384 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



December K, 1851 ; 



VICIOUS MILITARY PRACTICE. 



TN his work of securing ateftn A tnerican military shots 

 J- to compete with the English volunteers at Wimbledon, 

 General Wingfitc is meeting 1 Hculty. It does 



not seem to be one of men nor Of means, but of rifles. Tnder 

 the delusion that big scores in matches meant good marks- 

 manship, those- who shoot military rifles have been gradually 

 turning them into mere shooting machines. Chambers have 

 been lengthened to admit cartridges with heavier charges of 

 powder, special ammunition and special bullets have come 

 into play; trigger pulls have been toned down to nearly the 

 hair trigger point, and then to meet the trials of a bathing 

 wind, there have been fine foresights and wind gauges added, 

 until the rough and ready military rifle has become ad- 

 mirably adapted to the production of big scores and as 

 thoroughly nuadapted to the wear and tear of a camping 

 life. The men have found that the use of a wind gauge on a 

 rifle was a ready way of receiving; high scores, and now 

 when they are brought face to face with the English regula- 

 tions, which require an untampered military sight, there is a 

 disposition to shuffle out of a match with the English Volun- 

 teers. 



This is not a desirable position fnr an American rifleman 

 to find himself in, for the proposed match with the English- 

 men entirely out of the question, it shows that our system of 

 practice is defective. Such practice as we have been having 

 is of next to no value in giving our men the drill necessary to 

 make them efficient in the varied circumstances of a soldier's 

 life. Of what use is it to stop at the mere permission to 

 alter the sights ? Why not permit more weight in the gun ? 

 Why not extend the license of tampering into the fixing of 

 telescopic sights? Pistol-grip, too, would help the piece, if 

 the making of good target records were all that was to be re- 

 quired of it. In short, the weapon may be made such an ex- 

 cellent machine for manufacturing bullseycs as to be useless 

 for any purpose in practical warfare. In how many cases 

 would a soldier find himself so circumstanced as to be able to 

 bring his wind gauge into use? The enemy is not a fixed 

 iron slab at a known distance, and sighting shots cannot be 

 had. Snap shooting is required, and unless the practice on 

 the range leads to excellence in that style of marksmanship, 

 it is little more than a sort of useless sport, very entertaining 

 for those engaged in it, very healthful, but very aimless. 



The British rifleman has been failing into short cuts to high 

 scores, and the sight of a soldier standing and shooting from 

 the shoulder is something of a rarity ou Wimbledon Common; 

 still there is more reason in this innovation on range practice 

 than in our American failing of turning out big scores at the 

 sacrifico of the very foundation purp jse of all work before 

 the butts — the making of men able to hit anything at any 

 rifle range, and to do it on call too. 



BYE-WAYS OF THE NORTHWEST, 

 KIHTH I 



NEAR the head of Jervis Inlet and hidden by lofty 

 mountains, which on all sides wall it in, lies Princess 

 Louise Met, the gem of all tire beautiful inlet country. Bute 

 is grand and majestic, Loughborough is picturesque and 

 charming, and Jervis combines the beauties of both, but the 

 scenery of Princess Louise surpasses that of any of the 

 others. Its entrance is but a few yards in width, and, ex- 

 cept at high and low water, the tide rushes along between 

 the stern walls of grauite in a rapid of great swiftness. The 

 entrance passed, we caught a glimpse, on either side, of 

 towering hills, and then plunged at once into a twilight, 

 rendered more obscure by a thick white mist which hung 

 low over the water. Out in the main inlet the sun had been 

 shining bright aud warm, but here we were in a gloom almost 

 like that of night. Although we were passing along close 

 under one of the bauks of the inlet we could not seethe 

 trees, whose branches stretched Out over the water above our 

 heads, but moved blindly along almost, within oar's-length 

 of the shore. The sun does not penetrate this narrow gorge 

 until it is high in the heavens, and there was something very 

 solemn in the darkness aud utter silence of the place. The 

 men seemed awed by the strangeness of the situation, and 

 only occasionally spoke, ami tUen in, suppressed tones. No 

 sound was to be heard except the regular dip of the paddles. 

