Mat 38, 1881.] 



FOftEST AND STREAM. 



325 



Into the office again, with a chunk of the same rock as 

 big as my head. Well, when 1 looked at it; I saw it had been 

 broken off a 1 dga -wasn't no flint rock nor boulder, but 

 rook in place; sun:. 



" : i tried to iiiinij) something out of him, about where it 

 was, and ?Oforth,'bul h ewas as close as aclam, and I couldn't 

 gel anything out of him. WV11, he stayed aroimd Denver 

 all 'Miitcr, and prcttj soon he got in the habit of making the 

 Office hf? loafing plfloe, bo we got pretty thick, and the more 

 I got to know of him the more I b gan to mistrust he wasn't 

 lying about his big strike so much a lie might be. One day 

 in bhfc spring lie comes into the rjifkse, and says he, 'What 

 yoiigomg to do this summer?' 'Don't know,' says I, 'go 

 projecting up in Red Dog, I guess.' ' Red Dog be banged,' 

 . eoine with me, and I'll show you more gold in an 

 hour than Red Dog can turn out in a yeffir.' 



" Web. as 1 say, I'd got to believing the old fellow by this 

 time, so I I Id h : , : ]:,[ g a , > Can you scare up four or five 

 other fellows ' says he, ' that have got plenty of sand in their 

 craws, and ain't afraid of Indians or hard work. We don't 

 want too big a pa rty— about si x or seven 'll be right. There's 

 ocki .,:ii there for a hundred men, but a little party can 

 Skip the Indians, where a big one can't. That, was Baker's 

 mistake— he had too many men with him.' 



"I told him I could find the men if he could prove to 'em 

 that it was worth their while. So be pulled a paper out of 

 his pocket and showed me a chwt of the country that he'd 

 made, and just where the lead was. I knew the country 

 down as far as the Needles, and so far, I could see, he had 

 ig down on the chart, to a dot. Everything was as 

 plain as could be and 1 knew, with that chart, we could find 

 the lead easy. So nest day I spoke to four or five of the. 

 boys, and that night they and the old man came around to 

 the office. I showed 'em the rock and the assay, and the old 

 man he showed 'em the. chart and told 'em about the lead. 

 ' JNow.' says he, ' here's what I propose. Each of us'Jl fur- 

 nish his own outfit and we'll start. I'll pilot you to the lead, 

 and we'll locate if. I'm getting too old to do much work, so 

 J'll cook and tend to the stock, while you fellows get out the 

 ore. When we' ve got as much as we can pack we'll come 

 back, sell it, and divide the proceeds, my share to bo one- 

 third of the ore and one. half interest in the mine. What do 

 y:-" sa3 :' Well, it just set us wild, and we all agreed we'd 

 go. Each fellow was to take three animals— one to ride and 

 two to pack. I I lied to gel the old fellow to tell me how he 

 came to find the lead, but it was no go. I always thought he 

 must have, been one of Baker's men, and knew a good deal 

 more about that fracas than he let on to. You know there 

 was five or sis of 'cm had a quarrel with the rest and left 

 'em, and Baker always swore that there were white men in 

 that party of Utes that attacked them on the Animas and 

 killed all but him and Johnny Moss. However, that's neither 

 bere nor there. We struck south from Denver, crossed the 

 Sangre del Ohristo, up the San Luis, through Antelope Park, 

 crossed the range about the head of Stony, got down iu the 

 Animas and camped about where Howardsvllle is now. We 

 hadn I seen a sjgnof Indians, so we concluded we'd stay bere 

 a few days, and rest up. The old man and 1 concluded we'd 

 try for some meat, so we started out the second morning and 

 told the boys if we weren't back by the next night to pull 

 out down the creek, and we'd catch 'em at the foot of the 

 park. Game seemed mighty scarce and night come, and we 

 hadn't seen a si. n, so we cooked a couple of rabbits we'd 

 knocked over, curled up under a spruce and went to sleep. 

