84- 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sei'tembee 2, 18S0, 



g7/^ g^toi'fomnn ^aimsL 



ROUGH NOTES FROM THE WOODS. 



HOW THE UKD MAN WATCHES A LICK— CAMPtNU, COOKINU 

 ASD ANGUSa— IKDIAN WOODCKAFT. 



WHEN Chief William led up to the lick he took me 

 bv purling streaois and pleasant phioes. Our 

 way led Ifirou^h » bcavor iiieaaov.- -and thai: same bea- 

 ver meadow business is au iuptitulion, so to siieak, found 

 nowhere so ffectueutly or in such perfeLtitm as in tlie 

 Northern Wilderness. Ou all the waters ot tlie Moose, 

 wJierover you Und a small stream emptying into river or 

 lake, you may with something like certainty find a bea- 

 ver meadow on the course of the brook, usuallj' about 

 midway of the stream. The beaver is tlie first wild ani- 

 mal ot'iiuiHtruiiK-o lo disapi-.ear before the white maa ; 

 but 1 1 nil' an- uieii now living; who remember when tliese 

 beavm- lueadosvs wt-re bea\'er ponds, witli busy, saga- 

 cious, shy iuhabitauls. At present they are perlectlv 

 level meadows, invariably doited with gi-acelul, light 

 green tamaracks, with tin occasional spruce, standmg 

 sin:;!"- '^i -i-mj-o of three or four, resting in cahu quiet 

 la ii Li;^ht, scarcely luoved by the fui-ions 



gill lie mountain tops bareof timber, li'rom 



thc\.-., , I Bahl ]\Iumuaiii (tlie Mt. St. Louis of 



Colviii) you look down into one of these o.ases, a thou- 

 sand feel below. You could ahnost throw a stone tliere. 

 Quiet and motionless it hes, while the signal stad on the 

 suuuoit is bcndhig before the gale, and you are faiu to 

 keep ii lew [liices from the edge of the precipice lest a 

 suiUlcu .^iisl liiiijck jou off your balance and send you 

 into the tree tops five hundred feet below. Far more 

 loveJy and iateresting to me are these beautiful, lonely 

 nooks tiian the mountains that overlook them ; to rue 

 they seem to liave been strangely overlooked by tourists 

 aiicl writers who frequent this region. This is digres.don. 



Silently as ghosts we stole through the uieaduw and up 

 to an unusually tliiok clump of spruce and tamarack. 

 Through the thick foliage 1 looked aloft and dimly saw 

 three rude poles lashed to the liranches twenty-tive feet 

 from the ground. .Silently I cuaunenced to chmb, and 

 soon fuund a seal on ouo pole, feet trying to rest on an- 

 otUer. The Chief sighted a hole thruugU the bianches, 

 made his old coat into a ball, and pitched it, .-d: iny head 

 with a force and accm'acy that nearly knocked nie off' the 

 parch. There was a scrambling among the brauchea, and 

 the butt of Williuurs preposterous musket appeared in 

 read). I drew it up, placed it against the IkIi hand 

 spruce with his old coai, and then came the butt of my 

 ride, followed by the head of the Chief. AVe sat sdently 

 aad watched warily. I saw by his eye tliat he expected 

 tiie deer on his side of the "Wind," and repented me that 

 1 had not placed his coat and blunderbuss against the 

 other spruce. We had not long to wait. The sun was 

 still shining with yeUow, slanting rays on the Ijglit green 

 of the tamaracks, when, glancing behmd and bevond the 

 Chief, I saw the old, old siglit— a timid doc in the red 

 cjat, gliding cautiously into the tall grass of the meadow, 

 ears forward and nose on the alert for any suspicious 

 •taint of enemies. AV'e had l)cen cautious and silent. She 

 detected not) oiig wrong, and turned toward the blind ; 

 halted at foi ty yards bciweeu two clumps of tamaracks, 

 and stood stilt to listen and sniif the air, 



Now, it strikes me that if I were a noble red man, and 

 had taken a fancy to a jiale face ; if I had taken that 

 pale face to my lick for a shot, and knew his rifle to 

 be a nail-driver, I would have leaned backward a little 

 and let the white man send a ball into the deer's vitals 

 iustead of chancing a musket with eleven small buckshot 

 at a range of forty yards. The Chief did not see it in 

 that light. With a slow, eteady motion he cocked and 

 raised the old piece, held it for an instant as in a vise, 

 and then there was a dull, fluffy roar, a great expansion 

 of powtltr smoke, and the deer was gone. 1 eared little. 

