUMMER IN TIIE SARANACS. 217
thing : there aint no wolf on the Racket, nur nowhere else,
that a human critter couldn't skeer off, onless he was
al-mighty hungry) to make mince-meat on her. 'T all
events, they got a hankerin' after each other, as b'ys and
gals will ; and as 'twouldn't do for 'm to keep comp'ny
afore folks, as both tribes 'ud a bin in their hair then, they
got t'gether behind their backs, as 'twere, that is, around
and about the Injin Park, when they thought nobody
wasn't seein' on 'm.
" This love business, Mr. Smith, is a cur'ous thing.
Some love one thing, some another, some half a dozen
things ter onst. Now, I love tobaccy, and trout, and
ven'son, and inions ; and I tell yer, Mr. Smith, what's old
hunderd in the way of eatin' — it's two things — a moose's
lip and a beaver's tail. Ef you ever happen to light on
'm, and don't say they're the best eatin' you ever had, you
may say right to my face I'm a fool. But talkin' about
this love : there's a good many people loves rum, and I
don't think it bad, sometimes, myself — won't ye take a
1-e-e-tle suthin' ? it'll do yer good, this hot day ! — but, as I
was sayin', as a gin'ral thing, young folks loves one
another, and these two did to death a'most ; and so, as I
was a sayin', they'd come t'gether when they cackilated no
one was a-lookin'.
" But there was somebody, though : a feller b'longin' to
the same tribe she did, that had a hank'rin' after her too,
and was consarnedly put out that she didn't take to him.
Well, whether he kinder consated there was another feller
— that stake-driver looks kinder sassy in that slash there,
•/
and I've a great mind ter — off with ye, ef ye must go —
another feller that she liked better, or whether he'd seen
'm t'gether when he was a snoopin' around, I most forgit
what Sabele said about it. 'T all events, he got all-fired
jealous, and went a-snoopin' and a-sneakin' round — what
was his name? — well, I'll call him Snoop-round — and
he found out the place where they used to come t'gether
on moonshiny nights, and all kinds o' nights, for that
218 WOODS AND WATERS;
matter. Well, I forgot to say that Hopsy was darter to
the chief or boss of the Injin Park consarn, and Howl was
son to the boss up there at the Carry. "Well, now, Mr.
Smith, I'll tell ye what 'tis — won't ye raally take another
drink ? it's rael old hunderd, this whiskey. Well, as I
was sayin', there's mighty mean men in this world ! men
that 'ud kill a doe with a fa'n by her side, jest as lives as
not, and a leetle liver, ef they'd a notion they could make
a little suthin' by't ; and what's jest as" bad, that 'ud kill
half a dozen deer, mebby, when they didn't want more 'n
one, ef they did that, and the consekens is, there they lay
for the painters and wolves to feed on. I've seen a good
deal of sich kind o' business in my life. Onst, at Big Wolf
Pond, F-
" But the story, Harvey ! You were telling how jealous
the young Indian was."
" Oh yes. He got so jealous, he up and telled the old
man, that is, the old Boss, the old Boss I mean that had
Hopsy fur a darter. Let's see — his name now ! wasn't it
Linkumdoddy ? No ! that's in the chorius of a song Will
Johnson sings. What was it ? — well I'll call 'm Linkum-
doddy, or, I guess, Linkum fur short. As I was sayin'-
let's me see, what was I sayin' ? — oh ! about Snoop-round
tellin' the old man ! Wasn't the old feller riled ? I tell
ye, he'd horns down and mane up ! He was a terrible farse
old critter, and he up and telled Snoopy to take two or three
with 'im, and crooch in amboosh, and when Howl and
Hopsy was t'gether, to pounce on Howl like a hawk on a
June bug, and haul 'im right up to the old Boss. The next
thing old Linkum did, says he to Hopsy, ' Darter o' the
S'nacs,' s'ze, ' the Pine o' the clouds,' 's'ze, ' bends his head,'
s'ze — I can't give it to ye in the hifalutin way old Sabele
used'ter, but the idee on't was 'that he, the Poppy, that is
old Linkum, was a mighty big bug, in his own consate,
enny way, and was 'shamed that he had a darter that could
make sich a fool of herself as to keep comp'ny with a feller
b'longin' -to t'other tribe, and that as fur 'lowm' it he'd see
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 219
her— that is as much as to say— that is, ef a feller wanted
me to do a thing I wouldn't do no way, I'd say I'd see 'im
dod darned to darnation fust and then I wouldn't.
' But somehow or the other— you know what gals is,
Mr. Smith— she didn't mind her daddy ; and I consate she
wasn't old hunderd there, fur ef I tell my darter not to
keep comp'ny with a young feller fur reasons best knowed
to myself 'and after that she doos— why 'taint my fault but
hern, and ef I ketch the young feller around and about, I'll
twist 'im out of his boots, and as fur her, why— well, no
matter— but mas-sy I wouldn't do nothin' like what 'old
Link urn did. He must a bin a terr'ble farse, cross-grained,
cruel, bloodthirsty old sarpent, as you'll see, Mr. Smith.
Well, things went on so a week, or mebby eight days— by
golly, I consated that black stump in that bush was a bear,
the leaves was a kinder over it so !— when Snoop-roundj
who'd bin a-sneakin' round and about all that time with two
or three others jest as mean as he was/finally at last
ketched Howl when he and the gal was a-walkin' and a-
castin' sheep's eyes fust on one another and then on the
moon, and a-goin' this way and that way, and a-mincin'
and a-smilin', and he praps savin' to Hopsy that she was
a leetle the nicest gal in all c'ration, and she was a swallerin'
it all whull, but holdin' her head down and pretendin' not
to like it, but L-o-r-d bless yer, Mr. Smith, she did— all
wimming doos. Well, they was a goin' over all that aire
when little Snoopy pounced with the others that was as a
body may say jest like two, and I dunno but three tin pans
on one dog's tail, my Watch ef yer a mind ter, and I don't
bleeve that four tin pans 'ud be more'n a flea-bite to him
ef he was after a deer. How he would lickety -spang over
the ruts and things, and how the pans 'ud fly, hey ! I
remember one time I was on a runway and I could see up
the side of a ridge as plain as the ruff of a house. Bimeby
the deer come like old Sanko, and a leetle after 'im come
Watch, and I tett yer, he went so fast 'twas as much as I
couJd do to see 'im. Now, do you bleeve that five or even
220 WOODS AND WATERS;
six, and I dunno but I'll say ten, I will say ten tin pans 'ud
a stopped him ! By the 'tarhal Jehosiphat, no I Watch
is leetle the grittiest dog"
" You had got as far as the courting in the story, Har-
vey."
"Oh — yes — yes — a — a — had I? let me see — what did
happen then 1 They courted so of en that I disremember
the partic'lar p'int on't. That was the trouble twixt that
Snoopy and — oh, I remember now ! Well, Snoop-round
and his tin pans as 'twere, not as they was tin pans raally,
but unly as you might tie one and mebby half-a-dozen to
Watch "
" So the Indian and his friends I suppose lay in wait,
that is, lay in ambush for Howl and Hopsy "
"That's it — jest it. Did I ever tell it to you afore?
No ! well it's strannge you should a guessed so cluss. But,
as I was sayin', Snoop-round and his tin pans, as I call 'em,
tuk Howl (but he fit like a wounded bull-moose ; still it didn't
do no good — how kin a body fight three to one ?) and
he tuk Hopsy too. ' Aha !' says he (this is about the idee
on't), ' What will yer poppy say to this, Miss Hopsy ?'
' Jest mind yer own business you great, big, mean feller
you,' said Hopsy ('t all events that was the upshot on't),
fur I tell ye, Mr. Smith, she was mad ; and I don't blame
her a bit ; 'twas an orful mean trick in that Snoopy ; still
what kin ye expect from sich kind o' chaps ! There's a
feller now they call Catamount Pete ('caze he telled sich a
rousin' lie one time about a catamount he bragged on he
killed) ; he's about the meanest scamp when he gits riled
agin a feller ! There's no let up to 'im, enny way. Well,
the p'int on't was, they fetched 'im — I raaly consated I
heerd a mink then, but I guess I didn't — they fetched 'im
afore old Linkum. That aire Howl must a bin consid'ble
of a young feller fur an Injin 't all events, fur when he
come afore the old Boss, he kinder straightened himself up
as ef he said, ' What's the meanin' 'n all this ! Why hevent
I as much right to spark a gal as enny body else ?' But
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 221
the old Boss spoke up so kinder quick he hadn't time to
say nothin' much enny way. ( Prepare to die !' sez the
old critter. ' Prepare to die I' jest as quick, he kinder
tumbled it out. ' W-a-a-1,' says Howl (this is the idee on't,
Mr. Smith! I can't give ye the rael Injin touch — old
Sabele did that, and he would wobble his arms and twist
about, and roll his eyes, and look farse, and yell, he would,
tellin' on't, tick'ally this part you could a heerd 'im a mile).
Says Howl, ' Ef I must die, I must, but I want ter see Hopsy
agin afore I do.'
Didn't the old feller skip and jump ! I tell yer ! ' You
shell see Hopsy,' sez he, ' and in a way you won't like to,
no how. Here,' sez he to his folks round, ' you jest tie up
this chap to the tree there, and you, Hopsy, you, come
here !' Hopsy came up a-tremblin', and they tied the
young feller to the tree, and here old Sabele used to spread
himself. I remember a leetle on't. ' Wind what Howls,'
sez old Linkum, ' when Natur is all blossoms, but kinder
•dies kway to a whisper, when the tornader's about' (meanin',
Sabele said, that Howl was a tarnal great feller when 'twas
all fair weather — a fair-weather Christian as 'twere — but
was a kind o' sneak when enny misfortin' was about to
happen), ' sing yer death-song with a loud voice ef you kin,
which I don't bleeve ; fur why ? Linkum don't see a waryer
tied up to that aire tree, but a woman,' and here old Sabele
used to ketch his breath and his eye bulged out as big as,
w-a-a-1 — as big as a twenty -five cent piece, ' and he shell
die by the hand of a woman. Here, Hopsy,' said the old
sarpent, ' take the hatchet and strike it inter the head of
the coward !'
" Hopsy she scrooched right down to her pa's feet
(as I heerd a young lady tellin' another, one time, in my
boat on the Lower S'nac. She was tellin' a story about a
pa, as she said, comin' down on his darter's lovyer a good
deal like this ; twas pa here and pa there — I thought I'd
hev to snicker right out), and she cries and she begs, but
massy, Mr. Smith, twant no use; Pop had made up his
222 WOODS AND WATERS;
mind, and that was the eend on\ Well, when Hopsy
found all her snifflin' and carryins-on didn't do no good,
and that she'd got to take the hatchet enny way, she riz
up, and finally at last she grabbed it. All this time Snoop-
round was lookin' on and a-grinnin' and a-larfin' at the
twist things had took. 'Twas rael nuts to him. Well, as
I was sayin', Hopsy, when she found she couldn't do no
better, she grabbed the hatchet and she gin a screech and
— I do wonder what all that snarlin' and- spittin' means out
there ! it sounds to me like a fisher in a trap — I'll go and
see ! but I guess I wont — 'taint none o' my business. The
fisher aint mine, an 'taint in season ef 'twas. I wonder
a'most there should be enny trap there so airly ; but it may
be an old one — and she gin a spring clearn up to where
Snoop-round stood a-grinnin', his mouth stretched from ear
to ear, and — shuck! didn't that aire hatchet go inter that aire
skull o' his'n. It must a struck fire I I've no notion but
'twas hard enough ; sich mean, off-ox folks's skulls aly's is.
And didn't he yell? He throwed up his arms and fell jest
like a log, and was dead in half a minute. And what d'
yer spose come next ? Kin ye tell, Mr. Smith ? Kin ye
guess ? Well, I'll tell ye. 'Twas the stranngest thing in
the world. But Sabele telled me he'd swear to it on a
stack o' Bibles, or that was the idee on't. Jest as Snoop-
round gin his last gasp there was an orful skreekin' and
howlin' in the bushes, and about twenty of the fightin'
charackters of the Carry Tribe bust in, took Hopsy and the
young feller — young Howl I mean — off, and what's more,
they took the old Boss himself, fur a big part o' his fightin'
charackters was away moose huntin' on Bog Eiver, where
we're a-goin', though he bit and scratched and fit off jest
like the very old Scratch. The way the Carry folks come
to bust in was, that the old daddy on the Carry kinder got
oneasy about his son stay in' away so long, and hustled
'm off to see what the upshot was. Well, to make a long
story short, the Carry daddy he- made as ef he sot all the
store in the world by the Injin Park daddy and old Link-
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 223
um, he finally at last consated lie couldn't do no better
than to let Howl hev Hopsy, and so, as the old song says,
they lived in peace and died in a pot o' grease ! And now
s'pose'n we twist round these islands here twixt Mink Bay
and Gull Pond Bay a leetle, afore we go to camp."
We accordingly wound through the island channels, with
the rich, birchy perfume of the woods extracted by the after-
noon sun scenting the air, and with little suns and dancing
meteors and steely sprinklings and broad dazzling lights
on the water, until they gave place to the topaz and ruby
of the sunset, and they in turn yielded to the sober tints of
twilight.
At last we laid our course for the camp. We found our
comrades and the guides there ; a deer and " no end to the
trout," testifying to the success of their day's sport.
224 WOODS AND WATERS;
CHAPTER XVIII
The Sabbath.— Preaching at the Indian Park.— The Pool— The Sky.— Poli-
tics.— The Constitution. .
THE next day was the Sabbath. The sky was robed in
bright blue and gold, with an embroidery of pearl. The
lake was breathless. Not a leaf fluttered in the forest. As
I viewed the scene's repose, I thought how beautiful is
the fancy that the day's sanctity in the Christian mind
finds sympathy in the visible universe — that, at this time,
Nature stills her throbbing pulses, the tree waves with more
tranquil grace, the bird sings with softer tone, the water
lapses in a calmer ripple. Poets, whose hearts are filled with
love of Nature, have delighted so to depict this day, and the
thought spreads tranquillity in turn over the heart. And
thus does soul transfigure Nature, and Nature sanctify the
soul. What images crowd the fancy, too, in gazing upon
Nature's grandeur or beauty ! What serene joys of thought,
what pure, sweet, lofty sentiments are her offspring !
All the beautiful mythology of the olden time is born
of her.
" The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,
The Power, the Beauty, and the Majesty,
That had their haunts in dale, or piny mountain,
Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring,
Or chasms and watery depths 1"
To the tree, did the antique fancy give the dryad ; and
the naiad to the stream. On the cloudy peak, with its
gleaming levin, it seated the thunder-bearing Zeus ; from
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 225
the glancing light, it created the golden-sandalled Hermes ;
and Aphrodite from the grace of the breaking wave.
And though " Pan is dead" with the deifying faith that
worshipped him, still fancy finds moral emblems in the
various forms of Nature. In the rose's blush, we see love's
own hue ; and purity in the whiteness of the lily. In the flow
of the majestic river, we recognise strong resolve, calm in its
very depth, and moving toward a determined end. In the
bursting torrent we see impetuosity of spirit ; in the tangled
glen, the heart dark with evil passions; and self-reliance
looks calmly forth in the steadfast and towering mountain.
Indeed, these myths of the old civilization typify each
a sentiment or truth. May we not behold in Jason and
the Golden Fleece, the type of a daring spirit in search of
some rare secret of Nature, bearing from far and unknown
coasts of speculation some sterling thought? Porphyrion,
is he not the emblem of Will assaulting Fate, and recoiling
from the rock of its immutability ? Prometheus, the symbol
of a grand soul crucified on the bleak and barren crag of
untoward circumstance, and while conscious of the sacred
fires of genius and all-embracing love, feeling but the vul-
ture of inexorable fate gnawing at his heart ? Ixion clasp-
ing the cloud, is it not Ambition grasping worldly fame ?
Sisyphus, Toil struggling upward, unrewarded, to die in
despair at last?
About ten o'clock, Phin, who had rowed as far as the
Indian Park, returned with the tidings that a travelling
preacher, on his way down the Racket to Potsdam, intended
to hold forth an hour hence. We all, accordingly, em-
barked, and on reaching the Park, found two or three
black-bearded woodmen from the vicinity, in red hunting-
shirts and clean check collars, waiting for the promised
service. The two boats in which they had arrived were
placed upon the bank, bottom upwards, under the birch
tree, near the water's edge, and formed seats.
Soon, other boats appeared gliding down the Racket,
and one through the outlet, which I found afterward was
15
226 WOODS AND WATERS;
from the head of the lake, eight miles distant. These were
filled with men, women, and children, in their best and
gayest a,ttire. Together, we numbered some twenty-five or
thirty.
The scene from a mound, a little back in the Park, pre-
sented a lively and beautiful picture. In the foreground
was the meadow, deep in its wild grass, dappled with sun
and shadow. Next was the spot of worship, the bank
and boats chequered with the different dresses of the group.
The middle distance gleamed with the silver lights and
purple darks of the river, over to the sunny greens of its
midchannel island and shores. A soaring background
of downy tints, reared by Mount Morris, closed the
picture.
The preacher was a long, lank personage, with an apple
of a head perched on a stick of a body. He stepped from
the log hut to the front, and began the service, by reading
a hymn with a nasal drawl, and stumbling over the longest
words.
An old fellow, with features buried in an ambush of
wrinkles, then sounded the pitch ; joined in a keen falsetto
by one whom I took to be his wife, an old lady whose sour
face seemed sharpened on the grindstone of a rather quick
temper, and who appeared to have run so pertinaciously
after her work as to run all the flesh off her bones.
The first then opened upon the air in a thick bass, as
though the rugged tones were too big for his throat, and
as one of the guides said afterwards, " a-kinder scraped as
they come up."
The air was carried by the wife, whose shrill tones seemed
momentarily threatening to sharpen into the termagant
pitch of home. In fact, she appeared angry with the tune,
from the beginning, and no wonder, for it crawled over the
words like a mud-turtle over stones.
The two had the air mainly to themselves, portions of
the congregation occasionally breaking in with discordant
blots of sound. All these gave up after a while, with the
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 227
exception of a wiry-looking chap, eager in his expression
as though ready at any time to jump out of his skin, and a
bouncing girl, whose dot of a nose perked up from between
two red worsted cheeks; both of whom busily engaged
themselves in snapping at the tune, without catching it, all
the way through. Next them, however, stood a brawny,
check-shirted fellow, smelling awfully of whiskey, who,
with a pertinacity worthy to behold, clung to his singing,
evidently without knowing the tune, and belched out his
muddled tones in the loudest manner, carrying havoc as he
went.
The performers had opened their lips for the "seventh
verse (three more to come), when the preacher (or " Dea-
con"), probably and naturally supposing the tune bid fair
to last the time of service out, broke in upon it with the
invitation to prayer, leaving the singers to close their
mouths as quick as they could over their half-strangled
notes.
The prayer was a compound of fierce joy at the certainty
of so great a portion of the human race being doomed to
destruction, with the exception of " the elect," and a self-
hugging complacency that the said elect, of which he plainly
intimated he was one, were to be the inheritors of so certain
a happiness.
At the conclusion of the prayer, he gave out another
hymn, and as if he wished to 'be spared the excruciation
of the former music, opened on a tune himself with great
power, if little melody, elevating his chin at the high notes,
and dipping it into the pool of his loose white cravat at the
lower, like a duck drinking.
He was alone in his music, the old couple probably not
knowing the air, and the rest restrained by respect from
trying, as at first, to catch it on the wing.
The sermon was a repetition of the ideas in the prayer,
spread thin, the worthy plainly considering himself on the
most intimate terms with the Deity, and dealing out life and
death with the air of a principal.
228 WOODS AND WATERS;
At the conclusion of the service, the motley company de-
parted, the Deacon drawing paddle down the Racket, toward
his destination, with a companion at the oars, while we re-
turned to camp.
After dinner, I rowed myself in the afternoon glow to a
point on Birch Island, just below the Devil's Pulpit, to
enjoy the seclusion and quiet.
I fastened my boat to a log, and in the idleness of the
moment noted the slight effects around me. By the water's
edge was a pile of rocks shaped like a cromlech, and near it
an oak with a crescent of light clipping its shadowed stem,
like the golden knife of a Druid severing the sacred mis-
tletoe for the rites of his ancient and mysterious faith.
In the forest there was a flitting of light and shade, and
a tremble of branches in the low wind, with an occasional
glance of a bird through the fretted vaults.
A pool lay near, sheltered by a stooping birch, and a
small rapid.
In its airlike depth was a trout, moving around restlessly,
scenting a lily stem ; pondering over a mossy rock ; dart-
ing toward the surface ; steadying himself by the occasional
flutter of his fins ; staring with huge eyes all about ; wav-
ing his tail, like a deer grazing, and working his mouth
as if chewing a cud. By and by, a miller came close to
the glass of the surface, quivering with admiration at the
image of his silver coat. His spasm of self-love was short,
for the trout, lurking in the ambush of a stone, like a
bandit in his cave, darted forth, gave a nip, and the luck-
less miller vanished.
Then came a shiner that sent a silver flash through all
the pool. Now he poised himself, head downward, as if to
lunge through the ooze ; then stood on his tail and gaped.
At last, he turned himself into a wheel and gyrated away.
He was succeeded by a gleam of gold, cast by a sunfish,
that flattened himself on his side, and lay there, until a
bullhead blundered along, and turned one of his horns on
him, when the sunfish whisked himself away.
OE, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 229
At this juncture there was a plump, and then a sudden
darkening of the crystal inclosure, through which I saw the
dim shape of a muskrat, who scampered across the bottom,
and then rose by a sedge on a dot of grass, with its flag half-
way up its staff.
First, his ratship pulled the stem of a yellow lily as if to
ring the bell ; then he nibbled the gold of the blossom ;
then he skimmed to the edge of the bank, with two furrows
like a wedge pencilled from his shoulders, and cut with his
needle teeth the barb of an arrowhead, and towed it in his
mouth to his burrow, where he vanished. In a moment,
however, his blunt, whiskered face and glittering specks
of eyes were thrust forth again in my direction, thinking, I
suppose, what a queer thing that log was, when an invo-
luntary motion on my part caused him to disappear in the
winking of an eye.
I then leaned back at the boat's stern, and gazed into the
noontide heavens. As I viewed the overwhelming arch,
springing so magnificently from the horizon, robed in an
azure so rich and tender, and gleaming with its silver clouds,
I thought how little appreciated, comparatively, is this
most wonderful, beautiful, and majestic of all the Creator's
handiwork^
The brightest and loveliest hues dwell within its con-
cave, as do the blackest and most threatening. There
beams the rainbow, born of gold and precious gems ; and
there glares the lightning from the scowling cloud. There
fans the breeze on downy pinion, and there whirls the
dread tornado. Within it, echo the sweetest sounds as well
as the most awful. There the lark warbles to the ear of
the morning, and there the thunder hurls its crashing ter-
rors. We talk of the vastness of ocean, the desert, the
forest, the prairie ; but what is the horizon presented by
each to the mighty sweep of that canopy we have but to
raise our eyes at any moment to behold ? There it arches,
ever present, whether blinded with its grey, rainy mantle,
rolling in cloudy surges, smiling in blue loveliness, or
230 WOODS AND WATERS ; '
kindled by the sunset and the dawn. There in the highest
degree is the sublimity of magnitude and the beauty of
softness. And not only are the tenderest and most delicate
objects, the transparent film, the twining mist, the spangling
snow and the curling cloud, found there, but it is the
home of the glorious sun, his gentle sister of the silver
brow, and the far-away constellations. And what sway it
holds over us ! Be it sombre, we grow mournful ; be it
bright, our heart leaps up " and is glad."
We look upward when in sorrow ; into the sky have
departed the loved and lost ; there prayer is wafted ;
there soars the released spirit ; there dwells God.
We fall into raptures beneath the dome of St. Peter's,
at the beauty, the grandeur there seen; we revel in its
streaming sunlights ; we bend to the almost crushing sense
of its immensity ; and yet we never fasten an eye for one
half hour on the sky's dome, its loveliness, its majesty, its
illuminated glories, its boundless sweep. All, too, to be
had in a moment, without crossing stormy wave or moun-
tain peak ; all its beautiful and stately changes, its glory
of rising and of setting tints. If by some magic the sky
could be shut off, and then be opened upon us for a price,
we would make the welkin ring with voice of admiration
and wonder.
We gaze at the summer ocean in its heaving slumber !
What is its smoothness and quiet to the boundless expanse
above, with the cloud-sails gliding over, and the fairy
barks at anchor ? Yiew this same ocean in a storm,
with its watery cliffs and chasms, and dashing its fierce
foam in the black brow of the tempest ; the sight is not
grander or more fearful than a sky of battling thunder-
storms. Its roar ; why, the crashing bolt, the unchained
blast, the trampling hailstones, roll out sounds more dread
and wrathful !
We thrill with the sublimity of Mont Blanc and Chim-
borazo, the grand range of Alp and Himmalaya — mighty
crags, clutching the upper air with icy fingers ; but behold
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 231
the cloud-ridges, pile upon pile, lowering m a mighty
frown over one half the heavens, and plunging leagues
on leagues of earth in shadow ! We bow before the
grandeur of Niagara, where seas plunge upon the globe's
heart in reverberating thunders ; but glance merely at some
cataract of stormy vapor dashing down the sky-slope!
Niagara, to it, is a mere cascade 1
We linger days on the beamy lights, the velvet shades
of the old masters : of Domenichino, of Cimabue, of Gior-
gione, of Titian, of Tintoretto and Claude, whose names
glitter with the magic tints of Italy, and ring with the
golden richness of her music. The colors born of that one
painter, the atmosphere, flash disdain upon the tame bla-
zonry of their mimic hues. Even the divine frescoes of
Eaphael must yield to the common tints of dawn and
twilight. And the architecture of Angelo, of Brunelleschi
and Giotto — they have cast a spell to which Time is power-
less ; but look upward, in your walk, or from your desk,
your study, your plough, even while your hands are busy,
and there is architecture, with pillars and arches and colon-
nades and towers, not tiring the eye in their sameness, but
changing even as you look, resting on foundations of living
sapphire, and flushed with flitting tints tjiat transcend even
the divinest dreams of those mighty masters, the "great
heirs of Time."
Returning to the camp, I found my comrades darting
furious gestures through a cloud of words, amid which
flitted the cant political expressions of the day, with the
word " Constitution" particularly conspicuous.
Politics, next to business, occupy us Americans almost
exclusively. We elevate, consequently, our political leaders
into national idols. The press supplies the pedestal on
which they are reared to the altitude of giants. We abuse
them, it is true, but upon the principle of the Chinese, who,
though they cuff their josses, never cease to regard them
as gods.
Thus we ascribe to these political heroes of ours all
232 WOODS AND WATERS;
kinds of qualities not their own, and crown them with our
honors, as barbarous nations stud storks and ostriches with
jewels, and then bow to them in worship.
I had been so frequently worried by this political talk
of my comrades, that I hastened to bury myself from the
din in the tent of the guides. Outside I found them col-
lected, listening with great attention, and, as the talkers
probably supposed, with a due impression of their superior
wisdom.
I might have supposed so too, had I not, an hour after-
ward, heard one of them say to another, and, in my
opinion, summing the whole matter up most sensibly :
" The gen'lemen set a good deal of store by the cons'too-
tion, but for my part, I think it's the best plan fur each one
to take keer of the cons'tootion what b'longs to 'im. It's
more'n most on us kin do, with all our lookin' out. <I say,
let all this talk about presarvin' the cons'tootion, and
standin' by the cons'tootion, jest go to the dogs, and we'll
go to snoozin', that is, as sun as we take a drink round —
b'ys, what say ye ?"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 233
CHAPTEE XIX.
