PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE 

 a long time afterwards. This was Hnov/n as the 



"hollow tree sale." Just before or about the 

 time of the first freeze Sawyer left the ridge (2ind 

 a paper informing the settlers that all kinds of 

 things hcippen in the Kankakee Swamps, he 

 took the map of the Kankakee valley and de- 

 parted. A few days later the settlers came and 

 had a bee tree cutting. They cut several trees 

 and did not find any honey nor bees but found a 

 piece of honey-comb on a string inside the tree. 

 This led them to believe that they had been 

 tricked. They went to their homes m.uch '.^^iser, 

 but with no honey. V/hat they said of their ex- 

 perience was never known. A fev/ days after 

 this an old bee hunter jsked one of them how 

 much honey they got. fie drev/ a long hunting 

 knife and threatened the inquirer. The other 

 settlers were questioned not at all. It v/as one 

 of th<> shrewdest tricks ever pulled off in the his- 

 tory of ihe Kankakee Valley, liis fame as a 

 bee hunter went abroad all over Northern In- 

 diana and he was thence after knov/n as Honey 



98 



