iV7 ¥ •"' *"":" f I • ^ ¥ f 'x

i Li

IN NEW BRUNSWICK AND
NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA

FHOMAS MARTINDALE

Copyright, 1907, by C. H. Graves

CALLING THE MOOSE

With

Gun and Guide

By
THOMAS MARTINDALE

Author of " Sport Indeed"

With illustrations from photographs

LONDON

T. WERNER LAURIE

CLIFFORD'S INN

597458

To my son
THOMAS C.

who as a child, a schoolboy, and a
man has lived his life in truth and
sincerity, and who was my almost
constant companion from the days
when he was a " wee toddliri bairn "
until he entered upon a business life,
this book is affectionately dedicated

Preface

FOB those men whose days are spent in the busy
counting-house or store, buying or selling merchandise,
poring over ledgers, making out accounts, with their
ears dinned with the click of cash carriers, the rat-a-tat
of typewriters, the snapping noise of adding machines,
the buzzing whir of electric fans, perhaps now giving
ear to a life insurance agent, again to the honeyed
words of the wily promoter, to the appeal for charity,
to the man wanting an ad for his paper, or to the com-
mittee begging money for a new church, while from
outside of the business abode come the sounds of street
cars crashing over intersections, the soul-torturing
noises of itinerant street musicians, the chug-chug-chug
of passing automobiles, the shrieking of newsboys, the
shuffling of feet on the pavement as the surging multi-
tudes pass and repass — for such men living in such a
babel of discordant noises this book is written.

In it the author attempts so to picture life in the
woods, in the marsh, on the lake, on the mountains,
and through the bogs in pursuit of game, as to inspire
his readers and coax them to leave their desks and
counters for a while and live an active life in the open.
In doing this they will forget their thousand and one

6 Preface

irritations and perplexities. The excitement of hunt-
ing will banish all their worries and fears ; the out-
door exercise will cure their pains and ills ; and the
peace of nature will make their discontent give place
to a serenity of disposition worth a hundred times the
cost of the outing, for

' l Hunting is the noblest exercise,
Makes men laborious, active, wise,
Brings health and doth the spirits delight,
It helps the hearing and the sight !
It teacheth arts that never slip
The memory, good horsemanship,
Search, sharpness, courage and defense,
And chaseth all ill habits thence."

— Jonson's Masques.

Contents

PART I

IN THE WILDS OF NEW BRUNSWICK AND
THE MAINE WOODS

PAGB

I. OFF FOR THE WOODS . . . -13

II. THE STORY OF LOT'S WIFE . . .18

III. A WHOLESALE ROBBERY ... 24

IV. TRACKS OF BIG GAME ... 36
V. THE LOST LAKES .... 41

VI. THE OLD SCOTCH COLONEL ... 47

VII. A SOLITARY DISCIPLE OF BACCHUS . 53

VIII. A FAMOUS PERIBONCA PORTAGE . . 59

IX. MISSING A BIG MOOSE AT THIRTY YARDS 67

X. THE WISDOM OF THE CROW . . 75

XI. ONCE MORE A BAD Miss ... 83

XII. OUR RETURN TO THE HOME CAMP . 93

XIII. FIERCE AND EXTENSIVE FOREST FIRES . 105

XIV. A NIGHT IN THE OPEN . . . 115
XV. A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE . . .124

XVI. LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP . . .136
XVII. A ROMANCE OF " OUR LAKE " . . 148

PART II

A HUNTING TRIP IN NORTHERN BRITISH
COLUMBIA

XVIII. OFF FOR THE WILDS . . . .177

XIX. SPEARING SALMON IN THE NORTHWEST . 200

XX. WATCHING FOR BRUIN . . .218

7

8

CONTENTS

XXI. THE LONE BULL OF SANDY LAKE . . 229
XXII. THE u SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA " . 241

XXIII. ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY . .251

XXIV. How THE SALMON is VANISHING . . 265
XXV. BRITISH COLUMBIA BIRDS . . . 276

XXVI. THE MEPHITIS-MEPHITICA . . . 286
XXVII. PERILS AND HARDSHIPS THAT MUST BE

ENDURED ..... 294
XXVIII. AN EXCITING TRIP THROUGH A NEW

COUNTRY 310

XXIX. THE END OF THE TRIP . . .326

Illustrations

Calling the Moose ....

Frontispiece

Bringing in a Pair of Deer .

Facing

page

20

One Way of Getting Out a Moose .

cc

cc

32

Digging His Own Grave .

iC

u

50

The Liberated Moose

u

cc

62

Leaving the River End of Northeast

Carry .....

u

cc

78

Good-bye to Genial Joe Smith .

u

cc

86

Arriving at " Our Lake " .

cc

cc

96

Distant View of Camp on u Our Lake "

cc

cc

no

The Martindale Camp in Maine

1C

cc

126

Well Stalked at Last ....

u

cc

140

Leaving Our Maine Camp for Home .

cc

cc

160

A Stage Coach on the Famous Cariboo

Road

cc

cc

1 80

Dr. Hughes on the Bear River Trail .

cc

cc

194

A Pair of Doctors Spearing Salmon

cc

cc

210

Kibbic, Al, and Mr. Martindale at

Upper Cabin on Bear River

cc

cc

222

Waiting for the Wind to Go Down .

cc

cc

236

Crossing the Portage from Spectacle
Lake to Little Lake .

cc

cc

254

Two Sockeyes and a Big Spring Salmon

cc

cc

268

10 ILLUSTRATIONS

Grizzly Bear Killed by Dr. Roe on

Spectacle Lake . . . "278

Stretching the Skin of the Black Bear

Killed by Dr. Hughes . . " 290

Cooking a Meal at the Edge of the

Timber Line ...."" 302

Preparing to Cross the Trail to Barker-

ville . .... "SH

Swimming and Wading Bear River , " " 328

PART I

In the Wilds of New Brunswick
and the Maine Woods

CHAPTER I
OFF FOR THE WOODS

" Are not these woods more free from peril thaii the envious court? "

— As You LIKE IT.

ENTERING the close and heated train in Broad Street
Station one Friday night in September, bound for New
Brunswick via Boston, I was glad to fly for a time
from the dirt and dust and the excruciating noises of
our much -abused business street. The relaying of the
paving blocks was being carried on in some places with
the clicking of hammers and the pounding of rammers,
while in other spots the street was being ruthlessly torn

up for the th time; the blind mendicants, with

their discordant playing of the cornet, the fife, the
flute, the accordion and the barrel organ, were moving
at a snail-like pace, meandering in and out of the
crowded throngs and adding their quota of noise to
the other nerve-destroying conditions.

When the train pulled out the sleeper was well filled.

Three young actresses enlivened the spirits of the
other passengers, for they were comely and exuber-
antly happy. A young farmer from Woodstown, N. J.,
was journeying all the way to Fort Fairfield, in the ex-
treme northeast comer of Maine, in search of potatoes.

14 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

He had already purchased over two train loads, but was
now after more.

We made connection at Boston with the Boston and
Maine through-train for St. Johns, N. B., the cars being
well filled with tourists, business men, and prospective
hunters.

The day was very hot and close, the thermometer at
one time registering ninety degrees in the shade, so
coats and vests were dispensed with, and to while
away the passing minutes on the all-day ride the polit-
ical situation was most constantly and thoroughly dis-
cussed, and the quaint observations of some of the
citizens of the great state of Maine, through which we
were passing, were decidedly amusing and original,
and, as showing the trend of popular feeling, were in-
teresting as well.

A sharp-voiced, sharp-chinned and sharp-tongued
down east woman, in conversation with another house-
wife, gave to her copious extracts from her ripe expe-
rience as a cook.

Three women were aboard accompanied by their
male protectors, and, as they were one and all loaded
down with rifles and fishing-tackle, it was easy to see
that they were hurrying to get into the woods so as to
be there in time for the open season on deer, which is
October 1st.

In spite of the extreme heat, some of them affected
hunting boots and woolen stockings. One woman had

OFF FOR THE WOODS 15

her sweater resting upon her shoulder a good part
of the journey, while her husband actually wore his
sweater. How they must have suffered you can well
judge.

We found the streams through this country nearly
dried up, the lakes looked more like stagnant ponds,
the fields were burnt brown by the sun and the leaves
of the trees were dull and lusterless with their covering
of dust. All nature was crying for ram.

The quaint old city of Fredericton, our first stop,
is garrisoned by a force of Canadian soldiers, who
replaced the imperial troops shortly after the close of
the Boer war. This has always been a garrison town
from the earliest times. It is the capital of the prov-
ince, and therefore the seat of government. There's a
cathedral here of the established church and many
other churches.

Upon a great occasion over a century ago, when a
distinguished guest was to honor the settlement with
his presence and a multitude of people had convened
to give him welcome, and the St. Johns Kiver, which
flows by the town, was alive with gaily bedecked
canoes and barges, while stately " four-masters," brigs
and barks from many foreign and domestic ports helped
with their festive display of bunting and with the
thundering of small cannon to make the day and the
occasion a memorable one in the history of the country,
a raft was seen coming, which had put out from the

16 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

mouth of the Tobique Kiver, which enters the St. Johns
over one hundred miles above. This raft was loaded
with a cargo of one hundred and forty-one moose that
had been killed on the upper waters of this renowned
salmon and trout stream. And this lordly freightage
of royal venison was to provide meat for a series of bar-
bacues with which to satisfy the appetites and nourish
the bodies of the host of visitors to this the capital of
the province.

The first hunting accident of this season happened
near here some two weeks before our arrival. A couple
of brothers — young men — started in a wagon for a
drive of twenty-five miles, where they were told they
might get a moose. On reaching their camping spot
they mutually agreed that one of them should keep
near enough to watch a famous spring, while the other
was to watch a slough where many moose tracks were
seen. The one who was to watch the slough changed
his mind without notifying the brother, and started for
the spring. When he came near the spring he noticed
some branches moving low down and saw an object
through the leaves, which he at once fired at, and hit.
It was his brother, who had been kneeling down.

When I looked out of my bedroom window my first
morning in Fredericton, the light, by reason of the
smoke from distant forest fires, was anything but good.
A tall church steeple, crowning a comparatively new
church, attracted my attention because of some indis-

OFF FOR THE WOODS 17

tinct object at the top of the spire. In the hazy at-
mosphere I imagined it any one of many improbable
things ; as the light grew stronger, however, I made it
out to be a reproduction of the human hand, neces-
sarily constructed upon an enlarged scale, with the fore-
finger and thumb pointing upward in the direction of
where heaven is popularly supposed to be located. My
curiosity was excited to know how and why this object
came to be placed away up there.

After thinking it over I decided that when the
church was built the trustees concluded to have " some-
thing different," and picked out a well-known design
in advertising that appropriately reminds the congre-
gation that " there is hope."

The First Methodist Church of Fredericton is now
popularly known as the " thumb-up church." So long
live the power of virile and intelligent advertising and
the First Methodist Church of Fredericton, which was
bound to have "something different," for verily she
has gotten it.

CHAPTER II
THE STORY OF LOT'S WIFE

"Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green
Sleeves." — MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

THERE lives in New Brunswick, Canada, a farmer,
trapper, guide, naturalist and self-taught botanist whose
name is Henry Braithwaite, and whose years number
sixty-seven. Ten years ago I tried to obtain his serv-
ices as a guide, but was informed by his spokesman,
who acted for him in his absence, that he was engaged
ahead for some three years. He is almost as well
known among the sportsmen of Great Britain as he is
among those of the United States. His clients from
the "Tight Little Island" include many members of
the British nobility, as well as business men, bankers
and professional men of that sport-loving people.

Among the citizens of Fredericton he is familiarly
known as "Uncle Henry," while to the natives, the
guides and the trappers he is " Harry Birthrite."

That I might spend a short hunting season with him
this year he managed, by cutting off a few days at the
end of one engagement and a few days at the begin-
ning of another, to give me thirteen days and a half
during the latter part of September and the early days
of October.

We left Fredericton at 6:30 P. M., September 28th,

THE STORY OF LOT'S WIFE 19

by the Intercolonial Bailway of Canada, a railroad
operated under government ownership, the only one, so
far as I know, so owned and operated on this continent.

Those who imagine a multitude of good things to
come from such ownership in the United States should
surely take a trip to New Brunswick and see how their
pet theory works out in practical operation. They will
quickly be disillusioned. In the forty-seven miles over
which we traveled, the road-bed was poorly ballasted,
the rails were light and very carelessly laid. The cars
were dirty and dilapidated, wash-bowls broken, toilet
rooms filthy, windows dirty and the water coolers out
of commission. The stations were decrepit in appear-
ance and slovenly kept, everything betokening the fact
that here was a road that had political sponsors, polit-
ical favorites as operators and, perhaps, more or less,
political graft in the purchase of supplies and in the
appointment of the men.

Boisetown was the end of our railroad journey, and
the beginning of the serious and rugged part of the
trip. I wish that a faint picture could be given of the
character of the road over which our course lay. The
first day's journey was a gradual and lasting climb to
a higher altitude, although we seemed to go up and up,
only to come down again to the same level.

On some steep inclines the soil had washed away
from the surface of the road, leaving a pathway of
nothing but naked boulders of all sizes and shapes.

20 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Over these the careful horses wended their way slowly
and very cautiously. In many places springs discharged
their waters into the road, thus making veritable seas
of mud when helped, as in our case, by copious rains.

Our outfit consisted of two horses and a wagon, to
haul the supplies, and a saddle horse for my conve-
nience. Uncle Henry walked, along with the man who
was to act as cook, and a boy who was to take the
saddle horse back to the settlement. We were hardly
on our way before a rain-storm came on, at first gently,
but soon it became violent, being accompanied by fierce
gusts of wind. Our oilskin clothes were but little pro-
tection, as the swirling drops trickled down our backs
and down our legs over the boot tops.

We cheerily jogged on, despite the rain and the con-
sequent discomfort, and the first day's trip ended at
about dark at " Brown Camp." Being the first to
arrive, I quickly had a fire burning in the stove, while
" Henry " set about getting something cooked.

While we were doing this a middle-aged Englishman

entered and craved shelter for his wife, Mrs. B ,

who had ridden all day astride, and was drenched
through and through. He said that his " cartmen "—
cook, hostler and guides — were on the way, and would
arrive about an hour later.

We, of course, said " yes " to his request and so he
brought in a bonnie, rosy-cheeked little Englishwoman,
who said she had enjoyed every minute of the trip.

Copyright, 1905, by C. H. Graves

BRINGING IN A PAIR OF DEER

THE STORY OF LOT'S WIFE 21

They had been in the woods for nearly thirty days,
and were now on their way out. She and her husband
were given seats by the stove, and their steaming
clothes readily attested the efficiency of our lire.

But now I was in a dilemma. I wanted to remove
my wet clothes and get on dry ones, but the woman
was in the way. There was a bunk in the camp with
one upper and one lower berth, each large enough for
four men. Putting some dry clothes on the top berth
I climbed up to it and thus addressed the lady :

"Mrs. B , do you remember what happened to

Lot's wife ? "

" Why, no ; I don't recollect ever having heard about
her. Who was she ? "

"Well, she and her husband were ordered by the
Lord to leave Sodom and Gomorrah because both of
these cities were very wicked."

" Keally, now, is that so ? " said Rosy Cheeks.

" Yes, surely ; because the Bible says so."

" Did they leave then ? "

" Yes, but she looked back."

Mrs. B 's woman's curiosity compelled her to say :

" What happened to her then ? "

" She was turned into a pillar of salt."

" Really, now, is that so ? "

" Yes, indeed," I replied, " and I'm going to change
my wet clothes up here for dry ones, and if you look
back you'll be turned into a pillar of salt."

22 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

" Keally ? Well, I won't look back."

After I changed the clothes we — Henry's party —
sat down to supper, and the " cartmen " and others of
the Englishman's outfit having arrived, they pitched
a couple of tents and started their fires. Their cook
then came in to make use of our cooking facilities to
prepare their supper.

Having been in the saddle all day, and naturally
feeling very stiff and sore, I thought a sitz bath in hot
water would be just the thing to take the stiffness out,
provided I could find something to sit down in that
would hold water. Outside I had noticed a deep ob-
long pan, which was used for feeding the horses. It
was speedily washed out, and half filled with hot water
of the right temperature, and I once more undressed
and entered the improvised bathtub.

I asked the Englishman's cook if Mrs. B was

likely to come in before she was sent for. He said
" no," because she was seated before a good fire of her
own, and that supper wouldn't be ready for a quarter
of an hour, so that I should have plenty of time to get
the bath. Now here I sat perched in the upper berth
as upon a pedestal and as naked as Adam was before his
momentous fall from grace, when in walked Mrs. B .

" Keally, now, Mrs. B ," I said, " you mustn't look

forward this time, but backward."

So right about face was the word, and she sat down
laughing at the contretemps.

THE STORY OF LOTS WIFE 23

Later on her husband complained bitterly about the
" cartmen," who had allowed all of his dunnage to get
wet, saying :

" In England, you know, ' cartmen ' are compelled
to carry a tarpaulin and to use it, but these bloody
' cartmen ' only put a thin rubber sheet over the things,
and they are all damnably wet. Don't you think I
could recover from them ? "

"Perhaps," I replied, "but it will be the cheapest,
the quickest and the best way to grin and bear it."

In the morning, the husband was still out of humor
over the "bloody cartmen," but Rosy Cheeks was as
chipper and joyous as ever, thanking God perhaps in
her heart for the sunshine, which had now come, and
for her ability to stand the cruel hardships of the jour-
ney. They mounted their horses and were soon lost
to sight, but they are a lasting lesson that there's
always a bright side to the darkest picture, if one will
but look for it. And on this lovely morning even
the much-abused " cartmen " were good humored and
contented.

CHAPTER III
A WHOLESALE ROBBERY

" Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen in murders and in
outrage. ' ' — RICHABD II.

MANY years ago I had a rainy day experience in the
woods totally different from the above recital. The
time was in August of the year 1871. I was then a
resident of Oil City, Pa., and a month or so before that
date a prominent lawyer of that town — whom I will call
Larkin, although in reality that's not his name — filled
my ears with stories of woodcock and pheasant shoot-
ing, with perhaps a chance at a bear, together with
splendid trout fishing, and all to be found on the
western slope of the Alleghanies. The station was
about fourteen miles from the summit of the moun-
tains. Larkin said we should find the best shooting
and fishing upon a small run, which found its way into
the Alleghany River, and this was to be our base of
operations.

In due time we arrived at the flag station, and from
there we lugged in our supplies — tent, rifle, shotgun,
ammunition, etc. We soon found a likely spot to pitch
our tent on the bank of a swift-running brook, where
we were close to some fine trout pools, and also to

A WHOLESALE ROBBERY 25

some marshy ground where we saw many borings
made by the noblest game bird on the continent, the
\voodcock.

Our first day's sport resulted in the catching of a
fine string of one hundred and ten speckled trout and
a brace of woodcock. We hung the trout up on a
leaning tree, but during the night an otter managed to
get at them and ate the bodies, leaving only the heads
strung on the cord from which they were hanging.

The next day we wandered off two or three miles,
Larkin carrying a seven barreled revolving rifle made on
the same principle as an ordinary revolver, while I had
my shotgun. About four o'clock in the afternoon, a
thunder-storm came on accompanied by a fierce down-
pour of rain. Almost simultaneously with the bursting
of the shower, some lumbermen, who were running to
their camp, hailed us and invited us to go with them
so as to get under shelter. We gladly accepted their
invitation, but when we reached the camp, we were
soaked through with the rain.

The men made us welcome. We were told to take
oif our wet clothes and hang them up before the fire to
dry, and they gave us some of their own clothes to sit
around in while waiting for supper to be served.
There were thirty-four men in the crew, including
choppers, teamsters, cooks, etc. For the most part,
they were a decent-looking lot of men, free of care and
apparently contented with their work. The exceptions

26 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

were five or six furtive-looking fellows whose
faces betokened possible outlaws and outcasts from
society.

Before the supper was announced, two more sports-
men entered the log shanty and craved shelter. They
had with them nothing but their fishing-rods, creels,
revolvers, and wallets. The men were made welcome
the same as we had been. They doffed their wet
garments and put on clothes loaned them by the
lumbermen. When supper was ready, places were
made for the four of us, and we all enjoyed the baked
beans, boiled cabbage, tea sweetened with molasses,
and johnny-cake in place of bread.

After supper the rain continued to pour as hard as
ever, and Larkin undertook to entertain the men by
narrating stories. He was a very eloquent and a very
well-read man, thoroughly up in ancient Greek litera-
ture, in which language he was almost as much at
home as in his mother tongue. He had his hobby like
the most of us, and his was a strong belief in the
superiority of nerve force over physical force. In our
walks he would start upon this, his favorite theme, and
would illustrate it in some such manner as this : " Now
you see I'm six feet two in height and weigh two
hundred and ten pounds. I take a great deal of ex-
ercise every day so that I am always in splendid
physical condition. You are five feet eight and a half
and weigh less than one hundred and fifty pounds.

A WHOLESALE ROBBERY 27

You get little or no physical exercise, and, therefore,
in a personal contest, I ought to have the advantage
over you ; but if your nerve force dominated mine, you
would surely conquer in the end."

This night he entranced his listeners with stories
sustaining his favorite doctrine, showing that most of
the really great men of the world had been men below
the medium height and strength, but men endowed
with great nerve force. He illustrated this doctrine
by citing examples from life. Napoleon Bonaparte,
the Duke of Marlborough, Grant, Lord Nelson, Byron,
Alexander the Great, and Sheridan, were small men
both in stature and weight, yet in their day and gen-
eration these men helped to dominate the world.

Two of the ill-visaged men took exception to Larkin's
conclusions, and so did one of the pair of hunters who
happened to be a big strapping fellow, and who evi-
dently couldn't see where a little " cuss " could get the
better of him. The rain kept on, and we all finally
turned in to our respective bunks, and soon were lulled
to sleep by the rain pattering on the roof.

We awoke the next morning to find that each one of
the four of us hunters had been robbed. Larkin had
his wallet taken containing thirty-four dollars ; the
other two men had each a revolver and these with
their pocketbooks, which contained all their money,
were also missing. The writer's watch was purloined
but the robbers missed the money — thirty-one dollars

28 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

—which had been stowed away in a fob pocket. We
held a council of war outside of the log shanty while
the lumbermen were eating their breakfasts. We had
informed them that we had been robbed, but they one
and all protested their innocence, and assured us of
their chagrin that such a thing should have happened
in their camp. After they left the cam}), we made
a thorough search of the premises, but could find none
of the stolen stuff .

We were now served with breakfast by the cookee—
the cook's assistant — a lad of perhaps eighteen years of
age. The evening when we arrived, this youngster
had been quite kind and courteous to me, and I in con-
sequence gave him a little present in return for his
kindness, and now he motioned to me to go outside
with him. There he informed me that there were five
" Bushwhackers " in the crew of lumbermen who were
out-and-out bad fellows, who would rob a man as
quickly as any professional pickpocket, and that they
each of them had " done time " in prison. These men
he named, and gave it as his belief that they were the
robbers. His description of the men satisfied me that
they were the same men whose looks had made such
an unpleasant impression upon us.

The county town was thirty miles away from where
we were located, and but one passenger train each way
a day stopped at our station — when flagged, — but there
were many " Empire Line " fast freight trains which

A WHOLESALE ROBBERY 29

stopped a little way below our station for the engine to
take on water.

When my conference with the cookee was ended, I
called out my three companions in distress, told them
of the boy's disclosures and asked them what they
were going to do about the robbery. Larkin led off by
saying that nothing could be done — that no constable
could be found in the county town to serve a warrant,
if one was sworn out, and that if one was found brave
enough to come up and serve it, then if a search failed
to find the booty, we would be in a bad strait, and he
for one wouldn't be a party to any plan to arrest the
five men on the simple say-so of a youth of eighteen.
The other two men concurred in Larkin 's decision.

I then told them that I had a different idea and
should act upon it, and asked their aid and cooperation
in carrying it out. The plan was that I should board
an Empire Line freight at the water tank, explaining
the situation to the train crew ; go down to the county
court and swear out a warrant for four of the men—
the youth was a bit doubtful about one of them being
implicated in the robbery ; get a constable to come
with me to serve the warrant ; obtain a permit to ride
on an Empire Line train back again, and if necessary
to flag one of the same line on the down trip the fol-
lowing morning if we succeeded in taking the four men
as prisoners. This my companions agreed to, and they
also promised to be waiting in some hidden place for a

30 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

signal of four blasts of the locomotive whistle which I
was to ask the engineer to blow on nearing the water
tank coming back. Then they were to show them-
selves and we were to agree upon plans for the capture
of the outlaws.

In carrying out this plan the train was successfully
boarded ; an hour and a half afterward I landed in the
town, found my way to the court-house and swore out a
warrant. There were three constables in the town;
two of them pleaded other important business, and de-
clined to go with me. The third, a veteran of the
Civil War, a small wiry " cuss," said that he was glad
to have a chance to arrest that bunch, because he had
a record of them which showed them to be " villains of
the deepest dye." He took a revolver, a large sheath
knife, and five pairs of handcuffs (" an extra pair, you
see, if they should be needed," he said), and then we
went to the superintendent of the railroad for the
needed permits to flag and to ride on the trains. These
having been procured, we had something to eat and then
waited around the depot until a train was ready to start,
for this town was a division point on the railroad.

We rode on the engine. The train was a heavy one
and the grade so steep that it was necessary to have a
" pusher " engine part of the way. In due time the
water-tank was reached, the four blasts from the
engine brought my companions to our side, and the
final plans were laid.

A WHOLESALE ROBBERY 31

The men not having returned from their work yet,
we secreted ourselves until they arrived, and had
washed themselves and sat down to supper in the
dining cabin, for it must be remembered that there was
a sleeping cabin as well as one where the meals were
served. Then I went into the shanty where we had
slept, brought my shotgun out, putting in it a couple
of cartridges loaded with No. 1 shot, the largest I
carried with me, and the five of us marched into the
dining-room. There the constable read his warrant to
the four men and ordered them to come out one by
one and be handcuffed, while I with leveled gun gave
them just one minute to obey the command.

The first man called upon hesitated and refused to
rise ; a second warning had to be given to him before
he rose from his seat, walked around the table, and
allowed the constable to put the handcuffs on. The
rest followed suit without demur. We took them into
the sleeping cabin and agreed to keep watch over them
during the night by turns ; the constable and the
writer to watch until 1 A. M. and the other three men
to watch until daylight.

For fear of an attempted rescue, it was deemed
wise to keep the men in the dining-room over night,
and after the other men had eaten their meal and
gone to their bunks to lock the single big door of the
room so that none of the others could enter again.
We therefore brought in all of our belongings from the

32 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

sleeping cabin, including Larkin's seven barreled rifle
and my shotgun, and these it will be seen played
quite a part in the now swiftly moving drama. The
prisoners were morose, and had little or nothing to say
beyond making threats as to what would happen to us
when they received their liberty ; and I — the man who
had sworn out the warrant — would meet with their most
summary vengeance. To relieve the tension, Larkin
tried his hand at telling stories and engrossed their
attention and ours too for several hours.

At about ten o'clock one of the men said that his
folks lived in the county town and as he was known
there to everybody, he would like permission to change
his working clothes for a " Sunday-go-to-meeting suit."
He informed us that one of the men knew where his
clothing, shirts, collars, etc., were kept, and would get
them and bring them to him if we would give the man
permission to come in. We thought this to be a
reasonable request. The man was sent for, and he
turned out to be the fifth man whom the youth had
advised us to arrest. It was, of course, necessary to
take off the prisoner's handcuffs to enable him to
undress and dress again. When this operation was
completed, the handcuffs were replaced. He then
remembered that he had a " diamond " stud which he
would like to put in his shirt front. This made an-
other trip for his confederate — for so he turned out to
be— to the other cabin for the " diamond."

Copyright, 1899, by Keystone View Co.

ONE WAY OF GETTING OUT A MOOSE

A WHOLESALE ROBBERY 33

When he returned with the stone, I happened to
notice that the prisoner was directing with his eyes the
other man's attention to the corner of the room nearly
back of him, where the rifle and the shotgun were
standing against the log wall. The confederate turned
round a little, saw the firearms, and comprehended at
once what the other man meant by his silent signals.
So he at once made a dash for the corner, grabbing the
rifle with his right hand, but I had jumped as quickly
as he, and catching the shotgun almost simultaneously
with the confederate's grasp of the rifle, I struck that
weapon with the barrel of the shotgun, knocking it
upward, and then, of course, I had him covered with
the gun. He was speedily disarmed, and in spite of
his struggles the extra pair of handcuffs were snapped
on his wrists.

Now we had five men to watch. We brought in
some quilts and some straw, and made places for them
to lie on the floor for the balance of the night while
Larkin and the other two men lay down at the far end
of the cabin.

At one end of the dining-room a square hole was cut
in the logs to allow ventilation, and also to permit the
garbage to be thrown out into a barrel which stood out-
side in front of this opening. At about twelve-thirty
in the morning, when the other three watchers were
sleeping soundly, and we who were on duty had been
dozing for a few minutes, we both heard a slight

34 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

noise, and, starting up, found the fifth or last prisoner
nearly half-way out of the opening at the back, being
helped in his movements by sympathizers outside, who
were pulling the man bodily through the square hole.
We, of course, stopped this attempted escape, awakened
the other sentinels, and the bunch of us then told
stories and walked around the cabin to keep awake
until daylight came.

Upon the advice of Larkin we took the men outside,
one by one, and put them through a severe course of
cross questioning. The constable, having a pretty good
record of some of their past misdemeanors, finally per-
suaded one of them to confess the full particulars of
the robbery, and he showed us where the stolen plunder
was hidden, in a pile of manure back of the stable
where the oxen were housed — as oxen were used on
this lumber operation in place of horses. Everything
was found just as it had been hidden. The man, in
his confession, told us who were the prime movers
in the robbery, etc.

Breakfast was served to the men without removing
the handcuffs. There being five of us, each fed one of
the prisoners, and then we ate. Taking with us the
" cookee " as the important witness, we went to the
water tank and there awaited the arrival of a train. We
boarded the first one that came along and were soon
in the county town. There the prosecuting attorney
made out the indictment on the evidence we presented.

A WHOLESALE ROBBERY 35

When the case came up for trial, it developed that
three of the prisoners had planned to wreck the pas-
senger train going west the same night that they
robbed us, which train was due at our flag station a
few minutes after 9 p. M. Their plan was to open a
switch and run the train into the mill-dam. They then
intended to rob the passengers and the mail and ex-
press cars. When this evidence came out, together
with their record for other crimes, the men were found
guilty, and two were sentenced to ten years each in
the penitentiary ; one to five years ; one to three years
and the man who " peached " got off with a year.

When it was all over I said to Larkin, " Say, old boy,
what about your doctrine of nerve force versus physical
force ? "

" Well," he said, " this incident has proved my
doctrine to be sound and right ; I had the physical
force, but I surely lacked the nerve force, and that's
all there is to it."

CHAPTER IV
TRACKS OF BIG GAME

"But soft ! Methinks I scent the morning air ! Brief let me be."

— HAMLET.

THE clouds having cleared away, and the horses hav-
ing been well fed and rested, we started bright and early
on our second day's journey, and once more the weary
plodding, climbing, jumping and sliding began.
" Uncle Henry " was feeling quite badly on account of
our visitors of the night before, and particularly because
of the " lady in the case." He had lain down in his wet
clothes, thinking to change them when she had departed
for her tent ; but she tarried too long for his tired and
weary condition. Exhausted nature demanded sleep,
and so before she left he was in a profound slumber.

He got up from his bunk complaining of a swollen
and very sore throat, having contracted a bad cold,
which remained with him during the whole of our trip.

Three miles before our camping place was reached
we passed close to Salmon Brook Lake, where a
large moose had been dodging bullets from many
rifles ever since the season opened, on September
15th. Henry led me in to view it. We found
an abundance of fresh tracks, and among them those
of the u big fellow " himself.

TRACKS OF BIG GAME 37

Something which looked like a log in the distance
suddenly showed signs of life. It was his majesty
feeding on the succulent grass which grows in the bot-
tom of the lake, and of which the moose is very fond.
He raised his head and at once looked around in our
direction. Though he was much over a half mile away,
still, as the wind from us was blowing directly upon
him, he got our scent. His mane went up and he
started off, heading for the nearest point of land ; he
was not long in crashing through the undergrowth on
the bank to where he was safe from inquisitive hunters.

The first incident on this second morning of our trip
was the inspection of a dam where, in the early part of
the season, one of Henry's " sports " had lain down on
the slanting abutment of the breast and fallen asleep.
He was awakened by the breaking of a limb, and there,
right before him, was his quarry, coming head-on. His
rifle did its work, and the " sport " was thus spared many
a weary mile of tramping because his game obligingly
came to him.

Next we reached Hurd Lake, along whose western
shore our route lay. I, being in the advance, spied a very
large cow moose feeding in the water. Dismounting I
waited until Henry arrived. He made a couple of calls
with his birch-bark horn, to see if she had a bull with
her, saying that if she had, he would certainly make
his presence known. Hearing no reply to the moose
calls, we continued the journey.

38 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Two years ago, from out of the far northwest, a
German by the name of George Newman came to Henry
to hunt for moose. He walked all the way, and suffered
very much in consequence, as he was of portly build ;
besides he was but a poor walker.

His guide, as is usual with all guides, pointed out to
him the various game tracks on the road.

" Here's a fresh track just made this morning. It's a
cow's. Here is a calf's track. So it's a mother and
her calf. This track is a bull's, but it's an old one.
You can see it was made before the last rain. Do you
see this little track ? It's a doe's track."

And so on from hour to hour and day to day. As
the German's sight was not good and he had to change
his glasses every time he examined the numerous
tracks, by the time he reached Hurd Lake he had be-
come tired and impatient of hearing about the never-
ending tracks, and he declared himself in this manner.

" See here, my friendt, I do not want to see dose bulls'
tracks, dose cows' tracks or dose calfs' tracks. I do
not want to know how fresh or how old dey are,
whedder dey were before de rain or after de rain. I
did not come here to see tracks. I come to see live
tings — not tracks. Now, I command you, show me
not tracks any more, but de animals what make dose
tracks. Und I hereby notify you dat I will not pay for
dem tracks hunting, but only for de hunting of de
animals demselves."

TRACKS OF BIG GAME 39

After this the guide was silent as to tracks.

I had brought a new .22 calibre rifle with a plentiful
supply of Hoxsie bullets. This Henry carried, and
with deadly skill in its use he abundantly supplied us
with all the partridges that we could eat. We had
them fried or stewed or roasted, according to the
exigencies of the time when they were cooked.

He shot in all thirty-two of these fat and delicious
birds. In the bagging of this number he missed hitting
only two ; three got away wounded. One he had to
use three bullets on, four of them two bullets, and the
others were killed with a single bullet each. Kemark-
able shooting, indeed, for a man of his years.

There's a scarcity of bird life in this section which I
cannot account for. The white-throated sparrow, with
his plaintive and inimitable song, I frequently heard,
and what can be sweeter than his peculiar and ever-
pleasing notes, which always seem to come from places
where only the deepest solitude reigns. But of other
songsters I heard not one.

The woodpeckers, in scant numbers, it is true, were
there ; the giant among them, the " cock of the woods,"
was often seen. A few sheldrake ducks and three
black ducks and one bald pate were all of the duck
family seen. One bunch of ring-necked snipe and one
grosbeak, with a few yellow-legged snipe, completed the
list.

Not a fox did we see on the trip, although we heard

40 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

some barking at night. Nor were there any muskrats,
beavers, bears, raccoons, or 'possums seen. And only
one deer was sighted, a fat buck, which I shot, when
coming out on the morning of the second day of the
return trip.

The second night we made camp at the crossing of a
brook, Henry and I being under a tent, while the other
men slept on the ground. With the end of the second
day's trip we had traveled thirty-three miles from the
railroad ; and we were all ready to go to sleep, which we
did before 7 : 30, as the following day's trip was to be
an especially hard one.

So, with a big fire in front of the tent, we slept
soundly and well in spite of the fact that the night was
cold enough to make ice along the edges of the brook.

CHAPTER V
THE LOST LAKES

Fall many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,

Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy.

—SONNET xxxm.

THE third morning was indeed a glorious one, with
ice in the buckets and ice along the margins of the
streams. The sharp, cold tinge in the air gave an
added spur to the appetite. Breakfast being over,
Henry started with me to visit a couple of small lakes,
the farthest of which, he said, was two miles off. Here
in olden times many moose had their feeding grounds.
The team was to leave us and go on ahead, while the
saddle horse was to be left securely tethered to a tree
until our return.

The road to the lakes, which will hereafter be called
the *' Lost Lakes," followed a rushing, tumbling stream
for a mile and then it turned abruptly to the left, and,
as Henry said, went up to the top of the mountain,
where the first of the lakes was found, the other one
being at the top of still another mountain. Many of
the lakes in this Miramichi country have this peculiarity
of being at the top of a mountain rather than at its
base, as I have very good reason to know.

42 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Henry trapped on these lakes as far back as thirty
years ago, but his last trip was over fifteen years since.
In the meantime his blazed spots on the trees have be-
come indistinct, and the lumberman has come and cut
roads first, and then the logs. After these were slid
down the mountain's side into the brook, he left, and
did not take his newly-made roads with their blazed
marks with him.

So Henry and I trudged up one side of a mountain,
he looking for his old landmarks, but no lake was to be
seen. Then we circled around it, crossing bogs, a
beaver meadow and several windfalls. At last when
I saw Henry make a spot on each side of a tree I
knew that he was bewildered, and the locality of the
lakes would have to be taken on faith, for time would
not permit of our making a further search. Of course,
Henry had taken the marks made by the lumbermen
for his own earlier ones, and so had become bewildered.

By following first one road and then another, all
leading to water, we discovered our upward tracks, and
swiftly followed them back to where we had spent the
night.

Our two hours' tramp was fruitful of but one thing,
the finding of a name for two heretofore nameless lakes
— the name is " The Lost Lakes."

We now climbed and crossed a hardwood ridge
called Robinson's ridge, from the top of which a mag-
nificent and widely extended view is to be seen. When

THE LOST LAKES 43

the bottom was reached, on passing a small piece of
thick woods near a large expanse of dead-water I
heard a bull moose make an audible grunt.

We almost immediately reached " Clear Water
Camp," where the horses which had preceded us were
feeding and where dinner was awaiting us. The cook
said that he had been " blattin " with a moose horn
and a young spike-horn bull had rushed out of the
woods and into the water. It was the same fellow
which I had heard as we passed along but a few
minutes before.

We had dinner, and then Henry, the cook and the
writer started on foot through a five-mile portage, as
they called it, being the last stage of the land part of
our journey. I noticed here the first caribou tracks I
had seen since 1898.

I mentioned that fact to Henry, and he said that the
previous season one of his " sports," walking ahead of
three others, came across four caribou feeding. He ran
back within hailing distance and holding up his hand
and counting the four fingers, he shouted :

" I've seen four big animals, but they're not moose
and not deer. Shall I shoot ? "

" Yes," came back the reply, but when he returned,
of course, they were gone, and he was much chopfallen
that they had not waited for him to get a shot. It is
said that no animal can run faster than the caribou.

Many years ago, when these rather queer animals

44 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

were quite plentiful in Maine, once during the winter,
when the lakes were frozen nearly solid, a herd of cari-
bou was discovered upon a lake, and a man who had a
pair of imported greyhounds put them on the chase of
these fleet-footed members of the reindeer tribe. The
story goes that the caribou paid little attention to the
greyhounds at first, but when they let themselves out
they went so fast that the hounds seemed to be only
walking, alongside of them in their running. And the
dogs gave up very soon, looking disheartened and much
crestfallen.

This portage, which we crossed, is perhaps eighty
feet wide and is grown up with hackmatack bushes,
alders and wild cranberry vines. It must have been a
paradise for game at one time, although now there are
few signs of any sort of game upon it.

A monster hawk flew ahead of us nearly all the way,
alighting occasionally upon a high tree and waiting
until we were nearly up to it, then flying ahead again.

It was undoubtedly looking for something for dinner,
perhaps a young partridge was its cherished wish, or it
might have been a half -grown rabbit. Either of them,
no doubt, would have been welcome.

When our walk was finished we entered a canoe on
the waters of the Big Southwest Miramichi Lake, on
the other side of which was Henry's " home camp," the
objective point of our trip and forty-five miles from
the railroad.

THE LOST LAKES 45

We had not proceeded far when a canoe approached,
in which were two men and two women. One of the
latter hailed us and asked if our cook, who was with us
in the canoe, would accept service of subposna to attend
a hearing in Fredericton on October 8th. He told her
he would, and she gave him the legal paper and nine
dollars for his mileage charges, and without further
ado she went on her way in the canoe to serve more
men with similar papers.

This is a queer country in some respects, where a
woman, and she the wife of the defendant, is permitted
to serve legal papers. Neither may a hunting party
start out from or arrive at a settlement in which there is
a church on Sunday without danger of fine or imprison-
ment. A teamster may drive to his own home in the
settlement, but he must leave his party at its outer edge.

We met a theatrical troupe en route for a small town
in the interior, and they related their trials in getting
out of a town in which they had been playing. It took
a special permit from the chief of police before their seven
trunks could be removed from their hotel upon a Sunday,
in time to catch an early morning train on a Monday.

We now paddled to a dam at the foot of the lake,
where we waited the arrival of the horses, as we were
considerably ahead of them.

Here I was introduced to a retired colonel of the
British army, a Scotchman, of whom I will write more
particularly later on. He had been " in " thirty-three

46 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

days, and was going out the next morning without a
moose, although his trip all the way from Scotland
had been expressly for the purpose of getting one.
Our team and saddle horse would be used by him on
their return trip.

What a lure the pursuit of game is to most of the
inhabitants of the British Isles. Their forebears must
have lived by the chase solely, to have implanted in
them an instinct so strong as to make men of great
affairs, noblemen, business men and others, come over
3,000 miles, and then subject themselves to great hard-
ship and exposure, simply to satisfy that inbred desire
for sport.

In Fredericton I met an Irish peer who had just
come " out " from a trip up the Tobique Eiver and
down the Kipisquit, and his sole motive was to fish for
trout. He was to go " in " again the next day after
moose. As I had been over his whole route of the
Tobique and part of his Nipisquit route, we had a very
pleasant and interesting talk in comparing experiences.
He was quite democratic in his manners, putting on no
airs whatever.

The team arrived at 5 p. M. We changed our
dunnage from the wagon to the canoe, paid off the
teamsters, and, after a canoe trip of four miles across
the lake, we arrived at the " home camp," tired, but
glad that we were home at last and were soon to be in
sight of big game.

CHAPTER VI
THE OLD SCOTCH COLONEL

"Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep."

—TAMING OF THE SHREW.

THE old Scotch colonel mentioned in the preceding
chapter was a tall, military-looking man, six feet two
inches in height. He was about seventy years of age
and had reached that period when he couldn't remember
names very well. He had a habit of repeating his
sentences once and sometimes twice. During his serv-
ice in the British army he had resided in India for
twenty years. The following monologue is reproduced
as nearly as I can remember it.

I am really glad to meet you, indeed. I beg your
pardon. What is your name, again? I'm quite for-
getful, as to names, but I never forget a face. Mr.
Martindale. Yes, Henry Braithwaite has spoken much
about you to me.

And so you're coming after moose ? Well, I've been
here thirty-three days, and I go back to Scotland,
whence I came especially to hunt moose — I say es-
pecially to hunt moose — without one. But instead I
carry back a disordered stomach.

My God ! Mr. — I beg your pardon again — oh, yes,

48 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Martindale. My God ! Mr. Martindale, I carry back
a disordered stomach.

You see, it was salted ham, fried potatoes — fried in
grease, sir, fried in grease — with a stray can of toma-
toes— a stray can, sir, and tinned pork and beans.
And dirty, slovenly cooking — excuse me, but I must
say it. Henry is all right, but damn that cook.

I shot three partridges and they helped out a bit, just
a bit, sir ; an' if it hadn't been that I brought my own
good Scotch oatmeal with me from Scotland — from
Scotland, sir — and a tin of roast beef, and some red
pickled cabbage — two jars of it, sir — and some Scotch
oat cakes, sir, I certainly would have starved. Yes, sir,
I would have starved.

Did you ever shoot a moose ? I'm glad to hear it,
sir. I had three chances. The first time I was other-
wise occupied, sir, and I didn't fire until he was gone.
The second time he — the moose — was otherwise oc-
cupied, sir, and I couldn't take advantage of him at a
time like that. So I waited for him, and, sir, he sud-
denly left. And the third time my guide said the
moose was two hundred and fifty yards away, and I
sighted at two hundred and fifty, but the bullet fell shy,
and the moose was off. But I got three partridges.

Did you ever shoot a tiger ? No ? I've shot twenty
of them, and out in the open, too. And leopards over
a hundred. And an elephant and a hartbeest and
giraffes. But I would na shoot a zebra.

THE OLD SCOTCH COLONEL 49

And in all my shooting I was never charged, sir, but
once, and that was by a male ostrich, sir. Yes, sir, a
male ostrich. They'll always charge ye, sir.

Yes, I killed a hippo, too, and came near getting a
shot at a rhino.

I do hope, Mr. — I beg your pardon again — oh, yes, Mr.
Martindale, I do hope your president, of whom I think
a great deal, will come back from Africa safe. Did
you ever meet him ? You did, and talked with him ?
On hunting, too ? Give me your hand, sir. I want to
shake hands with any man who knows the president
personally.