Sail up Tapper's Lake. — Jenkins' Clearing. — The Shanty of the Spring. —
Bog River Falls. — Head of the Lake. — Up Bog River. — Leo. — Track of
the Moose. — Roar of the Moose. — Mud Lake. — Death of the Moose.
MONDAY I had fixed upon for my excursion up Bog
Kiver to Mud Lake, in search of moose.
This river is composed of two branches; runs, after
their union, northerly, a couple of rods wide, and tumbles
into Tupper's Lake at its southern extremity or head, by a
winding, foaming cascade over two rocky terraces, about
thirty feet in height.
The branches unite two miles from the lake, and west-
erly up the northern branch fourteen miles lies the lake
to which I was bound.
Understanding the trip was difficult, I engaged Phin to
accompany Harvey as an assistant. We were to be gone
two days. Meanwhile, my comrades were to continue the
camp at Tupper's Lake, or, if they moved, were to leave
word on bark or paper, woods-fashion, as to their where-
about.
The morning was passed in preparation.
Deep in the afternoon we left Camp Cedar (so christened
by Eenning), in the Bluebird, with Phin at the oars ; I, upon
my folded blanket, in the middle, with a back-board ; Har-
vey at the stern, with his paddle ; and Watch curled up at
the bow.
The lake was all blue and silver, with scarce air enough
to bend the streak from Harvey's pipe.
Onward we went, the opening vistas and changing shores
offering continually new water-scenes.
234. WOODS AND WATERS:
Leaving the Devil's Pulpit at our back, we glided
along the mile's length of Long Island, and turned, oppo-
site its head, and a small rooky point of the shore, into
the south limb of the lake.
" Bog River Falls !" exclaimed Harvey, pointing to what
appeared a sloping plate of pearl amid the rounded shores
at the head of the lake, three miles distant. " About a
mile furder you'll hear the roar. In the spring, when
there's high water, the falls gits up consid'ble young
thunder. The foam splashes over ugly. I've seen mighty
big trees dashin' and quirlin' and crashin' over the rocks,
as though lightnin' 'ad sent 'em ; and then a deer 'ud come
rollin' and strugglin', and be pitched down'ards, like a
duck's feather in a ripple. The deer 'ud be dead enough,
though, when it got to the bottom."
Large masses of light and shade, cast by the shores and
islands in the low sun, lay along the water. Beautiful little
sunset pictures gleamed out as we went ; a mossy rock ; a
tiny dingle ; a brook rapid ; a colonnade of trees ; an arbor
of linked branches ; a pool under a bank, like a peeping eye ;
a half-whelmed trunk, with water sparkling round it ; an
islet of watergrass; or a bit of marsh, where tiger-lilies
curled their spotted pennons among the spears of the rushes.
Opposite the two Norway Islands (on the lower of which
the tall, slender Norway pine was thinly towering), as well as
a little above the upper, we cast successfully at the mouths
of three trout brooks that crept into coves upon the east
side. We then crossed the lake, passing a small island like
a leafy dome, and entered a beautiful bay, at the head of
which, in a small clearing, stood a log-hut, with several out-
houses. On the left a wild mountain frowned against the
sunset sky.
" Jenkins, who has the choppin' up there, is the unly one
who lives on the lake," said Harvey.
" How near, or rather how far off are his neighbors ?"
asked I. (A neighbor in wood parlance is any one within
fifty miles.)
OR, SUMMER IN THE SAKANACS. 235
" On along the Eacket they're rather nigh," answered
Harvey, as we continued up towards the next point, " that
is about eight or nine miles off. But up over that way,"
pointing to the mountain, "on to Potsdam about forty
mile.s, I guess 'twould be puzzlin' to find as many as ye
could count up on one hand."
" Isn't that rather solitary for him, Harvey ?"
"What?"
" Solitary, lonely !"
" Oh, lonesome 1 Why bless ye, no ! In his boat, with
enny kind o' rowin', 'twill take 'im unly about two hours
to go to the Eacket, where there's lots o' people. There's
some five or six fam'lies stringin' along mebby ten or
twelve miles. I call it rather crowded, that is, ef a man
raally takes to the woods. Now I don't live in the woods
't all. There's a big settlement round me, some five or six
housen that I kin count up right off. Fust " (counting on
his fingers) " there's the school-house ; then there's a barn ;
then father's in the holler ; then there's a brother o' mine
furder on ; then Cort's at the S'nac Pond ; then there's Col.
Baker's, and Miller his son-in-law; and as fur Harriets-
town, there's a settlement there sartenly of a dozen housen,
without reckonin' the sawmill. It's a dufned sight too
thick fur me round. But I've of 'en wondered how you
folks git along in the city. I should raally s'pose you'd
git kinder tangled up 'mong so many people there. Ef I
lived there I'd hardly know my legs from another man's
without chalkin' on 'm. But what d'ye say fur campin' ?
There's a fust best place inside this p'int."
We accordingly landed at the spot indicated, a dry smooth
knoll, where we found a large bark shanty, with the front
open to the lake. In a little hollow adjoining was a spring,
about six feet in diameter, boiling clear as dew and cold as
snow from a deep floor of pearly sand.
We landed, put our " traps " in the shanty, kindled our
camp-fire to repel the charges of a fierce corps of musqui-
toes, and cut our hemlock mattresses for the night.
236 WOODS AND WATERS ;
It was now just after the sunsetting. A blush was painted
on the lake, below a streak of golden purple with a white
star trembling at its edge.
Beyond, the dome-island (which Harvey called Deer
Island) seemed moored in mid-air, while the background
of the sky was rilled with the mass of Mount Morris.
At the right, or south of the latter, frowning over Bog
Eiver, a little above the falls that I could see sparkling
down the bank, were two mountain tops, which I christ-
ened the Hawksnest and the Panther, the former from its
hollowed outline, and the latter from a fancied resemblance
to the head of the animal named.
Everywhere around the water, and upon the islands
(except the clearing of Jenkins) swept the woods, darkening
now in the twilight.
Merry was our meal in the eye of the star, and we fell
asleep with the camp-fire drenching our shanty in pleasant
light.
The dawn's first grey was tinging the darkness as I
awoke at Harvey's summons for our start.
The lake showed its broad neutral tint in the front, with
the dim shores on either hand, and the islands beyond
swollen against a black background.
The east momentarily warmed, while in the strengthen-
ing grey of the zenith the stars were melting like sparks in
After breakfast we pushed out in the fresh, cool (almost
chilly) air, diagonally toward the falls, whose voice was
loud in the stillness.
We ran up to the rocks, where the cascade, dashing and
twisting in severed channels between log, thicket and rock,
rushed in a broad mass of foam down a sloping ledge into
the lake, pushing its dancing waters far beyond. At its
spinning foot we threw our lines and soon secured a goodly
number of fine trout.
Harvey and Phin then clambered with the boat and
" traps " up the steep bank of the carry around the falls. I
OB, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 237
lingered behind to gaze once more down the broad vista of
the lake, with its jutting points and the dome-island in
the distance, until the view was closed by the high back-
ground of Long Island. At the right -heaved up the broad
blue breast of Mount Morris, which, owing to the angular
form of the lake, is equally conspicuous at its foot as at its
head.
After I had stamped on my memory this enchanting water-
view, I followed my guides, turning aside as I went up to
glance at the dark log- fragments of the old military road
laid through the wilderness, from the Mohawk valley to
the St. Lawrence, in^he war of 1812.
Blotting the grey engravings on the surface, up Bog
Eiver we swiftly glided.
The grey light gave place to the soft glow preceding the
sunrise. Eosy clouds smiled overhead, and in the east the
umber of a long cloud burned into tawny gold.
Suddenly a high pine brightened and stood transfigured.
Even so, thought I, is woman glorified by the divine
fancy of poets. She owes the recognition of her charms to
those children of the passionate heart and glowing brain.
They kindle the aureole that crowns her brow.
" Apollo was pitching his darta "
thick and fast into the trees, which flashed gold at every
blow, as we reached the fork of the river. Up the right,
or westerly branch (as before noted), lay our path with an
immediate carry.
I asked Harvey whither led the other branch.
" To Little Tupper's Lake, six miles," answered the old
woodman, as he and Phin prepared to shoulder the boat
with its luggage, " and the nicest lookin' lake, next to Big
Tupper's, and al'ys exceptin' the Upper S'nac, that there is
about here. There's three carries two miles in all, to git
there."
" Where then do you go ?"
238 WOODS AND WATERS;
" A carry of about thirty rod '11 bring ye from there
inter Rock Pond, about two miles long. Then a carry of
two miles takes ye inter Bottle Pond, one mile long. A
carry then of about sixty rods brings ye inter Carey
Pond, half a mile long. Then a carry of eighty rod '11
take ye to Sutton Pond, a mile long. Then a carry of
half a mile brings ye to Little Forked Lake, two or three
miles long. You then run up inter Big Forked Lake,
eight miles long, and then a carry of half a mile brings
ye inter Racket Lake, and crossing it you git by a carry of
a mile inter the Eight Lakes, and down them inter the
middle branch o' Moose River, clearn down inter John
Brown's Tract. Or you kin turn down Big Forked Lake
inter Long Lake, and so inter the Racket River and come
to this very spot agin, and, except at Racket Falls, and them
below, not stir out of yer boat, makin' a rael twist-round."
A mile's tramp brought us again to the stream, and after
another mile we reached the third carry a score of rods
across. An equal number on the stream bore us to " Wind-
ing Falls," forcing us to the fourth carry. The fifth lay a
half mile farther, and after three more portages respec-
tively of forty, thirty, and eighty rods, we entered a pond.
" The Lower Pond," said Harvey, " and after a good
dry carry on t'other side, and the last one too, we hev four
more ponds to cross and we're at Mud Lake."
Crossing, we struck the carry, which was about fifty rods
over, and entered the river again, ascending it half a mile
to a small winding lily-pad pond. Three miles more of
river brought us to the third pond of the same size as the
first or " Lower," with high banks, and crossing it the river
again received us.
All along we had found the same scenery ; close ranks of
firs and cedars on either side, throwing their sharpened sha-
dows across so that we seemed floating over their transverse
tops ; and green openings, with a rear wall of forest. The
trees above named, however, bristling in masses, or scattered
in the parks, formed the prevailing feature of this grim and
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 239
sluggish, or dashing and foaming river, yielding it its lonely
and funereal aspect. In every direction, also, dead pines
and hemlocks thrust up their pallid, rough raggedness,
dripping with grey moss, and frequently clutching in their
raised talons the huge nest of the fish-hawk.
Suddenly around one of the bends, an Indian in his
canoe ' came rapidly towards us. He was on his knees
paddling in the middle of his craft, which was of birch
bark, expanded at the sides, with ends sharp and rising
like a crescent.
"Why, here's old Leo, agin!" exclaimed Harvey. "Why
Leo, is that you ? Where on airth you come from, eh ?"
" Conutie, dat ees, up dere, over dere — Ookostah Conu-
tie, vat you call eet — Ingleese?" said the Indian, ceasing
to paddle, and allowing his bubble to float up.
" Cost her, what !" asked Harvey.
" Taun — nah — nah ! Ookostah Conutie, vere nindunhe —
dat ees — vere moose go, down dere, up dere, over dere —
fool of — uh — uh — what disl" dipping at a lily-pad, but
missing it, and bringing his paddle up dripping.
"Water!" said Harvey.
"Nah, nah!" shaking his head impatiently, "nah, nah,
oh hang, nah !"
" I don't know no other name but water for't. Consarn
his old picter!"
" Nah, nah — vater not a beet — dis, dis," tearing up a
lily-leaf this time with his paddle.
" Oh, you mean lily-pad ! Why couldn't ye say so at
onst ! Plague take the old feller ! Forty 1'yers couldn't
understand him. Well, what of the lily-pads? You've
been up in 'm, eh I"
" Yese, yese, up dere — over dere, vere moose go."
" You mean Mud Lake, I guess."
" Nyuh ! yese, yese ! Muddee Lake, oh yese ! No see
no moose. Up dere squaut (holding up one finger after
another), ticknee, shagh"
" Sha, sure enough 1 What do you mean, Leo ?"
240 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Mean, mean, what dat?"
" How many days were ye up there ?"
" Squaut, ticknee"
" Don't understand, Leo I"
" No onderstand ! what fur no understand ?"
" 'Case I don't," sharply, "what d'ye mean by squat?"
" So mannee," holding up a finger.
"So many, what?"
" So mannee what ! — nah — nah — nah— so mannee day —
squaut, ticknee, shagh day" (raising three fingers).
" Oh, three days !"
" Yese, yese, tree day— oh hang!"
" What shoot there ?"
" Yat shoot dere ? Shoot naagah ; dat ees, vat you call
eet ? — o-h yese, plantee, plantee !"
" Nagur, nagur ! nigger, you mean. I shouldn't s'pose
you'd a shot niggers there. There aint none, nur white
people nuther, fur that matter."
" Neeger, neeger ! vat dat ?"
"Why niggers, black niggers! people what's black!
Bless the Injin, can't he onderstand notbin'?"
" Neegers — black — dat ees jenshtau — nah, nah, n-a-h —
oh hang !"
"Well, what is't then?'
" Go so, go so !" motioning with arms and body, as if
bounding along. " Head so," pointing his hands either
side.
" 0-o-o-h ! you mean deer."
" Oh hang, yese — deer, deer — oh yese, plantee, plantee!"
throwing off a blanket, and showing a large pile of dried
venison.
" Ok>od, Leo, you've done well. But d'ye raally say you
didn't see no moose ?"
" Moose ! oh hang ! nah, nah, vat you tink ; you git
moose ! nah, nah !" shaking his head violently, " you, nah,
git moose nudder. I git nah moose, you git nah moose —
oh hang, nah, nah 1"
OR, SUMMER IN" THE SARA.NACS. 241
" Well, I dunno as we shell. We'll try hard for't, though.
But we're summat in a hurry, so good bye, Leo !"
" Goo bye I" and off the canoe shot to the Indian's quick
dexterous paddle, and in a moment he was hidden behind
a turn.
"Ahead is the last pond," said Harvey, " and then comes
the river agin, and the confoundedest, crookedest consarn
'tis too, that I've seen in these woods, not even leavin' out
Folingsby's Brook, and Little Wolf Brook, and to go
twistin' through the last makes the boat wriggle like an
eel!"
We landed at the entrance of the pond for a lunch. In
a few moments my guides had lighted a fire, over which
the trout we had taken at the falls were soon hissing, im-
paled on the forked sticks.
The sky, notwithstanding the brightness of the morning,
was now overcast, and threatening rain.
Against this lowering background rose, here and there,
a tall withered pine above the general foliage, in one of
which was an eagle's nest, like a Doric column with its
capital.
We had just finished our meal, and Harvey was flow-
ing out in a story about " Wrastlin' Will, who lived nigh
the Ausable Forks," when suddenly he stopped.
" Look there, Mr. Smith," said he, " aint that moosey
lookin'?"
I glanced around, but saw nothing.
" Here, Mr. Smith," turning aside a leaf of brake. There,
was a track stamped in the black ooze of the bank, much
larger and more rounded than a deer's, nevertheless long
and somewhat pointed.
" Is that a moose-track, Harvey ?"
" 'Taint nothin' else, and not an hour old, nuther," an-
swered he.
" I'm in fur that moose," said Phin, starting from a log
where he had been seated with his rifle between his knees,
and moving rapidly toward a thicket. " That's the dod
16
242 WOODS AND WATEKS;
"blamedst big moose what's a goin', and I'm after 'im enny
way."
" Stop, Phin," said his father, " the moose aint behind
that aire bush, no how. Don't you see the track's p'inted
torts the water. See there where he's fed," glancing to-
wards the lily-pads, all torn and tilted, near the margin.
" Let's be goin' though ; moose don't stay long in one place,
and we may git a shot afore we know't."
Closely examining the wooded hills, • we crossed the
pond, and once more entered the river.
It was, indeed, a watery cork-screw, narrow, with broad,
grassy intervals.
We had wound through about two miles, and Harvey
was again in the midst of a story about a " black fox he'd
shot at Loon Lake onst," when he suddenly exclaimed,
" Hark!" at the same time stopping his paddle and raising
Ms hand, while Phin rested on his oars, and erected his
head like a listening hound.
After a silence of several moments, I was about to
inquire what was the matter, when there came a distant
bellow, sharp, ringing, and, notwithstanding the distance,
startling.
" It's from Mud Lake, sarten," said Harvey, dipping his
paddle deep, while Phin did the same with his oars.
" That's moose all over, and a rael bull-moose, too. Hoo-
ray ! won't we hev some fun bimeby ! and it's
" ' Too-rool-loo-rool, loo-rool-loddy !'
Let's make the Bluebird sing through the water, Phin. I
raally feel as ef we're goin' to hev a moose's lip fur supper
to-nigh1>— hey, Mr. Smith ?"
I answered cheerfully, and then resigned myself to my
thoughts. There was something solemn and exciting in
thus winding through the innermost heart of this immense
wilderness, with the stern voice of the rare animal in whose
search we had come still ringing in my ears. The wild,
OB, SUMMER IN THE SABANACS. 243
dark stream, the awful solitude — all rendered the scene
deeply inthralling.
Proceeding some distance, we now reached a pavement
of lily-pads, extending from bank to bank. Pushing
through these, a gloomy sheet of water at length spread
before us.
" Mud Lake," said Harvey, in a low voice. " Don't
make no noise I Praps a moose may be right agin us —
who knows!"
I didn't, and kept perfectly quiet, gazing at the scene.
The sheet appeared to be about two miles long, by a
mile in width, with low shores of broad marsh, closed in
by a thick barrier of firs and spruces. At the left, as we
entered, was a high point or bluff, forming a small bay.
Lily-pads covered the lake, except toward the head,
where was a space of dark water.
Over the whole brooded an air of utter loneliness, which,
aided by the dull, heavy sky, rested with a depressing
weight upon my spirits.
" 'Tis a lonesome kind o' place, as I telled ye !" said
Harvey, in a whisper, ceasing to paddle, as did Phin to
row, " that is, as fur as menkind goes, but not deer," point-
ing to where the broad margin was cut. up by the sharp,
delicate feet of these creatures. " And yes, by golly, see
there ! there's a dozen tracks or more of moose. It's goin'
to be a good night for floatin'. But come, Phin, make a
smudge while I git out some sticks fur a fire, or Mr. Smith
'11 be eat up sun with the flies ; and after that we'll bush
up a shanty, fur it may rain in the night."
The smudge was indeed grateful, for every inch of my
face and hands seemed to hold a musquito and a midge
added. But I comforted myself philosophically with the
reflection, while I was thus being set on fire by the infernal
insects, that the terrible black fly, which draws blood with
every sting, was not also marauding. The golden days of
June are dimmed by his horrors, but the sun of mid-July
gives him his general quietus, although he does not entirely
244 WOODS AND WATEKS;
disappear until the other little winged pests of the forest
vanish.
" I've met with 'm," said Harvey, in answer to my ques-
tion, " all 'long till cold weather, with the other flies."
" Where on earth do they come from, Harvey?" I asked,
pantomiming wildly in the air.
" The black flies hatches in rapids and swift water, and
also in yaller lily blossoms ; the mitchets in fir and spruce
trees, and the musquiters in swamps. But the Old Sanko
unly knows what the critters hatch at all fur ;" and Harvey
commenced, with Phin, making the camp.
I sat on an old stump and watched the two. A few
hacks of Harvey's axe brought down a maple, from which
he detached the limbs. He then divided the trunk into
suitable logs, splitting them for the camp-fire, which, with
the aid of dry sticks strewed around, was soon merrily
blazing. Meanwhile, Phin had levelled a small hemlock,
and stripped its branches, from which he cut with his
wood-knife the fringes for our beds. While one then
planted in front of a smooth-faced rock two crotched poles,
with a cross-stick, the other girdled a couple of spruces,
and by inserting his axe, stripped lengths of the bark for
the sides and roof. In a brief time the shanty was com-
pleted.
" Qui-r-r-r-r-r-r !" said Harvey, lighting his pipe by the
camp-fire, after he and Phin had removed the blankets and
other needful articles from the boat to the shanty, and seat-
ing himself to prepare the jack, " how them tree-toads
squawk ! They're queer things, Mr. Smith. You can't
tell, half the time, where the noise they make comes from.
You may be lookin' right at the critters, that is, ef you
look sharp, fur it's unpos'ble a'most to see 'm ; and there's
another thing ; they look jest like a big wart on a limb, or
a spot o' moss or a knob on the bark, as much as one wild
pigeon's like another. But as I was sayin', ef so be you
look right at 'm, the squirkin' they make don't seem to
come from them, but some other place."
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 245
The air rang with the hollow notes the little minstrels
piped, while the deep gulp, or rather smothered roar, of a
bull-frog now and then sounded, which seemed to jar the
log it came from.
All was now ready for our night-hunt after the moosa
hoped for, notwithstanding honest Leo's disappointment,
and we embarked.
The jack, in the intense, quiet darkness, shed a bright
light on all objects within its range.
Phin managed the paddle with the same noiseless skill I
had so often admired, while Harvey sat under the jack, in
an attitude of intense watchfulness, with his double-bar-
relled rifle on his knees. Watch, to prevent mistakes, had
been chained to a post of the shanty.
On the little Bluebird stole, close to the shore.
Once or twice Harvey lifted a warning hand, or motioned,
but, after a moment's gazing, or bend of his ear aside, he
relapsed again into his passive attitude.
" I'll tell ye what 'tis, Mr. Smith !" at last he said, but in
a low whisper, " old Leo I bleeve has skeered all the moose
off, and deer too. We've bin 'most half round the lake,
and here's the clear part o' the water, and nothin' seen or
heerd. But we may hev luck yet, after gittin' past this
bank. A leetle clusser to the edge, Phin !"
We passed through the clear space, struck the pads again,
and went rustling on.
Opposite, I saw the camp-fire like a red speck on the
blackness, but it was soon lost.
We had now reached the inner side of the point or bluff,
near our starting point. Suddenly we heard a paddling in
the water. Harvey thrust his head forward ; a quick deep
snort sounded ; he motioned to the right, then to the left,
the boat obeying closely ; then came the click of the gun-
locks.
At the same time I saw two large orbs of pallid flame,
and the darkness gathered around them into a mass which
rose higher and higher, and loomed nearer, till a huge black
246 WOODS AND WATERS,
hulk stood before the jack, and hanging over it a large
head, with blazing eyeballs, surmounted by what appeared
to be an enormous half circle.
Harvey gave a quick backward gesture, the boat drew
to the rear about a rod, and then two sharp reports rang,
so close together as to be nearly blended. A violent splash-
ing followed, with several terrific snorts, and thick, heavy
blows of breath, and I heard Harvey exclaim,
" He's got it, he's down ! that's a dead moose ! up with
the boat, Phin," whipping out his wood-knife, " but slow,
slow ; they're an awful critter if they're unly wounded. I
rather hev an idee, though, he's got enough on't."
The boat glided cautiously up, the mass did not stir, and
Harvey, bending low, made a quick motion with his knife.
" Dead as a smoked trout," said Harvey, with an exultant
laugh, " and his throat cut to boot. Now fur gittin' 'im
round the p'int to the shanty. He's a big critter, and aint
to be handled like a mushrat, but T guess we kin with hard
strainin'. This is great luck, Mr. Smith ! It '11 be hang
with old Leo all the time when he hears on't.
" We wont dress 'im till mornin', Phin," continued he, as
we landed the carcass, " and as this luck's rael old hunderd
s'posen we take a drink all round. What d'ye say, Mr.
Smith ? Come, Watch, stop yer yelpin' and whinin'. You
seem to be mighty farse to git at a dead moose, pup, but be
still, or I'll make yer yell fur suthin', and it's
' Lighted with canneon the wilderness blazed.'
My 'specks to ye, Mr. Smith !"
The savage lake ; the bark shanty ; the blazing camp-fire,
the black forest, all presented an impressive picture. Height-
ening it was the mass near me ; that of an animal uncom-
mon even in this wild region, its existence scarce believed
in by the denizens of our cities, and fast disappearing
from these dark haunts, to live but in the traditions of the
hunter's fireside. My two guides also had their place in
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 247
my solitary musing. Seated in careless attitudes by the
camp-fire, the flame tinging their bronzed features and rude
garb, they represented a class indigenous to the region.
With eye, ear, every sense sharpened to intensity, full
of forest resources, self-reliant and brave, they seemed a por-
tion of the forest, like the deer and the panther.
Again I asked myself if man is happier for all his cul-
ture and refinement ! living a life whose air is thick with
human sighs, and whose path is thronged with weary foot-
steps. And yet in all this misery, may there not be design ?
May not the All- Wise -Father be leading man through
puritying trial to the height predestined ere the fall ? Pro-
gression is His law. The bud becomes a flower, the chry-
salis a butterfly, " this mortal puts on immortality." I
cling to the hope that humanity, with all its burden of woe,
is moving in the right direction ; falling back here, but
advancing there ; the long line reeling and plunging along
but onward, till in the future ages it may struggle up into
the unclouded sunlight of Truth. Oh blessed Millennium !
dream and hope of Prophet and Apostle ! when will your
splendors dawn ! when will the earthly happiness man
sighs and toils for, descend upon the earth !
The falling asunder of a log in the camp-fire woke me
from my reverie. The wind had risen and was moaning in
the forest like the wail of a broken heart, and rain was
beginning to fall like tears. I retreated into the shanty,
whither my guides had preceded me, and in listening to
the increasing wind which soon roared through the forest,
like the rumble of distant breakers, I fell asleep.
248 WOODS AND WATERS:
CHAPTER XX.
Back to Tapper's Lake. — Night Sail down the Lake. — The Echo. — Deserted
Camp. — Message, woods fashion. — Tapper's Lake left. — Down the Racket.
Indian Camp. — The Water-lily. — Legend of its Origin. — The Mink. — News
of the Party. — The Eagle-nest. — Through Racket Pond. — The Island. — The
Irish Clearing. — Captain Peter's Rocks. — Camp at Setting-Pole Rapids.
THE morning arose clear and inspiriting. The guides
had dressed and quartered the moose, and at the early
breakfast taken on the inner sheet of fresh, fragrant spruce
bark, I first tasted that wild wood, delicate luxury, a moose's
lip.
We then embarked upon our return course ; I taking a
farewell glance at Mud Lake, as it hid its sombre loneliness
from the radiance of the morning, like sorrow from the
gladness of the world. At sunset we hailed once more the
plunging waters of Bog River Falls.
We angled in the upper pool and in the tossing waters
at the foot of the cascade, with the soft, pleasant light
from the west sprinkled over the scene ; and in a brief half-
hour we caught sufficient trout for our supper and break-
fast at Camp Cedar. Harvey and Phin then stretched
themselves on the bank at the lowest plunge (for their
labor on the carries with the moose and boat both had been
severe), while I explored the beautiful falls — the several
channels braiding the rocks as they dashed to the basin
above me and then poured in a rich, divided mass of white
into the lake ; the rocky nooks at the side where the wild-
flower dipped its chalice and the bush laved its leaves ; the
spray's silver ; the dark pools where the dashing waters
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 249
paused suddenly, gathering into stagnant quiet the floating
plants and foam-bells.
