SEPTEMBER 23, 1881-] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



H5 



tall spike of red or white Dowers ; the feathery plumes of the 

 Spirea waved a greeting, the white blossoms Of the Canada 

 cornel looked up from their nests of leaves, and the delicate 

 pink caducous hells of the Lituua fell in showers from their 

 stems as we passed by. Then there were the hemes in in- 

 finite variety and griut profusion, The salmon berries, red 

 or yellow ; blackberries, green and red ; blueberries of sev- 

 eral kinds, the purple eallal, tho velvetberry, the scarlet, and 

 as yet uniipe, panicles of the elder, and the brilliant fruit of 

 the umbrella plant were all here, and seemed to invite our 

 inspection. 



We had with us three hounds, Captain, Dinah and "Wal- 

 lace, and better dogs it would be hard, I think, to find. 

 The two first named, so far as form and color went, exactly 

 filled my eye. They were types of the hound, their points 

 perfect throughout, black and tan in color, and with voices 

 hoth musical and powerful. Old Captain especially had a 

 tongue like that of a trumpet, and 1. have never heard 

 sweeter or more harmonious cry from any pack than from 

 these three splendid dogs. Wallace did not present to the 

 eye so complete a picture, as did the others. His points 

 were not nearly so good, but as a workman in the field he 

 could scarcely he excelled and in the estimation of his owner 

 he stands perhaps first favorite on tho list of his hounds. 

 Even to one who does, not know him he conveys the iuipres- 

 • sion of being a cunning old fellow and a worker. He has a 

 knowing look on his face, and has so much more flesh on his 

 bones than his kennel mates, that it is easy to see he under- 

 stands running and in general takes good care of himself. 

 This must not be interpreted as meaning that he saves him- 

 self at the expense of the other dogs, for that is not the case. 

 On the contrary, Wallace, though not so fleet as Dinah, often 

 leads the pack, and has in many cases caught a deer without 

 any assistance. He is a terrible fighter, and the deer that he 

 once puts his teeth into is lost. Mr. If, told me a very ex- 

 citing story of a combat between Wallace and a deer, which 

 took place on the face of a precipice on a narrow ledge 

 of rock sixty feet above the water. From this shelf the two 

 'combatants fell into the stream below and the hunter, coming 

 up in his canoe, put an end to the battle. 



Our party consisted of Mr. H., a Douglas River Indian 

 named Squawitch (the Sturgeon) and the writer. An hour's 

 brisk walk brought us to the lake, and here the dogs were 

 slipped, and sent off into the woods with Squawitch while 

 the two white men seated themselves on a log, and, lighting 

 their pipes, awaited the Indian's return. As we sat there 

 admiring the beauty of the sheet of water spread out before 

 us, my companion told me something about the lake. It ap- 

 pears that it is believed by the Indians of the surrounding 

 country to he inhabited by a Selallicum ; Selallieuni being 

 the Chinook word for anything supernatural. In this case 

 the belief is that some terrible monster, who is aided and 

 abetted by the evil spirit, lives at the bottom of the lake, and 

 that when any one is rash enough to venture upon it this 

 dreadful creature rises to the surface, overturns the canoe 

 and gobbles up the unfortunate occupants. This belief is so 

 firmly held by the Indians that they will by no means ven- 

 ture on the lake, nor will they approach its margin when 

 gathering berries. They hold up their hands in honor at the 

 daring which "Mowitch 'shows in venturing so frequently on 

 its placid waters, and prophesy for him some dreadful fate 

 as a reward for his audacity. Once, when he was overturned 

 near the middle of the lake and lost a valuable gun, the In- 

 dians fold him that the Selallicum was giving him a warning 

 now to escape and that he had bettor not neglect it. Squa- 

 witch is perhaps the only Indian in the region that ventures 

 to enter a canoe on the lake, and he only does so when in 

 company with my friend. Whether he regards " Cholley's" 

 medicine as stronger than that of the Selallicum, or t hink s 

 that if " Cholley" can afford to risk being devoured, he can 

 also, I do not know, but he wa3 certainly here with us 

 now, and had gone off to stare the dog3 in a most uncon- 

 cerned manner, although he has just told Mr. H. that an 

 Indian had seen the BelaUieum here on the lake within the 

 past two or three weeks. 



We had been seated there but a few moments, when we 

 heard the faint cry of a hound— the deep voice of Captain. 

