Ajjgust 85", 1881. 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



65 



teir aod van-guard were invisible to each other, and 

 could only communicate by means of shouts. Inch by inch 

 wo crept along, the onlj variation in the rjrear monotony 

 being when the Rhymer and T would relieve the weary 

 " pal b-findi re 1 ' in front, i 



At. Inst, when it began toseem to out dazed minds and tired 

 legs as though we had been a year a| this dismal work, ilie 

 ascent became less sleep, then, Tor a few rods, almost level. 

 and then— Laus Deo:- -began to slope downward. Soon Ig- 

 tiol.us toJd us, what we had failed to notice, bill, which hud 



not escap d Ins keen w Isrnan's instincts, that the wind had 



changed, and thai he thought the atorm would sjon he over. 

 As if to confirm our failh in hi- infallibilily. in less than an 

 hour a manifest, slackening was visible, and by the time we 

 had reached "timber-line," the last flake had fallen. Thor- 

 oughly exhausted, we hailed for the night. The Storm had 

 evidently ben localized, and we had nearly reached the edge 

 of it, for though it bad lasted nearly twelve hour?, the snow 

 was not so deep here, as when: We started, 



Next mornii 6 upon a much less forlorn and 



dispirited company than had stumbled ryvei the range the 

 day bef- re. Every mile of travel now dropped us b thou- 

 sand feet lower and neater to regions where the grass was 

 green, and the birds v.'ic fciugiog. The worst was past. 

 Discomfort there might be before us, hit l danger was pasti 

 The snow grew thinner and thinner, until by'tho time we 

 struck the Rio Dolores, it. lay, only a white whiff upon the 

 ground. "Rio Dolores"- old CoronadO named it, and it 

 proved a ''river I f grii f " !■■ us a-; well as to him. Hemmed 

 in by steep canyon walls, it i.- no! content to llow straight 

 down, leaving room for a trail on either side, hut frets im- 

 patiently from one, cliff 10 the other, like a caged leopard 

 dashing itself ... ■:> bars. After descending this 



Blream. One is lonipfed to believe the reason assigned for 

 toe absence of fish in the upper part— thai in attempting to 

 ascend, the numerous twi- s and turns so confuse them, that 

 they soon lose their reason, and die raving maniacs. The 

 trail was as straight as the river was crooked, and. as a 

 consequence, the two crossed each ol her every few hundred 

 yards. The water was iee-coltf. and a--, on an average, it 

 was up to our ho'ses' withers, we were dripping continually. 

 Brimstone— as he was called, either from his color, or his 

 temper, or, perhaps, both -bud. on account of his superior 

 height, been chosen to cany the most of our bedding, so that 

 in fording, there should be less danger of its becoming wet. 

 He had been uncommonly nock and docile all day, and a 

 grim foreboding was gradually creeping over me, that he 

 was meditating some diabolical deed, which should eclipse 

 all his former deviltry. 1 was not prepared, however, for 

 the depth of depravity he Anally displayed. Kit her from 

 "pure cussednesa," or from a calculating diabolism that 

 possessi'd him, at about the twenty-fourth crossing, he 

 quietly lay down iu tin? mi Idle of the torrent, till only his 

 ugly yellow neck and head projec ed above the rushing 

 water. A stream of vigorous Arjgli -Sax- n ; rom Ignotus.anda 

 lusty "black-snake," plied vehemently by myself, failed to 

 move him. While the icy water saturated our blankets, 

 there lie. sat, but, not like the fabled steed, "pawing to get 

 free his hinder parts," The wit of the Rhymer cut the Gor- 

 dian knot. Slipping the loop of his lariat over the pendulous 

 lower lip of the sullen beast, attaching the other end to the 

 pommel of his saddle, and starting up his own horse, the 

 pressure thus brought to bear was too great to be resisted, 

 and Brimstone, making a virtue of necessity, floundered to 

 his feet, and waded ashore, il behooved us to go into camp 

 as soon as possible, that we might dry our blankets before 

 night. Pitch-pine mas plenty, and the usual mighty fire was 

 soon roaring aud crackling, while the blankets, stretchetl on 

 lariats strung from tree to tree, formed a drawdug-room, 

 whose walls "steamed lo heaven, and which also screened us 

 from the wiud which drew down the Canyon, and bore with 

 it the chill of the snow-drifts we had left'behind. 