Do you think he's brave enough to go to Africa ?
You say that his charge at the head of the Kough
Riders at San Juan was the whole thing of the war.
But, man, that was nothing. One British regiment
could have swept the whole kit of them Spaniards off
the island. We did not do that with the Boers ? Yes,
but the Boers could shoot and fight, too — yes, sir, and
fight, too — but them Spaniards they were away from
home, sir, and they had no very good treatment, either,
an' perhaps, sir, they were homesick. But anyway,
one English regiment would have swept them into the
sea, sir.

There's one thing I do not like the president for — if
you'll forgive me for saying it ; he has too many pic-
tures taken. You say the Emperor William has fifty to
his one? But, sir, he's a fool — he's a fool, sir — a

50 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

bundle of eccentricities, sir ; he is that. One day he
paints a picture, another he preaches a sermon, another
he offers up a public prayer, and another he conducts a
regimental band, sir. Yes, sir, he's a queer fellow, but
ah, man, he's a grand shot — he's that indeed, man.

But now as to your president. He has his picture
taken jumping a six-barred gate and riding to hounds
and riding at the head of a lot of men on a mountain
lion trip and lots of other outdoor excursions. But, sir,
he and our king are the two great men of the age.
Although I think your president is a more forceful
man, our king, now that he has come to his own, is a
wonderful diplomatist. He's done more for the peace
of the world than all the kings and queens of the last
fifty years have done.

But perhaps ye'll see the president before he goes to
Africa — before he goes to Africa — and tell him, if you
do, that he must not drink the water at all in Africa.
It's nothing but damned mud, sir ; boiled or raw, it's
all the same. Tell him to take bottled water, sir;
bottled water, and drink nothing else.

I had the black fever, sir, and the sleeping sickness,
where every other victim dies, — every other victim dies,
sir,— but, thank God, I was spared. But I've never
been the same man since, sir, and I wouldn't have any-
thing to happen your grand president, sir. So be sure
and tell him not to touch the damned water, sir.

What rifle do you shoot, a 45-90 ? What's that ?

Copyright, 1905, by C. H. Graves

DIGGING His OWN GRAVE

See page 87

THE OLD SCOTCH COLONEL 51

A Hocksie bullet. How do you spell it ? 11-o-x-s-i-e.
What does it mean? Oh, it's the man's name — the
maker's name. Do you think I ought to take some
home to Scotland? You do? How many should I
take ? But, man, we've got nothing to shoot at with
the rifle. Babbits and hares ? Well, yes ; but ye
canna shoot them with the rifle runnin'.

Will you not take a drop of Scotch, Mr. — Mr. — I
beg your pardon again. Yes, yes, I remember it now.

What ! Ye do not drink ? Ye'll excuse me, my
eyesight is not verra good, but I thought by your looks
that you were perhaps a bit of a hard drinker.

Can ye tell me when the Mauretania sails ? She was
held up two days by a fog inside of Sandy Hook?
Well, but I can get her sister ship, can I not ?

I'm glad of that. Oh, yes, I'm coming back again to
hunt moose next fall, but, mind you, I'll no hae that
cook, because every time I think of him I say to my-
seP : u Damn that cook ! Damn that cook ! " an' I
canna help it, sir, either.

And I'm to ride your horse back, sir, on the three
days' journey ? My God ! man, but I'll be stiff and
sore when I'm through with him. And it's raining,
too, to start off Avith. Yes, I had lots of riding in
India.

You may say I was twenty years in the saddle, sir ;
twenty years in the saddle. But then my digestion
was good — I could eat anything without its giving me

52 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

heartburn. But, damn that cook, I'm going back to
Scotland with a ruined stomach, a ruined stomach, sir.

Well, good-bye, good-bye ; I'll hope to see you here
again next fall.

Yes, sir ; yes, sir, I'll be back again, sure. Good-bye.

CHAPTER VII
A SOLITARY DISCIPLE OF BACCHUS

"That quaffing and drinking will undo you."

—TWELFTH NIGHT.

HENRY BRAITHWAITE'S home camp is situated on
the shore of the Big Southwest Miramichi Lake. It is
fifty-three miles from the railroad and forty-five miles
from a settlement. This camp is used largely as a dis-
tributing camp. Here are stored provisions for camps
that are scattered far and near on many lakes and
" dead-waters."

Hanging from its walls are all manner of traps, for
" Uncle Henry " is a trapper as well as a guide and
owner of camps. There are three rooms or buildings
— one used as a kitchen, dining-room and sleeping-room
for the guides, one as a storage-room, where three bear-
skins were hanging, and the third as a reading- writing-
and sleeping-room for the " sports." Two beds, each
capable of "sleeping" three men, a big stove, a big
bench or table, a wash-trough and another table com-
pleted the furnishing of the room.

Here the only occupant when I arrived was a big,
morose and taciturn man, who kept upon the table an
open bottle of whiskey, of which he drank as often
as four times an hour. This man, whom I'll

54 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

call Glade, just because that is not his name, had
been u in " some thirty days. He had got his moose,
and was now waiting for a friend of his to come back
from another camp, where he had also been for thirty
days, but without getting a moose. Glade was, there-
fore, " killing time," truly a noble employment for a
man weighing some two hundred and fifty pounds and
possessed of much of this world's wealth.

I naturally supposed that he would want the news of
the outside world, and so I told him of lively events
in the presidential campaign then going on, but he
made no passing comment. Even the exciting struggle
for leadership in the two great baseball leagues gave
him no pleasure, and so I gave up trying to make my-
self agreeable to a man who showed by the number of
empty whiskey bottles lying around that his present in-
terest in life was merely to satisfy his appetite for
a strong stimulant.

We had a fine supper, cooked and served by John, a
bright-witted chap, who was dressed in white cap,
jacket and trousers. We had cold roast moose meat,
with onions, baked beans, apple sauce, baked potatoes
and flannel cakes. A few stories were told by the men,
and then I turned in for the night at eight o'clock, glad
that the rough and exciting journey of forty-five miles
" in " was over.

During the night the rain once more deluged the yet
thirsty earth, and at daylight its downcoming was un-

A SOLITARY DISCIPLE OF BACCHUS 55

diminished in volume or force. Glade said, " You'll
surely not start out on a morning like this."

"But I surely will," 1 answered him, "provided
Henry says so."

After breakfast a guide appeared, who was to carry
in a pack containing blankets and some supplies, and
Henry and the guide and I took the trail for Moccasin
Lake, four miles away.

The road was uniformly upgrade. Many moose
tracks were seen, but the downpouring rain made it
impossible to tell whether they were " fresh " or not.
However, Henry decided to rest under the shelter of a
big rock, and make one or two moose calls, for to his
keen eye the signs he had noted warranted a trial call
at any rate. Getting no response to the moose horn
greetings, the journey was resumed without anything
of further interest excepting that Henry shot three
partridges on the way with the .22 calibre rifle. When
the camp was reached we were surprised to see a big
fire burning in the stove, and two men in front of the
fire. There were no courteous greetings between them
and my party. They had nothing to say, and after
waiting a few minutes more by the stove they went
outside, stopped a moment at the door, said, " Good-
bye," and both of them departed without further ado.

They were guides belonging to a man who had re-
cently inaugurated a rival business to Henry's — a man
whom Henry had guided in former years. There was

56 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

much ill-feeling between the two men and their guides,
with charges and countercharges, and that stage had
now been reached where subpoenas were to be served
upon some of Henry's guides. Our companions con-
jectured that the visit of these two men was to find a
certain guide to serve such a legal document upon.

Afterward, in the afternoon, we came across their
tracks leading from another camp to this one. This
visit of theirs, it may be easily inferred, caused much
talk and comment.

After dinner the rain subsided somewhat and we
went down to the lake a few yards from the cabin and
entered a rather rudely built pirogue, fashioned out
of a big pine log. As the log was partly rotten at one
end, it had been neatly mended by stretching a piece of
canvas over the decayed part, to prevent the water from
running in.

We made a circuit of the lake and in one corner
Henry heard a cow moose call. We landed near by
and made a careful search of a portion of the woods,
but found no signs of the cow, or, what would have
been more to our fancy, of a bull.

We did see, however, the skeleton of a moose lying
along the roadside, which Henry said had been wan-
tonly killed in the previous July by a man who wanted
to test a new rifle and to whose mind there was noth-
ing like a living animal, and the bigger the better for
this purpose.

A SOLITARY DISCIPLE OF BACCHUS 57

Leaving the pirogue, we journeyed up-hill over a bad
road to a set of abandoned lumber camps, in one of
which a lot of supplies was stored. This camp was
chained and barred with many protections against bur-
glars, because, before the place had been thus made se-
cure, four barrels of flour, a chest of tea and a barrel
of sugar had been stolen from it. The flour that
remained, together with sundry barrels of pork, beans
and molasses, might not now be of much service when
used, as the stuff had lain there over two years.

Next we came to a dam, beyond which was a fine
stretch of dead-water. Half a mile above, in this shel-
tered water, we saw a moose feeding. Bringing a
pair of glasses to bear upon the animal, we discovered
that it was a bull, feeding upon the bottom of the
stream. He would thrust his head down under the
water to eat of the grasses or lily roots, and when he
raised his head a great swish of water would be
splashed about from his antlers.

The wind, unfortunately, was blowing from us, di-
rectly toward him. Hastily we climbed a ridge to the
left, in order to get around him, but the air, tainted
with the scent of human beings, had already reached
him. We saw his mane go up ; saw him scramble out
of the water to the bank, and away he went without
even taking time to shake the water from himself.

He could not have seen us from where he was, but
he might, in addition to the scent, have heard a branch

58 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

break and the senses of hearing and of smell wer&
enough to steer him out of danger.

A visit was next made to a small lake on the other
side of the ridge. No signs being seen of moose, either
of fresh tracks or of roily water, we returned to the
dam and made a trip up along the left bank of the
dead-water, opposite to the place where the moose went
in, but saw no further evidences of these elusive
animals.

Returning to the lumber camp, Henry shot two more
partridges, and we trudged back to camp, arriving
there just at dark.

Our wet clothes were now hung up to dry on a lat-
ticework above a big, hot camp stove. Dry clothes
were put on and a supper of roast partridge, baked
potatoes and stewed prunes was eaten. At eight
o'clock we turned in and went to sleep to the lullaby
of the falling rain pattering on the cedar splint roof
and to the occasional hooting of an owl or the sharp
barking of a fox.

CHAPTEE VIII
A FAMOUS PERIBONCA PORTAGE

"I mean, the fashion— yes, the fashion is the fashion."

—MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

GOBER LAKE, New Brunswick, is called after a mur-
derer by that name, but the explanation is made that
the murder was not committed until fifteen years after
it was so christened. Then the aforesaid Gober shot a
man and killed him, for which crime he was imprisoned
for one month, this light sentence being on account of
some extenuating circumstances.

Gober, perhaps thirty years ago, came into the wilds
upon hunting bent, and under the guiding hand of
Henry Braithwaite, he finally reached the lake now
named after him, and, casually asking Henry how far
he was then from his home in southern New Bruns-
wick, he was so startled and frightened when told that
he was over one hundred miles into the wilderness that
he there and then insisted upon turning back to civili-
zation, and hunting had no further lure for him.

We left Moccasin Lake very early in the morning,
en route for Gober Lake. The road led over a good
pathway through the woods to Birch Lake. On the
way fresh tracks of two men, one wearing rubber boots
and the other moccasins, were found in the path lead-

60 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

ing toward the camp which we had just left. The
guides at once identified the tracks as having been
made by the two men whom we found in that camp
upon our arrival there.

On reaching Birch Lake, two freshly cut logs were
found in the water, tied together with pieces of rope,
on which rude but safe raft they had crossed the lake
the day before. For our crossing we had a pirogue or
dugout, which carried the three of us and our outfit
without any trouble. There was quite a portage over
a ridge, in crossing which Henry shot three more par-
tridges. I don't know how it came about, but in cross-
ing this steep portage I could not but think of a famous
portage — a three days' journey up the Peribonca River,
which flows into Lake St. John, Quebec, from the north
—which I crossed in 1893.

The Peribonca River is nearly three-fourths of a
mile wide at its mouth. It runs through a strata of
Laurentian rock and is bordered on both sides — or was
then — by a dense forest of spruce and white birch
trees. No houses grace its banks and no roads afford
facilities for walking. The river is the sole avenue of
communication between the lake and its headwaters,
nearly five hundred miles away. The river narrows
frequently to a width of say sixty feet, because of ob-
structions from projecting ledges of rock on both sides.

At this particular portage, which is on the left-hand
side of the stream going up, the rock rises above the

A FAMOUS PERIBONCA PORTAGE 61

water with a very sharp pitch a distance of perhaps
forty feet, and it takes careful footing to reach the
summit if you have any load to carry. We had four
Indian guides, only one of whom could speak any Eng-
lish. They belonged to the Montagnies tribe. They
were splendid canoemen, and well-behaved and willing
workers.

When this portage was reached I noted that the
Indians, for the first time on the trip, were smiling to
each other, and that they talked a little, although they
were usually very taciturn. I inquired of " Charley,'1
the spokesman of the bunch, what they were smiling
at, and obtained from him the story of the following
incident :

At the very headwaters of the Peribonca Kiver lived
a trapper, small in stature himself, but with a big,
buxom wife. It was his custom to come down the
river in the balmy month of June accompanied by his
stout wife, his canoes loaded with furs, the result of
the previous season's catch.

From Lake St. John, by the Saguenay Kiver, the
journey was continued to Quebec. Here the furs were
sold and supplies purchased for the coming winter, and
after a fortnight spent in the quaint old city the return
was made. So it happened that but two months and a
half before our trip this same bunch of Indians had
convoyed this pair to their home in the far-off north-
land. While in Quebec the good dame had looked

62 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

with longing eyes upon many gorgeous hats and had
finally purchased two of the very latest fashion to take
with her to her distant home, where they were the only
settlers in a vast region on the border of the Arctic circle.

As each of the hats was packed in a separate band-
box, they were a constant source of care and worry at
every portage.

These precious examples of the then latest fashions
in millinery were not to be touched by any one but the
future wearer. She alone would carry them around
the obstructions and across the portages. When this
particular slanting rock was reached, all the stores,
tents, bedding, etc., in the canoes were landed at the
base of the rock, while the Indians carried the canoes
on their backs up the face of the rock and then around
it, placing them in a quiet stretch of water above.
Then the freight was carried over.

Next the trapper and his stout wife essayed the
rather dangerous climb. The woman insisted upon
carrying the two band boxes containing the hats her-
self, and, with one in each hand, she very carefully
crawled up the steep ascent.

There was quite a wind blowing, which banged the
hat boxes around in a rude fashion, but all went well
until the summit was nearly reached, and there the
full force of the wind struck her and the bulky but
light- weighted freight in front with such force that she
reeled, tottered, and then fell.

Copyright, 1905, by C. H. Graves

THE LIBERATED MOOSE

See page 88

A FAMOUS PERIBONCA PORTAGE 63

Backward she went, turning heels over head, and
making several complete somersaults, but still holding on
to her precious burden with both hands. She was soon
landed in the cold and swift-running waters at the
base of the cliff, and here she was compelled to let go
of the hat boxes, which floated down-stream as if in
a mill-race. First the woman was fished out of the
water, but not without serious trouble, and then a
canoe was paddled down-stream after the hats, and
they, when recovered and opened to the buxom dame's
view, were found uninjured. Her wet and bedraggled
condition was at once forgotten in the joy of this happy
deliverance, and tears soon gave way to smiles. Now
she was quite content to allow the head-gear to be
" toted up " by the Indians.

But now to Gober Lake. After crossing the ridge
we came to a stretch of dead- water, and, entering an-
other pirogue, we came to a series of small falls, which
we poled up, and a mile further on Gober Lake Camp
was reached. There are two buildings: one for the
guides to sleep in and also to be used as a kitchen and
dining-room, and the other for the "sport's" sitting-
room and bed-room.

After lunch Henry led the way to a canoe-landing
on the lake, where we entered a birch-bark canoe,
rather the worse for wear, and in face of a strong head
wind we paddled across the lake. Leaving the canoe
at the far side, we leisurely made our way through

64 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

some boggy ground, along the banks of a small stream
leading toward a ridge called the Caribou Barren.

On the far side of the stream about forty yards away
a large cow moose, that had been lying down among
a lot of tall grass, jumped up and, with mane erect,
started for the woods as fast as she could travel. She
had winded us, which accounted for her alarm. Henry
gave a low call on his moose horn to see if she was
accompanied by a bull, but as none appeared, we con-
cluded that the cow was an " old maid."

We climbed the sides and ascended to the top of the
Caribou ridge. Here we found a maze of caribou run-
ways, but not a single fresh track. The bleached skull
of a cow, with two little antlers, was lying on the
summit, while a good-sized skeleton of a bull, with
good antlers, lay whitening in the sun a few yards off.
We tramped the barren in every direction, but saw
nothing of animal life.

Keturning to the canoe, I found that my hunting-
knife had been lost somewhere on the barren. We
went back a half mile or so, but couldn't find it. Two
days later another trip was made to the barren, and
again no fresh tracks and no hunting-knife.

On the trip back to the camp we explored a deep
cove with a lonely piece of dead-water leading to it.
We had felt confident that there some fresh tracks
would be discovered. We saw plenty of old ones, but
of fresh tracks, not one. A female hooded merganser

A FAMOUS PERIBONCA PORTAGE 65

swam about in the cove all alone, and she allowed us
to come within a few yards of her without getting at
all scared.

From all that we could see there must have been a
recent migration of both caribou and moose from this
locality. There were any number of runways down to
the water, but no fresh signs of feeding or of wading
on the part of either of these species. Henry was at
a loss to account for this absence of big game except
by attributing it to the doings of a man, who, it was
said, in clear defiance of the game laws, had been
hunting at night with a large acetylene lamp fastened
to the bow of his canoe. If this was the case, the
bright glare of the light, together with its smell, would
frighten the big game into almost a frenzy of fear, and
it doesn't take very long for them to quit a territory
so abused, and to make off to feeding grounds where
they will be left undisturbed in the strict solitude
which they so dearly love.

While we were at this camp we were fortunate in
seeing some glorious displays of the northern lights —
aurora borealis — which lasted for nearly an hour one
night, and twenty-five minutes the following night.
In the clear, pure air the display was so beautiful that
we watched it with almost breathless attention until it
disappeared as swiftly as it had come.

In early November Henry expected to have, as oc-
cupants of this camp for a month's hunting, a young

66 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

man and his wife from New York, who had been hunt-
ing with him the previous year. The husband is a
newspaper man of noted ability and influence in the
metropolis, being a son of one of the chief newspaper
publishers in that big city.

Of his wife, every one who had seen her had the
same story to tell. She was a fine woman, courteous
and kind to all, patient and uncomplaining under the
most trying weather conditions, with an overflowing
stock of enthusiasm, and possessed of an athletic figure
that the goddess Diana herself might envy. The guides
said that she was slightly over six feet tall and weighed
one hundred and seventy pounds. Upon her last trip
she walked all the way out to the settlement — forty-
five miles — and arrived there in good condition.

This woman is of gentle birth, is highly educated,
and cuts quite a sweep in the fashionable world when
at home. So no wonder that with all her varied ac-
complishments she should set the guides and " sports "
who have met her here — where nature is not always
kind, but often very rude and rough — as if with one
voice to sing her praises.

CHAPTEK IX
MISSING A BIG MOOSE AT THIRTY YARDS

" But look, the morn, in russet mantle olad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill."

— HAMLET.

AT first break of day we were up and doing at the
Gober Lake Camp. A discussion was in progress be-
tween Uncle Henry and the cook when I joined them
as to how far it was to Crichton Lake. This is a body
of water which nestles in the very crest of a high moun-
tain, the base of which rubbed close up to our lodging.
Both agreed as to the distance, if the mountain were to
be attacked from the front, but Henry wanted to take
it in the rear. As near as I could make it out from their
talk, the journey there and back would be twelve miles,
but it might be stretched out to sixteen miles by some
contemplated diversions from the roundabout way in
order to visit one or more dead-waters.

We got away bright and early. The route lay along
a spotted trail for three miles or so until an old logging
road was reached. This road hadn't been used for ever
so many years, and, of course, it was grown up with
many obstructions — deadfalls, alders, cedars and young
firs. The road was cautiously followed. We made the
least possible noise, stopping frequently to listen and
then putting our feet down lightly, being careful not to

68 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

break any twigs or branches. We would tiptoe along
for a half mile or more ; then sit down and listen for
several minutes.

We saw no fresh tracks of any kind. When the road
reached the bottom of the decline, we found an exten-
sive " dead-water."

Now the day had become really hot, and, as for my-
self, my clothes were wringing wet with perspiration,
while Uncle Henry was mopping his face at times quite
vigorously.

We explored the dead-water for signs on both sides,
but found none. Then we sat down and rested for maybe
half an hour, during which time Uncle Henry made a
few " calls " on the birch-bark horn.

Our route was now changed to one at right angles to
the road we had been following. This road led close
along the brook which formed the dead-water ; conse-
quently it was wet and in places quite muddy, while the
everlasting alders could not well grow any thicker than
they grew in those bottoms.

An hour's walk under these conditions showed us no
fresh tracks, until we arrived at a spot where a brook
came down from the mountain, which we were to climb
from the rear, and entered the stream that we had been
following.

Here we saw the very fresh track of a bull moose,
and a short distance further on we noted that he had
been polishing his antlers upon some alders. With one

MISSING A BIG MOOSE 69

of these bushes a blade of his antlers had, in some way,
gotten tangled up, so that the animal had pulled it up
by the roots and carried it quite a distance before he
could get rid of it.

The tracks were so fresh as to assure us that the noble
game had passed ahead of us only an hour or so before
our arrival.

It was now high time for something to eat, and we
sat down close to a lively spring, ate our lunch and
washed it down with the delicious spring water that
bubbled up close by our seat.

Now came the climb, the real work of the day. The
incline was quite gradual at first, then it became sharper,
and as the road followed the brook, which was gener-
ally rushing down the hill at a good pitch, with here and
there a little stretch of quiet water, it behooved us to
advance carefully, looking into each covert before we
passed it. We searched the ground eagerly for the
tracks, which had now disappeared from the road. Up
and up we climbed, and between the heat and the exer-
tion, and the high altitude which we were attaining, my
tongue was hanging out — a signal of distress — at every
stop, and truly I had " bellows to mend."

Uncle Henry, however, showed no signs of trouble,
but jogged along quietly and steadily. After what
seemed to me a never-ending climb, Henry left the
brook, and made a sharp turn to the right, telling me
that he was aiming to make a short cut to a big dead-wa-

7o WITH GUN AND GUIDE

ter, that we should find but a little distance below the
outlet of the lake, which we were then struggling to
reach.

It was now an ascent up a sharp and stiff knob of the
mountain, and following a spotted trail, which led right
away from the brook. When the summit of this eleva-
tion was attained we swung to the left a little, and then
the path led down-hill until alders again were seen,
and surely we were now about to reach water again, be-
cause one does not find alders unless he is near to water.

Henry went ahead and stepped very gingerly, parting
the alders as silently as possible, so that we could wrig-
gle through without either breaking them or allowing
them to slap back. What a protecting shield this ple-
beian growth of alders is to all animals of the deer
tribe. The moose always seems to prefer to be sur-
rounded by them to anything else in the wilderness.

These bushes at such a time and after such a journey
as we had been making were tantalizingly difficult to
get through without breaking the stillness which always
pertains to the sanctuary of the moose. However, my
labored breathing was certainly making more sound-
waves than our feet. When Henry gently parted the
last of the bushes which formed the fringe screening
the water from our view, without any excitement or
emotion whatever, after taking a glance out into the
open, he motioned me with one hand to come up to
him, while he held the bushes back with the other.

MISSING A BIG MOOSE 71

Now, I must say that at this point I was about " all
in " from the exertion of the long-continued climb, as
well as from the heat and the high altitude. At his
signal I made a quick step forward, and, not looking at
where I was stepping, my foot crushed and snapped a
small twig. Then the opening was reached, the curtain
of alders was raised, and Henry simply said : " There's
your moose ! "

The noise of the breaking twig had warned him that
something was wrong, and he had just commenced to
swing around when I first saw him. He was standing
among some high grass and reeds, broadside on, not
farther away than the width of a street. His head was
crowned with a freak set of antlers, having a fairly wide
spread, with very narrow blades, both ends of the ant-
lers being somewhat like a man's open hands, with the
fingers of the hands representing the points.

He appeared to be a sturdy young bull in good con-
dition, for his hide was sleek and glossy, while his legs
from the knee-joints down were strikingly white.

All of this was noted at a glance and before even
raising the rifle to shoot. There was no time to be lost,
however. I aimed as well as my breathing apparatus
would permit for the point behind his left shoulder,
which was an easy, and ought to have been a fatal,
shot, as he swung around.

He didn't stop, or fall, or jump, or give any sign that
he was hit ; so, pumping another cartridge into the bar-

72 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

rel before he had completely turned, I next tired what
should have been a raking shot, striking him on the left
hind quarter. But alas ! It didn't strike, and, there-
fore, didn't " rake." Another and yet another bullet
was fired after he got going, and then he crashed
through the alders, and disappeared, as if by magic.

His route led over a bit of hard, firm ground as soon
as the alders were left.

When the shooting was over Uncle Henry asked,
"Did you hit him?"

" Why, surely I must have hit him. How could I
miss?"

" Well, your first bullet cut a handful of hair from the
back of his neck," Henry said.

We followed his tracks far enough to show that I had
made a complete miss with each of the four shots. I
could not be made to believe this at first, and I insisted
upon following the tracks up to the top of the ridge,
but alas ! and yet alas ! it was indeed too true.

My first thoughts were not for myself in the deep
chagrin which I felt at this unlooked-for and ignomini-
ous failure ; but they were of Henry. What would he
think after all his care, his skill and his planning in get-
ting me up as close to the moose as any man could wish
for?

" Give your thoughts no tongue, Uncle Henry," I said ;
" for really I do not care for myself in this matter, but
for you."

MISSING A BIG MOOSE 73

" Oh, don't think of that," said the dear old fellow ;
" that moose alive is worth $200 to me, for some other
fellow to shoot at. And don't fret yourself ; I've had
men come to me from ten times the distance that you
have come, and famous shots they were, too, and just
such a thing has happened to them. So come along
to the lake itself and let's see how things look there."

It must be remembered that the moose was feeding
in the dead-water below the outlet of the lake. When
the shore of the lake was found we looked up and down
its length and breadth, examined the soft places for
tracks, but found none, and then we circled round its
upper end.

Here we saw the skeleton of a bull moose lying in the
water, which had been killed a couple of weeks before
by one of Henry's " sports." The head, of course, had
been taken away, while the hide was left stretched out
upon a frame made of poles. There being no canoe on
the lake, it had been necessary for the men to build a
catamaran with which to get to where he fell in the
water.

There was a smaller lake about a mile away from
Orichton Lake, and at a lower elevation, for, as has been
said before, Crichton Lake is at the very apex of the
mountain. For this small lake we wended our way.
Arriving there, we found no signs of moose, fresh or
old, and, therefore, without loss of time we turned our
steps toward the camp.

74 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Now, the path was down and down, and seemingly
ever down. We hurried as much as was consistent with
safety, for the chill of a cold, clear night had settled upon
us. It was dark when the friendly light of Gober Lake
Camp was seen.

It may easily be imagined that I was not by any
means cheerful as I sat down to the evening meal.
Tired — very tired — in truth I was, yet I've been as
weary before, and still have been " cheery, blithe and
bonnie."

Hamlet's sage statement, " There's a special Provi-
dence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to
come ; if it be not to come, it will be now ; if it be not
now, yet it will come," came to mind as illustrating the
glorious uncertainty of hunting, when the unexpected
always happens.

I was so sure when the trigger of the 45-90 rifle was
first pulled that the big quarry would fall that I should
have wagered the whole cost of the trip upon it, and yet,
with four times one shot, that he still went off unscathed
was so totally unexpected that it was really hard to
realize.

But " Truth is mighty and must prevail," and noth-
ing need be said more than that.

CHAPTEE X
THE WISDOM OF THE CROW

"For raging wind blows up incessant showers,
And when the rage allays, the rain begins."

—HENRY VI.

THE day following the Crichton Lake fiasco Henry
decided that we should explore a long and famous dead-
water of the southwest branch of the Miramichi River,
a dead-water with many turnings, many rocky rifts and
many wide, smooth expanses.

We had not gone more than a couple of miles down
the stream before a wind sprang up, blowing directly
from us. This, of course, would be fatal to our chances
for game, and, therefore, a halt was made in a sheltered
cove. There I had a good rest of an hour from the
fierce exertions of the previous day.

The wind did not subside, as we had expected, and
we turned back. In places where our canoe had shot
like a duck through bits of quick water on the down
trip, it was now necessary to get out and lead the canoe
through.

On reaching one of the wide stretches of water
Henry stopped and asked me if I believed in animal
intelligence. I told him that I did. He then told the
following story in proof that animals do reason and
think more than people give them credit for doing.

76 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Pointing to a spot behind some sheltered rocks, he
said :

" I was over there once in the dead of winter look-
ing after my traps. I had come up this wide piece of
water dragging a sled after me through a depth of
snow which about reached to my knees, and had sat
down to rest for a few minutes. A band of caribou
appeared in sight on a line very nearly parallel to the
one I had made.

" My track was soon discovered ; then first one bull
went up to it, looked at it and turned away to think it
over, then another and another, until four out of the
nineteen animals in the band had inspected it.

" The cows and calves waited quietly until a decision
was reached. One of the younger bulls concluded that
there was no danger in it for him, and he made a few
steps forward, but none of the others followed him.
The bull which seemed to me to be the grandfather of
the bunch made a second inspection. Then he looked
up and down and crosswise of the ice, and evidently
made up his mind that to advance meant danger, and
that safety lay in beating a retreat.

" So he marshaled the band, the youngest ones lead-
ing off, then the cows, and lastly the bulls, he himself
being last of all.

" You couldn't call this instinct. It was intelligent
reasoning that brought them to their right con-
clusions."

THE WISDOM OF THE CROW 77

Henry further related an incident where a bunch of
crows had come upon some oats that had been spilled
from a sled on the hard snow. There were nine of
them. True to their custom, one flew up into a near-by
tree to act as sentinel

" On the far side of the road," said Henry, " there
were some low bushes, and, happening to see a move-
ment among them, I watched closely, and soon saw the
head of a red fox with his eyes greedily fixed upon the
feeding birds. Even a crow, at times in the winter,
must taste good to a fox.

"Master Reynard crawled silently on his belly
toward the unsuspecting birds, and I thought the
sentinel crow in the tree must have gone to sleep. But
not he, indeed. He waited until the rapacious streak
of reddish fur was about to be launched like a flash at
the nearest crow, when ' Caw ! Caw ! Caw ! ' said the
one on the tree in his quickest and sharpest manner,
and away the birds flew, leaving the fox in dire chagrin
at his failure.

" Then the sentinel crow started to jeer and laugh at
their common enemy and to berate him with vigor.
The fox slunk away, and as soon as he was far enough
for them to be out of danger the sentinel called his
brethren back, he descending to feed on the oats while
one of the others took his place as sentry.

" Now," said Henry, " that sentinel acted just as if
he was full of mischief, and wanted to fool the fox and

78 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

to have a good laugh at his discomfiture when the
alarm was given. Where is the man, if he had the
chance under similar circumstances, that wouldn't have
done the same thing — that is, if he had had as much
humor in him as the crow had ?

" My long life in the wilderness and in the woods as
a trapper has convinced me firmly that not only have
the animals intelligence, but plants and flowers also
have intelligence.

" Did you ever examine the pitcher plant carefully ?
You did ? Well, you must know that it is a living and
intelligent trap for spiders, ants, flies, mosquitoes, etc. ;
that it first catches them and then drowns them, and,
lastly, devours and digests them.

u On the hottest summer day and in the greatest
droughts you'll always find the cups of these plants
half filled with clear cold water — cold, mind you — and
how they can keep the water cold I know not. The
various insects enter the cup or trap evidently to drink
of the water, and when they try to get out they find
that the inside surface of the cup is lined with a coat-
ing of little spines or spikes with their short points
reaching downward.

" And so to crawl up the sides of the plant being im-
possible, after struggling with might and main until
their strength is exhausted, they drop into the water
and are speedily dissected, the meaty portions being
devoured, while the wings and antennas are by some un-

Copyright, 1905, by C. H. Graves

LEAVING THE RIVER END OF NORTHEAST CARRY

See page 109

THE WISDOM OF THE CROW 79

known method made to sink to the bottom and finally
to be packed tightly in the tube of the root of the
plant.

" Talk about the cunning of the tiger and his blood-
thirstiness ! He does not excel in either of these traits
the lowly pitcher plant, which you can see by the
thousands in most of the wilderness bogs of New
Brunswick and Maine."

Being this day in a philosophic mood, Henry gradu-
ally took up the question of creeds, of religious beliefs,
and of religious practices. In answer to a question as
to the sect which worshiped in a little church at the
edge of the settlement which we had to pass through
just before we reached the railroad, a man had told us
that it was a union church by name, but in reality it
was Presbyterian, as the majority of the congregation
were of that faith.

The subscriptions for its erection were asked for on
the broad plea that it was to be a union church and
that no one sect was to dominate it. One of the lead-
ing men requested a widow to subscribe to the building
fund, and she asked him what denomination it was to
be. He replied that it was to be for all religions but
the Koman Catholic.

" Is that so ? " she said. " Well, why not for that,
too ? Isn't that a religion as much as the Methodist,
the Presbyterian, the Jewish, or even the Moham-
medan ? "

8o WITH GUN AND GUIDE

To this he could make no adequate reply excepting
that Catholics were barred. Commenting on this
Henry — the philosopher of the woods, the man who
has spent nearly sixty years in studying nature and in
living so close to her as to be able to interpret her ever-
varying moods — said :

" What rank folly it is for men to quarrel with their
most intimate friends, even with their own families at
times, on questions of religious doctrine, which, in the
end, seem only like the splitting of hairs ! How many
millions of people have been killed because they
wouldn't worship the God of the Jews in the early
days of Jewish history ! How many millions more of
the Jews themselves were killed because they wouldn't
worship God according to the light of the Gentiles !

" How many millions of so-called Christians were
killed because they did not worship God according to
the doctrine of the Koran, and the instructions of Mo-
hammed ! Then look at the millions slain by the Cath-
olics in their day of strength and the rapine and vio-
lence shown by the Protestants when their day of
vengeance arrived. And so on through all the muta-
tions of human life since the world began.

"Begging money for churches; begging money to
support pastors ; begging money for current expenses
of churches, which profess to be for the salvation of all
mankind, excepting for those who do not believe just
as you do, is not to my liking.

THE WISDOM OF THE CROW 81

" In days of old if a man dared to say that he didn't
— couldn't believe — in this or that doctrine, the punish-
ment might be ' off with his head,' or burn him at the
stake, or throw him into a dungeon to die like a dog.

" Ah, yes ; this is a union church, for all sects —
except the Catholics — and there you see sectarianism
running rampant. In place of charity such a feeling
begets jealousy and rancor. In place of love, hatred,
malignant hatred, is engendered."

When Henry finished his peroration, I thought of
the language of Dr. William Cunningham Gray, the
saintly editor of the Interior, who spent a great por-
tion of his long life in the woods, and who shortly be-
fore his death wrote :

k' It has been my highly prized privilege to return to
the Adamic conditions of existence, to live in the para-
dise of God, to taste the exquisite and exhilarating joys
of primitive life. Adam was under disadvantages, but,
after all, he was the happiest man of his race. Let us
forsake the vapid follies of fashion and dissipation and
return to a life as simple and unostentatious, as benev-
olent and unselfish as that of our Lord. Let us free
ourselves from the vain complexities of theology, of
philosophy and of living and rise to the pure, free air,
and to the simple dignity and worth of true manhood
and womanhood."

The wind increasing in violence, we went to the
camp, had our dinner, and once more set out for the

82 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Caribou Barren. We expected to find the lost hunting-
knife, and hoped against hope that we might see some
game on the journey. Two days before this a large
cow moose had been seen feeding in some tall grass,
and now on entering the woods opposite to this spot
we discovered this same cow. She was, as before,
without male escort. The wind blew from her to us,
and we watched her for a few minutes while she fed,
all unconscious of our presence. When we walked past
her it was interesting to see how very quickly she got
our scent and how speedily she could disappear into
the friendly brush.

We tramped back and forth on the feeding grounds
of the caribou, up one side of the ridge and down the
other, and the length and breadth of it, but neither
hunting-knife nor caribou did we see ; nor any living
animal, excepting the cow moose, and as for her, she
was sacred, and therefore not to be meddled with.

The result of this day's hunt decided Henry in de-
termining that we should return to Moccasin Lake on
the morrow, making an early start, so as to reach there
by noon time. From Moccasin Lake Camp we were to
try Keed Lake, which Henry was considerate enough
to say was another lake set in the apex of a high moun-
tain, the road to which was bad enough to be re-
membered for many, many years.

CHAPTER XI
ONCE MORE A BAD MISS

"O Negligence, fit for a fool to fall by."

— HENRY VIII.

WE packed our belongings and made an early start
for Moccasin Lake Camp. The reason for our change
of base was because in two days more our return
journey to what is called civilization would have to be
commenced, and this day's tramp would put us a " day's
march nearer home." It's the saddest part of a hunt-
ing vacation when you have to turn back on your
tracks.

When you are on the forward move, the mind
is always ready for new sights, new sounds, and new
chances for game. When the spirits are high, and
there's an eager and alert look in the eye, your step is
light and springy. You peer into this cove and into
that one, always expecting a surprise. You scan with
rapid glances the valley that unfolds itself before you
for the first time. You look at all the soft spots in the
road for telltale tracks. You crouch around the big
rock, and hold your breath while you look. That high
bunch of swale grass may conceal a deer.

Is that a rock away at the far end of the lake, or is
it — yes, it is — it's a moose feeding.

84 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

The head is under the water and when it is raised
note the splash of the water as the antlers cast it off the
blades, like throwing it up with a shovel, and you
know it's a bull. He's got your wind and he's off.
Good-bye, old fellow. I'll look for you another time.

But now we're coming to a dead-water. That piece
of dead-water yonder which twists and turns to all
points of the compass may even now be entertaining a
bull moose with a dinner of lily-pads, a dinner always
to his liking.

But the return trip is a walk without ambition and
unspurred by curiosity, and therefore the distance al-
ways seems to be greater than on the ingoing trip.
The portage over the high ridge, the crossing of Birch
Lake in the pirogue, were now but commonplace pro-
ceedings, exciting no comment whatever. Henry
made a couple of " calls " at Birch Lake, more from
custom perhaps than from the expectancy of getting
any answers.

But partridges were plentiful, and he soon had three
of these fine birds hung to his pack, each killed with a
single bullet.

The day was hot and sultry, and each of us had more
or less of a load, and in consequence our exertions
brought out plenty of perspiration. The return journey
discovered to us no game, no new tracks, and at noon
time the distance was covered, and we were back again
in the camp, whence I had started but a few days be-

ONCE MORE A BAD MISS 8$

fore, buoyant and hopeful of coining out with a big
moose head, a caribou head, and perhaps even a bear.

The cook lost little time in getting a meal for us.
Henry said quietly, " Now we'll try Reed Lake," and
we were soon off again. A few steps from the camp a
partridge was fired at and evidently killed, but it fell
in some brush and we couldn't find it, and so it had to
be left until our return.

Reed Lake was only two miles away, but such a pair
of miles you never saw ! The road was largely one of
smooth boulders, — small boulders, medium-sized boul-
ders and big boulders. The ascent was steep enough
again to test the lungs, and, together with the heat,
made us pause often and long. In these rests Henry
was again philosophic and reminiscent.

Speaking once more of the intelligence of animals,
he used the reasoning of the late Dr. W. C. Gray : " The
moral faculties of the lower animals are shown in the
startling likeness to the language and tonal effects as
used by man, or as much so as the physical conforma-
tion of the organs of speech will permit.

"Anger, defiance, affection, alarm, fright, sorrow,
pain, gladness, exultation, triumph, derision are all
heard in all their modulations in the voices and modes
of expression of birds and quadrupeds ; language well
understood by civilized man, but better understood by
the Indians of the several tribes, each of which speaks
an idiom of its own.

86 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

"Most of the emotions and passions are well ex-
pressed in the soft beaming or the flash of the eye.
The pose of the body, the exhibition of weapons, the
tremor of the muscles, the lofty, suppliant or shamed
carriage of the head.

"When we see a dog, himself hungry, carry food
safely to his master, or die bravely in that master's
defense, how shall we escape the conviction that really
noble moral qualities are present in the phenomena ?
Notice the warm aifection and intelligent understand-
ing existing between such widely divergent animals as
the dog, the horse, the elephant, the seal, on the one
hand, and man on the other.

" The flowers at our feet look up into our faces with
expressions so sweet and benign that our imaginations
will persist in investing them with spirits kindred to
our own."

The good doctor elsewhere says : " One Sunday
I found a sick horse lying upon the cold, wet
ground. When he sa\v me he called for help at once,
lifted his head, touched his side with his nose, and
groaned. I told him I was very sorry for him, and that
he must not lie there, but get up and go home, and
that he should have a warm bed and some medicine.

"He was too weak and benumbed to rise alone, but
he and I combined our forces, and he was soon on his
feet, and he led the way with feeble steps. I did not
know where his home was, but he showed me.

GOOD-BY TO GENIAL JOE SMITH

See page in

ONCE MORE A BAD MISS 87

" I do not say that the man who owned him had no
soul. I only say that the fact of the existence of his
soul had to be reached by an abstract mental process,
as we determine the existence of the ultimate atom."

In my own experience of three years ago, a young
bull moose was kept a prisoner to my certain knowl-
edge for four days and a half, without food or water.
He had suffered the misfortune of having his right hind
leg caught in some manner back of a cedar root. The
spot where he was thus forcibly " held up," or down,
rather, was but three feet from the water of the
thoroughfare at the head of " Our Lake."

With his three other feet free he was during the
whole of this time trying to free himself, and was con-
stantly digging for himself a muddy grave. The water
rushed in as fast as he dug and the result was an
enveloping compound of sticky mud.

I had heard him plainly on Friday and Saturday
nights because the wind was from his quarter. Sunday
night it changed and on that night and the following
night we heard no sounds. On Tuesday morning a
guide and I passed right by him without seeing him, al-
though as I have already said he was but three feet
from the water.

On the return trip, however, the guide, who had left
me more than a mile above, again heard the noise and
soon located the cause.

Going back to the camp, he enlisted the aid of one

88 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

of our party, an expert photographer, and together
they paddled up to the imprisoned moose. With an
axe the cedar root was cut and the moose's leg was
freed.

The next thing was to get the intelligent animal out.
They used a sapling as a lever, putting it between his
hind legs, with a log for a fulcrum. With one man
pulling at his antlers, the other hoisting him by
means of the lever, and the moose doing all that he
could to help them, he was at last liberated.

Both men say that he thanked them as eloquently
with his eyes, and by turning round and looking at
them with every step he took, until he waded across the
thoroughfare, as any human being could possibly have
done.

All his instinctive dread of human beings had disap-
peared, and he showed by his actions that he appreciated
to the full the fact that the men had actually saved his
life.

This was on a Tuesday — a few days afterward we
were out — my guide and I — at night when the moon was
shining very bright and the air was absolutely still.
We heard a pair of moose feeding up the stream. Pad-
dling silently toward them we first came up with a very
large cow feeding on the left hand side of the brook.
And next we found that she was mated with the
same little bull whom we had rescued, for he was now
her lord and protector.

ONCE MORE A BAD MISS 89

But now for our excursion to Eeed Lake. When we
arrived there the water was discovered to be very
roily, so much so that any novice might know from
looking at it that moose were feeding in and around it.

The lake was fed by a small brook of deliciously
cold and transparent water, in which the young brook
trout darted to and fro with great animation. I at
once got to my knees upon a low rock in this stream,
and drank my fill of the mountain nectar.

When I arose, Henry said: "I saw a bull moose
just step into the woods at the other end of the lake.
Do you see the cow there on the right-hand side ? "

With a pair of field-glasses I looked, and then told
him that I saw the cow plainly enough, but no bull.

Henry simply said : " We'll find him in the shadow
of the trees right beyond the cow, but we must cross
the lake and work up to the leeward of them."

There was a peninsula that jutted out into the lake
considerably ; it was perhaps a half mile away, and for
this point we directed our steps. On coming to the
end of this projecting piece of land we got down to our
hands and knees ; and well it was that we did so, as we
found another cow moose feeding in a cove to the left
of us, and she either heard us or winded us slightly, as
we saw her mane go up, while she turned around and
faced our place of concealment.

It wouldn't do to frighten her, because she was very
close to us, so we lay prone on the ground until she

go WITH GUN AND GUIDE

finally regained confidence and started feeding again.
Then we raised up, and, with the aid of the field-
glasses, we plainly made out a splendid-looking bull
moose, standing like a statue in the edge of the woods
behind the other cow.

The way the wind was blowing there was but one
thing to do, and that was to back out until we had got
clear of the cove to our left, and then make a wide
detour around the outlet of the lake, keeping back far
enough so as not to alarm the cow in the cove, and also
far enough so that when we reached the far side we
would be on a line with the bull and somewhat behind
the other cow moose.

i have already said the day was hot. In addition to
the heat, there were many windfalls to go under or
over, a bad wet bog to cross and the ubiquitous alders
and cedars to penetrate.

