Nov 23, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



323 



gdM of the setting 'sun. TTulf a mile out iwo foot passen- 

 gers, attracted, il seems, by my martial fiir, came up to me 

 and, gaytng they were afraid to travel alone, asked for the 

 support of' my society on the journey. They were going to 

 Snaymaa, nearly three hundred miles, to get. work, and 

 seetted to think no more of going so far afoot than I would 

 of a day's railroad ride. 



Tliey were each clad in the cotton .shirt and drawers, straw 

 hat and rawhide sandals of the country, and each carried a 

 light fri&nket, done up in very ."mall Compass, for their entire 

 luggage. Hay after day they kept on with us. often ahead 

 Of the mutes and Ktoingwith each other from pure overplus 

 of vitality, and, if it had not been for the stains on their 

 cotton clothes I should never have known that they hod 

 "turned a hair'' on the inarch. One little incident happened 

 on the way out, at a place railed the Bonaucila. A settle- 

 ment of stockmen hud once lived there, and the long water 

 troughs of masonry, as well OS several ruined houses and a 

 well witl) the only Water supply for leagues around attest the 

 former importance of the place. ■ 



As we came up a starred dog, forgotten or left purposely 

 by some other party, hung around, fearing to come near, and 

 yet eager for relief". Mariano thought he might he an Indian 

 dog, and starting on this Subject, he told us how the Apaches 

 had, by constant raids, at last broken up this thriving settle- 

 ment; nay once he himself, coming from San Mama], had 

 fouud a large number of these desperate fellows on the 

 ground who, however, vanished speed ih when he came in 

 sight. "Were you alone?" asked one of qui comrades. "No, 

 I was guide for five Americans,' was the answer. "Ah! 

 the Indians did wisely to leave!'' said the faithful believer in 

 Yankee prowls. 



Mariano's manners had in a quiet way been gaiuiog in in- 

 solence during the whole trip, and I was not sorry when we 

 at last came in sight of the station where wc should part 

 company. As a 'final effort he decided to ask me about 

 twice what I had agreed to pay for his services. 



This demand was rejected and he, scorning the offered 

 wages, went off ostensibly to look up some officer of justice, 

 really to work upon my Timid disposition. The train was due 

 in a couple of hours. The first half of that time was con- 

 sumed in eating a good dinner and tying my packages into 

 convenient form. Then just as the cigarette stage had come, 

 Mariano arrived, 1 kept on enjoying my tobacco and 

 ignoring any acquaintance with my late paeker, while he 

 grew momentarily more anxious and more dejected in 

 appearance. 



At last with a humility that was almost pitiful he begged 

 me to pay him the amount 1 should deem just, and so, 

 cheered by this crowning triumph of the Saxon blood. I 

 boarded the cars in a happy mood and was borne northward 

 away from tiie dreamy indolence of southern races and 

 southern climes. H. Q-, Dttlog. 



REMINISCENCES OF COLORADO. 



SOME ten years sirce or more — more, if anything — I spent 

 the greater part of a year in the silver mining regions of 

 Colorado. Four hopeful individuals, including your most 

 obedient, owned a hole in the ground, known as lode, lead, 

 shaft or silver mine. We had low -grade ore in plenty, and 

 were goinc to strike it rich to-morrow. Our cabin was 

 nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, affording a magnificent 

 view of the plains, seventy-five miles away eastward, and of 

 glorious sunrises to those who were out of* bed in time to sec 

 them; and to the westward the snow-crowned range, sen- 

 fineled by majestic Gray's Peak, 11,500 feet high. In front 

 of the cabin the mouuhiin pitched away to the valley nearly 

 3,000 feet below. In the rear it rose nearly a thousand feet, 

 and from its crest views of surpassing beauty and grandeur 

 were enjoyed. It was from this latter point that one of our 

 partners had oue day pointed out to me the locality of the 

 Chicago lakes, twrtity miles away, across intervening forest. 

 gorge and stream, and I made up my mind that some day 1 

 would make the trip. 



Why named Chicago 1 cannot say. This country is very 

 windy, especially on the mountains, but I don't know as the 

 mountains near the lakes are more windy than other locali- 

 ties; if they were, the name would he "more appropriate. 