We launched upon the lake once more, pulling toward
our shanty of the spring. The twilight stole around us as
we enjoyed our supper at the open front of our bark camp,
inhaling the spicy odors of the woods and watching the
melting colors of the water.
We were interrupted by a furious yelping which burst
from the side of the shanty, and in a moment more, was
ringing in the woods arousing a thousand echoes.
" Watch, by golly 1" exclaimed Harvey, and he rushed
with Phin around the corner of the shanty.
" Sure enough," said the former, reappearing, with a
collar and chain, " Watch is off. He's seen a deer, I 'spose,
and's after 'im."
" I chained 'im to a stump, round there," chimed in Phin,
" and let the collar loose a leetle."
" And he's slipped it off," said Harvey. " I'm dreffle
sorry. He's as valy'ble to me as the ball o' my thumb.
Watch ! Watch !"
The echo alone came back from the woods.
" It's no go," said Harvey. " But I guess we'd better
wait a leetle, and then ef he don't turn up, we'll move torts
camp, and mebbee he'll come in the mornin'."
The dusk gathered on the landscape, and the barred owl
skimmed the bushes in his velvet flight, giving now and
then his strange laugh.
The umber hues settled at length into the blacks of the
forest and the clear darks of the slumbering lake. Mount
Morris loomed up with an occasional flit of summer light-
ning around his brow ; the Hawk's Nest bore a jewel in its
hollow, and the Panther seemed watching with a starry eye
over the raven woods of the wild river we had so lately
tracked.
After vainly waiting an hour for the return of Watch,
we embarked for Camp Cedar.
A divine quiet tranced the fragrant night. The mea-
250 WOODS AND WATERS;
sured dip of oar and paddle, and the low ripple at the bow,
alone disturbed the silence. A starry realm was glittering
on the water. Islands lay before us, each one mass of black ;
but as we glided by, the trees would part, letting out the
stars. Crawling motions were perceptible along and be-
neath the banks, doubtless of the loon or mink, skulking
into coverts.
Suddenly Harvey lifted his voice in a cry of " Watch !"
The effect was magical. An echo started up. Far away
it sped in dulcet boundings, and stopped. Again it sprang
— away, away — far, far, far — and was lost. Again he
shouted. Again the bell-like echo — pausing, sounding,
stopping, sounding — on, on, fainter, fainter, fainter — seem-
ing to pierce illimitable depths ; waxing more ethereal, more
transparent, till it melted so deliciously, the tingling ear
could scarcely tell the delicate sound had ceased.
Two hours passed on, the shores and islands loosening
from their massed blackness as we neared them, with the
same ethereal melting of the magical echo waked by the
frequent shout of Harvey.
We had now reached the farther end of the east Brother
Island, when Harvey exclaimed,
" I don't see no signs of the camp. There aint a spark
o' fire ! I guess they've pulled up stakes!"
Sure enough, no tent glimmered from the gloom, and the
sounds of nature, generally hushed in the close presence
of man, were in full career. Among them was an occasional
chest-note rolled out by a wakeful frog ; the silvery chirp
of the cricket sounded about the space, and a fir seemed
tolling a little bell in its dark steeple.
" That's the grey owl, I telled ye about on the Eacket, makin'
the noise in the fir there," said Harvey as we struck the
shore. "They're all gone sure," continued he, stepping out
and hauling the bow up the margin. " Here Phin, light the
jack, and hand me some o' them pine knots from the box, and
we'll hev a fire a-burnin', that '11 make this dark hole laugh."
Kindling the knots and the jack from his matches, Phin
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 251
planted the first among the stumps and logs around, and
then threw the jack's half-circle of light upon a charred log,
which told where had been the camp fire. Soon another
fire blazed there, pouring the dark scene full of ruddy,
merry light.
Immediately a stick, bearing in its split head a piece of
silver birch bark, and inserted in an old log, sprang to sight.
On the bark were pencil marks (the most villanous scratches
imaginable, the words sprawling into each other as if for a
general fight), which ran thus, " gwontewsetnpolraped."
" What in -the name of common sense is this rigmarole,
Harvey ?" said I, after trying it upside down, backwards,
and all ways at once.
" I thought they'd go there," said Harvey, taking his
pipe from his mouth, and glancing at the scrawl. " It's
jest as I consated."
" Go where?" enquired I.
" Why, the bark tells ye! to Settin' Pole Eapids."
" Oh !" said I. " Well, we'd better join them in the
morning !"
" Sarten," returned Harvey. " 'Twont take more 'n two
or three hours. They're unly a mile below Racket Pond,
and \that's scarce three miles from here. But what say
yer, Mr. Smith, to a moose-steak afore turnin' in ?"
" It wouldn't be amiss. But who is the writer of this,
Harvey ?"
" I kinder consate it's Mart's handwrite. He's the best
at readin' and writin', and all that kind o' trash, of all the
guides round. But come, Phin, let's hev supper."
The odors of broiling meats soon vanquished the bal-
samic night-scents of the wilderness. After a pleasant
meal by the genial blaze of the camp-fire, which had long
since chased away the chill of the night, we wrapped
ourselves in our blankets and sought repose on the boughs
left by the party, with the gabble of a couple of loons,
answered by the scornful hoots of half-a-dozen owls echo-
ing in our ears.
252 WOODS AND WATERS;
Beautiful and bright dawned the day, suffusing the lake
and forest with a cheery beauty.
The morning sunlight has a jocund splendor, not shared
by the sunset. The former, fresh from heaven, seems
gladdened in obeying the behest of the Creator, while a
sadness mingles in the latter's brightness, as though it
grieved over what it had witnessed in its course ; a sad-
ness that would darken all its lustre, were it not for joy
that its bidden ministry for the time was ended, and it
was leaving, if but for a season, a world it had illumed
only to behold follies, calamities and crimes.
As I left the shanty, I found Harvey and Phin roaming
about the deserted camp.
" There's an orful sight o' used-up bottles round here,"
said the former ; "all hands must a bin more dry than
common, the last two or three days. There's enough to
set up a small chany shop. Goll, but here's a bottle filled
with" (uncorking and tasting) " rum, by golly ! and rael
old hunderd, too. Well now, this doos beat me, how they
could a left this 'ere. Wa-a-1! there's no 'countin' for
ennything in this world. Here's luck, Mr. Smith. Oh,
but aint this fust best !" glueing his lips to the bottle again,
and withdrawing it with a sigh. " Here, Phin, try some I.
a leetle, though — a leetle ! it'll bite young folks !"
We lingered until noon, and then bade adieu to Camp
Cedar. We crossed to the outlet, the whole water-scene
etherealized in the dreamy haze of the noontide. We
turned into the narrow channel, and the lovely lake of the
island-pathways was hidden from our view.
With the Indian Park at our left, we entered the basin
into which the river broadens in its downward course. We
had proceeded some little distance, when clearing a bend,
we found ourselves in a scene of excitement. A couple
of bark canoes, in each of which was an Indian, were
darting forward a little in advance of us, while twenty or
thirty rods ahead was a deer swimming gallantly down the
river.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 253
The sight fired Harvey and Phin.
Down sped all three of the boats in line, the Indians
gabbling their gutturals, their wild faces gleaming with
ardour.
On went the deer, turning toward a point at the right.
" Row, row, row, Phin !" exclaimed Harvey, bending
low to his paddle, " he's 'most to the shallers, and we must
be nigher than this, or he's off."
As he spoke, the deer struck the shallows and bounded
on in a shower of foam.
Harvey sprang to his feet.
" A leeile nigher!" exclaimed he, twitching up one leg
after the other, " a leetle — a leetle I" presenting his piece ;
but as he did so, one of the Indians fired ; and the next
moment the deer vaulted upon the bank and vanished into
the forest.
" Well," said Harvey, lowering his piece, " I don't bear
no malice agin that buck ; he fit like a man for his life.
But, goll, ef here aint old Leo agin 1"
" Yese, yese," said one of the Indians ; " how do, how
do?"
" Fust best, fur an old man," returned Harvey ; " how
is't, yourself?"
" Good, good, where nindunhe — aha 1"
" Here !" uncovering the quarters from the blanket.
" Eh ! aigh ! uh, uh ! oh hang ! where git ? uh, uh ! up
dere, down dere, over dere — eh ?"
" Sarten !"
" Oh hang ! Onyarhe — he go up de — uh, uh— de —
Ahonogeh Keech-honde — dat ees de" —
" Bog River, I spose you mean ?"
" Yese, yese ! Boog Rivaire — up dere — squaut" —
" Oh, ef you're a goin' to squat agin, I'm off 1"
" Ticknee"—
" Goin' to camp, Leo ?"
" Shagh day"-
" What a denied old fool"—
254 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Yese, yese," said Leo, smiling and bowing, as Harvey,
in the energy of his vexation, motioned toward him.
" Yese, Onyarhe fool of uh, uh, o-kah" (placing his finger
on his eye), " fool of, uh, uh, ooh-tah" (touching his ear),
" fool of, uh, uh, owyngawshaw" (placing his hand on his
heart), " g-r-e-a-t beeg Achshanuane" (lifting his form), " de
chief de Senekee !"
" Well, Leo, we go to wigwam now," said Harvey.
"Oh yese — nindunhe — uh, hah! — you git moose!
Onyarhe beeg chief ! he no git no moose up dere" —
" Come 'long, Leo !"
" Oh yese, you git moose. 0-h hang ! yese !"
In a little cove to the left, canoes were moored, and
thither the Indians led the way. As we struck the bank,
I saw through the open trees a long tent or shanty on the
brow of the ridge. Two of the canoes were of birch-bark,
beautifully made, sewed with deer's sinews, and shaped in
a crescent, with pointed tips, swelling gradually to the
waist or middle. They were without seats, and of a rich
yellow hue. Moose hair was braided into their sides, with
bright beads and bits of red and purple cloth. The paddles
were smooth ; and altogether the canoes seemed admirably
fitted for the streams and lakes of the wilderness.
The two other craft were mere dug-outs, birch logs,
hollowed, and as Harvey expressed it, " consid'ble tottlish."
A peculiar jack for night-hunting leaned against a tree.
It was of tin, shaped like a little cask, with the handle in
the middle, and a leather blind, so as either to cover the
light, or, by an aperture the size of a buckshot, to diminish
it to a speck.
A slight track led me up the ridge to the wigwam. It
was merely of blankets over a skeleton of poles, and stood
in a small space cut from the forest, with large peeled logs
before the entrance, evidently the out-door settees.
Two Indian women, one a crone, and the other a large-
framed girl of twenty, were in the shanty, seated on their
knees, embroidering a pair of deerskin moccasins.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 255
An Indian lad of sixteen was on one of the logs fasten-
ing hooks to fish-lines.
They were a family of the St. Eegis Tribe, living by the
Lake of the Two Mountains, an expansion of the Ottawa
Eiver in Canada. Every summer, for the last year or two,
they had ascended the Kacket, and while the men foraged the
waters and forests for trout and venison, the women tanned
deerskins and worked them into purses and moccasins.
The girl, I found, was the wife of the Indian I had seen
among the lumber people at Cold Eiver.
Although Leo had joined the Tribe of the Two Moun-
tains, he was in fact a Seneca.
" Talk Iroquois ?" said the girl to me, after I had bought
a pair of moccasins. " St. Eegis ?"
I shook my head.
"Senekee?"
Again a negative shake.
In a low, musical voice, she then began : " Hah-wen-ne-yo
(her broken English I discard) loved His children the Iro-
quois. They lived scattered, till To-gan-a-we-ta joined them
in the League, making the branches one tree. Then they
grew mighty. Their tomahawks turned red among the
snowbanks of the Hurons and the flowers of the Chero-
kees. One end of their Long House looked upon the great
Eiver, where tumbles the Thunder- Water, the other on the
stream that crawls from Ta-ha-wus to roll into the Salt
Lake that has no shore. How strong and happy they
were ! But two large birds with white wings came — one
up the stream of Ta-ha-wus, the other up the Eiver of the
Thunder- Water. They bore the white man. Where are
the Iroquois now ?" in a wailing accent, clasping her hands
and bowing her head in an attitude of intense grief.
" Grone !" here broke in the crone. " Ho-de-no-sonne
gone ! white man here — red man no here no more !"
"Well, Mr. Smith, we'd better be agoin', hadn't we?"
said Harvey, coming up with Leo and the other Indian.
M I've bin lookin' at a wolf's paw that the critter 'ad gnawed
256 WOODS AND WATERS;
off after he'd got inter Leo's trap out there. What a farse
critter a wolf is, after all ! though I don't mind 'm in the
woods a bit more'n a dog. But good-bye, Leo, and all the
rest on ye 1"
" Goo-bye, goo-bye," returned Leo. " You kill moose —
me no kill no moose"
" Good-bye, good-bye I"
" Up dere, over dere — Boog Rivaire ! oh hang ! goo-bye !
hang!"
" I'd ruther talk to a beaver, enny day, than old Leo," said
Harvey, after we were afloat again. " He raally don't 'pear
to onderstand nothin'."
We wound along the banks, the water green with the
floss silk of the rich, swaying eel-grass which the boat drew
into the most graceful and plume-like shapes.
" The deer's very fond of the roots of that aire grass," said
Harvey, " as much a'most as the yaller lily-stems. The
white lily they never take to, when they kin git the other.
The stem's tougher. They're very fond too, in the spring,
of the lily -pots."
" Lily-pots ?"
" Yes. They're a plant that grows on the bottom of the
water, the fust thing in spring. They look a good deal
like a collyflower."
The white and yellow water-lilies also grow from an
immense, rough stem, several feet in length, embedded in
the bottom. This throws out fibres which, lengthening,
lets up the bud to blossom on the surface.
May crowns the yellow lily with her gold diadem, but
the white receives her perfumed chalice from the hands of
more beautiful June. As before observed, the chalice shuts
at sunset to re-open at the morn.
The white lily delights in the empire of the ponds and
lakes, as if her loveliness demanded a broad domain,wherein
to smile upon island and headland, ripple of breeze, wake of
loon and shadow of eagle ; but the sister finds more con-
genial reign in the narrow kingdom of stream and river.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARA.NACS. 257
The following is a St. Regis legend concerning the origin
of the lily, yellow and white.
" The eagle is screaming, hark ! Soaring and scream-
ing on high ! See ! the red war-path is bright ! See ! the
great warrior comes ! He, the Brave of his people, Wa-
yo-tah the Chief of the Saranacs ! He The Blazing Sun.
He comes from the trembling Ta-ha-wi — kooh ! the quaking
Ta-ha-wi. The Blazing Sun has changed them to women !
Hooh, hooh, The Blazing Sun ! Wa-yo-tah, the Chief of
his Tribe ! Wa-yo-tah, The Blazing Sun !"
Such were the sounds that pealed from the Isle of the
Eagle in the Lake of the Clustered Stars. Beautiful Lake
of islands, that are strewed on its bosom of crystal as spots
on the back of the loon !
Wa-yo-tah, Chief of the Lower Saranacs, has come from
the war-path laden with scalps of the wild Ta-ha-wi — the
foes of his people and race. Therefore the song goes up
in the sunset from a hundred voices ; from the boy whose
plume is the red rose of the dingle to the sire on whose
head fourscore winters have frozen. And the matrons and
maidens of the Tribe, they, too, raise the song.
And as all sing, all dance the dance of victory. The
warriors circle the war-post, whirling their hatchets and
knives that glance round their forms as lightnings glance
round the trees. And the women in their ring apart, sing
their sweet- voiced songs and toss their arms in triumph.
But who is that pale and silent maiden hovering near the
ring of the women ? Pale is she as the first little flower that
Spring opens with her timid touch, save when the red tints
glance across her face, as sunset glances on rippling waters.
Now her eyes flash in triumph and now their sparkle is
quenched in tears. Who is this lovely maid of the Saranacs ?
Why does she stand apart, changeful in her mood as the
month of the dawning blossoms — the month of the sun and
rain ? Ah, 0-see-tah, sweet Bird of the Tribe ! she loves and
she suffers ! She loves the Chief of her people, Wa-yo-tah
The Blazing Sun. She loves and she suffers. Hah-wen-ne-yo
17
258 WOODS AND WATEES;
has given a mate to the lodge of the Sun ; not 0-see-tah the
Bird; but To-scen-do the Morning. Still, Wa-yo-tah is
young and has seen that 0-see-tah loves him, and his own
heart is wild with love for O-see-tah. And therefore has
he whispered in her ear, " Let the beautiful Bird of the
Saranacs warble to The Sun her melody of love!" And
she has answered, " Go ! Wa-yo-tah does not well ! Hah-
wen-ne-yo has said, ' Let the glance of The Sun shine only
on the cheek of The Morning!' Gro, leave the Bird of the
Saranacs to pour her note in loneliness !"
But Wa-yo-tah has despaired not ; he has trusted that the
music of The Bird might still be waked to the kindling
glance of The Sun. And now in this hour of his triumph,
he has watched her as she smiled and wept, blushed and
grew pale, to his praises from the Tribe.
And at last the sorrowful maid, she, the lonely 0-see-
tah — pure as the fountain under the rock — has unbound
her fleet canoe and fled through the starry darkness to an
island of the lake — fled to moan her sorrow to the water
and the wind.
Wa-yo-tah has watched her and followed. " Bird of the
Saranacs, let thy warble cheer the heart of Wa-yo-tah. Behold,
he has come from the trail of the proud Ta-ha-wi, and his
belt is heavy with the scalps of the foe ! ' Hooh, the Brave
of his people ! Hooh, The Blazing Sun !' These are the
songs that pealed in the ear of 0-see-tah and Wa-yo-tah,
but all would Wa-yo-tah give for one note of love from the
bright Bird of his Tribe."
" Away ! Sun of the Saranacs ! Shall the Blaze that
scorched the fierce Ta-ha-wi burn the little Bird that has
piped to her harm to the Fiery Light ? Away ! 0-see-
tah's heart is weak, but her ear shall not listen to the
words of Wa-yo-tah !"
" 0-see-tah must listen !" .
" Away 1"
" The Bird must fold her wing to the warmth of the
loving Sun I"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 259
" Away !"
" O-see-tah shall listen to the Chief of her people !"
He darted forward and she bounded away. Away her
light form flew, to a rock overhanging the lake. She stood
upon the edge and waved him back.
But he came onward.
She balanced on the edge and waved him back.
But he came onward.
She waved her arms upward to Hah-wen-ne-yo and
sprang. Wa-yo-tah darted to the brink and sprang also.
He rose — the water was black in a crossing cloud; the
black water alone met his yearning sight. " O-see-tah !
O-see-tah 1" as with maddened strength he cleaved the
wave, " where art thou ? Bird of the Saranacs ! ah, beau-
tiful Bird of my Tribe, speak ! let Wa-yo-tah rescue thee
and no more will he molest thee with his love. O-see-tah !
O-see-tah !" but no voice answered.
And the East opened her eye over the Lake of the Clus-
tered Stars, but where was the Bird of the Saranacs?
" Where is my little Bird, the little sad warbler of my
lodge ?" asked the old father — a Brave of many battles.
" Oh, where is my Bird, my Bird ?" moaned the mother —
she the most honored of all the matrons that bore the totem
of the Panther. " Where is O-see-tah ?" asked the young
warriors, and " Alas, where is O-see-tah ?" asked the bloom-
ing maidens.
The Chief heard, and as he heard, his head sank lower
and lower. The day passed and the night, and again the
East opened her brightness, and his head drooped lower
still, and his step was slow, for his heart was heavy. And
the sorrowful To-scen-do told her sire that Wa-yo-tah
moaned in his sleep like the pine in the low breeze of the
evening.
Well might Wa-yo-tah moan, and name himself Ne-so.
Truly had the Sun become the Night ; Night with the wail
of the whippoorwill, instead of the Sun with the scream of
the eagle. Night with eternal wail ; wail for the love that
260 WOODS AND WATERS;
Hah-wen-ne-yo frowned on ; wail for the love that should
have been all To-scen-do's ; wail for the love that had
destroyed The Bird ; wail, wail for the fate of the beautiful
Bird of the Saranacs !
And the Night sought in his sorrow the lonely lodge of
the Great Medicine of the Tribe.
As noon gleamed on the village, a fisherman came with
tidings of a strange sight. In a hidden cove of the Isle of
Elms, was a robe of flowers on the breast of the water, some
white as the feathers of winter and others yellow as the
lake at sunset. The Tribe all hurried to the scene, and
there indeed was the sheet of blossom.
And " See !" said the old Medicine, the pine ringed with
a hundred winters, " there lives 0-see-tah ! the white her
purity, the yellow her burning love ! And see !" said he,
after they had gazed again and again, on the beautiful blos-
soms, " holy in her purity, the love still sways her. She
closes her bright heart in sorrow at the going of the sun,
to open it in joy at his coming."
" And," continued the old Indian, the narrator, " Hah-
wen-ne-yo, to mark between the love and the purity, placed
a moon between the blossoming of the two, and made the
broad lake cherish the purity, and the narrow stream the
love."
We turned a thicket, and a light, brisk, sipping sound,
or whistling chirp, came from the bank.
" There's a mink on shore there somewheres," said Har-
vey. " I see 'im 1 He's nosin' up suthin' fur dinner."
The little animal was bounding between the thickets with
its head grazing the earth, like a hound's. It stopped a
moment, and Harvey raised his rifle.
" Ah, it's gone !" exclaimed he, " yusp, yusp — 'twill be
out in a minute agin though."
" Let's see what it will do, Harvey !" Harvey nodded,
and we glided behind a bush.
He repeated his chirp, and the mink reappeared, this
time pricking its short ears and rearing its white-starred
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 261
throat, apparently at some object. The next moment a
frog, with a flying leap, plumped into the water, and the
little shore-haunter vanished.
"Where do they have their burrow, Harvey?"
" They don't have none of their own, as a gin'ral thing.
They're squatters like, in mushrat holes. They're a farse
little critter. They'll take a mushrat by the throat in the
water, for all he's the biggest, and kill 'im 'most as quick
as a dog. But here's Eacket Pond."
This pond, or Lough Neak (its Indian name is Tsi-kan-
i-on-wa-res-ko-wa), has an average width of half a mile, and
is three miles in length.
"'Sposin' we call at MacLaughlin's a moment," said
Harvey, pointing at a large log hut which stood with out-
houses on the north bank of the pond, " and hear what
news there is."
As he spoke a succession of yelps burst from the direc-
tion pointed out, sounding as if in the insanity of canine
" Why, that's Watch, sarten," said Harvey, " and here he
comes."
Sure enough, the hound at seeing his master, had taken
to the water, and whimpering, with his head up, was ra-
pidly approaching. We pushed to meet him, and in a
few minutes he was drawn into the boat by Harvey, shak-
ing a shower of spray around him, and the next moment
was thrusting his nose all over his master, whining, and
twisting his lithe frame almost double.
" Poor dog, poor pup, good Watch ! where has Watch
bin, hey?" said Harvey, patting his head and smoothing
back his ears, while Watch broke every moment out from
his whine into a shrill bark of delight.
" You've got your dog, I see, Harve," said a man on the
shore as the boat touched it.
• " Where did you pick 'im up, Mac ?" returned Harvey.
" B'low Settin' Pole Rapids. I see 'im swimmin' crost
the river, from about the lay o' Gull Pond."
262 WOODS AND WATERS;
" I hev it. He left us last night at the head of Tupper'a
Lake, after a deer I'm sarten, and druv it inter Gull Pond.
That's it.. How is't, Mac, about the deer here? Plenty?"
"I see two yisterday at the Irish Clearin', and an al-
mighty sight o' tracks jest opp'site Captain Peter's Books."
" Did ye see a party at the Eapids ?"
" Oh yes. There's four on 'm with Cort, Mart, Will,
and Corey, without reck'nin' little Jess."
" Hev they had enny luck ?"
" Lots o' trout, and three deer."
" How long had they bin there ?"
" About two days, I b'leeve. They're hevin' all sorts o'
fun there."
" There's one feller there," said a rough-looking black-
bearded woodman, who had joined us from the house,
" a tall chap, wot seems detarmined on claimin' two of the
three deer as his shots. And Cort, he backs 'im up. The
three others, smart bright chaps they are too, do nothin' but
laugh when the tall feller (I forgit what they called 'im,
but I call 'im Legs, and dreffle long ones they are), goes on
to explain matters, as he says. 'Why gen'l'ums,' he'll
say, ' there's no mistake about it. How could I help kill
'm ? I wasn't ten rods off from both on 'm.' And then
they'll laugh agin. He's consid'ble techy, I've an idee, on
the p'int o' killin' deer, though he seems etarnally runnin'
the others on every other p'int. Oh, they're heving a high
old time there."
" Well, we must be a goin'. We're on the way to jine
this party. We b'long to 'm."
" So I onderstand," said the woodman. " Legs was a-
shoutin' and a-preachin' about Smith (I b'leeve that was
the name) gittin' up Bog River there, and never findin' his
way out ' Fur you see, gen'l'ums,' he'd say, ' ef there's
a wrong way, Smith's al'ys sure to take it, and ef Harvey
should lose sight on 'im a minute, he'd stray off, and ef he
found his way out 't all, which I've no idee he would, he 'd
come out torts St. Lorrence ; kind o' burrer out like a mole."
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 263
" Push off, Harvey," said I, " or we wont get down there
to-day."
" Good bye!" said Harvey, with a chuckle, and,dipping
his paddle while Phin, grinning, bent to his oars, we
stretched out into the pond.
" In them rushes out there," remarked Harvey, after a
little while, and dipping his head to the north, where a
broad surface of those plants extended, " it's fust best for
floatin', and 'long in "Wolf Brook, that comes in out there.
But look at the eagle's nest on that dead pine," pointing
out the object on the same side of the bank. " You kin
see the young 'un lookin' over the edge o' the nest for
its daddy or mammy to come home, with suthin' to eat,
I 'spose."
True ; there was a small head pointing from the grey
nest, and I fancied the gleam of the young tawny eyes, as
the fierce dam swooped down with the partridge or rabbit
for the expected feast.
We now glided along a shore (also on the north side),
which presented that same soft and rural look, with its
single trees, shrubbery-like bushes, and smooth, green-sward
I had so often admired throughout the forest. At the lefl
rose the top of Gull Pond Mountain, and the higher sum-
mit of Mount Morris ; and all around, with the exception of
MacLaughlin's uplands, and the beautiful park just noticed,
swept as usual the wilderness.
We landed, for a moment, on a beautiful island full
of elms, where, as Harvey said, " There might be suthin'
of a chance o' seein' a deer," and where he pointed out a
tree, in the fork of which "he'd time and agin sot hours
watchin' fur deer on the shores and round ;" and then, find-
ing his " suthin' of a chance " nothing, we continued on
our way.
The old guide also showed me the Irish Clearing, or the
" Paddy's Choppin'," a steep clearing on the south bank,
" made by a little stumpy Paddy who'd cleared the coun-
try ;" adding, " there, wa'n't no better place fur deer about."
264 WOODS AND WATERS J
In a mile or two more, the banks approached each other.
" Cap'n Peter's Eocks, and we're through the pond," said
Harvey, glancing at several immense grey masses standing
in the water and separating it into alleys. " Old Cap'n
Peter was an Injin and used to hide his game there.
Mitchell Sabatis, the Injin guide up in Newcomb, is his
son."
A mile more of the stream was passed, and we came
to a broad bend, the gleam of a fire breaking out from
among the trees.
