326 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Noysmbbb 24 1881 



BDo"ze," when lie was awakened by something (Tawllng up 

 his lee, and, looking down, " thar wa«tbat jint snakeertiwling 

 into his pocket arter its missing jiut." Another iiihii tola 

 me ahOUt a whip-snake which had three tails. Tnese it 

 would braid together and attack its enemy, usina itB braided 

 tail as a weapon, and could whip all other snakes but the 

 king snake. 



I met one old fellow called "Moccasin Joe." He had 

 gained Ids name from his. immunity from snake bites, and 

 was supposed 10 p -saesa some secret wbi> h protected him. 

 1 got into bis confide ce, and he told me something of his 

 snake experience. He said old widow Coltrain had a cypress 

 swamp on " Devil's Hut," wh'Ch wasfull of first -class c> press, 

 which would split like an acorn ; hut it was also full of 

 Bnakea, «nd when the water got down, so it could be wot keri, 

 the "snakes wire, so thick that no one would goin thar." 

 Moccasin Joe " projected " ever the matter some time, and 

 one day went to the widow and made a bargain with her. 

 He wan to have the exclusive rigid, to shingle in the swamp, 

 and was to give the widow one-fourth of all the shingles he 

 made, and to deliver them on the bank. On the next Mon- 

 day he went to the swamp, carrying with him two pet king- 

 snakes and an old sow. These pro'ecled his shingle camp 

 until he had had a flat load made. The moccasins were 

 slaughtered by thousands, and the sow became, so fat that 

 she gre v lazy. When nc got ready to take out his shingles 

 to the fl it at the landing, he covered his legs and arms with 

 long gray moss, and ids hands with sheep-skin gloves with 

 the wooiy side out, like the breeches of Bryan O'Lynn. 

 This protected him from I he snakes as they struck him, and 

 he got I lilt his shingles and made a nood thing of it. 



In the winter and spring the rains in the mountains in the 

 ■western part of the Slate melt the snow and ice, and cause 

 the Roanoke River to oveiflow its banks; and sometimes the 

 freshets use at the ra'e of one fool an hour aud cover the 

 Bwauips on each side for miles. The mill men 

 take advantage of high water to float out timber for 

 sawing into lumber, and fr queutly float out logs that 

 make 3,000 feet - f lumoer to the stock Cypress is the very 

 best of building lumber, as it never rots. Most of the house* 

 in this country are covered with this lumber and it tasis for 

 generation* without pa nt. Some of the tre 8 grow to be 

 twelve feet through, and keep iheT size for seventy-five 

 feet with' lUt a limb. St ck do well in tn< se swamps. Cattle 

 feed on reeds and tender branches, and hogs on oak acorns, 

 swamp Wilnuts and hick try mis. When the freshet rises 

 the slock go to the islands in the swamps and remain there 

 until the water goes down j and oft n gr. at numbers of deer 

 are killed on the islands. It is said that the old sow will 

 take to a floating tree with her pigs, when he can't reach 

 high land and keep them there for many days floating about 

 in i he water. Sometimes these freshets occur in the summer 

 time and the suaki s are driven out ol the ground into the 

 trees, and c m be counted by thousands hanging in festoons 

 among the gray moss on the cypress. 



