2) 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



pork. We had saved this same pork till the last, hoping 

 that we could induce some unwary Indian to accept it in 

 lieu of more palatable food. But no Seminole was so ac- 

 commodating, and we chewed it in silence. The rind was 

 an inch thick, and had the appearance of amber. I sliced 

 my piece thin and bolted it, and when my guide said it 

 was six years old I didn'S raise a doubt. 



In the morning we awoke refreshed, and heading our 

 horses northward we set out. Notwithstanding his age 

 and experience, my guide allowed his fears to control him, 

 and would not stop to secure one of the many deer that 

 grazed about us for fear that we should not reach our des- 

 tination, and should have to pass another night in the 

 woods. 



Towards noon we emerged upon the Ivissimer prairie, 

 and then could tell with tolerable certainty the course to 

 take. Abandoning all hope of reaching the river we struck 

 for the old military road, hoping to reach it befo e night. 

 Faint and weary as we were, he would not rest, bu u pressed 

 insanely on, with but one idea— to reach a settler's cabin 

 before night set in. As for me I did not care. I was at 

 the mercy of my guide, and could do nothing with him in 

 his present state. 



To turn my back upon Lake Okeechobee, and give over 

 all hope of seeing it required a hard struggle. But I had 

 to yield to necessity, and so every hour saw us further and 

 further away. Towards noon we stopped at a brackish 

 pool to quench our thirst, and here I ate my dinner, though 

 I didn't mean to, as it consisted of two small fish, which 

 went down alive in the muddy water and met an untimely 

 death. On and on we rushed. The deer sprang up from 

 their noonday rest and skipped away, with their white 

 banners waving tantalizingly near. Sand hill cranes flew 

 screaming from under our very noses. Thousands of cat- 

 tle now appeared dotting the prairie. In the midst of 

 plenty we had passed nearly twenty-four hours without 

 food. In the afternoon I grew weary of the continual 

 striking of my saddle-bags against my legs, and lightened 

 ship by throwing over the heaviest of my treasures. A 

 bottle of arsenic went first, then five pounds of shot, a lot 

 of cartridges, and everything not actually necessary. 



The finder will be suitably rewarded. 



Just before we reached the trail we were seeking a beau- 

 tiful fox sprung up, and, stopping a minute too long to 

 look at the first men he probably ever met, I gave him a 

 flying shot from the saddle that tumbled him over. Then I 

 was sorry that I had killed the animal for mere sport, and 

 vowed I'd not do it again. Yet so strong is the instinct 

 that, riding within forty yards of a deer— offering too beau- 

 tiful a shot to resist — I handed my gun to my guide and 

 let him shoot. But he didn't hit him, and I wished I'd 

 fired instead. As the sun dipped below the horizon we 

 rode out upon the old military road that crosses the penin- 

 sula from the Atlantic to the Gulf. We struck it near the 

 site of old Fort Dunn, the parade ground of which is still 

 in tolerable condition, and cantering a mile or two further 

 soon sighted the settler's house and were happy. 



Though this man owned hundreds of cattle, and counted 

 as his all the acres he desired, he had nothing in the larder 

 but a few sweet potatoes; but he freely shared those few. 

 After a man has fasted twenty-four hours, buttermilk and 

 sweet potatoes will fill a void acceptably. That night we 

 slept beneath a roof, and I shared a bed with four vigorous 

 boys and about three millions of very active fleas. Yet, 

 though the fleas possessed uncommon agility, and showed 

 decidedly phlebotomous dispositions, and though there 

 was music in the air, and everywhere else, from the joint 

 and several efforts of the various noses in the room, and 

 though the boys aforesaid procured a corner in blankets, 

 and left me open to the attacks of several very bloodthirsty 

 bands of mosquitoes, I slept And it was sweet potatoes 

 and buttermilk that awoke me in the morning. Thirty 

 miles we accomplished before dark that day, riding across 

 the St. John's prairies, which fairly swarmed with turkeys, 

 and over the Alapattie flats, where we found the creeks, so 

 dry when we left, full to overflowing. What was my sur- 

 prise, when I reached my guide's cabin, to find Indian Par- 

 ker there with a lot of deer skins, which I had hought, 

 paid for and left— since then giving up all hope of seeing 

 them. v Such is Seminole honesty! 



