4H AN ANGLER'S REMINISCENCES. 



was an attractive resort for special guests, where high-grade fish portraits were 

 painted wonderfully and true to life by his dexterous wife. I had hoped to have 

 his Indian birch canoe and his appearance in dress uniform be shown in this self- 

 chapter ; but it will doubtless come in a future de luxe volume. His summer house 

 was burned fifteen years ago, and now the entire Campbellton population of 2,000 

 was burned last year, bodily and totally. 



In 1874-5 there went forth an edict from the government, sub rosa, to cut off 

 subsistence of the plains Indians by slaughtering buffaloes, elk and antelope. In 

 consequence the wolves starved as well as the redskins, but of late years they 

 have fared much better, where they can fatten on the homesteads of the spreading 

 settlers. 



Once, away back, when Fred E. Pond was hunting prairie chickens in Wis- 

 consin, he held up a train for five minutes, on which I was traveling, and obtained 

 a momentary interview with me. Then he waved a signal and the train moved on. 

 He was just of age, and good stuff. 



In Canada the French (habitans) and half-breed guides and voyageures were 

 very tractable and serviceable, and drank whisky "only when I did" by agreement. 

 But let the redskins appear in a later chapter. I will introduce a lot of them 

 whom I met. I have a list of a hundred or more ; and also a list of my army 

 comrades, who ranged the plains over and wrote up essays for "Forest and 

 Stream." I missed few frontier posts from boundary to boundary, north to south, 

 Maine to Texas*, and Pembina to Caddo in the Nation. I spent ten weeks with my 

 wife at Fort Custer, in Montana, with Senior Capt. G. K. Sanderson, of the llth 

 Infantry, and Capt. Hamilton, of the Cavalry. We went out shooting and trout 

 fishing in Big and Little Horn, Lodger's creek, Black canyon and up the 

 Yellowstone. Trout fishing and grayling everywhere. Old man Finkley, on 

 Prior's creek, showed us the best fishing places. That was in 1881, not so very long 

 after General Custer's soldiers were wiped out by the Sioux (in 1876), and our 

 river boat pilot houses were sheathed with iron plates to keep off bullets from the 

 overlooking plateau, where Indians would ambush and shoot at us as we passed. 

 We had some good shooting of our own at geese on the mud flats in midstream 

 as our stern-wheel burrow chugged up the quick water. That same year I stopped 

 with Major E. B. Kirk at Bismarck for a day, when they brought in Sitting Bull 

 as a prisoner from Fort Yates below. At Terry's Landing, on the Big Horn, 

 there was a covered way from the cantonment to the river side, where the soldiers 

 went for water, to keep from being shot by the Sioux, who were still on the 

 warpath. I put up with Lieutenant Wheeler. The same year General Phil 

 Sheridan was in the Rockies with the dukes hunting grizzlies, when G. O. 

 Shields (magazine writer) joined the outfit at Ft. Custer and afterwards published 

 a volume of the battle and exploits, with photos of pelts and trophies won. 

 Captain Partello wrote up many hunting stories for the "American Field," and so 

 did Lieutenant Schwatka. Such men are worth mentioning. 



In course of time I worked my way eastward as far as Fargo, N. Dak., 

 about October 1, and found Editor Hull, of the "Republican," whom I had known 

 at Presque Isle, Maine, in 1859, where he was editor of the "Pioneer." Here 

 is what he printed about my western trip. Every resident was interested; it was 

 a critical time : 



; "He says that the buffaloes are running between the Missouri and the 

 Yellowstone. He saw the first buffalo about fifteen miles east of Fort Custer, and 

 while standing in the door of the stage ranch was fortunate enough to shoot one. 

 The. herd commenced moving southward about the middle of August, and two 



