442 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



I'Jax 4 : 



• HUNTING WITHOUT A GUN.— I. 

 rpHERE arc cerlain advantages in going hunting without 

 ' a gun. One sees more game and gels far better ohanses 

 for -liots if he is empty-handed than if ho had a gun at his 

 hip, with a thumb on the striker and forefinger nail against 

 the inside front of the trigger guard. 



1 i euiember witli n pang how, one day last fall, I had been 

 waiting an hour on u runway, in just such readiness for the 

 coming of a fox. my heart bammcring at my ribs and the 

 back dour of my throat as the merry music of the hounds 

 tended toward me, then sinking with dull thuds to iguoble 

 regions as the wild melody sank below the whispers of the 

 light breeze, till at hist, grown tired and thirsty, I set my 

 gun against a tree and went down to the brook for a drink. 

 Then, while I was on all-fours, getting breath between sups, 

 an aimless glance down stream disclosed, at first dimly, as 

 if in a drearn, then with sickening distinctness and reality, 

 the fox, (licking his way across the brook not five rods away. 

 .A ml one rainy day, wheu its soaked charges made my gun use- 

 less as a rnl ten si ick, as 1 rounded a bend of the wood-bordered 

 stream, I came upon the biggest flock of wild ducks I ever 

 saw, oun-half of them dozing on a log, inviting a raking 

 Shot, tlic res! hi/.ily swimming in a huddle just under the 

 sedgy bank. My grief at losing such chances would have 

 been slight if my gun had been at home, instead of being 

 so near and yet so unattainable, or in my hand so useless. 



When you wander gunless in game-frequented tracts, 

 (here arc no misses to account for to yourself, nor any oc 

 casion for telling ' 'wrong stories" when you get home. If a 

 rutted grouse bursts with muffled thunder from the border 

 of your forest path, a hare bounds into sight and out across 

 it. or a. woodcock whistles out of the thicket before you, each 

 gone almost as soon as seen, your ready fore-fingers come 

 into line, getting the range of every one, and you say: "I 

 COUld h:i\c killed him," and feel almost as satisfied as if 

 you saw him tumble to tile earth. "If your fingcr'd been 

 a gun," ten to one your charge had brought down nothing 

 but a shower of leaves, nor done beast or bird any harm but 

 fright. When you had searched the underbrush for half an 

 b<mr for a feather or a tuft of fur and found none, you 

 would rack your brain for k reasons why you missed, and 

 find none but your own unskillfulness, one which affords 

 little comfort. It is pleasant, too, to come home boldly, 

 without fear of meeting the man or odious hoy who asks: 

 1 Where's your game'.'" After u bootless tramp with a gun, 

 if you skulk home ever so slyly, you are sure to be accosted 

 by one or the other, if not till you get to your own back 

 door, 



One may so hunt in close time, when the grouse is sum- 

 moning his harem by beat of drum, the woodcock wooing 

 his male ;it twilight with towerings and unwonted notes, 

 and the wood drake has donned his bravest attire to win 

 bis bride, or, wheu wooing and honeymoon are over and 

 family cares have fallen upon them, and even on Sunday? 

 without fear of game warden or town grand juror. 



But I believe the greatest and best of all is, that without 

 B gun one has time — or takes it, which is the way to have it — 

 lo look at everything about him and so see ten tunes more 

 then he does wheu his chief purpose is the killing ef game. 

 Then a tree or rock or clump of underbrush or sprangle of 

 ferns or tuft of sedge is not looked at, but sought, to be 

 looked into and beyond; and if a sight is caught of some 

 strange growth, or a bird, new in itself or its ways, one 

 passes it by with a twinge of regret, and forsakes a. chance 

 that may never come to him again, all for the craving of the 

 game bag, as hungry as an empty stomach, and the savage 

 blood thirst that we dignify by calling it love of sport. 

 The game bag obliges, and one is ashamed to go home with 

 it empty, But without it and the gun that feeds if, we may 

 get more than it could hold, and that which needs neither 

 ice nor fire to preserve, not for the short space of a week, 

 but for all our days, 



When my fox that day had vanished, I could not tell how 

 lie looked nor anything of him but that he was a fox and 

 had given me the slip, for while he was in sight 1 was only 

 wishing for my gun, and cursing my carelessness, and suf- 

 fering in anticipation the jeers and reproaches of my com- 

 panions if I dared to tell them what had happened. His 

 beauty and grace, his adroit maneuvers and self -possesion, 

 his air of thinking tp himself, were as much lost as '.a. the 

 chance of a shot. If my gun had been at home and I had 

 taken in these, he might have carried off his skin and wel- 

 come. I would have something more lasting to treasure up. 

