THE 



AMERICAN 



SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL, 



Term*, Fou 



our Itollnr* a Year ) 

 Cem» n Uopy. i- 



,,$2; 3 months, Si. J 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1879. 



THE WARY TROUT. 



Down In the deep 



Dai k holes I keep, 



And there in the noontide I float and sleep , 



By the hemlock log, 



And the springing hog, 



And the arching aiders I lie incog. 



The angler's fly 



Comes dancing by, 



But never a moment It cheats my eye ; 



For the hermit trout 



la not such a loot 



As to be by a wading boy pulled out. 



King of the brook, 



No flsher'a hook 



Piil9 me with dread of the sweaty cook ; 



But here I He 



Aud laugh as they try ; 



Shall I btte at their bait ? So, no ; not I . 



But when the streams, 



With moonlight beams, 



Sparkle all silver and starlight gleams. 



Then, then look out 



For the hermit trout ; 



For he springs and dimples the shallows about, 



While the tired angler dreams. 



— American Turf Register, 1849. 



gown tty 



For Forest and Stream and Rod and Chm. 



[CONTIKTJED FROM APRIL 24.] 



WHAT a terribly long State is Illinois ! We had started 

 nearly one hundred miles below the northern edge of 

 the State. We had been eight days getting to St. Louis, 

 and it was another lull week after leaving that city before 

 our skiff rounded Cairo l'oint. The interval was quite with- 

 out interest ; but, to convey an idea of what occurs on such 

 a trip, I will transcribe a few notes from my diary : 



Monday, June 10 — On the Illinois shore here there are 

 no bluffs, but opposite there is a long line of cliff of grayish 

 colored Btone. The turkey buzzards begin to be more nu- 

 merous than the crows, and an occasional eagle is seen. The 

 snipe have all disappeared, at least we have seen none for 

 several days. We do not see so many snakes, either, as we 

 did last week. After a short pull this morning -we arrived 

 at a place called Harrison ville, where I mailed a letter. We 

 made fair time during the day, getting below St. Genevieve 

 early and findiDg a camping place at the mouth of a small 

 slough. In the bluffs just below I noticed some curious 

 natural bas relief work, which seemed from the river to be 

 quite perfect. I noticed several arches, and such -which 

 might be mistaken at a distance for the imitation abutments 

 of modern would-be pretentious buildings. There are a 

 great many logs lodged on the sand-bars here and there. 



Tuesday — Began the day's voyage by skirting an island 

 close to the Illinois shore. The shute was only Ave or six 

 rods wide, and the shores were lined with cottonwoods of 

 large size, forming a fine grove. We started up an owl on 

 the island— a medium sized bird of reddish-brown. He kept 

 just out of shooting distance for more than half a mile, and 

 then flew around to the other side of the island and sent us 

 a distnal hoot to let us know of his safe arrival. Just above 

 Chester we passed an odd looking grove. It was composed 

 of bean-pole cottonwoods, and the trunks and branches were 

 so closely woven about with climbing plants as to be com- 

 pletely covered. The St. Mary's River and another smaller 

 stream come in near here (Chester) We stopped at noon to 

 boil coffee at a place where a kiud of soft reddish stone 

 cropped out, nearly every piece of which was more or less 

 pitted by rain drops. 



Wednesday — Got up stiff and disgusted. Mosquitoes 

 were arouud all night. Had a good camping place other- 

 wise. To-day has been a miserable one— rainy, windy, un- 

 interesting. We are encamped to-night just below Cape 

 Girardeau in a not very good place, but too tired to look 

 further. 



Thursday— Another miserable day. 



Friday— Slept under a beech-tree, but it rained all the 

 same, and, as this cheated us out of sleep during the night, 

 we made it up by sleeping in the morning and postponing 



our journey until night. We are twenty-five miles from 

 Cairo. Found a lot of pennyroyal, and picked a big bunch 

 to rub our skms with as an anti-mosquito cosmetic. Saw 

 here our first ticks— small ones, but vicious looking as those 

 of larger development. Shot a young rabbit and had him 

 for supper, though he was hardly larger than a squirrel. 

 Heard here, also, for the first time, the notes of the " chuck- 

 wills-widow." I at first mistook it for the voice of the whip- 

 poor-will, only one note in the cry being different. Did not 

 see the bird. The city of Thebes is located a mile above us, 

 and Santa Fee is a mile below. The region round about the 

 mouths of the Ohio bears the local nick-name of ' Eygpt,' 

 and as a result (or cause, which ?) is plentifully besprinkled 

 with old Coptic names, furnishing a good illustration of the 

 folly of naming localities and places of the New World after 

 those of the Old. As I pass these insignificant villages bear- 

 ing such magniloquent titles, I cannot help reflecting how 

 our maps are disfigured with such travesties. We have a 

 York, a Rome, a Paris, a Milan, a Dresden, a Carthage, a 

 Cairo, a Thebes and I know not how many more in nearly 

 every State in the Union. Our mountains are inappropri- 

 ately christened with proper names of persons of note, while 

 insignificant streams immortalize a Smith, a Jones or Rob- 

 inson. 1 remember once standing on the summit of a magni- 

 ficent peak in the Adirondacks which the Indians called Ta- 

 howns, but which our map makers must rechristen after the 

 author of the " Army Life on (he Border." And where, in the 

 entire list of titles adopted from geographical and biographi- 

 cal gazetteers, can be found three such beautifully appropriate 

 names as those bestowed by the aborigines on our three 

 great rivers: "Misi-sipi," Father of Waters ; "Mis-ouri," The 

 Muddy Water, and " O-bi-o " The Beautiful River. Alack ! 