" There's the camp," said Harvey, " and a nice,high, dry
spot they hev, too. It's at the head o' the rapids. Don't
ye hear 'm rattle ?"
We struck the bank at our right, where a beautiful cove
rounded into the shore. Here we found the boats of our
party moored to the logs, and drawn half-way into the
wild grass. A light path wound up the bluff or headland,
and, ascending, I found myself at the camp.
A large pine, with a hollow in its heart from decay and
fire, was at my left ; and flanking it, with a background of
thicket parallel to the rapids below and with an open space
before, stood the two tents. A large camp-fire blazed in
front. A buck's head was looking from the hollowed pine
on a pole, and the usual quarters of venison and piles of
trout were hanging and lying around. Supper was now
preparing. Cort was toasting slices of bread, fastened by
wooden pins to a large maple block ; Mart was cooking
rows of trout, pinned in the same manner, one row over
the other, with shreds of salt pork, to a concave flake of
birch bark curled at the bottom to receive the drippings ;
and "Will was giving the " ramrod toast " to cuts of venison,
i.e. roasting them on sticks which he held before the fire.
Corey was bending over the camp-kettle, ladling out smok-
ing hot potatoes on a leaf of spruce bark. The table was
at one side, with Little Jess arranging the pewter dishes
upon it, while, seated on a log, were my three comrades.
Wandering sunset lights put their kindling touch upon
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 265
various points of this picture, chequering tents, comrades
and guides ; and showered into the forest so that a sprout,
a mossy stone, a bit of cedar fringe, a tassel of tamarack,
or the round of a hemlock stem glowed seemingly in golden
fire.
" Hurrah !" exclaimed Bingham, standing up and strik-
ing an attitude. " Art thou a goblin damned ! — sent to
torment us before our time ! — come, let me clutch thee" —
mixing his quotations and gestures most energetically.
"Gentlemen," taking an oratorical position, "behold a
wonder ! Smith has returned ! Chance or Harvey Moody
has favored him, not himself! He never would alone have
returned to bless his friends. Why, I made up my mind
to begin to-night to mourn the dead. Well, we're awful
glad to see you, Smith ! But where's your moose ?"
" In the boat !" said I, after exchanging warm greetings
with Ealph and Gaylor.
" Umph !" said Bingham, " as much as I am in Elysium,
among the gods. How this world is given to — what shall
I add, gentlemen ?"
"Add, bragging about deer one never shoots," said
Gaylor.
" Confound it I" returned Bingham in a heat, " I tell you,
I've no more doubt I shot those deer 'than — but here comes
Harvey and Phin ! Well, Harvey, is it a fact you've got
a moose among ye ?"
" It's a rael old hunderd truth, Mr. Bingham ! you kin
go down to the boat and look at the quarters !"
"Lord!" said Bingham, "what luck some folks have.
Still, two deer are equal to one moose, eh, Harvey ?"
" Why, yes ; that is about, ef so be Mr. Bingham has
shot two."
"If! if!" said Bingham. "Well, I'll say no more,"
waving his hand. " Cort, bring me my rifle, I want to
examine it a moment."
Here Sport appeared around a thicket, trotting rapidly
sidewise, steering by his perpendicular tail, while Drive
266 WOODS AND WATERS;
cleared a bush with a flying bound, both darting toward
Watch. The three in a moment made one revolving braid,
then galloped away, the two lavishing caressing bites on
"Watch, until, gurgling and yelping, all disappeared down
the bank. Meanwhile, Pup, knowing he would receive
in the hubbub more cuffs than caresses, had stood apart,
jerking himself off his feet with his barks. As the three
vanished, however, he set off after them with legs that
seemed split up into a centipede's.
Eight pleasantly passed our meal, all together once more,
and after it I strolled about, marking the localities. From
the overhanging corner of the bluff, where the rapids begin,
I looked at the bold sweeping bend, the quiet cove, the
high banks ; and caught glimpses of the dashing, foaming
waters, now crimsoned by the sunset. An evening in camp
succeeded, the hours passing quickly away in smoking,
talking and dipping moderately into Harvey's fragrant
punches, with the monotone of the rapids filling the pauses
(to say nothing of the needle-points of the infernal mus-
quitoes sprinkling us all over as with fire-dust) till the stars
of midnight warned ys to repose.
OR, SUMMER IX THE SARANACS. 267
CHAPTEE XXI.
Fish-Hawk Eapids. — Perciefield Falls. — Death of Sabele. — Beaver Trip
agreed upon.— Floating.— The Dark Woods.— The Foot-Tread.— The
Indian Jack-Light.
KENNING and Gaylor started down the river, as the sun
rose, to fish Dead Creek. Coburn and Bingham went with
Cort to the Irish Clearing for a drive, while Harvey and I
left for Perciefield Falls, three miles down the Eacket.
Shrouding his head and the greater part of his back in
the shell of his reversed boat, Harvey strode over the carry
round the rapids like some paleozoic lizard on two legs,
speckled with the light trickling through the leaves, while
I followed. Embarking at the foot of the swift water, we
glided two miles down between the wooded islets and
grassy spaces of the broad river which expands from Tup-
per's Lake downward to double its size above.
" Here's a boom o' the river-drivers," said Harvey at
length, as we skirted a long piece of timber stretched upon
the surface of the river ; " and over there," nodding to the
east, "is Gull Pond Brook. And here's Fish-Hawk
Eapids ! What a rattle they keep up ! They're called so
from a fish-hawk's nest that used ter onst be on the top of
a pine at the head on 'm. Jess so, Settin' Pole Eapids is
called from the Injins in old times, when they used ter
come up the Eacket from St. Lorrence, leavin' their settin'
poles stuck in the bank at the head o' the rapids. But
there's a carry here to the falls."
We left our boat, and after a half-mile's tramp down the
west bank, along a narrow path, we heard the rumble of
the water-fall.
268 WOODS AND WATERS;
We again struck the river at the foot of the rapids, where
a short space of smooth water intervened between them
and the falls. Skirting then the bank and scrambling
over fallen trunks which bridged chasms, through prostrate
trees bristling with sharp points, among brambles and
blinding thickets, we emerged upon the broad, smooth
granite ledges, at the head of the falls and forming a stair-
way to their foot. Descending, we stood on a projecting
rock, whence we gained an upward view. Down three
terraces the torrent sprang, almost directly at us, white
and wild with fury; then, flinging upward its mane of
spray, it plunged into the tranquil Kacket.
As I stood where the surges boiled like a witch's caul-
dron, over a rock, and gazed at the river hidden away in
the wilderness's heart, here bursting into foamy lightnings
and jarring thunders, the reverie into which I was gliding
was broken by Harvey.
" One o' the guides hed a tight squeeze of his life above
these falls," he remarked. " He took the idee to shoot
Fish-Hawk Rapids, and went through safe, but he got
kind a foolhardy in the smooth water, and the fust he
knowed he was goin' it fast torts the falls. D'ye see that
dam o' timber up there at the head ? It's called a wing
dam, and was made by the river-drivers to hev it easier fur
the logs to shoot over. Well, when he — what was that feller's
name ? — I disremember now, but he went by the name o'
Paddlin' Pete, 'caze of the nice paddle he drawed, night-
huntin'. Well, when he found that he was likely to go down
over the falls, he throwed himself out o' the boat and
ketched by chance a hold o' the bushes on the side o' the
dam, and away went the boat. It shot agin the timber and
then, whang, down it tumbled and rolled ; and by the time
it got to where we are, there was some sticks and splinters
a-whirlin' and a-floatin' round, but nothin' else. Didn't
that guide quake when he stood safe on the bank ? 'Twas
touch and go with him, and more likely the go, unly it
jeest wa'n't."
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 269
As we returned, Harvey related in detail the fate of the
. old Indian Chief Sabele, as told him by an eye-witness, a
hunter, who was shantying for the time on the spot, trap-
ping sable.
Left alone of all his tribe and borne down by his many
sorrows, feeling, too, the near approaches of old age, the
Chief launched his canoe, after bearing it over the carries
of the two rapids, on the calm water at the torrent's head.
Arrayed in the full costume of a Chief and warrior,
glaring in black and crimson paint, his wolfskin round his
loins, the scalplock erect on his head, knife in his wampum
belt, and gun and tomahawk slung at his back, the aged
savage stood singing his death-song as he glided toward the
verge. Nearer and nearer slid his canoe ; higher and
higher swelled the death-chaunt. The frail bark trembles
at the edge ; it bends ; down like an arrow it shoots, down
over the terraces of foam. The hunter, quivering with
horror, gazes on the dark water below the falls ; he sees
nothing but a few splinters floating along the quiet river.
I had a pleasant sail and stroll in the afternoon light, and
at Camp Tamarack found Ealph and Gaylor with two fine
baskets of trout, and Bingham and Coburn with — loud
assertions from the former, that " he must have killed him !
why, he couldn't have been more than ten rods off," but I
regret to say again, with nothing else.
Hearing that Mart and Will talked of a hunt by jack-
light in the evening, I determined to join them in this fas-
cinating sport.
At dusk, while they were preparing, Harvey joined me
with his rod at the rock by the cove, where I was watch-
ing the fading colors of the scene.
" Well, Harvey, you know, I suppose, we break up camp
to-morrow."
" I hed an idee so from the talk at supper," answered he,
whipping up a trout, " and as I went by the tent jest now,
I heerd Mr. Bingham sayin' that he was tuckered out with
Settin' Pole Kapids ; that there waVt no deer here, and
270 WOODS AND WATERS;
that lie for one was a goin' to move his settin' poles rapid
torts Baker's as sun as poss'ble — ha ! ha 1 ho I"
" You remember our talk about the beaver up in the
St. Eegis woods, Harvey ?"
" Sarten."
" My friends return to Baker's by way of the Eacket.
Suppose we separate from them, and take the jaunt we
agreed upon."
" I'm with ye, Mr. Smith."
"What will be our course to reach the St. Regis Ponds?"
" Go up Wolf Brook out of Racket Pond to Little and
Big Wolf Ponds, and then through a passle o' ponds, west
and north o' Upper S'nac, to Hoel's Pond."
" How many carries ?"
" Eight to Hoel's : two a mile long, and one half a mile,
and the rest from four to twenty rods."
" After we get to Hoel's, what then ?"
" We leave the boat and steer into the woods, five or six
mile, till we come to the waters where the beaver is. On-
derstand now, Mr. Smith ! I won't promise to show ye
the beaver, and I wont not to, nuther. But I'll show ye
plenty o' beaver sign and fresh too; and beaver housen
good as ef made to-day. Many and many's the time I've
trapped beaver on them waters, and last October I trapped
two."
" Enough, Harvey, we go ; and as the route must be a
pretty hard one, take Phin with you."
" All right ! and we'll hev an airly start to-morrer morn-
in'."
" How long will it take to make the trip ?"
" About four days."
At this moment Mart and Will informed me all was
ready, and we pushed off, Mart rowing and Will at the
stern with the paddle. The jack was not yet lighted.
"This is the lucky boat, Mr. Smith," said Mart; "one
deer, as Harve says, is as good as dead, and mebby two ;
hey, Will?"
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 271
" Oh yes!" said taciturn Will.
" The other fellers goes out," resumed Mart, " and ef so
be as how they don't git no deer, there's a'lys a reason for't,
a'lys. They didn't see right or the deer was too fur off,
or the rifle wasn't good, or"
He broke off, looked keenly a moment, grasped his rifle,
and fired. We were just abreast of a wild meadow, and I
caught a dissolving view of a deer bounding away between
two bushes.
" He's gone, Mart," said Will, looking at him. Mart
looked at his rifle.
" He wan't mor'n ten rods. off, Mart," said Will.
" Hey?" ejaculated Mart, still eyeing his rifle.
" Jeest about ten rods !" responded Will.
" T wenty , by hookey ! Will. I j est got sight on 'im, that's
all. This aiht my rifle, Will. It's Harvey's, as sure as preach-
in'. I didn't look at it when we left camp, and thought
as much as could be, 'twas mine, they're so cluss alike. I
kin hardly tell 'm apart any way, but I see it's his rifle.
Well, I snum !"
" Zactly 1" said Will.
" Twenty rods, Will I"
" Jess so 1" said Will, with a gurgling sound in his
throat.
"And then the rifle ! Will. Unly think," looking up and
down and all round the weapon. " I don't b'leeve (length-
ening out his words as if in deep thought), I raally don't
b'leeve I ever shot this rifle afore in my life. There's
everything in a rifle that you've a'lys shot with, hey, Will?"
" Jess so," said Will, turning his face aside with a broad
grin on it.
" Ah, it's old hunderd, as Harve says, to shoot a rifle
you know all about. By the way, I didn't see enny thing
but the tail, Will. 'Twas dreffle quick work to see 't all,"
and Mart essayed to sing. He couldn't ; so he whistled.
The gold light faded into grey, as we reached Captain
Peter's Eocks and skirted the shore of Eacket Pond to the
272 WOODS AND WATERS;
left, and when we had arrived opposite the Irish Clearing,
the trees were mingling in the umber dusk.
While listening to the pleasant ripples of our darkening
course, I saw Mart thrust forward his head and aim his
rifle like lightning. A shoot of red light, a crack, and a
dart of the boat toward the shore followed. As we entered
the shallow, rustling through a belt of lily-pads, I caught
sight of a large object glancing in the dark water, and the
next moment Mart had grasped the antlers of a buck.
" Dead enough, Will," chuckled he.
" How on earth could you see to shoot, Mart," remarked
I, " in this light ?" .
" I see 'im and heerd 'im too," said Mart, laughing.
" I heerd his drip, drip, in the water, and then I see suthin'
dark, that I had a notion might be the head or forequarters
of a deer, and blazed away. He was feedin' on the
pads."
It was really an extraordinary shot, and fully redeemed
the first failure.
Indeed I have been frequently struck with the keenness
of both ear and eye possessed by these guides, seeming, in
many instances, almost intuition, and rivalling that of the
native Indian.
Mart now kindled the jack, and I was noting the flitting
effects of the light upon the bank, when I heard the
quick click of Mart's locks, succeeded by another report of
his rifle.
"He's off!" said Will, urging the boat ashore with a
powerful sweep of his paddle.
"Not fur, though, I guess," returned Mart, springing
from the boat.
He lighted a match, and making a little lantern with his
hollowed hand, lowered it to the shrubs around, kindling
them with a fire-fly radiance.
" There's blood," said Mart ; " one drop here, and one on
this brake. Bring on the jack, Will ; I've peppered 'im.
See," lighting another match, and sprinkling more light
OR. SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 273
from his sweeping hand upon the herbage, " he's bled
some, I tell ye."
Will now came up with the jack, which cast a broad,
steady radiance.
" Here's the track," said Mart, holding the jack close to
the bushes ; " and here's more blood and hair. We'll find
'im lyin' down furder on ;" and we entered the forest.
We had gone on a little in the black woods, Mart and
Will bending low, scrutinizing the weedy growth at our
feet, when the former, turning to me, said :
" Will you please stay here a leetle, Mr. Smith, and
Will and I'll go furder in. When we whoop, ef you'll
whoop too, we kin find the boat agin. It's so dark, we'll
lose it ef we don't do so."
I assented, and the two pushed on, the light, low voices,
and slight crackling of even their careful footsteps, becom-
ing fainter and fainter, until all ceased.
I was now in almost impenetrable darkness, or rather
blackness, only two or three outlines around and above
betraying the trees.
Presently the hissing whine of an owl commenced close
to me ; but it soon ceased, and a breathless silence again
reigned. Suddenly I heard in the sable depths a low rus-
tling, as of a slow, stealthy tread — sounding, ceasing, sound-
ing again — coming closer and closer. It approached to
within a few rods, stopped, advanced, stopped again ; then
came nearer, nearer, till within several feet of me; and
then once more it stopped. A slight scratching sound
succeeded ; but at this moment a clear whoop rang in front.
I answered it ; a touch of light showed upon a bush, and
a glow lighted upon a trunk. At the same time, I heard
a loud and now hurried rustling, with bound ings, in the
direction of the former sounds and lessening, until lost in
a course the farthest from the light.
The latter brightened momentarily ; voices again sounded,
and Mart and Will approached.
" We hevn't hed no luck, Mr. Smith," said the former,
18
274 WOODS AND WATERS;
as we returned toward where we supposed the boat lay.
" The deer's bin 'cute enough to git off so fur ; but I rayther
guess we'll try it agin in the mornin'."
And such disappointment has been generally my expe-
rience in following wounded deer, the animal's endurance
being so great, and its haunts so secret. Now and then
the hunter, tracking by signs, finds the victim where he
has lain down to die ; but the success is the exception, not
the rule. ;. .7
We found our boat, and pushed off.
" Spos'n we try Wolf Brook now, Will ?" said Mart.
Will nodded, and we continued upward.
As we turned a curve of the bank, a light like a star
appeared ahead, just over the water, rapidly enlarging, and
coming down the pond obliquely.
" A jack makin' for the Brook," said Mart, in a whisper.
" I shouldn't wonder ef 'twas the Injins. Quick, Will,
quick, or they'll be ahead on us, sure as a gun !"
Onward skimmed the light, like a will-o'-the-wisp, toward
the shore at our left, and onward we darted at the same
point. The race became animating, Mart having betaken
himself to the oars. Both lights were within the broad
rushes that cover the shallows of the pond in this direc-
tion ; and it seemed at one moment as if we should win
the entrance ; but the red spot glanced through a cluster
of thicket and vanished.
" Gaul hang !" exclaimed Mart, " they're in the Brook.
But spos'n we go up past where the Injins is camped. I
don't bleeve they've floated up there to-night, and we
might stand a good chance o' findin' another deer afore we
git to the Injin Park."
We accordingly floated to the basin before the Park, and
back again to within a short distance of Eacket Pond, but
without success. Suddenly a light appeared from around
a bend of the river. It was zigzagging along toward us,
pausing a moment, then advancing as before. As it glanced
in and out, gliding in a half-circle around, lost for an
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 27 'j
instant, then sparkling out and skimming on, I almost
fancied it the eye of some swimming animal searching the
banks for prey.
Suddenly it stopped; dwindled, until it glimmered a
mere grain of light, and then vanished. In a few minutes
more, a black object skulked close along the bank. Mart
turned the jack upon it, and a canoe with two Indians
gleamed forth.
" Old Leo and t'other Injin," said Mart. " They've
either got a deer up Wolf Brook and don't want us to
know 't, or they hevn't and don't want us to know their
bad luck. But spos'n, as it's so late, and the deer don't
seem very plenty, we don't hunt no more, but git back to
camp as sun as we kin ; and, Will, let's hev a song as we
go ! and let it be what we've bin on to-night, ' Floatin' fur
Deer.' "
Will accordingly, as Mart bent to the oars and he to the
paddle, struck up the following song (altered from the ori-
ginal), Mart tugging along by his side in gutturals more
loud than musical : —
The woods are all sleeping, the midnight is dark ;
"We launch on the still wave our bubble-like bark ;
The rifle all ready, the jack burning clear,
And we brush through the lily-pads, floating for deer,
Floating for deer.
And we glide o'er the shallow, boys, floating for deer.
We turn the low meadow ; — now breathless we skim ;
That eye! no, the phosphor! yon head! no, a limb!
This step in the stream I no, a spring dripping near !
Thus we brush through the lily-pads, floating for deer,
Floating for deer.
Thus we glide o'er the shallow, boys, floating for deer.
Ton nook I spring the locks 1 the deer's eyeballs of fire
Still, still as a shadow ! hush 1 nigher, yet nigher !
He falls ! draw him in ! now away in good cheer,
Through the lily-pads blithely from floating for deer,
Floating for deer.
Back to camp, through the shallow, from floating for deer.
276 WOODS AND WATERS;
At length the light of the camp-fire saluted us, and leav-
ing the two guides busy with the boat, I ascended the
bank.
Suffused with the social radiance of the flame, my four
comrades were seated on the log which served for a camp-
sofa, each with a glass of what I took, from the fragrance,
to be punch.
" Ha, ha, ha ; he, he, he ; ho, ho, ho I"
" What's the joke, boys ?"
"Ha, ha, ha; he, he, he; ho, ho, ho!"
" Can't you tell a fellow ? I want to laugh too 1 "We've
had pretty good luck, but I'm very cold."
" Ha, ha, ha ; he, he, he ; ho, ho, ho 1"
"What the joke was, I have never learned to this day.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 277
CHAPTEE XXII.
Setting Pole Rapids left.— Wolf Brook.— Little Wolf and Big Wolf Fonda.
— Lumber-Road in the Rain. — Picture Pond. — Beaver Meadow. — Maine
Shanty.
AT dawn we broke up Camp Tamarack. While the
boats were being prepared for our departure, I wandered a
short way into the forest by a path that had been bushed
out to the spring, for a last draught of the delicious water.
Beyond, I came upon another decayed log-hut. The bark
roof had fallen away ; the broken and prostrate door was
nearly buried in herbage, while the area was choked with
bushes. It had once, doubtless, been the home of some
hunter or trapper who, with characteristic restlessness, had
abandoned even this remote spot to plunge into lonelier
wilds.
A low whoop from Harvey recalled me to the bank ; we
all embarked, Corey and Jess leading the way with the
tent, baggage, and what remained of the stores.
At the head of Eacket Pond we separated ; my comrades
with their guides turning to the right, up the Eacket, on
their way to Baker's, while I, Harvey and Phin, with
Watch chained at the bow (Harvey no more went without
his hound than his rifle), sought Wolf Brook at the left.
Henceforth we were to travel rapidly, passing through a
wilderness, a portion of which was but little known, even
to the guides, pushing on by day and sleeping on the
ground at night. We were encumbered therefore with no
luggage or stores we could possibly dispense with, the trip
being limited to a week, to enable me to rejoin my comrades
at Baker's previous to their (if not my) departure for home
278 WOODS AND WATERS;
Passing through an a-lley in the rushes, we struck the
mouth of the brook, and were soon threading the sharp
windings of the stream. Openings scattered with alders
and swamp willows lined the banks, yielding soon to the
usual close forest. Through the green light, the water
dotted as with golden beetles, with gnats whirling their
speckled wheels in front, dragon-flies shooting like sapphire
darts cast right and left by elves, and now and then a bird
whirring athwart, we went, with oar and paddle. The
channel grew shallower and more winding, so that only
Phin's paddle could be used, Harvey and I aiding by pull-
ing on the branches, like sailors at the ropes.
At length, the water growing so shallow, Harvey said,
"We'd better git out at the sand-bank, Mr. Smith, and
let Phin paddle up to Little Wolf. We kin go on foot
through the woods. It's unly half a mile from the bank
through, but it's more'n a mile and a half by the brook."
We accordingly landed on a broad space of sand, at our
right, where a huge wolf-track had been freshly stamped,
and entering a cleft in the bushes, we found ourselves in a
winding deer-path. A labyrinth of stems was round, below
was a dense undergrowth and above a web of branches.
Through them fell the scattered light, here in rich spots
like myriads of yellow butterflies, there in broad patches
kindling the pine cones, dead leaves, sprouts and ferns into
lambent flame. Now and then a tree dropped an arch so
low as to make us dip our heads to pass, or thrust forth a
green hand as if to tap our breast; and under the che-
quered light, the forest floor was radiant with the differ-
ing hues of the lichens, mosses and creeping vines, that
velveted every rock and log, and threaded every patch of
earth not covered by the undergrowth.
After a half hour's walk, we came to an old deserted
chopping, with black logs, cushioned in blackberry bram-
bles. We regaled ourselves upon the fruit, and struck soon
a bend of the brook, crossing it by a little log bridge.
Again we entered the forest, and shortly emerged upon
OR, StJMMER IN THE SARANACS. 279
Little Wolf Pond, the first of the chain in our road. Best-
ing a moment on a fallen tree at the margin, we started for
the head, along the sandy edges, printed over with deer
tracks. Here we sat down and gazed over the expanse,
which is nearly round and a mile in diameter. Nothing
appeared on the surface but the brush of a breeze, and
nothing above but a sailing fish-hawk. The silver sunshine,
for the sky was thickening, fell pleasantly upon us as we
lay upon the warm earth, and the scents of the forest were
delicious.
At length a boat, with its bow in the air, a hat at its
stern, and flashes at either side, appeared from the forest
rim opposite, all which turned out to be Phin, skimming
rapidly towards us.
We struck our first carry, and passing a deserted saw-
mill upon the brook-link between the two ponds, came soon
upon Big Wolf, where a little bark shanty was crouching
in the bushes, with " Ring's Camp" scrawled upon its front.
We drank from a clear spring, at the base of a grassy point,
which was bare of trees, except a large pine at the tip ;
and turning the point, we enjoyed a bath in the little
bay which, rimmed with white sand and clear from the
usual lilies, rounded into the shore. We then crossed a
portion of the pond (which is a third larger than Little
Wolf), and, passing a group of islands, struck the bank,
where a lumber road had been bushed out for drawing logs
through the woods. At the edge of the water was another
deserted camp, a large cedar slanting almost horizontally,
the sides closed with lopped maple branches, whose wilted
leaves emitted a pleasant perfume.
Here began, as Harvey remarked, a mile carry, to a
small pond without a name, hidden away in the woods, but
in our direct path. Leaving the two guides to follow with,
the boat, I went on before ; the " dudods," as Harvey called
the luggage, being placed, with the oars, paddle, and neck-
yoke, in the boat. Sinking ankle deep in the green morass
that spread from the margin, and seesawing over the logs, or
280 WOODS AND WATEES;
corduroy which spanned the deepest parts, we entered the
forest. Now I stumbled over a great root, coiled in and in
like a knot of sleeping black snakes, now threshed through
a barricade of bushes, and now scaled some enormous pine
fallen athwart. Stumps studded the margin, and chopped
logs lay parallel, embedded in ferny and shrubby leafage,
and pointing from the sumacs and hopple bushes like can-
non-muzzles ; while a dense carpet of various wood-sprouts,
intermingled with dead leaves, evergreen cones, and dry
pine-needles covered the dark forest mould. Suddenly
there sounded a slow, measured dropping, which quick-
ened, until a steady hum in the green depths told the rain.
At first, its coolness in the close forest air was delightful,
but it soon fell so dense that I looked round for shelter.
The thatch of a slanting cedar offered its protection, but I
soon discovered, that if in old times
" Such tents the patriarchs loved,"
they must have loved the tents better than the contents, for
I soon found mine decidedly leaky.
A large hollow hemlock, no doubt the winter nest of a
bear, promised more comfort, and thrusting myself within,
I looked out protected, upon the scene, and listened to the
forest roof rumbling in the rain.
The maple trembled all over as the rapid shot of the
drops pelted its broad leaves, the pine shook its loose
tassels as if to repel the rainy attack, but the hemlock only
twitched his sturdy branches as a dog beset with flies
twitches his skin.
Suddenly the sounds ceased, and stepping out, I resumed
my way amid a throng of loosened odors in the damp,
bland air. By and by, Harvey and Phin, bearing the boat
upright, under a layer of spruce, overtook me. Then
came another shower, more heavy than the first. Dislodg-
ing the boat of its load, which they covered with more
boughs, the guides propped it on a brace of stout sticks,
and lo ! an off-hand shanty, under which we crouched,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS 281
bidding defiance to the torrents. The rounded roof echoed
to the batterings upon it, splintering the. streams into spray.
Through a narrow front I could only see a breadth of
quaking undergrowth, with one green log that absorbed
the rain like a sponge, and a cushion of ferns between two
roots that slaked itself in it like a duck.
