Devoted To 



%t=doov J&urtniim and &tnih. 



Game Protection, Fish Colttjrk, Natural IIiBTony, Preservation of Forests, Rifle Practice, Yachting, Boating, 



tr». Kennel, and Sports of all Kinds 



Tea Cents a Copy, 



*r-\ 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1877. 



For Forest and dlreatn 

 THE TROUT BROOK. 



"V" 



e it flret near the dusty toad, 

 . \v here th« farmer stops with his heavy load 

 At the foot of a weary hill; 

 There the mossy trough it overflows, 

 Then away with a leap and a laugh it goes 

 At its own sweet, wandering will. 



It flows through an orchard gnarled and old, 

 Where iu BpTiug the dainty buds unfold 



Their petals piuk aud white; 

 The apple blossoms so sweet and pure, 

 The streamlet's smiles and songs allure, 



To Heat off on the ripples bright. 



It winds through the meadow scarcely seen, 

 For o'er it the flowers and grasses lean 



To salute its smiling face. 

 And thus, half hidden, it ripples along, 

 The whole way si nging its Bummer song, 



Making glad each arid place. 



Just there, where the water dark aud cool 

 Lingers a moment in yonder pool, 



The dainty trout are at play; 

 And now and then one leaps in sight. 

 With sides aglow in the golden light 



Of the long, sweet summer day. 



O hack to their shelves those books consign, 

 Aud look to your rod and reel aud line, 



Make fast the feathered hook; 

 Then away from the town, with its hum of life, 

 Where the air with worry and workis rlfo, 



To the charms of the meadow brook. 



Cadi, waking. 



For Forest and Stream. 



^ahe gupmor in WBO. 



tfimtitWd from May 10ft. 1 



WHEN daylight broke after we left Marquette, there 

 was nothing to be observed in the character of the 

 scenery more than we had seen on our way from Grand 

 Island, and the weather being somewhat disagreeable we re- 

 mained the greater part of the time within the cabin. We 

 had for a fellow-passenger the Rev. Mr. Shaw, whose ac- 

 quaintance we had made in Marquette. He was the Method- 

 ist missionary to the Indians at L'Anse — pronounced Lonce — 

 a village on a bay of the same name, which is an extension of 

 Keweenaw Bay. Having seen in the medical journals that 

 an attempt made by the United States agent who distributed 

 the annuities at L'Anse this year had failed to draw from 

 the Indians any information regarding the medicinal prop- 

 erties asoribed by them to plants— they regarding it as an 

 attempt to rob them of their religion — I deemed the oppor- 

 tunity a good one for informing myself on such subjects, 

 and accordingly devoted my time to Mr. Shaw and an In- 

 dian on board who could speak English freely. Mr. Shaw 

 was quite oommunicative, and having succeeded — as he be- 

 lieved — in converting some of their "medicine men," he had 

 in his possession some three or four of their medicine bags 

 or talismans, which they \ise much in the cure of disease. 

 From him I received much interesting information with re- 

 gard to the superstitions of the Chippeways. The Indian 

 dh board was not inclined to be communicative at first, but 

 after a time I encountered him in a quiet place all alone, and 

 on making another attempt, prefaced by a few segars (I'll 

 say nothing of a dram of iskidewiulxio*), I found him toler- 

 ably willing to converse. From these two sources I obtained 

 the following account of their sytein of medicine: 



Medicino and theology with them are inseparable; the 

 medicine man is a priest, physician and a philosopher. 