 for New- World nomenclature ! It was the town of Thebes 

 that called out these reflections. This homonym of the city 

 of a hundred gates contains barely one score of houses, the 

 principal one of which combines in itself a grocery, drygoods, 

 hardware and boot and shoe store. 



Saturday— We had intended to travel to-night, acd to keep 

 awake I lit the lamp and amused myself by reading Taylor's 

 'Coming Empire,' a very interesting book. Mr. Taylor's 

 Empire is Texas, 



' That beantlfnl land, 



The far-away home of tiie tick and the chigger, 

 Where the centipede crawls o'er the hot burning sand, 



Aud the tarantulas sting both the white and the nigger.' 



But it will be a long time before the imperial crown rests on 

 the standards of tnat thinly populated State. Just as we got 

 ready to start it began to rain again, so we turned in and 

 slept till morning, "it rained quite hard before daylight, but 

 so thick was the canopy of beech-leaves over us that we were 

 not wetted in the least. We got up early and went on with- 

 out breakfast, stopping about noon to partake of a lunch of 

 coffee and crackers. After dinner we passed the Ohio and 

 got a distant glimpse of the city of Cairo. This city is about 

 a mile from the Mississippi on the Ohio. There is a long, 

 low point forming the northern corner of the latter's mouth, 

 and the steamers have to make a wide circuit to get up to the 

 eity. This point is uninhabited and so long that even after we 

 had caught a glimpse of the steeples of Cairo we feared we had 

 passed the mouth of the Ohio without seeing it, as we had 

 passed the mouths of the Des Moines and the Illinois. We 

 pulled for nearly an hour, straining our eyes to catch sight of 

 the river before it finally appeared. But at last we came to 

 it and saw it well. And it was well worth all our looking to 

 gaze on its beautiful waters after voyaging for a week on the 

 muddy waters of the Mississippi. Well did the savages 

 name it the Beautiful River. We shot past the southern end 

 of Illinois, and in an instant the green tint of the waters on 

 our left told us the river was there. How beautiful seemed 

 the clear green water ! The oar-blades flashed through it, 

 visible to their very tips, as they had not done in any water 

 we had floated in for days. On our right a rushing ridge of 

 ripples of a dirty cast told where the Mississippi's muddy 

 flood was endeavoring to pollute the incoming tide. It was 

 the battle ground where purity and impurity strove for the 

 mastery. West of this ridge all was foul with the mud of 

 thousands of northwestern miles ; to the east all was clear 

 and limpid save in spots where the Mississippi, as though 

 unable to meet her antagonist in honorable combat, shoved 

 her dirty undercurrents along the bottom under the Ohio's 

 waters to bubble up in dirty, yellowish-green, poisonous- 

 looking whirlpools. Through many of these the skiff slow- 

 ly floated, and finally came to where the green water alone 

 was to be seen around us, and we began to rejoice '.n the 

 prospect of a drinkable fluid to float on. It is a long way 

 across the yawning estuary, longer almost, it seemed, than 

 across the mouths of the Missouri ; but we got across it at 

 last, and then, to our disgust, the oar blades disappeared in 

 the yellow waters of the Mississippi, only slightly tempered 

 and toned down by the crystaliue purity of its most beauti- 

 ful tributary. As in most battles between Beast and Beauty, 

 the Beast is triumphant. We passed on and got some ways 

 below Columbus before stopping. Camped in a little bay. 

 The bank close to the water's edge is very muddy, but higher 

 up it is baked hard by the sun. The soil here is a kind of 

 clay. Above Columbus we noticed a long bluff of reddish 

 clajr with a substratum of whiter color, and here it crops out 

 again. A few miles below here is a quarry where the clay 

 has been extracted. Close by is a lighthouse, »*. «., a post 

 with a board on top on which is stencilled -. " U. 8. Light- 



house Establishment." A lantern is hung here every night. 