At length the shower expired of its own violence, and
another half-hour brought us to the nameless pond.
A most beautiful liquid gem it was. Opposite rose an
acclivity of cedars, with a smooth, green headland. At
the right, and forming a little winding bay, stood a small,
bare, pyramidal island. The scene was lonely as beauti-
ful. We crossed, cutting through the sunset colors, and
entered the bay, which was roofed with foliage. Here and
there a drop of carmine or a spangle of gold had fallen, or
a little arrow of light had shot through the woven canopy
upon the dark water. We returned and skirted the island,
Harvey pointing out a turtle-bed on its summit.
We traversed the rich, beamy polish of the pond, which
I named Picture Pond, with the dabble of Phin's oars
(Harvey sat idle at the stern) wakening the profound still-
ness, and landed.
" I guess we'll leave the boat here," said Harvey.
" There's a Maine shanty a little ways above here, where
we kin spend the night. We'll leave the Bluebird here.
I'll stand bail there's nobody round to be off with her.
Phin, you're young, you take up the dudods."
Ascending a ridge, we found ourselves in front of the
shanty, which was a low, comfortable log cabin. Below,
at our left, lay a large beaver-meadow, long, narrow, irre-
gular, with little points of wood jutting into it, and tama-
racks streaking the edges or grouped like islets in its
cove-like nooks, and ground cedars planting their dark
tents picturesquely around.
In one of these nooks stood two stacks of hay, under
a low pencil of light, while in the farthest distance a
quick glitter told of water.
282 WOODS AND WATERS;
For the hundredth time I asked myself, where was the
farm-house, with the grazing cows, the dotted sheep, the
yoked oxen dozing in the lane, and the sturdy steeds cross-
necked in the shade.
Instead of this rural picture, I saw a deer under a
lurching tamarack, now feeding, then stopping to look,
then dropping its head again to the grass. At the same
time, I caught sight of Harvey, with his rifle, creeping
from bush to bush, toward it, stealthy as a wild-cat. The
next, the deer lifted its pointed face ; then, with a gentle
trot, glided between some cedar thickets, and vanished.
We now crossed the meadow, to see the remains of an
old beaver-dam at its head. "We passed the little pond
whose winking eye I had seen, and whose margin was a
picture-writing of deer- tracks. Ascending a hill spotted
with thickets, we came upon a low, gently-sloping wall of
wild grass, which Harvey pronounced the dam. We then
retraced our steps toward the shanty, turning on the bank
to gaze at the meadow glowing like green velvet in the
last rays of the sun, with long black shadows printing its
surface. The soft look of culture was stronger than ever,
but all resemblance to civilization there ceased. Instead
of the crow of chanticleer, the wild cry of a hawk circling
a dry pine startled the echoes. • A grey fox was skulking
between the golden-tanned haystacks, instead of the house-
dog, roaming around with his protecting tread; and in
place of the laden honey-bee seeking the sunset hive, the
hungry deer-fly threaded the tangle of the wild beaver-
grass.
Twilight now rested on the rough clearing before the
shanty. I sat at the rude porch while Harvey and Phin
began the night-fire. The evening was close and sultry
after the rain, and of course it was holiday among the
musquitoes. Their premonitory symptoms were discernible
in the actions of Harvey, who was in the clearing, gather-
ing chips (left by the lumbermen) for the fire. From that
staid soberness, not only natural to him, but quite becom-
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 283
ing in one of his age and experience, I saw him suddenly
transformed into a dancing-Jack. At the same time, a
sting on my forehead, another on the throat, and a most
diabolical one inside my pantaloons, showed in earnest
my time was come. Bred from the beaver meadow, and
this generation probably never before tasting human blood,
the musquitoes poured a living torrent.
At first I pounded myself as much as the little mocking
fiends could wish, but at length encased myself in the
mail of philosophic don't-care-ativeness, and " took it" like
a hero. In fact, I began rather to enjoy the thing, and at
last took notes. One fellow, I particularly remarked. First,
he darted across my forehead, then down the cheek, then
glanced into my eye with an " Aha !" Next, he sent
a twang into my ear like the first nip of a fiddle-string,
then gave a sounding flourish, intensifying it into a fine
hum, which rang like the buzz x of a sharp bell, warning
me plainly to look out. At last, down pounced the little
grey-coated, globe-eyed sapper delicately on his elastic,
long-angled legs, and planted his slender sucking-pump on
a pore of my hand. I endured the tickling, and watched
the enormous pouch and transparent, black-ribbed needle
of a body expanding ruddily, till the elfin marauder,
gorged to repletion, lifted with difficulty his pump and
floated sluggishly away.
Glancing upward as it flew, I saw with a thrill the new
moon beaming timidly on the edge of the warm, red west,
a silver barque upon a ruby sea.
The dark night now came, blending all objects in one
general gloom, except within the crimson ring of the camp-
fire.
We enjoyed our supper of dried, trout and venison, and
then went into the cabin for rest. There was but one
room ; the board floor was partly broken, showing the
dark earth below. The shaft of the chimney of stones and
clay ran up from the centre, and a large, flat, upright stone,
blackened by fire, with two stone jambs, made the hearth.
284 WOODS AND WATEKS;
" Them lumber fellows had rousin' times here in the
winter, fur all they was clearn away from folks," said
Harvey, as he entered, after lighting his pipe at the fire.
" They must have had some cold, stormy times in this
wild spot," remarked I.
" Yes, the winds bio wed and the snow flew, sometimes,
but, bless ye, they didn't mind it a bit. I've lumbered it
myself among 'm. They're jest as tough as a pine-knot,
them fellers I"
" Did they cut the hay stacked in the meadow ?"
" Sarten ! to fodder their oxen with. But they left the
next winter fur Big Square Pond, nigh Upper S'nac. But
as we must be out o' here afore sunrise, what say ye fur
sleep ? Good night !"
So saying, he and Phin threw themselves on a bed of
hay, which the latter had found in a little log barn, back
of the shanty, and I followed, falling into slumber, while
fancying a wild winter storm thundering through the
woods and raving round the shanty for entrance.
OR, SUMMER IX THE SARANACS. 285
CHAPTEE XXin.
Path Resumed. — The Medal. — Musquito Pond. — Rawlins Pond. — Floodwood
Pond. — The Sable. — A. Network of Ponds. — Long Pond. — The Cranes.—
Slang Pond. — Turtle Pond.— Hoel's Pond.— Boat Left. — Through the
Woods. — Beaver Meadows. — Beaver Signs. — Beaver Pond. — Beaver
Houses. — A Beaver. — The Bivouac.
THE grey of the early daybreak was struggling in the air,
as I was aroused by Harvey, who, with Phin, had already
brought the boat from the pond. My first plunge into the
atmosphere was like a cold bath ; I was refreshed in an
instant. The stars were fading, and the confused woods
becoming momentarily clearer, as we resumed our road,
which shortly brought us to another pond, smaller than the
last and almost perfectly round, which I named ." The
Medal." Crossing it, the next water in our chain was
Musquito Pond, with a mile carry, the least known of any
in our path. No signs of a track met our eyes, and the
guides decided to leave the Bluebird and push on with me
to the pond, over the best path to be found, then return
and transport the boat. Long and toilsome was our way
through the tangled and trackless woods, but at last the
shining level of the pond broke through the trees ; and leav-
ing me in a little green dingle on the margin, with Watch
for company, my guides went back.
The scene, after they had left, was as utterly lonely and
wild as could be imagined. The shores, unlike those of
the other lakes and ponds in this alpine region, were low,
belted with swamp and disfigured with dead, ghastly trees.
Although I am a lonely man by nature, habit and choice,
shrinking from mankind instinctively as from a blow, yet as
286 WOODS AND WATERS;
this profoundly desolate scene smote my sight, I felt a
weight deeper than I had ever experienced in the forest.
Watch looked up into my face; cocked his ear inquiringly,
as if to say, " What d'ye think of it round here ?" Then
he dropped his jaw and panted the pantomime for " Rather
hot I" snapping this way and that to suggest, " Flies plaguy
thick I" A short, rapid laugh, under his breath, probably
at my woe-begone looks, followed, till at length he fixed
his head between his paws and winked himself to sleep.
On the pond a couple of copperhead ducks, their brown
necks shining in the light, were steering out, and soon
vanished in the dazzling glare midway. Then a raven
slowly flapped over, and then a kingfisher, settling on a
dry limb, threw a bit of rich color on the mirror below.
At last I fell into a day-dream, only broken by a whim-
per from Watch, and looking in the direction his nose
pointed, I saw at my distant right Harvey and Phin emerg-
ing from the forest with the boat. They skimmed rapidly
to where I stood and took in myself and the hound. Cross-
ing the length of the dismal sheet, we then passed over a
dry open ridge of a few rods, and embarked upon Eawlins'
Pond at the head of a long narrow bay with an arm pene-
trating the woods at our right.
" This pond's the head waters, through Fish Creek, of
the three S'nac Lakes and S'nac River," said Harvey
while passing an island he named to me as Camp Island.
4t Fish Creek," continued he, " is a string o' ponds, and
throws an all-fired big batch o' water in Upper S'nac, about
three quarters of a mile from its head."
Passing three other islands, and crossirig northerly a
distance three times the extent of Musquito Pond, we
landed on the left, at the foot of the pond, where the swift,
rocky outlet brawled forth into the forest. Here, sur-
mounting another ridge of six or seven rods, we launched
into Floodwood Pond, linked to Rawlins by the outlet.
It was about the same size as the latter, and lay in a gene-
ral easterly direction. Pointing north-easterly we passed a
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 287
small island, and leaving at our left another and larger
(called by Harvey, Beaver Island), we glided along a third
one still larger. "We had passed midway, when, suddenly,
"Watch, who had been all along curled up at Harvey's feet,
rose on bis haunches, and jerking his ears, looked narrowly
at a small maple on the bank.
" Down, Watch ! what are ye pointin' that nose o' yourn
out there fur ? Down with ye or I'll "
Watch melted away. In a moment after, however, he
sprang, this time to his feet, with a yelp, still gazing at
the same place.
" What's he seein', Phin ?" asked Harvey.
" I dunno as I kin tell," commenced Phin, settling his
oars in the water.
" I do though I" broke in the former, throwing his paddle
into the boat, dropping a sounding knock as he did so on
poor Watch's skull (who complained by a dismal howl),
then catching his rifle to his shoulder and firing. " Saples
aint so mighty plenty that I kin afford to let one go, even if
't aint in season." Then driving the boat to the margin, he
stepped on shore, and soon returned, bringing a dead
animal with a white head and coat of light tawny fur,
large hind quarters and bushy tail ; which he handed me
for inspection. It was the sable, rare even here.
" The nicest and most valyble fur in the woods," con-
tinued he. " I've telled ye afore how we ketch 'm. I
drive sometimes a fust trade best in this fur, as well as
what I git from fisher and mink, to say nothin' o' rats.
But about these ere ponds we're crossin'. The whull region
is as full o' ponds as the ponds is o' lily -pads a'most. Now,
a leetle south o' here, p'intin' from Kawlins torts Big Square
Pond to the east, there's Whey Pond, and a leetle one that
hasn't no name. Furder from here, torts Fish Creek waters,
is Otter Pond and Buttermilk Pond. Then up west and
north, a mile or two, is two or three more ponds, and north
o' Long Pond is Rainbow Pond. You can't go amiss source,
and reck'nin' in the lakes and streams, may go enny wherea
288 WOODS AND WATERS;
a'most in your boat, with a few carries. But here we are
at the end of the pond, with a carry of half a mile afore ua
inter Long Pond."
Day was creeping low as we crossed the carry, and he
had thrown a golden path over the pond as we struck it
midway its winding three-mile length.
We had gone nearly through when, turning a point, a
deafening clamor and a novel sight saluted us.
In a low marshy spot, hundreds of cranes were running,
walking, hovering, darting through the air, and cleaving
spirally upward until almost invisible, and then swooping
downward on their broad sails, their plumage flashing white
in the sunset. The voices were prodigious, and quite pecu-
liar. One who seemed the stump orator to the crowd,
standing some four feet on his pins, was, at the moment of
our arrival, making a speech at the top of his harsh voice
and stamping his foot as if to emphasize it.
As we passed, the whole flock, seemingly unable longer
to restrain their fire, broke in upon the harangue, with, as
it were, three cheers and a tiger. Even as far off as the
carry, the echoes were in a flutter, from the tall orator's
eloquence. The name of the next pond struck me as
appropriate in the highest degree to stump speeches in
general.
" Slang Pond," said Harvey, as the inlet, in the form of
a bow, received our boat. Through its half mile channel
we went, in the golden glow succeeding the sundown, the
rustle of our way amid the continuous lily-pads of the upper
end, sounding like a shower in the woods.
" The next is Turtle Pond," remarked he, as we entered
a little, swift, gravelly stream. " and the outlet here, after
about three rods, brings us inter it. It lays straight along
about a mile, has a waist jest like a woman, and hasn't no
lily-pads 't all to speak of.'1'
I found the comparison just. We traversed the sheet in
the " gloaming ;" and as we crossed the last carry, between
us and Hoel's Pond, Harvey and Phin bearing the boat on
OR, SUMMEIi IN THE SARANACS. 289
the same shoulder they had from the beginning, so that I
thought the spot must, by this time, be grooved, the woods
began to grow dusky.
The night had quite settled down, with the crescent
moon too faint for light, as the guides woke with oar and
paddle the breathing silence of Hoel's. Gliding for some
distance in the ambrosial dark of the air, and over the star-
sprinkled ebony of the water, we landed on what appeared
a point, penetrating far into the pond.
Soon the blaze, kindled by my guides, stripped the dark-
ness from the scene, showing our camping spot to be indeed
a long tongue of the mainland. The light threw a scarlet
over the backs of the old logs at the margin, blushed on
the bushes covering the point, and reddened the stars from
out the sable water.
Our simple supper ended, overcome by fatigue we
stretched ourselves in our blankets on the grass, with our
feet to the camp-fire ; and under the cool stars, and lulled
by the natural sounds of our wild bivouac, the gentle talk
of the ripples to the sand, the murmur of the night wind
through the leaves and the fitful chirping of some wakeful
bird, we resigned ourselves to slumber.
Day was just breaking as I awoke. A chill, misty
air was flowing through the woods and curdling the
water.
My guides had already dragged the boat over the point
to the eastern of the pond's two divisions and we shortly
struck the opposite shore. Here we were to leave the Blue-
bird and take up our line of march through the forest to
the beaver waters, several miles to the east. We accord-
ingly hid the boat in one hollow log, and to prevent the
use of it, if found, hid the oars and paddle in another.
Harvey shouldered his rifle which supported a coarse check
sack with half our stores, and a small camp-kettle, while
his left hand grasped his axe.
Phin carried a knapsack of leather, containing the rest
of the stores, and his rifle, with Watch buckled to his waist
19
290 WOODS AND WATERS;
by a long strap. I avoided all encumbrance, anticipating
truly a toilsome tramp.
We then started, Harvej7" leading the way, Phin follow-
ing close in his footsteps, and I bringing up the rear.
An aisle between a colonnade of trunks, invited us
through its grassy length. We then ascended a somewhat
open ridge, or " hog's-back," continued upon it for a con-
siderable distance, and then descended. The woods grew
darker and wilder. The underbrush deepened. Decayed
logs more thickly blocked the way. Harvey began to
hack the trees on either side, making what in woodcraft is
known as a " blazed line."
At every step, I could see we were piercing deeper and
deeper into the wildest, loneliest recesses of this wild and
lonely wilderness. The great trees stood round in myriads
upon myriads, with smaller ones between, bewildering the
eyesight ; the ground entangled with the densest growth,
which almost buried the fallen trunks, patriarchs of the
forest, that had been undermined by age or hurled flat by
storms. Now and then a broad tract of laurels over which
rose dead tamaracks and cedars, warning the foot not to
enter its blinding and treacherous depths, or an immense
labyrinth of prostrate trees, all twisted and interlaced,
showing where some tornado had whirled, sent us widely
from our course. Wilder and wilder grew our way. Here
and there a broken sunbeam lay athwart the higher branches
of a pine or hemlock, or a long spear-like ray reached to
• a bush, or its splintered point sprinkled the innumerable
woodsprouts, but the general tone of light was grey and
sombre. The leaves of the forest's summit frequently flut-
tered in passing currents, but below was a stagnant quiet.
No sound could be heard, save the sharp hack of Harvey's
axe, or the " uggle-uggle" of the crossing raven, that might
well be deemed some flying ghoul of the sepulchral re-
cesses.
Nature showed herself, not in the fresh loveliness of her
sylvan haunts, but as if borne down by the weight of cen-
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 291
turies ; and was mouldering silently and sullenly away,
under a mantle of moss that clothed rock, log, bank,
and hollow, clung in great patches on the trees and was
so intermingled with the dank, rotten leaves upon the
eajth, as to nearly overlay their umber hues. The sunken
streams, crawling under logs and between rocky crevices,
burrowed at times underneath this mossy screen, flashing
out here and there like a deer's eye from ambush.
Threshing through bushes, scaling enormous logs, slip-
ping and tumbling over roots, tripping among tough creep-
ing plants, plunging headlong into thickets and falling to
the waist in mossy cavities, on we went. Now and then,
a bear-path showing punctures of the huge creature's claws,
or a light deer trail, was seen, but it was quickly lost, and
all became trackless as before. The inequalities of the
ground too, heightened my fatigue. Now a ridge forced
us to cling to the branches, in laboring up ; the steep de-
scent proving more toilsome still. We paused, however,
frequently, to drink at some lurking spring, bared by
scooping out the dead leaves, thus resting my tired limbs
a moment ; but soon forward again was the word, for my
guides seemed men of iron.
" 'Tisn't like floatin' down the Kacket, is't, Mr. Smith?"
said Harvey, as trembling with fatigue, I grasped a bough
to keep from sinking to the earth. "But take some o' this,"
cutting a portion of gum from a spruce with his axe;
" 'twill make yer stronger, and keep yer from being so
dreffle dry. This drinkin' at all the springs, on a tramp
like this, isn't the best thing in the world. It makes yer,
after all, uuly more tired."
"Look a' here!" said he, a little farther, pointing at
some gashes in several stems. " See where the confounded
bears 've stuck their teeth inter the bark and wood, and
here they've scratched with their sharp claws, and here
they've twisted off the limbs with them paws o' their'n.
They're a plaguy wild brute, them bears, as bad as a mad
moose a'most, when they're ugly."
292 WOODS AND WATERS;
"We crossed one more ridge, and turning another ledge,
saw water glancing brokenly through the trees.
" The fust o' the St. Regis Ponds," said Harvey, and in
a few moments a most lovely pond gleamed in the sunshine
before us. Sheer to the edge came its circle of forest, save
where one small headland, green as an emerald, rounded
into the water. Once more did I notice with delight, the
shrubbery-like grouping of the thickets. Streaks of cedars
also wound along as if the hand of ' taste had guided
them. I stepped on the back of a log, lying, like a gigantic
lizard, far into the water, and drank in the beautiful
picture.
In the middle was a loon, drawing a track of silver, and
sounding incessantly his bugle note, awaking a thousand
echoes. .
" What is the name of this pond, Harvey?"
Receiving no answer, I turned to the old guide, and
repeated the question. I was struck with the expression
of his face. It was blank and puzzled. He exchanged
glances with Phin ; both retired a little, and conversed in
low tones. Harvey pointed in several directions, and
swept his arm round with a keen, but doubtful look. At
length they returned ; Harvey looking up and down the
pond, and glancing back the way we came.
" Confess, now, Harvey," said I. " You don't know
where you are."
" Well, I must say, Mr. Smith — that is, I b'leeve — I
kinder think — I dunno but that — that — hem."
" In other words, you're lost."
" Well, I vow, things does look a leetle queer to me,
around here. I can't 'zactly git straight. Strannge too.
I've ketched fur and killed ven'son on the St. Regis waters
year after year, and yit, somehow, I — a — a — I don't"-
" Know where you are," added I.
" Well — a — I dunno — as I ever — see this pond afore."
"Why, Harvey! what shall we do? How many miles
have we travelled, and how long will it take us to get out
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 293
of these terrible woods, supposing we are lost," said I,
breaking into a lieat with ray apprehensions.
" Well, ef we kept- right straight along, I rayther guess
we could scratch out after about — I say about — forty miles
travel."
" Forty miles !" exclaimed I, starting ; " forty miles — the
Lord deliver us!"
" W-a-a-1, mebby a leetle less ; mebby not more'n thirty-
five or six — that is, ef we go ahead. But we might turn
back, that is, ef I knowed 'zactly where back is. I b'leeve
I'm kinder turned round. It's very queer ! I've not
unly trapped here, but I've bin guide all through these
woods some years ago to a pairty o' surveyors, when they
run the line o' Township Twenty. Well, I am beat! an
old woodsman like me, too. What kin this pond be !"
" Heavens ! that I should ever have been such a fool to
come out here after beaver !" groaned I, sinking on a log.
" Don't give up so, Mr. Smith," said Harvey, who had
started down the pond to a curve, and returned. " I aint
dead yit. And somehow or other — jest let's go down the
pond a leetle. Down there, torts the outlet."
" Ef it turns out there as I expect," continued he as we
went down, "I'm all right. I think I've trapped on -that
outlet ; but as fur this pond ! — it's strannge I shouldn't a
come upon't. But we'll see — we'll see."
With many misgivings I tramped along with him, and
arrived at last beyond the curve, at a sharp oxbow, where
the pond was completely hidden.
" All right," said Harvey. " I'm as right as a book.
Here's the very place I footed a fisher three year ago next
October. After that, I started straight fur hum, and never
see the pond. Yes, yes, it's all right now !"
I need not say I felt relieved, and with a lighter step I
again followed my guides.
A mile farther, and we came upon a small beaver-
. meadow, with grass waist deep, and shortly after a second,
through which we also waded. At the edges of this wa
294 WOODS AND WATERS;
noticed the first beaver signs. Saplings, and even con
siderable trees were cut asunder by the teeth of the animal.
The edges were black with age, and' chiselled irregularly
to a point. Again we entered the forest ; and in a little
while a third meadow, with borders full also of chiselled
signs, immersed us.
We now ascended a comparatively open pine-ridge,
whence at either hand shone glimpses of water.
" There's ponds on all sides," said Harvey, " and all on
'm used to be great places fur beaver ; but they're sich a
shy, timorsome thing, they're most on 'em cleared out.
Some's left, though ; and ef we don't see them, we'll see
their housen, as I said afore, and 'twont be a very long
time nuther. There's otter sign, too, here ! See the slides
o' the critters !" pointing to discernible paths down the
declivities, which were slippery with the dead pine foliage.
Descending the farther point of the ridge, we struck off
at our left, and soon came to the sloping border of a beau-
tiful little pond, where a narrow stream flowed out through
a natural meadow.
" The pond that the beaver housen is on is jest back o'
this," said Harvey, pointing diagonally with his left hand ,
" and after we/ve had a bite o' suthin' we'll go there. L
isn't over half-an-hour's walk," opening his knapsack ir
the grass of the little dingle where we had halted.
And here let me whisper that cold pork and baked
beans, although homely and possibly vulgar in some eyes,
are two of the standing dishes of the forest. The former
is particularly grateful to the palate, after being cloyed
with trout and venison, and the latter is like solidified
cream, crumbling in the mouth in brittle and mellow
richness.
These, with dried deer's flesh (we saw the last of our
smoked trout at Hoel's) and biscuit, strewed on the wild
grass of the spot, formed our meal.
" I've trapped beaver in these ponds fur thirty year, off
and on," said Harvey, " but the unly fam'ly left now is on
OR, SUMMER IN THE SAKANACS. 295
that pond out there torts Catamount Mountain (pointing
to a near, dark summit among a group of hill-tops rising
above the woods), where the housen is. I've kinder nussed
'm along, and never take more'n two at a time. There
isn't another feller in the whull S'nac region that knows
about this pond but me. Phin, here, don't know it, nur
Will, nor Mart, nur enny on 'm. I've al'ys gone alone,
and kept my own secrets. But you'll know it sun, and" —
Here he broke short off, glanced his keen eye. toward
the outlet, snatched his rifle from the grass with one hand,
and stopped a yelp from Watch by a blow with the other,
and swiftly, but cautiously, descended the slope leading to
the water. As Phin grasped Watch round the nose, thus
effectually sealing another yelp, I glanced in the direction
indicated by the eyes of both, and saw a deer gliding
between the thickets of the wild meadow, toward the out-
let. Crawling like a snake from bush to bush, Harvey
went nearer and nearer. At last he fired. The deer,
however, did not fall, neither did it swerve from its course
toward the stream. It probably had never before heard
the report of a gun, and took this for one of the natural
sounds to which it was accustomed. But a second crack
from Harvey's double-barrel came, and the animal, who
had just stooped his graceful neck to drink, fell in his
tracks. Phin and I, followed by Watch, who poured out
a torrent of cries, overtook Harvey as he was wading the
outlet, and we all reached in a twinkling the spot of long
grass where the deer had fallen. He was a two-year-old
buck, and in excellent condition. My guides shouldered
him, and all returned to our dingle, merry with our luck.
" We'll let'im lay there," said Harvey, after he and Phin
had deposited the animal on a bank of moss, "till we come
back from the beaver housen. I don't bleeve enny painter
or wolf '11 git 'im the short time we're away."
We rounded the pond, and after the toilsome ascent and
descent of a ridge, reached at last a small sheet of water
lurking among acclivities, and sleeping so dark and still in
296 WOODS AND WATERS;
their shadows, Nature seemed to have forgotten it as soon aa
formed. Plunging through the dense underbrush, which
not only heaped the margin, but tangled for some distance
the water, we came at length to a little opening in the
foliage.
" Here's the fust of the two housen," said Harvey, paus-
ing before an object' standing on the very edge of the
water, " but the ruff's all to pieces. You kin see though
how 'twas made inside."
It was a fractured mound of smooth clay, about two feet
high, and six across, inside which were layers of water-lily
leaves. A roof had been over it, made of broken sticks
that lay around, smeared with dried mud.
" Them pads is where the beavers lay," said Harvey,
" and unly a few days ago too. You see they're fresh !
Some bear or other has come along and made the house
fly with his tearin' big paws. They're apt to do it to git at
the beaver, and they've skeered 'm clearn away. I hope
they've left t'other house alone. It's much bigger 'an this.
Beaver, Mr. Smith, is like the rich folks in the big settle-
ments, sich as York is, I spose. I've never seen any place
bigger 'n Burlin'ton, and Plattsburgh and Keeseville, and
Liz'bethtown, and so on, but onst, and that was when I
straggled down to Troy with a load o' fur, and nice fur
they was too. There was fisher, and saple, and mink, to
say nothin' o' rats in fust best order. "Well, I went there
and come back too, mighty quick. I thought I'd choke to
death, the housen was so cluss t'gether, and the air so
kinder thickened up. And then the people a-flyin' about!
'Twas some great day or other — a p'litical rneetin' I bleeve
— and some feller was a-goin' to tell what his idees was on
matters in gin'ral, the Gov'nor or some other big bug !
what was that chap's name ! well, no matter, I heerd it too
at the time. But there was sich a pressin' and pullin' and
haulin', and so many folks jammed up t'gether, that I went
to the tavern, settled with the landlord right off, and started
a-foot out o' the confounded hole, and tramped on till night
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 207
come, when I camped in a piece o' woods jest outside a
village till mornin' and then made tracks torts old Cham-
plain fur the steamboat to Keeseville. Wasn't I glad to git
back to S'nac agin ? I tell ye ! But where was I ? oh — the
beavers has their city house and their country house, one
fam'ly gin'rally to a pond. This was their country house.
