-^? 



SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Terms, Pour Dollars a Ye. 



>, Four Dollar* a Year 1 

 Ten Cent** a Copy. v 



ntb», 92 ; 3 month*, Si . J 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1879. 



A ZOOLOGICAL ROMANCE. 



N 



sweeter girl ewe a\ 

 Thau Betty Marten's 



rgnu 

 aughter Sae. 



With sable hare, Bmall, tapir waist, 

 And lips you'd gopher miles to taste ; 

 Bright, lambent eyes, nice the gazelle, 

 Sheep pertly brought to bear bo well ; 



Ape pretty lass it was avowed, 

 Of whom her marmot to be proud. 



Dear girl 1 I loved her as my life, 

 And vowed to heifer for my wife. 

 Alas ! a sailor, on the sly, 

 Had cast on her his wether eye- 

 He said my love for her was bosh, 

 And my affection I musquash. 



He'd dog her footsteps everywhere, 

 Anteater in the easy chair ; 



He'd setter round, this sailor chap, 

 And pointer out upon the map 



Where once a pirate cruiser boar 

 Him captive lo a foreign shore. 



The cruel captain far outdid 



The yaks and crimes of Robert Kid. 



He oft would wale Jack with the cat, 

 And say : " My buck, doe you like that 1 



" What makes you stag around so ; say ! 

 The oatamonnts to something, hey 1" 



Thou he would seal it with an oath, 

 And say : " You're a lazy sloth 1 



" I'll starve you down, my sailor fine, 

 Until for beef and porcupine !'' 



And, fairly hoarse with fiendish laughter, 



Would say : " Henceforth, mind what giraffe tar !' 



In short, the many risks he ran 

 Might well a llama braver man. 



Then he was wrecked and castor shore 

 While feebly clinging to anoa; 



Hyena cleft among the rocks 



lie crept, sans shoes and minus ox. 



And when he tain would goat to bed, 

 He had to lie on leaves Instead. 



Then Sue would say, with troubled face, 

 " now koodoo live in such a place ?" 



And straightway into tears would melt, 

 And say : " How badger must have felt !" 



While he, the brute, woodchuck her chin, 

 And say : " Aye-Aye, my lass !" and grin. 



Excuse these steers. * • * It's over now ; 

 There's naught like grief the hart can cow. 



Jackasa'd ber to be his, and she- 

 She gave Jaokal, and jilted me. 



And now, alas 1 the little minks 



la bound to him with Hymen's lynx. 



— C. K ADAMS, in Detroit Free t 



For Forest and Stream and Sod and Gun. 



§he Jpnd of th% §ointed §mrt* 



Number One. 



TIIE Nez Perce and Baunock wars have attracted Ihc at- 

 tention of every one for so long a time to this section 

 of country, that any especial reference to its whereabouts 

 13 unnecessary. Therefore, if the reader will turn to the 

 map of Idaho Territory and cnsi. his eye upon its western 

 boundary he will see that about midway it is crossed by the 

 Snake (or Shoshone) River. Following this boundary due 

 north for about a hundred miles f the distance on the mad 

 will depend upon the scale), he will see a splotch of irregu- 

 lar form, evidently designed to represent abody of water, as 

 two or three rivers are seen to empty into it. This repre- 

 sents Cceur D'Alene Lake, a magnificent sheet of water some 



* It Is impossible to get tne exaet meaning of the Damn ■ Uojtir 

 D'Alene." Alene mnana an an awl or ouier sharp pointed Instrument. 

 The descendants of the old Hudson Ray employees and the few of the 

 original voyaReure left, say that " Coaur D'Alene '' means "Pointed 

 Heart." Tne Indian name of the Coeur D'Alene tribe is Stehliawe, pro- 

 nounced St-tchitswee, but no one, not even themselves, can give lta 

 signification. The name '• Coeur D'Alene " was bestowed upon them 

 by the old voyageura, wherefore is unknown. Monmouth. 



thirty miles in length. The width is so affected by the jut- 

 ting promontories that it varies from ten to two miles, and 

 no more definite measure can be given. 



The primeval forest comes to the water's edge, and the 

 shadows of the tall pines are reflected in its pellucid waters; 

 for these are never clouded, the springs and streams which 

 feed it are never muddy, and the great Spokan River, which 

 is its only outlet and which springs from it full-grown— one 

 hundred and sixty yards in midth at the season of lowest 

 water, with a swift current — has never a shadow cast upon 

 its waters by contamination with any vulgar soil. In plain 

 English, the waters of both lake and river are so transparent 

 that the bottom can be seen anywhere and at any time to a 

 depth of twenty feet. 



