424 



K)REST AND STREAM. 



Dbokmbbb 29, 1881 



Amateurs and Exprrts.— It is but a narrow mind which 

 would estitnae the value of a day's field shooting by the 

 number of birds brought to bag, or or a day's fishing by the 

 quantity of trout or bass in the basket by sundown ; and so 

 it lis but poor judgment which rates a man's standing as a 

 " whole-souled, genial sportsman" by the number of times 

 out of a hundred shots that he can kill his bird, or by the 

 number of flngerling trout he can land, as against his neigh- 

 kor'g count. As long as a man commits no oSensea against 

 the written and unwritten laws of the field, and earnestly 

 trios to enjoy and appreciate the health-giving and purifying 

 influences surrounding him, while a' tho same time promot- 

 ing the enjoyment of his companions, so long is the merest 

 beginner as fully entitled to fellowship in the guild of sports- 

 men, as the greatest expert of the day. Not that we would 

 have him always a b| ginner, in point of skill. What is 

 'worth doing, is worth doing well, fully as much in field 

 iports as in anything else ; but the disposition of some so- 

 called sportsmen to frown upon a would-be shooter bi 

 he w*s no? born a crack shot, cannot be commended. The 

 •coffers forget that they overwore beginners themselves, as 

 some grumbling and gouty old gentlomea forget that t! ey 

 ever were boys, when tho young people annoy them. Sk I 

 in field sports is gained by enthusiasm and practice, but en- 

 thusiasm in some cases grows up with the youth, and in Boms 

 cases c 'mes to the man with the sudden discovery that he 

 lomewhat enjoys a branch of sport which he would have 

 pqually enjoyed before, if fcm bad known anything about it. 

 In tha latter case, give the man a chance, and in these days 

 of Improved guns and tacblo, neat and well balanced, he 

 will, urged oa by enthusiasm and encouraged by practice, in 

 all probability become as oxpert as any amateur could wish, 

 and a thoroughly ''good fellow" in a'l appearance, as well as 

 at heart. We wish to see more, every season, of the office- 

 penned, desk-bound, care-worn men of this busy age, taking 

 a few days of recreation, from time to time, among the 

 brooks and by the ocean, in the fields and the mountains, 

 ar.d returning to their labors with minds and bodies renewed 

 and eiigtherjecl; fully able, in their increased power, to 

 more than make up for the few days passed away from busi- 

 ness. If a man's senses and bodily health are unimpaired, 

 and lie is Inclined in that direction, he can scarcely be too 

 old to become a sportsman, iu deed as well as in thought. It 

 ihould, therefore, be a matter of pride, with those who are 

 already members, to welcome him to the fraternity, rather 

 than to repel him by criticisms upon his inexperionce. 



A Great Sportsman's Rotttb.— Hon. Hinton Rowan 

 Helper, of St. Louis, ox-Minister from the United States to the 

 Argentine Republic, author of that once famous book, "The 

 Impending Crisis of the South," is now in this city on business 

 connected with the projected "Three Americas Railway," 

 planned and promoted by him, intended to ran from Mani- 

 toba through the North, Central and South Americas, longi- 

 tudinally to Patagonia. What a glorious "sportsman's 

 route," on a large scale, this line will be when finished 1 

 Think of the varieties of game, large r>nd small, to be met 

 with throughout the entire length of the route, and the un- 

 told possibilities of " stopping off " to fish in tho Amazon 1 

 Certainly, for a sportsman with spare time and a long 

 puree, no one trip could furnish more varied attractions or 

 greater changes of scene and action. " Do^s, guns and fishing 

 tackle carried free," of course. We can imagine 'he 'enthu- 

 siastic "thorough sportsman" leavingthe Northern terminus 

 with a baggage Cir filled with the entire sporting department 

 of a bench show, all kinds of tackle from a split bamboo fly- 

 rod to a set of explosive harpoons, and everytVingin fire- 

 arms, from a twenty gauge hainmerlsss to a Catling battery. 