As we lay around after supper, in that happy half-hour 

 devoted to pipes and laziness, the Rhymer was observed to 

 take a paper from his bieast pocket, and make, here and 

 there, a careful correction. 



"Qu 1 esta?" queried John. 



" Only some verses 1 wrote the other day, while lying on 

 top of El Conquistador." 



" Then I suppose the verses lie, too," breathed John 

 softly, under his breath. 



Taking no notice of this ungenerous skit, the Rhymer, at 

 our solicitation, read as what he called 



"iimsireteUert on '■■ -.tine's I ,y, j i; e 



Aral fee) Her grn ai U< ai I beat ; 

 Or catch the si-.ir lty-'nt or her eye, 

 The rlryihm of her feet 



Each rustle o£ the wind-swept pine, 



Each murmur of the rtr, 

 Sing ; in i"V ear a song wo fine 



■( o need interpreter. 

 For me, the splintered torrents leap 



Adown tla-ir porpiivi v wallr. : 

 Audlrow the Uitmder-stu tl rca 3te 



M a ino i ill ei ais. 



For n 



T)-.. 

 For ii 



ThS"go 



luwi 

 The sir 



Their 



And sot 



1 



i 



And, I 

 I er.i, 1. 



t. gontalon 



t. "-in- tttfi sua, 



era slay 

 Might Sifts 



B hills 



- ■ 119 



Tire cryptogram of Nature's tora 

 Its secret*; yields to me. 



All doois Hi open wide before 

 My "Open sesame." 



H. P. tt. 



_-,».—. 



Specimen copies of ifte Fohest and Stream ami free "P""' 

 iSon. 



THE QUAINT WAYS OJ? DARE COTNTY. 



I AM now stopping at the Nag's Head Hotel, on the beach 

 opposite Roanoke Island, and near where Walter Raleigh 

 founded Ms first colony over three hundred years ago. The 

 hole! is a plain but comfortable building, and has some 1ml i- 

 mileof piazza. It is frequented by Hie people from. up the 

 country. The prices are reasonable and the fare is good ; 

 beds clean, and air pure and bracing, and no mosquito 

 bars needed. As I sit writing in front of my room on the 

 third story I can overlook the ocean and sound for many 

 miles. What little bind is in view is sandy, but produces 

 wonderful crops of vegetables, grapes aud fruits of all kinds, 

 and the waters are full of fish and oysters, crabs, clams, ter- 

 rapin ; and millions of ducks, geese, brant, swan and other 

 wild fowl frequent the waters iu the cold weather. I am 

 getting Spanish mackerel every meal, and the landlord tells 

 me they only cost two cents each. They are vi ry large, 

 some of them weighing about eight pounds. AIL kinds of 

 beach birds are plenty, and bluetish, drum and sheepshead 

 fishing is first class. 



The country is thinly populated, having about 3,000 peo- 

 ple. They are mostly seafaring men, and some of them are 

 old sailors who have been all over the, world. They live iu 

 low-pitched houses built of juniper and cypress, which last 

 for generations, and [ have spent man)- a pleasant hour visit- 

 ing then} in their homes aud listening to their yams of life 

 on the deep, dark sea. Some of them live to an advanced 

 age and retain their activi'y and strength iu a wonderful 

 manner. They usualy have huge families, Their wealth 

 is in boats, beach cattle, ponies aud sheep, and many have 

 considerable sums of hard money salted down. One old sea- 

 dog, about 80 years old, told me he had been investing his 

 savings in feather beds for sev-ral years, and had several 

 dozen hired out aud loaned. He said: "Banks busted. 

 Bonds get buint or stolen. Hid money gets sanded over. 