 These lamps are quite numerous all along the river, and the 

 men who attend them get from ten to fifteen dollars per 

 month per lamp. One man usually attends two lamps 



We spread the cover of the boat on the ground and made 

 our beds on it, and for the first time on the trip enjoyed a 

 good night's rest. No mosquitoes bothered us, it was cool 

 enough for comfort, and I was tired enough, after pulling 

 twenty-five miles on nothing but a coffee and crackerlunch, 

 to sleep without a disturbing dream. It was a rare thing in 

 this bug infested valley. This day we have devoted to over- 

 hauling our outfit and washing the boat and making our- 

 selves clean after our three weeks' voyage. While at supper, 

 after the close of our labors, a young man came up to light 

 the Government lamp, and we fell into a conversation about 

 our surroundings. Nothing of especial interest, however, 

 was said on either side until he chanced to remark that he 

 would not come into these woods after dark for twice the 

 price paid for lighting the lamps. 



"Why f" I asked ; " what's the danger ?" 



"Oh, it ain't safe." 



"But why ? Are there robbers here ?" 



"Worse than that— murderers ! There are men in these 

 woods would murder a man for a nickel. You've heard of 

 Chalk Bluffs, haven't you ? Well, this is the place. There's 

 been heaps of folks murdered here, and not so very long ago, 

 either. I wouldn't want to be caught here after dark, I tell 

 you." 



"Can't they put a stop to it ?" 



" No ; at least I reckon not, for the murderers are never 

 caught, and they don't ever know who they are. Some 

 reckon they're niggers, but I think they're tramps from the 

 North. But I must be going. I don't attend the lamps my- 

 self. I'm lighting up to-night for my cousin. It's getting 

 dark, and I don't want to be here then. Good evening." 



"Good evening." 



Well, it certainly might be called Chalk Bluffs if the vast 

 amount of chalky clay arouud can be taken as a basis for a 

 name; and it is dismal enough, all except the watere of the 

 bay and the immediate shore, to suggest murder or anything 

 else disagreeable. The soil close to the water was mud, dry 

 then, but only wanting a slight rain to render it, slippery and 

 disgusting. About four or five rods from the water's edge 

 rose a wooded hillside, down which trickled several small 

 streamlets which furnished us with drinkable water, though 

 slightly impregnated with chalk. The woods on the hill- 

 side were thick and tangled and cast a very gloomy shade, 

 in w T hich a nervous imagination might easily locate mur- 

 derers ad infinitum. Our camp w as located in about the 

 best spot in the bay — a level spot of about two rods square, 

 of dry mud, with a shelving beach of the same material ex- 

 tending to the water's edge, where our boat was lied to a 

 stump. A large Cottonwood was standing not far from the 

 water, and about two rods back of this were several smaller 

 trees, to which on this second night we had decided to hang 

 our hammocks. 



At last every task was completed and the last piece of 

 luggage stowed away, and we prepared for bed. Our valises 

 were piled on the ground under our heads, our clothes were 

 suspended from our hammock-ropes, and our pistols were 

 under our pillows. We soon tumbled in, hoping to get 

 another full night's sleep, which would enable us to be up 

 with the sun and off on a fifty-mile pull in ihe morning. 

 Well, we were up with the sun. Indeed, we were up a long 

 time before the sun dreamed of being up. I had slept for 

 perhaps an hour when I heard Caywood culli.ig out to me in 

 the darkness, and 1 heard a rustling among the young trees 

 close to his bed. What he said I do not know, but I thought 

 he said " Get your pistol," and my thoughts instantly went 

 back to what the lamp-lighter had told us about the mur- 

 derers haunting this hillside, and I put my hand under my 

 pillow and grabbed my pistol and prepared myself to resist 

 to the bloody end. At tnis moment 1 heard arushingtound, 

 and in the darkness saw a dim while figure, which llhought 

 must be Caywood, scouting toward ihe boat with his legs 

 bare and his arms fondly clasping a bundle of clothes. This 

 corroborated my impression that he had been attacked by 

 robbers, and I began to peer through the darkness to dis- 

 cover their whereabouts, when the big rain drops spattering 

 in my face and the two streams of water running down into 

 my hammock — one from the head, the other from the foot- 

 awoke me to a complete consciousness of ihe true state of 

 affairs. A heavy thunder shower had sprung up, and Cay- 

 wood, who bas a mortal terror of getting wet, had grabbed 

 his clothes and made for the boat. He says that as he 

 started he cried out : "How is this ?" aud the next moment 

 found himself seated gracefully in the mud aud sliding 

 rapidly toward the big cottonwood, which he was forced lo 

 straddle to stop his progress. In his flighl he drupped bis 

 breeches, and this morning they were lound half covered 

 with mud and " gorgeous to behold." As soon as I realized 

 What was the malter, I too started for the boat. I seized my 

 pillow and my blanket, and kept hold of my pistol. Un- 

 warned by Caywood'B fall, which I had not seen, I "fol- 

 lowed suit," but with a higher card. I took one step for- 

 ward and then a slide onward and downward, wnd then — 

 just imagine it— with nothing on but a short flannel under- 

 shirt, and closely bugging my blanket aud pistol and pillow, 

 I sat gently down in the mud, firmly and gracefully ; sat for 

 a moment trying to wonder if this was the territory named 