The men who work in these swamps are very healthy, 

 strange to say. They sle p on Bbavitigs, wiih their feet to 

 the camp ti e, antl drink the darn water that stands at the 

 foot ol tee trees. The people in the I, ,wns are oft-n cultivat- 

 ed, inlol igeut, educ ded people, and the professional men are 

 gene ally i qunl to those of any country; but the villages sadly 

 need improvement societi s, and a liberal supply of fresh 

 pdnt antl whitewash would be agreat improvement in most of 

 them. I did not speud much time in the towns, but stopped 

 with the country people, moatly to study their wavs and 

 habits. They. Ike all 1 met, were h ^spitable and friendly— 

 almost as mucit so as the clever Irishman' who would give 

 you his last potato and thank you for taking it. I only met 

 one churlish lellow, aud he was not a native Tar-h-el, but from 

 Tennessee. Hi- l.ice was twisted so that he looked and spit 

 over his shou'der. He said it came so because he went fp 

 sleep in the moonshine when a boy and the moon drew his 

 face that way. He began by asking me for a "fladget of 

 tobacco," meaning what I fund to be a very liberal chunk 

 from my plug, which he thrust mto his cheek. He then asked 

 me how mt.ch I was willing to pay to stay over night, and 

 prefered to have it. down and in silver. 1 hnd walked all day 

 and was very hungry He bad some cold corned beef for 

 supper, Which happened to be very good, and 1 had ajar of 

 French mustard with me. The milk was good, and the hoe- 

 cake had a uuttv flavor. I was making a very fair meal ami 

 was doiug justice to it. The man— his name was Jim Shank- 

 laud— sat near me smoking his corncob pipe an l spitting over 

 his right shoulder and looking at me with a fixed and steady 

 glance that became enibarassing. At leiieth 1 looked at him 

 as picasantly as 1 knew how, and said : " Y> u see, Mr. St auk- 

 land, that 1 eat a good de.l of mustard with mv beef." He 

 did not answer for some lime. At last, he took his pipe from 

 his month, spit over his shoulder at a dog on the hearth and 

 said: •' Yes, sir. 1 also see thnt you eat right Bmart of beef 

 witn yonr mustard." 



All over eastern North Carolina the country pe Die drink 

 yeopou lea. This is the cured leaf of a shrub Ilia' grows in 

 all the gardens, and it sells for ab >ul thirty cents a bu-hel 

 It takes aboil , two gallons of it to make a family drawing. It 

 is very black, at-d with sugar and cream makes a tolerable 

 fair drink. 



I Iieai 1 1 a story of a North Carolina captain of a West Indii 

 trading schooner, who was haded in the Gulf Stream by a New 

 England cupiaiu who had i een blown trom his course and 

 wanted some stores. He bailed the Tar-heel and asked if he 

 could spare any stores. Tar-heel "reckoned he mought." 

 Yankee told him he wanted meat, flour and tea. Tar-heel 

 disappeared in his cabin a moment and presently came on 

 deck aud said he could spare a little bacon and some meal but 

 no tea, as be had only five bushels and he would use it before 

 he eoud get any more. I he Yankee c iptaiu at once cussed 

 the tar-heel from stem to stern and from truck to keel, and 

 went off before the wind to tell strange tales, no doubt, of 

 the stmgy captain who would not spare him a few pounds of 

 tea out of five bushels. 



Almost every family na« ascuppernongvine, covering half 

 an acre and with main vine hi to ten inches in diameter near 

 the ground. All kinds of g apes do well in eastern North 

 Carolina, and are generally free from blight or disease, and 

 produce enormously. I have drank some scupperuong 

 champaign, made by Hunt & Co., of Kitlrell, which is sold 

 very low, and is equal, in my opinion, to some of the best 

 French brands. Peaches do not do w 11 here, nor apples, 

 except a native hard, sour fcpplr, called Malamuikeet, which 

 is a fair winter apple. 



I miw in Devil's Out a fishing m. chine, or trap, which is 

 BOmertling new to me. It was invented by an old negro 

 Have b -one the war, who belonged to Col Morning, wh / 

 lived on Koanoke Hi ver about five miles above Jamesviilc. 

 In the spring of the year old Jim was always detailed to fish 

 for herring to supply the plantation. He was very fond of 



corn juice, and it was observed one spring that he had an un- 

 usual Quantity of herring and was frequently drunk. Curi- 

 osity led his master to have him watched. One d*y when he 

 wenl out to fish with his dip-net they found him about sun- 

 down in one of the prongs of Devil's Out, fast asleep in the 

 siern of a canoe, in a drunken stupor, with a jug of apple 

 jack between his legs, and a queer fi-hing machine hard at 

 work picking up the herring. He had taken his own canoe 

 and an old >b onioned dug-out and fastened tbem about six 

 feet apart in the current, and between the canoes had con- 

 struct' d a dip- net, which was fastened to a shaft resting 

 acrobs the middle of the canoes, which had paddles on each 

 end of the shaft outside of the canoes. This was turned by 

 the current and ihe net. was constructed with a shelf or slid- 

 ing board, so that the fish slipped down into the canoes as 

 the top of the net swung over the shaft. These machines 

 have been used successfully for thirty years in these waters 

 and Ihey have been known to catch 5.000 pounds of fish in 

 one day. I saw about a dozen on Devil's Gut, some of them 

 made with flats four feet wide and forty feet long instead of 

 canoes. If iron shafis and babbit boxes were used and the 

 nets were increased so that one would be opposite ihe other, 



1 have no doubt they would do good work in a two-mile 

 current. 