 As near as we could calculate we were about four miles from 

 camp. About daylight, 1 felt the old man shaking me. 'Wake 

 up!' says he. 'for God's sake wake up 1' 'What is it?' 

 says I, but he didn't need to answer, I heard it myself— three 

 or four shots, and the awfuilest yell you ever heard. We 

 looked at each other, but couldn't say a word. We knew 

 what it was, That was the scalp yell, and we knew the 

 Utes had wiped out the boys. If they found us, we were 

 gone, too. We'd crossed an old trail about, two miles below, 

 and we knew if they went down the canon that was the trail 

 they'd take, so we climbed up the hill to a place where we 

 could watch the trail, and lay there hid till about the nnddle 

 of the forenoon, when we saw them come along, driving oar 

 stock. One big buck was riding my horse, and I tell you my 

 fingers itched to pull trigger on him, but I knew it wouldn't. 

 do. After they'd passed we made our way back to camp, 

 and found the boys lying around, killed and scalped. They 

 were all stripped and shot full of arrows. Everything in 

 the shape of grub and blankets was gone, and there we were, 

 five hundred miles from Denver, afoot, no blankets, nothing 

 to eat, and only our guns aud the clothes we had on. The 

 old man said wc were, only about fifty miles from the lead, 

 and wanted to go on to it, but I knew, even if we found it, 

 we couldn't do anything, and I thought the best thing we 

 could do was to get back home as quick as we could. So 

 we took some of the picks and shovels that were lying 

 around, buried the poor fellows the best we could, and 

 struck out. That day and the next we shot some rabbits 

 and grouse, but the next day we couldn't find anything, and 

 went to bed without supper. The next day it was the same, 

 and the next and the next. The last two days we chewed 

 spruce bark for want of something belter, but it was mighty 

 bitter and tough. We stumbled along the best we could, 

 but I noticed the old man was getting weak. It was on 

 Tuesday the Utes had wiped out the outfit, and this was 

 Tuesday again, and we hadn't had anything to eat since 

 Wednesday, and had been tramping steady every day. 

 Tuesday night I was restless and couldn't sleep. Every time 

 I'd doze off I'd dream that I was just going to sit down to 

 a table chock-full of grub, and that somebody — sometimes 

 the old man, sometimes a Ute, sometimes one of the boys- 

 was trying to hold me back, and then I'd get so mad I'd 

 wake up ; and then I'd see the old man sitting with his back 

 against a tree, and his arms folded, looking straight ahead of 

 him as if he saw something out there in the woods, and 

 never answering when I'd speak to him. Along toward 

 morning, though, when I'd dozed off a little, I was woke up 

 by an awful screr cb, and I jumped up, thinking the Utes 

 were on us ; but I was so weak and dazed that it was a 

 minute or two before I got my senses, and then when I 

 looked around there were uo Utes there, and no old man, 

 either. It was just about daylight, and as I didn't have any 

 baggage to pack up or any breakfast to get, I started off 

 after him. 1 hunted all around tilt nearly noon, firing my 

 gun and yelling as loud as I could, for I had such a horror of 

 being left, there alone that I'd rather run the risk of drawing 

 the Utes than lose any chance of finding him. Besides, I 

 had a warm side for the old fellow, and I couldn't bear to 

 think of his wandering around there all by himself, and 

 crazy, as 1 knew he was. But it was no use ; and so, about 

 noon, I concluded that if I wanted to save myself I'd better 

 ;pull out. I was so weak in the legs by this time that I could 



hardly stagger, and I had such a dancing in iny eyes, and 

 such "a buzzing in my ears, and such wild fancier in my 

 head, that I began to fear I was going crazy too I gpt to 

 Wagon-wheel Gap that night, and. didn't know whether to 

 try to cross therange and strike the Santa Groee trail, aud so 

 get to South's cabin, or to go down the river till 1 struck 

 some of the Mexican ranches near Del None. The last 

 was about three times the furthest, but the first was five 

 times the hardest going. I remember that I was coo] 

 enough to debate the matter pretty sensibly before I went 

 to sleep, but 1 must have lost" my wits in tho night, 

 for I don't remember anything after that, except Stumbling 

 along somewhere or other, falling down, and getting up, 

 sometimes burning, and sometimes freezing, cutting myself 

 against, the rocks, choking with alkali dust, and then I'm 

 awhile I can't remember anything. When loornCtp, I found 

 I was in old Alcantara's casa, clear down by Old Lonia, and 

 he and those two pretty mnckaehns of his wen- D 

 as if I had been old St. Jago himself. They told me that 

 Felipe, Pedro's boy, who was lynched afterwards for knifing 

 Dick Stuart in Conejos, had found me up in San Luis Park, 

 where he was hunting for some stray burros, and hac brought 

 me down to the casa. They were such heathens ml old Pedro's, 

 that they didn't keep any "track of the days of the month, so 

 I don't know how long I'd wandered about before they found 

 me, but I must have been pretty near gone up, fpr, us near 

 as I could make oul, I'd been there about six weeks, and it 

 was all of six more before I could travel. When I could, I 

 put back to Denver, and didn't come back this way till the 

 Strong outfit came in, '68." 