 There is no eternal fitness of things in thus naming this 

 lovely pair of lakes. A much more beautiful and euphonious 

 name could have been selected, but Chicago they are dubbed 

 and so must be called. These lakes are objective points for 

 tourists to that region, who have an eyefoi the beautiful and 

 grand in nature and who have time to indulge their love for 

 such soenes, yet not a great amount of time need be con- 

 sumed, two flays being sufficient for the trip from the nearest 

 town, fifteen or twenty miles distant, and nearly, if not 

 quite, 18,000 feet above sea level. There was at that time no 

 wagon road lo them from the town, the only comfortable 

 mode of travel being by horseback along the trail over the 

 mountain that rose precipitously from the very streets of the 

 village, or city as it was called; thence eastward down 

 through a beautiful grassy meadow or park, that gives rise 

 in ice-cold springs in its upper or western end to a crystal 

 clear stream, called Cascade Creek, that dances and murmurs 

 along as it flows through the meadow, iu and out among the 

 so inter pines which line it for some distance before it loses 

 its identity in Chicago Creek, three and a half miles from it* 

 (Cascade's) source. 



At the junction of these streams was then being erected a 

 sawmill and boarding house, the wsant eauritm for the re- 

 duction works for the treatment of silver ores, the. discovery 

 of which in considerable quantities at that, time had opened 

 a new district that promised rich yields. 



At this place the trail iiiinsdirccl.lv south, keeping along 

 the bank of leaping, foaming Chicago Creek to the lakes, up 

 through deep, dark gorges, with lowering mountains on 

 either hand, wooded and rocky. Squirrels, small and gray, 

 chatter in great numbers unafraid, grouse run across the 

 trail, or whirr away from its side, while bruin and mountain 

 sheep, and mule deia ate not infrequently met With, Moun- 

 tain lions, too, though not plenty, are sometimes seen, harm- 

 less unless rendered desperate by hunger. Their tracks after 

 asno.\fall show that they are around. I have measured 

 tracks in a light snow five inches across. A view of their 

 immense limbs and muscles, long, sharp claws, and gleam- 

 ing ivories, impresses one strongly with the idea that immun- 

 ity from being converted into small unrecognizable pieces 

 of humanity may be found where the lion roareth not, more 

 surely than where lie is 



JS£e Fourth of July was to be observed as a general holi- 

 day 'by our quartette, and three of the members were to 

 spend it in town, as we did every Sunday, but I concluded 

 ibai it Would be ». good opportunity to make my intended 

 visit to the lakes, going across the country in preference to 

 following the trail, as thereby I might sec more game, and 



put my foot, as all tourists wish lo do, where foot of man 

 never before trod. 1 slept alone the night of the third, the 

 hoys having gone to town, and early 'next morning rose, 

 cooked my simple breakfast, put a couple of biscuit and a 

 piece of bacon m my pocket, buckled a Colt's navy around 

 me, took a rifle pistol, for I had no gun, and started on nxy 

 tramp of somewhere from thirty to forty miles, intending to 

 go and come in one day. Ascending the peak in the rear of 

 the cabin, which overlooked the greater part of my route, 1 

 look out my compass and mapped my course, for between 

 uie and thelakes lay gorges dark and deep, from which I 

 could not see my starting nor objective point. 