Tue first fish hatching done in North Carolina was tried 

 near ihe mouth of Devil's Out and was so successful that it 

 was carried on after wa>d near the mouth of the river on a 

 large scale. Dr. W. R. Capehart and Edward Wood were 

 the pioneers of the enterprise, and they both own large fish- 

 eries on Albemarle Sound near the mouth of Roanoke. 



1 mailed down Albemarle Sound from Scupparnong River 

 with a queer old chap named Neddy Mann, who is seventy- 

 five years old and blesBed wiih twenty-five children. He 

 lives on Oroatean Sound and I went home with him. He 

 lived in a small, low pitched house wiih a door taken from 

 some wreck on the ocean beach. He kept me aw ike until 



2 i .'clock with his yarns. He is a pillar of the Methodist 

 Church and a great man in revivals. He gave me a history 

 of his religious experience. He was a "tough cuss" when 

 young and his people were anxious for him to mend his 

 ways, and "jine" the church, and he was willing enough, 

 butcould not "come througn." He had been attending a 

 camp meeting on the Lea Banks near Kinakut for ten days 

 aud "they had worked over him faithfully but still he 

 c uldn't come through." At last he " wore them all out" 

 and went ab >ard the sloop, on which he was a ha d, feeling 

 "onsatisfled" with himself. Soon after leaving anchorage a 

 storm came on, and they ran behind Duck Island for shelter. 

 The captain ordered him to cast anchor, which Neddy pro 

 ceedediodo. He took the anchor and threw it overboard, 

 but the fluke caught in his knit shoulder braceBand he went 

 along with the anchor to the bottom. He was soon hauled 

 up bv i be captain and cook, but was down long enough to 

 have" a " change of he .rt " and came up a Christian and went 

 bickto the camp meeting in the morning and "cane 

 through, " and has been a good church man ever since. 



He fat with lis back to ihe fire, saying "sum lolk lriver 

 their brea9ts and wear flannel and pad, but he alers left his 

 bteast bare and protetted his bick," and 1 think there were 

 'solid chunks of wisdom" in theold mans idea. Hehadbeen 

 ailing a short time back, and learning that 1 had been a saw- 

 bones at one time, he began calling me doctor. He said he 

 did not believe in doctors ; "they killed more men than they 

 saved, and that he always kept copperas on hand, and when 

 ailing took a tablespoouful of it di-solvel in a quart of 

 apple brandy ; aud took a tod night and morning, ami that it 

 was the finest thing in the world, aud would bring out a 

 dirt-ealing boy and make a make a man of him." A short 

 time before I raw him, however, he got out of copperas, and 

 was " took bad off, " and his old Woman not "tcart" and 

 called in an old granny doctor who gave him some Tomp- 

 sonian medicine "to make him sw.au." He tried to tell 

 me what it was but could not recollect it, and it seemed to 

 worry him. I went off to bed leaving him sm'kiug by the 

 fire aud still trying lo remember the name of that "sweating 

 medicine." I hnd~just gotten in a sound sleep when I was 

 a wakened by a stentorian voice shoutiug, "On, Doctor, oh, 

 Doctor!" I sprang out of bed and tried to open the door, 

 but it was a snip door, alidiug in a grove, and 1 could not 

 open it, not knowing the knack of it. Fearing the oldcap- 

 t .in was in trouble I raised the window, jumped out and 

 went around to the front door and found the captain sitting 

 in front of the fire and still calling " Oh, D ictor 1" I asked 

 him n har was the matter, and he said, "that medicine I 

 was tr ug to think of— that sweating medicine— I have just 

 thought 'if it, and reckoned you would like to know what it 

 was Doctor. It was ■ ipdildoc, Doctor— opidil doc." 



Tlltt WILD FOWL 8KA80N. 



We have had sever,.l frosts, and fowl shooting has com- 

 menced. A man named Owen and partner killed 75 pairs of 

 redheads from a battery last Friday, and W. H. Walker 

 killed 50 pairs the same day from a battery. Mr. Sawyer, 

 on Powell Point, killed 50 wild geese on Thursday; 24 of 

 these were killed at three shots. The weather has been so 

 warm, however, that very few ducks have been shipped, as 

 they will nor keep. Not many of the clubmen have cume 

 down yet, but no doubt they wiU begin to come this week. 

