Terms, Five Dollars a Year. J 

 Ten Cents a Copy. J 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1876. 



J Volume 5, Number 25. 



1 17 Chatham St. (City Hall Sqr.) 



THE FLIGHT OF THE BUFFALO. 



BT ISAAC M'CI/BLLAN. 



'TTTHEKE vast and far the rustling grass burns with its russet stain, 

 W O'er prairies lone, beyond the throne, of Rocky Mountain 

 chain, 

 The lowing herds, the league-long herds, of bisons roam the wild, 

 By streams serene, by meadows green, and where great cliffs are pil'd; 



By willowy nook of crystal brook, along each ice-cold brink, 

 The wallowing crowd, with bellowings lcud, the gelid nectar drink; 

 The juicy seeds, the tufted meads, delight their browsing ranks, 

 Wheie scarlet flowers and tangled bowers, drape all the bloomy banks. 



In sluggish ease, beneath the trees, they pass the idle days. 

 While gleams the flood and glows the wood in early Autumn's haze; 

 But when the breath of wintry death from pallid Northland blows, 

 And drift from out celestial domes, the flaky, fluttering snows, 



Then wide across those prairie-worlds, by hillock, crag, and lake, 

 Their armies vast, defiling past, their long migrations take; 

 In lengthen 'd line, those savage kine, impetuously pour, 

 Ab torrent swift, with wrack and drift, sweeps by a sullen shore. 



The hoar-frost white, spreads wasteful blight, o'er smiling nature's face, 

 And thin and dry the grasses sigh, wide o'er the pasture's spaci; 

 So, over hill, lhrongh pool and rill, the crowding squadrons flow, 

 With heavy tramp, like routed camp, when storm'd by raging foe. 



On either flank with clang and clank, each patriarchal sire 

 With lathing tail and coat or mail, and eyeball's flaming fire; 

 With forehead large, like iron targe, and horn like steelly hince; 

 With flowing manes, like hurricanes, lead on the grand advance. 



But haikt a yelll those fiends of hell, the Indian tribes are out, 

 The desert steed of matchless breed, is galloping on their route; 

 With brandish'd spear, in fierce career, the impish riders wheel, 

 The bow 1b strung, the lance is flung, the cruel, crashing steel. 



The pistol rings, the bullet sings, demoniac whoopings swell, 

 Those Arabs of the prairies exult with shriek and yell. 

 Vain all the flight, vain all the fight, the vengeful charges vain, 

 The bulls are down and corses brown incarnadine the plain. 

 Gmnport, Jan. Qth, 1876. 



For Forest and Stream. 



TN the ancient city of Quebec lives a sportsman who 

 A suddenly found himself the possessor of a whale 

 some seventy feet long and proportionately large around the 

 body. Well, the only advantage the owner of the whale 

 possessed over the man who won the live elephant, was 

 that the whale being dead could do without eating, never- 

 theless its great weight and want of power ot motion, 

 eventually caused so much trouble that it would be diffi- 

 cult to say who was the better off, the owner of the ele- 

 phant or the owner of the whale. I shall endeavor to re- 

 late to you the experience of the owner of the whale in his 

 own words (as far as possible,) as they were given to me 

 hot long since, during a pleasant evening spent in his 

 smoking-room, while enjoying a segar. This cosy little 

 retreat is decorated with guns, rods, several cases of stuffed 

 birds and fishes, antlers of moose, cariboo, wapite, and red 

 deer, and hanging against the walls, hunting scenes on 

 the marshes and highlands, and Walter M. Bracket's four 

 |ife-like and beautiful photos of "The Rise," "The Leap," 

 "Last Struggle," and "Landed Salmon:" 