 A man pays his notes with a bankrupt's notice, but feather 

 beds were safe and, as the Yankees killed all the game, they 

 would be scarce aud high, and so he invested in beds." 



Large herds of ponies, cattle aud sheep range up and down 

 the beach and, as they do not cost anything to raise, they 

 are quite profitable. 



The ponies are small, but tough and wiry, and very intel- 

 ligent. One owned by Captain John Ethetcdge, who lived 

 on the Banks, near' Oregon Inlet, used to follow him like a 

 dog, and would get into his sailboat and move from side to 

 side of the boat, crossing over the centre-board at the com- 

 mand, "To starboard, Billy !" and would lean on the rail at 

 Iho order, " Lean to the windward, Billy !" Some of them 

 are used to stalk wild fowl in the beach ponds between sound 

 and sea, and yoked cattle are used for the same purpose, the 

 hunter keeping them between the fowl and him. 



The cattle feed in the summer time on the grass that grows 

 in the sound, wading out into the water miles from shore, 

 where the water is so dee p that only their horns and noses 

 can be seen. In the winter, when the swan and geese are in 

 i he waters, they have battles for possession of the shoals 

 with the cattle, who venture out when the weather is warm, 

 but the sharp bills of the wild fowl usually drive (he cattle 

 to shore. Most of the people have wild decoy geese and 

 breed them. There are also a few decoy swan. 



Every man who is "any account" has a canoe or sailing 

 craft of some kind, and they take great pride in them, 

 aad the "boat must be painted whether the old woman has a 

 bosom pin or not." I have yet to meet a "captain" who 

 will not claim superior excellence for his craft o ) some point 

 of sailing. If you ask one of them who has the fast; boat of 

 the county, he will probably say: "I don't like to brag on 

 my own boat, but give me a stiff breeze and plenty of sand- 

 bags to pile to windward and I will go against any of them." 

 Some sail best, before the wind, some with a light wind ; 

 others sail best in a gale, or they can beat to windwarel best, 

 or sail closer lo the wind, or carry more cattle or ponies, or 

 theirs is the driest boat, or the tightest boat. Each and all 

 of them have-some claim of superiority over the others for 

 their boats. 



I hired an old rheumatic fellow, with his crazy, old, 

 patched-up boat aud tatteied sails, to take me over" to the 

 Croatian Lighthouse a few days ago. I asked him what his 

 boat could do in the s tiling way. He said: " Well, 1 don't 

 brag so much on fastness, (hough 'taint every one who can beat 

 her before the wind winged out, but she is the best, one-man 

 boat in Dore. She cau near about sail herself. " I gave him my 

 llask on the w T ay, as it was wet ; the old chap emptied it and 

 got a little funny. After 1 left him he tried some fancy 

 jibing and went overboard, and his boat sure enough went 

 off sailing away on her own hook. We fished the old man 

 out of the water and caught his canoe. 



I like to sit on the piazza of Captain Sam Bowser— a vet- 

 eran sailor of eighty-live years, bronzed of face, hairy, broad- 

 shouldered, tloep-chested, vigorous, strong and active — and, 

 looking out on the ocean in front of his house, listen to his 

 yarns, while the deep boom of the sea beats time to the low 

 growl of the old tar as he tells of his experience on distant 

 seas and in foreign lands. Like Hrainard's sea captain, "He 

 has hunted the leviathan of the deep in Arctic sea?, harpoon 

 in hand ; and he has seen the great sea serpent dash 

 across his bows in the gray dawn of the morning. He has 

 moored his bark to the towering iceberg, aud floated against 

 the Gull Stream ; and has been hailed by the Flying Dutch- 

 man off Cape Horn. He has scraped his keel over coral 

 reefs in Madagascar seas, unci seen the whale and swordfish 

 fight beneath his bows. He has sailed in the dark night 

 along the wave- washed coast of Labrador, and through pit- 

 less fields of ice in acres. He lay becalmed for weeks on the 

 African gold coast, aud saw his shipmates die one by one 

 with the deadly fever. He has fought, cutlass in baud, 

 against Malacca pirates on the bloody deck : and floated for 

 days on a broken spar oil Cape Hatteras. He has been 

 where the wild will of Mississippi has dashed him on the 

 sawyer, and has struggled with the chafing anchorage of the 

 Gulf ; and he has met such dangers with a sailor's skill and 

 braved them with a sailor's courage." 



