JffAROH 89, 1888.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



trout, if we ao, and beside, families get so scattered there 

 that no one knows who his father is, aUd so vice versa, and 

 who knows but that il ite food that makes them 



so toothsome a dish for us. If Patti can improve, her voice 

 by dining on nightingales i cogues, why may not u trout 

 improve his flavor by eating choice morsels? 



"Well, the fond mammas, knowing the danger, keep the 

 youugerlings down the stream, where there are so many 

 good hiding places, till they get large enough to take care 

 of themselves, or it may be, to help themselves to a younger 

 brother, when they t- r o oil on voyages of discovery in large 

 schools of the same age, and bring up in the little lakes. 

 Sometime, no doubt, a little fellow plays truant and 

 meanders off to the lake, but he is soon gobbled dp, before 

 he has time to practice on a fly or a baited hook. N6W if 

 this explanation don't suit you, then find a better one for 

 yourselves. 



But I slid away from the galliuippers onto the brook trout 

 without knowing it. Well, 1 am glad of it. We had been 

 so long among those horrid luasnsa tigers, and slab-sided hogs, 

 aDd the aeaky gallinippers. that if made me sick, and I had 

 to go to something beautiful and charming just to settle mv 

 stomach. Bur then God made those repulsive thinga, BO 

 doubt, though [ never could find it; out, and it was necessary 

 you should know something of them to qualify you for the 

 greatness before you. if you answer (he hopes of your dear 

 mammas, and I'll try to do my share in the discouraging job. 

 even if it. does make me sick." 



"But, Major." called out a tall gaunt, stripling, who had 

 seemed particularly interested in the trout question, "yon 

 started out all right with the prairie chickens and the .l'i-.-r, 

 which 1 don't call repulsive things, but directly you switched 

 off onto another track, which run you into a nest of vipers, 

 where you floundered along till it made us all shudder with 

 their ugliness. Now. can't you lop off where you began and 

 make us feel a little more jolly at the end?" 



"Good tor you, my darling," responded the Major. 

 'There is some" hope for a lad that loves the beautiful in 

 nature and dislikes the ugly, if God did make them all; 

 though I will say I have always had my doubts about the 

 Sttrpents, tint let Ihe preachers settle that if they can, 



"Yes, yes, let's go back to the prairie chickens and the 

 deer, where we began; and 1 only wish I had time to fell 

 you about the wild turkey, too, whose plumage is the gay- 

 est, glitters with I he softest and the most charming colors, 

 exquisitely blended, of all American birds, not even except- 

 ing the humming bird. 1 have seen hundreds of them in a 

 flock within a few miles of where we are now. In the 

 spring the old eoeks would strut about, and raise their 

 feathers till they looked as bis as a barrel, and you would 

 think thev inu.-t burst with pride and self-importance and 

 you Gould hear them gobble in a, continual chorus full a 

 mile away; and then they would fight. O my I It was the 

 battle, of the Wilderness over again, where the Grants and 

 the Lees fought for the mastery. But we must leave them 

 for another time. 



The prank chicken is not a very ccu'dtifv.l lir.l 1 at he 

 is good all the same. He is not a Smart bird. Indeed he 

 much troubled with a disease which often afflicts boy 

 called 'the fools.' They haven t sense enough to go south 'to 

 warmer countries in cold winters, but hang around ha 

 and freeze ami starve to death, when (key could llv in a si 

 gle day to where, they could make themselves comforlabf 

 Although thev generally make short flights, they can fly for 

 miles at a time if they choose, as 1. have seen them do. 



"In eold weather they expose themselves by sitting around 

 on fences and frees where the wind can get a fair rake at. 

 them, while in warm weather they always, sleep on the 

 ground under some big leaf on the prairie, where they can't, 

 gel a breath of fresh air, and where all the varmints' In the 

 country can easily find them, They always make their 

 nests on the ground, where the. snakes "and sicb are hunting 

 for them, and if a nest escapes them it may be drowned out 

 by the floods, for they are apt to select low" ground for their 

 nesting places. In very Wot seasons the i sportsmen always 

 expect a short crop of chickens. If they would only sole'et 

 safe nesting places, like the crow or the blue jay they would 

 multiply faster than rabbits, for they are good layers and 

 good setters, and f never found an a.ddlcu egg in a nest, after 

 the brood had left il. The eggs are small," and the average 

 number set upon may be from twelve lo sixteen, but they 

 are exposed to many casualties when very young, but when 

 a week or ten days old they can fly pretty 'smartly, and can 

 take some care of themselves. 