 For perhaps an hour we moved on through this mist, and 

 at the end of this time a sudden brightening of the sky 

 above us showed that the sun i ginning to dissi- 



pate the gloom. The mist rose slowly, and there appeared, 

 first, the trees on the beach, then, hum I isckof them, 



the piled up rocks which formed the talus at the fool of the 

 precipice, and at last, as the clouds of vapor rolled higher 

 aud higher, like a gigantic curtain, the black vertical cliffs 

 and the snow-clad peaks of the mountains. Smooth as a 

 polished mirror, and, like a mirror reflecting with unvarying 

 fidelity the towering heights about it, tha inlet was suddenly 

 spread out before us, and its wonderful beauties, heightened 

 by contrast with the recent obscurity, were unfolded to 

 our appreciative eyes. No word was spoken for some little 

 time. The Indians stolidly continued the movements of 

 their paddlss, but those of the white men were idle. Imme- 

 diately before us was a wide basin, which we were entering 

 from a channel less than a quarter of a mile in width. An 

 unbroken line of snow, here close at hand and thers^miles 

 away from us, patched toward its lower border with occa- 

 sional masses of dark green or gray, surrounded us to the 



north, south and east. Nearer the water's level were the 

 sombre grays or browns of the mountain rock, dark aud 

 forbidding. Still further down the Blopflj the BCsn 

 nourished timber grew in scattering ; 



trees, reaching to the verge of the she i p .■■ : 

 hung the water's edge. To the south and to the east th 

 rose sh&rply and continuously, there being no opening be-' 

 twecn them until the snow level was reached, but bo-. 

 north-east this wall had been broken down, and a wide, but 

 precipitous, valley, the ancient bed of a tremendous glacier, 

 stretched away for miles toward the snowy heights of the 

 interior. Down this valley, among, over and under 

 enormous rock masses, whose harshand rugged outlines were 

 softened by no appearance of verdure, poured, in a scries of 

 foaming falls, a large river, the course of whicu .1 

 traced far back toward the heights. Here it became no more 

 than a delicate white thread, and at length it was impossible 

 to distinguish it from the snow drifts whic 

 in every ravine. Still further toward the north, ttie moun- 

 tains again become precipitous— overhanging precipices rise 

 from the water's edge, and the rocky slopes which sur- 

 mount them bear a few trees. Above, extensive snowfields 

 stretch away toward Mount Albert, showing here and there 

 through their whiteness the sky-blue color of some ice river 

 slowly plowing its way down the slope. The rugged and 

 massive peaks of Albert stand clearly out against the blue 

 background of sky, and are flanked by others, hot so high but 

 equally impressive. A bare needle of granite rises to the east 

 of the main peaks nearly to the same height which they at- 

 tain, and still further to the east a towerlike mass, its turrets 

 ornamented with dark green spruces, attains an almost equal 

 altitude. 



The enormous cliffs, under whose shadow the canoe passes, 

 are patched with lichens of various colors, so that sometimes 

 the granite looks as if it had been painted. One of a vivid 

 canary yellow,seen on the lower side of the overhanging rocks, 

 catches the reflection of the sun from the water, and 

 brightens the rock to a likeness of hammered gold. Trickling 

 from narrow crevices, the water has carried out iron ) so. 

 lution, and given to the granite beautifully shaded tints of 

 yellow, red and brown. Here and there a pale green fern 

 has tlirust its roots into a seam in the rock and has spread 

 out its feathery frondage before the cold gray background, 

 Mosses of rich brown, gold color, and velvety green grow 

 wherever they can gain a foothold; the brilliantly-colored 

 rock cress clasps with its tiny rootlets the cold, hard stone, 

 and the delicate Campanula, undismayed by its arctic sur- 

 roundings, waves its bells cheerily in the passing breeze. 