It was a most charming morning. The sun just fairly in- 

 augurated a new; day, and from his Course above, the faraway 

 plains plainly visible in the 'dear morning air, though more 

 than seventy' miles away, with the silver thread of the Platte 

 glistening in its devious course, touched with bis slant beams 

 the snow-covered peaks, awakening rosy blushes, making the 

 grand old summits inexpressibly beautiful, Scarce a breath 

 of air stirred the grass or branches. The squirrels from the 

 forest that spread away near by, gamboled aud chattered, in- 

 tensely occupied with something important, while birds 

 biade matin music with tuneful throats, among them the 

 familiar and companionable bluebird; and the woodpecker 

 heat his resounding and solitary reveille. Westward Gray's 

 Peak was majestically above all his lordly brothers. Three 

 thousand feet below" me, deep down in morning shadow, a 

 brawling creek foamed and tumbled, the sound of its turbu- 

 lancc. rising muffled through the silent space. Southwest, 

 also, far below me, the dark green, cool waters of a beautiful 

 lake rested placidly, shut in by towering mountains. West- 

 ward a noble mountain loomed up grandly, guarding at its 

 base the yet silent and slumbering village, that. for hours yet 

 would lie in shadow. Southeast, a score of miles away, 

 Summit hake, a beautiful gem set in the wooden fastness of 

 the everlasting hills, dark aud cool, awaited the lighting of its 

 depths by the Day God, and to the right, far above the tim- 

 ber line, ragged and bare, rose the beetling cliffs which over- 

 look Chicago lakes and told me that time was precious, that 

 I had no beaten road to follow, no level turnpike to travel, 

 no trail even, but that Nature's wilds, trackless and rough, 

 lay before me. So 1 entered the wood and began the descent 

 into the deep gorge that lay between me and the next rise or 

 mountain. I could have followed a ridge around aud seem- 

 ingly have saved the descent and subsequent climb, but it 

 would have doubled the distance. .Near the point from 

 which I started the trees were stunted and ragged, the tierce 

 winds at that great height having twisted and battered them 

 until no branches grew on the windward side, and the grain 

 of the wood, instead of running vertically, as in well-trained 

 trees, ran almost square round the trunk' These trees, scat- 

 tered here and there, remind one forcibly of worn out orch- 

 ards of gnarled and knotty apple trees. 



As I descended, the trees, no longer torn and harassed by 

 the raging unimpeded winds of the summit, rose straight, 

 tall and graceful, such as would have made a shipbuilder's 

 eyes water. Trees not more than six inches in diameter at 

 the butt, stood straight as arrows sixty feet, while others 

 larger rose proportionally higher and as straight. Down, 

 down, and still downward I went. Now across a "bench" 

 and then downward again over jagged rocks aud fallen acres 

 of timber, blown prostrate by hurricanes, torn up by the 

 roots by whirlwinds and waterspouts; now under a" vast 

 canopy of evergreen, over a carpet of pine needles as soft as 

 the softest Wilton, and again through miles of burned timber, 

 dead, erect and white, divested of bark and worn smooth in 

 the storms of years, while beneath the long grass and beauti- 

 ful flowers of every hue grew in luxuriant abundance, afford- 

 ing ample grazing for deer and elk, whose tracks I frequently 

 saw, though the fleet-footed beauties were not visible. Grouse, 

 squirrels and rabbits I often saw, and once I came across 

 bear signs, though his brown, cinnamon or mayhap grizzly 

 majesty was away on business, so he missed my call. 1 

 might not have relished meeting him, however, for some- 

 times the bear hunts the hunter, and then . At length I 



reached the lowest point of my trip, and found surrounded 

 by mountains on three sides a lovely little sheet of water 

 nestling anions the spurs. Long grass fringed the mirror. 

 Bank swallows were circling and twittering, "tip-up"' snipe 

 flew crying as 1 approached, and I could shut my eyes and 

 imagine myself on the banks of some lake or stream afar 

 eastward. I saw no living thing in the water except leeches, 

 which wriggled their slimy way along the bottom, prototypes 

 of their two-legged relations. 



Thence my way lay in the ascent nearly the wdiole dis- 

 tance. Conies harked at me from rocky ledges, disappear- 

 ing, as 1 approached, with a vralp, headlong into crevices, as 

 if with danger to their skulls, but coming up again like 

 Mark Twain's frog, "flat-footed and all right. " In one open 

 glade far up the mountain I found the skull and part of the 

 skeleton of a mountain bison. How many years since he 

 roamed this wilderness? How came he to liis death? Did 

 he meet an untimely end in combat with another of his race? 

 Did wolves hunt him to his death, and snarling, bowling, 

 fighting, tear htm? Did mountain lions bear turn down? 

