NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DEC. 31, 1874. 



For Forest and Stream. 

 PODGER'S DAM. 



WHOyer' cailiu' Pot hunter, say? 

 Any feller that roosts round this way? 

 'Ease there's a chum of mine a piece up the road, 

 Showed me one of yer durned papers', and allows its n 

 That ansets on a big part 'er the load 

 You put on them city chaps. Xow see, 

 I jest want to be let alone, d'ye hear? 



J\l iud how you steer, 

 Or yon won't sell no papers to my friends, 

 They Hands with ine— all on 'em, tends 

 Wainm' to everyone or you fancy pole men, 

 Not to come up in our parts agen, 



Or I'm dashed 

 If you don't get your slimsy llxins smashed. 



Vmftu, I am, 

 An' I've lived cluss by this ere dam 

 Nigh on to roity year, 



An' its tliunderin' queer, 

 If a paper man, or any cranky cuss, 

 Comes where he don't belong, to raise a muss, 

 And try to make me walk a rule; 



It's blamed cool. 

 Pop'lar, or not— agin' the law, or do, 

 I'm on this thing, aud bound to stay, (jes so). 



Let 'i 



et ple.i 



i be, 



"The public's all agin' me. 

 I'll ketch my traout the wnj 

 Little and big, you bet it's few 1 losi 

 A hookiu', nettin', mareu' wheni t 



Fur all titer brags to sue and muke n 

 I'd jest like onct to see 'em try it 01 

 I'd fii the flint of every mother's sot 



How's that! 

 Me fined n hnndred dollars? sho! 



Good joke, though, 

 Squire, I owe yer' one, 



I swan! 

 What.' " 'taint no joke"— plankdown or bounce, ye say? 

 t?oM.' who'd a thought ihe law'd a found its way 



ToPodgcr's Dam? 

 Well. I'm beat, / am . T. W. A. 



Jfiross ^wfotmdhnd. 



INTERIOR EXPLORATIONS— FLORA, 

 FAUNA, AND GEOLOGICAL FORMA- 

 TION. ( 



CHAPTER I. 



THE recent travels of our valued correspondent, Mr. 

 Murray, in Newfoundland, recalls its previous ex- 

 ploration. In the year 1822 Mr. W. E. McCormack, being 

 then in that country, determined to explore the interior; 

 and in order to do it successfully he corntneuce.il trading 

 Willi some Indians in order lo learn all that tliey could 

 teach him in woodcraft aud other accomplishments pecu- 

 liar to the "Children of the Forest." Equipping two In- 

 dians with everything necessary for a campaign of three 

 mouths, he took passage from St. Johns to Trinity Bay, 

 and noted the topography and geological formation of the 

 coast region. Of a prominent landmark, he says: — 



"The Point of Grates is the part of North America first 

 discovered by Europeans. Sebastian Cabot landed here in 

 1490, and took possession of The Newfoundland, which he 

 discovered in the name of his employer, Henry VII. of 

 England, He recorded the event by cutting an inscription, 

 still perfectly legible, on a iargo block of rock that stands 

 on the shore. 



"Baccaloa Island, formed of a horizontally stratified 

 rock, apparently gritly slate, is famous tor the numbers of 

 sea fowl that frequent it in the breeding season, principally 

 the puflln, called on this coast the Baccaloa birds. The 

 island has one landing place only, on its east side, and no 

 resident inhabitants; but is visited by men iu boats and 

 small schooners called Eggers, who carry off cargoes of 

 new laid eggs. The end of the profession of these men 

 will be the extermination of the sea fowl of these parts 

 for the sake of a cruelly begotten temporary subsistence. 