"On the morning of the 14th of August, 1872, 1 despatch- 

 ed one of the steamers under my control on a surveying 

 ** l P to the Northern Channel, a duty annually performed 

 oy that vessel . I expected her to be absent for several 

 days and had looked forward to this with great expecta- 

 tions as I would then be free to take a run out to some of 

 |he lakes, trout fishing. I had made all my preparations, 

 looked over my flies, lines, and rods, and arranged with a 

 congenial companion to leave early next day. Little did I 

 |htn imagine the fish I was so soon to struggle with. The 

 "eight of my fishing ambition was salmon and trout. I 

 sever aspired to such monsters as whales. After the de- 

 parture of the steamer, I left my office in the evening for 

 home and at the usual hour retired to bed. At about mid- 

 night I was awakened by a loud ringing of my door bell, 

 ana hurried down to see who was there » I opened the 

 when a young nephew, who had taken passage in the 



steamer, rushed into the house in a great state of excite- 

 ment. As soon as he could catch sufficient breath, he in- 

 formed me that the steamer had returned. This being so 

 unexpected I greatly feared some dreadful accident had 

 happened — some one drowned or killed — and I begged him 

 to tell me the worst at once. In a gasping tone he began 

 hurriedly to say that "the steamer— the Captain— the 

 whale, &c, &c, &o." I really did not know what to un- 

 derstand, but it was evidently something about a whale. 



"What do you mean? are you mad?" said I. 



"No, no," he cried. "The Captain wants to see you im- 

 mediately about it. Oh! it is such a monster — about two 

 hundred feet long and big as a ship." 



I caught the young man by the shoulder and shook him 

 into a seat. After a few minutes rest he was able to give 

 me to understand that twenty-four miles below the ancient 

 city, and one hundred miles from salt water, they had 

 found a large whale stranded on a sand bar, and had turned 

 back with it in tow, and the Captain wanted to see me 

 about it. I dressed and went down to the wharf, and saw 

 the Captain, who was full of importance and anxiety over 

 the matter. I requested him to sit down and tell me what 

 it all meant. 



"Well sir," he said, at once appealing to my good feel- 

 ings. "Of course you are master, and can do as you wish, 

 but I hope you will see fair play in this matter, and that I 

 am allowed my share of the prize; it is a fortune, and such 

 a chance may never happen to me again. You and I can 

 make heaps of money out of it, and afford to be generous 

 to the crew in the bargain. Will you go half the profits 

 and charge me with half the expenses? I am willing to 

 pay my share. Oh! yes sir, I'll do the right thing, and I 

 hope you will see to my interest. We are sure to make a 

 big spec out of that whale; there must be one hundred 

 barrels of oil in that whale, and the oil is in great demand, 

 notwithstanding the opposition made to it by coal oil." 



The Captain certainly thought he had struck oil at 

 last. 



"Captain,, it is a bargain," I answered. I'll do my best 

 for all parties concerned, (of course with a sharp eye to 

 No. 1, as I was to have all the trouble and furnish the 

 money); but do tell me where in the world did you get that 

 whale?" 