 Just here at least there was no want of color. But as a 

 whole the scene was one of forbidding harshness. The ab- 

 sence of any considerable masses of vegetal i 

 of the mountains, the presence everywhere of ice at snow, 

 give to the whole an unspeakable sombreness ami gravity. 

 Everything is cold, hard and repelling. There is no warmth, 

 no brightness, and but little life— and yet I thiak Princess 

 Louise Inlet the most beautiful spot in the world, in its own 

 peculiar way. 



The inlet is about four and one-half miles in length, by less 

 than one-half in average width, being tfeat near its 



mouth and widest at its head. In general terms it maybe 

 said to resemble more nearly in its essenti some 



of the Norwegian fiords than do any of the other inlets of the 

 northwest coast which I have visited ; yet it flifreri 

 fiords of Norway in that from it you have constantly in sight 

 snow and ice-covered mountains. 



Like all the others, this inlet was formed by glacial action, 

 and the traces of the ice river which cut this deep channel 

 in the solid rock of the mountains are still plainly visible. 

 During the ages whicli immediately followed the close of the 

 Tertiary period the whole of northern North Am ei 

 covered with an enormous ice sheet thousands o:' feet in 

 thickness. The whole of British & ; c .usiderable 



portion of the Rocky mountain;, all New England and a 

 very large portion of the middle States were E01 ag< b tried 

 beneath this frozen mass. In the White mountains the upper 

 surfacs of this stupendous glacier wa3 at least 0,000 feet 

 above the sea level, wmile still further to the northward, it is 

 estimated that it was not less than 13,000 feet in thickness. 

 This enormous mass had a general slow, but more or less 

 constant, motion southward — a motion permitted by the now 

 weli-known plasticity of ice, and due to the constant pressure 

 of the miss behind. The movement wo to the 

 because there the ice was constantly melting and 



ig, while to the north it tended constantly to increase in 

 thickness. To the north there was no escape, for its move- 

 ment in this direction was blocked by an tiflyi 

 mass which became more and more thick aud immovable as 

 the Pole was approached. Urged on byihi 

 pressure, the ice sheet moved sleadily southward, creeping 

 up high mountain slopes, and then, when their summits were 

 reached, overtopping them, and pushing ir.sway down on the 

 other side. No better illustration of the movetueo 

 a body can be given than the one employed by Professor 

 Dana, who says : "If stiff pitch be gradually dropped over 

 a horizontal surface it will spread and 'to do, so 



long as the supply is kept up f and if that surface 

 angle in one direction, and there is 1 Bay other, 



it will first fill the space to the level of the edge, and then 

 drop over and continue onward its flow. So glaciers, if the 

 accumulation is adequate, may go : and over 



elevated ridges." 



IB has been clearly established that ice has a certain des 

 1' Thus, it can be made by simple pressui 

 leal or mould, like wax. Di Kane speaks of a t: 

 ight feet thick and twenty wide 



which in two months became so dee 

 its centre was depressed five feet, and this while the t 

 perature was constantly below the freezing point It i 

 also l>e made to take the shape of a long cylinder, by t 

 ing it through a round hole. In such cases, even if the 

 is broken by pressure, it unites into a clear mass by frei 

 along the fractures, when their sides are in contact, 

 glaciers of to-day ere the remnants of the ancient ice thee 

 that once covered the northern portions of both continenr 

 They are simply rivers of ice of varying thickness and exle 

 having their origin above the level of the perpetual snort 

 by which they are fed. The grandest glaciers of the t 

 perate zone are those of Switzerland, but one must travi 

 to arctic climes to behold the most stupendous exhibitions C 

 these ice rivers. A glacier, in its origin, consists merel 

 compacted snow, but as it advances down the mountain s 

 it is gradually changed by pressure into an ice-like muss, 

 as it reaches a point where there is alternate melting and f: 