 The common Indians suppose that their medicine men are 

 familiar with all the healing virtues of every plant that 

 grows; but it is not likely that they know much more of 

 those things than some of the laity, for thoy receive little 

 or no tuition from the older priests on anything like Medical 

 Botany, their admission to the fraternity depending more 

 upon their performance of certain ceremonies, by which 

 they are to have their spiritual qualities more fully de- 

 veloped. When a person desires to become a medicine 

 man his first step is to obtain the consent of the other 

 members of the profession; but that for several reasons— a 

 prominent one being the avoidance of a superabundance of 

 doctors— is not easily obtained. If he succeeds, however, 

 his next step is to offer sacrifice, and this is done alone in 

 the wilderness. He is to lie and wateh his sacrifice until he 

 dreams of some one of several animals which are named to 

 him by his teachers. During this watching he must fast 



*lBUdcw»ubot>— lire-water— general s 



e for liquor, 



also, so that some who attempt the feat fail by giving way 

 to the cravings of hunger, and others are reported to have 

 starved themselves to death. Having dreamed of one of the 

 designated animals, he is then to obtain the skin of that 

 one, from which he manufactures his medicine bag. There 

 are other ceremonies to be performed, with regard to which 

 the manner of proceeding is not always the same. This 

 medicine bag is not designed to hold medical plants, but to 

 become the repository of innumerable odds and ends of x'er- 

 haps a thousand different things which are supposed to 

 have a magic influence over disease, and not only disease, 

 but over men and things in general. These talismanic ob- 

 jects are different in different bags, and depend in great 

 measure upon the conjectures of the individual medicine 

 man, although there aro some few things which they appear 

 to regard as necessary to form a nucleus. I forgot to men- 

 tion some of the animals from whose skins medicine bags 

 are made. They are generally quadrupeds, as the bear, 

 beaver, otter, etc. Their contents are. stated as various, as 

 a boar's tooth, the tip of the ear of a deer, the claw of a 

 beaver, certain parts of a sturgeon, pieces of entrails, or 

 viscera of various animals, a crooked nail, pieces of copper 

 and other metals, various kinds of small stones and shells, 

 the claw of a crab, vertebra of a fish, small bits of wood, 

 fur, etc., from different trees and quadrupeds; these are 

 enough to mention as illustrations. The filling of the bag 

 may not be completed for years, for the medicine man fills 

 it by adding to it during his whole life, there being but 

 few things in it when he first sets out in practice. The 

 final initiation, or as- we may call it, the conferring of his 

 degrees, is of course accompanied with what they con- 

 sider imposing ceremonies. 



Their manner of treating a diseased patient is generally 

 first to give him infusions or powders of such medicinal 

 plants as they think will be beneficial. K these do not 

 effect a cure, the doctor administers more of the same or 

 other kinds, and uses incantations to promote their efficacy. 

 One thing indispensable is, that the Medicine Man shall eat 

 during the whole or the greater part of the time that the 

 patient is being medicated. Eor this purpose the patient is 

 obliged to furnish whatever the doctor desires to eat or asks 

 for; and in doing this, the patient frequently disposes of all 

 the little property he may be possessed of to obtain the 

 edibles which the Medicine Man calls for. Occasionally, in 

 severe cases, a consultation of these medico-priests is held. 

 After examining the patient, and ascertaining that the more 

 ordinary modes of procedure have proved unavailing, they 

 may decide on subjecting him to a psychological course of 

 treatment; in other words, to cure him by their united 

 powers of conj uration. For this pxirpose they form a ring, 

 and place the sufferer in the center; they then walk around 

 the circumference of the circle, and using certain incanta- 

 tions, point their medicine bags at him, and, after a time, 

 perhaps effect a cure. You may smile at the thought of a 

 cure being thus wrought, but it is not the less true that, 

 by their magic, they sometimes produce wonderful effects; 

 thus, by merely pointing their medicine bags at a patient 

 standing in the ring, they can render a limb powerless, or 

 perhaps make him fall as if shot. The immediate cause is, 

 of course, the patient's owe imagination, but as that cause 

 would not have been so excited without their performances, 

 it is only common justice to regard them as the producers of 

 the cure when it results, as it sometimes does. An Indian is 

 an imaginative and superstitious being. Two years since 

 (1874), while in a billiard-room in Elk Rapids, two of us sat 

 down to a card-table, and soon caused the phenomenon 

 known as "table-tipping." Some Indians stood by, but 

 when we left the table and it began to follow us, they bolted 

 for the door; from that time it was impossible to get one to 

 shake hands with us ; but a half-breed asked my friend if he 

 could not cure him of rheumatism, to which he jokingly 

 said, placing his hand on the victim's shoulder: "There, now, 

 just toddle off and fill up with iskUhiamhoo, and I guess you 

 will come out all right !" The fellow did as was told, for he 

 procured whiskey enough to get drunk, and between his 

 faith and the whiskey his rheumatism was cured, much to 

 P.'s astonishment. Truly, faith works wonders ! 



As an instance of what may be generally expected of them 

 in any disease of an obscure character, I will relate an inci- 

 dent communicated by Mr. Shaw. His interpreter, a con- 

 verted Indian, was taken rather suddenly with a pain in his 

 thigh and consequent lameness, although no cause could be 

 assigned for the disease, and no lesion could be discovered 

 by the eye. Mr. Shaw supposed it to be a rheumatic affec- 

 tion, and advised him to use such remedies as he (Mr. 

 Shaw) thought beneficial, but all were without the desired 

 effect. Other means were employed, and weeks passed 

 without amendment, though his health continued good. 