 "Going to Buffalo to shoot buffaloes, ah, y'know," would be 

 nothing to it 1 



Tbb Wimbledon CeaIxkkgb. As we go to press a com- 

 mauoicMion has arrived from the Secretary of the Na'ioual 

 R fie Association of Great Britain, informing Gen. Hancock, 

 the P'esident. of our National Rifle Association, tl 

 Oouncil of the British organization will welcome a team of 

 American Guardsmen at Wimbledon next summer. A 

 special sub-committee has been appointed, and ihe.v are now 

 busy arranging a scheme for the competition, which will be 

 submitted to us in a short time. In our next issue we will 

 publish the letter in full, 



Tbe RtTLTss Pashon.— A curious letter came to the 

 Purest and Stream office the other day. It was written by 

 a deaf mute, who had seen an advertisement of this paper 

 and wrote ; " I want to know if you have pictures of lions, 

 tigers, elephants, and any animals or beasts in that illustrated 

 weekly journal ," and in the letter to us was inclosed another 

 one to a gun dealer, asking for an illustrated catalogue, that 

 he might look at the pictures of guns. There is the ruling 

 passion. 



Does thb College Amatkhr Press represent tho student 

 life of the day? Baseball, cricket, foot-ball, lawn-tennie 

 and boating appear to be the most prolific topics of discus- 

 sion. These, with growlings at tbe faculty, slangy 

 " grinds," and downy love poems make up the average 

 eellege paper. Are athletic Bports and flirtations the ab- 

 sorbing occupations of American college students'? 



" Don't Htjlloa Before Yoo're Out oy thb Wood," says 

 the wise oltl saw, and there are still two more momentous 

 daysleft in 1881, but— who will care for Mother Bhipton 

 powt 



BYE-WAYS OF THE NORTHWEST. 



TENTH PAPER. 



rpHE next morning we passed Point Atkinson and into Bur- 

 -*- rard Inlet, and by noon were at the little town of Gran- 

 ville. We made a brief stop here to purchase some supplies, 

 and then passed on, reaching Hastings an hour or two later. 

 Here we were cordially welcomed by Mr. Fannin, who 

 agreed to accompany us to the head of the North Arm. Our 

 arrangements were soon made, and the canoe started off 

 again, while I remained behind, to follow in a single canoe 

 with Fannin and the Siwash Seammux, whom wo intended 

 to get as guide. When we went to the rancherie, however, 

 we found that onr worthy friend, and all his brother Indians, 

 were hopelessly drunk, as a klootchman had died the day 

 before, and iiiey bad been mourning forber. They would re- 

 main drunk as long as their whisky lasted, so it was useless 

 to wait for Seammux. We, therefore, took our things 

 aboard Mr. Fannin's light canoe, and started for the head of 

 the Inlat, which we reached the next day. 



On our way up the Arm, we met several canoes loaded 

 v, th salmon, which the SiwasheB had caught with spears 

 and gaffs in the river which emptios into the inlet at its 

 bead. One of the canoes had a four pound trout, which 

 had been speared. Here, too, I noticed, for the first time, a 

 numb® of groat holothuriana, or sea-cucumbers, lying on 

 the bottom. Oiie of these being brought to the surface with 

 the spear, proved to be ten or twelve inches long ; an unat 

 tractive cr°atuTe, brown in color and studded with great 

 warts. Tho Indians eat them, as they do also the octopus, 

 and pronounce them excellent ; but none of our party seemed 

 inclined to try them. We paddled up Salmon River nearly 

 to the first jam of logs and camped on a sand bar. A little 

 later, in the light canoe, we started up the river on an ex- 

 ploring tour, wh'ch, however, did not carry us beyond the 

 jam. As we were passing through this our attention was 

 drawn to the immense school of salmon slowly swimming 

 round and round in the deep pool under the logs. In this 

 It v.a.% perhaps, twenty feet wide and forty long, 

 were shimming slowly atout or lying quietly near the bot- 

 ifrn , four -or five, hundred salmon, each of which weighed 

 from eight to tec pounds. As tho canoe passed over them 

 they would nm&e a rush to one side or up stream, but 

 would ilaiost immediately return to thoir former position. 