But s'posen' we move torts t'other.
" Here's more sign," continued he, pointing to a quan-
tity of saplings gnawed asunder like those we first saw,
" and a good part on 'm fresh. The beavers is here, but
where, at this partic'lar p'int o' time, is more'n I kin say."
We struggled along the pond's edge once more, until at
last Harvey ascended a fallen tree, and stepping downwards,
said —
" Here's t'other hut, and all right and tight too, thank
fortin'."
I scrambled across the barricade, and saw what I first
took to be a collection of driftwood, partly on the bank and
partly over the water. I stepped upon it. It was a
rounded fabric, fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, wrought
of dry saplings and water-grass, welded together smoothly
with dried mud. An extra roof of long loose poles was
placed upon the top, making the projection over the shal-
low.
The fabric itself rested on the bank, and before it, heap-
ing the bottom of the shallow, were stems of small trees.
" The beaver lays round the sides, inside o' this Dutch
oven, on sep'rit beds," said Harvey. " They don't gin'rally
stay in their housen in summer though, but roam about.
The wood in the water's what they feed on. A good deal
on't 's moose-missee that they're most fond of, with birch,
wilier, and water-maple mixed in. They/ haul the stuff
down with their teeth, and then stick it to the bank some-
way. I've never seen 'm make their housen but I've hearu
tell how. They gnaw the trees down, haul 'm to the water,
and plaster mud over 'm with their forepaws, and some
say they smooth it over with their flat tails."
298 WOODS AND WATERS;
" Well," continued the old woodman, after I bad lingered
over the localities some little time, " we've seen all here,
and I guess we may as well be movin'. A ven'son steak
wouldn't be bad to take after we git back, would it ? Ef
I could unly put a beaver's tail now by it, 'twould be rael
old hunderd. But, goll, look at that 1" suddenly pointing
to the pond.
Upon it I saw part of a dark head, a mere dot, skimming
rapidly along, and approaching a small grassy point.
" There's a beaver by golly ! and I mean to hev't too,"
continued the old guide, raising his rifle, but at the very
instant the head vanished behind the point.
" Ah, it's gone !" added he in a disappointed tone. " So
we might as well trudge on fur all the beaver's tail we'll
git, this time enny how."
The west was on fire with the sunset, and the woods
were sounding with the flute of the Saranac Nightingale as
we re-entered our dingle. The guides prepared our supper
of toasted venison, and after we had taken it they built a
framework of poles over the fire to dry the remainder of
the deer.
The trees crept into the night ; the pond winked and
glimmered into a dark- grey dimness, save where a portion
glowed softly to the young moon, which had filled with
silver her fairy shell over Catamount mountain. Seated on
a root, I watched the dark forms of my guides flitting
athwart the fire as they superintended the drying of their
venison, and listened to the low tones of their talk. No
other sound disturbed the silence.
At length the guides left their venison to harden in the
smoke throughout the night, levelled a small hemlock,
made a bed of its fringes, and close, as usual, to the camp-
fire we lay down side by side, wrapped in our blankets, I
for one soon passing into the shadowy realm of dreams.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANAOS. 299
CHAPTER XXIV.
Return Path. — Clamshell Pond. — Song-birds. — Beaver-dam. — Beaver-talk. —
Absence of Serpents. — Hoel's Pond.— Carry. — Green Pond. — UPPER SA-
RAN AC.— Eagle. — Water-thatch.— Tommy's Rock.— Goose Island. — Har-
vey's Opinion of Neighbors. — Phin's Idea of Subordination. — The Loons. —
Loon Talk.
DAWIT was peeping with bis ashen face through the trees,
as I awoke. I sat upon the half-burned log of the blinking
camp-fire, watching my guides completing their arrange-
ments to start, and, from my yesterday's fatigue, dreading
the signal. At length, Harvey and Phin had shouldered
their knapsacks and rifles, and hung all their articles around
them, and " All's right, Mr. Smith I" came from the former.
I rose, and our return line of march was taken up. As I
turned a thicket, I cast a last look at the dingle. There
was the framework, there the green 'couch of hemlock
branches. I caught a farewell flash from the pond, and
then left the camp-fire to blink itself to death, and silence
and solitude to settle on the spot, as profound as when we
first invaded it.
We had not gone far before Harvey paused at a pine
tree.
" Here was one o' my fisher traps," said he, pointing at
a pole slanting upward from the ground at the root. tc I
ketched two on 'm the week I was here last fall."
Again over ridge and hollow, plunging into mossy clefts,
dashing aside low branches, wading through underbrush,
with short stoppages for rest. Again, stooping to drink at
some streak of a runnel nearly choked in fern, picking the
blisters of gum from the spruce to refresh the lips, stumbling
800 WOODS AND WATERS;
among sharp hidden rocks, and vaulting over prostrate
trees. Here, a cedar colonnade received us, smooth to the
foot, balsamic to the scent; there, a miry bog, shaking like
quicksilver as we crossed.
Again Harvey paused, this time before a decayed stump.
" Here I had a wolf-trap, chained round. It had a snap
like a gunlock. I come one mornin', and found old claw-
tooth had the biggest kind o' wolf in the tightest kind o'
place. Massy, how he grinned, and clicked his jaws ! You
could a heerd it a quarter of a mile. He was farse for fight,
his neck and back a bristlin' like a porkypine. I wonder
he hadn't gnawed his paw off. Didn't I send a ball straight
through that skull o' his'n, right 'twixt his eyes? His skin
and sculp fetched me five dollars !"
We now turned a little off from our course, on both sides
of which I recognised Harvey's blazes of the day before,
to visit Clamshell Pond, where were the remains, as the old
guide said, of a large beaver-dam. The water-gleam soon
shot between the trees, and we made our way to the
margin. The surface, on which a little breeze was dancing,
spread blue and cool to the sunny morning sky, the water-
lilies glittered, the rushes trembled, the forest leaves sparkled
as with stars, and a general gladness brightened the scene.
There is a prevalent idea that songsters in these woods
are wanting. This to an extent is true. Still many of our
rural birds are here. Their colors flash in the broken sun-
light, and their notes pierce the sweeping verdure, but the
restless eye and the open ear of the lovers of nature alone
detect them. To others, their shapes are unseen in the
dim vastness, and their tones are unnoticed amid the voices
of the larger and more infrequent of the feathered race
here found.
The Saranac Nightingale is, however, an exception.
The loud, clear, triumphal music of this lonely bird claims
the ear, amid the shriek of the eagle, the croak of the raven,
the whoop of the crane, the boom of the bittern, and shout-
ing of the loon.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 301
In the moist sand of tlie margin I noticed a swarm of
deer prints, with here and there the broad track of the bear
and panther. Presently the guides, who had left me to
turn a bend of the pond, reappeared with a quantity of
beautifully tinted shells, which give the water its name.
The beaver dam was a rod or two from the pond. It
was a long, low mound of earth, broad at bottom and nar-
row at top, overgrown with grass and shrubs, with the usual
meadow before it.
We seated ourselves upon the dam. The green round
of the meadow looked pleasant and soft in the circle of the
forest; insects were chirping, and the warm air was full of
fragrance.
" D'ye see them alley ways ?" said Harvey; "you kin jest
spy 'em now ! They was the roads the beaver had 'twixt
the pond that stood where this meader is now, and the
big pond there. They used 'm to travel 'twixt the two,
and to haul the wood they fed on to the housen here.
They're an awful knowin' critter. When they want to
change a place for another where there's more o' the sort
o' wood they like to feed on, or when some on 'm want 'er
to go off — pull up stakes as 'twere, jest like the b'ys of a
fam'ly goin' off to Californy, or out West, to seek their
fortins like — one on 'm goes ahead and marks out the p'ints
o' compass he goes, by leavin' heaps o' mud along, scented up
with castor or bark-stone, as we call it ; so there's the track
all marked out like a blazed line o' trees, with these castor
beds.
" There's another kind o' these queer fish, called bank
beaver. They don't make no housen, but .burrow in the
banks o' the ponds, like mushrats. But we must be goin'."
I picked a beautiful wild flower from the grassy dam,
and we all then pressed onward. After another hour's
struggle, I found, to my dismay, that my strength was fail-
ing. Lagging behind, my guides were frequently lost sight
of, but as I checked my footsteps in doubt where to go, the
direction was given by a low whoop from Harvey, or a
302 WOODS AND WATERS;
clink of his rifle- against the camp-kettle. In these pauses, I
was more and more impressed with the utter savageness of
the scene, and my entire helplessness should I be left alone.
The few paths, if not of deer, could only be of bear, wolf,
or panther, and tended doubtless toward their fearful
haunts. The deep marks on the trees, cutting into the
wood, were more frequent than those of yesterday, and I
shuddered at the thought of the merciless fangs that made
them.
There was one thought, however, from which I derived
comfort, assured of its truth by all the guides : I could
plant my feet anywhere in the wilderness — in the deep
grass, the crumbling trunk, or the rocky cavity — without
fear of noxious serpents.
" Ef them infarnal critters — copperheads and rattle-
snakes, and sich like — was about in these 'ere woods," said
Harvey, once, in conversing on the subject, " a feller about
my size, for one, would be source there. A man mought
as well die at onst as be skeered to death. But the long,
cold winters doos the business up fur them divils."
My every step was at last more and more painful. I
tottered with weakness, and was obliged, at times, to pull
myself forward by the branches, and even by the trees them-
selves. On every ridge I looked for the expected sparkle
of Hoel's Pond, but was disappointed. In fact, I began
almost to fancy the pond gifted with a fiendish trick of
receding as I advanced. At last, on the brow of an accli-
vity, I caught a watery twinkle, arid heard, with a flash of
delight, from Harvey,
v " There's Hoel's !"
We found the boat, oars, and paddle, safe in the hollow
logs, and very shortly we were afloat. It was with more
pleasure than I care to acknowledge that I felt the smooth
glide of the little Bluebird in exchange for. the toilsome
tramping of the woods. "We passed the tip of the tongue
near the base of which we had camped before our plunge
into the beaver recesses, and after a delightful sail we
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 303
landed on the southern bank, where a huge root grasped
the smooth bank like a gigantic claw.
" The carry 'twixt this and Green Pond, the next water
in our way," said Harvey, " is rayther long — half a mile,
mebby — but it's a nice, dry, open one, as good a'most as
the Injin Carry."
Inflamed by this flattering contrast to the roughness of
my late path, and considerably renovated by the passage over
the pond, I insisted upon bearing the camp-kettle, and at
least one of the oars, across the carry. Harvey, complaining
of a touch of " rheumatiz in the small o' the back," directed
Phin to shoulder the boat while he loaded himself with
the "dudods."
We then started, the latter loping ahead with blankets,
overcoats, two knapsacks, two rifles, and a basket, with
Phin lurching just behind, in a haze of musquitoes, his
head and shoulders extinguished in the huge chapeau of
his upturned boat, and threatening to run into his sire's
back at every stagger.
At first I stepped with considerable elasticity ; but toward
the end, such was my weakened • strength from my tramp,
that my oar had the weight of a pine-tree, and the kettle
bore down, as if to drag me not only to, but into, the earth
at every tread.
Lovely Green Pond, with waters that seemed distilled
from the foliage around them, next received us, and cross-
ing its half mile extent, we came to the last carry between
us and the Upper Saranac.
This was brief, a few minutes bringing us to a little
clearing of logs and raspberry bushes, in which stood a
deserted Maine shanty, with a cloud of swallows twittering
around its eaves. Winding down the bank, through tall
wood-plants, we pushed our boat into Spring Pond, and
rippled through a water so clear, I could trace the lithe
ribbons of the numberless white water-lilies down to the
large, rough stems at the bottom.
The reds of the upturned white lily-pads, glowing like
304. WOODS AND WATERS;
live coals in the slanted sun, spoke vociferously of deer-
feasts, eliciting loud laments from both Harvey and Phin,
that the moon would rob them of a night hunt. One cove
in particular, at the right, was pointed out by the former
as " old hunderd fur floatin'."
"We emerged into Spring Pond Bay, and at length the
noble expanse of the Upper Saranac opened before us.
It lay more than a league in breadth, with three islands
— one a mere speck of rock — alone in sight.
As we glided along, a splendid black eagle caught my
eye, flying over the lake.
Now he skimmed onward, dipping his stately wings on
either side ; then he poised himself, remaining motionless
a moment, and then up, up he mounted — a speck, a dot, a
pin-point, and was gone.
Such, I thought, is the flight of genius. In its proud
disdain, its conscious power, onward it directs its kingly
flight, onward and upward, high above mortal ken, to its
cloudy pinnacle.
" The water-thatch out there makes pipe-stems that's
parfect inkstand to smoke with," said Harvey, bringing
my heroics flat, and pointing to a space of tall rushes.
Pushing among them, we gathered a quantity of the long,
jointed tubes, which I afterwards found fully equal to the
eulogy of the old boatman.
We landed upon the farthest isle. It sloped steeply up
from the water, covered with grass and whortleberry-
bushes, and scattered thickly with trees.
Westward rose the rocky islet, and gleaming in the sun,
it looked, as Harvey once said, like a turtle on the water.
" Tommy's Rock," said Harvey, in answer to my look ;
" and this we're on is Goose Island."
" Goose Island !" I exclaimed. " No, no ! Wild Goose,
at any rate, if there must be a goose in the name I"
" Alter it as you like, Mr. Smith. There's one thing
that's a fact ! 'Twould puzzle the smartest 1'yer in York
or Albany to find a tame goose about! How of 'en I've
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 305
camped here," he continued, as we ascended the acclivity,
" ketchin' fur along these waters. It's so nice and lone-
some, I al'ays try to git here when night comes, 'cause I'm
pretty sarten there's no one to trouble me."
" Do you like to be away from people, Harvey?"
" Well, I like, as agin'ral thing, to be alone, 'specially when
I'm huntin' or trappin'. When I'm fishin', it's no great
matter."
"I shouldn't think you'd be troubled with neighbors
anywhere in these woods."
" There's no tellin' ! Sometimes you may be campin' in
sight a'most o' somebody without you're knowin' it, the
woods is so al-mighty thick, and then the fellers come
snoopin' about, talkin' and askin' questions, when you'd a
good deal ruther be a fixin' up your traps or rifle, or
snellin' your hooks or what not. I'm never better off when
I go out fur business, than when me and Watch hes the
campin' spot to ourselves. I kin talk a little to the dog,
and think over what I've got to do next day ; where to set
my traps, or where it's more likely to roust a deer. There's
plenty o' things to think on when a body's alone so, that
he can't do when folks's a-dingin' into his ears suthin' or
other all the time. But how would you like to take a
swim ? There's a nice place out there, where you kin dive
and kerlikew round consid'able."
I found the bath delicious, the cool delicate lymph lap-
ping me in elysium after my tramp. With the blood tin-
gling in every invigorated vein, I re-entered the* boat, and
once more we pushed out into the lake.
The broad surface was now kindling to the level sun.
Down we rapidly went, Tommy's Eock and Wild Goose
Island lessening in light purple haze,
As the wild freedom I was enjoying glanced for the
hundredth time through my mind, I spoke to Phin.
" This life of yours, Phin, must be very pleasant ! — going
when and where you please, asking no one ! "
" Well," said Phin, feathering his oar, " y-e-s — I dunno
20
306 WOODS AS*D WATERS;
hut 'tis. But I al'ys bed a notion I might do better workin1
in some big settlement, and lay up more money than in
killin' ven'son and ketchin' fur, and guidin', and so on."
" You have no one to ask as to your movements about
this region, have you ?"
" No, sir-ee," giving a sweep to his oar. " Now, I'm of
age, even father there don't never tell me nothin' when to
go, and which way to go, and so on."
" Well, now, suppose you were working in one of these
settlements and the boss should reprima — blow y'ou up, for
one thing or another, what then ?"
"Blow me up!" said Phin, stopping his rowing, "blow
me up !"
" Yes !"
" I'd like to see the man that 'ud blow me up !" hitching
down his hat.
" Well ! what would you do ?"
" I'd see plaguey quick who was the best man ! I'd lick
him or he'd lick me !" and Phin plunged his oar so deep
he caught a crab.
" Them big bugs in the settlements 's mighty sassy when
they've got a leetle money," said Harvey, his cracked voice
more cracked than ever. " They think, I do bleeve, that a
poor man haint got no right to live, no how. But sich kind
o' chaps 'ad best keep out o' the woods, fur they'd git more
sass 'an gravy."
Down we still went, and gliding along near a large island
in mid-channel, with no object save enjoying the beauti-
ful sunset hour with its wooing airs and streaming golds
and purples before selecting our camping spot for the
night, suddenly we heard a wild shout ringing over the
water.
" It come from Fish Hawk Bay, over west there," said
Harvey. " S'posen, Mr. Smith, as we've got nothin' else to
do, we hev some fun with the loon ? I see't there, in a
line with that elm slantin' out from Buck Island here.
Goll, there's two on 'm ! We'll make chase."
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 307
Oars and paddle plunged deep and brought us swiftly to
the bay.
" It's a mother and her young 'un ; you see how grey
the second one is," continued Harvey. " 'Twould be a
pity to shoot her, though loons is the tantenest and most
aggravatin' critters next to black flies and mitchets I knows
on. But I won't shoot her! 'twould be too much like
shootin' a doe with her fa'n. We'll skeer her though I*'
The birds had evidently caught sight of us the moment
we left Buck Island, for they buried their bodies almost
under. As we came near, the mother gave a deep shout,
breaking up into a shrill scream, and dived, followed by
her young.
Some little time passed, and then both necks suddenly
emerged a long distance upon our right.
The boat flew over the water, approaching so near to
them that their hand-breadths of back became visible as
they wallowed swiftly onward.
Again came the cry from the mother, the warning cry,
and both pitched under again, quick as thought. This
time they shot up so near, I caught the wild, red gleam of
the mother's eyeball. With a frightened " phibb," down
again she went with her young, and once more the dark
necks of the two came above the surface. It was touching
to see the anxious care with which the old bird endeavored
to guard the other, keeping in front of the boat, which was
all the while doubling upon them like a hound upon a
deer.
Suddenly a clarion sound pealed over the water, and a
superb loon came sailing down the lake, lifting its trumpet
tone as it moved.
" The old man," said Phin, " comin' down to see about
his fam'ly, and what all this carryin'-on's up to !"
" And, massy, how mad he is, and so full o' consekens
too ! You'd think he owned all cr'ation, lettin' alone my
blacksmith shop," added Harvey.
Up came the magnificent creature, riding high upon the
808 WOODS AND WATERS;
water, and swept past us, so intent upon the two birds
before him that he did not seem to fear, or even notice us.
Eeaching the others, he made a circle as if to enfold
them in a protecting ring, while shrill cries echoed from
the three. Pushing then to the front he led the way down-
ward, all in file, he frequently turning completely round as
if to see whether danger menaced the rear.
We ceased following, in pure admiration of the sight, and
far down the lake the three sailed, lessening into specks,
until they vanished in a rosy gleam of water.
" S'posen we drop into Buck Island Bay, there to the
east," said Harvey, after we had turned our course, and
doubled the lower end of the large island. " We might as
well be lookin' out for our campin' place. I've sometimes
camped on Wind Island, in the bay here — but durn me, ef
that loon aint a comin' agin !" as the well-known peal once
more shook upon our ears.
" It's the same one, I consate, that is, the old he feller.
"Tisn't of'en you see two sich big ones cluss together.
Now, ef he comes nigh enough, I'll fix 'im. They're the
sassiest, provokinest critter"
f " That's so," chimed in Phin. " Ef ye git sight on a
deer, jest as yer paddlin' up still like, or mebby about to
fire, the fust you know, a dod-blamed loon'll set up his
sass, hoo-oo-in' away, and the deer'll look up ; and then
the loon'll sass up agin, and, hokey ! the deer's off like
lightnin'."
" It's jest as if it said," continued Harvey, " at fust,
' Look out there,' and next, ' Be off;' and off 'tis. On top
o' that, ef you should be ketched out on the lake in a spit
o' rain, the loon'll al'ys hoot out jest afore it, as ef 'twas
laughin' at ye. Or ef so be there comes up a smart blow,
we'll say in the Narrers down there, you'll hev the con-
founded loon a-yellin' and a-bowwowin' and a-tantin', as ef
it raally enj'yed itself in seem' you a-bobbin' up and down.
I hate 'm. There he comes !" handling his rifle.
Up again swept the bird, riding high as before, and car-
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 309
rymg his neck proudly, sounding at intervals his ringing,
triumphal, defiant note.
" Don't be sassin' us too much," said Harvey, as a bold
flourish burst from the bird. " I'll give ye Hail Colum-
bee"
"Don't shoot him, Harvey," interposed I; "he's a
brave bird, and has done bravely."
" Ef you'd lost as many deer as I hev," returned Har-
vey, squinting over his barrel, " jou wouldn't be so tender-
hearted about the divils."
" I tell ye, it cuts cluss," added Phin, steadying the boat
with his oars, " to lose a nice fat buck from the yellin's and
catterwaulin's of these 'ere good-fur-nothin's."
" Zactly," said Harvey, and he fired.
Down plunged the loon ; but immediately after there
was a flutter near the surface, and then a glance of white.
"He's got it this time," said Phin, grinning, and pulling
at his oars. " No more hoo-hooin' from that critter."
" He's got a hole in his neck that isn't his mouth," said
Harvey, as he lifted the lifeless bird, and placed him in the
boat ; " and now, s'posen we go inter Saganaw Bay, instid
o' Buck Island, and find a campin' spot. In the mornin',
ef you say so, Mr. Smith, we'll go up the Fish Creek
waters inter Big Square Pond, and then about a mile in
the woods, nigh Rawlins Pond, where I'll show ye the
biggest beaver-dam and meader you've seen yit."
As the boat glided downward, I looked again and again
at the dark purple-green of the loon's neck ; the two white
collars below; his back and wings of ebony, inlaid with
pearl ; the pure snow of his undershape ; the black dagger
of his beak ; his fierce red eye ; and his short, straight,
jointless leg, so adapted to propel the buoyant barque of
his body. His structure was wild, almost grotesque, and,
like his Indian whoop, in harmony with the secluded and
savage waters which he alone makes his home.
" They're an odd fish," said Harvey, as he watched my
interest in the bird. " In the spring, jest as soon as the
310 WOODS AND WATERS;
ice'is out o' the lakes, you'll see 'm start up, as 'twere, out
o' the water. In the evenin' there won't be none on 'm
seen, p'raps ; and the next mornin', mebby in a snow-
squall, the fust thing you'll hear'll be their hoo-o-o, looddle,
loddle loddle, by some island or other. And jest so it is,
late in the fall. At night you'll hear 'm in full blast, and
at mornin' they aint nowheres. They're the queerest
critter to get out o' the water, too. Fur all they swim so
fast, they're an awk'ard thing to rise, their wings is so
short and their body's so heavy. They'll mebby go on
a-strugglin' a rod or two, beatin' the water with their
wings, and at last they'll make out to git clear. The best
way they find to raise up is agin the swells ; they git a
cant-up then quick. Onst up, they fly like the mischief
high in the air, so that you kin jest see 'm, and they keep up
a terr'ble hootin' and squallin' as they go, the same as in
the water."
" They have nests, of course ?"
" Sarten. They build 'm along the edges o' the islands,
and on the p'ints, and in the lonesomest coves. Very of 'en
they build on floatin' bogs, which is tied by threads of
grass to the bottom, like the water-lilies. I've seen 'm a
half a mile from shore, sometimes, on these bogs. The
nests is made of wet mud, and they lay two or three big-
sized, green-lookin' eggs, speckled with brown spots. In
the spring, and along airly in the summer, the male bird '11
go with his mate. After that, the mother '11 go with her
young, and the old loon goes sailin' about alone by himself.
It takes a quick hand to shoot 'm, they dive so at the flash
o' the gun."
" They can't be eaten, can they ?"
" Oh massy, no ! I'd as lieve eat a raven. They're so
full of ile, that their feathers, as ye see, is as dry .as a pine-
board as sun as they come out o' the water."
" What do they feed on ?"
" Fish and frogs and plants and grass, and sich like, that
they find round the water. They dive after the fish, and
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 311
gulp 'm down while they're under water. They're weather-
wise, too. Such a howlin', and catterwaulin', and bow-
wowing as they'll set up afore a rain-storm or a gale o'
wind ! Hark !" as a succession of faint cries came from
behind a point. " The loons in Gilpin Bay, down there
to the west, is sayin' that rain's now makin' fur us. There's
the deer, too. They kin tell three days aforehand when a
long storm's a-comin'. No matter how clear the weather
is, they'll go off from where they've bin in the habit o'
feedin', to the thickest woods and swamps, a-housin' them-
selves agin the storm. The truth is, Mr. Smith, I'm in a
wonder like, how much all the dumb critters in the woods
knows. They kin take keer o' themselves a good deal bet-
ter than most folks. I've watched a common mushrat, afore
now, seein' 'm dodge about after his food, keepin' a good
look-out all the time for dannger, till I raaly didn't know
what to think, except that all this preached up, jest as clear
as the sun, that there was suthin' directin' all this. Even
ef there was no sich thing as a Bible, all what I see in the
woods tells me there's a God."
We turned a long point, and directed our course toward
a bay on the east side of the lake.
. " Markham P'int," said Harvey, " the biggest p'int on
the lake. The bay here is Saganaw Bay, where we'd better
camp lor the night. The island is Trout Island."
We landed upon a beautiful beach of smooth white sand,
in a little green nook. The broad print of a panther's
paw was stamped in the sand near the water, where he had
probably paused to drink.
The sun had now set. As I watched him sinking below
the tree-tops, I felt, with the wide lonely lake in front and
the overwhelming forests around, more profoundly than
ever before, as if some protecting power had departed.
Rosy clouds were scattered over the zenith. On the rim
of the west was a cloudy terrace of violet, pink, and lus-
trous grey ; the lake displayed a rich burnish, and the
island began thickening in golden umber.
312 WOODS AND WATERS:
We selected our sleeping-room beneath an old iron-like
trunk, glued to the ledge out of which it twisted, the whole
looking as if the rock had shot out into a tree. Here we
spread our mattresses of boughs, built our camp-fire, and
ate our evening meal. The dusk crept on, and the night
breeze came in delicious breaths of coolness. Above, the
moon was shining, yielding to the water a dim, tremulous
lustre, and painting the forest with silver lights and deep,
sweeping shadows.
After a while, father and son commenced a song, which
I give in " corrected form."
Oh, give me a home where the far winds roam
Through the forest, as over the sea 1
Where the waters wide are flashing and the torrents bold are dashing,
And the eagle waves his pinion far and free !
Where the trout is glad up-leaping and the lily-cup is sleeping,
And the deer is skimming onward like a dart;
In this home of simple pleasures, which in sooth are greatest treasures,
In this home, this free home of the heart 1
Oh, why should we stay, where our toilsome way
Is beset by the pitfall and thorn 1
Where we call each other brother, but to prey on one another,
And we better, never, never have been born I
Yes, why should we so sorrow, when here the day and morrow . ^
Are made of vanished Paradise a part 1
In this home of leaf and fountain 1 in this realm of lake and moon tain I
In this home, this free home of the heart I
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 313
CHAPTER XXV.
