146 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



the soil always receives moisture enough to produce all the 

 cereals, roots, and vegetables in lavish profusion. The fer- 

 tility of the region seems marvelous to those acquainted 

 only with the worn out fields of the Atlantic States, for it 

 is no unusual event to gather twenty tons of cabbages or 

 carrots from an acre of land, and from thirty to seventy 

 bushels of wheat. Cabbages often produce two crops in a 

 season, for as soon as one head is lopped off another soon 

 replaces it. Other advantages that they have are ready 

 markets in Portland, San Francisco, British Columbia, the 

 Sandwich Islands, China, Japan, and England and Ireland; 

 their taxes are light, and they enjoy every opportunity of 

 giving their children a finished education, for schools and 

 colleges are spread throughout the length and breadth of 

 the State. There are twenty colleges and acadamies, be- 

 sides two universities, in existence, and thh number does 

 not include the State University, now in process of erec- 

 tion, nor the Agricultural College, which has a large Fac- 

 ulty. Every town of any size boasts of its common and 

 high schools, and very often of two or three private insti- 

 stutions, These facts speak well for the character of the 

 people, and their appreciation of intellectual attainments. 

 I made my first tarry in Albany, a pretty city of 1,200 

 inhabitants, and situated in the centre of the valley. The 

 country adjoining it is as level almost as a floor, but its 

 monotony is relieved by a dingle, or gorse, in several places. 

 This is the place from which Bierstadt sketched his paint- 

 ing of Mount Hood, the cold, white sentinel whose head 

 . soars above the heavy masses of cumulus clouds that loiter 

 along the eastern horizon. He couid scarcely have selected 

 a better spot, as the mountain looms up in all its grandeur 

 on a sunny day, and its towering height is well contrasted 

 by the snowy peaks that extend in seriied ranks southward 

 from it. From an elevated ridge back of the city one can 

 behold six white crested peaks, that vary in altitude from 

 . nine to twelve thousand feet, and they present a striking 

 appearance as their hoary hue is placed in opposition to 

 the bluish-green foliage of the interminable forests of con- 

 ifers that clamber to the snow line, and extend north and 

 south as far as the eye can discern. All the pinnacles are 

 of volcanic origin, but they are now inactive. The last 

 eruption from Mount Hood occurred in 1842, when it scat- 

 tered hot ashes over an area of hundreds of miles. TLe 

 damage to the country was very trivial, but all the fish in 

 the streams were killed by the cinerous shower, as it 

 poisoned the waters. The Indians have a tradition that 

 Mounts Hood and St. Helena— the latter being the next 

 peak to the north— were once man and wife, but that they 

 quarrelled and threw fiery spittle at each other, and that 

 the latter, like all women, held out the longest and defeated 

 the other, so that it is afraid to renew the contest. This is 

 the reason they give for its inactivity. It shows even now 

 that all its energy has not departed, for columns of heavy 

 black smoke may be seen issuing from it occasionally. The 

 height of this peak is a great source of tribulation to the 

 natives of Oregon, as they have set their heart on making 

 it the tallest on the Continent; but the Calif ornians dispute 

 this, and claim the honor for their Mount Shasta. Hum- 

 boldt estimated the former to have an altitude of 17,000 

 feet- others, by triangulation, have reduced it to 14,000, 

 and Colonel Williamson, aided by an aneroid barometer, 

 decreased its pretensions still more by making it only 

 12 000 feet. As these doctors of cosmography disagree, 

 the Oregonians adhere to the middle term, and map their 

 grand old pinnacle at 14,000 feet. 

 & John Mortimer Murphy. 



* 



. — »<» 



For Forest and stream. 

 THE NEPIGON RIVER. 



THE river upon which our camp is pitched is about 

 seven hundred miles north of Columbus, Ohio, and 

 Dut fifty miles in length, flowing through a wild moun- 

 tainous region covered with unbroken forests, and empty- 

 ing about as much water into Lake Superior as the Ohio 

 empties into the Mississippi. The name of the river is the 

 NemVon which in the Indian tongue signifies "deep clear 

 water" 'its banks present every variety of scenery as 

 wild and picturesque as any to be found in America. 1 he 

 river sometimes broadens into a beautiful lake, dotted with 

 srmice covered and castle like-islands, and then again nar- 

 row- and crowds itself through a passage apparently no 

 broader than fifty or sixty feet. Indeed the river is at 

 once a succession of wild cataracts, and a chain of peace- 

 ful lakes A.3 you ascend the river, the scenery opens in 

 o-rondeur and magnificence. Here and there you -will be 

 Sminded of the Palisades on the Hudson, only here the 

 rocks rise out of the water twice their height, and now 

 and then a stream will leap over its crest, or a deep chasm 

 will lead the eye through deep, dark, dreary aisles of 

 eothic spruce, and moss covered rock. 