"These prairie birds are, however, funny fellows, some- 

 time. The spring of the year is the season of courtship with 

 them, and it doscn't, last all the year round as it does with 

 humans, and (.hey do it m rather a. loud way, too. And in- 

 stead of taking the evening for it as many people arc inclined 

 to do. they take the early morning fur it. Early in the morn- 

 ing as goon as il is daylight you ma) see them assemble in 

 parties, from a dozen to fifty, together on some high, dry 

 knolls, where the grass is short, and their goings on would 

 make yatt laugh, it would. The cock birds have a loose 

 patch of naked, yellow skin on each side of the neck just 

 below the head, and above these on either side just where 

 the head joins the neck are a few long black feathers, which 

 ordinarily lay backward on the neck, but which when ex- 

 cited they can pitch straight forward. Those yellow naked 

 patches on either side of the neck cover sacks", which thev 

 can blow up lib a bladder -whenever tt|p y choose, Thgse 

 are their ornaments, which they display to the best advan- 

 tage before the geutli rsex at these love feHSts. This. Uiey do 

 bv blowing up thesi sir sacks till they look like two ripe 

 oranges on each side of the neck, projecting their loiur black 

 ears right forward, i •iirfiiug up all the feathers of the body, 

 till they stand out straight, and dropping their wings to the 

 ground" like a turkey cock. Mow they look just lovely, as 

 the cov and timid maidens seem to say as thev oast "side 

 glances at them, full of admiration and of love, 



"Then it is that the. proud cock, in order to complete his 

 Uiumoh. will rush forward at his best speed for two or 

 three rod* through the midst of the love-sick damsels, pour- 

 ing out as he goes a. booming, noise, almost a hoarse roar, only- 

 more subdued, which may be. heard for at least two miles 

 'jm w he still morning air. This heavy booming sound is by 

 •iaeans harsh or unpleasant, on 'the contrary, it is s-._-.ft 

 and even harmonious. "When standing in the open prairie 

 at. early dawn listening to hundreds" of different voices. 

 pitched on different keys, coming from every direction, and 

 from various distances, the listener is rather soothed than 

 excited. If this sound is heavier than the deep key notes of 

 a large organ it is much softer, though vastly more power- 

 ful, and may be beard at a much greater distance. One who 

 has heard such a concert can never after mistake or forget it. 

 ' 'Every few mimutes this display is repeated. I have- seen 

 not only one. but more than twenty cocks going through 



this funny operation at once, but then they seem careful not 

 to run against each other, for they have not yet gat to the 

 lighting point. After a little white the lady "bird's begin to 

 show an interest i utile proceedings by moving about quickly 

 a few yards at n time, and then standing still a, short time. 

 When these actions arc continued by a large number of 

 birds at a time, it presents a, funny sight, and you can easily 

 think they are moving to the measure of music. 



"The party breaks up when the sun is half an hour high, 

 to be repeated the next morning Wd every moraine for a 

 week or two before all make satisfactory matches. It 

 ward the latter part of the love season that, the fighting 

 takes place among the cocks, probably by two who have 

 fallen in love with the same sweetheart, whose modesty 

 prevents her from selecting between them. 



' 'These birds can't smell enough to tell a rosebud from a 

 polecat. 1 guess their eyesight is pretty fair, and they know 

 just enough to fly when' they are badly seared— sometime. 

 When they do get up they fly straight, away with a very 

 rapid motion of the wing's and a whirring' noise, which 

 will raise every individual hair on your head if they get up 

 near you and you are not expecting it. They are 'an easy 

 mark for the sportsman and are very welcome to the table. 

 "They bear confinement well. The early settlers used to 

 catch thorn in box traps and confine them in loose, pens 

 made of poles, where they would cat and fatten well, and 

 the hens would lay their eggs in the spring, but were not 

 inclined to set upon and hatch them. I believe thev could 

 be easily domesticated with proper management. 