 She no douijt hud one or two fawns waiting for her on 

 the bill ; and Ijcing burdened with tlit 

 nity would lio but tougli eating 

 the deer been a buck and in coj 

 given him twenty -bve cents fi 

 musket with his coal, el 

 saw him for a tpiarter of 



nater- 

 u had 



at the best. E 



ulition I woidd i 



-ir his shot. He laid tlie 

 ibed down in silence, and I 

 1 hour hunting diligently for 



B jme sign of a hit ; but he found not a trace, and he 

 c tme back looking a httle beaten, I tliought. Tlieji he 

 s^oke for the lirst time since entering the meadow. 

 "Watch any more?" he asked. 

 "No. Decidedly, no. Tlie smoke settled down on the 

 meadow, and the grass is trampled at the very spot 

 wiiere the deer came in." 



I pitclied his coat and musket into the soft moss, fol- 

 lowed them witli my rifle, and we started for camp. 

 "Poor camp ; oidy bark," said William. 

 I thought differently. It had a good roof of bark, 

 with back, end and sides closed in with the same. We 

 in Pennsylvania would reckon it an exceUent camp. 

 And what a grand woodsman the t:luef was. He would 

 hardly allow luc to lift a slick of firewood, but toted old 

 dry trunks of dead trees, bark and branches, picked 

 browse for a Iresh bod, and by the time it was fairly 

 (htick we were liiiely organized for sleep. I kept iuni 

 awake for an hour beyond his usual time, making him 

 give me points concerning the wilderness, of winch lie is 

 reputed to have as much and as accurate kno\\ ledgo as 

 anymanhving. At lengtli he tired of .slories and talk, 

 drew his blanliet about bis head, Indian fashion, and 

 subsided in sleep. 



"Wake me up early ; look after deer," he said the last 

 thing before settling into a steady, subdued snore, that- 

 -wa-l not at all aggravating. 



Isatuplai.e— snicked, mused, built fires and listened 

 to my old acciuainiauces, the owls, until, overcome with 

 drowsiness, I, too, pulled my blanket about my ears and 

 slumbered sweetly, after the manner of those who rest 

 a; night in open camps. 



It was daylight wlien I awt^ke. 1 roused lij'st the fire, 

 and then Chief William, lie shook liimself together, 

 borrowed ray rifle and was olf on the trail. 



" 'Fi don't tin' deer, be back in hour," he said, laconi- 

 cally. 



"A fool's errandj" said I, and went down to the spring 

 hole to try fly-fishing. I pooled a oouple of half pound- 

 ers, came back to camp, and cooked a trout breakfast in 

 my beat manner. William had been gone more than bis 

 liotir i )jJ.'eiJila,st was ready and liot, and 1 waa getting im- - 



patient, when far from beyond the beaver meadow on the 

 mountain laniH the plain, sharp crack of my rifle. He 

 had found the d(;cr after all. And I ate breakfast alone. 



It w as p.ist i) A.M. when, getting impatient, 1 started 

 up the trail, and at the first turn met tlie Chief, a smile 

 of Christian satisfaction on his face and the limp half of 

 a fleshly -killed deer wagging at his hip. It was a bit of 

 good hunter craft. He explained bow lie had quartered 

 Ihe ground like a setter for a hundred rods before fintliug 

 blood. Once found he had foUowed it like a sleuth- 

 hound, losing it again on the ridge, and finding the deer 

 at last by patiently L|uartering the ground again. It was 

 badly wounded in one kidney (all luck), but made a short 

 run and Laid down again. He crept up within thirty 

 yai-ds and shot it through the head. Few while hunters 

 would ever have tracked out and killed it, 



Wdliam cooked himself a heartv meal of venison, of 

 which, being well-fed, 1 could no"t partake ; and then, 

 still insisting on carrying' my ti'aps, started to put me, 

 by a short cut on the trail, to my next objective point, 



JONES' CAMP. 