 A little later the shriller cry of Dinah made itself heard, and 

 then both becoming fainter and fainter, passed out of our 

 hearing. A moment later Squawitch parted the buehes near 

 us and, walking down a log toward the water, drew from the 

 low brush a canoe and two paddles. Signing to us to step in- 

 ' to the canoe, he took his seat in the stern while Mr. H. took 

 the bow paddle, and I seated myself amidships. Then with a 

 Btroke or two of the paddles we shot out of the little cove 

 and on to the unruffled surface of Mirror Lake. To. 



New Weaiminrter, B. O. 



veritably bridges over the old and the new. How rich in 

 personal recollections of literary men must such a life be! 

 Mr. McLellan's pen has not yet lost its grace. The first 

 column on the first page of the initial number of the Forest 

 AMD Stream contained a. poetical salutatory from him, and 

 our columns have siuce that time been frequently enriched 

 by his verses. We have now in type a poem in which he 

 tenderly alludes to his college days and his companionship 

 with Longfellow at Brunswick. 



Powder Mills ought to be, and usually are built, on sites 

 remote from oilier buildings, so that in the event of an ex- 

 plosion the property of others need not be damaged, nor lives 

 needlessly destroyed. This is certainly a wise rule and one 

 which most; powder manufacturers observe. It appears, 

 however, that Mr. Carl Dittmar fails to recognize the necessi- 

 ty of "seeking some sequestered spot " for a blasting powder 

 factory. After our discussion of this gentleman's so-called 

 sporting powder, just one year ago to-day, he engaged in the 

 manufacture of blasting powder at Binghaniton, where Ids 

 mill was blown up last April, as noticed in our columns at the 

 time. If we may believe the newspaper reports, several 

 deaths were immediately or indirectly the. result of that ex- 

 plosion, and properly in the neighborhood was damaged to 

 the extent of #20,000. Mr. Dittmar was perfectly willing to 

 build again, and doubtless would have been equally willing 

 to start anitro-glycerinemill " in the heart of London town;" 

 but the Blnghamton residents righteously protested, the 

 Grand Jury of Broome county have indicted the powder 

 company, and it is sought to suppress the mill as a nuisance. 

 Elsewhere will be found a letter on tho subject from a Bing- 

 haniton correspondent. 



The Kitty Hawk Bay Club. — The proposed organization 

 of this club, which was referred to some three months ago 

 in the columns of Forest and Stream, has proceeded so far 

 that there now seems every prospect that this will be one of 

 the leading organizations of the kind in this country. 



The charter memberships were sold at $500 each, aud the 

 applications received by the committee were ten or twelve 

 times in excess of the number of shares to be issued. The' 

 last two shares sold brought S2,000 each. It is understood 

 that their par value is to be fixed at $2,500. 



A committee of gentlemen belonging to the club are now 

 in the South examining the property, and their report will 

 be awaited with interest. It is thought that the club will not 

 put up a house before next summer, as there are at present 

 ample accommodations for the members convenient to the 

 best shooting grounds. 



Yo's Letters,— We print this week another letter from 

 our correspondent Yo, who writes from British Columbia. 

 He has for a loDg time been beyond the reach of the mail 

 service, seeing strange sights and strange people. The letter 

 now printed was sent in by an Indian, and traveled many 

 miles in 'a northern canoe before reaching the post office 

 whose stamp it bears. 



Tab Clay Pigeon.— Mr. Harry'M. Hills, of Cincinnati, 

 Ohio, a prominent shot of the Wyoming Gun Club, is about 

 to take the field in the interests of the Ligowsky Clay Pigeon 

 Co. If any Club, which has not yet seen the invention will 

 send a notice to the Company, 33 Vine street, Cincinnati, O., 

 Mr. Hills will endeavor to arrange a match with the clay 

 pigeon for that club in the course of his travels. 



The Worst of it All.— To smash one's leg is bad enough, 

 but for a sportsman to be retired with a broken limb just at 

 the height of the game season is an added woe. So Ihinks 

 and writes an Ontario friend, whose plans for fall sport have 

 been frustrated by an untimely accident. 



Veknoi: knows, or professes to know, a great deal about 

 the weather ; but he confesses himself unable to cope with 

 the Washington musquito. He says that in the Canadian 

 wilderness ho can manage the pest with smudge fires, but in 

 a Washington hotel recourse to such an expedient is out of 

 the question. 