"The winter of 1832 was the hardest whiter ever known 

 in this country within the memoty or tradition of the oldest 

 Indian. The snow was four feet deep all over the north 

 half of this State, and very deep all over this great valley. 

 This was very bad for both deer and prairie birds. Not otic 

 in a thousand lived to see I he naked ground again, In 1833 

 I marched with my regiment across the Grand Prairie, and 

 we did not start a single head of either. Before the big 

 snow, hundreds, or more of them, would have been started. 

 By 1835 on the same route, many were met with, and in 

 1838 they were as abundant as ever, and the deer were even 

 more so, for the Indians had been gone three years, and the 

 white settlers only killed a few for their own user. In lhat 

 year I counted over sixty iu one drove, only sixteen miles 

 from Chicago, and you could cross a prairie uowhere with- 

 out jumping a deer. The Indians were never hard on the 

 prairie chickens. Not but that they wauted them, but they 

 could not get them iu paying quantities. They could not 

 smell them out like a pointer dog, and they never tried to 

 shoot them on the wmg, so the birds had' it pretty much 

 their own way. 



But the deer! The deer, the most beautiful of all living 

 things— barring the ladies, which I ouly do for politeness' 

 sake. His graceful form, his light, and elastic step, his 

 bouuding leaps as he rushes through the forest or over the 

 plain, his mild, bright eye and majestic mien as he stands 

 in the running stream, form a combination of fascinating 

 charms in no other animal brought together. If that aesthetic 

 fellow who has lately been roaming' through this country 

 milking the gentle goats, could only see one wild deer in 

 his unchecked freedom, he would surely expire with delight, 

 or say, 'I will look no further for the beautiful.' Plow I 

 ever had the heart to kill one of these I cannot tell, and yet 

 I never felt a s.-lf-reproaeh, while I never ce 

 Surely we are strange combinations of iuconsistenc 



"The deer has some pecul 

 In the first place they have 

 is true of all the deer family 

 remarkable, is that vegetabl 

 them. For instance, the dei 

 green laurel, while a single 



"A deer will eat tobacco v 



ably he would grow fat if he could get 

 the first tame deer you meet with som 



hich I ma 

 gall sack on the liver. This 

 Another, which is still more 

 poisons have no effect upon 

 ivill grow fat on the ever- 

 uthful will kill n sheep. 



hecanget.it, andprob- 

 ugh of it. Offer 

 obacco; and you 



will surely make him your friend. Whether this is so with 

 mineral poisons, I do not know, but I reckon it is not. I 

 feel very confident that he knows he is not proof against 



■i bites, 



the hog. Tlchs 



Chi 



do 



autipatln 

 Any mai 



id turned 



venom 



against the 



worthy of the name, even if he is goinj 



stop to kill a. mn.sasa.uger, and so will a deer. 1 



grand old buck lopiug over the prairie, as if he 



pretty smart hurry, when he stopped suddenly 



his head to windward. Presently he began stepping along 



as carefully as if he was walking on eggs, looking 'intently 



over every foot of ground before him when " 



r," cried out a freckled-faced, shock-headed 

 sd graceless-looking stripling who had stood 

 e bare foot resting on the other, where he had 

 self with great precision, "did that old buck 

 going for, e>r what member of 



"I 



and i 

 for a 



say, 

 an..! 



i ho 



Mi 

 •-hi 



tell j 



ouv 



ka 



Th 



i Mi 



j<» 



loctor h 



i sick?" 



paused and looked at the impertinent youth 

 for an instant, and said ; 



"Boys, take that sickly looking youth home at once and 

 put him to bed with hot blocks to his feet, and ice to his 

 head. He is in great danger and prompt remedies should 

 be, applied." It was, evident the sympathy of the crowd 

 was with the Major, who had so often interested and in- 

 structed them. The boy was hustled out of the ring in a 

 trice, and when all became quiet again the instructor pro- 



"Aa I was living, that deer stopped short in his tracks, 

 turned his head to windward and snuffed the air for half a 

 minute, and then turned in that direction and stepped along 

 very lightly and cautiously, looking intently before him. 