This is the dull season, and the crews of the life-saving 

 stations and the fishermen have a furlough, which most of 

 them spend in Elizabeth City or " Town," as they call it, to 

 spenel their savings. 



They usually return after a day or two's absence with a 

 new suit and some jewelry of a cheracter that iuelieates that 

 the Jews have taken " Town." Dyed mustaches, oiled hair, 

 tin-types and tiled shirt are now in vogue, and the man who 

 sucked away contentedly all winter on an old fig-stemmed 

 powhattan will smoke nothing but " ceegars." 



But they are all brave, manly fellows, aud have patrolled 

 the |beach night after night iu all kinds of weather and 

 saved many a life that w r ould have otherwise been lost; so 

 let them have their fling. Dhm vioinwa vkwm. 



Next winter Uncle Sam will have a rival and lose many 

 of bis best men who leave been employed in the stations, for 

 a club of Ncw T York gentlemen have bought up all the best 

 shooting grounds in the county, anel the young men are look- 

 ing forward to a more congenial life, iu attending on the 

 sportsmen as boatmen and gunners. And, as it is said to be 

 a strong club with shooting for a large number of men.no 

 doubt they will give employment to a large number of them. 

 I fear I shall have to move further down for a quiet, place, 

 and shall prospect in Carfright county during the summer. 



There is some talk of a narrow gauge railroad on the beach 

 from Norfolk to Oregon Inlet. The road would be built 

 near the ocean, so as to avoid the Baud hills, anel steamers 

 would connect from New Berne, Wilmington aDd other 

 points south of Oregon Inlet. 



The brant, between a canvas back and a goose iu size and 

 preferred by some to the canvas back, are Very little known 

 in the Northern markets. But no doubt large numbers of 

 them will find their way to market next winter and, if the 

 beach railroad is built, there ia hardly a limit to the quantity 

 that could be shipped. The waters from Oregon Inlet to 

 New Inlet, and below as far west as Roper's Tract on Pamli- 

 co Sound, a distance of fifteen miles, are often black with 

 them. Black brant are the most abundant ; white brant, in 

 immense rafts freepient the waters further south. There are 

 a great many swan and geese, also, iu their season, on tho 

 shoals near Oregon Inlet and above. 



Eresh fish would also be shipped in immense cruantities by 

 the railroad aud reach market in good condition. Oysters, 

 clams, soft crabs, fruits, truck, stock, poultry, etc., that now 

 goes through the canals, taking two (lays for the trip, would 

 reach Norfolk in a very short time. Telegraph operators on 

 Bodie's Island Light and White's Head Light could see 

 schools of biUefish. and menhaden thirty miles out at sea and 

 send the word along the beach to the fishermen. They could 

 a'so send word in case of ships in trouble out at sea, and the 

 crews of the 1 fe-saving statious could be concentrated at 

 any one point on short notice, thus enabling them to save 

 many valuable lives and much property. The life-saving 

 stations could be reduced in number, and the life-cars, bombs, 

 and all the apparatus might be loaded on a car and stand 

 ready under shelter, with switch to connect with the railroad. 

 The patrollers could be dispensed with and the present heavy 

 expanse of keeping up the life-saving stations, standing as they 

 do five miles apart along the beach, would be reduced toa trifle. 

