SPORT IN THE COAST RANGE MOUNTAINS. 267 



of the supernatural essence of love." The lady shut her 

 eyes for a moment, blew her nose, and then answered 

 that " the youthful male who had asked her that bright 

 and sunny question had not yet met his collateral 

 affinity of a natural kind, and so it would be useless 

 to tell him of that grand ethereal idea, — supernal love ;" 

 at which there was a laugh, and considerable '^you 

 bet," and tobacco-squirting. The fluffy-haired youth 

 looked disgusted, and said Miss R. was " a darned beat," 

 on which he was immediately turned out of the hall, and 

 told that he was extremely lucky not to be shot there 

 and then. All sorts of questions were asked, but the 

 medium held her own, having been, as my neighbour 

 informed me, ^' born in Illenoy, raised in Kansas, and 

 finished her raising in Colorado terri-tory." 



At last Elijah Shocum rose ; it was evidently expected 

 that he would. He was a very dirty man, with a three- 

 day-old beard on his chin. He expectorated four several 

 times, and then said, " Can the trifold mystery of the 

 elements, as exhibited by fire, water, and air, ever co- 

 lide with the forces of mathematical power as shown in 

 the pheelosophy of the ancients." This was certainly 

 something in questions, but Miss Ramsbottom was fully 

 equal to the occasion. " The pheelosophy of the ancients 

 is a played-out artifice ; the invisible and immense force 

 of the trifold mystery is such as can only be examined 

 by a speeritual temperament, and, lookye here, Elijah 

 Shocum, dern yer old skin, I^m not come all the way 

 from Illenoy to be chowed up by you, old hoss, so jest 

 you git." Amid boisterous applause Elijah sat down with 

 the remark that she was a " hefty cuss." The same thing 

 went on till about eleven o'clock, when a free fight took 

 place, in which Elijah Shocum got into a difficulty with 