What* white man would have ridden sixty miles tore- 

 store another's goods'? I knew of one who wouldn't. 



Fred Beverly. 



AUTUMN IN NOVA SCOTIA. 



Xt having been a long disputed question, even among 



well informed anglers, whether the common brook trout 



had scales, the editor of the Washington Sunday Herald 



addressed letters to many of the leading naturalists and 



sportsmen of the country, and has received such testimony, 



including that of Professors Baird and Agassiz, as compels 



a full conviction that they have. 



-+**>~ 



—From the circular of a distinguished dancing master, 

 we extract the following mild sarcasm: "Dancing, when 

 properly taught and practiced, is the very best safeguard 

 against the evils of over-mental education, to which Ameri- 

 can young ladies are so subject. %This education is often 

 carried to such an extent, that the children have scarcely 



anv leisure for recreation." 



J -«**» — 



— Digby, the other day, found some money in the street. 

 "Ah," said he, with a knowing look, "papers have been 

 saying that money's tight, but I wouldn't have believed it 

 if I hadn't found it in the gutter." 



TN'tTMBEE TWO. 



IT was quaintly said by Charles Lamb that lie never 

 got up "until the day was well aired," and it 

 must be confessed that on the morning after our arrival at 

 Purdy's, we indulged ourselves in a long rest, until the 

 sunlight had dried the dew from the mountain tops and 

 driven the shadows from the valleys. It was a Sunday 

 morning, and from Sugarloaf to the distant arms of the 

 sea, a hush hung over all until one turned at the rustle 

 of a falling leaf, and almost started at the movement of a 

 bird. 



A rumor came to us that a bear was making havoc with 

 a settler's sheep, so after breakfast we wandered down to a 

 valley near by, following paths that a lady would deem 

 easy, yet they led at once to the mysteries of the wild 

 woods. 



Little brooks struggled up into the sunshine from deep 

 mossy banks, and prattled with a playfulness that waters 

 do not possess in "the open," any more than children's glee 

 carries its sparkle under observation. Ferns waved in their 

 shadow dance, and grew with that luxuriant plume that 

 characterizes them only when the air playing with their 

 dainty sprays is the damp breath that has come for miles 

 under the cool shade of unbroken forest; bright berries, 

 coral hued, set in nests of leaves, were everywhere ; mosses 

 in infinite variety crept out to the very roadway, while 

 lichens on the granite rocks, and vines clinging to the 

 varied trees, gave evidence that here the wild power of 

 nature was yet supreme, and her untrammeled sway was 

 beating back with insidious growth, and an eager press of 

 beautiful foliage, the narrow open lines that man had made. 

 It is one peculiar feature of this land, the ease and com- 

 fort with which one can reach and enjoy the real wilder- 

 ness. Here, not far from an old stage road, a few steps 

 carried us from a house with every comfort, at once to 

 woods that will stand for years as they are now, and as they 

 were when discovered. And here we rambled, following a 

 well beaten road, where in the forests about all the game 

 animals still remained, (with perhaps the exception of the 

 wolf,) and in which if man keeps his destructive instincts 

 within bounds, they will remain; for now nearer and more 

 genial soils are open to the emigrant, while the hardy sons 

 of Nova Scotia are more inclined to seek fate or fortune on 

 the ocean that surrounds them, or to employ the energy 

 that comes as a birth-right to all Americans, in our great 

 cities, than to contend at odds with the chances agriculture 

 has in the brief uncertain summer. Here and there a set- 

 tlement of charcoal burners are invading the forest; and in 

 winter there are raids into the backwoods for spars, knees 

 and timber; but miles and miles of wilderness, vast wastes 

 of Moose plains and Caribou barrens, are known only to 

 hunters, where if the laws of production are not too ruth- 

 lessly violated, game will maintain itself in abundance, 

 while in stream, pond and estuary, fish and aquatic game 

 are striving with full natural instinct to breed and multiply. 

