THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 





Trrnis, Four Hollars a Yeai' ) 



Ten icing a Copy. I 



6 months, $2 ; 3 momhx, <S I . j 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1879, 



rFor Forest omt Stream and Rod and Gun. I 

 OVER THE BROWN HILLS. 



OVKK the brown hills Hie dreaming cittte roam ; 

 Down In the valley the mill-stream graets the gloara ; 

 Sunbeams play fondly with the pine-tree's crest, 

 Ami low, soft notes of twilight arise from Nature's breast. 

 Over the brown hills the w.Ute-flecked moon appears ; 

 One timid starlet its twinkling presence rears, 

 And night winds gently rustle the golden harvest sheaves, 

 While swallows twitter "Good night" beneath the shelt'ring eaves. 



Over the brown hills my love went years ago ; 

 Down by the mill-stream his words were sweet and low ; 

 The sunset kissed the pine-top at gently as to-day ; 

 We knew not 'twa<i onr parting, forever and for aye ! 

 Over the brown hills come mem'riea sad and bright ; 

 1 trace the rugged pathway that b ire him from my sight ; 

 There on the brow he lingered, as oft he had before, 

 And " Good night " floated downward— 'twas farewell, evermore 1 

 Wspwosra Wadswobtb. 



For Forest and Stream and Rod and dun. 



^n\onq the ^monsit\ $jtM8. 



IN the latter part of September last business of some im- 

 portance called me into Jackson County, Wisconsin, 

 just on the borders of the great pine forest which covers al- 

 most (he entire northern portion of that State. As I would 

 have nothing in particular to do after this business was con- 

 cluded, and being rather in need of a little recreation, I de- 

 cided to spend the month of October in the woods of Clark 

 County, which lies just to the north of Jackson ; and with 

 this end in view I took with me my favorite Ballard rifle and 

 an immense Scotch deer-hound which had been presented to 

 me by an English uncle, and which I had named Smoker in 

 honor of Harry Archer's famous hound. Three friends, who 

 had been my companions on many a similar expedition, con- 

 cluded to accompany me into the woods, and we made arrange- 

 ments to meet on the first day of October at Black River 

 Falls, the country seat of Jackson County. 



I arrived at the place of meeting about noon, and my 

 three friends— Messrs. Ogden. Fowler and Baton— came in 

 on the afternoon train. They brought with them the neces- 

 sary camping-out fixings, including a dozen steel traps and a 

 couple of hounds of the common breed. 



We were quite a formidable party as regards firearms. In 

 addition to my own rifle, Messrs. Ogden and Fowler carried 

 Winchester repealers, and Mr. Eaton, who had no faith in 

 his own ability to hit anything with a single ball, placed his 

 faith in a heavy muzzle-loading shot-gun, which threw buck- 

 shot with remarkable force and precision. 



The town of Black River Falls contains in the neighbor- 

 hood of fifteen hundred or two thousand inhabitants, the so- 

 called falls being merely a series of rapids in the stream. 

 The stream itself is very inconsiderable at this point, what- 

 ever it may be nearer the mouth. After inspecting the town 

 we found a lumberman— Bill Johnson by name — who agreed 

 for the sum of one dollar per diem to perform the duties of 

 guide and cook for our party. To our unaccustomed eyes 

 his style of dress was rather starLling, he being clad in a blue 

 flannel shirt, a pair of immense boots armed with large pro- 

 jecting nails, and a pair of inexpressibles of the most vivid 

 scarlet ; but, as we had no intention of taking anything so 

 conspicuous into the woods with U3, we informed him tiin t 

 he must exchange this latter article for one of a more sobe r 

 hue. He seemed to consider this an unwarrantable intru 

 sion on our part, but .nevertheless complied. Not thinking 

 our armament sufficient, he took with him his rifle — a muz- 

 zle-loader of the " Old Kentucky " pattern. 



A conveyance was next in order- We found no difficulty 

 in hiring one of the style denominated " lumber-wagon," 

 and early the next morning sat out for Hatfield, a small town 

 about a dozen miles up the river, just within the borders of 

 Clark County. The country hereabouts is chiefly forest, with 

 a few smill stretches of prairie ; but north of Hatfield these 

 latter cease entirely, and the only clearings are those made 

 by the ax of the lumberman. The soil is poor and grow- 

 still poorer toward the north, and is unsuitable to the pro- 

 duction of auythiug but timber. The whole country is ex. 

 ceedingly flat, more so, indeed, than the average prairi e 

 land ; but there is a very decided slope toward the south, a 



is conclusively proved by the rapidity of the streams. Com- 

 parative^ little farming is done, most of the inhabitants 

 being engaged in lumbering. The road we found to be in 

 tolerably good condition. 



About ten o'clock we arrived at Hatfield, and, after making 

 about twenty miles more, camped for the night. A little 

 after noon the next day we arrived at the so-called " town " 

 of Greenwood, where our wagon left us. The number of 

 buildings required to constitute a town in this region is not 

 very great. A saw-mill is erected, two or three slab and log 

 shanties are thrown up, and the frontier city is full-grown. 