 As it was, the ruddy ghost of that fox troubled my sleep for 

 a week, and the lost opportunity vexed my awakening. 



And if I had not had the gun to frighten the ducks with 

 the snapping of its ineffectual caps, I might at least have 

 counted them before they flew away with their beauty, were 

 they thirty or fifty or one thousand. RE. R 



IS'imrod in the North.— In our next issue will be be- 

 gun the publication of a series of papers from the pen of 

 Lieut. Frederick Schwatka, U. S. Army, in command of 

 the late Franklin search expedition to the Arctic. It will 

 be remembered that the members of this expedition lived 

 upou the game of the country, and in his contributions 

 to the Forest an .Stream Lieut-. Schwatka will detail 

 his very interesting experiences as a sportsman. 



A Number of English Pheasants are soon to be im- 

 porter! mto this country, 



\ht ^yortHn\<m ^omi$t. 



RABBITS, RELICS AND RUINS. 



DURING the week just passed Aix and its inhabitants 

 have been treated with an atmospherical phenomena; 

 for three entire days no rain has fallen and bright, sunshiny 

 days Wfire the exceptions lo its general climatic rule. The 

 promenades and the Elisengarten have been throntred. and 

 the open-air tables of the caffe of Eranfcenberg, Lbnsberg, 

 and Burtscheiden Wald were well patronized, and perhaps 

 I heir pioprietors rescued from the imminent risk of bank- 

 ruptcy, due to the almost continuous bad weather which 

 has characterized the season. To the army of invalids, who 

 seek here relief from rheumatism, gout, and many kindred 

 ills, the bright sunshine was a boon indeed, iOid temporarily 

 compensated for, or drove from their notice, the bath-chairs 

 and crutches necessary for its eujoyment. 



The beneficial effects hoped for" from the morning bath 

 and douches of water, heated and sulphur-seasoned in 

 Nature's laboratory, were in no danger of counter-action 

 from too close contact with purer but colder water from 

 the heavens, and every face was smiliug. 



To me, though, these sunny days did not firing unalloyed 

 pleasure, for, on the first of them, plans which 1 had made 

 " ganged aglee," and throughout both the others I could but 

 fret that unexpected obstacles forced me to postpone a long 

 Ii iokcd-f orward-to excursion. 



Our ohi-r-lcrMiicr, Henry, had one day overheard a 

 conversation at table d'hote between my vis-a-vis, Mr, 

 .lames Du Bois, our Consul here, and myself, to the effect 

 that w e would enjoy far more the shooting of some of the 

 hares and partridges, of which fair .specimens wen- being- 

 served to us, than we did in dining on the same. ; and he 

 had taken a very pleasant part in the conversation by in- 

 fonninir us of the existence of an uuele, who, in the neigh- 

 borhood of Cologne, owned and rented nearly three thou- 

 sand acres of land, a large portion of which was well 

 stocked with game of all descriptions, and further, thai 

 undoubtedly this uncle would be very willing to permit us 

 to shoot ou the same. 



Naturally no time was lost in communicating with (his 

 uncle, and" by return of mail a most cordial invitation had 

 come, accompanied with an offer of the use of any outfit 

 we might lack, and the assurance that the services of him- 

 self, sons and dogs were at our disposal. 



We had no trouble as to outfit. Mr. Du Bois was already 

 equipped, and T was able to hire a very good piufire 

 Lefauchaux, and to buy cartridges to lit it: the first at three 

 marks (75 cts.) per day', the second, fresh loaded, at two 

 cents each. 



The afternoon of Sept, 26 was blight and fair, all ob- 

 stacles had been vanquished and everything looked fair for a 

 start on the morrow, so we telegraphed to expect us, In 

 less than thre* hours the east wind (which is the fair weather 

 one here) died out, suspicious looking clouds — mautons, a 

 young French lady styled them — began to appear in the 

 southwest; a gentle breeze sprung up from that quarter, and 

 we wont to bed with our doubting caps on to awake at mid- 

 night and hear the rain pattering on our windows. At 

 5 A. M. things looked still doubtful, but we determined to 

 start, and we had hardly gone five miles from Hie station 

 when our pluck was reworded by a clearing up, and for 

 the remainder of the day the weather was all wc could 

 wish. 



Our shooting ground was in the vicinity of Illisehein, a 

 little village about two miles from lv'buigsdorf, which 

 latter is a thriving manufacturing town about thirty miles 

 from Aix. 