"Did you ever bear anything more of the old man ?" 



"No, not a word ; lie must have starved to death, or tum- 

 bled into some canon, or got picked up by the Utes." 



" But I thought tho Iudians wouldn't harm a crazy person ; 

 that they thought such were under the direct care of the 

 Great Spirit ?" 



" Well, perhaps Cooper's and Catliu's Iudians wouldn't: 

 but the white men have educated them out of thai, and 

 they'd scalp a crazy man now as quick us they would you or 

 me." 



" When you got down here again, did you try to find tho 

 lead?" 



"Yes, but I couldn't find it. I'd made a copy of the chart 

 the old man had, but whether I tore it. up or lost it, when I 

 was crazy, or whether old Pedro suspected what it was, and 

 froze to it, 1 don't know, but it, disappeared someway. From 

 what I could remember of it, aud from what the old man 

 told me of the laudmarks, I've always thought it must have 

 been somewhere up here iu Conquistador. So in '73. I spent. 

 the whole summer up here looking for it, but I couldn't find 

 it. I found some float, though, just like the rock the old 

 man had, up in Bear Creek, and up at the head of i V _ i.;l; 

 there was a big rock-slide, that looked as if it, v. a--.ii' 1 more 

 than a year or two old, and I believe the lead's under that. 

 If I could find it once, I wouldn't ask odds from Vandcrbilt 

 or Mackay," 



Next morning Iguotus took a couple of the horses and 

 went after the buck, while I remained at the cabin " oa 

 household cares intent." These satisfactorily attended n ., I 

 strolled up the valley, to perfect my acquaintance with the 

 Larriweep. 



These mountain brooks are like high-born dames. 



Much courteous humility, and deferential wooing is neces- 

 sary, before they will admit you, on the footing of a friend, 

 into tie. privacy of their boudoirs. 1 know some persons 

 who never succeed in passing the antechamber. As some 

 men are connoisseurs in wine, and can discriminate, by the 

 bouquet, between Chateau Margaux of '49, or Lafitte of the 

 "comet vintage," so the lover of brooks finds in them differ- 

 ences too subtle to be appreciated by the " mobile valgus," 

 but which, to him, are open secret's. The waters of every 

 neighborhood hive their own particular color, which is easily 

 recognizable by the brook haunter. The pale berylline tint 

 of the lToiston or the Clinch, the aquamarina shimmer of the 

 upper A u Sable, the topaz glow of the hemlock brooks of 

 Maine, the pale diaphanous azure of La (Jhandiere, the cool 

 inky blackness of the. Nevers'mk, or the opaline gleam of the 

 French Broad — who that has once seen these can ever again 

 forget or mistake them? Different from all these is the 

 Larriweep, whose characteristic is its intense Irausparenev ; 

 as clear aud free from soil or stain as the thoughts of the 

 Blessed Damosel. If one could only let it flow through him 

 for an hour or so, how it would wash away the dregs ! Born 

 of the mountain snow, and dandled in the rough embrace of 

 Plutonic rocks, it is as clear and cold as the one, as strong 

 and pure as the others. There is none of the mischief of co- 

 quetry about it; no gentle dallying with bending hemlock 

 boughs — no sweet coaxing of some gnarled and stubborn root 

 — no coy avoidance of some intrimve boulder — but a steady 

 onward flow, straight, strong and direct. Not with the danc- 

 ing step of blushing Hebe, but with the firm step of Pallas 

 Athene, does the Larriweep sweep to the sea. 



Sitting in an angle, where two trees make a convenient 

 arm chair, I hear what is rare iu these woods — the song of 

 a bird. The jays— Canada, crested and Steller's— screech and 

 gabble ; the ousel occasionally whistles ; the sparrows cheep, 

 and the, torn-tits chatter, but, the pine grosbeak is almost &S 

 only bird I have found here, that can really be said to sing. 