Albert Jones came into the wilderness about three 

 years ago, so sick and weak as to be lifted from the 

 wagon, and unable to speak aloud on his arrival at the 

 Forge House, foot of the Fulton Chain. He had been a 

 strong man, with an iron coustituiion, and, like many 

 Americans, had broken hun.self down by constant over- 

 work and anxiety. He had been a business man; a 

 miner in the early California days; a, ranchman; had 

 owned and run sawmills; had been a tanier of wild 

 horses among the .Spaniards and ■•biickies" of Mexico, 

 and had spent the best part -d' an active, viKorous life in 

 the multilarious pursniis, cliauces and changes peculiar 

 to an adventurous Arneiican, 



It came to an end by a general phvsical breakdown. 

 The doctors said "general debdity." They always say 

 that when they are shimpcd. .Jones was a, native of 

 Northern New York, and in his yonuKer days had often 

 gone to the Wilderness for sport and recreation. 



When hand and brain could work no longer he said, 

 "Take me to the Woods ; if I am to die let me die there." 

 They took him in to die. In less than two months he 

 had so far improved as to go out and attend to business, 

 which had rather piled up on him in his absence. One 

 uionth of that settled him. He was down again, and 

 again he "broke his liolfand came to the uo.nls, A'^ain 

 he got the benefit of an open air, care-f lee life, and wdien 

 he thought himself pretty well able to manage his affairs 

 he- went out of the woods and got down to business. And 

 it floored him in just three weeks. Then he let go and 

 came to the Wilderness for good, as he says. He buUt a 

 comfortable log camp (or house) at the foot of the Moose 

 liiver Stillwater, built and bought half a dozen boats, 

 keeps boarders (when they come) at most reasonable 

 rates, and passes his time as rpiietly as any man I know 

 of. He has regained health and spirits, and'would, on the 

 whole, make an excellent sidijeet for "Adirondack Mur- 

 ray." if that gentleman were writing another book. 



His place is situated at the foot of navigation for the 

 Fulton Chain, and it is a twelve mile paddle from it to 

 the Forge House landing, foot of First Lake. I will only 

 add that of all the camps I have eaten and .slept at none 

 lias so good a supply of good-sized brook tront as .Jones' 

 Cain|). AndthiUierl hin'd .Jones to bade my eigliteen 

 Ijound canoe and knapsack for a trip to the oUler side, or 

 as much of it as I might find interesting and prulilable. 



I might mention that I made the acipiainlance of a 

 young man at Jones' who is a permanent boarder there, 

 iiaving sought the forest for relief from asthma, from 

 whicli he had been a great sufferer. The relief was 

 found, and he is another witness to the great benefit so 

 often derived from a residence in the Wilderness. 



Not all in\alids improve by coming here, I had a 

 pleasant c;arnp of bark, with open front, pointed out to 

 uie on Fourth Lake, wliere a yoimg man afflicted with 

 incipient constiinptiou tried all last summer the effects of 

 open air Ufe in the Wilderness. His camp was pleasant 

 and in a healthy location. There was nothing lacking 

 for a fair trial, ,-uid he tried it long and fairly, but in 

 vain ; he sleeps with liis fathers. Scores come here for 

 health who will tell you frankly that they might as well 

 have staid at home. Very many receive decided and 

 permanent benelit. Some bad cases of asthma and con- 

 sumption in its first stages are, apparently, cured. One 

 thing IS certain ; you pay your money, you do not al- 

 ways take your choice, 



Irom Jones' I proposed to start on a canoe trip through 

 or into any part of the woods that might strike me as 

 interesting or desirable. In pursuance of which plan I 

 paddled off from Jones'- landing one exceedingly fine 

 morning, reaching the Forge House m time for dinner, 

 and realizing pretty fully the dilferHnco between up 

 stream or down when the x^^ddle is in ixuestion, espe- 

 cially as I got fogged on the course and paddled sixteen 

 miles instead of twelve. 