 And the wild inhabitants of Nova Scotia are among the 

 most noble of our great continent. The Moose has no peer, 

 and it is man's best cunning and greatest skill alone that 

 overmatch this supurb "monarch of the glen;" the Caribou, 

 fleet, alert, and suspicions, is worthy of the courage and 

 endurance that are needed to follow and surprise them; the 

 large bear with strength to fell an ox is no mean foe before the 

 best armed hunter, while smaller game is on every side, less 

 in size, but full of the cunning and secresy so interesting to 

 the naturalist. In the boiling streams that come from the 

 mountain ponds, bearing the amber color that tells of a 

 birth-place far from homes or clearings, arising as it does 

 from the mass of vegetation of the deep swamps— are the 

 salmon, the sea trout and many less worthy fish; while in 

 all the noisy brooks and silent, shadowy ponds, the brook 

 trout abound, often where the king fisher, the heron and the 

 otter are the only enemies that arouse timidity. 



When we crossed the larger streams, we cast grasshop- 

 pers into the eddies, and watched their perilous voyage. 

 Now and then a drooping sedge or broken branch rescued 

 the castaway, but usually a gleam, a flash as of a jewelled 

 hand, a dimpling circle widening over the spot, and the 

 bait was gone. 



There is an infinite pleasure in a weodland Sabbath. 

 Following a brook intent upon a heavy basket* the fish are 

 quickly caught or alarmed and wounded, seek refuge; birds 

 and game fall or fly before an eager shot to be seen no 

 more, but when one divests himself of rod and gun, and 

 with no haste or purpose lingers among the " aisles of 

 God's first temples," he may feed the shyest fish and almost 

 tame them, and with a glass find more to admire in the 

 beauty, fitness and gentle wildness of even larger game than 

 could ever be learned over the bead of a gun or the Ml of a 

 fly. Some of our most accurate observers of all the 

 minutia of forest life, by whose pens we are carried in 

 easy chair and slippers almost into the breath and shadow 

 of the woodland, carried no guns, nor used a rod; and the 

 keenest sportsman may gain a new pleasure, with a deeper 

 insiffht into the "good in everything," by taking one day 

 of seven to linger with eye, ear and heart among the 

 wonders no hand has wrought, which were in all their 

 grace and beauty with no recognition until the refined mind 

 and discriminating eye of the lover of nature came. 



With all this wild life about us we idled our way to the 

 settler's home with the hope of finding such indications of 

 bruin's ravages as would enable us to learn his ways and 

 watch for his coming, but in this we were disappointed. 

 He had killed some sheep, but it was in a remote pasture, 

 and we could not awaken animosity or energy enough to 



organize a hunt for him, so abandoning our sanguinary 

 ambition we sauntered homewards to look over the limit- 

 less view commanded by our windows, and make plans for 

 visiting trout ponds on the morrow. And here pardon our 

 discursive pen, for of this said pond-fishing it Avas our 

 purpose now to write, while after all the pen has only been 

 a truant to the aim, and the letter reaches its limit without 

 the cast of a fly. It shall not again so sin, but in our next 

 will end with pond-fishing, an Autumn in Nova Scotia. 



L. W. L. 

 -*.*- 



QUAIL SHOOTING IN MARYLAND. 



Editor Forest and Stream:— 



If you can spaie enough space in your valuable paper, I 

 will write a simple account of two days' quail shooting 

 down in Maryland, hoping that it may interest a few of 

 your many readers, and possibly furnish information to 

 some who would like to know where good shooting can he 

 had. 



On Monday morning, October 20th, my friend Harry J. 

 and your humble servant, who will always answer to the 

 name of Al, started with a brace of dogs, a pointer and 

 setter, named "Fred" and "Gypsie," a Scott breech-loader 

 No. 10 each, and a trunk containing hunting suits and am- 

 munition, for Cambridge, on the eastern shore of Mary- 

 land. It rained in torrents, but not at all discouraged by 

 the weather, we jumped aboard of the nine o'clock train for 

 Baltimore, expecting to take the boat that night down the 

 Chesapeake. After putting our dogs in the care of "Sam," 