 His note is clear and melodious, in timbre something like 

 that of the meadow lark, but reminding one. more of the pur- 

 ple finch, which, by the way, he resembles in more I ban in 

 voice. _ Both have the same reddish grdund-work of plumage, 

 overlaid with ashy gray, as though some tyro had painted 

 them first a bright lake or carmine, and then, dissatisfied 

 with his work, had added a coat of gray r , which, weathering 

 off in spots, was showing the original 'hue .beneath. Inhabits, 

 however, they are very distinct. The finch, whether resting 

 or journeying, delights to huddle together in flocks. The 

 grosbeak, on the otha- hand, though companionable (so that, 

 seeing one, you are almost sure to find plenty of others close 

 by), has not that penchant for massing together in crowds, 

 that characterizes his lesser prototype. The one is distinctly 

 gregarious ; the other, sociable. In the. one ease, the group 

 is the unit; in the other, the individual. The musical 

 repertoire of the finch, moreover, is more limited than that 

 of the grosbeak; the former possessing only three notes, 

 while the latter can compass an octave, though generally con- 

 tent with the major fifth. 



In the pauses of the grosbeak's song I hear another note 

 which sets me to wondering if there is any place in the West- 

 ern continent where the robin is not found. We are so ac- 

 customed to associate him with man, and to think of mead- 

 ows and orchards as his necessary corollaries thai it gives 

 one a start of surprise to find him as much at home in these 

 grim forests as in a New England homestead. He is the one 

 familiar thing that redeems these Western woods from utter 



strangeness- The hemlock woods of Maine, the cypress 

 swamps of Louisiana, tho sage brush of Arizona, and the pine 

 forests of Pembina, all know his song. While watching the 

 birds (here stole down to the margin of the stream that "thief 

 of the world," a Canada lynx. " S >me nocturnal revelry or 

 bloody midnight, foray bad kept him up later than common, 

 aud he was now coming down to take his last mountain cock- 

 tail before retiring. There was a bloodshot east to his eye, 

 aud a look of shame-faced guilt on bis hang-dog countenance 

 that to'd of an unquiet conscience, and of a mind ill at case. 

 He lapped lue water sottly, in a sneatung way, glancing fur- 

 tively around as though be feared to be confronted by the 

 'ghost of some one of his many innocent victims. 



As he sprawled on the bank opposite me, uncouth, bestial 

 and murderous, lie seemed a libel on the tribe of Fel'uUe. 

 There is a supple grace about most of his congeners that at- 

 tracls the eye, and one cannot look upon some of them with- 

 out feeling the vividness of Blake's lines— 

 " Tiger, tiger burning bright 

 In the jungle* of the night, 

 What immortal hand and evo 

 Framed thy awful symmetry !" 

 But my present visitor excited only feelings of repugnance. 

 Happening to look up and to catch sight of his human spec- 

 tator, be was struck with a catalepsy of abject fear, and I 

 think, had I been near enough, I could have taken him by 

 the scruff of the neck, and cuffed his ill-conditioned soul out 

 of his body, without any other remonstrance than a frightened 

 whine. In a moment, however, his sullen ferocity returned 

 to him, and he began to slowly back away, sneakmg'y with- 

 drawing each huge splay-foot, "and keeping his furtive blood- 

 shot eyes fixed upon mo. Uglier optics 1 think I never saw- 

 in the head of any animal. The alligat r's fixed, unwinking 

 stare, is not pleasant, nor the cold, dull glare of the rattle- 

 snake's eye, but they both lack that maliguaut gleam of tor- 

 pid hale that flared upon me from the opposite bank. Hav- 

 ing gained some additional ten yards of distance he slowly 

 turned around never taking his eyes off me and began climb- 

 ing the hill. I shou'ed at hint to increase his speed, but tho 

 only effect was to produce a. snarl which showed his white 

 fangs, and the slaver dripping from the, red cavern of his 

 mouth. I was not sorry to see him finally disappear among 

 the bushes at the foot of a ledge of rocks, where he had his 

 lair. This retreat, Ignotusandl harried, that afternoon, and 

 with the assistance o F Swipes, our plucky bull-terrier, 

 avenged the manea of his many victims. In death he looked 

 less hateful than in life, and there Was something even 

 grand about lfis massive fore-arm and chest, and bis close, 

 well-knit llauks and loins. 