The Forge House, kept by J. W. BaiTett, is the starting 

 point tor most parties who go to the Fulton hikes. The 

 liouse is well kept, and it is a great rendezvous for guides, 

 whose boats may ne.irl_v always be seen at the landing, 

 where the owners come to pick up their parties. 



Jin. passant, as this is the season both for lakers and 

 brook trout, and as many are deterred from visiting the 

 w(_)ods at the best season for fishing by those intolerable 

 nuisances, Hies and mosquitos, I may as well fulfill a 

 promise made in my last, of an infallible recipe for these 

 peats, by using which one may walk the trails and climb 

 mountains, lish by day and sleep by nigJit, free from the 

 poisonous stings of black fly or mosquito. I know there 

 are a score of remedies all iuore or less effective, and I 

 have tried most of them during the last twenty-five 

 years. The one I have found most effective is made as 

 follows : — 



Three ounces castor oil and two ounces best tar. Bring 

 to a slow boil on the stove in any vessel, let ling it sim- 

 mer for half an hour. When partially cool add one ounce 

 oil of pennyroyal, and mix thoroughly. To use, potu' a 

 teaspoonful into the pain i of your hand, rub your hands 

 together, and then rub every exposed inch of skin with 

 your palms. Alight coaling wdl do ; and don't wash it 

 off. You may have to repeat it once or twice daily for 

 the first two days, but after that one application each 

 day wid leave you in peace. It is in no way filthy, and 

 is not disagreeable to most persons, while the eff'ect is all 

 that can be desired, 



Nesshok, , 



CAMP CPvEAM O'TAETAR. 



No Man's Land, August, 1880. 



DEAR FOREST ;— You have, of course, received our 

 invitation to "call and see us." but as you ha\e 

 not put in an appeai-ance I fear the sinoei-ity of the invi- 

 tation is doubted, "wherein you wrong us deeply," as 

 Hamlet or Ophelia, or some other of Shakespeare's mag- 

 niloLpient talkers saith. 



I have to report a terrible coniUgration and explosion, 

 with no insurance und no loss of life, Our shanty caught 

 fire, or was set on fire, or set fire to its?lf last night. It 

 was discovered by the scorching of the Major's left heel, 

 which woke him after some time. The lalie was close .it 

 band ; the Tin-dipper Company (the Doctor) went actively 

 to work ; the Scribe carried water industriously for eomc> 

 time in a pail, but afterwards discovered that a larj^ii 

 hole had been burned in its bottom, which incapacitated 

 it for retaining anything more fluid than a biickbat : 

 while the Major, with great presence of mind, begat of 

 long experience under fire, kept rapidly filUng his mouth 

 with water and spurting it upon the "flames. Once, by 

 accident, he got at the wrong tumbler, and cast upon 

 the fiery billows a mouthful of old rye. This untoward 

 accident caused the flames to rage' more liexeelv, and 

 then the Doctor's pow.ler-flask blew up. 



The scene at this time must be imagined to be appre- 

 ciated. The Inrirl glare cast a crimson tinge upon the 

 water, which dashed upon the beach a.s if in wild mock- 

 ery of our misery. The lurid glare also fell upon the dark 

 fortn of the_ Scribe, who. Iiaving discovered the holein the 

 pail's bottom, was fighting a cigar and cheering on the 

 Fire Department. 



Assoonas the Hamcs found nothing else to burn they 

 succumbed, and then morning woke and the sun rose, 

 smiling as tliough one ought to amilc back again. Then 

 we found some trout which had been prejiared for the 

 morning meal. These we cooked over the embers of om' 

 house, and then proceeded to in\'esligate damages. 



The Doctor had snlfered niost. His pow der-dask in ex- 

 plorling had blown up Ins cracker-box cover essay on the 

 "Grasshopper's Hip Complaint in Whorl leberrj Time," 

 and the worlil and the London Lancd. loses it forever. 

 It probably saved our lives, buwever. It lay tipon the 

 flask, and the heaviness of the essay, by keeping the OX- 

 ploBion^ down, prevented any harm to us. Powder 

 couldn't move it (nitro-.tj;lycerine would have bad ita 

 hands full to do it), and it reposed peacefully but scorched 

 on top of the flask's fragments. Our shanty was gone, 

 but our shelter leuts were saved, so we are comi>arativil \ 

 happy. 