This work required patience, and, at the same time,
no minutes were to be lost ; for if the cow should finish
feeding and go into the woods her mate would follow,
and all our labor would go for nothing.

Therefore we hurried as much as we dared, and, as
for perspiration, we were both dripping with it. The
last obstruction, the alders, was at last reached. These
were carefully parted, and once more Henry said :

" There's your moose ! "

He was a fine-looking moose. His skin was glossy
and black. He stood erect, his head and neck raised

ONCE MORE A BAD MISS 91

to the highest reach, and he was not over thirty yards
away.

On our side of him a dead tree, about ten inches in
diameter, reached out parallel with the middle of his
body. I hesitated a second or so in debating whether
to fire over or under this impediment, and finally
reached the decision to fire under it. I coolly and care-
fully took aim and fired. The moose quickly turned to
run, and as he did so I fired two more shots at him,
wondering between times why he did not drop.

He showed wonderful alertness in getting out of
sight, and, with what wind I had left, I ran after him,
but he disappeared as if by magic. In fact, it was
very hard even to trail him, and we didn't succeed in
getting a certain and sure sight of his line of retreat
until we had circled twice over quite a good piece of
ground, reaching back to a small ridge.

There were no signs of blood, no signs that he was
faltering in his movements ; but plenty of signs to show
that he hadn't been hit, excepting where we found a
bunch of hair, which had been shot off his mane as he
swung around.

To say that I was doubly chagrined at this second
streak of bad shooting does not at all do justice to my
feelings. For the life of me I couldn't account for it,
excepting upon the theory that the elevation and the
state of exhaustion which I was in after my hard walk
and climb in both instances must have made me unsteady.

92 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

In both cases, however, I had clearly and cleanly
overshot the quarry, and that was all that could be said
about it.

Some ten days afterward, when I was at my camp
in Maine, a companion sportsman, who was making his
first hunting trip to the Maine woods, for an hour or so
carried my rifle, while I carried his, which was much
lighter.

We had a hard tramp of several miles and when we
reached the objective point of our trip — a newly dis-
covered dead-water — I made a fire and was boiling
some water, while he was carelessly examining my rifle.
He casually remarked to me : "I see you carry your
rifle with the sight elevated at a hundred yards." I
made some passing remark in answer, but thought no
more about it, until after he had left for home, and one
night when I was lying out at an upper dam, his re-
mark came back to me, and I looked at the sights and
found they were set for an elevation of two hundred
yards.

Then I knew why I had made two such shameful
misses. I have always made it a practice to keep
my sights at zero, and to elevate when necessity re-
quired me to do so. For three weeks before my de-
parture for New Brunswick, the rifle had been stand-
ing in my office uncovered, and my theory is that some
employee had innocently tampered with the sights,
elevated them, and then set the rifle down, and as the

ONCE MORE A BAD MISS 93

two chances which I had were both remarkably close
shots, I naturally fired away over the moose each time.
Of course, it was nothing but gross carelessness upon
my part in not looking at the rifle and seeing that the
sights were all right before shooting, and hence the line
at the head of this article, which Shakespeare puts into
the mouth of Cardinal Wolsey after his fall from great-
ness, is a timely and a proper finish to it.

" O Negligence, fit for a fool to fall by."

In relating the above incident to a friend who has had
much experience in shooting big game he said that once
in British Columbia he was hunting wild goats on the
Selkirk Mountains. He had spent day after day climb-
ing up and around the snow-clad mountain peaks,
when he was compelled to lie down and rest. It was
not long before five goats appeared around the corner
of a jutting crag, perhaps thirty yards away. Getting
two good big rams in line he fired and missed and as
they ran he fired again and again with nothing but
misses. Examination showed him afterward that his
rifie was sighted for five hundred yards. This was the
only chance he had in his whole trip of bagging a moun-
tain goat.

CHAPTER XII
OUR RETURN TO THE HOME CAMP

" Winding up days with toil, and nights with sleep."

—HENRY V.

Now came the exodus from Moccasin Lake Camp
to the home camp, and on the morning following the
experience at Reed Lake, we packed our superfluous
things into a big bundle, which our sturdy cook was to
" tote " homeward, while Henry and I were to make a
wide detour covering two more lakes.

For once we followed a good road and, although the
weather was snappy with the low temperature on this
early October morning, it was a very enjoyable tramp
to the first lake which was named after a man called
Smith. On the three miles that were traversed before
this lake came into sight, no game of any kind was
seen, not even a partridge or red squirrel.

We passed a set of lumber camps that seemed to be
in good condition excepting that the roofs had been
torn off by a man who desired the material to cover
some camps which he was building himself. This
action was rudely resented by the owner of the camps
who sent the roof -robber a bill for the damages, which
was promptly settled.

We came upon the lake at its upper end. There

OUR RETURN TO THE HOME CAMP 95

were some fresh moose tracks along the shore, and the
water was somewhat roiled. Apparently moose had
been feeding there during the night and they had left
early in the morning.

There were some large rocks on the shore and plenty
of tall grass. The sun had now come out strong and
warm. We watched the shores of the lake from be-
hind the rocks for quite a while. At the far end, three
black ducks were feeding. They splashed about, div-
ing and playing in the water and making considerable
noise.

As they often bunched up so that a shot with the
.22 calibre rifle might be successful, I asked Henry if I
hadn't better make a circuit of the lake with the rifle
and try to get a shot at them. He said that they were
now through feeding and would soon be off. Hardly
had he spoken the words, when they got up with much
clamor and flew away. This silent, observing man had
noted by their actions that their appetites had been
satisfied, and they had taken to playing; after that
would come their departure.

No sign of the moose reappearing, we trudged on to
the next lake, a distance of a mile and a half. At the
end at which we came in, the ground was boggy and
wet.

Making a circuit of the shore, we came to the
bleached and whitened skeleton of a moose, said to
have been killed during close time by a man who

96 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

wanted to test a new rifle ; the distance at which he
had fired was said to have been 250 yards.

It would seem that the rifle must have been all right
and the aim sure, or the victim whose body was substi-
tuted for a rifle butt would not have been lying where
we found him.

The wind had now freshened to such a velocity that
hunting was out of the question, and we headed
for the home camp, where we arrived in time for
dinner.

Here we found a gentleman who had been out over
thirty days after a moose, and although he had had
plenty of chances, yet he was unsuccessful. He was to
start homeward as soon as a team and a saddle horse
would arrive, the one to take his dunnage and the
other for him to ride.

He didn't seem at all chagrined at his want of suc-
cess, although he emptied the magazine of his rifle in
firing at one moose. He took the matter philosophic-
ally and had very little to say about his repeated
misses.

In the afternoon we made a trip to Irland Lake and
found some really fresh tracks there, and in conse-
quence we made quite an extensive detour to see if we
couldn't come in closer touch with the makers of the
tracks. Henry, in the meantime, made frequent
calls with the birch-bark horn, but no answer was
elicited.

ARRIVING AT " OUR LAKE "

See page 113

OUR RETURN TO THE HOME CAMP 97

On reaching the camp at night we informed the un-
successful hunter of what we had seen on the after-
noon's jaunt, advising him to try his luck there during
the remaining two days of his stay ; but all his am-
bition for hunting was gone, and we talked to deaf
ears.

When night came I gathered a few green boughs
and, laying them on the jfloor of the camp for a bed,
I got into my sleeping bag and slept until daylight.

We had our last hunt before starting back during
this forenoon, which was also without result, although
we covered quite a distance until dinner time arrived.

After dinner Henry, the cook, and the writer got
into our canoe at two-thirty, and with the wind blowing
a light gale, which made our deeply laden canoe come
perilously close to shipping water enough to sink her,
we crossed the big lake of the Southwest Miramichi in
an hour and ten minutes.

On the farther shore I built a camp-fire, while Henry
went back with some potatoes to the home camp. The
team which was to take our stuff out the next morning
soon arrived, and we had our supper in the same camp
where we had found the Scotch colonel with " that
damned cook " on our arrival the Wednesday previous.

I had now been " in " altogether but eight days, and
when I lay down on the ground to sleep that cold, cold
night of the 8th of October, when the ice formed
along the edges of the lake before morning, I realized

98 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

the fact that I had crowded into those eight days more
of continually changing incident, of changing scenery,
and of unique experience than in any other like period
of time in my life.

It had been, with the exception of a portion of one
forenoon when we waited on a dead-water for the wind
to go down, or to change, an unending strenuous hunt,
in spite of wind, rain, cold or heat.

The nights were always cold, and the days remark-
ably warm for the season. The hunt was now really
over, and unless we could strike something on the
journey back to the settlement — which would take
three days — we would reach Fredericton empty-
handed.

On the morning of the 9th of October, having break-
fasted early, fed the horses and loaded the dunnage on
the wagon ready for the long trip, the cavalcade left
at seven o'clock.

On the journey " in " I had thought it best to ride
on horseback, which I did with much comfort and
pleasure. Now, however, I determined to make the
return trip on foot, as I felt hardened and muscular
enough to walk any reasonable distance without
fatigue.

Henry planned that he and I should take a different
route from that followed by the team for the first day,
so as to be out of hearing of the crunching noise the
wheels made on the hard flinty stones as the wagon

OUR RETURN TO THE HOME CAMP 99

and horses pounded along, up one mountainside and
down another.

Our route followed a road which had been used as a
logging road some five years previous. It was, in con-
sequence, full of the usual small growth of alders
and in places little firs and occasionally young cedars,
with many blow downs to get under or over.

Henry shot four or five partridges during the fore-
noon which were all the game we saw. We visited two
pieces of dead-water, and one good-sized lake, which
went by the name of the Depot Camp Lake ; and these
digressions from the road were all made with the ever-
present expectancy of seeing something. While noth-
ing was seen they added materially to the mileage
traveled.

A halt was made at one of Henry's camps for lunch.
Here he had left a reserve supply of blankets for the
of his various hunting parties ; also flour, cooking
itensils, dishes, knives, forks, etc.

Some vandals had spent one or more nights there,

id had left things in dire confusion. Besides, out of
>ure wantonness, they had thrown some knives and
forks outside, presumably rather than wash them. That
len would do such tricks seems incredible, but the
evidences were all there to show how despicably mean
>me persons can be.

The afternoon's walk was likewise unfruitful of
sighting any game. We camped that night on the

ioo WITH GUN AND GUIDE

bank of a famous salmon river, and listened to the
stories of the migrations of the salmon ; of how the fish
ascend this river to the spawning beds ; how the female
salmon clears out a nice, clean, gravelly place, where
she can deposit her precious eggs to the best advantage ;
how the male swims around her to protect her and the
roe from her enemies ; and how, at such times, the
dorsal fin of the male may be seen in the water as he
slowly circles round and round the mother fish, driving
away predatory interlopers. We were told of a man
who called himself a sportsman — God save the mark —
who at such times watched the stream for signs of the
male fish circling around the female to protect her;
and when the dorsal fin of one of these glorious
salmon appeared above the surface of the water the
sound of his rifle would be heard. A noble fish would
turn belly up and the " sportsman " would wade out to
drag him in.

Next day we were off long before the team started,
in order to be ahead of the noise of the wagon. Some
few miles from our camping place Henry left me to
visit one of his camps, a mile or more from the road,
and I jogged along very quietly and cautiously.

Turning a bend in the road I saw my first deer of
this whole trip. It was a fine young buck, and the
fattest I ever saw. It wras a long shot, and rather a
nice one to make for the centre of his chest, but the
bullet went true and he ran but a few yards before he

OUR RETURN TO THE HOME CAMP 101

fell. When Henry came up it didn't take long to dress
the deer and carry it to the wagon.

That night it was hung up and a smudge fire was
built, over which the carcass was smoked for a couple
of hours and then sprinkled with pepper to keep off
the blow-flies. This deer I shipped whole to Philadel-
phia, where it arrived four days after, in splendid con-
dition.

After killing the deer we came to Hurd Lake, where
we had seen a large cow moose on the journey " in."
Henry had heard of a fine dead-wrater two and a half
miles from this lake that he thought we ought to visit.
A high ridge had to be crossed, and then we came
down to the water again on the other side of it. We
found the dead-water, and it was a beautifully secluded
spot. While Henry tried his birch-bark call, I was
much interested in watching an apparent migration of
spiders across a wide pool.

A long, slender piece of spider's silk would come
floating by, away up in the air with a spider at the
bottom of it, and this would be followed by so many
others that it seemed they must be acting in concert.

We spent a half hour or more at this spot, then
we crossed the ridge again and crept as silently as
possible to Hurd Lake. Here we seated ourselves at
the leeward end of the lake and watched and waited.

In a very few minutes we heard a branch break on
the far side of the lake, and soon a calf moose stepped

102 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

to the edge of the forest and next into the water. It
was followed by a cow moose, its mother, no doubt,
who evidently did not feel at ease. We imagined that
there must have been an eddy in the wind which
carried back to her the tainted air from a pair of
human beings. At any rate she stepped into the water
and looked right over in our direction, and we saw her
mane go up. In a few minutes she decided there was
surely danger and out she went, followed by the young
moose.

Another small lake we visited before reaching camp.
Here we saw yet another cow moose, and she likewise
winded us; but she was in no way retiring, as she
bawled and roared for all she was worth.

Henry made a call with the horn to see if she was
accompanied by a bull, but we received no answer, and
so we went to our resting place, very tired and very
hungry.

The last day of our trip dawned cloudy and over-
cast. Henry said, "No rain," and trusting to his
judgment we were off early. But for once Henry
was not a good weather prophet. At 8:30 it com-
menced to rain and from that time on until late in the
afternoon it was a downpour, not simply a rain. When
we came near Salmon Brook Lake, where we had seen
the big bull on our road " in," we went over to it in
spite of the rain. Tracks there were, many of them,
and fresh in the bargain, but no moose were seen.

OUR RETURN TO THE HOME CAMP 103

After that it was a wet trainp, tramp, tramp ! In
spite of oilskin clothes and sou'wester hat, the rain
trickled down our backs and our boots filled with
water. All things must have an end, however, and
about half -past four we arrived at the edge of the
settlement, eight miles beyond which was the railroad.

A change of dry clothes for our wet ones, a hot
supper to appease our appetites, and a clean bed en-
abled us to pass a restful night. The following morn-
ing we were driven to the railroad station. . . .
In due time we landed in Fredericton, the capital of
the province of New Brunswick.

Here I said good-bye to many friends by whom I
had been treated with the most kindly courtesy before
starting "in." Among them was Mr. Robert Allen,
the secretary of the Sportsmen's Association of New
Brunswick, through whose kind interposition I was
taken to a most delightfully located club house on the
bank of the great river St. Johns, owned by the
Kaskaketo Club.

Here a dinner was cooked and served by some of the
members in a style of excellence that a " chef " might
envy. Song and story followed the dinner. The day
was balmy and the river placid. I saw a dainty canoe
on the waterside, and, entering it, I enjoyed paddling
across and up and down that noble river.

At 6 : 30 on the evening of October 15th, the train
was taken for Greenville, Maine, on Moosehead Lake,

104 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

and as the train pulled out of that beautiful city of
Fredericton I mentally bade a fond good-bye to the
rugged an dinteresting game country of the Southwest
Miramichi River and congratulated myself upon hav-
ing had a strenuous, but a royal hunting trip, the
memories of which will not be effaced as long as " the
lamp of life holds out to burn."

OHAPTEK XIII
FIERCE AND EXTENSIVE FOREST FIRES

*' The winds are nVrt, nor dare to breathe aloud ;
The air seems uem to have borne a cloud."

LEAVING Fredericton, New Brunswick, in the yet
early evening, we were Ho travel to Vanceboro and
there to take the thro\\gh train over the Canadian
Pacific Kailroad to Greenville Junction, Maine.

I have traveled much ov«r the Canadian Pacific
Eailroad, having crossed the continent on a hunting
trip over its rails. Our party, which was a large one,
stopped at such stations in the great hunting regions
of the northwest territories as seemed most likely to
furnish the best opportunities to find gatne, and we
always found the trainmen and the operating officials
courteous to a degree.

In one place where we were camped for a week,
among a settlement of Creek Indians, where the
water was so impregnated with alkali as to make it/
nearly undrinkable, a locomotive was daily sent, a
distance of twenty miles, with a tender full of fresh,
sweet water for our use. This was done without
charge, and, so far as I know, without request
Wherever our car was unhitched from the train OL

io6 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

a siding, some little unexpected courtesy was always
provided for us.

On this present journey to Greenville Junction the
same solicitous care of the passengers' comfort was
shown by the train crew. On account of a de-
tention from a hot box, the train arrived somewhat
late and pulled into the station just at midnight.
There are two large hotels at the junction, but neither
of them had enterprise enough to have a conveyance
or a man to help with the baggage or to pilot the way
through the dark and foggy night to the hotel.

The dunnage, perforce, had to be left in the station
until the following morning. It has happened in
almost all of my trips to and from this region that
the dunnage sacks have been opened somewhere, and
some much-needed article stolen. Once it was a new
pair of laced hunting boots ; at another time a fine pair
of field-glasses ; again, a pair of long rubber boots, and
upon this trip a pair of brand-new moose-shank shoes,
a sou'wester hat and a few minor articles of clothing.

A Philadelphia woman last season had a large trunk
taken. It was filled with clothing needed for a
month's stay at " Our Lake," and she was, in conse-
quence, put to dire straits to find enough things to
wear to keep her warm. She had to resort to the use
of a man's shirts, neckties and underwear, and to
borrow a couple of skirts from some more fortunate
woman. The trunk has not turned up even yet.

FOREST FIRES 107

In the province of New Brunswick some forest fires
were raging, but we experienced no trouble from them,
although the sky at times was overcast with smoke.

Some thirty miles away, on the line of the new
Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, now in course of con-
struction, we could hear the explosions made from the
use of large charges of dynamite in blasting through
hard strata of rock. These severe concussions may
have been the reason why we had two days of almost
torrential rain.

In Maine we saw the forest fires. In one section four
hundred men were fighting the fire demon, in another
two hundred and fifty were engaged in the same
arduous work. There were no explosions, however,
and no rains at all during our rather long stay.
The atmosphere was, in consequence, exceedingly dry
and resonant, to such a degree that it was difficult to
hunt with success, the slightest noise being heard at
what would seem to be an almost incredible distance.

A half century ago, a fierce fire swept through Aroo-
stook County in Maine, and burnt most of the timber
down to the ground. This county is a large one, and
runs parallel upon its northeastern boundary to the St.
Johns Eiver — the mighty river of the North, which
empties into the ocean by way of the city of St. Johns,
New Brunswick. The loss from this memorable con-
flagration was enormous, not alone in timber, but in
household property, public improvements, etc.

io8 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Now see what a wonderful friend to man nature is.
The settlers had nothing better to do than to till the
land, which had been so suddenly and disastrously
cleared. They planted the easiest thing of all to
raise for their future sustenance — potatoes ; and lo ! the
crops were enormous, the yield per acre being fabu-
lously large, and best of all the quality was phenome-
nally good. When cooked, the potatoes were of firm
texture, white and mealy inside, and even now they are
without doubt the finest potatoes in the world. What
the county lost by the destruction of its timber has
been regained over a hundredfold through the marvel-
ous wealth realized from its rich and bountiful potato
fields.

There are few points in this great country of ours
where Aroostook potatoes are not known and used
either for the table or for seeding.

It seems that the ashes remaining upon the land after
the burning of the vast forests of spruce, pine, fir,
beech, maple, birch and chestnut so enriched the soil
as to have made this particular county the world's gar-
den spot for the growth of potatoes.

We crossed Moosehead Lake on October 13th — the
next morning after reaching Greenville — on as fine a
day as mortal man could wish for. While taking din-
ner at Kineo I was called from the table to listen to a
telephone message from a comrade from Philadelphia,
who had missed his connections and was going to

FOREST FIRES 109

charter a special boat to take him across Moosehead
Lake, a distance of forty miles, to Northeast Carry.

When we registered at the Winnegarnock House, at
the " carry," three hours after this, we found a large
crowd of hunters there to spend the night, who were to
leave the following morning in various directions to
reach their "happy hunting grounds." There were
some ladies in the party, who evidenced considerable
excitement over the new environment in which they
found themselves. There were also many guides, team-
sters, lumbermen and a game warden.

My comrade, having crossed the lake safely in a
small power boat, joined us at supper time. The night
turned out quite cold. We were given the upper floor
of a dainty log cottage, where a royal wood-fire was
burning on the hearth below us, and we here changed
our apparel for the toggery we should need for the
hard work of the next few days in getting to camp.

An early start down the Penobscot Eiver was made
the next morning amid the usual busy scenes of load-
ing canoes and batteaus. When the canoes were
loaded some were started up the river for points on
Kussell Brook and Russell Lake, while the majority of
them took the downward trip. One party was going
to Lobster Lake, by way of Lobster Stream, which en-
ters the Penobscot a mile and a half below the " carry,"
the lake being seven miles from the river.

A lady and gentleman from Philadelphia elected to

no WITH GUN AND GUIDE

stop before the Halfway House was reached, which is
ten and one-half miles from the " carry." Here they
spent their vacation, and they happened to come out
again and to cross Moosehead Lake on the home trip in
the same boat that I crossed in. Another party was to go
up Pine Stream. This is the stream on which Thoreau,
the naturalist, spent some time on when he visited this
region in 1857, and near which the man who accompa-
nied him killed a cow moose. It is nineteen miles down
the river from the " carry."

Other parties were to make the Allegash River trip,
which takes many days and finally lands them on the
broad waters of the St. Johns River. This Allegash
trip when taken from the Penobscot waters is all down-
stream with the exception of about ten miles when you
leave Chesuncook Lake. Then you toil up a narrow tor-
tuous stream until a small lake is reached and out of this
you come to the famous Mud Pond Carry where a team
of horses and a wagon take your canoes and supplies
into Chamberlain Lake. After that you enter lake after
lake until the Allegash River is reached. Then you
have a lively run until your canoe glides into the noble
St. Johns River. Two parties were to canoe to Har-
rington Lake, which is a few miles below Chesuncook
Lake.

As for ourselves, we made the Halfway House easily
in time for dinner. My companion, who was making
his first acquaintance with the wild and beauteous

Copyright, 1905, by C. IT. Graves

DISTANT VIEW OF CAMP ON " OUR LAKE"

See page 114

FOREST FIRES 111

Penobscot, was enraptured with the varied scenery of
the first part of the journey. Big, genial Joe Smith, the
proprietor of the Halfway House, met us with a hearty
welcome, and gave us a notable dinner. At this mod-
est, unassuming log-and-frame house the meals are al-
ways away above par, the butter always sweet, the
eggs always fresh and the roast chickens always ten-
der. We, of course, feasted on game this day, and af-
ter an hour's rest we proceeded upon our journey.

The water was extremely low from the long-continued
drought. The canoes, therefore, had to find their way
through all sorts of tiny channels, scraping over some
rocks and dodging others, and little speed was made
anywhere. We saw no game whatever on the down
trip, unless a few black ducks, some red squirrels, and a
host of muskrats would be considered game.

We entered Chesuncook Lake at four o'clock, and in
a few minutes we grounded on the shore in front of
"Anse" Smith's historical hostelry. "Anse" Smith
kept this old house in 1857, and here is where Thoreau
stopped for a while on his trip to the Maine woods in
that year.

It is related that once during a dark night, when the
rain was pouring down in streaks and the thunder and
lightning were something fearful to hear and to behold,
a man and his guide stopped at this house and asked for
shelter for the night. The sportsman was told that the
house was packed full and there was not a room to spare.

112 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

The man was very ostentatious in his manners and
said that he had plenty of money to pay for his accom-
modation, and that he wanted the hotel boss to know
that he was the Republican nominee for governor of the
great state of Pennsylvania. That didn't impress the re-
doubtable " Anse " very much, but he finally said that
the man and his guide might lie down on the floor, that
being the best he could do for them.

" The Republican nominee for governor of the great
state of Pennsylvania " was so much offended at this
offer that he stalked out of the house into the howling
storm, and made his man pitch a tent and build a fire
on the shore of the lake, while he stood in the down-
pouring rain, fretting and fuming over the blow his
dignity had received.

We arrived in time to get some supplies from " Anse "
in readiness to start very early in the morning. We re-
tired at 8 p. M., and at 4 : 30 the next day we were up
and doing, had breakfast at 5 : 30, and left to cross
Chesuncook Lake at 6 A. M. Our route lay along the
northern shore of the lake until a large cove was en^
tered. We paddled through this cove, and then entered
a pond, where 4,000,000 feet of logs, which had been
cut on the land around " Our Lake " the previous winter,
were stored, awaiting the time when their owner — the
Great Northern Paper and Pulp Company — would or-
der them floated down to the huge paper mill at Milla-
nocket Lake.

FOREST FIRES 113

After picking our way through this labyrinth of logs
we entered the mouth of the stream leading down from
" Our Lake," a distance of three miles. We found the
stream so very dry that there was not water enough in
it to float an empty canoe. This meant, of course, that
all the stuff had to be " packed" up to the dam at the
foot of the lake, and the canoes as well.

A canoe having been carried up some days previously
and hidden, my companion and I carried as much stuff
as we could stagger under up to the dam, and then we
walked through a dense swamp, following a thorough-
fare until the lake was reached, and, finding the canoe,
we paddled down to the dam. As soon as the men ar-
rived with their first load we put what stuff we could
store in our canoe, and we two paddled off to the
camp.

Oh, how delightfully familiar all the scenery looked
as we entered that lovely sheet of water, " Our Lake."
There were the big lookout rock, the two coves with
sandy shores, which in their time have furnished a feed-
ing ground and a playground to countless deer and
moose, without counting foxes, minks, ducks, cranes,
loons, wild geese and muskrats ; the familiar lily-pads
floating on top of the water; old Katahdin — Maine's
highest mountain — towering up eighteen miles away to
the eastward ; the Sourdehunk Mountains to the north-
east ; and the two great hardwood ridges covered with
maple and beech, moosewood and chestnut trees, now

114 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

all ablaze with the brilliant fall colorings in every shade
of yellow, crimson, and russet.

My companion gave an involuntary cry of delight as
the canoe rounded into the lake and the beauteous sight
was unfolded to our enraptured vision. Our canoe soon
arrived at the wharf landing. Its contents were carried
into the cabin, and while the " tenderfoot " was sent
out to the first cove with his rifle to sit and watch
for a deer, I set to work and built a fire, got out our
provisions, and before the sun had set in the west a hot
supper of delicious fried bacon, baked potatoes, pork and
beans, congou tea and baked apples was ready for the
weary and hard-worked guides when they arrived.

Need I say that we enjoyed the meal ; that mirth and
story went quickly around ; that we were all thankful
that the long-looked-for " haven of rest " had at last
been reached ; that when we finally went to our beds of
spruce boughs we were wrapped in contentment first
and in slumber so soon after that we could scarce count
the minutes until oblivion overcame us ?

Ah, yes, the goal which our eyes had been eagerly
looking forward to for months had been at last achieved,
and from now on until the vacation was over it was to
be a season of daily strenuous activity and of nightly
slumber and healthful rest.

CHAPTER XIV
A NIGHT IN THE OPEN

''The tyranny of the open night's too rough for nature to endnre."

— KINO LEAR.

Two and a half miles by the canoe and then six
miles as measured by the pedometer, in all eight and
a half miles away, is a dam at the head waters of " Our
Lake." My camp companion and his guide went up
there one day and came back with stories of big deer
tracks, and plenty of them ; of having each fired twice
at a big buck thirty yards away and missed, of fresh
moose tracks and of firs that one moose bull had rubbed
his antlers on in order to peel off the velvet. So, on
account of these stories, the next morning we all went
up the stream again ; the other hunter and his guide
only to journey as far as the place where they missed
the buck, while my guide and I went to the dam, he
carrying a sleeping bag and a couple of rubber blankets,
a dipper, frying-pan and teakettle. He was to return
for some important work to be done early the next
morning. I was to hunt during the balance of the day
and the next forenoon, and to lie out at night beside
the dam.

Albert, the guide, had started upon his return trip
but a few minutes when I discovered that my match
safe \vas empty. I ran after him and blew a whistle to

u6 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

attract his attention, lie returned, and a search in his
trousers produced only two matches. With these I must
perforce be content, and some way or other must start
three fires with them for three separate meals.

Some wood was got ready for the night, green boughs
picked for a bed, and then a journey was taken down
the stream to the mouth of an old hauling road, which
is dearer to me than any road in the world, for

" When to the sessions of sweet, silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,"

I remember that it was on this road that I killed my
first caribou bull, and a veritable beauty he was, and
the year following I killed still another one.

On the north side of a dry bog through which this
road runs I spent at one time six of the pleasantest,
most instructive and most restful days of my life, for I
sat from 9 A. M. until evening at the foot of a juniper
tree within a couple of feet of a caribou trail. As the
sun was warm and not a particle of air stirring and a
band of caribou was ranging up and down during the
daylight, I could watch and study these strange ani-
mals to advantage. Here I read such books as I had
with me, and I wrote as long as my stock of paper lasted.

A little brook crosses the road beyond the bog, and
across that brook is a cluster of old lumber camps now
nearly all leveled with the ground.

It was in one of these old camps that I had slept one

A NIGHT IN THE OPEN 117

night and awoke in the morning to find my wallet,
with $135 in it, gone.

After a search of the bog — made twice — and the
roadway leading to it, some little tracks in a soft piece
of ground near a big log outside of the camp gave me
a clew. The tracks were those of a porcupine, and I
mentally said one of those fellows with the dreaded
quills is the one who has stolen the wallet. An ex-
amination of the floor showed where the wallet could
have been dragged down between the dressed logs, of
which the floor was made. A wooden crowbar was
cut, and with this a log was pried up, disclosing a
deep hole, but no wallet. The next log to it was then
raised, and lighting a piece of old newspaper and
throwing it into the hole so as to see better, I dis-
covered the wallet in the hole, or nest, made by the
porcupine.

That incident was ten years ago, and I still own and
treasure the same wallet.

It was on this road that my youngest son shot a
famously big deer when he was but a schoolboy, and I
was prouder of his success, I am sure, than he was.

Time has dealt kindly with the road. It is, of course,
somewhat grown up with young firs, and many blow
downs make it a harder task to travel on it now than in
the days that are gone. The caribou have all migrated
and have left the state, perhaps forever. The moose
do not seem to use the road in going to and from the

n8 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

water as they used to do, and I saw nothing of game
but the white flag of a startled deer as it went bound-
ing through the woods at my approach.

Now the sun was sinking in the west, and a re-
turn to the dam was imperative, so a rather hurried
walk was taken to the stream, and then by stepping
from stone to stone on account of the low water, the
mile or so to the resting place for the night was
easily made.

I had anticipated catching some fish for supper in a
pool where, in other days, we always could catch
enough for our needs, but, alas ! they too were gone,
and neither with fly nor bait could one be raised.
Three slices of bacon to fry the fish with, some
bread, and a box of bouillon capsules was all I had to
last three meals, and without the expected fish these
would make a slim ration.

Getting a good big fire going, I ate one of the pieces
of bacon, drank a cup of bouillon, made from a capsule,
spread out the sleeping bag and like the weary lover
who wrote :

" Weary with toil I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,"

I was soon in the land of nod. But not for long,
however.

A deer was whistling and stamping in the alders
across the brook. The fire was burning down and the

A NIGHT IN THE OPEN 119

night was becoming very cold and more logs were
heaped on.

From away off in the distance, perhaps acrpss the
ridge, on another watershed, the plaintive call of a cow
moose was heard. A splash in the water below the
dam told of a muskrat or a mink, more probably the
latter, as the locality was hardly the one to attract a
muskrat.

Down the stream an owl hooted occasionally, and
once a piercing scream of some small animal in distress
was heard. Imagination suggested that a fox had
caught a rabbit or maybe an owl had caught one. But
it was all guesswork.

The stars shone beautifully bright and the noise of
the falling water was most soothing, changing its tone
and volume every minute apparently ; it made a fit-
ting lullaby for the tired body and brain, and to its
cadence I once more fell asleep.

A branch broke to the back of me. It was a deer
stealing through the thicket. He could be plainly
heard, but not seen. Again the fire got low and once
more it was necessary to pile on more wood. The night
was getting yet colder, and every article of clothing
which I had with me was now necessary to keep me at
all comfortable.

At last sleep — with many such interruptions — became
an impossibility, and toward morning I gave up the at-
tempt. Hardly had the first streak of daylight flashed

120 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

its welcome light from the east before the birds com-
menced to stir.

The sound of a slow flapping of some big bird struck
the ear, and as it came nearer it proved to be a large
full-grown blue heron, which, not noticing me, let his
legs drop from their horizontal position when in flight,
and coming down before the wind, settled within a
few feet of me. What an alert bird he was ! How he
turned his head this way and that way, seeing if all was
safe for him, before he commenced to look for his
breakfast.

Watching him intently, I lay perfectly still. He
seemed to be sensible that his coast was not quite clear ;
whether through instinct or the power of scent which
this bird may possess, I do not know. But his eye
finally discovered my lair, and what a start he made
out of the supposed danger zone !

"When I was a boy of thirteen, an uncle loaned me an
old single-barrel muzzle-loading shotgun. I went with
it on a Sunday-school picnic to a lake resort twenty-five
miles away. As soon as the picnic grounds were
reached, I was off with my precious gun to a stream
called Kettle Creek, three miles away, and in rounding
a curve in the stream I caught just a glimpse of a blue
heron's head peeking up from behind some bushes.
Aiming below his head, at where I supposed his body
to be, I was elated beyond belief at my rare good
fortune in seeing him fall to the ground, apparently dead.

A NIGHT IN THE OPEN 121

I did not know the trick this bird has when wounded
of trying to pluck the hunter's eye out if the hunter
stoops and tries to pick him up, but I did know
enough to catch him by his long legs, rather than by
his equally long neck. Swinging him over my shoulder,
I proudly started for the Sunday-school gathering, to
show my big trophy.

It was necessary to cross a rail fence, which I es-
sayed to do, with the gun in the right hand and the
heron slung over my left shoulder, with his head hang-
ing down.

He was not dead ; indeed, not by a long sight, for as
I was climbing over the top rail he grabbed the seat of
my trousers and also quite a portion of my nether
anatomy with his sharp bill.

Giving a yell of pain, I dropped the gun and fell in
a heap on the far side of the fence, and that fall broke
the heron's underhold. That hold was worse to me than
any collar and elbow or Greco-Roman hold I have ever
known since. It was, however, not much of a trick to
take a fence rail and with it break the bird's neck,
and then when actually, positively sure that he was
really dead, I picked him up once more, and for much
of the balance of the day I strutted around with him
on my shoulder, a proud and happy boy.

My father had the royal bird stuffed and placed in a
glass case, where it remained among the household
goods for over twoscore years.

122 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Now, let us return to the dam, after this digression.
The noisy red squirrel commenced to forage for his
breakfast after the heron had disappeared. Another
deer whisked from the opposite side of the brook, and
at last the sun showed his glorious face over the tree-
tops in the eastern sky.

The night had departed, a new day had begun — the
birds and the animals and the insects were each and
every one either hunting for their breakfast or busy eat-
ing it, excepting the night prowlers, like the owl and the
fox, and they were making ready to go to their repose.

It would be interesting to know how many animals
had passed perhaps a restless night because of their
getting a breath of air tainted by the scent of a hu-
man being ; how many owls had looked down upon
me with curious eyes, wondering what manner of
creature this stranger could be ; how many red squirrels
had pried into my secret retreat, and how many foxes
had passed me by, in a hurry to get out of possible
harm.

As for me, I broke the ice which had covered the
brook from shore to shore during the night, had a
morning wash, boiled another bouillon capsule, ate
another slice of bacon, shouldered my rifle and was off
for another day's hunt. " The night at the dam " be-
came a thing of the past, because a new day was upon
me, with its work to be performed and its pleasures to
be enjoyed. My two matches had been enough for me

A NIGHT IN THE OPEN 123

because the fire was kept burning all night ; and as for
lunch, I still had a slice of bacon, some bouillon cap-
sules, and a bit of bread, which, with plenty of water
to wash it down, was all-sufficient.

CHAPTEK XY
A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE

" Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises : and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits."

ALL'S WELL.

IT was a most peculiar hunting season. The air,
having been loaded with dense smoke for many days
and weeks, was dry and resonant. A breaking twig
sounded almost like the cracking of a sapling. The
laugh of the loon reverberated from ridge to ridge, and
his " ha-ha's " echoed and reechoed for a long time.

The noisy barking of the red squirrels never sounded
louder, and on our approach they told every living
thing in the forest, "Look out, look out, a man is
coming."

The hammering of the hollow trees by the big red-
headed woodpeckers sounded like blows struck by a
wooden mallet.

I had ordered the roof to be removed from a camp
on the farther side of the lake, and so as to be out
of reach of the noise, I took a road that led back
through a great swamp on our side of the water.
Two miles or more into the swamp was traveled, until
a likely place for watching for game was found, and
here I sat down to watch and to listen.

Maybe half an hour passed, and then I heard a crash

A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE 125

which instantly brought me to my feet. It was fol-
lowed by another in quick succession. With rifle
raised I looked for the cause of the disturbance. My
first thought was that a pair of bull moose were fight-
ing, but later on the truth dawned on me that it was
the noise of removing the felt from the roof of the
camp which I had heard. This was hard to believe,
and yet it was really the case.

On an afternoon when I was alone at the camp, the
guide and cook having been sent some miles away on
an errand, I heard a couple of men talking — as it
seemed to me — in a small cove, about a hundred
yards from the camp. Taking rifle and field-glass to
see who they were — for we very seldom have visitors
up our way, and hence to hear strange voices was sur-
prising— I went to the cove.

A large flock of hooded merganser ducks took wing
at my approach, and flew away, but no men were to
be seen, and yet the voices could be plainly heard,
sounding as if the men were far back in the woods and
coming down to the water. With the field-glasses the
shores of the lake were scanned, but no sign of any
human being could be seen, and the voices seemed to
be getting nearer and yet nearer, and finally to be on
the opposite side of the water.

At last I noticed a canoe rounding out of the
thoroughfare at the foot of the lake and following
the farther shore. It contained the two men who had

126 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

left in the morning, and they were now returning.
Their voices had at first reached me apparently from
the dam at the foot of the thoroughfare, which is
easily two miles from where I was sitting.

The reader can readily believe that this atmospheric
condition not only made hunting difficult, but gave an
uncanny feeling to the hunter himself. What effect it
had upon the sensitive deer and the secluded moose
can well be imagined. Very different was this season
from the one some years ago when four deer in one
day was the record for two of us.

No wonder that we saw but the tails of vanishing
deer when we expected to see their heads. I saw
hundreds of these wild inhabitants of the forest, but
not a solitary buck did I see that I could be sure of.
Only the tails, only the tails, and this was repeated
over and over again, and day after day.

Only near to running water was there any chance
of seeing them long enough to make out their sex
surely, and beside running water one buck was killed,
and another was fired at and missed, but with neither
of these did I have anything to do. This much for
the deer.

Now for the moose. The numerous roads leading
to the lake, to the thoroughfares and to the dead-
waters, showed plenty of old moose tracks, but not a
single fresh one. Day after day I scanned the roads
on each side of the lake ; but, save for one track made

THE MARTINDALE CAMP IN MAINE

A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE 127

by a small cow moose, there was nothing else to be
found. Hence we wrote home that the moose had
gone.

The allotted time for my companion to stay having
expired, he left us on a Thursday, and the last words
he " hollered " to me were, " When you get back
home call me up on the 'phone, and just say, ' I've got
him.'"

Some few days afterward, at five o'clock in the
morning, my guide and I paddled down the lake to
the dam at its foot. We left the canoe there, and then
walked down the stream a couple of miles to a road
leading away at right angles to the water. Up this
road we traveled until we came to a set of lumber
camps, where he had seen a big buck the day before.

No signs of him or of any other deer being visible,
we planned that I should take a tote-road along the
western side of the ridge to another set of old camps
five miles away. The guide was to return by the way
we came, take the canoe again, and paddle up the lake
and the stream to a road that would lead to this last
set of camps, and there he was to await my arrival,
which we fixed could be easily done by 11 : 30 A. M.

We had lunch with us and I had on an extra coat, a
sweater, a vest, and a bathing vest, but on account of
the heat, before the first set of camps was in view all
these articles of clothing had been discarded and
hidden in a plainly marked hollow tree.

128 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

I was now clothed only in a shirt and trousers and
underwear, a cap and shoes and stockings. This tote-
road I had frequently used from the other end in years
gone by, but had never been on it from the southern
end. Hence I was particular in asking about its gen-
eral course, and if there was any chance of my stray-
ing away from it. This the guide assured me was
utterly impossible.

So we parted, he telling me that the entrance to the
road was on the other side of a brook near which we
were standing.

I crossed the brook, went up the ridge a short dis-
tance, and found two roads, one leading to the left and
the other to the right. Not knowing which I was to
take, I blew the whistle, calling the guide back, and
asked which road I was to use. He shouted back to
take the right-hand one.

This I found to be a fine wide road, but it did not
seem to me to go in the direction that I thought it
should. I noticed also that the blazed spots on the
trees were only two, where a tote-road should have
three spots, two spots being the sign manual for a
hauling, logging road.

However, I jogged along contented and happy.
The day was fine, but quite hot. I had abundance of
time in which to cover the five miles before 11 : 30, as
I had left the camps at 8 : 30. I carried no load ex-
cepting the rifle, walking easily for an hour by the

A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE 129

watch, and having attained the top of the ridge, I sat
down and rested and listened for fifteen minutes, but
heard nothing.

Striking out again I was surprised to find myself
going down on the opposite side of the ridge. This I
knew would take me to a different watershed, so my
steps were retraced until the resting place again came
in sight.

Another road was taken and this seemed to be the
genuine tote-road. It was wide, the bottom was cov-
ered with grass and it was a pleasant road to walk in.
There were, however, two blazed spots on the trees
where there should have been three. I walked over a
mile upon it, and it abruptly came to an end.

Another retreat to the resting place was now neces-
sary. A road bearing more to the left I took next.
This ran but a half mile or more and that was the end
of it.

I now knew that I was lost, that I must have been
put on the wrong road, or strayed from the right road
in some way.

Back again I went to the log where the trouble had
commenced and there was but one more road in sight
and that was a road whose entrance was almost hidden
by young firs that grew upon each side and met at
the top, making of it a sort of arboreal avenue.

Entering this pathway the first thing that I saw was
an old logging yard with the logs still lying on the

130 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

ground badly rotted and decayed. Beyond this yard
was a small ravine, and beyond that another logging
yard.

I decided that the ravine should be followed until it
came to water, and then I thought I could easily find
out where I was. Following this ravine a few minutes,
I found a little brook, which persistently seemed to
disappear into some subterranean channel in about
every fifty feet of distance traveled.

This was very puzzling, because the ravine gradually
widened out to the width of quite a respectable valley,
and it was a hard matter to keep track of the brook's
many disappearances.

At one place the stream came to the surface and for
a hundred feet it widened to such a width that I could
not jump across it. Green grass, lush and lusty, grew
on each side of it. Beyond the grass came a fringe of
alders, and beyond the alders many young maple trees,
and behold! there were some moose tracks, fresh as
they could be !

Here a moose had stepped over a log after wading
through the brook and the mud from its feet was yet
slipping down from the log. The water was muddy,
too, showing where the moose had waded through it.
And did I not see how the top branches were eaten off
a small maple tree ?

I wasn't through making a mental inventory of the
signs which plainly showed that here at last were sure

A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE 131

evidences that I had stumbled upon a real sanctuary of
the moose, when crash ! crash ! went a big animal
through the alders.

The rifle was quickly brought to the shoulder, and
as quickly lowered ; it was but a cow moose and a
small one at that. No doubt it was the one whose
tracks we had seen once before. She ran fifty yards
or so, then she turned around and watched me with
keen attention, but she was of no interest to me and
again I started down the puzzling brook.

But mark now, another series of rushes startled me,
and another big animal was tearing like mad through
the alders. Once more the rifle was raised, and this
time my eyes looked upon the largest bull moose I had
ever seen. His antlers showed just for a second above
the waving alders. He was running away in an al-
most direct line from me, and it was a rather nice shot
to get a bullet in back of his shoulder.

The trigger was touched, and " laws-a-mighty ! " as a
colored guide used to say, with the report of the rifle
the great animal dropped as if hit with a sledge-ham-
mer. I pumped another cartridge into the gun to be
sure of being ready if one more cartridge was needed,
but it wasn't. He had fallen on a sloping piece of
ground and was quite dead when I reached him. I
viewed him over and examined his head and huge feet.

I said to myself, " There is the veritable moose that
year after year for a decade back the lumbermen and

132 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

trappers have talked about, calling him the ' big moose
of Cuxabexis Lake.' " Hundreds of times in the years
that were gone had I followed his tracks without even
getting a sight of him. He was now old and as gray
as a rat. The taxidermist, who afterward mounted his
head, said upon examination of it that he was at least
twenty years old.

It was exactly eleven o'clock when I had finished
looking the moose over. It must not be forgotten that
I was still lost ; you may be sure I didn't forget it.

The first thing to do was to endeavor to turn him
upon his back, so that he could be opened and the en-
trails removed, but struggle as I would I couldn't
move him in any way. I cut down a yellow birch
sapling and tried the stem of that, as a crowbar or
lever, with a small log as a fulcrum, but it was of no
use. He could not be budged.

However, by lying prone on the ground, I managed
to get my hunting-knife into the carcass pretty far up.
Then by cutting down carefully I partly removed the
intestines so that the gases would have a free escape,
until I could find my way out and return with the men
to help in dressing him.