 g I could exhaust my little space and your patience in the 

 description of the banks of this river the flora and fauna 

 o Is impenetrable woods, the novel beauties of its horizon, 

 and the inspiring, healing, and quickening influences of its 

 ekli ciSp P cooT atmosphere. But the chief attraction, 

 and it was that which brought us to his unfrequented re- 

 Hon was the life and beauty hidden beneath the water, its 

 front of an unusual size, color, and vigor. Sometimes you 

 ran see them darting through the water or leaping to the 

 surface, but to feast the eye, and test your nerve and try 

 vour skill, you have only to throw "the fly" so as to touch 

 tC water or skim across the surface of a ripple, or inlo the 

 strewn tired in^its long leap and furious rushing over some' 

 f aU ust as it is going to rest behind some rock, or log or 

 iuttinS of the share, and there you will fee a sensation 

 ?K through every finger and joint, and after you have 

 p^dyouV g ime, and patiently followed your fish and 

 reeled him in, and perhaps played him again according to 

 his strength and pleasure, it may be for a minute or two, 

 H mav be for an hour, you have ^ when landed fresh from 



111 y AW i.,Xb against the canoe, its delicate fins and tail 

 iStiS blush, no mathematician can arrange is beau- 



accuracy. It may be further said that the numbers of the 

 fish of this stream are no less a marvel than their size.^ So 

 remote and so seldom visited, they have chance to multiply. 

 Lake trout and pickerel also abound, but they are seldom 

 molested by the fisherman. 



One great charm about this regron, is that it is visited 

 comparatively seldom by tourists. It has not yet been 

 brought into notoriety by the newspaper and magazine, 

 and only a half dozen parties or so may be found in a 

 season going up the river. The ascent has to be made in 

 birch canoes, and the services of Indians employed to pad- 

 dle and make the portages, which are frequent, and some 

 of them long. It has only been within the past year ob 

 two that the country has been surveyed,, and as yet no ac- 

 curate description of it can be found in the maps and pub- 

 lished atlas. Indeed it is not long since Lake Nepigon, of 

 which the river is the outlet, was thought to be as large as 

 Lake Erie. The late survey shows it to be a hundred by 

 forty or fifty miles. Its northern limit passes latitude 51°. 



Next to the trout of that region, the Indian has been the 

 object of wonder, admiration, and I may say love, of our 

 party. The Chippewa in his native state is a gentleman, 

 and where he has known nothing of civilization, and been 

 under the influence of the Jesuit he is a Christian too. Our 

 experience with them may have been exceptional, but it 

 has been deeply impressed upon us. Wherever the Indian 

 of that country has become corrupt and lawless it has been 

 through the instrumentality of the white man. 



In honesty, in temperance, in the observance of the 

 Lord's day, the Indians with whom we were thrown were 

 an astonishment, and sometimes we eould almost feel that 

 they were a reproach to us. O-io of our guides hung his 

 moccasins upon a tree to dry, lie found them after a week's 

 absence, untouched. A v. unable rod and other fishing im- 

 plements were for four days left in the path of a portage, 

 and three parties of Indians passed them. Whether they 

 were lost or left there they could not tell, all they knew 

 was that they were not theirs. A small package of cartrid- 

 ges left in a log cabin within the reach of a party of gen- 

 tlemen from Wisconsin, two of whom carried breech load- 

 ing guns, was the only loss we met with — among the sav- 

 ages. It was told us that when white trappers first went 

 into this region they frequently suffered from their game 

 being stolen from their traps. That difficulty, however, 

 was shortly remedied. A little white cross composed of 

 two short sticks placed over the traps was suliicient pro- 

 tection against all Indians. B. 



by the imagination's aid, in this variable light, the form 

 of old ruins or dilapidated castles, while soaring far abov 

 them in the evening sky is a night-hawk, or perhaps a vu] 

 ture, as if attempting to catch the last glimpses of the die 

 dining sun. This lovely picture is not destined to lastloar 

 Up out of the flats, in swift-fiying groups of two aud three 

 together, come the turtle doves. The rosy mist that shortly 

 veiled the hills and distant mountains has changed to a 

 deep purple; gradually the purple turns to leaden c n - av 

 and slowly and almost imperceptibly the darkness of nigy 

 creeps over all. W. M. Hinckley 



Ventura Comity, Gal, September, 1875. 



-+•+- 



For Forest and Stream. 