We have had a great laugh at tlie Doctor. A oountrv- 

 man, with a face as hard as a biUiard ball and about iis 

 expressive, told the worthy scientific man a long story 

 about a remarkable dog, which was located on a farm 

 about four miles away, According to the bucolic gentle- 

 man this dog was a cross between a bull terrier and a 

 grasshopper, 'i'iie Doctor went, on a very hot day, to sec 

 this pup, and didn't^find him. That country gentleman 

 had belter not visit our camp again, for the Doctor has 

 prepared a large rock with which to "rock him to sleep" 

 if he reappears. 



The country came nigh unto being plunged intomoitru- 

 ing last week. Shining lights of the medical, murdering 

 and meditative professions were nearly cjuenched by the 

 lake's cold waters. The Doctor, the Major, and llie 

 Scribe \vere nearly made food for fishes while fishing for 

 food. It was thus : 1 was sitting in the sternof the boat, 

 the l-loctor was in the middle, and the Major in the liow. 

 The Doctor ainl I were using hand-lines and the Major a 

 pole. He had liis back to us and was afflicted wi(,h poor 

 success. Suddenly a very great fish broke water near \is. 

 " I'll have that fellow," tpioth the Major, and so saying 

 he swung his lino over his shoulder and caught the DoC' 

 tor right bang 111 the nose. "Hello! I'm fast," Faid the 

 Major, without looking around, and with that he gave a 

 puU, and the Doctor's nose foUovved the puU, and the 

 Doctor "followed his nose." 



I was so full of laughter that I couldn't speak, and the 

 sufferer was so surprised that he couldn't ; and the Major 

 gave another pull, and the Doctor's nose went over the 

 side of the boat, and another pidl would have brought 

 him overboard, then the hooked one gave vent to suiih 

 a liorrible sound — a compound of squeal and swt-ar— that 

 the Major paused and look over his shoulder. Then they 

 presented a beautiful tableau. The astonishment and 

 contrition of countenance of one and the furtive clawings 

 of the other at his nose and the horrible mug ho presented 

 were indeed rare spectacles ; and when I at last re- 

 covered from my agony of laughter 1 was sent liack into 

 it again by the lachrymose ejaculation of the sufl'erer. 

 " How 1 will look going home to town with a fiali hoi k 

 in my nose." The Scribe butoliered the hook out after 

 his hand had become steady with a. penknife. Then the 

 Doctor sat "dipping his beak in the tiascon wine," as 

 Thackeray has it. The Doctor was very soon restored to his 

 usual normal state of cheerfulness and then he passed be- 

 yond it ; then he midertook to dance a walk round on the 

 gunwale of the boat. Nothing could dissuade him. Dp he 

 got oil one side of the frail craft, and in order to counter- 

 balance liiui we were forced to sit hanging over the 

 other side, 'I'hiis sonre moments passed of violent salta- 

 tory movement on his part, and of objurgation on ours. 

 Then the medical gentleman made a misstep and disap- 

 peared suddenly into the lake with a >vild and cheerful 

 Hallo. The boat, relieved from bis weight, gave a waUop 

 to port, and in the twinkling of an eye the Scribe and 

 the Maj')r took water also. The Major, who can't swim, 

 caught tile painter and hung on for dear life. U|i to the 

 surface came the unlerrilied Doctor anil began to gjnibol 

 about the bank and sing the Canadian boat song. This 

 insult, added to injury, was too much for the Major. He 

 scrambled into the boat, and seizing the boat-book letched 

 the Doctor such a crack on his crown that he was sobered 

 instantly and came aboard, swearing that his skull wa.s 

 fractured. It was not, but he has not yet been able to 

 get his hat on over the lump. Thb Sceiuk. 



— An old angler says that a fish does not suffer much 

 from being hooked. Of course not. It ia the thought of 

 how bis weight will be lied about that causes him an- 

 guish. 



— ^Falconry is being introduced in Boston, and over 200 

 estimable old hens have met violent deaths while being 

 used by Beacon IliU young ladies in practicing,— Cofli- 

 m&mal, Adverliser, 



