yj uupiMnu. 
[Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the Forest and Stroam Publishing Company, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington J 
Six Mo’s, S3, Three Mo’s, Sll 1 J f NEW YORK, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1 879. 
Volume 13—No. 17. 
No. Ill Fulton Street, New York. 
Original. 
A WAYSIDE MEMORY. 
A COTTAGE standing under ancient elms, 
*- Low-roofed and covered o'er with trailing vines : 
A door half-open’d, out of.which the light 
Upon the dusty roadway softly shines. 
A cheerful voice humming an old, old tune. 
With a babe, that to her bosom lies, 
A wee, white tiling, with dimpled, rosy face 
And pursed-up mouth and very wondering eyes. 
A shelf of books upon the papered wall, 
A picture here and there, and wreaths of leaves; 
A quaint, old vase of flowers and mosses rare, 
And ..olden grasses gathered from the sheaves. 
A quiet, home-like look on all around; 
Au air of comfort and of sweet content. 
That makes one feel to bo an hour away 
Would of itself be woeful banishment. 
The moon, just rising up behind the hill, 
Sheds silver lustre on the dark, green trees, 
And on the sward the trembling shadows fall, 
When the leaves move beneath the gentle breeze. 
Out In the field the gathered stalks of maize. 
Like Indian wigwams seem in order ranged. 
Over which sleep hath waved her magic wand. 
And with her wierd enchantment all things changed. 
No sound of human foot, no voice of man— 
Asleep In moonlight all the landscape lies, 
Save when some noisy cricket shrilly calls, 
And the droll katydid to him replies ; 
Or the faint trickle of tho bubbling brook 
Behind the orchard, prattling on its way, 
With ceaseless gossip, to the water-weeds 
That nod their heads to what It has to say, 
A transient glimpse of heaven there seemed to be; 
An Eden where no Tempter yet has come ; 
Wherein might angels walk, as once of yore. 
Tailring with men, when earth was Virtue’s home. 
A sacred stillness and a dove-like peace 
Come as the dew through all' the evening hours— 
The heart, as does the sod, full drinks it in, 
Until we see it in the morning’s flowers. 
Such bB my lot. If God shall will it so, 
With virtuous peace to sit my hearth beside. 
Like some sweet river may life’s current flow 
Out to the ocean with unruflied tide. 
Franexin W. Fish. 
JgJountnincerincj in jjfksht. 
GOLD MINES AND PTARMIGAN HUNTING. 
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT ON BOARD THE JAMESTOWN-! , 
S TORIES brought in dally by hardy miners in regard 
to the multitude of quartz ledges which pierced th e 
mountains of Baronlioff and which they had in accordance 
with mining laws, claimed, staked, monumented, and 
now wished to record; their evident faith that these 
quartz ledges, now their property, held locked within 
them that precious metal which would enable them to 
cast the slough of poverty and get clear of the trammels 
of daily labor for subsistence; their descriptions of the 
grand scenery among the mountains, where crags and 
rocky peaks were alternated with deep canons in which 
were located many beautiful lakes, fed by everlasting 
brooks which found their origin in great glaciers and im¬ 
mense banks of perpetual snow; of lofty barren plateaus, 
where on the bare rocks ptarmigan were in profusion, and 
the counter statements, made by those who could be sup¬ 
posed to be posted, that such stories were but “ fairy 
tales,” awoke in my min d the determination to look and 
see for myself, and if the gold and birds were there in 
suoh abundance, to, if possible, humor my fondness for 
both by securing my share. So a few days since, accom¬ 
panied by a friend who is an enthusiastic sportsman, I 
started for the debated ground and for the shares afore¬ 
said, Whether I obtained them or not, I felt sure that the 
•limb up the mountains, the drinking in of the scenery, 
the inhaling of the mountain air, and the temporary free¬ 
dom from vexatious cares, would restore a waning ap¬ 
petite and check a growing restlessness. 
So, taking advantage of a short spell of freedom from 
rain, we started, equipped with plenty of provisions, our 
oldest clothes, and an outside casing of rubber from head 
to foot—for such are the needs for a trip to Alaska. 
At 10 a.m. we left our boat, and at the foot of the trail, 
from Silver Bay up to the mining regions, saw our 
“Siwashes " (Indian packers) fairly burdened, and then be¬ 
gan our ascent. 
Three quarters of au hour Garried us up a height of one 
thousand feet and a distance of three quarters of a mile. 
We thought we had made slow time, and had had hard 
work, when at last we reached the ‘ ‘ Stewart Tunnel ” and 
settled panting into the chair provided,; but we found be¬ 
fore the trip was finished, that three quarters of an hour, 
was in some cases, a very moderate amount of time in 
which to advance a quarter of the distance. When at each 
step the perpendicular gain is twenty, and the horizontal 
about three inches, a mile is a long journey. 