 Arrang ments have been made by which sportsmen can 

 come via Elizabeth City R., and Snowdon, or Shaw's 

 Corner (two miles south of Snowdon), where teams can be 

 hired to go to Edward Midgett's, on Church Island, or to 

 Van Slyck's ltnding, distance about twenty raihs. On 

 .Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the best way to come 

 is by team from Shaw's Corners to Currituck Court House, 

 where one cau take the steamer "Csgnet" at two o'clock 

 p.m., coming via Knott's Island and Midgett's Landing, reach- 

 ing Van Slyck's about o'clock p.m. 



Nonresidents can only shoot in Currituck county from 

 points on land with permission of Ihe owner. They are 

 prohlbiied from shooting afloat or from batteries. In Dare 

 county there are no tuck restrictions, and any one can 

 shoot from boais, batteries, or on laud not posted, or wade 

 on shoals. Good accommodation can be found in Dare 

 county at Capiain Mott's in Kitty Hawk Bay, convenient to 

 post office, steamboat landing, and telegraph, or at 

 Captain Edward Makin's, Wm. Brinkleys, Geo. B. Blivins 

 and Lewis Mann's, on Roanoke Lland. The Old Dominion 

 boats run from Elizabeth City through Croatean Souud twice 

 a week, and a sloop runs to and from Kitty Hawk Bay 

 i . Elizabeth City three times a week. The schooner 

 " Onward" runs from Elizabeth Ci'y to Manteo on Roanoke 

 Islaud twice a week. The steamer " Harbinger " leaves 

 Norfolk on Mondays >md Thursdays on arrival of Bay Line, 

 f r laudingson I'oweLI's Point, which is near Kilty Hawk 

 Bay, Boats, stools, decoys and fishing-tackle can be hired 

 here, also guides and gunners at reasonable rales. The 

 mails arrive three times a week. Ammunition, oil-cloth, 



clothing, rubber-boots, and a'l kinds of hun'er's traps can be 

 bought here as low as at the North. Liquor is not allowed 

 to be sold in Done County, not even brandy peac ies. 



There is not a doctor in Dare county ; so those who need 

 medicines must bring such as they require for their aduients, 

 It would be well for those contemplating a trip to write to 

 some of the above-named parties to meet them, 



First-class quail shooting can be had near Elizibeth City, 

 and good dogs can be hired there. It is well to have a good 

 rifle to shooi bear, deer and swan. A No. 10 breech-loader 

 is the best size for general shooting. It is well to have a 

 heavy and a light No. 10, or a No. 10 with adjustable rifle 

 bore is a good thing to have A good shot will have no 

 trouble in paying his expenses from the sale of his game, as 

 it cau be slopped in good order by the steamers, and from 

 Elizabeth City by rail. Fish and game can also be sold 

 to the dealers in re aud on Roanoke Lland. The fare from 

 Norfolk to Elizabeth City is $2; by the "Harbinger" to 

 Landings on Powell's Point, the same. Brant shooting is 

 very good on Pamlico Sound already, and Currituck and 

 Dare are alive with the roar of the fowl as they feed on the 

 shoals ; and the h >nk of the wild goose is heard in t .e 

 land. There are more fowl in the waters this year than has 

 been known for years, and the season promises to bo a good 

 one. John Bronson. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENTS— II. 



BRING EXTRACTS FROM AN EDITOR'S PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 



* * * "Who am I?" Well, that is rather difficult to 

 answer. To the common eye, I suppose I appear as a poor 

 school teacher or pedagogue, who occupiea ten months of the 

 year in teaching the young idea how io sh >ot, and the other 

 two in wasting time and money in attemptirg to shoot, him- 

 self. (The latter p irt of that sentence s unds ambteuous ; 

 perhaps tf the reflexive pronoun immediately followed the 

 participle the sta'eraent would not sound quite so suicidal.) 



To myself I sometimes appear as a wdd Indian or an old 

 Berserker, masquerading under the d s oaise of a Nineteenth 

 Century American. When the strait-jacket of civiliza- 

 tion becomes too oppressive I throw it off, betake myself to 

 savagery, and there " loaf and refresh my soul." 



I suppose I might be called tolerably well educated. Like 

 Shakespeare have " a little Latin and less Greek," knowsome- 

 what of the mys'eries of the laboratory and the microscope, 

 while belles-lettres and literature are not totally unknown to 

 me. 