 Dpon leaving the wagon we shouldered our impedimenta 

 and struck into the woods. After traveling some three miles 

 we pitched camp a short distance back from the main 9tream 

 and near a small branch, from whicha supply of water could 

 be obtained. At this point the Black River is nearly as 

 broad as it is at the falls, nor is the volume of water much 

 diminished. It can he easily waded at almost any point. We 

 saw no stones in the neighborhood excepting a very few in 

 the stream. The current is very rapid for so level a country. 

 The fish are similar to those of the Upper Mississippi, but 

 some of the brooks are reported to contain speckled trout. 

 We found nothing, however, to support this assertion. The 

 river is bordered by a great belt of pine, sometimes half a 

 mile in width, but beyond this belt other trees are plentifully 

 interspersed, chiefly sugar maples, hickories, especially the 

 pig-nut or butternut, elms and a few oaks. Large tracts are 

 covered almost entirely with maples, and further south con- 

 siderable sugar is made in the spring. The ground is very 

 free from underbrush, the view frequently being unob- 

 structed. 



In this neighborhood much of the best pine has been cut, 

 but Johnson told U3 that a short distance to the west we 

 would find a region which the lumbermen had not yet pene- 

 trated. The pine of this portion of the State is generally 

 considered tougher and harder to work than the Michigan 

 pine ; but we learned from Johnson that this was not so 

 much due to any quality inherent in the wood as to the fact 

 that nearly all the Wisconsin lumber is rafted down the 

 Mississippi, and becomes toughened by its long immersion 

 in the water. 



Having obtained as thorough a knowledge of the country 

 as was possible under the circumstances, we resolved on a 

 deer hunt for the next daj r , and, in order to facilitate the 

 passage of the river, the guide felled a huge pine across it at 

 a point nearly opposite the camp. Ogden, Eaton and the 

 guide were in favor of still hunting, but Fowler and myself 

 preferred a run. As a general thing, running deer with 

 hounds is impracticable in this country. Owing to the open- 

 ness of the woods there are but few regular run-ways, and, 

 as there are no streams of any magnitude for which the deer 

 are likely to make, the hounds only succeed in driving them 

 out of the country instead of bringing them within range of 

 the hunter. But during our day's wanderings we had found 

 a well defined path, where the deer had been in the habit of 

 crossing the river, and as neither Fowler nor myself felt 

 equal to a twenty-mile tramp, we resolved to send out the 

 hounds and trust to fortune for the rest. 



Next morning Ogden and Eaton were off bright and early, 

 and after exhorting them not to lose themselves, Fowler and 

 I took Johnson and the dogs and proceeded to the crossing, 

 where we stationed ourselves. Johnson made a circuit to 

 windward and sent out the dogs, and then returned to camp 

 thoroughly disgusted with the whole affair, and muttering 

 something under his breath which was probably not very 

 complimentary to us ; and in fact neither of us was very 

 sanguine of venison of our own killing ; but for once the 

 Fates proved propitious. We had lain scarcely twenty 

 minutes in ambush when a loud challenge from the hounds 

 announced that game was afoot, and not three minutes later 

 a five-spike buck came into view, running straight for the 

 crossing. The hounds must have been close upou him be- 

 fore he discovered them, for Smoker was scarcely ten yards 

 behind. His course brought him within fifty yards of us, 

 and we both fired together. He faltered at the shots and 

 fell to his knees, but before he could recover himself the 

 great deer hound caught him by the throat and pulled him 

 down. Fowler quickly put an end to the struggle by cutting 

 the buck's throat. This, however, was a piece of good fortune 

 which could not be expecled to occur every day, and al- 

 though we tried the same thing several times afterward, 

 and generally succeeded in starting a deer, they invariably 

 went straight away, and on one occasion the hounds did not 

 return until the following day. We did have several suc- 

 cessful runs, but under rather difficult circumstances. Og- 

 den and Eaton returned empty handed and were very much 

 chap-fallen when they heard of our success. 



On Monday we tried for a bear, but failed to find one, and, 

 meeting with similar ill success on the following day, we 

 broke up camp on Wednesday and moved over to a branch 

 of the Eau Claire, some ten or a dozen miles to the west. 

 Here wa were fortunate enough to find an empty cabin 

 which belonged to some trappers who frequented this region 

 in the winter, and this we promptly appropriated. 