 The water was clear as crystal, and looked about six or seven 

 feet deep, but, iu reality, wa3 over eighteen, and our sixteen 

 foot salmon spear was not nearly long enough to reach the 

 fish upon the bottom. The sight of these splendid salmon 

 excited the members of onr party not a little, and the spear 

 was in great demand. It was an irslructive and amusing 

 right to see the learned, scientific light of our number, a 

 mathemai iciau of high attainments, a man who is supposed to 

 to take pleasure only in measuring the angles which tho various 

 faces of a crystal make with oneanother.and to whom tbe mys- 

 teries of differential calculus are rather more simple than a chap, 

 ter in one-syllabled words weuld be to the average man — it 

 was an instructive and entertaining sight, I say, to see the Pro- 

 fessor stretched out at full length on his face on this jam of 

 logs, his eyes glued to a crev ce through which he watched 

 the fish below, while his right hand grasped eagerly, at 'he 

 a'r above him, and his lips repeated these words: "Oh, 

 plmw let me have the spear for ju>t a minute; they are so 

 thickbere that I know 1 can't help catching one if I only 

 ihrust it at them." But although the Professor made many 

 a thrust, as did all the others, the total result of tho after- 

 noon's work was one single salmon. Afterward, however, 

 when the depth of the water had been measured and a longer 

 handle rigged to spear and gaff, we caught all the fish we 

 reqdired. 



We had hoped to have had a day or two of hunting on the 

 North Arm of Burrard Inlet, but during the three days of 

 onr stay there it rained constantly. The woods were so wet 

 that travel through them was extremely uncomfortable, 

 while the mountains were shrouded in a dense white mist. 

 0„'ce we climbed part way up one of them during a lull in 

 the storm, but it was impossible to see fifty yards ahead of 

 one, and hunting was out of the question. So one morning, 

 we ruefully broke camp, and paddling down to Hastings, 

 unloaded our baggage, and paid off and dismissed the 

 Siwasbes. The next day we bado farewell to the beautiful 

 Inlet, and took our departure for New Westminster. 



There is something wonderfully impressive in the forests 

 of British Columbia. The gigantic trees, straight 

 and symmetrical, like the pillars of some great cathedral 

 whose dark green roof spreads out far above us, and whose 

 height cannot he measured in feet, awe the travoler by their 

 size and their regularity. The stillness is unbroken. No 

 voice of bird or beast is heard to disturb the solemn quiet of 

 the scene, only sometimes tho sad moaning of the winds 

 among the lofty branches, or the whispered echo of the salt 

 waveB breaking unceasingly against tbe iron bound cliffs is 

 fell though scarcely heard. Occasionally, it is true, as in con- 

 templative mood you yield to the influences of the silence, 

 and give yourself up to the melancholy reveries to which 

 tho surroundings incline you, the intense quiet is broken by 

 the harsh chatter of the red squirrel, or the hoarse, ill- 

 omened voice of the raven, far more in keeping with your 

 surroundings, may be heard. But as a rule these woods are 

 voiceless. The cedars, the firs and the cypresses are swathed 

 in a funereal drapery of moss, which hangs iu long, motion- 

 let* f estwns from tha branches. To And bits of aolor we 



have to look carefully among the undergrowth, where we 

 can detect bright berries and particolored lichens, while the 

 ground is covered with the brown and withered foliage of 

 the evergreens, the accumulations of many a long year. 



The sawmills and logging camps of Burrard Inlet and of 

 Washington Territory are too important to be passed over 

 without some mention. One may see among the gigantic 

 red woods of California individual trees which are much 

 larger than those of this northern country, but, so far as I 

 know, there are on this continent no forests where the tim- 

 ber will average so large as it does here on the North-west 

 coast. The two most important species, as they are the 

 largest, are the Douglas fir (Pseudostuga Douglas&Q and the 

 cedar (Thuya gigantea.) I was informed that the largest 

 tree of the first named species, which had been cut for the 

 mills on Burrard Inlet measured 318 feet when felled, and 

 was 9 feet in diameter at the base iDside the bark, and a stick 

 of timber sawed at Hanson & Atkinson's mills, at Tacoma, 

 Washington Territory, measured 96 feet in length by 

 14x22 inches. Tbe cedar grow3 quite as large as the 

 Douglass fir, but not as tall. The largest tree that I saw 

 measured eleven feet in diameter, six feet from the ground, 

 and in the hollow in its butt, three or four men could have 

 slept very comfortably. These trees are usually felled by 

 cutting through them some distance above the ground. This 

 is done because the bole of the tree at its base is knotty and 

 unfit for timber, and is thus much harder and more difficult 

 to chop through than it is a few feet farther up the stem. 