 FLORA AND FAUNA OF CALIFORNIA. 



natiX eighing five or six pounds, it is not to be expected 

 iri one peVson in ten who has ever fished in the 

 streams of New England or of the Alleghemes, will be- 

 lieve the story, still there are those who may enjoy the en- 

 thusiasm of a fisherman while they may not credit his 



AT this time, when travel Westward has become so 

 general, a picture of the country in Yentura county, 

 Cal., may be of interest to some of your readers. It is 

 during the months of April and May that the country pre- 

 sents its finest appearance. The flowers are then to be 

 found in perfection, the wide, open expanses of adobe land 

 becoming like immense gardens filled with orange, purple, 

 pink, and white blossoms, intermingled with a dense 

 growth of burr clover and alfileria. In the dry and sandy 

 soil of the knolls, and even large hills, the green cactus 

 plants its mighty roots, and here increases with astonishing 

 rapidity, spreading out its spiny arms in all directions, and 

 encircling in its growth the neighboring shrubbery and 

 flowers. 



The quail, lately found in immense flocks of four or five 

 hundred, are by this time mating and selecting nesting 

 places. As we look up the hillsides, faintly green where 

 the tender blades of grass are struggling through the sandy 

 soil, we see the male bird perched on the topmost twig of a 

 sage bush or dry flower stalk, ready to give alarm if auy 

 one approaches, while hidden beneath some fallen bush or 

 in the dry bunch grass the female is selecting a place for 

 her nest. After the heavy rains have fallen small ponds 

 or lagoons are formed in the bellows between the hills, and 

 to these resort the ducks and sandhill cranes. Here they 

 remain in small flocks of twenty or more during the pleas- 

 ant months that succeed these few weeks of rain and sun- 

 shine, but later in the season they take flight, passing away 

 as suddenly as they came. But there are other homes for 

 them on the borders of the great Tule Lakes and margins 

 of the winding rivers, where they have their young undis- 

 turbed. 



This part of California is very hilly, the hills succeeding 

 one another with so little variation that the scenery would 

 become monotonous were it not for the woody canons 

 through which we have to pass in going from one point to 

 another. In many of these canons there are deep gulches, 

 bordered likewise with trees. Over its sides lean live oaks, 

 sycamores, and cottonwoods, mingling their wealth of light 

 and dark foliage into richly-shaded canopies of green. 

 When the rain fell in torrents upon the hill-slopes that sur- 

 round us, and the thirsty earth could drink no more, brooks 

 of different sizes were formed, and these, by uniting their 

 waters, created a stream of such size and power as to burst 

 through the sandy gulch beneath 2 laying bare the rocks and 

 roots in its course, and thus many of the large trees, de- 

 prived of their original footing, now lean against their 

 neighbors for support. As we stand in the bottom of this 

 deep ravine and look above us and beyond, the picture is 

 full of wild beauty. Some of the trees are bending over; 

 others have fallen to the ground; many have so grown to- 

 gether that their gnarled branches entwine and overreach 

 each other in their growth, forming strange and fanciful 

 figures, while through the occasional openings steal in the 

 golden bars of sunshine. The sides of these gulches are 

 really the sides of the steep hills which surround them. 

 Many of these hills, rocky in their formation, and with 

 great cavernous places in their sides, are covered with a 

 heavy growth of chemisal, among whose dark and tangled 

 thickets the deer hide their forms and trails. Here they 

 remain during the heat of the day, but toward evening, 

 when the parting sunlight is leaving the eastern hill- slopes 

 black in shadow, they come timidly out from their dark 

 hiding places, feed among the yellow flowers that grow on 

 the hillsides, browse the foliage as they saunter on, passing 

 slowly into the deep shade of the forest. 



Beneath the mighty shade trees which I have already de- 

 scribed springs find their way out of the sandy soil, and to 

 this hidden watering place come the timid deer, birds, and 

 animals for miles around. At this hour, too, the canon and 

 surrounding country undergoes a beautiful change. A sea 

 fog has lately blown over the land, and through this the 

 rays of the setting sun are beginning to penetrate, softened 

 to a rich and mellow haze by its influence. The brown 

 Stone, of which the hills are largely composed, assumes, 



For Forest and Stream 



LEOPARD HUNTING IN CINCINNATI. 

 . 1 



NO* matter how much sOever the nasal organs of our 

 Eastern friends may be elevated .over* accounts of 

 the squirrel which squelched the rattlesnake, or the asinine 

 quadruped which vanquished the lioness, these statements 

 are truths. After the battle last mentioned, and while the 

 brave little jackass was in hospital under the care of a good 

 surgeon, our poets sang his praises, and our sculptors 

 "sculped" him, and if he was'nt preserved by the # taxider- 

 mist as was his leonine antagonist, it was only because 

 the lioness had "chawed him up" too miscellaneously. 

 But "Linden saw another sight;" what, indeed, is the use 

 of having in our midst a Zoological Garden if it cannot 

 furnish sensation? 



On last Saturday night in some manner as yet unex- 

 plained, a leopard was allowed to escape from his cage, 

 and all the efforts put to recapture him proved unavailing! 

 He was at large in the woods near the garden on Sunday. 