I had a small hatchet on my belt and with this I
commenced " spotting " my way out, of course follow-
ing the brook. For a half mile it was easy work.
Then the brook again went down out of sight and I
came to an open place which was nigh to being im-

A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE 133

passable from a dense growth of little stunted tirs,
alders and cedars.

Going around the right-hand edge of this jungle and
" spotting " in among the big trees, I made a discovery
that astonished me very much. This open cleared
space was an old and now abandoned beaver meadow.
The beavers had not used it for a score of years at
least, and the beaver dam at the bottom was, of course,
badly broken down.

Walking over this dam I was once more astonished
to find another beaver meadow and beyond the dam
for that one, still another meadow, making a series of
three meadows with their three dams that these won-
derful animals had laboriously constructed.

It is just possible that the subterranean exploits of
the little brook were really caused by these busy work-
ers in tunneling under its bed for some reason or other.
I cannot account for the phenomena upon any other
hypothesis.

Below the last of the beaver dams the stream broad-
ened out considerably, and I took a road which seemed
to follow it in parallel lines. Whether it does or not
I'll not know until another season's exploration ex-
plains the mystery of finding myself at last at a
quarter past two in the afternoon at Cuxabexis Cove,
six miles at least from the foot of " Our Lake."

Chesuncook Lake, into which this cove drains, is,
during the winter and spring, raised by moans of a

134 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

huge dam at its bottom thirty-two feet high, and this
immense volume of water is forced in places away into
the interior, along the avenues made by the various
streams, the water killing millions of feet of standing
timber. For when the water is drawn off by opening
the gates of the dam an ocean of mud and many
stranded logs are left along the banks wherever the
water has flowed.

I made my exit upon a stretch of such land. It was
then a struggle to keep from getting mired. The best
way I found was to look for stumps, roots and pieces
of bark and to jump from one to the other of these
friendly helps. It was laborious and heating work.

When this stage of the journey was passed I came
into Moose Pond, a sheet of water perhaps three-quar-
ters of a mile in diameter. The shores were lined with
four million feet of logs awaiting a spring freshet to be
floated down to the big lake below.

The logs being speedily crossed, the road now lay up
the stream to the dam at the foot of " Our Lake." A
mile from Moose Pond, the high landing was reached
from which we had started that morning to go to the
lumber camps.

During the previous spring some log drivers had
erected a wide shed under which a table was built
where the men ate their meals. It had no sides, it was
only a roof sustained by four posts.

Here I found lying in the grass from the past spring

A SMOKY ATMOSPHERE 135

time an old mackinac coat, now in rags and tatters,
and an old red sweater in like condition. These I took
with me, as it was now becoming cold, and I might
have to sleep out all night. They would come in very
handy, as it will be remembered that I had parted with
all superfluous clothing, and the lunch into the bargain,
before leaving the old lumber camps.

A glass bottle with about an ounce of honey at the
bottom I also found, and this was taken along, too. I
got to the dam at 4 : 05 p. M. and darkness was already
settling down. I fired two cartridges and waited a
few minutes, but received no reply. I then put on the
old coat and sweater, built a fire and heated a tin dip-
perful of water. This latter I did twice and drank the
two pints of hot water and ate the ounce of honey, which
somewhat satisfied the fierce cravings of hunger, as I
had eaten nothing since five o'clock in the morning.

Next I gathered a pile of wood to keep up a fire
during the night if it should be necessary. But hark !
listen to that ! A shot, and yet another, from the di-
rection of the camp above. That meant that the guide,
who I was sure would be following back and forward on
that old tote-road looking for me, had returned to camp.

I fired my last cartridge in response, and in reply
a single shot was fired from the camp — two miles away.
A half hour more and a canoe rounded a bend in the
thoroughfare and Albert cried out through the dark-
ness, " Thank God, you're safe ! "

CHAPTER XVI
LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP

"O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil."

HENRY IV.

IN the last chapter was a candid confession of
getting lost on my own camping grounds.

It is now incumbent upon me to tell how I came to
be lost. It's a happy thing for a human being, when
things go awry, to be able to throw the blame from
one's own shoulders to those of some one else.

In this particular case Albert, the guide, placed me
on the wrong road. I started wrong and kept going
wrong all the time, until the realization that I was
really lost took hold upon me. Then I decided that it
would be much easier and quicker to follow the mysti-
fying brook, than to retrace my steps to the starting
point at the lumber camps.

The mistake made was in believing that the brook
would land me on Cuxabexis stream, about a mile and
a half from the dam, when in reality I turned up four
and a half miles further away, which made nine miles
extra distance to walk.

The reader must not think that to get lost in the
Maine wilderness is any unusual occurrence. Seldom
does a hunting season pass without the writer's getting

LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP 137

lost at least once and sometimes of tener. Guides them-
selves, who are popularly supposed never to lose their
way, often become bewildered and then it is ludicrous
to hear their profuse explanation of how it all happened.

Last August a gentleman with his wife and aunt
spent the whole month in camp on " Our Lake." One
of their guides was a man who lives in that vicinity only
some six miles away. He has lumbered on the tract,
and, therefore, ought to have known every acre of the
ground in the whole thirty-six square miles.

He used to indulge at times in very strong language
in the years that are past ; but, by reason of his minis-
trations as guide to these two ladies for three or more
seasons, he had become very careful of the words
used in their presence.

One day a trip to the upper dam was planned, and it
fell to Abe's lot to pilot the ladies up there and back.

The " Auntie " is over threescore and ten, while the
niece is many, many years younger. Nothing un-
toward happened until the ladies noticed that Abe
was thrashing through a fringe of alders and asking
them to follow. They knew full well that as their road
led up a ridge they should not be pushing through al-
ders, which always grow near to water.

At once it dawned upon them that he was lost.
" Are we lost, Abe ? " they said in unison, and breath-
lessly they awaited his answer.

" Oh, no, ladies ; we're not lost ! Why, I could find

138 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

my way up to the dam blindfolded. Lost ? No in-
deed ; we'll soon be there. I'm just taking you by a
short cut."

They noted, however, that he was steering them in
all directions of the compass, that he was nervous, and
wanted to keep a considerable distance ahead of them.
He had a habit of talking to himself, and as his perplex-
ities increased he talked louder and yet louder and
finally the ladies heard him say, " Where in hell am I,
anyway ? "

" What's that you are saying, Abe ? " asked the aunt.

" Oh, nothing, ma'am ; I have a tooth that's hurting
me, and I hardly know what I'm saying."

A few more turnings and then clear and distinct came
the words, " Blamed if I'm not lost ! "

" Abe, do you say we are lost ? "

"Oh, no, not me. I couldn't get lost if I tried.
Now, don't you go and get nervous. I'm all right, you
can bet."

He now changed his course and worked his way down
to the stream, along whose shores he led them by a
tortuous path through high grass, and at certain places
they had to cross and recross the brook, thus getting
more or less of a wetting.

The trip to the dam was finally achieved. Their pe-
dometers showed that he had made them cover fourteen
miles in place of twelve, as formerly registered when
they were not lost.

LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP 139

Fourteen years ago I had a French Canadian for a
guide in a district where he had been trapping and lum-
bering for years. Early one morning I got a shot, head
on, at a fine bull moose. The bullet entered his breast
a little to the left of the centre, and pierced the lungs.
He disappeared like magic and made for the ridges.

It was easy following him by the profuse trail of blood
which he left, and my judgment was that we ought to
sit down and give him an hour's rest, so that when the
trail was taken up again he would be so stiff that it
would be no trouble finally to get him.

Tom, however, was sure that we'd find him down and
out at any minute, and insisted upon following him at
once. The end, however, was not what we had ex-
pected, for the trail led to a wet, mossy bog, and, as the
tracks were closed up by the spongy moss as soon as
they were made, we could not follow them at all. Tom
figured out that we had driven him eighteen miles, but
whether he was right or not I have no means of
telling.

When we had reluctantly to abandon the pursuit,
Tom led off quite bravely for the camp, or where he
supposed it was. It was now becoming late. In the
eagerness of the chase we had partaken of no food since
the early morning, and as the shot had been fired at
eight o'clock and we had since been continuously on the
move, we were naturally " tuckered out." Of clothing
we had but little, as we had left all superfluous gar-

WITH GUN AND GUIDE

ments in our canoe when we stepped out upon the bog
where I shot the moose.

Tom led the way first through an alder swamp, then
over a ridge, and then we plunged into a cedar swamp.
Now it was dark and we could go no farther. The
night became very cold. We were not near any water.
Both of us had been perspiring freely and the necessity
for a big hot fire was urgent.

A fire was kindled. My hip rubber boots were pulled
off, and upon these I lay as close to the fire as possible,
changing my position every few minutes so as to keep
first one side warm and then the other. In the mean-
time, I kept Tom at the job of chopping wood, while I
saw to it that the fire was burning all night long.

And how long that night seemed ! I'll never forget
it — no water to drink and no covering, with the keen
frost settling down and glistening like diamonds on the
trees, logs and leaves. I told Tom stories, asked him
questions, and got him to talk likewise — anything to
help pass the night away.

I was fearful of falling asleep, because if the fire went
down I might become chilled through and awake with
a cold sufficient to bring on pneumonia.

The stars never shone brighter than on that sharp
and frosty night. By fixing the eyesight first on one
star, and then upon another, I could note their steady
and majestic journey through the great unknown can-
opy overhead.

Copyright, 1903, by Keystone View Co.

WELL STALKED AT LAST

See page 144

LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP 141

We talked of trapping, of instances of lost men in the
woods, of the religions of the world — in fact of every-
thing I could think of to chain Tom's interest and my
own to the necessity of keeping up and keeping near
the fire.

What a welcome sight it was when the first reddish
tinge illumined the eastern sky ! Before daylight had
fully arrived we found some ice which had formed
during the night beneath a cedar root. This I melted
in a tin dipper, and put into it a bouillon capsule. The
water was boiled, the contents of the capsule cooked,
and we had our first nourishment in twenty-four hours.

A tin dipperful to each, and then we were off in
search of some road which might lead us out of the
swamp.

The first one we found led us down to a great
meadow, through which a winding stream runs, at
one place spreading out into a small lake. Then we
got our bearings. We were six miles from camp.
We descried two men in a canoe who were taking
home a deer they had shot the previous night.

A piece of silver induced one of them to paddle us
as far up the stream as it was necessary for us to go
to strike a direct route to the camp, where we landed,
after a walk of two more miles, at eleven o'clock in the
forenoon.

Tom would not then, and, in fact, never did, admit
that we were lost.

H2 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

We learned long afterward that our lost moose was
found the next day by a votary of the goddess Diana,
a young woman then in her teens, but now a mature
matron with a growing family of children. In her
palatial dining-room the head of our royal quarry oc-
cupies the post of honor.

In August of last season a young Indian guide,
eighteen years of age, got lost on a Tuesday morning
on the next watershed to ours, and he failed to work
his way out until the Friday night following. He had
lived in the meantime on wild raspberries and roots
during his wanderings, for having neither gun nor
matches he could do nothing else but pick and eat
berries as he trudged wearily along.

In the season of 1906, a party of seven ladies and
gentlemen, headed by a lawyer from Philadelphia, left
camp at daylight on a short trip, expecting in a couple
of hours to reach a small lake, where they planned
to spend the day fishing. In some way they deviated
from the road and became completely lost.

Like the children of Israel in the desert, they wan-
dered to and fro. Lunch time came, but no knowledge
of where they were had been obtained. They walked
mile after mile until supper time came. A very slight
meal was then doled out to the now weary pilgrims
as the shades of night were settling down, but still no
one could even guess where they were.

The tramp, tramp, tramp of three tired-out women

LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP 143

and four weary men was stopped at eleven o'clock at
night by the sound of a shot, more than a mile away.
This was joyfully replied to, and shot after shot fol-
lowed until they found a lumber camp, the occupants
of which had been firing to bring in one of their lost
comrades.

Here the travel-worn seven were served with a hot
supper and then they were put on the right road. The
distance was more than six miles to their own camp,
which they entered at two o'clock the next morning.
They had covered more than twenty-five miles in floun-
dering through bogs and over ridges, and what they
thought and what they said would surely fill a book.

On the morning following the adventure with the
big moose of Cuxabexis Lake we were up long before
daylight. We partook of a hurried breakfast and then
with empty burlap coffee sacks, axes, ropes and sharp
knives, we were off in search of the mysterious disap-
pearing brook and the secluded sanctuary where lay
the big bull moose.

My " spots " when found were easily followed. When
the scene of the killing was reached, we heard the low
call of a cow moose, and one single answer of a bull,
but the animals had vanished, they having probably
heard us as we wended our way over logs and across
the stones of the oft-hidden brook.

Could it be possible that the cow's calls during the
night had attracted to her side another lover to take

144 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

the place of the one she had just lost, the biggest of
them all ?

It took the united strength of the three of us, with
the aid of a lever, to turn the " big fellow " upon his
back. Then we dressed him; removed the hide, un-
jointed the head and feet, cut out the hind quarters and
the fore quarters and washed them off thoroughly with
water from the brook.

We hung up the hind quarters between two trees
and built a smudge fire under them and gave them
a smoking of two hours. Then they were sewed up
separately in burlap, ready for shipping.

Before this work was finished, Albert carried the
feet to the lumber camps by a road which led directly
there from where we were at work, and this road
turned out to be the identical road upon which he
had started me the previous morning, and in following
which I had passed, in less than fifteen minutes from
the time that I left him, not twenty feet away from
where I killed the moose.

The two men now carried out to the stream the
hind quarters, the head and the hide, leaving the fore
quarters to be taken away later, for these were for the
guides themselves.

The reader may wonder what has been finally done
with the various parts of the animal. The head, of
course, has been mounted. The hide has been tanned
and lined and made into a monster rug. The four feet

LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP 145

have been made into inkstands, the covers being made
of silver, while the inkwells are of glass. The skin
from the shanks of the hind legs has been made into
a pair of moose-shank shoes, a splendid protection for
the feet in snowy or slushy weather. The splints
which control the action of the dew claws have been
mounted into paper cutters.

The hind quarters were shipped to Philadelphia and
put in cold storage. These furnished the principal dish
at one or more banquets the following winter. Some
of the meat of the fore quarters was smoked and the
balance salted down for the use of the two " good men
and true " who were my guides for the season.

Albert, when he found that I was not at the Logan
Camps at the appointed time the day we parted from
each other at the lumber camp, walked the whole dis-
tance of five miles back again over the old tote-road.
When he failed to find me he fired several shots. One
of them I heard, and answered with a shot from the
first beaver meadow, but he heard it not. I also blew
my whistle loud and long, but without response.

He then returned to the Logan Camps and there he
ate his lunch and mine also, and once more journeyed
across and back the five-mile distance, making some-
thing like a twenty-mile tramp to and from the two
lumber camps.

Then it was becoming dark and he went down to
his canoe and paddled to the camp.

146 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

There he was advised of my two signal shots and
I've already told of the result.

It was amusing to me to note the impatient manner
in which the guides listened to the tale of my wander-
ings, of my hunger, of the finding and use of the old
mackinac coat and time-worn sweater, of the nearly
empty honey bottle, of the gathering of wood for an
all-night fire, of the drinking of two dipperfuls of hot
water ; for all of this they cared not a whit.

But of the moose they would talk over and over
again. They would say, " I'm glad you did get lost,"
and Albert, " I'm glad I put you on the wrong road."

" But," said I, " supposing I had had to stay by the
little brook all night without a cartridge left with
which to fire a signal ? "

" Oh, you'd 'a' bin all right : you'd 'a' had a fire
and drank lots of water and you'd 'a' found your way
out in the mornin'. We're both glad you got the
moose and we don't care a darn that you got lost."

Therefore, to them "nothing pleaseth, but rare
accidents."

The killing of the moose was the last incident of
importance on this memorable trip, and shortly after-
ward we packed up our belongings, broke camp, and
were soon on our way back to civilization. But
the health and vigor that we acquired in the sweet-
smelling woods was a reservoir of strength on which to
draw through a long winter, full of hard work and

LOST IN A CEDAR SWAMP 147

business perplexities. It is, after all, the added
strength, the increased vigor, rather than the actual
enjoyment of the experience itself — though that can
scarcely be overestimated — that makes an outing or a
vacation really worth while.

CHAPTER XVII
A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE"

"Love, therefore, and tongue- tied simplicity in least, speak moat."

— -MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

IN 1834, Joe Sebattis, his wife — Nakomis, his two
grown sons — Frank and Pete, and his lovely daughter —
Anita, lived in a comfortable log hut on " The Point "
at the mouth of the Tobique River, just above where
this impetuous mountain stream rushes into the upper
St. Johns. Joe and his family belonged to the Maliset
tribe of Indians, the aboriginal proprietors of both the
Tobique and St. Johns systems of waters, with their
many thousands of acres of rich wooded lands, that
fairly teemed with wild and noble game. This tribe
subsisted mainly upon the fishing and hunting to be
found in the Tobique valley, but many of the most
venturesome of the tribe sometimes crossed to the other
side of the St. Johns and took long hunts, either up the
Aroostook River three miles above, or up the rugged
Allegash, which enters the St. Johns one hundred and
five miles northeast of the mouth of the Tobique. The
squaws made baskets, mats, moccasins and snow-shoes,
which found a market either among the passing
lumbermen or farther down the river in the cities of
Fredericton or St. Johns. The tribe boasted of having

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 149

among its members the best guides to be found in the
province of New Brunswick ; Sebattis and his two sons
were by general consent acknowledged to be the most
skilful of all the braves. The head of this wigwam
had learned to read and write, just a little, through the
kindly aid of Pere Lamorieux, the priest, who ministered
to the spiritual wants of the few white settlers and the
Indians as well Sebattis was, in consequence, respected
by the rest of the natives, and he felt his importance in-
crease with the birth of each new moon.

Particularly in the treatment of his daughter, the idol
of his heart, and in the dreams in which he indulged
concerning her future married state, did this feeling of
bigness assert itself. Anita was just sixteen years and
three months old when he announced to her that she
must refrain from receiving advances from any Maliset
brave, as he was determined that she should marry some
well-to-do pale-face who could keep her in luxurious
comfort, give her a white man's education and so enable
her to mingle with people of intelligence far above that
of any of the members of his tribe. Anita's brothers
shared this feeling with their father. They doted upon
her, not alone for her beauty, but for her native good-
ness of character, her nimble wit and the noble manner
in which she carried herself, for she acted almost like a
princess among the other girls of the tribe, showing at
once a ready leadership in all of their youthful amuse-
ments. During the winter, Sebattis had noted with

150 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

ill-concealed disfavor the marked attention that several
of the young bucks delighted to pay to her. So he
resolved that with the going out of the ice he would
take his family, his tents, his pirogue, his canoes, cer-
tain cooking utensils and a goodly store of " fleur "
(flour), beans, salt pork, tea, tobacco and bacon, with
fishing-tackle, rifles, powder and ball, and spend the
summer on Lake Nictau, the fountainhead of the
Tobique River. Here he and his family would catch
trout, smoke and dry them, hunt bears in the rich
blueberry barrens, tan their moose and bear hides and
render their fat, kill a moose, now and then, for fresh
meat, and thus keep his daughter far away from her
ardent wooers. Therefore, when the river was clear
he started with two canoes loaded up to their full
carrying capacity, and the pirogue filled as full as it
would hold, and in this manner the family made their
migration to the far-off haven of security.

The trip was a hard one, there being but little " dead-
water " in the stream ; in fact, possibly four-fifths
of the ninety-seven miles of river in which they had to
push their way up against a strong current was " quick-
water." Their paddles were, therefore, of little use. It
was " poling " nearly all of the way, and that, too, over
a bad rocky bottom, where the poles slipped incessantly.
The two sons poled the pirogue, the father one of the
canoes in which his wife was seated, Anita managing
the remaining canoe skilfully and with consummate

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 151

ease. In five days and a half they reached Lake Nictau,
a lake of very cold water, having a temperature of forty-
five degrees in summer, and which poured its clear
crystal waters directly into the Tobique River. Upon
their arrival they were well-nigh devoured by that
worst of all plagues, the fierce black fly. They built
smudge fires, covered their faces with a tarry, greasy
compound, but all to no purpose. They were forcibly
driven to a little rocky islet near the centre of the lake.
This isle was formed from a huge mass of rock which
in some distant age had slid from the side of Bald Top
Mountain, which rears its crown, a short distance
away, to an elevation of 2,240 feet. Four or five
spruce trees had obtained a lodgment on the island
rock, and some plebeian undergrowth encircled its
edges. There was room enough for four tents, a din-
ing table and a cache, for their provisions, and here was
the only place in the whole territory, excepting on the
top of Bald Mountain, where the troublesome black
flies were not present.

In the early fall preceding the Sebattis migration
an old Penobscot Indian, who had known Joe as a boy,
made a visit to the Maliset settlement, spending three
weeks there, and he had become very intimate
with the family. Before the streams were frozen up,
Nicholas, for this was the name the Penobscot went
by, made the long, long journey by canoe from the
mouth of the Tobique to Mount Kineo on Moosehead

i$2 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Lake. The region in and around Kineo had been for
nearly a hundred years the happy hunting ground of
many tribes of Indians. The fishing there is good,
and the speckled trout caught there are immense in
size and of splendid flavor. Moose, deer, caribou and
smaller animals were to be found within two or three
days' journey from Kineo, and in summer and the
early fall the men could always obtain lucrative em-
ployment as guides for parties desiring to go up or
down the Penobscot, up the Dead River, the Moose
River or to some of the myriads of small lakes which
make this part of the United States a nation's recrea-
tion ground. The guides frequently waged friendly
contests in canoe racing, in shooting with the bow and
arrow, or in the use of the old " flint lock." The
leader in all this manly rivalry was a young brave of
twenty-two, tall and lithe, with long black hair, hand-
some face and piercing black eyes; he, indeed, was
first in everything, and his mentor and trainer during
his boyhood days was old Charley Nicholas, the Penob-
scot Indian, who idolized him and who would have
willingly given up his life for him. Frank Talrnunt
was the hero's name. His father having been killed
in a fight with an Algonquin Indian when he was
very young and his mother forcibly abducted in a
tribal raid when he was ten years old, Nicholas was
both father and mother to the growing lad, and well
was he repaid for his care. Frank was obedient and

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 153

affectionate to his foster-parent, deeply grateful for his
watchful solicitude, and no son, white or red, could
have shown more respect for his natural father than
Frank Talmunt did for Charley Nicholas.

We need not wonder, then, that it did not require
many moons for the stories which the old man brought
back from the mouth of the Tobique, stories of the
beauty and goodness of Anita Sebattis, of the stern
resolve of her father and brothers that she should and
must be married to a white man, of the contemplated
migration to Nictau Lake, etc., to set Frank's heart in
a whirl of excitement. As the long winter months
rolled tediously by, he spent the days in trapping and
the nights in learning to read and write, because he
was told that Anita could read fairly well and even
write a letter, having been taught the rudiments by
Pere Lamorieux, the French Canadian priest. Many
were the "talks" Nicholas and he had about Anita
and how to woo her, how to get her away, if she was
willing, from her secluded home. It was finally de-
cided that, as soon as the ice moved out of the Penob-
scot, the foster-father should carry a letter written on
birch bark from Frank to Anita. He was also to tell
her of Frank's great love for her and that before the
frosts of early September she should watch for a signal
which he would display, at break of day, from the
table rock on the lake side of Bald Top Mountain.
Then, in the dusk of the evening, she was to take her

154 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

canoe and meet him in Mud Lake, a small lake sepa-
rated from Nictau by a thoroughfare, a couple of
hundred yards in length, and fringed with a dense
growth of overhanging bushes ; here their canoes
might easily be hidden from view. And so it happened
that almost simultaneously, as Nicholas started from
the northeast carry down the Penobscot, Sebattis
turned his canoe's bow up the Tobique. As, however,
nearly three hundred and eighty miles separated them,
it was some weeks before the weary messenger, carry-
ing the tokens of love and the story of the lover,
reached the island rock. Sebattis and his family
greeted him warmly and made him royally welcome.

When time and circumstance permitted, old Nicholas
speedily unfolded his tale to Anita, giving her not only
the precious birch-bark letter, but presenting her with
a necklace of pearls that a countess might envy, which
Frank had made himself from gems which he had
searched for and found in fresh-water mussels. More-
over, at every fitting opportunity when he and Anita
were together, the old man, with burning native elo-
quence, dilated upon the feats of strength and valor, of
skill and endurance, that his son and idol had per-
formed; of his manly beauty, his honesty, his noble
character and his high aspirations, so that, although
Anita had never seen her lover, she had in her heart
his picture as distinct as if photographed by the finest
camera in the land. The rude and untutored ambas-

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 155

sador told the old, old story so faithfully and so well
that Anita was soon wrapt in love's day-dreams as
firmly as her distant lover. However, time was pre-
cious, the messenger must return with all speed to the
Penobscot waters to tell Romeo how impatiently his
Juliet awaited him, so that a meeting of the lovers
could be consummated before September waxed old.
Anita implicitly trusted the envoy and promised to
listen to his admonitions of profound secrecy and cir-
cumspection. She sent by him a letter written upon
birch bark and a coral ring as a token which her
Romeo was to wear upon the third finger of his right
hand when they met. The return journey of Nicholas
down the Tobique was soon accomplished, and then
the hard paddling and poling up the St. Johns was un-
dertaken in right good earnest.

In the meantime, Frank couldn't contain his impa-
tience. He " imagined many vain things," he fretted
and fumed until his restlessness broke all bounds, and
he determined to start ahead, trusting to luck or to fate
that he might meet his foster-father on the watery path
somewhere. Frank took good care to paddle only by
day and to rest at night some place, where, if any canoe
was to come along from the other direction, he would
be sure to know who its occupant was, because the
canoe would have to pass very close to where he would
tie up. On the last day of July, about an hour after
daybreak, Nicholas was paddling through Long Lake,

156 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

which lies half-way between the Penobscot and St.
Johns on the Allegash system of waters, when he
noticed a canoe lying in the mouth of the Chemquassa-
bamticook River. The occupant of the canoe was
catching trout in a famous deep pool on the left-hand
entrance to that river. It was indeed ^Nicholas, and a
shout of recognition went up from him and Frank al-
most in unison.

Now, if ever a maiden listened with rapture to a
lover's tale, Frank listened to the story his faithful
father brought back to him. Anita's letter was read
and fondled o'er and o'er, her ring was kissed raptur-
ously, and the old voyager was made to narrate all the
incidents that had occurred in that Rocky Eden in
Nictau Lake so many times that the sun had swung
half-way round his course before they thought of cook-
ing the mess of brook trout which was lying in the
bottom of Frank Talmunt's canoe. After their dinner
of broiled fish and roast partridge, the balance of the
day and most of the night were spent in discussing
plans for the delicate yet grave work ahead of them.
The old Penobscot, having been a trapper and hunter
for nearly half a century and knowing all about the
route to be traversed by his protege, gave him minute
directions and sage advice to guide him on his fateful
journey, and then as —

u Night's candles were burnt out, and jocund day
Stood tiptoe 011 the misty mountain tops,"

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 157

they parted, one of them to win or lose a bride, the
other to prepare a nest for the couple to live in if the
quest should prove successful.

We may be sure that Anita's heart and mind were
tortured by anxiety as to when and how her lover
would arrive. The table rock which stood out bold
and sharp from the crest of Bald Top Mountain was
easily seen froni the island, and there were two little
firs growing out from crevices in the rock, about ten
feet apart. The signal agreed upon between Nicholas
and Anita was the placing of a dead fir lengthwise on
the top branches of these green firs, so that from the
island it would look like a gate — the gate to earthly
bliss. Anita seemed never to be able to keep her eyes
from the rock and its green firs ; if she was not actually
gazing at them, they were portrayed before her mind,
and as the signal was to be shown only at daybreak,
she unconsciously echoed the advice of the nurse to
Juliet, " The day is broke, be wary ; look about ; " and
look about she did. Upon a day late in August, at
daybreak, she cast her eyes up to the table rock and,
" Oh ! miracle of miracles ! " as sure as the great orb of
day was then rising over the eastern ridges, so sure was
she that her lover was there, and even now, perhaps,
watching her ; for, lo ! the signal was set, the dead fir
was really resting crosswise on the top branches of the
two green firs. What should she do ? Cry out she
dared not, and to make any waving signal might at-

i_y8 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

tract attention from some of the family. She quickly
decided to take her canoe and paddle out on the lake
on the opposite side to Bald Mountain, so that while
her lover could thus see her, any signal that she gave
might be interpreted, if seen by one of her own people,
to be simply a greeting of " good-morning," because
the island would be between her and the mountain.
So she paddled swiftly away, and when near the far
shore she stopped, turned about, and sitting in the
stern of her canoe, she gave the loon's cry to the morn-
ing sun. With breathless intensity she waited for a
reply, and it soon came, as an echo of the same weird
call, followed by a perfect imitation of the loon's un-
canny laugh. Almost instantly the dead fir was re-
moved and the signal that had done its work was seen
no more.

Bald Mountain is about five miles long and two and
a quarter miles broad in places. Its peak is nearly flat,
having only a slight contour. At its base Mud Lake
nestles close to it like a babe against its mother's
breast, and in the extreme far corner of the lake enor-
mous springs gush up from its bottom, springs of clear
and very cold water, where the trout live and spawn,
and where they can be seen almost any day during the
spring and summer months. Anita had been for many
weeks accustomed to paddle up into Mud Lake, push-
ing her canoe over the great series of springs mentioned
above and catching enough trout to stock the family lar-

A ROMANCE OF -OUR LAKE" 159

der ; so no excuse would be needed for her to carry out
the second part of the trysting agreement made with her
by old Nicholas. When the sun had swung its course
around to the back of Bald Mountain she pushed her
canoe silently into the lake. She deftly steered it
around the shore, which was one mass of overhanging
green foliage. About midway of the lake a large
spring gushes out from the side of the mountain, form-
ing quite a respectable stream before it reaches the
lake. Intuitively she pushed the bow of her canoe into
this recess, and there, indeed, was her long-expected
lover, seated in his canoe awaiting her coming. With-
out any other form of introduction than simply hold-
ing up his right hand and showing her the token upon
the third finger, they rushed into each other's arms.
Then he told her how he had reached Mctau Lake
some four days before, how he had secreted his canoe
and how he had climbed Bald Mountain and how he
had slept upon its peak close by the green firs upon
the table rock and how the mist for four successive
mornings had hung over the brow of the mountain and
prevented his signal from being seen, how he had
striven to see her and how he had climbed trees to
watch her, and then how disappointed he was that each
day found him no nearer his love quest than before.
Then, when the mist cleared away on the morning of
this day of their meeting, he told her how enraptured
he was to realize that she had recognized his signal, to

160 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

see her put off in the canoe, to watch her as she sped
to the far side of the lake, and to listen with much
anxiety until the welcome morning call of the loon was
heard and he saw her waving the paddle of her canoe.
Then his heart was glad, because he knew that all was
well ! She, in turn, told him of her long, long period
of anxiety and restless anticipation and of what she
had done and planned for their meeting. They had not
half finished their conversation when the shadows of
night surrounded them and again bade them separate
— she to her island home and he to his bed of green
boughs on the top of Bald Mountain. But before part-
ing they agreed to meet again at the same place and at
the same hour on the following day.

At about eleven o'clock on the next day three canoes
stopped at the rocky island ; in them were six Maliset
Indians from the home settlement. They were on
their way to hunt and fish on the Nipisquit waters.
One of them — Lonnie Kasota — was a young brave who
had attempted more than once to pay attentions to
Anita, but, her father always frowning upon his ad-
vances, he had not made much headway. Lonnie
Kasota, however, had not forgotten Anita's charms,
and now that he once more beheld her, he was seized
with such a violent liking for the girl that he could not
take his eyes away from her. After the noonday meal,
her father, noticing his ardent glances, took Anita
aside and warned her against giving any encourage-

LEAVING OUR MAINE CAMP FOR HOME

See page 146

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 161

ment to Kasota's suit, at the same time ordering her to
take a canoe and go to the great spring at the far end
of Mud Lake and catch enough trout for use during
the day — Anita always supplied the table with trout,
for she was indeed an expert angler. The maiden, in
order to confuse Kasota, should he observe her de-
parture, paddled across Nictau Lake to the opposite
shore, pushing her canoe along slowly under the
shadows of the trees to a bunch of great sycamores
and willows that grew close to the water's edge. As
soon as she thought herself out of observation, her
paddle was plied with all the strength she had, so
as to reach the trysting place without being dis-
covered. On arriving there, the canoe was slipped
deftly into the mouth of the little stream, and jumping
out on the sloping banks, she lifted it from the water
and dragged it into the underbrush. This done, Anita
sat down to rest and to think. But a few minutes
elapsed when she heard the call of a kingfisher from
far away, and this being the signal agreed upon be-
tween her lover and herself, she softly answered with
the long, drawn-out note of the white-throated spar-
row— " ah-tette-tette-te " — which she repeated at inter-
vals. Soon the bushes parted and Frank Talmunt
stood before her, radiant with joy at again meeting his
heart's delight. Anita informed him of the arrival of
the three canoes, of Kasota's ardent attachment, and of
the risk they ran of discovery, as he might be even

162 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

then following her in his canoe, and that she must ful-
fil her mission in catching trout for the use of the
camp. Frank, acting impetuously upon the spur of
the moment, and impressed with the necessity of
promptly u taking time by the forelock " proposed that
she should elope with him the following morning, tell-
ing her that he had already arranged with the good
priest on his trip down the Allegash that if fortune
favored him so much as to gain her consent, and if
they should succeed in making good their escape,
he should marry them, and in proof of his willingness
to make them man and wife, he had given Frank his
itinerary of travel so that he would know where to find
him on the waters of the upper St. Johns, to which he
was then journeying. The lover now poured out his
passion to Anita with all the eloquence of which the
poetic red man is capable, saying to her, " Anita, fire
is bright : an equal light leaps in the flame from cedar,
plank or weed ; and love is fire. And thus I say, in-
deed, I love thee, mark, / love thee ! " Thus was his
avowal made, and he waited with breathless interest to
hear the now silent maiden's answer. She looked long
and lovingly into his eyes and then replied, leaning her
head upon his breast, " Wilt thou have me fashion into
speech the love I bear thee, finding words enough, and
hold the torch out while the winds are rough between
our faces to cast light on each ? I drop it at thy feet.
Lo, I am thine ! Beloved, I love only thee ! "

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 163

But listen ! listen ! both of you lovers, listen ! What
noise is that which breaks in upon this sylvan paradise ?
Swish, swish, swish; it's the paddle of a canoeman.
Nearer and nearer it conies. They fearsomely part the
bushes and peer out, and as they do Kasota glides by,
looking in every direction for Anita's canoe. Thus
warned, they decide that she must take her canoe and
paddle over to the great springs, where she will surely
be joined by Kasota, and then catch her quota of trout.
She is then to return promptly to her rocky home and
be ready some time in the early morning of the follow-
ing day, when Frank's signal comes, to slip into her ca-
noe with such feminine belongings as she may need
upon their fateful venture, joining him in an elopement
such as would terrify most maidens of either race, red
or white.

Here was the problem before them : In order to pre-
vent instant pursuit and give the elopers at least a day's
start, it would be necessary that they should loosen the
cables of all the canoes and let them drift away during
the early hours or take them in tow and leave them
somewhere near the entrance to the Tobique River, a
good two miles from the island. Four canoes and one
pirogue must be spirited away in some such manner.
The water of Nictau Lake was too cold for any one to
swim in, in order to reach either shore, and the family
and their guests would thus be prisoners on the island
until the arrival of a passing canoe, or they might, per-

164 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

haps, cut down the two or three trees on the rock and
out of them make a raft with which to reach the shore.
We may be sure Anita slept little that night, although
she went to her tent very early after seeing that
the canoes and the pirogue were all afloat in the
water, so that in the morning there would be no
scraping of the canoes when their cables were cast otf .
At about eleven o'clock a rather brisk wind commenced
to blow across the lake. Oh ! if it would only change,
she thought, and waft the canoes down the lake all
would be well, and for this Frank on the land and
Anita on the rock were both praying. Twelve o'clock
came and every one was sleeping soundly. One
o'clock brought a flurry of rain and a sharp puff of
wind. Anita softly slipped down to the water's edge
with her precious freight. Her father heard her and
whispering to her, asked what was the matter. She
replied that she was looking after her canoe to see if it
was securely fastened. Satisfied with the answer, he
was soon wrapt in slumber again. The call of the great
horned owl, " To-wJioot-to-who-to-whoo" from the near
shore of the lake broke into the stillness. It was Frank's
call to Anita. She now loosened the pirogue and all
the canoes, one by one, excepting her own, and let them
drift away into the inky darkness while with bated
breath and straining ears she awaited the arrival of her
lover. The embers of their camp-fire, which were even
yet sputtering and smoking in the rain, would be a guid-

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 165

ing star to Frank. She did not expect him to announce
his coming by any noise of the paddle, knowing well that
he would propel his canoe by sculling without lifting
the paddle out of the water. So when he glided into
view, he seemed to her like a ghostly apparition from
another world, causing her a momentary start. With-
out speaking a word, she stepped into her canoe, loosed
it from its fastenings, sat down in the stern and, offer-
ing up a silent prayer for safety and for her father and
mother's forgiveness, let her canoe drift away from the
rock, and aided by the now favoring wind and the cur-
rent which always sets toward the outlet, she cut the
gordian knot which bound her to home and kindred.
The die was cast ; she had given up everything, father,
mother, brothers, home and tribe, and ventured out
upon the unexplored sea of marital bliss or misery. She
sat passive in her canoe without motion or speech, and
with it drifted with the wind and the current as they
listed. Anita was dreaming of the unknown future, of
the perils that lay before them, of the promised home
in the far-away regions which Frank had christened
" Our Lake " — our lake, hers and his — " Our Lake,"
where all the joys that could ever be hoped for by a
true loving maid were to be hers. And she thought of
the letter written on birch bark which she had left ad-
dressed to her father, mother and brothers, telling them
how she had gone away with her heart's choice, apolo-
gizing for the manner of her going, because of their

i66 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

pronounced opposition to her marrying one of her own
race. She thought of the scene that would ensue when
they found their canoes gone, of their anger when the
telltale letter would be discovered, and their chagrin to
know that her future husband was to be Frank Tal-
munt, who was well known to them by reputation.

What was Frank doing the while? He was captur-
ing the drifting pirogue and the four canoes, stringing
them out into a tow-line and doing so without making
noise enough to cause alarm. When his task was done,
he was soon alongside of Anita's canoe, and being now
out of sight and hearing of her kindred, he clasped her to
his breast. While thus locked in each other's arms and
drifting with wind and stream, the waning hours of
the early morning but too soon fled away. When
Aurora flecked the eastern sky with rosy blushes, they
were even then a.t the outlet of the lake. Before enter-
ing the river, Frank hid and secured the canoes and the
pirogue behind a mass of rank vegetation on the right-
hand side. Knowing that Anita was an expert in the
use of the paddle, he considered it best to descend the
river with the two canoes rather than one. Leading
the way, he started down the rapid and tortuous
stream. Having a good "pitch" of water, they ran
down to Red Bank, twelve miles from the mouth, be-
fore stopping for refreshment. Here Anita took her
fishing-tackle to catch trout for breakfast and Frank
cut wood and built a fire, brought water from the

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 167

sparkling river, and soon had water bubbling in the
kettle, potatoes boiling in the pot and pork rinds sizzling
in the frying-pan, ready for Anita's catch of fish, which
she was not long in bringing to camp. After the
morning meal, Anita washed the dishes and then helped
Frank in gathering green boughs enough for two of
Nature's finest mattresses. Frank had brought two
fine new tents — his own he pitched near the water's
edge, but behind a mass of alder bushes, so that he
might be aroused if any one passed during the after-
noon. Anita's he pitched in a secluded grove of small
firs about a stone's throw from the river. As they
were to start when the moon appeared, they slept
until darkness and the chill of night awoke them.
They paddled all night, and bright and early next
morning Anita, as before, set out to catch fish and
Frank to get the fire going and the water boiling.
Breakfast was finished, and they were off again before
the sun was half an hour high. A right glorious run
of nearly twenty miles brought them down below the
" Forks," where four branches of the Tobique come to-
gether, and past Riley's Brook, where they stopped for
the balance of the day; here was a famous salmon
pool. Frank's plan was to run the balance of the river
entirely by moonlight. As the pitch of water was
good and the moon nearly at the full, by running at
night they would avoid chances of meeting canoemen
coming up the river and thus would prevent news of

1 68 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

their whereabouts reaching the islanders, whom they
were sure would now be after them in hot pursuit.

It was now night once more, and, taking their
canoes, they ran down the river by moonlight and slept
during the daytime, so that when they reached the
Maliset settlement at the mouth of the Tobique, they
swept through it in the dark to the accompaniment of
the barking of a host of dogs. Entering the St. Johns
River, they paddled up-stream until the Grand Falls
were reached, where the river makes a sheer plunge of
one hundred and seventeen feet. They carried their
canoes around the falls by a good road and were soon
again on the way. They arrived on the seventh day
from their start at the lake, at a settlement now called
"Conners," where they were rejoiced to see Pere
Lamorieux stepping into a canoe to go down the river
while a crowd of lumbermen were bidding him good-
bye at the landing. Frank and Anita pushed their
canoes alongside of his, and Frank earnestly asked him
to marry them there and then. The faithful priest
consented and rejoiced them by telling them that he
had already published their bans of marriage the
required number of times. He, therefore, stepped
ashore and, entering one of the log houses, set up
an altar. There, surrounded by the astonished lumber-
men, he made them man and wife.

The hardy woodsmen insisted upon celebrating the
occasion by a rustic dance and then a wedding

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 169

dinner, which every one enjoyed with great gusto.
Roast moose, boiled salmon, baked partridges, baked
potatoes, as white as snow, preserved wild strawberries
and plenty of rich butter and cream made up the bill
of fare ; no wonder that the dinner was a success. But
the lovers must be off if they were to keep ahead of
the chase. Father Lamorieux promised to watch for
the expected pursuers as he descended the river, and if
he met them, to assure them that pursuit was useless,
as he had made Frank and Anita man and wife, and no
power on earth could now dissolve the bond. Amid
the clamor of tin pans, of rousing cheers and of wav-
ing hats, our lovers stepped into Frank's canoe. They
now had no use for Anita's canoe, and they could make
better time against the stream with one canoe than the
two, so they gave it as a present to Father Lamorieux.
Thus cheered on their way, they happily pushed up the
great river and were soon lost to sight.

Two brooks as clear as crystal form the head waters
of "Our Lake," and on the right hand of the main
stream, as you go up to the dam, the larger of the two
plunges down the side of a ridge in a succession of
bounding leaps, the tumultuous waters cutting a sharp
gash in the side of the ridge. Here and there is a
shelf, where the water has touched solid rock, has
spread out right and left, and has thus washed away the
encumbering soil leaving a space large enough to build
a cabin or two upon. One of these is so high above

170 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

the valley and screened so effectually from it by its
curtain of white wood and fir trees that the smoke and
light from an evening fire cannot be seen from be-
low. In such a secluded location no one would ever
think of looking for any sign of civilized life. Here
game of all kinds was abundant at the time about
which I am writing, and the two brooks and the
lake were full of square-tailed trout. Charley Nicholas
had discovered this cul-de-sac when he had been run-
ning a line of traps some years previously, and he
and Frank had planned that the place should be their
future home.

After finishing the rude house and a shed in
which to hang game and prepare skins for market,
Nicholas made his way across country to head off
Frank, if possible. When he arrived at the mouth of
Churchill Brook, which empties into Amsuzkis Lake,
he found a place from which he could scan the lake for
a long distance. Here he waited and watched, and on
the second day he was rewarded by seeing a canoe
coming up with a man and a woman in it, both pad-
dling with might and main. When they were within
hearing, Charley beckoned them to turn into the mouth
of the brook, which was like the letter " S " in shape,
while a piece further on, the lake made an abrupt turn
to the right.

As may be surmised, the canoe contained the newly
married ones, who were being closely followed by two

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 171

canoes in which were Anita's father and brothers and
Kasota. As no time was to be lost, the canoe pushed
on up the brook to the head of the letter " S," Charley
Nicholas posting himself as before on the lookout point.
In twenty minutes the two canoes swept into view and
rapidly passed the mouth of the brook. Hounding
the corner into the lake and not seeing Frank's canoe,
the men evidently came to the conclusion that he had
slipped into the mouth of the brook. They turned
back and pushed into the opening, and so close were
they to where Charley Nicholas lay concealed that
he could easily hear their every word. Kasota was
strongly advising them to push on without wasting
time in searching the mouth of every brook, and they
would be sure to overtake the runaways at Mud Pond
Carry, a portage of two and one-half miles over one of
the worst roads on the continent. Joe Sebattis advised
a close search in the mouth of every brook, but as no
suspicious signs were discovered in Churchill Brook, he
gave the word to turn about and make for Mud Pond
Carry. Their departure was very welcome to Nicholas
and more so to Anita, who had overheard a portion
of the conversation. When the two canoes were out of
sight, the now happy trio told and retold the story
of the wedding, of the long flight up the St. Johns,
how they were nearly overtaken in the " Nigger " rapids
because of the breaking of Anita's paddle, how they
providentially met a passing canoe and from it ob-

172 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

tained the loan of a spare paddle, how, from the high
rock above Allegash Falls on the Allegash Eiver, they
again sighted the pursuers, how they slipped into the
mouth of the Musquacook stream, when the pace be-
came too hot, then carried their canoe across a sharp
bend into the Musquacook ; and so the chase went
on, through Bound Lake, up the Allegash quick
water, through Long Lake to their present stopping
place.