 The chopper begins operations by cutting a notch six or 

 eight inches deep in the tree trunk, three or four feet from 

 the ground. Into this he drives a "paddle," a piece of 

 timber four or five feet long, four inches wide and strong 

 enough to support a man's weight. Standing on this "paddle" 

 he then cuts another notch, a few feet higher up, into which 

 he inserts a second "paddle," and mounting to this 

 one, draws out, if necessary, the one below, and drives 

 it in again still higher up. Almost all tho stumps that 

 one sees in these forests] bear the marks of the position 

 of two "paddles." I am informed, however, that of late 

 years another method of felling these trees has been adopted, 

 by which the chopper is saved much of his labor, Four 

 holes, opposite one another, are bored with a large auger in 

 the bole of the tree, and in each of these a fire is kindled, 

 which burns, it is said, without any further attention, until 

 the tree is so weakened that it falls of its own weight. A 

 man can fell trees in this way much more expeditiously 

 than with the axe, and two or three hundred trees can be 

 fired before they begin to fall, It would seem that this 

 method is, however, open to serious objection on the score 

 of wastefulness. Aside from tbe danger that the fires thus 

 started aTe likely to spread, and may burn over a consider- 

 able extent of country, much of the timber felled in this 

 way must be lost. An expert chopper, with an axe, can lay the 

 top of a tree within a yard or two of where he wishes to, but 

 when the trees are burned down they will of course be as likely 

 to fall one way as another, and there would thus be more dan- 

 ger of their being broken, or jf their falling in places where 

 it might be impossible to get them out. The timber when 

 felled is stripped of its branches and dragged to the water, 

 and from time to time a steamer calls at the different camps 

 makes up booms of logs, and tows them to the mills. 



These mills are curiosities to one who has been accustomed 

 to the sawmills of the Batt, where nothing but small timber 

 is f awed. Starting with the ordinary sawmill machinery, 

 with which a'l are familiar, a process of evolution his gone 

 on, which has developed the appliances by which these enor- 

 mous sticks can conveniently be handled and sawn, so that 

 at present the sawmills of the Pacific coast are unlike any 

 thing to be seen el«ewhere on this continent. One mill at 

 Port Ludlow, W. T., which, when we passed it, wss only 

 just being completed and not yet in operation, isfivehundred 

 feet in length. 



The vast extent of the forests and their general accessibility 

 to water has made lumbering on this coast extremely profit- 

 able iu the past, but already we hear complaints that tho 

 timber lands are ail taken up, and that the loggers have to 

 go farther and farther back to find sticks that are worth 

 cuttiDg. These complaints, however, are heard mainly 

 south of the boundary line. The vast forests of British Co- 

 lumbia are as yet almost untouched, and with reasonable 

 care in cutting the timber, should yield lumber enough to 

 supply the west coast of America for many years to come. 

 The mills at Moedyville in Burrard Inlet can saw sticks 120 

 feet long by 1 in diameter, but at the time of our visit they 

 were handling what they called "small logs," which 

 were only about four or five feet in diameter. 



It was pleasant on reaching New Westminster once more 

 to meet our friend Mowitch and his charming family and re- 

 ceive his cordial welcome. Once more we sat on his piazzi 

 aud watched the mountains of Pitt River glow, pale, and 

 then grow black as the sun went down ; again beheld the 

 glories of Baker as its pure white peak first glistened and 

 faded, and then again grew rosy in the afterglow and once 

 more became blue, hazy and indistinct, until at last, as the 

 clear stars one by one appeared and the constellations took 

 shape in the heavens, and night resumed her sway, the grand 

 mountain stood for a while like a spectre and then was gone 

 from our sight. So keen a sportsman as Mowitch cou'd not 

 let us depart from New Westminster without suggesting a 

 hunt, and I was by no means loth to listen once more to the 

 music of the hounds. So by four o'clock next morning the 

 Professor, who had never killed a deer, Mowitch and! wore 