I had slipped a volume of Shakespeare into my pocket 

 when starting out, but.I returned with it unopened. Some- 

 how blue sky and fresh air seem to act as preventives to read- 

 ing. Books, for their proper appreciation, require four walls 

 and a ceiling. Out. of doors it is more natural to be Shakes- 

 peare than to read hint ; to "find tongues in trees, books in 

 tberunning brooks, and sermons in. ur ",<nes," than to dally with 

 the printed page. The thought :„ ar auinanity becomes feeble 

 "M | iposed to the thought of nature. One may read Ho- 

 rner by the seashore where the sonorous Greek vocables 

 chime well with the diapason of the " poluphloisboio tha- 

 lasse," but other than that opeu air reading tastes flat in the 

 mouth. One would like to run a tape-line round the mind 

 of that man whom I saw once, on the top of Mount, Washing- 

 ton, reading a New York Ledger while the sun was com ing 

 up out of the Atlaut'c, and the shadow of the mountain was 

 sweeping over the valley below. Or of that young woman 

 who, upon the same occasion, gravely proceeded to nole 

 down in her diary the impressions produced on her mind 

 by the scene before her. 



In the evening, 1 climbed the hill-side, above the cabin, 

 and, sitting upon a rock, watched the sun set, Probably on 

 account, of the lack of moisture in the air, the scarlet and 

 gold of other sunsets are rarely seen here ; but the close of - 

 the d \y in these high altitudes has a beauty and a peculiarity 

 of its own, which I never tire of witnessing. As the sun 

 dropped down hehiud the peak of El Conquistador, the 

 shadow slid down the mountain side, swept across the valley 

 and began to climb the opposite heights. It was a huge 

 triangle of shade, springing from a constant base ; the apex 

 continually advancing, and the sides lengthening in propor- 

 tion. The edge was so well defined, that, where it cut an 

 aspen tree, one-half of the head would be of a dark waxy 

 green, while the other, still in the sunlight, showed its own 

 dusty emerald hue. There was not that gradual fading out 

 of the light, accompanied by an imperceptible transition to 

 darkness, that marks the close of the day iu the eastern half 

 of the United States, but rather a sudden, vivid change, so 

 that, whereas you were one moment in the broad glare of 

 day, the next it was dusk all around you. As the shadow 

 swept across the valley, it, had about the speed of a sturdy 

 walker, aud, like him, slackened pace when it struck the hill- 

 side opposite, and climbed laboriously to the top. In the 

 East, the blue of the sky changed first to a lighter blue, then 

 to an olive, deepened its" tint, slowly, aud finally settled into 

 a pale ashy gray ,- in the West, the blue changed to a darker 

 olive, then to a delicate salmon, then to its final ashes-of.rose 

 tint, permeated by a sombre glow. Hardly had the shadow 

 gained the opposing crest, before the stars were out— Jupiter, 

 Srvius and Venus — shining with a brilliancy snch as the 

 dweller in the lowlands never sees. Twilight there' was none, 

 or at least, so little, that before one could say "Lo! here!" 

 or " Lo! there!" it was gone. 



The breeze, which had blown, as is its custom here, steadily 

 down the gulch all day, now turned, and blew as steadily up 

 the valley. From its changed direction it brought to me 

 savory odors of broiling venison aud the fragrant aroma of 

 coffee, and obeying its gentle call, 1 strolled slowly home- 

 ward, through the silence' of the everlasting hills. 



H. P. U, 

 » ■»■ ■ 



MAINE CAMPING GROUxHDS. 



WE want to camp out this summer and fall in Maine, 

 somewhere at or in the neighborhood of iMoosehead 

 Lake. We have looked over a goodly pile of Fokkst and 

 Snails, and although there are very many articles about 

 Maine, and very interesting they are, too, none are definite 

 enough to afford us the aid we want to carry us up and give 

 us a start when we get there. We want advice as to the 

 quickest aud least expensive way of getting to the best game 

 country. Again, we would like to know what, facilities of 

 transportation we would be likely to find from Moosehead 

 into the interior, whether we can obtain guides, horses, etc., 

 at the Lake, and what it will bo necessary for us to take, such 

 as blankets, cooking utensils, tools, tent, and so on. And 

 besides all this, can you put ub in communication with some 