Nicholas's plan was to wait a couple of days
where they were, then to go ahead and cross Cham-
berlain Lake and from the far shore of that lake make
a long carry right over to " Our Lake," a distance of
say twelve miles. Nicholas argued that by this plan
they would win out in the race because the others
would keep on until they finally reached Kineo, on
Moosehead Lake, and not finding the fugitives there,
they would wait and wait until the danger of the
streams freezing up would compel them to return
home, discomfited and beaten, and before another
summer arrived the bitterness of defeat would have
been allayed and a reconciliation might be effected.
This scheme was adopted, the long carry of twelve
miles with the canoe and its impedimenta was made
in a day, and once in the lodge at the head of " Our
Lake " they gave a sigh of relief and cast care to the
winds, for here was in very truth a haven of rest fit for
any prince or princess in the land.

A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE' 173

And as for Frank and Anita —

"From that day forth, in peace and joyous bliss

They lived together long without debates,
Nor private jars, nor spite of enemies,
Gould shake the safe assurance of their states."

PART II

A Hunting Trip in Northern British
Columbia

CHAPTER XVIII
OFF FOR THE WILDS

FOR years I have been dreaming, at times by night,
but more often by broad daylight, of that time in some
far-off wilderness of the extreme northwest of this
great continent, when, accoutered with rifle and hunt-
ing-knife, I should meet a big, fine specimen of the
ursus horribilis, or in plain English a grizzly bear, face
to face, and should down him.

In consequence of this yearning, during the early
part of the year much time was spent in correspond-
ence with game commissioners, game wardens, railway
officials, hunters and guides regarding the most likely
locality for coming in contact with his majesty — the
grizzly. From all accounts, the Bear Lake region, in
the far northwestern part of British Columbia, seemed
to offer the best chance of success.

The good offices of the Philadelphia representative
of the Canadian Pacific Railroad were solicited, and he
took care that we should have the best attention from
the officials along his line. Our party consisted of Dr.
"W. E. Hughes, of Philadelphia, scientist with Peary's
first expedition ; Dr. W. J. Roe, of the staff of the Jef-
ferson Hospital ; Dr. "W. R. Roe, his brother ; and the
writer.

178 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

It was a hot afternoon when our train pulled out of
the station in Philadelphia at 4 : 30 p. M., August 24th,
bound for our long, long journey to the far northwest.
The air in the sleeping car was heavy and stiflingly hot.

The passengers soon divested themselves of their sur-
plus clothing, and substituted the lightest things they
had with them. " A lady faire," who enjoyed the
comforts of the drawing-room compartment all by
" her lonesome," set an example to the other ladies in
the car of how to make the best of a " hot situation."

She entered the car with a rustle and swish of silken
garments, which in the privacy of the drawing-room
speedily gave way to gauze and muslins. Then she
opened the door looking into her little parlor, and we
all could see her stretched out upon the settee or
lounge, a picture of solid comfort.

A mannish woman with a piercingly sharp voice
paid assiduous attention to an aged man — presumably
her father. She talked much and "her speech was
like a tangled chain; nothing impaired, but all dis-
ordered." She sat with her father most of the after-
noon and the following forenoon in the men's smoking
compartment, and while he smoked long, black cigars
she puffed away at her favorite cigarettes, and that
sharp voice of hers effectually stilled most of the other
smokers' voices.

An affectionate old couple sat opposite to us ; the
woman with silver hair, the husband with none of any

OFF FOR THE WILDS 179

color, amused the writer very much by their quaint
ways. They were bound for the Seattle exposition,
and, as the train rushed along through the hills and
valleys of the Keystone state, everything seemed new
and startling to them. The wife once, on returning
from the women's compartment, got by her husband
without seeing him, and was just turning into the nar-
row passageway at the far end of the car when he
called to her in a high, querulous voice :

" Be ye a-goin' to leave me, E-liz-a ? "

She turned around much confused, and when her old
eyes once more guided her to where the lover of her
youthful days sat she said :

"Leave ye, Asa? Leave ye? No, no. I'll never
leave you while I live."

How they cackled and laughed over this tiny inci-
dent, it would have done your heart good to see, be-
cause she admitted that she was real " skart " when she
missed him.

A man sitting behind us evinced a strong desire to
be sociable. He was returning to his home in Missouri
after having made his first visit to Philadelphia. He
was a merchant out there, and had been for thirty-four
years accustomed to visit New York twice a year to
buy goods. He had recently heard about the " stop-
over privilege " at Philadelphia, so he bought a ticket
over the " Pennsy," which gave him the right to stop
off at the Quaker City for ten days. He first went to

i8o WITH GUN AND GUIDE

the seashore and then back to the big city, where he
went to see Fairmount Park. He had all these years
been buying ready-made clothing of a house in Phila-
delphia. He called upon these people and was so im-
pressed with the size and merits of their plant and the
courteous treatment which he received that he now
says it will be Philadelphia for him twice a year after
this.

Citizens generally do not realize what an advantage
this stop-over privilege is to every one engaged in
business in the city. Merchants of the west, the north-
west and southwest are finding out now more than
ever before that in addition to the permission given to
" break the journey," as our English cousins put it,
they can ride over the best-appointed railway system
in the world and buy in the best markets for many
lines of goods in the whole United States.

This Missourian was loud in praise of the fine
scenery and well-kept and prosperous-looking farms of
the old Keystone state. And next morning as the
train sped through the state of Ohio and a portion of
Indiana the contrast between the farms in these states
and our own was very marked, indeed.

The farms in Ohio seemed to be particularly slovenly
kept. On many of them the weeds outranked in
growth the crops themselves.

We arrived at Chicago in a rain. The time-table
gave us an hour and a half to go from the Pennsylvania,

F

OFF FOR THE WILDS 181

station to the Wisconsin Central, and we felt sure we
should have plenty of time and to spare, but it was an
hour and twenty minutes before our baggage appeared
at the train for St. Paul. A new trunk, built to order
and most carefully made to withstand the iniquity of
any baggageman, had already come to grief in having
the lock broken off.

An inspection of the interior showed as soon as the
lid was opened that a bottle of Scotch which had been
incased in a straw cover and again in a corrugated
wrapper and then rolled up in an army flannel shirt
was smashed and the contents had soaked through and
through our collection of hunting toggery. The bag-
gageman on the train said that the " foul deed " had
been done in the Chicago station, where they will not
wait to remove the trunks from the trucks singly, but
dump the truck load on the floor of the baggage-room
" at one fell swoop," one on top of the other, and away
they go for more.

The night we left Chicago was intensely hot and
muggy, and in consequence my underclothing had be-
come wet with perspiration. A bright thought of
mine was to hang it up in front of the lower window
in my berth, and there it would dry during the night ;
but, behold ! we ran into a dense fog, and as a result
it was soaking wet in the morning and covered with
soot and coal ashes into the bargain. In lieu of these
garments I put on a bathing suit and my outer clothes

i82 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

over them and awaited an opportunity to get to the
baggage-car for a change of underwear.

This car was next to the engine, and was locked, so
that I had to jump off at a stopping place and sprint
forward to reach the car before the train started. The
conductor paid no attention to me, and before I got to
the car door at the side he had given the signal to
start, and off the train went, with every vestibuled
door closed behind me, so that my retreat by the rear
was thus cut off. The baggageman was in the act of
closing his sliding door. I yelled to him to give me a
lift, as I was in trouble—and that was as true as gospel.
He stooped down and gave me his hand. I placed my
right foot against the iron brace below the door, and
presto ! I was pulled up and into the car.

It required some searching to find a suit of under-
wear that didn't have any spirits soaked through it.
With the aid of a friendly newspaper spread upon the
floor to stand on, I was able to undress and dress again
in comfort, as there was plenty of room to work in.

The new grain elevators in course of erection in
the section of country we were now passing through
are mostly being built with reinforced concrete, while
the up-to-date farmers are having steel granaries built
for their own use which are weather and wind proof
and fire proof as well. Oh, the sight of some of the
yet-growing crops, of the crops being harvested and of
those cut and already thrashed, and of the number of

OFF FOR THE WILDS 183

plows at work in breaking the ground for next year's
planting, is in itself worth coming out here to see !
No living man in the past ever saw such an extent of
bountiful crops everywhere in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Sas-
katchewan, Alberta and Assiniboia as can be seen at
the present time.

It is a revelation of this country's resources, a har-
binger of great prosperity, when every man who needs
work or who wants to work and will work may have all
the work that he can do and at good wages as well. The
product of the millions of acres of wheat, of oats and
of flax which are now nearly ready for the markets of
the world, and which will command the highest prices
ever paid for grain at this season of the year — except-
ing during war time — must, when sold, set all the idle
mills a-going and keep the furnaces at white heat and
fill the empty freight cars to overflowing and the sail-
ing and steam vessels to bursting with the golden
grain. Wherever we went trains of cars were waiting
to be loaded. Others already loaded were blocked in
the sidings. The local elevators in the minor towns
were reported filled to their limit, and the tide
has but just started. It was a glorious and inspiriting
spectacle, this veritable sea of grain and of flax,
which stretched away as far as the eye of man could
see.

One of the passengers who had been a member of

184 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

our diplomatic corps in Chile broke into an enthusiastic
outburst of gladness at the sight of the great harvest.
He said :

"I wouldn't have missed this glorious vision, for
vision it is, for a great deal. Oh, what a country we
have to boast of. Just see how nice and snug the sky
fits down over everything on this prairie. I can't blame
a settler here if he should become a confirmed egotist,
because wherever he stands or wherever he looks he is
the ' centre of the universe.1 Look at all of this wealth
of wheat and of oats and just think of our fool United
States Senate which says you shan't take a bushel of
this wheat over into God's country without paying
twenty-five cents' duty upon it, or a bushel of those
white oats without paying fifteen cents, or a bushel of
potatoes without paying more than their cost. I'm a
Republican and always have been, but I'll be gol-
darned if I don't vote for a Democrat for congressman
at the next election. Now, folks, you just watch me
and see how I'll shout for the Democratic candidate,
no matter who he is."

Let us say a word more about the crops. On the
train was a gentleman from Philadelphia who is one of
a company of Quaker City capitalists now engaged in
farming a tract of land forty-five miles back of Moose
Jaw. This company is called " The Overbrook Wheat
Farms Co." They purchased 3,040 acres at less than
twenty dollars per acre, and then purchased the latest

OFF FOR THE WILDS 185

and most efficient mechanical appliances for use on the
farm.

They plow with a gasoline machine which cuts six
furrows as it glides majestically along, and this is fol-
lowed by a gigantic harrow — also propelled by the gas
made from gasoline — which literally tears and rips the
sods to shreds. If a ditch is needed, a trenching
machine is started across a field that digs the ditch and
throws out the excavated material upon the banks at
the same time.

Last year being their first, they broke up 500 acres
and planted this tract with wheat and oats, both crops
— and mighty crops they are—being now ready for the
reaper. Next year 1,500 acres more will be broken up,
and that also planted with grain, and so on until the
whole tract is under cultivation. Two gangs of men
are kept at work at good wages.

Gang No. 1 starts at 3 A. M., works until 7, then
rests. Gang No. 2 starts at 7 and works until 12.
Then gang No. 1 again takes hold and quits at 5.
No. 2 follows and works as long as the moonlight will
permit. But, mind you, the machines are going all the
time — eighteen hours a day. Contrast this with a pair
of horses which reach their limit of endurance with
eight hours of plowing, and then cut but one furrow at
a time. This Behemoth cuts six furrows in less time
than the horses can cut one furrow ; and it works
double the length of time. Marvelous, isn't it ? It is

i86 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

needless to say that my Philadelphia friend was as
much entranced with the monumental harvest and its
attendant activities as any of us.

The train was crowded with people for the Seattle
exhibition, and among them were many school
" marms " en route for Tacoma and Seattle, where the
schools open on the 1st of September. One of these
teachers, a bright and earnest little woman, told us that
there were TOO teachers in Seattle, and in Tacoma, 400,
many of whom spent their summers East and their
winters on the " coast " teaching.

A stout woman who had been unable to get a lower
berth, although she had tried at Chicago and St. Paul,
finally became angry, and, addressing the other occu-
pants of the car with much energy, she said :

" I'm not going to climb up to my roost like a
chicken. If the company doesn't give me a lower
berth, I will keep every passenger awake all night, for
I'U sing ' Shall We Gather at the River.' I will pray
aloud and I'll tell stories, so that nobody can sleep."
Alas for her, it was of no use ; this dire threat didn't
bring her a lower berth. And she finally had to " go
up to roost like a chicken," after all. If she had tried
the mild method of appeal she would have had her
heart's desire, but no man wants to be threatened in
order to grant a favor.

A superannuated Methodist minister, who has been
kept busy for the past decade in stirring up various

OFF FOR THE WILDS 187

churches to give more freely in paying off church
debts, was also headed for Seattle, accompanied by his
wife. On our first night in the car I was sound asleep,
with my back toward the aisle, when about one o'clock
in the morning I was awakened by some one gently
trying to push me over in the berth, while a voice said
in a half Avhisper, so as not to awaken the other
sleepers :

" Turn over, turn over, Annie."

Then I turned over with a vengeance and asked the
man — for it was the preacher — what he wanted me to
turn over for. I wasn't "Annie." He apologized
again and again and then found his berth, which was
across the aisle. I told his wife about the incident in
the morning, and she was much perturbed over it, and
in confidence she told another woman, and in this way
all the women got to hear of it, and what a cackling
there was after that.

Ashcroft, where we leave the Canadian Pacific Kail-
road, derives its importance chiefly from the fact that
it is the starting point of the famous " Cariboo wagon
road," which runs to the Frazer River, to and through
the mining regions of Lillouvet, Quesnelle Forks,
Quesnelle lakes, Cottonwood, Stanley and Barkerville,
the latter town being the terminus of the main stem of
the road. The stage line passing over the road is
operated by the British Columbia Express Company.

It has a splendid equipment of stages, stables and

i88 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

horses. The time made on the various roads, which
aggregate altogether 650 miles, is as fast as any one
could wish for. There is no stinginess about the use
of horses. Our first day's run took us to the " Eighty-
three-mile House," and for that trip twenty-two horses
were used — four relays of four horses each and one of
six. The second day's trip carried us beyond the " One-
hundred-and-fifty-mile House," to Soda Creek, and
thirty-six horses were employed in pulling the stage —
six relays of six horses each. The animals were fat,
well groomed and full of life.

The fare from Ashcroft to Barkerville is $38.50,
while the rate for carrying merchandise is twelve and
a half cents per pound. Over the road an enormous
amount of freight is hauled in wagons made on the old
prairie schooner build, with rounded canvas covers.
Two of these wagons are hitched together, and they
are hauled with from six to eight horses. The out-
ward trip for these freight wagons to Barkerville takes
about twenty-three days, while the return trip with the
empty wagons occupies perhaps thirteen days. The
lowest freight charges are six dollars per hundred
pounds.

The stages stop to deliver and pick up mail at almost
every house along the route. During summer and fall
months a stage leaves Ashcroft Monday mornings at
four o'clock and is due in Barkerville, about three hun-
dred miles away, at 3 p. M. the following Thursday.

OFF FOR THE WILDS 189

The second day of the trip is the hardest. Leaving
" Eighty-three-mile House " at 4: A. M., " One-hundred-
and-fifteen-mile House" is reached in time for lunch,
" One-hundred-and-fifty-mile House " is reached for
supper, and at Soda Creek, on the Frazer Kiver, the
day's run ends at about 11 p. M.

The distance traveled for the day from start to finish
is about ninety-one miles. The road leads up one
mountainside and down another — up and down all day
long, with very little level ground. The road is a good
one; considering its length, and the character of the
country through which it passes, it is superlatively good.

We were very courteously treated in Ashcroft by
the British Columbia Express people, the Canadian
customs official, the post-office employees and the hotel
men. One of our trunks got astray, and much tele-
graphing was needed to locate it. When that was
finally done and we were sure of its final arrival the
following morning, we went to bed.

At 3 : 30 A. M. we were up and off to the express
office, where all the baggage was taken out of the
trunks and repacked in dunnage bags. We left at
4:30.

Besides the stage proper, drawn by four horses,
which contained nine passengers and the mail, there
were two other rigs drawn by two horses each and
carrying eight more passengers — seventeen in all.
We saw the first game of the trip three miles from

190 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Ashcroft. It was a black tailed doe with a nearly
full-grown fawn. They were feeding in a valley, and
hearing us coming they ran across the road and up the
side of a steep mountain.

One of our party dreamed of bear, talked of bear,
and was really bear crazy. When we arose on Tues-
day morning at u Eighty-three-mile House," he walked
over to the barn, and soon came back panting for
breath. He had just seen a black bear walking past
the barn.

"Where's my gun? Oh, not my gun — my rifle!"
he said. The landlord, seeing the agitation that he
was in, asked him what was the matter, and when he
told him about the big, ambling bear that he had seen,
the landlord simply smiled and said :

"I own a large Newfoundland dog, and he often
goes to the barn."

Our portly doctor thereupon looked chopfallen and
said nothing more about the bear.

We passed a somewhat notable caravan near " One-
hundred-mile House." There were eight horses pulling
two prairie schooners. Two of the horses had colts,
which ran alongside their mothers. The drivers were
Indians, and at the rear was a young squaw riding
astride on a pony. Strapped to her back was a cradle
covered with an old shawl. In the cradle was a papoose,
and when it cried the mother gently shook her back,
which rocked the baby with a rotary motion from side

OFF FOR THE WILDS 191

to side. This evidently pleased the little papoose, as it
would soon stop crying.

At " One-hundred-and-fifty-mile House " the road
turns almost due west, the objective point being Soda
Creek, a famous landing point on the Frazer Kiver.

We left " One-hundred-and-fifty-mile House " at about
5 : 30 p. M., and had the most enjoyable ride of the trip.

The scenery is grand, and at a few miles from Soda
Creek the road commences to drop down some
1,100 feet to the level of the Frazer Kiver. The moon
was at the full, and such a moon I never, never saw !
It appeared to be as large again as it does to us in the
East ; it was really like a second sun.

By its light we rushed on behind six splendid horses
— up mountains, along the edges of canyons yawning
hundreds of feet below us, down into the valley, around
sharp bends, through dense groves of poplar trees and
Douglas firs, and over bridges crossing swift-running
streams. Then, with brakes on, we would plunge down
at such a rate as to make us hold our breath. But that
wonderful moon lighted up our way most of the dis-
tance, and we arrived safe and sound at the river's
edge, happy that we had had such a unique experience.

At Soda Creek the stern-wheel steamer Charlotte
was awaiting us. And here we found Howard W.
Dubois, a famous mining engineer in these parts, who
lives in the winter time in Philadelphia. He is un-
doubtedly one of the best-known and most frequently

192 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

quoted men in this section. He was on his way to
Vancouver, and would take our stage back to 150-mile
house, starting from Soda Creek at midnight.

Our steamer left at the same hour for Quesnelle,
sixty-five miles above, and we, being very tired from
our nineteen hours of staging, were soon in bed and
sound asleep.

When we sat down to breakfast we found that the
steamer had made extra good time against a six-mile
current, and in three hours would be at Quesnelle,
about four hours ahead of her regular time. This was
on account of the splendid light of the full moon,
which enabled us to travel at full speed all night long.

The first thing worthy of observance about the
famous Frazer Kiver is the number of " busted " mining
enterprises, the wrecks of which can be seen at inter-
vals, first on one side and then on the other — mute
evidence of blasted hopes, ruined fortunes and perhaps
of many tragedies in frontier life.

We saw a big dredge which had been hauled out on
the bank of the river because the finding of gold by
dredging had been unprofitable or impossible at that
location. The spring and the fall floods had piled up
sand, stones and floating snags around it, so that it
was all submerged excepting the topmost parts. A
man on the boat told us that there were at least twelve
of these derelicts on the river between Soda Creek and
Fort George.

OFF FOR THE WILDS 193

The furnace of our steamer was fired with pine wood,
and it took four men to carry the wood fast enough
to keep the steam up to the proper notch. She draws
but two feet of water, and another one is being built
by the same company which will draw only sixteen
inches. Her name is to be The City of Quesnelle.

We made some purchases in the Hudson Bay Com-
pany's store at Quesnelle, and received much valuable
information from Mr. Collins, the manager in charge,
a man, by the way, who looks like a twin brother to
our friend Joseph B. McCall, of Philadelphia, and on
account of this striking resemblance he permitted us
to " snap him with a kodak."

This gentleman told us that the fur trade in this
district had been seriously injured because of the many
surveying parties that have been in the wilderness for
three years past. These parties pay as high as $3.50
per day to the Indian guides, and that is so much more
than they can get by trapping that they have abandoned
their old pursuits. This, of course, is better for the
fur-bearing animals, so that " all's well that ends well/'

We now took to the stage again for a trip of some sixty
miles to Barkerville, the terminus of this famous stage
line. We had of course fewer passengers than when
we started, because many had gone on up the Frazer
River to Fort George, where many people were awaiting
opportunity of going yet farther north to the wonderful
Nechaco valley. Here settlers are arriving from many

194 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

parts of the old world and from " the states " to take
up and occupy the rich bottom lands in this great
valley. The Grand Trunk Pacific Kailroad, when com-
pleted, will run through the centre of this immense
tract of land, once the bed of a now dried up lake.

At one of the stops we made to change horses, the
man in charge of the stable told us of a fracas he had
had the previous night with a black bear and two cubs
that had been " a-botherin' of " him for many nights
past. He managed to kill the mother bear and one of
the cubs, the other one getting away. The man was
much wrought up over the incident, and had we been
willing he would have kept us for an extra hour in
telling the story.

This portion of the journey was very interesting in-
deed. For many miles the road led along the side of a
mountain near its top, and a sharp lookout had to be
kept for teams coming from the opposite direction, as
the road is but narrow and the passing of teams at this
high elevation is a ticklish performance, with a deep
canyon on one side and a precipitous mountain on the
other. In the winter time occasionally a stage — then
of course set on runners — slides over the edge and down
into the canyon below ; but, with deep snow on the
slope, there are rarely any fatalities. Of course there
will be bruises in plenty, broken harness, and perhaps
damaged merchandise.

One of the houses where we stopped to change

OFF FOR THE WILDS 195

horses was presided over by an aged Scotchman and
his wife. The latter is famous for her cooking, and the
meal she set before us only added to her reputation.
In an old music book I found a song that I had not
heard for nearly twoscore of years, and then it was
sung by a dear sweetheart of mine with such pathos
and sweetness that its memory lingers with me still.
u My Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair " was the title.
Another old favorite was found in the same book,
" Jock o' Hazledean." The good dinner, the cheery
talk of the old Scotch woman, and the songs of bygone
days sent me away in rare good spirits and with fond
memories that will last for many and many a day.

We arrived in Barkerville Thursday night at six
o'clock, three hours late, caused by the necessity of
shoeing some horses and mending a break in the stage.
Barkerville is a mining town pure and simple. All
frame houses, with sidewalks about four feet above the
level, varying in height in different spots, with steps
leading down to the street on each side. This is neces-
sary because of the great depth of snow in the winter.

The glory of the town has long since departed, as a
majority of the formerly famous gold mines have been
worked out. In a ride of, say, forty miles we saw a
number of abandoned mines, a very small portion of
them having ever produced enough gold to pay ex-
penses. Only two mines that we saw were in opera-
tion, one being worked by three Chinamen, and report

196 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

said they barely made a living out of it. However one
mine is being worked near the town upon a very large
scale, and the profits are said to be considerably over a
hundred thousand dollars a year. There are some
smaller mines which we did not see that are also pay-
ing fairly well.

We inspected one mine which was to be operated upon
quite an expensive plan of dredging. We asked how
long it had been since work was started upon it, our
informant saying :

" I have been here four years, and it was being pre-
pared then."

" When do you expect to start ? "

" I don't know. We have sunk a vertical shaft 190
feet deep, and at the bottom of that we have dug and
blasted out another shaft 220 feet in a horizontal line.
We have installed a big turbine, big walking-beam and
all kinds of machinery ; but when we'll start no one
seems to know."

" Have you taken out any gold at all ? "

" Not a dollar's worth," he replied.

We came to a mining enterprise with four houses
erected for the officials of the company — a fine plant,
filled with machinery and every kind of implement for
mining, and all of the properties were closed up and
deserted. Window blinds were still shading the win-
dows, the former occupants evidently thinking they
were not worth carrying away.

OFF FOR THE WILDS 197

We passed a lot of iron piping — enough to fill a large
field — that had been sent all the way from England.
The freight from the railroad to where it lay was seven
cents per pound ; the freight on the railroad and the
ocean freight together was fourteen cents per pound,
and each length cost $100. When the stuff arrived
the mine it was intended for had been abandoned, and
there the pipe lies rusting away in the sun, rain and snow.

We outfitted here for our hunting grounds. And
considering the expense and time in getting the mer-
chandise up here, we were surprised that the prices
were so moderate.

It may be of interest to note what we took with us
and what it cost, which was as follows :

200 pounds of flour @ $10 per 100 $20.00

3 pounds tea @ 50 cents 1.60

8 pounds whole ooffee @ 50 cents 4.00

3 boxes matches for 25

10 pounds salt @, 10 cents pound 1.00

100 pounds bacon @ 30 cents 30.00

60 pounds sugar @ 13 cents 7.80

50 pounds beans @ 12£ cents 6.25

25 pounds rice @ 13 cents 3.25

20 pounds butter @ 56 cents 11.20

1 pound pepper 50

4 pounds candles @ 25 cents 1.00

1 case 4 dozen condensed cream @ $2.50 10.00

10 pounds prunes @ 20 cents 2.00

10 pounds dried apples @ 20 cents 2.00

20 pounds lard @ 25 cents 5.00

5 pounds cheese @ 25 cents 1.25

10 pounds cornmeal @ 12£ cents 1.25

10 pounds oatmeal 1.00

198 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

The total of the bill was $114. In addition to this,
we, of course, had to pay for the packhorses, five of
them, to pack the stuff on, which cost twenty dollars
more.

Our licenses cost $100 each, and were the first that
had been sold at this government office this season,
other people having purchased their licenses before
arriving here. The provincial and the dominion
officials, as well as the leading business men, treated
us with great courtesy and kindness. One of the men
we met — a Mr. Bailey, had been educated in the Penn
Charter School, Philadelphia. He was formerly em-
ployed as a civil engineer on the Pennsylvania Kailroad,
but he prefers the life out here to that in the Quaker
City. We were to have left Barkerville early Friday
morning, but the five cayuse horses which were to
have taken us to Bear Lake strayed away during the
night and it took some hours to gather them up once
more.

We had engaged five Siwash Indians with their five
ponies to " pack " our outfit. But these men took their
own time for starting, and, although they promised
much, they put off their departure until the next day.
So we ourselves left Barkerville at 1 P. M. over the
famous Bear Kiver trail. The first eight miles were
over a fairly good road.

And this we did at a brisk trot. After that it was a
ride over a trail from two feet to two feet six wide, up

OFF FOR THE WILDS 199

one side of a mountain and down the other, with two
places where the trail went up at an angle of forty-five
degrees and came down on the other side at even a
sharper pitch, the cay uses frequently sliding down hill,
that being easier than walking and safer. The trail
passed through some very thick underbrush, at times
higher than the horses' heads. In the tangled mass
were blueberries, a few raspberries, elderberries, fire-
weed, great masses of wild rose bushes with scarlet
seed pods, maiden hair ferns, tansy, sassafras, purple
asters, squaw pinks, Queen Ann's lace, etc.

Bird life was but poorly represented. A few yellow
hammers, a species of western bluebird, a humming
bird and one meadow lark, with several " fool-hen "
grouse, were all that we saw. The twenty-one-mile
trail was covered in a little over six hours, and we were
all happy when it was finished.

So here we are, safe and sound, more than 4,000
miles from home, in the wildest and roughest kind of
country, amid wonderful scenery, bracing air and,
thank God, a cloudless sky, a warm sun, plenty of
provisions, clothing, ammunition, firearms and cameras
— everything, in fact, to please and to satisfy both
mind and body. To-morrow — aye, to-morrow — we'll
be off for adventures new in the " great unknown."

CHAPTER XIX
SPEARING SALMON IN THE NORTHWEST

THE Siwash Indians with their packhorses, carrying
our outfit, having failed to turn up on Friday night,
the next morning we were speculating as to whether
they would come at all, and if they did, would the
dunnage bags be brought in with their contents safe
and sound ?

However, the great salmon " run " was on and it was
an interesting sight, and after breakfast we spent
some time in watching the brilliant scarlet-coated sock-
eyes, with their green heads and tails — this being their
nuptial color — and the huge " spring salmon " working
along the gravelly bottom to the outlet of Bear Lake
which was but a few hundred yards from the camp.

It is against the law nowadays to spear salmon, but
our supplies not having arrived, and the need of some-
thing to eat being a fitting excuse, we thought we
might try to secure three or four of the royal fish.
The first thing that happened furnished us with the
most ludicrous sight I ever witnessed.

Dr. W. R. Roe, one of our pair of " Falstaffs," after
watching the fish for some time, went to the camp and
removed part of his clothes. He then put on a cotton

SPEARING SALMON 201

undershirt without sleeves and cotton drawers reaching
to his knees, and thus appareled he waded into the cold,
swift-running water, armed with a spear with a single
barb.

As the fish dodged his clumsy efforts to spear them
he soon became wonderfully excited, and made rush
after rush at them, until in one of his " long-distance "
stabs he went head over heels into a deep pool.

When he came up he was more in earnest than ever,
and as he was a good swimmer he laughed at the mis-
hap of the deep hole.

" W. J.," his brother, the other Falstaff of the party,
after laughing until the tears ran down his face at his
brother's antics, removed his clothes also, put on a union
suit of dark gray underwear, and, obtaining a three-
pronged spear, likewise waded in.

With the first or second thrust at the agile salmon he
also tumbled into a deep hole, where the stream was
extra swift and strong. He did not appear for a minute
or more, and then we saw him swimming upon his
back, holding the pole of the spear with one hand and
acting more like an eight-year-old boy than a dignified
and sedate Philadelphia surgeon.

W. E. Hughes, the third doctor of the party, had
been busy taking snapshots of the two doughty spear-
men from the bank, and he likewise laughed until his
sides ached, as mine did also. He disappeared for a
while, and when we saw him once more he was garbed

202 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

in the same suit that Adam wore when Mother Eve
first made his acquaintance in the Garden of Eden.

No fig leaf or cotton or gauze or union suit under-
wear for " "W. E." ; no, siree. They would only be an
impediment to him, and so the man, who had braved the
terrors of a winter in the Arctic regions as scientist
with Peary's first expedition in search of the North
Pole, was the first and perhaps the only man who ever
attempted to spear salmon in the Bear River without
some garment to modify the coldness of the icy waters.

I have been writing of " spearing " salmon, but for an
hour or more their fierce lunges only ended in an oc-
casional ducking, as the fish were too nimble for them.

But hold ! Listen to the yell and the paean of victory
from "W. R.," who at last has pierced a sock-eye
salmon through and through with his one pronged spear.
Bearing his trophy aloft, he paraded up and down the
river in his thin underwear, taunting his brothers in
medicine with his success and their repeated failures.
But, listen again ! There's a cry of joy from " W. J.,"
who was " jabbing " at the fish down the river, and he
also held a sock-eye aloft, but we had seen an ex-
hausted salmon drifting down the river, and this three-
fourths dead fish he had, indeed, run his spear through,
so his " kill " was not allowed and we wouldn't let it
count.

Finally, all three " caught on " to the curves neces-
sary to strike the fish fair and square, and each man

SPEARING SALMON 203

landed at least a pair of sock-eye salmon, brilliant of
color, agile as squirrels, but alas ! poor in flesh and ut-
terly devoid of flavor.

After lunch, the four of us, actuated by the same
motive of obtaining sleep and rest from the grueling
trip over the Bear Lake trail of the day before, found
our way to a big circular tent, and there we slept
soundly for a couple of hours. Kibbee, our guide and
host, suggested to me that he and I should go down the
river for three or four miles, and see if there were any
bear signs, and then we also could see the spawning
grounds of the salmon, which were strung out for
over a mile on the gravelly bottom of the river.

We saw a few signs of black bear on the sandy points
at the sharp curves of the river as we went down.
The signs did not appeal to me at all, for I was in the
presence of one of the most tragical illustrations of the
truth that nature's first consideration is imperatively
the reproduction of the species.

Here we saw thousands upon thousands of spring
salmon, the males averaging nearly thirty pounds each
in weight, plunging, diving and " side-stepping " each
other in their savage efforts to protect the precious
spawn.

Every one who has seen the plunging of porpoises on
the seacoast can have a faint idea of the scene which
we witnessed if he will multiply the few porpoises thus
seen by a hundred or more. Remember, too, that the

204 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

salmon is many times swifter in his movements than the
leisurely porpoise, and some idea may be obtained of
the sight which greeted us. The water was like a boil-
ing cauldron — splash, splash, splash ! the fish were
jumping in every direction.

It seems that as soon as the female commences the
process of depositing the spawn on the gravelly spot,
which she and her male partner have scooped out, then
a predatory male makes a rush to eat or destroy the
precious eggs, while her male gives valiant battle in the
effort to protect them. When the male has fertilized
the roe eggs by spraying a fluid called the " milt " over
them, the seemingly never-ending battle waxes fiercer
than ever.

In this mUee we saw some big fish literally skinned
alive. On many of them the dorsal fin was either eaten
off or torn off, the tail nipped off almost to the bone,
and numbers of fish were gashed and eaten so badly
in the furious fighting that they gave up the ghost and
died.

In one particular spot eight big fellows were all so
earnestly fighting that they paid no attention whatever
to our boat as it floated down the river, and its prow
passed through the fighting mass, separating the com-
batants forcibly. Looking back at them after we
passed, we saw them at it again. It was a fight to the
finish.

Strangest of all is it that this fighting does not cease

SPEARING SALMON 205

even at night-time. No wonder, then, that, when the
fateful task of spawning is over, they all die — every one,
male and female alike. The future of the species is
then bound up in the destinies of the eggs which they
have given their lives to produce.

We went down the river three miles looking at the
signs of bear on the sand-bars at the edges of the
stream, then turned and poled back, arriving at camp
in time for supper. Here we learned that two of our
doctors, W. E. Hughes and W. R. Roe, with a guide,
had undertaken to cross the river in a boat. W. R.,
the stout one, in some way shifted his position in the
boat amid stream, and over the boat went, tumbling
them all into the water. As they were all swimmers,
they got out safely, but had that happened in a lake a
different story might have been told.

The Siwash Indians and their packhorses arrived
with our supplies and dunnage a little before dark.
The stuff came over the rough trail without any dam-
age whatever. Their horses were turned out to graze,
and one of them, a youth of ten years, rolled his trou-
sers up over his knees, and with a single-pointed spear
waded into the water of the river up to his middle to
spear salmon.

His father, an old, dried-up Indian, smiled with de-
light as he told me: " He catch um tree fish. He quick,
good boy. He ride pony stand up " — that is, bareback.
They were to receive two cents a pound for their work

206 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

in " packing " our supplies. Two hundred pounds is
the limit that they will load on one of their horses, and
if the load weighs any less than that, no allowance is
made.

It therefore required live horses carrying two hun-
dred pounds each, at $4 per head, and their total
freight bill was $20. In the olden days, when " grub "
was " packed " on the Indians' backs hundreds of miles,
the freight on flour or sugar was $1 a pound and on
potatoes and turnips a half dollar more. One man
made considerable money by spearing salmon in the
fall near where our cabin stands, then salting them
down, and on the snow taking them over the trail to
Barkerville on dog-sleds and selling them at $1 and
$1.25 apiece.

A stove which warms Kibbee's kitchen, and on
which all the cooking is done, cost $47 to bring over
the trail only three years ago, and that without count-
ing his time and labor in helping to drag it on a sled.
To-day a loaf of bread in Barkerville is two bits (twen-
ty-five cents).

In Quesnelle, on the Frazer River, I saw a box of
raisins opened on a shelf in a grocery store. Although
a year old, they looked to be in good condition, so I
asked the proprietor to weigh me out a pound.

Then I asked him how much. " Four bits " (fifty
cents) was the laconic answer. In Barkerville there is
no single article priced at less than " two bits " except-

SPEARING SALMON 207

ing postage stamps, and, of course, the government sees
to it that they, at any rate, shall be sold at the face
value.

It can easily be imagined that the mails must neces-
sarily carry a great deal of freight, as the cost of one
cent per ounce up to four pounds in weight enables a
large assortment of different kinds of merchandise to
be forwarded in the very quickest time at the minimum
postal rate.

For instance, I mailed in Philadelphia to a friend in
Cottonwood, near Barkerville, two packages, each
weighing two pounds eight ounces, and they went
through safely at a total cost of eighty cents. Our
government must have lost some money upon them ;
but see what the Canadian Postal Department must
have lost taking into consideration the three hundred-
mile stage route over which the packages had to go.

But there's another side to the problem of values up
here. The wages of working men in the mines in
Barkerville and vicinity are $4.50 per day, and Kibbee
pays $7.50 per day to the guides he uses for our con-
venience, and we furnish the provisions into the
bargain.

This is the tenth day of September, and, as I am
writing, Henry, the cook, is shelling green peas and
washing the most tender and delicious lettuce any one
could wish for, both grown in a little plot near the
bank of the river. It is pouring rain, and the rain may

208 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

last for several days ; then the men predict a sudden
freeze-up, and, presto! the long, long winter will be
upon them.

Last winter the thermometer went to fifty-two de-
grees below zero, and the snow near Barkerville was
over seven feet deep ; so that winter away up here
means something more than a picnic. It means long,
cold nights, with little daylight, plenty of stars over-
head and a scarcity of heat from the all-powerful sun
god.

We left Bear Lake camp early on Sunday morning,
our flotilla consisting of three boats, a house-boat,
manned by two men, to carry the provisions and outfit.
The other two boats carried three men each, two sports
and one guide.

The day was fine, and as this was the real beginning
of our hunting trip it stirred my blood to feel that first
jump of the boat as Kibbee, the guide, pushed off from
the landing. How quickly the camp was left behind !
Now all was before us — a new country, a virgin forest,
new lakes, new rivers, new waterfalls, new mountains.
Nothing old, yet how very old, but all new to us.

This trip is to be for us a recreation — we are going
to tease the unknown — " what is fresh and new in na-
ture is great, divine." We are seeking adventure.
The healthy imagination is a daredevil, a pick-lock, a
break-bolt. In all ages adventure, the great motive
for all we do, has been loved for itself. There is a

SPEARING SALMON 209

north pole at each man's door that invites the spirit of
adventure. Each human being has a trail to make for
himself.

" Koutine starves body and soul, and, in its deadly
clutch, we begin to measure the days of life on the
walls of consciousness like men condemned to death,
who chalk the passing of the days on the walls of their
cells that finally fetch them to the rope and trap-door."

We are now afloat, healthy and free, the world of
adventure before us, the humdrum work of office and
of shop behind us. So, farewell for a period to the
trivialities of life, its fashions, its vagaries and its artifi-
cial delights. "We are about to enjoy the perennial
passion of living in the open, dreaming or thinking of
nothing but what every new day may bring to us be-
fore its precious hours have departed.

Renewing our youth by rugged exercise, expanding
our lungs with air untainted by sulphurous smoke, we
feel like shouting out with Walt Whitman : " Oh, for
the open road ! "

Our way lay through Bear Lake and up the upper
Bear River to a stream which empties out of Swan
Lake. Here was the first of Kibbee's trapping camps
after leaving his home camp. At the mouth of the
lake, stuck up on the side of this camp, was a piece of
cardboard, on which was written a notice that at the
point where we entered Swan Lake stream, fresh meat
would be found ready for use. This was signed by a

210 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

fish commissioner, who was on a tour of inspection look-
ing for a good place for a hatchery for sock-eye salmon.

Kibbee and I paddled down and found the cache ;,
which contained two fore quarters and a hind quarter of
a young moose. After eating lunch, our party was
split up, Drs. " W. J." and " W. K." going with a cook
and two guides up to Swan Lake to look for moose,
while Dr. " W. E." and the writer started for a cabin
nine miles further up Bear River, where we hoped to
catch sight of a grizzly bear.

In the other party was a polished, gentlemanly look-
ing young man, who was acting as bow poleman for
the house-boat. Thinking him to be one of the guides
and desiring to become acquainted with them all as
soon as possible, I said to him, " What is your name ? "

In place of telling me his given name, he gave me
his family name.

I then said, " You and I both come from the same
country."

" I came from Norfolk, England," he replied.

We had some further talk, in which he said he ex-
pected to spend the winter on Bear Lake, and that he
would go home by way of the Pacific. I advised him
to cross the continent and visit Philadelphia, in which
case I would be glad to do the honors for him in the
Quaker City. He impressed me so much by his modest
and unassuming manners, his earnest desire to do all of
the work that was to be done, and by his choice Ian-

SPEARING SALMON 211

guage, that after parting from him I asked Kibbee who
and what he was.

" Well, you see, he came to Barkerville and wanted
some place to go where he would be among big game
and where he could learn how to handle boats and
traps, cut wood and do frontier work generally. He
was referred to me, and I told him what I would
charge him per day, and that he could stay as long as
he liked and leave when he liked ; that I might be
away a-lookin' after my traps a month or two months
at a time and he would be left alone.

" He just smiled and said that wouldn't worry him a
bit, so I said :

" ' Well, I want to know all about you before we
hitch up together.' Then he gave me his name, and it
was i Lord ' something or other.

" So I goes to a friend of mine in Barkerville and
tells him all about it. So he says: 'If you'll wait,
I'll look up the English " stud " book, and if he's the
real thing, he'll be in it.'

" So he gets the book and runs up one page and
down another and, sure enough, there was his name,
all right.

" You see, my friend's name is also in the ' stud '
book, so he knew all about him. When he lighted on his
name he read about his people who lived long before
him. I'll tell you this ; he's a willin' worker and isn't
afraid of any kind of work, although he's not overly

212 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

strong. He's good company, doesn't have much to say
and all of us like him."

We reached our second stopping place at dark, after
a nine-mile push up the river. The current was so
swift that the pole had to be used all of the way up.
The sand beaches on the sides of the river bore the im-
prints of grizzly bears' feet, and most of them were
fresh. A few moose tracks were visible where they
had crossed the river, and beaver tracks and musk
mounds were very plentiful.

Kibbee says that on these musk mounds, built of
small gravel stones, the beavers squeeze out their ex-
cess of the substance which is called musk. This musk
is valuable, and is used in the manufacture of perfumes
and in medicines, and brings, according to demand and
quality, $4.50 to $16 per pound.

It is contained in a sack, and its trade name is " cas-
torium." Trappers have found out that they can set a
beaver wild by removing a portion of his mound — as
each beaver has its own — and putting in a little oil of
aniseed and a few drops of rum.

The beaver realizes the first thing that here is a
strange "musk," because he knows his own musk too
well to believe that the strange odor is his. He
evidently thinks some other beaver has done this to
spite him, so he gets mad all through and tears his
whole mound down and builds a new one.

In doing this he gets so reckless that he forgets his

SPEARING SALMON 213

usual caution, and steps into the trap which has been
set for him. There's a close time now on all beavers
south of the Blackwater River, and in consequence
many are the beaver skins shipped as being from north
of the Blackwater, whose- owners were never within
three hundred miles of that famous beaver district.

I told of the capsizing of a boat with Drs. W. E.
Hughes and W. R. Roe in it. Dr. Hughes treated the
ducking with indifference, and did not change his wet
clothes for dry ones. As a consequence, when we sat
down to our rude meal in the trapper's cabin, he had
no appetite and complained of a sore throat and cold
in his head.

In the morning his pulse had increased twenty beats,
and he felt bad enough to say that he would stay in
bed all day, and starve it out. However, I prevailed
upon him to take a cup of soup, made from lentils.

In spite of his protests, Kibbee and I took the boat
and paddled down to the Swan Lake camp. There we
found that W. J. Roe and W. R. Roe had not yet
started for their next camp. We therefore had dinner
together, and taking a couple of bottles of medicine, we
poled up-stream again, making the camp at 7 : 30 p. M.

Dr. Hughes was much better as a result of his en-
forced rest, and also from his refraining from food. As
to the medicines — while he thanked us for bringing
them, he declined their use, saying that as he was a
doctor, he didrtt take medicine.

2i4 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Frank D. Kibbee, our mentor, guide and host, by
this time had shown us that he was all that his friends
claimed for him. Every one whom we met on the
journey to Barkerville gave him unstinted praise, and
after reaching that far-famed town, we received the
same reports from hotel men, miners and business men
with whom we talked.

In his own domain he is " the boss." As a trapper,
hunter and guide, it is hard to beat him.

He was born in Montana forty-two years ago, and
from his earliest boyhood he has always been a trapper.
He drifted out here ten years back and commenced
trapping, and was successful from the beginning. It's
an awfully lonely place now, and was more so then.

He tried to get an assistant or some man whom he
could trust to look after his main camp and his pelts
while he was making the round of his traps. His
ground covers over one hundred and twenty miles of
good trapping country, over which he claims the right
to trap. He must be a rugged man to go over this
territory, set the traps and look after them properly,
skin the trapped animals and prepare them for ship-
ment to London, where they are sold at the annual fur

As an assistant would have to be out in all kinds of
weather and always to look out for his own food
supply, it will be seen that it would be no easy job to
get any one willing to undertake the position.