On a dark night with one of Boudren's hunting and fish- 

 ing lamps, when it is perfectly quiet, the bottom can be seen 

 at over thirty feet. This same lamp, by the by, is a magni- 

 ficent institution, and, if its inventor knew how often he had 

 been praised and how highly his invention was appreciated 

 by us while driving through the forests at night, how many 

 accidents he had prevented, and how much he had saved 

 our beloved Uncle Samuel in protecting his wagons from ac- 

 cident, he would be proud and at once apply for a pension. 

 He should also receive the most heartfelt thanks from all 

 Christain communities, for the amount of profanity he has 

 prevented is simply incalculable. If he should be so unfor- 

 tunate as ever to fall into the clutches of that estimable gen- 

 tleman who is vulgarly supposed to be adorned with a large 

 pair of horns and a long tail with a spear at its tip, he may 

 rest ussured that a particularly warm corner will be assigned 

 him and an extra hand put on to stir up the fire, for thwart- 

 ing the many and carefully laid plans of that individual to 

 take advantage of poor, weak human nature in the dark. 



I trust I may be pardoned this panegyric, which can really 

 be appreciated by no one save he who has had to conduct "a 

 train of six mule teams through a forest at night. Such a 

 one will forever bless the man who invented a lantern that 

 will throw a clear light so far ahead that he as well as his 

 lead mules 1 can clearly see the ground before them ; and 

 this the Boudren lamp will do, and none other that I have 

 ever seen will in any way approach it. I have found it per- 

 fectly inestimable. 



This is apparently a long departure from my beautiful 

 lake. But place the same lamp, with its fishing reflector at- 

 tached, in the bow of your canoe, and as you slowly glide 

 over the smooth surface of the lake, with the bottom as 

 plainly displayed as if it were in the palm of your hand, and 

 see the great trout with gently waving tail and fins apparent- 

 ly within a few feet, you send down your spear, sure that 

 you have got him, only to see how wide of your mark you 

 were, for the great depth has deceived you. A passing 

 shadow, and " Look out ! There comes up your spear. You 

 must try again and make more allowance for the reflection." 

 The greatest objection to fire fishing is the depth of the lake 

 and the miserable trick the shores have of vanishing. You 

 follow up a beautiful gravelly bottom and suddenly find 

 blackness. The shores are as steep as the side of a house. 

 The depth is very great, and in most places a hundred-gun 

 ship could lie so close to the bank that her gang-plank 

 would reach ashore. As a rule, on one side of the lake the 

 shore is abrupt; on the opposite one the declivity is gentle 

 for a considerable distance, and then jumps off. The for- 

 mation of the country is volcanic, and I have noticed on one 

 flat, where at low water the depth is but a few feet, that the 

 bottom is of rock and cracked in every direction, while a 

 break here and there, where the piece has fallen out, shows 

 that there is but a thin crust of rock, not more than an inch 

 or perhaps a half inch in thickness, evidently a stratum of 

 lava spread over the clayey surface. We have also noticed 

 another peculiarity. When we sank some wells for the post 

 we were surprised that we could get no water. This sum- 

 mer the water of the lake— our sole supply— became quite 

 full of infusorise. So the commanding officer caused a well 

 to be sunk within a yard of the water's edge, intending the 

 drain to filter the water ; but, to his surprise, at the depth of 

 ten feet below the level of the lake the well was dry as a 

 bone. The soil is impervious to water, but is not like or- 

 dinary clay. The shores of thelake are completely wooded. 

 Here and there, where a stream comes in, or at the head of 

 a bay, there may be a small marsh or grassy plain ; but, as 

 a rule, the trees overhang the water's edge. The mountains 

 are very abrupt, their sides being apparently a continuation 

 from the bottom of the lake. A narrow strand, caused by 

 the debris washed down, is all that marks the division. 



In the bygone days nature must have displayed some of 

 her grandest feats in this vicinity, and the forest fires that 

 occasionally show themselves on the tops of the mountains 

 around the lake seem, volcano-like, a fitting adjunct to the 

 ruggedness of the panorama. My tent is pitched on the 

 bank of the lake, hardly fifty feet from the water's edge, be- 

 neath a cluster of lordly pines, the murmur of whose 

 branches, with the lapping of the waves on the sandy beach, 

 are my nightly lullaby. The view up the lake is simply 

 grand. On either side the mountain ridges, pine clothed, 



come down to the water, chain beyond chain, until they 

 melt into the distance. When the moon is at its full the 

 scene is enchantment, and I often sit at the door of my tent, 

 and, looking over the brilliantly illuminated waters to the 

 densely wooded mountains beyond, think it must be the 

 fairy land of which lovers dream. As a necessary conse- 

 quence of the purity of its waters, it is the home of the trout. 

 These are of many varieties, from the pure (Pacific coast) 

 Halmo fonUnaUs to the great salmon trout six feet in length. 