 ing it becomes truly ice. Now, as we know that thegla 

 '(.ends constantly to move in the direction of least resistai 

 and as the momentum of such an enormous lnassissomett 

 almost inconceivably great, we can see that its course 

 be in a bed not unlike that of a river. A glacier is an eni 

 mous plow, which cuts a furrow both wide and deep. InJ 

 its course it at once scrapes away all the surfs I 



the loose stones, reaching down to the bed roe 

 which it continually grinds, and wears itself away. The- 

 glacier, in its course, takes up and carries with it gravel P 

 pebbles and boulders of different sizes ; and these, whethn 

 torn away from the sides of the bed, or dropping: on to t he ictf 

 from overhanging cliffs, soon sink through the ice to tlfl 

 bottom. Here they are rolled along, crushed beneath thff 

 weight of the superincumbent mass, against or into LI e recur 

 over which it is passing. In this underlying rock long 

 scratches and scorings are thus made, its irregularities f H 

 face smoothed and planed off, and sometimes its snrfgjS 

 highly polished. In glacier regions such surfaces are frcquentM 

 seen, as well as the smoothly rounded knolls of rock , called 

 atonnees, or sheep-backs. The debris carried alonfl 

 in and beneath the glacier is constantly being ground ojj 

 like the wheat between two mill-stones, and the water of 

 the stream formed by the melting ice, is charged with the 

 pulverized rock. Such streams are, therefore, usually more 

 or less milky in color, and can be recognized by this ckarac* 

 ter far away from their source. The water of Bute Inlerjj 

 down to and beyond its mouth, has this peculiar characffl 

 and thus warned us of the glaciers near its head long befoi 

 we came within sight of them. . At the lower exl rcmity c 

 the glacier are vast heaps of earth and stone 

 there" by the melting ice. Such heaps are called term 

 moraines. Some of the stones in these moraines are of s 

 size, and very many of them bear the scars and scratcl 

 which tell plainly the story of the hard knocks to whicli the 

 have been subjected since they were first torn from their bet" 



Efi rywhere along the cliffs of the inlets the marks of the 

 erosive force of the old glaciers had been visible, bul tliey 

 were nowhere better seen than on Princess Louise 

 Inlets. High upon the rocks the deep scorings 

 long continuous scratches, which told of the Blow 

 some enormous mass of rook, held by the ice close to tier 

 wall-like side of the channel, aud pressed against it with * 

 torce, of the magnitude of which we canform no ci 

 smooth rounded depressions showing where a mass 1 M 

 had been held, and slowly turned over and over until it had] 

 excavated a hemispherical cavity eight or ten feet wide, 

 and nearly as deep ; and down near the water's edj ;e 

 rounded surfaces, smoothed and polished by the prolonged; 



the iee. At &Ee mouth of Princess Louise 3sg 

 low rock, rising ten or twelve feet above the water, on whim 

 are half a dozen parallel horizontal grooves, two feet or morj 

 in depth, and extending along its whole length. The cliff 4, 

 on the north-west bank of Jervis Inlet, above the mouth ofi 

 Princess Louise, are everywhere smoothed and gr 

 by the action of the ice. The scorings, which al- 

 ly seen, are often of great length, and from four to sua 

 feet in height. Many of them curve very gradi 

 they are often scimetar-shaped, and terminate in a rounded 

 depression. Opposite Moorsam Bluffs is along, Ion 

 Which the ice markings are admirably shown. The rocS 

 rises from the water at rather a steep incline in 

 steps, showing the fo 1 1 feantic 



The granite is blackened with a growth of hole. 11, and from 

 the crevices in it, spring mosses undergrowth and BQ 

 pine timber. The enormous masses of rock look like the. 

 backs of so many sleeping elephants. 



At the head of Jervis Inlet is a small camp of i : 

 or Hanehtsin, Indians. The only man at the villi 

 old fellow whom we found mending his canoe on 

 with a stone hammer of most primitive type, and 

 speak neither Chinook nor any other language at the com- 

 mand of the members of our party. We held animated dia- 

 logues with him, in which the burden of our speei 1 I 

 inquiry as to whether he had either potatoes or salmon to 

 sell. What he replied will ever remain a mystery 

 who was the orator of the day on our side, would 

 reply, after hearing the old man through: " H 



.' waftwofc;" (I don't understand your 