 Did that king of brutes, the grizzly, overcome him in spite 

 of game defense with formidable horns? Or did some 

 wandering Ule hunter rob him of his life with whizzing 

 arrow? Such questions took shape as I gazed at the rem- 

 nant of frontal bone and spreading horns, fast crumbling to 

 dust, and taking a huge molar as a souvenir I kept my way, 



1 neared at last the timber line, and as I stood in the 

 edge of a of I admiring this midsummer day, a huge snow- 

 bank, sending out at its foot a stream of pure, cold water, 

 a couple of mountain sheep, which had winded or seen me 

 from the vast meadow where they were feeding, came fly- 

 ing down and disappeared swiftly' in the wood. I made a 

 quick detour iu hopes of gettiug a shot, but 1 might as well 

 have chased lightning. 'What marvelous tales" have been 

 told of the acrobatic performances of these fleet-footed ani- 

 mals; how they are accustomed just for their own divertise- 

 ment, you know, to jump immense distances from the top 

 of some lofty crag, strike on their broad horns, turn two or 

 three double somersaults, aud a foot spring or two, making 

 a grand salaam to the admiring ewes, and trotting around 

 nimbly to show that they are in condition to do it again if 

 eucored. I should like to be there when these performances 

 take place, and thereby have mutton cheap. 



Traversing the. mountain meadow that stretched away 

 upward a mile or more from the timber line to the cliff that 

 affords a magnificent outlook north, south, east and west, 

 with scarce an obstacle to the vision. 1 looked down on the 

 beautiful sheets of water I had come, so far to see. Seemingly 

 but a stone's throw beneath me the upper and smallei lake 

 lay dark aud still, but I found on descending the almost 

 perpendicular side of the mountain that it was fully a thous- 

 and feet beneath the spot where I had first gazed upon it. 



This sheet of water, not indeed a large lake, only a pool, of 

 a couple of hundred yards by fifty or seventy-five, yet resting 

 there unruffled, dark and beautifully clear, mirroring tlli 

 rocky wall that rose sheera couple of" thousand feet from its 

 very edge, threatening to topple from its lofty height and 

 make a magnificent ruin of the lovely scene, this little lake 

 is a thing of beauty to be enthusiastically admired. Water 

 from springs and melting snows supplies "the lake, the surplus 

 flowing from the eastern end and rushing down the steep 

 declivity, some of the way beneath huge rocks and sometimes, 

 foaming and sparkling on the surface, until it empties into 

 the lower aud larger lake a thousand feet below. 



1 climbed down by the side ol the stream, clambering over 

 rocks, swinging by hushes, picking my way between huge 

 fragments of the mountain fallen from their aerial perch, 

 until 1 stood in a little grove of stunted pines near the bor- 

 der of the lake. Here hunger nipped me, and as it was now 

 half an hour after noon, 1 sat down on a log and lunched. 

 Seven hours and more I had put in in good honest walking 

 in the midst of the Rocky Mountains without a path, and I 

 was a rapid walker then. Twenty miles at least 1 had come. 



That was a grand and beautiful scene before and around 

 me. The lake lies in a vast amphitheater of mountain 

 wall, open on one side, and but partly there, to allow an 

 outlet to the water. The eastern wall" rises almost perpen- 

 dicularly, thousands of feet of solid wall with scarcely a 

 break fiom base to summit; bare rock, chipped as with Titan 

 hammers, without, as I remember it, a hush or tree to its 

 crest. One seldom realizes solidity as here. 



On the south a stream of water, reminding one of Tenny- 

 son's "vail of thinnest lawn," comes down from the heights 

 above through glistening snowbanks lhat reach almost to the 

 lake. What wonder its waters were icy. On the southwest 

 rose the rocky rim of the great basin afar in the air, its bee- 

 tling cap clear cut against" the blue dome, while on the west 

 and northwest the walls rose only a little less loftily. A 

 short distance from the lake on the lower northwest slope of 

 this vast dish, a grove of stunted, ragged, gnarled, wind- 

 battered pines cling to the rocks, struggling' for existence, 

 but barely holding their own. The waters of the lower lake 

 are very deep, as arc also those of the upper, but the lower 

 is the greater attraction, in that it is much larger, being a 

 third by a sixth of a mile in extent, and abounding in 

 speckled trout, which sometimes take the Jfly readily. I 

 took a line aud fly from my pocket, hunted up a pole and 

 made a few casts, but without avail. Only oue fine fel'low- 

 rose, but as he neared the surface his appetite left as mine 

 came at sight of his comely proportions, but to no purpose. 