SPEARING SALMON 215

Kibbee considered himself very fortunate in securing
the services of a squaw, who was a good cook and a
clean housekeeper, who could trap and shoot almost
as well as he could, who climbed the highest moun-
tains with him after mountain goats or bears, and who
conducted herself with such decorum as to be received
courteously by the families in Barkerville with whom
Kibbee was acquainted.

She was with him for a period of six years, and then
a yearning for a more nomadic life took possession of
her and she drifted away. Then he took in an old
man of seventy, more out of charity than anything
else, and he stayed with him for over four years,
Kibbee clothing him and keeping him in comfort.
Then the old fellow left.

Now he has another old man of seventy, who cooks
and looks after his various interests with rare fidelity.

In the winter time this man, Kibbee, with blanket,
bait, bacon, axe, skinning knife, matches, and a few
pounds of flour on a hand sled, trudges forward through
the wilderness. The northern lights glow in the dis-
tance and it is bitterly cold, but cold makes finer fur.
Down far trails in gloomy forests, across the breasts
of silvered streams, he labors from trap to trap.
Should he find fifty dollars' worth of fur along the
whole line of the traps he is content.

Meat is what the trapper mostly lives upon — meat
of different kinds and of different degrees of tough-

216 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

ness or tenderness. "Whether it is moose, deer, caribou,
rabbit, woodchuck, goose, duck or the tail of beaver, it
matters little so that it be meat.

To see Kibbee clean up a frying-pan half full of
moose steak would be an object lesson to a city man,
who with childish appetite nibbles at a bit of steak and
must have it covered with sauce or ketchup or mush-
rooms to make it palatable and appetizing.

But there must also be some fruit or vegetable food
to help keep away the scurvy during the long winter
night. Hence a few pounds of dried apples or of
prunes should be on the trapper's sled thus to aid
digestion.

When he starts out in the late fall the curtain of
silence cuts him off from the fellowship of the Barker-
ville trail for many moons, once he lifts the curtain of
that ghostly woodland. It is paddle and portage for
days and weeks as he visits lake after lake, pond after
pond, and river after river. Then the frost crisps
into silence the foaming water and the lapping lake.
The grind of running ice warns him it is time to change
birch bark for moccasin and snow-shoe. The canoe is
cached, and the trail strikes into the forests of Douglas
fir and of white and yellow birch.

When he returns, leaves may be budding on the
birches and on the willow bushes.

Once, and only once, the awful loneliness of the
deep forests overcame Kibbee's nerve, and he threw

SPEARING SALMON 217

his traps into the swift running waters of the lower
Bear River and back to Montana he went ; but six
months of civilization were enough for this man of the
woods, mountains, and lakes, and back he came to his
traps and stretching frames.

He lifted his traps from the bottom of the river,
joyfully went the rounds of his trapping lines, setting
the traps as he went, and now he will be a " child of
Nature " until an all- wise Providence calls him to his
own last cache, which in all probability neither graven
stone nor wooden sign will mark.

CHAPTER XX
WATCHING FOR BRUIN

IN the ascent of the Upper Bear River, as far as the
first camp, the bear signs were to be seen upon every
sandy marge of the river. Some were old, but many
were so fresh, and particularly those of one big grizzly,
that we were keyed up to the highest point of expec-
tation.

In rounding one sharp turn in the stream we came
suddenly upon a flock of thirty wild geese feeding on
some tall green grass. Although we had a .22 rifle
and two 45-90's, we did not shoot, as we were in
search of bear and not of geese, and the shooting
would undoubtedly alarm the bears if within hearing.
One old gander among the geese gave the note of
alarm, and, with much honking, they were soon away
up in the air and off for pastures new.

We spent a night at the first camp and heard noth-
ing and saw nothing of game of any kind. In sight of
the door, and seemingly but a short distance away,
were too great snow-capped mountains. We were told
that although " so near they were yet so far," as, be-
fore the summit could be reached, twelve miles would
have to be covered.

WATCHING FOR BRUIN 219

Weather, time and other circumstances permitting,
our scientist, W. E. Hughes, purposed to climb the
nearest one in search of mountain goats and bears.
We left our boat a mile and a half above our first camp
on the Upper Bear River, and next day made a " hike "
through a trail unique in the quality that, of all sorts
of bad ground to travel over, this trail offered three
distinctly bad types.

The tirst was through the so-called brush, which, out
here, means the everlasting willow bushes. They are
not so high as the alders, but are thicker and harder to
get through, slapping the water or dew upon your neck,
face and body with every step you make.

Next came five miles of open bog-land — called here
a "park," where the foot goes down generally into
water over your ankles, and at times over your knees.
This is interspersed with hummocks, where you have
to jump from one to another of them, and if you miss
your footing, you're up almost to your middle in oozy
mud.

After this delectable stretch comes a couple of miles
of burnt land, on which the logs, lying in every direc-
tion, impede your progress, while, if the morning be
wet and your footwear slippery, then you'll find the
logs also slippery, the bushes, snags and roots tantaliz-
ing, and you'll surely slide and fall many times before
you're over the burnt land.

We took four and a half hours to cover the eight

220 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

miles, and when we came to the little 8x8 cabin we
were really very glad. Although we had had numer-
ous falls by the way, we were still unhurt. This cabin
had not been visited by any human being so far as we
knew since the previous spring.

It is the farthest cabin on the Bear River used by
Kibbee in his trapping. A sheet-iron stove and a bunk
is all the cabin contains, although outside we saw a
good collection of traps stored up ready for this com-
ing season's work.

The object of this particular trip was to hunt the
grizzly, if we could find any of these animals willing
to be hunted, or even to be seen. We were tired look-
ing at tracks on the sandy marges of the river, and we
hungered for a sight of the real ursus horribilus — this
being the scientific name of our much respected old
friend, the grizzly.

A quarter of a mile before the cabin came into sight,
we crossed several bear trails, worn down deep by the
big fellow who had been carrying salmon back from
the river to cache them ; but every few yards we would
see where he had sat down and eaten a salmon, leav-
ing only the bony head and the tail to show the diet he
was living upon. The bank of the river at and near
the cabin is fifteen feet high and almost precipitous.

"Well-worn trails lead from the river to the crest of
the bank, and were made by the bear scooping out steps
to climb up by. The top of the bank was actually

WATCHING FOR BRUIN 221

covered with salmon heads, fins and tails, where the
big eater had sat down to devour his catch. The
stench from these decaying portions of the fated
salmon was very bad ; and the myriads of bluebottle
flies, mosquitoes, black flies, midgets and bulldog Hies
drawn to the locality by this salmon feast were some-
thing truly appalling.

The guide said the bear signs were good, and his
plan of attack upon the wary beast was to post a man
at each end of the crescent, which is here made by the
river ; the third man was to take his position in the
centre.

The half circle thus covered with three rifles would
be in length perhaps five hundred yards, and no one of
the party would be in danger of the bullets from either
of his fellows by reason of the conformation of the
ground. We did not make a fire by which to prepare
supper, as the smoke would be scented far and near by
our expected and much-hoped-for prey.

A cold lunch was hastily eaten, and each man went
to his appointed post. W. E., on account of his cold,
was stationed near the cabin at the head of the cres-
cent. Kibbee selected a stump in the middle of the
river at the foot of the crescent, and the writer was
posted in the middle of the half circle, where he could
" catch them coming or going." To do this he should
have been equipped, like Janus, with an eye in the
back of his head as well as one in front.

222 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

We were to sit the night out and not to stir until
the morning sun had dispelled the mists and clouds
that hung around the tops of the snow-clad mountains.

According to the plan, the writer reached his watch-
tower at 4 : 10 P. M., and the situation was something
like this : The stream above could be covered with
the eyes for one hundred yards ; below, for not more
than forty yards. On the other side of the river was a
sandy beach, with a background of willow brush.

The place selected as offering the best chance for a
shot was on top of the bank, which here was twenty
feet high. The bear, if he came, would have to come in
sight from the front, which was the upper end of the
curve ; or from the left, through the screen of willows
across the river; or from the right, which, of course,
was the mainland.

In the river below, the salmon were thrashing the
water as violently as ever, and this interminable fight
was kept up all night long, making it extremely diffi-
cult to hear any other sounds but those made by them.
None of us had any blankets with him, or overcoats.
We had been sweating freely from the difficulties of
the eight-mile flounderings, and we hardly realized what
a change in the temperature the night would produce.

The writer put on a woolen bathing suit and a
sweater- vest. He also had a piece of sail-cloth to use
as a cover, if perchance it should rain.

Kibbee mounted his resting place on the stump with-

WATCHING FOR BRUIN 223

out any extra clothing whatever, and suffered very
much in consequence.

About five o'clock in the evening several strong
currents of hot air passed down the valley of the river,
but they were followed by currents of very cold air
from the snow-capped mountains.

At six o'clock a slight rain-storm varied the monotony
of the vigil. A fish-hawk alighted upon a tree to cur
right, and his shrill cries kept up until darkness en-
shrouded us all. A bald eagle slowly flew from a tall
dead fir across the river, and alighted on the top of a
big spruce, where he must have passed the night, as
we saw him fly from the same tree the next morning.

The night was cloudy, and at times completely shut
out all of the stars which up here are most wonderfully
bright and appear much larger than in the East.
Venus gave out very nearly as much light as the
moon, which, when she finally made her appearance
through the fleeting shadowy clouds, was but at half
her full size.

Before entering the brush at the side of our tryst,
the guide had pointed out to us marks upon a tree
made by a monster grizzly, who, standing upon his
hind feet, had with his claws scratched his sign manual
on the bark. The marks were so high above our heads
that they gave us a better idea of the stature to which
these big brutes attain than anything else could have
done.

224 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

The winged insect pests were something terrible.
Never — no, never had we been so persecuted by insects
as we were upon this night. We all had knowledge of
what the mosquito, the midget and the black fly can
do, when they are at their best; but W. E. Hughes
and the writer, here for the first time, met the " bull-
dog " fly of the northwest, and our word for it, he's
most rightly named.

He makes no fuss, gives no warning like the
mosquito kindly gives you as she buzzes around you
in the quiet stillness of the night, nor does he come
with a rush like the bluebottle fly, which on this night
made a noise like a babel of voices ; but stealthily he
alights on the back of your neck, or the upper part of
your wrist, or in your beard, and you feel him not on
his landing. He waits quietly until he gets his famous
" underhold," and then — then — you feel him, and try
to " shoo " him away, but like his namesake of the dog
tribe, he won't be shooed. So you slap him or brush
him away, but he gives up his very life with his bite,
for he will not, and does not, let go until he's killed.

He is something akin to the plant, which for the
first time we saw here, that goes by the charming
name of the " devil's club." It grows to the height of
a man's head, is rounded off like a palm leaf at the top,
sways to the passing wind, and loves the society of its
fellows, for there's always many of them growing
together.

WATCHING FOR BRUIN 225

They seem to delight in dark, dense woods where
the ground is covered with deep moss and the side hills
littered with rotting and storm-struck timber. As you
brush the " devil's club " aside you realize that he is
" armed to the teeth " with thorns upon thorns. You
may have your eye scratched out, your ear torn or
your nose lacerated. If you are a church-member in
good standing, you certainly will not swear aloud,
but you will breathe and think " cuss " words with
every step you make among them.

The persecution of the insects became so unbearable
at last that at ten o'clock we pulled the friendly piece
of sail-cloth over our head. As it was not large
enough to cover head, shoulders and body, together
with the hands, one of which must surely rest upon the
trusty rifle, we fought the pests from our hands and
wrists by fanning the air at all times. And this, per-
haps, may account for the only incident that happened
during the night to relieve the long-continued strain of
watching and of listening.

At half-past ten we heard a couple of branches
break directly upon our right in the woods, where the
big fellow had stood up, and, brave fellow as he was,
had made his mark away up on that old spruce tree.

What could have made the branches break so
stealthily, so silently, with no other following sounds
to give us a chance to interpret the cause thereof?
Naturally, this made us sit up and think. And our

226 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

conclusions were that there could be no other cause
than the silent coming of a bear. Therefore we
listened more intently than ever before in our " most
eventful history," because, if it were an " ursus
horribilus " on one side, here was the swift-running
river on the other, and what might not happen if his
ik horribleness " only gently pushed us over the bank
into the cauldron of fighting salmon below ?

The minutes sped on and nothing happened until,
say, eleven o'clock had arrived, and then came five
ponderous blows on the ground, struck by some
animal of enormous strength, apparently directly in
the spot where the branches had been broken a half
hour before. Now if ever a rifle was grasped quickly
and a piece of sail-cloth thrown off rudely, both of
these feats were performed by us in a jiffy.

With hammer pulled back ready for business, and
with bated breath, we waited for a solution of the
mysterious knocks. However, the waiting was in
vain, for none came.

In the following long hours before daylight, we had
ample tune to ponder over them, and we, of course,
imagined many "vain things"; among others was
this : If his majesty — because none other than he could
have given such an exhibition of power and strength —
had forgotten his usual caution and had made an attack
from the rear, how could the rifle have been aimed
with any certainty in the dim and fitful light of the

WATCHING FOR BRUIN 227

half moon, which at least once in every five minutes
was obscured by passing clouds? At best it would
have been sort of a gamble, with perhaps a fatal shot,
and perhaps only a broken leg, as at such close quarters
he must surely have received one or more bullets into
him before the fight was over one way or the other.

The longest night will surely pass if we but wait
long enough, and our night was slowly passing.

After midnight the weather turned very cold indeed,
and the discarded sail-cloth was again put in requisi-
tion. When the first faint glow appeared in the east-
ern sky, a tiny, piping note came from a little water
ousel in the willow brush across the river.

The fish-hawk and the bald eagle both were early
risers, and away they started in search of their break-
fasts. Some crows, who had roosted in a bunch of
Douglas firs, flew slowly down from their wooded
heights to the banks of the river to feed on the car-
casses of the dead salmon, which lined both banks of
the running stream.

Then we heard a bright, cheerful greeting of u good-
morning " from our scientist, who had shown the best
judgment of the three, because he had hunted out the
warm shelter of the cabin at 9 : 30 the night before
and had slept the sleep of the just until five o'clock in
the morning. He was accordingly rested and happy.
Kibbee was heard from a short time afterward, and his
story was soon told.

228 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

He had sat on the stump in the middle of the river
until nearly midnight, until the cold drove him from
his perch into the willow brush, and the penalty he
paid for not being more warmly clad was a bad cold,
which afflicted him for many a day afterward.

He had seen nothing, heard nothing and smelled
nothing but the decaying bodies of the dead salmon.
He soon gave me a solution of the mysterious sounds I
had heard. The noise of the breaking branches was
indeed made by the grizzly. He had then got our scent
and perhaps more than once had raised himself to his
hind feet and had looked us over and over again, and
then to satisfy his curiosity he had struck the blows
with one of his powerful feet to attract our attention
and to see if there was life in the object that he had
scented and stalked to his cover.

As the blows had had the desired effect of stirring
the — to him — strange and dreaded animal which we
call man into life and action, he had seen enough, and
as silently as he came he loped away to his lair to laugh
in his own clumsy fashion at how he had outwitted one
of the tribe of his most dreaded foes.

CHAPTER XXI
THE LONE BULL OF SANDY LAKE

IT'S a remarkable cluster of lakes that encircles a
group of mountains in the region of the Bear River-
most of them snow-clad — with short stretches of run-
ning water pouring down between the rugged eleva-
tions, and thus connecting the lakes in a formation re*
sembling the shape of an egg.

Bear Lake forms the small end, while Isaac's Lake,
forty miles long, bounds the territory on the north, with
Swan Lake, Little Lake, Three-Mile Lake, Spectacle
Lake, Sandy Lake and Long Lake and one or two more
completing the semicircle. The distance from Bear
Lake to the outlet of Indian Point Lake, into the lower
Bear River, is, roughly speaking, one hundred and fifty
miles.

Our guide, Kibbee, controls the trapping rights, by
purchase mostly, of this big patch of mountains, lake
waters and running streams, with the exception of
Isaac's Lake, where an old Scotchman by the name of
Kenneth McCloud claims possession. McCloud is now
eighty-four years old, and is the only human being on
Isaac's Lake.

He has become feeble and does not bring out the

230 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

amount of fur that he formerly did. He does not seem
to relish company very much, unless the visitor brings
him a " bottle " ; and in that case, he's given a hearty
reception. He has not been seen by any one since last
June, when he visited Barkerville.

Kibbee built a cabin on the upper end of Isaac's Lake
some years since, and also a boat. The next time he
visited the lake the canny Scot called at the cabin to
tell him that his boat had been smashed by a big storm
during his absence ; but Kibbee found more signs of
destruction by human hands than those made by a
storm. The incident was a forcible suggestion that in-
truders were not wanted on that particular sheet of
water.

It is just possible that on some future visit to the lake
the old Scotchman's bones may be found whitening in
his cabin. He has been living the life of a recluse up
there for forty-three years, coming to the outskirts of
civilization once, and sometimes twice, in a year to dis-
pose of his furs and get his " bottle " and supplies, and
then to return to his wilderness home.

We had planned to make a portage of four miles from
a small lake, called McCleary's Lake, over to Isaac's
Lake, striking the latter lake fifteen miles from its head.
We would then build a raft, and, after visiting Mc-
Cloud, paddle and pole to the end of Isaac's Lake,
where we would take a trail of sixteen miles for Indian
Point Lake, and this would bring us within seven miles

THE LONE BULL OF SANDY LAKE 231

of Bear Lake, at our main camp, but a rain that seemed
never ending, and which lasted for over three weeks,
upset all of our plans, and we had to give up the
project.

The next plan was a trip to a spot called " The Iron
Slough," pronounced " slew," where caribou and moose
were said to be very plentiful. Up to this time it had
been found impracticable to hunt bear from the fact
that the brush which everywhere lines the river had
not been thinned out by frost. This formed an impen-
etrable screen, behind which the bears could come and
go at will, so that the human eye could not obtain a
glimpse of them.

The only possible chance was to come upon one una-
wares, while he might be crossing the river, or walking
along the edge of some sandy beach, at a sharp turn of
the stream. We were out at daylight and stayed until
dark, day after day, and five times we stayed out all
night, but not a solitary bear had we seen, although
tracks were provokingly plentiful wherever a sandy
point appeared.

So now the caribou was to be our quarry. We,
therefore, left Bear River and paddled over to Swan
Lake, where we spent the afternoon and night. Dr.
W. E. Hughes and the writer made a circuit of the lake
and saw many mallard ducks and some wild geese. We
heard coyotes yelping in the woods, and afterward saw
two of them awav off on the shore. One stood watch-

232 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

ing us intently, and when I stooped to pick up my rifle
it was off to the woods like a flash.

On the following morning we crossed Swan Lake
against a strong head wind, and then we came to Spec-
tacle Lake, so called because there are two oval sheets
of water joined by a jutting piece of land, which looks
like the bridge of a pair of spectacles. Here we fought
the head wind until we could go no further, as we were
in danger of swamping. We pulled for the shore, built
a fire, cooked a bit of moose steak, and this, with some
boiled rice, made for us a sufficient lunch.

The wind subsided somewhat, and for a while we had
easier going, but on nearing the end of the lake it blew
up fresh again, and the boat made but little headway
in spite of our earnest work with the paddles.

So it was a dubious problem whether we could get
across or not, when we saw a boat coming toward us
with one man paddling. He turned in behind a point
of land, and in a few minutes came out again.

As this action looked somewhat strange, we won-
dered what it meant, and as the canoe came nearer to
us we saw that a white cloth or sheet covered some-
thing in the centre of the boat. Kibbee, when he saw
this, gave out one of his rough and ready ejaculations :

" My God," he said, " it's ' Al,' and he's bringing out
a gutshot man." Then we thought of our fellow
hunters who were occupying the cabin at the far end
of the lake, and imagined many things that might have

THE LONE BULL OF SANDY LAKE 233

happened. When the canoes met, the problem was
easily solved, as the sheet was a piece of sail-cloth which
covered some fresh moose meat that " Al " was bring-
ing out to us.

Here "Al" took Dr. Hughes into his canoe and
turned back with us. Our boat, relieved of the weight
of the scientist, enabled us finally to make the shore.
We found that Dr. W. K. Eoe had actually seen a bear,
and the bear had really seen him, and, to be absolutely
sure about the matter, he — the bear — had risen on his
hind legs and looked at the doctor out of the corner
of his eye, then he — the bear — dropped to all fours and
loped away. Dr. Koe didn't shoot for two reasons-
first, because he thought the bear would come nearer,
which he didn't, and, next, because he thought he was
too far away to make an effective shot.

The two doctors had been interested with the com-
pany of a mining prospector who had a claim on a creek
six miles away, which he was trying to develop into a
full-fledged gold mine. As this man, some years back,
had discovered one of the best-paying mines in the
Barkerville territory, his experience and knowledge
were entitled to much respect.

The following morning we left the other half of the
party to wrestle with the problem of getting a shot at
that most particular bear. We crossed Little Lake, about
one-half of which is taken up by a great beaver meadow,
and through this meadow a channel not over eight feet

234 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

wide twists and turns until the opposite shore is
reached. Then follows a portage of one hundred and
twenty-five yards, and when we had carried over this
distance and dragged the boat over the skids, we en-
tered Three-Mile Lake, which was crossed against an-
other hard head wind.

At the end of this lake was a portage of thirty feet,
which brought us to a winding brook. Launched on
this stream, we speedily found that it was the home of
many beavers. These industrious animals had no fewer
than five new dams across the stream in the length of
a mile, and there were, in addition, several old and
abandoned dams into the bargain.

In going over these dams it was necessary to tear
their tops off before we could get the boat through.
While this was tedious work, yet it was nothing to
what we had to do on our return to surmount these
selfsame dams, which in the meantime the beavers had
repaired, because then it was all up-hill.

From this beaver brook we ran into Swamp Eiver,
and here, for the first time on this trip, we came in
touch with a glacial river, for the water is of a grayish,
clay-like color and is really the drainage from ice-
capped mountains.

Two miles below, the river falls over a cataract sixty
feet high and we could hear its roaring distinctly, but
we hadn't the time to spare to paddle down to see u
and then force our way back again against the swift

THE LONE BULL OF SANDY LAKE 235

current, so we went ashore and cooked and ate lunch.
Is1 ear where we sat Kibbee pointed out a standing tree
that was chopped off at the top, and his explanation of
this unusual feature was like this :

" You see, me and the woman was a-comin1 down
from Sandy Lake cabin with a load of fur, when we
seed a lynx up in the top of that thar tree; we
couldn't make it out what he was a-doin' up there, and
he looked so still-like to me that I didn't shoot at him.
So I goes over to the tree, and, sure as guns, he was up
thar dead ; he had got caught in one of my traps and
had drug the trap up the tree, and got so tangled up
with the chain that he died and was left hanging thar.
So I climbs the tree, cuts off the top and down he
comes, and his hide fetched me $22, because lynx fur
is high now on account of them autemobil fellows who
need so much fur."

A four-mile paddle up-stream brought us to Sandy
Lake. On the right-hand side as we passed in we made
out a small moose, apparently a yearling, walking on the
beach, but we wanted nothing to do with him, he was
too little. Four and a half miles more and we came to
where the Swamp Kiver flows into Sandy Lake from
Long Lake. It was now getting dark, as the sun al-
ready had sunk behind a big mountain, the topmost
snow-clad peak of which towered some thousands of
feet above the timber line.

Kibbee, with his sharp eyes, discerned an object up

236 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

the cove toward Long Lake that looked like a big bull
moose. Our scientist focused his field-glasses upon it,
but on account of the oscillation of the boat, which pre-
vented him from seeing plainly, he pronounced it a log.

It appeared to me to be a bull caribou, and at last,
when it moved, we all came to the same conclusion —
that it was indeed a caribou bull. But what a big fel-
low he was ! None of us had before seen anything
alive like him in size.

He was close to a mile from us, standing on the shore
of a cove, feeding at a " lick " that served to whet the
appetite at times of both moose and caribou.

The shape of the letter " V " will give an idea of our
position. The bull was at the left point of the " V,"
and we were at the base of it. A bit of jutting land
ahead of us was the right point.

We paddled as fast as we could to the point of land
in front of us, which shut us out entirely from the view
of our quarry. Here I asked Dr. Hughes to take his
rifle, and make a " try " for him, but he insisted that
the honor of stalking and perhaps shooting the first big
game should belong to the writer.

As no time could be wasted in argument, Kibbee and
I started off as fast as our legs could carry us, right up
the side of a hill clothed with deep, soft moss and en-
cumbered by a great deal of fallen timber.

The light was fading, and our footing was anything
but sure, as we plunged over logs and dodged under

THE LONE BULL OF SANDY LAKE 237

dead branches. We both had " bellows to mend " be-
fore the journey was half over. Three times we left
the ridge, and went down near to the water.

The first view we had of the bull through the trees
showed us that he was even a larger, finer specimen
than we had realized when seen from the boat. The
second time we neared the water's edge, he was just
entering the dense woods, and only his rump was vis-
ible. The third time he was out of sight altogether.

We still "plugged" on, panting and blowing like
horses pulling a heavy load up-hill. Soon we came in
sight of a little cove with a large log lying at the back
of it, and this seemed a good cover behind which to
hide.

When we got to the log our feelings may be im-
agined upon seeing that the bull had again come out of
the woods, and was placidly looking in our direction.
1 waited just a minute or two to get quieted down, as
my heart was pumping like a trip-hammer. Kibbee
said the distance was two hundred yards, although an
examination next day showed it to be over three hun-
dred, but the fading light was so deceptive that I
thought I had better shoot for the top of his back.

Taking as steady aim as I could for the upper part
of the shoulder, the bullet sped on its way. But it was
a clean miss. As it did not strike the water, I thought
perhaps it had gone under him, so I elevated a little
more and fired ; but still no hit.

238 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

The bull could not make out where the sound came
from, and turned completely around and walked back
into the entrance of his trail, leaving only his hips ex-
posed. Kibbee whispered, "Wait; he'll come out
again." And that he did very soon.

He now stepped rather confidently along for a few
yards ; then stopped to listen. I fired in rapid succes-
sion four more shots without a hit, the bull turning
twice while this wild tiring was going on.

I started shooting with four cartridges in the maga-
zine of the rifle and one in the chamber ; and these
having been expended, 1 took one out of my vest
pocket.

When this was fired I was horrified to find that my
cartridges were apparently all gone, and yet the big-
fellow was still standing there, wondering, no doubt,
where all the thunder and lightning were coming from.
By now it was dusk. A hurried search in the hip
pocket of my trousers brought forth the seventh and
last cartridge ; and once more taking aim in the gath-
ering darkness, the bullet hit him fairly and squarely,
and down and over he rolled.

Then we heard a shout of exultation from Dr.
Hughes, who had crept up by way of the shore and
was now close behind us. He had seen every shot as
it was fired and it was his judgment that I had been
firing too high altogether, and that the shooting made
him think of the battle of San Juan.

THE LONE BULL OF SANDY LAKE 239

When we gathered around the fallen prize each of
us said he would likely never again see his equal in
size, shape and bulk. We opened and dressed him as
quickly as possible ; and following the shore back to
the boat again, we reached the Sandy Lake cabin at a
quarter past eight. Fire was made without delay, a
pot of soup boiled and eaten, and with much talk over
the recent excitement we lay down to rest.

I say to rest — for my mind was so full, with its re-
hearsal of the run up the ridge and through the woods ;
of the fall head over heels from a log down an incline
and into some brush at the bottom of a deep depres-
sion; of a stumble from striking a root with the
right foot and going face and head into the spongy
mass ; of the rapid shooting and of the search for the
very last cartridge, and, finally, of the result of the
successful shot, that " sleep, blessed sleep " was not for
me until the early morning hours had long been passed.

The following morning we went over and skinned
the bull and took some measurements. His antlers
had a spread of thirty-eight inches ; the longest prong
measured forty inches from tip to head, inside measure-
ment, and forty-two inches outside.

After the hide was removed his bare neck measured
forty-six inches ; and some idea may be obtained of his
bulk when it is known that the fat which lay upon his
back and sides measured by the tape line two and a half
inches in thickness.

24o WITH GUN AND GUIDE

We saved some of the meat and all of the fat to
take with us on our journey to the Iron Slough. We
buried the feet and more of the meat in the cold glacial
water, placing some stones over them to keep them
from the coyotes during our absence.

We hung the hide over a willow bush to dry,
skinned the head and took it out into the water and
fastened it to a log, so that the porcupines could not
touch it, while the balance of the carcass we left,
together with some of the meat, for the other half of
the party, who were to follow within a day or two.

Thus was the old adage that " the unexpected
always happens " once more exemplified.

For eleven days we had been looking in all the
likely places to find big game. We had been up and
out at likely hours in the morning and at likely hours
at night. We had covered in this period of time over
sixty-eight miles of boating and had seen not a single
living head of game of any kind, excepting a small
deer which we shot, and that was unexpectedly seen
at the base of a mountain, where one would least look
for it, and yet here, away from his tribe and kindred
— all alone — this big lone bull of Sandy Lake was
discovered within a very few minutes of dusk, stalked
and killed. No wonder we were exultant and excited
beyond measure at the final unlooked-for result.

CHAPTER XXII
THE "SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA"

ON the morning succeeding the killing of the lone
bull of Sandy Lake, we left for the Iron Slough.
Our route led up Swamp River to the mouth of Long
Lake and up that notable sheet of water until we
emerged once more into Swamp River, twelve miles
above. It seemed that we were destined to have
nothing but head winds, as when we entered Long
Lake it was blowing directly in our teeth.

This lake is nothing more than a widening and
deepening of Swamp River, flanked on both sides by
mountains of the first magnitude — not one, or two, or
three, but crowded in as thick and as close as the
twelve miles will permit. They seem to be of every
form, all of them covered with snow at the peaks and
at least three, perhaps four, carrying the weight of
great glaciers.

We camped opposite one which was the exact
prototype in shape of Cheops, the famous pyramid in
Egypt. The sides and faces of each and every one
were scarred and seamed with the traces of snow
avalanches, which had cleared the ground in their
paths of rocks and trees as clean as if swept with a
giant steel broom.

242 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

The following season after the avalanche had fallen,
fresh vegetation would spring up, making a green streak
of growing brush, trees and herbage, all very pleasing to
the eye. These streaks reached from the base of the
mountains to the top of the timber line. Fire has
ravaged most of these grand sentinels of northern
British Columbia of their thick growth of trees, but this
brings its own reward, for nature with her lavish
generosity soon clothes the burnt-over ground with a
lusty growth of green herbage which gives rich suste-
nance to mountain goats, caribou, moose and deer and to
such smaller animals as the whistling marmot and the
rabbit ; and among the birds, the ptarmigan, the blue
grouse, the " fool " hen and the willow grouse.

Where such game abounds, there, of course, will lurk
the fierce animals that prey upon it. Up near the
timber line the grizzly and black bears find food suit-
able for their wants. The fur-bearing marten finds in
the many squirrels plenty of food for his appetite.
The lynx likes the taste of the rabbit, as does the eagle,
the owl, the wolverine, the coyote, the weasel and the
timber wolf.

Poor bunny has a hard road cut out for him. He
has more blood-thirsty enemies than any other animal
under the blue canopy of the skies. It may be that he
was originally designed to furnish food for so many
different species, and for this reason he was made the
most fecund of all animals, the female giving birth to

" SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA " 243

five litters of four young rabbits each during the five
spring and summer months, and, if they were left alone,
as they were once in Australia for four years, they
would become an unmitigated nuisance.

In this far northern part of the world, nature in her
wisdom has provided an additional safeguard by mak-
ing the rabbits susceptible to some contagious disease
that carries them off every four years, and this year is
the fatal year for them, and hence there are no rabbits
to be seen anywhere. For this reason the lynx has
hunted pastures new, for without the rabbit he has
such hard picking that he needs must emigrate.

I have read much of the glories of Switzerland, of its
mountains and its valleys, and have seen many pictures
of the same, but I cannot believe that they surpass or
even equal the grandeur and beauty of the mountains
and valleys of this comparatively unknown country.
There have been undoubtedly many timber speculators
there looking the timber over, but the first stick of
wood has yet to be cut by a lumberman to be shipped to
the outer world. Whatever timber has been cut there
would not amount to more than 10,000 feet in a year,
and that would be for Kibbee's or McCloud's use as fire-
wood, or for the making of one or two boats.

Gold prospectors, too, have been there, and yet not
one dollar's worth of gold has seen the outer world. It
is really virgin soil, clothed with virgin timber and,
leaving out a half acre patch of tilled ground beside

244 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Kibbee's Bear Lake camp, it is a virgin agricultural
land. So to all intents and purposes, this region is un-
known even to the people of British Columbia them-
selves.

In fighting our way up Long Lake against the head
wind, some curious vagaries of wind, rain, hail, thunder
and lightning made the passage not only startling, but
for a time positively dangerous. Once a strong warm
current of air struck us on the left side of the face, fol-
lowed within a minute by a blast of cold air on the op
posite side. This condition continued for a half hour
while the various forces were assembling for a final
contest as to which should win.

Then a flash of lightning and a loud clap of thunder
aroused us to the fact that the titanic battle was on and
to some apprehension as to the safety of our heavily-
laden boat. Following the electric exhibition came
three distinct whirlwinds.

The first struck us from the left, and, despite our
paddles, it swept us nearly across to the right-hand side
of the lake, and we were in the middle of the lake
when it commenced. The second brought us directly
back again even more suddenly than we had crossed at
first, and this time we came dangerously near capsizing.

The third whirlwind caught us astern and carried us
up the lake whether we liked it or not. The waves
came in long spasmodic rollers crested with foam, but
as long as we shipped no water we were content. This

"SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA" 245

continued until nine of the twelve miles had been
covered, and then came the rain in a deluge.

Our guide had no camp, but he had long ago found a
spruce tree which was set at such an angle that we would
be perfectly dry under its sheltering branches. With
some little difficulty we made a safe landing, carried
our dunnage and supplies to the lucky spot, pulled the
boat up on the rocks out of danger of wind and water,
and then gave hearty mental thanks for our safety.
The storm varied in intensity through the night, but
quieted down enough by morning to permit us to pass
onward to our destination.

When we pushed off from the sheltering arm of the
spruce boughs, we saw ahead of us what appeared to be
a gap only the width of a creek where the feet of two
mountains came down from opposite sides and almost
closed the channel ; but when the boat entered the pass
it was found to be nearly a mile wide. The height of
the mountains on each side had played with our sense
of distance.

Once more the Swamp Eiver was entered. There
were two channels, and the water in both looked
fiercely swift ; the left channel was chosen. It was
filled with sand-bars and had a few deep pools and
some rather bad rapids. These were passed by one man
walking on the bank pulling with the rope, another
holding the boat out with the canoe pole, and the
writer using the stern paddle.

246 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

We then came back into the main stream, and soon
it was bull strength with paddle and pole for a mile
and a half. Then we beheld the entrance to the much-
talked-of Iron Slough. This stream, if such it can be
called, enters the river on the right, as you go up, and
passes through a great stretch of rnarsh-land, turning
and twisting its way through the ever-present alders
and willows for a distance of seven miles, and all of
this way running parallel to the Swamp River, which
flows to the left.

At the head of this slough, or stream, as I prefer to
call it, nestles a tiny lake — right against the breast of
a mountain, down whose sides flow two icy creeks
which feed it, and in turn this lake feeds the stream.

At places on the way up, Kibbee went on to the
wide-stretching marsh, and climbed some high tree
from whose branches he could scan the sea of waving
swale grass, hazel bushes, high-bush cranberries, stunted
spruce trees, blueberry bushes, mossy bog-land and
hummocks, treacherous underfoot and hard to balance
one's self upon. As a fitting border to the picture, we
could see the Swamp Biver in the distance, with a
rampart of towering mountains guarding it.

Trails of caribou and moose we all could see, and
fresh tracks of both animals, too ; but not a single
piece of game could the guide or we detect. We took
a frugal lunch at the head of the stream where it could
be stepped over, and then went to the lake.

"SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA" 247

Here the writer climbed up the side of a mountain
for a hundred feet, while the guide from the same
elevation climbed an old hemlock tree. He sat up
there, and 1 stood on a rock, gazing out upon that vast
marsh, expecting certainly to see at least a band of
caribou or a pair of moose, but not a single mammal
enlivened the scene.

Of bird life, we noted a marsh hawk and a sparrow
hawk searching for their evening meal, and a pair of
kingfishers circling overhead; but this was all. Our
expected game were undoubtedly up the sides of the
mountains, but the brush — the everlasting brush — kept
us from getting near them.

There are certain rules of ethics carefully observed
among trappers and others up here. When Kibbee
first put in an appearance with his traps on this
favored ground, a man by the name of Moxey claimed
possession, and it was buy out or " git out." Kibbee
bought out, getting, in addition to the right, all of
Moxey's stock of traps.

Then another man appeared who knew not the land,
but who claimed rights upon it. He built a cabin, but
before it was finished Kibbee " went to see " him.
There were but few words spoken between them; the
man sold out and left. Now none is there to dispute
Kibbee's title to the trapping lines.

This great marsh is the natural home of the beaver.
We went over no fewer than nineteen of their dams,

248 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

which were in fair condition, besides a hundred or
more that years ago were abandoned and allowed to
go to ruin. These animals have tunneled the ground,
built houses, dammed streams, and changed water-
courses wherever and whenever their fancy pleased.
They here have an abundance of food of just the kind
they most love, and now, as there is a close time upon
them and no one is permitted to trap them, they are
increasing in number very fast.

The marsh also makes a splendid feeding ground for
the caribou, and their tracks are seen everywhere. We
were told that the wolverine is the caribou's deadly
enemy, and Kibbee has never yet trapped one without
finding caribou hair in its stomach.

It takes two wolverines to bring one of the big
animals down ; — one worries him in front and the
other in his rear. They keep at him until he loses his
head, and runs about in a circle across which the
gluttonous wolverines will cut short corners and nab
him behind, finally hamstringing him, and thus bringing
him to the ground. Then his finish is speedy and sure.

The deer up here have a hard time of it with the
coyotes. In the spring time, when the deer are feeble
and lean, and the winter's crust of snow becomes
weakened by the presaging spring weather, the coyote
will startle them into making a few running jumps.
The crust gives way, the deer are stalled, and the
coyote gets his belly full of meat.

"SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA" 249

We stayed at the head waters of the stream until
the afternoon and, as rain was again threatening, we
took our departure for the same nesting place which
we had used the night before. Our hunt for moose
and caribou came to nothing.

However, we did not regret the lost time or the
labor expended in reaching this remarkable piece of
territory. The lure of the big game had taken us to a
wonderfully grand section of country, which was
totally new. Sooner or later it will attract tourists
from near and far by its beauty and rugged grandeur.

We have seen mountains that as yet have never been
limned by the artist's brush or portrayed through the
medium of the stereoptic camera. In fact, I question
much whether the territory has ever before been written
about.

Several men in Barkerville asked if we intended
writing about the country and if we expected to print
what was written. We said we surely would if the
sights we saw warranted it. So this is possibly the
first screed that has been written upon this vast sweep
of country, hemmed in by mountains that are not yet
even named, watered by streams along the shores of
which even a prospector has not yet trod.

One man we know has climbed to the top of three
mountains, but where are the men who have scaled the
others ? The probability is that their tops have never
yet been trod by the foot of man.

250

WITH GUN AND GUIDE

When the new railroad is finished a journey of thirty
miles therefrom will bring the pioneers and venturesome
ones right into the heart of this region, where now a
distance of about three hundred and forty miles must
be covered by stage, packhorse, and canoe before the
incomer will be able to sit where this chapter was
penned.

CHAPTEE XXm
ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY

DR. W. E. HUGHES, our scientist, had his heart set
upon climbing one of the big mountains that over-
looked our camp. First, his ambition was to get within
rifle shot of the nimble mountain goat ; next, to try his
luck with the Avhistling marmot, or mountain ground-
hog, of the Selkirk and other western ranges; and,
lastly, to study the flora and fauna of these craggy

Having no such high desire, the writer was assigned
to the care of a young man born of Scottish parents in
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Neil was his given name.
He was industrious ; a fairly good cook, a good axe-
man, and a good boatman. He was not a hunter, nor
did he pretend to be one.

His life so far had consisted in working very hard for
his daily pay ; first at wood-cutting in Maine, then in
digging and picking potatoes in Aroostook County, that
state, where he was expected to fill one hundred barrels
per day ; next he was a section hand on a small railroad
in the Pine Tree State.

Then, seven years ago, the Canadian Pacific Railroad
having advertised the low rate of twenty-five dollars
from Portland, Me., to Vancouver, B. C., he and a fel-

252 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

low workman took the trip. Landing at Ashcrof t, they
have labored in this province ever since.

There was a gold-mining operation away up in the
north, the road to it being over a trail four hundred
miles north of Quesnelle on the Frazer River. Some
parts of machinery were needed to equip a sawmill, so
as to commence sawing wood in the early spring, and
this lad, with six others, was hired to haul the much-
wanted machinery upon hand sleds.

Each man had to pull a load of 150 pounds outside of
his own kit and provisions— the total load being close
to 200 pounds each. The freight weighed a total of
1,050 pounds. It was found best to start each day's
work at two o'clock in the morning, for then the crust
on the snow was hard and glistening, but by that
same hour in the afternoon the snow was so soft
as to make it impracticable to travel over it. They, of
course, traveled on snow-shoes and, as seventeen men
were on the trail ahead of them bound for the same
mine, their path was well marked and easily kept. The
man who contracted to deliver the freight was paid
$1.60 per pound, or a total of $1,680, and he made some
good money upon the contract.

The start Avas made on the morning of March 13th
and the trip ended on the same day in the month of
April. Thirty-one days of walking and dragging a sled
heavily weighted for four hundred miles was no mean
achievement in that space of time.

ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY 253

Neil and his fellow workers on the hand sleds ob-
tained work on another mining operation at that place,
working there all summer, and then receiving but $50
each ; the manager having slipped off to Vancouver and
left them to mourn the loss of their summer's wages,
which he still owes to them.

The prices for commodities in the settlement that
summer were, roughly speaking, three pounds for one
dollar. Three pounds of flour, of sugar, of rice, of
corn-meal, of beans, or of oatmeal for one dollar, and
bacon, butter, tea and coffee one dollar per pound.
This will give a pretty good idea of what it means to
live up in this far-off country where strength and brawn
are what count for success.

Now this rough-and-ready, willing and able worker
was to be my sole companion for a week. We left
Bear Lake camp at eight o'clock of a Monday morning,
with a hard head wind facing us. It is seven miles
across the lake, and the wind and the waves were too
much for us at one point, and we went ashore close to
the side of a high rugged mountain.

" While we are waiting for the wind to go down,
suppose we climb up to the bear trail that winds around
the mountain," Neil said. " You can walk along that
for a mile or so, and when you want me, I will be fol-
lowing close inshore with the boat, and you can easily
reach me by blowing your whistle."

I did so, and found the trail without any trouble, but

254 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

it was a different thing to keep it. Bruin seems to pay
but little attention to obstacles ; where he can go under
a dead fall, or over one, there the trail runs. If
not, it may start right up the mountain, or down to the
water's edge. For the writer, going under the dead
tails meant to crawl on hands and knees ; to go over
them was to climb through a frieze of dead and broken
branches, as well as over the prostrate trees, and numer-
ous falls soon admonished me that paddling at the bow
of the boat was an easier place than following that sort
of trail.

A few blasts of the whistle brought the faithful Neil
to the shore with the boat. If paddling across Bear
Lake was hard work, it was nothing to the work we
had in poling up the river, for it was in flood, and with
the wind behind it, the best that could be done was to
dodge into the eddies first on one side, and then on the
other, so that when Swan Lake camp was reached we
found we had used up six hours in going nine miles.

After lunch there we were off again for another tug
against wind and current in poling still further up the
river. We had gone a couple of miles, when the mouth
of a slough loading to a widely extended marsh was
reached and, to give us a breathing spell and to see if
there was any game in sight on the marsh, I directed
Neil to shove into it. The mouth of the slough was
somewhat choked up with willow brush and, as the boat
made an awkward swing into the brush at one side,

ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY 255

Neil grabbed one of the treacherous branches to pull
the boat in by, but instead of pulling us m, the rude
branch pulled him out head over heels into the icy
glacial water. He climbed into the stern of the boat
and shook himself like a dog, and asked what should be
done now. I said, u We'll get right back again into the
stream and pull for all we're worth, so as to keep you
from getting chilled through."

On passing up we came to two sandy beaches, one on
each side of the river, and on both sides there were
fresh tracks of a grizzly bear made but a few hours
before. We poled up to the next beach above, and
there we landed. Neil undressed, and with the loan of
a jumper and a pair of overalls, a shirt and undershirt
and a pair of trousers from my kit, he succeeded in get-
ting a complete suit of dry clothes.

It was now getting dark, and it seemed to me a good
idea to run down again to the place where the fresh
bear tracks were. As there was a little cove at the
upper end of one of the sandy beaches and the wind at
that point being in our favor, we could run the boat
into the cove and lie there snug and comfortable for
the night and watch for bruin at the same time.