The hour and a half occupied by the railroad ride was 

 passed most pleasantly. The road runs through one of the 

 most important manufacturing districts in Germany, and 

 before reaching Konigsdorf we bad passed through a 

 number of villages made up of manufactories and homes 

 of operatives. Of these the principal were the Stblherg, 

 Esehweiler and Dtiren, at the second of which places the 

 iron works alone employ over four thousand hands, and in 

 the thirty miles we passed acres of rolling and puddling 

 mills, foundries and factories devoted to all sorts of busi- 

 ness; there were brass factories and zinc mills, cloth, paper 

 and sugar mills, establishments for the production of pins, 

 needles, mirrors and chemicals, in short, it was a human 

 hive. 



Water power was not wanting, for several brisk streams, 

 via., the Imle, the Roer and the Erft were all at work, but I 

 fancy that, although in the language of the country these 

 streams are termed "rivers," they had all they could do to 

 supply water to the boilers of " the many establishments 

 worked by steam, whose lofty tapering chimneys seemed a 

 very forest. And raw material in plenty and of many 

 kinds is abundant. We saw coal and iron mines, and were 

 told of others producing lead, zinc and cadmium; and some 

 of these mines were worked perhaps before the. Christian 

 era, for very aneient Roman coins and other relics have 

 been found in them. 



All of the land between the villages is most thoroughly 

 cultivated, the principal crops seeming to be cabbages, 

 sugar beets and bricks, for wherever the soil would admit, 

 a brick kiln was located. The fields were dotted with 

 women and dogs, getting in the cropj. At intervale among 

 these evidences of the busy, prosperous life of (lie present 

 are scattered many interesting relics of the far-off past, fu 

 those "good old days," when the law was that "lie should 

 fake who has the power, and he should keep who can," the 

 lords of the manor "roosted high," for they were prudent 

 as brave, and the more inaccessible the location the better; 

 hence on prominent hills and peaks the landscape is made 

 picturesque by the presence of ivy-grown, mos-i.ovcivd 

 and tree-crowned ruins of the impregnable castles, through 

 Whose loopholes they fought, and of the cathedrals and 

 chapels, which they built from their spoils as atonement for 

 murder, lust and rapine. 



Some of these ruins have histories, but others depend 

 upon tradition and legend. Among the former is a chateau 

 near Stolberg, which was occupied as a hunting lodge by 

 Charlemagne the Great, whose name is associated with 

 many legends. This hero lived in the eighth century, and 

 died* it is claimed, at Aix-la-Chapelle, which has the'proud 

 honor of being one of the cities which gave him birth, and 

 in which he. spent a good portion of his life, making it his 

 capital and point d'appui for his numerous raids upon Goth, 

 Vandal and Roman. Here, ensconced in a tower and castle, 

 overlooking a lake, in which he used to gaze by the hour, 

 mourning over and thinking about the late Mrs. Charle- 

 magne, or rather one of the late Mrs. C.'s — for in the matri- 



monial line Saint Charlemagne and Saint Brigham Young 

 very much resemble, each other— the hero mooned away his 

 last few years of life - 



There is a very pretty legend by the way about this latest 

 spouse. Through a. series of circumstances, possible only 

 in a German legend or the "Arabian Nighis," Ibis dame 

 became the possessor of a ring which insured to its wearer 

 the undying devotion of Charlemagne, After her death his 

 affections remained constant. So unusual an event (for he 

 had had a regular chronic habit, of getting married, making 

 of the ceremony a means of gratifying every passion, from 

 love to ambition or revenge) attracted great attention, and the 

 secret of the ring, being dulybrought to light, it was removed 

 from the dead woman's linger and thrown into the lake, which 

 was a part of the moat, surrounding the Castle of Frankenberg. 

 But the watel did not quench the fire, and his devotion was 

 (Transferred to it. And there's a legend of about ten paces 

 boiled down, and any doubter can, as I have often, sit by 

 the borders of that lake— now a mere frog pond — and whifu- 

 enjoying a. mug of Pilsner lager, listen to the tale as re- 

 hearsed in English, more or less broken, by the waiters of 

 the Frankenberg beer gauieiis. 



Everywhere in this vicinity exist monuments of Charle- 

 magne. In Aix, the most interesting one is the Cathedral. 

 a portion of which consists of the original structure, built 

 by him eleven hundred years ago, and under the floor of 

 which his remains were found alter two hundred yeais of 

 rest, sitting upright in a throne built of plain, uncarved 

 marble slabs, arrayed in kingly garb, sceptre in hand, 

 Bible on his lap, and the iron crown of Lombardy on his 

 brow. And there they were permitted to rest, for another 

 century, until in 1165 the reigning Emperor, Frederick 

 Barbarossa, reopened the tomb, and transferred the remains 

 to a marble sarcophagus, evidently of Roman origin, and 

 the throne to the gallery of the Cathedral, where both 

 throne and sarcophagus are shown daily to tourists, who, 

 if so disposed, and many arc, can for a slight additional 

 fee to the showman obtain permission to scat "themselves in 

 the seat where for many generations the emperors of tkr 

 manyhave been crowned, I must confess that while gazing 

 at the Parian coffin, and reviewing, or trying to in my mind, 

 a few of the great events which marked the hero's career, 

 my attention was sadly distracted by the vigorous repre- 

 sentation of the "Rape of Proserpina,"' with which its front. 