 Now yon must know that the deer has not a very sharp 

 eyesight, though his eyes look as if he could look right, 

 through a board fence, but. his senses of hearing and smell- 

 ing are sharp enough to make it up, and more too. He can 

 smell an enemy further than a pointer dog can a prairie 

 chicken, and tell what it is, and where it is; and he cau hear 

 the breaking of a twig or the rustle of a leaf, at an astonish- 

 ing distance, and tell by the sound what caused it. 



"Presently that buck stopped stock still, aud looked in- 

 tently at some object a little, way before him, with his neck 

 curved down for a few seconds, and then jumped high in 

 the oir and litabnut six feet away upon all four feet bunched 

 together, and instantly bounded off like a rubber ball at least 

 ten feet, and then turned his head to look at the tracks where 

 he had struck. After a short survey he pursued his way as 

 if nothing had happened. I might have shot that deer, but 

 I wouldn't — no, not much, though I was in want of meat 

 bad. I well knew the Christian work he had been doing and 

 felt like shaking hands with him as a brother. I would 

 have starved before hurting a hair of his hide, 



After he had gone on (for the doctor it may be) I went 

 up to see. the tracks he had made, aud sure enough there lay 



the mashed remains of a big masasauger.which looked as if he 

 had been run through a sausage mill. Those four double hoofs, 

 almost as sharp as hay knives, loaded with about 180 pounds 

 of venison, had just cut the thing all to pieces. There 

 wasn't a piece left big euough to wiggle. 



"Now, who shall say that a. deer hasn't got sense and 

 courage as well as beauty. I could spehd a whole day in 

 telling you of incidents that would prove this, and it his 

 meat wasn't so toothsome and nourishing I just know it 

 would be a sin to kill him. I never killed one unless I 

 needed the meat, or somebody else, did, and when I killed 

 him I loved him still. 



"I must write a cook book some day just, to tell how matiy 

 ways venison can be cooked, each one better than another. 

 I will only speak of one now which is not, meutioncd in the 

 latest authorities. Take the spare-rib of a deer, impale it on 

 one end of a sharpened stick, and stick the other cud of the 

 stick in the ground, leaning it toward the Are, sprinkling 

 it with a little salt and red pepper, or, in want of these, use 

 cleau hickory or maple ashes lightly. Half a dozen of these 

 at the back side of your camp-fire will be ornamental, and 

 in the morning you "will find them useful. Go to your cedar 

 or hemlock bows and sleep till an hour before' daylight. 

 Then get up and you will just hanker to pick those bones. 

 Oct away to the woods by the first streak of light, listen to 

 the concert, of the squirrels and the birds as they awaken to 

 greet the morning light, aud if you keep still and look sharp 

 you may see a big-homed buck] or a doe and her fawn, on 

 their morning walk, and now, boys, I think we have said 

 enough for one day, so let's go home and get our dinners 

 and tell yotu- mammas you have been to school." 



"Stay, Major," called oul an intelligent-looking lad, who 

 had been attentively listening in silence the whole time. 

 "Tellusabouf that pilot, plant that you sighted to across that 

 valley." 



"Well, I will," said the Major, "for it won't take loug. 

 There are two plants that grow abundantly on the wild 

 prairies which indicate to the observing traveler the cai- 

 dinal points, or the points of the compass, unless, indeed, 

 he is completely turned round, when he may take north for 

 south and east for west. Hence these are indifferently 

 called the compass plants or pilot plants. Both arc of the 

 sunflower family, aud have flowers like it, only smaller. 

 One is also called the rosin or turpentine weed \silpliivin 

 l/icininti/m— Ed,], and is the most abundant. Whileitismet 

 with on the high rolling prairies, it grows most luxuriantly 

 on low grouud,~where it sometime occupies the ground to 

 the exclusion of all other plants. It only seeds once iu 

 four or five years, when a stout seed stalk shoots up, from 

 four to eight feet high, with a fuzzy coat, with small 

 leaves shooting out occasionally along its course. 