The stream we were now on is much smaller than Black 

 River, being in places not more than four or five feet wide, 

 with a depth of about two feet. Johnson said that it was 

 one of the best trapping streams in the country, that the 

 woods were full of sable and fisher, and that bears were 

 plentiful. Of the truth of this last statement we had ample 



proof on the following day. Just as wc were squatting down 

 to breakfast a couple of Indians came into camp. The 

 larger of the two carried an ancient musket, which looked 

 dangerous. Johnson recognized them as old acquaintances, 

 greeting them as Jim and Joe respectively. At his recom- 

 mendation we invited them to breakfast, ia hopes of hearing 

 something concerning the whereabouts of a bear. Joe did 

 not seem to be very hungry, and only devoured ahoul 

 a dozen pounds of venison ; but Jim, to quote Johnson's ex- 

 pression, "just got right up and spread himself." He would 

 certainly have devoured everything in camp had not the 

 guide retained sufficient presence of mind to remove all our 

 more precious edibles, such as sugar, butter, etc., out of his 

 reach. When they had finished eating they informed us that 

 they had that morning seen two bears about a mile and a 

 half down stream, and offered to guide us to the spot for a 

 consideration. The offer was accepted without delay, and 

 we were off inside of five minutes, leaving Eaton to keep 

 camp. The Indians led us directly to the spot where the 

 bears were last seen, and the hounds after a little striding 

 found the trail and dashed off baying lustily. We followed 

 as rapidly as possible, but before a mile had" been traversed a 

 tremendous uproar some distance ahead announced that the 

 dogs had found something. We braced, and arrived upon 

 the scene in an extremely short space of time. The game 

 proved to be an old she bear with her half-grown cub." At 

 the approach of the dogs the cub took a tree, but the old 

 woman sturdily backed up to a large maple and showed fight. 

 The hounds pranced around, getting in a nip now and then 

 though not doing much damage ; but when we came lip (he 

 old bear thought better of it and turned to run. She had 

 not gone her own length before the hounds grappled her, 

 and for a few moments there was a general scrimmage ; but 

 she quickly shook off the dogs and took to a tree. Ogden 

 and Johnson took the cub and Fowler and I the old bear, 

 and m a very few moments the matter was settled to the full 

 satisfaction of all concerned, except the victims. We skinned 

 the bears, and, as the cub looked tender, we took the hind- 

 quarters and the feet. Johnson said that bear meat was best 

 when cooked with the skin on, but we did not care to spoil 

 the hide for the sake of trying the experiment. The Indians 

 did not return to camp with us, much to our satisfaction, 

 During our absence Eaton had managed to kill a deer which 

 passed near the camp, whereat he was greatly elated ; and 

 having plenty of venison we resigned the bear meat to the 

 guide, who happened to be fond of it. 



After supper Johnson gave us a short dissertation on the 

 Indians of this region. According to his account but few of 

 them have mingled with the whites sufficiently to speak our 

 language even tolerably. Their ordinary dress consists of a 

 breech-clout, a calico shirt and a pair of moccasins, only a 

 few of the more civilized indulging in the luxury of breeches. 

 They are a great pest to the lumbermen, as nothing portable 

 is safe while they are around. He summed up his general 

 opinion of their character by saying Wat "of all sneakin', 

 dirty, murderin', lyin', thievin' vagabones they are the 

 worst." 



As we were now well supplied with meat, Johnson con- 

 cluded to do a little trapping, and, as we had no fancy for 

 that kind of work, we loaned him our traps on condition 

 that all the otter caught should belong to tiB. Ashe , 

 expect to catch any otter, he readily agreed. A few trappers 

 generally come up here every winter,' arriving about the first 

 of November. By the middle of this month the country is 

 covered with snow and all traveling is done on snow-shoes. 

 They generally worn in couples, and their modus Operandi is 

 about as follows: They start two lines running in <r. 

 directions, and each one attends to his own line, 

 starting out he proceeds as nearly as possible in a given di- 

 rection, blazing a tree occasionally to make his way, as there 

 are no landmarks whatever. Upon reaching what appi 

 be a favorable place, he stops and sets n trap, generally under 

 some log, baiting it with fresh meat or offal. He then gees 

 on for half a mile or so and sets another trap, and so i 

 til it is time to return to camp. The next day he examines 

 and rebaits the traps already set, and then, turning sharply 

 to the right or left, proceeds to lay out a Hue as before. The 

 next day he begins where he left off on the preceding and 

 lays out a line parallel to the first line, extending this until 

 he is opposite the camp, as nearly as be can judge; from this 

 point to camp he extends a fourth line. The imp's an 

 set in the form of a quadrilateral, in ono corner of which is 

 the camp. This quadrilateral sometimes has a perimeter of 

 forty or fifty miles, and the trapper is three or four da 

 making the round. The game caught is chiefly sable or 

 marten and fisher, with mink and an occasional otter along 

 the streams, and, when the price of fur is high, considerable 

 profits are sometimes made. Johnson, of course, proceeded 

 on a scale much smaller than the one described. 



Alynx is occasionally seen in this part of the country, and 

 Johnson gave us an account of an adventure he onre had 

 with one. He had killed a deer one morning, a 

 offal between two trees about three feet apart, he incli 

 with brush, leaving only one opening, in which the trap 

 set. Lpon making his rounds next morning he found that a 

 fisher had been caught, in the trap, but thai some lai 

 mal had killed and nearly devoured it. There was n. 

 on the ground, so that he was i i 

 of the animal by tracks ; but, suspecting that 

 he made preparations to give him a reception ia case he re 