 the well-known baggage master, feeling assured that they 

 would be well cared for, we seated ourselves as comfort- 

 ably as possible, stuffed our pipes, and settled down for an 

 eight hours' ride. Upon our arrival at Baltimore, we met 

 our first disappointment— the boat did not run Mondays, 

 so we could do nothing but wait until the following night, 

 thereby losing one day's shooting, quite an item when your 

 time is limited. Not wishing to stay in the city a full day 

 and night, we, upon the recommendation of a friend acci- 

 dentally met, procured a carriage and drove across the long 

 bridge spanning the Patapsco River, to "Sam Acton's" Road 

 House, and put up for the night, expecting to pass the fol- 

 lowing day by tramping around the country, hardly hoping 

 to run across any birds. We however returned to the ho- 

 tel at night with ten quail, my friend Harry having all the 

 luck, shooting nine of them. We were told that it was a 

 very good bag for that place, and I assure you wc worked 

 hard to get them. After partaking of a good and hearty 

 supper, we again started on our journey, this time with 

 success. The boat— the old Highland Light— started at 

 nine o'clock that night, and efter attending to our compan- 

 ions, the dogs, and procuring state-rooms, we turned in, 

 expecting and dreaming of glorious sport on the morrow. 

 Long before sunrise we were dressed and on deck, enjoying 

 the lovely scenery down the Choptank River. As soon as 

 old "Sol" made his appearance, the river seemed alive with 

 water-fowl; it made no difference in what direction we 

 turned our eyes, they were sure to rest on ducks, flying 

 over and around us. We passed some that were sitting on 

 the water, which were actually too lazy to get out of the way 

 of the wash from the paddles. We arrived at Cambridge 

 about eight o'clock in the morning, and were directed by 

 the clerk of the boat to put up at the Dorchester House, on 

 account of the proprietor being a thorough sportsman. We 

 soon found out that he hardly knew the difference between 

 a gun and a fishing-rod, so w r e had to beat the country 

 the best we could, without any directions what- 

 ever, and when night came we returned to the hotel minus 

 birds, tired out and discouraged, and ready to pack up and 

 start for home. Fortunately for us we met the proprietor 

 of a rival hotel, "Yern Rea," so called by all his friends, 

 and a whole-souled, thorough sportsman and gentleman we 

 found him. We soon "scraped" up an acquaintance, and 

 heard from him that birds were plenty about four or five 

 miles out of town, and if we would stay he would take us 

 to the grounds the following day. Our drooping spirits re- 

 vived immediately, and in an amazingly short space of 

 time we had our "traps" transferred to the Bramble House, 

 ate a tip-top supper, loaded our metallic shells, smoked a 

 pipe, and "turned in," anxiously awaiting sun-up, and im- 

 patient to commence our sport, so long delayed; nor were 

 we disappointed this time. Day broke bright and clear, 

 and by seven o'clock dogs, guns, and sportsmen were snug- 

 ly packed in a w^agon, driving down the road at a spanking 

 trot; after a ride of about an hour, we drew up at the side 

 of a wheat stubble and tumbled out. Our party consisted 

 of four— Yern Rea, George Dale (as good-natured and as 

 lazy as you can possibly imagine), Harry, and myself. 



"Now, boys," commenced Rea, " if you watch us and do 

 as we tell you we will teach you how to shoot; mind, take 

 your time." 



"All right," replied Harry, winking at me, "we need a 

 little instruction, so let's start; lam crazy to burn a little 

 powder, if it's only in the way of a salute. Al, you take 

 this side of the hedge, and Rea and myself will hunt the 

 other; Dale is going further on with the horse; Hie, on 

 Fred!" 



Off w T e started ; my setter pup was as wild as a hawk, it 

 being her first lesson in the field, consequently I had my 

 hands full attending to her. Presently I heard Rea cry 

 out "Look sharp, boys, the pointer has struck a trail; now 

 he stops, here is a bevy sure, now r don't waste shot." Up 

 jump some twenty full-grown birds. Bang! bang! Rea has 

 two down. The next instant Henry knocks down one with 

 each barrel,and as they pass on my side I let drive the right 

 hand barrel, and drop a fine cock bird. After reloading 

 and retrieving our dead birds we start off again; my pup 