 On that night it was thought he had taken refuge in a sewer. 

 On Monday evening a gentleman residing in our aristo- 

 cratic Clifton, thought he saw in the twilight a stray dog 

 of large size, and disliking canines on-general principles, 

 tried on the indistinct figure of the animal the virtues of a 

 stone about the size of a goose egg. It was efficacious. 

 The ''dog" made a spring of some fifteen feet, and if the 

 gentleman got away from that spot in bounds less in actual 

 measurement, he made it up in the rapidity with which he 

 multiplied his movements. He neared a policeman, but 

 he, having only a revolver, recollected that he had urgent 

 business elsewhere. The authorities seem to have given 

 up the hope of capturing the leopard alive, and word was 

 given to "shoot him on the spot" wherever seen. Many 

 hunters, desirous of sharing the dangerous sport, turned 

 out with good arms, and canvassed the woods adjacent to 

 the "Zoo" pretty thoroughly, but without results until 

 yesterday (Tuesday) morning, when the dog of police- 

 man Pfeifer, brought the animal to bay in a brush pile in a 

 ravine near the southern boundary of the garden. He was 

 averse to firing just then, and sending word to Mr. P. 

 McEvoy, simply held his position until that gentleman's 

 arrival. McEvoy came, with the Scott ten bore which lie 

 used on the now famous lioness, and with little ceremony 

 blazed away at short range with No. 6 shot at the first 

 favorable chance. Whether this shot would have proved 

 fatal is doubtful; anyway the leopard commenced to exe- 

 cute one of its famous leaps, and while in the air was given 

 at least two more barrels, one of which was buckshot. 

 Thus died the spotted terror of timid mamas and school 

 children, regretted by none save the animal's keepers. He 

 was a valuable specimen, and it is a matter of regret that 

 both it and the lioness above referred to could not have 

 been captured alive. 



With the lioness, the taxidermist, Schaan, was very suc- 

 cessful. In this case it is as yet doubtful as to the mount- 

 ing of the leopard. It is fonmd to have been fearfully 

 "spotted" with shot, but it is said that Mr. C. Dury will 

 undertake to prepare it so as to be presentable. 



R E. Ducaigne, 



. w id M »- ' 



For Forest and Stream. 

 CHOCORNA. 



E have listened to tales of Mount Chocorna. Its 

 steep and rocky sides, so difficult of ascent; its 

 cone-like summit, topped off with boulder on boulder, out- 

 rivaling the Tower of Babel; its wild and beautiful «fcenery, 

 standing, as it does, like an outpost or picket guard on the 

 southern border of the world-renowned White Mountain 

 cluster; its deep caverns; its ravines, where grow in pro- 

 fusion the luscious blueberry, on which the black bear laies 

 sumptuously during the month of September. Ah, tJie 

 bear! He is the meat for which we hunger. We will go 

 for Mount Chocorna and a bear. 



We leave the Eastern Railroad at Madison, is. H., nvo 

 miles from the mountain. Piper, the old veteran ttfw 

 killer, lives at the foot, .and has a camp in the mountain, 

 and with him we were made comfortnble and happy. W*J 

 all such landmarks, Chocorna has a history in connection 

 with the early settlement of ttie country, and the uimo » 

 ment of the Indians. It took its name from the fact -^ 

 a chief by the name of Chocorna made his home and liwt 

 ing grounds here, and after committing various acts pi m 

 redation and cruelty on the settlers he was driven to 

 fastnesses of the mount, and pursued to the summit, wiic 

 being given the alternative to leap from the P*e°ipw*- , 

 face the guns of the exterminator he chose the nui^- 

 What, Chocorna turn his back to his foe and leap mwjg, 

 noble and certain death? No, never! Bis breast J* 



coma is ushered into the presence of ttie breai o^"- 

 I crouched beneath some overhanging cliff or stcdu- ^ 

 climbed from crag to crag peering over into the ravw 

 neath, the dim gray of the morning was slowly ±* * 

 away before the rising sun, and revealed to me my _ f 

 panions on some distant "spur" employed like uv 

 watching for bear. Then I could picture before ^ 

 poor Chocorna was traced to his stronghold, ana w ^ 

 for with deadly intent even as we were watching ■ w he 

 bruin. How with brute instinct and savage <?^oiuk 

 avoided his pursuers by hiding in ravine or behina u ^ 

 until driven to the overhanging peak above us w- . 

 paid the penalty. But here we must turn ±™m the s, 

 to the provoking, for my figure of comparison no i a | 

 runs parallel. Unlike the fate of pocr Otoconia, air 

 hot chase our bruin escaped through an unguard^a^^,. 

 accessible pass, and our Chocorna is still at iai a e < g- 

 to the shepherd and his flock . 

 Boston, September^ 1875. 