Isaac MoLelt.an's Poems.— We understand that those 

 poems of Mr. Isaac McLellan, which relate to field sports, 

 are to be collected and published iu book form. Such a 

 volume would be welcomed by the. sporting fraternity. Mr. 

 McLellan is one of our oldest American poets, he aud Long- 

 fellow having begun to write and publish at the same time in 

 Bryant's United Statin Literary Gazette, at that time printed 

 in Boston, and subsequently in New York. Longfellow was 

 at the time in his junior year at college, and McLellan in his 

 sophomore year, both at Bbwdoin College, Brunswick, Me, 

 That was more than fifty years ago, a period longer than has 

 heen covered by the life of nine men out of ten who read 

 these lines; a span of years, which in these progressive times, 



{Fur Forest and Stream.) 

 j BEFOUE AND AFTER. 



-you tmist wak-A ana call me early ; call me early, Jane, ray dearl 

 J To-morrow '11 be the Happiest day or all the sporting year, 

 or all the spotting rear, my Jane, the maddest, merriest day. 

 For we're going to shoot the canvas-backs, the canvas-backs, I say ! 

 There are several small sneak boats, Jane, but none so small as mine; 

 So small it 1s and narrow I— do you think the day '11 be line'.'— 

 A ad such a lor VU shoot, Jane, I'm sure to have such luck, 

 And tor weeks we'll dine on nothing, Jane, but dally canvas duck ! 



I sleep so sound all night, Jane, that I shall never wake, 

 if you do not call me early, when the day begins to hreak: 

 Jfor I must ilx my tackle and must set out my decoys : 

 To-morrow crowns the total of all myeartnty joys. 



When you're ilslug. let me sleep, Jane, don't you wake me— do you 



hear: 

 "Where's my hag o( ducks for dinner?" You're a precious fool, I tear! 

 a (1 had the "ducks" that I did I Clothing dry is what I lack : 

 Evil water imp »and demons I Done you name a canvas-hack ! 



Can't you leave a man In quiet? How much sport 7 you want to 

 l:no\v ! 



work you call ,»nort, your perception's nretty slow I 

 yon want to save a rumpus don't you ask me any more, 

 (And upon his side he uiraeth, with a simulated snore.)— A, L, Fu, A, 



FROM VERA CRUZ TO MANZANILLA. 



THE distance from the City of Vera Cruz, on the Gulf of 

 Mexico, to the nearest opposite point on the shores of 

 the Pacific Ocean is but little more than 600 miles. While 

 there are already two lines of railroad between the Atlantic 

 and Pacific shores within tho territory of the United States, 

 although the distance is more thau five times as great, the 

 disturbed condition of our sister republic has thus far pre- 

 vented the construction of one of its much-needed lines of 

 internal communication. It is very easy to see by a glauce 

 at the map what advantages muBt accrue from the comple- 

 tion of such a work. 



By the extension of)a line of railroad to the Pacific sea-port 

 of Manzanilla, and thence northward, a final junction with the 

 Southern Pacific Railroad might easily be effected : while, 

 on the other hand, even before its completion, the harbor of 

 Manzanilla affords a convenient half-way freight depot for 

 the steamers from Panama for San Francisco, whence mer- 

 chandise of all descriptions could be shipped with less C03t 

 to New York than by the primitive transportation on mule's 

 back from the interior of Mexico to the shore of the Gulf of 

 Mexico. 



It appears that at last the Mexican Government has been 

 awakened to the importance of opening a new channel for 

 its valuable products, and lhat as a commencement in ear- 

 nest a survey from the City of Mexico to Manzanilla has 

 been ordered, with a view of extending the line of railroad 

 which now already connects Vera Cruz with the capital. 

 This difficult pioneer work of a survey through a compara- 

 tively unknown and unsafe portion of the Mexican territory 

 has been intrusted to a small party of American engineers, 

 under direction of W. C. Wetherill, Esq., with headquarters 

 in the City of Mexico. It does not require a great stretch of 

 imagination to comprehend the opposing difficulties of this 

 stupendous task. Not only is it necessary to make an ac- 

 curate topographical survey of the elevations and river 

 courses iu a country, which is up to the present time lament- 

 ably backward in all knowledge concerning its own terri- 

 tories, but these explorations have to be carried on under 

 great disadvantages, including considerations of personal 

 safety, as the population is still bitterly hostile to all 

 strangers from this side of the line and averse in general to 

 all innovations. Besides this it is impossible to obtain in- 

 telligent assistance, and the work has thus to be undertaken 

 by the labor and energetic perseverance of a handful of de- 

 voted men. 