 was adorned, in relief — a most curious ornamentation for 

 the tomb of a saint, for to this rank was Charlemagne pro- 

 moted the year before he was placed in it, and he lay there 

 nearly another hundred years, when they were placed, it is 

 claimed, in a golden reliquary by Frederick IX, and de- 

 posited among the treasures of this Cathedral. 



The reliquary is there. I'll vouch for that as may any one 

 who lakes advantage of this privilege advertised as follows: 



! Shown Daily, Sundays and Festivals Excepted. 

 i Tickets, 1 to 8 Persons. . . 9 Marks. 

 .; Bach Additional Person 1 Mark. ; 



Whether the bones are there is otiv com. ir, however, 

 one can bring oneself to believe that the Shrine of the Four 

 Great Relics, also in this show T at a mark a ticket, actually 

 contains, as is claimed — first, "the swaddling clothes of the 

 infant Christ," second, "I he robe of the Virgin Mary," third, 

 "the cloth in which the body of John the Baptist was 

 wrapped," bloody enough to please Toddy, and fourth, "the 

 linen cloth used in binding Christ to the cross, " why, a 

 bone or two, or even an entire skeleton of so comparatively 

 modern origin, can be easily accepted. 



II is rather difficult, in studying up the history of this 

 old city, to draw a line between legend and actual record. 

 On the one hand I presume, it will be quite safe not to put 

 entire faith iu the original story of the origin of the hot 

 sulphur .springs, which abound in' this valley, which is to the 

 effect that the devil having been outwitted by the priests 

 sot very angry, and labored so hard to get even with them 

 that the sweat poured in torrents from his body r , and hence 

 these springs. On the other hand, excavations" which have 

 from lime to time been made, have been rewarded by finds 

 of Roman relics, which confirm the history that once there 

 existed on this site a Roman city called i, Aquix ffrmmum" 

 and throughout the neighborhood such finds are not in- 

 frequent. On the summit of a hill near the, station at 

 Stolberg, surrounded by a rough wooden fence, I visited 

 the remains of what was once a Roman villa, Onlv l he 

 walls of the lower story are now standing, and they show 

 that the villa was about forty yards front by twenty-rive 

 depth, and cut up into the many little apartments, courts, 

 passages, etc., which mark the fashion at Pompei; tcsselated 

 pavements, earved columns, and statues which have been re- 

 moved from it indicate the wealth of the former occupant. 

 The discovery of this villa was made duringthe autumn of 1880 

 and it was the result of a systematic exploration under the 

 direction of Captain Behrens of the Russian Army, an officer 

 who lias devoted himself to archeological pursuits, his atten- 

 tion having been turned iu this direction by occasional 

 finds, of coins, implements, and finally of a statuette by 

 peasants. 



It takes a lively imagination to enable one to get a great, 

 deal of comfort out of these old ruins. The same day that I 

 visited this one, I also visited, at Stolberg, the immense 

 mirror and plate glass factory of the St. Gundin Company, 

 and did enjoy seeing in their "fiery furnace, through a blue 

 glass screen, quantities of great crucibles, each holding 

 about a barrel of molten glass, brought out, carried glowing 

 to the rolliug table of iron, then dumped and pouring out 

 an immense pudding-like pile, which was quickly re- 

 duced by the roll to a plate half an inch thick, and fifteen 

 feet by ten in size. Aid then we w T atched on other plates 

 the various processes of annealing, cutting, polishing, and 

 silvering, through which they were transformed into 

 mirrors. The making of the glass, in many respects, resembles, 

 that of the rolling of copper or iron plates with which I am 

 familiar, but it was none the less interesting, and discounted 

 the ruins. 



But, although there can be no doubt but that, if thoroughly 

 investigated and well written up, all of this business, data 

 and antiquarian research, would furnish material for a 

 mast interesting paper, or series of them ; the place for such 

 papers would not naturally be found in the columns of the 

 Forest and Stream, so I'll return, not to my mutton, but 

 to my hares and rabbits. 



We left the train at Konigsdorf, and after a brisk half 

 hour's tramp through fields by well worn foot paths, reached 

 the village of Htischeln, the most prominent object in which 

 was an immense two-storied white house, which proved to 

 be the homestead of Heir Metrmacher, and a tail handsome 

 old geutlemaawhomet and welcomed us warmly' at the 