"Well sir," said he, "After leaving the wharf, every- 

 thing went on quietly until when about half way through 

 the North Channel. The look-out man cried out: 4 A 

 schooner cr barge, aground or upset on the sand bar, sir, 

 ahead to the right of us.' Several persons being on deck 

 at the time, all glasses were leveled in the direction of the 

 object, but none were able to make out what it was. I 

 stopped the steamer and sent my mate with six men in a 

 boat to ascertain. Seeing no one near, we were in great 

 anxiety to know what could have happened. We followed 

 the men's movements with straining eyes, and saw them 

 cautiously approach the sand bar, and step out of the 

 boat, the tide being at half ebb, left a large portion bare 

 for a considerable distance from the object in view. The 

 men appeared very undecided what to do next, and hud- 

 dled together with evident fear, but they kept on slowly, 

 approaching nearer and nearer, then halted, and consulted 

 together; finally they set to shouting with all their might 

 in their native tongue. We carefully listened, and I 

 thought I caught the words, "Une baleine! une baleinef a 

 whale, a whale!" I could hardly believe this possible, so 

 far up the river. However, I ordered another boat and 

 proceeded to the scene, which I soon reached. The men 

 on the bar came to meet me, all very excited and speaking 

 at the same time, saying it was a monstrous whale; two 

 of them declaring it was alive for they had seen it wink its 

 eyes, another that he saw its body quiver, but none had 

 dared to go near, as they feared it might turn on them and 

 with a fctroke of its enormous tail, launch them into 

 eternity. My presence appeared to inspire confidence and 

 all looked to me to lead the party on, but I can assure you, 

 I did not fancy the idea at all, so after the men had called 

 each other cowards, and inferred as much of me, by their 

 looks, one Baptiste who had plucked up more courage than 

 the others, Yolunteered to go forward if all would follow 



and keep quite near. This was acceeded to, and in single- 

 file we started, Baptiste leading with a boat-hook, and pole 

 in hand, but when some distance off our leader came to a 

 dead halt and would proceed no farther, until he was 

 thoroughly roused to the task, by the bantering tones of 

 his followers, when with a sudden desperation he ran for- 

 ward, gave the monster a poke, and dashed back into our 

 midst out of breath. The poor whale never stirred a mus- 

 cle. This appeared to embolden Baptiste, who tried it 

 again, with the same results. We then mustered sufficient 

 resolution to storm the dead monster in a body, and every- 

 one in turn poked at him with an oar or something of the 

 kind. The whale was really dead. I stared at the great 

 monster in astonishment. Visions of barrels of whale 

 oil and heaps of money appeared before me. I felt I had 

 struck oil and that prospects were decidedly bright, and 

 the old saying, that there is a tide in every man's affairs 

 when taken at the ebb, would lead to a fortune, was at last 

 to be verified in me. A long consultation was held to decide 

 what course to pursue next to secure the prize and safely 

 get it to the ancient city. After a great deal of talking it 

 was determined that a hole should be cut in the monster's 

 jaw, a chain passed in and then fastened to the tail, then 

 attached to a hawser and made fast to the steamer, and in 

 the ebb-tide, to take it in tow and return to the city. The 

 chain was sent for and soon made fast. 



How anxiously we counted the hours and minutes which 

 passed waiting for the ebb — that ebb tide which was to 

 lead to such glorious results . In due course it came, and 

 we started with our prize in tow; the whale swaging first 

 to one side, then the other — at times its high mouth 

 would open and almost stop the boat. I can assure you, I 

 was not trolling a minnow, and it was quite the reverse of 

 baiting with a sprat to catch a whale, and I never fancied 

 he was running any risk of being pounced on by any canni- 

 bal fish. By dint of perseverance and a favorable tide, 

 we at last reached the wharf near mid-night, and I dis- 

 patched your nephew tor you. Now I know you expect 

 me to proceed again on my trip at daylight, and as I shall 

 be absent several days, I must leave all to you and hope 

 you will do the best yon can for me. As I said before, 

 charge me with half of all the expenses and give me half 

 the profits. We have got a big thing, and I would feel 

 very anxious about it during my absence, did I not know 

 that you will do the right thing. 



"Very well Captain," I answered, "I'll do my very best; 

 so make it secure." 



The whale was made fast to the pier and I bade the 

 Captain good bye again, and proceeded home quite de- 

 lighted with our prospects. I sat up nearly the whole 

 night hunting over my books for some treatise upon the 

 subject of whales. The only one I could find was an old 

 copy of "Chamber's Information for the People." In this 

 it is stated that for every foot in length, a Right whale is 

 calculated to give a barrel of oil. Now as the Captain told 

 me it was seventy feet long and a Simon pure whale, I put 

 down the probable produce at seventy barrels— figured 

 this up at fifty to sixty cents per gallon— smoked a pipe of 

 peace, smiled at our good luck, and laid down to take a 

 short rest, dreaming of whales from the one which swal- 

 lowed Jonah to the one I now possessed. At an early 

 hour I was at the wharf and found crowds of people al- 

 ready assembled to see it, and a krge number were engaged 

 in working it up on the rising tide in an ascent near the 

 wharf, where at low water it could be seen nearly its entire 

 length. The fabulous prices stated by would-be knowing- 

 ones as to its value, soon induced several speculators to 

 make me offers for its purchase, but finding I would not 

 sell, some proposed to form a joint stock company and 

 take shares. I was deaf to all such offers, and determined 

 that the Captain and I should be the only members of ihe 

 firm. A knowing old fellow proposed to exhibit at so 

 much per head, this struck me as an excellent idea, and I 

 let him carry out his plan, receiving with a happy counte- 

 nance the money he frequently laid on my table. ' During 

 the day I was beseiged with people who wanted me to re- 

 late the history of the capture. An excited individual also 

 presented, himself as a claimant of the whale, declaring 