Have pedagogued in Ohio, " bullwhacked" across the 

 p'ains, been a silver miner in Colorado, an editor m Missour 1, 

 have hob-nobb. d with the Century C ub in Koston, and 

 with Indians in Arizona ; been a cowboy in Texas, and a 

 " web-foot" in Oregon — in ah >rt, a kind of wandering Jew 

 and peripatetic Jack-of-all-trades. 



I love a horse, a dog, a gun, a trout, and a pretty girl. I 

 hate a pot-hunter, a trout-bar and a whisky-guzzling 

 sportsman, and Dittmar powder. I smoke and take an 

 occasional glass of wine, and never lie about my hunting and 

 fishing exploits more than the occasion seems to demand. 



There! if you have managed io survive this dose of 

 egotism, please to remember that your question pulled the 

 trigger which made the old fu«ee explode. Wi 1 promise 

 not to offend in that line again, till I drop into your sanctum 

 some bright day and asioniah you with a sight, of my A^ollo- 

 like form, Jovian front and Hyperion grace * * * * . 



A NIGHT HUNT. 



L1GOURNEY sat in the bow. He had wrapped his legs i 

 in a blanket and curled them up in the narrow space in 

 lront of the teat. We had buttoned his overcoat tightly 

 around him and pulled his large felt hat down around his 

 face. Against his old enemies, the mosquitoes, too, he had 

 carefully guarded, and his face was black and shiny with a 

 doubly thick coat of the ever-present tar-oil. Every precau- 

 tion for comfort he had taken ; for this was to bo his first 

 hunt, and he had sworn lo hunt till he got his deer if it took 

 him all night. He had refused the loan of the Professor's 

 beaver bat, on which that old deer-slayer was wont to Tasten 

 his jack to prevent it from rubbing against his head and giv- 

 ing him the headache. Ligoumey declared that no true 

 hunter ever went out encased in such an apparatus as that, 

 and he was going to tie the jack to his felt hat as he had seen 

 the guides di i, In vain the Professor recounted his experi- 

 ence, and t Id of many a night bunt passed with sore and 

 aching head. It was no use. The jack had been taken lrom 

 the beaver and now lay in the boat. Hank rested one knee 

 upon the stern of the cedar, and pushing upon the bank, sent 

 the light boat out into the sire mi. The i, with both hands 

 on the rail, he lifted himself lightly over into his seat in the 

 stern, aud they glided slowly down the river. 



Just helow the camp Dead Creek ente a the Raquette. It 

 is a brook wide enough for the boat to work easily. Its banks 

 are lined with alders, hut here and there the channel widens, 

 the water spreads out in broad, still pools, and wide, nat ural 

 meadows, covered with ta.l grass, stretch away to the woods 

 beyond, 



Here in these pug-holes, the crane stands dealing death 

 blows with his long, powerful beak, among the mult du le of 

 frogs ; and here, through the night, come the deer to feed 

 on the tender meadow grass and wallow in the muddy pools. 



Into the mouth of this stream Hank turned the canoe. He 

 paddled it slowly up, for the current was very strong. 



" We'll go up about a mile," said he, "ad lie around 

 until dark. Then we'll hunt down and lie awhile at all the 

 pug-holes." 



" Halloo! Here's something new since I was here last— a 

 log square across the st' earn." 



The boat would just about slide under, but (he current was 

 so strong that ihey had to get out on the log and lift it over. . 

 Just about dusk they stopped in one of the pools. 



" Keep pretty quiet an' p'raps > ou 11 get a dajligtu shot." 



Just at dusk the deer often come out to feed. The mid- 

 gets always do. Th. y came that evening, Lig. kept pretty 

 quiet, but they didn't. 



The midget is an insect much smaller than a mosquito. It 

 has no tuneful note to warn you of its approach, but makes 

 itB presence felt by its quick, sharp bite, which leaves aburn- 

 ing pain behind. It is superfluous, however, to describe their 

 habits to those who have visited the wood8. 



Lig renewed the tar-oil. It was refreshing. He would 

 now show Hank great promise as a hunter— but oh I those 

 hot-looted little creature* were at work down th : ba> k of his 

 neck. He dashed tar-oil down upon the spot Then the 

 mosquitoes gathered too. One bit through his glove. Others 

 lit upon his face as if unconscious that it was smeared with 

 tar-oiL In vain he daubed on fresh coats. Quern ad flnmr- 