 I regretted his decisiou, but could but admire his sagacity 

 and grace as he turned tail, and with wavy motion settled 

 out of sight. Then I concluded that trout were not in season 

 and put up my rig. 



Near where I sat was a hunter's or tourist's camp, a lean- 

 to of saplings and bark. A smouldering fire and grazing 

 pony near by told of receot occupancy, but the occupant 

 was away. The familiar odors of camp were abroad, and I 

 should have been glad to join somebody in a pot of coffee, 

 but was content, perforce, with gazing on a heap of old 

 coffee grounds near the shanty. 



After resting awhile and enjoying the wonderful picture, 

 I found, by consulting my watch, that if I reached home 

 that night! should have to be paddling along; I turned my 

 feet in-their receut tracks, and after a toilsome climb reached 

 the rocky rim from whence I had first beheld Chicago lakes. 

 With a last look at the limpid pools far beneath me, and at 

 the wonderful evidences of the throes of nature, I struck the 

 "route step," only to be stopped soon by a severe hail 

 and rainstorm, to escape which I walked under the over- 

 hanging edge of a huge rock as big as a small house. The 

 storm over, I set out again, and in a very few minutes was 

 thoroughly soaked to the waist in the long grass of that 

 mountain meadow. 



I returned by a different route, keeping along a vast 

 "bench" on the mountain side, hoping to be able to keep it 

 the whole distance home, and so avoid wearisome climbing, 

 but I found the inevitable goige, and the descensus awrni 

 was not fucilis by a long way, no more so than the ascent on 

 the other side, but once upon the "bench" on the opposite 

 mountain I kept it all the way. About five o'clock cramp 

 seized my legs, aud 1 was compelled to stop. 1 took off my 

 shoes and stockings, wrung the water out, and chafed my 

 legs until able to proceed. At seven o'clock 1 unlocked the 

 door of the cabin, (brew a fine fat grouse on the table, my- 

 self on the bunk, and thanked my lucky stars I was not on 

 the distant mountain side with nothing to eat and cramp in 

 my legs. S. 



Eaiily Field Ltteuatcbe.— Editor Forest arid Slmna: 

 In a work just published by the Century Company, entitled 

 "Sport with Gun and Hod in American" Woods and Waters," 

 1 have, in a note in the article "Canvas-Back and Terrapin," 

 quoted the book of J. S. Skiuuer, "The Dog and the Sports- 

 man," Phila., 1845, and have stated that "this is the first 

 book published in this country on the dog, game and the 

 gun." I was led to this statement by a similar one in the 

 preface of the author, who says: "The work here offered 

 contains, it is believed, the first separate aud regular treatise 

 which has been published iu this country on the kindred 

 subjects, the Hog. Game, and the Gun." After the article. 

 "Canvas Back and Terrapin" was in print, I came id pos- 

 session of a yet earlier publication, entitled "The American 

 Shooter's Manual, comprising such plain and simple Rules 

 as are necessary to introduce the inexperienced iuto a full 

 knowledge of all that relates to the Dog, and the correct use 

 of the Gun ; also a description of the Game of this Country, 

 by a gentleman of Philadelphia county, Phila.. 1837." The 

 work, it is said, was written by Dr. Kester, of Philadelphia, 

 and ~~" 

 the 

 eoui 



It opens with the following paragraph: "The art of shoot- 

 ing flying has not been practiced in this country, excepting 

 by a few individuals, for more than forty years, aud in Eng- 

 land for not much more than double that length of time."— 

 Alfred M. Mayer. 



Hon. James Geddes.— Sportsmen in the State of New- 

 York maybe glad to know that Hon. James Geddes, of 

 Syracuse, has been re-elected to the Assembly. He is widely 

 known as a genial sportsman and an ardent friend of game 

 protection, and it Was a matter of surprise to us that he was 

 not placed <m the Committee on Game Laws last winter. In 

 consultations of this committee Mr-. Geddes was (Yequently 

 sent for aud his advice sough! He should have been a 

 member of it, and we hope that sportsmen may have the 

 advantage of his presence in the committee this coming 

 legislative season 



md contains much interesting matter, and is so well worthy 

 :he perusal of spoTtsmeu of our day, that extracts from it 

 Muld he cast iuto a readable article for Forest and Stream. 