 The heaviest fish caught here with hook and line weighed 

 exactly nine pounds, but many have since been seen which 

 must have been far heavier. Trout three or four feet, and 

 occasionally of six or more feet, are not infrequently seen ; 

 but they are wary fellows. None have been caught. Num- 

 berless lines have been carried away, and times without 

 number socdolagers have been hooked, but so far none of 

 these whales have been captured. Trout of one, two or 

 three pounds are the rule, and their name is legion. An old 

 trout fisherman who visited this lake some years ago, and 

 having no boat, made a raft of logs ou which lie pushed out 

 into the lake near its mouth, said it was " the best and moat 

 magnificent trout fishing in the world." The catch is often 

 fabulous. 



In July, August and September the fishing is poor for 

 Cceur D'Alene. One can catch a dozen of an evening, often 

 three or four. The reason ia plain. The trout seek the 

 mouths of the ice-cold mountain streams and do not return 

 to this part of the lake (its mouth) until the cold weather 

 and high water. At the mouths ol the streams above alluded 

 to they are as numerous as the sands on the sea-shore, and 

 one might think them crazy they are so anxious to be 

 hooked. A short time since one of our men, fishing near 

 the moulh of one of these streams, caught twentj' trout with 

 a coarse line and large hook in half an hour. Not one of 

 them weighed less than two pounds. This is ordinary Ash- 

 ing here. 



I have noticed a peculiarity of the heavy fish in these 

 waters that I have never seen mentioned. After being 

 hooked and rushing about wildly for a few minutes, they 

 make for the bottom and pound. I can call it nothing else. 

 The sensation is precisely as if some one had struck you on 

 the wrist two or three sharp blows with a hammer : and, if 

 the rod be a stiff one, the result is almost invariably that the 

 barb of the hook is broken and the fish escapes. 1 his is the 

 invariable rule of large fish, seldom if ever of small oneB: 

 A short, deliberate, sharp strobe repeated two or three times. 

 If the rod held by another be near you your attention will be 

 attracted. You can hear the blow. It will sound as if 

 struck upon the rod. I would be glad if some of the Range- 

 ley fishermen would tell if this was usual in their experience, 

 for I do not remember ever to have seen it mentioned. If 

 you do not lose your fish when he pounds, you may expect 

 a grand rush immediately after. I hooked a two or three 

 pounder on one occasion in perfectly cletr water, where I 

 could see him plainly, and when he pounded I could see him 

 tilt. The blow was plain. The motion and sensation were 

 isochronous. The motion of the fish was exactly as if a 

 pivot had been run through his centre, from side to side, 

 and his extremities moved sharply up and down. At the 

 second blow the fish was free. 



Do not laugh at me about trout tilting. The ladies used 

 to sport tilters. Mile. Aimee, with her striped stockings, 

 might explain why ; but the Cceur D'Alene beauties, with 

 their bright scarlet-striped sides, have not that excuse. 



The mountains around the lake teem with deer, bear, 

 panther and all the varieties of smaller game. The cry of 

 the loon on the lake is alternated with that of the panther 

 in the forest. Every night after " taps " a din arises that 

 makes one think that pandemonium has broken loose. The 

 wolves, timber and coyote, when all has become quiet, steal 

 in to see what they can pick up ; and the dogs of the camp, 

 jealous of their cousins, sound the alarm and are upon them. 

 A grand saturnalia ensues, and for about half an hour the 

 night is rendered hideous. 



The osprey and the white-headed eagle are very abuudant. 

 I had a very beautiful exhibition o£ the skill of the former in 

 fishing, and of the predatory habits of the latter, not long 

 since. Going out fishing one day, I had hardly left the 

 shore when a sudden " whish-st" sounded in my ears and a 

 shadow passed over my head. A moment afterward, hardly 

 fifty yards off, an immense osprey rose from the water with 

 a large trout in his talons. We "had seen him before we 

 started, but at such a height that we could hardly imagine it 

 possible that he could have made the daah. As he rose with 

 his struggling prey, and heavily beat the air with his broad 

 wings, a sharp " chack I chack !" in the distance informed 

 him that danger was near. Two specks that had been sway- 

 ing about among the clouds rapidly increased in size, and 

 the mighty hawk, with his finny prey, made frantic efforis 

 to reach the woods across the lake. But he soon found that 

 his efforts were of no avail, yet he would not give up hiB 

 prey. Then he began to mount. Higher and higher he rose, 

 and 'round and 'round him, in broad circles, swung hip re- 

 lentless pursuers. Suddenly the larger bird made a plunge 

 at him. By a sudden swoop the hawk evaded her, and at 

 the same moment the other bird, with a shrill scream, darted 

 at him. It was of no avail to struggle further ; he could not 

 recover in time. It was neck or fish, and he wisely chose 

 the former. A white streak in the air explained his action, 

 and the black one, which like a ray of light flashed after it, 