 This stalk is saturated with a gummy fluid strongly re- 

 sembling Ihe sap of the pine tree in smell and taste, Where- 

 ever a stalk is broken or the bark fractured this substance 

 exudes, and as it dries it crystallizes in drops from the size 

 of a shot to that of a half-ounce bullet. It is as clear as 

 amber. The children of the period used to gather it in con- 

 siderable quantities and used it for chewing gum, for which 

 it is the best known substance. It cleans the teeth and gums 

 of all impurities and foreign substances, sweetens the 

 breath and promotes general health. That explains why if, 

 was that all the log cabin girls of former days had such 

 beautiful pearly teeth, as white as the snow anil as sound as 

 a rootabaga. "You can tell one of those log cabin gii Is by 

 her teeth yet whenever you meet her. and it is all owing 

 to the prairie gum, but" remember they could only gather 

 much of it once iu four or live years, so" they had to lay in 

 a good stock when it did come. Had its virtues been ex- 

 tensively known, it would have commanded a very high 

 price, tor what won't a girl give for beautiful teeth, pro- 

 vided she is of any account herself. 



"Horses eating prairie hay never have the heaves, and- the 

 leaves of the pilot plant, more or less of which is found in 

 all wild upland hay. have the credit of this. The leaves of 



Tie 



, close 

 i long, 

 mce it 

 in the 

 ul two 

 ach to 



this plant grow out iu a bunch of f 



to the ground. They arc from ten to twenty inehe 



with a strong center rib and deeply serrated edges; I 



is called the ungercd-leaf pilot plant. The lingers 



middle of this leaf may be six inches or more long a 



inches wide, and the indentations 



within an incli of the center stei 



from the roots, which are large and of a soft, woody, fifirous 



structure. They are readily' cut off by the breaking plow, 



and die at ouce. 



"The other pilot, plant [KtlpJtiuin. IcirbiiiUiirnicrviii — Ed.] is 

 of the same family, but differs from the first in several par 

 ticulars. It has a large palmate leaf with finely notched edges. 

 It may be from ten to fourteen inches long and half as wide. 

 It widens gradually from the bottom to one-third its length. 

 and then gradually diminishes in width to a point at the 

 end. It, too, springs from the root, which is smaller than 

 the other. It, too, secretes a resinous substance, but is much 

 less rich in it than the first. It has the resinous odor, but. it 

 does not exude iu sufficient quantity to crystallize, and so 

 no gum is gathered from it. Its beating years occur inoie 

 frequently than those of Ihe other rosiu weeds— a very few 

 of both will he found in fruit every year. Its fruit stem, is 

 longer and more slender, aud is as smooth and glassy as if 

 finely polished, It is much more tenacious of life ar.d will 

 bear transplanting. It grows on drier ground and not iu 

 such dense bodies, but is. found scattered over the high 

 rolling prairies. Of the first a number of roots may be 

 found clustered together, especially on the higher grounds. 



sending up a dozen or twenty seed stalks 

 when 'in bloom may be seen at a great dista 

 "1 once took a friend, who had just a 

 East and was supposed to be far gone with 

 out: riiling. The road passed through 



a I i- 



i full blo< 



dis 



rosi 

 hemp. F< 



a delightful resinous pe 

 field, covered a]] over wi 

 heads, he drew a long I 

 saying that he could uo\ 

 had for a long time. He 

 be freely inhaled that he 

 dav after, I took him to the 



•clly 



:l aim 

 round 1 

 tie, T> 

 golden 



h, and 



eat he f 



med to 



ng atmosphere 



pi 



mister, which 



isumption, 

 eld of the 

 a field of 



ided with 

 tered this 



positive delight as 



Every pleasant 



.he same re- 



lets. He began to improv 

 time felt so well that lie bog 

 That was thirty-five years ago, and hi 

 of his lungs since that healing, aud ii 

 That the fragrance of the. rosin weed is 

 ,k lungs I am certain, and I have 

 is true of chewing the gum." 



"But how about the compass part of it, Major?" cried out 

 a lad who was evidently becoming impatient at so much 

 detail. 



nediately, and in a month's 

 i look about for business, 

 s never complained 

 a well man now. 

 lothing and hen ling 

 o doubt Ihe same 