We, therefore, went down, pushed the boat into the
cove, cut off some willow brush to give us an unob-
scured view of the beaches, pulled the bow hard and
fast upon the sand, ate some cold boiled rice which we
had brought with us in a kettle, and then fixed our-

256 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

selves for the night. I told Neil to go to sleep, and I
would waken him at midnight, and then he should go
on watch. Neil lay down in the stern and cuddled up
as best he could. He was soon snoring and dead to the
world, and while my vigil lasted he could be plainly
heard at times above the noise of the rushing water.
This was something I hadn't counted on and I felt sure
that no bear would come near us while the snoring
lasted. But how to stop it was a problem which could
not be solved during that night at least.

The night passed very slowly, the only sounds heard
being the calls of a pair of moose lovers away off to
the back of us and the splashing of an occasional musk-
rat. I did not waken Neil, but kept watch all of the
night and morning myself, dozing off at times for a few
minutes until the welcome glow of sunrise bade us be
up and doing.

Then I saw an exhibition of patience and endurance
on the part of Neil, which had lasted through the most
of the night, that impressed me more by its silent tes-
timony than a whole chapter of words could have done.
The boat had been leaking, and as he lay upon his left
side and the boat was tilted some degrees, it happened
that where he lay just one-half of his body was in the
water, and therefore was wet, while the upper half
was dry.

His teeth were chattering when I called him. He
simply remarked that his sleep had been fitful and dis-

ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY 257

turbed, at times he slept soundly and then again he
had been kept awake by the slowly accumulating wa-
ter in the boat. Not wanting to make any noise for
fear of possibly alarming a prowling grizzly bear, he
had suffered and endured this condition in silence.
There's grit for you.

When we arrived at our cabin he complained of a
headache and a swelling in his throat, and that night I
induced him to bathe his feet in hot water for twenty
minutes and go to bed without his supper. This evi-
dently was the proper treatment for him, as he was all
right the next morning, but he asked to be excused
from any more lying-out watches at night.

It now commenced to rain, and continued to pour in
a steady shower, such as only this part of British Co-
lumbia and some sections of the tropics can revel in.
There was not the slightest let-up by day or night until
forty-eight hours had passed. You may ask what was
to be done during such a downpour of rain? The
cabin, 12 x 14, was no place to sit in and none to hunt
in. If the fire was burning brightly, you had to go
out-of-doors on account of the heat, and just then it
was very wet out-of-doors.

On the opposite side of the river from the cabin was
a growth of magnificent Douglas firs, perhaps a hun-
dred of them in all. These trees are tall and stately ;
straight as an arrow, and gradually tapering off until
the top of the stem is reached. In a strong wind they

258 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

swayed from side to side, the tops swinging in a half
circle, and if the wind should be strong enough, they
will at times lash and snap like a whip. John Muir,
in UA Wind-storm in the Sierras," describes these
noble trees, one of which he climbed during a great
wind-storm, as follows :

"Though comparatively young, they were about a
hundred feet high, and their lithe, brushy tops were
rocking and swirling in wild ecstasy. Being accus-
tomed to climb trees in making botanical studies, I ex-
perienced no difficulty in reaching the top of this one,
and never before did I enjoy so noble an exhilaration
of motion. The slender tops fairly flapped and swished
in the passionate torrent, bending and swirling back-
ward and forward, round and round, tracing indescrib-
able combinations of vertical and horizontal curves,
while I clung with muscles firmly braced, like a bobo-
link on a reed."

Interspersed with the Douglas firs were some balsam
firs, a few very tall black spruces and some second-
growth pines. In prowling through this growth of tall
timber, on the forenoon of our arrival, when the sun
was shining, and when, for a part of one day at least,
nature was to be seen at her best, I discovered two of
these Douglas firs growing but a foot apart, one of
them measuring twenty-eight inches in diameter and
the other thirty-seven inches, and both of them
over one hundred feet tall. Directly back of this pair

ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY 259

of sylvan monarchs were a balsam fir ^and a spruce.
The branches of the Douglas firs spread out as
they neared the ground, so that they formed a can-
opy, or giant umbrella, with a circumference of thirty
feet.

The tips of the lower branches were incased in swing-
ing trailing moss, which acted like an immense circular
sponge in absorbing and holding the rain as it fell.
All around these trees was an accumulation of spills
and cones, maybe the accretion of a couple of centuries'
growth, and as dry as punk. I dug down into the
rather compact mass with my hands, and low down the
spills had become mostly disintegrated into dust, but
the cones were yet firm for a foot from the surface.
" Here," I said, " is a model shelter from all the rain
and all the storms with which rude winter may ever
afflict the land."

In front of this haven of security ran a little brook
fed with icy water from the great snow-capped moun-
tain opposite. The busy beavers had built a pair of
their ingenious dams on the stream, both of them
below this spot. Some of the sock-eye salmon had
forced their way up over the first dam into the pool
above; six pairs of them being counted at their life-
work of spawning, while nineteen dead salmon showed
that their end had come in carrying out nature's be-
hest. Only one pair had surmounted the second dam,
and this pair gave me an opportunity of studying with

26o WITH GUN AND GUIDE

intense interest their actions during the process of
spawning.

Close to the two Douglas firs a deep well-worn bear
trail led down from the mountainside right to the
edge of this brook, and from the bank at my very feet
a bear had been catching salmon and eating them on the
grass, as the partly eaten salmon heads scattered over
the ground proved beyond a doubt. When the rain
commenced on Tuesday night, we trusted that by the
morning the cloudburst would be over, but the morning
came with the rain just as steady as it had fallen dur-
ing the night.

Then I thought of the Douglas firs — a thirty-foot
umbrella. Neil having a coyote to skin, I had him
paddle me up the little brook to the foot of the first
beaver dam and sent him back to the cabin to finish
his work. In front of the dam hundreds of dead salmon
floated upon the water, or were settled at the bottom,
while fifty or sixty live ones were spawning among the
gravelly stones.

I hoped that by maintaining a day's watch under the
sheltering arms of the pair of firs I might see one or
more bears come down the trail and get a shot at close
range ; so I scooped out a bed among the fir spills and
cones, where I could lie in perfect — in fact luxurious —
comfort for as long as I liked.

With a copy of a monthly magazine a year old to
read, I settled myself for a long watch. From the bed

ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY 261

where I lay the pair of salmon could be seen hour after
hour. The male, in an apparently vigorous condition,
was lying about nine feet lower down in the stream than
the female. There were two white pebbles close to-
gether, and between these the male was located. The
female was in a dilapidated and sorry-looking condi-
tion. Her coat was of a pale red color, while his was
a royal scarlet. Her tail and dorsal fin were nearly
chewed off, and she appeared so weak and emaciated
as to be hardly able to wriggle her tail. Four times
one day and five times the next, while I was watching
them, the male shot up the stream to where she was
laboring and jabbed at her with his jaw and bit her tail
with his sharp teeth.

These attacks, of course, stirred her up to renewed
energy for a few minutes, and he would then drop
down to his old position. The current of the brook
seemed to be unsteady, and many times the male
would shoot out to the right a few feet and then re-
turn. I presume that the current at these times had
carried the eggs out of their general course, and as it
was his mission to fertilize them, he would thus head
them off.

The whole of the first day passed in this manner,
with nothing to divert the attention from watching the
bear trail, excepting these two salmon and a red
squirrel, who spent his time in gathering pine-cones
and carrying them away in his mouth. A tiny bird,

262 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

of the warbler species, and a grayish white moth seemed
to like being under my shelter. These five creatures
were my sole companions for two days — the salmon,
of course, being a never-ending source of interest.

Meanwhile, the rain kept up its steady downpour.
The weather was warm, and I was extremely com-
fortable. If a grizzly bear had come down the trail, I
would have been content, but that one want was not
satisfied, and, therefore, my best-laid plans went all
" aglee." Friday morning the sun at last broke through
the enveloping clouds of mist and rain. "We decided
to pull up stakes and return to Sandy Lake, where the
lone bull was killed, our idea being that by this time
bears might be feeding upon his carcass.

We ran the boat down the river to the entrance to
Swan Lake, and here we found that the overflow from
the river, which had risen five feet during the down-
pour, was rushing up the narrow entrance into Swan
Lake, and through that lake into Spectacle Lake, three
miles further up. We had lunch and spent the night
at the cabin on Swan Lake, and with a stiff head wind
against us pushed on the next morning to Spectacle
Lake and over a portage there into Little Lake.

In the cabin at this portage we found a note from
the balance of our party, consisting of Drs. W. J. and
W. R. Roe and one guide, stating that they had left on
Tuesday for Sandy Lake and would be back that night,
so that put an end to our trip to the remains of the

ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY 263

caribou. In the meantime, in prospecting around the
upper part of Spectacle Lake we found a long slough,
which terminated at one end in a circular pond. In
one corner of this pond was a well-beaten bear trail,
and my mind was set upon lying out under some trees
close by it. Neil said it was a likely place to shoot
a bear if one should come down, but — you know the
rest.

The other men reached the cabin before dark. They
had been at Sandy Lake two days. The carcass of the
caribou had not attracted carnivorous animals of any
kind, and all that they had seen on the trip were the
tracks of a large moose. They decided to go back to
Bear Lake on the following morning, start on Monday
morning for Barkerville, and there take the stage for
Ashcrof t at six o'clock that evening. I decided to stay
another week.

On this evening Neil took me in the boat to the cove
at the end of the slough, and having seen that I had
everything arranged for my comfort during the night,
left me for the cabin, which he had some difficulty in
reaching on account of the darkness. Nothing came
near me during the night excepting a great owl, which
suddenly appeared right in front of me and then
sheered off to one side and soon was lost in the pitchy
darkness.

Nature is very considerate of all birds of prey that
fly by night in providing a soft downy lining of feath-

264 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

ers for the inside of their wings which makes their
flight a noiseless one, and thus enables them to steal
upon the unwitting little bird as it nestles in the
branches of a tree, or to pounce upon a rabbit as it
capers through the grass or small bushes.

The sky was covered with a dark canopy of clouds,
which prevented the moon and stars from being seen,
but at one o'clock in the morning the clouds had drifted
away, and the moon, which was nearly at the full, came
out in all her glory. The cover, which up to this
time had been but a region of shadows, now became
almost as light as day, and if Mr. Grizzly had then
walked into the water, it would have been a fair chance
that he would have been hit with one or more bullets
before he reached the shore again, if indeed he had not
been " kilt intoirely."

It grew very cold toward daylight, and when NeiPs
canoe rounded into the cove at 6 : 20 in the morning, I
need not say that I was very glad. Thus ended one
week's adventure by water and land, in storm, rain and
sunshine, leaving much to think over but little to regret.

CHAPTEE XXIY
HOW THE SALMON IS VANISHING

WHILE staying at the Bear River camp I met
John P. Babcock, fish commissioner of the province of
British Columbia. Mr. Babcock is a man who enjoys
an international reputation in all matters piscatorial.
He is, above all, a recognized authority upon the habits
of the salmon and upon the statistics relating to the
annual catch, or " pack." He was on a tour of in-
spection of all the salmon streams in the province.

Bear River is the " mother stream " of an enormous
run of sock-eye salmon and of the so-called spring
salmon, which was the reason for his visit. I was glad
indeed to listen to his fascinating talk on the history
of the salmon while he was waiting for the morning
light to enable him to start on this, his annual visit to
the head waters of our river.

It will perhaps be remembered that the sock-eye,
when it makes its fatal journey to its natal spawning
bed, is clothed in its nuptial colors, the body being of a
brilliant scarlet, while the head, jaws and tail are of a
bright shade of copper-colored green.

It would be difficult for any one to see a more
beautiful sight than that made by this magnificent fish
when thousands of them are leaping, plunging and

266 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

diving in the clear and ice-cold streams of this far
northern clime on their journey to the very spot which
their unerring instinct assures them is their own birth-
place.

Besides the sock-eye and the spring salmon, there
are the humpback, the blueback, the silver and the dog
salmon, but only the first two species visit the Bear
Eiver, and none of the others equal the sock-eye in
brilliancy of coloring.

Mr. Babcock's mission was to gauge as accurately
as possible the dimensions of the "run" of sock-eye
salmon for the present year.

When the salmon eggs are hatched out and the
young fish are able to travel to the ocean, if they reach
it without being devoured by their numerous enemies
by the wayside, they will surely return four years after
to spawn and to die. Thus in four years the fish which
were then being hatched, or those that survive, will
return to carry out nature's injunction to perpetuate
the species.

In Commissioner Babcock's report for 1906 he makes
the following warning statement :

" In view of the fact that the catch of 1903 was
sixty-two per cent, less than that of the previous fourth
year, 1899 ; that the catch of 1894 was sixty-six per
cent, less than that of 1901 ; and that the catch of this
year is twenty-six per cent, less than that of 1902, no
other conclusion can be reached but that the great

HOW THE SALMON IS VANISHING 267

fishing industry of the Frazer River district is declining
at an alarming rate, and cannot long be maintained
under existing conditions."

This statement applies only to the Frazer River and
its tributaries, of which the Bear River is one, but the
same conditions prevail in all the other great salmon
rivers, the Columbia River in Oregon, the Sacramento
in California, the Skeena and the Naas in Canada, and
the Yukon in Alaska, each and every one showing that
the reckless slaughter of the salmon at spawning time
is bringing about the inevitable result of a shorter and
shorter run with each succeeding year. Man is not
the only transgressor, although he is undoubtedly the
most serious one.

The very moment that the salmon appear at the
mouths of these great rivers their arrival is heralded
by battalions of screaming gulls, yelping seals and
plunging sea-lions, all of which feast on the royal fish
as they pass up the fatal streams.

After entering the rivers they reach the dreaded set
traps, the revolving fish-wheels, the seines, the purse
nets, and should these be passed in safety they are
beset by dogfish, sharks and ospreys. On the shores
thousands of Indian boys and girls, some as young as
six years of age, together with their parents, are at
work almost day and night spearing the fish.

The Indian children take to the spearing of salmon
as naturally as they do to their mother's milk when

268 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

babies. I have seen only one of them at work. He
was ten years of age, and he was as quick in his
movements with the spear as a cat after a mouse.

Still further up-strearn the grizzly bear and the
more modest black bear are waiting for the "run,"
and it is wonderful the number which these greedy
animals catch and eat or reserve for later use. An
old and experienced trapper says a full-grown grizzly
will easily bury away in his caches 3,000 salmon.

Last, but not least, we must not forget the dip net,
which annually claims its thousands of victims.

When the vicissitudes of the journey up to the natal
spawning bed have all been surmounted, the real
troubles of the mother salmon are just beginning.
She and her mate scoop out a depression in the gravelly
bottom of the river or stream with their bellies and
fins, where the eggs may sink to the bottom of the
water and lay there in safety until the process of
hatching out is completed. Then it would seem as if
every living creature in that immediate locality had an
insatiable appetite for the eggs.

Trout take them voraciously ; mallard ducks dabble
and dabble in the running water for them, and the
male salmon seems to be possessed of a fierce desire to
eat his neighbor's progeny. Worse still, in the last
stages of the spawning process the mate will seize the
female by the tail and cruelly bite and lacerate her.
Whether this biting is done as a counter-irritant to

HOW THE SALMON IS VANISHING 269

help the female in her struggle to eject the roe or from
bad temper, no one can tell.

As the days come and go the poor salmon become
weaker and weaker. They eat no food from the time
they leave the ocean and live solely upon the absorp-
tion of their own flesh. No matter how many salmon
have been dissected during a season, none have ever
been found with any food in their stomachs.

Many of them die of exhaustion before they even
reach the spawning bed. During the process of spawn-
ing the fish are not fit for food, and yet the Indians
along every river where the salmon spawn spear and
smoke them for winter food.

We reached Bear Lake on the third of September,
and the following morning we had our first sight of the
splendidly colored sock-eyes. Then they were brilliant
of hue beyond compare. Few of them were scarred by
battle or the labor of working up the stream, although
the spring salmon, that had arrived somewhat earlier,
were even then showing signs of wear and tear.

By the twenty-fifth of the same month, the majority
of the sock-eyes were already dead. Where we for-
merly had seen a hundred, we now saw five and six.
One morning, from a high bank at the upper part of
the river, where we had seen thousands upon our first
visit three weeks before, we could count no more than
thirty-nine fish, and of these only two were females.

On the far side of the river from where we stood

270 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

there were several mounds on the sandy margin.
These were caches made by the bears, filled with sock-
eye salmon, and in the brush at the back were more
caches, stored with fish for future use. The eagles,
fish-hawks, crows, mallard ducks and gulls were having
a ghoulish feast upon the dead and decaying fish.

In a canoe run of eighteen miles, which I made in
two days, while standing up and paddling in the bow
of the boat, the sight that met my gaze was really
sickening. The bottoms of the deep pools were lined
with the bodies of dead salmon, in places lying cross-
wise on top of each other, and the sandy beaches were
strewn with the now putrid fish.

Hundreds had been caught on the willow brush as
they floated down on the head of a high rush of water
that occurred two weeks before, and were now sus^
pended and slowly rotting away a foot or more from
the running water underneath.

The crows spy a dead salmon more quickly than any
other birds that I have seen ; they at once pluck out
the eyes and leave the balance of the fish until it is in
a decaying state. Then they gorge themselves until
they can barely fly.

As the waters of the rivers recede the sand-bars catch
the dead fish in multitudes, and the air becomes vitiated
by the stench, which in some places is almost unbear-
able. As Shakespeare says, it is " a very ancient and
fish-like smell ; a kind not of the newest," while the

HOW THE SALMON IS VANISHING 271

water itself becomes so polluted that it is not palatable
or safe to drink.

In daytime the sight of gluttonous birds feasting
upon carrion is bad enough, but if we could see by
night we would behold the mink, the skunk, the fisher,
and perhaps some other animals, as well as the grizzly
bear himself, all busily at work, either eating of the
foul mess or storing it up in a convenient place for
future use. The most pitiful sight of all, however, is
to see the dying fish floating down the stream, first on
its side and later on its back, without strength to swim,
the only sign of life being perhaps the unconscious
muscular action of wagging its tail.

Another sight, and that a very common one, is where
one fish has weakened more in the vicissitudes of
the run than its mate, and while lying over upon its
side from sheer exhaustion its mate pokes it with
its jaws to keep stirring it up to further effort, until
the dying one becomes stranded upon some friendly
shoal, when its mate plunges away into deeper and
safer waters. Man's inhumanity to man has often been
harped upon, but the worst of men seldom become as
cruelly cruel as the salmon are toward each other.

From the most recent observations of the present
" four-year " run of salmon it is safe to say that it will
show as great a falling off in actual returns as the
" four-year " run in 1905 did from that of its preceding
period, and if this prediction should prove true, some-

272 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

thing should be done to remedy the threatened extinc-
tion of the salmon.

It is undoubtedly true that the hatcheries, by arti-
ficially hatching out millions of eggs, are doing some
little to stay the inevitable hand of fate, which points
unerringly to the destruction of the salmon packing in-
dustry if some more drastic and revolutionary plan is
not soon adopted.

Five years ago the interesting and valuable beaver
was in peril of obliteration in the province of British
Columbia, where the beaver grows to a large size and
is clothed with a skin that for color and texture chal-
lenges the world. A close term of five years was then
placed upon them, which at its expiration was extended
for one year more.

As a consequence, the marshy bottoms and the
mountain streams are fairly alive with these industrious
animals. For twenty days I was among them all the
time, and could see their handiwork on every side.

Their substantial dams can be found in every running
brook in the mountainous parts of the province. Their
houses may be seen on every mountain stream, and
their caches of food for the long winter months are
being filled by thousands and thousands of the busy and
hard-working little fellows.

The value of the beaver lies not alone in his fur. To
the trapper, the prospector, the surveyor, the freighter,
the hunter and the red man his flesh is food of the

HOW THE SALMON IS VANISHING 273

highest value, because it is right at hand — easy to get
and easy to prepare.

In the deepest forest, where running water exists,
the trap will catch him. A few minutes serves to skin
and dress him, and yet a few minutes more to build a
fire, put him on a stick and baste him with his own
fat, and, presto ! a meal fit for a king is before the
hunter.

Every one, even the trappers, who make more
money from the hides of the beaver than from any
other animal, freely admit that the law passed for the
preservation of the beaver was a just, humane and
timely piece of legislation ; and has already proven
that it was a wise and necessary precaution for the
prevention of the total extinction of the animal.

The salmon packing industry during recent years has
reached the enormous average annual pack of 4,000,000
cases of four dozen cans each, or 200,000,000 pounds of
salmon. The one-pound cans of salmon are a welcome
and economical addition to the table of the majority
of the people of civilized countries, and if the industry
should become a thing of the past, because of the ex-
tinction of the fish, it would be almost an international
calamity, and nations should join hand in hand to pro-
tect the salmon from total destruction, the same as
England, Canada, the United States, Japan and Eussia
have done to protect the seal.

State and national legislation in the United States

274 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

should encourage the establishment of more hatcheries
for the artificial propagation of the salmon. The
Dominion of Canada, or the province of British
Columbia, should take concurrent action on the same
lines, and a close time of at least every other year in a
given period of say six years should be adopted, during
which time no fishing by revolving wheel traps, seines,
dip nets, spearing or in any other manner should be
permitted for the purpose of canning, preserving, salt-
ing or smoking the fish.

Thus any salmon packed during the close years would
be confiscated as illegally packed, and the offending
packer punished by fine or imprisonment. As the
value of the pack at the present time aggregates close
to $30,000,000, it must necessarily mean joint action
on the part of the states, provinces and nations inter-
ested to bring about the best and most thorough re^
suits.

I am not preaching anything new, at least not
to residents of the Pacific Coast. They already see
the handwriting on the wall, and realize that some-
thing must be done, and that speedily, to remedy the
present extravagant destruction of the fish.

British Columbia would like to see the states of
Oregon and California and the territory of Alaska,
exact such legislation, while those states and that
territory would be pleased immensely if British Colum-
bia would set the example and make a close period.

HOW THE SALMON IS VANISHING 275

Here is an opportunity for our Secretary of State and
the Premier of Canada to join hands in helping their re-
spective governments to help themselves. Common
sense dictates such a step, and financial interests should
demand the protection and perpetuation of this great in-
dustry. The English householder, who is now able to
purchase a tin of good, wholesome salmon, although it
may not be of the finest pack, for five pence half-penny
— eleven cents — and the Canadian or American house-
wife, who can purchase a can of like quality for ten
cents, are each and every one interested in this serious
and vital question.

A close time will, of course, make prices higher for
a few years, but in the end this would be far better
than the total destruction of a trade which now benefits
the entire civilized world.

In this case the old adage, " a stitch in time saves
nine," is a homely reminder that the sooner prompt
and efficient action is taken to preserve the now
vanishing salmon the better it will be for the world at
large.

CHAPTER XXV
BRITISH COLUMBIA BIRDS

VERY early on the morning of October 4th I was
awakened by a bird singing his matin song in a rollick-
ing, joyous mood, befitting early spring rather than the
early fall. He sang as if he was putting every atom of
strength that he possessed into the melody, for melody
it was. I couldn't sleep after he started, although very
tired from the previous day's hard work. The bird was
singing in one of a clump of cotton wood trees across the
Bear River, and his song, while bewitching to the ear,
was totally new to me, and I couldn't make it out.

I turned to nudge my bedfellow — Dr. W. E. Hughes
— and asked him if he knew what it was. He had also
been awakened by the songster, and was then trying to
see if he could recognize the identity of the singer. He
ventured to say that it must be a robin, although his
song was radically different from his eastern relatives.
In a few minutes one of the men down-stairs — a native
— said to a late riser : " Get up. Don't you hear the
robin singing to you as if his heart would break ? Get
up — get up — you laggard." And so it was a robin, but
oh, so different from ours, and this made us note the
various kinds of song birds and of game birds that we
saw in this far-off part of British Columbia.

BRITISH COLUMBIA BIRDS 277

It will perhaps be of interest to know that in the
vicinity of Long Lake, which we visited on September
1 7th, the wild goose, the mallard duck, the red- breasted
merganser, and the blue- winged teal, made their nests,
laid their eggs and hatched out their young. We saw
many very large flocks of these different species of wild
fowl in the sheltered coves of Sandy Lake and Long
Lake, and in the winding waters of the Iron Slough.

A trapper who formerly ranged through this part of
the Bear Lake territory, when he found the nests of
the wild goose, would always take one or more eggs
from the nest, as long as the goose hadn't started to sit
upon them. He claimed that the goose could only
count up to four, but as a rule they lay five eggs, and
by robbing her of one egg a day he could keep her
" laying all summer without setting,'1 or until the
gander would give up in disgust at her late hatching
and hie himself off to other quarters in search of an-
other mate. The young goslings make a rich feast for
the bald eagles, who so gluttonously feed upon them
that at times they can hardly walk from overfeeding.

Kibbee came up to a full-grown bald eagle once,
which was so surfeited with feasting upon the tender
young birds that the big bird couldn't raise himself
from the ground, and he was consequently killed with
a canoe pole.

The mallard duck shows much more sense than the
goose, and if its nest or the eggs are tampered with, it

278 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

forsakes the locality and builds a new nest in a fresh
location. Tame ducks have never been considered
very cleanly birds as to their feeding habits, so we
were not surprised to learn that among the host of
birds that gorge themselves upon the dead and fast-
decaying salmon which pollute the air and the water of
the Bear River, the mallard duck is about as greedy as
any of them. During the time when they are thus in-
dulging in the Bacchanalian feast, their flesh is so
tainted as to be uneatable.

An osprey had a nest in the top of a very tall dead
tree. We frequently watched her in the middle of the
month of September flying forth and back with food
for her young. A very late time for young birds to be
hatched out, we thought, and we wondered if anything
had happened that would account for such a late start
in life for the youngsters, as in a few weeks at the
latest winter would be upon them, and then their
wings would be hardly able to carry them to the south-
land.

There were many specimens of the bald eagle to be
seen along the course of the river, and of crows follow-
ing the same watercourse — their name was legion ; it
need not be said that this harvest of putrid salmon was
partaken of until they could hardly give a warning
"caw" or arise in flight when they were disturbed.
There were a few ravens consorting with them with
like ravenous appetites.

BRITISH COLUMBIA BIRDS 279

Of hawks, we saw several specimens ; the marsh
hawk, the cooper's hawk, the sharp-shinned hawk, the
sparrow hawk, and an occasional red-shouldered hawk.
Our old friends, the flickers, were here in goodly
numbers.

The snowbirds nest in this region, and they were very
abundant. The rusty blackbird, catbird, chickadee,
kinglet, pine siskin, gambet, white-throated sparrow,
and tiny humming-bird, all find food here and an
environment suitable to their varied wants, and when
we left showed little signs of departing for a warmer
climate.

One day, when I was lying behind some logs watch-
ing for bear, a very large flock of great crested fly-
catchers alighted upon a tree near my hiding-place.
Whether they saw me and wanted to see what manner
of being I was, I could not tell, but they flitted from
tree to tree, back and forth, in their swift flight for
over an hour, always in sight, and never staying upon
one tree for more than five minutes or so. Before they
left, reinforcements had reached them from several
directions, so that when they finally flew away their
flight was to the south and their numbers had been
more than doubled. No doubt, they were starting
upon their annual southern migration.

Nearly all of the wading birds had left long before
our arrival, and many of these, like the yellow-leg, the
bull-headed plover, the golden plover, and the Wilson

280 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

snipe, nest here, but they are early birds to leave. We
saw but one golden plover, a few sandpipers, and one
Wilson snipe.

By the time we took our departure, in the early days
of October, the geese, the mallards, the teal, and the
mergansers had disappeared, and a few loons and dip-
pers were all that were left.

The mighty Frazer Kiver, in British Columbia, which
is soon to be the line of least resistance for a new trans-
continental railroad, is an important pathway in both
the northern and southern migration of millions upon
millions of wild fowl, and any one who has not seen the
hosts of birds which come down from the far north in
September and October may in but a few years have an
object lesson that they will long remember if they
should take a journey along the great river during the
fall flight.

The Yukon and the Columbia Kivers are, likewise,
trunk lines for the hosts of wild ducks and wild geese,
while along the smaller watercourses may be found
millions more of bay-birds, curlew, snipes and plover
following the same instinct which tells them that in the
far-off southland is food a-plenty, freedom from ice and
snow and a sanctuary where their young can thrive
and grow fat upon the choicest of food, and where
they can live in peace and quietude.

We must not forget the grouse, for there are plenty
of willow grouse ; our old friend, the ruffled grouse, or

BRITISH COLUMBIA BIRDS 281

pheasant, having the same habits, but not the same fear
of human beings, as this bird has. He will run along
the ground or on top of a log, then fly to some near-by
tree and sit out in the open ; a whole covey will do
this in conjunction, and if the gunner picks off the bot-
tom ones, one by one, he may get them all, but let him
shoot the topmost one and the remainder will all take
flight.

The " fool hen," or spruce partridge, as we call it in
Maine, also abounds here. The ptarmigan, in his coat
of white, frequents the high mountains and generally
may be found above the timber line.

Just think of what a fusillade of leaden shot the wild
ducks and wild geese will have to pass through before
they return again in the spring. A taxidermist tells me
that at least two geese out of every six which he
mounts have one or more pellets of buck or T. T. shot
in their flesh, which have been there from previous
flights, the wounds made by the shot being all healed,
so that until the birds were skinned the presence of
the shot was completely hidden.

Upon our return we passed several good-sized lakes in
Alberta Territory and the Saskatchewan country,
some hundreds of miles south of our hunting grounds,
and although these lakes were partly frozen over, yet
the open water was covered with wild geese and ducks,
and the gunners were on hand to welcome them.

As they fly south through the Dakotas, Minnesota,

282 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, the Virginias and then bv
the " Atlantic coast line " to Florida on the eastern sea-
board, or down through the states of Washington, Ore-
gon and California to Mexico, Central and South
America, their flight will be punctuated at every rest-
ing or feeding place by swiftly propelled charges of
chilled shot. These will be fired at them from all
manner of shotguns, from the single-barreled muzzle-
loader, carried by the southern darkey, to the modern
improved hammerless.

During this southern migration it has been estimated
that more than 500,000 guns are used by a like number
of men and boys. A hundred cartridges for three days'
shooting is not an excessive number to fire, and if the
gunners are out on an average of three times in a
season, we will have the enormous total of 150,000,000
cartridges, containing an ounce and a quarter of shot to
each one, or a total of over 585 tons of shot. This is
for a single season.

These figures may seem stupendous and perhaps may
be excessive, but I hardly think so. Of course, if every
shot bagged a bird the ducks would soon be extermi-
nated, but they are becoming more and more wary with
each passing year, and big bags are the exception now-
adays.

The stern enforcement in most of the states and ter-
ritories of the game laws, which limit the shooting to
prescribed dates and in some states to only a certain

BRITISH COLUMBIA BIRDS 283

number of birds that may be killed, is doing wonders
toward the protection of wild fowl from indiscriminate
slaughter.

Cold storage men who buy up and store away
feathered game for future use are now, in many of
the states, under strict surveillance. Fortunately, the
wild duck is a prolific breeder, and if given but half a
chance their number will increase amazingly.

In the extreme north, and particularly near the
Hudson Bay Company's posts, the Indians kill large
numbers of geese and smoke or otherwise cure them for
winter consumption. In the olden days the Hudson
Bay Company allowed its trappers one salmon per day
in British Columbia and Alaska, and in Athabasca one
wild goose or three big white fish, and up in the Arctic
circle two fish or three pounds of reindeer, or one wild
goose.

Many are the families up north, even now, who must
depend upon the wild duck or goose for their store of
meat. So from ocean to ocean — from the Arctic circle
to the wide pampas of Patagonia — the swift flight of
the wild fowl stirs the blood of the sportsman, and
sharpens the appetites of millions of residents along the
sedgy lakes, ponds, or rivers of the fresh waters, or the
bays, sounds and lagoons of the sea where salt marshes
and meadows abound.

A doctor of my acquaintance, who allowed himself
to be tied down to a large practice so that he never

284 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

could or would get away for a day's recreation, once
journeyed with me to a happy hunting ground in a bay
off the coast of Virginia. His stay was to be only
two days, but the time was February and a blizzard
came along which kept him a prisoner for four days,
and the incidents of that time were so indelibly im-
pressed upon his mind, though the years since then are
many, that even now he will, upon the slightest en-
couragement, rehearse them over and over as if there
was never anything in this wide, wide world like unto
them.

For instance, although he had a gun, he forgot that
fact always when the birds came in with a swift rush
over the decoys or until they were perhaps nearly out
of sight. He was the third man in the boat when a
bunch of brant came in with a grand ' swirl, and the
writer and the guide each got in two shots, and eight of
these royal birds fell at the discharge of the guns.

When we asked him why he didn't shoot, his answer
was : " They came so quick that I hadn't time to get
my breath before they were gone." It so happened
that another bunch swung in with a like result. These
incidents are perhaps the brightest bits of real pleasure
in his eminently busy life.

The lure of the blue-winged teal or of the mallard
duck brings to thousands upon thousands of men re-
newed life, vigor, and freedom from business cares.
The salty air puts a keen edge on their appetites. The

BRITISH COLUMBIA BIRDS 285

sportsman needs no sauce with his meat, for hunger is
the best sauce of all, and when a day in the ducking
blind will not make a hunter hungry, then he had bet-
ter put his house in order, for he is nearing the end of
his earthly pilgrimage.

CHAPTEK XXVI
THE MEPHITIS-MEPHITICA

MEPHITIS-MEPHITICA is the scientific name of an
industrious and interesting little animal whose habitat
reaches from the Carolinas to the frozen land lying
around Hudson's Bay, and from New York state to the
Pacific coast.

Mephitis has no friends — none whatever. He is
hated by the humblest of animals, and feared by the
biggest and strongest, including the grizzly bear him-
self. He works mostly by night, is stealthy in his
habits, is personally very cleanly.

His coat is black and white, and the black is as glossy
as satin. He has a small head, with small blinking
eyes. His principal adornment is a very showy tail,
which tail he usually carries in an erect position. He
is a sort of mammalian peacock as he walks around
with his tail hoisted, and an " I-dare-you-to-knock-the-
chip-off-my-shoulder " air, and every other animal, even
man himself, is content to let him alone.

This description is deemed necessary by reason of
some happenings that have lately come to us in the
pursuit of big game ; and, remember, mephitis is not

THE MEPHITIS-MEPH1TICA 287

considered " game," either big or little, and yet he is
indeed game to the core.

A member of this famous species, rnephitis-mephitica,
had taken possession of the earth beneath the floor of
our first cabin on the Bear River, and as she was like
her sisters (for this one was a female and a mother at
that) nocturnal in her habits, she annoyed us very much
by knocking on the floor, in some manner unknown to
us, at sundry times in the night loud enough to awaken
a very sound sleeper, and none of us took credit for
being anything but light sleepers.

Our guide, being by profession a trapper, set a trap
which he felt sure would catch the offender, and then
he and the writer left the camp to be gone a day and
a night. Dr. W. E. Hughes, our genial scientist,
elected to remain indoors, as he was a bit under the
weather. Upon our return, as our boat rounded a
curve in the river, we looked up to the cabin which
stands on the brow of a high hill, and we distinctly
saw a vision of black and white moving with rapidity.

We knew at a glance that it was the mephitis, and
that she was in the trap. Standing in the doorway
was our scientist with glasses on, watching out of the
corner of his right eye the gyrations of this novel
moving-picture show.

He had a rifle in his hand, and was cogitating deeply
as to whether he could shoot the top of the agile
mother's head off, without giving her a chance to

288 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

" shoot " him with her peculiar but efficient weapon of
defense in return. The look upon the doctor's face was
the most comical that I ever had seen.

The doubt he was in was clearly shown in his counte-
nance, and yet there was an expression of fear upon it ;
fear that she might see him and then, without let or
leave, " shoot " him.

When we climbed the bank and came to the door,
we, too, became possessed of a strange and strained
look. A council was held. What was best to be done ;
risk a shot ? Kibbee said no, declaring if the shot was
not successful his cabin would become untenantable for
at least five years. Besides, all of our clothes would
be ruined in the " mix-up," and, as we didn't have many
with us, this decided us there and then.

Kibbee went to his boat and fetched up the canoe
pole, which was eleven feet long. He climbed to the
top of the cabin and, reaching down from above, he
pried open the trap, and Mrs. Mephitis when released
made a lightning bound down the bank to the river-
side, Kibbee, our crack shot, sending a bullet after her
as she sped away, but scoring a clean miss.

The next day she returned to look after her kits,
which we, for some reason or other, believed to number
eight, although we never saw one of them. It is true
we did not see them, but didn't we hear them and
smell them every blessed hour ?

Then Dr. Hughes and Kibbee took a day off, and the

THE MEPHIT1S-MEPHITICA 289

writer spent the most of the time in penning some
notes. On account of the quiet in the cabin, Mrs. Me-
phitis thought it was empty, and she therefore loped
around the front, but always kept a weather eye on
the front door.

" Now," says I to myself, " I'll get my rifle, lay it on
the table cocked and ready for use, and the first time
she crosses the dead line of five yards from the cabin
I'll blow her head off ! "

All of that afternoon we played a duel — you'll ob-
serve we didn't fight one, but just played one — for
she kept such a sharp eye upon my movements that
whenever she appeared near the dead line, and the
slightest move on my part was made to elevate the
rifle, like a flash she was in her burrow under the
cabin; and unto the end of our stay at that par-
ticular cabin she was really " monarch of all she sur-
veyed."

We removed from the Bear Kiver cabin to one at
Swan Lake. We arrived there in a drenching rain-
storm, after fighting a head wind for several miles.
We built a fire, ate our supper, and, being very tired,
we went to bed early. It might be well to say right
here that this cabin in one respect was like most of the
others, in that everything was in dire confusion.

It seems to be a universal practice among trappers
to leave their dishes unwashed, the frying-pans, buckets
and kettles in like condition and everything at sixes

290 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

and sevens, until they are needed again. So, while the
tire was burning up in the morning, the first thing in
order — or shall we say " disorder " ? — was to heat water
with which to wash up and clean the cabin outfit.

Trappers tell me that the prime necessity in their
business is to skin and stretch the hides of the animals
taken in the daily catch along the trapping lines.
Everything has to give place to this necessary, but
disagreeable, portion of the trapper's trade. In Kib-
bee's words, he puts it this way : " You see, when
1 get to cabin at night it may have been a-rainin' all
day, or snowin', and my catch would seem to weigh
a ton on my back, or in the boat. I gets into the cabin
with, say, a half dozen marten, a couple of lynx and
maybe three or four beavers. That, of course, would
be when the law was a-lettin' of us catch beaver.

" The longer the catch laid without bein' skinned the
harder it would be to get the hides off . So we have no
time for washin' dishes or pans or kettles. While the
water's a-bilin' I'm a-skinnin' of the pelts as hard as I
can."

So now you will please imagine that in this cabin,
ten by twelve in size, you see a bunk large enough for
one man, a sheet-iron stove, kettles, pots, pans, tin cups,
a few plates, knives and forks, stretchers for skins, a
bottle of patent medicine as a " cure-all," scraps of rope,
twine, pieces of bags and bagging, a heavy gray blan-
ket to lie on, and a piece of sail-cloth to act as a cover

C/2

THE MEPHITIS-MEPHITICA 291

for the sleeping trapper, who generally goes to rest
with his clothes on.

On this night of which I am writing, the dishes and
pans, as usual, were left unwashed. There was a little
cooked rice in one bucket and some fried moose meat in
a frying-pan left from supper. Kibbee and I got into the
bunk, which was only intended for one person, but by
sleeping head to foot we managed to get on quite well.

Dr. Hughes was on the floor in his sleeping bag, one-
half of which extended under the bunk, while the other
half projected out until it nearly touched the open door-
way. The door was always left open, that being the
only means of ventilation. We were not long in for-
getting in sleep the labors of the day.

About midnight Kibbee kicked me in the head with
his naked foot and asked if I could find my electric
bulb. He said there was some good-sized animal
prowling around, and he would like to see what it was.

The bulb was handed to him, and while still lying in
bed he pointed the electric light to all parts of the
cabin without seeing anything particularly dangerous.
Two rats and a weasel scampered away, or perhaps it
was only two mice and a weasel, for things look large
to you under such circumstances, and yet the expected
larger animal was not to be seen.

A shaft of light was now thrown behind the open
door. Here were standing two rifles, and in between
and behind them was another member of the mephitis-

292 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

mephitica family with eyes of unusual brilliancy fixed
right upon us.

This one was a male, and he was crowded back so
close to the cabin wall that his famous and dreaded tail
could not be held erect, because there wasn't room for
it. Kibbee, the " scientist," and the writer counseled
as to what was best to be done.

Kibbee said that if left alone it might bite one of our
ears or noses while we slept. This, the scientist said,
was but " the fiction of a diseased brain," that there
was no case on record of any such happening. Kibbee
stuck to this belief, and wanted to shoot there and
then.

He said that when he was a boy, his father, who
lived in Montana, used to dig the mephitis out of his
hole, and that when the animal first saw the light he
would turn himself around with his tail to the light.
His father would grab the tail with his hand, and,
holding the animal straight up by his caudal appendage,
he would chop his head off with an axe, for in this
position the mephitis was absolutely harmless. In
proof of Kibbee's assertion, this animal was even now
turning his tail to the light.

He commenced to wriggle himself around so that
his head would be against the front of the cabin and
his dangerous tail would be free ; seeing this, Kibbee
said there was nothing now to be done but to " douse
the glim " and sleep it out, trusting to luck to awake

THE MEPHITIS-MEPHITICA 293

next morning with our ears and noses in their proper
places untouched and unharmed.

The scientist said there wasn't the slightest danger
of an attack from the black-and-white beauty, but all
the same he was very careful himself to put his head
beneath the sheltering folds of his sleeping bag.

I lay awake for an hour or more, and I thought i
heard Mr. Mephitis wending his way out from behind
the door and then nosing around the scalp and hide of
our big caribou, which was hanging up on poles outside.
The weasel, the rats or the mice came back and rum-
maged through the pots and pans to their hearts' con-
tent— one of them did indeed run over my face, and
Dr. Hughes was certain that one ran over his head, but
he admitted that his head was inside of the bag.

" All's well that ends well," and we awoke the next
morning with ears and noses intact ; with the never-
ending rain pouring down ; with the wind in the wrong
quarter ; with a loon laughing at us from across the
thoroughfare ; with a red squirrel chattering on the
roof and a pair of camp birds pecking scraps of fat
from the hide of the lone bull of Sandy Lake.

For those who never heard of the mephitis-mephitica,
it should be said that besides his classical appellation,
he rejoices in two common names, by either of which
you may call him and he will not be offended. In
some parts of the country he goes by the name of pole-
cat ; out here his regular name is skunk.

CHAPTEE XXVII

PERILS AND HARDSHIPS THAT MUST BE
ENDURED

DR. HUGHES and I were anxious to make a trip
either from the Bear River to the mighty Frazer River,
or by way of the Goat River trail, a distance of sixty
miles, from Bear Lake to the Upper Frazer ; in either
event to canoe down the Frazer to Quesnelle where we
would take the steamer for Soda Creek, and there catch
the stage for Ashcroft.

On the stage to Barkerville we met a bright, courte-
ous and intelligent Englishman, who was a "squaw
man," that is, he had married a Siwash Indian woman.

He recommended us to arrange for a couple of
Indians with a boat to paddle us down the Frazer to
Quesnelle. This man said that the Goat River trail
was a bad one. The mountains on each side were said
to be much frequented by mountain goats and bears.

On our arrival at Quesnelle we arranged with the
manager of the Hudson Bay Company, that when we
reached Barkerville, if we could get men and horses to
go through with us by the Goat River route to the
Frazer, we would wire him to have the Indian helpers
ready.

At Barkerville we failed to find any one that had

PERILS THAT MUST BE ENDURED 295

the slightest desire to make the trip, and money did
not seem to tempt them. The route had such a bad
name from disasters to previous expeditions, that we
reluctantly had to give up the project, although the
doctor and I would have gladly walked the entire
distance and carried a light pack into the bargain.
Still it was imperative that we should have horses to
carry the provisions, clothing, etc., and men owning
the horses didn't care about risking them on the trail.

The next thing we tried was to find some one
familiar with the Lower Bear Kiver, to go down with
us either in a boat or canoe to its mouth, where it en-
ters the Frazer Kiver. There are two bad canyons in
the Bear Kiver which at certain stages of the water are
dangerous. One man who went through four years ago
told us that no money could hire him to undertake it
again.

There were accounts of another man who had made
his will before risking the trip, and yet he came out
alive ; of another who had swamped, but was saved.
This man we met — a strong, robust young fellow. He
agreed with us that if we would pay for a new boat
and give him ten dollars per day he would take us
through to the Frazer by way of the Bear Kiver. We
therefore engaged him, and he promised faithfully to
meet us at the mouth of Bear Lake on September 26th
to start on the following morning.

In accordance with this agreement, Dr. Hughes and

296 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

the writer left the Upper Bear Kiver on Saturday the
25th, and arrived at noon at the main cabin at the
mouth of Bear Lake. No word, however, had as yet
come from our man, so the only thing to do was to
wait.

On Sunday afternoon, while waiting for the guide to
appear with his boat, Dr. Hughes and the writer took
a stroll down the tract for a distance of four and a
half miles. We then sat down about one hundred yards
apart as we had crossed several fresh bear trails on the
way, and the surroundings looked more like business
with bears than anything that we had yet seen.

I might say right here that so far, in spite of our
hard and earnest daily work and that, too, without any
let-up on account of the rain, snow, hail or sleet, for
the weather had been extremely wet, we had not yet
seen a bear, either grizzly or black. The willow brush,
which flourishes in wanton growth on each side of the
running streams, formed an impenetrable screen, be-
hind which a prowling bear might be as safe from
discovery and attack as if it were at the North Pole.