Up Fish-Creek Waters. — Old Dam at Floodwood Pond. — Big Square Pond.—
Maine Shanty. — Beaver-dam. — Wind on Upper Saranac. — Bear Point. —
The Narrows. — Deer in Lake. — Camping on Point. — Moonlight Scene. —
Dawn. — Trail in the Woods. — Down Lake to Bartlett's. — Moonlight Sail
through Lower Saranac. — Baker's.
DAYBREAK saw us afloat, our dips alone disturbing the
crystal of the lake. Little wheels of dead leaves revolved
occasionally athwart the open dingles of the woods, along
the bay; the nervous aspens shook their round leaves in
quick, glancing motions, like the play of water, while the
wan tinge of the sky was momentarily darkening the blue
into brown, threatening to drive away the sunshine. All
betokened rain, like the loons in Gilpin Bay the day before.
We decided, however, to visit Big Square Pond, as con-
templated, and accordingly we crossed the lake to Fish
Creek Bay, directly opposite where we had encamped.
Passing through the bay, we entered Fish Creek north-
westwardly, and went through its first three ponds, from
the third of which Big Square Pond opens to the west.
" Shell we go up as far as Floodwood Pond, Mr. Smith ?"
said Harvey; "I'd like'to show yer the old dam at the out-
let of this creek, where I net white fish in the fall. I
start from hum so as to be on the ground airly in the
mornin', fill my barr'l and git to hum agin afore night."
"We pushed accordingly through the other expanses of
the Creek, silvered over with the white lily -blossoms, and
glanced at Little Square Pond, lying also to the west and
looking sombre under the fast darkening colors of the sky.
A mile farther of the Creek brought us to the dam.
An immense log lay athwart the mouth of the outlet,
314 WOODS AND WATERS;
resting on beds of gravel. At the left were the blackened
timbers of the old dilapidated dam, while the broken, pre-
cipitous banks were bristling with cedars, the lighter green
of the hard or deciduous trees mingling with their dark
hues. Beyond, spread the waters of the pond, dim under
the leaden sky, which was fast thickening into mist.
The quick drops were beating merrily upon the lily -pad
surface of Duck Pond, as we passed downward, and when
we turned into Big Square Pond, the whole scene was
roaring with the rain.
" Thank fortin' for the Maine Shanty up ahead," said
Harvey ; " it looks to me 'twould rain all day."
The shanty was at the extreme western end of the pond,
and proved tight and comfortable.
" The lumber fellers has left a good stove, I see," con-
tinued the old woodman, " and," picking up a fragment of
spruce board, " here's a part o' the deacon-seat, that'll be
old hunderd fur kindlin'."
The stove, after puffing a little in smoky anger, sup-
plied farther by the dry billets of wood lying in a little
closet, diffused a ruddy glow through the room and a
grateful warmth over our chilled frames. All the afternoon
we heard the monotonous song of the rain upon the roof,
only varied by the gusty strike of the sheets against the
sides of the cabin, as if they wished to make us a visit
bodily. The open door let our vision out upon the
white, bubbling surface of the water, and the dark, wet
woods.
There was a second story, of one room, littered with
straw, in which I found a dingy pack of cards. The hollow
bass of the rain alone awoke the silence, and I listened to
it with the pleasure yielded by my security from the " piti-
less " peltings without.
At sunset there was a change. The storm struggled
heavily against the charging winds and the spears of sun-
shine, marshalling its sullen columns and rolling and wel-
tering over the battle-ground of the concave, but at last
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 315
piled its black masses in retreat at the east, leaving a bare
zenith and a west glowing in ruby.
At midnight I was awakened by a wild shout. I started
to my feet, for I thought some wretch was drowning in the
lake, or perishing in the woods. A second cry came, and
I found it was that of a loon. I looked from the little win-
dow of the loft. It was repeated, and, in the dead darkness
of the hour and blackness of the water, the cry seemed the
wail of some demon mocking, while it despaired.
Morning arose with a high wind. We crossed the pond
to another lumber shanty, and then followed a faint trail
through the woods for a mile, which brought us to the
beaver meadow. It was larger than any I had found, with
the usual grass and islands of wood and edges of tamarack.
A stream coursed through, with two small ponds, one of
which was skirted by the dam. This was much higher
than those I had seen, having an altitude of six feet. Soli-
tude and silence claimed the whole scene, and after enjoy-
ing the quiet beauty awhile, I returned with my guides to
the boat.
" We shell hev a dancin' time on't, on S'nac," said
Harvey, as we came in sight of Fish Creek Bay; " it's a
south wind, and it has the whull rake o' the water."
The trees were waving on the borders of the Creek, and
the leafy depths gave out a sullen sound, ominous of the
truth of Harvey's words. No signs, however, were in the
bay to verify them, the surface, though rolling, being by no
means menacing. Nevertheless, as I looked into the main
lake, I saw, with some misgiving, a black, stormy-looking
water, with quick flits of white upon it.
Phin was at the oars and Harvey at the stern with his
paddle. Watch was curled at my feet. Eight toward the
black water the old boatman steered, the swells, every
moment, although we were still in the bay, growing more
and more threatening. At length a dull, deep roaring
met our ears.
" Old S'nac is rael mad to-day," said Harvey, quietly
316 WOODS AND WATERS;
looking at the black water in front. " This south wind
plays the mischief with the lake. It rakes it all along and
makes the edges jest as bad, if not wuss, than the middle.
The swells 'ud pound a boat on the rocks and stuns o' the
banks all to pieces in five minutes. "We've got to take it in
the deep water jest as we kin, and we will take it as sun
as we git round Moose P'int there," nodding toward a
point on the right, bounding the bay.
Higher and higher rose the swells, and at length, turn-
ing the point downward, we found ourselves amid rollers
several feet high, flashing with foam and bursting with
portentous roar. Up to the summit of the swells, and
pitching into the hollows, on we went. Occasionally, as
some roller higher than the rest hung over us, Harvey, with
a gesture, would direct the course of Phin's oars, dipping a
rapid paddle himself, and we would skirt the base of the
threatening swell, like the darting swallow, until we could
CT:OSS its lessened slope with safety.
For one mile we thus fought our way, Harvey smoking
his pipe with great calmness, and Phin pulling with the
same careless air he would have worn on the sheltered
Racket.
At length Harvey spoke.
" You see that p'int out there to the right ? That's Bear
P'int, and there the wust part o' the Narrers begins. I
don't want to be skeery, but I raaly think 'twont do to try
to go through 'm in this blow. The rollers here's next to
nothin' to them down there, and it's my jedgment we'd
better land on the p'int and wait for the blow to die off, as
I think 'twill about sundown. At all events we'll hev good
dry campin' there ef we're obleeged to pass the night. Shell
wedo't?"
I gladly assented, an-d passing over several perilous rollers,
we were at length enabled to moor our slight craft at the
point, after a paroxysm of thumpings upon the rocks that
threatened its destruction. Our spot was a small, tree-
less ledge rounding into the lake, with two or three little
OE, SUMMER IN THE SARA.NACS. 317
grassy hollows near the edge of the woods, and large blocks
and points of splintered rocks at the water-margin, through
and over which the angry swells dashed themselves into
flying spray with hoarse sounds. Downward for half a
mile rolled and foamed the black Narrows.
Harvey leveled a maple, and soon a blazing fire kindled
the bleak point into comfort. We then partook of our
frugal dinner, and passed the afternoon very pleasantly.
Although the gale swept furiously up the lake, whistling
over the point and howling through the bordering trees,
yet a little distance within, the branches, except at top,
spread out in a silence and quiet as profound as in the most
breathless atmosphere ; so little did even this fierce wind
affect the huge mass of the wilderness.
In front and on either hand, the dark, wrathful lake was
tossing and bursting into white, while the roar of the swells
was mingled with that of the wind. The upper clouds
were -almost motionless, but below, the ghastly scuds flew
from south to north with almost the speed of lightning.
It was now near sunset, and the two guides had gone a
rod or two into the forest for branches with which to sup-
ply the fire. Looking above the Narrows, I suddenly
espied a small white object gliding over the rough water,
which a second glance assured me was a deer.
The guides emerging upon the point at the instant, saw
the deer also, and rushed to the boat, which had been drawn
upon the rocks. Directly, they Were tossing upon the
surface in pursuit of the animal, which had caught sight of
them, turned, and was now making back for the shore.
Although the boat almost flew over the water, I saw the
deer, which was swimming rapidly, still fa.r in advance.
At last he raised his light frame and shot up the bank. In
a minute or two the Bluebird also touched the bank, and
the two men disappeared.
After a half hour passed by me in watching the chasing
Bwells, and listening to their tumult, I saw a black speck
at the opposite shore, and then a flash of silver. It was the
318 WOODS AND WATERS;
returning boat, bringing, however, no deer. Although shot
by Harvey in the hind-quarter, it had managed to escape.
The wind, instead of lessening, grew wilder as the twilight
thickened. The guides cut down a hemlock, and with its
branches strewed our couches for the night, in one of the
hollows nearest the woods. The fire was supplied gene-
rously. We hauled the boat up, propped it at the edge of
the hollow, and then stretched ourselves for slumber under
its roof, which curved half way over, thus protecting us
mainly from the wind.
I raised myself on my elbow, before sleeping, to survey
the scene. The jack had been kindled, and was burning
under the stern of the boat; the fire suffused the point
with yellow light, which caught upon our ribbed roof, and
brought out in bold though unequal relief the background
row of trees, leaving the depths beyond to murky black-
ness. The lake in front spread in lighter, but still uncer-
tain hues, and the swells made a continual wash upon the
point.
Suddenly the moon burst from a huge, black cloud,
covering one-half the sky, and threw her soft smile upon
the lake, in strong contrast to its rolling and foaming rage.
The near picture of the point started out in clear outline ;
the paled fire, the phalanx of forest, the curved boat, the
two sleepers, and the rocks at the edge of the water, now
darkly glistening and now buried in the silver lashings of
the spray.
The burst of moonlight seemed the sudden coming of a
friend, and with a glow of pleasure from its guardian pre-
sence, I lay down beside my companions, and, to the moan-
ing of the forest and splashing of the lake, fell asleep.
I woke. The fire had died away ; the moon was filling
the hollow of the boat with silver, showing, clear as day,
my guides in the attitude of slumber ; and the east was
turning into amber with the coming of the sun.
The swells had ceased ; the wind no longer moaned in
the branches ; all was peaceful and beautiful. An owl was
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 319
whining in the yet murky depths, and a couple of loons
were in a convulsion of howls and screams upon the lake.
. I again slept, and awoke this time at the summons of
Harvey. The moon was in the west, blind and pale ; the
east was glowing with gold, and the scuds, which were
driving like smoke before the again wakened, but now
gentler wind, gleamed in flakes of flame.
The Narrows heaved, but were no longer swelling and
bursting in anger.
We embarked ; but previous to laying our course down-
ward, crossed over to look up the wounded deer.
Harvey soon struck the trail among the herbage, where
I saw nothing.
4-t none of the peculiarities of forest life have I been
more astonished than at the quickness of sight and skill (I
might almost say intuition) of the guides, in deciphering
the little, delicate signs left by the wood animals, in token
of their late presence. The tilting of a fern, the rent of a
dead leaf, a dash of moss, a drop of rusty blood scarce
distinguishable from a weather-stain, a crushed sprout, the
edge-mark of a hoof, the puncture of a claw, even the
cling of a hair on a shrub, etches the trail to the hunter's or
trapper's eye, unerringly as the beaten deer-track winding
through the woods.
The old guide wove the bits of his trail together for a
mile, but in vain. He then decided to return, and resume
our downward course, fearful the wind might again rise
in its strength and imprison us another day.
As we passed through the Narrows, I asked Harvey
some questions about the lake.
" It's ten miles long, and, as a gin'ral thing, three wide,"
he answered. " From the head, as you come out o' Spring
Pond Bay, you can see clearn to the foot, where the Injin
Carry is, lyin', as it doos, about due north and south.
From bay to bay — that is, through Fish Creek Bay to
Saganaw Bay — it's, say, four miles ; and it's four miles at
the head, by Tommy's Hock and Goo — Wild Goose Island.
320 WOODS AND WATERS;
It's a grand sheet o' water, and has a shore line of mebby
fifty miles, with nine bays, eleven p'ints, and twenty-five
islands."
As we opened upon the broad part of the lake below
the Narrows, the water grew rough again, and opposite a
wild clearing at the west, belonging to Bartlett, we encoun-
tered a few rollers that reminded us of those of the day
before ; but we danced merrily over, making for the islands
in front.
" There's smooth water agin, jest beyond Mink Island
there," said Harvey ; " and I smell the breakfast a'most
from Bartlett's."
We threaded the islands and turned around a point into
the bay or " Gut," from which dash the Saranac river-
rapids.
Upon our right, at the foot of the beautiful lake, rose
the woods of the Indian Carrying-Place; and I let my
fancy wander through its leafy corridor to those wild
realms beyond, I had so lately traversed with ever new
delight.
We passed through the Gut to the carry around the
rapids, and a short walk in the fresh morning air brought
us to the dip in the road beneath which stood Bartlett's Inn.
Here I passed the day. I looked at the little garden ;
listened in the log-hut to the talk of two of Bartlett's
guides ; watched Bartlett himself, as in high good-humor
he led his hounds by couples to the water for a plunge-
bath, he shouting at the top of his shrill voice as they
shrank and strove to escape ; examined the dam ; crossed
the picturesque bridge, and wandered along the wooded
acclivity opposite ; re-crossed, and caught glimpses of the
rapids from the carry ; partook of a capital dinner of trout
and venison ; strolled in the gentle afternoon light through
the whole grassy area of the little clearing; made the
acquaintance of a party just setting out with their guides
toward the Indian Carrying^ Place, over which a deep
purple thunderstorm was lowering ; opened another with a
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 321
second party firing at the head of a dried loon-skin on a
pine near the line of hound-kennels, the crack of the rifle
and cough of the fowling-piece making the echoes rattle in
the woods ; and after the sun had closed his broad eye
behind the western trees, listened to the song of the Sara-
nac Nightingale, rising and sinking from the forest toward
the Upper Lake.
How I love the music of this hermit bird ! In the
rudest recesses, it has caught my ear, as well as in the most
beautiful. I have listened as it melted over the sunset
mirror of the Lower Saranac, floated through the wild
beaver- woods of the St. Regis, cheered the depressing lone-
liness of Dead Creek, spread a charm over the Bog Eiver
fastnesses, and pierced as with a silver arrow the roar of
Perciefield.
Oh the trill of the beautiful bluebird 1
It sends a quick joy through the breast ;
For it tells us the blossoms are coming,
That Nature has waked from her rest!
And witching the red robin's warble,
That floats the May sunset along ;
But the woods own a melody sweeter,
The Saranac Nightingale's song!
And merry the lay of the bobolink,
Hither and thither so free,
Till the bushes and stalks of the pasture-field
Tremble and sway in his glee I
And the wren at her tiny wood-cottage,
"What notes from her little bill throng!
But both would I turn from to listen
The Saranac Nightingale's song.
When saddened, how low sinks the melody I
Lower and tenderer still;
Till a fountain, distilled from true happiness,
Softly the heart seems to fill 1
"When blithe, oh how loud and how bell-like
The strain she then seems to prolong !
Yes, the spirit of rapture is ringing!
The Saranac Nightingale's song.
21
322 WOODS AND WATERS;
I have heard it when day-break was blushing,
When evening was gleaming in gold,
When sunshine was sparkling around me,
When storm robed the sky with its fold ;
And to each of the summer-day changes
Her song seemed in turn to belong.
Oh, faithfullest echo to Nature 1
The Saranac Nightingale's song.
And now when fond memory pictures
The far-away wilderness scene,
Where I wandered, unchained as the eagle,
Among the rich splendor of green ;
Though the pine sounds its deep-hearted harmony,
Ripple the waters along,
Far dearer one strain to remembrance,
The Saranac Nightingale's song I
Twilight had shown its last tint in the brightening moo«i
as we crossed Bound Lake, which was one glow of ruby.
We entered the narrow channel of the Saranab Eiver,
and the close woods threw a darkness over the scene,
save where a reaching moonbeam kindled the silver birch
or flashed upon a reach of the river.
We made the short portage of the Middle Falls, and at
length, emerging from the gloom of the river, saw before
us the superb moonlight picture of the Lower Saranac.
So quiet was the water, we seemed floating through air,
with the shadowy islands like clouds around us. Now
we glided over a broad space of splendor, and now blended
ourselves in the gloom of some aisle of foliage or rock.
The quiet was perfect, for Harvey had shipped the oars,
and Phin was drawing the paddle noiseless as in the night
hunt. Not a leaf rustled, not a ripple murmured. Never
did the world appear so far away, with its childish pomp,
its hollow conventionalities, its follies and its crimes. Na-
ture seemed to whisper rest to the weary heart, to throw
her arms around it and say, "Come! find on my bosom
the solace of thy sorrows and thy cares." And never had
my whole being been so spell-bound in the witchery of the
moon. I have since seen her glowing above the awful
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 328
solitudes of the Indian Pass ; on the slope of Mount Seward,
I have marked her silver pouring upon the terrific wilder-
ness that stretches southward from his base, the mysterious
region of " The Chain Lakes " — the lone eleven ; I have
gazed upon her, a pearly pendent on the sublime brow of
Tahawus, and thought her loveliness enhanced by the stern
contrast. But now all was in harmony ; all one blended
scene of almost heavenly beauty.
At length we glided between the Two Sisters, leaving
Eagle Island to our right one ridge of pearl, crossed the
molten silver of the intervening basin, and stopped at Mar-
tin's. X
Here we refreshed ourselves on some of the host's excel-
lent wildwood viands, and then, leaving the guides to care
for the faithful Bluebird, which had so long borne me in
my wanderings, I took up- my solitary midnight, moonlight
way to the Lake House.
The tops of the woods were illumined ; splashes of white
light lay on the bushes, chequered the prostrate logs, and
turned the twisted roots into slumbering serpents. The
rude houses of Harrietstown were painted into sharp-cut
lights and shadows, and the dam was one sheet of silver.
As I ascended the hill, I again noticed the picturesque
river-bend more beautiful than ever in the delicate light.
Another turn in the road brought in view the white, gabled
tavern of Baker's.
How stifling was the air of my chamber after camping
so long in the woods ! It seemed at first I could hardly
breathe, but the long usage of conventional life triumphed,
and I fell asleep, the murmurings of the' little rapid chang-
ing into the hum of the pine, and the lighter square of my
open window into the parted drapery of the " breezy tent."
324 WOODS AND WATERS;
CHAPTER XXVI.
Whiteface. — Approach to Mountain. — Upward. — White Falls.-'Chasm. —
Little Slide. — Great Slide. — Summit. — Prospect.— Descent. — Baker's. —
Backwoods' Dance. — Whiteface Notch. — Homeward.
THE next morning I started on the last of my excursions,
the visit to the summit of Whiteface.
This mountain is the northern outpost of the Adirondacks.
It is a detached summit, wearing near its brow a light grey
appearance, which has given it its name ; it is over five
thousand feet in height, and owns but one superior, Mount
Tahawus (a recent survey makes that doubtful) between
the Connecticut and the Mississippi. Its south-western
foot is bathed by Lake Placid, and along its southern
and eastern sides flows the west branch of the Ausable
River.
The great slide of the mountain is on its western flank —
a steep channel of rock, Jike a torrent transformed into
stone — and reaches from its brow half-way to its base. The
mountain, with one exception — a rough, stony opening
around its southern summit — is wrapped to its very peak in
forest, is totally uninhabited, and is wild and savage to
the last degree. It is seen in every direction for fifty miles,
and might well be crowned the king of the region.
Our Club had already left the woods for their homes, and
in the afternoon, through an air freshened by the showers
of the morning, I started with a chance companion (a gentle-
man who had just returned from an excursion up Bog
River) for the ascent.
We took the road to Nash's, a ride of twelve miles •
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 325
whence a half-mile on foot would carry us to Lake Placid,
across whose four-mile length lay our course to the foot of
the mountain.
I had a passing view of Harvey at the door of his cabin,
with a sapling angle-rod leaning beside him and a rifle on
his knee, the lock of which he seemed examining, and we
exchanged a word of hearty greeting. Several hounds were
gliding in and out, conspicuous among which were Watch
and Pup.
We crossed " The Plains," noted for deer, passed the
track to Ray Brook, famous for trout, and a few miles far-
ther saw at our left, detached from the mountains that
hitherto had formed our east horizon, the grand form of
old Whiteface.
We emerged from the woods, that with intervals of
rough clearing and wild meadow had crowded the wheel-
track, and opened on the smooth fields of North Elba.
Opposite the white dwelling of the blind Priest of the
Adirondacks, we turned eastward, still finding a road.
At Thompson's we secured our guide — young Dauphin
Thompson, since engaged in John Brown's famous raid at
Harper's Ferry and there shot. Toward sunset, we reached
Bennet's Pond, on the borders of which was Nash's clear-
ing.
To the south stretched the superb Adirondacks, with
Tahawus soaring above all.
Sunset came, flashing from his front the most imperial
colors. The range turned into a haze of rose-violet, the
little pond in front into a ruby, while to the extreme left
of the mountain-picture gleamed the purple cone of White-
face.
By and by the round moon rose, and the lovely landscape
lay in the silver silence of the night.
Sunrise found us at Paradox Pond, which opens by a
narrow channel into Lake Placid.
This beautiful lake lies in a northeast direction, two long
islands and one smaller giving it the appearance of a series
WOODS AND WATERS;
of lagoons. It is sheltered by lofty shores, and its quiet
depths are of crystalline clearness. Not a trace of cultiva-
tion breaks the surrounding woods. Whiteface towers
over its northeastern head. And here I may remark
another peculiarity of this wilderness — scarce a mountain
but owns its lake spread like a mirror to reflect its grand
forests and beetling crags.
The outlet flows from its southwest border, and bends
easterly to join the west branch of the Ausable River.
Wild Chub Eiver flows into the outlet from the southwest.
The whole scene is wrapped in loneliness. As we stood
upon the edge of the Paradox Pond our presence seemed
intrusion upon some enchanted region, and as if it might
call up the awful Genius of Solitude in quick wrath upon
us for breaking in upon his repose.
The guide drew a boat from a thicket, and we crossed
the lake toward Whiteface, the mountain all the while lift-
ing his proud cone higher and higher until the summit
smote the blue of the morning.
But the dark mass seemed to cast a great sorrow over
the brilliant sky and sparkling lake ; for I was then full of
trouble. To shun the haunting shadow, whither should I
flee ? In the sunshine, it was there, and in the quiet night ;
in the lonely musing ; in the tumult of the storm and the
music of birds and waters. Whence, oh heart ! this sad-
ness! Is hope indeed a mockery and love but a long-
drawn sigh ! Is life but another name for woe — its past a
regretful memory, its present one dreary waste, its future
lost in darkness ?
Then I felt a voice sinking into the depths of my spirit,
— as it were, the voice of the mountain.
" Cease, fool of thine own fantasies ! cease thy vain repin-
ings 1 Listen ! Yesterday, storms beat upon my bosom ;
to-day, I rejoice in sunshine. But what if storms should
return to-morrow ? Still would I stand upon my solid base
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 327
and brave the clouds that dashed upon my breast. Light-
nings may shatter these crags and cut their pathway to my
core, yet shall I keep my heart forever firm in the strength
of peace."
I bowed to the teachings of the voice ; I took the truth
into my soul. If joy is transient, so, too, is sorrow ; and
sorrow nobly borne finds consolation in the very conscious-
ness of the strength which it reveals.
It was seven in the morning when we commenced our
three-mile ascent. Path there was none. Here and there,
as in the beaver-woods, a trail of bear or deer meandered
through the hollows and along the low ridges, and was
often lost under prostrate trees and thickets.
The ascent at first was neither steep nor toilsome. Soon,
however, it became obstructed by large rocks, which we
clambered up, inserting our feet in the crevices, or resting
them upon the mossy points and notches, and clinging to
the knotted roots or branches of the firs and hemlocks.
A deep murmur at length filled the air, and, glancing to
the left, we caught flashes of falling water. Descending,
we reached the margin of a headlong brook. Above, a
milk-white water-fall hurled itself over frowning ledges,
and foamed past and down a wild ravine until lost in leafy
gloom. It was the stream of the White Falls.
The ascent now became more and more precipitous.
Dead trunks blocked our way, crumbling into bro\vn, damp
flakes almost at the touch of our climbing feet; immense
masses of roots erect, with corresponding hollows, thickets
almost impenetrable, mossy cavities in which we plunged
waist-deep, underbrush that clung around our feet like ser-
pents, and low boughs forcing us to stoop for passage, also
interrupted our progress. As in the beaver-woods, again,
the moss spread its piled velvet over almost every object —
the coiling root, the mouldering log, the runnel cradled deep
in the dingle, and the ledges on the levels of our way.
Although we were continually ascending I was unaware,
328 WOODS AND WATERS ,
so dense twined the forest, of the height to which we had
clambered. But suddenly the green gloom opened into
broad sunlight, and, looking out and down in that direc-
tion, I instinctively recoiled, with thrilling nerves. There,
its edge within three paces, frowned a terrific chasm, cloven
thousands of feet down, down through the breast of the
mountain. On the nearest side it sank almost sheer, while
opposite, a wall slightly sloping rose hundreds of feet above.
Half-way down this awful gorge, I saw a floating atom that
I supposed an eagle tacking up the side. From a ledge,
seeming but a hand's-breadth and near the moving speck,
slanted what appeared a shrub, but was really one of those
enormous pines which towered up into the sky opposite,
and went dwindling rank below rank down the chasm.
Shuddering at the terror, and yet fascinated by the wild
grandeur of the scene, I remained gazing, until a whoop
from my guide recalled my thoughts, and turning, I once
more bent my energies to clambering the mountain. This
became harder and harder, from the increasing steepness
and the density of the underbrush, as well as the bar-
ricades of branches through which we plunged, twisting
aside and breaking off limbs for passage. Frequent halts
were now made, generally beside some cool, clear spring,
oozing from moist roots and mossy clefts, for deep and most
delicious draughts.
Now and then a dead pine or hemlock, fallen from above,
would bridge some deep ravine, offering an upward path
along its broad breast and jagged points.
Struggling thus an hour longer, all at once, we broke
through a dense thicket, and a startling sight met us. A
slant plunge of rock, perfectly smooth and sloping steeply
to a sheer precipice, lay directly in our path. A few spots
of moss alone broke the smooth, glistening granite.
"This is the Little Slide," ^said Thompson, and to my
amazement and no little dread, he planted his foot upon it
with the evident intention of crossing.
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 329
"You don't mean to say that our course lies over that
place !" said I.
" Sarten," returned he, " right crost."
" There's no right about it," returned I, " and hang me
if I go!"
" No other way," responded the other coolly, and ad-
vancing toward the middle. " There aint no dannger as I
knows on. T^hese spots o' moss is the dandy to git us
crost."
" They are, eh ! Suppose these spots of moss should
slip, where would we go then ? Down that precipice as
sure as we're alive I There isn't a crack in that slide — and
slide it is, sure enough ! — as big as a knife-blade, to squeeze
a finger in, and it's as smooth as a new-washed dinner-plate
except the moss 1" 4
" No dannger and no other way," returned the lad, tread-
ing over the shining surface unconcernedly as if on his
cabin floor. " We can't go below it, that's sarten, and we
can't git above it as I knows on ; at least without tuggin'
and scratchin' and scrabblin' wuss than a bear climbin' a
tree with a twenty pound trap on his paw. Folly me, and
we'll git crost, I'll be bound."