 The destruction by mechanical force of tens of thousands 

 Of eggs, after the conimencement of incubation, precedes 



the gathering of a small cargo of fresh laid eggs. Pen- 

 guins, once numerous on this coast, may be considered 

 as now extirpated, for none have been seen for many years 

 past. " 



Speaking of the scenery near Trinity Bay, he says: — 



"Prom the summils of the hills immediately around the 

 harbor there is a view of the country in all directions in- 

 land for twenty to thirty miles, encompassing part of Ran- 

 dom Island in the southwest. The whole is a continued 

 succession of groups of rugged hills (mountains, except in 

 height), all apparently of a similar description to those on 

 which we stood, with some small patches of Mr woods, and 

 a few lakes interspersed. It presented a prospect of at least 

 a week's hard labor overland, before we could reach what 

 we could only hope might be the verge of the interior. 

 This suggested to me the plan of going nearer to the cen- 

 tre of the island by water, in order to save all our strength 

 and resources for the main object of the undertaking, as it 

 was impossible to know what difficulties and necessities we 

 might have to contend with. This was to be effecled by 

 taking a boat from hence to the west part of Random 

 Sound, which lay to the west-soulhwestward. The coun- 

 try we now saw was within the reach of any one to ex- 

 plore at any short interval of time, aud was therefore of 

 secondary interest to me. 



"The west side of Trinity Bay is composed of rocks of 

 the transition clay slate formation, similar to those on the 

 east. The hills, frequently of 400 to 600 feet in height, arc 

 chiefly of greenstone and hornblend slate; the out-goings 

 of the nearly vertical strata and dykes of which sometimes 

 present a perfectly mural front to the sea; blue clay slate 

 alternates, and has cubical icon pyrites often imbedded, 

 some of which are several inches in diameter. In the val- 

 leys are beds of horizontally stratified gritly slate of the 

 tabular structure, similar to that noticed at other parts of 

 the east coast. The tables or Hags are often several yards 

 in length, formed under a double oblique intersecting clear- 

 age, and admirably atlapted for many purposes of building. 

 The beds are traversed in all directions by dykes sev- 

 eral feet in thickness, of a daik colored green stone; 

 also of the seamed structure, the pliuters of which are 

 translucent at the edges. 



"The plants met with at this part of the northeast coast 

 of America, although only 48' 20' N, lat., or nearly in the 

 parallel of Brest, and the highest hills not exceeding GOO 

 feet, seem to be similar to those of Norway and Lapland 

 in the northwest of Europe, under the Arctic Circle. 



"Having engaged a boat to carry us to the most inland 

 part of Random Sound, we left Bonaventnre on the pas- 

 sage to the northeast entrance. About six miles southwest 

 of Bouaventure we witnessed the phenomenon of the very 

 great transparency of the sea, which it assumes here dur- 

 ing the lime of change of wind from West to East. The 

 fishes and their haunts amongst the rocks and luxuriant 

 weeds at the bottom were seen to a fearful depth. Every 

 turn of the sound presents a different aspect of rugged, 

 and in some parts grand scenery. Both sides are formed 

 of steep and perpendicular hills of greenstone, and of 

 rocks of the transition clay slate formation, of 500 to GOO 

 feet in height, the nakedness of which displays, as at the 

 outer parts of Trinity Bay, the skeleton of the earth. The 

 strata are of various thickness, and lie in different direc- 

 tions. Patches of fir trees — Piiuis balsamea— principally 

 grow where the steepness docs not prevent debris from 

 lodging. The appearauce of both sides of the sound or 

 irut correspond so remarkably that it might bo inferred 

 Random Island is a break off from the main island. The 

 North Arm of the sound, that which we came through, is 

 about thirty miles in length, and varies from one eighth to 

 one third of a mile in width. Within two or three miles 

 of its west extremity it expands and becomes shallow, aud 

 here the scene of gloom and barrenness is suddenly con- 

 trasted with a pretty small sheet of water, surrounded by 

 a flat, thickly wooded country, as inviting as the past was 

 forbidding. 