There are no roads of any kind in this country and
no trails, excepting those made by beaver and bear.
The beaver trails do not run very far, and those made
by the bears after leaving the sandy edge of the streams
are not well marked when the big woods are reached,
for bruin has a habit of walking on the tops of logs,
thus causing great gaps in his trail.

PERILS THAT MUST BE ENDURED 297

The doctor and the writer sat near to the burnt
land until it became dark without seeing anything
whatever, and we very reluctantly retraced our steps
to the cabin. On the walk back we heard two rifle
shots fired on the river, and we surmised that they
were signal shots fired by our guide for the Lower Bear
River journey. "We sat up quite late, expecting him to
arrive at any minute, but he failed to put in an ap-
pearance.

The following morning there was no word or sight
of him, so we reluctantly gave him up, and the pro-
posed fateful journey down the Bear River as well.
This was a great disappointment to us, as we had raised
our hopes to a high pinnacle of future success in canoe-
ing down the two rivers, and to see them drop like a
house of cards vexed us sorely.

It had been agreed that in case the man did fail us
Dr. Hughes would take Kibbee and another man with
horses and travel to Indian Point Lake. Moose were
said to frequent that lake and a smaller body of water
named Beaver Lake. Then, after hunting around these
two pieces of water, Kibbee and the doctor would climb
a high mountain — as yet unnamed — in search of moun-
tain goats, while a boatman was to go with me back to
the Upper Bear River again.

So Neil, the boatman, and the writer pushed off
early in the morning in the face of a fierce wind blow-
ing straight in our faces. Dr. Hughes and Kibbee

298 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

started down toward the burnt land to round up the
horses at the same time.

So far the doctor had not even had a shot at game
of any kind, with the exception of his killing a
mephitis-mephitica, and that couldn't be called game
by the widest stretch of courtesy. It is, however,
most always that the unexpected happens in hunting.
The two men walked along the beaten horse trail
following the river, looking and listening for the
horses.

They had passed the spot by about a mile where we
had sat watching during the afternoon of the day be-
fore, when they saw something like a ball of fur run
up a cottonwood tree, followed by another ball of the
same kind of fur. The two climbing balls were in
reality two black bear cubs.

Kibbee warned the doctor to look out for the mother
and not to worry about the cubs. She was finally dis-
covered squatting contentedly and eating with ap-
parent gusto the big luscious blueberries from a heavily-
laden bush, which she held in her front paws.

Our good friend, Dr. Hughes, has wide fame among
doctors as a diagnostician. I am informed that the
first qualification for a good diagnostician is a calm and
even disposition. Such a man must never show worry
or haste ; he must be careful, deliberate and thought-
ful, and he must positively be discreet, and our doctor
has all of these necessary adjuncts developed to the

PERILS THAT MUST BE ENDURED 299

fullest extent. Please now note the following narra-
tive as told by his companion Kibbee :

" I'll be hanged if I ever seed such a cool, unnervous,
unexcitable man as that there Dr. Hughes is. When
we spied the old she bear fust she was a-sittin' on her
haunches eatin' blueberries in big mouthfuls. As she
crushed them in her mouth the juice would squirt out
of each side of her jaws, and she never noticed us ; she
was too busy lickin' her chops and pullin' the berries
off'n the bushes.

" The doctor has two sets of glasses — one for shootin'
« and the other for walkin'. As soon as he seed her he
deliberately takes off his walkin' glasses and puts them
into a case and puts that case into his left vest pocket.
Then he takes outen his right vest pocket his other
glasses, also in a case. That case was tied by a piece
of string in a knot.

" He unties the string, rolls it up and puts it in his
pocket, opens the case, takes out the glasses, puts them
on and then carefully puts the case back into the right-
hand pocket of his vest. He next raises the rifle,
sights it at the old bear, a still settin' on her haunches,
pulls the trigger and, jimminy crickets, the old gal
rolls over dead.

" Then he and me got mixed up with the two cubs ;
for in place of shootin' at the two we only shot at one,
and the other got lost in the shuffle."

They skinned the two bears as speedily as they

3oo WITH GUN AND GUIDE

could, and, leaving the carcasses where they lay, the
search for the horses was resumed, and they were
finally found fourteen miles down the river. By the
time they were brought back, the bear hides picked up
and all had arrived at the cabin the day was far ad-
vanced. A hasty meal was eaten, the horses were
loaded and late in the afternoon they started on their
mountain trip.

At the two small lakes plenty of tracks of moose
were seen, but no moose. The mountain was climbed
with considerable difficulty and not a little privation.
A night was spent above the timber line, where the
cold was very severe and the snow was deep and soft,
and where they couldn't get any water to drink or in
which to boil their rice. When daylight once more
greeted them they were hungry and cold, and, being
without food, the doctor, like Falstaff indeed might
have said : " My belly's as cold as if I had swallowed
snowballs for pills."

Kibbee had dinned the doctor's ears with stories of
the multitudes of whistling marmots which they would
find upon the mountain, and you know the skins of
these interesting animals make a fur that is much in
request by fair dames for automobile coats or wraps.
Alack-a-day, another disappointment, for the whistling
marmots were all — every one of them — holed up for
the winter, and the hunters couldn't possibly wait until
spring should come.

PERILS THAT MUST BE ENDURED 301

As for mountain goats, neither the goats nor their
tracks could be seen with plain eye-glasses, or the most
powerful binoculars, and they were constrained to re-
turn on the following Sunday night, without game of
any kind outside of the rich experience which they
had.

It had been agreed that Drs. Koe, Dr. Hughes and
the writer should all come together again on Sunday,
the 3d day of October, as the Koe brothers were to
start for home on the Monday morning following. I
expected that Dr. Hughes would stay over with me for
yet another stage.

Dr. Hughes finally decided that he must go with
the other two hunters, and the writer was equally
determined that he would stay until the next stage,
and leave early on the following Thursday morning,
hoping in the meantime that he might be able to see
and to get a shot at a grizzly. That having been the
prime object of the trip, he was loath to leave without
its accomplishment.

Therefore, according to program, the other three
hunters were off at an early hour Monday morning to
cross the trail to Barkerville, taking all six horses with
them, and also a telegram to be forwarded to Phila-
delphia that I would be out by the following stage.

The writer's mind had been for a couple of days
centred upon the possibility that the carcass of the
black bear which was still lying on the burnt land five

302 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

and a half miles down the river might by this time
have become putrid enough to attract some roving
grizzly to feed upon it, or to cover it up, according to
bear custom, for future use.

So, even before his comrades started, he bid them
farewell, and was off to the burnt land. A copious
rain during the night had made the willow brush very
wet, so that when the scene of the black bear's last
feast of blueberries was reached, he was wet through
and through. In addition, a high wind was blowing
down the river, and he was thus liable to do more harm
than good^in watching for a bear which would be pretty
certain to get his scent. Therefore, he returned to the
cabin at noontime. Kibbee, in the afternoon, weut
down the river in the boat to see if there were any
fresh signs and returned without having seen any.

Tuesday morning both of us were off at daybreak,
and when the burnt land was reached we found the
carcass of the black bear yet unmolested. I had lunch
with me, and having found a spot in a corner formed
by two large logs lying at right angles, where the
carcass was in plain sight, I fixed up a comfortable seat
and prepared to spend the day there ; Kibbee, in the
meantime, going down the river some fourteen miles to
visit a half-breed, upon whose territory we were hunting.

Nothing happened during the day with the excep-
tion of a violent thunder and hail storm that moved
down a valley behind a high range of mountains to

u

PERILS THAT MUST BE ENDURED 303

Bear Lake, and then suddenly turned and swept down
the river with a furious clatter and roar.

Having seen it coming, I prepared by pulling a
rubber blanket over me, and weighting it down with
the rifle. The storm was perhaps fifteen minutes in
passing and left in its wake on the ground over an
inch of hailstones. For lunch, cold boiled rice brought
along in a tin pail and plenty of big blueberries satisfied
my hunger.

The day wore on, and when the wind commenced
to blow in gusts I reluctantly turned my steps once
more toward the cabin, but before it was reached
another rain and hail storm deluged the land.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and clear, and
once more we were off to the land of blueberries and
bear meat. Before getting to the carcass we discovered
with great joy that during the night a grizzly bear had
been there; that it had removed the carcass to a
place where it had covered or cached it with soft
earth and leaves. Indeed we had probably scared it
away as the carcass was left but partly covered.

We were to start out over the trail on the following
morning, Thursday. It seemed best, therefore, for
Kibbee to go down the river bench until he could
corral three horses to take us out to Barkerville, and
for me to lie concealed near the carcass until his return.
It may be easily imagined that I was all eyes for a
moving object of any kind.

304 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

The hours dragged slowly along during the fore-
noon, and nothing appeared to divert the mind ex-
cepting a very large flock of that lively little bird, the
crested flycatcher. These birds flew from tree to
tree, backward and forward, for an hour or more,
their numbers constantly augmenting, until at a signal
from one or more of the leaders among them they all,
to the number of hundreds, started on a flight to the
southland. Another cold lunch of boiled rice was
eaten, and the afternoon arrived ; still no signs of any-
thing exciting.

Finally I saw a swaying willow bush, and then
another, and yet another. Mentally I said : " At last,
at last, I'm to have a shot." The hammer of the rifle
was pulled back, and, expecting to see a bear every
instant, I was on the keen edge of suspense, when the
agile form of Kibbee came into view. He had been
making his way up to me as swiftly and as silently as
he could.

The horses he had left a piece down the trail, so as
not to disturb things if any game was within sight or
hearing. The time was half-past three in the after-
noon. It looked as if another great storm were brew-
ing, for the wind was already gathering quite a veloc-
ity, and, although I had come prepared to lie out all
night, the certainty of a windy and stormy period de-
cided us against such a plan.

This was now the last day, and the chances were

PERILS THAT MUST BE ENDURED 305

as a thousand to one that I would have to return home
without a grizzly. We discussed ways and means for
some few minutes, and then it was decided to build
a structure out of saplings and logs, and in its furthest
part to place the now loud-smelling bear meat. Then
to strap a rifle to two cross-bars so firmly fixed that
if the trigger was touched the rifle would be fired
and there would be no recoil. If the bear should re-
turn and enter the improvised bear den there might be
one chance in fifty that he would get shot before he
would be able to retreat.

Therefore, the first thing to be done was to drag
the carcass over to the butt end of a blown down tree,
then saplings and logs were placed around it in an A
shape, with guiding pieces of brush or saplings to con-
tinually narrow the space as the bear crawled in.

Guides were fixed overhead to compel the bear to
get down on all fours and then on his belly, in order
to reach the meat with his front paws. Eight in front
of the meat, and fixed perpendicularly, was the rifle,
with the muzzle left just high enough to clear the
animal in its struggle to reach the carcass. One end
of a cord was attached to the carcass while the other
end was fastened to the trigger of the rifle, and the
trigger was set.

When all this was done, and the ground cleared of
bits of chopped sticks, etc., everything was in readi-
ness for a possible visit from the bear that had that

306 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

very morning taken possession of the decaying
carcass.

It was believed by both of us that if the threatened
storm did break it would, of course, effectually destroy
our scent, and there would be a chance of the bear
crawling into the artificial den and getting in range
with the bullet by creeping forward on his belly and
reaching out with his paws ; but if it shouldn't rain, then
nothing would be doing and I should be compelled to
return empty-handed as far as a bear was concerned.
So we left for the night and led the horses along with
us, arriving at the cabin some time after dark.

We sat down to supper, but before a bite was eaten
a flash of vivid lightning and a peal of thunder startled
and rejoiced us. These were followed by another hail-
storm and then a deluge of rain, and, listening to its
pattering on the roof, we retired to rest, anxious as to
what the morning light would develop down on the
blueberry barren.

1 was up at four o'clock in the morning and packed
all of my belongings in the dunnage bags, ready for
the packhorses. When this was done breakfast was
ready, and it was not long before Kibbee, Duffy (the
half-breed trapper) and the writer were off for the bear
ground, to see what it had in store for us.

Kibbee led the way and took an easy pace, making
no noise whatever as he slid along ahead of us. When
we got in sight of the " contraption," however, he

PERILS THAT MUST BE ENDURED 307

stopped and we all looked in every direction to see if
there was anything moving, but all was still. Then he
was off to our novel trap at a lively gait. We soon
heard a yell from him.

" We've got her and she's a grizzly for sure, and
she's still warm," he cried. We were there in no time,
and there, indeed, she was, jammed in so tight in order
to get at her breakfast that we couldn't turn her, but
the three of us dragged her out and viewed her over.

She had been killed instantly ; the bullet had passed
dowmvard between her shoulders, and had pierced
her heart and liver ; she hadn't moved after being shot.

The two trappers pronounced her to be a four-year-
old female grizzly, and said she had never been a
mother, and consequently she was just rolling in fat.
We removed about sixty pounds of this white and
beautiful looking fat from her back and shoulders and
about ten pounds from the intestines.

The skin was a very heavy one, but somewhat worn
on the haunches from sitting down while feeding on
the rich bunches of blueberries.

Kibbee carefully removed the gall bladder, which
is much in demand by Chinamen as a cure for indiges-
tion, and for which they will readily pay from $1.50
to $2.00. With one man carrying the fat and the
other the hide, we left the burnt land at half -past ten.

Now a heavy grizzly hide is not an easy thing to
carry and neither is seventy pounds of fat, so we had

308 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

a tedious journey to the cabin. To my surprise the
hide was literally alive with lice, great big ones, and
these had got inside our clothing — even down into our
boots. They were something of the size and appear-
ance of bedbugs, only they were more lively. They
didn't bite or worry us excepting that their crawling
propensities were very unpleasant.

The hide was chucked into a coffee sack so as to get
rid of the creeping pests. In less than ten minutes,
the outside of the bag was alive with them ; how they
managed to crawl through the meshes no one could
imagine. At Barkerville the bundle was incased in
yet another sack — this time a finer woven one, but
still they managed to get through both sacks.

Five days afterward, when packing our stuff into a
big trunk at Ashcroft, they were yet in evidence.
When the trunk finally arrived at its destination, in
Philadelphia, fourteen days after leaving Bear Lake,
there wasn't a sign of one anywhere to be seen.
They had got out of the trunk and no doubt had
spread themselves out in platoons in the baggage-car.

After getting everything in readiness for breaking
camp that last day at Bear Lake, we made a hurried
meal, saddled the horses, boated the stuff to be
" packed " out on horseback across the river, swam and
waded the horses over, and then put the last finishing
touches to the packs. At 1 : 30 P. M., we touched the
horses with the lithe willow brush branches and were

PERILS THAT MUST BE ENDURED 309

off for home, and the hunting trip of 1909 was a thing
of the past.

" The trails of the world be countless, and most of the

trails be tried :
You tread on the heels of the many, till you come

where the ways divide :
And one lies safe in the sunlight, and the other is

dreary and wan :
Yet you look aslant at the lone trail, and the lone trail

lures you on.
And somehow you're sick of the highway, with its

noise and its easy needs,
And you seek the risk of the byway, and you reck not

where it leads."

CHAPTEE XXVIII
AN EXCITING TRIP THROUGH A NEW COUNTRY

WE got under way on the outward trip upon a day
that looked " all to the good " so far as the weather
was concerned, but in the particular section of British
Columbia that had been our stamping ground for six
weeks there was really no such thing as predicting
what sort of weather it would be, even for such a short
period as an hour or more.

It is hard to describe this trail, because there is noth-
ing that I have ever seen in the East to compare it
with. It follows along the shore of Bear Lake for a
few hundred yards, at times making a slight excursion
into the woods where the water on the shore of the
lake is too deep for the horses to wade, and then out
again.

When the trail leaves the lake finally, it does so at
right angles, and for about five miles it meanders
through burnt land, where the fallen trees have been
sawed through twice, so as to cut out a pathway about
three feet wide.

The horse which I rode was a cayuse, blind in one
eye — the right eye. With his good left eye he saw to
it that he didn't get near the points of the logs as we
wound around in a serpentine way. The other side,

AN EXCITING TRIP 311

however, he couldn't see, and so he was almost contin-
ually running into logs which faced us and logs which
paralleled our path, and my shin, knee and right leg
were soon bruised and scarred.

The trail wound ever upward, until the peak of the
first mountain was reached, and then, without any pre-
monition, it started down again at such a pitch that
the horses had to slide a little of the way. At the bot-
tom there was of a truth a canyon — dark, moist and
deep.

The trail led up the side of the next mountain, in
places hanging on like a thread. The storms of the
few previous days had blown down many trees over
our pathway, and it was necessary to chop these into
two sections and cast them down the side of the moun-
tain before we could pass.

The government land commissioner at Barkerville,
George W. Walker, had with rare courtesy and fore-
thought sent a man out over the trail a week before to
cut out the dead falls, for our convenience, or else our
difficulties would have been much more serious than
they were. Before darkness overtook us we counted
one hundred and five obstructions that had been cut
through with a cross-cut saw and removed.

A second peak having been scaled, down we went
again — " Down, down among the dead men," as the
old song says — and at the bottom of the canyon we
struck green timber, and dense darkness enveloped us.

312 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

The trail was now over rocks, and slippery with run-
ning water flowing in tiny streams among them. Mud
of the stickiest kind was encountered ; the horse, in-
stead of jamming my right leg against logs which
sometimes would move, now ran me into large boulders
that had fallen down from the side of the mountain
and lodged on the trail.

The saddle was too wide for me to ride in comfort,
and it seemed best to dismount and walk. Fortunately
the cayuse was white, and by keeping close up to him
I could be guided by his color ; but it was a continual
series of stumbles, first for the horse and then for myself.

As for the mud, it covered my trousers and tall
leather boots. Kibbee kept on ahead, singing blithely
to cheer up old " Maud," the packhorse. Three times
the wise old horse stopped when the tips of the caribou
antlers struck against an obstruction overhead. Each
was a tree that had blown down across the trail, but
had lodged against other trees. It was necessary to
feel for the trees in the darkness and then cut them out
with the axe, and all the while " Maud " stood like a
statue.

There's an end to all bad roads and trails, as there
was to this one. The night had become very cold, and
when we emerged from the trail into the stage road
running into Barkerville the muddy road had frozen
over in places and everywhere the mud was stiff, and
after stumbling over it for three miles, the lights from

AN EXCITING TRIP 313

the famous gold mining town were, indeed, welcome
sights.

When we drew up in front of the hotel, Dr. W. J.
Roe was discovered sitting alongside of the big stove
in his stocking feet. We asked him to give us a lift in
unloading the packhorse. His only answer was to
shake his head.

" What's the matter with you ; have you lost both
your father and your mother ? " we asked him, and yet
not an intelligible word came from him. It developed
that he had but a few minutes before returned from an
arduous ride and tramp after a wounded grizzly, and
that he was so tired and done up that articulate speech
was a hardship for him.

On the previous Wednesday, a hunter had killed a
caribou on Agnes Mountain and had taken away the
head and hide, leaving the meat to be carried down by
some Chinamen the following day. When the Orien-
tals found the carcass in the morning they fled precipi-
tately down the side of the mountain, back to Barker-
ville, and gave out the startling information that no
less than five bears were feeding upon the meat.

The spokesman said, "Belly too much bear — tree
brownie bear — tree blackie bear — one white bear," but
this made seven, instead of five. The hunter and his
guide mounted a pair of saddle horses when they heard
this news, and away they started after the bear con-
vention.

314 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Sure enough, they did see one bear when they came
in sight of the dead caribou ; it was a grizzly, and the
bullets flew thick and fast as the beast fled before
them. They wounded the bear in the right hip, and
the men returned, much crestfallen, without him.

The hunter who had shot it decided to go out for
home by the stage that day, as he said his time was up,
and his guide then laid siege to our " W. J.," asking
him to postpone his going until the next trip of the
stage and to accompany him upon an expedition in
search of the wounded bear.

This project looked good to our comrade. They
mutually clasped hands upon the proposition, got a pair
of trusty horses, some grub, and on Tuesday morning
off they went, full of hope and enthusiasm. The trail
of the bear was easily found by the quantity of blood
which he had lost, but it was not so easy to hold, as
the bleeding was not by any means continuous.

It led them to the peak of the mountain and then
downward. The men tethered their horses near the
top and followed it around and around the sides of the
mountain; it seemed to be continually descending.
This made the hunters believe that its wound prevented
it from going upward, and that its only recourse was
to go down ; so they went down until darkness nearly
overtook them, and, of course, a climb back again to
the horses was necessary, the climb being a distance of
fifteen hundred feet.

AN EXCITING TRIP 315

When the horses were at last found and mounted
they managed to get down the steep declivity by walk-
ing some and sliding more, and the first day's quest
was a failure.

The second day almost the same program was fol-
lowed. In some tall grass the bear's bed of the
night before was discovered, and everything looked
hopeful, but again the day's work ended in a complete
failure.

Thursday they managed to "jump" him among
rocks, and then our " Jim " did some rare sprinting,
with his respiration bordering upon 300. He is of
Falstaffian dimensions. His sweater was cast aside in
the run ; next his coat, followed by a pair of trousers
and his hat, the guide encouraging him to " Come on,
come on."

There were logs a-many; some were slippery, and
over these the trail must lead ; and need it be wondered
at that our doughty companion often fell ! He once
slipped and slid feet first down a portion of the steep
mountainside. The guide said he could hear the bear
crashing through the bushes, but, alas ! he couldn't get
close enough to see him. He was always twenty min-
utes behind the bear, or, to put it more plainly, the
bear was twenty minutes ahead of him.

So once more a pair of weary men came down the
hill without the bear, and as they had arrived but ten
minutes before us, "W. J." had not had time to get

316 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

rested. This was his last day's hunt. The chase was
resumed, however, on Friday by the guide and a
partner.

At first they met with some prospects of success, but
a snow-storm started, which kept getting heavier and
heavier, until all signs of the trail were obliterated, and
the hunt was called off for good.

Therefore, it is fair to assume that that particular
bear is at the present time safely housed up for the
winter, and that he will sleep until spring, and
then he'll have to hustle for his food in right good
earnest.

The packhorse being unloaded, and the other horses
sent to their stalls, a smiling Chinaman's hand was
crossed with a dollar bill and he was asked to get us
food. We wanted something that would not " clog the
hungry edge of appetite by bare imagination of a feast,"
and after that a hot bath to take the kinks out of a tired
and much-abused spine. In due time the Chinaman
managed to set before each of us a tenderloin steak,
with onions, potatoes and tomatoes, and we ate and
were merry. After the good supper and the hot bath,
our sleep was sound and long.

The stage was advertised to start at two o'clock the
following afternoon, and there was no reason why it
shouldn't have done so. The driver — a stolid English-
man— moved with exasperating slowness. He had all
of the forenoon in which to get ready, but he was in no

AN EXCITING TRIP 317

, and " fiddled " around taking life easy until five
minutes past three, and then we were off with four
horses hauling us, and a little snow falling.

On the stage was a woman, a native, born in Barker-
viile, and a little girl, whom she was going to take out
to school in the Kootenay country ; a blacksmith be-
longing to the stage company, and another man. We
were told that we would arrive in Stanley, fourteen
miles away, for supper at six o'clock, if we started on
time. Had we left at two, we probably should have
done so ; but the snow came down thicker and thicker
as we climbed mountain after mountain, and it was late
when we reached Stanley, and later still when we left
there for Cotton wood, where we were to spend the
night. The snow now turned to rain.

We should have been in front of the big stove in the
Cottonwood house at ten o'clock, but it was after one
in the morning when the bedraggled woman and child
and the rest of us got there. The finery of the females
was all drenching wet ; hats, feathers and other fixings
were apparently ruined. The bunch of us sat around
a big hot stove until nearly three o'clock, and then we
were off to bed to sleep until six.

Saturday morning snow and slush covered the ground
and it still rained. The road now became very muddy
and heavy, and the best the horses could do for many
miles was a walk. At 1 p. M. Quesnelle on the
Frazer River was reached. Here we took the steamer

3i8 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Charlotte for a ride down this mighty river to Soda
Creek. We just had time to run in and shake hands
with Mr. Collins, the manager of the Hudson Bay Com-
pany at Quesnelle, when the whistle blew for the
steamer's start, and off we went.

The passenger list of the Charlotte contained many
Siwash Indians, some Chinamen going back to China,
timber prospectors, lumbermen and sportsmen. The
ride down the stream was intensely interesting by
reason of the ever-changing scenery, the rushing water,
and occasional small flights of ducks.

After an hour's run a man on the right-hand bank
signaled to us. The boat was turned around head up-
stream and then worked to the shore, where it turned
out that the man carried " the royal mail," and this
having been taken aboard and the inward bound mail
given to the man, we again proceeded for another hour,
when the boat was swung around again to take on fire-
wood for the boiler.

The boat was to stay from an hour to an hour and a
quarter in loading the fire-wood. Here, then, was an
opportunity for a good long walk on the bench of land
between the great river and the mountains at the back.
I was not long in getting out on the brown earth, and
covered two or three miles before returning.

On climbing down the bank to the water's edge, 1
saw some very peculiarly colored stones in the water.
I picked a small paper bag full of the oddest looking

AN EXCITING TRIP 319

ones, which were brought to Philadelphia and shown
to a lapidary, who couldn't even classify them. I had
them cut up and made into stick pins, brooches and
rings, and they made very novel and acceptable Christ-
mas presents.

We were stopped once more on signal from a woman
who was waiting on the bank. She, with her baggage,
was soon aboard, and then the journey was completed
without interruption.

Soda Creek is a little village nestling close to the
Frazer River, with one so-called hotel and, say, a half
dozen houses. It was pitch dark when we arrived at
the landing and the road very muddy from the excess-
ive rains. The arrangement for the luggage owned
by the passengers was that it should stay until the
stage should arrive from Ashcroft, due at 10: 30 o'clock,
when the stuff for the up-river trip was unloaded from
the stage to the steamer.

Our stuff would then be loaded upon the same stage,
where it would remain out in the open until noon of
the next day exposed to the rain or snow all of that
time.

I had two dunnage bags weighing about eighty
pounds each. The night was dark and it was pouring
rain. I didn't know the way, and the so-called hotel
was said to be a quarter of a mile away and up a fairly
steep bank.

I asked the purser — an Englishman — if he would al-

320 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

low me to hire one of the steamer's men to carry up
my sacks for me. He replied, No ; he had no men to
spare. I shouldered one of the bags weighing eighty
pounds, and walked down the narrow gangplank be-
hind the Barker ville woman and child.

They were also compelled to carry their baggage,
while the consequential purser came after us and
walked off with a lantern by himself, and never stopped
either to help the women down the narrow plank in
the dark or to show them the way with his light.
That was a long quarter of a mile, with an eighty-
pound sack and me stumbling along the road.

A gate was reached which led to a way through
a muddy lot. I opened it and went down in mud up
to the ankles, but at last I reached that apology for a
hotel. The women came close after me. There were
some very angry comments made by the passengers
upon the conduct of the surly English purser.

The next morning (Sunday) the weather was warm
and muggy, and it looked like more rain. The stage
had been woefully late, not having gotten in until five
in the morning. Hearing that a man by the name of
" Billy " Lyons kept a good house eight miles away on
our route, and as the stage would be heavily loaded —
there were seventeen passengers to go — I paid my bill,
and, getting " W. J." to look after my luggage, started
to walk to the abode of " Billy " Lyons. One of the
men said as I started :

AN EXCITING TRIP 321

" Mister, the mile posts will say eight miles, all right
enough, but the road winds around from the river's
elevation of 1,200 feet to 4,500 feet, and before you
will get to ' Billy's ' you'll say it's a good twenty miles
when your walk is finished."

Not far from the hotel a Chinaman was feeding his
chickens, and I accosted him : " John, is it going to
rain?"

"Ya ya, him soon rain belly hard!" I thought
John was right, but still went on.

When the first bench of the mountains was climbed
it was necessary to remove all of my superfluous cloth-
ing and tie it in a bundle, as I was perspiring freely.
An Indian village with a small white Catholic church
in its midst lured me off to the right of the road to in-
spect it. A young Indian was carrying a set of har-
ness through the only street of the village. Did he
think it would rain ?

He looked up and surveyed the sky and then said :
" He make heap dam fuss — he no rain." Here was the
opinion of the aboriginal American against that of the
Oriental; which would be right? The Indian was
right ; there was a " heap fuss," but no rain.

At " Billy " Lyons' I found three other men who had
walked, rather than take another meal at the Soda
Creek Hotel. We found the proprietor and his wife to
be half-breeds (the wife having been educated in a con-
vent school). We had a good dinner and a good long

322 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

rest before the stage arrived. We spent the night at
" One-hundred-and-fifty-mile House," and left very
early Monday morning.

It was a singularly fortunate thing that we came out
when we did, as the next stage which followed us was
held up by three masked men armed with rifles, and
they cleaned up out of the lot between $4,000 and
$5,000. The place selected for the hold-up was behind
a sharp curve in the road ; the time early in the morn-
ing, when the light was anything but good.

Neither the driver nor the passengers had any
chance to make the slightest resistance. The bandits
took the situation leisurely, showed no hurry or excite-
ment, but got what they were after and then disap-
peared in the woods. I have not heard anything of
their capture.

At the next stop for a change of horses we learned
that the hostler, an old man, had dropped dead an hour
before our arrival from heart failure. The man who
took his place brought out the horses and put the lead-
ers at the wheel and the wheel horses in the lead, and
they wouldn't go, but pranced around until they broke
the tongue. A passenger by the name of N. S. Clark,
manager of the Fort George Lumber and Navigation
Company, was on the stage. Mr. Clark is a man of
brawn and initiative.

He launched a steamer kst summer on the Frazer
River under a capable captain, who navigated two hun-

AN EXCITING TRIP 323

dred and fifty miles of the river which previously had
always been considered impassable. In addition to
this, he is building another steamer, and next spring
will endeavor to force her through the canyons on the
lower part of the river, between Lillooet and the Pete
Jaune cache, and if this experiment is successful he will
receive much praise, many thanks and lots of money in
the shape of fares from a grateful public.

" Nick " Clark saw that the broken tongue of the
stage was liable to cause a day's delay to himself, and
the rest of us, so he volunteered to repair the damage,
as there were at hand a forge, an anvil and some iron
plates and bolts. The work would take a couple of
hours, so I started ahead for another long walk. Some
seven or eight miles away I sat down to wait on the
side of a hill for the stage, when three Chinamen came
along and sat down beside me. The younger of
the three had a bottle of whiskey with which he made
quite free, inviting me to take some. Declining his of-
fer with thanks, I asked where they were going. He
said :

" Me takie two Chinamen coast — they go home to
China — they send my boy back here."

" How old is your boy ? "

" Him thirteen."

" Why are these men going home ? "

"They too old to stay; that man he sixty-seven;
other man fifty-five."

324 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

" Oh, I see ; they are going home now, so as to
carry their bones home with them and thus save the
freight."

He laughed very heartily at this, and told the others
what I had said and they in turn laughed loud and
long.

The talkative young Chinaman said that the body of
a Chinese who dies in this country must lie buried
seven years ; then the bones are disinterred and wrapped
up carefully, tagged and shipped back to China for
burial. The whole operation costs from $25 to $35.
The same Chinaman informed me that it now costs
$500 to get a Chinaman of the coolie class into British
Columbia, and they, therefore, take no chances in
going out of the country until they are ready to
go back to China to die and be buried with their
ancestors.

This old Cariboo trail has seen many migrations
of Indians, half-breeds, hunters, trappers, clergymen,
lumbermen, agriculturists, miners, prospectors, home-
seekers, business men, cattlemen, drummers, school-
teachers, and others going " in " perhaps full of hope
and expectation, seeing new sights and new lands, new
methods and new interests.

On the outward trip the same classes of people pre-
sent a very different aspect as they journey toward the
steel rails which will take them to the busy world
again. The incentive of adventure being lacking on

AN EXCITING TRIP 325

their return, they are not so demonstrative and not so
eager to ask questions.

They have seen and explored the unknown, and their
curiosity, at any rate, is satisfied, and they have be-
come wiser and richer by experience.

CHAPTER XXIX
THE END OF THE TRIP

AT " One-hundred-and-thirteen-mile House " we
came to one of the loveliest of lakes. It is about
fifteen miles long, but not very wide. The water is of
exquisite clearness ; indeed, so clear is it that the pas-
time of skating for fish when the first clear ice forms in
the early fall is indulged in by lads, lasses and mature
men and women.

This lake is celebrated as being the home of a species
of trout or char, some of which grow to a very large
size and are of delicious flavor. The first ice is so clear
that the fish can readily be seen through it, and then
the skaters assemble in large numbers and follow them
in their quick movements in the endeavor to drive them
close to shore, where the water is shallow enough to
hedge them in under the ice ; they are then dispatched
by breaking the ice and spearing them.

The sport is said to be very exciting, and catches are
often made by the skaters in large enough quantity to
salt away for the winter's use.

Tradition says that a Frenchman was chopping
through the heavy ice in late winter with an axe, and
that when a hole in the ice was finally cut through, the

THE END OF THE TRIP 327

axe slipped to the bottom, and was lost, hence the
name Lac La Hache — " Lake of the Axe."

At " Eighty-three-mile House " we arrived very late,
and found a goodly number of passengers, who had
come earlier in the evening by the stage going north.
The rooms in this house are not at all large, and the
crowd necessitated a general " doubling up " of the
travelers for the night. Our stage was to leave at
seven in the morning, and the other one at four, so
some confusion naturally took place when the north-
bound people were aroused, breakfasted and started oft
on their long ride.

The distribution of the mails along this famous
Cariboo wagon road is quite interesting. The route
lies through a large stretch of country where the
ground has to be irrigated, as the rainfall is quite
meagre. In this section many cattle are grazed, vege-
tables cultivated and a good deal of hay is grown.

We noticed in addition to the letters, newspapers
and mail order merchandise carried in the mails, that
trade papers and magazines relative to farming and
stock raising were distributed in abundance — the Farm
Journal, published in Philadelphia, being most fre-
quently seen.

I asked a man in Barkerville why they used so many
magazines and newspapers up there. He said because
the nights were long and bitterly cold, and it was obvi-
ous that much reading would be indulged in ; and, in

328 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

consequence, stories of adventure and the news of the
day were all eagerly devoured.

After leaving " Eighty-three-mile House " early in
the morning, we saw a white man just arising from the
ground a short distance from the road, where he had
spent the night. He had no tent over him or blanket
under him, but he had gathered a few branches in lieu
of a mattress, built a little fire, which was yet smoulder-
ing as we passed, and with his rifle lying by his side he
had thus passed the night.

Further on we saw many groups of Siwash Indians
— bucks, squaws and papooses — some seated around
camp-fires eating their morning meal, and some appar-
ently sound asleep. Their cayuse ponies were tethered
close by the camp-fires, while the dogs were huddled
together near their masters. All of these many groups
of Indians were migrating south for the winter.

Now and then we would notice a Chinaman, or per-
haps a pair of them, bunking with the red men, or
traveling with them in their wagons. The Chinamen
seem to get along very well with the aboriginals, and
the mingling of the races excites no comment.

We came to an Indian reservation, where the occu-
pants were all dressed in gala attire. Their horses
were hitched to fences and trees, and the men, the
squaws and the children were laughing and apparently
in rare good humor. Upon inquiry we were informed
that the day was a holiday ; that the priest was to be

THE END OF THE TRIP 329

there, and was even then expected to arrive at any
minute.

After the mass, the sermon and the private instruc-
tions of the priest, there were to be horse-races and
other amusements that the Indians delight in upon
holiday occasions.

The Jesuits undoubtedly have been strong factors in
helping to civilize the Indians of the Northwest, and
a^e now doing much to lead them to higher and better
living.

In former times the priests suffered great privation
from hunger, cold, and fatigue ; but they persevered
and worked cheerfully and without grumbling over
their hard lot. Finally they won the confidence of the
natives, their admonitions were listened to, and grad-
ually, though very slowly, they instilled into the peo-
ple some of the brighter things to be found in
civilized life, while steering them away from many of
its evils.

At Clinton, thirty-four miles from Ashcroft, we had
dinner. Here the Chinamen have stores and also act
as contractors in cutting down timber for fire-wood.
From this place to Ashcroft the country has very much
the appearance of a great portion of Arizona. It is a
section where irrigation must be resorted to if vegeta-
tion is to flourish at all.

We were shown an irrigation ditch of several miles
in length that had been surveyed and staked out by an

330 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

engineer of repute and built at an enormous cost. When
the work was finished, it was found that the water
wouldn't run in it at all, because it was mostly up-hill.
The engineer had blundered, but his blunder ruined his
patron, as he lost by it every dollar he had in the
world.

At 4< Twelve-mile House " we saw an example of
what irrigation can do in the lusty growth of grasses,
flowers, oats, hay and fruits. Outside of the irrigated
tract everything was dried up and parched.

In the bottom lands along the Bonaparte River pota-
toes of tine quality are grown in abundance, making
Ashcroft the shipping point every fall for hundreds of
carloads of the tubers.

We finally pulled into Ashcroft, crossed the bridge over
the north branch of the Thompson River and rattled up
to the office of the British Columbia Express Company
upon schedule time — at precisely six o'clock in the
evening. Our train was to leave at ten, and through
the courtesy of J. D. Moore, the agent of the express
company, we were permitted, after supper, to return to
the company's office (where our trunks had been left
upon our arrival there on August 29th) to change our
clothes and repack our trunks for shipment to the East.
This necessary work took considerable time.

The night was hot and close, and the door was fre-
quently opened by persons inquiring for packages,
trunks, satchels, etc. Among the number were several

THE END OF THE TRIP 331

women, so we did considerable dodging behind
trunks while the process of undressing and dressing
went on.

We had to pack our trophies, portions of logs cut
down by beavers, many high-colored stones picked up
on the banks of the Frazer River, jars of blueberries
that one of our " Falstaifs " was taking home to show
what real blueberries were like, the hide, antlers and
scalp of a caribou ; two bear hides and the dried skins
of trout for mounting.

When this work was all finished, we found it would
be necessary to see the customs officer to bond our stuff
through, for if we failed to do so, it might be delayed.
With three green hides in one trunk, an unusual delay
might ruin them.

We found the customs officer, and although he was on
his way to an entertainment in company with his wife,
he cheerfully came to our rescue, and saw that the
magical leaden seals were affixed to our trunks.

The hotel men at the Ashcroft Hotel were equally
courteous, for although we only took supper there, they
placed two of their best rooms on the ground floor at
our disposal, saying that the train might be late, and
we ought to lie down and take a rest. The train was
late and we fully appreciated their kindness, but they
refused to take any pay for the use of their rooms. At
a few minutes of midnight, the headlight of the locomo-
tive that was to start us upon our long journey to the

332 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

East loomed up, and we were once more on the steel
rails and bound for home.

It may be well just here to sum up the results of this
journey of close to 10,000 miles in the always exciting
search after big game.

Early in August our monitor advised us by wire to
be at Earkerville on September first, and we were there
on the second. In the light of our present experience
we were at least one month too early, and were we to
repeat the trip, we would expect to start in hunting on
the first of October. By that time the frost, snow and
sleet, the rains and high winds would have denuded
the willow brush of its wealth of leaves. The blueberry
season would be over, and the spawning salmon would
all be dead.

The grizzly bears, then having neither berries nor
salmon to feed upon, would be traveling around con-
siderably before " holing up," and the willow brush,
naked of leafage, would not act as a screen for them ;
they could be seen and followed with a reasonable
chance of killing one or more of them.

The amount of game which fell to our rifles was
woefully out of tune with our expectations, but the
wealth of experience gained was of such a varied char-
acter, that we consider the trip one of the most satis-
factory among many which are now happy memories
of the past.

The district of Cariboo, in which we hunted, is one

THE END OF THE TRIP 333

of the largest districts of British Columbia. It is of
greater extent than the state of Pennsylvania, and yet
it polls less than 500 votes. This will serve to show
the sparseness of human life in this vast tract of mostly
undeveloped land.

Cassiar district, still further to the northwest and
adjoining the territory of Alaska, is another region of
magnificent distances which the new Grand Trunk
Pacific Railroad will help to develop. Great fortunes
loom up as the reward for pioneers when this railway
is finally in operation.

There are billions of feet of logs to be cut where
never a tree has yet been felled for shipment, and mil-
lions of tons of coal that now lie undisturbed in the
bowels of the earth. Enormous deposits of iron ore, of
copper ore and of gold will be opened up through the
magic influence of the steel rails which will connect
the forests and waters of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia with those of the Frazer, the Peace, the Skeena,
the Parsnip, the Blackwater, the Stickine, and the
Thompson Rivers.

The term " Northwest " gives but little idea of what
a vast stretch of country, mostly unsurveyed, it repre-
sents. In the official Bulletin No. 22, just issued by
the government of New British Columbia, the report
of a single one of its many expeditions sent out every
year to explore and write up the resources, characteris-
tics and possibilities of development of this far-off

334 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

Golconda may serve to throw a little light upon this
most interesting part of the northern hemisphere.

The exploring party was made up of but three men
for part of the time, and later there were only two
men engaged in the work. The route taken was from
Victoria and Vancouver to Essington, at the mouth of
the Skeena Kiver, a journey of six hundred and forty-
five miles ; up the Skeena by steamer to Hazleton, one
hundred and eighty miles ; by pack train to Babine,
seventy miles ; up Babine Lake by canoe, with a port-
age of twelve miles to Stuart Lake, and thence to Fort
St. James, one hundred and fifty miles.

From Fort St. James, they went by packhorse to
McLeod Lake, eighty-five miles. McLeod Lake being
on the head waters of the Peace Kiver, canoes were
used to the head of the Peace Kiver canyon^ one hun-
dred and eighty-two miles. Then a portage around
the canyon of fourteen miles compelled the party to
abandon its canoes and " pack " all of its supplies and
camp outfit on their backs to Hudson Hope.

From there to Fort St. John, on the Peace Eiver, was
a trip of sixty miles. They expected to make the
journey on a raft, but, fortunately, they met an Indian
with some horses, and they made a detour with him to
Moberly Lake, in the Pine Kiver district, making in all
an overland trip of ninety miles.

Next a trip to Ponce Coupe prairie and return by
packhorses, one hundred and eighty-five miles. At

THE END OF THE TRIP 335

Fort St. John a bateau was obtained from the Hudson
Bay Company, and in this they went down the river to
the junction of the Smoky River with the Peace Eiver,
one hundred and eighty miles. Then by freight wagon
to the upper end of Lesser Slave Lake, one hundred
miles ; then down Lesser Slave Lake and river and
Athabasca River to Athabasca landing, in a canoe, two
hundred miles ; and, lastly, by wagon road to Edmon-
ton, one hundred miles, making a total journey of ap-
proximately 3,120 miles.

The report says : " The range has only begun to be
prospected, and its potentialities are as yet undemon-
strated.

" In this far North country wild hay and other wild
grasses were growing prolifically, and presumably rye,
oats, barley and wheat would likewise grow in abun-
dance. All garden vegetables and root crops are suc-
cessfully grown, while raspberries, currants, strawber-
ries and gooseberries grow in wanton profusion."

A botanist who accompanied a previous geological
survey writes :

"Clumps of willows and poplars of various ages
were interspersed with the most astonishing growth of
herbaceous plants I ever witnessed. ... It would
be folly to attempt to depict the appearance of the
country, as it was so much beyond what I ever saw
that I hardly dare make use of truthful words to por-
tray it."

336 WITH GUN AND GUIDE

All that has been needed in the past to open up to
cultivation and civilization this great northern empire
was transportation. And now that the new railroad is
to be in operation all the way from the Atlantic to the
Pacific by 1912, there is no living man who can ac-
curately predict the possibilities and the future of this
great country.

I rejoice that I have been able to see even a small
portion of it ; to mingle with its pioneers ; to tramp
over an unsurveyed territory ; to see nature in perhaps
her roughest moods ; to breathe the wonderfully
stimulating air; to endure hardships successfully, in
company with the trapper, the woodsman, the pros-
pector, the explorer; to have crossed dizzy mountain
heights on the back of the safe old packhorse ; to have
u packed " my share of the loads over portages and effi-
ciently used the bow paddle of the boat from first to
last of the whole trip : that in the time thus employed 1
was always in prime health, no matter how great the
exposure to the weather, or how meagre the food sup-
ply : and, lastly, that I returned safely, freshened of
mind, strengthened of body, and with an experience
that will never be forgotten.

And now my tale is told. The curtain is rung down,
but before the audience is dismissed, a last word might
well be said.

For you, readers, who have followed my story from-
that superheated day, the 24th of August, when we bade

THE END OF THE TRIP 337

farewell to the bunch of friends gathered at the rail-
road station, to this last writing, I truly hope that
something that has been written will induce you to try
the experience of living for a time at least in the open
air.

Select some section of the land where you will have
to bestir yourselves — to endure some hardships, some
privations, some exposure to the elements ; where a din-
ner upon boiled rice with an accompaniment of ripe
blueberries will taste better than the most sumptuous
banquet to which you ever sat down ; where you
will have to scale snow-clad mountains and tramp
through the snow, making your lungs work as never
before ; where you will oftentimes be so weary as to
drop to the ground for rest, and presto— you're asleep,
only to be awakened, renewed in muscular strength,
more resolute of purpose and with a clearer intellect.
You will rejoice, when at last you return to your own
fireside, that for once, at least, you have lived a new
life — that you have learned to know what the " great
white silence " means and that you have commenced to
know yourself. In all of this writing I have been en-
deavoring to help you.

" God knows I have tried to be true ;
Please God, you will understand."

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