" Folly, sure enough !" thought I, " the greatest folly is
in coming here at all! climbing this savage and nearly
inaccessible mountain with a hare-brained boy ! Why,
that rock is like a steeple, and smooth as a looking-
glass!"
" Come on Mister I" said the guide, who had crossed
and was standing on the opposite edge.
Finding no help for it, I stepped upon the rock, and,
with my frame tingling, moved cautiously along the slope,
looking steadily , before me, with my companion at my
right. It was not more than two or three rods wide, and
once over, I found myself inwardly vowing (forgetting that
I must return) never again to commit such insanity.
Turning sharply to the right, we once more applied our-
selves to our task. It was now doubly painful. The sides
330 WOODS AND WATERS;
of the mountain became almost perpendicular. We made
one continuous struggle of it; pulling ourselves up by
branches, hanging to roots, scrambling through clefts and
over ledges, until, bursting through a barrier ,of close
underbrush, we found ourselves on the brink of a long,
slanting pathway of granite. It was the Great Slide.
Down it pointed, and up, up, up it sloped, a stony ladder,
grey and glistening, up to the very summit which now
stood boldly out against the sky.
Although not nearly so steep nor so perilous, to all
appearance, as the Little Slide, the thought of ascending
it produced a new crawling of the nerves. I knew it must
be four thousand feet in air, and that all around were tre-
mendous chasms and dizzy precipices, over which, by one
slip of the foot, I might be hurled. But the guide's figure,
sharply relieved against the sky as he travelled upward,
called me on, with my comrade by my side. The steepness
hardly allowed us an upright position ; huge boulders
blocked our path; springs spread an oily, slippery ooze
over the bare granite. My soles, too, from the polishing
of the dead leaves and pine-needles, had become like glass,
and my tread, consequently, was not sure.
But I persevered. The scene behind us was but a
glimpse of a distant region, narrow and vague. On either
side, the close forest stood up to the very edges.
We had been half an hour on the Slide, and still were
toiling up, up — the grey path slippery and blocked with
boulders as before, when we came to a bed of pebbles and
broken rock, which often rolled from under our tread, and
went rattling down the Slide. A little way above stood
the summit — a high rampart of rock. Suddenly we turned
from the Slide into a slight track winding upward, and
went along a rocky platform or gallery, jutting from the
sides of the rampart. Glancing to the left, I shuddered
at the dizzy chasm below, and grasped a bush instinctively.
A few more winding steps to the right, and I stood upon
the summit.
OR, SUMMER TN THE SARANACS. 331,
A deliciously cool wind was flowing over the peak, as if
the air was stirred by a mighty fan.
I threw myself beside my companion upon the ground ;
I drew in with delight the nectarean air ; my heated pulses
grew calm, and the dews of my long struggle with the
mountain dried upon my forehead.
After a short repose, I turned to study the scene.
The summit was level, one or two hundred feet broad,
with ledges of granite weather-stained and patched with
lichen, cropping out of the thin, desolate soil. At the
west, was a wall of serrated rock, the rampart as seen from
below. I ascended by a step or two of jutting strata, and
a most grand and enchanting prospect opened. Beyond
the billows of verdure rolling down the mountain, lay,
like a picture, Lake Placid, studded with emerald island-
gems. To the utmost horizon, stretched the forest, surging
into summits and sinking into valleys, holding the bright
Saranac Lakes like a silver horse-shoe ; while around and
beyond, were other waters of their group, like shields of
steel or meandering veins of light. A long gleam betrayed
the course of the Eacket, with Tupper's Lake, a glittering
mirror, toward the south.
I descended from the rock and looked northward. At
my feet, lay a cultivated region, meadows and grain-fields,
the roofs of "Wilmington, and the two villages of Jay ; and
afar, mountain-chains melted into the sky, with tracts of
forest darkening between.
" Guide, what is that long, narrow gleam in the farthest
distance north ?"
" That's old Champlain," answered the lad, reclining on
his elbow, and picking his teeth with a jack-knife.
" And that range of mountain ?"
" The Green Mountains, in old Varmount."
I looked at the gleam and the misty summits, forty and
fifty miles away, and realized the height on which I
stood.
" The Eiver St. Lorrence has bin seen from here, but it
332 WOODS AND WATERS;
must a bin on a clearer day than this," said the lad, again.
" I never see't myself, but folks sez so. Still, folks don't
say al'ys what they oughter 1"
Southward rose the Adirondack range, breaking the sky
with its pointed peaks. A single cloud stood over Tahawua
like a plume — the only sign of human life between me and
it, being the smooth, bright fields of North Elba ; and I
exulted in the feeling that I had conquered a height little
inferior, if at all, to his imperial crest.
Turning from the prospect a moment, and while my
companion and I were exchanging admiring expressions
and sentiments inspired by the scene, I chanced to espy at
my feet a little meek-eyed blossom, struggling through the
ungenial moss.
Even so, thought I, are the feeblest natures lifted some-
times to positions fitted only to the sternest ; and thus also
do the hardest hearts wear the softest virtues.
My farther reflections were interrupted by the guide.
" Gaul darn !" said he, " how dry I am I as dry as a
powder-horn ! But here's some blueberries ! Psha I"
spitting them out in disgust, " they're as bitter as boneset.
But say, some folks is great fools !"
" Indeed !" said I.
" Ef they aint, I'm darned. I've heerd a heap o' the
fools say, and they bleeved it, too, that there was a pond
right on top o' this 'ere mountain ; and I must say I
bleeved it too, before I come on top on't. Now, do you
see any pond ?"
" I must confess I do not."
" You'd hev to hev more eyes than you've got, to see
one here on the top o' this all-fired big hill — so big, 'twould
bung up, as a body may say, a crow to fly up't. But why
can't you see no pond ? 'Cause there aint no pond here
fur to see. Consarn 'em I"
I once more turned to the prospect. Eor two hours I
studied the splendid picture, stamping it upon my memory ;
and then observing that the shadows had wheeled eastward,
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 333
and calling to mind that the wild mountain offered no hos-
pitality for the coming night — that, in fact, the nearest
shelter was Nash's, beyond Lake Placid — I suggested our
return.
Bidding adieu to the stern summit, we wound down the
rocky gallery and once more planted ourselves upon the
Slide. Down we went, down among the loose pebbles,
sending them spinning and bounding before us — down,
scaling the boulders and sliding oveV the oily spots — down,
until we reached the point where we had entered. We
plunged into the forest, glad to change for trusty %earth the
slippery and treacherous rock. Then down again — down the
ledges by the loops of roots and jutting crevices — down
the abrupt, almost sheer declivities, steadying our descent
by the pendent boughs, until we reached the Little Slide.
Once more, plucking up courage, I followed my guide
safely across, my companion beside me as before. Down
again, plunging down, vaulting over the prostrate trees,
threshing through the thickets ; down the ridges and
through the hollows, pausing a moment at the silver
springs, down, down we went, until once more we saw before
us the welcome waters of Lake Placid, crimson now in the
last lustre of sunset.
Our ascent took seven hours, our descent four.
Delightful was the skim of the boat, after my rough
tramping. Some little distance on, I looked behind. Was
it possible that I had trod the top of that tremendous cone,
soaring so haughtily in the evening sky !
No doubt about it ! Every bone in my body proclaimed
it, " trumpet-tongued." Was it worth the toil ? That was
it, by the grandeur of the scenes beheld, and by the con-
sciousness that, despite the monarch's frown, despite the
" divinity " of dizzy terror that " doth hedge him in," I
had planted my foot victorious on his brow. Sternly, old
Whiteface! thou frownest back from thy throne of rock the
mortal who approaches, but thou yieldest thy secret to
endurance and energy, and rewardest graciously thy victor.
334 WOODS AND WATERS;
So with adverse fortune ; stern in advance, but yielding to
the will, it smiles on those who have the strength to van-
quish it.
From the opposite margin, I again looked backward
lingeringly.
The velvet softness, the dreamy haze in the twilight,
was that the savage scene of such terrific chasms, such
splintered crags, such jdread acclivities? And was not
another emblem of life offered by it, so smooth to hope, so
stern to experience ?
We reached Nash's, and there rested for the night.
Passages of my tramp fashioned half my dreams. Now I
was dragging myself up the ledges by the snaky roots, now
swinging like a pendulum from a slanting tree over un-
fathomable chasms; now speeding on the wings of fear
down the Great Slide from a huge rock that was bounding
and thundering close behind me, striking fire as it flew.
At last I was on the top of the rampart overlooking Lake
Placid. Suddenly my head whirled, I fell, and in my
wheel-like passage toward the lake, I awoke. A ray of
moonlight through the little window shot athwart the entire
length of the loft, kindling the rough beams and rafters
All was quiet ; and congratulating myself that I was not
really circling five thousand feet into Lake Placid, I again
slumbered.
"With the returning light, in the glow of a beautiful
morning, I returned to Baker's.
Here I remained two days ; catching trout in the lovely
windings of Eay and Mackenzie-Pond Brooks ; chasing a
deer of Cort's imagination on " The Plains," and finding
fatigue and a ferocious appetite, with nothing there to
satisfy it ; achieving Baker's Peak and its radiant prospect ;
visiting Moose Pond, leafy and lone and beautiful, and
gazing once more over the cool, blue expanse of the Lower
Saranac, whence I again heard in the sunset the wild laugh
of the loon.
OR, SUMMER IX THE SARANACS. 335
Hark ! the loon's laugh on the lake I
Hark ! the taunting, jeering sound I
Shore and wave in echoes wake ;
Mocking fiends seem revelling round.
What disdain on man it throws 1
"Heart, despair! in anguish, break I
Life is but a scene of woes,"
Says the loon's laugh on the lake —
Laugh so scornful !
Ah ! the loon's laugh on the lake I
Fame I how gloriously it tears
From unwilling Time the wreath 1
Power 1 what haughty front it wears,
Trampling all it meets, beneath 1
Wealth — the monarch of its sphere,
Breathing air that flatterers make 1
Surely happiness is here 1
Hark I the loon's laugh on the lake —
Laugh so scornful I
Ah 1 the loon's laugh on the lake !
Touth, that bright and bounding time,
Treading paths knee-deep in flowers I
Manhood, in its towering prime,
Heedless of the rushing hours !
Age, the sunset melting clear
Hues that mellow lustre make I
Surely happiness is here 1
Hark 1 the loon's laugh on the lake —
Laugh so scornful I
Ah I the loon's laugh on the lake I
The evening before I left, I stood on the rustic bridge
below Baker's, and listened to the chiming of the little
rapids. Gladly did they dash and glitter in the moon-
beams, but sadly did my heart pulsate to their music. Oh,
troubled heart ! — but again ? Eemember the voice of the
mountain, oh, troubled heart ! and rest.
On returning to the tavern, I found three or four guides
in the bar-room talking.
" Them two tame bear by the barn keeps up an all-fired
pacin' back'ards and forreds," said one. " They'll sarten
wear their paws out. And that puts me in mind, b'ys, of
836 WOODS AND WATERS;
the al mightiest big bear-track I see t'other day in White-
face Notch. It"
" Whiteface Notch !" interrupted I, " I've heard of that
spot. What kind of place is it ?"
" It's a tarnel big kind o' place. The rocks go up so
high, it seems as ef they didn't want 'er stop at all."
" Aha !" said I. " And where is this Notch ?"
" It's on the road to Jay. You go up the 'Lizbethtown
road to North Elby, and then turn up the road, east by
the O'Sobble river to Jay, and then by ' The Forks' to
Keeseville."
"I wonder when the next dance '11 come off," said
another a moment after. " I kinder feel as ef my legs
want limb'rin."
"Less see, that last was at Bloomin'dale I" said a
third.
" 'Twan't nowheres else," responded the describer of the
Notch, " and a good 'un it was, too, but nothin' like that
we hed over Keene Mounting — less see — 'twas last Wash-
in'ton's Birthday."
"I heerd tell a leetle suthin' about that dance, Jake.
Tell us about it!"
After the usual "drinks round," the narrator settled
himself on a barrel, which shared a corner with two rifles,
a pair of snowshoes and a bearskin.
" Well," commenced he, ll I heerd the dance was a-comin'
off, and so I went for Molly Keeler, a rael tip-top gal, with
an eye like a fa'n's, and as fur dancin', there's no use a
talkin' — the swells on Eound Lake in a wind don't move no
purtier. Molly was all prinked up in yaller, with a 'red
ribbon round her little waist, and a pi'ny blow stuck in her
hair as big as my fist. Well, we started. I hed a nice
smart critter to go, and about the easiest buckboard that
could be skeered up — why, Jim ! you knows Bill Koskin
that made the slash last Spring jest t'other side o' Harriets-
town, torts the pond ! well, he hired me the buckboard,
and I give 'im a mink skin fur the use on't. Well, as
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARAXACS. 337
I said afore, we started. Molly looked jeest as nice as
a poppy -show, now I tell you I and her tongue was a-goin'
and her eyes was a-dancin', the whull way— oh, orful!
Well, we got to the tavern — Old Samson kept it, you all
knows him ! a purty clever old critter, but a hoss to drink
— and the b'ys and gals o' the whull settlement was there.
There was Jack Ketcham that shantied nigh Mount Sew-
ard last fall, ketchin' fur — he ketched an al-mighty sight o'
fisher and saple that time — well, he was there with his gal,
Betsey Parkins, and 'there was that Nelson feller — what
was his fust name ! you know, Josh ! the feller that shot
the big moose last October on Bog Eiver — yes, that's it —
Sim ! — he was there with Faith Larkins. Then there was
Pete Johnson, and — did ye ever go guidin' with Pete?
He can take a bigger boat on a furder carry — well, I won't
say no more. He h'ed Huldy Skinner with him. Well, I
can't tell ye all on 'm ! but there was as good a lot o' b'ys
and 'gals as I've most ever seen. We hed good music too,
what I call good music ! Tom Stackpole was there with
his fiddle ! You all knows Tom, and you needn't fur to go
tell me Tom can't handle a bow ! Well, at it we went,
rick-a-tick, rick-a-tick, rick-a-tick-a-tickv, hey, b'ys I Coats
off after the fust breakdown and hankerchers tied round
the waist, and didn't we go 't heel and toe ! Oh, sha, there
aint no use a-talkin' ! And Tom, didn't he make that bow
o' his'n fly I well, he did ! and his foot it went tapity-tap,
keepin' time, and he'd holler out, " All hands round !
dance to pardners, down in the middle," as farse as a tad-
pole in a bog. And as fur Moll, I tell yer, b'ys, ef her
leetle feet didn't go and her big eyes didn't snap, oh go
'way now I ' Hooray !' says Jack Ketcham, ' make way
fur the bear down the middle !' Whiles Pete Sawyer's legs
flew about so nimble, I consated he'd ontwist all the knots
out o' his hankercher. Finally at last Jack Ketcham —
well, I must say, b'ys, he was purty well swiped, ef he is
old hunderd on trapping as old Harve says — but as I was
a-sayin' — finally at last Jack he kicks off his boots and goes
22
WOODS AND WATERS;
it in his stockin' feet, and lie jumps up and down, and
'Whoop, h-o-o-r-a-y !' s'ze, 'fur the tiger,' s'ze, 'and the
rhinoceros,' s'ze, 'and all kind o' painters,' s'ze, 'lettin'
alone mushrats,' and kep' strikin' his hands agin his heels
every jump he made. Well, we kep' it up till about sun-
rise, and I hev an idee we'd a danced till after breakfast
time ef 'twant for one thing, and that is ef 't 'adn't bin that
all on us got a-fightin', that is, all the b'ys. And this was
the way on't. Every time twixt the breakdowns, all hands
went to the bar-room and we was all terr'ble dry, and you
needn't say 'twas buttermilk, nur 'lasses and water, nur
cider-ile and ginger, hey ! Not by consid'ble ! W-a-a-1,
'bout sunrfse the whiskey begun to work. Jack Ketcham
was purty well loaded, and the last drink fired 'im off.
' I'll bet as much mink,' s'ze, ' as a leetle grasshopper like
me,' s'ze, ' kin put in his pocket,' s'ze (he was as big as a
two-acre clearin', Jack was) ' agin,' s'ze, ' a couple o' rats,
what this bull-moose,' s'ze — slappin' little Phil Campbell
on the back — { can't more'n carry on his shoulders,' s'ze,
' that this baby kin outdance,' s'ze, ' enny chap in this ere
breakdown,' s'ze, and l whoop,' s'ze, and ' h-o-o-r-a-y,' s'ze,
and he jumped up three times, and hit his heels with^ his
hands every time agin. Now, b'ys, Phil was leetle, but
wa'n't he smart ? wa'n't he ? whew ! 5e was the grittiest
critter ! Well, Phil, fye brustled up like a woodchuck in
his hole ! ' What yer 'bout 1' s'ze, ' slappin'. folks on the
back,' s'ze. ' I aint a-goin' to stand no sich carryin's-on as
that,' s'ze ; and with that he let drive r-r-r-ight agin Jack's
nose, and you may bleeve the fight was in. Nick Tanner
he sprung and Sam Libby and Chris Topple, and the fists
flew, and ye may s'pose, b'ys, that this chap wa'nt a-goin'
to be punched in the back and kicked round gin'rally with-
out hevin' a hand in ; and in the midst on't all, in come
Tom Stackpole fur his pay, and, ' b'ys,' s'ze, ' stop your
fightin' jest fur a. minute,' s'ze, -' and gimme my pay ! two
dollars,' s'ze, ' and what drink I wanted, and I've tuk the
drink,' s'ze, ' and now,' s'ze, ' fur the two dollars,' s'ze ; and
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 339
as lie said it, up went his heels, and down come his head-
piece; and no wonder ; fur I see Jack Tapper a-kinder swing
his hands down, and Je-rusalem wa'n't Tom mad when he
scrabbled up ! But by this time, the landlurd 'ad hollered
out that he'd stand treat ef they wouldn't fight no more !
and all stopped right off and tuk a drink round, and was
good frinds. But the gals, they wouldn't dance no more,
fur they was mad at bein' left • * fur,' says they, ' ef they
like ter fight better 'n to dance with us, they may go on
fightin', but we won't put up with no sich doin's ;' and the
whull upshot was, we all bruk up and tuk the gals to hum,
and that was the eend on't. Ondrew ! I'll take a leetle
suthin' I B'ys, what '11 yer drink ? It's my treat now !" and
they all drank round again.
" Now, Josh," continued the narrator, " as I've give my
story, you and Abe sing us one o' your songs."
And two of the group, taking seats side by side and
clearing their throats, sang in a nasal drawl the following,
which I have robbed of its vernacular —
Gusty the day and the lake is wroth ;
Fearful its face with its flashing froth ;
Right in our teeth are the wind and foam,
Down in the hollow, and up on the comb ;
Onward we dash and we sing in our glee,
Things may take care of things, what care we !
Sun of October 1 how soft its glow !
Eager the hounds and away we go I
Sorrow is working all over the earth ;
Wrong and injustice are treading on worth ;
Up springs the deer, and we sing in our glee,
Things may take care of things, what care we I
Starless the midnight and bitter the cold ;
"Wild through the woods is the snow-storm rolled ;
Nought that is human breathes far or nigh,
Hark how the fierce wolf is pealing his cryl
Still round the camp-fire, we sing in our glee,
Things may take care of things, what care we I
340 WOODS AND WATERS;
I left the bar-room and strolled for an hour through a
scene of silver, shaded with ebony, visiting many of the
localities, and then retired with the music of the rapid lull-
ing me to slumber.
The next morning, after a warm adieu to our good host
and his kind family, and shaking Harvey's honest hand
repeatedly, I left the Lake House and its forest luxuries,
with my companion of the "Whiteface visit, in a conveyance
for Keeseville by way of " The Notch."
Again I took the Blizabethtown road, and hailed as an
old acquaintance the colossal pyramid of Whiteface loom-
ing from the woods.
At North Elba, we crossed a bridge where the Ausable
came winding down, and then followed its bank towards
the north-east, over a good hard wheel-track, generally
descending, with the thick woods almost continually around
us, and the little river shooting darts of light at us through
the leaves.
At length a broad summit, rising to a taller one, broke
above the foliage at our right, and at the same time a
gigantic mass of rock and forest saluted us upon our left —
the giant portals of the Notch. We entered. The pass
suddenly shrank, pressing the rocky river and rough road
close together. It was a chasm cloven boldly through the
flank of Whiteface. On each side towered the mountains,
but at our left, the range rose in still sublimer altitude,
with grand precipices like a majestic wall, or a line of
palisades climbing sheer from the half-way forests up-
ward. The crowded row of pines along the broken and
wavy crest was diminished to a fringe. The whole prospect,
except the rocks, was dark with thickest, wildest woods.
As we rode slowly through the still-narrowing gorge, the
mountains soared higher and higher, as if to scale the
clouds, presenting truly a terrific majesty. I shrank within
myself; I seemed to dwindle beneath it. Something alike
to dread pervaded the scene. The mountains appeared
knitting their stern brows into one threatening frown at
OR, SUMMER IN THE SARANACS. 341
our daring intrusion into their stately solitudes. Nothing
seemed native to the awful landscape but the plunge of the
torrent and the scream of the eagle. Even the wild, shy
deer drinking at the stream would have been out of keep-
ing. Below, at our left, the dark Ausable dashed onward
with hoarse, foreboding murmurs, in harmony with the
loneliness and wildness of the spot,
We passed two miles through this sublime avenue, which
at mid-day was only partially lighted from the narrow roof
of sky.
At length the peak of Whiteface itself appeared above
the acclivity at our left, and once emerging kept in view
in misty azure. There it stood, its crest — whence I had
gazed a few days before — rising like some pedestal built
up by Jove or Pan to overlook his realm. The pinnacles
piled about it seemed but vast steps reared for its ascent.
One dark, wooded summit, a mere bulwark of the mighty
mass above, showed athwart its heart a broad pale streak,
either the channel of a vanished torrent, or another but far
less formidable slide. The Notch now broadened, and in a
rapid descent of the road the Ausable came again in view,
plunging and twisting down a gorge of rocks, with the foam
flung at intervals through the skirting trees. At last the
pass opened into cultivated fields ; the acclivities at our
right wheeled away sharply east, but Whiteface yet waved
along the western horizon. On we still pushed, with the
river brawling at our left, and soon reached the pretty
little village of Jay, and soon again The Forks, with its
busy Iron Works; and, keeping the beautiful Ausable
valley upon our right, we arrived by twilight at Keese-
ville
The mellow moonlight found me in the fine steamer,
The United States, gliding homeward over Lake Cham-
plain, delighted with my month's excursion through the
Woods and Waters of the Saranacs and Eacket.
APPENDIX.
SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ROUTES
INTO TIE NORTHERN WILDERNESS.
FROM EASTERN, SOUTHERN, AND WESTERN NEW YORK.
I. INTO THE OHATEAUGAY WOODS.
1st. From Plattsburgh to Dannainora State Prison, and Chazy Lake,
25 or 30 miles, over a road.
2d. From Rouse's Point to Chateaugay Four Corners and Chateau-
gay Lakes.
II. INTO THE SARANAO REGION.
3d. By steamboat to Port Kent (or steamboat or railroad to Burlington
opposite), on Lake Champlain. Thence by post-coach to Keeseville
(Essex Co.) 4 miles. From Keeseville 46 miles to Baker's Saranac
Lake House, 2 miles short of the Lower Saranac Lake ; or to Martin's
on the bank of the Lower Saranac ; or to Bartlett's, between Round
Lake and Upper Saranac Lake, 13 miles from Martin's.
The Keeseville road is a good, travelled road, planked from Keese-
ville to Franklin Falls, 30 miles from Keeseville.
At the village of Ausable Forks, 12 miles from Keeseville, the visitor
can turn off into a road," through the village of Jay, intersecting the
Elizabethtown road, about 12 miles from Baker's. This road leads
through the famous Whiteface, or Wilmington Notch.
4th. By steamboat to Westport on Lake Champlain. Thence to
344 APPENDIX.
Elizabethtown, and thence to Baker's, or Martin's, or Bartlett's. This
route is about the same distance as the Keeseville route, but the road
is by no means so good.
III. INTO THE ADIRONDACK, RACKET, AND HUDSON RIVER REGIONS.
From Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, to Root's, about 20 miles.
From Boot's to the Adirondack Lower Works, 20 miles ; thence to
Long Lake, 20 miles. A stage runs from Root's to Long Lake usually
once a week during the summer.
From the Lower Works to Adirondack village or Upper Works, by
water (through Lake Sanford), 10 or 12 miles ; by road, do.
From the Upper Works to Mount Tahawus (Mount Marcy), 4 miles,
and 3 miles to top.
From the Upper Works to the famous Indian Pass (the most majes-
tic natural wonder, next to Niagara, in the State), 4 miles.
From the Indian Pass to Scott's, on the Elizabethtown road (through
the woods, with scarcely a path), 7 miles ; thence to Baker's (over a
road), 14 miles.
6th. From Glen's Falls to Root's, over a good road, 30 miles, viz. —
From Glen's Falls to Lake George, 9 miles ; thence to Warrensburgh,
6 miles ; thence to Chester, 8 or 10 miles ; thence to Pottersville, 6 or
8 miles ; thence to Root's, and thence to Long Lake, or the Lower or
the Upper Works. Or, from Pottersville to the Boreas River, 15
miles.
7th. From Carthage, in Jefferson County (by way of the Beach
road), to Long Lake, 40 or 50 miles; thence to Pendleton, 10 miles;
thence to Hudson River Bridge, about 5 miles ; thence to the Lower
Works, about 5 miles. Can drive the whole distance from Carthage
to the Lower Works.
8th. From Fort Edward to Glen's Falls and Lake George; thence
to Johnsburgh; thence to North Creek; thence to Eagle Xake or
Tallow Lake (the middle of the three Blue Mountain Lakes). From
North Creek to Eagle Lake, 20 miles.
9th. By road from Saratoga Springs to Lakes Pleasant and Piseco.
IV. INTO THE JOHN BROWN TRACT REGION.
10th. From Utica by railroad to Boonville ; thence to Lyonsdale and
Port Leyden, 7 miles by stage road ; thence to Deacon Abby's place,
APPENDIX. 345
5^ miles, over a good road ; thence to Arnold's (over rather a poor
road, although passable by wagon), 14 miles.
llth. From Utica by railroad to Boonville ; thence to Booth's Milfe,
11 miles, over a good wagon road; thence to Arnold's by packhorses
(sent by Arnold to Booth's Mills), 14£ miles, over a bad road.
12th. From Utica by railroad to Alder Creek ; thence by road to the
Keservoir Lakes.
13th. From the village of Prospect (Oneida County, and reached by
railroad), through Herkimer County, to Morehouse, in Hamilton
County.
14th. From Ogdensburgh to Potsdam, on the Racket River, by rail-
road; thence to Colton by stage, 10 miles; thence to foot of the Little
Bog at McEwen's, on the Racket River, 12 miles, by private convey-
ance, over a good road ; thence by boat, l£ miles, to Bog Falls ; then
a short carry on east side of river; thence to Hams' place, 4-j- miles,
opposite the mouth of the Jordan River ; thence 3i miles, by wagon
road, to John Ferry's ; thence 3 miles farther on, same road, to foot of
Moose Head Still Water ; thence through the latter, 6 miles ; thence
9 miles to Racket Pond, and thence 5 miles to Big Tupper's Lake.
THE END.
457