"Random Bar, at the west extremity of the sound, caused 

 by the meeting of the tide here, in the form of two con- 



siderable bores from the north and south arms, is dry ex- 

 cept for an hour or two before and after high water, and 

 there is then about two feet only of water upon it. It is 

 in 48° 13' north latitude, aud 5T 40' west longitude, (by 

 Steel's chart, published in 1817.) 



"The land adjacent to the bar is low, and the soil is 

 good. Westward towards Ihe interior it rises from the 

 water's edge very gradually, and is entirely covered with 

 wood. 



"Our boat having lain dry on the bar nearly all night, 

 we slept iu her iu preference to encamping in the woods. 

 Wihl geese and other birds were flying to and fro over us 

 during the whole time, most industriously aud fearlessly in 

 search of food. This is a favorite resort of ducks, herons, 

 and other aquatic fowls. 



"My traveling equipments being landed, the boat with, 

 the party which brought my Indian had left us on her re- 

 turn to Bouaventure. 



"It would have been impossible, with the object I had 

 in view, to reach this spot by hind from St. John's, as the 

 coast we passed is without roads or paths of any kind, and 

 an entire assemblage of rocky mountains, forests, and lakes, 

 intersected by deep bays. 



"Being now removed with my Indian from all human 

 communication and interference, we put our knapsacks 

 and equipments in order and left this inland part of the 

 sea shore in a north direction, without regard to any track, 

 through marshes and woods towards some rising laud, in. 

 order to obtain a view of the country. The centre of the 

 island bore nearlj' west from us. 



"My dress chiefly consisted of a grey moleskin shooting 

 jacket, small clothes of worsted cord, three entire inside 

 woolen body dresses (no linen or cotton whatever), worated 

 stockings aud socks, Canadian long moccasin boots. The 

 Indian wore leggings or gaiters made of swauskin blanket- 

 ing, together with moccasins instead of boots. I was 

 armed with a double barrelled fowling piece and a braco 

 of bayoneted pistols, two pounds and a half of gunpow- 

 der, and ten pounds of bullet aud shot. The Indian had 

 a single barrelled fowling piece and a pistol, and the like 

 quantity of powder and shot. Our stock consisted of a 

 hatchet, two small tin kettles for cookiug; about twenty 

 pounds of biscuit, eight pounds of pork, some portable 

 soup, tea and super, pepper, salt, etc.; a blanket each, and 

 one for the camp roof, a telescope, a pocket compass each 

 I took a small fishing rod and tackle, and various minor 

 articles for our casual necessities and for miueralogical and 

 other purposes of observation and notes. On nnother 

 journey of the kind I should very little vary this equip- 

 ment. 



"After several hours of hard labor, owing chiefly to the 

 great weight of our knapsacks, we made only about two 

 miles progress. From the tops of the highest trees Ihe 

 country iu all directions westward for at least twenty miles 

 appeared to be covered with one dense unbroken pine for- 

 est, with here aud there a bold granitic pap projecting 

 above the dark green surface. We had expected to see 

 some open country nearer. 



"At sunset we halted, and bivouacked beneath the for- 

 est. As the weather was fine, and no prospect of rain, 

 our camp consisted merely of a fire and a bundle of spruce 

 boughs to lie on. My Indian, Joseph Sylvester by name, 

 at midnight rolled himself up in his blanket, and evidently 

 slept perfectly at home, 



" ?i plember iith. — No clear ground appearing in our course, 

 wo struck directly westward through the forest. Wind- 

 fallen trees, underwood, and brooks lay in our way, which, 

 together with the suffocating heat in the woods, and mos- 

 quitoes, hindered us from advancing more than five miles 

 to-day, iu a W.N. W. direction. 



"September 7th, 8th, 0th were occupied in traveling west- 

 ward through the forest, at the rate of seven or eight miles 

 a day. 



"In our progress we ascended several of Hie insulated 

 paps to view the country; stunted firs and a thick rug of 

 moss crept almost to their summits. The prospect of the 

 ocean of iudulating forest arouud— of the high land of 