Mr. Louis von Niendorff, formerly residing at Hornells- 

 ville, N. Y., has been appointed as one of the assistants of 

 this survey, and, as Mr. Niendorff is an indefatigable laborer 

 as well in the field of natural history and an expert and prac- 

 tical anatomist and taxidermist, he will be able by means of 

 his well-trained powers of observation to add much valuable 

 knowledge of a part of our continent concerning which, by 

 reason of perpetual civil wars, there is really less substaniial 

 information in existence than about the interior of Africa. 

 As Mr. Niendorff has promised to condense an account of his 

 experiences in the form of a few rough notes, detailing what 

 he sees and the experiences he goes through, they may be 

 of some value to the readers of Forest and Stream by rea- 

 Bon of their being a plain and unvarnished account of the 

 country and the condition of its inhabitants. His notes 

 date as far back as the departure of the steamer British Em- 

 pire for Vera Cruz, and commend themselves by their in- 

 teresting treatment. He writes : 



Maeavatio, Michoaoan, \ 

 Mexican Republic, July 25, 1881. j" 

 I will try to introduce my notes by a brief account. We 

 arrived at the City of Mexico on the 12th of July. The mail 

 cart from Maravatio does not leave until Friday, and I will 

 be able to send along by it. as well, a fewof the insects I have 

 collected here. We left New York in the steamer British 

 Empire, of Alexander's Havana and Mexican S. S. Line. 

 She is a large four-masted craft of great Bpeed, and furnished 

 with all possible appliances to insure safety and comfort to 

 her passengers. The table is most excellent, and the large 

 state rooms enhance the pleasant surroundings. 



On Monday, July 4, we were abreast of the southern point 

 of Florida, with a pleasant and strong breeze, which in- 

 creased materially our comfort under the ship's awnings 

 which were spread over her quarter deck. Being the fourth 

 of July, we celebrated the same by firing a salute with the 

 ship's cannon and hoisting our glorious stars and stripes to 

 the gaff. It was a pleasing spectacle to see all of our passen- 

 gers, irrespective of their nationality, joining in these festivi- 

 ties in honor of Uncle Sam, and attest to their appreciation 

 of this great individual by roaring volleys from their breech- 

 loading carbines, revolvers, etc., in place of the usual terra 

 firma Chinese substitutes. A grand supper in the evening 

 closed fittingly the festivities on shipboard. 



On Tuesday, at 5 a. m., we sighted Havaua, steamed past 

 the famous fortress of Moro Castle, and went without delay 

 ashore, but only to return early, rather disgusted with our 

 visit on a hot summer day to the capital of the Queen of the 

 Antilles. The streets of this city are too narrow and dusty; 

 the sea-breeze failed to make its appearance and an intoler- 

 able heat was produced, which only the traveler to the 

 tropics in summer can fully realize. After discharging some 

 of our cargo we proceeded from Havana to Progresso, on the 

 coast of Yucatan, favored during day by the most beautiful 

 weather, tempered by the strong northeast trade winds, while 

 the firmament at night became more brilliant by the resplen- 

 dent constellation of the Southern Cross, along with the in- 

 teresting sight of the erratic comet. 



We anchored, on account of the yellow fever, about three 

 miles from shore, off Progresso, and discharged our cargo in 

 lighters. While there the steamer was literally surrounded 

 by countless sharks, which, however, knew too much nnd 

 would not condescend to favor our carefully baited hooka 

 with a call. 



July 10 we arrived, after a short and fine run, at Vera 

 Cruz, and bade good-bye to our comfortable quarters on 

 board of the British Empire, with three rousing cheers for her 

 captain and crew. On landing at that port we had to pass 

 through the usual routine of custom-house inspection of lug- 

 gage, which, by reason of the perfectly useless aud unneces- 

 sary close scrutiny of purely personal effects, was doubly an- 

 noying, particularly when the fact is taken into considera- 

 tion that our party was in some measure officially recognized 

 as acting under orders and in the assistance of the very gov- 

 ernment to which Vera Cruz belongs. Every possible re- 

 striction in conformity with established prohibitory rules was 

 duly enforced, including the small, allowance of only 33JJ 