 Sportsmen would patronize tho road, and in the summer ex- 

 cursionists would frequent the many pleasant places along 

 the coast, such as Back Bay. Kitty Hawk Bay and Roauoke 

 Island. Imagine a ride in a parlor car along the wave- 

 washed coast, with the green billows rolling almost to the 

 car- wheels ! No dust, no heat. Think of. a lunch on sea 

 bass, Spanish mackerel, soft crabs or wild fowl at Oregon 

 Inlet; a dip iu the ocean, and return to Norfolk in time for 

 dinner I Soft crabs are five cents per dozen in Kitty Hawk 

 Bay and $1 per dozen in Norfolk, and Spanish mackerel 

 thirty inches long ten cents each at Oregon Inlet and $3 in 

 New York ; black brant, fifteen cents each at Duck Island 

 and $3 per pair in Baltimore ; spring chickens ten cents 

 each, and sweet yam potatoes ten cents per bushel on Roan- 

 oke Island. What a margin for profit 1 Think of leaving 

 the Navy Yard after breakfast, riding down to Gallop's 

 Woods, killing a deer, and return in time to broil a steak 

 for dinner. 



There are no obstacles to be encountered. Right of way, 

 a trifle, and a dead level from Norfolk to the Inlet. The In- 

 let has twelve feet of water from the ocean to the inner 

 bar, where there is five and a half feet of water. A. dredge 

 would soon cut out a channel to the deep watere of Pam- 

 lico Sound through the narrow bank. Juniper for ties is 

 plenty at different points, for it is not all a barren sand 

 beach. By no means. Heavy foresis grow at different 

 points ; for instance, the Gallop Woods are ten miles long 

 and from two to four miles wide, and the timber is very 

 large and good heart pine. Collington Island, on Kitty Hawk 

 Bay, is covered with a heavy growth of first-class timber. 

 In Princess Anne there are many fine tracts of pine anel 

 cypress convenient to the projected line of this railroad. 

 Government aid will probably be asked for, as the amount 

 saved in life-saving stations aud the expense of supplying 

 them and of paying superintendents, inspectors, paymas- 

 ters, etc., would save Government 8150,000 a}'car from Cape 

 Henry to Oregon Inlet. It would not be practicable to con- 

 tinue the road any lower down than that inlet, on account 

 of the strong tides. Wire fences would have to be made on 

 the north side of the road to keep the bank stock from the 

 track. But the wires could be fastened to the telegraph and 

 telephone posts and fence posts between. 



1 believe that within a short time sportsmen will be able 

 to leave New York city alter breakfast and travel by rail and 

 boat, via Crisfield, Md., and Norfolk, Va., and reach the 

 shooting and fishiug grounds in Dare in ten hours. Jlar- 

 shall Parks and other capitalists have already bought large 

 tracts of land on the beach in anticipation of an investment. 

 In the meantime it is to be hoppd clubs and good laws will 

 protect the game and fish from extermination. 



John Bbonson. 



RANDOM NOTES IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



MY way led me through the western portion of the Adi- 

 rondack?, and then easterly to Blue Mountain Lake. 

 Of course, you will say, the number of men with whom you 

 would come in. cemtacu would uot be very large. Well, let 

 us see. First of all we meet the. guides— men, every inch of 

 them, and many of them are nature's noblemen, honest, 

 faithful, reliable and capable. What more would you ask? 



The guide with whom 1 have traveled the woods for several 

 years past 1 would place alongside of any piece of humanity 

 that I ever knew, for all the sterling qualities that make a 

 man. As a guide, ho knows Ids business thoroughly; the 

 whole trackless wilderness is familiar to him; you could uot 

 lose him there. On the water he is fearless and at the same 

 time careful. I have many a time been with him when a 

 single wrong stroke of the oar would have swamped his 

 frail boat anel drowned ils occupants, but never yet have 1 

 seen an uneasy glance or a sign of doubt or hesitation. His 

 nerves were equal to any emergency, true as steel. The 

 haunts of fish and game he knows like his A B C. If a fine 

 mess of trout is wanted for some special occasion, just tell him 

 the night before, and on the morow he will take you where 

 the fish will be wading for you: and if you want to see a 

 deer he fern do eepially well with you. The- other day, when 

 about forty miles from camp, he pointed out a spring-hole. 

 " There," said he, " is a a place where, a lew years ago, yoa 

 could pick out a big lot of trout, now you can't "find fane." 



In my wanderings I have met many whole-souled, genial 

 sportsmen— as a general thing they are such— some excep- 