After some time he conjectured that he was bewitched, and 

 he clandestinely applied to a medicine man. The latter 

 took his magic diagnostieator (which was nothing more than 

 a colored pebble), and after looking through it, he gravely 

 informed the patient that he saw two worms and a stone in 

 his limb. This confirmed the patient in his belief of the 

 skill of the doctor, and thereupon engaged him to removo 

 the foreign bodies. After a long course of medication and 

 conjuration, the doctor could only extract one of the worms, 

 and the patient being but little better he despaired and 

 demanded counsel. Two other medicine men were accord- 

 ingly called in, and after proper deliberation the oldest and 

 largest took the stone, and looking through it examined the 

 diseased limb. Horror of horrors ! He discovered the re- 

 maining worm, three stones, and a large piece of iron ! No 

 wonder the poor fellow was lame. Each of the other sages 

 in turn examined the limb, and of course they would not 

 acknowledge blindness, so each confirmed the statement of 

 the "big man." 



Then came the grave question — the probabilities of cure. 

 The big man having given such evidence of ability, was the 

 one to decide the point, and on his expressing favorable 

 hopes the patient was turned over to him. After a trial of 

 a few weeks the great Medicine Man succeeded in removing 

 one of the stones, but the remaining two, with the worm and 

 piece of iron, resisted all his attempts at extraction. A 

 united attempt by the whole fraternity was therefore resolved 

 upon, but the interference of Mr. Shaw terminated the wholo 

 affair. 



No. V. 



Though I intended to have your readers travel with me 

 around Keweenaw Point, and along the coast to Ontonagon, 

 visiting the copper mines and discussing the natural 

 resources, physical peculiarities and social attributes of the 

 country and its inhabitants, I find my notes in such con- 

 fusion that I have abandoned the idea of arranging them for 

 the present, owing to lack of time. A little later they shall 

 be forthcoming; meantime, with your permission, I will 

 take the Fokbsi and Stkeam, its readers and myself, back 

 some sixteen years and write you a couple of winter letters 

 from Marquette, the material for which is culled from old 

 letters of your humble servant. 



Tourists seldom winter in the Upper Bake region, but I 

 found it conducive to health and not disagreeable. Of the 

 doings I refer you to the letters: 



Makqoette, Lake Soteeiok, Bee. 22, 1860. 



Mil. Edxtob : — I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 

 New Year ! Alittle in advance of the time, indeed, but you will 

 find it in good time enough, probably, before it reaches you. 

 We have to do such things in the Arctic Itegions a little be- 

 fore the real time; this is "taking time by the forelock" in 

 order that the sentiment may get thawed out by or before 

 its arrival with you. Bid you ever hear of words freezing 

 so that when men stood on the street in conversation their 

 words congealed, as uttered, and fell at their feet to such 

 a degree that after twenty minutes' conversation a man 

 might be said to be up to his knees in his own eloquence ? 

 Well, such is about the condition of things here, and has 

 been, with the exception of about oighteen hours, ever since 

 I returned here last month. During all the time — nearly 

 five weeks — the mercury has been down to, or below, zero. 

 Even now — while I write — I send you but a very small letter, 

 yet, by the time it reaches your more temperate climate the 

 heat will have so expanded it that the wrapper will be open at 

 the end ! Now, friend Hallock, be so kind as to put the com- 

 positor in a cold room while he sets this up, or you may 

 not find room for it after its dilution. This would he "a 

 capital place to send some of the old puritanical scrmonizers; 

 their long-winded expositions would, in this temperature, be- 

 come concise discourses. This would be nearly the only 

 appropriate part of the country to send for perusal that 

 Alexandrine work — 'lite Qoasi Survey. It would here become 

 a mere two-and-six-penny duodecimo. Wonderful, indeed, 

 is the condensing effect of cold illustrated up this wayi At 

 Portage Lake, where the temperature is a few degrees lower 

 than here, its effects are visible on Old Father Time himself. 

 This week has been so contracted that, as I am audibly in- 

 formed, they have no Sabbath left, but still adhering to old 

 forms, the people yet devote a seventh part of the week to 

 "killing time !" 



When here last August I was in love with the place; and 

 that must have been true love, for its course, it is said, 

 "never did run smooth." My voyage here on the "Planet," 

 last month, was forcibly illustrative of that adage. Buring 

 our passage we had to throw all our froight overboard to 

 appease tho hungry sea, and even that did not satisfy the 

 monster, for on his own account he took possession of both 

 our smoke-stacks and a part of the upper cabin, We barely 

 escaped his capacious maw by thus sacrificing to him some 

 thousands of dollars' worth of provisions. The steamer 

 Cleveland, which was in our wake when tho storm com- 

 menced, had also to throw over her deck-load and part of 

 that in her hold. 



Everything looks dull here now, there being nothing but 

 wind upon the lake, and the cars having stopped running 

 on the roailroad. There are but few horses here, 

 tiyely, aud you will not wonder when you know hay is 