The trail to the Stewart wound its way through a dense 
forest of great hemlocks and spruce trees with a few yel¬ 
low cedar. Many of the former were of such dimensions 
that a spot in the Adirondacks, so well covered, would for 
its “bark,” or “counts," prove very valuable. Along¬ 
side of the trail x’an a tramway, on which a rude car Is 
drawn by a windlass to the mine, with freight, and did re¬ 
turn with ore before the mill was put into operation. Our 
Siwashes, bending over to all fours, preferred the train- 
way, and went along at a lively gait, grasping ties and 
rails alternately, and came in ahead of us and were appar¬ 
ently unfatigued. These Siwashes deserve a little space. 
They are native “ Indians,” and resemble Indians of all 
other types about as much as they do native Africans. They 
are quiet, docile, hard-working men, of a type inferior to 
the Anglo-Saxon, but far superior to our red men of the 
plains ; they are not pilferers or tliieves, or blood thirsty; 
they have no liking for fighting, and can be controlled by 
suasion ; are ambitious to earn praise, and dollars, and are 
not mere eye servants. 
They are very powerful; the ordinary pack load is sev¬ 
enty-five pounds, and with this on their backs they will 
keep ahead of the most experienced mountain climbers. 
One Indian in our service, when at a very steep place I 
relinquished to him my gun, as I needed both hands to 
use as fore paws, laughingly answered my query as to 
whether he could take it, by the assurance that he could, 
and me too, if I wished. I guess he over-estimated his 
strength or under-estimated my weight, but I know of the 
man's packing up a very steep and new trail, hardly more 
than blazed, a load of 125 pounds, viz,: two sacks of flour, 
a shovel, some drills, a ten pound salmon, and his clothes 
and blankets. 
To feed them we carry hard tack, coffee, sugar, and 
flour, and they will do tremendous tasks upon very short 
commons, but when they do get hold of a full kettle, there’s 
nothing left when they leave it. I never saw them stop 
eating while there was a mouthful left. In camp they 
are excellent servants, drying our clothes, cleaning our 
guns, cooking, and handy at building and all chores. 
From the Stewart (where I myself saw broken from a 
face of the tunnel a piece of quartz, speckled with free 
gold), we had a weary tramp to the “ Witch ; ” distance 
not great, horizontally, but as Wanka (my Sivvosh) de- 
scribedit, “Way up.” When we reached Bald Mountain, 
we had travelled three miles, and had ascended over three 
thousand feet above the Stewart. 
After the first sharp rise from the latter of about a 
thousand feet, we had but little ascent for a long dis¬ 
tance, the trail leading along a sharp ridge or “ hog back,” 
which on each side was flanked by deep ravines, way 
down in whose depths we could hear the rushing of water¬ 
falls and occasionally the click of the miners’ picks, 
for they are prospecting in all directions ; but we could 
see nothing, for a dense fog filled the ravine and hid from 
us the grand mountain scenery which at this part of our 
journey wo knew still towered above us, An occasional 
momentary clearing away of a small bit of Cite curtain 
gave us provoking and tantalizing peeps, but for an in¬ 
stant, Once a glacier not far from us cast loose from its 
moorings and went crashing down with a thunderous 
noise. We were far above tho timber; our trail was no 
trail, for we trod on the jpmnitive rock ; but there was no 
danger of our getting off from it, for it we could see, and 
nothing else. Before we had got out of the timber my 
Siwash gave a low whistle and stopped. As I joined him 
he pointed to “chicken,” and then not forty feet away I 
saw my first ptarmigan. There were four, and they ran 
behind a bush of low hemlock or ground pine. I ad- 
vaheefl slowly, ready to take them as they rose ; but they 
wouldn’t rise, and dodged in and around that clump like 
a woodpecker around a tree. So at last, satisfying the 
sportsman part of my conscience by resolving to aim 
only at their heads, I let go at a couple who were in line 
and killed them, the other falling to my friend’s shot, as 
he rose at last. The birds were simply beautiful ; their 
backs and tail feathers were like those of our ruffed 
grouse ; their wings and breast pure white. I might as 
well finish up the descriptive and natural history part of 
my letter here, although I shall have to inject some 
knowledge gained later on. 
There seems to be two varieties of this bird. Those 
found at this level are as I have described; higher up 
they are nearly snow white, witli black tail feathers, bor¬ 
dered with white, and the dark feathers of the hack, in¬ 
stead of as with those found lower down, being brown 
grouse-colored and predominating, are nearly black, and 
simply amount to spots, for each dark feather is sur¬ 
rounded with white. They may be the same bird, at dif¬ 
ferent stages of transformation. 
I have read that the ptarmigan has a sort of special 
providence looking out for it; that in summer and fall its 
plumage is dark, and the bird is hard to distinguish from 
the ground, and that in winter its snow-white plumage 
hides it amid the snow. This rule don’t work, for the 
Alaska bird when sitting on the dark stones, their white, 
and when on the snow, their dark spots betray them, and 
their chance of successfully hiding is less than that of 
even the fabled phillalloo bird. They weigh about a 
pound each (six averaged 154 ounces, the heaviest weigh¬ 
ing 18), and are very delicious, especially at this season, 
when their food is almost altogether huckleberries : later 
they feed on spruce and other bitter food, and their flavor 
sulfers. 
They are very tender. No. 7 shot were very killing, and 
it was impossible to preserve a good specimen. The feath¬ 
ers came out in handsful, as they were gathered, and our 
dog’s mouth looked as though lie had the hydrophobia, 
so thoroughly blood-and-feathered was it. In skinning, 
the skin tore like wet blotting-paper, and an attempt to 
carry one by the leg involved a fracture of the same if 
held at aity angle. They are full-blooded, bleed a great 
deal, and, I should judge, very hot-blooded, for they 
Spread themselves in great flocks on the surface of the 
snow patches, with wings extended, as hens when dust¬ 
ing themselves. They have a peculiar call, a grating 
sound, which often betrayed to us their vicinity when the 
fog was too dense for us to see them. 
As we got above the snow we would get a view of a por¬ 
tion of the banks nearest to ns, and saw on it many birds, 
but we soon learned that it was mere slaughter to shoot 
them, or any flying over, for they would go sliding and 
plunging into the abyss below, and our Siwashes could 
not be persuaded to trust themselves on to the snow, for 
they feared the starting of the glacier. At first I inter¬ 
preted their reluctance to their being bare-footed; but 
when later, higher up and in clearer weather, we struck 
basins filled with snow they did not hesitate to select it 
for their tramp in preference to grass or moss which were 
adjacent. 
We arrived at the summit of this part of the mountains 
at about 4.30, and it was clear enough for us to obtain a 
splendid view of Bald Mountain Peak, a few hundred 
feet above us, and at our feet, a thousand feet below, two 
beautiful lakes on terraces, connected by a stream, near 
which we saw the cabins of the Witch miners, their 
arastra and their mine some hundred feet up the oppo¬ 
site wall of the cafion. Our delight at a little down-hill 
play overbalanced our repugnance to the prospect of hav¬ 
ing to climb this same steep on our return, and we went 
down hilarious; and we would have been even more so 
had we anticipated the hospitable welcome we received 
from the miners. A good supper, to which we did ample 
justice — so ample that Kashaveroff, the purveyor, took 
us at once into his good graces ; a gossip over our pipes, 
and the best beds in the cabin at our service, and a solid 
ten hours of unbroken rest (except to listen occasionally 
to the music of a small yellow dog), prepared us for our 
still harder and longer tramp on the following day. We 
brought in to the Witch about forty birds, having lost 
perhaps as many more down among the fog banks ; but 
it was only by urging that the hospitable foreman, Mr. 
Gibbons, a Maine man, would consent to our contributing 
even the birds to our breakfast. Our venison sandwiches, 
private coffee, etc., were tabooed vigorously, and we were 
guests in every respect; finding though that we really 
wanted to try them, Kashaveroff added a few to the 
breakfast. 
This second day the fog had turned into rain, but we 
were as determined as the youth who “ bore, mid snow 
and ice,” etc., and determined to go on and up, for beyond 
and above us were ledges and birds well worth going 
for. 
Before stalling, I will describe an “ arastra,” for I don't 
believe many of your readers will know what 1 mean by 
the word. It is a cheap and tolerably effective substitute 
for a stamp mill for treating ore, which can be used to 
great advantage, when as at the “Witch” the quartz is 
decomposed and soft. To begin at the bottom, it consists 
of a tub about 20ft. in diameter, 4 ft. high, which has a 
hard stone floor ; a perpendicular shaft from the centre 
carries four arms at right angles, to which are attached 
by chains several heavy flat blocks of stone ; above these 
arms and on the same shaft is a very simple water wheel, 
by which the stones are dragged around in the tub crush¬ 
ing and pulverizing the quartz which is fed in with a 
duo proportion of quicksilver, and such chemicals as the 
nature of the ore may require. A sluice a few inches 
above the floor, letB off the waste water, the precious 
